Archives for May 2010

Happy Memorial Day

May 31, 2010

Happy Memorial Day

The World War II memorial in Boston.

The list of the men and women from Boston who lost their lives during WWII

On Sunday morning Price, his Mom, and I went out in search of the apartment where her grandmother lived. She had the address and remembered being their as a kid so we had to swing by and check it out. Across the street was the part of the Emerald Necklace that had the Memorials for World War II and the Korean and Vietnam Wars. It seemed very fitting that we discovered it this weekend.

I hope everyone had a great 3 day weekend and took a moment today to reflect on what Memorial Day is really for.

GRADUATED

May 30, 2010

yep we’ve done it.

I’ll have more to write soon…

still in recovery mode after wearing that lame beret, having a great graduation bash, and getting over the general fact that I now, officially, have time for a real life!!!!

LOST “Party”

May 24, 2010

It took me a while to get in LOST. I admit that I did not get into the show for a bit. Price would watch it and I could not understand it. “So the hatch made the plane crash? And there is a polar bear? What is that smoke thing? Wait, they never explain it?” Finally I gave in and it became an addiction. We spent too many late nights watching it after Tuesday night classes.

Once we found out the date of the Series Finale we decided there needed to be a LOST Party. Well, not so much a party as having a few people over for dinner and to watch LOST. Either way it was a great way to relax with friends and watch LOST. I even made the 5 of us boarding passes for flight 815. This SITE had great Dharma logos and printables.

So last night we had Natalie, Jason, and their friend Ashley over. Ashley had never seen LOST, so I have a feeling we drove her crazy yelling at the TV. “RICHARD!!!” “LAPIDUS!!!!!!” “Ah I knew it would be Juliet!” But it was great to see her picking up on the story pretty well after watching the recap.

The best were the typical moments like

“So the island moves time and space?”

“Yep, when they turn the wheel.”

“…”

I’m not sure what I think of the finale. I know I am going to watch it again this week. Plus I am going to watch the whole series in order at some point. Last night I was disappointed with it but not that I have thought about it I’m sorta please with the ending. I’m glad that they got reconnected in the end to move on. At least it did not end up with a kid shaking a snowglobe (St Elsewhere.).

Were you a fan of LOST? What did you think of the ending??

Mini Cheesecakes with an Oreo Crust

May 15, 2010

I saw a mini cheesecake recipe on Fake Ginger, one of my favorite cooking blogs, that looked so good that I knew I had to try them. But the thing is I approached this recipe like how I approach scrapbooking. That means when I’m in a scrapbooking class or using a kit I completely modify it to make it my own. But the thing is that for this recipe I dumbed it down completely. Amanda at Fake Ginger made these lovely mini turtle cheesecakes but I changed it up because…

1) The quantity. I decided to make this our monthly staff meeting so I would need to make like 4 batches of them so I wanted to keep it simple. Keep it simple stupid.

2) I’m lazy. I did not feel like making my own caramel or chocolate sauce, esp for so many little cheesecakes.

3) Nut allergies. When I made a delicious chocolate cake with a peanut butter frosting last fall and saw that a few people could not eat it I decided that I would try really really hard not to make treats with nuts so the pecan on top and the pecan meal in the crust had to go.

4) Never made this many cheesecakes before. ‘Nuf said.

Of course when Price saw the completed ones he was just slightly disappointed “Where’s the good stuff on top??”

I love the cheesecake recipe because it made a really creamy cheesecake. I don’t really like cheesecake because it seems like I’m eating a block of cream cheese, and while I like cream cheese, I like small quantities on a bagel. Anyway, take the time to let your cream cheese and butter to soften otherwise your cheesecake might have some lumps in it. Plus your mixer will hate you, and possibly make funny noises fighting the tough fight. Take the cream cheese out of the box, so it is just sitting in the foil wrapper, since this dramatically reduces the time it takes to soften up.

PS- Sorry for the crappy photos I got up at 5.45am to make them so I just wanted to bake and get ready for the day and not worry about photos. Then I forgot to take a photo of the finished result so I was stuck with taking a photo of the prettiest of the uglies, since they got banged up on the way in to work.

Mini Cheesecakes with an Oreo Crust

Makes 12 mini cheesecakes

Ingredients

Crust:

1 cup of crushed Oreos
1/4 cup of melted unsalted butter

Filling:

1 1/2 packages (12 ounces) cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
1/2 cup plain yogurt

Process

Preheat the oven to 325. Line a 12-muffin pan with aluminum liners.
To make the Crust: Put Oreos into a large resealable bag to crush with a rolling pin. Continue rolling Oreos until they are finely crushed. In a medium bowl, combine the Oreo crumbs with the melted butter. Divide the crust mixture into the muffin liners. Press down the mixture firmly with your fingers. Bake the empty crusts for 5 minutes.
To make the Filling: Using a hand mixer or stand mixer, beat cream cheese until creamy. Gradually add the sugar, salt, and vanilla; beat well. Add eggs one at a time, mixing just until blended. Stir in yogurt.
Evenly divide the filling into the baked Oreo crusts, about a 1/4 cup of filling. The filling should should come almost to the top of the liner. Bake for 15 minutes or until tops of cheesecakes are puffed and only slightly jiggly in the very center. Cool to room temperature and then refrigerate for at least a couple hours, preferably overnight, until serving.

My Bad…

May 12, 2010

After a meeting I came back to my desk to see 2 missed calls from Price.

I call back to “Do you know where my set of car keys are?!?!?”

I look in my purse and find my set of keys and his. Uh-oh.

Well, that makes getting to work difficult doesn’t it?

Sorry Pricer. Love you!

A Glimpse into the Past: a Dairy Cow on Boston Common

May 11, 2010

Yesterday morning when I walked out of Park Street station a woman handed me a flyer about a demonstration and hearing about raw milk. I flipped it over and skimmed the flyer. Typically these flyers mean nothing to me since they are often regarding some weird causes, very religious with a focus on the end of the world, or for things occuring while I am at work. Well, hold the phone! There is going to be a dairy cow on the common from 9am-2pm. Holy hell I need to see the cow! So I planned on going during my lunch to see this magical cow.

They sang ‘ Oh Susanna’ to the cow

For one thing I have a childlike excitement when it comes to livestock. Chickens- to clucky and happy! Goats- aww look at their little horns! Cows- OMG they mooooo! Whenever Price and I go back to upstate NY I gleefully yell every time we drive past a field of cows cow. And we see a lot of cows. (How does he deal with me??) So I had to see this cow up close and personal.

And it was soo cool that there was cow on the Common. When Boston settled in 1625 it was a very different place than what it is looks like today. Boston was settled on Shawmut peninsula, a much smaller area than what is existing today (Boston filled in several areas to create more land, including the Back Bay neighborhood). William Blaxton was the first settler to the area, so in 1634 the other settlers in the ares purchased the land for Boston Common from him. The 44 acres parcel was purchased for 30 pounds by the community, each homeowner paid 6 shillings, from Blaxton. Originally it was known as “Common Land” because of it’s joint purchase and use for livestock grazing. Overtime the use for the land changed as the city changed; for example it was a Revolutionary War camp during the revolution. Glazing officially ended in 1830 when the land began to change its role into a park.

I really think they need to bring the cows and other live stock back occasionally. It def makes the Common so much cooler.

PS-The organization that brought the cow was Organic Consumers.

Happy Mother’s Day

May 9, 2010

Happy Mother’s Day!!

Spring has sprung so it’s the time of year to honor mom with some flowers. Well I did that last year. I got her a clematis and have been updated it is doing really well! yay! Well instead of giving her a flower I thought it would be better to take her to the flowers. I have always wanted to go to the Lilac Festival at Arnold Arboretum so we decided a Boston visit was in order and we would go there.

My Mom and Nanny came up for the weekend!!! They came up on Saturday afternoon to our place so we could catch up awhile it rained nd Nanny could see our apartment. We enjoyed some reminiscing about movies, vacations, and my grandpa. Nanny has a crazy cat (really crazy) so liked the calm rabbits, esp when Jack would come out for raisins. The four of us then went out to a place called Bamboo for some Thai food. Price and I took my mom here a few years ago and she thought that Nanny would like it so we went back. This is one of our favorite places here since the food is so good and the service is always on point. We ordered chicken satays and fresh spring rolls for appetizers. It was so cute that Nanny said she would have to tell her friends that she tried Thai food. Next I have to get her on the T 🙂

Today we went to the Lilac Festival at Arnold Arboretum. We saw their beautiful collection of blooming lilacs. It was nice to walk in the arboretum while enjoying the flowering and watching the musical and dancing performances. Poor Nanny had her allergies flare up so she left sneezing.

I’m so glad that my Mom got to come up with her mom for the weekend. It was nice to take mom to a place that she liked and give Nanny a new type of food to try. Walking through the arboretum to so much fun was we talked about Boston, how the dogs would love it up here, and taking photos of all the lilacs. I’ll see them again next weekend for a day trip down to CT and then just 2 more weeks until graduation. Can’t wait!!

Tangy Turkey Burgers

May 7, 2010

When I was younger I somehow talked my dad into signing up for some monthly recipe cards. To me this was the most exciting mail ever. New recipes every month for me to sort and collate into the deck and pick recipes from. I imagine that to him it was just another bill to pay. I think that in the end it was the most expensive ‘cookbook’ known to man.

At least I can say that the recipe cards did not go unused. Two of the cards that always remained rotated from the deck for easy access were recipes for a veggie lasagna and turkey burgers. The recipe called Tangy Turkey Burgers were by far my favorite. The recipe produced great tasting juicy burgers that I fell in love with.

I generally won’t argue with people who say that turkey burgers are dry since they often are but these burgers are far from dry. Turkey is a lean so the lack of fat makes it dry but when you add a marinade to the ground turkey it becomes moist and it takes on the bright flavors of the marinade. The soy sauce and ginger bring fresh flavor to the burgers while the Dijon mustard adds a bit of a kick. Since I have made the recipe so many times over the years I have adjusted the ratios and added fish sauce to it to bring the flavors all together.

The start of our week was a bit hectic since Price was finishing things up for this last college presentation and both of us were sick. I picked this to make since we had all the ingredients at home (with the exception of the fresh rolls), it’s fast and easy, and it would, hopefully, bring back some life to our dead pallets. I have to say that it def did the trick.

Tangy Turkey Burgers

1 pound of ground turkey

2 tablespoons of soy sauce

3 tablespoons of fish sauce

1 tablespoon of minced garlic

1 tablespoon of Dijon mustard

2 inches of fresh ginger, grated

salt and pepper

avocado (optional)

Combine the soy sauce, fish sauce, garlic, Dijon mustard and grated ginger into a large bowl.

Add the ground turkey and mix until sauce is incorporated completely.

Cover and place in refrigerator, for at least 20 minutes.

Create 4 equal size patties for grilling. Season patties with salt and pepper prior to grilling.

Assemble turkey burger with on a hearty bun and top with slices of avocado. Enjoy!

Serves 4

I Love That Dirty Water

May 3, 2010

Because I love that dirty water
Oh, oh, Boston, you’re my home (oh, yeah)

Water surged from the ground at the site of the leak in Weston.

As soon as I heard there was a boil water order in effect I thought of the Dave Mathew’s Song “Don’t Drink the Water” but then I thought of the Dropkick Murphy’s cover of the song “Dirty Water.” That seemed so much more appropriate since Dropkick Murphy’s is a Boston band singing about Boston.

This map of shows the Massachusetts communities currently under the boil-water order.

On my way home from CKC Manchester on Saturday my friend called her hubs to let her know when we would be back. Hearing half the conversation of “we can’t use the water!?” seemed puzzling to me. Instantly, I think about a drought. How the hell could there be a drought when it rained so much that our apartment flooded last month?

A worker installed a pipe with compressed air on Sunday to blow out the water inside the section of pipe they were welding.

I found out the a 10′ water main ‘broke’. News flash… don’t drink the water!!! 30 communities are effected with this ‘boil water order’. So 2 million people or so in the metro Boston area have been effected. Since the system is down they are now supplementing with reservoir water. This means that water needs to be boiled for at least a min before it can be used; otherwise you run the risk of getting a bacterial infection or a parasite. You need to use bottled water or boiled water for drinking, brushing teeth, washing dishes, etc. ‘Luckily’ you can still use the water to shower.

Tunnel workers weld the broken water main

I have walked around the reservoir that they have hooked up to and the only thing I could think of while showering yesterday was ‘BIRD POOP WATER!’ When I had my dog up in Boston a few years ago I used to walk her around the reservoir and she would run to the edge and bark at the swans. So call I could think of was bathing in swan poo water. Last month I was showering with sump pump hoses in the tub and now I showered with ‘lake’ water!!!

So when you can’t use water normally you rush out to the store since the first reports say that things might not be fixed for more than a week. Well, let me tell you, the store was chaotic on Saturday afternoon. I got some of the last water at the store down the road. At first the Governor declared a State of Emergency to get things in order, including water distribution centers in towns going. President Obama declared a State of Emergency this afternoon, which will help cover the costs associated with the water crisis.

Water flowed from the leak at 8 million gallons of water an hour. It flowed down some hill into the Charles River, which rose 8″ in some spots. Crazy! Well, once they got the water turned off they figured out that some rubber seam under a collar that was supposed to last 50 years failed at 7 years. So they fixed the leak and are testing pressure and water quality. They estimate water to be back to normal within 48 hours.

Just when I think Boston is boring…

(all photos, with the exception of the store photo, are from Boston.com)

May- days of truffles, nurses, burgers and hugs

May 1, 2010

May is the time of year when Spring really gets into full gear. The time to plant new flowers and enjoy the ones that are blooming now. I’m looking forward to the time to transplant my tomato plants. I countdown each day until Memorail Day. I love the 3 day weekend and the unoffical start of summer. I’m looking forward to a few of the weird ‘holidays’ that occur this month. Next week’s Cino De Mayo will be fun since it is a ‘good’ reason to drink margaritas. ha!

May 1- May Day

Fresh Truffles from Earthy Delights