I am a Honey Bee

All about my adventures with cooking, crafts, and travel

Archives for May 2011

8am

-view from the front door-

I had been counting down until 8am this morning ever since our new landlord told us the previous tenants would be moving out on Saturday and we could meet him to get the keys. Price and I got up around 6.30, packed the car with cleaning supplies and some stuff to bring over, grabbed breakfast at Starbucks, and drove the 6.2 miles over to the new place.

-the living room-

 
 

-view from the windows in the living room-

We are beyond excited about the windows… 7 total. It’s like coming out of the murky water and evolving to have legs- such a major change!

-walking into the kitchen-

 
 

 -the ugly red wall that we will paint with chalkboard paint-

We have 3 large closets. PLUS a HUGE storage locker in the basement. We didn’t see the locker prior to today so when we saw it I did a little jump since it was so much bigger than we anticipated.

– the bedroom-

-another view of the bedroom-

I’m so excited about having a real oven and stove. A GAS stove!!! Going from an electric flat cook top and a combo microwave/convection oven.

-err this is the size of the closet price and I will SHARE, oh crap-

Our new landlord said we could paint. We already have some Martha Stewart paint colors in mind. Mimosa, maybe?! We are going to have a chalkboard wall in the kitchen. Debating on making it magnetic. (Thoughts?)

– the linen closet-

We are really optimistic about settling into this place for 2 years, at least. It seems like we can really make it work and seem like home. But first I have a lot of cleaning to do. I already did A LOT of cleaning. I had tweeted that our apartment smelled “pin-solriffic” holy crap the floor was filthy! We knew the previous tenants had 2 cats so we would have to do a lot of cleaning since Price is really allergic. BUT when I met our new neighbors and chatted them up I found out the had a dog too. I guess the combo of those 3 animals in a 1 bedroom would result in that STINK and the hairballs that I vacuumed up from under the radiator.

-El baño-

Right now I am crashing. Crashing into bed since it’s been a long day of cleaning, moving boxes from the carload that PRice brought and a trip to Providence for a friend’s son’s Full Moon party. Bed is so inviting right now. ‘Night.

-bring nail polish with you so you can identify keys-

Sing me a song

I heart Ian Axel. Price knows. It’s okay.

We first saw Ian perform back in January. It was a great show then and a great show now. The Red Room at Cake 939 is a great venue to see a show since it has a low stage, and the majority of the space is SRO. Because of that Price and I get to stand really close to enjoy the performances.

We missed the first act since we were too busy drinking rum out of a bottle at home while catching up about each others days. Yeah true story. We did get to see Alicia Lemke perform. I thought she was completely stunning. She performed a brand new song called ‘Maiden Lane’ that is a lullaby about a first responder on 9-11. Amazing. She created it to accompany a cook about 9-11.

 

Prior to Ian’s set, we chatted with Chad Vaccarino for a bit. We talked about how we were at the show in January and how he no longer drives, it freaks him out. I think that is hilarious and awesome.

Ian played solo for a bit, then Chad played with him, and then Ian was solo, etc. They are a great team together when they play. Ian is amazing on the piano. Price kinda wishes he had kept up with the trumpet whenever Chad plays. This time Ian played a ukulele. There was new music, more sing a long. Overall another fantastic time.

 

They will be back in Aug/Sept and I’ll be sure to get tickets to that show as well.

Gone

You’ve Got a Friend in Me

Girl, I Got a Thing

Dear Thief-

Dear Thief-

I don’t know what kind of person you really are but I know at the lease you are a scummy asshole.

Stealing my debit card information, not my actual card, and hitting up the ATM must have made you feel really awesome. You must have felt like you were smart, witty, and soon to be rich. Transaction #1 for $500 was not enough, no? Just had to get another $200, didn’t you?!? Plus you just had to do it at another bank too so I go hit with 2 service fee making the grand total $706.

Thanks for making me freak out on an already sucky Monday morning. First day back at work isn’t annoying enough, you just had to throw this in.

Thanks for making me take an extra long lunch to deal with this crap. I now have the pleasure of making up that extra hour.

Thanks for making me have to file claims paperwork. There was much confusion about what God Damn address to send it to, the one I am at now or the new one. Send it to the current one because I am having the mail forwarded? Why am I saying that address when it doesn’t match the address on file? When will it be sent? How long will it take to get there? My name won’t be on the mailbox until the 31st. What’s the zip again? Trying to explain this to a robotic woman on the phone just doing her job trying to make sure I am myself, and not a thief, is not funny. (Although the bank of America guy named Chris and I had a good laugh about it later)

Thanks for making me have to get a temporary card and have to wait to a new one to arrive in 5-7 business days. I now can’t do any online ordering with this because it doesn’t even have my freaking name on it.

And most of all thanks for having me just through hoops changing me automatic bill pay information. Thankfully, Netfix, my gym membership, and book club have all just gone through. But now I have to deal with the other few that are going to be processed soon. Most worrisome is my Studio Calico membership billing, which will occur while I still have my temporary card.

So thank you asshole. This situation is exactly what I wanted to deal with right now, the week before moving, not like I don’t already have enough on my plate. I hope they catch your sorry ass on video surveillance cameras and you go to jail. And while your in jail you look at someone the wrong way. This will piss  them off just enough so they figure beating you is more important than some guard’s consequence.

Sincerely,

Nicole

Thanks for visiting. Please leave me a comment to provide some feedback. I appreciate all the comments I receive.

#Burritup

Last Thursday Price and I went on a burrito crawl call Burritup. I had seen some tweets, using the hash-tag #burritup, about the event so we RSVP’d to chow down on some burritos.

The first stop was Boloco at 2 Park Plaza. They had a deal for the group of us- 2 mini burritos and a fountain drink for $5. Great deal. While there they also passed around a sampling of a smoothie with nutella and marshmallow fluff. It was intense. Once our orders were done we headed outside to eat out mini’s. I got bowls to avoid the flour tortillas (gluten).

 

The next stop was Anna’s Taqueria. We walked along the Common and through Beacon Hill to get there. I can’t lie, I don’t like Anna’s burritos. At all. I have an issue with their meat, actually chopped meat in general, at least with the Boloco bowls I can look at it before taking a bite. So I passed my complimentary free burrito pass on to Price so he could save it for another day. He used his free burrito pass happily. I ended up getting some chips and guac and a horchata. I will pass on burritos at Anna’s but I will never pass up on their horchata since it was so good.

After both burritos at both locations, Price had a food baby. We named him Jesus seeing fitting that it was a Spanish name.

 

While there they made us The Cubio. They pitch this as a 3′ long burrito but I have to say it’s much smaller than that. It’s 3 12″ tortillas overlapped and stuffed full, but def not 3′ long. Do the math- it’s not possible. Regardless of the exact size of it, was entertaining to watch it being made. Also entertaining to watch 2 guys have a lady and the tramp moment with it as they took a bite from each end.

      

Body Movin’

The weather has me in a funk.

My deadline at work as me in a funk.

Heading into work when it’s raining and leaving 14+ hours later in the dark got to me yesterday. And I have a few more days of that schedule to look forward to. Yes, I’m being sarcastic. But I look forward to getting the dinners we want and the OT.

Since I can’t do much about the weather, stress at work, lack of time to pack this week, and lack of sleep, I’ll just cheer myself up by watching these cuties bust a move.

Price’s family was in town a few weekends ago. We headed over to one of their friend’s places for dinner and allowing the 3 kids to play together.

How can I be in such a funk when I get to see a skillful ballerina and break-dancer?!?!

Be my friend…

On Pinterest

I love Pinterest. I love that I can bookmark images to refer to them for later use. I love that I can organize them easily. I love seeing what everyone else pins.

My board for inspiring things for our new apartment (20 days to go!!)

My board for sweets that I find cute and would love to make.

My board for drinks. Summer is approaching so I’m on the look out for fun drink recipes

_____________________

So become my friend on Pinterest. Just search for Nicole Spasiano.

If you are on Pinterest let me know by leaving me a comment and I will find you and follow your boards.

Pinterest is an invite only site so if you want an invite jsut leave me a comment saying so with your email and I will send you an invite.

Happy Pinning!

ummmmnicole look at me!

Price’s nephew Addison always says my name ‘ummnicole’. It’s all one word, really fast. But we can still hear the ummm- part of it. I’m not sure when or why he picked it up, but it’s adorable.

When we were back in Skaneateles a few weeks ago, Addison showed off his skills riding his bike. Sure a little kid riding a bike… big whoop… well I’m really impressed since he is 3 1/2 and is a master of a 2-wheel bike.

Sel De La Terre with Boston Brunchers

Two weeks ago I got together with a handful of people who participate in the Boston Brunchers group. The website is organized by Renee, who picks various places for us ‘foodies’ to brunch. I previously attended brunch at Dorado Tacos and had a great time so jumped at RSVP-ing to this brunch. Why not attend a brunch this month?

One of the April brunches was going to be held at Sel De La Terre. There are several locations in and around Boston. I hoped on the train and headed down to the Long Wharf. Of course it was raining, and I didn’t take my umbrella so I arrived looking like a wet dog. Awesome.

The $30 prefix brunch started at 11. Well, the restaurant opens then but they were not ready for us right away so we saddled up to the bar. I ordered a bloody mary. I hate to say but I have high standards for bloody marys and this didn’t live up to it. It had may too much horseradish. It would have been more enjoyable with shrimp than with vodka. Coco, fellow food blogger, and I asked for lemon wedges, which helped cut the taste a bit.

After drinks at the bar, the 11 of us were seated at a large table. We had a few options for our first course, entree and dessert. I picked a salad with a warmed slice of goat cheese, crab cake eggs Benedict, and banana cake.

I loved the salad starter. The salad was lightly, evenly dressed with a balsamic vinegrate. The goat cheese was warm, melty, and salty. The combination of textures, temperatures, and flavors went so well together.

The crab cake eggs benedict was less than spectacular. The egg was perfectly poached. The quality and size of the egg were impressive. The crab cake was a pretty standard, being that I thought it was a little bready. The biggest disappointment was related to my english muffin. Mine was really burnt. It would have been nice to have been able to have eaten it after it soaked up some of that amazing hollandaise sauce. (I didn’t ask for a new english muffin only because the service was so spotty until then that I figured I would have gotten a new one on my 27th birthday… next January)

The dessert course was delightful. The cake was accompanied with a caramel
sauce and a little price of popcorn. The banana flavor really shown through the cake. The texture was light and airy. I would love a whole sheet cake of that. Yes, please.

Aside from the burned english muffin, the meal was really good. Unfortunately, our service was awful. It took a long time, about 30 minutes, to be initially seated. Taking our order took a long time as well, plus each course took time to bring out. For SDLT, I thought this was strange since I’ve have wonderfully attentive lunches and dinners at both locations in Boston. Additionally, we are a group of people who frequent places for brunch, a group of people who often blog about our dining experiences. So why not treat us properly and get some nice write ups? Ah maybe it was just an off day, the rain gets to us all.

PS- I just wrote this entire blog post on my iPhone while watching Lady Gaga’s Monster Ball on HBO. Yeah, be impressed. (I’ll insert links later)

Strawberry Mint Ice Cream

I have to admit that I used to hate Strawberry Ice Cream. I think it always tasted so fake to me so I avoid it. I would eat it in a Napoleon ice cream bar or something but it was only because it was only 1/3 of it.

 

Since I had a massive load of strawberries I decided I should try making strawberry ice cream and see if I like it better when I control the quality of the ingredients. Since I also had a huge bunch of mint I decided I would add that to the ice cream as well. Why not? I can do whatever I want. (I also made mint chocolate chip ice cream which was a total failure, but that’s another story)

 

The ice cream is sweet, creamy, and flavorful with the strawberries and the mint. I really enjoyed this ice cream since i love the fresh flavors in sorbet so the addition of cream didn’t seem that different to me. The mint adds a nice touch to the strawberries. If you don’t like mint that much than you could cut back and use less. Or pull some out before blending. I just love the flavor of mint and strawberry and I loved the specks of green in it so I kept it in there prior to blending.

 

Strawberry Mint Ice Cream

1 lb of strawberries
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 cup whole milk
1/4 cup mint leaves
1 vanilla pod, split for the beans
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup milk

Wash, destem, and slice strawberries.

In a medium pot, combine the strawberries, sugar, whole milk, mint, and vanilla beans. Simmer for 5 minutes. Blend mixture in blender until completely smooth. Strain blended mixture.

Chill blended mixture until completely cold, at least 2 hours, but preferably over night.

Measure 2 1/2 cups of the blended mixture*, add the heavy cream and remaining whole milk to mixture.

Prepare ice cream according to manufacture’s instructions. For a soft serve consistency, serve immediately or freeze for a harder consistency.

*Instead of discarding the extra strawberry mixtures, you could add a bit of it to milk for flavored milk.

Nesting

Price and I were back in his hometown over the weekend to celebrate his Mom’s birthday. His family came over on Saturday to have a BBQ. We first set up the in the front of the house, which allowed the kids to play on the lawn and ride their bikes. Typically we would head out on the back porch to eat but we stayed inside to give this little lady some peace and quite.

This dove has set up her nest in a tree right off the back porch. Elaine has some beautifully weathered window panes hanging off the porch roof, which creates a barrier between the tree and the porch. So she didn’t mind me taking a few photos of her but I was quite and zoomed in a much as I could to keep my distance.

 

Hopefully she is enjoying the warm weather and appreciated that we respected her needs and let her and her eggs be.