0 for 3

saw pirates 3 last night, and although i love me some johnny depp, the movie was bad. i don't want to tell anyone NOT to see it, simply because the special effects are pretty effect-y, but the plot, script and even the acting fell short. josh said it best: a lot of people heard this movie was bad but went anyway, propelled by the hope of seeing a glimmer of the first one. so why spent $250 million on a movie everyone is going to see anyway when they could have spent $100 million on a movie everyone was going to see anyway. give the extra money to those who really need it...

so spiderman 3, shrek 3 and pirates 3 all let me down. stupid hollywood. and stupid me for wasting my money. come august, matt damon will be back in those too tight shirts. maybe the bourne legacy will be worth my $10.....

pomp and spaghetti

so here is a quick recap of the last few weeks, WITH pictures!

tufts at the pops:
my mom and i went to see divya sing her final pops show last thursday and i fell in love with keith lockheart all over again. no matter how mnay years go by, that man refuses to de-cute-ify. they did the charlie T song, and on the screen above the orchestra they had a video of keith "stuck" on the train going all around boston and it was hilaroious. he really knows how to ham it up. sigh.






then graduation! in the RAIN! although we were all miserable and wet, michael bloomburg gave a fantastic speech (he is going to make a great president someday) and divya got her degree and we were all so proud. prof devine gave a great speech, but since he was dry and we were all getting wet, anything longer than 5 minutes was too long. the parents clapped him off the stage after about 30 minutes. I felt bad for him, but that didn't prevent me from getting wet. the graduation cereomy itself was chaos, since the rain was pouring down and no one could see due to all the umbrellas so some people stood, which meant everyone had to stand. so in the end, i elbowed my way up to the stage and started snapping away. i am going to be the best soccer mom ever - no dean of IR can tell me where i can and cannot go! for all the pics, check out the flickr link to your right.





somwehere in the last few weeks, josh and i saw spiderman three and shrek three. oh. my. god. they were SO bad. the former was a cry fest and was dumb and the latter was a cheese fest and dumb. wait for the DVD people. trust me. we are 0 for 2. pirates, don't let me down.

in the cooking department - had a hankering for some meatballs on friday (i had never had meatballs before, don't ask me where this came from) so josh and i made some scrumptious little balls and put them over some whole wheat pasta. so so good and filling. and then when i saw smittenkitchen's post about the homemade oreos, i could't resist and made some for the 24 finale gathering we had at our place. i made the cookies a little too big, so they look a lot like whoopie pies (but have that oreo taste). we still have about half the cream left over, so i might make these again for the BBQ at my mother-in-laws this weekend. maybe i will make cute mini ones that made you feel a bit less guilty about eating them. i also learned that not eating junk has really made my stomach intolerate to heavy food. first the fried ravioli and now the cream from the oreos... i am bringing the rest into work for people tomorrow. (i just saw a commenter on SK's blog describing how he crumbled up these cookies and put them in his ice cream maker. not sure if my ghetto ice cream maker can handle it, but no harm in trying, right?)











AND last but not least - TWO engagements this weekend. a friend from school and a friend from work. YAY weddings!

sigh

so we tried something new over mother's day weekend and it was a bust. i didn't think the recipes were too out there, but it looks like we just didnt know our audience.

late last week, i went onto bobby flay's foodnetwork site to pick out a few grilling recipes. everytime i watch his show, i am tempted to try whatever he is making. it all looks so easy - marinade this, grill that, plate and done! here was what josh and i came up with (excuse the lack of pictures, my camera ran out of batteries...)

feta and grilled green onion dip with pita bread
josh stuck this in the fridge and it got hard. i will blame him for the fact that it didnt really take off - i liked it though - the lemon really gave it a great bite. it would make a great spread of bagels and lighter sandwiches.

grilled scallops with avacado spread on a tortilla
these were wonderful. i pan fried some tortillas i had left over, so they were more like scallop tacos. these went over a little better, but i feel like josh and i ate most of them, which is fine with me, but i still felt bad that people didn't enjoy them.




grilled shrimp with a jalepeno dipping oil.
i knew that josh's grandparents weren't a huge fan of spicy food, so instead of pouring the vinegrette over the grilled shrimp, i kept the spicy and the shrimp seperate. we did make a lot of these, so i found myself picking at them throughout the meal just because they were there. i really like this dish and will def make it again. the shrimp took the spice really well.

tomato and mozzarella salad with a green chile oil
the recipe is for more of a napolean type dish, but i just made it more of a tossed salad. the red tomatos and the vivid green pepper sauce was very appealing. this would have been great on a pizza as well ( we had some dough in the freezer and i was entertaining this idea, but stayed away from the work load in the end)

honey glazed chicken with pea and mit sauce
now this was the most unconventional dish on the table. i kept the sauce seperate from the chicken so that people could take it if they wanted. the chicken was a hit, but mostly because i think people were starving from just picking at all the other food. the honey glaze was great, and so so easy to make.

and last but not least, zucchini - chocolate cupcakes.
THESE, people ate. i thought they were on the dry side, since i skimped a little on the butter, but there were nice and moist on the inside. the cupcakes were insanely easy to make and i will def make them again.

to drink we had sangria, and we had a lot left over. it wasn't my best batch, and we didn't have a lot of drinkers, so i am not too bothered that no one drank. i am going to put it to good use tomorrow night during the LAST GILMORE GIRLS EVER. (tear.)

it didn't help that (1)both our moms are on strict diets and didn't do much more than taste everything (2)my dad sat far away from the food in a comfy chair and couldn't be bothered to get up and get more food (and i am convinced he has an eating disorder, but there is no talking to him about it - he just jokes about my heaviness almost every time i see him). and (3) josh's brother doesn't like seafood (i ASKED josh about this ahead of time and he SAID his brother likes seafood, so i didn't give it another thought, but looking back, there wasn't much he could eat if he didn't).

it was good to try out new recipes though. in the end, it really wasn't that much work. i just had to do some prelim chopping and measuring and the food processor did the rest of the work; it was more planning than anything. healthwise, they weren't that bad either. the worst was the tortillas for the scallops dish (some of them didnt have any chips and could be eaten with sauce or plain), the oil in the dipping sauce for the shrimp (and that was optional as well) and the cheese in the tomato salad (which was lower fat and had no preservatives). the rest was just pureed veggies and grilled proteins. josh's grandparents brought a veggie platter, which was a hit, as was his mother's boyfriend's potato salad. i just hope people didnt leave hungry. we were both pretty bummed about it sunday night, but now know that family = burgers and dogs, and the bobby flay recipes will be for the people who come cook with me this summer (sara - i am talking to you:) )

on a side note - josh did ALL the grilling on sunday and did a fantastic job. we have a good system worked out where i do 90% of the prep work and get everything ready for him to grill and then he takes it from there. thanks babe:)

stuff it!

got to play with my new toy last weekend and basically copied smittenkitchen's post about the exact same toy with the exact same ravioli.... i liked the sharp taste of the arugula, but alas, josh did not.








and then another SK blog - empanadas! while the filling took a while and i didn't roll the dough thinly enough, it was fantastic! next time, more heat. they tasted even better heated up in the microwave for lunch today:)

thoughts?

i know many of us followed ally mcbeal in high school. quirkey, funny - yes. but was it realisitc? i don't know.

so, let me know what you all think. grey's fans or not, we still need to acknowledge the fact that the show about a female president won an emmy and was canceled all in the same season while alpha male jack bauer comes back season after season...

I.O.U.

guys some pictures! here goes:

the wonderous sweet potato fries. if you ever come over for BBQ, count on getting some. fries. getting some FRIES. dirty!

this was the glorious weekend i mentioned. boston was teeming. i tried to capture that teemingness, but am not sure how successful i was. that sky is a great color though...















i made an extremely fresh greek salad last week. gotta love that zoom lens.


here is my friend pooja and me at the party on sunday. she just got enagaged too! yay weddings! i haven't met him yet, but she seem smitten. so so happy for her. too bad he is taking her to san fransisco. but too good that i can go visit her there!


aaand last but not least, the burger i had for dinner today. it was asking to be photographed, i couldn't say no...

ok

so that last post sucked. here is another one.

just stepped out for some fresh air. whittard opened in boston! yay! first wagamama and now this! cue another british invasion! just send over those $5 thailis from drummond street and i will be one happy bunny.

so off to whittard to check out what they had. it was very similar to the london ones, but must more space. i guess what i mean by that is when you walk into a whittard in london, there seems to be a lot of clutter. this one was vyer streamlined. i liked it. josh is coming into the city friday afternoon, i might send him over there for mother's day presents.

then off to the kitchen store! i wanted what i call a pasta ice cube tray fo ages. it is basically an ice cube tray with rounded bubbles. lay the dough over the bubbles. fill bubbles. lay another layer of doughon top and then press with the bubble-lining up stamp. presto! 10 perfect little raviolis! i am going to try this baby out this weekend.

THEN i went to get my afternoon latte over at my favorite, yet pricey, coffee place. there was a rather charming older italian gentlemen in line with his wife with the best accent ever. so while we were waiting in line for double lattes (mine) and double espressos (his) i asked him if he was here for vacation or business. he said both. and i started talked about how my sister was in italy and how much i loved it (i was daydreaming about tuscany while him and his wife were chatting about which cake to get in italian) and how he liked boston. then he told me that he had been living here for 20 years and when i mentioned tufts, he said he had taught there. ahh smiles all around! laugh laugh, enjoy the conference (at hynes) bye bye. THEN i hear him telling this blond girl behind me that he didn't mean any disrespect but she was very pretty (she was). i know i am not the italian "type" but i couldn't hlep but feel a little insulted. well whatever, he loves me for my mind.

bor-ring

So I know I have been lax about the posting lately. I haven't been embroiled in finals, or traveling, or doing much of anything that is exciting in the least. Work is going well, stuff at home is good, not much to report.

I did go to Queens on Sunday for an engagement party. Josh, Divya and I got up at 6:30 and hit the road an hour later. We reached the party (right behind Shea) and caught up with old friends (some I havent seen in over 10 years) and then hit the road again around 4:30 to get home at 9. I did 90% of the driving and by the time we reached Chestnut Hill (to drop my dad and sister off) my eyes were glazing over and I could barely drive. Josh had to to the last 15 minutes bc I just couldn't push myself any further. I was beat when we got home and went to bed at 9:30, which felt incredible.

Oh right, Saturday night we went to Wagamama's! Smell is def brings back the memories, bc as soon as I smelled the kitchen there, all these thoughts of London came flying back. I even remembered the differnt Wagamama layouts - Bloomsbury, Covent Garden, the one on Oxford Street... We had def built it up quite a bit and I think all of us were happy, but not wowed. My yaki yaki soba tasted a little more gingery than I remember and the chili chicken ramen was not as spicy. The dumplings, however, were the same. And it was good to hang out with people. I also remembered why I avoid Fanuiel Hall - horrible memories of Times Square - too many tourists!

Hmm.. what else. It has been the week of beauty for me. Last Saturday: manicure, Monday: haircut, Thursday: eyebrows, Saturday: highlights and pedicure. Needless to say, I am grounding myself for a little while. The money spending has been through the roof. Although, there is nothing wrong with a little pampering:)

I will post pics from this weekend (something I need to do for LAST weekend too...).