This is good dating advice.
Happy Valentine’s Day.
Five Good Things: Yucky Love Edition
001. I’m going to New York tonight! I’m going to love on my sister and brunch with my best girls and laugh my ass off at Dear John and drink large quantities of Jaques Torres hot chocolate without one ounce of guilt and wear a pair of fierce high heels all over the effing place, snow be damned. PLUS Tom is going to meet me down there on Sunday for romantic Valentine’s-type festivities. AND I have the first Harry Potter loaded onto my phone for the bus ride. I have never read any of the Harrys, can you imagine?
002. Speaking of Tom, he got a new car this week and it is HUGE inside and looks like a spaceship. Am a fan of riding shotgun and messing with the radio presets. Also speaking of Tom, last night he out of the blue referenced something I said on this blog like two weeks ago, and I almost fell out of my chair: I had no idea he was reading it. Which, by the way, is classic Tom-style. So…hello, sir. It’s nice to have you aboard.
003. I went into Marshall’s last night in search of a pair of nude fishnet hose (done and done–thank you, Jessica Simpson, I’m sorry John Mayer said those crass things about your sexual proclivities, and I’m sorry I laughed so hard when I read about them on the Huffington Post) and walked out fifteen minutes later with three new tops. Impulse buys for sure, but rather fantastic ones, if I do say so myself.
004. IT IS OLYMPICS DAY. And that’s all I have to say about that. Except: the degree to which I love pairs figure skating is only one more reason on the long list of reasons I will never be cool.
005. I may or may not be eating cereal and watching Arrested Development on Hulu.
Happy long weekend. Find somebody and smooch ’em.
warm dinner cold night
Pork chops dredged in some flour and WS Chili Lime Rub, fried in a little bit of evoo and finished up in the oven at 400.
On the side: deconstructed guacamole salad, minus the onion because I accidentally dropped it in the trash. WIN SOME LOSE SOME.
o r e o
I’ve been dying to try Deb’s Homemade Oreos for ages now (Deb: my new Ina? LOOKS THAT WAY), and last night seemed like just the opportunity–while I waited for Tom to trek home from his ski trip (and, okay, for my Idol/Lost doubleheader to begin), I whipped up a batch of these bad boys in the ‘ol Kitchenaid.
Verdict: these are really serious cookies.
For all their prettiness–and they are so pretty, quite possibly the loveliest-looking little treats I’ve ever made–these don’t actually take that long, and are all kinds of easy to assemble. The chocolate wafers bake super evenly, and the filling is pretty damn similar in texture to the white stuff in the middle of the Nabisco kind.
Having said that: these are really serious cookies. Were I to make them again, I might cut the sugar in the chocolate part even more than the recipe suggests–and I actually might do the same for the filling. They were just a little too sweet for me (which is saying something). Still, they were totally delicious with a giant glass of milk, and achieve a most delightful sogginess when dunked. I daresay they’d make a perfect addition to your Valentine’s Day. Or mine.
You have to eat oatmeal or you’ll dry up. Everybody knows that.
(name that book)
Meanwhile, OTHER FACTS:
1. I got some New Yorkers out of the library and I think I am already smarter. No, really. Ask me something a smart person would know.
2. Canned beets are to roasted beets as Sarah Palin is to Michelle Obama.
3. I almost cancelled our Valentine’s Day dinner reservation last night because Jackie told me she was almost sure that the first boy I ever kissed (spoiler alert: NOT TOM) was a waiter at the Trendy Restaurant I picked, and just THINKING about that encounter made me want to die, because apparently even though we are All Adults Here and I have been kissing people for ten years now, in my heart I am fourteen years of age. Can you imagine? I walk into this fancy restaurant on VALENTINE’S DAY of all the days and oh hey, how you doing, it was really cool of you to like me back in the 00’s even though I was a wretch and wore Steve Madden platform wedges all the time. ANYWAY, crisis averted, reservations kept, no need to panic. Phew.
4. I put six valentines in the mail today! You all know who you are. But hey, everybody else…I love you too! I just ran out of stamps.
5. There is PW meatloaf (and SK homemade oreos, if I can somehow make them Island-themed. Dharma oreos? John Locke cookies, because they’re one thing on the outside and something else on the inside? Sawyer cookies, because they are attractive and desirable? NEVER MIND. I WILL MAKE IT WORK) in my immediate future. Stay tuned.
Life is so incredibly good sometimes.
Sweet.
Tom went skiing with some friends from work yesterday, and I wanted to make him something sweet to tuck into his pack (you know, ’cause I love him. And to make him popular with his ski buddies). I’ve wanted to try Deb’s cocoa brownies (for people who like boxed brownies! Which I do!) ever since she posted them, and boy howdy they did not disappoint. It was a very good thing that they left my house at 7 o’clock yesterday morning.
Also, I picked up some Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla at Williams-Sonoma a couple of weeks ago (thank you, gift card), and while I’m not a hundred percent sure it’s improved my baking, it sure makes me feel fancy. Which is obviously the most important thing.
Delight.
Puzzles with H and a cuddle with my favorite mutt, a late night “I’m downstairs!” call from Miss Rachel, revelatory egg sammies at Flour, US Weekly and mani-pedis, dinner at Cambridge 1, effectively using the GPS on my phone, everything about Ladysmith Black Mambazo, drinks and hummus at Tory Row, a long, bracing, second-wind inducing scuttle back to the apartment, a lazy Sunday morning coffee date, and kamikaze grocery-shopping with the boyfriend. R, you are always such a joy. See you in the spring.
Five Good Things: “Honey, Take Me Dancing” Edition
001. Last night was date night, which meant new shoes and fancy cocktails. One thing about Tom is he knows how to show a lady a nice evening. I had blackened swordfish and the most delicious scallops of my entire life. Yum.
002. I may or may not have bought myself this dress yesterday.
I figured I can wear it in Mexico in March, and with tights before + after, right? Plus I love how it looks with those boots. We’re well into February now, which every year means my wardrobe is in desperate need of defibrillation. This feels like just the ticket.
003. The Lacuna, by Barbara Kingsolver. I’m going to echo Kim here and say that so far, it’s not my favorite thing she’s ever written, with the caveat that my favorite thing she ever wrote (Prodigal Summer, oh holy CRAP that is a good book) didn’t really grab me until about a hundred pages in. In any case, I’m just so glad to be reading something new by her that quite honestly…I don’t really care what it is. It’s BK. I can be wooed. I am so woo-able.
004. Your neighbors think you are whimsical and strange if you leave polar bear cupcakes outside their door. I’m going to go out on a limb and say there are worse things to be than whimsical and strange.
005. Rachel comes tonight! She is amazing and got into approximately one thousand PhD programs. I’mma make her a pie. Because if you can’t eat pie to celebrate a bunch of universities fighting over the genius brain of one of your very best girls…when CAN you eat pie? I’m also taking her on a romantic date to see Ladysmith Black Mambazo, because she’s weird like me and into that kind of thing. ACTUALLY, in case you’re weird like me, too, here’s some Ladysmith of your very own to enjoy.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OafqYNCzq5U&feature=related]
Happy weekend.
