Friendsgiving!

We decided to have a Friendsgiving.  Thanksgiving is probably my favorite holiday, and what could be better than tons of food AND a ton of friends??  That's right, it was a success.

We invited about 15 people, and since we are amazing hosts, S. and I were soon counting our plates and getting a bit nervous.  As you can see above, we also had to employ some creative furniture in order to seat everyone together.  That is 2 tables, a couch and 14 chairs you see!

The process started with a little bit of cooking.  I made some pumpkin bread (while watching some tv of course) which was decent but I severely undercooked it, so only the first few pieces were edible.  In the future I will definitely not be basing my cooking time for loaves by a few measly muffins.  Beginners mistake.

I also made some baked sweet potatoes, which went nicely with S.'s baked squash!  We might be some sort of hidden orange household.

We opened a few bottles of wine...dug deep into our extensive mug collection, and even had a few freshly made waffles show up on our doorstop!

 Our tabletop was filled to the brim!  Let's see if I can recall it all...homemade bread, pasta with vodka sauce, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, cranberry salsa, stuffing, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, pumpkin pie, enchiladas, butternut squash, sweet potato bread, gluten free cupcakes, gingerbread cookies, eggnog waffles, pecan pie, chocolate chip cookies....is that it?  Best I can do.  AND, everything was DELICIOUS!

 S. really liked the pumpkin pie!

At the end of the night we were left with a sink full of dishes!

Party success #2.

"I don't want to be a fat purple octopus, damnit!"

Apple Turnovers

I went home to NH this weekend to do some good ole fashioned apple picking. I was going to make a pie but decided that turnovers would be more portable. Which is key, because I like to bring dessert with me everywhere.

I used the first recipe I found online, here. It was fairly straightforward, and the only thing I had to buy was the frozen puff pastry.

I somehow tricked N. into cutting up the apples for me. We used 4 large apples. I think they were Red Rome (I didn't pay much attention when I was picking because I was too busy shivering and eating other apples).

They made some funny noise while cooking. N. bravely investigated.

The fire alarm only went off once during cooking, which I would declare a success. I think it was actually just low on battery, so not my fault at all!

I glazed the tops with confectioners sugar mixed with vanilla almond milk. The glaze was delicious. I may have eaten 3 spoonfuls of it straight. Only feel a little sick now. N. and I split a turnover.

Lesson learned: Puff pastry is magical. I honestly think you could put anything in it and it would be good.


-S.

Post-Party Clean-up

Genius plan.  We will use the bottle deposits from Party 1 to pay for Party 2!  And, since we made people BYOB, theoretically we would be making even more money!

Unfortunately I didn't factor in the fact that my roommate would take out about 1/2 of the bottles during the party.  And that someone would clear out our recycling bin before I checked the next morning.

Wait approximately three weeks for me to find the time/desire to walk to the liquor store and it's finally post-party clean-up time!

The bottles/cans filled two large paper sacks and three standard plastic bags, which I waddled over to the library and then the store with.  Success!  Finally, this task had been staring at me from my to-do list for a while now.

I started putting the bottles in (my first time dealing with the Bottle Bill) and the machine promptly said, FULL.  No problem, call a staff person over to clear it out and start again.  Only it doesn't accept Harpoon Cider bottles, and also doesn't like that one of our guests peeled the label off a bottle.  Picky picky.

About 45 minutes worth of labor later (this is a guess based on packing/travel/dumping time) and I went up to the counter with my receipts.  To collect my $3.30.  So much for that being a good use of my time.  Oh and I had to spend the rest of the afternoon smelling like a drunken hobo.

-N

Ghazal Review

Groupon time!  $12 for $25?  Sign me up.

S and I walked over to Ghazal Indian Cuisine on Centre St. for a lovely Monday night dinner today.  I was very hungry and looking forward to some tasty food.

We were seated in the small restaurant with only 4 or so other tables, and promptly served water and those thin lentil cracker things.  I quickly began eating in hopes of filling up on the free stuff so I could take home more of the actual entree.  Unfortunately it didn't work.

Indecision struck again and we sent the waiter away a few times before actually having made our food choices.  We got Aloo Samosas for an appetizer, and ordered Shahi Aloo Gobhi and Aloo Chhole to share.  Have I mentioned we are both vegetarian?

The waiter tried to persuade us to get some naan,

"Have you had naan before?"

"Yes"

"And you don't want any?" 

I probably would have caved (I do love naan), but together we stayed strong and resisted.  There are cheaper sources of carbs than $3 for 2 pieces after all.

The food was good, but not excellent I'd say.  S's Shahi Aloo Gobhi had great spices with the cauliflower and potatoes, but both of wished it had been more saucy.  My Aloo Chhole was saucy and tasty but just didn't amaze us.  The Samosas were very good, but served on a weird bed of slightly dressed lettuce.

At the end I attempted to tell the waiter I'd brought one tupperware but we needed a few more.  But he insisted that he'd wrap it up nicely so that it would stay hot (??) so I stopped fussing and let him box our leftovers.  Not really sure what that was about, but our food made it home safely. (S: I think the waiter was just confused by the weird girl with tupperware in her purse)

Here are the boxed up 'hot' leftovers.

Overall, decent, but I probably wouldn't return unless another Groupon comes out, here's hoping!  On another note I have had their lunch buffet before and recall that it was quite a good deal and very tasty although the Mango Lassi seemed a little off.  But that was two years ago.

-N

La Summa

N and I got off work at the same time the other night, so we decided to go for a romantic dinner in the North End.

Although we had all day to think about it, we still hadn't decided where we wanted to go by the end of the day. We were both starving, and I really just wanted a cannoli. We ended up going to La Summa on Fleet Street, which had a much shorter line than all the restaurants on Hanover. We only had to wait about 15 minutes, and there was a bench to sit on! The hostess was very nice and gave us updates on the wait time as well.

The restaurant was pretty small, there was appropriate Italian music playing, white tablecloths, and candles. It was not too fancy though, there was a family near us with children and we ourselves were wearing dirty jeans [N: my jeans were NOT dirty!] and matching bike shops t-shirts.

The bread they gave us to start was ok. Nothing special, but we were hungry. Sadly, it was not warm. I ordered some sort of pasta in a cream sauce with sundried tomatoes. It was good, but I had hoped for more tomatoes. N got fettucchine alfredo with peas. She said it needed more peas (she is also oddly obsessed with peas). Price was reasonable for the area - we paid about $21 each.

Overall, it was a good experience. I would definitely recommend it. Would I go there again myself? Probably not, just because there are so many restaurants to try in the North End, and I really wish the bread had been warm...But the short wait and nice staff were a plus! And there were leftovers, which N added more peas to [N: Thanks for bringing them S!].

After dinner we swung by the shop and the crew was outside, just having closed. So we joined them and biked to the Sevens for a drink! My boss did not allow us to ride the tandem bicycle. We will have to work on convincing him to lend us one.

-S

Housewarming Party

N survived the ordeal of liquor gathering, and it was time to partyyyy!

We had invited everyone from work (we both work at a bike shop, more on that to come in a later post), and my boss let me out a little early to prepare for the party. When I got home, N was still gone getting her cart-o-liquor. So I made a grilled cheese sandwich and read the paper. Then I showered, threw on my YOLO t-shirt, and grabbed a cider. 

I had made jello shots the night before so I sliced them up when N got back. It was more like a giant pan of jello that I cubed and put in bowls. While we were doing this, the bike shop crew arrived. It was very weird to see my boss in my house. 

We sat on the back porch for a bit, until everyone else arrived. My friends all came in at once, and then things got crazy. N and I originally tried to have a contest to see who could have the most friends come. I think we tied. The hardest part was running around between groups of people, making introductions, and trying to join our different friend groups. The bike crew mostly stayed on the porch, my college friends gathered at the table, and N's peeps stood in the kitchen. 

Our other roommate stayed in the living room and watched sports with his friend. The fourth roommate made a brief appearance then somehow went to bed (she must be deaf). 

We had spent a few hours making the perfect playlist. I forgot to download it to my iPod, so we listened to another random playlist. People liked it, I assume. There was kitchen dancing. 

Despite the notable absence of some lame people (you know who you are), it was a wild success. There was widespread jello consumption, baking and devouring of a giant cookie cake, and N made a punch! No one drank it, but she put it in a tupperware and has been working on finishing it every day since the party. 

Details are foggy, but to my knowledge no one got sick and no one cried. I hear my boss got a bit upset because I kept introducing him as my boss, and not my friend, but he will get over it. I tend to get very excited when all of my friends are together in the same place, since it happens so rarely, so I was a little hyper. I assume N had a great time, but I actually didn't really see her at all during the party. 

The final guest count was about 35 people.  Success!

-S

Pre-Party Planning

It's time!  S and I were hosting our very first party!  Okay, technically I guess S, me and our other two roommates were really hosting, but we all know it was really our party.

I had the day off while S was at work so I got to work, cleaned my room, did some laundry, took the trash out, etc.  I was pretty pumped because this was the first party I'd ever hosted.  A week before we'd done the actual work, which consisted of making a facebook event and inviting everyone we even remotely knew.

At around 7pm I headed off to the liquor store to get the goods, with my roommate's grocery cart in tow.  S and I had each generously donated $20 into the liquor pot, and I had beer on my list.  I wandered into Blanchards and began poking around; PBR, Budweiser, Corona, too many options!

One thing that I think brings S and I together, yet draws us apart, is our indecision.  I've improved significantly in the past four years, but it can still be like pulling teeth to make me choose something.  And when there is pressure, like will my guests like my beer choices? then the indecision is worse.

So, after about 10 minutes I had a 24pk of Dos Equis and a 30pk of PBR in the cart and was heading back home.  I glanced at the receipt and saw they had undercharged me...score!  That left $10 still in our budget, so I went to Harvest Co-op, asked a nice cashier to watch the cart-o-liquor and went to get S some cider.

Another 10 minutes went by while S decided on what cider she wanted, and I was out the door again!  Pushing my cart like the badass granny alcoholic I am.  Party time!

-N

Painting 101

My room is pretty.  It's sky blue, wood floors and white molding.  And then there is a bare wood cheap-o closet door.  THAT DOES NOT GO WITH THE DECOR, dear landlady.

Never fear, we are reimbursed for paint!  Happy days.  This means I'm making that door a chalkboard.  But not with the black chalkboard paint sold in hardware stores, no no, instead I first checked out my girls at A Beautiful Mess, and finally the ultimate craft queen, Martha Stewart, and decided I could make my own chalkboard paint.

Off I went to the local ACE, and started comparing paint colors with my new bff, the ACE Hardware Man.  He doesn't know we are friends yet, but I have faith in him.  I told him my plan for chalkboard paint, made simple by mixing in dry tile grout, to which he gave me a doubtful look and said, "If you say so!"  See?  Friends!

One paint brush, one can of primer, a can of light grey and some tile grout later and I was laying down the start of my very own chalkboard door!  Primer went on no problem, but I don't think I mixed the grout+paint mixture enough, so while the chalk certainly shows up on my door, it's more like writing on a door...with chalk.  Nevertheless I have decorated it with this year's Bucket List, and have distant plans to give it another coat, with maybe a touch darker grey to really make the writing pop.

Next up was touching up my walls, which had somehow been spottily painted by past residents.  Lucky for me the extra paint was in the basement, and after a quick consultation with my dad and the internet I was ready to go.

This actually worked remarkably well, especially after the internet told me it would never match.  But take that internet, you can't even tell!

Finally was the chair that was mysteriously left in my room when I moved in.  Since I owned exactly one pink plastic 3-drawer piece of furniture when I moved in, I took this gift with open arms, but decided to make it my own.  Upon S's suggestion I painted the legs with some deep maroon/red paint I found in the basement, and it actually looks pretty good!  Despite the few spots that I missed.  Plans to touch those up are written down but not yet acted upon.  Also I might paint the seat white.  If that happens I'll let you know!

-N

Move In

Hello New Home!

Too bad I don't own any furniture.

Luckily a former occupant left almost all of hers, and S. is letting me use her bed since her room comes with a bed!

I really enjoy packing since it let's you evaluate almost everything you own and think about whether you still want it or not.  Packing for me is a great excuse for a purge of my belongings.  

And since I have moved quite frequently the last 4 years (10 one-way moves I can think of), I thought I had kept my belongings to a rather small, reasonable number.  But, having the space to actually get all my stuff spread out in the same room tells me no!  I need to keep purging.

I shall try my best.

-N

Welcome!

It was only four short years ago when I first met N. It was love at first sight. Actually, I don't think N even remembers it.

Regardless, we somehow became friends between wrangling our rebellious Girl Scout troop and attending awkward meetings of the vegetarian club. After graduation we faced the frightening prospect of finding an apartment for the first time. Because we are so organized, we immediately began a google doc with our housing requirements and began recruiting roommates.

Some of our original desires included a pet dog, an area to compost, and hot neighbors. We ended up with a pet mouse, a bag of compost in the freezer that we keep forgetting to secretly dump behind a restaurant, and neighbors we have only spied on from behind a cracked door. The jury is still out on their attractiveness.

Despite all this, our lives are amazing. We have started this blog to share our awesomeness with the world. Get ready for adventures in dumpster diving, home decorating, cooking, and themed parties!


                                          

-S