Let it snow...

I'm a HUGE fan of snow. Always have been. It's part of that kid in me that refuses to grow up and believe that big people don't get snow days. Plus, it's so unbelievably beautiful and peaceful. Made even better by the glorious fact that I never have to drive in it here!

Every morning when my alarm goes off I grumble, curse, and grab my phone to check what the weather holds in store for us this week. And if I don't like the answer, I usually check again in 10 minutes to see if the weather guys have changed their minds. During the winter I'm pretty much always looking for those pretty little white flakes to show up on the screen. So imagine my delight when I checked the weather forecast today and this is what I saw:


That's four freaking fantastic days of snow!!! [I'm very pointedly ignoring the rain forecast in there]. This is following the Nor'Easter we had last week that gave us a good 6+ inches of snow! It's like Mother Nature's ongoing Christmas present to me for being good for *most* of this crazy past year.
And as you can see below, snow makes me smile! A lot. So bring on the flurries, weatherman. I have the boots, scarves and mittens lined up and ready to go!

Red is the new Black

I've always been a big fan of neutral colors. Ok, I really just love black and gray. I mean, LOVE them. I think it's ridiculous to spend tons of money on flashy, trendy clothes that are out of style in 2 blinks. Which sucks, because I like to look cute as much as the next girl. I just squirm about jumping on trend bandwagons and looking "so 5 minutes ago" about 5 minutes after I buy new clothes. So I buy the colors that never seem to go out of style.

Needless to say, my wardrobe is a little on the stuffy (read: boring) side. Every time I go looking for something fun and exciting to wear, I find my trusty old gray sweaters. Topped by my lovely, well-cut, but extremely predictable black coat.

So this year I thought, "gosh, I'm single, out and about a lot, acting far younger than I really am, and I'd really like to start looking it". Well, what's a girl to do but find herself a new gay best friend to have bottomless mimosa brunch and go shopping with! Enter Joey, and a fabulous brunch spot in the West Village.
Joey, being the newest and most wonderful shopping buddy that he is, has no patience for all that gray/black/navy/cream/brown stuff that makes up most of my outfits. He goes straight for bold, god bless him.
Here are the results of said shopping trip:

Ok, to be fair, this is really the result of said brunch. *Note to self: drunk Joey equals great accessory model. Must bring along for every shopping trip!!*

So this is the final result of said shopping trip:











It's a super stunning red wool pea coat, bought at half price from Banana Republic, and it makes me smile every time I put it on. And look how much the coat stands out in the crowd of very definitely New Yorkers, all dressed in their standard-issue black.


There's one problem, though: every other New York woman must have had the same crazy idea this year, because half the city is wearing red wool coats right now!
I guess this is what happens when I embrace a trend. Now I look like every other twentysomething (*ahem*) girl out there, bucking tradition and daring to stand out in a crowd... or blending into a new red one, as the case may be. For the next 5 minutes, anyway. At least I'll have a big bright smile on while I blend! I think I might just LOVE red.

Updates

Hi all! I know I've been very lax in updating the blog, but mostly because I like pictures and I've been way too busy (read: lazy) to upload photos to my computer and then attach them. So much work. Really.
So I finally did some updates, but they are randomly scattered around from when I started them. So take a peak back at November and check out the Thanksgiving and 'Bama posts. And whatever may make it up tonight before I can't keep my eyes open anymore...

It's the most wonderful time of the year... for a party!

I've been looking for excuses to cook more, clean my apartment, and have a housewarming party. And what better excuse is there than a Saturday? Well, a Saturday at holiday time, perhaps!
This last Saturday I threw a little shindig at my lovely Queens apartment and managed to drag about 20 of my closest friends into one of the most hated boroughs in New York.
*Disclaimer: Pretty much any borough not named Manhattan or Brooklyn is in tough competition for that beloved honor of being most hated. I think Staten Island may actually take the cake, but there's not much love for the rest of us either.*

Every party needs a menu, so I think I blew a good 4 hours digging around on allrecipes.com and foodnetwork.com until I had the perfect combo of easy party foods and drinks. Final menu selections: deviled eggs, meatballs in cranberry and chili sauce, baby BLTs (cherry tomatoes stuffed with bacon, mayo and green onions - little slices of heaven in bite-sized doses!), snickerdoodles, brownies, hand-dipped chocolate-covered pretzels, a chocolate chip cheese ball (huge success!) and spicy pecans. Drink menu: hot buttered rum and spiced wine, and countless bottles of wine.

The only hiccup in this lofty plan was the ridiculous cold I'd been fighting for weeks and the torn intercostal muscle causing me grief from way too many hours of coughing. I was exhausted and in pain for a good chunk of my cooking time, which is probably why I thought it was ok to deep-fry pecans at 2am when I've never deep-fried anything, ever. I was fairly close to having to send the regretful "sorry the party's canceled because I stupidly burned down my apartment" email, but somehow managed to salvage the pecans and my apartment, and had some damned tasty nuts to show for it.

The hot buttered rum was a recipe I found online that made my tummy smile and my teeth ache in fear. The recipe calls for 1lb butter, 1lb powdered sugar, 1lb brown sugar, 1qt vanilla ice cream, cinnamon and nutmeg. People, that's 4lbs of essentially pure fat and sugar! And I've never tasted anything quite so scrumcious!








The chocolate chip cheese ball, which apparently tastes just like cannoli filling, had cream cheese, sugar, vanilla and mini chocolate chips. Easy as it gets, and wins friends over left and right.

As for the snickerdoodles, well, those cookies have won me two marriage proposals so far! If I'd only realized sooner that you can rule the world with just a little good food... suffice it to say, it's a good thing I'm using my powers for good and not evil. So far.





All in all, the party was a smash hit for the first party I've really ever thrown. Most of the food was gone in a blink, as was all of the alcohol. And I mean all of it. Followed up with a rousing round of karaoke in Manhattan. And all done in my new super-cute Kenneth Cole sweater dress! Who could ask for anything more? (The face of a girl who has been up cooking and cleaning way too many hours
in a bathroom mirror in midtown Manhattan at 12:30am, avoiding
singing in front of complete drunken strangers. No smiles left.)

Tomato Soup

As winter starts to set in more and more, there's nothing quite like a hearty bowl of soup to make the short, cold days feel warm and pleasant. Now I've dabbled in soup for a while now, having almost perfected the art of homemade chicken noodle soup, and nearly succeeding at a great batch of lamb stew. For this project, though, it was time to inaugurate the immersion blender with something more substantial than a blueberry/raspberry smoothie.

Winter soup round 1: creamy tomato soup with a touch of chili pepper. Made from fresh tomatoes and other such real ingredients that didn't come out of a can. Blended to smithereens by Iggy the Terrible (yes, I just named the blender Iggy. If you know me at all, you know that's par for the course. Babo, Ike, Juan Carlos, Camilla, Lucy, Daisy, Jade, Mickey, Floppy, Mork and Mindy all approve).



Below is the final result. It was a beautiful soup, and another good first attempt. I definitely have some tweaking to do, including finding the right base to start from. But overall I'm calling it a success. If for nothing else than that I found yet another ridiculous name for yet another inanimate object in my apartment.
Did I say 30 going on 20?? Maybe off by a decade or three.
And laughing all the way. =)