A Resolution Kept - for now...

Operation: Spice Up Dinner has officially commenced. Today I went through Giada's Kitchen by Giada De Laurentiis and In Great Taste by Evelyn H. Lauder and bookmarked four dinners for the week.

Menu: 1/31 - 2/6

Sunday: Tilapia with Parsley Sauce

Monday: Whole Wheat Linguine with Ricotta, Lemon, and French Beans

Tuesday: Chicken with Balsamic Barbecue Sauce

Wednesday: Orzo-stuffed Bell Peppers

Tonight, I made Tilapia with Parsley Sauce from In Great Taste. The recipe called for Halibut, but apparently Shop Rite didn't get the memo, so I had to make do with Tilapia. The recipe also makes 6 servings, and since Kurt is at work again tonight, I had to cut the recipe down by 1/6. Not the easiest fraction - especially when you're trying to reduce 1/4 tablespoons by 1/6 - but I did it.

The recipe was very simple, as was the dish itself. The Tilapia, after being sauteed for 5 minutes in a pan, is topped with a sauce of lemon, parsley, garlic, oregano, salt, oil, and water. The result was citrusy, refreshing. I served it (to myself) with sauteed spring vegetables. A very simple dinner, but something a little different than my usual. A good start, I think. I do think I'm well on my way to becoming a top-notch chef!

Time to Spice Things Up!

I have no less than 10 cookbooks in my kitchen. The authors range from Rachel Ray to Martha Stewart to Giada De Laurentiis. They cover various themes: Italian, Health, Weight Loss, Quick Meals. They line the counter in color-coordinated fashion, looking beautiful, adding color to my kitchen. Unfortunately, that's all they do. I used to love to cook. I loved discovering new recipes, tasting my creations throughout the process. Over the past two years, however, time has become a valuable asset. I have exactly three hours from the time I get home from work until I go to bed. I have a lot to do in those three hours: eat dinner, iron clothes for the next day, relax. Somewhere along the way, cooking dinner was pushed to the back burner. Sadly, cooking has become a nuisance, a time-wasting process where time is worth everything. I am sad to say that my once great love-affair with food, has become boring and mundane. I am in a cooking rut. Nowadays, when I cook at all, it's the same few recipes, if one can even call them that. Boiled rice and sauteed vegetables, pasta with sauce from a jar (it literally pains me to use that stuff). Where is the risotto I learned through trial and error, the ceviche I was so proud to make, the succulent steaks with butter and herbs?

I've had a wake up call. It's time to spice up my relationship with food, literally. Julie and Julia has become one of my favorite movies. But it's not because of the witty dialogue or my slight obsession with all things European, or even the fact that I want to be Julia Child. It's the food that had me at hello. After watching the movie for about the fifth time, I decided that it's time to get cooking again. I used to love food. I know that love is still there, going strong. The fire just needs a little stoking. And today, while cooking my sad, single serving of rice and veggies and staring at the rainbow of barely used cookbooks, I decided to put them to use. Each week, starting this Monday, I will make four different dinners from those cookbooks. Each Sunday, I will sit down and plan out the week, choosing four recipes to make, and will shop for the necessary ingredients. I chose four instead of seven since I work at a restaurant on Saturday nights and always eat dinner there, and usually eat out once or twice a week with Kurt or friends. If I want this plan to stick, it needs to be realistic from the start. So, I'm sending my new resolution out into the cosmic void, so that I may held accountable. Whoever is out there, reading this, assuming you care enough about my exploits to keeping tuning in, I will keep you updated on my progress. I have no goal other than to learn more recipes, better my cooking, and rediscover my long lost love - food. Who knows, some of you might even benefit from this.

The Giving Tree

My favorite children's book of all time is The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein. It's one of the most beautiful stories I have ever read. That includes any adult book. The words and the concept are so simple and because of that, so meaningful. I still remember it being read to us in elementary school by the librarian. I loved the easy rhymes and the beautiful, touching story. I always thought it was so sad that this tree would give up everything it had just to make the boy happy because it loved him so much. And that the boy didn't even seem to realize how much the tree was giving up for him. You learn something about that when you fall in love, but I think it's something you can only really, truly understand when you have children. That willingness to give up everything just to make the person you love happy.

Well, we had a giving tree of our own this Christmas. I wrote about it previously; how we cut it down ourselves and how pretty it was. I didn't realize it was a giver too. Sure, it gave us that warm, fuzzy, glowy feeling you always get at Christmas, but this tree gave more than that. It gave pine needles. Thousands upon thousands of pine needles. I've really never seen anything like it in my life. We took our tree down on Tuesday night. I got a head start while Kurt was at work and began to take off the ornaments, garland, and lights. Every time I took an ornament off, the hook would completely wipe clean the branch on which it had hung. Each time, I'd hear a tinkling as all of the needles on that branch fell to the floor. Choosing to ignore this, I kept on, until the tree was bare. When I finished, about half of the needles from the tree were on the floor. When Kurt came home, we took the tree out to the curb and surveyed the damage: a green carpet lay on the floor. Please take note that we have hardwood floors. The carpet was pine needles. And not soft at all I might add. I started sweeping, making a HUGE pile of needles. I've had real trees before. I've seen what happens when the die. This was not normal. This was out of hand. They were everywhere, in the bookcases, in between floorboards, in the radiator, on the windowsill, in the hallway, on the sofa. I'm sure future tenants will be finding pine needles from this tree in years to come. Here are some photos so you can picture the madness that was Tuesday night. The photos really don't do it justice. But there it is, our very own giving tree, giving us a reminder that trees don't belong inside, no matter how much we wish they did. Well tree, I'm still getting a real one next year. So there.

A New Sense of Accomplishment

I just finished putting together two new nightstands from The Christmas Tree Shop (an awesome place I just discovered - super cheap and convenient and a total misnomer as they only have a few Christmas things). It took forever and my hand is sore from the screwdriver, but the directions were easy to follow and polite. Yes, polite. The directions actually said "please" and "kindly". I've never seen anything like it. Doing something like this always fills me with a sense of accomplishment and purpose, which I've been lacking lately. I have had writer's block for about a month now, but after putting those nightstands together all by myself, I feel inspired.

For the past week, I've had off from work and I have to say that I'm completely restless. I can't relax. I think I'm so used to constantly working or running errands that I don't know what to do with free time anymore! Yesterday, I went to the gym and took a spin class (and as a result am in a lot of pain right now), cleaned a little, tried to write, watched Confessions of a Shopaholic and met up with friends for coffee and dinner. All day, instead of relaxing, all I could think about was how to fill my time. Maybe I need to practice relaxing more often.

This week, the week after Christmas, is always a little sad for me. Christmas came and went too quickly as it has for the past few years and now I'm a little sad. We'll soon take our tree down and the magic will be over. How depressing. I'd actually compare it to a sort of postpartum depression, without the hormones and baby. I try to focus on the memories from Christmas and look forward to the next few days off. At least I won't have to go to Walmart every day for a week like I did before Christmas.

I loathe Walmart. I loathe everything about it: the lighting, the sparse, disorganized shelves, the angry salespeople, the angrier customers intent on ramming my cart with theirs. I walk into Walmart and am instantly anxious. All I can think about is leaving. I've come to realize that Target offers better quality things at almost the same prices without all the anxiety and stress. I could live at Target with all its organization and color coordination. I want to buy everything because it all looks so pretty. I read an article a few weeks ago about Target and how the new marketing strategy is to emphasize the low costs instead of the high quality. In other words, they are taking a cue from Walmart. Personally, I think Walmart should take a cue from Target. Give me some organization and pretty colors and you've got me for life.

On my *new* nightstand:

I'm reading Jodi Picoult's Change of Heart for my book club. Honestly, I think the cover is lacking. I would never have picked it up had it not been the book club pick of the month. The book itself, however, is amazing. It's about the murder of a young girl and her stepfather and is told from the point of view of various people affected by that murder: the wife and mother of the victims, a juror from the trial, a man from the murderer's neighboring jail cell, the murderer's lawyer. It is extremely well done. The differing voices are distinct and each tell a different side of the murder and murderer, so you're never sure what to think. I'm about halfway through and it's hard to put down. Do yourself a favor and pick it up.

Christmas Happenings

Decorating for Christmas is always the highlight of the season for me. I love trimming the tree while watching a holiday movie or listening to Christmas music. This year was especially special as it is the first Christmas that Kurt and I live together. We decided to get our tree last Sunday at Keris Tree Farm, which I totally recommend. We didn't really want to cut down our own tree, so I double-checked online that they had fresh-cut trees. We went about 45 minutes before closing and just our luck, they were out of fresh-cut trees. Which means we had to trudge through the fields in ankle deep mud as it was a balmy 50 degrees. Let me just say that we were not prepared for this. Kurt was wearing white sneakers and I had suede moccasins on - not the best mud-wading shoes. After finding the "perfect" tree, we cut it down using the flimsy saw they gave us (and by "we", I of course mean Kurt. He made me try to cut it down and I couldn't do it). About 15 minutes later, we had the tree strapped to the top of Buick and were driving back home praying it wouldn't fly off. Our tree is huge. As Kurt cut the strings wrapped around it, I was reminded of Chevy Chase in Christmas Vacation. It resulted in almost the exact same scene with the two of us covered in sap and pine needles. A great new holiday memory.

Yesterday, we met up with three of Kurt's friends from college and their wives in New York City. We went to ESPN Zone for lunch where the guys instantly turned into twelve-year-olds upon sight of the arcade upstairs and Kurt's friend set a record for spotting someone he knew (about 5 minutes into getting into the city). The food was decent, but the arcade was by far the best part. Especially for the guys. Then, we went to see the tree at Rockefeller Center. We had originally planned to ice skate, but the line was way too long, so we settled on taking pictures in front of the tree. We walked to the rink in Central Park to look at the line there. It really wasn't long at all, but it was getting ridiculously cold, so we sat above the rink watching the ice-skaters, living vicariously through them and drinking hot chocolate. Perfect. For dinner we went to Ruby Foo's. The restaurant itself was cramped (typical of NYC) despite the large space (not so typical), but the food was great. It's a Pan-Asian restaurant, so they have Thai, Chinese, and Japanese food. In my opinion, the best thing we tried were the Chicken Lettuce Wraps. The whole day was a blast. We haven't seen these friends in years and getting to catch up with them was really great. Next time though, we'll make sure to do it on a much warmer day.

On my nightstand:

I just finished reading Twenties Girl by Sophie Kinsella. She is the author of the Shopaholic series, which I love. I really like her style of writing, though I usually find her main characters to be a bit annoying. This book was really cute. The main character's great-aunt dies and begins to haunt her and coerces her into looking for her stolen necklace. It's a cute story about family, friendship, and ultimately discovering the truth about who you are. It's a light read, good for beach-reading, or as a Christmas present for the avid reader in your life - just a suggestion.

The Value of Retail Therapy

Given my successful shopping trip on Black Friday, it's only normal that I wear at least one new piece of clothing each day since. And I have. Today I wore a fitted, black sheath dress from H&M with a gray button-less cardigan. Inevitably and as new clothes always do, my outfit made me happy. I actually looked forward to getting out of bed so I could wear something new. So I wondered, what is this joy that new clothes bring? I wouldn't consider myself an overly-materialistic person, no more than the average person at least. So how do I explain the sheer joy that comes from new clothes? I like having nice things, of course, but I wouldn't say I need them. Then again, new clothes give me this feeling of confidence that nothing else can. After a particularly eventful shopping spree, I will wear my new clothes somewhat obsessively until that time comes when they magically transform into old, ill-fitting, and completely untrendy.

Hosts of style makeover shows spout the theory that dressing better will make you feel better. While I don't believe new clothes can change a person's outlook completely, I can't help but acknowledge some truth in that belief. Who hasn't had a new dress that somehow seems to pull their shoulders back, hide a tummy pooch, and put a spring in their step? I admit that this joy is not deep-rooted and really only exists on the surface. It will not change your life or cure depression, but it is something, right? I am at the point in my life where I am fairly content with myself. I've come to appreciate who I am and what I look like. I've even learned to accept my many flaws. I'm not obsessed with botox or cosmetic surgery. In fact, I kind of like my gray hairs and the beginnings of wrinkles on my face and I fully admit that I would wear my favorite pair of sweats or running shorts every single day if it was socially acceptable. So I don't think that little confidence boost, that small dosage of happiness I get from wearing new clothes has anything to do with superficiality or materialism. Instead, maybe it simply means I really need new clothes.

Black Friday Fun

Every year, for about the past ten years, my aunt, my sister, and I go shopping on Black Friday. I know it sounds crazy, but it's not as bad as people think. We normally get to the stores around 10:00, when everyone is leaving. The crowds are never that bad and the sales are phenomenal. This year, my cousins' wives joined us and we went to Cherry Hill Mall. I have to say, the absolute worst part of Black Friday is trying to park. I really think malls would make a KILLING if they had valet parking. I would definitely do it. It would be worth not having to deal with maniacal drivers whose only goal is to beat you to every open spot. I swear, the normal rules of parking lot etiquette go right out the window on Black Friday, and really, the rules are few to begin with: if someone has their turn signal on while another is pulling out of a spot, they have the right to that spot, etc. Parking lots on Black Friday are a complete free for all. I think next year, I'm starting a valet parking company just for Black Friday. Let me know if you want in.

This year, the deals were even better than those in the past. I'm assuming companies are desperate to get themselves out of the red by the end of the year, and just want people in the stores and buying. The five of us trekked through the mall, heavily laden with our many purchases, and by the end of the day, were utterly exhausted. The absolute best part of the day was not getting 40% off at Ann Taylor, or my sister getting 40% off on her scratch-off ticket at Steve Madden. It actually had nothing to do with a purchase at all. While at H&M, my cousin's wife was trying on sweaters in front of the mirror. The line for the changing rooms was long and she was wearing a tank top under her shirt, so thinking nothing of it, she took off her top shirt and placed it on the rack next to her in order to try on the clothes she had. Five minutes later, she calls me over, "Have you seen my shirt??" Someone had taken her shirt off the rack! We spent the next 10 minutes searching for that shirt on other racks, in people's arms in line for the dressing rooms, in line to buy. I even yelled to everyone in line to check their items for a striped shirt from Old Navy. They just looked at me like I was crazy and checked nothing. Finally, I saw a girl in line for the register with the "stolen" shirt. I went over to her. "Excuse me, but is that shirt from Old Navy?" Naturally, being at H&M, she gave me a strange look and said, "Um, no." I took it from her and looked at the tag. Sure enough, it said Old Navy and I explained the situation. She apologized and gave it back, still looking completely confused. I would have loved to have seen her face when she got up to the register and was told it was not an H&M shirt! The moral of the story is to always keep your stuff with you. If you're trying on things throughout the store, put your shirt in your bag, so no one mistakes it as merchandise.

I'm still reading The Geography of Love. Haven't gotten too far since I've been crazy busy for the past five days, but I do have another recommendation. Last night, I went to see The Nutcracker with some friends from work. One of the hostesses at the restaurant was in it (she was amazing, by the way) and the owners bought us tickets. I haven't been to the ballet since I was a little girl and I was so excited to go. It definitely lived up to my expectations and got me in the Christmas spirit. It is absolutely amazing to me the way these people can dance and move their bodies. The time and dedication that goes into something like that is incredible. So this holiday season, get in the Christmas spirit and go out and support the arts.