Lisel

This is Lisel.

Lisel and I were friends the instant we met, and she had a birthday a whole lot of months ago.

I love Lisel for lots of reasons. Some of them are:

1. Lisel is the most loving, open person you'll ever meet. I have never met anyone who does as good a job letting their friends know how much she loves them as Lisel does.
2. Lisel is silly. You should see her introduce people to stuffed animals. Or listen to her make inanimate objects talk.
3. Lisel loves children. She is currently finishing up grad school to become a teacher, and I know that the world will be a better place to have her shaping young minds.
4. Lisel gets a kick out of things. Whenever she comes to visit in Boston, or I go to visit her in New York, we do all sorts of fun things that are made so much better for her enthusiasm. Cupcake cafe, anyone?
5. Lisel is the most scheduled person you will ever meet. In college, we used to make plans to eat an early dinner for twenty minutes starting at 5:50. It was really amazingly organized.
6. Lisel is a rock. There is no other way to describe it, really. During one really rough time in my life, I spent three months mostly sitting on Lisel's bedroom floor (I would leave to go to class, and sometimes to sleep, but that's about it.) Her loving support saw me through to the other side, and I will always, always be grateful.

Happy Happy, Lisel!
I'm so glad you were born.

On Birthdays

A year ago this past November, just as I was starting to get really into blogging, my friend Lisa had a birthday. Lisa was (and is!) one of my dearest friends, and what better way to celebrate her birth and her value in my life, than to make a list of reasons why I loved her. And thus the birthday post was born.

The birthday post is a wonderful tradition; I love sitting down and really thinking about the people in my life, about what, exactly, they bring to the table that no one else can hope to replicate. The problem with the birthday post is the problem with publicly making a list of people who are important to you: you inevitably leave people out. It's not because these people are any less important to you, it's just because you are a flake. And so, rather than hurt more people's feelings with my own flakiness, I just kind of. . . stopped writing them.

The problem with that is that I miss writing birthday posts. A lot, as it turns out. And there are important people whose place in my life didn't get celebrated. So this week, my lovelies, I'm going to play catch up. If you don't know me in real life, it might be a little boring, and for that I'm sorry, but these people are important and amazing, so I'm going to indulge myself and celebrate them. Tomorrow is Lisel, and we'll go from there.

Happy Monday, friends!

Tacos Lupita

Do you guys know I used to live in San Francisco?

It's true. For a year after college, I pretended to be a crazy Californian. Then I realized I was far too neurotic to make it out there, so I moved home and here I am.

One thing I really miss about California is the food. (Also my friends, I suppose. But really, the burritos.) Last night, while walking home from the grocery store, I decided to finally stop into Tacos Lupita, the place everyone says to go when you're looking for good South American food in Boston.



It's charming, in the way that any good taqueria is. A little bit run-down, but a lot bit delicious.



Everyone was right. The tacos al pastor filled my belly and made me miss San Francisco just a little bit less. I can't wait to go back.

P.S. That bit in my last post about "being the person I've always dreamed about being?" Oh dear me. What was I talking about? I mean, yeah, I accomplished a lot, but I like to think I aim a bit higher than going for long runs and making cakes! And then bragging about it all on the internet? Ugh. Thanks for the supportive comments, though!

Happy Monday!

Happy Monday, friends!

On Saturday, I was the kind of person I dream about being. I woke up early, ran nine miles, and made ganache for the cheesecake monstrosity that Ben requested for his birthday. (If you are my friend, you get to request whatever kind of birthday cake you want. I try to make my friendship worthwhile, you see.) Then I raced downtown, volunteered at a soup kitchen with Cait, and came home to make a cherry-cognac sauce and take the cheesecake monstrosity on the ride of its life.

{Don't you just love the red line? The cheesecake monstrosity does.}

{Why use birthday candles when skinny glowsticks are even more fun?}

{That brown smudge is a homemade brownie. The other one is the chocolate teddy graham crust. The third is the ganache. Missing from photo: the cherry-cognac sauce.}

Sunday I made up for all that active productivity by staring really hard at my computer and trying to get stuff done. I was moderately successful.

How about you? Lazy weekend? I think I'm maybe a little jealous.

Another Blizzard!

It snowed again today, so I took at walk at lunchtime.

All of these blizzards are making things look so quaint and New England-y and not at all unlike a picture postcard.

New England does winter really, really well, I think.

deweyfood

You guys.

Remember my sister, Dewey? The one who's cheerful and stylish and an amazing cook?

Well.

She has started a food blog!

It is currently photo-less, since she lost her camera when she was out dancing on New Year's Eve, (which, seriously, is the best place to lose one's camera, no?) but photo-less does not mean recipe-less and dang, those recipes are good. I've eaten at least half of the ones she's posted. She knows her food, and you should check her out ASAP:

deweyfood.


picture stolen from facebook and taken by the uber-talented Kristine, she of the reindeer cookies with eyeballs and the college cookie business and general fantasticness.

Happy Tuesday!

{Yes. I do have two notebooks here. So what?}

Happy Tuesday, Friends!

I spent our Monday holiday surrounding myself with stationery products and coffee at Hi-Rise while contemplating my favorite Martin Luther King, Jr quotation. Is there a better way to spend an extra day off?* I think no.

*A day off that ISN'T a snow day, of course.

Snow Day!

When I was in college, it once snowed so hard on Valentine's day that they canceled classes for the first time since 1978, when all of New England was hit with a blizzard that was so bad everyone's parents still talk about it more than thirty years later.

The best part about the 2007 Valentines' snow storm was that none of the kids from California had ever had a snow day before. They didn't know what to do with themselves!

Should you ever find yourself in that position, wondering what to do with an unexpected day off and a foot and a half of snow on the ground, I have some suggestions:

First, you must put on your tromping outfit. Preferably something very warm. Snow boots are a must. In a pinch, rain boots with warm socks will work. Don't forget your mittens!


{You can't tell, but Emma is wearing four shirts in this picture}

Next, you must find a large patch of snow. Preferably untouched, but in a pinch, pre-tromped snow will do the trick. Then you tromp away.





Sometimes it helps to have a purpose to your tromping. Emma and I tromped out words in the snow. Figure 8's are also always fun.

After you are done with your tromping, you will be cold. Hot chocolate is just the ticket to warm you back up.



Once you're done with your hot chocolate, you will be in search of some indoor entertainment. Movies are always a good choice. Because it is a snow day, nobody will mind if you take your boots off in the theater and let your socks watch the movie, too.



And that is how to spend a snow day.

I Love Pudding

I am waiting for it to start snowing.

We are supposed to get a huge blizzard tonight, so as soon as I was done with work and errands, I came home and got all cozy in my house. I put on my pj's, and then, because mushy food is the coziest food* in my book, I made some pudding.



I combined two recipes (this one and this one), and what I got was so cozy and chocolatey and delicious, I think I might have to make it again tomorrow. (Oh yes. Maybe there isn't any left. There's nothing wrong with eating pudding instead of dinner, is there?) Because it's been a while since I shared a recipe, and because apparently the whole eastern seaboard is about to get a whole lot of snow, and so I thought you might want some cozy food, too, here's what I did:

Chocolate Pudding

1/4 c cocoa powder
2 1/2 T corn starch
1/4 c brown sugar (packed, of course!)
1/4 c white sugar
1/4 t cinnamon
1/8 t salt
2 1/2 c milk
1 t vanilla
2 T butter

Combine all the dry ingredients in a heavy soup pot. Whisk them together really well- try to break up the brown sugar if you can.

Add the milk, and bring to a boil, whisking continuously, until the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. I found it helpful to scrape the bottom of the pot with a rubber spatula sometimes, too, but if you are a more conscientious whisker than I, that shouldn't be necessary.

When the pudding is thick, remove from heat and stir in butter and vanilla, then divide into little tiny bowls. Chill, if you are more patient than I am. Otherwise, eat it warm. I have it on authority that both ways are pretty delicious.



Curling up on the couch with pudding, a glass of wine, and a good book is the perfect way to wait for the snow to come, I think.



*I love mushy food so much that Cait and I are having a casserole-themed dinner party in a couple of weeks. I am so excited I can barely contain myself.

Happy Monday!

{Those are turnips! With pink insides! From the Somerville Wintertime Farmers' Market, my new favorite thing.}

It was an excellent weekend. Super relaxed, with lots of eating and running. And a fair amount of friends-ing, too. How about you?

Happy New Year!

2010 was good to me, I think.

I figured out a lot of stuff that needed figuring out, and I started doing a lot of things that I'd been wanting to do for a while.

I made a list five months ago, and I found that that motivates me more than resolutions ever have, so the only resolution I made was that in 2011 I would wear mascara sometimes.

For New Year's this year, Em, La, Sara and I didn't make plans, but then at the last minute we put on inappropriately short dresses (that made our legs look amazing) and inappropriately tall heels and went out for a fancy cocktail. We promptly ran into people from high school and went to Bukowski's instead. They had an anti-cover charge and they gave us a dollar for coming in. We drank fancy beer and it was unexpectedly wonderful.

It was a really lovely start to 2011, a year that I think will be just like the night we celebrated its beginning. Here's hoping for an unexpectedly wonderful year, friends.

Happy Happy 2011!