Super Saturday > Fail Friday

by Emily

Today has been one of those perfect days where Buffalo felt like a fabulous place to live and all was right with the world! It didn’t exactly have the smoothest start though, our fail dinner was like the gift that kept on giving (and giving and giving). I don’t want to fully blame Wine Thief, because I did help myself to way too many of the husband’s salt and vinegar chips, but I spent my midnight throwing up and cursing date night. Thankfully my super Saturday has all but canceled out fail Friday to restore the balance. 90% of the day has been walking, so that’s pretty much my perfect day right there 🙂

We started our morning with a mega-tour of my new campus. I start class on Monday so I needed to figure out exactly how long it would take me to walk to school (~35minutes) and where all my classes were located. Adam and I had a fun time exploring my new digs.

Here’s where I’ll be taking Organic Chemistry –

From there I walked over to the Elmwood Art Festival. Is there anything more wonderful than a good street festival? I think not.

After taking in the sites, I also took in some tasty treats. Fresh squeezed maple lemonade.

Peanut butter popsicle dipped in dark chocolate.

Plus a new cereal bowl that I’m sooooo excited about (I’ll show it off later). I actually went home for a spell and then came back with the husband. On our final loop I picked up some kettle corn,

which was the perfect snack for my next activity – the movies! The husband had to go to the lab so I decided to go solo to “The Switch.” We are big movie talkers so I packed plenty of snacks to keep myself occupied alone. A smaller portion of my fair kettle corn.

I probably could have eaten the whole thing, but I definitely didn’t need too! What’s in the cooler?

A Ginger Root Beer Zevia sample,

and some frozen lemonade.

My kettle corn was sweet and crunchy, my lemonade tasted like summer, and my Zevia had a great kick – it was the perfect movie meal! The movie was a win itself; Aniston and Bateman were the perfect foil and the plot was sweet and funny. Eating Chalk recommends it!

Now I’ve got to get going on dinner.

What was the last fair, festival, etc, you had the pleasure of attending?

27Aug2010

Disappointing Dinner

by Emily

I really try not to be too much of a Debbie Downer on the blog, but I don’t have many positive things to say tonight so I’ll keep this quick. The husband and I got really jazzed about having a fancy date and it basically was a bust. (Although that’s not to say that we didn’t have a good time being together :D)

I read about Groupon on Meghann’s blog recently and was excited to join. Today’s deal was a $40 gift certificate for $20 at a spot we’ve been wanting to try, The Wine Thief. I’ve been telling people about how I wanted to try their lobster for months so we decided to snatch the deal up.

It’s been a hectic (and stressful!) time lately so we were really excited about a fancy dinner date together.

We decided that I would order the lobster and Adam would order the scallops and we’d do some sharing. Before I show you the food I want to show you an actual shot of the entrée menu –

Here was Adam’s dish.

A portion of scallops with a side of rice topped with chutney. (Sidenote – Adam hated his scallops but the rice/chutney was pretty darn tasty)

Now here’s my dish –

Go back up and read that menu. Here, I’ll even give you a shot of the two meal descriptions, from their menu.

I was not served lobster with a side of risotto, as the menu implies, but risotto with lobster mixed in. Now that is either the most poorly designed menu on earth, or the description of my entrée is meant to deceive the consumer. If the dish is “Lobster Risotto,” why does the menu read “Australian Lobster: risotto…?”

Sadly, the lack of class I think the menu shows is almost besides the point because the risotto had 4 measly pieces of meat in it and was not even a properly done risotto. *Steam* Major fail, Wine Thief, major fail 😦

Adam hated his scallops – I thought they were actually pretty good, I ate 2.5 – so he only ate his rice and I ate a few bites of my mush and we both left hungry. Our dinner date ended up being pizza from Wegmans.

Ugh.

What do you think – was the menu misleading or are Adam and I idiots?

27Aug2010

Acting My Shoe Size, Not My Age

by Emily

My agenda so far today has been one in which any 6.5 year old would be thrilled to take part! Popsicles, kids’ meals, nary a vegetable in sight; who wants to come over and Skip-It with me?

First, I dressed like a watermelon. If you’ve noticed that I often seem watermelon-y in hue, yes I’ve noticed, but those colors make me happy!

Next I walked over to the local bookstore to meet up with the Diary of a Wimpy Kid promotional truck that just happened to be giving away free goodies.

Is there really anything more fabulous than a grape popsicle?

Katie couldn’t get out of work in time for the ice cream so we made a lunch date instead. I had yet another free $5 off so to Moe’s we went. Kid’s meal quesadilla? Heck yes!

With a side of chips with queso dip.

And an oatmeal cookie.

Not only does Moe’s keep giving me coupons and letting me order off the kids’ menu, but they also always let me upgrade my diet coke to a large free of charge; I think I’m going to move in!

What was the last thing you did that made you feel like a kid again?

27Aug2010

Carrot, Cookie; Same Dif

by Emily

Today was another morning when I was finding it impossible to get going. I’m going to have to shake a leg once school starts! Finally I bribed myself with a cookie,

and went for a run.

Other than my treadmill interval workouts, I’m making a big effort to run continuously instead of taking walking breaks. Today I ran the entire distance, minus a quick stretch stop a the halfway point. ~2.04miles, 20minutes, 30seconds. Don’t worry, I do walk to warm up and cool down on these short runs, I just don’t include it in my time/distance stats.

I’m going to do 5ish minutes of strength and stretching and then hop in the shower. I’m meeting Katie soon for something very exciting…

26Aug2010

I Envy No Man

by Emily

It’s almost Friday! Weekends have been pretty much meaningless to me this past unemployed year, but now that I’m starting back to school next Monday they are exciting again.

I spent forever running errands today because parking was ridiculous everywhere I went. Also helping orphans catching up on “Make it or Break it.” I managed to make time for some amazing meals though; I’m seriously excited about every single thing I ate today.

Chicken Enchilada Suiza Lean Cuisine.

Frozen meal win, this was delicious. A chicken enchilada with cheesy sauce,

and a pile of rice that got mushed around in the cheese sauce.

With an Orange Zevia (free sample).

I’m usually not one for orange sodas but this guy was totally thirst quenching.

Also, a mini bag of kettle corn.

I spent some time wifing it up in the kitchen, baking some chocolate chip cookies for the husband. I stole a tiny one.

I would have eaten more, but I had already stashed 2T of dough away into the freezer for something amazing. Keep reading…

Dinner was kinda off the hook.

Think tasty leftovers x10billion. I topped a bed of roasted green beans with 1cup of corn, a serving of shredded bbq chicken, and some homemade bbq sauce.

Shredded chicken, corn, and roasted green beans are all pretty big favorites of mine and together they were unstoppable! The balance of spicy-salty-sweet was perfect here.

But nothing was topping dessert.

I’ve had food-processor-envy all year, but tonight I envied no man; tonight, I got to make Gena’s famous banana soft-serve!

Only my batch was extra fabulous because it also had frozen cookie dough blended in.

This bowl was 2frozen bananas and 2.5T frozen cookie dough. Swoon!

Have you gotten to try banana soft serve yet? Thoughts?

26Aug2010

My Inner Interior Decorator Blossoms

by Emily

As we settled into our new apartment, the husband informed me that it was going to be our home for good. Sure, if he gets a residency in another state I can bring along my things, but otherwise no more moving. He will not be taking apart the furniture, he will not be bubble wrapping the plates, and he certainly will not be schlepping my kitchen appliances up and down any more stairs.

At first this declaration scared me a bit; what if we hated it here? But as things started to fall into place – the faulty fire alarm was replaced, the spiders ran scared – we realized we love it here. We’ve stored things in every nook and cranny, we’ve set the office up for maximum productivity and the living room for maximum relaxation, and we’ve hung our pictures. All that’s left now is the little details; how can we make our place pop?

I’ve been pondering that question, and the Gods threw me a line – CSN Stores e-mailed me to see if I’d like to do another review with them. Visions of kitchen tables danced in my head, I doodled candle holders on post-its, and wall art haunted my dreams. After some agonizing, I’m pretty sure I’ve picked the perfect thing …