Wednesday, October 31, 2012

...aaaand we're back!

power is back!
our house did not flood.
we ate a LOT of rice and fried eggs.
(drank ALL of our wine)
we played 1 boring game of scrabble.

but... we made it!  and ate pretty good last night since we had to start eating things that were defrosting in the freezer.   this included 2 bags of shrimp.  so, mr p made a "fancy" powerless meal of shrimp in a herbed, lemon butter sauce... with white rice of course!  this meal would have been perfect if only we had some veggies to go along with it, but we took what we could get!

but first, some photos of hoboken and jersey city

 via star ledger


hoboken path train station, via van wert independent

our friend magnus was brave enough to go towards the hudson river water before it came another 1/2 mile inland in jersey city


video from another friend from, again, before the water washed up further into jersey city


and before the power went out... we took advantage of still being able to use our oven.  it's gas, which never went out, but the controls are electric, so after the power went out, we could only manually light our stove burners...




after the power went out, we ate fried eggs and white rice....


now onto the "fancy" meal from last night

Herbed Lemon Butter Shrimp

2 lbs shrimp
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tsp italian seasoning
salt to taste
lemon juice to taste

in a large pan, heat oil on medium high heat, add butter, chili flakes, thyme, italian seasoning, and salt.  once the sauce is simmering, add shrimp.  bring to a simmer again, cover, and cook another 2-3 minutes, until shirmp is done (pink and curled at the edges).   add lemon juice to taste (i like mine REALLY lemony!!)  serve over rice, and preferably with some sort of veggie, like snow peas or broccoli! (but we didn't have anything like that last night)





bon appetit!

...and pray for those who lost their homes and those who have severe damage to their homes and belongings in long island, up and down the jersey shore, staten island, queens, hoboken, jersey city, and beyond....

cheers!

Sunday, October 28, 2012

halloween 2012: 5 year olds for a night

mr p and i weren't going to dress up for halloween.
we were actually looking forward to just having a night in.
but... then our taekwondo school said they were having a party.
...and that everyone was going.

(well, if everyone's going....)

so, we went.  

we had no clue what to wear.  we sort of wanted to go as a couple, but we wanted our costumes to be not SO "couple"-ish, like we could have a cool costume even if we weren't connected at the hip the whole night.

somehow (pinterest, facebook post, something like that) i saw the idea to dress up as a school photo.

(no, not yourself dressed up in similar clothes from the school photo, dressed up as the ACTUAL photo)

this.   is.   genius!

mr p and i already have our kindergarden photos hanging up in our apartment, it's perfect.  plus, both of our pictures are pretty hilarious.  just see them below and judge for yourselves.


if you have gotten past those photos without smiling (let alone falling over laughing), there's something wrong with you.  i'm just making a funny smile, but mr p.... he's... in... a... tuxedo!!!

so since mr p doesn't want his (adult) face on the blog, here's how my costume turned out:


now for the WHOLE picture.


yep.  that's a spray-painted foam poster board straped to my back.  i did so good with it too, i didn't take it off until i got home!!

not everyone "got it" right away, so, thanks to a last minute decision and the idea from my mom, we decided to print 11x17 prints of our old pictures and tape them to the back so people could really see what we were doing.  see mr p's in action here:


those sweet costumes scored us second place in the costume contest, and $15 towards our next kickboxing payment! yayaya!

as for the rest of the fun costumes?  keep scrolling...

our favorite ghosts, with the best dance moves EVER (you're right charlotte, dancing under a sheet is SO much more fun! and looks WAY cooler)

myself, elliot and E.T., the other jenn, and dr. shots.....

the lovely audrey hepburn (and a side view of my costume in the background)



and... last but not least, the only costume that beat ours in the contest... karen:


talk about creativity!! and efforts!!
it's ON!
...and we're gonna win it next year.
(we better start planning now to beat THAT though!)

what did YOU do for halloween?
tell us about it!

cheers!
(and stay safe, you east-coasters)

wish us luck


dear sandy, 

please be nice to us.  this is our first hurricane experience and we want to keep our electricity, gas, and water at least.  we live on the second floor, but it would really not be cool if you flooded our basement. don't beat up on our friends too much either... any of them! in dc, virginia, philly, boston, NYC, practically ALL up and down the east coast where you are supposed to make our lives miserable.  you've already put a rut in honeymoon plans for our friends that got married today, let's make that the worst of what's to come in the next few days.

thanks.
from, your local hurricane newbies who aren't quite sure what to expect.


Thursday, October 25, 2012

weeknight surprise

mr p knows me too well.  after going to target and home depot to get supplies for our halloween costumes, i came home to this:



that's right.  a buffalo chicken sammich!  we were both rushing to get some last minute things together for this weekend, but he came home first to grab a bite to eat and he made this for me before heading out :)

it's just a simple sammich, but it's very good.

whole wheat bread
rotisserie chicken
sharp cheddar
red leaf lettuce

put it together and smash in a panini press! 
or, just put together and toast on a hot pan with a weight on top of the sammich 
(a brick covered in foil works just as well!!)

cheers to the weekend!  i'll leave you with a song i heard on my way home from work today that i NEVER thought i would hear on the radio again... 



it's festive. for the weekend. and it's stuck in my head now, so i'm passing on the fun music to reminisce the good 'old days when we used to listen to this in 2003 (yes! 2003! wikipedia says so.  time is moving too fast)

have a GREAT weekend!! 
...don't get too crazy for halloween ;)
(and stay tuned to see OUR costumes!! i'm super excited for them)

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

ippudo, manhattan

when i heard my out-of-towner friends wanted to go to a ramen noodle place i was pretty excited (hey, i like ramen, i bet it's probably gonna be cheap too)....

that excitement lasted until ... i heard that the bowls of soup were $15!! why on earth would i stand in line for 2 hours and spend at LEAST 50-times more for a bowl of soup i can make at home? (mr p and i snagged two 12-packs for $2 each at walmart)

"well," they said, "this is different ramen."

(whatever, we'll go, it's not like i don't like it.. i'll eat it)


i'm here to tell you that THAT bowl of ramen was worth EVERY PENNY!



this place ( ippudo , near 4th ave and 9th st) seriously knows what they're doing.  why, you ask?

1. they make the broth from scratch.


2. they make the noodles from scratch.



3. they have a sign out front beneath their hours saying they will close early due to lack of customers OR because they ran out of broth . (i'm guessing this has happened in the past or something?!?)

4. they have over 4,000 REVIEWS ON YELP!

5. you could have a meal on JUST the pork buns (so good!!)


5. i might have been the only white customer in the place (that's a lie, there was a white family next to us, but you get the idea... there were a LOT of asians in there, so you KNOW it's good!)



6. they understand that it really sucks when there's an hour wait (or 2 hours, or 3 hours.. when we left they were telling people 2 hours minimum and it was a sunday at 4pm) and will take your phone number to text you that a table's ready.  as long as you get back within 5 minutes, it's yours. genius!

8. the bowls are deceivingly large.  mr p finished mine (after getting a second helping of noodles and finishing his first, of course :P  how does he stay so skinny!?)


8. service is amazing. food came out quickly, waters never went empty, check came quick, extra noodles came quick, and we still didn't feel like they were hovering over us.

ONLY bad thing:
strict policy that there is no take out , and no take home. so make sure you go there EXTRA hungry!

who wants to go back with us soon?
....a $15 bowl of ramen beats a $15 plate of spaghetti any day.. unless it's pasta at enoteca maria.  then it's a close battle.

cheers!

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

fall takes over neighborhood stoops

it's pretty hard to NOT get into the spirit of fall, when nearly every house in our neighborhood has pumpkins & mums decorating its stoop....






...those were just the ones we passed sunday morning while walking home from getting brunch with long lost friends who were in town.

not our stoop though.  it only gets 'decorated' with falling yellow leaves from the trees out front. mums thieves have ruined it for me! i'll just keep enjoying everyone else's pretty stoops that make our neighborhood look so adorable.

cheers!