Showing posts with label Eggs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Eggs. Show all posts

Thursday, December 6, 2012

tool time

(no, not THAT tool time...)
 
i'm going to start a little mini-series on kitchen tools.  some of these you might use everyday and think "yep, that's totally something that everyone should have" , and some you might think "hmm, i always thought that was unnecessary because _____"
 
either way, i want it to be enlightening :)
 
the first tool i'm going to highlight is an egg slicer .
 
here's why:
1. how many times have you gone to slice an egg and the yolk falls out halfway through, leaving you slicing egg-white rings while you've got a big chunk of yolk on the cutting board? unless that's what you were going for, an egg slicer can solve that problem for you! and you've only got a tiny little thing to clean up afterwards, rather than a knife and a cutting board (and pick up the pieces of yolk that may have fallen on the floor... because that's totally what happens when i try to slice an egg with a knife)
 
2. it does in one clean slice, taking much less time. this week was the first week i had sort of a salad-making station in the fridge for my lunches. all the ingredients were already chopped and in individual containers, all i needed to do was toss some of each into a container and go (no more chopping in the morning, making myself late to work because it took longer than i thought) if my eggs are already hard-boiled, i just had to grab one and slice it with the egg-slicer (seriously 2 seconds) and toss it in. such a quick (and SUPER cheap!) way to add some protein to my salad!
 
 
 
Photobucket  
 
are you convinced yet? here's the one that i bought for mr p for our anniversary:
 
 
this is a pretty fancy one, at $16.95, with 2 different slicers on it, for ovals or wedges.  i've never tried others, but this one is pretty awesome. very easy to clean, and feels nice because it's heavy.  you could test out cheaper ones here, here, or here.
 
besides just putting egg slices on salads, sometimes it's nice to make an egg sammich with hard-boiled eggs instead of fried eggs (and healthier too!) ...here's our favorite egg sammich:
 
Egg & Asparagus Sammich with Lemon-Dill Mayo
(inspiration from thekitchn.com )
 
-slice a soft baguette in half for 2 sides of the sammich
(or lay out 2 slices of regular 'ole sliced sammich bread)
-spread lemon-dill mayo on each side
(as simple as stirring together mayo, lemon zest & lemon juice, and chopped dill)
- thinly slice red onions and put on sammich
- slice grilled asparagus long-ways and put on sammich
-slice hard-boiled eggs wiith egg slicer and put on sammich
-bon appetit!
 
now, go get an egg slicer, and start eating those eggs! and tell me if you like the sammich!
unless you're vegan, then you're just missing out :P j/k i heart vegans (and vegan food) too.
 
cheers!

Monday, July 23, 2012

keeping it local

brick oven pizza with the neighbor
block party with other local friends
pig roast
buffalo calamari with more local friends
watermelon gin and tonic
peach gin and tonic
mango gin and tonic with even MORE local friends
(mega hangover)
ikea trip
new full-length mirror
new flatware
massive amount of veggie lasagna
sichuan dinner with, yes, even more local friends
ice cream with sprinkles

white wine mussels, powerhouse pizza 

margherita pizza, powerhouse pizza  (ha, they totally forgot the basil... good, but it was definitely just sauce and cheese)  


veggie omelet, courtesy of the roomie 

lucky 7 block party! 

lucky 7 block party!  (ha.. notice all the water under the grill... kiddos in the blow-up kiddie pool thought it was fun to lean on the side and let out all the water..)

lucky 7 block party! 

lucky 7 block party!  

lucky 7 block party!  (only $8 for all this food AND a grilled ear of corn!)

lucky 7 block party!  (oh, hey friends!)


drinks at sage in williamsburg, brooklyn (thanks for the pics, sarah! this was obviously not taken by my trusty point-and-shoot camera)

drinks at  sage  in williamsburg, brooklyn  (thanks for the pics, sarah! this was obviously not taken by my trusty point-and-shoot camera)

note to mr p on the breakfast i surprise-made for him friday morning :D

mega-veggie-laZAGna-making station sunday afternoon 

torico's ice cream after dinner with friends at grand sichuan  (can you guess who had all the sprinkles!?!?!?!?) 

new full-length mirror... definitely some rearranging to do... and we need to find a new place for the chevron fabric frames :/


successful weekend NOT going away? mission: accomplished

laundry will have to wait yet another day... i think i can deal, though. 
this beautiful place we live in has just too many fun things that are more important!!

cheers, readers :)

p.s.  the little man is getting SO big! can't wait to see him in october!!!

Monday, July 9, 2012

best of both worlds

mr p and i have been on the go... NON... STOP.

for two people who truly enjoy sitting at home watching movies, playing video games, playing on the computer, and all other non-active activities, being busy all the time is getting tiring!!

i guess that's what happens when we have so many friends and family away from us...

last weekend was supposed to be our "free" weekend between going to DC and virginia, but when mr p's best friend says "come visit me, mike and dana are having a pool party" we couldn't pass it up!

luckily we are practically telepathic and decided that a date night in on friday and kick(butt)boxing must happen before going.



we headed out saturday afternoon for philly, and by the time we got in the pool, lemme tell you... we... were... READY! it was 105 degrees outside.  on days like that you feel like a bum if you are cooped up inside, but just sit in misery outside... unless you have a POOL!!


(pit stop at the local beer-wine-liquor megastore)


a pool with beer pong rafts, too? even better!

thanks, mike and dana for hosting :D

mr p has TOLD me he plays this game, but i didn't realize how INTENSE it was until then...

after a long night in the pool... we caught some Z's, woke up to play some fruit ninja on the xbox kinect (so awesome!), grabbed dim sum in philly's chinatown, discovered the awesomeness of five below , planned our future home in west elm , had our first shake shack experience IN PHILLY (wtf were we thinking?? why haven't we been to the one in NYC yet!?!?)  and explored the beautiful city (since it was only in the 90's and not over 100)














so... it was the best of both worlds:
date night in.
HARDCORE workout saturday morning.
visit to the beer store
saw AWESOME friends
who hosted an AWESOME pool party
ate dim sum
and many many more.

truly the best of both worlds :D

next up: virginia!!
hopefully the weekend will be even more relaxing with plans for a day at the beach in the works :D 

now... if i could only get through this monday! the thought of having tapas for ladies night tonight is making me lose my focus...

cheers!

Sunday, May 20, 2012

weekend of champions.

what do we do when we finally have some free time on a weekend where we DON'T travel to see friends and family?

...apparently celebrate by indulging in drinking. 
and eating.
and drinking and eating some more.

that's all we've done for the past 5 days.
it felt like i was in college again.
but... in our defense, we haven't been able to see our friends that we actually DON'T have to travel to see in a LONG time... so, naturally, we celebrated.

wednesday, as i mentioned here , we attended a happy hour that benefited avon walk for breast cancer.

thursday we went to mama's food shop (featured on diners, drive-ins, and dives!! ) to celebrate the 30th birthday of mr p's friends from home (one is an actor, and one is part of the fashion design duo of NAHM ).  the food was classic southern comfort food (fried chicken, collard greens, meatloaf, etc) and it was all SO good.   guy fieri was right ... the fried chicken can't get any better.
friday we met up with many friends in hoboken at wicked wolf, celebrating christina graduating with her masters in engineering!!  ...and also celebrating just seeing our long lost friends.

saturday, mr p guilt-tripped me into going to kickboxing (so much jumping with a pounding headache was NOT fun, but i made it through, and felt good about working out on a SATURDAY)  later we ventured into the upper west side, and eventually harlem with new friends from wednesday night. (wait... you went to HARLEM ?? yes, friends. and it was SO nice!  we definitely want to go back and explore sometime)

("healthy" alternative to wings... just dunk a grilled chicken breast in buffalo sauce!  and those tater tots... they were totally mcd's hash browns in bite-sized form... aka heaven)

mr p's burger.  each side of the "bun" was a grilled-cheese sammich. i have no words.



mr p with our new bff's.

fish bowl.  actually, it was just jolly ranchers in liquid form.  or, at least that's what it tasted like.

beautiful view of the george washington bridge on the rooftop terrace of our new bff's apartment building in harlem.


sunday, we, yet again, went to kickboxing.  with only 10 people in the sunday morning class, we got our butts kicked.  so much i thought mr p was going to pass out.  sweat dripping from his face like a leaky faucet, weak punches, eyes closed... like a scene from a rocky movie or something (except nobody was punching him in the face)

i (somehow) mustered up the energy to go to a (free!) brunch in the city at donatella, the restaurant of food network's iron chef judge donatella arpaia. unfortunately, it wasn't as good as i had hoped.  my friend and i shared 2 plates, ricotta pancakes with rhubarb compote and eggs benedict.  the pancakes were good, and the rhubarb compote was good, not too sweet, and still a bit tangy.  however, the eggs benedict tasted like they had been sitting out for a while, with the egg yolks almost completely cooked. there was no yellow runny gooey goodness spilling out of them when you cut into them.  eggs benny fail.

i found these hiding in the freezer (homemade from a few months ago), so i popped them in the oven for mr p before heading out to brunch with my friend.

unlimited mimosas! except, we know our limits, especially since our last "unlimited mimosas" experience did not go so well...

not the best presentation, but the ricotta pancakes were pretty good!

eggs benny.  they LOOK perfect (probably because the eggs are HARD, instead of having runny goodness inside)


after walking around the flatiron neighborhood of manhattan for another few hours, we decided we had enough for the day, and came home.  i relaxed outside for a while..

kicked up my feet...

checked up in my tomato plants....

(this one is doing SO well!!  ...it started out so small!)

and mr p cooked up a storm, putting together these bad boys for dinner:

pan-fried sardine sammich for a late lunch (sounds HORRIBLE, but i've learned that sardines are actually REALLY tasty!)

chicken sammich :D

pulled chicken sammiches with homemade roasted garlic aioli, tomatoes, and cilantro.

he's the best.

now back to reality, but at least we have a 3-day weekend ahead!!

have a fantastic week!

toodles.