Showing posts with label Friends. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Friends. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 6, 2015

an unexpected new years eve

our original plans were to stay home, relax, hopefully make it to midnight to see the ball drop but if not i wasn't going to be upset.

instead....

drinking champagne and getting out of work early seemed like a good idea.
going straight to orale for margarita's seemed like a good idea.
stopping at e.tittlemouse to say hello was definitely a good idea (the wine there? maybe not)
drinking a few MORE drinks at home was just to keep my streak going.
heading out for more wine was (while we definitely had a great time) may have not been the best idea.

at least our NYE was fun while it lasted!!  the next morning? (ok ok the next whole day)… not so much.

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great company, fantastic pasta from pasta dal cuore, great night. thanks for the impromptu NYE celebrations, e.tittlemouse!  my new years resolution is to NOT be hungover on New Years Day next year :P

happy new year everyone!
jenn

Monday, January 5, 2015

hey LA, new york city hates the rain too.

if you live in NYC (or the surrounding areas), you know how crappy it was this weekend.  when it's raining and you have to walk everywhere, you order take-out, you cancel your plans to "go out", you make watch the entire first season of friends (because HELLO!! friends is now on netflix, finally!)… i guess it's not just LA gets depressed when it rains outside.

madison square park, manhattan nyc

hung and i may or may not do this when it's nice outside too, but this weekend a friend from college told me she was in town, which meant brunch plans had to be made! luckily for us, we got to stroll across manhattan saturday morning before the nastiness began.  we don't do this often, just go stroll through the park, or go into the city much on the weekends period (now that there's so much to do HERE, in jersey city, blocks from home).  but gosh it was nice.  

the weekends in NYC are a different creature.  of course people have places to go and aren't exactly what this midwest girl would call "nice", but yeah, people are nicer, in a better mood, relaxed.  the first weekend in january isn't exactly tourist weather either, so there are less people on the streets.

we left our house with lots of time to spare, so we strolled through eataly, picking up a snack before brunch (if you only knew my husband and his eating habits…), got to the restaurant early, and ordered some hot boozy drinks to warm us up.

ham focaccia pizza, eataly, manhattan nyc

3rd and 25th, manhattan nyc

unfortunately the rest of the weekend was pure grossness outside, so we were hermits the rest of the weekend… watching netflix, playing video games, cooking stick-to-your-bones food in the crock pot… you know the routine.

pot roast in a cuisinart crock pot

now it's time to kick it into gear, and get back to being active again! we have a friends wedding in june that we have GOT to look good for ;)  my green smoothie is calling my name tomorrow morning (goodbye delicious rye bread and avocado toast, i'll see you when i fit into my skinny jeans again :P)
 
cheers.
jenn

Monday, December 22, 2014

happenings

....and so the holidays have begun.  our new-to-us car has already seen some miles, and there are more to be clocked, but as long as there are smiles and laughter and good food and good company, we can claim a successful holiday season. 

in light of my absence on this space, and likely more to come, here's a recap of the holidays for us so far.  between thanksgiving, friendsgiving, a wedding, a friends chrismakuh, holiday parties, and birthdays, we've been busy.  but we can only be thankful to have each of you in our lives!!  so, thanks, friends and family, for being so awesome :)

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^^^this one is smiling on the outside (but thoroughly upset that that girl beside him was the ping pong champion of the night)

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^^^missing those two for christmas... but thankful that weird one in the back is driving to see us (and to deliver our newly-reupholstered danish modern chair!!)

read on for more.....

Wednesday, December 3, 2014

brown butter truffle sage rice krispie treats

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if you follow @beyondthetoop on instagram , you had to know this recipe post was coming ;)

if you read the title thinking "ew gross" you'll be sticking your foot in your mouth after you try these.  our friend made them once during a dinner party, and i (along with everyone else) went crazy over them! they are the perfect combination of sweet and savory, and take hardly any more effort to make than regular rice krispie treats with just butter and marshmallow.  i made them for thanksgiving, posted it on instagram , and was requested to make them again for friendsgiving just a few days later! the lazy girl inside me thought i could get by with saving some from the first batch, but they definitely did not last long enough.  the entire batch was GONE before i had a chance to stash them away.

give them a try and let me know what you think!  read below for the recipe....

Monday, November 24, 2014

binge listening

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even though we just finished an 8-hour to ohio and back, gosh am i excited for the holidays this year! seeing family and friends (even in the saddest of times) never gets old, even if it means driving 11 hours to get there.

last week we had the unfortunate news that one of our good friends lost a parent.  unexpectedly, we dropped our weekend plans to drive to ohio for the funeral.  the road ahead for their family will be emotionally rough, but we were fortunate enough to bring some love and smiles to them in such a rough time.  that's what friends are for, right? 

on our drive, we started listening to this podcast that i actually wasn't very excited about.  our friends came over for dinner last week and told us about this podcast called 'cereal' .  they were so into it they couldn't help but talk over top of each other in excitement and couldn't get their words out fast enough (i later realized it was 'serial ,' not 'cereal' haha).  murder mysteries are just not my thing (and i certainly didn't think that 'binge listening' would be either), but after listening for, oh, about 5 minutes i was already hooked.  so much that we are 100% caught up already.  yep, we listened to all 9 episodes.  if it wasn't for starting it late into the drive TO ohio, we would have listened to it all in 1 sitting.  fortunately for us, we got to listen to the last 6 episodes in 1 shot on the way home.  the most enticing thing about the podcasts is that they are nearly live.  the investigation is happening NOW. 

serial is brought to us from the producers of  This American Life , for FREE.  there's really no reason to NOT try it right? i mean, there's only so much music i can listen to before i just tune it out.  this was the perfect roadtrip time-passer! now, if only we could find something similar for our next upcoming roadtrip!! (this american life, maybe? has anyone listened to it before?)

any suggestions for podcasts (or any other roadtrip time-passers) are definitely welcomed ;)

cheers!
jenn

p.s. for kicks, a photo of where we were LAST year at thanksgiving.  no turkey in sight, but it was worth the trade for 1 year to have crystal clear blue waters and white sand in our toes!

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Sunday, November 9, 2014

happy birthday to the mind behind e.tittlemouse

saturday we were happy to be invited to a small dinner at e.tittlemouse and co. to celebrate napoleon's birthday.  napoleon and his wife, belinda, run the small resale store on bay street in downtown jersey city.  besides having a great store filled with designer clothes, vintage housewares, and the works of local artists, they've become great mentors to several local creatives and entrepreneurs and have become our friends in the meantime.  although the celebration was in honor of the birthday boy, it was really just a fun dinner with great people.  we saw familiar faces, met new faces, indulged in new wines, and ate new food (well, new to us, apparently we're the only two at the event who didn't know what any of the filipino foods were).

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napoleon, thanks for including us at your birthday dinner, we look forward to our next dinner! (because we apparently planned many more that night, i see a pho night in the near future :P)

cheers.
jenn

Friday, October 31, 2014

happy friday

city hall wedding, jersey city by cheynne mojica
(flashback friday... back to OUR wedding day.  this is right after we got married at city hall in jersey city.  gosh that was a great day!!) image c/o cheyenne mojica

hey friends! it's friday! we'v e got some pretty awesome things to be thankful for this week, despite the fact that i got in a 6-car accident on one of the busiest highways in the NYC metro area (causing probably hundreds of thousands of people to miss their flight, be late for work, miss an appointment, etc. etc. etc.) and i sliced my finger cutting a bagel this morning (in my defense, the knife was dull and it was difficult to cut the bagel, sharp knives are safe knives people!!)

  1. hung gets to be the best man in his best friends wedding, a 3-day indian wedding bash that we're SO excited for....  mostly for two great people in love and getting married, but also the food.  yeah, definitely the food.
  2. we got OUR wedding photos from our photographer, cheyenne mojica , this week! i'm beside-myself-excited about them (if you couldn't tell already from my instagram feed)
  3. we got to host friends for dinner on wednesday, teaching a non-fish eater that fish can be good! (remember the claypot salmon recipe i posted a while back? if you haven't tried it yet, you need to)  being around THOSE friends always makes us feel so inspired to take a leap and follow our dreams.  so thanks, john trigonis , eightymag , and milk sugar love !
  4. i got to try filipino food for the first time kamayan style at a potluck dinner for an eightymag photoshoot! photographer greg pallante did an awesome job catching everyone mid-huge-bite, including me with a whole rambutan stuffed into one side of my cheeks like a hamster. look for his work in the next issue of eightymag !
  5. on the bright side of the car accident, i get to "test drive" a mini cooper countryman until my peanut is fixed (aka i get to try out a nice 4-door, small, baby-friendly, fits-in-our-tiny-driveway car for when we will actually need to get a new car in a few years when we start making baby phans :P)
ok now, let's get this party started! i've got two bright-and-bedazzled sarees ready to go and i'm crossing my fingers i'm there in time tonight to get my hands all hennaed up... indian weddings are the best, and we can't wait to celebrate with these two awesome people!

cheers.
jenn

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

masquerade soiree with e.tittlemouse and co.

the idea of a masquerade party seemed so distant to me.  my only two visions of it were scenes from breakfast at tiffany's and from gossip girl (who DOESN'T remember that episode where lil J gets smooched by nate for looking like serena?!).  i was so excited to go to this party with e.tittlemouse, because it was going to be my first one!

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it's rare for us to show up to an event like this empty-handed, so we (ahem, hung) decided to make meatballs! nowadays we can't make hardly anything without making a vegetarian version (if the dish isn't vegetarian already).  he's been using this recipe from smitten kitchen (modified with beef and baked on 450F for 20 minutes) for the real meatballs, and this recipe from serious eats for the vegetarian ones.  the recipe for the vegetarian ones is supposed to be for veggie burgers, but this is practically the same thing, right? since the veggie ones don't really have to be cooked (well, sort of, the egg I suppose has to be cooked through), he just tossed them in the oven with the real meatballs, just on a different pan. the cook time and temperature isn't SO important for the veggie ones. 

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i couldn't let hung get ALL of the attention though.  after a failed attempt at creating a "super simple nutella stuffed baked wontons" i decided to go with a tried and true recipe for chocolate banana bread  (i'm ACTUALLY starting to use the recipes on my pinterest !!).  but for this event, we needed bite-sized everything, so i turned them into chocolate banana mini muffins!  i suppose all 3 dishes were a hit, considering everything was gone exept for one last mini muffin that got splashed in vodka (oops! party foul).

see more party photos after the jump!

Thursday, October 23, 2014

thankful

we didn't do anything over the top.  we didn't need to "live it up".  we didn't even feel like we needed to "entertain".  the girls went to the city for wedding dress shopping. the boys stayed home and did boy things (and by that i mean they didn't shower, they played video games, and they consumed pizza , korean fried chicken , AND beer).  hung gave the boys a haircut.  we attended a charity event.  we ate at a dimly lit west village restaurant for a birthday.

...and it was just nice.  we're so thankful to have friends like this who love us for who we are, enjoy doing the simple things that we like to do, visit often, and most of all, have been there for over 20 years.  the friends that visited last weekend are hung's childhood friends who have all been close since grade school.  i'm lucky enough to say that they have become good friends of mine as well, and i'm happy they eagerly welcomed me into their lives even from the very beginning :)

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.....have any of you been inside B&H before? it's that  gigantic camera store in midtown, and it's seriously the best place ever.  even if it wasn't for those candy dishes all around the store (that i ate at least 10 of before we walked out) i could go back everyday just testing out different lenses and gadgets for our camera... like that $1,100 Zeiss lens that we fell in love with... one day i'll have that perfect lens that i'll never need to change out....

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we kept talking all weekend how cool it would be if we all lived in the same city (instead of FOUR different cities).  considering hung and i are the only ones who invested in a home where we live, i think it's up to everyone else to move to US, right? right... ok guys, let's start working on that "moving to the NYC area" thing.  future baby phans need pseudo aunties and uncles ;)

cheers.
jenn