The Fabulous Women of Really Top Drawer

So . . . here are some thoughts that are long overdue.

Ramona Quimby gets a super-duper gold star for her behavior in light of the invader from central Asia.

Nancy Drew is coming home oh so very very very very soon -- 2 weeks today! Hurray!

Suzaaku haircut and color (with the gorgeous streaks) is really quite amazing.

I know that this is not a witty or snarky as blog entries should be. However, these are my thoughts for the day.

Pink limo, anyone?

Summer Potato Salad

Nancy has reminded me that it is way past time for me to post my most recent recipe.

2 lbs baby potatoes
1 bag of frozen shelled edamame
1/2 large red onion
4-5 springs of fresh tarragon.
2 C yogurt
1/2 C mayonnaise (optional)

Cover baby potatoes in water, add 1 tsp salt and 2 sprigs of tarragon. Bring to a boil and cook until tender. Once they are tender, run cold water over the potatoes to stop the cooking and to cool.

Cook the frozen shelled edamame following the instructions on the package. When the edamame is cooked and drained, run cold water over the edamame to cool it.

While the potatoes and edamame are cooking, mix the yogurt, mayo, finely chopped red onion and minced tarragon leaves together in a bowl. Add salt and pepper to taste. Allow this to rest at room temperature to let the flavors mix.

Cut the baby potatoes into bite size pieces (quarters are usually sufficient), add the edamame. Pour the yogurt mixture over the top and mix.

Tasty Salmon! Yum yum!

I made dinner this weekend with a friend and it turned out great! So I thought I'd share our nifty salmon recipe. It's super easy, and super tasty.

Tasty Poached Salmon with Lemon and Dill

Fill a large skillet with about 2 inches of water
Add juice of one lemon and a few sprigs of fresh dill
Bring water to a simmer
Add salmon to water (we used fillets, but I'm sure steaks would work also)
Cover and cook for about 8 minutes. Fish is done when it is opaque all the way through.
Remove from water, add an extra squeeze of lemon juice and garnish with dill.

Delicious! We served it with some garlic-and-wasabi mashed potatoes and steamed asparagus. All in all, quite a yummy meal, but very quick and easy to prepare.

Stung by the Bee

I love words and grammar and language. So I was really excited to see the new spelling bee movie, Akeelah and the Bee. My pal and I drove to Roanoke (about an hour away) this weekend to see it, since it's not showing here in the 'Burg.

We were very disappointed. The movie is, quite simply, terrible. The writing is SO BAD that even great actors like Angela Bassett and Lawrence Fishburn can't make it convincing. It's saccharine and cliched and predictable. It was more like a Disney Channel movie, or an ABC Family Channel movie, than a feature film.

As an example: Akeelah's brother is in trouble (of course) and running with the wrong crowd. But as Akeelah trains for the Bee, the gang leader shows his heart of gold by gathering all his gang cronies around their big pickup truck to help little Akeelah study her spelling words. For serious.

And after the movie, I realized that really the only place I'd heard about Akeelah and the Bee was at Starbucks. They've been doing a huge promotion around the movie. Well as it turns out, Starbucks Entertainment was one of the production companies involved with the movie. Did you know Starbucks even had a movie production company?? I didn't.

If you were thinking of seeing this movie, I suggest renting Spellbound instead. Even if you've already seen it, just rent it and watch it again. Whatever you do, don't give in to the Starbuck's marketing.

I'm Scooter!

Which Muppet are you??

You Are Scooter

Brainy and knowledgable, you are the perfect sidekick.You're always willing to lend a helping hand.In any big event or party, you're the one who keeps things going."15 seconds to showtime!"

The Muppet Personality Test

(Thanks to my pal Tenly for this one!)

Where in the USA is Nancy Drew?

I stole this from my pal over at Thewstew and I think it's neato. I knew I'd been to a lot of states, but I had no idea it was THIS many! I am well traveled! :)



create your own visited states map
or check out these Google Hacks.

An affair with food(s)

it wasn't until a year or two ago that i realized how often i took pictures of food- i was putting together a collage of food and eating with family/friends for my kitchen when i found that i had more pictures than i could possibly use. and that's more so the case now with a digital camera (no more guilt around looking at many many developed pictures of food). and every time i go to boston i make a mental list of all the places i want to eat at because i can't get that type of food in denver and every time i go to nyc the question is always "so where are we eating next?"

i think the main reason i have so many pictures of food is that i often meet up with friends around meals or cook with friends so i associate food with warmth and fond memories. or maybe i'm just food motivated :)

here are some pics from my most recent trip:


Canolis from Mike's Pastry. It's a Boston-ritual for Carla and I to buy Canolis and coffee/tea and sit on one of the round stone benches in Quincy Market to enjoy the dessert and watch people go by






the Black and Blue burger from O'Sullivan's Pub in Cambridge. I maintain that they have the best burgers ever. They have handcrafted patties, steak-cut fries and huge onion rings. It's where I always go with my Boston-based burger eating friends when I'm there. It's also where we celebrated the end of a long recruitment season (and we would've won the trivia night if we weren't all so tired and decided to go home)


the hazelnutetorte from cafe sabarksy. it's a nice little treat when you want to indulge a little but don't want to indulge too much for the sake of your wallet. the cafe itself is really cute and i can't vouch for the other food, but the desserts look and taste heavenly. i bought it for my friend Anny as a thank you for having me while i was in NYC and we're both huge fans of dessert (we went all the way from manhattan to brooklyn just to buy cupcakes from the chocolate room!)




it's very tricky to balance your dessert on the railings by the Rockefeller Center. I guess another theme is that i enjoy eating outside when i'm not eating in front of my computer at work :p It's fun to eat and chat and watch people go by. And at this time of the year, there's usually a pretty good of tourists and people who work in the area and take their lunchbreaks there




mixed rice with white sauce from 53rd and 6th (right in front of the hilton if you're walking toward central park). apparently there is an art to ordering (friends of the guy in front of me in line asked to make sure he knew how to order) and different carts vary in quality and strengths. i haven't tried many carts but this one came highly recommended so i always make it a point to eat there when i'm in nyc. there's usually a line and this time the guy was so intent on cooking the meat he caught on fire! (the flames burnt a hole into his t-shirt but thankfully he wasn't injured)