My Kind of Celebration

I’ve mentioned before that I’m not a big fan of New Years Eve, and huge parties where you pay for a ticket to stand around a more than usual crowded bar.  I did that once, and it was more than enough for me.  So just like last year’s NYE, this year’s was perfect.

Dar and I woke up relatively late, and after I cooked us an awesome breakfast of home fries, and over easy eggs we were off to run errands.  These included tracking down some synthetic oil for my car (the garage that fixed it over Christmas sucked and didn’t fill up my washer fluid or oil), getting a link removed from my new watch, and trying to find something in J. Crew to spend my gift card on.  Shockingly, the only thing I left the store with that day was a new iPhone case, but don’t worry, I managed to spend the gift card yesterday shopping online.

NYE Outfit suitable for 57 degree weather

Leopard flats by Tory Burch, Downtown Skinny Jeans by J. Crew, Blythe Blouse by J. Crew, belt by Burberry.  Also known as, the preppiest outfit I’ve ever put together.  After relaxing with a couple of beers and an episode or 3 of Dexter, we got to work in the kitchen preparing our NYE feast.  I did ultimately  decide to go with Roasted Chicken, Mashed Potatoes, and what Darren referred to as the best asparagus he ever tasted.  Thanks boo.

After dinner, we both changed into sweats and settled in on the couch for the remainder of the evening.  We watched Dexter until about 7 minutes until 12 then turned on the NYE countdown.  We had a champagne toast (Strawberry Andre, only the finest) smooched, and then went right back to Dexter.  That is my version of a perfect NYE.

The next two days were pretty much spent in exactly the same manner, in fact, I never even got dressed.  We knocked out the first two seasons of Dexter, and Dar loves it just as much as I told him he would.  I can’t think of a better way to spend our last two days together than holed up in my bed watching TV in our pajamas.  Darren hit the road home to WI last night around 7 and it majorly sucked.  What sucks even more for him is all the snow he’s encountered during his drive, typical.  He should get back around 1 pm this afternoon.  1 month and 13 days until our next visit.

Obviously today is sucking a lot, not only because after almost a whole month together Darren is no longer here, but I’m back at work with no days off to look forward to until next month.  Lame.  Oh well, at least today is already Tuesday?  Now, if you’ll excuse me I have to go spend the rest of the day photoshopping bangs onto my face to decide if I want to get them Thursday.

Mostly Just a Recipe

Ok, so I am briefly going to talk about yesterday’s earthquake, but only because when I’m old and senile I want to be able to remember that, holy crap there was a pretty big earthquake on the East Coast!

They’ve been doing construction on my building since I started working here, so at first I thought it was just some giant construction truck driving by.  Then the rumbling got louder and pretty soon my whole desk and chair were shaking back and forth and shit was falling over.  Living and working so close to DC, and ya know on the East Coast, I first thought, “oh crap is someone bombing us?”  Then it stopped, and I decided, yup holy shit that was an earthquake.  It was pretty crazy, but it was pretty much back to work as usual once everyone got over their  initial shock.

I’m well aware our little natural disaster yesterday is nothing compared to things that have gone on in other parts of the world lately, and that there may have been some overreaction, but it’s still very unusual for the DC area to have an earthquake and this one just so happened to be the largest ever to hit the area.  Yikes!  Now, who wants to come to my hurricane party this weekend?

Prior to the earthquake drama yesterday, I managed to escape my desk for a little while and hit the gym.  A very ugly 30 minute run, followed by some abs and push-ups.  I seriously need to get my running endurance back, you know it’s bad when 3.3 miles feel rough.

Alright, now, two recipes coming at ya.  It was requested I post the Chive and Sour Cream Mashed Potatoes recipe, and it really was super easy.

Chive and Sour Cream Mashed Potatoes

Ingredients
Yukon Gold Potatoes
Butter
Sour Cream
Chives
Salt
Pepper

Directions
Peel, cut, and quarter the potatoes into equal size pieces.  I usually use 1-2 potatoes per person depending on the size.  Place the potatoes in a large pot, cover with cold water, bring to a boil, and then simmer and cook until you can easily poke the potatoes with a fork.  Drain the potatoes in a colander, and make sure your pot is completely dry before returning the potatoes to it.  Mash the potatoes in any way you see fit.  I use a handy dandy potato masher, the roommate likes to use the hand mixer, my mother uses a potato ricer.  I personally think the masher is the quickest and most effective.  Here’s where it gets fun, since this recipe involves no measuring whatsoever.  Add in your butter, when all was said and done I used 3-4 tablespoons, stir the butter around to melt in the potatoes.  Add the sour cream a little at a time until you get the creaminess and taste you are looking for.  I believe I used about 1 cup of sour cream.  Have your roommate chop the chives while you are stirring the mashed potatoes, then throw in about two handfuls of them.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Done!

Eh, I know I said two recipes, but this post is already really long, so I’ll save the other one for another day.  Happy Wednesday fools!

Lots of Lounging

Monday’s after a relaxing weekend at home are a lot more tolerable than Monday’s following a weekend of travel.  I almost feel like a human being today, and that’s probably because I barely left the house all weekend.  Sadly for you all, that means I don’t have much to say today, but I think you’ll get over it.

Friday night involved a lot of lounging around on the couch and finishing up Mad Men.  I’m all caught up and ready for season 5 to start, and I was kind of surprised how season 4 ended.  I’m super excited to see what happens when it starts again!

Saturday I left the house, but only to hang out on my back porch and get some sun.  I lasted for about 2 hours before I realized just how effing hot out it was, and that I’d much rather be inside where it was nice and cool.  There was a lot more lounging, I finally finished up the book I was reading (Sing Me Home by Jodi Piccoult, I didn’t really like it) and lots of movie watching once my roommate Adrienne returned from the bridal shower she had to go to.

We watched a bizarre movie called Wedding Daze, The Graduate, and finally You Again, which we both agreed the previews did not do justice.  The movie was really cute and pretty hilarious.  I also eventually ordered a pizza for dinner… see I told you, no leaving the house.

After a Saturday spent lounging around doing nothing, I decided I couldn’t spend my whole Sunday the same way.  After breakfast and coffee, and a viewing of The Roommate, Adrienne and I decided to go on a nice walk.  Well a Sunday afternoon walk turned into an 8 mile adventure, and over 2 hours later we finally returned home.  A stop a Smoothie King around mile 6 helped to fuel us for the rest of the way home, but didn’t really do much to diminish the hunger pangs for a delicious dinner.

A quick call to our other roommate to see if she was in for dinner, and one trip to the grocery store later, we were home again with steaks and the makings for some amazing mashed potatoes.  It’s not often I crave a juicy steak, so when I do I tend to give into it and go all out.

Broiled steak, chive and sour cream mashed potatoes, and broccoli.  The steak was broiled to perfection (thanks Dani) and the mashed potatoes were creamy and delicious.  I cleaned my entire plate and washed it down with a glass of red wine.  A great Sunday dinner to wind down the weekend.  I have one steak left to cook tonight, and will probably eat some of it, and leave the rest to top my salads at lunch during the week.

I hope you all had a lovely weekend as well and are surviving the Moday.