party girls.

girls in party dresses and mary-janes for my mom's 6th birthday.

bayside, queens, 1965.
my two aunts, jane and nancy. shouldn't this picture have been in a ralph lauren catalogue?

amy sue perlov: the 60's

when i should be memorizing lophotrochozoa, i...

revisited lunas old entries. i dont wanna study. these are great pictures. lets go back to that place.

Work to do

Aside from all of the studying I should be doing, I have a lot of work to do in terms of eating out in what many call the "Restaurant City" (maybe I made that nickname up?). Luna has introduced me to yet another blog to keep an eye on, and here is what I found:

Eater NY

I have only been to 6 of these supposed top 38 restaurants in New York (includes all boroughs). My most recent visit on the list: Diner (#32) in Brooklyn. Julian is lucky to live just around the corner from this gem-- they have great bloody mary's and a fresh menu that changes daily.

38-6=32 restaurants on my list!

Balthazar, Soho (check!)

Just in time

In honor of my parents arrival to New York, I decided to cook them a welcome meal (as they were coming in at 11 pm). So I thought about the various ingredients I already had at home, and decided to make mushroom, leek, truffle risotto. Obviously. All I needed to buy were the leeks and some cream and I was set.

First I rehydrated my dried wild mushrooms.
Meanwhile I sauteed the leeks in some butter, added cream and cooked it till the mixture was pretty thick.
I cooked a small onion in a larger pan with more butter, added the arborio rice, and cooked the rice slowly with hot chicken stock.

I chopped the mushrooms, and added everything to the rice mixture, along with parmesan cheese and truffle oil. The cream from the leeks gave the risotto a perfect texture and thickness. I packed it all up (ok, I left myself a small portion at home) in tupperware and brought it to my parents when they arrived. Success!

friendship.

power huddle: gunds, doms, kits, and myself.

P&G got to me

Happy day-after-valentines-day

Thanks for all the treats!

Lab Life

I started my job in the research lab this week. Its been a lot of work... tomorrow I'm isolating bacterial plasmids all on my own!

Our bench

The view from every floor-to-ceiling window in the lab

Found Memorabilia...

I found some historic pictures of Scituate, Massachusetts, my little seaside town where I grew up. Some of them are just incredible, and all of them make me utterly nostalgic for this place.

The Quarterdeck (trinket store) used to sell lobster and fish instead.

Peggoty Beach in the 1950's

Boys swimming in the 1950's off of Gannet Rd. in either North or South River (mom?)

Old postcard of the Third Cliff, where my house was.

July 4th 1915, parade down Front St, police on horseback, stagecoach, and cool cars on the left.

Monday Meals

I wanted to show the contrast between my dinner and Max's.

Mine: an impromptu turkey burger made with egg, panko, garlic, sweet red pepper, ketchup, salt and pepper. Topped with Gouda cheese and avocado.

Max's: leftover hot wings from Dallas BBQ.

An old tradition

At school, Thursday night was Grey's night. Someone (usually Lucy if I recall correctly) would make batches of cookies, warm out of the oven just in time for Meredith's opening monologue. I decided to watch tonight for the first time in a while, AND i baked cookies.

Homemade oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.

Charm City

I have been wanting to make a charm necklace for a long time now. And the other day I finally did it. What I like about charms in general is that there always seems to be a good story that goes with them. Take my necklace for example: the flower pendent is from a thrift shop in Northampton (which just reminds me of friends), the teapot is something my mom has probably had for a while (and she gave it to me along with other charms for Hanukkah this year), and the wishbone just brings good luck.

I definitely see more charms and charm necklaces in my future.

northampton freeze

well it was luna's birthday this past weekend so she decided to have people to her house in northampton, mass. thursday night at 10 pm kat and i packed ourselves into her car and drove north from the city to massachusetts, to be greeted by brooke, pat, maya and luna.

the entire weekend was so much fun. some highlights include: giving luna her gifts, thrift shopping at savers, fresh sandwiches, SALAD BOWL (this incredible interactive game played by the bajak family), pizza party, hot toddys, pots and pots of tea, complaining about the cold before the heat broke, the heat breaking on saturday morning, growing animosity toward roger the landlord, hats plus gloves plus scarves plus double sweaters in the house, rushed delivery and run down that hill right now and randy newman and lounging lizard, schow mack and charlie arrive and play 2 more rounds of salad bowl, birthday burger dinner, dance party at forbes (contact dancing),6 people huddled in front of an open oven for warmth, nurse kat, and all the moments of hysterical laughter.