Hilarious

A couple of weeks ago, Heather posted a youtube video on her blog, claiming it would make her readers "snort". That comment alone made me laugh, so with peeked curiosity I viewed the video...and then viewed it again...and again...and again.

Long story short, I have watched, laughed at, and talked about this little guy a lot over the past few weeks and when I watched him again this morning I decided it was time to share him with you, my blog readers.

Enjoy! It will make you snort!

Summer Dessert to Love

Joe and I hosted a few new friends for dinner on Saturday night. I made the delicious Penne with Tofu-Basil Pesto featured on my blog a few months back and served it with a blue cheese, walnut, dried cherry, granny smith apple salad and a fresh warm baguette.

In planning the menu, dessert was, as always, foremost on my mind. I decided to give a strawberry-rhubarb recipe a try and received an email the next day from my friend saying "the dessert made her entire week, possibly month, complete".

This is a no brainer ---- it couldn't be easier to make or more divine on the taste buds.

STRAWBERRY-RHUBARB SUNDAES

What you'll need:
1 pound strawberries, hulled and quartered
2 rhubarb stalks, cut into 1/2 inch pieces (approx 2 cups)
1/2 cup sugar
vanilla ice cream
short bread cookies (see recipe below)

1. In a large saucepan, place strawberries, rhubarb, sugar and 1/4 cup water; bring to a simmer over high heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until rhubarb begins to break down, 6-10 minutes. At this point your house will smell amazing.

2. Refrigerate until cool; at least 1 hour and up to 1 week. Spoon strawberry-rhubarb sauce over scoops of ice cream; serve with one wedge shortbread.



SHORTBREAD WEDGES

What you'll need:
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1 cup flour
1/3 cup powdered sugar

1. Preheat oven to 300. In mixing bowl, cream butter. Add flour and powdered sugar, mix just to combine.

2. Pat into an 8-inch round cake pan; crimp edge with a floured fork. Bake until firm and lightly browned, 30-35 minutes. Immediately score top into eight wedges; cool completely. Turn out of pan; slice with a serrated knife.



*Both the strawberry-rhubarb compote and shortbread wedges serve eight.

Graduation Day

This afternoon Suffolk University held it's undergraduate commencement exercises at the Bank of America Pavilion located on Boston's waterfront. Joe, Heidi, and Mike cheered me on as I walked across the stage and officially concluded my undergrad degree.

The white color on my 'hood' symbolizes my Bachelor of Arts degree and the gold tassels around my neck represent my summa cum laude honors. Of 821 graduates, 54 received the highest honors -- I'm proud to say I was among them.

It was a good day.



PS Carl Bernstein was the keynote speaker. Bernstein is best known for breaking the Watergate story along with his colleague Bob Woodward.

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Thanks for taking photos, Mike.

To My Mom, On Mother's Day

My Mom taught me most of what I know about empathy, compassion, loyalty, and love. She also taught me how to cook and bake, laugh at myself, work hard at everything I do, be creative, be confident, and be kind.

My Mom is a great example of patience. She raised six children and made it look easy.

My Mom enjoys being outside, especially when it's warm. She likes to garden, and camp, and exercise.

My Mom has a cure-all remedy for anything that ails you (a stomach ache, a sore throat, a broken heart): "Go to bed. Everything will be better in the morning."

My Mom has a wonderful sense of humor. I remember countless hours of laughing together until we cried -- often in church, when we were supposed to be acting 'reverent'.

My Mom can read a book out loud better than anyone I know. She does amazing things with voices, emphasis, and sounds.

My Mom is very organized and is happy to share her knowledge and talents for organizing with others. I've benefited from this on more than one occasion.

My Mom is very philanthropic with her time. She volunteers and does good deeds all over her community. Her charitable actions inspire me to be more available and open to helping others.

My Mom understands challenges and the art of positive thinking.

My Mom makes delicious donuts, cinnamon rolls, and brownies from scratch. Actually, she makes really delicious everything from scratch.

My Mom knows how to stretch a dollar and set up a budget that works.

My Mom packed a lunch for me every day of every school year of my life. That's approximately 2600 lunches...each complete with homemade bread, dried fruit, and cookies. I really appreciate this now, especially when I forget my lunch at home and have to buy one at work.

My Mom is practical, sensible and wise. She provides great advice and calming reassurance when I need it most.

There are many more special, unique, and wonderful things about my Mom. But this Mother's Day I saved my favorite for last:

My Mom really, really loves me.

AND

My Mom is the best Mom I know.

I love you, Mom - Happy Mother's Day.

Upper Crust

Three weeks ago Boston's best pizza company (voted as such 2005, 2006 and 2007) opened a location at the end of Pembroke Street in the South End, not 500 feet from our door.

When Joe spotted the location last weekend he exclaimed, "this changes everything!".

Tonight, after a healthy workout, we gave The Upper Crust South End a try and both walked away with happy grins on our faces. We each got the pizza and salad combo - one slice and a fresh, crisp salad for just $6.25. Delicious!

Once again, we feel lucky to live in the South End.

PS Upper Crust does deliver (all via bicycle with totally cool pizza boxes -- see photos on their website) but Joe and I think the 500-foot walk will always do us some good before pigging down a slice.

Watership Down

This past weekend I started reading the Richard Adams novel Watership Down. It's the wonderful tale that follows a small group of rabbits as they escape destruction by fleeing their warren and seek to establish a new home for themselves. During their journey they encounter tragedy, peril, and learn about strength, courage, and friendship.

Using information gleaned from a book called, The Private Life of the Rabbit, Richard Adams sets his tale in the natural habitat of rabbits and in so doing, has taught me a great deal about the day-to-day behavior of rabbits in the wild, which I find completely fascinating. Prior to picking up this book, I never really gave much thought to the lives of rabbits at all.

In addition to detailed factoids about rabbit life, Adams perfectly anthropomorphizes his characters, to the point that they have mythology, proverbs, even a language (called Lapine) all their own. *Yes, a Lapine glossary of common terms is included in the back of the book, for readers like myself who can't remember what every term means. These special additions to the story have really captured my interest and I find myself unable to stop thinking about the group and their travels and adventures.

Another reason to adore this novel is it's back story. Watership Down began as an improvised story Adams told to his two young daughters "off the top of his head" to entertain them on drives to the countryside from their home in Hampshire, UK. His girls loved the story and as it progressed, began insisting he write it down for others to enjoy. After weeks of persistence, Adams began working on the novel in the evenings, and finished the book 18 months later. Initially his novel was rejected by 13 publishing houses, but eventually was picked up by Rex Collings Publishers and went on to sell some 50 million copies and win numerous awards.

I'm only about one third of the way through, but am enjoying the book a great deal. My only complaint thus far is the lack of female rabbit characters; although I suspect that will change.

If you've never read this book, you might want to consider it...it's fun, light, almost allegorical reading.

The Best Seats in the House (Almost)

Yesterday around 2:30, Joe and I were gifted a pair of seats to the Red Sox vs. Blue Jay's game at 7:05. Never ones to turn down tickets to Fenway, we dashed home from work and headed to the park.

When we found our seats were were amazed! We practically had the best seats in the house: just 17 rows up from the field directly behind home plate:


These seats were incredible - lots of leg room, large, plastic (as opposed to wooden) bottoms and superb views of the field -- I mean, we could just about see the players blinking as the ball was hurled at them. It took about 3 innings to get used to the luxury.

The Sox lost the game, though they rallied with some exciting action in the 9th. And we had fun. I've said it before, and I'll say it again; nothing is better than Fenway Park.



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Note: for some reason my camera made the field look MUCH further away than it was...we aren't sure if the settings are off or what? Our eyes were much closer than the picture above make it look.