easter/french toast/wtf.

so marcy and i had an easter french toast breakfast today, which was delicious and everything, except for one thing: i somehow LOST an ENTIRE loaf of bread in between griddling the toast and putting the dishes away.  an ENTIRE LOAF.  marcy and i ripped apart my kitchen and it's nowhere to be found.  i remember tying the bag shut and putting it back on the counter, and that's it.  we literally stood there in my kitchen laughing hysterically, completely bewildered as to why the hell my whole wheat sprouted legs and walked off.  i wouldn't care so much if i wasn't still freaked about splinter moving in, though he hasn't made an appearance since his cameo in my kitchen a few sundays ago.... anyways, yeah.  WTF BREAD.  it's so absurd that it's hysterical.  i swear, i'd lose my head if it wasn't attached to my body.

today is all about cadbury eggs (which i have YET to consume this season, weird), dinner with the fam and who knows what else.  i may be heading back to the 'ville for the sea monsters tonight; i may stay up at the homestead instead.  who knows.  

happy easter, everybody :)

CHRISTIAN McNEILL AT TOAD! TONIGHT!

image courtesy of christian's myspace; photo credit: jon strymish

TONIGHT! TONIGHT! TONIGHT TONIGHT TONIGHT!

don't go to the bar! don't go on a hot date! and if you still feel the need to go to a bar or go on a hot date, bring your hot date to this lovely little music bar in porter square, toad, to see CHRISTIAN McNEILL's acoustic solo set at 7pm!

christian's recording an acoustic album and will be playing a few intimate sets in the area, and i guarantee you want to be there for the first one.  plus, i may buy you a beer if i see you there.

Lake Street Dive: ¡LISTEN TO THEM! ¡NOW!

[first of all: sorry for the grumpy post yesterday.  had to get it out. today's perfect springtimeyness made me feel infinitely better.]

ANYWAYS: I'M REALLY EXCITED BECAUSE I FOUND A NEW BAND I LOVE!

the sea monsters brought down the house at lizard lounge thursday night, but before their excellent, intimate performance in the famously carpeted basement of one of cambridge's favorite venues, lake street dive had every jaw in the packed house hitting the floor.   due to the sardine can-like seating conditions, my friend james and i were left standing next to one of the pillars and thus could only really see the bass player and the drummer, and as a result this review may be a little biased due to our proximity to lake street dive's rhythm section... but honestly, bridget kearney is one of THE MOST talented musicians i've seen. EVER.  it's not just the fact that the woman trounced the art of playing the upright bass, which in no easy feat.  kearney made that instrument an extension of her body and her energy was INSATIABLE.  the bass lines to each and every one of LSD's (lsd, haha) songs pulsed, swung, and drove the gorgeous, velvet voice of rachael price and the uplifting presence of mike olson, who plays trumpet and guitar.  mike calabrese's drumming was absolutely exceptional, and like i said, i'm probably biased towards his performance as well as kearney's due to the fact that we were so close to them and completely enthralled with their playing.  together, they're unshakeable, and we surely would have been dancing our asses off had we not been shoulder-to-shoulder with a group of our new favorite strangers.

lake street dive's next show in the area will be at toad in porter square on may 10th.  you better believe i'll be there, and you should be, too!  just give 'em a listen on itunes, or check out lake street dive's the panhandling song below.

anyways, last night was lovely, and i was lucky enough to spend time with my very best friends in the whole world who i haven't seen in months.  brittany and whitey are home for easter, and we beat the rain in my living room with drinks, hookah and candlelight in the company of los, marcy, davis and potter.  sometimes you just need to get back to your roots for a little bit to ground yourself, you know?

reasons why i feel as grumpy as this guy:

actually, i'd be lying if i said i didn't feel grumpier than this guy right about now.

i miss my friends. i miss having a legitimate reason to get up and go in the morning. and i miss feeling like the world is my oyster.  it's times like this when living by yourself sucks.

if jake keefe and i were to have a baby this would be our child.

i think the second one is my ultimate favorite.

it's DINNAH PAHTEE TIIIIMEZ!

photo courtesy of serious eats.

with roughly eight gazillion gallons of water hitting the streets of boston in the form of relentless rain showers today, i opted to spend the day inside.  after running the dishwasher, sending out a few resumes and catching up on a couple of emails, i sat down to read through a few of my favorite blogs.  serious eats, the kitchn, we are not martha and apartment therapy are all bookmarked on my browser, and all of these lifestyle/cooking blogs have been tempting me with gorgeous place settings, inspiring, innovative recipes and photos of desserts that make my teeth hurt just by lookin' at 'em.  the conclusion i came to after hour 4 of my bout of webpage perusals this afternoon? it's damn near high time for a dinner party.

my logic: each and every single sunday night is spent dancing at precinct to the harmonious sounds of the sea monsters.  the boys don't hit the stage until 10pm, making it the perfect event to attend after a massive culinary spread at home with friends.  i also happen to be friends with several people well-versed in the ways of the restaurant/food service industry: there's a sous chef or two in my social circle, several bakers, and i'm a former bartender/waitress/barista myself, so it seems like putting together a mouthwatering menu based on my latest blog findings and the tastes of my friends in the know would be mindless.  we all seem to be big on hearty dishes with the perfect liquid pairing (read: booze), so here's what i'm thinking of serving up for dinner in a couple of sundays before a sea monsters show.

first course: stuffed mushrooms and deviled eggs.  before chowing down on portuguese sweet bread french toast and breakfast club sandwiches at deep ellum last sunday, jessie, marcy and i DEVOURED the deviled eggs as an appetizer and i'm still salivating at the thought of them.  (that, and my mom gave me this great vintage deviled egg serving plate that i've been dying to use.) i figured finger food is always a good way to go, and stuffed mushrooms and deviled eggs are SUPER easy to make/can be prepared long before guests arrive.

main course: fettucini all'ubriaco (drunken fettucini, pictured above) and bistec porteño (argentine steak, basically.)  pasta stewing in a vat of red wine? tossed in some buttery-olive-oily-garlicy goodness? WORD.  i was thinking that the pasta itself, though seemingly scrumptious, needs to be paired with something protein-rich and hefty, and i figured marinating some strip steaks and slicing them up and serving them over the pasta would be a fresh take on it.  i would most likely use a malbec or a valpolicella for the wine in the pasta, and both are excellent with a good cut of meat, so why not? i might even mix up some chimichurri and toss it in there. we'll see.

dessert: i figure between shroomies, eggs, steak and pasta that dessert's gotta be light. i feel like chocolate would be an excellent way to round out the evening, but at the same time all the foodgasmic chocolate recipes i know would put you in a food coma after a meal like the one plotted out above.  chocolate covered strawberries, maybe? these little babies would be amazing but i feel like it would be overkill... meh.

wine:  i'd either go with the exact same red as used for the pasta or i'd refrain from serving wine altogether and maybe go with funky drinks in lieu of dessert.  i'd favor vanilla manhattans or old fashioneds, but who's to say everyone will be a fan of whiskey... also something to think about.

anyways.  yeah.  i just want to be all domestic and fill people's bellies but not TOO too much so that we can go dancing afterwards, is that so much to ask!? haha.

new hair/new shows.

happy saturday, friends!

first things first: i went to marc harris yesterday and got a new 'do.  i kind of freaked at first about the amount of hair that wound up on the floor of the swanky newbury street salon, but i trust rogue with my tresses and every other girl out there with curly hair should, too, because the lady knows what she's doing.  anyways, here's me muggin' for you to show off my new mane.

in other news: i went to the middle east last night to meet up with my long-lost favorite former barista from my old starbucks that i used to frequent, justin, and a bunch of his friends to go see bishop allen play.  sadly, i didn't stick around for the headlining act as i had promised dance dance party timez to jessie, potter and davis, but i was there for team b's set as well as that of mt. st. helen's vietnam band. 

team b: lots of horns, very reminiscent of devotchka/gogol bordello/beirut with the upswings and tuba riffs.  the resemblance between the lead singer of team b and david foley of kids in the hall was super distracting.  seriously.  could be twins.  they were fun, anyway.

mt. st. helen's vietnam band: first of all, mshvb, your name is silly. second of all, is your lead singer secretly the lead singer from hot hot heat? because the vocals sound EXACTLY THE SAME.  i had fun dancing around during their set and loved their energy... the only head scratchers for me were the gigantic sleighbell sticks that the cute pixie-lookin' girl standing towards the righthand corner of the stage kept smacking the ground with.  i know you guys are trying to be indie and eyecatching and unique and all that, but c'mon.

the rest of my evening was that of any other friday: dancing like an idiot at phoenix landing with my best friends, followed by a hearty meal at the most delicious late night local eatery known to man.  today, i'm going to diesel to get some legit writing done (read: pen and paper style) and i'm FINALLY going to crack the binding on david foster wallace's infinite jest.  later, gym, and later, who knows. 

before i head over to davis, however, here's a list of shows i hope to attend in the near future.  there's a lot of good stuff coming to town, folks.

4/23: headlights feat. the love language at tt the bear's.  (kj is super, super excited about this show.  i'm super excited because i -gasp- have never been to tt's.)

5/08: etta james and the roots band with jesse dee at house of blues.  granted, i see jesse all the time at precinct, but he's opening for ETTA JAMES?! huge.  i also have yet to check out the hob's new digs over on landsdowne.  (i hate landsdowne, generally speaking, but for shows? not so bad.)

5/13: thao with the get down stay down at tt the bear's.  i've been wanting to catch thao live for awhile.  now is my chance. yay.

5/14: animal collective at house of blues.  rumor has it this is sold out already? mrowr? jessie and los were very stoked for it when we caught wind of the show a month or two ago. we'll see.

i'm sad because it looks like ozomatli cancelled their upcoming boston show :/ bummer.

anyways, it's nice outside! go play! (edit: it's not that nice outside. i walked to davis and it was blustery. ah well.  put on a sweater and a scarf and go play outside and bring an umbrella just in case, haha.)

the night that funfetti devoured my kitchen/we devoured funfetti: Los' 23rd.

get ready for some surrrrrious cupcake porn.

SO DOMESTIC.  jessie is so vogue.

kevin felt the need to document our frosting/sprinkles process because we were kiiind of into it.

to quote marcy: "these cupcakes look like fairies pooped all over 'em."

if los was a cupcake she would look like this.

i missed the "be sexy!" memo.  ah well. kj's into it.

sadly, there aren't many photos of the birthday girl - there was a pretty massive turnout and she was bouncing around to say hi to all the party goers, but i was able to snag a quality shot of the four of us before the night ended:

and a shot of me and the newest member of the 23 club.

happy birthday los :)

what's on tabs this weekend: bishop allen tonight at the middle east, brunch at deep ellum at some point, the sea monsters, of course, and a long, bloody, drawn-out battle between me and my frosting-covered kitchen floor. I WILL CLEAN THIS APARTMENT! I WILL!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY WIFEY!

LOS TURNS 23 TODAAAAAAY!

expect a photo-heavy post chronicling the celebrations sometime tomorrow.

¡QUE LOS CUMPLAS FELIZ, MI ESPOSITA!  i'm so lucky to have you as a best friend and my #1 partner in crime. i love you!

the happy list, april fool's edition.

this is what came popped up when i google image-searched "happy" this morning. lolz.

THINGS THAT ARE WONDERFUL:

+big plans for big weekends.  this weekend, by comparison to previous weekends, won't be that extraordinary, but dance parties, dive bars, brunch at deep ellum (to visit mr. chris sous chef extraordinaire), painting dates, playing outside and a night with the sea monsters are all on the table. bliss.

+scarfing chicken tikka masala from punjabi dhaba with some of my favorite people before running up to magoun square for trivia nights and games of pool at townie dive bars.  MEDFIHD BY CHOICE! (my family's actually from medford. i guess that makes me legit/a real townie? i don't know.)

+i think i'm going to get a bike.  i'm still terrified at the thought of riding one alongside the crazy people who drive on somerville/mass ave, but i've been convinced, i think.  i'll be brave.  i'll try, anyway.

+i've lived in this apartment since november and i only realized recently that i have WINDOW BOXES YAAAAY.  jessie thinks i should use one for a mini herb garden.  i want flahwiz.  (i don't want bees buzzin' right next to me when i'm sleeping  some rando stole hers from the lawn in front of her apartment in allston.  le sad.

+this week marks the two year anniversary of slovak attak '07, which consisted of a ten day trek through vienna, bratislava and budapest with los, nico, vince and katie.  during slovak attak, i ate enough sacher torte for a family of five, almost got arrested for riding the metro illegally in budapest and somehow wound up downing absinthe on a boat on the danube only to walk back to our slovakian hostel without my shoes on.  in short: it was epic and its anniversary is always worth noting.  that, and i miss nico, vince and katie so incredibly much :( 

now, it's off to the gym to work on my fitness, as opposed to staying home and making french bread french toast. gahhh. i would so much rather be doing the latter.  i HATE pulling pranks on people and will definitely be refraining from that today, but what are you guys up to for april fools?

(just playin'. you've been warned.)

H!L