Represent

(Image courtesy of Blaster Case)

Have a fabulous weekend. Great. Thanks.

Over Easy

Just saw this Lisa Perry spread over at seesaw. 

It's basically the adult version of every dream house we designed on paper as kids.

(Minus the egg omelet. We weren't that clever yet.)

WinterWeight

Please enjoy this super professional-looking photo.

Dinner is, in our opinion, the hardest meal of the day. We are always starving by the time six or seven rolls around, but often in no mood to go buy groceries. Some nights we reach into the far recesses of our pantries and brains, and start throwing things that maybe go together into a pot. (Note: Angel hair pasta and peanut butter may sit next to each other on your shelf, but should never get any closer than that.) Other nights we get overly ambitious. We'll go to the store on the way home from work, recipe link at the ready on our phones. These nights end with either a delicious meal and full bellies, or a half-empty bottle of wine and a $35 take-out bill. 

Last night was a rare marriage of ambition and ease. When a kindly boyfriend offered to run to the store, he was assaulted with an envelope covered in messy scrawl that formed some semblance of an ingredient list. 30 minutes, ONE dirty pot and only one (ok fine, two. And a half.) glass of wine later, we had delicious chicken and dumplings padding our thighs and warming our souls.

We used a recipe loosely followed by some chick called Martha-something-or-other. We'll post our modified version after the jump.

Cosby Sweater

(Cucumber-Lime Margarita Jelly Shots courtesy of Jelly Shot Test Kitchen)

If you have spent any amount of time either A) underage drinking, or B) in college, we're sure that you have encountered the always classy Jell-O Shot. Typically a combination of rail vodka and flavors like red and blue, these gelatinous little cubes are certainly not what one would consider haute cuisine.We've tried (and succeeded with messy, mild success) to class these up, but have now been totally outdone by sisters Amy and Michelle of the fabulous blog Jelly Shot Test Kitchen.

 We have spent a significant part of our morning perusing and daydreaming about their artful (and boozy) creations. Beautiful presentation and the ability to make our friends act like foolios? Viva la Jelly Shots!

Wednesday's Own... Things We Love



Telling resolutions to eff off



Controversy



Babies as an accessory



Merde.

Welcome back, Me!As previously noted, I took a ten-day reprieve from my duties here at CharmedCity to skulk around Paris. It was freezing, windy, dark, damp and full of tourists. (Note: I'm not a tourist. I was a visitor.) A free admission day to Disney Land in June couldn't hold a candle to the lines outside the Louvre, Sainte-Chapel, Notre Dame and Louis Vuitton.

The over-crowding/weather were dismal at first, but in the end a blessing. No, I did not see Miss Mona Lisa's smirk, but I did wander around a taxidermy museum for an afternoon. I did not catch Quazimodo  ho-strolling around Notre Dame, but instead got silly-drunk with my boyfriend over beer lunches in several left bank cafes. And so what if we didn't catch the views from the top of the Arc de Triomphe? We toasted the new year with Freixenet on the Seine and then peed in an alley. 

I'll leave you with a few visuals of my Parisian adventure. I'll leave Lauren with a Thank You, Ma'am for holding down the blog fort- I owe you a box of wine and a kiss. I'll leave a Merci to my special man friend for whisking me away to the land of frogs and cheesy crepes. And I'll leave a big, huge crooked-toofed smile for Baltimore, because I may have missed her most of all.

Under The Sea

When it comes to our culinary adventures, there are some that we view as true milestones. We've made our fair share of complicated dishes in the past, but sometimes it is the simplest tasks that prove to be the most daunting. Cooking a whole, live lobster is one of those tasks. You can count the ingredients on one hand, and the prep work is as simple as boiling water. This all seems pretty mindless, right? Nope. While the required technique is little to none, the prospect of plunging a living creature into a fiery death didn't sit too well with us. After many self administered pep talks, and some very loud singing to drown out what was happening around us, we did it. We won't go into the gory details, but the end result was fabulous. So brush up on your yoga breathing, have a glass of wine, and plunge away.

Lobster Boiling 101

After the jump