Archive for August, 2009

As a follow-up to last week’s Modern Manners lesson on NOT bringing your kids to the salon, I want to talk about what’s appropriate when kids are around.
My fiance and I are always remarking to each other about things we say to each other that we need to be careful about saying around our nieces [...]

My hips are thanking me for buying a new yoga mat this week. Not that there was much wrong with my last one, which was a gift I specifically requested. But, my practice is changing lately and for the new classes I am taking, I needed a mat that would really stick to the bamboo [...]

I made my first version of this recipe on Sunday for a group of friends after a night of partying. I thought it would be good to feed all 6 adults yet wouldn’t require a lot of babysitting so I could hang-out and nurse my hangover just like everyone else. ;P
It came out ok, but [...]

Stogie Joe’s Passyunk Tavern
1801 East Passyunk Ave.
215-463-3030
I know you’ve seen it, maybe you’ve even been there, but I only got around to it recently. It seemed like the perfect place to meet an old friend for a casual early weekday dinner. I had originally thought we’d sit in the semi-outdoor seating, but it was wicked [...]

Modern Manners Lesson #9: Sometimes, children should be neither seen, nor heard.
I love kids. I really do. Ask my nieces and nephews. But there’s a time and place …
I decided to check out a new nail salon on a recommendation last week (review to follow later this week). I was thrilled to discover the shop [...]

If you like rice, you’ll probably like cous cous, it has smaller grains, so it cooks up faster and is a great easy side dish for a weeknight meal. However, I never use the “spice or flavor packet” that comes with some boxes of cous cous. It’s mostly salt and preservatives. I like to add [...]

Modern Manners Lesson: Know when to Shut it!
My paternal grandmother had a saying she would whip out when people made inappropriate remarks at the dinner table, “That’s stable talk, not table talk.” Somethings, you just don’t want to hear about when you eat, or ever …
I have blogged to you before my ever-so-sophisticated family and [...]

I love the sumptuous sauces Chinese cuisine is famous for, sesame being my all-time fav, but I don’t like all the artificial ingredients, preservatives and sugars that go into a lot of the bottled sauces you see of the grocery store shelves. So, I started looking at recipes to make my own sauce and eventually [...]

Catherinette & I let our bitches order everything while we caught up and chatted about the neighborhood. They ordered us some rolls and asked the waitress what she would recommend to someone who was new to sushi. She suggested the sea urchin, which was, she said, “like a burst of ocean in your mouth.” I will let Catherinette take the description of the sea urchin experience from here because I couldn’t hope to do any better, but sufficed to say, none of us liked it.

Rule #1: ALWAYS have a drink while you cook. Really, always. Unless you’re making breakfast during the week, which in my experience few of us have the time to do these days, always have a cocktail while you cook. It will lower your inhibitions, which is necessary when first starting out in your kitchen. It’s a scary place, after all! Full of knives and hot things that can injure you. And it will help you avoid the major pitfall of watching everything too closely. Anality is required in baking, you need to be looser to cook.