Indian Food Cooking Class

Clockwise from top: Kerala Shrimp Curry, Basmati Rice, Spring Vegetable Curry, Coconut Green Beans, Red Lentil Dahl, and Carrot Halva. Oh, and there's some beer.

See this shrimp curry? I made it. #BOOM #DONTACTLIKEYOURENOTIMPRESSED

My sister drinks beer now.

My mom, me, and my sister. We're actually really cute when we aren't making these faces.

See?

My Mom, sister, and I took a class on cooking with Indian spices at the Natural Gourmet Institute last night. I made Indian food (with the help of my family and several instructors) and it was delicious.

Snow Day

Me, Jess, and Grandpa last Easter

So, my grandfather passed away earlier this week after 89 years. Especially after my great-grandmother's death only a few days earlier than that, everyone around here has been wondering what the hell is going on in the universe right now that all of these things are happening all at once. The last funeral I had to go to was my grandmother's over ten years ago, and all of the sudden its one after another. My grandpa was the most loving, hardworking man I ever had the pleasure to meet, and he leaves behind a family that loves him very much. Needless to say, it's been an odd couple of weeks.

Although there's been a lot of sadness, the incredible timing of everything recently has really blown me away. The things that are happening right now can not just be coincidence, there's reason behind it, and I've been spending a lot of time thinking about what those reasons could be. I won't go into specifics, because it would be very long winded and a little too much to share with the world wide web. However, I will say that the snow day we had on Wednesday was my grandfather's gift to us. I think he knew we needed a day off from work to just relax and wrap our heads around these changes. For that one day, it was nice to have nowhere to go and nothing to do. It was a beautiful snowstorm and I took some time out to take pictures, something I don't have too much time for these days.

My College Graduation Party

I think everyone had fun.
1) Family, friends and family friends enjoy delicious snacks early on in the night.
2) Ryan, Kyle, James, and Rachel
3) Melina Dave and Michelle
4) If me and Steve had myspaces, this is how we'd pose.
4) Some of the boys
5) Steve with the tambourine he bought me!
5) Rach and Me
6) Normal picture of Steve and I
7) Me and my besties: Catie, Michelle, Me, Rachel, Melina
8) The best cupcakes in the world. And they're all mine.
9) Melina's Mommy and my Mommy.

Ben Kweller

My sister and I are huge Ben Kweller fans. Any time he's in town, whether we are living in Boston or New York, we go see him perform. This time, he was opening for Barenaked Ladies at Radio City Music Hall in NYC. Now I must tell you, Barenaked Ladies were awful so we only stayed for like 2.5 songs. Just couldn't take it any more. But Ben was brilliant as always. I really really missed seeing him be the headliner, because that's truly what he deserves. He's so great, and seeing him in intimate venues before like The Paradise and The Avalon and Somerville Theatre, seeing him up in the nosebleed seats of radio city was just not the same. But regardless, I am huge supporter and will always see him when possible. I was going to buy a t-shirt of his or something, but it turns out I already owned everything they had for sale in the BK merch tent. It's love.

ps. that stick is a light up stick they put in my glass of wine so they could charge me ten dollars for it. I made Jess do silly things with it. And we had a delicious dinner, too.

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to the most wonderful lady in the world!
Love you, Mom!

Easter Weekend

Happy Easter, everyone! I hope you are all enjoying a relaxing weekend, and hopefully the weather by you has been as lovely as it is around here. I decided to come home to New Jersey to celebrate. It would have been weird for me to not be with my family on Easter! I've definitely been keeping busy since I've been home. Not only did I get an entirely new set of furniture, that you will see in a different post soon, but I took my puppy on a hike/walk at the reservation with Mel. Today was all for family though. We visited my grandpa Jim this morning and then met up with my other grandpa and my aunt and cousin for an Easter dinner. Here are some pictures:

Have a great night! It's back to Boston in the morning for me :)

A Different Kind of Busy

Hello everyone! I hope you are all getting ready to eat, drink, and be merry tomorrow and Friday! Since I've gotten home, my life has pretty much been one whole Christmas celebration, and I certainly have no complaints about that. Needless to say, I have been very busy, and I will most likely continue to be that way for the next few days, but I'll tell you the sorts of things I have been doing so far.

Friday: Took my last final (grades are pretty good this semester) and drove home and stopped for some Christmas shopping. I was quite tired, so I relaxed a bit, waited for my mom to get home, and then the two of us went out to dinner and watched Julie and Julia and waited for my dad to get home from his business trip.

Saturday: Unpacked all of my stuff, relaxed, etc, then went to my friends house for some drinks. Then I slept at Melina's because she lives nearby and went home the next morning.

Sunday: Went to my aunt's house to spend time with my family that would not be making it to Christmas Eve this year. We spent quite some time eating, laughing, and hanging out. Then we came home, decorated the tree, and had some dinner.

Monday: Got some Christmas shopping done, worked out (kinda) and watched my cousin for a little. Then some of my other family came over for dinner and we hung out till it was my bedtime.

Tuesday: Wrapped presents for my aunt, as it has sort of become an annual tradition and a good way for Mel and I to make money for last minute Christmas gifts. Then came back here, watched Julie and Julia yet again, and then got ready to go out. Went to Michelle's house to do Secret Santa with the girls. Then we all stopped at my friend Kyle's because he was having a little Christmas party, and then went to our friend Pat's to see the boys. From there we all went to the diner, ordered gravy and mozzarella cheese fries (New Jersey thing) and that brought me to about 3:30 in the morning.

Wednesday: Now I am up. And tired, and apparently a bit congested. I think it's a combination of allergies, staying up late, and just plain old being run down. Even so, today is going to be a big day! Me and the fam are going to Les Halles, Anthony Bourdain's french restaurant in NYC, and then to the MoMa to see the Tim Burton exhibit I posted about before, and then hopefully to see the tree! There will be pictures.

These pictures I have put up are from decorating the tree. we had a little fun with some net lights and I only had my iphone handy so apologies for the poor camera quality.

mom

jess and chris

chris

jess

me with no eyes! ( i was told this photo is frightening, my apologies.)

New Jersey

This week, I am home in New Jersey.
When I come home, I always watch all the of the Anthony Bourdain No Reservations episodes that my family keeps on Tivo- something wonderful that I do not have in my apartment in Boston. Coincidentally, I watched an episode about New Jersey. Anthony Bourdain is from Leonia, New Jersey. Though Leonia is in the same county as my town, it is a place I don't venture to often, and Bourdain's take on New Jersey really proves to me how different everyone's experience of New Jersey can be. Leonia is not much like the little town I grew up in. He addresses the stereotypes, all of which are somewhat true, but most of which that don't apply to my own general experience. When I drive around, I rarely see chemical waste plants, unless I am on my way into New York City or down to the shore. He mentions everyone's fascination with the Soprano's, and the fact that you judge the quality of the New Jersey business based on whether or not there's a signed Soprano's photo on the wall. Though the Soprano's also took place in my county, it still seems so different. Yes, maybe I used to be great friends with the daughter of the owner of "Satin Dolls" strip club, but that was never really a huge part of my life.
To me, New Jersey is home. It's my family and my friends. It's having all four seasons at their finest. It's beautiful, it's about pride, it's about balancing between being a native and a tourist in New York City. It's about driving around on weekend nights with your friends and stopping into a diner at 2 am for gravy and mozzarella fries. Its... a lot like Anthony Bourdain's experience, now that I really think about it. And maybe I see that one of the Soprano's cast members has been to the same pizza place, and maybe I know that Reverend Run is a lousy tipper and uses the same car wash as me, but none of that really makes any difference. I love this place, and I've never seen a single episode of the Sopranos.

It's Just One of Those Days

I'm just in one of those moods, man.
All I really want to do is curl up in a ball and watch Anthony Bourdain No Reservations for hours on end.
Today has actually been pretty good, though.
I went in the city and saw my sister and we ate some good lunch. walked around.
all of a sudden i'm back in my room with a paper prompt about Horace's relation to tradition.
and i need to be serious about it.
and i am totally not wanting to even look at it.
And that brings me here.
I like it here. it's nice.

also, i can't figure out what colors my layout should be and it's frustrating me a bit.

(Photo taken in Paris behind Notre Dame this past summer.)

Happy Birthday to Me!

Yesterday was my 22nd birthday.
I drove home to New Jersey and my family, my best friend, and I, went out to dinner in Little Italy.
Then we came home and had Pumpkin cupcakes with cinnamon cheesecake frosting and wall-e decorations!
I didn't take many pictures, but here are a couple!

The Many Faces of Jimbo

Today is my dad's birthday.
Happy birthday, Dad!!
In honor of your special day, I am compiling an archive of...

THE MANY FACES OF JIMBO

Jimbo at Work

Jimbo at Play

Jimbo Happy

Jimbo Mad

Jimbo in love


Love you Dad!

Missing summer, and it's hardly gone yet!

I finally finally uploaded these pictures I took of my cousin, Alex, from about a month ago.
He wanted some good action shots so I took a million pictures, but I'll post my favorites.
My aunt and uncle adopted him from Russia a little over a year ago I believe, and he's adjusted to the US lifestyle quite easily I'd say! He loves pools and ice cream, just like any 8 year old boy would.






As beautiful as autumn can be, summer is just so wonderful. These pictures of my backyard and pool are making me a little sad to say goodbye to my favorite season of the year.