Sunday, June 5, 2011

The Weekend of Stuffing My Face

Hello. I am a silly girl who doesn't really know how to use a webcam to take a picture of myself. Also the fact that my hair is curly gives me an identity crisis.

I spent this past weekend in Indianapolis for my friend's brother's wedding (I shall refer to said friend as Mustard from this point on). Mustard's brother and his bride are both big foodies, and I knew the wedding budget was pretty huge, so I've been looking forward to this wedding for quite some time. It was a pretty extensive wedding weekend, with a rehearsal/rehearsal dinner/hospitality suite party, wedding, and post-wedding brunch.

Unfortunately, I got a superheadcold right before the wedding, and my taste buds were dead for most of the weekend, but I enjoyed myself anyway, despite much pain from clogged sinuses and blisters from wearing too many high heels and super expensive dresses in 90 degree weather.

The hospitality suite on Friday night was pretty crazy. It was in a suite
in the hotel that most of the wedding guests were staying at, on the top floor of a high rise. Apparently George Bush stayed in this suite when he visited Indy. There was an open bar and bartender, a candy buffet!, and a dessert bar. The candy buffet consisted of peanut butter-filled pretzels, gummy bears, m&ms, and chocolate covered blueberries in tall glass containers. I popped a chocolate covered blueberry into my mouth, and Mustard asked me if it was licorice, to which I answered yes, I think so. That was the first sign that my taste buds were way dead. The second sign was when I approached the dessert buffet, which had the typical cheese and crackers and fruit platters, as well as chocolate-covered strawberries (I ate about 10 of these), chocolate chip cookies, and what looked like cake pops. I bit into the 'cake pop', and said 'hmm...I think it's ice cream.' Upon further inspection, I realized it wasn't very cold, and wondered aloud if it was chocolate covered frosting balls. Then someone told me it was cheesecake on a stick. RIP taste buds. May you and my nostrils someday work again.

On a random note, I had just seen a picture of $3000+ Christian Louboutin shoes in a magazine a few days ago, and thought wtf, who wears $3000 shoes. At the rehearsal dinner, one girl was wearing those exact shoes.

The wedding the next day was beautiful. It was in the garden of the Indianapolis Museum of Art, with the cocktail hour and reception held inside the museum. The wedding ceremony was the perfect length - about 20 minutes, and I got served a delicious bubbly cocktail with fresh raspberries as I walked into the ceremony area. Note to any friends getting married in the future: please keep your ceremony under half an hour, because that
's about how long my attention span is. The food at the cocktail hour blew my mind. I've been obsessed with the concept of soup served in shot classes, both because they're pretty and because I love soup, and they had three types of soup served in shot glasses at this wedding. If you've never seen this before, here's a picture:


They also had a gourmet cheese bar, and numerous delightful bites being handed out: fried risotto balls, SWEET POTATO FRIES SERVED IN SHOT GLASSES WITH SOME GARLIC AOLI (I loved these), lamb meatballs (I obviously didn't eat this), figs stuffed with goat cheese, just to name a few. The bartender asked me if I was over 18, and I was sad, because I had just turned 24 less than 48 hours ago.

For dinner, I sat at the head table with the rest of the wedding party and their plus ones. Mustard was pretty nervous for his best man speech, but he did great, which is good because I told him if he froze or got emotional in the middle of it, I was going to pinch him really hard. Mustard and I joked that I was Head Asian (there were 3 other Asians at the wedding, which we dubbed Happy Asian, Ambiguous Asian-we couldn't agree on whether or not she was actually Asian, and Short Asian..everyone else was Caucasian) since I was the only Asian at the head table. The sides were passed down family-style, but the main entrée items (braised short rib and marscapone ravioli with heirloom tomatoes) were served by the waitstaff. The ravioli waiters kept missing me and the groomsman sitting on my other side, and we were joking around with each other that they were purposely not giving us ravioli, when (I didn't hear this, but Mustard told me):...
Bride: (to wedding planner) The service is poor! Hummus hasn't gotten any ravioli! Look at her plate! It barely has anything on it!!!
[A minute later, server 1 appears next to Hummus with plate]
Server 1: Would you like some ravioli?
Hummus: Yes, thank you.
[15 seconds later, server 2 appears at Hummus' elbow]
Server 2: Would you like some ravioli?
Hummus: ....

When Head Asian wants ravioli, she gets ravioli. Hee hee, just kidding. :)

The sides were also good: fingerling potatoes, swiss chard, buttered radishes, and other stuff I can't remember, because I was too busy gawking at the DESSERT BUFFET - 2 different types of cake pops (double chocolate, and strawberry cake covered with white chocolate), red velvet whoopie pies, rice krispy treats, and FIVE KINDS OF CAKE. My favorite one was a hazelnut cake with nutella buttercream. <3 We stuffed our faces and danced up a storm.

Okay I'm still pretty sick so I'm going to sign off now and write about the post-wedding brunch later.


Thursday, May 5, 2011

Happy Cinco De Mayo

I'm so full I'm pretty sure I'm going to burst any second. I'm also disgusting.

Today I ate

3 donuts!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
a quesadilla
a cupcake
a latte
some soup
a banana
2 big margaritas!!! It's cinco de mayo, after all.
a giant burrito
frozen yogurt with fruit

Now I'm sitting up being sleepy from our not-so-wild evening out and waiting for HummusBoyfriend to arrive. Zzzzz.

Happy Cinco De Mayo. Cheers.

Monday, April 25, 2011

Basel the Basil II

I bought another Basil this year. I have high hopes for this one.

...even if he almost died overnight already

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Brown Bagging Lunch

I've had trouble getting back on a schedule since Spring Break a week and a half ago. Typically I'll cook a ton of dinner and then pack some for lunch the next day since microwaves/fridges are abundant. (Although some of the fridges in lab are decidedly food free :p)

Side bar: is Mario Batali not wearing pants?? I need to stop watching Iron Chef at night - I just get so hungry. In case you're curious it's Battle: Rice! And now I want risotto obviously.

Anyway we've been eating out a ton and I'm already tired of sandwiches after 2 days. Ideas for more interesting lunches I can bring that are pretty easy to put together?

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Glamping = glamorous camping

So a few months ago, Shorty was like 'let's go camping', even though Shorty is the least roughing-it person I have ever met, even more than me, and that's saying something. The boys were like "Let's pitch tents!" but the girls put an end to that real fast. So as a compromise, we decided to go to Hocking Hills for the weekend and do woodsy activities while staying in a nice cabin with 3 bedrooms and a hot tub.

We went ziplining and hiked in a beautiful forest with lots of interesting caves and waterfalls, but we also spent a lot of time at the cabin, making homecooked meals (I love having lots of foodies for friends), hanging out in the outdoor hot tub with wine, which is on the back porch overlooking the forest, grilling, roasting marshmallows around a bonfire, and watching movies. Highlights of our weekend food:

Granola and yogurt fruit parfaits (with THREE types of granola, and strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, bananas, and the best kiwis I've ever had)
Sandwich bar
BBQ grill out with hot dogs, meat kabobs, veggie kabobs, roasted carrots, potato salad
S'mores around the bonfire

Pancakes (plain, blueberry, banana, banana chocolate chip, and chocolate chip) with maple syrup and breakfast potatoes
Picnic lunch mid-hike: roasted eggplant and zucchini pearl barley salad, homemade potato salad, hummus, homemade bread, fruit salad, brie and rosemary asiago cheeses, brownies
West African Stew (slow-cooked in a crockpot all day while we were off on our hike) with crisp green beans that are tossed in minutes before serving...yummm


Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Did this blog die?

We are lazy :'(

I'll update on how grad life is. Had my rotation talk for the winter quarter. I'm finally getting really used to saying quarter. I think it went well. My PI said, "Good job. Nice shoes." I think that's good?

Unless there was nothing else good to say about my talk :'( But for reallies I think it went well. I liked the lab except for the nasty mice. I'm moving on to the next thing tomorrow so wish me luck!