Progress Report: #5, #8

#5: Watch all MetaCritic best-reviewed movies of the past 5 years
Now that I've started to use the library in addition to my Netflix, I've been watching a lot more movies lately - hurray for summer! Last week, I got Ratatouille out of the library, which was the top reviewed movie of 2007. I have to say, while I thought it was cute, I don't think it was my favorite animated movie or even my favorite movie of 2007! In fact, at some times in the movie, even though everything's animated - it's still hard to watch hundreds of rats in a kitchen, making food. The thought kind of turns my stomach...but overall, still an enjoyable movie!


#8: Go to 10 concerts
Justin and I attended our 3rd concert this year (2nd since I started the list!) this past weekend - Paramore & No Doubt at Jones Beach! The concert was awesome - Paramore is a band that we've really started to like lately so we were excited that they were opening up and No Doubt has been one of my favorite bands ever since Tragic Kingdom came out, like 14 years ago! They played all of their big hits, plus other favorites - including ending with my favorite No Doubt song, Sunday Morning! The sets were awesome and included a big screen in the background that played some of their music videos in the background as they sung the songs or other fun graphics and the band was really energetic. Even J loved the concert, and he can be a hater!

Here are some pictures from the concert:
TBD

Long Awaited Progress Report

ENTERTAINMENT

#4: Watch all of AFI's 100 best movies of all time
We watched another best movie last week - #2: Casablanca!



This movie gets me excited - if no other reason than the incredible script - when watching it, you are bombarded with so many famous quotes. Also, it's a love story, complete with triangle, that can be argued over. It's not simple, it's not contrived, and there isn't the stereotypical happy ending. Per the discussion in When Harry Met Sally:

Harry: He wants her to leave. That's why he puts her on the plane.
Sally: I don't think she wants to stay.
Harry: Of course she wants to stay. Wouldn't you rather be with Humphrey Bogart than the other guy?
Sally: I don't want to spend the rest of my life in Casablanca married to a man who runs a bar. That probably sounds very snobbish to you, but I don't.
Harry: You'd rather be in a passionless marriage -
Sally: - and be the First Lady of Czechoslovakia -
Harry: - than live with the man... you've had the greatest sex of your life with, just because he owns a bar and that is all he does.
Sally: Yes, and so would any woman in her right mind. Women are very practical. Even Ingrid Bergman, which is why she gets on the plane at the end of the movie.

Here are some links to Casablanca reviews:
http://www.filmsite.org/casa.html
http://www.reelviews.net/movies/c/casablanca.html
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19960915/REVIEWS08/401010308/1023

Happily, Justin liked this movie better than Citizen Kane, not surprisingly since it has a much simpler, enjoyable storyline. It still wasn't his cup of tea, but I think we'll get him with our next movie, which we'll be watching this week hopefully - The Godfather!

FOOD WINE
#11: Try a new restaurant every month
I've actually already been to 3 new restaurants this month!
Lilli and Loo - an Asian restaurant on the Upper East, featuring a gluten free menu. I got the Pad Thai and it was deeeeelish!
Suspenders Bar & Restaurant - fun place down in FiDi with a surprisingly awesome looking menu, it was hard to choose! I ended up getting a Steak Sandwich with Goat Cheese, Roasted Onions, and Balsamic Syrup. Yum!! Plus, every Thursday and Friday they give out roses to all the ladies ;)
Maxwell's - a bar and restaurant in Hoboken, NJ. Also with loads of yummy looking dishes, including an extensive daily specials menu. I got a burger with jack cheese, sauteed onions and roasted peppers. Super mmm.

COOKING
#40: Make meal plans every week
#41: Try a new recipe at least twice a month
#45: Make fish at least once a month
New recipes since my last post include: Jam Cupcakes with Chocolate Frosting (which was also featured on my friend's website CupcakeRankings.com), Curried Couscous Salad (my lunch for the week), Chicken and Veggies Cooked in a Foil Packet, Cucumber Chicken, and my first fish dish in awhile, Lemon Sole with Veggies - a recipe of my dad's. I still have to add those last 3 to the blog - will do soon!

ORGANIZATION
#49: Scrapbook all my saved up stuff
Amazingly, after getting started on this scrapbooking project and letting it sit on the coffee table for a week or so after I ran out of scotch tape, I went back to it last week while cleaning up the apartment. I've officially scrapbooked all of my saved up stuff through the end of 2008! I can't decide if I should consider this completed, or if it's not completed until I start scrapbooking all 2009 goodies I've accumulated until now. Or if it's never really completed since I'll always have more to add...what a conundrum!

SOCIAL
#85: Host 4 game nights a year
#87: Go dancing at least 3 times a year
Last Friday night was our first game night in MONTHS!!! So happy to see the old gang, tho would have loved it if we had a classic board game night as in the past, where we go through 4-5 different games in a night! This time though, we got to try out group Rock Band for the first time, which was very fun. In fact, I will post a picture of our band to commemorate the occasion.


Lawrence, Rachel, Myself, and Mike

As for the dancing, on Saturday night, we went to a friend's birthday at The Delancey.

HOME
#95: Buy flowers once a month
I didn't have to buy flowers this month - our intern at work gave us all flowers on her last day! Not only was it a really sweet gesture, but it brightened up the office for the next week! Here's a pic of mine:

Progress Report: #13

So somehow tasting cupcakes isn't on my 101 list...but I feel like I may have to add it in there, especially if it involves tasting cupcakes I see on CupcakeRankings.com - or cupcakes that have yet to be ranked....but here's a cupcake picture diary from Saturday's wonderful cupcake tasting with Lawrence:


Baked By Melissa Cupcakes: 6 bite-sized cupcakes for $5



LB with his first mini cupcake...they really are bite-sized!


Smores Cupcake


Cookies & Cream Cupcake





Smores cupcake and Cookie Dough cupcake



Me with my Cookie Dough cupcake



LB cleansing his palate before his next tasting



One of my faves: the Peanut Butter and Jelly cupcake!



Top view



The glorious Tye Dye Cupcake







Peanut Butter Cup Cupcake!



Delish!


Next up: CupcakeStop! Mini cupcakes for $1 each:

Red Velvet and Double Chocolate



LB showing off his mini Red Velvet

Progress Report: #4

#4. Watch all of AFI's 100 best movies of all time

We started our quest to watch the AFI top 100 movies of all time list this week right at the top: #1 Movie - Citizen Kane.



This was at least the 4th time I've seen the movie and I still think it's amazing. I know it can be hard to watch, get a little slow in places, but I think that it's so clever. You can't watch it like you'd watch any movie now - first of all, you have to keep in mind that this movie is from 1941. Part of what's so intriguing about it is all the new (for the time) and interesting things they did - the way the story is told through flashbacks, the lighting, the camerawork which involved great angles and perspectives.

Here are some good reviews of the movie that provide some interesting background on the techniques used in the film, as well as the controversy that surrounded it at the time:
http://www.filmsite.org/citi.html
http://www.reelviews.net/movies/c/citizen.html
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19980524/REVIEWS08/401010334/1023

Progress Report: #7, #16, #41, #44, #49, #90

#7. Go to at least 3 Mets games each summer
This past Saturday, May 30th, J and I (along with J's sister and her roommate) voyaged back into Queens for another Mets game! While this one wasn't as good as the last one (half the team was out "resting" and they lost pretty badly), we DID get to take a picture with the old Shea Home Run Apple, which is pretty awesome.


#16. Try to find the best burger in the city
Another trip to Citi Field also gave us a reason to start our best burger quest! We each had a Shake Shack Double-Shack Burger and it was mmm mmm good! We decided to judge each burger we taste on 4 points: Taste, Presentation, Value, Overall each on a scale of 1-10.

Taste: 8

We liked the charbroiled taste of the burgers and the cheese to burger ratio. The burger came with a special shack sauce, tho I couldn't really taste it, it was overpowered by everything else.

Presentation: 5

Nothing really special on the appearance front. It looks like a homemade burger - kind of messy/sloppily piled together.

Value: 8

The double-shack burger was $8.25. We're not sure of how the prices compare with the Madison Square Park location (we'll be sure to try it out there as well) but we felt that it was pretty reasonable for a regular meal, let alone a ballpark meal. We were also so stuffed afterwards that we didn't really need to eat anything else.

Overall: 8

J: If I'm at Citi Field, this is hands-down what I'm eating.

C: While we ranked the burger for presentation and value, what's really important to me is taste, and this burger tastes GOOD. I'm in for more, both at Citi Field and hopefully sometime soon, at the Madison Square Park location.

#41. Try a new recipe at least twice a month/#44. Make (or order in) one vegetarian meal per week/#90. Keep blog updated and always have a picture for recipes
New June Recipes up! Includes Southern-Style Chicken Stew, Egg Salad Sandwich, my official new recipe of the week Saucy Pepper Steak, Penne with Veggies in a Ricotta Sauce, and Strawberry Salad with Balsamic Dressing. Yumm-o! Not only did I do a lot of delicious cooking this week, but got a lot of leftovers out of it, which makes for my favorite recipes.

#49. Scrapbook all my saved up stuff
So this week, our modem broke leaving us internet-less for a night. I took this opportunity to finally start organizing all the random stuff I want to scrapbook!! I've kept everything in this tote bag in my closet, so I had to organize it by year (going back to 2007, eek) then start scrapbooking! Unfortunately, the progress stopped when my scotch tape ran out. Doh! And now that we've got our internet back, it's all in a pile in my armchair. But! Now that I've started, I have a renewed yearning to finish, so I don't think it'll be there for long!

Progress Report: #3, #14, #44, #84

#3: Have Justin teach me how to golf
So, while Justin hasn't exactly started to teach me how to golf, we DID go to the Driving Range this weekend when we were in LI, so I figured I'd count that as to have something to share on the blog. He did his best to show me how to bring the club back correctly, how to flick my wrists, how to not jump up when I follow through. So I'm still in the infancy of my golfing education, however, I did hit a few balls relatively well AND even managed to hit the sign that said "Can't Hit This Sign?" a few times! I even have pictures to prove it, which I will add shortly.

#14: Go to brunch once every 2 months (not just at the diner)
Ok, so I'm only going to count this once, since we go here every time we're in LI (sometimes twice): Maureen's Kitchen. We are completely obsessed with this place!! Justin's sister introduced us to it last year and it's become an LI ritual ever since. It's about a 20-30 minute drive from J's parents house but well worth it. It's a small family-run place, super cute and kitchy decor (involving cows and cowprint everywhere) and is only open til 3 during the week and 1:45 on the weekend. They have a good amount daily breakfast and lunch specials every day, which are extremely creative and unique. Justin ALWAYS (a good 98% of the time) will get the Croissant French Toast of the day, which comes with cream cheese in the center (warmed from the french toast, sometimes flavored) and various fruits that change each time we're there. I tend to enjoy the lunch specials more and will more often get those - this weekend I did get an amazing omellete of chicken sausage, roasted peppers, scallions and asiago cheese. On our second go, I got the Cranberry Chicken Salad Sandwich with white cheddar, which was to die for and so large that I was able to take the second half home and eat it for lunch the next day (which is something I almost always try to do on our last day on the island, so I can bring some Maureen's love into work the next day. Countdown to our next Maureen's trip: about 29 days.

#44: Make (or order in) one vegetarian meal per week
Happily, it looks like I eat vegetarian for dinner a good amount! I ate my beloved Eggplant Rollatini from Abitino's on Mon/Wed (the portion is big enough to get two dinners out of it!) and last night I had a make-your-own Pasta Primavera in Pesto Sauce from The Bread Factory. What I need to work on next is eating more vegetarian meals that DON'T include pasta!

#84: Plan a group wine-tasting trip
Justin and I are planning two wine-tasting trips this summer to the North Fork! I finally took the initiative this week to email out dates and get the planning ball rolling. We're keeping the groups small so that we don't have to deal with a limo/van and the added costs there, which also cuts down severely on the stress and planning for me! Woohoo! I wish the summer was longer so that all the weekends didn't book up so quickly!

Progress Report: #8

#8: Go to 10 concerts (1/10)

My first official concert of my 1,001 days (DMB last month doesn't count since I hadn't started my list then!) was last night, and it was a great way to start out. Green Day at Webster Hall. For those who don't know, that is a RIDICULOUSLY small venue to see such a big band play at and I was one of the lucky 1400 who was able to get a pair of tickets! The concert was 2 hours and consisted of 2 halves; the first half was all songs from their new album, 21st Century Breakdown (with which I am fairly obsessed) and the second half was a free for all, with 3 songs from American Idiot, a few requests, and some all time greatest GD hits.

SET 1:
21st Century Breakdown
Know Your Enemy
East Jesus Nowhere
Before The Lobotomy
Last Of The American Girls
Murder City
Viva La Gloria (Little Girl)
The Static Age
21 Guns
American Eulogy (Mass Hysteria/Modern World)
See The Light

SET 2:
American Idiot
Jesus Of Suburbia
St. Jimmy
Longview
Coming Clean
At The Library (!!!)
80 (!!!)
Basketcase
She
Surrender [Cheap Trick]
King For A Day/Shout [The Isley Brothers]
Minority

I will post some of my best pics once I look through them, but for now I will put some links to some other site with awesome pics and reviews of the concerts:
http://www.brooklynvegan.com/archives/2009/05/green_day_webst.html
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1611789/20090520/green_day.jhtml
http://music-mix.ew.com/2009/05/green-days-live.html
http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/green-day-celebrates-breakdown-with-nyc-1003974931.story

Progress Report: #14, #40, #41, #44, #72, #90

#14: Go to brunch once every 2 months (not just at the diner) (1/16)

This one was unintentionally easy this month...we went to Brunch for Mother's Day with my family! We went to City Crab on 19th and Park, where I had the Eggs Copenhagen (like Eggs Benedict but with Smoked Salmon instead of the Canadian Ham) and a Pear Cosmo. Mmm!

#40: Make meal plans every week (2/143)
#41: Try a new recipe at least twice a month (4/66+)
#44: Make (or order in) one vegetarian meal per week (2/143)
#90: Keep blog updated and always have a picture for recipes

These 4 pretty much go hand-in-hand (in-hand-in-hand).

While last weeks meal plan was intricate and well thought-out, since I was out of town this past weekend for my 5th Year college reunion and came back late on Sunday night, with a cold to boot, this week's meal plan was much more haphazard. Lunches this week have consisted of sandwiches (which are actually pretty yummers) of salami, pepper jack, lettuce, sweet pickles and mustard. Dinners this week were Italian Order-In (Eggplant Rollatini mmm) which was large enough for two dinners and Cheesesteaks before the concert last night. Tonight will be the only cooking night and the menu is simple steak (marinated in lime juice) and baked sweet plantains, which have become a staple at our place recently.

As for new recipes, over the past 2 weeks I've tried:
Steak Tacos (which also produced follow-up lunch Steak Salad)
Aromatic Noodles With Lime Peanut Sauce
Chicken Parmesan
Falafel Pitas with Cucumber-Yogurt Dressing

And, obviously, have added those to the blog, check to #90! I still have to update the food porn. As for #44, last week I made Falafel Pitas for dinner and this week's big V-card goes to Eggplant Rollatini. All-in-all, my Cooking 101 list is moving along stronger than any other section! (Gee, I wonder why!)

I'll close out this lengthy progress report with:
#72: Visit all 4 boroughs (3/4)

This 101 thing is managing to fly by, though I fully intend to visit boroughs more than once. Now, the Bronx is unfair, my parents live there, afterall. I visited just last week to get my hair done! Queens was also easy peasy, with the Mets Game being located there (and with all the other games I have planned, I will be a repeat Queens visitor for sure! Brooklyn was a new one for me for a nighttime locale, but I was able to check this one off thanks to my friend Sheryl's birthday earlier this month, located at the very fun Radegast Hall & Beer Garden.

Progress Report: #7

#7 Go to at least 3 Mets games each summer (1/9)

I went to my first Mets game of the summer and first EVER game at Citi Field last night!! It was such a great night! First of all, even though it had been gray and rainy all day, the moment we got off the 7 train, it was bright, sunny with blue skies - perfecto! The stadium is so gorgeous, I fell in love with it. I love that you can see the field no matter where you're standing, I love that you can basically stand anywhere in the stadium no matter where your seats are, I love the new food area with seating where you can either see the field or a big screen of the game. I love it all! We got Shake Shack DoubleShack burgers for dinner and let me say MMMMM! Phenom. I'll have to make my way to the original one of these days... And the best part - Mets Win!!

Me in front of the new stadium!

J and I on line to buy tix for my Dad's b-day in July - that makes 3 more games I'm signed up for already!!

The view from our seats - Section 431, Row 1!

In the Shake Shack Line - a half hour and 3/4s of an inning, but well worth it!

Progress Report: #40, #47, #90

#40: Make meal plans every week (1/143)

Yesterday, I was bored enough at work that I started looking up recipes for next week's meal plan...which is much easier than my usual routine of trying to think up what to do on Sunday morning between when I roll out of bed and we head out for Brunch!

Week of May 11th
Lunches for the Week: Noodles with Lime Peanut Sauce
Dinner1: Chicken Parm
Dinner2: Falafel Pitas

Expect the recipes up on CareBear's Kitchen next week, in compliance with #90 Keep blog updated and always have a picture for recipes!!

Speaking of #90, last night I went through all the Attempted Food Porn pics I've taken over the past few months, some of which needed to be added to their respective recipes on the blog, and some of whose recipes had never been added...so I did that too! I also added new pictures of dishes I've made again (such as my Curried Chicken Salad and Tuna White Bean Salad)

New recipes/pictures:
Steak Salad
Steak Tacos
Cuban Sloppy Joes & Baked Plantains (picture added)
Chocolate Caramel Matzo (picture added)
Flourless Chocolate Cake
Gruyere Fondue with Carmelized Onions
Pear Raspberry Pie
Baked Shells with Winter Squash

#47 Upgrade my recipe binder (put everything online?)

Last night I started to look up some info on computer cookbook/recipe software for #47 on my list. Justin noted that I could be frugal and just organize it myself on my computer, but these programs just look so cool! They come with their own recipes, but you can also input your own. They can give you nutritional info for your recipes, which is handy, and you can search the recipes by the ingredients you have. Not to mention, that I'm an easy sell when it comes to purchasing a new toy... Now the question...which toy to buy?!