Kelly B.com

Unfortunately the Bridal Fair was a snooze fest. It was small so there wasn't anything to keep us busy for more than 30 minutes but on the bright side I got to spend time with Trevor away from our apartment and away from his computer. Next time I probably won't drag Trevor along and I'll probably just drop in towards the end. In semi-wedding related news I got my attendants gifts in the mail. :) I just got gifts for my bridesmaids and I know...I know...it's way too early for that, but I wanted to make sure that I could get 4 of the same thing. If you wait too long and try to shop bargains you'll never be able to get four of a kind of anything and if you do it'll be wildly lame. Speaking of bridesmaids, Emily went down and tried on the bridesmaid dress I liked since she's closer to good merchants in NYC than I am in CT. And she even took a picture with her camera phone for me to see :) What a great friend, huh? I won't post it though because the dre...

It's been a sleepy rainy day for me. I don't like to complain about real life too much (mostly because I don't like hearing other people do it) but after working 4 1/2 hours of overtime in addition to my normal 40 hours I felt a little overextended and decided to sleep in. Today was very uneventful. I didn't bake a single thing! I did however throw together a nice dinner of Seafood Risotto. I'm a huge risotto fan. I think it reminds me of a mix between mashed potatoes and rice. It's creamy, but flavorful. Not just mushy overcooked rice. For 2 cups of arborio rice there were about 5-6 cups of chicken stock slowly mixed and cooked in with clams and shrimp and topped with fish. It turned out pretty well considering I'm a novice with this kind of rice. I'm much more acquainted with Jasmine rice and I could probably cook Jasmine rice in my sleep. The only thing I was missing was wine. Not being a big wine drinker I didn't have any white wine on ...

It's taken a few tries, but I have finally figured out how to make a pie crust that is tasty, tender, flakey and practically fool proof! Now, I don't consider myself a great pie-chef. In fact, I often leave pie crust on the plate because it's not my favorite part of the whole pie experience, but with a few tweaks it's actually quite yummy. 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup shortening, chilled 3 tablespoons ice water 1 tsp almond extract (or any complimentary extract to our filling Mix, or sift together the flour and salt together in a mixing bowl. I don't think it makes too much of a difference. Try your best to mix in the shortening until it's crumbly. I personally like to cut up the shortening first into tiny bits before mixing. Slowly add in water and almond extract until it all comes together into a ball. And this is the greatest trick for dough I never thought of. Tear a big piece of wax paper and place it on your counter and dis...

I'm a self-described shut-in. I'm busy enough keeping my apartment ship-shape, spending time with my fiance, cooking our meals, running errands, going to work full time, sneaking in time for my family and planning my wedding. I simply haven't made it a priority to go out and party and do the things I used to do when I was single. Overall I lead a very simple, but fulfilling life and I wouldn't have it any other way. The only downside is that I spend significantly less time with Kim than I did before when our lives were less structured. She works a ton of hours in an attempt to dig herself out of debt. I entirely commend her efforts; it's never too late to take an aggressive stance and take control of your life before you feel defeated by debt and limitations that it puts on you. I think Kim realized that she needed to be more proactive in order to achieve some of her long-term goals like getting a new car, buying a home, getting married...etc. But this Saturda...

Trevor & I went to Philadelphia this weekend to visit his brother Devin. I actually haven't ever visited Devin in Philly, and Trevor had promised to help Devin with some computer building issues he had anyway so we took the opportunity to drive down this past weekend. We went down after work on Friday. It took a few delays before we actually made it out of the apartment for once and for all. I think Trevor was so nervous about traffic that it entirely slipped his mind to make sure everything else was ship-shape first. I just assumed he took care of everything since my parents always made it a point to walk circles around the house before they left, to make sure the stove was off, the garbage was taken out, the thermostat wasn't on high...etc. I suppose I just thought that it was common sense and that Trevor had taken care of it since he kept on bugging me to hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry up. But we still got to Philly just fine. We played on Devin's Wii (which was p...

Mei Tzu in 4 Prospect Hill Road, East Windsor CT. Trevor and I had sushi there on Sunday after realizing that Oishi was closed that evening. So perhaps we didn't start off on the best foot since we wanted something else. I got the fried dumplings and fried shrimp tempura. The tempura was way over-battered and the oil seemed to have lingering aroma. It didn't taste bad but I had the feeling the oil was tainted by something they fried beforehand, like fish or some other seafood. It was all cooked but it was just too thickly battered up so you could hardly taste the shrimp. Good tempura should have a very light crisp coating and not mask whatever food it's encasing. The dumplings I had were pretty good, but a tad too gingery. On the other hand, I got a very generous portion of 8 fried dumplings instead of the usual 4 or 5. Trevor had sushi because he can't go to a new place and not have the sushi. It was mediocre. I'd say 2 1/2 out of 4 stars for the overall ...

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Restaurant Review time!!! Oyama , Enfield CT. We went back last weekend because Trevor wanted to give them a 2 nd chance. Our first experience was particularly horrible, but perhaps their hot food would be better. Hot food has a tendency to be easier to throw together than sushi which is entirely dependent on a good fish distributor. They had hibachi grills set up and we thought that at least we could be entertained with an interesting chef. The first thing that hit me was how expensive it was. The menu listed one price, but once the bill came each entree came up being a few bucks more each. For around $20 an entree, it's pretty steep. I had the salmon and Trevor went for the steak. We had to wait around 10 minutes for a chef to come and start tossing food around. When you're at a restaurant with nothing to look at it feels like an eternity. Soup and salad came. Soup was pretty much just water and 4 paper thin mushroom slices; it was probably the sorriest excuse fo...

I also have this innate Asian mentality of showing my love with food. So I want to make food, and I want to feed my loved ones to show how much I care about them. I don't know a single Asian woman that doesn't want to make sure all of her loved ones are well fed. I guess it's just part of one's desire to nurture. I made some Chinese BBQ Pork on Wednesday (just the meat part of the recipe; I didn't have the patience to make the dumpling dough) and it was really good. I wouldn't say it's like the Char Siu you'd get at the Asian market with the pink-y sauce but still very savory and moist. Trevor insisted on having some duck this year so I brought home a duck and we baked it with some of his favorite teriyaki sauce on each side and then finished it with some time on the grill. I can't say duck is terribly healthy for you, but I think it's important to indulge yourself once and so often so you don't feel like you're just a robot. You sh...

I haven't threaded in a while. If by chance you aren't blessed enough to know what it is, you can read up on it right here . I have to say that I've been doing it for years and I still don't entirely like it. Long story short, it hurts a lot but it's effective and cheap and thus the reason why I do it. I probably don't do it enough, but it's hard to muster up excitement in regards to ripping out hair from your tender face. My mom does it and through a bit of mimicry I eventually learned how to do it myself. It's simple enough in principle but it's pretty tough to get your hands to want to cooperate. In any case, I've subjected many an innocent friend, family member of loved one to threading because I think that it's the best way to rid yourself of facial hair. Unless you're a guy I don't think you should ever run a razor across your face, and I've heard too many waxing horror stories where someone's eyebrow gets accide...