Tonight Jared and I finally used a gift card to the Cheesecake Factory and enjoyed a nice meal out and about after hiding from the storm all day.

Our closest Cheesecake Factory is in the Prudential Center.  Normally it’s jam packed with tourists and with people staying at the hotels in Copley, but I hoped that with today’s snow, the crowds would be at a minimum.  I was right.  We walked in and were immediately seated at a booth in the very back of the restaurant.

I started my meal with 2 pieces of bread.

Jared and I both ordered glasses of Mark West Pinot Noir.

Biggest. Salad. Ever!

Jared actually asked the waiter, “Is that all for one person?!?!”

I knew I wouldn’t be able to finish the whole thing so I just ate until my stomach felt comfortably full.

I’ll be able to enjoy the 2nd half of this salad for lunch tomorrow.

I don’t know how Jared had room for cheesecake; he devoured his entire plate of Mahi Mahi.  But he was so excited about the Red Velvet Cheesecake so I agreed to split it with him.

Mmm, layers of red velvet cake and cheesecake with cream cheese frosting and white chocolate shavings.  Between the two of us, we ate a little bit more than half.  It was so rich and filling!

It was refreshing to escape the apartment after spending the day sitting inside, alternating between working at the computer and watching TV on the couch.  FYI: Repo Man is a really gory movie, but surprisingly I enjoyed it.

(Thank you to my aunt, uncle, and 4 cousins for the Cheesecake Factory gift card!  I know you guys have probably been waiting for this post since Christmas time.)

Yesterday I felt like I was kicking ass and taking names.  I crossed a bunch of things off of my To Do list.  I ran errands.  I took a spin class and went out to dinner with friends.

Today was a completely different story…

After running yesterday’s errands that forced me to crisscross my Boston neighborhood and a strenuous spin class, I ordered a chicken sandwich from b.good.

I had leftover frozen yogurt for dessert.  Miles waited patiently so he could lick the bowl when I finished.

I went out to dinner at Pops Restaurant.

I enjoyed a glass of Gruener Veltiner while sitting at the bar, waiting for my dinner to arrive.

I ordered Butternut Squash ravioli with goat cheese beignets.  I had ordered this before and loved it so I knew it was a wise dinner decision.

My great day ended when I watched the latest episode of the Bachelor and then read blogs while relaxing in bed.

I woke up early this morning and knew something was a little off.

Despite the lack of food in my stomach, I was sick for hours.  Once I was able to leave the bathroom, I spent my day sleeping on the couch, sipping on lemonade, and trying to take a few bites of a bowl of oatmeal.  Miserable!

I was barely able to put a dent in this huge bowl of oatmeal.

The snow continued to fall so it was nice to stay warm inside.

Jared bought some tomato vegetable soup for me to eat for dinner.  I appreciate his care and concern during my crazy sickness, including putting blankets on my so I could sleep on the couch and placing a large bowl beside me just in case.

Oh what a difference a day makes!  I can’t wait until tomorrow when I’m feeling back to normal.  Fingers crossed.

My mom needed to be in Boston for a dental conference on Thursday and Friday.  Between the impending snow storm forecast for Wednesday night and her early class on Thursday morning, she asked if she could spend Wednesday night at my apartment to make her AM commute much easier.

It’s my mom…  How could I say no?!?!

My mom took a train to Boston and arrived in town around 5 pm.  We walked from Back Bay Station to my apartment so we could drop off her luggage and go grocery shopping.

Unfortunately my key broke in the lock of my front door and we were stuck outside in snow!  We decided to haul her bags to the grocery store while we waited for Jared to get home and unlock the door with his key.

I bought the groceries and my mom cooked dinner.  It seemed like a fair trade.  She cooked tacos using ground turkey.

In an effort to get Jared to eat more vegetables, my mom chopped tomatoes for taco toppings.  Normally I just stick with cheese, lettuce, and cucumbers.

Being the Super Mom that she is, my mom cleaned my kitchen while she was cooking dinner.  I could get used to having her around my apartment…

I had hoped to have dinner at the table, but my papers and laptop were all over the place.  So my mom, Jared, and I sat together on the couch and ate our tacos while watching TV.

I used plain Chobani in place of sour cream.  It’s a healthy alternative and I love Chobani’s flavor.

I had 3 soft shell tacos and a small plate of just taco fillings.  Mmm, tacos are one of my very favorite meals!

My mom likes to dog through the Prize Box at the dentist office where she works.  She’ll often grab trinkets and treasures for me.  She’s always on the lookout for rubber ducks and I have amassed quite a collection.  Her latest find: a mini-puzzle for Valentine’s Day!

Mom had her work glasses in her bag because she would need them for the dental conference.  I tried them on and used the magnifying lenses to get an up close look at the little hamster pictured on my puzzle.

I can’t imagine being so zoomed in on people’s teeth all day, every day.  My mom loves her job as a dental hygienist.  She’ll talk teeth for hours on end and if you ever have an issue with your mouth, she’s one of the best people to ask for advice.  On Christmas, I caught her examining 2 different relative’s teeth over the course of our family party.

I could never be a hygienist.  I give my mom a lot of credit.  I only wish I can find a job that I love as much as she loves hers.  That’s what I admire most about her: My mom genuinely loves the career that she has chosen and she gives 110% every day that she’s in the dentist office.

Huge thank you to Jared for sleeping on the couch.  I hope my mom got a good night’s sleep sharing the big king-sized bed with Miles and me.

My mom was up and at ‘em a lot earlier than I was.  She had places to go and new dental tricks to learn.  When I finally dragged myself out of bed, Miles and I headed to the back yard to check out the latest snowfall.

My poor little corgi!  The snow is getting too deep for his short corgi legs.  He had some success walking carefully on top of the snow.  But eventually he fell up to his chest and had to hop and carve out a path so that he could get back in the apartment.  I don’t even want to bother trying to dig out my car.  Maybe I’ll wait a few days and see how much snow will melt on it’s own.

I can’t wait to meet my mom for dinner tonight.  I hope she will be able to grab a lot of tooth brush and tooth paste samples from the dental conference expo.

In an attempt to stay warm and keep myself entertained indoors, I tried to make my own chicken soup recipe, sort of from scratch.

The soup was edible, but not awesome.  I didn’t write down the recipe because I didn’t actually measure any of the ingredients I used.  Besides, only the most delicious recipes are worth repeating.  This one was ehhh.

Thankfully I learned a few soup making lessons that will be helpful for future cooking attempts!

I googled “easy chicken soup recipes” for inspiration, threw some ingredients on my counter, and got started slicing and simmering.

I dumped a box of chicken stock into a pan and set it to low heat while I got everything else ready to add.

I sliced 1/2 of an onion and a few celery stalks.  Then I tossed them in a pan and added a tablespoon of butter.

I chopped a few carrots and added them to my vegetable pan.

I continued to heat the vegetables so they would soften.

I moved the broth to one of my stove’s broken burners so I could cook 2 cups of elbow macaroni.  When I make soup again, I’ll use egg noodles or another small type of noodles.  (The elbows didn’t do anything for me, but I had extra hanging around from when I made mac & cheese so I wanted to finish the box.)

Mmmm, it’s starting to look pretty good!  I added the vegetables, salt, pepper, and some Italian spices and my soup was almost complete.

I just had to wait forever and a day for my frozen chicken breast to cook all the way through.

As I waited for the chicken to cook, I noticed that I definitely didn’t have the proper broth to ingredients ratio.  My soup was more like a bowl of damp pasta and vegetables.  Oops.  Next time I’ll combine chicken stock and vegetable stock!

Minimal effort but not the best way to make chicken soup.  I’m not going to complain too much: the temperature was in the single digits and the windchill was below zero so the fact that my soup was freshly made and piping hot made it perfect for Saturday night’s dinner.

Lunch: Cucumber wontons and a few chocolates

Dinner: Pad Thai with chicken and a bottle of 2009 Domaine du Chateau d’Eau Pinot Noir

Exercise: 20 minutes on the Stepmill and a quick 1 mile run (treadmill set at 7.5 mph aka an 8:00 pace) followed by 10 minutes in the sauna

Fun: Watching the dogs frolic in the yard

Frustration: Trying to control 2 wild and crazy animals while trying to clean my apartment

My yard was taken over by 2 wild and crazy animals.

Eww, yellow snow! It’s everywhere I look.  I can’t wait until some fresh accumulations arrive to cover it all up.

Best friends or worst enemies?  You decide…

These two dogs played outside ALL day.

Many sticks were chewed.

Weber and Miles ran laps and wrestled.

I hope these 2 got their energy out because I’m looking forward to a quiet night.

Jared and I went to our respective gyms for quick workouts right before they closed.  Then we ordered Pad Thai for dinner.

I love that one order of Pad Thai always leads to leftovers.

I piled one serving onto my plate and put my leftovers in the fridge.  I always have to do that right away or else I run the risk of overeating.

Mmmm, that was a good dinner.  And a good Saturday!

*Hope you’re having a great weekend!*

I received some new baking dishes for Christmas and promised Jared that the first thing that I cooked would be his family’s recipe for baked macaroni and cheese.

Jared’s mom e-mailed the recipe right after New Year’s and it’s taken me over 2 weeks to get it together and get cookin’.  I scribbled some recipe notes and grabbed a wine glass filled with Pellegrino and a lemon slice.  Gotta feel fancy while I’m making a mess in the kitchen.

I gathered my interpretation of the ingredients that I’d need for the recipe:

• 2 cups of milk
• 2 cups of shredded cheese (sharp cheddar flavor)
• 2 cups of macaroni (cooked)
• 4 tablespoons of vegetable oil
• 4 tablespoons of flour
• salt and pepper
• 5-10 drops of Tabasco sauce
• 3/4 of a bag o frozen peas
• bread crumb topping (optional)

Things got off to a rocky start when I blended 4 tablespoons of vegetable oil with 2 cups of flour.  Umm, no!  My cheese sauce would’ve been WAY too thick.

Easy fix: I dumped the contents of the bowl in the trash and decided to start over again.

4 tablespoons of oil and 4 tablespoons of flour – much better!

I think I cooked a bit more than 2 cups of pasta.  You can never have too much of a good thing.

Shredding 2 cups of cheese was going to be a lot of work.  I think I need to get a bigger cheese grater!

I’m glad that Jared was hanging around to lend a hand.

I added milk and cheese to the mix.  Plus salt and pepper and a little bit of Tobasco sauce.

Whisked and ready to go!

I dumped the macaroni, peas, and cheese sauce into a big bowl.

After a few minutes of stirring to make sure everything was properly blended, the mac and cheese was ready to go.

I spooned my mac & cheese into 2 casserole dishes and preheated the oven to 350 degrees.  I also sprinkled a few handfuls of bread crumbs over the top of each dish.

I put my mac & cheese into the oven to bake.  The small dish cooked for 30 minutes, while the larger one required 45 minutes.  While the food was baking, I grilled asparagus spear for a side dish.

I don’t know if it tasted exactly like his mom’s, but at least Jared seemed to enjoy my version.  I thought it tasted great.  Don’t let this small helping of baking mac & cheese fool you.  I went back for a 2nd helping!

*Do you have a family recipe for mac & cheese?  Let me know if I should add any ingredients next time I make this!*

I went to the Gallows last night for the Boston Food Bloggers Launch Party with Urbanspoon.

There are so many food bloggers in Boston!  I met quite a few new people, and saw a few familiar faces.  Including my college adviser who is now a low-carb food blogger.  What a small world!

SoCo Creamery was scooping 4 different flavors of their ice cream, fresh from their micro-creamery in the Berkshires.

I tried a cone of Espresso Cookie, a strong coffee flavored ice cream with oreo style cookies folded in.  It was delicious!  I was surprised that it paired so well with the glass of Barbera wine that I was drinking.

The Gallows was closed to the public so that all of the food bloggers could take over.  Wait staff was passing appetizers and I sampled a cheeseburger, fries drizzled with gravy, and buffalo chicken livers.  Everything was really good and now I can’t wait to go back to the Gallows so I can sit down for dinner.

Natalie and I were not quite ready to promote the Boston Day Book, but we had so much fun meeting people at the Boston Food Bloggers launch party and promoting our individual blogs.

The party ended all too quickly and Natalie, our dates, and I weren’t ready to call it a night just yet.  We decided to go to Union Bar and Grille to enjoy a sit down meal.

There were so many tasty appetizers, entrees, and drinks.  I had a tough time deciding what to order.

Why hello there.  My name is Melissa and I blog at Crunches for Cupcakes.

I was leaning toward ordering the gnocchi but when I told the waiter that I didn’t like mushrooms, he advised against it.  I changed the game plan and ordered the Beef Tenderloin with garlic creamed spinach and Yukon mashed potatoes.  I ordered the Beef cooked medium-well and it arrived exactly as specified.  It melted in my mouth for each and every bite that I took, and I cleaned my plate!  After an ice cream cone and sampling food, I thought I wasn’t hungry.  But my stomach had just enough room for this delicious dinner.  Thank God!

I was happy to get out of the cold night air and back to the warm apartment.  Worried that my corgi had missed me while I was gone, I decided to have some puppy play time.

We played dress up!   Doesn’t Miles look so handsome in his winter hat?

Miles is the cutest little Bruins fan I’ve ever seen.

Miles was less than thrilled that I was giving him so much attention.

He really wanted to make a quick getaway, but with the promise of a treat, I convinced him to sit still and wear the hat for a little bit longer.

Awww!   I really love this little dog…and he loves tolerates me.

Hot dogs at a baseball game?  Homemade apple pie? Turkey on Thanksgiving?

Everyone has ideas about the All American meal.  When I think of a basic home cooked dinner, my mind immediately focuses on American Chop Suey.  It’s a meal from my youth.  With each bite, I remember Tuesday night dinners with my grandparents.  My grandmother made American Chop Suey quite often.  It was easy and she was guaranteed that my brother and I would clean our plates.

I made American Chop Suey for dinner last night.  It was a good meal to make to use a lot of ingredients that were already in my kitchen and help me stay on this month’s tight food budget.

Ingredients:

• 1 pound of lean ground turkey
• 1 box of penne pasta
• 1 jar of pasta sauce
• 1 can of corn
• Basil and pepper as desired

While the pasta boiled, I browned the turkey.  Then I added the sauce and allowed the turkey to continue cooking.

Just before I was ready to serve, I added the corn.

Mixed well.

Served with a side salad.  Chopped Romaine lettuce topped with crumbled goat cheese and vinaigrette dressing.

I like football.  I like fireworks.  And with my American Chop Suey dinner, I’m an All American girl.

*What’s your favorite All American meal?*

Yesterday it snowed.  A lot.

I ate pizza.  A lot.  I had pizza for lunch and then leftovers for dinner!

It was a good day!

When I woke up yesterday morning, I wasn’t surprised to see snow on the ground.  The news had been forecasting the storm for days.  I spent my morning holed up at home.  Cleaning, blogging, letting Miles in and out so he could play in the winter wonderland outside.  By lunchtime, I was going stir crazy.  I ventured out for pizza at Picco.

I got home from lunch and didn’t even bother to take my boots off.  I got the dog harnessed and leashed.  The two of us ventured on a walk through the Gardens and the Common to my brother’s apartment in Beacon Hill.

Boston’s streets were a mess and most of the sidewalks weren’t shoveled.

The 1.6 mile walk to my brother’s apartment was going to be a challenge.  I was beginning to second guess my decision to brave the storm.

Miles’ enthusiasm kept me going.  That dog was thrilled to be out and about.  He hopped, sniffed, frolicked, ate snow, and found places to roll around.

Copley Square was deserted, except for a news crew reporting from the middle of the storm.  I loved the calm and quiet.  Trinity Church looked beautiful.

Over in the Gardens, things were not as serene.  People were frolicking in the storm, making snow angels on the empty Swan Pond, taking photos, and building snowmen.

I was carrying my point and shoot camera in my pocket.  So as Miles and I stomped through the snow, I was capturing scenic shots.

With so many people off from work and school, the Common was crowded with sledders and snowball fights.

As Miles and I made our way up Beacon Hill, our time in the snow was becoming a little less fun.  We were cold and tired and just wanted to reach our destination.

“Are we there yet?  I don’t wanna walk anymore!” Miles’ poor corgi legs needed a break.

I was so happy to warm up and dry off in my brother’s apartment.  Miles and I stayed for an hour and then it was time to go back out in the snow.  I wanted to get home to my apartment before it was too cold and dark outside.

I took an easier route home: Charles Street, the Gardens, and then back into my South End neighborhood.

It was COLD, windy, and the snow was still falling.  Poor Miles was limping because the harsh salt on the sidewalk was hurting his paws.  I carried him for a few blocks until he got too heavy.

I was thrilled when I made it back to my apartment and shut the front door, leaving the storm outside and returning to my nest of blankets on the couch.

Walking through the snow will work up an appetite.  I had 3 small slices of leftover pizza that I reheated for dinner.

Plus a small spinach salad with fresh mozzarella.

See, when I told you that my day was filled with a lot of snow and a lot of pizza, I wasn’t lying.  And when I told you that it was a good day, I was also telling the truth!

*Did you have a good day yesterday?  What about today???*

Well those photos are not going to go to waste.

Here are some glorious shots of my meals!

Closeup of risotto and steak.

Risotto, roasted brussel sprouts, and steak.

Butternut squash.

Roasted vegetable mix, topped with olive oil and Parmesan cheese.

Smoked Gouda and Roasted Pear sacchettes

Boiling the pasta.

Cooked pasta sacchettes.

Smoked Gouda and Roasted Pear sacchettes topped with red sauce and a roasted vegetable medley of butternut squash, grape tomatoes, and zucchini.

Dark chocolate Le Petit Ecolier (the Little Schoolboy) cookie for dessert.

Leftover Tandoori Chicken and white rice with a cucumber salad.

Spinach salad with cucumbers and avocado, Brazilian flavored tofu pieces, and couscous.

I’ve been tearing recipes out of old magazines so cross your fingers that those pages will be enough motivation for me to start getting creative in the kitchen.