Under the Sea

As mentioned in this post, I love Sharks. This weekend, while browsing Netflix in bed, I discovered that you can now steam Shark Week!! After watching enough episodes to make BaDing* want to never go in the ocean again, I decided we should get up and go see some real life sharks. There are a bunch of aquariums around, but my favorite one is too far away. We settled for a smaller aquarium that is closer to us, and here are some of my favorite parts:

[Seals][Sting rays and baby sharks][A grumpy fish that reminds me of BaDing in the morning][Jellies!][And finally, the shark tank][I was completely mesmerized]

Ruben finally got me away from the glass and to sit down at a reasonable distance, but after not nearly enough time, a class of about 50 children came in. It was ways too loud and crowded to stay. Maybe I should book an excursion to swim with the sharks for my next vacation. What do you think Krystle?

Playing in the Snow

I have a love/hate relationship with the snow. I love snow days, snowmen, snowball fights, snowboarding etc. but, almost everything else about snow, I can live without. This past Friday the weather started getting really gross around noon. I left work early (always a plus) and went home. I spent the rest of the night baking and hanging out with BaDing*. I was set on waking up early and going straight to my parents house to build a snowman. I can’t go through the Winter season without building a snowman. The next morning I woke up like a kid on Christmas and ran to the window to see over 2 feet of snow outside! It wasn’t snowing anymore which made it perfect snowman-building conditions and my street had already been plowed. I practically threw on my snow pants and dragged Ruben out the door.

I love my parents house in the winter. The backyard always looks so perfect covered in fresh snow. Obviously the second I arrive I’m stomping all over it and having snowball fights, making it not nearly as nice to look at. Even though it wasn’t ideal packing snow, we still had the best time building our snowman, Cedric.  

Calzones

I love all Italian food. BaDing and I had a craving for calzones the other day and decided to try to make some ourselves. We used this recipe and watched multiple youtube tutorials, but making the pizza dough into the shape we wanted was the biggest challenge! I have a whole new respect for the guys at the pizza parlors and I’m baffled by how easy they make it look to mold that dough into the shape they want. Our calzones came out so good (much better then we expected), but we definitely need to learn the proper dough techniques! Anyone have any tips?? 

The Best Week Ever

The events of this past week have completely changed my life! I have been completely M.I.A. and soooo busy, I haven’t even touched my computer. But, I have some exciting news! Me and Ruben are engaged!! I’m going to go float off to cloud 9 again. I promise I will be back soon 🙂

[Haha – He’s stuck with me now.. he’s clearly terrified]

Hubbas

Hubba’s is one of those hidden-gem dive type places in Westchester County that I’m just waiting to see on Diners, Drive-in’s and Dives.  Even as a hole-in-the-wall type place, people flock from far and wide to fight over one of the 13 bar stools that are available to their guests. We try to go at off times. Officially known as Pat’s Hubba Hubba, they are known for their amazing and addicting chili, laid back atmosphere, and one of a kind decor. Basically any hour of the night your craving hits, Hubba’s won’t disappoint – you can show up to 5:00 am and still get all the chili you could ever want.  BaDing and his buddies are pretty much obsessed with this place, and half of their high school memories are based around late night trips for their favorite meal – ordering “the usual.” It’s not just a loved by locals, it’s also been recognized many times for having the best chili in the area. If you ever make it there, don’t forget it’s cash only!

What to order, according to BaDing: Chili cheese dog wedge, chili cheese fries, and Hubba water. 

Birthday Blues

Some people love birthdays, others, not so much. I have always loved going out to celebrate anything, especially birthdays, but this year something wasn’t right. I wasn’t excited and I don’t know why. Maybe I’m just getting old.

I always plan my own birthdays and the past few years have been a little bit too much fun – which always leaves me with the inevitable problem, how will I top this next year. This year, I planned nothing… Then when my birthday weekend arrived, I got seriously depressed. I started making some calls, but nobody was able to come out and lift me out of my birthday blues. I was sitting around all alone and wondering why I did this and waited till the last-minute. BaDing tried to lift my spirits by taking me out to dinner and to grab a drink. It was slightly working, but I just missed my friends and couldn’t get out of my funk. We left the bar and came back to the apartment. As I opened the door and turned on the lights, all of my friends yelled “SURPRISE!!” My apartment was covered in decorations, there was champagne and bottles everywhere, and nothing but friendly faces each way I turned. I am still in shock that everyone was able to pull this off, and I knew absolutely nothing! It turned out to be such an amazing birthday that I will never forget. Thanks to everyone who made my birthday so perfect! *don’t mind the green wig in my hand. long story. 

French Fries

You all have a veryyyyy special treat today. Before the hurricane the only thing I bought from the supermarket was a giant bag of potatoes and some beer. The beer is gone, but the potatoes are still in the fridge. We have been making everything possible with potatoes; hash-browns, mashed potatoes, baked potatoes, you name it.  BaDing decided to take it to the next level and try his hand with french fries – which was a first for him. Just like me, whenever I don’t know how to do something, I refer to YouTube. He found this video, but decided to deep fry them instead of bake them. Here’s a creation straight from BaDing’s culinary kitchen…. and he didn’t even mind that I was annoyingly getting in his way and snapping pictures while he was trying to cook! The perfect side to the delicious cheeseburger he made me 🙂I’m so proud. He’s the best!

Shake Shack

A few weeks back I went to a wedding… Which was obviously open bar. Lets just say things got a little crazy. When I woke up the next day, the one and only thing on my mind was cheeseburgers. I immediately called my brother and BaDing and the three of us agreed on Shake Shack.

Shake Shack actually started out as a hot dog cart in Manhattan… and now it’s known as a “modern day ‘roadside’ burger stand that serves up the most delicious burgers, hot dogs, frozen custard, shakes, beer, wine and more”

Sounds good to me! By the time we got it together, met up and got there, it was practically dinner time. We arrived at the perfect time (right before dinner) and the line was actually short! I could have ordered the entire first panel of the below menu to myself, but instead settled for a Shack burger, cheese fries and a vanilla shake. We all scarfed down our food and decided to take some more to go… just for good measure. 

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!

First of all, I would just like to say this post is extremely overdue. Wayyyy overdue. Sorry for the delay everyone!

Now for the fun! I wanted to thank Momoftwosalums for nominating me for the Beautiful Blogger Award, the Very Inspiring Blogger Award, and the Kreativ Blogger Award. Also, thank you to How Bout Some Cake, My Travels & Photography and at350degrees for nominating me for One Lovely Blog. I can’t thank you all enough! I want you all to know that I really appreciate you thinking of my little blog! I am glad you enjoy my blog as much as I enjoy yours.

For each separate award, the rules are as follows:

[1] Thank the nominee and link back to them in the post
[2] Share 7 random facts about yourself [x4=28]
[3] Nominate bloggers you admire
[4] Contact them to let them know they’ve been nominated.

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Now, for the random facts… hopefully not too random.

• If I don’t have my phone on me, I feel like I’m missing a limb.
• I would bake any dessert in the world, but when it comes to cooking actual meals – touching raw meat really freaks me out.
• When I go to parties, I bring my funnel as my date.
• I dream of seeing the world.
• I’m an extremely loud person (just ask my parents or BaDing), but when I laugh really really hard, it’s silent. I never understand that.
• I have a crazy fear of choking, and I wont watch any movies where someone chokes – (I hate the movie Mrs. Doubtfire. Ug, just thinking about it makes me cringe.)
• Reality TV is my guilty pleasure.
• The only bone I’ve ever broken was my middle finger. Knock on wood!
• I prefer swimming to walking.
• My favorite movies are Clueless and Mean Girls. I will never get over them.
• I’m obsessed with my dog.
• I love documentaries.
• I seriously look forward to Shark Week and watching it with my dad… my mom and brother make fun of us.
• I eat Uncrustables for lunch all the time. BaDing says I eat like a 5-year-old.
• My favorite part of going to professional sporting events is the hotdogs and beer.
• I will beat you in Monopoly.

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The amazing blogs I am nominating are:

A Ray of Sun 

Twenty Something

Pearls & Lace

Like a Fat KidI insist you go and check them out immediately! Thanks again 🙂

Lasagna

I love all Italian food… and by love I mean eating the food, not cooking it [desserts are more my thing]. Lasagna is one of those foods that I have always wanted to make, but since it’s one of my favorite foods, I can’t bear the thought of putting in all that work and it not turning out amazing. I have really high expectations for lasagna. BaDing has been asking me to try to make it for quite some time now so I finally decided to take the plunge. I googled “The best lasagna EVER” and clicked on the first recipe that popped up. The pictures were so enticing, I didn’t have to look any further.  I changed up a few things to make it more to our liking – It wasn’t nearly as hard as I imagined and I will definitely be making this again.