Baked Ziti Fail

heaven in my mouth...

I am not sure what came over me (perhaps my previous post inspired me), but I thought it would be a good idea to attempt making a meal of food. Well, let's just say hindsight is 20/20.

I felt super ambitious yesterday and looked up a recipe for baked ziti. Now, the only baked ziti I have had in my life is from Fazoli's, which was heaven in my mouth. In my research efforts, I was good - I researched recipes on good ol' weight watchers, printed off the recipe and went to the store around the corner. I purchased all my ingredients except for spices. Why the hell are spices so expensive? Did all the spice manufacturers get together and decide they would all jack up the prices? It's dried leaves for crying out loud. No, I will not pay $6.00 for this tiny jar. Time to get creative. Ah, the "Mediterranean Spice" made of oregano, rosemary and "other spices". Good enough. Mind you the recipe called for Basil, Oregano, Fennel Seeds and Thyme. I thought this Mediterranean mixture would be suffice. By the way, fennel seeds - what the hell is that?

I followed the directions but somehow miss the most important part: cooking the noodles. I browned the meat, chopped up the onion and pepper, added my "Mediterranean spice" and tomatoes. I then just dumped in the box of uncooked noodles. Nathan asked me a few times if I needed to cook them. I reassured him no, the directions didn't call for cooked noodles (or so I thought). I dumped some cheese on top and threw my concoction in the over. I pulled it out 20 minutes later and well, it looked strange. It was supposed to be bubbling at this point. Mine was dry as a bone. Hmmmm. I then look over these jacked up directions and see my mistake. Listed as an ingredient: "12oz uncooked whole-wheat pasta, ziti, cooked according to package directions". I stopped reading after "ziti". I skipped the 5 most important words. Fail.

Well, I just added water, threw it back in the oven and prayed for the best. Well, let's just say no one was running up for seconds. I just doused mine in this mysterious Mediterranean Spice and it was edible, mainly because I was so damn hungry. Lesson Learned: must read all parts of the ingredients and directions.

Proof I am an idiot...here is my failed recipe:
Ingredients
3/4 pound(s) raw turkey sausage, casings removed
1 medium onion(s), chopped
1 medium green pepper(s), chopped
28 oz canned diced tomatoes
2 Tbsp canned tomato paste
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp fennel seed
1/2 tsp table salt, or to taste
1/2 tsp black pepper, freshly ground
12 oz uncooked whole-wheat pasta, ziti, cooked according to package directions
6 oz shredded fat-free mozzarella cheese

Instructions
• Position the rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F.

• Crumble the sausage meat into a large saucepan and brown over medium heat, stirring often, about 4 minutes.

• Drain off any fat, then add the onion and bell pepper. Cook, stirring often, until softened, about 3 minutes.

• Stir in the tomatoes, tomato paste, oregano, basil, thyme, fennel seeds, salt and pepper. Bring to a simmer, then reduce the heat and cook uncovered 5 minutes, stirring often.

• Stir in the pasta (Note: it doesn't say "cooked" pasta) and half the grated cheese. Spread evenly into a 9- X 13-inch baking pan. Top evenly with the remaining cheese.

• Bake until the cheese has melted and the casserole is bubbling, about 20 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes at room temperature before slicing into 8 pieces and then serve.

Not all pots are created equal

Since moving in with the boys, I have learned a few things, mostly surrounding the dishwasher.

I know all pots are not created equal but what I did not know is that not all pots can be washed via the dishwasher. I mean, there is a pots and pans setting, so I don't get it. But then again, the last set of pots and pans I owned was from college which were purchased at a garage sale and my dishwasher in Chicago was named Denise (she did a hell of a job, by the way). Nathan informed me that the cheaper pans are dishwasher friendly. These have circles on the bottom of them; therefore, Denise will only use pans with said circles when boiling water - that's all the cooking this girl can handle. I make mean spaghetti noddles.

Another fun fact about these fancy pots - they can not be friends with forks, knives, spoons or anything else made of metal. It scraps off the fancy protective stuff. Explains a lot now. I always wondered why mine looked like shit. I was not aware of this no metal rule.

I think these helpful tips and tricks will make me a better housewife, someday. Now that I know how to clean these pans, I only have to learn how to cook in them. Baby steps...baby steps.

Operation Skinny Bitch Underway

Since moving to NYC, I have done a lot of eating and drinking. I have not done at lot of running. Correction, I have not done any running. Therefore, I have become a little chunk monkey and this needs to change.

Chunky Monkey

Today, I started weight watchers, yet again. I have a love / hate relationship with these people. They basically starve me so that's why it works. 19 points a day. And wine counts for 2. Now, I am no mathematician but pretty sure that is 10% of my total points of the day. Guess my ass better get to running. More miles, more drinks.

My goal is to be my ideal weight by my birthday, which is totally feasible. At least that is what I am telling myself now...

In other roommate news...
Sam had a massage today. He left an hour early "to go to the water room". I have never heard of such a thing in my life at a salon. He informed me this is the steam room and sauna. Pretty sure that's just called the steam room and sauna room, but you can make it sound more fancy if you want to.

We opened the windows of our apartment today and I am very nervous because we don't have screens and I have a curious cat. Not sure if she would land on her feet, but I am pretty sure she would use all 9 lives on the attempt. But they are barely cracked, so we should be ok.

Some quotes today,
Nathan - "Denise, will you get the renters insurance in your name."
"Ugh, sure." long pause. "How do I do that exactly?"
...I have not had renters insurance since college and my parents set it up.

Watching the Bachelor Pad (we love trashy TV)
"Would you stay with him?"
"Well, at that point, I would probably be a bottle deep in wine, so sure."
"Classy"

I also started watching Season 2 of Will & Grace today. It makes me a little nervous how much our lives resembles theirs..They are co-dependant on one another. And well....

I like my money where I can see it - hanging in my closet

Hi, my name is Denise and I have a shopping problem. There, I said it.

Since moving to New York, I have been a little shopaholic. Seriously. I have discovered the boutiques in SoHo and I love them...LOVE them. My favorite, Olive & Bettes.

Yesterday, we went to brunch at Dom Caminos. I love brunch. Brunch to me means lunch with alcohol. Post brunch, we went to have a glass of wine before hitting up the shops. Worst. Idea. Ever. After having 3 glasses or so, I was turned lose in SoHo, just rearing to use my credit cards and not having a care in the world as to what anything costs. My first stop, Olive and Bettes.

Man, these girls are good. They can spot a real sucker when they see them. I went to the fitting room with only 2 dresses. They however, bring me back jeans, sweaters, vests, belts - and I loved everything. I left with a new cashmere sweater vest thing, skinny gray Citizen Jeans (that I LOVE) and a pair of cargo pants. I am not even going to mention the total cost. Sober Denise today hates Drunk Denise of yesterday. 

 I then made it across the street where the whole store was 60% off. I bought 3 tanks, a scarf, sweater, shirt and shoes. Again...with everything 60% off, one would think the total damage would not be that bad. Wrong. Fail Denise...fail.

I then decided it would be great to get yet another pair of shoes. I had just purchased a nude pair of heels at the previous store, but I thought why not get another? They are different styles after all. And then I see a pair of boots I "just had to have." Boot season is right around the corner and I purged most of my boots before the big move. Therefore, I had to get them. Plus my friend Kim in Chicago had a similar pair and I loved them...this just added to my justification. They rang up the total and I thought, "wow, that is cheaper than I thought." I sign away my name and leave the store. Then, the sales lady runs after me down the street. She forgot to charge me for the boots. Of course. That's why it was $100 less than what I thought, but drunk Denise just thought her math was off or something was on sale. I went back in and swiped the card yet again.

Post shoe indulgence, I made my way to the MAC store. I have never left MAC shy of $100. My one success today - $40! This made me happy, so on this note, I called it a day.

Nathan and Sam said they are going to have monthly meetings and review my finances. Little do they know, I will hide shopping bags and lie about everything. This should work out just fine.

It's so cute - how can you not want to shop here?

It's even super cute on the inside.
I seriously love this place..

Home Sweet Home?

Home Sweet Home?

Well, friends and family - we have finally created a blog for everyone to follow our crazy adventures here in New York. And by "we", I mean me, Denise.

Let me bring everyone up to speed on the past few months - I moved to The Big Apple in April of this year after 3.5 glorious years in Chicago. Unilever decided it would be a good idea to close down our amazing office in Chicago and move us to the thriving metropolis of Englewood Cliffs. I used to overlook Michigan Ave, Lake Michigan and Millennium Park - now I overlook the beautiful Palisades Parkway. Definitely a downgrade.

Sam & Nathan joined me in June. We each had corporate housing for a few months - Nathan & I down in SoHo; Sam in the heart of Times Square. My corporate housing ended the first week in July, so I couch surfed between Nathan and Sam's place for the month. Yeah, who is a grown up now? Once I moved in on the couch, the race was on to find a place. We knew that we wanted to live in the city - no Jersey for us. We decided before we moved from Chicago that the 3 of us would be roommates Will & Grace style. So, we began our search for the perfect 3 bedroom in Manhattan the beginning of July. We had about 3 brokers at one time looking for us. We looked at over 30 places, at least. We initially had our search in the village area and then we realized we couldn't afford it. So we expanded to anything north of Houston and south of 86th street..pretty wide search.

We first saw our place with our one broker, Pam. Nathan and I liked it, but it was one of the first places that we looked at it, so we didn't have a good benchmark yet. After looking at a dozen other places, we saw that our apartment was on our list to look at with our other broker, Sean. We saw it and jumped on it. I find this broker thing in NYC to be a bit ridiculous. I mean, you basically pay someone a month and a half rent "finders fee." Thank goodness the Big U was covering it for us!

So, now here we are. We have been in our apartment now for 3 weeks and it finally looks like a home - complete with our own washer/dryer in unit, normal size kitchen appliances (and updated as well!), 2 bathrooms, window A/C (thank God - I greatly under estimated how much I love air conditioning), hard wood floors throughout and a ton of space! Our total apartment is over 1600 sq.ft. - which is "big" according to NY standards. And it's a real 3 bedroom - you wouldn't believe some of the places we saw that claimed to be a 3 bed...the living room does not count as a bedroom people! Each of us has a closet...again, this is something that we just assumed came with a bedroom, but turns out, we were wrong. And our location is great - Hell's Kitchen. Now, the outside of the building looks a little sketch (as seen from picture above). It's an old warehouse they converted into loft apartments. The staircase up to our place is also super shady. There are also some lawsuits against the management company that are posted by the door, but we were told not to worry - see if this comes back to bite us. But, after hiking up the 4 flights of stairs, the actual apartment is amazing. We all love it. After a dozen trips to Home Depot, numerous trips to Bed Bath and Beyond and 2 torturous trips to Ikea - we now have a place where we can all call home!

Our large living room - yes, a real living room!

Now decorated - complete with our new 55 inch tv -
Sam and I lugged this bitch up 4 flights of stairs.

Our Kitchen! I have learned that you can't put pots & pans
in the dishwasher or knives. These boys might make me a
housewife afterall.

Hi Sam & Alex!

Sam's master bedroom - fit for a queen!

The Holy Grail! Huge win here...HUGE.

Nathan's itty bitty room. He doesn't have a window.
But the room fits a queen, dresser and TV -
and has a make shift closet.

My bedroom - the wall to wall furniture room.
Note the Chicago print - LOVE this picture.

My multi-functional desk & vanity.
We also have 4 of these Ikea book cases...super handy.