Archive for January 2010

21 January 2010

Winter blues miss list

By: Jessica B.

Today, I cancelled my Match.com membership. And really, I’m okay with it, even if I do feel like a little bit of a failure. I haven’t been putting in the time or energy to weed out potential d-bags and Prince Charmings and I need a break.

When it’s winter in Chicago, few people go out like they do in summer and dating is a lot more difficult.

But now that its cancelled for a few months, I realized that a small part of the winter blues are settling in and there are a few silly things I’m missing right now:

  • Sunshine that actually warms your face and body
  • Crush-induced butterflies
  • Walks by the lake
  • Glee
  • Seeing hot boys wearing blue dress shirts and khakis on the bus
  • Not having to wear 2-6 layers of clothing to stay warm
  • Kissing a boy (or sloppy makeout sessions)
  • Grilling out
  • Slow dancing with someone you really like
  • The Office being actually funny and Grey’s Anatomy actually being interesting
  • Sitting outside and reading a good book
  • Skin-a-max in HD (Come on, you watch it too, don’t lie)

Hmm, after reviewing this list I’m either in heat or missing spring/summer. Maybe it’s time to start actually planning a vacation to address some of these missing needs.

Bringing home the bacon: 20sb bootleg

The 20sb bootleg award winners were announced yesterday and I’m so thrilled to share that my blog was the Last Chance winner!

WOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

That’s right, I am proudly posting that badge on this post to show off how happy I am that I won (seriously, I’m beaming) and say a big thank you to everyone in the 20sb network who voted for me.

You made my week and you all get a big inappropriate hug the next time I see you. Be ready.

Has anyone else hit the winter blues yet? January might be a little early :) Or what are you missing right now? It can be on TV, from boys or anything!

Movie review reminder: The Lovely Bones review is still up and a new review will be posted this weekend!

19 January 2010

Challenge: Six easy recipes (part one)

By: Jessica B.
Tagged: Food, Friends

I think just about everyone knows how (un)talented I am in the kitchen. But sometimes, I love a good challenge.

Recently, my buddy Maris posted on her blog “6 Recipes Anyone Can Cook.” Anyone? Really? I smell a challenge. And I decided to test that theory in two parts.

So over the long weekend, I tackled part one, which included making the following recipes:

  • Mixed Fruit & Nut Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette
  • Whole Wheat Spaghetti with Swiss Chard
  • Macaroni & Cheese with Peas

I did my research, went to the grocery store, got cookin’ and wrote a little review of each with an assigned level of difficulty (1 = anyone can do it, 5 = I’ll leave it to Martha).

And here’s how it turned out:

Mixed Fruit & Nut Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette

Photo borrowed (with permission) from Maris’ blog

Level of difficulty: 1

Review: I LOVE this salad. I make it regularly in the summer and when I want to mix up my weekday dinners. Sometimes I’ll substitute mixed greens for spinach and recently added chicken breast strips for extra protein. I love the mix of cranberries, raisins and crunch from the walnuts. Adding goat cheese makes even more heavenly. But be light with the balsamic, I overdid it once and it killed that entire bowl of salad. Ick.

Whole Wheat Spaghetti with Swiss Chard

Level of difficulty: 3.5

Review: This was the dish I was MOST nervous about making. When I read over the directions, I had a near panic attack at the thought of sauteing and simmering garlic. Then adding the cooked pasta on top of it and stirring? Hmmm, I’m more of a one box/pot dinner kind of girl. But this was easier to make than I thought it would be and the taste is amazing. Sure, I got a little burn from the olive oil in the frying pan, but once I added the cheese and noodles, it all came together perfectly. I made enough to eat this whole week for dinner. Note: I substituted the Pecorino-Romano cheese for Parmesan and it still turned out great.

Macaroni & Cheese with Peas

Level of difficulty: 2

Review: I love mac and cheese (or just cheese). Normally I blue-box it but I’m always looking for ways to make it healthier and natural (given that powdered cheese isn’t really…cheese). And the directions to make this are super easy, but somehow, I managed to mess it up a little bit. Somewhere between mixing in the cheese, milk and flour, it went a little awry. I blame that on the milk and cheese I used because I deviated slightly from the recipe and went with fat-free options. But it’s good and a great way to get a serving of veggies, although next time I would halve the amount of peas used or try other veggies too.

And that is part one of this culinary test. I give myself a B+ grade and agree that anyone could probably cook these, just make sure to take your time on the middle recipe because there are definitely a few extra steps :)

Part two will be coming up soon and I’m curious to see how I handle the next batch of recipes.

What about you? What’s the easiest dinner or recipe you like to make for weekends or weeknights? Do you get a lot of your cooking or dinner ideas online? Or do you have go-to resources for recipes and easy dinners?

Me on BlogHer! That’s right, yesterday’s post was picked up by BlogHer! Very exciting. You can check it out here.

18 January 2010

Golden Globes fashion recap

By: Jessica B.

Woooo! It’s officially award season, which means I become super fashion judgemental and share my b*tchy, catty comments with all of you!

So let’s kick this off by recapping the Golden Globes, my favorite of all the award shows (probably because people have gotten drunk pre-speech.)

Best/Worst Moments: Award show

Best:

  • Host/presenter: Ricky Gervais – Hilarious, drinking a beer and shamelessly self promoting. Love it all
  • Quote: “It’s God crying for NBC,” said by Tina Fey during the NBC pre-show. So true. I hope NBC gets herpes for what it’s doing to Conan
  • Acceptance speeches: Glee cast, Sandra Bullock and Robert Downey Jr. A nice mix of silly, sweet and sincere

Worst:

  • Presenters: Felicity Huffman/Mickey Rourke – Guess reading isn’t fundamental
  • Quote: “Give it up for yourselves,” James Cameron. Seriously, are you kidding me?
  • Commercial: Chrysler, thanks for inviting ME to keep watching the Golden Globes, which I was already watching on MY TV. FAIL
  • Acceptance speech: Anything with James Cameron
  • Camerawork: Too many moments to mention. NBC can’t even produce the show correctly? Who was controlling the camera throws?

Best/Worst Moments: Fashion

I have to say, this was difficult to write because I loved a lot of the dresses last night. But alas, I had to call out the ones that really shined and should have stayed at home.

Best dressed male/female:

I could not take my eyes off Penelope whenever she was on screen. Hair, dress, jewelry are all flawless. That’s a moviestar

Yes, I have a Glee crush on him, but the classic Hugo Boss suit can never go wrong on any guy

Best dressed couple:

They make anything, from the Gap and evening wear look adorable. Love Amy’s dress too

Worst dressed female (tied):

I have a feeling Tom Ford dressed her in this unflattering, shapeless ensemble and it breaks my heart

I love ruffles too but I don’t LOVE ruffles. Too much. Way too much. It’s like she sewed two frilly dust ruffles together

Best skank-free look:

Another great, age appropriate, classy look with a bit of edge. Also, I’m glad that she left the buttless chaps at home this time

An ode to Sham-Wow:

Hate the color, hate the overdone texture and that oversize bun (not shown). Not flattering but she could pick up any spills with that dress

Needs a reminder she’s not 20 anymore:

We get it Jen, you’re single, 40 and free. But I don’t want to see your “see you next Tuesday.” Sometimes covering up is classier than showing it all off

Dress doesn’t match body type:

She has an amazing voice but this full volume skirt just doesn’t work on her. Just because it’s De La Renta, doesn’t make it right

I usually love Tina’s choices but this skirt isn’t working for me or for her petite frame

Confused a nightgown with a dress:

We get it, you’re hot and a mom. Go back to bed or pump in the bathroom

Project Runway graduation:

Wearing Christian Siriano – Love the color and way it compliments her skin tone and hair. Ka-boom on the boobs too! Snap, damn

Best old Hollywood glamour:

Nicole’s choices can be hit or miss but the dress color and draping are great. Thanks for the nip outlines too!

LOVE this look. The mix of fabrics, headband and red lips are amazing. The more I look at it, the more I love it

Well the Oscars are up next and the judgement on that fashion will be much harsher than this. No mercy!

And sadly, I couldn’t include a picture of my dream man, John K, because all of them had Emily Blunt in it. I love Emily Blunt, just not with him. But he still looked hot (as always!)

What about you? Did you watch the Globes? What were your favorite parts or best/worst dressed? Did you love Ricky Gervias as host?

Review blog note: I also updated my review of The Lovely Bones this morning. Guess I was a little tired when I wrote it because I forgot to add some things :)

17 January 2010

Weekend recap: Magical trip to the suburbs

By: Jessica B.

Happy Sunday! I know the Golden Globes are on now but before I get back to putting together my fashion recap, I wanted to share a big adventure I had this weekend…to the Chicago suburbs.

Prepare yourself.

When you live in Chicago without a car, the options to get out to the suburbs are a little limited to wherever the Metra stops. And when you do go, it’s like playing tourist, just outside your city. The suburbs are…a magical place to a city girl. A strip of road can have Targets, Wal-Marts, grocery stores and restaurants lined up one after another. It’s sensory overload.

And I had the best reason to go out to the suburbs this weekend: celebrating Glee day with some of my awesome blogger friends at Erin’s house.

The Chicago city bloggers carpooled together and along the way, had our own little adventure that included:

My first trip to a Meijer grocery store. Seriously, I could spend all day there. I LOVE IT and talked about it all day. And the groceries were so reasonably priced ($1 for a two liter bottle of Pepsi) that I nearly passed out from shock.

Also, a Meijer employee helped me find something in the store and do you know what he said to me?

“Have a nice weekend miss, happy to help.”

AND it sounded sincere. WTF is up with that??? (Yes, I was nice back to him)

On our way out, we saw what has to be the smallest Stop sign I’ve ever seen. At night, I would run right through that.

And just before we arrived at Erin’s I jumped out of the (stopped) car to get a picture of this, another insanely overdecorated home for the holidays. This definitely beats the one I posted about.

The best part of the entire day? Just hanging out with friends, watching Glee, sharing our favorite lines and episodes and just catching up with one another. I love that no matter how long it’s been since I’ve seen these girls, whenever we’re together in person, it’s like we haven’t been apart at all :)

Oh and the food for this day was very exclusive to Glee fans too.

How was everyone else’s weekend? I’m off of work tomorrow and cannot wait to spend it cooking and relaxing. Is anyone else off tomorrow too? Or Glee fans, share your favorite songs or episodes!

Movie review up! TC and I went to see the Lovely Bones this weekend and I posted the review here

14 January 2010

Sweat it out

By: Jessica B.
Tagged: gym

I’ll be honest, I can be a little prissy sometimes. I like my hair to lay properly, my mascara to be perfectly applied and I hate sweating in my work clothes in summer.

But when I go to the gym, I LOVE to sweat. I love the endorphin kick and burst of energy that makes you want to solider through your torturous workout and work twice as hard at it.

And when I started taking classes at the gym, I felt that way too, but lately I haven’t. It was time to challenge myself and mix it up again. I love yoga and Pilates but sometimes, I need to just be active and physical in my workout.

So tonight, I balled up and took my first spinning class instead of striptease.

Why? I wasn’t in the mood to dry hump a fake pole or run my hands in a caressing way over my boobs, I wanted DO something.

And that bike beat me like a stepchild.

OMG the pain. The pain in my a** and lady bits. THE PAIN.

But I survived. I pedaled on that bike for 50 minutes (allowing 10 minutes here/there to rest) and I was sweating like crazy. Sweat was running down and dripping off my face, back, arms, legs, nose and chest. I could have wrung out my gym clothes after.

And when the lightheadedness faded away and I regained the ability to stand on my own, I felt…awesome.

Sure, I couldn’t do all the stands and jumps, but I finished.

I’m still a little intimidated to go back but I might. I love a challenge and this might be it for now. Plus, that sweat felt great while it was happening.

So what about you? Do you like a really aggressive workout or something more relaxed. Or have you done spinning? Please tell me this gets easier!