{dear friend}

beat the heat: a survival guide to living with no AC

July 17, 2012

Do you want to hear something crazy?

Well, hear this:

We have been living an air conditioned-free lifestyle this summer.

Did ya hear that right?

There is no AC up in here.

Crazy, I told you.

With today’s temperature rising to the high 90’s (which has been quite typical this whole summer) I sometimes wonder to myself if we’ve made some kind of mistake. But you know what? The more I think about it, the more I realize it’s been just fine.

YES there are times I’m so hot I want to cry (today might be one of them), but honestly for the most part, survival is easy.

This is how I do it:

1. Sit as still as possible when you are home. Moving around just makes you sweat and sweating is no fun.

2. Sit in front of a fan at all times. I am sitting in front of a fan right now as I type this and I am cool as a cucumber. Well, maybe not that cool, but I’m comfortable.

3. Keep a lot of goodies in the fridge and freezer. You know, cold drinks, delicious fruit, ice pops, and my personal favorite: cold York Peppermint Patties. OH, yum. Minty and refreshing. Those’ll cool ya down in a jiffy.

4. The occasional cold shower is good for the soul. And your rising body temperature.

5. A cool washcloth can help if things get really sticky.

6. No shoes, no shirt, no problems. Really, though, it works. And it feels darn good, too.

I’d been living with an air conditioner for the past 6 years, and I have to say it’s a luxury, and a dreamy one at that, but definitely something I can live without. I never had it as a kid, and Zan didn’t have AC growing up either, so I guess we’ve been trained to withstand the heat. Plus, we wanted to save on some electricity bills. We’ve got a really good fan, and will-power, too. And you all know how I feel about summer. I almost want to go as far as to say I rejoice in the heat. Give me hot temperatures over bitter cold New England winters any day and I will do a happy dance.

Do you have AC? Do you think you could live without it?

And if you don’t, got any more tips for us for keeping cool?

23 Comments · Filed Under: life, summer ·

live and let live (an adventure in OTTO pizza eating).

July 16, 2012

Last week I tweeted my blogger friend Melanie to see if she wanted to hit up OTTO’s pizza with me in Brookline.

1). I love Brookline.

2). I love Melanie.

3). I love a good slice of pie.

Melanie and I have been on a bit of a blogger food kick lately, if you will. Between pizza, crazy INSANELY amazing sweetest-treats-of-your-life brunch, and ice cream eating (post to come soon!), I’d say the two of us are reeeeeeally on top of our taste-testing game, and boy is it ever scrumptious.

Also, I had not yet been to the new posh pizza joint that is OTTO, but it was on my list of things to see and do since it recently came down to Boston from Portland, Maine. Anything from Maine has to be quality, it just has to be, and so, Thursday came around and Melanie, my sister Meg, and I all went out for pizza pie.

The great thing about being a blogger and having blogger friends who live close by (especially a food blogger friend) is that they will always agree to go places with you and they won’t care one bit if you are embarassingly taking pictures the whole time. My sister Meg, on the other hand, does care about that kind of stuff, which sometimes makes it hard to go on crazy blogger photographer mode when she’s with me having a meal out.

But the light in the place was just so glorious. And the atmosphere just screamed “BLOG ABOUT ME!” (as I was certain the food would, too) and so I did snap those pictures and I didn’t care what Meg or anyone else thought.

Live and let live.

And you know what happened while I was doing my thing? The house manager came by seemingly pleased about all my picture taking, asked if I was a blogger (in the know!), chatted it up with us about this and that (friendly service!) and then treated us to a free pizza (on the house!). Yup. BALLIN’!! I definitely don’t think Meg minded my picture taking frenzy after that perk. And I, of course, could not help but think to myself: Damn, it feels good to be a blogger, as I quite often do. It’s also just proof that it’s worth it to be yourself in this world and not care what other people think. Live and LET LIVE!

Aaaanyways. The pizza was DELICIOUS. Like, really crazy good delicious. And the location in Brookline is very welcoming, too, with a bar area and table service, as well as a really cool atmosphere with big beautiful windows and plenty of light and space. (There’s a location in Harvard Square, also, but that one’s a lot lot smaller, with only slices to-go.) As soon as we sat down with the menu we had to take few minute to decide what to order because the list was so extensive. So many pizzas! So much delicousness!! It wasn’t an easy decision, but we ultimately decided on two pizzas— the pulled pork and mango, and the butternut squash, ricotta, and cranberry. I loved them both with their unique and savory flavors and spot on toppings, but would have to say the pulled pork and mango came out on top. SO. so. tasty.

I have a feeling all of their pizzas are full of goodness. I just have a feeling. And I’m not a food critic or anything, but if I was one I would give this place 6 stars. 5 stars for the food and an extra one for the service.

Thanks for the pizza, OTTO! We can’t wait to come back!

18 Comments · Filed Under: blogging, boston, food ·

on helping out a favorite blogger.

July 13, 2012

I started following Elizabeth’s blog sometime last spring, over a year ago now. I clicked over to her blog from another blog, read one of her posts, and have never looked back since.

Hers is the blog I used to read first thing in the morning as soon as I got to school, and nowadays when she posts in the afternoon, I will sit in my car huddled over my phone just to read what she has to say.

I was pulled in that very first day by her story and by her writing.

Since then, I’ve been a loyal follower of E Tells Tales. Ask anyone and they’ll tell you. Zan knows it. Meg knows it. My real life friends know it. And my blog friends know it. Whenever there is blog talk happening, and someone goes and asks about my favorite blogs, Elizabeth’s is always the first I mention. She is an incredible writer, has a fascinating life story, and is the mom to one CUTIE PIE KID.

Since reading her blog, we’ve become friends, too. Not the kind that meet for coffee, but the kind that tweet to each other and have skype dates every now and again. She’s funny, she’s real, and she’s kind. And since reading her blog, she’s introduced me to other blog friends. Some directly, and some indirectly. A few even, who are closer in distance, that I have had coffee with. Elizabeth has created a community through her writing that I have yet to find anywhere else on the internet. And it’s a special thing.

Anyways, why am I telling you this?

Because this week and last she had a story on her blog that really touched me. It touched a lot of people, actually. And so I thought I’d take the time to share it here so that maybe it will touch you, too.

Elizabeth’s husband, Mike was the owner of a family-run store. A small-town grocer that put his life and soul into providing food and supplies for the people in his community. There was a story about that store on Elizabeth’s blog last week that I hope you will read.

Part 1

Part 2

The End.

There is sadness in those posts, and worry, but it’s important that you read them.

There is Good News, too, very good and hopeful news, so you’ll definitely want to read that.

Elizabeth is a teacher, so she is one of my own.

If you want to help you can adopt her classroom. She teaches high school English and needs help with supplies for her students and with purchasing books for growing her classroom library. As a teacher myself, and as a reading specialist, there is nothing more important than providing literature for students, this I believe with all my heart. It is the backbone of learning and it’s something that I feel incredibly strongly about.

You can help adopt Elizabeth’s classroom HERE.

You can help out her family specifically by visiting HERE.

And lastly, you can make a strong effort to buy local and support small businesses in your community. You can help other family’s like Elizabeth’s by buying from local stores in your town and supporting local shops and markets, otherwise all the little stores will soon be gone.

I hope you’ll give some of your time to reading Elizabeth’s story today. It was important to me that I share it and maybe you’ll want to share it after reading it, too.

Have a lovely weekend, friends. ♥

18 Comments · Filed Under: blogging, friends ·

French Onion Grilled Cheese Sammies

July 12, 2012

Grilled cheese please!

Grilled cheese was always my faaaaavorite growing up as a kid. Even in college, when we’d head to the local diner on Sundays I’d always order a grilled cheese with a side of potato chips. Also, orange soda. We can’t forget that part! It wasn’t complete without the orange soda.

These days I don’t make too many grilled cheese sandwiches, but when I do I’m always glad I did. They are HEAVENLY.

This particular sandwich was thought up when my friend Melanie planned to come over for dinner and ice cream. Well, I shouldn’t say I thought it up, rather I looked it up on Pinterest. Went straight to my “Yummy Yummy” board to what delicious things I had pinned and could possibly make for this ice cream loving summer night.

Interestingly enough, I mostly only ever pin sweets to my “Yummy Yummy” board. WHO would have thought?! I guess we all now know what my weakness is.

Anyways, eventually I stumbled upon a delicious looking picture of a French Onion Grilled Cheese Sandwich.

WOWZERS.

And so, two incredibly amazing totally ridiculous grilled cheese sammies were made that night.

We were dying over it. The oozy gooey goodness was almost, alllllmost too good to handle. We had to take some breathing breaks for sure because we were 1) getting full from the cheesy deliciousness and 2) sweating from the crazy heat of summer in my NO AC apartment.

Oh, life.

Good thing there was sweet cold delicious ice cream to be had later. It was the cherry on top of a lovely summer night.

French Onion Grilled Cheese Sammies

What you need:

Sourdough Bread (or whatever kind of bread you fancy, really)

Gruyere Cheese (shredded)

Fontina Cheese (shredded)

Yellow Onions (caramelized)

BUTTER

Directions:

1). Grate your cheeses and set them aside.

2). Caramelize the onions next. Slice them and toss them in your dutch oven (or heavy saucepan) with butter (about 2 Tbsp) and cook them until they are nice and brown. Sidenote: We burned ours a little because we were chatting too much and I was trying to take pictures of the ice cream before the sun went down (BLOGGER NERD ALERT) but still, the sammies were INSANE.

3). Slice your bread, and butter each side. Then, put one slice of bread in the pan. Top the bread with loads of both cheese and the caramelized onions, putting the second slice on top, creating your sandwich.

4). Wait till the cheese is good and melty, then flip the sandwich over to grill the other side.

5). Cool for just a bit, slice, and ENJOY!

You should DEFINITELY make one of these soon. Just saying. You won’t regret it.

7 Comments · Filed Under: food ·