Dinner Leftover Deliciousness

The other night for dinner I made this Sweet Chili Lime Tofu and Butternut Squash and Coconut Milk Rice.  It was delicious, but I ended up with tons of leftover rice.  So, for dinner tonight I made a soft boiled egg and sauteed the leftover rice in a cast iron skillet.  The rice got nice and crunchy like bibimbap.

Sure, I'll Be Your Guest! Our Night on the Disney Fantasy

One of the perks of having Piper as a best friend (aside from unconditional love, support and non-stop laughter) is that she gets invited to press events and sometimes takes me as her guest to things like the christening celebration of Disney's newest cruise ship, Fantasy.  

I'm not a Disney fanatic and I've never been on a luxury cruise, but we knew the Disney company would throw an amazing party and figured it would at least be a funny night.

But here's what happened: the party wasn't amazing, it was UH-MAZINGGGG.  Like, blow your mind, knock your socks off, insanely, incredibly nuts.  The ship is opulent and I now totally understand why so many people go gaga for Disney cruises. Guests can easily imagine they are in a fantasy world, living the life of a princess.  

First on our itinerary was the Entertainment Showcase in the Walt Disney Theatre.  I honestly expected to watch some promotional material on the jumbo screens.  Instead, we got several live musical Disney performances hosted by Neil Patrick Harris!

Mary Poppins showed up.

Oh, and then Jerry Seinfeld performed on stage for 15 minutes.  You know Jerome, right? 

And then Tony and Grammy award winner, Heather Headley, performed three Disney numbers.

And then Neil Patrick Harris walked around the room greeting celebrity guests like Tim Gunn, Alan Cumming, Ty Pennington, and Mayor Bloomberg (we were surprised at how excited we were about seeing Mayor B., I like that guy.)

When the show was over we were all given a glass of champagne and lead to the Atrium for the Christening Celebration.  

More Bob Iger, more Neil Patrick Harris, and then guess who waltzed down the stairs to give a toast

MARIAH CAREY (!!!!).... and Mickey Mouse! (Not gonna lie, when I was 13 I waited in line at Disney World to get Mickey's signature).

At this point Piper and I were pretty much losing our minds, but luckily a kind staff member directed us to the Animation Palette restaurant for dinner.  After dinner we went to the Europa District (think Epcot Center, but all bars and clubs) for more snacks and fancy drinks.

Oui, oui. Champagne bar for France.

Ciao! We're in Italy!

Getting randy in London.

If you want to read more about our magically enchanting night check out Piper's post on Yahoo Shine.

Baked Eggs and English Muffin Bread

Once in a while you stumble upon a recipe that changes your life, or at least the part after work when you're starving and need to eat like, now. That happened to me Monday night while hosting an Oscars party. The food theme of the party was "Breakfast for Dinner" so along with strawberry syrup and waffles, raspberry squares, carrot cake, and bacon corn muffins I also decided to try out two recipes I found on Pinterest. 

Abe and I eat a lot of English Muffins so when I saw this recipe for English Muffin Bread I couldn't wait for an excuse to make it.  The best part?  The recipe makes two loaves.  I had also filed away a recipe for Baked Eggs Cups.  The best parts?  They're only 100 calories and take only 12 minutes to bake (and about 30 seconds of prep time).

Preeya and Davis Visit Beacon

Last week we were fortunate to have our friend Wisconsin friends Preeya and Davis stay with us for a few days.  They're in New York for a month to work and to escape the Wisconsin winter. Davis came up by himself earlier in the week (while Preeya was working) and we introduced him to the miracle that is The Bachelor.  Then, over the weekend, he and Preeya both came back to Beacon and, lucky for Dave, he was able to catch Bachelor's hometown dates episode! 

We also took them to The Walkway Over the Hudson, which was fun, but soooo cold and windy. 

Me, Preeya and Colleen,established in 1999What else did we do beside make them watch awesome reality tv?  We feasted.

We also squeezed in a quick sleepover with Meredith and Ari while they were upstate checking out wedding venues.  Ari was dying to go bowling so we took in a little Cosmic Bowl.  He must have been feeling the black lights because Ari creamed all of us with the highest scores in every game.

Decisions: Living Room Wall Color

When we moved into our house each room in the house painted a different color.  It was pretty, too bold and country classic for me.  In the last two years we've slowly painted each room gray, white, taupe and cream.  I know, totally boring, but it maximizes the limited natural light we get in our north-facing house.

The one room we haven't touched is the living room.  It's painted a pretty marigold yellow - something I would never choose myself, but Abe and I have always loved it.  That is, until recently.  The color is super cozy, but absorbs the light and blends in too much with our honey maple wood floors and trim.  Everything feels so yellow.  But the clincher was the new couch fabric, which ended up being a very light gray (oopsie, always see a sample before you buy!)

This photo shows the old couch fabric. It was a great color, but the material was no match for a yellow Lab puppy.

In conclusion, I've made my case for painting the walls a new color and finally got Abe to agree to a change.  The big question is:  What color? and the follow up to that is:  How do I feel about accent walls?

In my head I'm picturing maybe a grayish purple or a grayish light green.  Abe is against painting the walls just plain gray, which would be my preference.

Benjamin Moore has a great website for browsing colors.  These four are my "safe" choices. I'm sure they'll look nice, but I feel like they might make me bored.

 

These totally negate my wish for a brighter room, but I feel like it would really make the wood in the room pop while camoflaging the black tv and black frame of the couch. My gut says it might look awesome, but I have a feeling it'll be tough to get Abe to buy in to this choice.