Omg Diana Ross!

The golden blob in the foreground is her.

Two words: total diva.

The party.

They have people on fucking stilts juggling!!

bake fail.

the first time jared came to visit me in nj, i was waiting anxiously for him to arrive and decided to have a go at making what in my mind was a gluten free version of apple crisp. substituting quinoa for oats and wheat flour.

unfortunately, i decided that all the quinoa needed was some water and it would cook just fine. So he arrived and there was the smell of yummy apple crisp -- i looked like the perfect girlfriend who was cool and could bake!! we had awkward conversation, since this was our first time seeing each other after only meeting twice in chicago a month before and communicating with each other every single day via phone, chat, im, text and email.

i nervously checked the damn stuff about 50 times -- adding more and more water hoping for some magic change. the quinoa never popped. jared was really antsy to try it, and i thought it got sort of mushy so we ended up trying it. at first taste it was all yummy but it had a crunch that suspiciously resembled uncooked quinoa -- or in layman's terms uncooked rice -- and not in a good way.

jared brings this up whenever he says something about my cooking, as in, you always cook great stuff except for that time when i first came to visit and you made that apple stuff -- that sucked. and i laugh, because i totally agree -- it sucked.

regardless, there really hasn't been another time where i had a repeat of that failed attempt, except this sunday when i had a bake fail from a box mix. it happens, people. it usually happens when you don't follow directions (note: i don't really like to follow directions).

anyway, we were out of butter so i substituted smart balance in the betty crocker gluten free chocolate chip cookies box mix (which i might add, i got at the lackawana pathmark in montclair). the damn things wouldn't come off the cookie sheet and true to gf baked good form they were crumbly. BUT -- they tasted damn good. we scraped them off the sheets and ate the cookie crumble out of a plastic baggie.

my review -- follow the directions and you can be reminded of why chocolate chip cookies taste so good. it was easy and i am sure they will work with real butter. i did put some in a small loaf pan and they came out fine.

Food shopping just got a lot more fun.

I spotted these in my local Pathmark!! Gluten-free nerd that I am
just did a search a week or two ago to see when these bad boys would
be in a local super market -- it told me they were only at wegman's!!
They were wrong.

day trippin: lucy the elephant

a while ago jared and i decided we should do some day trips to really enjoy the weekends. since he hadn't lived in nj since 1990-ish, there were a lot of things to see -- even for myself, living in nj for a better part of my life, there were definitely things i haven't seen and places to go just within my home state. in the interest of saving some money to pay for the wedding, saving for a house and to just get by, we thought day trips would be fun and economical. a while ago we went to ringwood manor and then to paterson falls, which is now in the spotlight since it may be deemed a national park. i'll post some blogs about them later. (to the left, the view from lucy's haddock)

this weekend, while down visiting my family in little egg harbor we got to see one of the nj sights that i've been itching to go to for a while. i actually first heard about lucy the elephant on that weird and slightly disturbing show called life after people. it highlighted how we spend a lot of time maintaining things so they don't fall apart. funny enough the story of this gigantic elephant structure on the shore of margate, nj definitely needs a lot of maintaining. and this girl gets around. she's been moved a few times as you'll learn from her history. can you imagine moving something that is so big??

above is a weird nj video of lucy.

the price of admission was a bit steep ($6 for adults, $3 for children) but the experience was pretty cool -- plus you know the money is going to maintain the lovely lucy. first off you get to climb up into a freaking elephant... look out it's eyes and see the ocean... and did i mention that the elephant has windows on it's butt?? the best part is that you get to go out on the top of the elephant to its hassock and see the jersey shore in all it's glory. there is a tour guide who brings you up as well as a gift shop with lots of elephant themed items.

all in all i think it was a great little day trip. while we were there it was a hurricane warning so we steered clear of the beach. but our tour guide mentioned that you can get a pass for the beach. check the margate website for more info. the town itself was pretty cute. lots of old homes that were well kept. beach bars and restaurants -- very family friendly. we took my 9 year old cousin and he really had a great time. he loved the elephant butt windows (who doesn't?)!!

note, you do have to pay a $1.50 toll coming and going on the bridge.

going down the shore.

we have this weekend set aside to go visit family down the shore for a family bbq. it's our attempt at salvaging the family tradition of summer bbq's that my grandmother upheld for years. hopefully it didn't die with her.

it's interesting that the passing of your grandparents really shifts the shape of your family structure. there are certain things that always bring you together -- like grandmas -- and sometimes you have to really work at keeping those traditions alive.

it's been a rough year for the michaelsons, but as you can see we are freaking tough. the pic to the left is shows my dad, my uncle kevin and my uncle paulie. one of my faves. imagine my poor grandma with three boys so close in age wreaking havoc on their small town. poor woman had to get a job as a police officer to keep them in line!!

when i say 'down the shore', if you're from jersey you understand that's our terminology for going to the beach. sort of like 'going to the city'. you don't mistake that for any other city than nyc. ha! i love jersey for these sort of nuances.

luckily both my uncles and aunts have houses down in little egg harbor just a hop skip and a jump from AC. so it's road trip weekend!!!

not so lucky for us is the fact that there's a freaking hurricane making it's way up the coast as we speak that will pound the shore with wild waves. maybe this is my chance to learn how to surf???

dresses, dresses and more dresses!!!

ok, so everyone wants to know about the dress....of course you do.

i may or may not have one at this point.

i also may be addicted to trying on dresses. who knows. it's just so fun. i can't stop myself. trust me, when you are in this position you will probably do the same!

head over to my bridal blog at the Wedding Chicks to read my post about the dress decisions!! please leave me some comments and suggestions on the wedding chicks page!!

and jared, you are NOT to look at that link. it's nsfw (not safe for wookies).

bridal blogger!!!

woo hoo, i was chosen to be a wedding chicks bridal blogger!!

i will be posting some wedding-related blogs over at weddingchicks.com. check it out, it's a very swank site that has lots of cool wedding ideas and planning tips!!

my posts can be found here.

the yoga of the bbq.

Long weekend of yoga-ing and bbq-ing.

After a heavy (read: groovy) sanskrit workshop -- the path of luminous shabda -- I arrived home to find Jared practicing his own yoga.

Only in NY: fashion statements

i was walking behind this lady on ny way to the train. couldn't help
but take a pic.