Diva Indian Bistro - How Do You Balance Great Food with Terrible Service?

I absolutely love Indian food but B does not. This surprises me because he likes spicy foods and loves ethnic rice dishes, but he can't quite specify what he doesn't like about Indian food. So when a $20 for $40 coupon for Diva Indian Bistro came on Groupon or Buywithme or one of those websites, we decided to give it a try. If he didn't like it, we figured that by spending little money very little would be lost.

B and I both headed to the gym after work. When B got home, he surprised me with a two six-packs of Shipyard Pumpkin Ale. We've had such a hard time finding it in the neighborhood, but he discovered that they have it at the package store next to his gym. I was happy to indulge in a bottle while I got ready for the evening. Since this was such a long week for both of us, we were completely relaxed and slow moving for dinner. By the time we arrived at Diva, it was close to 9 PM.

When we got to the restaurant, the place was packed with people who were finishing up their 7 PM meals. The restaurant was large and spacious. It had all of the decor of a traditional Indian restaurant but it wasn't too campy. The air was filled with the smells and spices of really delicious Indian food and I was excited. Since the restaurant was full, there was a small wait. But we were completely relaxed and not in a rush. We asked to put our name down for a booth and that we would wait at the bar for our table.

I have been to the Diva Lounge before and have loved the drinks and service there but the bar at the restaurant couldn't be any more opposite. We sat at the bar and looked at the drink menu. B headed to the restroom but gave me his drink order. The bartender was in the middle of a drink menu and said hello so I figured he would get to me when he was ready. Not so much. He proceeded to walk away from the bar, walk to the Diva Lounge, come back and stare at drink orders and otherwise ignore me. B returned from the restroom and seemed confused as to what was going on. He then laughed as he watched this whole routine of the bartender ignoring us even though we were the only ones at the bar. Finally, when the bartender looked over, I blurted out our drink order. He didn't say a word and sullenly got our drinks. B got a Flying Horse beer and I got a cocktail (Moet champagne nectar, lime juice and seltzer). By the time the bartender started making my drink, over fifteen minutes had passed and our table was ready. Unbelievable. We ended up taking our drinks to the table and our bartender said he would transfer our drinks to our bill.

We had a back booth table with a great view of the restaurant for B and a view of the kitchen for me. I watched in amazement as one of the cooks made countless amounts of fresh naan and kebabs. And I started to get hungry. My cocktail was doing very little to quench my hunger as it was overpowered with lime juice and not remotely appetizing.

B and I looked over our menu and we decided to have their combination plate for two people. We started out with two cups of mulligatawny soup. Our server told us that this was the standard soup for the combination plate but that he had no problem substituting with any of the other soups. But we were both happy to have the house soup. This is a hearty and spicy lentil and vegetable soup. As we were in the middle of our soup, the server brought over two vegetable samosas with the accompanying chutneys. One was a cool yet spicy green cilantro sauce which is called a Dhaniya chutney. The other was a smokey barbecue sauce. The samosas were delicious. They were perfectly golden brown crispy on the outside with a delicious soft mix of potatoes and vegetables inside. A lot of times samosas can be greasy but this was not at all.

As we finished up our samosas and soup, the server brought over a plate of seekh kabob, chicken tandoori, chicken tikka and boti kebab. The plate was served with a small side salad. At this point, our table was filled with plates. My martini glass and our soup cups were empty but the servers seemed to ignore it until we put them on the edge of the table - practically forcing them to take the empty dishes. Before we could even start on the plate of meat, the server brought over a basket of hot naan. The pacing was moving ridiculously fast, which is completely opposite of what you should do when there are multiple courses - especially when the food is heavy like Indian food.

The chicken tikka was really delicious with moist pieces of white chicken meat marinated in spicy yogurt. I watched the cook make so many delicious skewers of this chicken marinated in spicy yogurt and cooked on skewers in the clay oven and it was absolutely mouthwatering. The chicken tandoor was similar except the tandoori spices really made this dish stand out. Unfortunately but as traditional, the chicken was ofcourse meat on bones but B cut away some of the meat for me to taste.

The seekh kabob was like a delicious lamb sausage filled with finely minced lamb, chopped onion, herbs and spices. This was very spicy and probably my favorite of the meat appetizers. The boti kebab were huge chunks of lamb marinated again in spicy yogurt with lots of spices and cooked on skewers. It was so tender and flavorful.

The spicy yogurt sauce that accompanied all of the meat was so flavorful and we used pieces of the hot naan to soak it up. And the naan was out of this world. The oven-baked flatbread was brushed with butter and yogurt to make it perfectly fluffy. I've never had a bad naan and this was no exception.

While we were in the middle of our meat appetizers, our entrees appeared. Once again, we had to do the trick of pushing the meat and samosa plate, along with our small plates to the table's edge to hint to the servers that they needed to be removed.

Our entrees were painfully delicious. I say painful because we were both really full from the previous courses. I had the lamb curry and it was cooked in a thick gravy of tomato and spices and filled with generous chunks of tender lamb. I ordered the dish extra spicy and you could definitely feel the heat in this dish. B ordered the chicken tikka kadahi, which had marinated white chicken mean marinated in spicy yogurt and mixed with onions, peppers, tomatoes and mushrooms in a creamy yogurt sauce. B ordered this just spicy and it was a perfect complement of muted heat to the lamb curry dish. We were served with a huge bowl of rice and we were going to split both of our entrees.

I badly needed some water and we asked our server for water. Ten minutes went by and still no water. We flagged another server down and again asked for water. Five minutes later still no water. Finally another server brought us some water.

We were both so stuffed with our appetizers that we each had such a small serving of rice with a scoop of the lamb curry and the chicken tikka kadahi. But we couldn't have anymore. After we finally flagged a server down (after another fifteen minutes of sitting there staring at our plates), we asked if we could wrap our entrees up and ordered an extra order of garlic naan for our leftovers.

Our server brought our doggy bag. We sat there waiting for someone to ask us about our dessert course but to no avail. The servers were all intent on setting up the tables for the next day's lunch buffet that they ignored us wholly. This was especially frustrating since the restaurant was mostly empty and there were only a few tables. Another ten minutes went by and someone asked us if we ordered dessert. We replied to the negative and were brought a menu. B ordered the mango ice cream and I had the badami kulfi - a less sweet ice cream with saffron and almonds. The ice cream was served in a small individual sized dish and was a perfect one scoop. It cooled our mouths from our entrees and put us to the perfect level of fullness.

After we finished our dessert, we waited some more for a check. The terrible bartender did not transfer our drinks and we decided not to correct their mistake. We considered it complimentary for the terrible service. B put the coupon and remaining balance in the checkbook and then left for the restroom. Nobody came to get the checkbook and we waited some more but finally gave up. We weren't sure if they needed to do anything special for the coupon but we just didn't feel like waiting some more.

This was a delicious Indian meal and B is definitely less hesitant to eat Indian cuisine. But this was a two hour meal where about one hour was about waiting and poor service. I think I've convinced B to try more Indian food but we will not be returning to Diva Indian Bistro anytime soon. I'm looking forward to eating our leftovers some point this weekend and only wish we lived closer to Diva so we could order it for takeout - good food minus the terrible service.

xoxo

75 Chestnut - There's No Place Like Home

I've been living in Beacon Hill for five years now and my favorite "neighborhood place" is 75 Chestnut. Whenever I have an out-of-town guest or am looking to grab a nice inexpensive meal, I always return to 75 Chestnut time and time again. Yesterday, I had my stitches removed and was told that my biopsy results were benign. After five days of a liquid diet and much stress around the whole situation, this was definitely a call for celebration so we headed off to our favorite neighborhood joint.

Since B and I were both working late, we didn't make any reservations. Besides, we figured that on a Tuesday night, this wouldn't be an issue. Well, when we arrived, the place was packed. We were greeted by the friendly host who mans the door whenever the owner is off for the night. He explained that there was an unexpected party of twenty people which had caused quite a back-up. But since B and I are regulars, we threw our name on the list and headed to the bar for a pre-dinner drink. Since we were celebrating (although I don't necessarily need an excuse), I sipped on several cool glasses of bubbly.

The bar was packed with the usual young professionals and old neighborhood staples. There were quite a few familiar faces and it was one of those nights where I love being a Beacon Hill-er. Everyone knows each other through some connection - law school, neighborhood events, shared doctors/lawyers, etc. and everyone is friendly. As a side note, I'll say that there are people who will live in Beacon Hill in tiny apartments for several years and brag that they finally moved out of their crappy Allston apartment into an expensive Beacon Hill place. But these individuals will never understand the real sense of community this neighborhood contains. All they care about is saying that they live in Beacon Hill and dropping their neighborhood into conversations, but the real Beacon Hill is such a great neighborhood that really cares about each other and if you need any evidence of it, sit at the bar at 75 Chestnut for awhile.

But I digress.

While having our drinks, we nibbled on the cheese and crackers that are always present at the front of the house. And as we talked with others at the bar and watched the Celtics opener, the time flew by quickly and we were seated in the dining area in no time.

I took a look at the menu and I was thrilled that there were a lot of seasonal items on their food and drink menu. B and I decided to split a small portion of their butternut squash and pumpkin ravioli. We also saw that they had Shipyard Pumpkin ale on their menu so we each ordered a bottle of that as well.

Our server first returned with the pumpkin ravioli and it was delicious. Five huge pieces of ravioli stuffed with a not too sweet pumpkin filling. The sauce had pieces of roasted butternut squash. I was in heaven and I was happy to use a piece of bread from the bread basket to sop up some of the sauce. But I was brought back to reality when our server apologized for the delay in our drink order which had still not arrived and said that they had run out of the Shipyard Pumpkin. We were flexible though and B ordered another beer. Even though I abhor ordering cocktails with dinner, I chose the pumpkin martini. I was in the mood for pumpkin and it was a great choice. The pumpkin martini was frothy and deliciously cold.

For our entrees, B got the steak au poirve with mashed potatoes, roasted veggies and asparagus. We've both ordered steaks from 75 Chestnut before and love it. Despite B making us steak au poirve for dinner a few weeks ago, he was craving some more. I stole a bite or two of his mashed potatoes and they were absolutely rich, thick and buttery. Yum. I ordered what I almost always order at 75 Chestnut - the Nantucket Seafood Stew. This is a hearty dish filled with salmon, halibut, scallops and shrimp. The stew also has chopped bliss potatoes and is served in a delicious tomato-based broth. The only problem with the dish was that the stew was served on a cold bowl. Our server recognized this right away, even without me pointing it out. She apologized and said that it seemed like everyone was off their "A" game with the unexpected large dining party there that night. She asked if I wanted to send it back but since I was starving, I thanked her but declined. I pushed as much of the seafood in the middle of the plate to keep everything warm. Overall, everything was incredibly delicious, but the last few bites did end up being a little lukewarm.

Our server brought over their usual complimentary chocolate almond macaroons. I was absolutely stuffed. But she insisted on bringing over some complimentary dessert to make up for the beer and my entree. Who can say no to free food? So we indulged in an apple strudel with a side of cinnamon ice cream. The strudel was more of a chimichanga but it was delicious and perfectly complimented with the cinnamon ice cream and homemade whipped cream. I literally had one bite and B did his damage to about half of the dessert but he soon after called it quits.

75 Chestnut is the quintessential neighborhood joint. It is tucked away from the hustle and bustle of Charles Street and it is always a favorite for the local neighborhood characters. Last night was a perfect example that they will always take care of their customers, especially their regulars, with over-the-top wonderful service, despite the occasional kitchen and bar snafus. Last night was just another exceptional experience that will keep me a hopeless devotee of 75 Chestnut.

Full Recovery: Thanks to Odwalla

Last Thursday I went in for another biopsy on my lip. Having done this a little over a year ago, I knew just how much pain I was in for during the actual biopsy itself and the recovery period. Thankfully, I had so much emotional support from my friends and family, and B took the afternoon off so he could go with me.

While the lip is one of the fastest healing body parts, it is also one of the most sensitive areas. And having a biopsy on almost smack dab in the middle of my lip makes talking, eating, and drinking anything very difficult on its own. Thankfully I was very well prepared this time around. We stocked up on tons of yogurt drinks (blech) and Odwalla smoothies so that I could get as much nutrients as possible while avoiding eating. I had a shake for breakfast and lunch and filled up on lots of sugar-free iced tea and water in between. I learned that the straw is probably the greatest invention known to man. Okay, maybe this is a slight exaggeration but I was on a liquid diet. By Sunday evening, I started to eat some foods that I could put in on one side of my mouth and that required little to no chewing. So, I ate a delicious dinner of pumpkin chocolate chip pancakes, homemade apple sauce and pumpkin frozen yogurt from BoYo (the last two eaten with a baby spoon - no joke).

But seriously, I could not have gotten through this without Odwalla shakes. My favorite was the Vanilla Al'Mondo Protein shake. It is a soymilk protein drink which boasts of 18 grams of protein per bottle. This was my absolute favorite as it tasted of vanilla, soymilk and banana. I think you have to really like soymilk to enjoy this shake. The label also said that oatmilk and almonds were an ingredient but I didn't taste any of that.

The second shake that I tried was the Pumpkin Protein. Since I adore anything pumpkin, I thought this would be great. This is another soymilk based drink with 18 grams of protein. There was a strong soymilk taste but the pumpkin flavoring was way too sweet. This was a good alternative to the vanilla soymilk shake but disappointing pumpkin flavor-wise.

I also had some fruit-based drinks, including the mango tango. It had a strong mango and orange taste although the label also included apple as an ingredient. It was just alright. I've had many better mango smoothies.

But I did love the Strawberry C, which had strong flavors of orange and strawberry. It was the kind of fruit smoothie I would drink even if I didn't have stitches on my lip. I had one this morning for breakfast and it tasted great.

I kept myself housebound for three and a half days while the swelling and bruising went down. The lip is still sore and the bruises from the local anesthesia are starting to heal. I slept a ridiculous amount. I read two books - an autographed copy of "Bringing Home the Birkin" (which I loved, loved, loved) and Kathy Griffin's "Official Book Club Selection" (which is hysterical). I watched countless movies, including Lifetime's Sorority Wars (ofcourse I loved this), Very Young Girls (a touching documentary on child exploitation in our country), Ghost Town (seriously Ricky Gervais is such a star in the UK, I hope he has the same success here), Revolutionary Road (which makes me never want to leave Beacon Hill, even if I have to run into PER and Chester every day), and Adventureland (which was cute). I played a ridiculous amount of Wii. And I was still bored.

By this morning, I was excited to go to work and head to the gym after work. I needed to get out, regardless of the stitches on my lip. Speaking of the gym, hello liquid diet. Four pounds down this weekend.

I get the stitches out tomorrow and until then, I'm continuing my liquid diet for at least breakfast and lunch so I don't look like a weirdo eating at work. Thanks to everyone for checking in on me. Much love for the support.

xoxo

Easy Crock Pot Pumpkin Soup

As you've probably noticed, I've gone overboard for fall flavors with butternut squash, apples, acorn squash and of course, pumpkin. Most of the use of pumpkin and apple has been in delicious baked goodies, but one of my favorite things to make with pumpkin is pumpkin soup.

I found a great crockpot recipe and made a huge vat last Sunday during the rain and snow. Smelling the pumpkin soup cooking all day made the apartment smell great and feel that much cozier from the elements outside.

To start, I chopped up a medium onion and minced a few cloves of garlic. I added a spoon of olive oil and a mix of a few cups of chicken stock and broth. I generously added thyme, salt (for flavoring) and sage to the mix, along with a couple of spoons sugar. I then added a can of pureed pumpkin and gave everything a mix. The soup cooked for about seven hours and then I added a cup of milk to add a creamy texture. I let the soup warm through with the added milk and then served.

The onions had softened up and the herbs really popped out in the dish, especially the sage. It was a delicious dinner Sunday night and we ate some more of it Monday night with a serving of grilled cheese sandwiches using whole wheat bread and gruyere and cheddar cheeses. Delish.

xoxo

Family Recipe for Apple Crisp?

According to B, his mom makes a fabulous apple crisp. Over the years, whenever B or his sister have wanted to make the recipe, they have called their mom and she has told them her recipe and B and his sister would jot it down. After B misplaced his recipe one year, he asked his mom if she would give him the ingredients again so he could write it down. She then walked across the room and pulled out an old Betty Crocker cookbook. It turns out that after all these years, the recipe was just a Betty Crocker recipe that she had tripled to make a huge portion of it. Over time, she remembered the recipe and never had to look it up! So much for an old family recipe.

Regardless, B decided to make his mom's apple crisp on Saturday. It was nice to have him make something from scratch without me helping, especially considering the volume of cooking and baking I've been doing lately.

Soft sweet apples on the inside and a nice crunchy oat topping. This was a perfect dessert with a topping of vanilla ice cream. However, B has learned that I'm not the biggest apple crisp fan and I haven't really dug into it the way he has so we are slowly working our way through a really large batch of apple crisp. So if you're in the neighborhood, come on by!

xoxo

Crockpot Apple Sauce

A week after we had gone apple picking, we had found different ways to include apple into our meals - pork chops with roasted butternut squash and apples to apple, brie and proscuitto calzones. We each ate an apple for a snack at work, and I made a delicious apple cake. After B made his mom's famous apple crisp, we still had a decent amount of apples so we decided to make an easy crockpot apple sauce on Saturday.

We peeled, cored and chopped up nine apples of varying types and sizes. As we worked on the apples, we intermittently threw them in the crockpot and squeezed lemon juice over the chopped apples to keep them from browning. We added two and a quarter cups of water to the pot and a little more than half a cup of sugar. We gave everything a good mix and set the crockpot on high for three hours.

After three hours, we shut the crock pot off to allow the apple sauce to cool. The apples had broken down nicely and when B stirred it, it had that apple sauce consistency. However it did seem like it was a bit watery. We didn't really have time to deal with it as we had plans to hang out with some friends in Cambridge. So we threw the crockpot into the fridge and headed off for the night.

After many pumpkin ales and Absolut Boston cocktails, I was in no mood to deal with the apple sauce when we stumbled home. We left it in the fridge overnight and decided to deal with it in the morning. The overnight refridgeration did the trick. It settled the apple sauce and it got that nice thick apple sauce consistency. Yum.

We put the apple sauce in large Tupperware containers. One is in the fridge for my post-recovery this weekend and the other is in the freezer so we can have it sometime in the future. This was the most ridiculously easy way to make apple sauce. I have been on such a crockpot kick lately and it is such a nice time-saving supplement to regular everyday cooking.

xoxo

Apple, Brie and Proscuitto Calzones

Unless we have other plans, B and I try to make every Friday night a date night. While we obviously enjoy going out and about, my favorite Friday date nights are the ones where we stay in. I love when we order our favorite crispy chicken and family-style bean curd from Billy Tse's. I also like it when we cook something simple together like a homemade pizza and side salad.

This past Friday, B and I both hit our respective gyms. We met at Whole Foods and decided to see what inspired us for dinner. If we didn't find anything, we would head home and order some takeout. As we browsed the aisles to grab ingredients for the rest of our weekend cooking, inspiration hit us.

We'd make a simple calzone with pre-made pizza dough. For our filling, we decided to include some apples since we still had quite a bit left from apple picking the previous weekend. We didn't want our calzone to turn into an apple turnover so we decided to add some proscuitto to make it a bit savory. Of course a calzone needs cheese so we picked up some brie to add to the calzone.

When we got home, we peeled and chopped one tart green apple. We added a half pound of chopped proscuitto and roughly chopped up a quarter pound of brie. We split the pizza dough in half and rolled out two small circles on a floured cutting board. We put half of each of the ingredients in each pizza dough along with some dried sage and crushed black pepper and sealed it tight with eggwash. We also egg washed the top of the calzone and put slits in the calzone for ventilation. Each calzone was transferred to a baking pan (we still haven't invested in a pizza stone yet) that was sprayed with cooking oil and dusted with cornmeal. We threw it in the oven at 400 degrees for twenty minutes.

The end result?

The sweetness of the apple along with the salty brie and proscuitto was a perfect combination. We split a calzone and ate the second one for dinner on Saturday. Delicious and simple.

xoxo

Crockpot Eggplant Sauce

Last Monday, I had the day off and decided to spend the day cooking and baking various seasonal things. Among the delicious treats I made in my kitchen, I did a crock pot (or slow cooker) eggplant pasta sauce. It was so simple and kept the apartment smelling like a delicious Italian restaurant, although mixed with the smell of my apple cake in the oven.

The eggplant sauce is really easy. I took a large eggplant and peeled the skin off. I chopped the eggplant into inch-sized cubes. I chopped up a medium onion and minced four or five cloves of garlic. You can probably add less garlic but I'm a garlic-addict and I really like to taste it in a good pasta sauce. I added a large 28 ounce can of diced tomatoes. While I am a huge fan of fresh tomatoes, I find that canned tomatoes are a great staple for a good homemade pasta sauce or soup and I always have several cans on hand. I also threw in a package of pre-sliced and pre-washed mushrooms to the mix.

I went a little crazy with the herbs by adding healthy shakes of crushed black pepper, salt, and red pepper flakes. I also added a little garlic and onion powder, oregano, and thyme.

To obviously thin out the thick sauce, I added a quarter cup of water and a quarter cup of cabernet sauvignon.

When all the ingredients were in the crock pot, I gave everything a good mix. And then got to my favorite part - I put the timer on low for seven hours, sat back and let the slow cooker do its job.

The end result was incredibly delicious. It was a thick and hearty pasta sauce, which was chock full of delicious eggplant. I love the taste of eggplant in it simplest form - grilled with no sauce. Unfortunately, B is not a huge fan so I mask it in eggplant parmesan or stuffed eggplant. But this was a new alternative.

We ate the sauce with pasta on Tuesday night and on Wednesday for leftover lunch. Unfortunately I didn't get pictures of the beautiful sauce with pasta because we had company over after dinner on Tuesday night and were in a bit of rush to get through our meal and clean up.

But on Wednesday night, we had a bit of the remaining sauce with a simple pan-cooked chicken. We took two large chicken breasts and halved them to reduce the cooking time (and to make enough leftovers for lunch the next day). We coated both sides with herbs de provence and cooked the chicken breasts in a pan with olive oil.


For a side, we wanted to do something simple. We halved an acorn squash and coated the exposed flesh with some brown sugar, maple syrup and butter. We scored the flesh and then threw it in the oven (cut side up) at 400 degrees for about forty minutes.

The chicken breast with eggplant sauce and the acorn squash was a delicious fall meal. Since B and I split a half of acorn squash, we had another half left over. We easily pulled the flesh from the squash and tossed it with some fresh crush peppercorn. I find that the cracked black peppercorn really compliments the sweetness of the acorn squash. It was the perfect side to our leftover chicken and sauce for lunch the next day.

xoxo

My Non-Foodie Confession: Fajitas & Ritas

I like to consider myself an amateur foodie. I love checking out restaurants and writing my reviews. I love cooking with and for my boyfriend - trying out new recipes and new variations of old favorites. I like learning about new flavor combinations and tasting something new that really wows me. And a lot of times I write about these foodie experiences in this blog.

But I obviously don't write about all of my foodie experiences like my strong addiction to sugar free pudding, string cheese and sugar free iced tea. Or how I still have a strong urge for Papa Ginos whenever I am out of the Boston area (sadly there are none in Boston beyond one crappy one in Chuck-town). These things are less glamorous...less foodie.

But I'm going to confess to one of my favorite non-foodie places - Fajita & Ritas. I first discovered Fajitas & Ritas in 2003. It was only a few blocks away from my law school and it was mostly attractive to my law school friends for its cheap price, giant portions, loud atmosphere, and tasty margaritas. After law school, I continued going there whenever I would go to the movies. In fact, it is sort of a tradition for my non-law school friends to go there either before or after a movie.

I only order one of two things on their menu - the chicken tostada salad or their rice and beans burrito. It is no secret that my favorite burrito in town definitely comes from Villa Mexico and the burritos from Fajitas & Ritas come nowhere close. But I still love the burritos from Fajitas & Ritas. There is something about their refried beans and cheese that really hits the spot. Every time I taste it, I savor every bite delicious bite.

I recently took B there and despite living in Boston longer than I am, he has never been to Fajitas & Ritas. I told him not to expect too much. But like me, he loved it. He loved the surly service of their waitresses. He loved the endless supply of warm tortilla chips and salsa with the occasional stale chip in the mix. He had their steak and chicken combo fajitas and loved every bite of his huge portion knowing that he would smell like fajitas for days to come. He loved the white paper on the tables that we doodled on and the roll of paper towels at each table. And of course he loved that our entire bill came to $25.

Fajitas & Ritas is not a foodie destination. It is known for their "Tex-Mex" cuisine but it does not do authentic versions of either. But that's not why I go there. Sometimes you go somewhere purely for the atmosphere - the loud chatter, pitchers of raspberry margaritas and the familiar tastes of their refried beans. Sometime you go someplace purely because there has never been a bad time to be had there in any of the many times you have been there with people you love. If there is such a thing as comfort food, there is such a thing as a comfort restaurant. And for that alone, I'll always return to Fajitas & Ritas again and again.

xoxo

Paranormal Activity

I love scary movies. The fall is my favorite time of year for scary movies when there are so many airings of Nightmare on Elm Street or Friday the 13th movies on TV. In fact, I'm still trying to live down the discovery my friends made a few years ago of my Freddy v. Jason on VHS. Yes, VHS. The thing I like about these movies is that there is no way that they are real. They are "monsters" and there is no fear that they are really going to come after you. With that mindset, coupled with cheesy gory scenes and the anticipated slasher music, you can get scared but then shut off the TV and know that everything will be okay.

But scary movies have definitely changed with the times. I won't even touch the subject of the re-makes of classic horror movies. Sure, the technology has improved the effects but nothing compares to the original. And then there's torture porn. There is nothing actually scary about these movies except for the gruesome special effects. All those movies do is make me look twice at a medium rare steak with a queasy feeling in my stomach.

But paranormal activities scare the crap out of me. I remember watching Blair Witch Project with my friends, which was shown on campus at UMASS, and walking back to my dorm completely freaked out. It didn't help that the boys upstairs on the 15th floor made those humanoid stick figures and left them at our doors. This movie scared me because paranormal activity like spirits are something I slightly believe in and the documentary style shooting makes me really question - Could this be real? Could something like this happen? In other words, it scares the crap out of me.

I know I shouldn't watch these movies because Yet, like a glutton for punishment, I have to watch it - no matter how scared I get. So when B's coworker C told us about Paranormal Activity, I knew I had to see it. I saw that there were limited releases in various cities and that there was a lot of buzz about its comparison to Blair Witch Project. I was terrified. And then I told B to get us tickets.

The premise (without spoiling anything) is that a young woman believes that paranormal activity has been around her since she was eight years old. She is now a college student who lives with her boyfriend. They start to hear strange noises and things in the night, so the boyfriend decides to start taping everything with a video camera. And, well, what they catch on tape is the storyline. Ofcourse I won't spoil the movie but I was scared. B lost feeling in one hand with me gripping it so tight and when he had to go to the bathroom in the middle of the movie, I wanted to kill him. In fact, we later established a new rule that night for our relationship - it is better to pee your pants than leave me alone in a movie theater during a scary movie.

What made the movie so scary was that it seemed so real. Sure, the home video style shooting adds to that but the way the couple interacted was so real. They act lovingly, cranky, annoyed and angry with each other the way normal couples do (you know, when not under the pretense of paranormal activity). And who hasn't heard strange sounds in the night that makes you get goosebumps? This movie plays on your fear of the unknown and the unseen, which in my opinion, is far scarier than the threat of a serial killer or monster in the night. Some of the scariest moments involve very little action on the screen at all.

The ending was a little lackluster and I had a lot of questions of holes in the movie. But all in all, it did the trick. It scared me. It made me a little nervous to fall asleep last night. And I highly recommend it if you are a horror movie fan. Do it. And try to fall asleep peacefully that night. Then let's discuss. If there is nothing better than watching a scary movie, its discussing it to the pieces afterwards.

Scenes from Carlson Orchards (October 11, 2009)

Columbus Day Weekend Highlights

• After separate gym sessions for both of us, low-key date night in with the boyfriend. We had tasty carnitas burritos from Villa Mexico and snuggled up to watch Coraline. My friend S told me that this movie is CREEPY and I totally agree.

• B played housewife and dealt with Peapod and our cleaning lady on Saturday while I headed off to my last golf lesson for the season at Newton Commonwealth. Despite the heavy rain from the night before, the weather turned out to be gorgeous and we played 18 beautiful holes. I played one of the best games of the season for me and was happy to play with my new 3-wood.

• I came home and made delicious Pumpkin Pie Bars that I drooled over on We Are Not Martha’s blog.

• Saturday night, Mama T came over for some much needed one on one time. We are still working on getting our friendship back to where it was, without the distractions of our friends putting ideas in our ears. We had a good catch up on all the stuff going on in each of our lives, polished off a bottle of sparkling, ate Upper Crust, watched SATC and had the first slices of Pumpkin Pie Bars. I have been telling all of my girlfriends how much I need a low key girly night and I was thrilled that Mama T was there for me.

• Despite our access to ridiculous Green Monster seats, B and I were both too doubtful about going and breaking our longstanding plans with my sister. So, instead, Sunday was a day of apple picking with my sister and B. We went to Carlson Orchards and we took lots of photos (which will be its own separate post) but here is a teaser.

• Afterwards, bummed about the Sox and catching the ending of the Pats, we headed back to my sister’s place where we jammed out to Guitar Hero. Loved it. I seriously need to contemplate getting it and a career change in being a drummer (don’t laugh Pahkcah02).

• B and I headed home and made a delicious meal of pork chops with roasted butternut squash and apples. It was the perfect fall meal and it was just as good as leftovers on Monday night.

• On Monday, B headed to work and walked with him for an early morning gym session. Afterwards, I headed home to do some laundry and get started on a crockpot recipe for eggplant pasta sauce for this week. I’ll take a picture of it tonight when we eat it for dinner. We have a lot of plans this week after work and I wanted to have something healthy and delicious for us for dinner and leftover lunch for work.

• I also made a delicious apple cake that I fell in love with after my sister made it for Thanksgiving last year. We had a slice after dinner last night and it tasted like perfect fall. Of course B and I each took a slice for breakfast too! (Excuse the blurry phone camera photo below).

• And I finally finished Commencement by J. Courtney Sullivan, a great read for anyone who went to school in the Five College consortium (UMASS, Amherst College, Smith College, Hampshire College and Mt. Holyoke College). It is a great read about college friendships and what happens after college. I totally loved it.

• It is raining and dreary out, a miserable way to start a short weekend. Hope everyone had a great long weekend too!

xoxo