My New Notebook + How I Keep Track of Things

The other night I had zumba and pilates class at our gym, which is literally down the hall (which I love) though it didn’t end until 9 (which I hate). So that meant Shaun was on dinner duty (which I also love). Using some leftover lump crab meat from our Jets party on Saturday night, he whipped up some delicious crab cakes with a creamy cocktail sauce on the side! Where does he get these wonderful skills? I wanted to share this yesterday but didn’t get the photo uploaded in time. It was so yummy so I obviously could not let it pass by without sharing :)

So though I’m not necessarily down with starting a new year, a new year means I get to start a new notebook! Nerd alert!

I purchased 2 pink moleskin notebooks a couple of years ago and only recently started filling them up. I absolutely love new notebooks and all things paper in general (Shaun says I should have worked for Dunder-Mifflin).

I keep many things in here. To do lists, grocery lists, apartment furnishing ideas, new blogs and websites to check out, you name it. Most of my life is housed in those pages since I love having one go-to spot for everything. I’m constantly jotting down thoughts, especially about the blog and article ideas. I keep it with me all the time and find that I’m so much more useful in daily life when I have this little friend to keep me company. Some other things you might find in there? My list of The Little Things, party menus, my name doodled in fun ways...I cannot wait to break into the new one and start filling it up with ideas and personal organization!

The rest of my life? It’s housed in my Google calendar. Ah the Google calendar. It’s a borderline obsession. I love that I can color code different calendars and fill it in accordingly. I have one for my own stuff and reminders to myself. Here's a peak from a week in Sept/Oct:

One for Shaun’s things just so I can remember if he has drinks planned with friends or is scheduled to go to a client dinner or bachelor party. I also have a ‘humistons’ calendar which I am trying desperately to get Shaun to look at. So that way before he signs up for things - or signs us up for things - he can easily check the calendar. I also have a Giants/Jets calendar (royal blue and green respectively), a weather tracker, a {real} work calendar and a holiday calendar. Lastly, I have The Avid Appetite editorial calendar where I try to plan at least a week in advance what I’m going to be writing about. Sometimes things do change, though, if I’m just dying to tell you guys about something in particular! So that means I effectively have 8 color coded calendars on Google. But I like to think I’m fairly organized at least :) My hope is to eventually whittle down my-Shaun-Humistons calendar into one, but it may be a pipe dream.

So that's how I try my best to keep my life - and all of its moving parts - together. It's not a perfect system, but it's working for me right now! How do you keep yourself organized?

Baked Potato Chips

It's snowy in NYC today, though not quite as snowy as I had hoped. Here's a little snapshot from my walk this morning:

On one hand I'm thrilled since I'm flying out to Atlanta tomorrow night and was dreading the whole travel with snow thing. I just hate travel in the winter! It's so unpredictable.

Anyhow, today I'm sharing a pretty wonderful creation with all of you. I still had a big bag of potatoes stuffed in a cabinet hiding in my pantry from my vegetable tarts and while my first inclination was to whip up some mashed potatoes, I didn't think that would play so well with the whole lose 10 pounds plan. Instead, I came up with an easy and absolutely delicious creation - baked potato chips.

Put down that bag of Lay's Baked Potato Chips because they taste like cardboard and go out and get a bag of potatoes. Right now. These are chips of the never-going-back-to-the-bagged-kind variety. Though I know Shaun was secretly skeptical about my plan for these when I told him about it (he's more of a fry guy), one taste tested chip later he proclaimed that he will only eat these from now on. Score one for healthier eating.

Oven baked and crispy, these chips are fresh, salted and the perfect vehicle for a low fat dip, some blue cheese sauce or even some plain 'ol hummus. Oh and did I mention they require no more than 3 ingredients? True story.

Baked Potato Chips
potatoes
olive oil
kosher salt

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Wash and slice up your potatoes.

I used my fancy new mandolin that Shaun got me for Christmas which made it a snap. If you don't have a mandolin, you can absolutely - and carefully - slice them by hand or even in your food processor with the slicing attachment (though I haven't tried it yet, so let me know how it goes if you go this route).

In a bowl, drizzle the slices with olive oil and kosher salt. And any other spices you want. I also added a little bit of black pepper.

Lay the slices on an oven safe wire rack resting on a foil-lined baking sheet (I'm all about making clean up easier!)

Bake for 30-45 minutes until desired crispiness is reached. I wanted mine extra crispy so I went for about 45 minutes. The result was a semi-kettle cooked tasting chip.

Sprinkle with a bit more salt to taste and enjoy!

So there you have it. An easy, healthy way to dish up some potato chips without breaking the proverbial calorie bank. Don't they look delicious? I am craving some right this moment. Too bad Shaun and I gobbled them all up in a jiffy during the football games on Sunday. I can't wait to try out this method with sweet potatoes and maybe even some beets. So for the question of the day: Are you a chip eater? Or do you prefer something of the sweet persuasion?

Jets Party + Green Velvet Cake Fail

On Saturday, Shaun and I had a little party to watching the Jets clinch it over the Colts. Nothing like good friends and good food on a Saturday night!

I love playing host to our friends. I go a little overboard with cooking and baking, but I don’t think they mind!

If you follow me on Twitter or ‘Like’ us on Facebook, you may have noticed that I attempted to make a Jets-themed cake to mark the occasion. And since I’m the farthest thing from a cake decorator, I came up with an idea to make a green cake. You know, to chicly say that we are rooting for the Jets, but without hanging football-theme crepe paper all over our apartment (not that there’s anything wrong with that). But this couldn’t be just any green cake. I’m talking bright, rich, deep, bold green that would have all of our guests (and most importantly my husband) ooohing and aaaahing at my creativity and baking prowess. You know, as I’d simply toss my hair over my shoulder and proclaim how it was nothing.

In hindsight, the smart thing to do would have been to simply make a vanilla cake and add a boatload of green food coloring. But because I had to be oh-so-fancy-schmancy, I decided that it was necessary to take it a step further. Plain ol’ vanilla cake wouldn’t do. It had to be green velvet.

Sounds simple enough, right? Take a red velvet cake recipe and substitute the red for green. Oh if only that were the case my friends.

Ingredients are mixed.

It’s bright, vibrant green; Jets green! {I do a happy dance in celebration that I have conquered this seemingly elusive cake}

I even completely ignore the fact that the 1.5 bottles of food coloring revolted and semi-permanently stained my fingers. Both hands. Front and back.

I had bright green cake! Who cares about my fingers?!

Unfortunately, I happy danced too soon. The moment the cakes came out of the oven, I knew that something went awry.

That vibrant green was nowhere to be found. Instead, I was left with a mossy exterior that couldn’t look more unappetizing. I iced it up anyway and served it to my guest with warnings.

 

Though I hoped that the inside was salvaged, no luck. I served my wonderful guests mossy green cake. Luckily I have great friends and they ate it with a smile. Luckily, the cake still tasted delicious. Even though it looked fairly hideous.

Don't judge this book by its cover. If it wasn't tinted green, I'd think this was a moist, flavorful and overall yumtastic cake. Unfortunately I'm too embarassed to send the leftovers with Shaun to work. I have a rep to protect.

And to further my plight, I still have green food coloring outlining my nail beds, despite a thick coat of nail polish.

So there you have it. One of my most disappointing kitchen fails to date. So what do you think? Have you ever had a fun idea that turned into a big fail?