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Healthy Eating

November 9, 2009 by Adriana

As we plan to get pregnant soon, and I have some pounds to lose (keep your eye out for The Biggest Loser Lambie edition), I’m also taking a second look at the way we eat.

I get bombarded (a good thing) on a daily basis by ex-schoolmate Laura Posada who pretty much leads a one woman’s crusade for healthy family eating with her new book Fit Home Team.  She also looks terrific – which motivates me to once again get my ass back in shape so it can hold precious healthy life for 9 months.

Although my body works amazingly well with a 40-30-30 or Zone diet, I absolutely positively LOOOOOOOOOVE pasta.  And a 40-30-30 plan really limits your starchy carbohydrates.  So I try to find various ways to make it as balanced as possible.  I refuse to eat soy based materials – I actually read labels and actively avoid soy – so whenever I want to go meatless I opt for Quorn and either their crumbles or meatballs (both excellent – I’ve even done Chilean empanadas and Pastelón – recipes coming soon – with them and you can’t tell the difference).

So the other day at Wegman’s they were promoting pasta with butternut squash.  Truth be told, it was way waaaay too sweet.  But this reminded me of my friend Madelyn and her vegetarian ways and off I was to her Karma Free Cooking blog where I found exactly what I was looking for!

Pasta with Eggplant Puree!  Of course, in my quest to have protein everywhere (it also helps keep your brain on target), I will add the Quorn granules – just do a simple sofrito and add the “beef” and sauté for a while so they take the flavor.  Then just add this to the vegetable puree.

And in our case, Alan’s and I, it will more than likely be a side dish…..but at least I’ll get to eat some pasta!

So if you are looking for something different, good and healthy, scurry on over to Karma Free Cooking, and get some Pasta with Eggplan, with or without the protein.  Your call!

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Back in Time

November 7, 2009 by Adriana

I’m not much for Halloween.  I did the usual as a kid, you know the trick or treat, but I wasn’t really big on decorations or costumes.  Probably still traumatized by the time my parents and grandparents thought it would be a good idea to have a Haunted House for my birthday.  You see I was born right in the middle of October – the 15th to be exact.  And this Haunted House extravaganza was for my 5th birthday.  Yes you read right, F-I-F-T-H.

Needless to say I was scared out of my mind, and it took some cajoling and major convincing for me to venture into the Haunted House in the arms of Abuelo.  Unfortunately, our first stop was my bedroom that was now transformed into a morgue.  One of the dead suddenly rose and I screamed.  It didn’t matter that they turned on the lights.  It didn’t matter that the undead was speaking to me reassuring me over and over again that she was Josie, my front door neighbor.  That was it for me and the Haunted House….or Haunted Houses for that matter.  But I digress.

So, I never really celebrate Halloween.  But, here at Rochester one of our professors is a fan of Halloween.  He grew up with block parties of costumed kids and adults, so he and his fiance have one every year.  And 2009 was the 80’s Halloween party.  Dude!

As Alan and I both came of age during the 80’s our biggest problem was deciding what the heck to dress up as.  Magnum! I blurted.  After all, a Hawaiian shirt, shorts and a Tigers’ cap is not that hard to get.  Nope, he said.  He wanted to be a headbanger….you know a heavy metal fan.  Ok I said, but then I want to be Pop – a lá Madonna. ..you know the tul skirt with the leggings, the rubber pulseras and the big hair with the bow.  So we went dressed as Pop and Metal – and boy did we have fun doing it.

Alan’s was much easier than mine.  We got him a wig, a bandanna, zebra tights (no I’m not kidding) and a Def Leppard t-shirt.  A little bit of black eyeliner and  alas! I had a headbanger husband.  See?Alan Headbanger

Me, well that took a bit of effort.  First I washed my hair and used some extra body mousse.  Then I set it up in choronguitos - you know I twirl them tight and set them as mini buns with an elastic.  Then I blow dry the heck out of them.  But what I was most looking forward to was re-enacting the makeup.  Oh boy, did I ever.My 80s Makeup

After the makeup was done, it was on to the outfit, and the hair, and of course the BOW.  Don’t believe me?  What do you think of this?80s Outfit

What’s that? You want a close up of the hair and the bow?  You got it!The finished product

So off we went, eager to see what other people dressed up as, and the comments on our costumes.  Once there, Billy Idol was our host.Billy Idol our Host

Spiderman, was our bartender.Our Bartender - Spidey

Boy George decided to drop by for some entertainment (yes, we had a karaoke machine that YOURS TRULY brought because, ahem, we own one.  I know, shut up!)Boy George

The Ghostbusters made sure no paranormal activity disrupted our fun and, in case we could possibly get bored, Rubik’s Cube was in attendance.Ghostbusters!

Rubik's Cube

Everyone thought I was dressed up as Madonna *sigh*, but EVERYONE loved our costumes.  So much so, that towards the end, one of my co-workers asked me if I had BOUGHT the outfit of if I had DUSTED it off from storage.  That made my day, and made me feel so proud of my 80’s upbringing.  So in the words of Huey Lewis, let’s go back in time and Rock On!Metal & Pop

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I’m Baaaaaack!

October 23, 2009 by Adriana

Hello world!!!!  Greetings from Rochester, NY!

Sorry for the extended absence, but the quarter system hit me like a ton of bricks and I’m just coming up for air.  Unfortunately, to get things going in our new home and my new job, I was forced to neglect my blogging duties.  But fear not, you have not missed much either as my cooking has been almost non-existent.  But that too will change.

As most of you know I defended and PASSED my dissertation on August 18th.  So what was a girl to do to celebrate?  Baseball of course!  So on the 19th we drove (well Alan drove, but that’s really not the point is it?) to Rogers Centre in Toronto (yes, Canada) to see the Blue Jays play, who else? the RED SOX of course!

Alan & Me @ the game

Alan & Me @ the game

See Kikita? We too like to do SelfPortraits and it does not have to be on a Tuesday! Well, really, we sort of have to do self portraits….otherwise we’d have a whole bunch of pictures of me alone (oh wait we have those!) and another bunch of Alan by himelsf…somehow we don’t have as many of those! ;)

Needless to say the RedSox won that game, much to the dismay of the Toronto fans, even if they still ran out of steam at the end of the season to lose to the Angels.

We haven’t had much time to explore Rochester and the Finger Lakes, but we did venture out to see Lake Ontario and caught a really bad sun migraine the next day.  However, we did get some nice pics of the lake.

Sailing on the Lake

Sailing on the Lake

No, no, no.  We weren’t on the sailboat but it’s still a great picture is it not?  I mean really, if I don’t tell you it is a lake, would you think it is a lake?  The interesting thing is that Lake Ontario was once a bay, believe it or not, so it is a salt water lake.  Sort of a captive ocean if you will.  Where were we you ask?  Well, Alan is intent of creating a portoflio of his wife, so I guess you could say I was in a photo session.

My alter ego

My alter ego

I still can’t get over what great pictures the new camera takes….or maybe it is the photographer!

I have much to post, in particular since our anniversary was on July 26th, it has been three years of Papi’s passing, I just turned 39 and we are planning a little family expansion.

I hope you are all still out there, and thank you for sticking around!

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Phinally Phinished

August 18, 2009 by Adriana

I successfully defended my dissertation today!!! So that means, even though I still don’t have my diploma that I am now officially Dr. Adriana M. Boveda-Lambie or Adriana M. Boveda-Lambie, PhD.

Although quite ominous, and I was nervous as hell and tired (we drove in from Rochester the night before) I don’t think it’s hit me yet.

But it will, soon. What this means is that now, aside from that title, I will have more time to blog.

So stick around!

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Safe Arrival

August 8, 2009 by Adriana

After 415 miles, and an 8 hour trip hauling a 4 x 8 U-Haul packed to the max, (and a packed CR-V too), with a cat on board and a beautiful sunny day we have finally arrived at our new home and destination: Rochester, NY.

The moved arrived too and we are still unpacking as I now try to dedicate Saturday and Sunday wholly to my dissertation – which gets defended the 18th.

Pictures to come soon!

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Still Here, though you wouldn’t be able to tell from all the boxes….

July 30, 2009 by Adriana

The movers come Monday, we leave Wednesday and I defend the 18th. I know, a lot to happen in two weeks, but alas such is life.

Due to these lifechanging events ocurring all AT ONCE, I won’t be able to blog until after the defense. Trust me it’s not lack of material..NOT.AT.ALL.

It is all about LACK.OF.TIME.

So, ’till August 18th my fellow readers…wish us luck!

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Nearing the end of an era

July 16, 2009 by Adriana

So, it’s 2am EST and I just turned in my revised manuscript for my dissertation…. what are you up to?

Me? Now I gotta wait until probably Tuesday when what is now a tentative defense date will either become definite or I’ll end up with a new date.  I’m hoping it will become definite; I do think we are at that point where everything that can be done is done, and it is time to work on the power point slides, present the results and get some feedback.  (Keep your fingers crossed!)

Oh yeah, and meanwhile, we are packing up the 5 years we’ve spent here in wonderful RI.  We move August 5th. Tic, toc, tic, toc.

Like I said, it’s 2am and here I am wired from working on my dissertation.  What are you up to?

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Happy 4th of July!

July 4, 2009 by Adriana

As I sit here working on my dissertation from an undisclosed location, ready to do revisions in a 4th of July atmosphere, I want to wish you all a VERY Happy 4th of July!

Enjoy the fireworks, the parades, the BBQs, the company of friends an family, but overall else enjoy the FREEDOM that we all have thanks to our founding fathers who at some point decided to tell the King of England, enough.  Living in New England for us has been a growing experience in learning to see all the good things America and Americans have to offer, and how truly nice people are.

So I wish you all a beautiful sunny day, and a day to think how wonderful this country is warts and all.

I leave you with one of my favorite new country songs that sings about, what else? America.  Enjoy!

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The best Cuban appetizer Evah!

July 3, 2009 by Adriana

These days I’m low on recipes for two reasons:

1) I’m really not cooking that often.  With all my time going to finishing my dissertation we mainly throw whatever we can together without much thought

2) I’ve packed away all my recipes so I can’t give you any measurements.

But no fear.  Between some recipes I managed to prepare and save (like Ropa Vieja) and my cooking friends, I’ll have enough content to get us through until we are in Rochester unpacked.

I’ve always loved Mariquitas (as they were called in my house) or Chicharritas (as they are mainly called in Cuban Spanish).  Even on a hot day, these things are great because of the Mojo they go with – pronounced Moho for all the Spanish impaired.  Ah, Mojo – a Cuban invention SO GREAT that Marta uses it as her status in Facebook.  I know, shut up.

Anyway, back to Mojo.  It’s the easiest thing to do – smash some garlic in a mortar, get equal parts of olive oil and lemon juice, heat the olive oil in a skillet and pour over the garlic in the mortar.  Add the juice, some salt and voila you’ve got Mojo……well you’ve got the Mojo for the Mariquitas anyway.  Oh yes, and the Mariquitas are nothing mored than thinly sliced, deep fried, green plaintains.  Served with the Mojo for dipping.  OMG, my mouth is watering and I’m getting hungry.

What? You missed all that?  Still wondering what the heck are these Mariquitas I keep talking about?  No worries, my friend Madelyn over at her Karma Free Cooking blog will take you step by step on how to make them at home.

So go try them, what are you waiting for?  Trust me, you will not regret it.  In fact, you might even become addicted to them!

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The Lambies go to Fenway!

July 1, 2009 by Adriana

Baseball has always been a part of my life.  Papi used to take us to the Hiram Birthorn for the MLB exhibition games and we always hoped Puerto Rico would get an MLB team.  In the meantime we would be die hard fans of the Puerto Rican winter league Cangrejeros de Santurce!

On the MLB we as a family were die-hard Altlanta Braves fan. Yes I know Ted is a commie and so is his wife.  But we lived in PR and really didn’t know much about Ted.  All we knew is that we had three teams to choose from: WGN Chicago Cubs, WOR New York Mets (I had the biggest crush on Keith Hernandez) and WTBS Atlanta Braves (my crush on Dale Murphy and subsequently Damon Berryhill were bigger).   And so we liked and loved America’s team, the Braves.  As fans we wetn to Atlanta a couple of times to see them play, and I once drove from Maryland to Pittsburgh to see a 1992 playoff game (Avery was pitching and it was a bad game).

But I digress; the point is I, as any Cuban-American, have always loved baseball and loved going to games at the park.  However, Boston Red Sox tickets are HARD to come by; I mean, two weeks ago they celebrated 500 consecutive SOLD OUT games.  Here you have no choice but to watch the games on TV (Yes Marta, I’m talking to you!).  And Alan, as the newly minted American Citizen that he is (1.5 years) LOVES baseball and is a DIE HARD fan of the Boston Red Sox (and so am I).

So the other day the Marlins were in town, and my curious nature got the best of me….breaking from my dissertation work I decided to check if there were tickets available.

“OMG Alan, there are tickets available for the game!“

“Buy them!”  Notice there was no hesitation in his answer and we really are in la prángana.

We didn’t even care where we were seating; I mean tickets available and for $30?? @ Fenway Park?  what is there to think?  So off we went on a not so great day for baseball for our Fenway adventure – our first time at a RedSox game in Fenway Park.  It wasn’t really cold, but it was drizzling and damp, so taking pictures was a challenge.

Alan @ Fenway

Alan @ Fenway

As you can see Alan was decked out in New England gear and happy as a little kid to be there!  As you can also see everything was very VERY wet.  I have to admit that walking into Fenway was a bit intimidating.  Why not big, it has a lot of stores, food places, and kiosks…people, lots and LOTS of people…..but nothing really compares to the feeling of walking out to the seats and seeing the Green Monster for the first time.  What???  You don’t know what the Green Monster is?  Let me show you….

The Green "Monstah"

The Green "Monstah"

Doesn’t it look beautiful?  There are seats on top of the Monster, and of course home runs get batted either to it or through it.  It looks small in the picture, but it’s quite impressive in person.  Fenway is a special park, and as such other parks such as Camdem Yards have been designed/remodeled after it.  The field also looked beautiful although it still had the tarp on.  Remember, it was raining.

Alan @Fenway Green

Alan @Fenway Green

Doesn’t he, I mean it, look beautiful?  After a while they took of the tarp and the players took to the field to practice; that’s always been my favorite part of watching baseball in person – getting to see the players warm up and of course, take pictures with Alan’s new camera.  Like this one of team Catcher and Captain Jason Varitek, who is currently having a pretty decent season and rebounding from a bad 2008.

Captain Tek

Captain Tek

Needless to say, I was the one taking pictures; Alan was filming and I don’t have the upgrade here to show you video just yet.  And as you can see we weren’t the only ones either taking pictures, video or even trying for autographs.  Alan missed Beckett by a matter of seconds.

In the end the RedSox lost 2-1 to the Marlins, after a 3.5 hour rain delay after the 5th inning.  The umpires chose to call the game and give the win to the Marlins.  We were VERY disappointed.  Not because they lost, but because we couldn’t really see a game.

So, since we are moving to Rochester, NY, which is about an hour away from Toronto (as in home of the Toronto Blue Jays, division rivals of the Red Sox), we found it completely appropriate to buy two tickets for the August 18th game.  And this time we’ll be sitting by Third Base, right behind the dugout!  How to I feel about this?  Well I’ll be there with my RedSox jersey on, and the Gaelic Red Sox Hat.

Let's Go Red Sox!

Let's Go Red Sox!

It may not be Fenway Park, but it’s a dome (no rain) and we have better seats (actually we have seats whenever we want since regular games are not sold out), and it will be our new way of watching the Red Sox L-I-V-E!!!!!!!

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