Egg Minder (Thursday Thoughts)

Today I came across the Egg Minder it is a $50 "smart" egg tray with an app that you can log into from your smart phone, while at the grocery to determine if you need more eggs.  Is this a joke?  To me, if I didn't know if I needed eggs I would spend $4 to buy more, not $50.  Maybe it's just foreshadowing a fridge that knows everything in it and all the expiration dates, that I can see as slightly more helpful.

Egg Minder wirelessly connects to your mobile device to track the number of eggs you have and tell you when they’re going bad. In-tray LED lights indicate the oldest egg, while push notifications alert you when you’re running low. Check Egg Minder while at the store; you’ll never be in a scramble for a good egg again. It syncs with your smartphone to tell you how many eggs you've got at home (up to 14) and when they're going bad.

Shariuosly, what do you think?

JetBlue Contest (Part 2)

Something Blue

When I last left off in Part 1, we were campaigning throughout the voting period, up until the very last moments that voting was open on Sunday night.  The next day, between 10 and 11am, we would be receiving a call letting us know the outcome.  Adam and I worked from home that morning so we could be together when the call came. On Sunday, I mentioned to Adam that I thought they would call the losers first.


A few minutes after 10 am, I was on the phone with a coworker when Adam's phone rang, being so close to 10am we must have been the first call and if my logic was right, that would be it, the excitement was over.  I, not able to get off the call quickly enough, watched as Adam answered the phone and then... started bouncing off the walls, running all over the apartment, WE WON!  But, we couldn't tell anyone until it was public on JetBlue's facebook page later that afternoon.

The next few hours were tough, I had to go into the office and pretend I still didn't know the outcome when all my coworkers kept asking if we had found out.  Finally, around 3:00pm, JetBlue announced us as winners of the Something Blue contest!

It worked out so well that we, JetBlue and the wedding were all NY based because a week or so after we won, the marketing team in charge of the event invited us to the JetBlue headquarters in Long Island City to go over all the details of the "wedding" and honeymoon.

Here's what we ended up winning:

• A wedding ceremony & reception in JFK's T5 JetBlue Terminal for us and our guests including
• 10 roundtrip JetBlue flights (if any of our guests would be traveling from out of town)
• 5 rooms at the Yotel in Manhattan the evening before the wedding, our room was a really sweet suite
• Flowers and decorations by FTD/Georgewood Florists 
• Cupcake display by Baked By Melissa
• Wedding Dress from Justin Alexander
• Tuxedo Rental from 1888MyTuxes.com
• Breakfast reception by JetBlue
• Entertainment by the Hawaiian Airlines Serenaders
• Honeymoon to Hawaii!! Including
• 10 roundtrip flights on Hawaiian Airlines (with Adam and I in first class)
• 5 rooms at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel on Waikiki Beach
• 10 tickets to the Creation show in Waikiki

How Shariously awesome is all that!  Next up in the series, recap of all the events and winnings!

Chicken with balsamic reduction (Recipe Monday)

For a while I have been wondering how a balsamic reduction is made. I finally googled it, and turns out all you have to do is boil balsamic vinegar. Well that's pretty easy. I also found you could infuse it with almost anything. So I made up a new recipe for this week's Sunday night dinner. Since this was my first time coming up with the recipe, I didn't take any pictures until we ate almost all of it.

Ingredients:

Chicken with Balsamic Reduction

1/2 c balsamic vinegar

1/2 lime

2 chicken breasts
2 tsp olive oil
1/4 c white wine

1/2 c grape tomatoes, chopped

1/2 red onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, chopped

fresh basil, chopped

Recipe:

1. Preheat Oven to 375 degrees.
2. Balsamic Reduction: In a stainless steel saucepan bring vinegar to a boil.  Reduce heat to low-medium for about 10 minutes.  Squeeze juice from lime into vinegar and then place rind in pot.  Slowly boil for another 5 minutes and remove lime rind. You will want to watch the vinegar closely. The point from where the vinegar turns from a smooth liquid to a syrup happens pretty quickly and then has an opportunity to burn.
3. When balsamic has been reduced to a syrup, mix with chopped tomatoes, onions and basil
4. Spray baking dish with oil or cooking spray
5. Chicken: heat oil in sautee pan with garlic and half the onions.  Sear the chicken on each side for a few minutes until brown.  Place in baking dish.  Pour wine into sautee pan to scrape up the goodies and pour over chicken.  
6. Bake chicken 10-15 minutes depending on thickness.
7. Pour balsamic mixture over chicken and bake for another 5 minutes or until chicken is fully cooked.

Writing everything out makes it look harder than it is.  I promise it is really easy.  I'm looking forward to using this balsamic in other Shariously great ways.

January 24, 2014 (Five Foto Friday)

NYC Skyline Panorama

Norwegian Breakaway

I'll start you off with some pictures from a walk along the Hudson,  I forgot that with my new phone I have the panorama function. So here's my first pano of the NYC skyline and a cool picture of the Norwegian Breakaway making a breakaway with the Empire State Building in the background.  I've cruised out of NY once, an it's a pretty cool feeling sailing along the city on a ship that is equivalent to a skyscraper floating down the Hudson River on it's side.

 

Next up, our window on Tuesday during the big snow storm, I thought it looked pretty, almost like that fake snow stuff that you spray.  Then the following day I took a picture of snow on the Highline. 

Lastly, this week I received a free box of graze, a website that offers fulfilling healthy snack food at your door for $6 including shipping.  So far I've only tried one of the snacks which was delicious!  But I'll try to do another post soon about all the snacks and showing you more of it.  If you want to learn more about graze check out their website.  And, if you want to try a free box you can use my "friend" code www.graze.com/us/p/SHARIL9XU. You will get your 1st and 5th box free and I will get $1 to donate towards the Graze School of Farming.

Hope you Shariously liked this edition of #FiveFotoFriday

JetBlue Contest (Part 1)

Some time back in June, Adam saw that Jet Blue was hosting a contest for engaged couples to enter to win a wedding at JFK's T5 JetBlue terminal and a honeymoon to Hawaii (in partnership with Hawaiian Airlines), called Something Blue (get it?).  No one ever wins those contests in real life, but he entered.  You had to write a short paragraph about why we should win and submit a picture.

Here was his submission:

Shari and I got engaged on a JetBlue flight last summer! We met on an airplane 7 years ago and so I (Adam) decided to propose on a flight to Boston. Shari and I can't express how much we love the staff and crew of JetBlue and JetBlue will always be a part of an incredible moment that we will share together for the rest of our lives. We were planning on going to Hawaii for our honeymoon so this trip would be absolutely amazing and so fitting! We can't thank you enough for making our engagement so special!

Honestly, after that I forgot about it.  But about a month later, I was out at a project site in Staten Island when Adam texted me saying that we had been selected as one of three finalists!  We had 24 hours to review all the rules and sign a bunch of paperwork to make our finalist status "official."

For the two weeks following, we weren't allowed to tell anyone. It was so hard to keep it a secret.  On August 12, 2013, the facebook voting began.  The day the Something Blue contest went live we felt pretty good, we definitely had the most applicable story to the contest. For 12 days, we worked as hard as possible to get everyone we know, and everyone those people know to vote for us every day.    We emailed, tweeted, facebooked, and used every form of social media to get the word out there so everyone would vote.  We were so amazed and touched by everyone's positive response.  Tons of our friends and family were passing the messages on to their friends and family and posting on facebook and getting more positive responses.  For weeks we were hearing stories like how Adam's brother's roommate's parents' friends were voting for us every day.

Sometimes, during the voting period we would worry, other contestants would be posting and their friends and family would be rooting for them and one of the couples even had an article about them on metro.us.

Shariously stay tuned to see what happens next!

January 17, 2014 (Five Foto Friday)

I hope everyone is having a fun Friday!  Here are my five fotos on Friday:

First up is a nice picture of the back of the New York Public Library, Bryant Park and the ice skating rink they have this winter.  It's been a few years since I ice skated - anyone want to go?

Bryant Park

Winter Warmers Picture: Marshmallows in the
Hot Chocolate Tub, Photo Credit: D. Pollaci

Last night I went to Winter Warmers, a S'mores and Hot Chocolate Cafe. I really wish I had thought to take s'more pictures while I was there, but I didn't. I would have captured the giant chalkboard and birch tree painted walls in the space.  Since I forgot to take pictures of the place (and of the s'mores!) I just have these cute stickers to show for it.  Although I expected a darker warm and cozy space for Winter Warmers, the s'mores creations made up for it.  They have a selection of flavored marshmallows and toppings to put on top of homemade graham crackers.  Mine was just about perfect and consisted of vanilla marshmallow with dark chocolate, butterscotch and dried blueberries on top of the homemade graham crackers.  Also a big fan of these stickers that they had. 

Winter Warmers Sticker: Sorry, no s'more room

Peanut and Adam

 Here is Peanut with Adam. We dog-sat him for  a few days this week.

Lights inside Chelsea Market

I walked through this at Chelsea Market and thought it was really pretty - thousands of lights made for a nice picture.

Want to Shariously share your photos with me?  Shariously Tweet or instagram me @Shariously with #FiveFotoFriday

Bridal Shower Recap

In the theme of catching up from my summer hiatus, today's post recap's my bridal shower. My mom and MOH organized a perfect shower at a local Greek restaurant.  Since it was a Saturday afternoon, instead of giving us a small side room, the restaurant let us have the party in the main dining room which is beautifully decorated with paintings of Greece and has huge windows letting in lots of light.

One of the highlights was the theme - Strawberries! One of my favorite fruits (and ice cream flavors) has always been Strawberries, even my first AOL screen name had strawberry in it.  Everything from the invitations to the menus, place cards and dessert had strawberries!  And of course the favor was strawberry themed too, it is a reusable grocery bag that folds up to look like a strawberry.

From top left clockwise: Me and Mom, Strawberry theme, Adam stopping by, Me and Bridesmaids, Me in awesome bow bonnet, place cards, recipe box, table decorations.

A lot of my friends and family came in from out of town just for the event and I was really touched that everyone made it out to celebrate.  All the food was delish too!  I did do the whole opening gifts in front of everyone thing, which I'm sure everyone got bored with.   My bridesmaids all chipped in and MOH spearheaded a project where she collected recipes from everyone who was invited, and put them on recipe cards (with strawberries on them) and had a beautiful wooden box engraved as a perfect gift.  As you know from my Recipe Mondays, I can always use a new good recipe.  After I opened all my gifts one of my bridesmaids made me the best bow bonnet I have ever seen!

I am Shariously lucky to have so many friends and family shower me with love!

January 10, 2014 (Five Foto Friday)

Welcome to week two of Five Foto Friday!

First up we have Mr. Chamberlain... 

Adam recently ordered glasses from Warby Parker (check it out if you've never heard of it), and they sent him a "snowman making kit."  Luckily only a few days after receiving it we got a nice snow storm.  The snow was nice and fluffy, which wasn't great for making a snowman, but we made due.  The snowman kit included "charcoal" for the eyes (really erasers made to look like it), a chocolate carrot for the nose, a red pipe cleaner for the mouth and buttons for the jacket.  We added the Warby Parker glasses, scarf gloves and used food coloring to show off his jacket. Here's a snowman selfie and Mr. Chamberlain (named for the style of glasses).

                            Mr. Chamberlain Selfie                                              Mr. Chamberlain

Next up we have a picture of the tallest hotel in North America.  You may wonder why I would care, but, this hotel, a Marriott Courtyard and Residence Inn combo which just opened, is a project that I have been working on for years and it's really exciting to see it open, I walked by it this week and snapped some photos. 

Lastly, here is one of my favorite streets in the city. This picture doesn't even do it justice, but the this stretch of West 55th Street has mature trees with lights all the way down from 8th to 9th Avenue, it looks so pretty at night so I took a picture.

Another week filled with plenty of Sharioulsy fun pictures to share.

Cinnamon Sweet Potatoe Wedges (Recipe Monday)

I recently made this dish for a potluck dinner.  It's very easy to make and tastes great!

Cinnamon sweet Potato Wedges

Ingredients

6 Sweet Potatoes

2 tsp Cinnamon

2 tsp Brown sugar

1 tsp kosher salt

1 tbsp Olive Oil  or use misto

      Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400
2. Cut sweet potatoes into wedges. 
3. Spread wedges onto baking sheet and spray with misto.  Or if you don't have a misto, toss wedges with olive oil prior to placing on baking sheet.  Sprinkle with cinnamon, brown sugar and salt.
4. Bake for 15 minutes, toss, then bake for another 10-15 minutes.

These Shariously taste like sweet potato fries without being fried!

January 3, 2014 (Five Foto Friday)

Welcome to my First Five Foto Friday!

1. Maria the Fish

I don't think I've ever introduced you to Maria - readers, meet Maria a one and a half year old betta fish.  I'll try to make a long story short, here's the story of Maria:

Almost two years ago a co-worker and I moved into a space at our office which had previously been The Library.  Since in recent years pretty much everything went digital, the resources were out dated and our office was running out of space we got to move into this semi-private officle/bullpen area.  The best part is that it is adjacent to a wall of windows (a rarity in the office) and an unusable terrace.  We soon came to learn that seagulls like to hang out on the terrace railing right outside the window and would squawk all day making it sound like we were on the beach.  And so since we got tired of telling people we sat in the old library, "The Beach" was born.  What beach is complete without a fish, so upon my return from a meeting last August, I met Maria Junior, named for a super-intern (an intern who is pursuing a masters degree) who sat in the beach that summer. We found out weeks later that "colorful" betta fish are actually males.  I don't judge, but a new beach-mate has changed the "a" to an "o" to make him Mario, he'll always be Maria to me.

2. Original Succulent Plant

3. Succulent Propagation                    

I really love succulents and we had them at our wedding on the high-tops during cocktail hour, I wanted to keep them or give them out, but they got thrown away. I was upset, but luckily, my aunt and cousin got me a great succulent plant recently (left).  You only have to water it once a month and give it lots of sunlight, it's been growing like crazy even in the cold, un-sunny climate.  I heard you can propagate them so I read up a bit on it, and the plant on the right is just starting out, it's a cutting from the original plant.  I hope to keep taking pictures of them so I can really see the progress over the year.

4. iphone 5s unpacking

5. iphone 5s

 Last but not least, yesterday I upgrade to iphone 5s!  I did a great job of keeping my iphone 4 in great condition for three and a half years, but I decided a new phone for the new year.  I didn't realize how much I would notice that the 5s is lighter, has a seemingly much larger screen, is much faster and has a better wi-fi connection than the 4, but it really does.

I'm Shariously loving Five Foto Friday (FFF) so far and can't wait to share some photos from next week!

Happy New Year 2014!

Two thousand thirteen was a wonderful year, full of weddings (including my own), spending time with friends and family, meeting new people, taking great vacations (read here), winning contests and much more!  Like any year, it had it's ups and downs, but overall, 2013 will absolutely be one of my most memorable.

I figured out this year why I'm not so big on "resolutions" (see last years post)  I think it's because too many people take resolutions  as being a challenge.  They say I'm not going to eat any cheese this year and a week later when they realize cheesecake is in fact made out of cheese, they say "oh well" and give up.  This past Passover, I was a few days in of avoiding products with leavening, when I accidentally ate some pretzels.  Some people would just give up and eat pizza for lunch and pasta for dinner.  Instead, I said "whoops" and continued to try my best to keep kosher for Passover.  That's why having a "fresh start" doesn't matter so much to me; I am always trying to improve my health, be kinder, try new things and keep blogging.  If I have a set back, I don't just give up, I keep moving forward.

One thing I'd like to try and do this year is add a new subject to the blog called Five Foto Friday.  It's pretty self explanatory, but, in an effort to keep the content of this blog fresh and new, I'll post five photos from the past week or two (or old photos that may be relevant), maybe I'll provide commentary.  We'll see how it goes, so stay tuned!