Unanswered Questions: Gossip Girl Recap - 12/6/10 Episode

Finally!  It's about time we learned why Ben was in jail and Juliet has been out for Serena's soul all season. So many secrets were let out of the bag this week!  It was almost too much to handle...almost.

• Has Dan finally caught on that it's weird he is in love with his sister?  When he and Blair are trying to see Serena at the Ostroff Center, I sense a tinge of shame as he says "I'm her brother."
• Why is there a neighborly postman that knows her by name when Juliet steps off the bus?  It's Connecticut, not Pleasantville.
• While we're talking about Juliet getting off the bus, why is she wearing 2010's sparkly dress but carrying 1920's suitcase?
• When Serena lets Juliet off the hook for trying to ruin her life, Juliet looks a tad too smug.  You do realize you drugged the wrong girl, right?
• How is the captain allowed to use Vanderbilt money to lease a house without his wife's consent?  Wouldn't her lawyers be a tad suspicious since he's in JAIL?
• Lily, from where do you summon the power to keep all these secrets locked away?  Sending an innocent man to jail and selling Chuck's company behind his back: those are a couple of bombshells you just dropped on us, my chignon-loving friend.  Private school is great (trust me, I'm a private school kid, myself), but framing a man for statutory rape just so your daughter can get into one is a tad excessive.
• Also, not really a question, but I think I noticed a couple of goofs this episode...
• I don't think you're allowed to join an inmate for tv time.  It's not like visiting a friend at a hotel - they're prisoners.
• It looks like the picture behind the couch (when Rufus calls Lily out for selling the company) is of Lily from that night - same dress and hair.  Considering I haven't heard anything about time travel suddenly becoming possible and Lily would never wear the same outfit twice, I think somebody messed up here.

So this was a pretty major episode and I have no idea where it will go from here...

Blown Away

For the uninitiated, a blow out is when you go to the salon to get your hair washed, blown dry, and styled - no cut.  Apparently there's a ton of women in New York who do this - and not just for proms and weddings.  Enough people that there are several salons dedicated to the blow dry practice.  Last night, I went to one such establishment, Blow, to get my hair did.  It's a blow dry bar.  Seriously.  They have a whole task force of people employed there who do nothing by blow dry your hair.

I don't really get the point of doing this on a Monday night.  Why get my hair pumped full of hairspray just so I can go home, go to sleep, and wash it all out in the morning?  So, to make it worthwhile, we made sure to get a few drinks afterwards to show off our new 'dos.

While it may not be something you want to do on a random weeknight, I may be into it before big events.  I am not very talented with a hairdryer but by the time these ladies were done with my locks, I was looking all sorts of va va voom.  "Who's that movie star?" I asked as I looked in the mirror.  Oh!  It's me!  I could get used to this sort of pampering.

It'll cost you $40-$100 to get your hair blown dry, which seems steep next to the free ConAir I have stashed under my sink.  However, next time you have a big event to go to, save money on the dress.  Use something you already have in your closet and spend the money on some Serena Van der Woodsen hair.

Pick the Burger When You Go for Pizza

When I visited Pulino's, I was not overly impressed with the pizza.  That can be a problem since it's a pizza place.  However, after the one and only time I ever went to Pulino's, I ended up meeting someone out at a bar who worked in the restaurant scene.  He seemed pretty in-the-know, so when he told me the only thing worth eating there is the burger, I filed it away in my rolodex of foodie facts.

Last night, Steph and I went with Gav and some of his friends to Bowery Electric for a birthday but it wasn't long before we remembered we don't really like that bar that much.  There's no way to move and it's certainly not worth the crowds of 23-24 year olds.  It's fine if you're wasted, but I only had one drink under my belt so it was a little much.  Steph and I decided to leave to sit at the bar at Pulino's since we knew it would be calm and spacious.  After two carafes of wine, we deemed it appropriate to order food and this is when I pulled out my burger knowledge.  They didn't even ask us how we wanted it cooked, but it came out a perfect medium rare - just how I like it - with cheese and tons of caramelized onions.  I know it's a pizza place, but the burger is the best thing on the menu.

So Pulino's may be trying to establish itself in the pizza community of New York, but don't bother yourself with going for the pies.  Instead, here are the reasons to check it out:

1. The weird bathrooms
2. See for yourself what caused so much controversy (after New York Magazine gave it a poor review, owner Keith McNally fired back with a letter to the reviewer - research the childlike behavior for yourself)
3. The burger

New York Chanukah

As I briefly mentioned in the last post, I didn't know it was Chanukah until after it started.  That got me feeling like the worst Jew ever.  Large amounts of self-inflicted Jewish guilt ensued.  So on Friday night, I set out to redeem myself by making a Chanukah meal just like my Grandma and invited Matt and Karina over to help me celebrate.

Every year, my grandma cooks the same meal for Chanukah: fried chicken, ribs, gumbo, biscuits, and latkes.  Being a New York City career woman, there was no way I would be able to cook all that before Matt and Karina arrived so I did was most NYC women do: I assembled.  You know the girls I'm talking about - the ones who only use their stove to store extra clothes.  I followed their lead and instead of cooking everything I picked up from a bunch of places and just served it on real dinnerware.  It turned out great.  Let it be known that Whole Foods makes some bangin latkes that are made with spaghetti squash and zucchini.  It looked great, tasted better, and took hardly any time to make.  Of course it wasn't as good as my Grandma's meal, but it was a great substitute in a crunch.  And meant fewer dishes.

In New York, everything either delivers or pre-prepares for pick-up.  Everything.  There's no excuse to not throw a little dinner party and I now know there's no shame in taking a little help from the store.  Less time in the kitchen means more time drinking wine.

Mexican Chanukah

It's been almost two years since I've seen Heather, which is way too long to go without seeing one of your best friends from college.  Thankfully, my friends are not just cool, they're smart, too, which is why I had the opportunity to see Heather while she was here interviewing for a residency program.  It was a very short visit (about 18 hours), so we only had enough time to do dinner, but at least that gave us more face-to-face catch-up time than we've had in a while.

We did not want to stray far from her hotel since Heather had to be up early for her interview, so we went to Toloache.  Not only did I pick Toloache because it's a tried and true Midtown Mexican spot, I picked it because I had heard about their special Chanukah menu.  Apparently, the Hispanic chef's wife is Jewish so he developed a special menu to celebrate their combined cultures.  We didn't go with the full menu, but we couldn't pass up the latke trio:

• Potato Jalapeno with Horseradish Crema
• Zucchini with Tomatillo Apple Salsa
• Mexican Ricotta with Chipotle and Agave

The horseradish crema was so yummy we ended up putting it on all of the latkes, including the ricotta (a creamy, fried ball of cheese - not super latke-like but delish).  It was a fun way to celebrate the 2nd night of Chanukah, which I needed to do since I actually didn't know it was Chanukah until it had already begun.  Oops.  They're also doing the menu at their sister restaurant, Yerba Buena (which I actually prefer to Toloache), so no matter where you live in the city, you don't have much of an excuse to miss out on this fun Chanukah menu (through 12/9).

Now all you blog readers need to start crossing your fingers and toes so Heather chooses NYU for her residency and moves here because one of these dinners every two years is not enough for me.

Lemon Love

After eating like crazy and only working out a little over Thanksgiving, it was time to tone it down (in the burgers and fried food area) and step it up (in the exercise department).  I haven't quite made it to the exercise reform part of my plan, but Tuesday night I made sure my dinner was a tad healthier so I made a big salad, pistachio crusted salmon, and, best of all, lemon pasta.  The pasta was so simple: just add a little cream to the pasta (and I mean just a touch), salt, pepper, lemon juice, lemon zest, and parmesan.  It had so much flavor and took minutes to make.

A very well-rounded meal, non?

Gleecap: Diva-meter - 11/30/10 Episode

Good songs!  Drama!  Last night's episode was everything we could have hoped for from our Glee divas.

• What Emma says to Will about how he runs glee club was everything every blogger has been writing for over a year. +1 because it seems like, finally, someone's been listening.  Perhaps the writers follow this blog?  Not likely, but a girl can dream.
• Santana dropped a huge bomb on Rachel by telling her she slept with Finn.  +1 because she called her Yentl when she did it.
• Although I just gave Santana a point, I would now like to deduct one some because now she's just being mean telling Rachel Finn brought her dinner and the whole situation in her face.  -1
• Rachel's Dads almost broke up over wallpaper.  +1 because for some reason of love any mention of Rachel's gay Dads.  Maybe one day - if we're lucky - we'll actually get to see them.
• +1 to Artie for knowing that the only way to deal with Brittany is the same way you would deal with a 5 year old.  Though, I'm pretty sure he got the idea from watching Big Daddy.  
• "Don't Cry for Me Argentina": Yes the song fit and the transition between Rachel and Kurt was great, but the real points are awarded to Blaine having to hold his hand down to keep it from rising to the the sky like a diva during Kurt's performance. +1
• Brittany has motocross practice: +1

Total: 5--> This episode is the diva equivalent of Tina Turner who can put on a fab performance, just like each of the performing choirs at sectionals.  Also, Tina went through some serious relationship dramz, much like most of the couples in this episode.