Last night Dan called me Bridezilla

Mean. I am the very opposite of bridezilla. Yes, I have a Pinterest board. Yes, thanks to Mrs. Shoemaker, I have 85 million blogs that I'm following for wedding ideas. Yes, I've researched every venue on the west coast to see if they perhaps have an old barn on their property they forgot about. But, no, I am not a bridezilla.

Definition of bridezilla (there are many)

"One ridiculous spoiled b&%$* that thinks she is the center of the universe, just because her 'show' (the wedding) is 18 months from now. Everyone else in the world has to drop everything and come running in this prime-donna's mind."

"noun. Formed from blending of the words bride and Godzilla (Japanese movie monster). Used to describe a woman whose behavior becomes outrageously bad in the course of planning for her wedding."

"Bridezillas are a new breed of soon-to-wed women who abuse the idea that weddings are their 'day.' They terrorize their bridal party and family members, make greedy demands and break all rules of etiquette, to insure that they are the single most important person on the planet from the time they are engaged to the time they are married."

And, just in case there was any question of my bridezilla-ness I braved the wilds of the Mission (cat calls, dog-doo splattered sidewalks and all) to get fresh veggies and make a delicious thai-style autumn meal. And, the best part of all, summer has arrived in San Francisco!!! So we finally ate dinner outside and enjoyed our beautiful new deck.

A note on recipes: I found it interesting that the reviews on this recipe (from epi app on the iPhone) said it was too bland. Who actually follows the recipe?! I don't think I've ever followed a recipe just as it's written in my whole life, so when I post a recipe, it's heavily adjusted to make it more tasty and I encourage you to alter it to fit your needs. I put all my changed in parentheses and bold so you can tell what I did. Original recipe follows. Feel free to post your additions/alterations!

P.S. I tried to use a Wok for this because I like any excuse to use my Wok, but in order to get everything to cook evenly I switched to a large, 3 inch deep sauté pan.

Butternut Squash with Coconut, Lime and Cilantro Sauce & Brown Rice
Yield: Serves 6 (really, it served two with leftovers for 1.5!)

Ingredients
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 ½ cups chopped onion
2 pounds butternut squash, peeled, seeded, cut into 1/2- to 3/4-inch pieces, about 4 cups (mine were wimpy squashes, only had about 2.5 cups)
1 cup canned vegetable broth (I used chicken broth)
1 ½ tablespoons minced seeded jalapeño chili (I used a whole one; it was 3 stars spicy for me)
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 cup canned light unsweetened coconut milk
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice (use 3 or 4 tablespoons)
1 teaspoon Thai red curry paste (no way José, use like 3 teaspoons and I only had green curry paste, so that’s what I used)
½ cup chopped fresh cilantro

I also added: 2 tablespoons fish sauce, 2 tablespoons soy sauce and about 1 teaspoon of minced fresh ginger, one large red bell pepper in long strips, and two heads of broccoli separated into smaller little trees.

Preparation
Heat oil in large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add onions; sauté until golden, about 5 minutes. Add squash, bell peppers and broccoli; sauté 4 minutes. Add broth, jalapeño and garlic; bring to boil. Cover; cook until squash is almost tender, about 5 minutes. Stir in coconut milk, lime juice and curry paste (and fish sauce, ginger and soy sauce). Simmer uncovered until squash is tender and liquid is slightly reduced, about 4 minutes.

Meanwhile, cook brown rice. Serve the butternut squash mixture and sauce over the rice.

* I served this with a side of cucumber spears to cut the heat while eating. Yum.

Original recipe: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Butternut-Squash-and-Noodles-with-Coconut-Lime-and-Cilantro-Sauce-5340

Red galoshes, orange clogs, brown oars, and a little something yellow like the sun

Pouring rains and knee-deep water in the streets of New York couldn't keep us from the culinary adventure of our lives! (Sorry no recipes this time, just mouth-watering restaurant recommendations!)

Thursday night in New York City we sneaked into the last available table at Del Posto, a famous and uber-fancy Mario Batali restaurant that begs an outfit better than what I wore on the plane and a wallet thick with Benjamin's. Complete with perfect mixed drinks, a pedestal for my purse, enough place settings to feed a wedding party, a lemon slice tucked into a starched napkin to freshen our fingertips and melt-in-your-mouth chocolate truffles to take home in a gold box (the truffles made it 1/2 a block), Del Posto was a food experience where eating was only half of it. I've never imagined having someone visit my table to describe the entire menu in images and flavors (in case you're not a visual learner) and help you choose the best FIVE courses of your life. WOW.

Friday we found ourselves surrounded by friends in a giant squared-off booth at WD-50, a playful deconstructed take on the every day dishes of yesteryear. Let's just say the naked eye would have trouble figuring out that the "eggs benedict" contained eggs or hollandaise, but it was all there...just packaged differently. Not only a delightful meal, but also a never-ending conversation piece: each time the next course came all of our eyes lit up in anticipation of what steak and mashers or fried chicken would actually look like. And you may be thinking that is the end of this review, but no, guess who was sitting at the next table over?! No guesses? MARIO BATALI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I almost died, fell over, screamed (I did screech a little), and hyperventilated when I got up to use the ladies and found Mario just chillin' with his chef friends at the next table over. I could walk right by Justin Bieber without even knowing it was him or see a movie and never recall the title or the actors, but chefs, I can name them all! And let's just say the reservation we wanted at Babbo (Batali's Greenwich Village shrine to olive oil and perfectly prepared pasta) and couldn't get because of the month-long wait list was CALLED IN BY MARIO BATALI HIMSELF.

So at this point, I'm thinking, hands-down best weekend of my life, let's just pack up and fly home because it can't get any better than this.

HA!

Dan was adamant that rowing boats in Central Park was in our future. I love rowing in circles in green algae-overgrown lakes as much as the next girl, but the impending downpour forecast made me picture us bilge pumping our way out of a too-small for two people row boat with algae and lake creatures crawling up our legs. Saturday's weather held out and even taunted us with little tiny sun breaklets peaking through the thick cloud cover. After a peddi-cab ride through the park and a jolting shove off the dock, we rowed our silver metal boat around the lake spotting turtles and birds. And then it happened. Literally in the blink of an eye, one tick of a clock, one rain drop clearing the algae-ridden surface of the water, I became a FIANCEE.

And there you have it, I wore red galoshes all over the rainy streets of New York, Mario really does wear orange clogs, Dan rowed us around with brown oars to the most beautiful engagement ever, and today and forever I'll wear a yellow diamond.