Author Archives: nadine

Plated: A Review & A Giveaway

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Being awesome at the internet has gotten me some sweet loot.  Last year I was pressured into signing up for this website called klout.com to score a Spotify invite before it was available in the US.  I have been loving Spotify ever since.  Being apart of klout has given me chances to try some things that I wouldn’t have ordinarily heard of or gotten to test out.  The most recent thing I’ve tried is a product/service called Plated.

Box-a-month programs are really hot right now.  There’s Birchbox and Julep Maven for beauty, there’s Barkbox for dogs, Kiwicrate for kids, and now there is Plated for your stomach.

What is Plated?

Plated is a service that ships all the necessary items for a recipe right to your house.  They have a menu each week that you can choose “plates” from, depending upon how many people you would like to serve with that recipe.  They pack, ship and deliver this right to your house every Tuesday.  As a member in their program, you pay a $10 monthly fee, and then you pay about $12 per plate of food you order.  Without the membership, you can still order, though the price per plate will be slightly higher, about $14.  They send you all the ingredients you need, save for a few pantry staples, like olive oil or salt & pepper.

I got a sweet klout perk to try out this service for myself and see what it’s all about.  I got a free one-month membership and 4 free plates.  The first week, I didn’t like anything on the menu, so I skipped that week.  The next one, I tried out two plates of Pork Loin with Parsnips and Balsamic Fig sauce and two plates of Chicken Tacos with Mango Salsa.  Here’s what arrived at my house:

here’s the box

All the ingredients were packed up so nicely and neatly and I got two very large and durable recipe cards.  I didn’t plan on cooking those things that evening, so I unpacked my box and put it in the fridge.  Everything was exceptionally fresh.

The next day I made the Pork Loin with Parsnips and Balsamic Fig sauce.  It went great and came out so delicious.  I’d never had parsnips before.  I messed up a little bit with the recipe, but once I noticed my error it was easily fixed (I added the whole cup of chicken stock when I was only supposed to add a quarter of a cup, so I used a turkey baster and took most of it out.)  Here’s some pics from the process…

here’s what came in the box

mango salsa! i made this!

grilled chicken for the chicken tacos

setting the table, note the fancy china, it is a hello kitty plate

really super delicious chicken taco

all the pork dish ingredients

choppy choppy

really easy prep work honestly

super noms

Here’s what I liked about this:  Super easy, everything’s included, shows up right at your house.  I tried and made things that I otherwise wouldn’t have.  Like a parsnip or cooking with figs.  This week  ordered two more recipes and made one of them tonight – Grilled Flank Steak with Horseradish Crema and Potatoes with Mint Pesto

AND NOW FOR THE GIVEAWAY!!!!!
Comment on this post with your name and e-mail and you are entered into a giveaway for a free 1-month membership to Plated.com and 4 free plates!  I loved this service so much I want to share this with one of you!  Follow me on Facebook and Twitter to keep up with any contest announcements! 

The Duality of a Memory

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My favorite radio station on Sirius XM is 90’s on 9.  I think that is the equivalent of how my parents always listened to classic rock while I was growing up.  I’ve already settled into my music generation and I’ve become a curmudgeon who complains about rappers’ saggy pants and how you can’t understand a damn thing they say.  Once in a while I put on Z100 to see “what the kids are listening to” and it all sounds like hot garbage noise.

The other morning driving to work, the song “Truly Madly Deeply” by Savage Garden came on the radio.  This song always hits a nostalgic, happy chord in my heart, even if I can admit that as an adult the lyrics are the most schmaltzy crap that two men had ever sang.

When that song starts playing, I am always reminded of a snapshot in my life so pure and so genuine it might as well have been on 7th Heaven.  In that moment, I’m 15 years old again, and I’m at the roller rink, holding hands with my boyfriend during “Couples Skate.”  It’s the uncomplicated simplicity of teenage romance of just holding hands and skating in loops that gives me a bittersweet ache for that time.  No, not because he was “my one true love that I will always hold a place for in my heart.”  It’s just the way things were easy then.  My biggest worry was making sure my friend’s mom got us home on time so I wouldn’t break curfew.  I wondered if my boyfriend would kiss me goodnight at the door.  And as much as I’m writing these words out now, back then I was thinking about how I would write this all down in my diary that night before I went to bed.
The other half to this memory is not as saccharine sweet.  My friend, let’s call her Lori, for the sake of anonymity and everything being on the internet, and if she finds my blog, I don’t want to embarrass her, was the kind of girl who really got away with a lot as a kid.  I always thought she was spoiled.  She got almost anything she wanted and name-brand designer clothes, while I was still relegated to shopping at K-Mart or Bradlee’s.  She got away with wearing kind of hood-skank clothes, that I somehow envied, and could also go out of the house wearing a lot of makeup with chola eyebrows and brown-asshole-looking lined lips, whereas I had to sneak putting a little rose-colored Avon lipgloss on once I got to school.  She was way more advanced sexually than I was as well.  I felt like a stupid diaper baby with her most of the time, but I wasn’t necessarily in any hurry to “catch up” to her level at the same time.
Lori got away with a lot because she was the youngest, her parents were older, and the rest of her siblings were grown up, moved out and started having families of their own.  My dad would have burned my stereo and sent me to re-education camp if something like this came on the radio, but in Lori’s mom’s huge ass ark of a mini-van, our wholesome rollerblading evening ended with Lori blowing her boyfriend in the way-back seat while this romantic ditty serenaded us all:
Lil’ Kim:  Big Momma Thang

It was a simpler time back then, I’m tearing up now.

No Such Thing as Beauty Sleep

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I am a fucking goblin in the morning.  The older I get, the scarier I look.  Here are some things that I look like in the morning:
Picasso’s Weeping Woman
Moldy Bread
Rocky Dennis from Mask

old, sad Eastern European woman

Andy Dick’s mugshot

Dr. Zahi Hawaas

Bus Driver on South Park

Bruce Vilanch

Sadam Hussein
Matthew Lillard as Shaggy

A Shaggy Dog
Amanda Bynes’ Eye Webbing

Amanda Bynes

Please like Night Caffeine on Facebook!

Don’t Solicit Me

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When I was younger and saw signs that said “no solicitors” I had to ask what the word “solicitor” meant.  And my mom explained it was people selling things.  As a kid, I could only think of how kids go door to door selling candy for fundraisers, or Girl Scouts selling cookies.  Who WOULDN’T want door-to-door candy service?  As an adult, I wish I got more of this.  More candies and more cookies right at my doorstep.

As an adult and an office manager, “solicitor” has taken on a whole new hellish annoyance to me.  NEWSFLASH:  no one ever comes around selling candy.  Ever.
Sometimes on the subway there are “youths” (which are generally waaaaaay too old to even be in school probably, and I am smart enough to know they are not raising funds for their rec center.  They went to Costco and are trying to turn a profit) selling candy for a ridiculous price and this is not helpful nor useful.  Yes, I want candy.  No, I am not paying $5 for a fucking fun-size Snickers.

I will announce right here and now a little tidbit into my working-life.  I use Staples.  I love it.  You will not ever sway me from Staples.  I have their card, their online ordering is great, their customer service is awesome and no, this isn’t a sponsored post.

So many people come into my office and try to get me to switch to their business or service.  Verizon, get out of here.  WB Mason, hit the road.  The most recent company to try their luck with me… I don’t even KNOW who they are, but they ain’t getting far.  I see right through them.

Two guys came in last Thursday trying to get me to switch to their office supplies.  Told me they’re a subsidiary of Staples, offer lower prices, really tried to get me on board.  I open with “Thank you for your time but I am with another company and do not plan on switching.”  That is my hello and goodbye, don’t waste my time, I got work to do.  I shut these two guys down pretty fast and then they’re all heeeey I like your shirt.  What?  Thanks…….?  Go away.

Monday afternoon, another sales rep from this same company comes in but is harder to shut down.  Not because she is a tenacious sales leader, but I really think she was slow and was not understanding what I was telling her.  The following convo actually happened…..

“Hey, nice shirt!  What a lovely pink color” Heeeeey the two guys last week said the same thing to me.  Do they train you to say that?!
“But we have lower prices.” I don’t care.  I like Staples.
“No obligation, let me set you up with a user ID for ordering”  No, I don’t want to do that at all.
“Let me show you our price comparison sheet and-” I don’t have time for this, I have work to do.  I’m not switching.
“Ordering is easy, you just call and talk to me and I do everything for you” I don’t want to talk to anyone, I like Staples because I can do everything online and not speak to a single person.

After a few more blank stares, back and forth, and me pointing at my computer and grunting “ME WORK BUSY, MUCH BUSY.”  She got the hint and left.

The next day I saw her stalking the hallways in this building again… this time she had someone with her that I overheard giving her a pep talk before entering another company’s office.
“You got this on lock, you can do this, you are a WINNER.”

I feel bad for her.  I know sales is a hard job, and it’s hard to purposely have to interrupt and annoy people in the middle of their day, but I try to say no as nice as possible at first.  After that, you gotta get a clue.