My least favorite episode of "Say Yes to the Dress"

I watch "Say Yes to the Dress" on TLC, which features the Kleinfeld, the salon with the biggest selection of gowns in NYC, even after finding my wedding dress. My dress didn't come from Kleinfeld, although I did have an appointment there. The show makes it seem like the consultants and managers will be your buddy and lower prices if you make a sad face, but when I went, I found out that dress prices start at $2000, and they push you to purchase way before you need. My knot.com calendar was telling me I had until March/April to purchase a dress for a late November wedding. My consultant was pushing me to purchase the first week of January, saying that I was already late.

Perhaps that's the way Kleinfeld works, as so many of the post-purchase brides they show at first fitting talk about how they're not sure if they remember their dress, and worry whether they'll still like it, because it's been A YEAR since they saw their dress. I bought my dress elsewhere for less than $1000, and it has attributes that would sell for over $3000 at Kleinfeld. It's so ridiculous how some brides on the show want a ballgown but want to stick to a $2000 budget. One particular bride was told that if she wanted a ballgown, she'd have to up her budget, but she could've found one at a less ritzy salon easily.

My least favorite episode of "Say Yes to the Dress" is titled "The Art of Negotiation," where one bride, Melanie, bought a dress a year earlier, but cancelled it because she had second thoughts. For once, I took Kleinfeld's side. Melanie wound up choosing the same dress she purchased in the first place! Why didn't she come back to the salon and try the dress on again before cancelling the order and losing the 50% deposit she already paid? It turns out the dress increased in price from $5000 to $6300 since she first purchased it, and Melanie and her mom are outraged. They complain that they should've been told that the price would increase when Melanie called to cancel the order, that Melanie cancelled the order the way they told her she should. How was the store supposed to know that Melanie would come back and want the same dress again (crazy bride, anyone?) and that the price would actually increase? In the end, the store didn't want to lose the sale, so they discounted the dress down to $5000 and gave her a free veil worth a couple hundred bucks. But ha ha, Melanie pretty much paid $7500 for the dress because of the deposit she spent on the first dress.

A wedding in Flushing

Josh and I attended our friends' wedding last night out in Flushing. The traffic was horrendous. A trip that should've taken only half an hour took an hour and a half. Josh kept saying that we were going to miss the ceremony, but we got there just in time to see the bridal party lining up.... from behind. As they departed, I realized that I should take some pics because there was no one else with this perspective of the bride and her father.

It was my first traditional Chinese wedding banquet for someone NOT related to me, and it was a lot of fun. I loved the ways they incorporated modern ideas, and it was so cool that their dog was allowed to walk around the ballroom during the reception. I do think that our waitperson was looking down her nose at us for not eating all the very traditional dishes. Hey, I did my part, eating double portions of jellyfish and shrimp in Japanese mayonnaise, but I draw the line at abalone.

The bride did stop by our table quite often and when she took a picture with us, she said, "You're neeext!!" and also shared the tip not to let the small projects slip by the wayside, or it will bite you in the butt closer to the wedding. I think I'd better get started on knitting Josh's yarmulke.

To change or not to change?

I've been pretty frustrated with Verizon customer service over the last three months, and have found out that the early termination fee is prorated based on how many months you've been in your contract, so I'm seriously considering leaving for another carrier. That said, I've been looking at Sprint and AT&T as my replacement. I crossed T-Mobile off the list when I visited a store and all the phones were fake display models. I heard some bad things about their new 3G service, and the fact that you aren't allowed to try out the phones makes it seem like they're hiding something.

I hear tons of bad things about AT&T, but all my cousins have that service and don't have a problem, and when I had it for two years, I didn't notice anything bad. I hear really bad things about the iPhone, but it wasn't even on my list of phones because I want a keyboard. My brother highly recommends Sprint and his smartphone doesn't have problems when he's visiting me in Manhattan or Brooklyn. I'd hate to stay with Verizon because they have a monopoly on NYC - it makes them seem more evil to me in a "Ha ha, you have no choice" way.

Lo and behold, I discovered this site that shows users' cell phone signal strength and dead spots. It pretty much shows that no service is flawless in NYC. I'm thinking of a Blackberry Curve 8900 or the new Palm Pre from Sprint at this point, unless AT&T gets a new iPhone that has decent coverage, a realy QWERTY, and MMS capability.

Remembering SF

We finally framed three of the photographs we bought in SF this past weekend. These were done by Sarka-Trager Photography and we actually met Richard Trager when we purchased the photos. I think these photos are my favorite souvenir from SF (as we've consumed almost all the wine we shipped back home), and every time I walk by, I think of that lovely day at the Ferry Building.

I can't wait to go back! But you know, gotta save money for the wedding and all.

Frozen yogurt at home

Yesterday, Josh and I were shopping in Red Hook and on the way back, I begged for him to swing by Park Slope so I could buy some frozen yogurt from Oko. Oko's froyo is fresh and tangy like Pinkberry, but is made from Greek style yogurt, which results in a richer taste and consistency. The frozen yogurt was delicious, a large (I shared with Josh, so I'm not a total piggy) topped with strawberry, kiwi, and mango.

When I got home, I searched for a froyo recipe similar to Pinkberry and immediately, this one popped up in Google. The recipe is actually from David Lebovitz's cookbook, Perfect Scoop, so I'm not going to display the recipe here due to copyright issues. I'm explaining myself because I'm tired of people accusing me of plagiarism because they didn't bother seeing I linked to the actual recipe.

The recipe is super easy and requires just Greek yogurt (I used Fage) and granulated sugar. I skipped the vanilla extract because I wanted the plain flavor that I normally order at Pinkberry or Oko. I was concerned that the granulated sugar wasn't going to dissolve in the thick, cold yogurt, but the next day, the sugar was all gone, leaving me with a sweetened yogurt base to pour into my ice cream maker.

Twenty minutes later.... a dreamy, rich frozen yogurt. It's definitely not Pinkberry because it's way richer, so I think it's more like Oko. The results, topped with strawberry and a drizzle of honey, got an enthusiastic thumbs-up from Josh and my tastebuds.



It's so dreamy, it gets a fancy photo-edit-makeover!

Cupcake success!

Josh and I split the cupcakes and brought them to work today. The recipe was extremely accurate, as I came out with 49 cupcakes (Bakerella said it'd produce about 50). The cupcakes were fine at room temperature, and I ate the last one with my afternoon tea, finding that it didn't seem as sweet as I remember from yesterday.

Josh says we're definitely going to make these for our annual NFL Draft Day party. I have plans to make it a little easier though, provided that I can find a football cookie cutter of appropriate size. I have a lot of ideas for flavor combinations and I can't wait to get started!

Bakerella's Cupcake Bites!

I am addicted to Pioneer Woman's blog, and read about Bakerella's visit to PW's home for a baking demonstration. These little cupcake bites grabbed my attention and I spent the last week preparing and gathering supplies, determined to attempt them despite the fact I have a freelance project due tomorrow.




This is not a recipe that can be completed on a whim for instant gratification. On Friday, I baked the coconut cake, which was half of Ina Garten's coconut cake, poured into a rectangular pan. According to Bakerella, you can use cake mix and canned frosting, but I hate the way cake mix cakes taste. I figured that if my attempt was successful, it better taste good. On Saturday, I tossed chunks of the cake into the food processor in a few batches to get fine crumbs. Then I mixed in cream cheese frosting, also from Ina Garten's coconut cake recipe to get a sticky sort of dough, and rolled it into balls.



I couldn't find a cutter closer to what Bakerella recommended as ideal, although the one on the right is one of the substitutes she suggests. I would push a dough ball through the cutter, enough to form the "cup" part of the cupcake and push it back out. You can see the two different shapes I got in the picture above. The cutter on the right produced a better mound on top of the cup, but it was harder to get a clean release when I pushed the formed cake out. The cutter on the left, which was easier to use, was taller and a bit wider, so there wasn't as much left to form the mound. I will keep my eyes open for a better cutter!



Today, I did the dipping, using Merckens chocolate melting wafers. I had a lot of problems getting the coating right. No problems for the bottoms of the cupcakes, but getting the green coating to overlap with the brown without running down too much was a big issue. In the end, I let the chocolate cool a bit so it was thicker and would harden faster, which made the M&M and sprinkle decorating even faster. I managed by having Josh assist with the decorating.

We each ate one and it was delicious, very sweet though. I have a lot of ideas for future flavor combinations. You can avoid this whole two-color coating dance by leaving the cake balls in round form and dip them in one color, like little truffles. I left the finished cakes in the fridge, but just noticed that the green coating was starting to crack for some, so that's something to worry about. According to Bakerella, you can refrigerate if you like eating them cold, or store in airtight container at room temp.