You know that I'm no good.

I love Halloween. I am sure this surprises pretty much no one, seeing as how half the clothes Amanda, Katie and I traipse through New London in would probably be called "costumes" by most people. Last year Noe and I had just moved to Connecticut when Halloween rolled around, so we didn't go to any parties or dress up at all. This year was an entirely different story. (Of course, it also helps when Halloween falls on a weekend.)

This year, I wore what may be my favorite Halloween costume ever: I dressed up as Amy Winehouse. The scary thing about my costume is that everything I wore - aside from a ratty black wig pinned into a beehive and the scores of fake tattoos - is stuff I actually wear in real life. After seeing these photos, I assure you that I will never wear these articles of clothing together in a non-costume situation.

Amanda was a great Marylin Monroe, and Katie completed the trifecta as a witch - ironic, since she's probably the nicest of the three of us. We hit Rob's party first, then headed to our favorite bar in New London, Hanafin's. By the time we got to Hanafin's, the party was in full swing. The addition of the new digital jukebox allowed us to play our favorite songs and effectively turn Hanafin's into a dance party (never mind the lack of dance floor).

It was a GREAT night. Here are some pics of our costumes:

Halloween Trifecta: Marylin, Glinda, and Amy Winehouse

Civil war soldier, Winehouse, and Glinda at Hanafin's

Dancing to "Don't Stop Believing" -
We are pointing to "South Detroit" on our hands

They tried to make me go to rehab,
but...well, you know what I said.

Dinner and a show

In addition to being my favorite season in general, I think fall is also my favorite time to eat. Everything just tastes better. Plus, that chill in the air puts me in the mood to drink spicy red wines and eat heavier, richer foods like stuffed pastas or to cook with fragrant fall-like herbs such as sage (does anything smell more like fall than sage?) - not to mention all the glorious things you can make with pumpkin.

We've definitely been doing some good eating this fall, from the New London Main Street Fall Food Stroll to dining at G'vanni's in Boston with Sophie. However, I think I ate my favorite dish of the fall (so far) last Saturday night at the MGM Grand at Foxwoods.

Amanda and I were headed out to the Duffy concert. For those of you unfamiliar with Duffy, she is another retro-sounding UK-born and bred singer in the vein of Amy Winehouse (only Duffy isn't crazy). I don't like her quite as much as I like Amy, but definitely enough to go see her in the MGM Grand's new theater with the comfortable seats and excellent acoustics.

Of course, Amanda and I celebrated the occasion by wearing 60's-inspired clothing purchased at various thrift stores. In addition, we decided that as long as were were hauling ourselves all the way out to Foxwoods, we deserved a nice meal. Craftsteak was unfortunately out due to budget constraints (someday I will make my pilgrimage to worship at that altar of Tom Collichio) but Michael Schlow's Alta Strada was definitely in the running.

Michael Schlow is a Boston-area chef specializing in Italian cuisine. The restaurant itself looked sort of like everything in the MGM Grand - modern, dimly lit, lots of dark wood and brushed steel but still somehow managing to look "warm." We were very pleased when the host showed us to an excellent corner booth instead of one of the tiny two-top tables in the middle of the floor (I'd like to think it was the outfits).

For some inexplicable reason I wanted white wine. Sadly, I am not incredibly good at navigating an Italian wine list - Amanda, Katie, and I have been drinking a lot of South American, Spanish, and French wines lately. I was unfamiliar with pretty much everything on the list. I settled for a glass of Foradori “Myrto” Sauvignon Blanc. It was decent - lots of flavors going on, softer citrus than I initially expected, and kind of a mineral-y taste in there - but would not rank amongst my favorites.


Due to time constraints, we skipped appetizers and went straight for the the entrees. Both Amanda and I were in the mood for pasta. After perusing the menu, I selected the Ravioli Gnudi with Tomato, Italian Bacon and Sage Brown Butter. (I know, I just ate ravioli with a sage and burnt butter sauce in Boston. But this was TOTALLY different - trust me.)

The waitress explained to me that the ravioli gnudi meant "naked ravioli" - as in, not really ravioli at all. She explained that the dish was actually the ravioli filling, formed into balls. This sounded intriguing, and everything in it sounded tasty, so I considered myself warned and ordered it anyway.

The dish arrived and looked as described - six or seven balls of ravioli filling - cheese and spinach? - cooked just enough to be warmed through and to hold their shape, resting delicately in a light brown butter sauce with only a whiff of sage wafting away from the plate. Cherry tomatoes and delicious smelling Italian bacon completed the dish.

If you think this sounds glorious, well, you should have tasted it. It was amazing. First of all, I love almost anything that comes in a brown butter sauce and this was no exception. The little bits of bacon added just enough complexity to an otherwise simple dressing. The tomatoes had a delicious roasted flavor, and the ravioli themselves were so satisfying that I did not at all miss the pasta pouch one would normally expect a ravioli to come in.

Amanda's dish was also prepared in an interesting manner. The menu described it as cavatelli with broccoli, chilies, and several other ingredients, which it was. However, instead if being sliced up and tossed with the pasta, they broccoli, chilies, etc were ground up into a sort of pesto and tossed with the pasta. It had a delightfully chunky texture and fantastic flavors. The chilies provided a little interesting heat at the end of every mouthful without making the dish overly hot.

We both ate every bite and were way too full to even look at dessert. It's a good thing Duffy's sound is kind of mellow and lounge singer-esque, because I am not sure the two of us could have stood up to dance even had we wanted to (although the middle-aged drunk women in the crowd had NO trouble dancing, they may have had a little harder time with the "standing up" part).

Duffy sounded great and looked great - we were only twelve rows back, so we had a pretty good view of her and the band. If you'd like to check her out, here is the URL to the video for Duffy's most recognizable song, "Mercy" (unfortunately, the embedding feature for these videos has been disabled): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KE2orthS3TQ

All in all, we had a delicious meal and a great time. I can't wait to dress up and head out to our next dinner-and-a-show casino adventure, which will be Michael Buble in December!

That's My Girl

I'll admit, I first bought Amy Winehouse's album because her name sounded like mine. I read about it in some magazine or online publication - it was before it had been released in the United States. And I bought it as an import - and probably paid way too much for it - without ever hearing anything on it. Like I said, her name sounded eerily like mine and the review said she had a sixties-thing going on with her sound. Everyone knows I love motown and girl groups, so I figured why not?

I buy maybe one CD a year (seriously, I never buy music and half the time still don't even remember to download it) and this was the one I picked last year. And I was NOT dissapointed. I loved that CD from the first minute I played it. It was the only CD in my car stereo for about five months, no exaggeration. I spent a lot of time trying to convince friends to give Amy a listen, but most of them declined (in their defense, it's probably because I do normally have horrible and/or outdated taste in music).

Because I bought my CD as an import, the cover doesn't look like the one released in the United States. Amy hadn't yet adopted the beehive and she either doesn't have as many tatoos or they are not all visible. I don't think she has the cat-eye eyeliner going on yet, either.

I have nothing against her beehive and tatoos - I kind of like the beehive, to be completely honest. But I was slightly disturbed after reading the Rolling Stone article that appeared about her last June (Amy Winehouse On Fighting Her Inner Demons and the Just-Married Life) that chronicled what was at the time suspected drug use and a struggling marriage.

Of course, she proceeded to publicly fall apart after that. However, I hoped that people would continue to appreciate her music and not just her tabloid value. And it appears they did - she was nominated for six grammy awards.

I was glad to see her appear somewhat healthy and happy on the show. I thought she sounded good (although I prefer the slower, torchy arangement of "You Kow I'm No Good" on Back to Black better than the speeded-up television performance) and I thought she looked good, too (although the beehive has to be a wig; not that long ago she had short bleached hair). I kind of enjoyed her shout-outs to Blake incarcerated as well.

That's pretty much it - I don't usually watch the music awards shows unless Bruce Springsteen is going to be involved and I tuned in solely out of fear that Amy was going to bomb her performance Britney-style. But she didn't. I hope this is an indication that she is getting better and will produce many more records in the future.

And for those of you who, like me, can't get enough Amy - download or buy her first album, Frank. It's different than Back to Black (jazzier) but it showcases her voice really well.