90210: Framed

Tonight's episode of 90210 was a bit of a snooze. Dixon is panicked about the Kappa house fire and Austin reassures him, "No one got hurt, they lost a couple of Ryan Gosling posters!" Um, Austin, to some people, that is a major loss.

After taking shelter with Dixon and Austin, Bree calls the cops with a tip about Dixon and the fire. Annie is about to come clean and take the fall when Austin offers to turn himself in. I did not see that coming!

Last, Navid told Adriana about Silver and Maisy. Navid is becoming less and less likable with every episode.

Adriana decides to pretend to be Silver and picks up Maisy from daycare. Adriana, you are back aboard the crazy train! Now you will really never be in Maisy's life.

I have no idea why Silver decides to stick up for Adriana with Greg, but obviously he freaks out and dumps Silver on the spot.

This photo of Liam is circulating around the internet from next week's episode:

What the heck could this be? Is Liam's agent making him do appearances now?

See you next week to find out!

*Image courtesy of CW.com.

Gossip Girl: Love & Marriage

Tonight's Gossip Girl was crazy! In the words of Nate Archibald, "You know the world is really a mess when the most honest person you know is Chuck Bass." In the interest of full disclosure, I had a very large glass of red wine before writing this, so forgive me if my thoughts are a bit jumbled.

The episode opened with Serena singing "Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend." Watching the men of the Upper East Side gang do traditional, Broadway-like choreography was hilarious!

In this musical sequence Serena and Blair fight over Dan. I found it so appropriate that in the dream Blair was dressed as Audrey Hepburn from "Breakfast at Tiffany's."

At the start of the hour Louis' family priest thinks he and Chuck are going to tag team and break up the wedding. In a wonderful turn of events, Chuck poisons the priest to stop him from destroying the wedding.

Then Georgina comes back. Why, writers, why?

Back at the church Blair is pressing Serena on her feelings for Dan. Blair has one of the best lines of the night, "Back in high school he always had the same look in his eyes whenever you would walk by, like he was starving and you were a tasting menu." Ha!

I want to take a quick moment to discuss the wedding fashions. Blair's dress was classic and elegant, but her hair looked messy and unfinished. I loved Serena's dress, but hated her headpiece. In fact, I hated all the headpieces and hats. Was this supposed to mimic William and Kate's royal wedding?

While Blair is primping, Eleanor escapes to the Empire to convince Chuck to come and fight for Blair. I love this! She says, "Are you coming to stop this thing or what?"

After pouring his heart out, Blair turns Chuck down! I could not believe it. I was tearing up! Naturally this touching moment was ruined by Georgina bursting in to let Chuck know she got their conversation on tape.

Blair insists on moving forward with the wedding, but needs both of her dads to walk her down the aisle. My heart warmed when Cyrus rushed to Blair and asked, "Blair, my little turtle dove, what's the emergency?"

As the ceremony continues, Chuck appears at the start of the aisle. That moment where he looks like he is going to object, stares right at Blair, looks at the floor, turns, takes a step, leans and then turns back to face Blair - now that is great acting! Without him saying a word you can feel every fiber of his conflicted being.

At the ceremony Serena declares her love for Dan and Nate hits on a cater waitress. Oh boy. Here we go. Again. Times two.

During their final dance, Louis informs Blair that Dan wrote his vows, their marriage is all for show, that she will put on a performance for the public and in private they will be strangers. I could feel my heart sinking right along with Blair's.

In that moment of panic, Blair makes a phone call and the writers want us to think she called Chuck, but she called Dan! I can't decide if she loves Dan or just trusts him as a best friend?

The very final scene of the hour shows Georgina typing up a Gossip Girl blast. Are we supposed to believe she is Gossip Girl? I don't know that I believe that. Did she swoop in and take over while the real Gossip Girl has been on hiatus? I'm on the fence on this one.

I want to hear from you! Do you think Georgina is Gossip Girl?

*Images courtesy of CW.com.

SAG Awards 2012: Best Dressed

It's award season and tonight I could not wait to watch the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) awards! I like this particular event for two reasons: 1) It's actors voting to recognize other actors and 2) The ceremony is only two hours long!

Though the award show had tremendous highlights, let's be honest, it's mostly about the fashion. Below you will find my picks for the best dressed!

Giuliana Rancic - Ok, can we have a standing ovation for this woman? After a public struggle with infertility she is then diagnosed with breast cancer, undergoes a double mastectomy and returns to work perkier and more effervescent than ever. She looked stunning in this Basil Soda dress. Way to go, G.

Viola Davis - When Viola lost the Golden Globe to Meryl Streep I was devastated. I felt she truly deserved to win and on top of that, she looked killer! Tonight, she brought her A game again, this time in a white, Marchesa gown accented with gold designs and gold eyeshadow to match. A winning dress for the new, two time SAG winner!

Octavia Spencer - Plus size ladies, let Octavia be your fashion idol! I am so impressed by her choice of this sparkling, silver, Tadashi Shoji number. She shined twice as brightly accepting both of her awards tonight. Oscar, here she comes!

Sofia Vergara - V is for Vergara but also for va-va-voom! Sofia 100 percent nailed it in this fuchsia, Marchesa gown.

Ariel Winter - One of the younger cast members of "Modern Family", Ariel's Collette Dinnigan dress was beautiful, fun and age appropriate. I thought the silver shoe was a bit too matchy/matchy, I would have preferred say, a red shoe, but I still give her stylist major props.

Michelle Williams - I wasn't a fan of Michelle's Golden Globe dress, but I adore this lipstick red, Valentino number. It's classy and elegant, but still makes a bold statement.

Angelina Jolie - I am not an Angelina Jolie fan, but I can't deny that she looked incredible tonight. That fabric drapes perfectly and the gold and black earrings she's wearing are the ideal compliment to this Jenny Packham gown.

Kyra Sedgwick - When I first saw Kyra step into the frame on E!'s broadcast tonight I gasped. This may be the best dress she has ever worn! This fruit punch colored Pucci dress is feminine and fun, and the shape (with those cut outs) is undeniably sexy. Kevin Bacon is the luckiest man in L.A. tonight.

Jennifer Carpenter - The "Dexter" star is one of the tallest actresses on the carpet and I adore this red, cocktail length number paired with the wavy hair.

Ashlee Simpson - Ashlee was attending tonight's show as the plus one for her current beau, Vincent Piazza from "Boardwalk Empire." Though this Jenny Packham dress isn't my personal taste, I think she really rocked it.

Matthew Czuchry - Though he will always be Logan from the "Gilmore Girls" to me, Matthew was at the awards tonight for his role on "The Good Wife." Does he look an old Hollywood movie star or what?

John Krasinski - Who doesn't love Jim? John (who plays Jim on "The Office") looked incredibly handsome tonight in a Prada suit. Absolutely picture perfect.

Those are my picks, who were your favorites?

*Images courtesy of E! Online, Hollywood Reporter, Just Jared, Los Angeles Times and Washington Post.

Live: Kelly Clarkson And Matt Nathanson

As soon as I got the email alert that Kelly Clarkson was coming to Boston I knew I had to go. After a crush left me crushed circa 2007, Kelly's girl power songs became my anthems and I have always wanted to see her perform live.

One of my college friends has become my go-to concert buddy. We saw Taylor Swift and Rihanna together so she was my first call when I got the alert about the tickets.

Thursday night we met at the Park Street T stop and walked to Rock Bottom where we planned to have dinner. After the hostess informed us it would be a two hour wait, we turned on our heels, walked out and ducked into Montien.

After a great meal of Thai food we walked across the street to the Wang Center for the show.

Thanks to my ferocious online ticket purchasing skills, we had seats in the orchestra, 20 rows from the stage!

When we made it to our seats (we had to see six ushers who all kept saying, "Keep going! See the next usher.") Kelly's opening act, Matt Nathanson, was already on the stage.

When that song finished, Matt started talking to the crowd and we learned that he and his guitar player Aaron are both from Lexington, MA! Who knew?

Matt played a few songs, one called "Modern Love" that he wrote for a friend who had lost faith in finding a good man, one inspired by the Little Mermaid called "Bottom of the Sea", his duet with Sugarland called "Run" and the song he's best known for, "Come on Get Higher."

Matt talked and joked with the crowd into between every song. He was very personable and he definitely has a great voice. I'm not rushing to buy any of his music, but he was a nice warm up before Kelly.

There was about a half hour in between the two sets and then the lights went down and the entire Wang Center started screaming for Kelly. The screen on stage began to scroll through newspaper articles and in red phrases appeared that said things like, "Losing Sponsors", "Album Leaked" and "Fat." I knew after seeing this intro that her first song would be a girl power, F you type of song and sure enough, the screen lifted and out came Kelly belting "Since You've Been Gone."

After the first song Kelly walked to the edge of the stage to talk to the crowd. She said, "Did y'all like that? I hope so, because we have 25 songs on this set list!" She also pointed out her red, bedazzled mic and mic stand and said, "I feel like a mix of Steven Tyler and Gwen Stefani with this mic!"

Kelly was wearing a silver, sequin top, skin tight black pants and was rocking a sleek, super straight hair cut with blunt hangs that was perfect for her.

Kelly performed so many of my favorites! The list includes: "Walk Away", "My Life Would Suck Without You", "Breakaway", "Never Again", "Because of You", "The Trouble With Love Is" (the song from Love Actually) and her new single, which I love, "Stronger."

Now for the fun part, the videos!

Kicking it off with "Behind These Hazel Eyes":



Here is Kelly killing it with "Gone":



One of my all time favorites "Miss Independent":



During the show Kelly did a few covers including Florence + The Machine's "Heavy" and Heart's "What About Love." In fact, she said she asked fans for cover recommendations and "What About Love" was one of the fan suggestions! Here is the cover:



You can see from these videos how cool the set design and lighting was for this tour. Even though we were in a small theater, the set and lighting made it feel like we were rocking out in a stadium.

Throughout the show I was continually reminded how purely amazing Kelly's voice is. The girl can belt it! When she was talking to the audience she was rambling and was a bit of a ham, but it's clear she is very humble. During the three encore songs Kelly walked to the edge of the stage touching as many hands as she could and accepting gifts from fans. She even put on a hat that one of the fans handed to her and wore it for an entire song!

During one of her intros before a song, Kelly announced that she is singing the national anthem at the Super Bowl. She said she is rooting for the Patriots because when she sang the national anthem at Fenway she realized how passionate Boston fans are and she wants to support that. Pretty cool.

She also mentioned she'd like to dance on stage with Madonna during her half time show performance. Ha!

The only down side to the experience (which had nothing to do with Kelly) was that we were seated right behind two women who could have been from those YouTube videos "The Real Housewives of Southie." They were screaming in their thick Boston accents all night long, spilling their drinks everywhere and stopping to take pictures every two seconds. No thank you.

If you get the chance to see Kelly Clarkson live I would highly recommend getting your hands on those tickets. I was singing and dancing along the entire night and I left feeling happy, energized and empowered.

Who is your favorite live performer?

A Local Feast

Several weeks ago I received an invitation from Stone Hearth in Allston to attend a food blogger dinner at the restaurant. I first visited Stone Hearth back in November and loved it (read my original review here). I've been back many times since.

After weeks of eager anticipation the night finally arrived! I pulled into the Stone Hearth parking lot a few minutes before the event start time and the Stone Hearth team had set up a long table for our dinner. I felt very regal sitting at this long, adorned table!

At each place setting there was a coaster and pint glass from the dinner's beer sponsor, Clown Shoes Beer of Ipswich, MA (more on that a bit later). I love their logo; it has that retro carnival feel, but also manages to look sharp.

Before I dive into the meal itself, I want to say that the best part for me of attending this event was finally getting to meet in person so many of the people whose blogs I read every single day! This event truly had an all star guest list which included:

• Elizabeth of Free Food Boston
• Bianca of Confessions of a Chocoholic
• Meghan of Travel Wine and Dine
• Megan of Delicious Dishings
• Rachel of Fork It Over Boston and Boston Food Bloggers
• Daisy of Indulge Inspire Imbibe
  
• Fiona of A Boston Food Diary
• Emily of A Cambridge Story
• Jen of Tiny Urban Kitchen
• Bridget of Yogurt & Berries
• Dan of The Food in My Beard (the one lucky man at the table full of ladies!)

It was such a treat to get to know each of you and I hope to see you again very soon!

Now on to the food!

Stone Hearth was incredibly generous and provided us with a four course meal. Each course was paired with a beer from Clown Shoes.

The first course was appetizers which included parmesan flatbread with eggplant dip, spicy meatball poppers and cheddar covered olives.

The parmesan flatbread was super crispy and had just the right amount of cheese flavor. I wasn't such a huge fan of the eggplant dip, I preferred dunking the flatbread in tomato sauce.

Though I didn't personally try the meatballs they got a rave review from everyone at the table.

I love the cheddar covered olives! I have ordered these before and I pop them like candy.

The beer for this course was Clown Shoe's Clementine, a white ale. I am a fan of fruit flavored beers (Harpoon's Raspberry UFO is my all time favorite) so I was excited to sample this.

The beer struck a nice balance between the clementine flavor and the actual beer flavor. I would absolutely pick this up to drink at home.

Course two was salad. I didn't realize how many salad choices there were on this menu! We were delivered the Caesar salad, the avocado salad, a mushroom and parmesan salad and a celeriac salad.

I've had the avocado salad before and I still love it. The buttery taste of the avocado really can't be beat.

The celeriac salad defied gravity! I love this vertical presentation! The salad is mostly made of celeriac, green apples and walnuts. It had such a stupendous crunch, while also having a sweet flavor. This might be my new favorite!

I didn't sample the Caesar, but here's a photo for those who are curious:

The mushroom and parmesan salad was being quickly passed around the table so I didn't manage to stop it in transit for a photo.

The beer for the second course was called Tramp Stamp. No, I am not kidding. Check out the bottle:

This was a Belgian IPA with orange peel. I liked this one, but the Clementine was still my top choice.

After the first two courses we took a break for some foodie trivia! The winners of the trivia contest received gift cards to Stone Hearth and one lucky winner was going to be awarded two tickets to the Mohegan Sun Wine Festival. I will fully admit, I did not know a single answer to any of the questions. That aside, it was a nice interlude between courses.

Course three was the star of the show . . . drum roll please . . . the pizza! Stone Hearth was so generous and brought us six different types of pies.

There was the Prosciutto and Pineapple:

The Divine Goddess:

The Bacon and Blue:

The Farm Fresh:

The Bean:

There was also a special pizza of the month with kale, leeks, gouda cheese and sausage. I was too far down the table to get a photo - sorry, peeps!

I was so impressed that three of the six pizzas were vegetarian. I love the Divine Goddess for the combo of broccoli and spinach mixed with creamy cheese, the Farm Fresh for the flavorful, bold veggies and the bean for being such a delicious, unexpected surprise! Bean pizza - who knew?

The beer for the third course was called Brown Angel, a double brown ale. This beer was too dark for my taste and I gave up after two sips.

Then we arrived at my favorite course of any meal, dessert! We sampled two awesome treats for this final round.

The first was a purple sweet potato gelato made by Dan of The Food in My Beard! I never would have thought sweet potato could be a yummy flavor, but I was wrong. I really enjoyed this.

The second frozen treat was custard topped with maple walnut topping. The custard was brought to us by Custard for a Cause, a philanthropic effort to support Community Servings through the sale of these delicious desserts. I thought I didn't like custard, but this version was so much lighter than any custard I've tasted before. I might have to reconsider!

The beer for the dessert course was called Supa Hero (how Boston!), an India pale ale.

I was happy we returned to lighter beers. I was so full at this point I couldn't do this last beer justice, but it certainly was good.

A fun fact about Clown Shoes, they actually have their own hero comic strip on their blog! Check it out here.

At the end of the night, Ken from Pete & Gerry's Organic Eggs (who explained to us about Custard for a Cause) gave each of a us a six pack of heirloom blue eggs to take home!

How beautiful is the color of these eggs?

I used my box to make a veggie scramble for brunch today!

I cannot say thank you enough to Stone Hearth, Clown Shoes and Pete & Gerry's Orangic Eggs for such a wonderful evening. It was incredible to meet so many of my favorite writers in person, to enjoy Stone Hearth's craveable food, sample new, local beers and be treated to not one, but two desserts! Thank you to all three sponsors for your generosity.

As we were getting ready to leave, Jon, one of the owners of Stone Hearth said to us, "You know, this week during the President's State of the Union address we heard about a lot of things in this country that are broken and systems that need to be repaired. What all three of our businesses are trying to do is to put the emphasis on local and sustainable. To support other local businesses, green business practices and to ensure we're moving the needle as much as we can toward positive change."

A meal with a side of inspiration!