Pizza + Breakfast

Breakfast pizza!!!  Yup, it makes so much sense to add one of my favorite meals of the day to one of my favorite things to eat.  

Spring Pics: A Little Late

Almost a year ago, I got my Canon Rebel as a birthday present.  It was one of the best presents I've ever been given.  Until I opened it, I wasn't even aware how much I wanted one.  It's amazing that someone knew me so well that he could buy me a birthday present I really wanted without me even saying a word about it. That to me is true love.  

What's even better is the reaction I get from Kev when I take my camera out for the day to capture wonderful pictures.  He gets just as excited watching me as I do playing with the camera.

Here are some of those pictures from a beautiful spring day in the city.

Book sale outside Washington Square Park

A band

This little boy reminds me of a child from somewhere in Europe

Couple bike ride

Pepsi Ad?

The man behind the greatest gift

Nap-Time

THE SOCIAL TABLE

THE MENU

                                      

A few weeks ago our lovely friends at Bloomberg TV (Arty and Meredith), took us (us being my team from work) to "The Social Table."  What is the Social Table you ask? Well, straight from the website, the Social Table is...."the place where good food and fun people get together to share a meal, a glass of wine and the experience of cooking."  Its learning basic cooking fundamentals, like properly cutting an onion without slicing your fingers off, while creating a meal with fun people. The ultimate dinner party; a little wine, great  food, lots of fun combined with some culinary skills. Chef Rebecca is awesome, she's fun, down to earth  a wonderful teacher who creates an environment that is relaxed and entertaining. She taught us simple yet necessary skills for the kitchen, making sure to include everyone in all the processes. We not only cooked dinner but we learned about food, asked tons of questions and had a great deal of laughs.  Even if you don't enjoy cooking, you will have a great time at The Social Table. I highly recommend making a reservation; but reserve sooner rather than later as she is completely booked solid through, I think, April.

THE LAMB CHALLENGE: Shepard's Pie Recipe

Shepard's Pie!

As a part of the "Lamb Challenge" Kev and I had a few weeks back, I created an extremely delicious Shepard's pie.  Growing up my Grandma used to make, what she called, Shepard's pie - it was actually Cottage pie because it was made with ground or minced beef.  The "real" thing calls for ground lamb; so it was a no brainer to decide on this dish for the challenge.

I based my recipe on Danny Boome's Mummy's traditional recipe.  (When I asked my Grandma for her recipe, she told me the basics but then suggested using the "packet" from the supermarket.  Sorry Gram, I love your cooking but there was no way that was going to happen).

RECIPE: Blueberry BBQ Braised Short Ribs, Sweet Potato Cakes and Brussels Sprouts - NO ALCOHOL.

Brace yourself this is going to be a long one.....

Kevin and I decided to go completely sober for the entire month of January.  No alcohol means more time for us to experiment with new recipes.  This past weekend's meal was Sweet Potato cakes, Roasted Brussels Sprouts tossed in a fish sauce vinaigrette with Braised Short Ribs in a Blueberry BBQ sauce.  

Did I mention my Grandma bought me a badass food processor for Christmas???  

Grates sweet potatoes in a flash and also sounds like I'm sawing wood in my apartment because it's so loud.  But I LOVE IT!!!!

ASTORIA

 Astoria has been my home for the past 3 & 1/2 years.

Dark and a little blurry but the inside of the Astor Room

I didn't full appreciate all it had to offer until the past year or so; since meeting Kevin I've learned tons about my own neighborhood. (he doesn't even live here)  A city just outside Manhattan, Astoria is well known for its Greek influences; extending to restaurants and bakeries as well as the European nightlife.  They are home to PS 1 (super cool Contemporary Art Museum), Kaufman Astoria Studios (The Cosby Show was filmed there), Museum of Moving Image (Film and Art Museum with interactive exhibits) and let's not forget the infamous Astoria Beer Garden aka Bohemian Hall Beer Garden.  The list could continue on and on with the various places you can visit in Astoria which would include many many restaurants.  (see my previous post on the Frickles at MexiQ)  My most recent adventure was dinner at Astor Room; "a contemporary interpretation of the American Supper Club".  

Lunch Time Activities: BLUE SMOKE

In NYC; you have your usual BBQ contenders, Hill Country, Dinosaur BBQ, Fette Sau, Daisy May's, Rock and Soul and RUB; I've visited 3 out of 5 of those places.  Hill Country still remains my fav!  Then you have BLUE SMOKE; Danny Meyers upscale take on classic Barbecue; which I haven't been to until Friday.

 



I love Danny Meyer, I love the high standard he sets for his food and I love the atmosphere he creates in his restaurants.  So when given the chance to have lunch at Blue Smoke; you bet I was super excited.

Dinner Adventure #2

There's always that one restaurant, people speak so highly of, and that blows every expectation out of the water. Momofuku Ssam Bar is that restaurant for me. I vividly remember Jeana talking about her encounter with their pork buns (at the time I didn't actually eat pork due to my own ignorance- boy was I missing out) and how amazingly delicious they were. I immediately added them to the bucketlist of places to eat (yes there's a bucket list).

When Kevin and I met, aside from falling head over heels for each other, we bonded over our mutual love for food.  I immediately mentioned how Momofuku was my number one restaurant and he proceeded to tell me about his experience there with what he calls "the perfect scallop" (just for reference, they no longer offer this "scallop" as the menu is always changing).  A few months later and SURPRISE, he takes me to Momofuku Ssam for my birthday dinner. Eating here is unlike any experience; there is no restaurant to compare it to or food type to describe it; it's one of those places you need visit to see for yourself.  We indulged in pork buns, bar buns, crispy rice cakes with sausage, soft shell crab and one of the best pork chops I've ever eaten.  I'll admit to a foodgasm I had while eating one of the pork buns that a waitress actually caught. Needless to say, aside from my favorite birthday gift ever (Canon Rebel) because that clearly held a special place for the evening; this was one of the greatest meals I've ever had.  Now, along with Jeana, Kev and many others; Momofuku holds a special place in my heart.

SF In A Few Photos

As promised here are a few photos from my recent trip to SF.  Bt dubs, it was such a great adventure mixed with wonderful people, awesome food and the perfect music to make a soundtrack.

Kevin and I being tourists, right below Lombard St.

TGIF

Woohoo!  It's finally Friday!  Lots of big things planned for this weekend; showing my apartment (looking for a new roommate), cooking Ahi Tuna steaks for dinner and making an Asian inspired pasta salad tonight.  The pasta salad is for my Aunt Barbara's annual Summer BBQ on Saturday.  She has a big pool, slide and diving board, so it should be lots of fun to hang with the family, drink a little and eat great food.  Then on Sunday I have my little cousin Lauren's graduation party, she just graduated HS.

Now off to a work lunch at a lovely East Village beer garden called Loreley.  Apparently they have some pretty sweet soft pretzels.  I'll keep you posted.....

Till then a few more pics I took last week....

Breathe

Ever wonder why time seems to go by so quickly or how it seems to take forever when you're staring at a clock?  Every year around this time I think, how is it already mid-summer?  Next thing you know it'll be Fall, then Christmas....it's crazy how its just goes by in the blink of an eye.

It's easy to say that I'll live in the moment,take advantage of the day and what it has to offer but its actually really hard to do when you have a full-time job that requires you to be there till about 7p or later every night.  And when your weekends are filled with plans for yourself or family things. Don't get me wrong, I love spending time with my family, I'm not one of those people who dread it.  I just want to do so many things all at once. There are only so many days in a week and weeks in a month and summer is only a few months long.  In my mind the easy solution would be to not plan anything and just FLOW but in reality doing anything requires planning.  So it gets kinda tricky.  Plus you have obligations to your family, birthdays, summer parties, graduations, just plain BBQ's.....How do you manage the time and take advantage of the warm summer days when we have them?

Birthdays, Family & Traditions

 This is Kevin, the man of my dreams....

 My first successful attempt at creating depth of field with my camera.  This flower is actually really pretty and different.

The following pics are of a dead bug, another really pretty flower (Kev's mom has a great garden in the backyard) and some rocks that I found in a store while roaming around Nyack.