At the Theatre

NYC is great. Have I mentioned that before? The last month has been full of fun adventures involving the "theatre."

First up, the Metropolitan Opera. My friend Sabrina is a nanny for a women who is in the Metropolitan Opera, and one night we got free standing tickets for Dialogues des Carmelites. Yes, we stood the whole time, and yes the opera was in French, but no- surprisingly the Met does not have subtitle screens in the standing section (which means they're way behind the rest of the world- because when I was in the standing section in the Opera House in Vienna for an opera in Italian we had subtitle screens). Good thing we'd both read the plot online/heard about it so that we at least understood the gist of what was going on! :) It was a lot of fun, and Sabrina's employer did a fantastic job!

Up next, Broadway. Sabrina and I decided during intermission of the Opera that it was about time we saw another Broadway show, so we got ourselves tickets in the nosebleed section and had so much fun. I think Annie is one of my favorite ones I've seen here (okay, they're all my favorites... they're just so good- how do you choose?!).

And finally, the movies. The Great Gatsby at the old Ziegfeld Theater. I think yes. My friend Elise got a group together for the show and requested that we dress up in period appropriate attire. We did so in varying degrees of authenticity since a lot of us had to come straight from work (myself included) but it was fun to dress up for the movies and go to the theater :)

Veronica and I finally got to do something other than Sunday dinners... opposite work schedules make it hard to hang out!





Gatsby Glam



 

(My phone takes terrible night/indoor lighting photos- Is this user error (most likely) or just the fatal flaw of iPhone cameras? Let me know if you've figured out a way to make it better!)

Summer Rain

We're going to call it "summer" rain, even though summer seems to be a somewhat elusive season here this year. Annywaaay... One day we got caught in the rain in Central Park. And it was kind of fantastic.

We had been on the east side at the Stake Center where the Young Men & Young Women of the wards here were hosting a big street fair with BBQ, tag sale, bake sale, etc as a fundraiser for Scout/Girls Camp. They'd asked the YSA to volunteer, so a few of my friends and I had been doing that for a few hours and were heading back home. We decided it would be a nice walk across the park :)

So we took off and had just entered the park when it started to POUR. I mean, within minutes there were inches of water rushing down the path on the hill. It was crazy. We were completely soaked within just a few minutes and decided at that point we couldn't get much wetter so we'd might as well keep walking. So we did. And we pretty much had the park to ourselves. Awesome! Eventually it wasn't pouring as much (strangely enough it seemed to rain much harder on the east side than on the west side), but the park was beautiful and green :) So pretty, and that's why it is my favorite place here.

I signed up to work at the ticket booth, ended up at the tag sale... selling other people's stuff. We all know how much I like dealing with other people's stuff haha.

With all the rain comes humidity. Guess whose hair does not like humidity? That would be mine. Since my hair is neither straight nor curly, just wavy I basically end up with this flat on top frizzy wavy mess at the bottom look. Not attractive, or professional. So I finally decided I had to embrace this and adopt the if you can't beat 'em, join 'em attitude. So now I check the humidity before doing my hair, and I've had to learn a few new methods besides my flat-ironed straight and my loose curls looks (ironically, the straight look ends up semi-curly and the curled look ends up semi-straight in the humidity, but they both look semi-awful, go figure). This means that I've had to learn to be okay with my scrunchy curly look (it's gonna take a while to be okay with this one) and come up with creative ways to pull my hair back- which I rarely ever do. Here are a few of my experiments (and I'm not vain- but I did have to take pictures to remember what I did...):

If anyone has brilliant ideas for me- I'm up for new options... because apparently every day is a humid day here. NY is just a whole new way of living in so many ways haha.

Yay for visitors... plus Revlon Run/Walk, Cinderalla, and so much more!

I really love visitors (hint, hint ;). The first week of May I was lucky enough to have my Aunt Marilyn, Aunt Judy, Uncle Mark, and my cousins Lauren and Rachel come visit for the week. Granted they were out here for the Revlon Run/Walk that Judy helps produce, but they also came to see me of course! I had so much fun that week- but I was definitely exhausted by the time they left haha.

Unfortunately when you're a grown up you have to go to work even when you have visitors. Lame. Anyway, they played during the day and worked on preparing stuff for the Run/Walk while I worked then we all met up in the evenings for yummy food, visiting, and fun!

Warning. The next few paragraphs are going to be about food for two reasons: 1. Because all we had time to do after I got off work was eat. 2. Because I love food and you already know I like talking about it.

First night dinner was one of the girls favorites that happens to be in my neighborhood: Shake Shack. Their fries are tasty. Then we wandered the Upper West Side and just enjoyed being together again. The girls had LOTS of energy from being on a plane all day so we were running and skipping up and down the streets of NYC. So much fun.

The bonus at the end of each night was that I got to have one of my favorite munchkins come spend the night with me (plus Marilyn stayed with me every night- yay! I loved having her here!). We had fun chatting and coloring on my mirror :)

Rachel adding some artwork to Lauren's drawings from the night before.

Wednesday night Marilyn and the girls and I headed down to the Brooklyn Diner (located in Times Square, not Brooklyn- though I think there might be the original one in Brooklyn, or was?) for another yummy dinner (okay dinner was yummy every night because we ate at all the good spots :), then we wandered up towards the park to meet up with Judy and Mark who'd been out to dinner with a friend. We then got gelato at what will be my new summer hangout since it's so close: Grom. Lemon gelato- incredible. And I hear all the other flavors are pretty spectacular too. I'll be trying them all.

Thursday night: Thai food. Yum, this little restaurant- Land- is one of my go to comfort food/cravings on the Upper West Side. So good.

Friday night: Pizza at a place near Times Square. This dinner was a little rough. It had been a long day for everyone and I think we were all exhausted, and we all had to be up early the next morning. We went to bed a little earlier and got ready for the event of the week: the Revlon Run/Walk for Women.

Saturday: Revlon Run! I had a blast with both my friends and my family, so glad they were all there :) It was so much fun to walk (yes I walked, I was with Rachel- and we're going to use that as my excuse ;) from Times Square up into Central Park (which you already know is my favorite place in NY). It was beautiful sunny morning, perfect for a 5k. After the walk we hung out in the VIP tent, played tag in the grass in Central Park, walked to the Plaza Hotel for frozen yogurt, did some shopping, sat down for a moment, then finished off the night with a delicious dinner at Becco's and saw Cinderella on Broadway. A fantastic day. So grateful for wonderful family and the time I got to spend with them while they were here- can't wait until they come back again. I miss you already!

 

We're so ready.

 

And we're off!

Mark had to rescue Rachel plus the line of ladies at the porta pottys by opening them (the company forgot to come undo the zip ties they use when transporting them).

Best Bites

I feel like a talk about food a lot. That's just because its so goooood. Man, I love food. One day I made this winner of a recipe from the cookbook "Our Best Bites" that my mom gave me for Christmas a couple years ago. I have to say, I'm a fan of this book- the recipes are all so good, and so easy. I like delicious and easy. Anyway, this recipe was so good (and so easy) so I thought I'd share!

(for a variation of the recipe go to http://www.ourbestbites.com/2009/05/creamy-pesto-pasta/ This version adds a homemade alfredo to the pasta- the version I made didn't have the alfredo. As a side note, the homemade alfredo is also delicious. See I'm telling you it's all delicious!)

Pesto Pasta with Roasted Tomatoes

1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes
8 ounces mushrooms, sliced (about 3 cups)
3-4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
8 ounces farfalle or bowtie pasta (a little more than 3 cups)
1/4 cup pine nuts
1/2 cup pesto (recipe here: http://www.ourbestbites.com/2009/09/fresh-basil-pesto/ I didn't have pine nuts so I didn't use them, I also didn't measure very accurately and it was still good :)
1/3 cup freshly shredded Parmesan cheese



I didn't have pine nuts so I didn't use them (mostly I'm too cheap to go buy them, groceries are ridiculously expensive here), but have at it if you have them. Here's my tip- I don't care for mushrooms, but I'm determined to learn to like them so I've been trying to use them in my recipes. I've made this pasta twice- the first time with the mushrooms, the second without (because I didn't have any in the fridge) and it was BY FAR better with the mushrooms. Their flavor is apparently essential to make it extra delicious- so use them even if you don't like them usually :)

So here are the instructions (from the book, with my additions just for you):

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Bring a large pot of water to boil.

2.Roast tomatoes and mushrooms on a foil-lined baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil. Toss with your fingers to make sure everything is coated. Sprinkle with salt and pepper then cook for 12-15 min until the tomatoes are plump and skins are just starting to split. (If you're oven is like mine (aka not fantastic)- probably best to put the olive oil in a bowl, roll the veggies in them then place them on the pan- otherwise all the extra oil on the pan creates A LOT of smoke. I thought I was going to set the fire alarm off).

3. When the water comes to a boil, add 2 teaspoons kosher salt and pasta to the water and cook according to package directions.

4. While the pasta is cooking place the pine nuts in a small skillet over medium heat. Stir frequently until nuts are golden brown and slightly glossy. About 7-9 minutes. (obviously I haven't tried this step yet, but one day I will!)

5. Toss the hot drained pasta with pesto and Parmesan cheese (definitely get the fresh wedge and shred it- don't use the prepackaged stuff). Top with tomatoes and mushrooms and sprinkle with toasted pine nuts and additional Parmesan cheese (yes to the additional cheese).

When you're done you have this delicious pesto and melted Parmesan cheese coated pasta with roasted tomatoes and mushrooms that are surprisingly yummy. One of my new favorite recipes :)

Faces

So lately there's been this trend that I'll call "homeless people yelling at me on the sidewalk" which I find strange and yet somewhat entertaining. Apparently I make faces at them. Although I'm pretty sure I'm not making a different face to them than I am to anybody else on the street- and most of the time I'm not even looking at them before I'm getting yelled at so don't ask me how I'm making a face at them. Apparently I'm just that skilled and they're the only ones who've noticed it. So for your entertainment, two examples:

#1 There I am strollin' down the sidewalk, looking at the map on the phone to make sure I'm heading in the right direction when out of the corner of my eye I see something in my path in the sidewalk ahead (please note that I was walking in the MIDDLE of the sidewalk). Obviously I immediately glance up to make sure I don't run into anything and get this yelled at me: "Don't look at me like that!" followed by a rant involving the words white, snob, etc. Turns out there was a man begging on the sidewalk with bags of stuff strewn about across the sidewalk- which is what caught my attention. Obviously I couldn't see my face, but I'm pretty sure I was not making an "gee I'm a snob, look at me" face, more like a "surprised, what's in the middle of the sidewalk? face." Apparently those are easily confused.

#2 There I am strollin' down the sidewalk again. (Strollin' is probably the wrong word, more like briskly maneuvering down the sidewalk- tourists stroll, locals angrily maneuver around them ;). Anyway, there I am heading to Duane Reade to get some cough drops to try and help with the world's most neverending cold (I STILL have it), when all of a sudden I get this yelled in my face "What's the matter with you?!" and then a rant about some angry glaring face or something. I continued on my way but by that point what I really wanted to say was "You. The only people who ever yell at me are beggars and homeless people. What is the  deal???" But I didn't, I just kept moving.

To prove that A. I don't always go around making mean faces at people and B. Not all homeless/beggars yell at people, there is a very nice man always begging on my route to work who always wishes me a good morning and who I always smile at. It kind of makes my morning actually- when everyone else is running around like a crazy person (because lets face it we're all running late and trying to catch the next train) it's nice to get a big smile and a "hey sweetie, have a good day!"

So the moral of the story is watch your faces. Except you can't, so just be entertained by everything that happens on the street. What else can ya do?

Chelsea

So I've had the last 4 Saturdays off from Williams-Sonoma for various family visits and other activities. One of those Saturdays in the middle I just wasn't scheduled so I decided to turn it into an explore New York day. I'm gonna have to have those more often. My friend Sabrina recently moved to NYC so she wanted to join in on the exploring. We decided to pick an area and spend the afternoon there. This week's destination: Chelsea.

We checked out a street market, wandered through the Historical District, and walked almost the entire length of the Highline. The sun was shining and it was a beautiful day. It was finally t-shirt and sandal weather (the weather has since reverted back to cold windy-ness but it was nice for a day). We spent all afternoon just exploring and enjoying the beautiful weather! Here are a few pictures from our exploring adventure:

When we were walking to the subway we got sucked into this pack of people doing a march against violence. Good thing it was for a good cause!

 

Our adventure of the day was giving ourselves a tour of an old church and the grounds. We'd read online it was one of the things you should see in Chelsea, so as we were walking by we decided to try and take a look. We rang the buzzer on the gate like the sign said, and another woman walked up just after us and did the same. Security came out and let us in, so we wandered around the gardens and the buildings and looked at the intricate carving and detailing. The interior of the church was beautiful. After awhile as we went to leave a group of ladies were trying to get into the grounds- and we overheard security tell them it was not open to the public on weekends. Oops. I guess they must have though we were with the other woman, but nobody ever asked- they just let us in without any questions! I guess we looked religious enough. I'm glad we got to accidentally sneak in, it was a fun adventure for our exploration day!

Beautiful spring blossoms.

 

 

The pictures above are of the Highline, which I think is a really cool "new" addition to NYC. It was an old elevated railroad track running through Chelsea. Not too long ago it was going to be torn down (because what purpose is there to old railroad tracks other than places for shady meetings right?), to create space to build more buildings (if I wasn't an architect I'd say something like "because Manhattan really needs more buildings" but I need to have a job ;). Any.way. A group of people got together and decided to turn it into a park. I think they did a fantastic job. It is now an elevated park that runs from near the West Village up to about 34th street. At the bottom of it you can look out and see the Statue of Liberty in the distance, and at the top you're almost level with the Empire State Building. Not only is a park a great idea in the middle of all the buildings, but they kept portions of the old railroad tracks and integrated them into the landscaping. And they continued to make it awesome by using that design concept to then create seating areas, pavilions, "city viewing" spots, etc. I call it a success!

Statue of Liberty off in the distance.

 

We took a break from the Highline to hop over to the Chelsea Market, which is a food market in the old Nabisco factory. Which also happens to be where the Oreo was invented. Yes New York is awesome. Just in case you were doubting that.





Mmm. Look at all those spices!

It was a really fun day. We finished it off with a birthday party for some friends and then exhaustedly made our way home completely worn out from our exploring. Hopefully I'll have another free Saturday afternoon soon so we can tackle another part of NYC!

Angel Food Deliciousness

April's Iron Chef event ingredient was egg. I don't like eggs very much so that was a tough one for me. Why would I want to make a bunch of egg dishes that I eat when I have to for breakfast but will not voluntarily eat or make for dinner haha. Plus there was a catch with that nights event and the catch was this- my friend who was hosting the event didn't have gas at her apartment- meaning anything you brought had to be served at room temperature or reheated in a microwave, no stove or oven use. (They do usually have gas but a pipe had burst in January, yes January and they hadn't had gas since then. Ridiculous! The good news is they finally  have it again, and threw a delicious Cinco de Mayo party to celebrate it last week.) Being stumped by all this, I turned to my brilliant mother for advice. She's probably getting tired of having to give me food ideas for the last 25 years but she better get used to it because I'm sure I will still continue to do it forever!

After some thought (like 2 min, seriously how does she come up with these things?) she recommended an Angel Food cake from scratch. Unfortunately she'd never made one from scratch herself so she didn't have a recipe or any advice but I googled it (don't know what I would do without google!) and found a recipe with some instructions and decided to give it a shot! My friend Sabrina pitched in and helped me get the cake started before she had to leave town.

Whipping those egg whites!

It takes A LOT of eggs to make Angel Food cake.

The last thing you want to do when you've just baked a cake... flip it upside down to cool. But it must be done!

On the bright side I got to hang out here while it was cooling. Not so bad, eh?

Yum.

Attempt #1 at homemade Angel Food cake was not too bad. It tasted good, but was definitely not as tall and fluffy as it was supposed to be. I'm pretty sure I overbeat the egg whites to stiffer peaks than the soft peaks they were supposed to be- I'm used to beating egg whites with a hand mixer and it went a little faster in the stand mixer than I was expecting... Next time will be better. So now it's my challenge, attempt it again and see if we can improve! It was still delicious piled with fresh strawberries and whipped cream. Yum :) And as for the Iron Chef, there were a lot of delicious options beyond breakfast foods. Well done girls. This month: coconut. Any brilliant suggestions?