Random Recent Eats

Hey all,

Welcome to Thursday!  It should be a great one, minus the tree pollen driving me crazy, it should be a great day with a high of 81* and an evening Yankee game, I’m so excited!!

I’m also excited to share my eats of late with you.  I’ve only been sharing my restaurant meals lately, but in reality most of my meals are eaten at home.  I think I eat out 2-3 times/week.  For example this week, we ate out before salsa on Tuesday, snacks at the Yankees game today (so I assume), and then maybe brunch or dinner out on Saturday.  In any case, on to cooked meals!

Parsnip mash and sauteed carrots and swiss chard:

Ok this was totally random.  I had peeps leftover from Easter so I thought I would melt them with some butter…

mixed with some peanut butter cereal, and yum, rice krispie like treats.

And well, this was an eat out…from like 2 weeks ago when we had our week full of concerts.  Ryan didn’t realize the show that Friday night would go to near 12 and didn’t eat dinner before entering the venue, which had a no re-entry policy. So when 12 am came around, he was starving and had a taste for corn beef, so we went to Katz’s deli.  In my 9 years in the city I had never been so ordered my own turkey sandwich, of which I took out most meat and saved to make 3 more sandwiches for the week!  I think I still have 2 or 3 pickles left .

This brain is actually jello!  A lovely gift from a postdoc in my laboratory after my thesis defense.  How cool, right, and actually rather tasty!!

This weekend we made use of some maple syrup friends brought back from their recent trip to Montreal, with stuffed french toast.  I stuffed two slices of whole wheat bread with laughing cow cinnamon cream cheese spread (which I love and need to buy more, but I can’t find it in the city…Mom, can you send me some ) and a sliced banana. On the side I also scrambled an egg with the remainder of the banana, and it was better than I imagined, seriously try it!

Sunday’s dinner featuring homemade baked sweet potato chips:

Finally a vegetable lasagna from last week, and no that’s not tomato sauce but actually a puree of beets and carrots.  We made this sauce a few times last year, but never had it come out so red-usually its still purple.

I also don’t know if I tasted much of a difference, I need to try this sauce in a pizza, I think that’ll be the real test, or perhaps it’s just been too long since I had real tomato sauce.

4 beats made more than enough sauce for a full lasagna-13×9 pan, which was silly to make for the 2 of us.  We had it for at least 4 different meals, and there is still a chunk left in the refrigerator. Note to self, make a smaller pan next time and freeze sauce for future use.

later,

N

Weekend Review

Hey guys,

I had the most amazing 27th birthday!  I went into it planning on keeping it a low key year, a drink with a friend, followed by dinner with Ryan.  Well, events went as planned with drinks with my friend Yifan.  I should have known something was up when she continually asked if I texted Ryan our whereabouts and if he knew when we were on our way home. Yet, I just thought she was being extremely considerate. Instead I walked into the apartment to see the lovely faces of friends. I was so surprised! And Ryan was so sweet for organizing the entire thing.  We ate and chatted and then it was 11pm, wow!

Friday night I went to see my little cousin in her school play, which was awesome, so impressive for an elementary/middle school production.

Afterwards I met up with a few friends for more birthday celebrations and Saturday a few more for a birthday brunch at Calliope.

I ordered the smoked salmon and also stole some of Ryan’s egg sandwich. Everything was delicious, I would definitely go back again!

Afterwards we wandered around the city, checked out a few antique stores looking for a cute but affordable storage.  No such luck . We then walked around Madison Sq Park, explored their summer art exhibit, “Red, Yellow, Blue.”

Then made a dash downtown, before the rain came pouring down, for an afternoon of Jazz at Small’s.

Then I passed out! After a fun filled weekend I was more than ready to keep Sunday to grocery shopping, laundry, and taking the pup to the dog park.  Such a great weekend, I feel so loved!!

Later,

Nicole

Happy Birthday to Me!

To celebrate my 27th Birthday, a collection of my favorite birthday goodies around the blogging world!!

A pinata cake, such a clever idea!

I love a good black and white cookie, but a cake, this could be interesting!

Chocolate Fudge Skillet Cake...need I say more?

Cookie dough filling in a cake, wow!!

I want cake now !

Later,

N

Red Hook

Hey all,

As I mentioned on Monday, Ryan and I headed to Red Hook on Saturday to celebrate a friend’s birthday.

After a windy boat ride, where I took lots of pictures of the Statue of Liberty and myself in Ryan’s glasses,

We arrived to the Ikea Red Hook, thanks to their amazingly fast free ferry.  And we totally stopped in Ikea on the way home to look for a drawer set and bought a $1 refill cup, which we proceeded to refill 3 times, so yay to free ferries.

Since we were on the early side so we explored the area and stopped by Widow Jane to learn about their owner’s history, how he decided to go into the chocolate making and then distillery business. We then sampled some chocolate and liquors and headed to meet the birthday girl.

First stop, the Red Hook Winery. I love wine tours and could never get enough, I learn something new each time.  During the tour we had the chance to sample 6 wines, plus a “nouveau merlot,” as in a funky wine that wasn’t able to properly ferment as a result of Hurricane Sandy.  Ryan’s face pretty much describes it’s taste, though it did taste better than it smelled. What a shame that so many of their 2012 red wines were destroyed .

After we sampled our share of wine, we went around the corner to have key lime pies on a stick.  Well, I only sampled from Ryan’s and bought a mini tarte for later in the week.  Must say, while I was suspicious, I think I preferred the pie on a stick…the chocolate was a nice balance to the tartness of the key lime.

We ended the day at the Lobster Pound, no pictures, it went down too fast, especially since I shared half with Ryan.  And while I did enjoy my lobster roll, you know, there just isn’t enough lobster in the thing to justify the cost, and the amount of cholesterol that goes into the thing…all the same if you’re looking for a good lobster roll, the Lobster Pound is worth the trip to Red Hook.  And while you’re there stop at the winery, bakeries, and distilleries .

Later,

Nicole

Week Recap

Oh my, how is it already another Monday!  So much to catch up on not sure where to begin…

The beginning week was quite hectic with trying to get the remaining items out of my apartment and turning in my keys.  I then hopped on an afternoon bus to Boston to visit my friend Ena and her precious little girl.  Too cute, and such a good baby!!

It was a quick trip but gave us time to catch up, play

and enjoy treats from Flour. While I love a cupcake here and there (I feel like there are more cupcake places in NYC than any other kind of bakery) I loved the variety at Flour.   We enjoyed (from bottom going clockwise) a molasses ginger bread cookie, a vegan chocolate cake, a double chocolate cookie, and a tiramisu cup (I can’t recall the exact name of the latter).  We also had a glass or so of wine and enjoyed adult talk and chatter while the little one slept peacefully.

I returned to New York Wednesday evening and met up with Ryan for dinner before we headed to the Melanie Fiona concert, but I’ll leave that for another post.

Thursday-Friday was full of writing and more concerts which left me exhausted and I wanted nothing more than to sleep come Saturday morning…unfortunately the little pup wanted to go to the bathroom so sleeping-in wasn’t really an option.  That said, I completely fell asleep on the couch about 30 minutes later.  When I woke up, about an hour later, I stretched out with a nice pilates session and then Ryan and I headed to the Ikea Ferry to Red Hook.  My friend Katie was celebrating her birthday by visiting some of her favorite Red Hook establishments.  I loved supporting one of her favorite neighborhoods which is still recovering from Hurricane Sandy.  In fact both the Red Hook Winery and the Lobster Pound just reopened about a month ago.  But I’ll come back to her birthday celebrations because Red Hook deserves its own detailed post.

Sunday I spent the first half of the day prepping lunches and dinners for the week. Which mostly consisted of cooking lots of vegetables.

We then headed to The Redhead with several friends for their yearly Crawfish Boil. Such a fun and messy (cracking 2 pounds of crawfish is a dirty job ) time, and just screams spring…well, because that’s when they are in season .

And yesterday was a beautiful spring day!  After eating we celebrated Cinco de Mayo at 10 degrees taking advantage of their 2 for 1 deal.

We then grabbed a couple of soft pretzels headed back to the apartment and chatted a bit more with friends.  After everyone headed home Ryan and I did some laundry, and I did a little writing before watching Mad Men and calling it a night.

And that would bring us back to Monday, whew.  Since it’s (music) Monday I’ll leave you with another Melanie Fiona song.

 

Have a fabulous week,

Nicole

 

Music Monday

It was a go go go kinda weekend as I went through my apartment throwing out and giving away as much as possible and then packed up the rest, driving to Philadelphia to get rid of half and the rest is currently sitting in Ryan’s living room.

Sunday evening we took it rather easy, exhausted from the events on Saturday and went to a great dinner at Babbo.  I’ve been dying to go there since living in NYC.  During my NYU years I couldn’t afford their menu, and the last few years I never really took the time to book a reservation early enough in advance.

I didn’t take many pictures but did snap images from dessert, an apricot and saffron panna cotta:

and a pistachio and chocolate semifreddo:

Everything was amazing, well worth the nine year wait .

Okay, need to get back to checking things off my growing to-do list, but before I go, music Monday!  I haven’t been able to attend too many concerts lately so I thought I would just go crazy this week and am attending 3! In honor of my ridiculous schedule this week music from Melanie Fiona, Marques Toliver, and the Foals.

 

 

Later,

Nicole

I’m Dr. Bowles

Hey all!

I defended my thesis and am now Dr. Bowles!   Since Monday, I’ve been trying to relax but it has been a little difficult as I’m still applying for grants, moving, and just trying to transition to the next stage in life.  I am also trying to celebrate such an accomplishment as obtaining a Ph.D., but I’m never so great with celebrating each accomplishment and instead always look at what’s to come. Something to work on I suppose, especially for mental health purposes.

That said, I did relax for a larger part of this weekend and enjoyed some sun in the city.

Friday night Tribeca Film Festival Drive-In:Beetle Juice!  Unfortunatley we ended up leaving about halfway through the film, it was rather cold once the sun set and there was the threat of rain. Rain + Cold just sounded awful.

Saturday I was up bright and early for NYU’s Big Walk, this year Roosevelt Island.  I was actually one of the few people on the tour of the island that had ever been to this part of Manhattan (fact #1 the 2 mile x 800 ft bit of land is part of Manhattan).  My first visit for an art exhibit part of Open House New York, and many more times to visit my friend Ena who lived on the island for a few years.

It was a beautiful day to spend with friends and soak up sun, a little too much in fact.  I forgot to wear sunscreen and ended up sunburnt .

Loved all the cherry blossoms!  It was like a trip to DC. Fact #2, the  trees were a gift from Mary Lasker (think the Lasker award for all my science friends).  She apparently is responsible for several beautifying projects across the city.

The visit also gave me the opportunity to see the new FDR monument, it become open to the public this fall.

The Big Walk was such a great experience, though I was skeptical about walking around Roosevelt Island all day long, I mean how much could one say about such a little island, as it would turn out a lot!  Between the history of the island including several name changes as land ownership was transferred from the native americans to the Danish to the Blackwell family that used the island for their summer home, and as such the island became Blackwell Island.  It would later become Welfare island and finally to Roosevelt Island in the 70s.

I also learned about their use of pneumatic tubes to transfer garbage (in order to reduce the number of garbage trucks, there are still a few cute small trucks to pick up commercial garbage and public trash cans).  It’ll be interesting to see how the island handles waste as the island, which currently has  14,000 inhabitants, integrates a fully functioning university campus as Cornell builds and develops their  new technology campus.

After the tour, I headed back to my apartment to pack and nap before heading back downtown to have dinner with friends.  This dinner was totally last minute for a friend of a friends who was visiting from Japan, but I kinda feel like I was pre-celebrating my thesis defense given that it was the first weekend in many that I wasn’t constantly thinking about writing or practicing my talk.

Anyhow we went to Cafe Kristall in SoHo.  The place was rather empty for a Saturday night, but SoHo generally dies on Saturday nights.  But the food was quite good! As were the drinks .

I started with a ginger fizz to drink.

The restaurant had a deal if you checked in through yelp, but I kept my selection to just an entree.  That said I stole a couple of bites from Ryan’s carrot and ginger soup which was delicious, I could have eaten that alone and been happy and satisfied.

For my entree I had the salmon with white beans, I would never have thought to combine the two, but it made for an amazing dish.

I may have also had a bite of Ryan’s scallops.

We then went a little crazy with dessert.  Since we had a visitor who really wanted to try Georgetown cupcakes we went and purchased 6 cupcakes to split with everyone at the table (1 per person), but the yelp deal also came with dessert…so we had 4 other desserts to split since 4 out of 6 of us went for the deal.

I didn’t get a photo of them all, including my favorite 2, a caramel cake with this awesome caramel cookie on the top and a pistachio and chocolate layered cake…but you get the idea, it was a lot.  That said, with the help of our waiter who had a bit of cupcake, we ate just about everything.  Surprisingly, I didn’t feel too much of a sugar rush…maybe it was the 11 miles of walking I did across the day?

On Sunday, I did my best to stay relaxed by getting my nails done and Ryan and I met up with our friend Jodi to check out a new Beer Garden. I decided to have 2 small pints of beer, rather than 1 large, in order to try 2 different beers.

We also snacked on a huge pretzel, some deviled eggs, and nuts.  Their lunch and dinner menu also looked quite tasty, while I wish their beer selection was larger, I would come back for try some other menu items, and I enjoyed the atmosphere.

Okay time to walk away from the computer screen.

-Nicole

Music Monday

I defend today, AHHH, I think a little music is in order.

Be back soon, I promise!

Nicole

Easter 2013

Hey,

Happy April 1st and with it spring looks like it has arrived, yes!!

Weekly meal highlights…

Chicken, vegetables, and rice.

An amazingly easy dish of sauteed shrimp and scallops atop a mint pea puree.

And a lovely Easter dinner with an asparagus, goat cheese salad,

and a parmesan crusted chicken breast with a mushroom and parsley salad.

For dessert a 7up cake!  All thanks to Ryan because I’ve been pretty much glued to my computer, one more week until I submit my thesis, ekk!!

After dinner we watched the walking dead season finale, and dyed Easter eggs!  I haven’t done that in forever .

Have a wonderful week,

Nicole

Is it spring yet?

Hey all,

Giving a weekly check-in before I start writing for the day.  This week was full of lots of time staring at the computer with a few breaks here and there for exercise, eating, and a little downtime with friends.

Monday’s dinner-spiced chicken with rice, snap peas, and carrots

Wednesday-Drinks following a session of rock climbing.

Dinner on Friday was nice and light and just begging for spring weather to come already!  We’re expecting more snow today and it makes me just want to scream…bring on the warmer weather!!

Cod, asparagus, with a lima bean and mint puree.

A perfect weekend breakfast of pumpkin pancakes with a banana peanut butter sauce (almond milk, 1/2 a frozen banana, tbsp of peanut butter, and powdered sugar to your desired sweetness and texture).

Lastly, a nice spring (see the theme here) salad to round off the weekend. A lovely chicken, cantaloupe, and pepper salad with a cantaloupe, lemon vinaigrette.

Have a wonderful week,

Nicole