Nothin beats mom's food

Ah man, I can only dream of being able to make as many delicious things as my mom can. Got home, there was pasta with shrimp and cheese and spinach, and this really good mushroom and prosciutto pie, and potato chops (love), and this great made-as-she-rushed-out-the-door flatbread pizza with brie, mozzarella, caramelized onions, and red peppers:

All so good, all makes me want to just stay home and be a lazy bum forever...no good.

Ithaca is Gorges

So yeah:

Woke up Sunday morning, grabbed a bagel and water and headed home to meet Lissy for our road trip to Cornell! Ate a delicious kebab roll from mom, didn't crash into anything, so general drive success.

Got up to Ithaca and after a brief drive around some of the most beautiful houses ever, got to Alex's, dropped of the sister, and went on an extremely informative tour of the campus haha. Then very yummy tapas & wine:

And this fab dessert that was like, blueberries and blackberries all baked into one delicious mess - def reminded me of all the amazing blackberry eats in Maine yum yum.

Monday tex-mex breakfast:

With surprisingly spicy chili in that little cup! Drove around the lake, went and drank cider and wines and "lunch" was fantastic salted caramel ice cream in a pretzel cone (ah Graeter's I miss you so much...), went to a cute little info session w Lis and had to listen to this terrible overbearing mom ask so many annoying questions (thought I was done with that nonsense), then grabbed an actually delicious meatball sandwich from some like....gas station-esque place. And seriously, it was so good, I've tried lots of meatball subs and they're always kind of meh but this was perfect and crunchy bread and all that good stuff. So congrats Ithaca, good job on food & wine - I would not kill myself if I lived here :)

Also got back to BR in 3.5 hours, thank you 80 mph drivers.

Picnic in the Park!

Day started off kinda grey and eh - wasn't feeling all too optimistic about this picnic in the park plan. BUT as I wandered down 5th ave the sun came out, and once I hit the boathouse it was full on gorgeous outside and the fountain was filled w people (and a weird ballerino doing a weird photo shoot) and crazy people doing cross-x fitness and wonderful singers and general spring awesomeness.

So. No real food pictures as evidenced by this:

But there was...cabbage slaw, hummus & things to dip, strawberries & whipped cream & pastry puffs, lots of fresh fruit, and Molly's cupcakes:

Lovely day, then read a lot of Middlesex on the grass and got super weirded out by all the Greek incest that takes up like, the first third of the book. Come on...

Happy St. Patty's!

Woke up, hit the gym, walked back home amongst the parade drunkenness (soooo inapprops for the UES)...headed downtown to Billy Hurricane's to meet up w friends & Ell for a happy hour - lots of beer and food (great sweet potato fries and actually fantastic chicken wings yum yum).

When that ended, headed off w the high school gang to Tacombi, this fantastic taco place that's like...in an old converted garage and has Christmas lights and a cute VW that serves the tacos, and it's pretty much adorable and super delicious. Also ran into Flint haha, super random. I got a fish taco and an al pastor:

And they were both super delish :) Then drinks at 1534 (something great with mezcal and apple) and a walk over to M1-5 with a detour to Burger King for free french fries (who knows why but totally necessary) and then some random bar and then music video overload clubbin. Happy day!

Happy Friday

So today was a lame Friday - no one in the office, no partners in the post-insider-trading nonsense, so really dull. Fortunately there was happy hour :) With people I don't really know so that's always fun!

Then headed home, changed, and walked down to Fujiyama for a sushi feast w Lauren and Elise - ate so much sushi, split a bottle of wine, and thanks to my sweet Scout Mob...

Paid like $19 each! Magic :) Also the lobster tempura roll was absolutely delicious.

Another beautiful day!

I love this weather so much. It's like the perfect go for a long walk weather, not humid, not cold, just amazing. Woke up, put on some bright yellow pants :) and walked from my apt down to the Plaza (so yes like a 40 street and a couple avenues walk and it was perfect) to meet Phil for lunch at the "food court." Because a food court at the la-dee-da Plaza Hotel is just silly...

Anyway, I got the squid ink noodles, which was a surprisingly hefty portion and pretty tasty - but the noodles were kind of bland and had nothing nothing nothing on Ai Fiori. Ah I can dream about that squid ink pasta for the rest of my life!

Beautiful day! Great Meal!

Oh it was so gorgeous out today. SO great, I love this weather where I just want to walk everywhere because it's beautiful and not humid and not sticky (yet...). "Worked" and then walked down to 17th taking one of my favorite walks straight from Times Square to Madison Square Park - some of my favorite buildings going down that way.

Met up with Celina for dinner at this Malaysian/Thai place called Laut, we got roti kanai and then soft shell crab massaman curry and drunken noodles:

Pretty good - not exceptional (and super surprising that they have a Michelin star, I don't think I'm on board with these Asian restaurants getting stars unless the food is truly phenomenal), but yummy meal.

Then wandered down to Union Square and stocked up on lots of wine from Trader Joe's and had the standard moment of incredulity when I realized I had picked up 4 bottles for like, $24. Love that place.

Breslin! Reunion!

FINALLY got together with Jill (after two years of talking about it!) and Michelle for dinner at Breslin. Back up - gorgeous day outside, went to volunteer at a cooking class for kids down in Chelsea which was a lot of fun (closest I've gotten to Common Threads outside of Chicago) and met a totally random guy who just moved to the city and is also pretending to study for the GMAT, so we headed to a Starbucks afterwards and studied a bit and then I headed to the Breslin for dinner. But that was so fun because I NEVER meet random people...he might be the first person I've met in NYC who's totally disconnected from anyone else I know, not counting creepos at bars :)

Anyhow - caught up on Jill's wedding stories, etc. while waiting, and then had a great super long dinner - got the lamb burger with feta and a side of fantastic crispy fries. Lamb burger was greattt:

And duh, I love dinner with girls b/c there's always dessert! We split this surprisingly really delicious apple cake with pomegranate and a chocolate caramel sea salt tart (omg).

Wonderful dinner, wonderful company, wonderful time catching up and remembering that I need to do a better job of keeping in touch with people in the city :) And meeting random new people!

Earls Wins Again

Yum yum met Julia for dinner at Earls and decided to try something NEW...not the pork belly sandwich for the first time! Got this ridiculous "taco" - definitely had to be eaten with a fork and fingers and was a total mess but tasty: pulled pork, radish, cheese, on a massive scallion pancake. Yeah.

Perfect meat meal of the day :)

Queens Adventure!

Woke up this morning, headed down to see if we could win lottery tickets for Book of Mormon...obviously failed but this guy from KAZAKHSTAN won a ticket and was so excited and it was hilarious/awesome. Post-lotto, decided to take advantage of the gorgeous weather (and our extreme hunger) to head to Queens to John Brown Smokehouse where we pigged out on meat (burnt tips, pulled pork, and brisket), spicy sweet potato, and collard greens.

Definitely a touch too greasy for my taste, and definitely preferred the brisket over all the other meats, but pretty yummy. Has nothing on the south tho :( I miss my Charlotte pulled pork so much!

Then headed back home, watched The Debt (maybe the most underrated movie of 2011??), headed back to Book of Mormon lotto part 2, lost again, got drunk at Lillies (love that place), snacks at Shake Shack, sweet tea vodka at Penny Farthing because we had too much time to kill and then home :)