Parents Weekend

My parents made the trip up to Brooklyn this weekend now that the weather is finally nice enough to enjoy walking around outside! Like always, it’s the eating and walking tour of Brooklyn.

Started off Friday night with dinner in Williamsburg at Zi Zi Limona for Mediterranean food. Delicious food and wine all around. We had a bunch of plates to split was a perfect way to go. This was actually a repeat visit after going there when Remy was in town last week. We loved it that much!

Saturday morning started early with a trip to Colson’s (it’s not a parents weekend without it!). Croissants and coffee.

After breakfast we walked to the Grand Army Farmer’s market and then to the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens. The official cherry blossom festival was last weekend but the flowers seemed to be out in full bloom this weekend.

We, like everyone else, proceeded to take a lot of pictures 🙂

Usually on Saturday mornings, Jon and I work on the NYTimes crossword puzzle. By work on, I mean we look at it, can usually guess 1 to 2 words and then give up. A fantastic weekend is 5 words. Apparently we just need to invite mom up every weekend because she finished it all. Can we count that as a win?

Lunch was at Bierkraft, a restaurant in Park Slope with craft beer and sandwiches. They have the most delicious vegetarian sandwiches there and really different craft beer choices. I ended up with a cherry flavored beer. Sounds weird, tasted great.

Of course, in between all of the eating we covered over 7 miles of walking and wandering.

Saturday afternoon we made it back to DUMBO where they were staying (!) to hang out for a bit. Grabbed pizza from Juliana’s down the street and brought it back to eat on the roof. Holy amazing views. Unfortunately, part way through, it started raining. But the apartment had pretty amazing views so we didn’t mind heading back inside to hang out.

Sunday morning involved more paper reading and another trip to Colson’s for breakfast! This time we happened to be eating at the same time (2 tables down) from the mayor of NYC. That’s the 2nd time I’ve seen him there so pretty cool that our neighborhood spot is also his!

Went to church followed by an excellent brunch at Fonda, a Mexican restaurant in the neighborhood. That too was a repeat from Remy’s visit last week. It was that delicious and worth going back!

Post lunch walk through Prospect Park and the neighborhood before a late afternoon gelato and coffee break.

  

So happy that they were able to make the trip up for the weekend. Loved having them around and it’s fun to have excuse to go back to delicious neighborhood places 🙂

Having a quiet ending to another great weekend. Thanks for coming mom & dad!

March Moments

Somehow one thing led to another and here we are just over a month since I last blogged. “Oh, I’ll do that tomorrow night” turns into 30 some days later. Whoops.

It’s been a big start to the year and I cannot even begin to fathom how I’ve found myself here on the night before April 1st. Here are some highlights:

I attended a talk at a company in lower Manhattan last month. The talk was by a famous illustrator who told stories of where he had come from and how he ended up where he is now. I was pretty amazed by the building that the talk was in. Somehow, it’s easy to forget the history that we’re surrounded by every day while we walk around.

One unexpectedly warm Saturday, Jon and I headed to the High Line in Manhattan to walk around. Found ourselves in Chelsea Market for a quick lunch (crepes, of course) and I found these lights still strung up from the holidays. Christmas lights never cease to make me smile.

On that same warm day, we walked uptown towards 34th street and found ourselves across the street from MSG where there is this terrifically large and old post office.

Along the High Line, we happened upon this construction site. Apparently I have some 5-year old boy interests because I made Jon stand and watch them for a good 15 minutes. I made him wait until the cement truck started pouring cement and I figured out how it was delivered 2 stories down.

One of the most fantastic habits that we’ve created is always having a delicious Saturday morning brunch. This particular week was homemade biscuits topped with mozzarella, arugula and eggs.

Shot in Red Hook, a neighborhood close to mine in Brooklyn.

Creative Mornings, a monthly series featuring a speaker, was held in Red Hook. Which is how I found myself wandering through this artist’s fantastic studio and art space early one Friday morning. Seriously amazing work.

And a pretty sweet, four floor space.

A few months back I signed up for Google Experts. It means you write 50 reviews of restaurants or businesses online and then you’re invited by Google to a party in whatever city you’re a “City Expert” in. This month’s party was held in midtown and was mexican themed.

There was dancing.

I also had a 5 day run in with hives. So a trip to an allergist was in order. They poked me with hundreds of little things I could potentially be allergic too. Which gave me more hives. But came back as being “severely allergic” to grass as well as minor ones for trees, coconut, cats and dust. So that taught me nothing. But I felt like a pin cushion for a morning.

And the allergist trip allowed me to head to a new area in the morning for some coffee.

Made peanut butter powder, whole wheat pancakes topped with raw honey for Fat Tuesday (now you can see how old these pictures are). I don’t believe whole wheat pancakes is exactly what they had in mind for Fat Tuesday celebrations. But when in Brooklyn…

Jon and I went to a vegan restaurant one afternoon for one of our Groupon dates (thanks Eric & David!). The Groupon special was for 2 empanadas and 2 beers each. It was a delicious and a fun Sunday afternoon date.

During one of the really cold weekends we made cast iron macaroni & cheese with old bay and kale chips. Yum.

Some lunches are just leftover baguettes with melted cheese and tomatoes.

And, of course, Saturday breakfasts. The most important meal of the week. This time was homemade biscuits (we were on a roll for a while) with mushroom gravy and bacon (for Jon).

 

Of course, there were lots of little moments in between. Lots of eating, cooking, design talks, hours at work, NY Crosswords left unfinished and miles walked. Looking forward to some of the warmer months for more outdoor time!

 

 

Once & Other Weekend Activities

This past weekend was absolutely jam packed.

Friday morning started super early with Creative Mornings. It’s the monthly design talk that I go to that’s usually held in Brooklyn right across from work. This month it was held in the NY Public Library in Bryant Park. Great way to kick off the day even though it means the alarm is set for hours earlier than usual!

After work I had plans to go to Draft & Draw with a coworker and his girlfriend. The event is put on by a guy I know from church and this is the 2nd time they’ve held it. It’s exactly what it sounds like – drinking and drawing! You show up, eat pizza, drink beer, hear from a speaker and then get to spend the rest of the time doodling on the tables.

My doodling kind of got out of hand.

The table at the end of the night:

Saturday morning, Jon and I had bagels for breakfast followed by a walk through Prospect Park. It had rained a bit and warmed up a ton so the snow was all super melty. It was nice except for the large streams that had grown on all of the pathways. Made it hard to walk in places that we’re dirty and muddy.

At one point I stopped and looked around at just how ridiculous the scene was. Here we were just a few miles away from Times Square and unless you previously knew that, you’d have no idea! Completely surrounded by trees, snow and nature.

It was actually warm enough this weekend to sit down on a bench and not freeze to death which was welcomed after all of this snow and cold that we’ve been having!

On the way back from the park we stopped in a new coffee shop called Cafe Martin, recommended by Jon’s roommate. The owner of the place is pretty friendly and quirky, definitely feels like a neighborhood coffeeshop. Walked down to the Whole Foods afterwards to pick up a few things – and to, ya know, rack up more miles walking.

We headed back to get all cleaned up and dressed up for the night ahead! Original plans were to make dinner but quickly decided that going out sounded way faster and easier. Settled on Flipsters when Jon expressed an interest in “I just want a burger and fries.” It had actually been on my list for a while to try so I was happy to go – did feel a bit silly being all dressed up and eating burgers though. The veggie burger was amazing. None of that frozen nonsense. It actually ranked up there on one of the best ones that I’ve had!

Made our way into midtown with a brief stop and walk around 30 Rock Plaza and the ice skating rink before (shoving) our way into Times Square. Always a happy reminder why I don’t want to live there! So. Many. People. With fanny packs, taking pictures, looking up, etc. I can’t believe how few times I actually find myself in Manhattan. Probably best for anxiety sake.

The reason we were there was to see Once!!!

Grandpa and Frances had so generously given us tickets for Christmas to see it – thank you! At the time February felt incredibly far away but I can’t believe how fast January and February went. Yikes. We, appropriately, spent the week leading up to the show listening to the soundtrack and were both super pumped to finally get to see it.

Outside the theater there were people talking about Stars Hollow and Gilmore Girls so I knew it was my kind of crowd.

Walking into the theater, we noticed a bunch of people forming a line to get on stage. Turns out they have a bar before the show ON stage! The actors/actresses get on stage before it even starts to play music in a really informal manner. The whole show takes place in an Irish pub so it’s quite fitting and sets the scene. Unfortunately we were the last people in line to NOT be let on stage 😦 Bummer.

Unlike most shows, there is no dramatic curtain opening or anything – they just go right from having people on stage to the start of the show.

During intermission I noticed that there were people going back on stage so we headed down to try it again. We were number 4 and 5 back in line when they said only 4 more people allowed then it’s closed. But luckily the guy was very nice and let both of us up so we got to go on stage!

It’s hard to sum up in words but the show was fantastic! Nothing over the top overly romantic and broadway about it. It just felt very real and unique. All of the scene changes were very inventive. The background really never moved, they would just use boxes of light as “rooms” and had people playing music to distract from scene changes with people going on/off stage.

Overall, fantastic and highly recommended! We both loved it.

After the show we headed down the street to Junior’s for some cheesecake! I got the most ginormous piece of carrot cake cheesecake. It was amazing and the leftovers were even more delicious. The thing was seriously the size of my head. When the waiter put them down he gave us the wrong cheesecakes but Jon was in the bathroom so I quick swapped them. I looked to the left and noticed a table giggling at me – I think they thought I was stealing his cheesecake while he was away 🙂

Sunday was a bit different in that church was moved to night time so suddenly we had a full free morning before Jon left for work. Spent time reading the paper, attempting and failing at the crossword and cooking! We made omelettes with mozzarella and arugula, roasted some fingerling & sweet potatoes, and made cinnamon rolls (out of a can – we cheated. sorry). It was kind of a breakfast morphed into lunch thing.

In the afternoon I took care of some laundry – no laundry guy though, I missed him. I originally got an invite to Eric’s movie premiere showing in Jersey City so I was all ready to go to that around 5 except in a last minute check to the invite I realized it’s NEXT month not February. Whoops. Good thing I checked! So instead I headed to the 5pm service at church. It was held in this really old, neat Baptist church with comfy pews and everything (not recommended for evening services). Afterwards I went to dinner with two friends at a local Vietnamese place.

So… definitely a very, very packed and fun weekend!

Snowy Saturday Brunch

Jon surprised me with pretty flowers (and ice cream!) on Friday after he got back from his bike ride! We didn’t have any super big plans for the weekend but it was nice to get the bonus day to spend time together. It really made it feel so much longer. We don’t ever seem to need any big weekend plans as we always manage to fill it with lots of adventures.

Friday night dinner was stuffed mushrooms, bruschetta with tomatoes & basil and two types of cheese. Ate while watching the first episode of Season 2 of House of Cards (holy cow..).

Saturday brunch seems to be our cooking forte.

We never have solid dinner plans but breakfast… always first to be decided. This week was omelettes filled with shitake mushrooms, arugula and smoked gouda. We were supposed to make cinnamon rolls but that turned into Jon grabbed a chocolate almond croissant & an apple turnover from the French bakery down the street. No complaints here 🙂 Also roasted some fingerling potatoes with rosemary and olive oil. And, of course, no NYC brunch is complete without mimosas!

We got to spend time cooking while watching the snow start to fall outside. We’ve gotten SO much so far this year.

Thankful to be dating a photographer who doesn’t think I’m nuts when I want to style the food a bit and snap some pictures.

After all of the cooking (and dishwashing which seems to take up 25% of our weekend) we ventured out into the snow. See what I mean by a lot?! The difference with snow in NYC is that there is no place for it to go so sidewalks are getting narrower and narrower and cars often have no hope of getting out without a massive shoveling job.

A walk through Prospect Park in the snow is always a must. The snow in parts was up past my boots (to be fair, we hardly walked on pathways at all). It was actually shockingly warm out, I had way too many clothes on.

I was feeling toasty warm until a snowball fight broke out. Jon wasn’t pleased with the snowman sized snowball I was creating and proceeded to get me covered in snow instead.

We wandered our way through the neighborhood at ended up at Roots Cafe. At that point we were both completely covered in snow & probably looked ridiculous. The owner (who we came to realize goes to our church) was stepping out just as we were walking and she kept laughing at us 🙂 Warmed up with a hot cup of coffee!

Had plans to walk all the way to Whole Foods to grab the cinnamon rolls for Sunday but walking back from the cafe quickly decided that more time outside was a bad plan. Here we are super snow covered:

Dinner was more bruschetta, cheese and the remaining stuffed mushrooms. Not great planning on our part, we were starving afterwards. Whoops.

Watched a great movie on Netflix called Populaire. It’s another foreign (French) film – “In this romantic comedy set in the 1950s, a smooth-talking insurance agent is so impressed with his secretary’s skills that he encourages her to enter speed-typing competitions. He also invites her to live in his mansion, and romance slowly blooms.” It sounds kind of ridiculous but we both ended up really loving it!

Post-movie there was some minor apartment redecorating (of Jon’s apartment). Moved a few things around in the living room and cleaned a bunch. Somehow failed to get an “after” shot but it’s looking all cleaned up now and the table is conveniently closer to the window for better food lighting 😉 Priorities!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

This year I participated in something called the Handmade Valentine’s Exchange. You get pared up with 9 other people and make 9 cards for them which means you get 9 cards in return! Casey and I got together for 4+ hours a week or so back and worked hard on all of the cards. Lots of fun and a good excuse to cut out hundreds of hearts! I’m still waiting for some of those cards to come in so it’ll be a nice surprise over the next week or so.

Our office is in the middle of some big changes this weekend which means that most of us are working from home today! Spending the day curled up under a blanket working on various projects. It’s so nice to have a change of scenery every once in a while. Working home on Friday also means that I see Jon! He came by this morning and worked along side me – he’s working on some online development courses.

Since we knew that we were all going to be out of the office today, the baking committee at work planned a pre-Valentine’s day breakfast for everyone in the office. In the front pictured are bagel croissiants called red velvet cragels.

The commute in yesterday was interesting. Super snowy! It snowed 10+ inches yesterday and when I left for work it looked like this:

Getting off the train near work, I was crossing the street and watched a woman fall on top of her kid who she was carrying over a snow bank. Another guy and I picked them up and they seemed to be okay but it was very, very icy and snowy at that point. Very hard to see even a few feet ahead.

Another morning where Manhattan disappears.

Yesterday also happened to be a very special person’s birthday! Happy Birthday, Mom! As a birthday present, they got 20+ inches of snow. Pretty crazy! Wish I could have been there to celebrate & help shovel. Hope you get your birthday bagel this weekend 🙂

Down By The Docks

Another weekend has come and gone and the list of places to go and see in NYC never seems to get any shorter.

I’m a huge fan of starting off Saturdays with a home-cooked breakfast. Last weekend was pancakes, oranges and “choose your own meat like thing” (veggie sausage for me, bacon for him).

Brunch places have nothing on us.

Finished up a few crossword puzzle answers before heading out the door to catch a bus to Red Hook. It’s a neighborhood not easily serviced by the subway so the easiest way is to hop on a bus and enjoy traveling above ground for once.

In Red Hook there are some fantastic views of the water, city and the statue of liberty! It was the first “warm” day in quite some time. I think it hit 40 degrees! That felt pretty much like summer so we were happy to be walking around and outside.

It’s a very industrial neighborhood as IKEA is there, boat docks, warehouses, etc. Makes for lots of interesting architecture. They are turning one of the piers into a park of some sort with displays and information posted around so that’ll be interesting to check out in a few months.

On the rear side of the Fairway (a giant grocery store) there are all of these old train cars to peek into. Pretty neat!

After a brief shopping trip to Fairway (one in which we had to promise ourselves not to buy the whole store), we headed to a nearby bakery for some whoopie pies! Jon’s from PA so it only makes sense to go try them out. Super tasty looking baked goods and a cute shop tucked in the neighborhood – would definitely be worth a trip back!

Once we were sufficiently hopped up on sugar, we headed back home to start preparing dinner. Jon was going to be working the Super Bowl so we went with a football party inspired dinner menu to make up for him missing it.

Three types of cheese, guac & chips, kale/arugula salad for appetizers. Then while watching a movie we got some veggie lentil chili on the stove to simmer away. It turned out super well – ate leftovers for lunch for the beginning of the week, I’d definitely make it again!

Snowy Weekend

This weekend seemed to pass all too quickly. Sunday evening and I’m sitting in a clean apartment with fresh laundry and new pillows. Achieved big kid status this weekend when Jon bought his first scarf (HOW did he go to school at RIT…) and I bought much needed new pillows.

Nothing too crazy this weekend – started it out on Friday with pizza at Peppino’s. Chosen both for it’s insanely hot interior and delicious pizza. Friday was so chilly! Actually it’s been cold for quite some time. We had snow both all day yesterday and little flurries today.

Watched The Intouchables on Netflix on Friday – highly recommend the movie!

Saturday morning I got ambitious and made cinnamon french toast from Smitten Kitchen’s cookbook (the one that Jon got me for Christmas – genius). It turned out really well and was especially delicious with some veggie sausage that I picked up.

After some newspaper reading and coffee drinking (this time from the comfort of my living room with a snowy view), we headed into Manhattan to run a few errands. The errands ended up taking about 4 hours which is usually the case when looking for something in NYC. Especially when you enter the vortex that is Macy’s. Never again. That place is out of control.

We did make a pit stop at the Ace Hotel to visit the coffee shop that is in their lobby. Cool view of the Empire State building while we were sipping our drinks and watching taxis pass by. Unfortunately, the rest of New Yorkers also had the idea to go there so there was no seating to be found.

Dinner was leftover pizza and appetizers after coming back from the exhausting outing (that we didn’t really accomplish much in..). Finished the rest of Zero Dark Thirty which we had started a few weeks ago. Super intense even though I knew the ending!

This morning we woke up early for a church service in Manhattan. The church that we’re apart of in Brooklyn is actually part of a much larger network of churches and they had the first semi-annual all city gathering at a high school. Over 1,500 people were all gathered together – it was pretty insane! Definitely a cool way to start off the morning. We ended up running into a ton of people from the church in Long Island City that we went to all of last year so it was great to catch up. A group of 15 of us (which later turned into 40) all headed to grab food afterwards at Heartland Brewery in Union Square. I think the waiters were a bit alarmed to get a group that large in there so early. Fitting 40 people into 1 restaurant in NYC is nothing short of a miracle. Delicious food and great to catch up with everyone!

Jon headed off to work and I wandered a bit more around in Manhattan. There’s something so nice about walking the streets with snow flurries in the air and no real place to be. Of course, it was quite chilly!

I do always love coming back to Brooklyn though. Love these rows and rows of brownstones to walk home to. The snow just makes it even better!

Work has gotten super busy lately – in a good way! Lots of new projects and pitches to work on which keeps it interesting. Feels like almost every night is planned out already too. Can’t believe how quickly January passed…

Full Weekend

Had just a couple things planned for the weekend and somehow it feels like every spare minute in between was filled up!

Friday night I met up with Jon and headed to Der Kommissar, a German restaurant in the neighborhood, for dinner. They have delicious veggie sausage options, a fun environment and tons of mustard to put on said veggie sausage. From there we were going to meet up with Jon’s roommate and his girlfriend but they were running a little behind so he had the brilliant idea to head to L’Albero Dei Gelati this fantastic gelato place. Had PA Maple Syrup and Chestnut Ginger gelato. Both were super tasty!

Eventually met up with Jon’s roommate, his girlfriend and her friend from college. In a weird turn of events, we ended up befriending these random people at the bar who needed a place to sit down and eat their dinner. Turns out they were related to the bartender and they were all cousins so it was a giant family reunion of sorts. By the end of the night there we hugs all around and we had met all of the cousins. Basically felt like a scene out of My Big Fat Greek Wedding 🙂

Headed to bed early because we all had to get up super early so all 5 of us could pile on a train to Queens for a homeless care kit packing party. We’d done a similar one around this time last year and signed up again to help out. The train ride went super fast and before long we were spending 2 hours rolling up blankets with socks, hats, gloves, food, water and notes that are then handed out to homeless people on the streets. Pretty awesome project and made even more interesting because two of the people who run it were recipients of the homeless care kits years ago. We got to work alongside some high school kids as well who were bused there from somewhere in Brooklyn as well. Definitely two hours well spent. We completed 400 kits by the end of the morning.

Afterwards all 5 of us headed down the street to El Ay Si, a brunch place that Jon and I had been to back when we went to church there. Delicious food and even more fun to have a big group of friends to share it with.

Saturday afternoon was spent back in Brooklyn and was pretty low-key. NYTimes reading, chatting, Downton Abbey watching (Jon at least watched.. I napped). Later that night we headed out to Jon’s friend James’s house warming party. They’ve been friends since high school and hang out a lot now but I’d yet to meet him. Of course, every house warming party in NYC involves a whole lot of “oohh.. maybe I should move…”. But I think I’ll stay put for a bit 🙂

Changed it up today and had breakfast this morning instead of lunch after church. While drinking coffee, I spotted this dog outside. So cute! Wish I had more time and room for him in my apartment! Maybe someday…

Went to lunch at a Thai restaurant after church with three girls from church which was fun! It’s super chilly outside so I’m all bundled up and cozy on my couch for the rest of the afternoon. I have a few freelance projects to work on, some reading to do and perhaps a little cooking later.

It’s definitely felt like a very full and very good weekend. Looking forward to weekends with slightly better outdoor walking weather 🙂

If You Build It

Hard to believe that it was just 14 days ago that I was coming back to NYC after christmas break. The days, while they each feel long, seem to be flying by. After a few snowy, cold days I was super ready to get out and explore again. Definitely miss some of the longer walks we used to take on weekends when it wasn’t so stinkin’ cold outside.

I ran across an article last week talking about this interesting documentary called If You Build It. I looked into it a little more and turns out it was premiering in NYC that weekend (last Friday)! Friday after work I met up with Jon and we headed to the West Village in search of dinner before the show. Found a cute little Greek restaurant and grabbed a seat by the window – rainy nights make being inside feel even more cozy.

The movie turned out to be fantastic! In short, it’s a documentary on two designers/architects who went to Bertie County, NC and started a design class which ended up having a huge impact on the community and students there. You can learn more about it here. They’re showing it around the country throughout the next year so I highly recommend it if it’s coming somewhere near you!

Afterwards there was a Q&A session with the director. I have to admit, I wasn’t initially that excited about a Q&A session but it turned out to be great! Not only was it the director of the movie but the 2 teachers of the class and one of the students in their original design class came and spoke as well. It was a fun and different way to spend a Friday night!

Saturday involved sleeping in and coffee and NYTimes reading at a (new) local coffee shop. We had an oh so romantic date to busy Trader Joe’s for groceries tucked in there too. Came home and I made Pear & Arugula soup for dinner while Jon did laundry. It actually turned out really well! I ended up leaving out one of the ingredients (a potato – Farmigo gave me moldy ones last week) but didn’t seem to miss it. Made some toasty croutons on top too.

After dinner I headed out to Hoboken (NJ) with Casey to meet up with Ariana one of our other roommates from RIT. She’s moving down to Texas to work at a sweet new place, Mary Kay! So she had one last going away party there. Jon met up not long after. Had a good time catching up before she headed off!

It did make for a super short night of sleep though. Sunday morning I woke up super early (6:30) to help set up at church. It ended up being really fun and I didn’t even push snooze that much (huge accomplishment when you see how weekdays have been…). We finished setting up so early that all 7 of us headed to a local diner for some food! Pancakes, eggs, coffee and chatting made for the best morning. It’s been fun getting to know those girls over the past year (!). Yikes, I can’t believe it’s really been that long. By the time church rolled around at 10:30, it felt like mid-day!

Had leftover pear & arugula soup with Jon before he headed off to work and then I set to work doing laundry and fully cleaning the apartment. Felt so good to get everything back in order before the next week started.

Of course, I started this blog post the day after and am posting it 5 days later… so clearly this week got a bit crazy! Whoops.

Winter Saturday Exploring

Friday I worked from home due to snow which through off my sense of what day it actually was.

Saturday morning started early with homemade crepes – filled with sautéed spinach, artichoke hearts and brie! Complete with a side of coffee and a berry smoothie. Brunch is quickly becoming my favorite meal to plan – so many options and such a good way to kick off the weekend!

We soon headed towards Central Park for a walk. For whatever reason (read: it’s not Brooklyn) we haven’t made it up there recently. We’ve definitely slowed down on the exploring from our early every weekend must be packed rule when I first moved here. Looking to change that in 2014! So many parts of the city left to see.

Central Park was absolutely gorgeous with the snow on the ground and bright blue sky. It was also surprisingly warm (considering the day before had a negative something windchill).

Made our way up towards the center of the park and found a nut stand. For some reason ever since I moved here, it’s been on my bucket list to get warm nuts from a sidewalk stand. It seemed New York-like I guess. Mission accomplished! We got cashews with a mystery flavoring.

Continued meandering our way through the park until Jon could no longer feel his toes. We made it up to the MET on the east side which I shockingly have not seen since moving here. Briefly contemplated going but decided to save that for another cold or rainy day!

   

Instead we continued walking down from 8o-something street to 63rd to get espresso and a cappuccino at Bel Ami a little coffee shop we had found last year. We were wildly underdressed – must have forgotten my fur coat and leather snake skin boots at home. But fun and cozy anyway!

Plus the streets seemed like a movie set with all of the steam vents from the subways!

From there we hopped on a subway and made it down to 42nd Street where we fought our way through Time Square to the AMC Theater! Jon got movie tickets for christmas from Aunt Barb & Uncle Joe and he decided he liked me enough to take me with him 🙂 We’d both been wanting to see Her so it seemed like the perfect opportunity for it! The lines were crazy long to get the tickets so we had to rush across the street to Five Guys for a quick grilled cheese and burger lunch before the movie. By the time we made it back it was 2 minutes until movie time and the theater was PACKED! Not that I go to movies often but I’ve never seen it so full! We ended up having to sit in the very, very front row with our heads looking straight up at the screen. Despite some of the characters looking rather large from below, it seemed to work out and we both enjoyed the movie. Guess I get to check off “sit in the front row at the movies” from some life bucket list!

Headed back to Brooklyn just in time to make some dinner. I’d had two meals planned for Saturday night to get us enough leftovers for Sunday which is usually the goal. However, after making the first we quickly lost stamina and quit at that. The soup is still unmade.. guess that is tomorrow’s task.

We did make Smitten Kitchen’s Butternut Squash and Onion Gallette along with a Kale Salad (recipe courtesy of Mom). It seemed to work out well and didn’t even take that long. We did cheat on the dough though. Between brunch and this, it was a lot of cooking in one day!

Don’t be too impressed though. There’s a pretty decent chance that these photos your seeing were taken on a cardboard box 🙂

Sometimes apartment life isn’t as glamorous as one might think. But I think we get points for innovation and creativity. Next time, I’ll try to locate a table cloth – tshirts work for that, right?