Archives for November 2012

about the time I went to NYC and it was magic.

November 29, 2012

I feel like something is happening to me.

Or, has happened to me, rather.

It’s like I can’t go anywhere with my camera lately without taking a bazillion photos.

And then. Then! If that’s not bad enough I can’t write a blog post without posting said BAZILLION photos.

Sorry?

Not really.

Hope you don’t mind!

Behold!

MY SATURDAY DAY TRIP TO THE ONE AND ONLY NEW YORK CITY:

Can I actually just say something before we begin? One more thing?

New York City is just so incredibly romantic.

Isn’t it?

Gosh I just want to hug it every single time I go.

Some parts I do not want to hug (Ahemm, Times Square) but most parts I do.

This particular trip brought me to the West Village. Talk about romantic. I could straight up slow dance with the West Village. DREAMY!

My main reason for heading to New York on this fine November day was to meet up with my best friend Bailey, who was visiting family in NJ and NY for the Holidays. Bailey used to live in Manhattan, then Brooklyn, and now she lives Charlotte.

(Remember when I went to visit her last spring?)

It’s only a few times a year that we get to spend time together, so I decided to take advantage of my proximity to the city to hang out with her, Luke, and Kevin.

We went to Aria Wine Bar and had small plates and wine. It was super lovely.

Mostly, I just loved being with my friend.

And isn’t Luke crazy cute??

YES. Yes he is.

After lunch we just walked around shopping and talking, catching up on things that are new and reminicing about favorite memories of old. We got cupcakes at Magnolia Bakery (the original!) and we popped into Chelsea Market and strolled through the Union Square Holiday Market, too.

I bought some handmade local gifts at Teich and Bailey picked up some adorable kid stuff for Luke.

All in all, a really great afternoon…

When I first made my plans to go to New York for the day, I just imagined having brunch, then hopping on the train back to Greenwich. But my brain got reeling and I just kept thinking WHAT ELSE can I do in this city of DREAMS?

Because, I mean, let’s live it up in NYC why don’t we.

YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE.

And so came about the fabulous idea to see if the New York City Ballet was performing The Nutcracker.

AND THEY WERE. AND WE WENT!

After saying goodbye to Bails, I headed towards Lincoln Center to meet up with my sister and my cousin Haley. We went to dinner at P.J. Clark’s in Lincoln Square– right across the street from the theatre, which was perfect (thanks for the rec, Colleen!), and then skittered right on over to watch the ballet.

Seeing the New York City Ballet perform The Nutcracker has always been a lifelong dream of mine. And going to Lincoln Center, yet another dream. Ever since this movie, circa 1993. And this movie, circa 2000. Also, I was in the Nutcracker when I was younger, and was an aspiring ballerina back in the day. SIGH. The memories.

The theatre! The costumes! The music! The dancing! THE NOSTALGIA.

It was in a word:

MAGIC.

Thanks for everything, New York.

Always.

23 Comments · Filed Under: fall, food, friends, life, travel ·

scenes from a thanksgiving in connecticut.

November 26, 2012

Thanksgiving!

This year for Thanksgiving my sister and I headed down to Connecticut to spend the holiday at my Grammy’s house. My parents drove down from Syracuse and it was a perfectly relaxing weekend spend with my mom’s side of the family. Greenwich is where my mom grew up, and since we’ve been taking trips here a few times a year since I was born, it truly does feel like home. I know the town like the back of my hand and although I do spend some times out of doors, I always feel happy enough just kicking my heals up and basking in relaxation– which is much of what I did this trip and exactly the kind of weekend I was looking for.

Thursday was spent watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade in our pajamas, pouring all the love into baby Hope, and then spending time together cooking and eating. We had an early dinner, and by 6:00 were all quiet and sleepy, the aftermath of too much rich food and much too many varieties of delicious pie. It was in a word: wonderful.

Friday my sister and I took a stroll down Greenwich Avenue, dipping into our favorite stores to shop the Black Friday sales. We both came back with goodies for our closets, and less money in our wallets than we’d had the day before. Since my gifts this year are all being bought handmade, this day was of the “treat yo self” variety. And a very nice treat it turned out to be.

All in all it was a such a good weekend. It was good to be with family and it was so very good to be “home”.

14 Comments · Filed Under: family, holiday, life ·

happy thanksgiving.

November 21, 2012

There is so much love in my heart for all I’ve had in my life this year.

For the experiences.

For the good health and good cheer.

And most of all, for the people who fit so perfectly into my story. For the ones who have always been there, and the ones who have come along and stayed.

Thanks for filling up my heart, you.

You mean the world to me.

Happy Thanksgiving, friends.

8 Comments · Filed Under: family, holiday, life ·

snapshots!

November 19, 2012

SNAPSHOTS!

It’s been awhile since I’ve shared my instagrams with you all. I know many of you follow me on the IG, but I also know some of you do not (Hi, Aunt Wendy!), so here’s a look at my life lately according to my iPhone…

One:

A few months ago, we got this Chemix coffee maker. Now that we’ve been using it for awhile, I think it’s safe to say that we love it A LOT. It’s specially designed to make quite literally, the perfect coffee. And it does– every single cup has been SO delicious. You can read more about the details here.

Two:

My favorite dessert in college was crisp bar, so whenever fall rolls around apple crisp is what I’m most drawn to making with my apple stash. I made this apple crisp a few weeks ago and it mimicked our dining hall apple crisp to a T– plus it’s gluten-free! The recipe made two pie-dish fulls, one which I made right on the spot and one which we froze and cooked up for dessert this week. YUM.

Here’s the recipe:

Gluten Free Apple Crisp
(adapted from Not Your Average Baker, originally adapted from Joy the Baker’s Man Bait Apple Crisp)

Ingredients:

8-9 golden delicious apples
4 teaspoons ground cinnamon, divided
6 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 2/3 cup brown sugar
2 2/3 cup Gluten Free all purpose baking flour
2/3 cup Udi’s Gluten Free Granola
2 sticks unsalted butter, slightly softened

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease two pie dishes.
2. In a small dish combine 3 teaspoons of the cinnamon, and 6 tablespoons of granulated sugar.
3. Peel and core apples. Place in a large bowl and toss with the cinnamon sugar mixture.
4. In a second large bowl mix the brown sugar, flour, granola, and pecans until well combined. Combine butter into topping mixture using pastry blender (or a fork, which is all I had).
5. Take one cup of the topping and toss with apples. Once throughly tossed, the apples can be placed into the baking dishes. (Remember, I cooked one of the crisps and froze the other.)
6. Pour remaining topping over top of the apples and bake for 55-65 minutes (I actually had to cook it about 20-25 minutes longer). The top should brown and the apples bubbling.
7. Let cool 15 minutes or so before serving. Initially the filling will look a little runny, but the liquid will reabsorb into the filling as it is cools..

Three:

Abbie recently wrote this post about this donut shop in North Cambridge. Since reading her rave review I have been twice, and the donuts are everything donuts should be and more. I’m usually a sucker for chocolate glaze, and their chocolate glaze is tasty TASTY, but I honestly love love loooved their original honey glaze. So classic and soft and delicious. The best donuts I’ve had in a long time!

Four:

Remember that glorious weekend last spring when I went to New York City for three days? Remember when I met Colleen and Molly for brunch? Well, I also met their friend Tina and so now, according to the rules of friendship, Tina is my friend, too. LOVE making new friends like that. Just love. So when Tina told me she was coming to Boston for work, we planned to meet at Sel de La Terre to have drinks and dinner together. I hadn’t been in a few years, but remembered it having a great atmosphere and good drinks and I remembered right. We both had the hamburger, shared a meat and cheese plate, threw back a few glasses of wine, and IT WAS WONDERFUL.

Five:

If you’re ever around Central Square and you’re looking for a great brunch/lunch spot look no further than Brookline Lunch. It’s easily one of our favorite spots ever and worth the trip even if you aren’t right around Central. Make the trip! See for yourself!

Six:

I don’t know if I’ve made this clear on the blog, but Zanner is the real cook around these parts. I am nothing but a measly eater, in all seriousness. He cooks, I eat. And I’m completely okay with it. Wonderously thankful, even. Cooking is not something I have found to be particularly passionate about, so the fact that Zan loves it is simply icing on the cake. Yesterday “The Top Chef” made this Julia Child inspired pegboard wall in our kitchen. He’s been talking about doing this project for awhile, and he finally got all the supplies to finish. I’m super excited about it and think it gives a whole new feel to our kitchen. Fun, right?

Seven:

Like my new wool hat? Straight from Oona’s in Harvard Square. It’s a vintage-lovers dream in there and I easily spent the better part of an hour trying to convince myself not to buy EVERYTHING. There’s the outpost store in Inman Square, too, which I have not personally visited, but have been told it’s worth a trip. Also, check out their blog— it’s fun!

– – – – – – – – – – – – –

OH! And that artwork up top? It was made by one of my first graders! Can you believe it? How beautiful and frameworthy is that?! It was a “Winter Tree” watercolor, tempura paint, and chalk project and I promise you every single one turned out museum-ready. As I was passing them out to my students I just kept saying things like, “WOW!” and “I LOVE THIS!” and “THIS IS AMAZINGGGG!”. I adore the art teacher at my school and I think she does the most wonderful work with the kids. They are so lucky to have her.

In other very important news: THREE DAYS.

In three days we will all be stuffing our faces with unGodly amounts of turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and that delicious marshmallow topped sweet potato creation.

AND PIE. My goodness, let’s not forget the pie.