[Not that aisle. Please, people.] Sometimes I forget that food shopping is not as fun for everyone as it is for me. Although I adore Fresh Direct for its convenience, I love the act of deciding I’m going to cook a meal, making a list of what I think I need, then walking through the Union Square Greenmarket and Whole Foods and getting everything on my list plus at least five other things I didn’t realize I needed. On Monday, I decided I was going to make pizza and a salad inspired by the one my friend Melissa brought to my recent dinner party (it was so good!). Starting at one end of the market, I picked up some gorgeous yellow and purple plums (which had nothing to do with anything I was making) and sungold cherry tomatoes. I then met my dining companion, Tom, who had just survived a somewhat harrowing experience at the post office. Clearly he was in no mood to share my ridiculous enthusiasm for shopping during what they kept referring to over the PA system as "crazy night" at Whole Foods — the line looked atrocious. "We could just go out," he suggested. "It moves fast!" I assured him. We headed downstairs and ticked off the items on my list: arugula, hearts of palm, prosciutto, artichoke hearts, mozzarella, avocado, lemon, crushed tomatoes, and more. I’m still getting to know the Union Square store, having spent much more time in the Chelsea branch, which resulted in us wandering in circles a little bit, and we had no luck finding pizza dough until, in a flash of genius (which comes out every now and again), I thought to ask at the brick oven pizza counter upstairs. For $1.99 I got enough dough to make two pizzas, although we somehow used it to make one. When we finally attacked the line, it did move quite quickly, as I predicted, and we were off to cook. Tom survived the experience, even without getting a "cranky snack" in line (as in a snack one eats when one gets cranky). "You can get anything you’d like to eat while you wait — even the Scharffen Berger." Dinner was delicious — arugula salad with hearts of palm, sungold cherry tomatoes, artichoke, and lemon/olive oil dressing, and pizza with prosciutto, artichoke hearts, kalamata olives, and a tiny bit of fresh basil, grown on my windowsill. Well worth the trip, in my opinion.
Author: Laren
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Rats
I’m not sure what was going on, but as I walked diagonally across Washington Square Park last night on the very last leg of my trip home from the beach, I saw more rats scurry across the path in front of me than I have ever seen before, and I’ve been walking across that park for over a decade at this poing. Little ones, big ones, one huge one — perhaps they were psyched that the rainstorm was over? Not sure. I keep trying to think of them as squirrels with naked tails — much less "ick" factor.
Believe it or not, I did not take a single picture this weekend at the beach. I do have a new photography project, however. My new office is an interior one, meaning that I have no windows. I’ve been starting to take pictures from the cafeteria, other people’s offices, and conference rooms. The plan is to find three that I really like, and put them up on my wall, so I have a view. This one is one of my favorites so far. -
Apparently I Need to Have Coffee Before I Leave the House
Yesterday I stumbled out into the world in my pre-caf haze and headed down into the underground oven of the West 4th Street subway stop. I was thrilled to see that the train was just pulling in as I reached the bottom of the stairway. I entered the cool, air-conditioned haven and buried my head in a magazine. The stops rattled off, until suddenly I heard "59th Street, Columbus Circle. Stand clear of the closing doors" What?! Shit. With my magazine splayed open and my bag dangling precariously from my elbow, I dashed off the train. Apparently I had hopped on the C train rather than the E and ended up clear on the wrong side of town. So it was up the stairs and down the other side, back onto the C, but going downtown this time. After that I somehow managed to skip 42nd Street and didn’t turn around until 34th Street (still not sure about that one), down the stairs and back up, then finally made it back to the E going uptown.
When I arrived at work, my computer had somehow dislodged itself from the network, so it was essentially useless to me. At that point, I wanted nothing more than to turn around, go home, get back in bed and go back to sleep. Sigh. Luckily I could caffeinate myself as I waited for the tech guys to fix the large paperweight on my desk. It definitely got better from there, as a few hours later I had a power lunch at Lever House. The food was a little too heavily salted for my taste (even the house salad was liberally dosed), but dessert, a light and crumbly lemon-almond cake topped with toasted almond ice cream, roasted stone fruits, and peanut brittle, made up for it in spades.
I’m dragging my friend Jenn out to the beach this weekend — my only scheduled trip out this month. Have a good weekend, all! And by the way, I finally wrote up my story for Gothamist on pickling with Rick of Rick’s Picks. I’m looking forward to tasting those ramps!
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Feelin’ the (Link) Love
When you’re out of town for the day and then return to find your traffic numbers are ridiculously higher than normal, you wonder what happened. Upon inspection, you notice that Hugh has linked to you, lamenting the fact that you won’t be at next week’s London Girl Geek Dinner. Sadly, I’m not that much of a jetsetter (yet) that I can fly off to London for dinner, but it’s nice to know that I’ll be missed. And in case you were wondering, yes, I am a geek (albeit a pretty cool one). It is worth noting that on the night in question, I currently have plans to surround myself with boys and meat (trying out RUB with some of the guys from the beach house).
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Summer Bounty
I strongly encourage all of you to go to a burlesque show if you haven’t done so already, whether you’re on a date or not. Not only were we treated to tunes from the New Orleans Jazz Vipers, but we got to see some fabulous ladies parading their goods with a healthy dose of flair, glitter, pasties, creativity, and laughs. I’d have to say my favorite was Nasty Canasta, if only for costume creativity — she did her routine to Harry Belafonte’s Day-O, and let’s just say that bananas and tarantulas were represented.After burlesque it was on to Tapeo 29, which I’d like to hit again — we were so late that we were only to enjoy their late-night menu, which consisted of nuts, cheese, chorizo, and olives. "We’ll take it all." Finally, we topped of the evening with a pit stop at Winnie’s for a karaoke fix (because, really, isn’t everything better with a little karaoke?). On our walk there we passed the Wing Kei Noodle Company, where they were hard at work after midnight on a Friday, making noodles. It simply radiated whiteness out onto the street.
Saturday was spent shopping for the evening’s dinner party. For some reason, it is literally impossible for me to stick to a shopping list when I hit the farmer’s market or Whole Foods. So I’ve got the few ingredients I need to make the main course (fresh pasta, yellow and red tomatoes, basil, mozzarella, garlic), but so many other things catch my eye and make it back home with me. Blueberries, corn, an out-of-this-world lemon artichoke pesto, tomatillos, cilantro, jalapeno. Sigh. We had an absolutely amazing dinner party, with Vivian supplying antipasti treats from DiPalo’s, Melissa bringing a salad complete with peppery arugula, hearts of palm, artichokes, pine nuts, and sungold cherry tomatoes (I had bought some of those, too), Jenn rounded out the meal with fresh berries and homemade whipped cream. Jenn and Melissa also took care of the wine, which was the educational component of the evening. It was old world vs. new world wines — we did two blind tastings of the same grape, one old world (Europe) and one new world (everywhere else) and decided which one we preferred in each pair. The new world won both the whites and the reds, but we drank the losers anyway (god forbid anyone should feel bad about losing).
Sunday night Matt helped me eat the leftovers (I still have some, mind you, but that’ll be dinner on Tuesday night). It’s always good to know you have friends around to help you out in these situations.
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Yet Another Reason I’m Happy to Be Single
Man Sentenced to Death for Killing Wife Who Nagged Him to Cuddle After Sex
A Florida man who said he was angry with his wife because she nagged him to cuddle after sex while he wanted to watch sports on television was sentenced to death for killing her with a claw hammer.
[via Law.com ]
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You Can Do Better Than That
C’mon, people. I get absolutely NO suggestions for inappropriate dates? I expected more from the likes of the folks who read this. Especially the ones from the D.O.J. Bring it.
Gearing up for a non-beach weekend, and I’ve already got some fun events planned, including a dinner party Saturday night with the girls followed by Erika and Jeremy’s wine and cheese party. Sunday might include the chili crab fest, but I heard that last year’s was such a disaster that I’m not sure it’s worth going. If that doesn’t pan out, perhaps brunch at the new Taco Chulo is in order. I do love me some chilaquiles! Anyone know of good chilaquiles in Manhattan?
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I’m the Worst Date. Really.
I do believe I’m truly the worst, or at least the most inappropriate date ever. For a while, I was absolutely convinced that the best first date meal would be ribs. Look, if you can’t find someone attractive when he’s gnawing on a bone with sauce on his chin and stuff stuck in his teeth, it just ain’t gonna work out in the long run. That’s my theory, and I’m stickin’ to it. This week alone, I have come up with two inappropriate date ideas: going to see The Aristocrats (a documentary about the filthiest joke ever) and going to see the Wasabassco Burlesque show (not quite as inappropriate, but there’s stripping involved). Really, to top those, I’m thinking boobies and steak night should be next. Any other good ideas? -
Even More Geekiness
Thanks to all for your suggestions and input. I’ll let you know how it goes (and I may actually wait a month or so to do this), but one thing’s for sure: I will NOT buy a Mac. I’m just a PC gal, and that’s the way it goes. In other total dork news, I stopped at Staples on the way to work yesterday morning and purchased a little clip with a retractable elastic to hold my ID badge — this way I can hold the badge up to the reader without either a) unclipping it from my clothing, or b) contorting in some weird way or stretching my shirt/jacket/sweater/dress in order to swipe the thing. It’s amazing how such a small thing changed my entire day.
Finally, and hopefully a little less dorky, here are the pictures from this weekend’s festivities. An extra special thanks to Kim, who not only cooked a Thai dinner to die for, but who, with some assistance from John, brewed a batch of blackberry wheat beer that we broke out on the beach on Saturday evening. Amazing.
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Geekin’ Out
I bought my current computer in 1999 — it’s time for an upgrade, as it’s currently being held together with spit and bubble gum. This time, I’m thinking of a notebook rather than a desktop, and have been looking at the Dell Inspiron 600m & 700m. Any thoughts, comments, or suggestions on these or other notebooks you love? Keep in mind that I use my digital camera a great deal (big hard drive and memory card slot would be nice), need to hook my iPod up to it (Firewire port needed), and have small hands (so a mini-keyboard might not bother me as much as it bothers other folks). I’m such a nerd — can’t wait to have a new computer!
