All kinds of crazy pictures are up. First, there’s Kick Ass Karaoke — a karaoke night with all my fellow Prepare/IMPACT self-defense instructors. Second, there’s the updated knitting circle album, with pictures from both knitting circles. Third, there’s Random Fun — all those pictures I haven’t quite managed to send out, including First Saturday at the Brooklyn Museum, and my friend Jay’s 30th birthday party. Finally — Kids! This album has pictures of the kids from my visit to DC, the zoo, and the Upper East Side (another exotic locale, in my book). Enjoy!
Category: Fun
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The City of
Brotherly LoveCured MeatsI had a wonderful time in Philadelphia this weekend. And yes, I got my provolone with. But — that was hardly the highlight of the weekend, culinary or otherwise. Although I don’t think I’d ever want to live in Philly, it was certainly a good place to visit. My favorite way to learn about a city is to wander around, and of course, visit the local markets. On these two fronts, Philly certainly delivered. I got a chance to wander around a bit before brunch on Saturday, and discovered one of many murals — Philadelphia has a huge mural collection, and many of them are made from beautiful and colorful mosaic tiles.
We had brunch at Sabrina’s, a cozy cafe near the Italian Market. While waiting, we got to check out a little of the market’s produce, and poked our heads into Superior Pasta, but saved our major shopping for later that day. After brunch and visiting with some friends, we returned to the Italian market for the hard core shopping. We intended to cook dinner for a group of people, and decided on a menu of antipasti, followed by our version of arrabiata — chicken cooked in a spicy tomato sauce, with black olives, served over fettucine. Given the olives, we called it “arrabiata puttanesca” — spicy whore chicken. Our first stop was DiBruno Brothers for antipasti. I was taking the lead on this course, so I went to town. I got my favorite Alfonso olives (to be soaked in olive oil and garlic later), bocconcini, bresaola, prosciutto, hot soppressata, hot peppers stuffed with prosciutto and provolone, marinated artichokes, and marinated mushrooms. And that was just for starters. The staff at DiBruno Brothers were great. Tourist that I was, I started piling my containers on a small plastic ledge above the olive barrels. “Are those yours, sweetie? Put those up on the scale. Can you reach it? Ask one of those tall guys to help you.” (to my shopping companion) “What’re you doing — just standing around looking pretty? Make yourself useful!” After I had finished with my order, we were offered some extra-creamy french butter to add to our purchases — “because, clearly you two aren’t afraid of fat.” (My shopping companion:) “Did you just call me fat?!” We went on to buy the pasta, whole italian tomatoes, pitted black olives, and chicken breasts, for the entree. Lugging our purchases home, we began preparations for the feast. Our dinner guests arrived shortly thereafter with a huge bottle of Chianti, some good, crusty bread, a box of Krispy Kreme donut holes for dessert, and School of Rock. We stuffed ourselves silly, and had a fantastic, fun and laughter-filled evening. My hosts will be eating leftover cured meat and arrabiata puttanesca for the remainder of the week.
Some of the leftovers.
The next day, we walked off some of the damage, hitting many of the key Philly attractions, strolling through Chinatown, and stopping at the Rodin Museum. You can see the pictures here. Thanks to Seth, Brian, Ronnie, Tammy, Rayna, Max, and Evan for inviting me to your homes, feeding me, and making me feel more than welcome in the city of brotherly love and cured meats. -
Look What I Made!
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These Are a Few of My Favorite Things
Manhattan Users Guide interviewed a number of New York bloggers (some of whom are on my links list, on the left) to get lists of their top ten favorite things about New York. I agree with many of their picks. The Morning News ranks pizza as one of their favorites — it’s hard to explain to people outside of New York why their pizza sucks. Take our word for it, folks. It does. For a great slice, I recommend Joe’s. Remy Stern, (a fellow Jumbo) of NewYorkish, has a list that is almost identical to something I might put together, highlighting things like Chinatown, the Mud trucks, and Community Gardens. Maybe our time in Boston similarly shaped our opinions about what we love about New York. Amy Langfield ranks the Bistro Burger at Corner Bistro and dog runs as some of her faves, and they’d be on my list as well. Read Part 1 and Part 2 of the top ten lists.
Once again, it makes me thankful that I can enjoy so much of what NYC has to offer, and I realize each day how much I still have to explore. So, folks, what are your favorite things about NYC? What have they missed? One thing I’d add — a good neighborhood bar.
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City Mouse and Country Mouse
I just returned from a long weekend in Lyme, New Hampshire, visiting my sister. She is 22, currently living in a house with five other people, most of whom are med students at Dartmouth, which about 20 minutes away in Hanover. I had a wonderful weekend, but it is almost laughable how opposite our lives are at the moment. We’re like the city mouse and the country mouse (yeah, we’re both shrimps. I think she towers over me at about 5’3″).
I live alone in a studio apartment with a kitchen the size of a closet. She lives with five people in a bright, airy house with a huge kitchen, and has a closet the size of my kitchen. I shop for one, cook for one, or more often, eat out. She and her roommates shop at Price Club, buy enormous amounts of food, and cook and eat meals family style — we had lasagna, waffles, and tacos while I was there (no low-carb diets in Lyme, NH). Katie plans her days around her outdoor activities. I try to squeeze in the gym when I can (at least in the winter — it’s different in the summer, I swear). I am addicted to my high-speed internet, cherish my cable TV, and use my cell phone incessantly. At her house, they have dial-up internet service, a TV, but no reception (it’s only for movies), and no cell phone reception whatsoever. And then, there’s Jack, her boyfriend’s chocolate lab, who is being trained to be a hunting dog. Sadly, I have no dog, let alone one who I’d take hunting. As my dad likes to say, when he is asked if he’s going to take his German Shorthaired Pointer, Lucy, out hunting — “Jews don’t hunt.” (or at least he thinks that. I don’t think he’s ever said it out loud).
Anyway . . . on Saturday we went cross-country skiing, something I hadn’t done since I was about fourteen. Despite that small obstacle, I managed to ski a 15-kilometer loop and not fall asleep during the party they had back at the house that night. The party was nothing like parties I go to in New York. First of all, everyone was a decade younger, trying to relive their college days by playing beer pong, and flip-cup. Second of all, there was a bonfire outside. Don’t see that much in Manhattan.
All in all, I had a fantastic, relaxing weekend, and I fell in love with Jack. And the dishwasher. And having people cook for me all weekend. Sigh. Thanks to the gang back in Lyme — you can see pictures here.
JACK!
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The New Zoo Review*
I’m back from my jaunt to Washington DC. Not only was it a good trip work-wise, but I got to spend the day on Saturday with a friend from college and his wife, and their son, Andrew, who I hadn’t seen since he was about two months old. He’s now three, so we spent the day at the National Zoo. Now, due to the fact that I don’t have any kids of my own, I don’t tend to go to the zoo that often, but I’m starting to realize that I should — it’s a pretty cool and educational way to spend the day. I saw some of the more “standard” zoo animals, like the lions, giraffes, tigers, elephants, and monkeys, but also got to see some animals that are more unusual — a capybara (basically a humongous guinea pig relative that reminds me a little of the ROUS’s from The Princess Bride), a pygmy hippo, naked mole-rats and, of course, the pandas. You too can see Mei Xiang and Tian Tian via the magic of the Panda Cams [on a side note — the folks at Gothamist are a tad obsessed with pandas, so you can find plenty more panda-fun there]. The best part of the zoo, however, was having the experience of sharing it through the eyes of a three-year-old, especially one who calls me “Miss Laren.” Thanks, Andrew!
(this, my friends, is a capybara)
* A nod to the New Zoo Revue, available on DVD! -
Food, Fun, & Family
There are times when I feel extremely fortunate. As you may or may not know, I am a child of divorce. My parents divorced when I was three, and each parent has been remarried for around 25 years at this point. I’m sure you could go on and on with a pop psychology diagnosis of how screwed up I am because of this, but from my perspective, it just means that I have a huge family, which is tons of fun, particularly when it comes to celebrations. Now, on my dad’s side, there’s not much extended family, so most of our gatherings focus around holidays — Thanksgiving, Passover, etc. (the Jewish side of the family) My mom, however, married one of four siblings, each of whom (with the exception of my stepfather) have at least three kids. So — there are aunts, uncles, and cousins galore. What this means is that in addition to the holidays (Christmas, Easter, etc. — this is the Italian side of the family), there are many more “other” celebrations like birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, or just an excuse to get together because family is in town. Also — the Jewish/Italian combo means that every holiday, birthday, or get-together is really just an excuse to eat. And to eat well. We’re all very good at eating well — we don’t mess around with crummy food. This year, between Thanksgiving and mid-January, I had two separate Thanksgivings, a lobster dinner, dinner on Christmas Eve, brunch on Christmas day, dinner on the day after Christmas (my birthday), and a 60th Birthday party for my Mom — all family events. Whew. No wonder I’ve started with the personal training! So gang, when’s the next
excuse to eatfamily gathering?
Attention family — you can see pictures from Christmas and 12/26 here and from Mom’s birthday here. The rest of you can look too, if you’re interested!
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Valentine’s Day Wisdom
A handy Valentine’s Day tip for all you men out there —
courtesy of Gaping Void
Hugs and smooches,
L -
Gettin’ Knitty With It
After my last knitting disaster and interactions with the nasty knitting store ladies, I was a tad discouraged about continuing my newfound hobby. I almost followed Steve’s suggestion of taking up butter sculpting as my new hobby. But one day, I was at a business meeting, and overheard two colleagues talking about getting a knitting circle together. A knitting circle, at least to us, really just meant an excuse for a bunch of women to gather together over snacks and some spiked hot cider to chat and knit. So we did — and it was such a success that we’re planning on doing it on a regular basis. None of us are particularly advanced knitters — but, we’re helping each other learn (I learned how to make a stripe on the new scarf I’m knitting), and ultimately we may invite some women who have a bit more knitting experience so we can branch out to something other than scarves. You can see pictures from the knitting circle here.
As for my first project, I haven’t sucessfully done much with it, although it makes a lovely schmatta. I did make a scarf that I actually wear:
(here’s a closeup of the yarn, which I think is really funky, so you can actually see the colors). My next scarf is made of a lime-green mohair yarn, which I purchased at Knit New York (where the folks were very nice to me and not condescending), along with Stitch ‘N Bitch, a great, basic, hip chick’s guide to knitting (because I’m so hip). My friend who taught me to make a stripe had this soft, textured, multicolored yarn that had the exact same shade of lime-green in it, so she donated it to the cause. It looks great so far, and I’m back on the knitting bandwagon again. -
The Dream Toilet
I went for sake with some of my self-defense buddies last week. Given how we know each other (we’re all instructors in the program), we tend to have some fairly bizarre dinner-table conversations. “So, if I paid you, would you jump me when I’m walking home late one night? I want to see how I’d react when I’m carrying groceries and wearing my big winter coat.” “Um, sure.” At one point during dinner, one of the women got up to go to the ladies room. She came back raving about the toilet. I, of course, had to go see it for myself. There it was, in all its glory.
The Washlet C100, complete with its own control console. From the console, you could select several bidet options (either front or back spray, as indicated by the diagrams) with varying degrees of water pressure, and you could turn the heated seat on or off to suit your preference. My friend decided she needed one in her house. You can learn more about the Washlet C100 at the company’s website — you can even watch a video to get a closer glimpse of its many features. Needless to say, the guys were jealous — the men’s room had no such luxury. Them’s the breaks, boys. If we, as women, have to learn how to defend ourselves in our daily lives, the perks the Washlet offers us are the least we deserve.
