Getting By, Dreaming Big

New Blog Address

2009-09-10T08:09:00.001-04:00

Hey Everyone,

Thanks for checking out my blog. Come check it out at it's new address:

http://gettingbydreamingbig.wordpress.com!!!

Beth

Monday Bookworms: James K. Polk

2009-08-31T13:00:00.000-04:00

James K. Polk, John Seigenthaler

156 pages, @2003

Woo-hoo my 11th President I'm flying through this challenge, only 33 more President's to read about!

So I try to read 2 books about Presidents a year. I read about John Tyler in the 1st half of the year and decided to pick up James K. Polk now so I wasn't struggling to read it during the holidays in the 2nd half of the year.

I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed reading about James K. Polk. I thought he was kind of one of those forgotten Presidents and let's face it I'm in President no-mans land with all one term peeps leading up to Lincoln.

James Polk, however, really impressed me. He is consistently ranked behind Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson and Abraham Lincoln as a President that wielded the power of the office of the chief magistrate effectively. I was surprised by that. In fact, since Arthur Schlesinger, Sr. began periodically surveying experts in the field, he has consistently been ranked among the great and near-great Presidents in the US. Again, surprised by that fact. He achieved great things as President for our country but it appears his personality as an annal, controlling, blah kind of man has tainted all that he accomplished.

The most amazing thing about Polk's story is that he was on his way out when he was elected President. Basically he had lost the governorship of Tennessee (his home state) two elections in a row. The year he was elected President he was aiming for the Vice Presidency and his party wasn't even in support of that! Then at the same time the two candidates that were pretty much going to win the nomination from their parties (Martin Van Buren and Henry Clay) came out and declared that they were not in favor of bringing Texas into the Union. This was not the way the majority of the country felt. Polk, as a known supporter of bringing Texas into the Union, became the lead candidate for the Democrats, won the party nomination and then beat Henry Clary for the Presidency. I mean talk about coming out of nowhere this guy was politically dead when he was elected President. I found that incredibly interesting.

In order to win his party's nomination he guaranteed them that he would only be President for one term and that he would not seek a 2nd term. He went into his Presidency with 4 goals in mind: 1) He would lower the tariff, 2) He would re-create Van Buren's independent treasury, 3) He would acquire Oregon from the British and 4) He would acquire California from Mexico. He accomplished all 4 of his goals during his Presidency of 4 years, which in my book is pretty amazing.

He was succeeded by his enemy Whig President Taylor (who led the charge in the war against Mexico to acquire Texas and then California). He then died 3 months after leaving office. He had no children.

All in all I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed reading about Polk. I would definitely be interested in reading a larger biography of President Polk...we'll see if that happens one day!!!

Post in Comments:

Who's your favorite President of the first 11? (Washingston, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Adams, Jackson, Van Buren, Harrison, Tyler or Polk?)

Entertainment Thursdays: The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe

2009-08-27T13:00:00.000-04:00

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe

I know, I know this movie came out forever ago. It's been in my infamous Netflix queue (that I swear I'll get down to under 100 before the year is up!) The other day I found it on TV and dvr'd it so I was able to watch it sooner.

While The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe was not nearly as good as it's competitors (ie: Harry Potter) I thoroughly enjoyed the story and feel the need to now re-read the books.

Essentially the plot is that during WWI or WWII 4 children are sent to live with a Professor far from London where the bombing is going on. They arrive at this incredibly huge house but are told the Professor is not to be disturbed. They decide to play hide-and-seek and the youngest child Lucy hides in the Wardrobe and discovers the mystical state of Narnia. No one believes her until one day trying to escape getting in trouble they all hide in the wardrobe and all end up in Narnia. The White Queen is looking for them because she wants to end the Prophecy. In the meantime they're looking for the Lion (can't remember his name) who is building an army to fight The White Queen. They each discover their strengths and are tested by loyalty.

In the end I thought it was a very enjoyable movie. I was happy I watched it. The acting wasn't phenomenal and the sword fighting was a little cheesy but I can forgive them that. I was surprised by some of the actors in the movie - James Broadbent, James McEvoy, and Tilda Swinton. They were great but they were all kind of side characters to the children. I loved the cinematography tn brought Narnia and it's inhabitants alive - it was very well done! It seemed a totally magical place. I'll have to check out the 2nd installment Prince Caspian.

4 stars

Post in comments:

Did you like The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe?

Foodie Wednesday: Corner Bistro

2009-08-26T13:00:00.000-04:00

Ahhh, the good ol' Corner Bistro!!! Jon's co-worker recommended this to him when we moved here (they go often). I've been twice. Once just Jon & I the 1st year we moved here and then again recently with our friends Emily & Armen.

This place is a fun place to grab some grub and by grub I mean cheap beers and great burgers (many argue the best burgers in the city!) It's a tiny joint and there is not much to it. You get there and wait in line (don't worry they serve you beer while you're online or rather you can serve yourself at the bar). After about 30 minutes you'll grab a seat. The menu is very simple, burger, chicken sandwich, cheeseburger, grilled cheese, chilli burger, BLT, chilli and fries. Your pick. Every time I've gone Jon and I have each gotten our own burger and shared fries. It is so yummy and soooo affordable!

If you're looking for a place with a lot of "NYC Charm" check out the Corner Bistro for your next burger craving just don't go with a big group and remember it's CASH ONLY!

Corner Bistro

331 West 4th Street

New York, NY 10014-1901

(212) 242-9502

Post in Comments:

What's your favorite burger joint in NYC?

Tuesday Travels: Run the Planet

2009-08-25T13:00:00.000-04:00

I love to travel and I love to run (although I'm not quite the runner I was when I lived in MA). Regardless, when I travel I love to find running routes. I find that it's the best way for me to see a city the way the locals do.

A couple of years ago I found www.runtheplanet.com. When you go to the home page and click on Running Routes you can type in the city, state and country that you are visiting and you'll find running routes (for most places). The routes are written up by runners who have visited the city, who have lived in the city, or who currently live in the city. I used this to find a great running route in San Francisco for Jon and I when we were there and for Portland, Oregan when we were there and for Amy and I when we ran in Puerto Rico. I've printed out running routes for our upcoming vacation for Munich, Salzburg, and Fussen. I'm excited to check them out.

Run the Planet is a great way to get to know a city and even if you're not a runner a lot of these paths are also great walking paths or biking paths so check it out. Also, another great resource for running routes is the concierge at your hotel. That's how we found a great 4 mile loop through the vineyards in Napa. It never hurts to ask the locals.

Post in Comments:

Where have your favorite runs been? For me my favorite runs have been Land's End in San Francisco, Summit Avenue in St. Paul, The Circus Maximus & Appian Way in Rome, running through the vineyards in Napa.

Monday Bookworms: Acqua Alta

2009-08-24T01:00:00.000-04:00

Acqua Alta, Donna Leon

A couple years ago I read a review of a Donna Leon book in People Magazine while traveling. Always looking for a new mystery I picked up one of her books. Her books in my mind are consistently 3 star books but I keep going back to them because they take place in Venice and with Venice as a "character" in the book how could you not want to read them! My mother in the meantime has become hooked so I always have a fresh stash of Donna Leon that I can borrow.

Acqua Alta was the only one I currently had on my shelf so I decided to pick it up. The book starts with a friend of Guido Brunetti (the main character and detective of these mysteries) being beaten to a pulp. She lives but is threatened not to go to an upcoming meeting that she has. As Brunetti tries to unravel the mystery a death occurs connected to the beating. As he begins to learn more about the world of stolen artificats the mystery begins to unravel.

I didn't enjoy this one as much as I've enjoyed some of her others. It moved slower and I actually didn't like the side story about Acqua Alta very much it distracted me from the mystery. The mystery was too easy to figure out as well which always takes away a little bit from a mystery. It was just OK. Of course that doesn't mean I won't pick her up in the future...

3 stars

Post in Comments:

Do you read Donna Leon mysteries?

Entertainment Thursday: Gangster Movie Challenge Update

2009-08-20T13:00:00.001-04:00

I bet you've been wondering what was going on with my Gangster Movie Challenge? I know curious minds want to know. Well, Jon and I have watched 7 out of the 10 movies in the AFI's Gangster Top 10. My review of Scarface is already up and here are the next couple of movies in order.

#9 - Little Caesar is a 1930 movie that tells the story of a man who works his way up the chain of command to be the top dog (isn't that they way with all gangster movies!) Edward G. Robinson plays Little Caesar. Our opinions differed on this movie. Jon liked it more than I did. He loved that the actors talked like old time gangsters (what you might expect from a movie from the 1930's). I do remember that I was surprised by how short it was. It was like 80 minutes or something crazy like that. I just find some of those older movies to go slower because they're not as action packed or the action is not as high-tech as I'm used to seeing (which is a sad statement to make). I did definitely enjoy this movie more than Scarface! Jon rates it 4 stars and I rate it 3 stars.

#8 - The Public Enemy is the movie that launched James Cagney to stardom. It is the story of a young man's rise through Chicago's underworld during Prohibition-era America. Essentially it's the story of a gangster becoming the head gangster and having to fend off rival gangs from their lucrative business. I definitely liked this movie better than Little Caesar but Jon preferred Little Caesar. Jon rates it 3 stars, I rate it 3 1/2 stars.

#7 - White Heat once again starred James Cagney. Although Cagney took a hiatus from gangster movies and came back to the genre when he was approached with this script. It was the perfect role for him. His character was really deep and totally maniacal! He played the part beautifully! White Heat is the story of Cody Jarrett the deranged leader of a criminal gang that robs banks, trains, etc. Cody Jarrett has to step aside for a bit and his colleague "Big Ed" takes his place in the gang and in his marriage. When Cody gets back he's all for revenge, will the bad guy win this one? You'll have to watch to find out. We both enjoyed this movie the best so far - 5 stars!!!

Post in Comments:

Have you seen any of these old time movies? If so, which was your favorite?

Foodie Wednesday: Kale Chips

2009-08-19T13:00:00.001-04:00

One of my favorite food blogs is http://www.katheats.com/. She makes some weird ingredient combinations (well weird to my picky mind) but it all looks sooo good! I swear one day I will become a more adventorous eater. One of my forays in trying a new food was to try Kath's Kale Chips. I know what you're thinking - Kale is a vegetable how can it be a chip? Well, I wondered the same thing and after blogger after blogger in the food blogging world raved and raved about how these Kale Chips tasted just like potato chips I decided I should give them a go. I mean if vegetables can taste like potato chips then I'm in!

Jon was up for the adventure. So I made a fish dish, rosemary roasted potatoes and Kale Chips. To make Kale Chips:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Tear the leaves off of the thick stems into bite size pieces and spread out on a baking sheet. Drizzle with 2 teaspoons of olive oil. Sprinkle with kosher salt (I was a little too generous with the salt) and parmesan cheese. Bake for 15 minutes until the Kale is crispy and brown on the edges.

When it came out of the oven I thought it looked weird and I thought there was no way they were going to taste like potatoe chips but sure enough they did! It was amazing - I couldn't believe how good they were - weird but delicious! I will certainly be making these again.

My friend Shi also tried the Kale Chips about a week before I did. Click here to read her blog review of them - she liked them too!

Post in Comments:

Do you like Kale?

Would you like Kale Chips?

Tuesday Travels: Summer Streets

2009-08-18T13:00:00.000-04:00

This past Saturday Jon went to get his haircut and came back and suggested that for our run we take advantage of Summer Streets. Summer Streets is a program run by the city that on Saturday, August 8th, Saturday, August 15th and Saturday, August 22nd Park Avenue was closed from Central Park all the way down until the Brooklyn Bridge!

I have to say that it was the weirdest feeling just running in the middle of Park Avenue. It was awesome though we just did a 3 mile loop - 1.5 miles downtown and then back up the other side of Park Avenue. All along the road as we were running there were bike rental places (although I'm pretty sure they were free rentals), there were mini-tennis courts for kids to begin to learn to tennis, different vendors providing information about their services, and plenty of traffic cops and crossing guards as there are a couple of busy intersections where they were letting the traffic cross Park Avenue when they had the light. The entire 1.5 miles down though we were only stopped 3 times (which in NYC is amazing!) For a full list of activities, click here!

This is definitely a great program. People were biking, running, you could tell that there were marathoners out on a long training run, group runs and families taking a stroll. It was so great to be outside in NYC in a different area (ie: not Central Park or the West Side Highway for a change) and be surrounded by other New Yorkers enjoying a beautiful day in the city by being active!

If you live in NYC and don't have plans this Saturday maybe you should rent bikes on Saturday and ride from Central Park down to the Brooklyn Bridge. I know if we were in town this weekend that's what we would be doing.

Post in Comments:

What is your favorite outdoor space in NYC?

Monday Bookworms: Liars & Saints

2009-08-17T19:33:00.002-04:00

Liars & Saints, Maile Meloy

This was our August book group book picked by Nicole. I had never heard of Maile Meloy so I was excited to explore a new author.

Liars & Saints is the story of three generations of the Santerre Family. The story begins with Yvonne & Teddy who get married during WWII. Before Teddy ships off for war Yvonne is pregnant with their oldest daughter Margot. Then comes Clarissa. Then the web of lies begins as Margot and Clarissa begin their teenage years. In the end there are so many family secrets that come to light that all lead back to that very first lie.

Essentially the family are Italian Catholic and there are a lot of underlying themes of religion, guilt, conscience, right vs. wrong, when is OK to lie or rather is it OK to lie, what does family mean, etc, etc.

I really enjoyed this book (even though part of the storyline is pretty messed up). I thought Maile Meloy did a great job writing it. She was very concise with her words and packed a lot into less than 300 pages. This is definitely a character driven book. The chapters alternate being narrated by all of the different characters so you really understand the story from every perspective, which we all agreed in my book group that we loved.

It definitely provided great fodder for our book group discussion! Overall, I wouldn't classify this as a must read but it was definitely enjoyable.

4 stars

Post in Comments:

Have you ever read anything by Maile Meloy?

Catch-All Fridays: Bar Review, Legends

2009-08-14T11:58:00.002-04:00

Last night was L Bar in ABC Club NYC's famous quest to visit a bar for every letter of the alphabet in NYC! For L Bar we went to Legends, 6 West 33rd Street between 5th and 6th Avenues. This is a great sports bar and Jon and I usually come here during the football season to watch the Patriots Games. I have never been though at night - wow, what a different place!

I got there at 7PM and Legends was hopping. They apparently get a great after work crowd for dinner and drinks. It's a nice looking bar, new, clean so I could see why people would want to hang out there. We were upstairs in the lounge area, which I had reserved. The lounge had all of these great chairs & comfy couches. It was a pretty cool layout.

The best part of the night though was that they had a DJ there spinning tunes primarily from the 80's! And when he would play a song he would simultaneously play the video for that song on the screens in the bar. It was awesome!!!! It was a total party atmosphere. It was a little loud but it was a lot of fun. I would definitely return to Legends on a Thursday night for drinks and dinner and I'll be back all fall cheering on the Patriots.

If you're looking for a sports bar with lots of televisions, good food, and a great atmosphere this is definitely a place to check out!

Post in Comments:

What's your favorite sports bar in NYC?

Entertainment Thursday: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

2009-08-13T12:49:00.003-04:00

When this movie first came out I heard such mixed reviews that Jon and I both agreed we'd rather rent the movie and watch it at home then see it in the theater. There were just too many good movies out at the time.

Well, many months later, we were finally in the mood to give it a go. Our expectations were really low going into the movie and we were kind of stunned to find that we enjoyed it - it was kind of a sweet little movie.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is the story of who else but Benjamin Button. He's born an old man and ages backwards - essentially as he grows older he looks younger. He is raised by the woman who found him, her acceptance and love of Benjamin regardless of his strangeness is beautiful. His mom runs a nursing home and he befriends a young girl, Daisy and maintains their friendship through his life. There is a love story there as well but I don't want to give away any part of the movie.

The beginning is just strange. We watched this movie in two parts. The first 60 minutes and then the rest of the movie. I wasn't liking it when we stopped the first night, it was weird, and it just wasn't flowing right for me (truthfully I fell asleep - but that's not hard for me to do when it's past 10PM and I'm laying on our couch!) The 2nd night we started it up out of pure obligation to finish the movie. The 2nd half of the movie was much better, much stronger, and the longer we were watching the more that I liked the movie. When it ended we both agreed we had liked it more than we thought we would. It was just a sweet story of love, acceptance of other people and who they are, friendship, family and what you make of your life. All themes that I generally enjoy.

This is not a movie that I would heartily recommend. If you're curious see it, but go in with low expectations, and maybe you too will be surprised.

4 stars

Post in Comments:

Have you seen The Curious Case of Benjamin Button? Did you like it?

Foodie Wednesday: Restaurant Review, Les Halles

2009-08-12T14:11:00.003-04:00

A couple of weeks ago we made plans with our friends Matt & Jenn to get together for dinner. Matt choose Les Halles because he had recently read Kitchen Confidentials, and apparently they talk alot about Les Halles in that book. Jon & I had walked by this restaurant fairly often and were excited to finally try it out.

Les Halles, is a french style brasserie. It has a great feel when you walk in, it's bustling, I loved the decor, it just totally fit that Parisian style. Matt informed us that it is known for good steak so even though I was leaning towards getting the scallops (next time) I opted for a steak. I rarely eat steak or red meat, not because I'm a vegetarian, but just because I never think to order it.

We ordered drinks. Jenn and I split a bottle of the House Wine and the boys drank Vodka tonics. I wasn't in the mood for an appetizer but everyone else ordered one and they all enjoyed them. Jon and Jenn both had Croutons De Coulommiers Rotis Au Miel Et Poivre (brie topped with honey & cracked black pepper roasted and served on croutons) and Matt had a Smoked Salmon Sandwich that was one of the specials.

Then for the main course Jon had Steak Au Poivre, Frites (steak coated with cracked black peppercorn); I had Onglet A L’Echalote (hanger steak, shallot sauce); Matt & Jenn shared Côte De Boeuf (prime rib on the bone, for two).

I have to say my meal was delicious!!! The shallot sauce was out of this world. It had a light shallot taste but was also a little smoky perfect for dipping my steak pieces in. Everyone really enjoyed their meal and the people watching was fabulous!

I would definitely visit this restaurant again. If you like steak or all things French then I would recommend it as a restaurant you too should visit.

Les Halles
411 Park Ave S
(Btwn 28th & 29th St)
(212) 679-4111

Post in Comments:

Have you eaten at Les Halles?

Tuesday Travels: Review of Homeaway.com

2009-08-11T13:54:00.002-04:00

I'm in a little bit of a lull for Tuesday Travel topics (which is why I skipped it last week). Jon and I apparently haven't done anything fun in NYC recently that I haven't already blogged about. Have no fear, Tuesday Travels is going to rock when I get back from our trip and give you guys the detailed blow by blow of 10 days in Germany & Austria!

In the meantime, I thought I would write a review of Home Away. We used this service when we went on our girls trip to Puerto Rico in March. For whatever reason we couldn't find a hotel suite in San Juan that would sleep 5 (suites just don't exist there!) and we didn't want to have to pay for 2 hotel rooms because it was just going to be expensive for 4 nights. My friend Rachelle informed me that for her girls trip to Napa (coming up in September) her and her friends had booked a house through Vacation Rentals by Owner. So that got me thinking, maybe we could rent an apartment for our trip!

Both sites are great resources for the savvy traveler. Renting an apartment or a house is much cheaper then getting a hotel room during your vacation, especially if you're going to be staying in one place. Of course this depends on how many people are traveling, if it's just 2 it's probably not that much different, but for a group of 5 of us it made a huge difference.

We got a great apartment downtown in the Old Historic District of San Juan. If you want to check out the place we stayed click here! For 4 nights and 2 days car rental we each only had to chip in $180! There is no way it would have been that cheap if we were staying at a hotel. I had no reservations booking through Home Away because the reviews I had seen were top notch. It was very easy to work with them. They sent me a contract and I had to put down 1/2 up front and then the other 1/2 right before we left. I also had to put down a security deposit that was returned to me once they saw that the apartment was returned to the way we found it. The woman met us at the apartment when we arrived and showed us in, gave us a tour, told us where things were in the city, gave us the keys and we were on our own. She gave us her cell phone in the event we had any problems and needed to reach her.

The other great thing about renting an apartment as opposed to staying in a hotel is that we were able to go to the grocery store and purchase food for breakfast, lunch and we ate 1 dinner in. We all chipped in about $20-$30 and that covered breakfast for 4 meals, lunch for 4 meals, 1 dinner and alcohol for the weekend. You can't beat that. We also commented that we ate a lot healthier because we were eating "at home."

Now don't get me wrong I love staying in hotels! They're awesome, but if you're looking for a more affordable way to travel with a family or with a big group of friends apartment/house rentals are the way to go!

Post in Comments:

Have you ever rented an apartment/house when traveling?

Monday Bookworms: Just Take My Heart

2009-08-10T17:55:00.001-04:00

Just Take My Heart, Mary Higgins Clark
322 pages, @ 2009

I have been an avid Mary Higgins Clark fan since I was 13 and on vacation with my parents in Cape Cod. One rainy day I declared I was bored and my mother gave me While My Pretty One Sleeps and I was hooked.

I went on to read every book she'd ever written. My mother obviously is also a huge MHC fan and so every year for Mother's Day part of her gift is that I get her the latest MHC book. Luckily, once she's finished she always passes them on to me!

I realized not too long ago that I had never gotten this year's book, Just Take My Heart, so when we stopped by my parents this weekend to drop off the car I picked it up and promptly started it on the train ride back to NYC.

Just Take My Heart centers around the Bergen County assistant prosecuter, Emily Wallace, who is assigned her biggest case yet, the murder of actress Natalie Raines. The obvious suspect in this murder is Natalie's soon to be ex-husband Gregg Aldrich. Emily's, put-away witness, is an ex-con Jimmy Easton, who claims that Aldrich hired him to murder his wife. While all of this is going on, Emily, unbeknownst to her, has a larger problem on her hands, that of her creepy neighbor, Zach Lanning. Will she realize in time that he isn't who he says he is?

Of course in typical MHC fashion this book flew, I finished it in about two days! I did however, disappointingly, figure out "who done it" about half way through the book. I wouldn't say that MHC mysteries are usually the most difficult to figure out, but she usually narrows it down to two men, one who will end up wooing the main female character, and one who is the murderer and therefore trying to stop the main female character from putting all the pieces together...who can she trust?

In this book however, MHC took the approach of introducing a totally different storyline that had nothing to do with the main part of the mystery. This story line instead of adding to the mystery was just a distraction from the main plot. Therefore, I found it easier to figure out the mystery.

While I didn't think this was MHC's best effort, I did thoroughly enjoy it!

3 stars

Post in Comments:

What is your favorite Mary Higgins Clark book? Mine is definitely Stillwatch!

Entertainment Thursday: In the Heights

2009-08-06T14:17:00.003-04:00

In the Heights

As I said in my previous post, my friend Katie and I decided to start a little Broadway Tradition. Once a year we're going to get in line at TKTS and get tickets to a show together! I'm so psyched about this tradition, you all know how much I love to go to the theater.

This past Sunday was the day. I got to TKTS at 10:20AM about 40 minutes prior to TKTS opening. I was shocked by the line at that time. I read in line and made friends with a guy from Peru (Marco) we swapped theater stories about what we'd seen and liked recently. Katie got there a little before 11AM. I was surprised by how quickly the line moved. I'm not going to lie I was kind of dreading getting in that long line but it flew. We had our tickets by 11:30AM AND we got the show we wanted.

We snagged 2 orchestra seats to In the Heights. We had great seats - Row O, Seat 14 & 16. I was concerned we'd be too far to the side but the center section of the theater was much smaller then in other theaters so we were just slightly right of the center. I didn't really know much about this show other than that it featured some rap music, Latin Music and took place in NYC.

The basic premise is that Nina Rosario comes back to her old neighborhood, Washington Heights, after not doing as well at Stanford as her family & friends had hoped. It explores many people's views on their neighborhood - the relationships formed, the expectations, the people, etc.

It was phenomenal!!!! It was fun & funny - I was dancing in my seat. The music was so great. There were many elements of rap, but also great vocals, specifically from the character Benny (he was amazing!) It was very Latin which I also loved. In the Heights made me realize that what I love best about musicals are the ensemble numbers with all or a large part of the cast. In this play almost every song was sung by numerous people making each song powerful. Each song was better than the next (I can't wait to get the soundtrack!) To get an idea of the music you can click here for their Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade performace.

I also felt that they handled the Spanish language much better in this play then in West Side Story. They did use it in the dialogue but more for small sayings (ie: Bueno, no me diga, caridad, etc). It didn't take away from the show at all only added to it (in my opinion). They did sing a lot in Spanish but every song that was sung in Spanish was also sung in English if that makes sense. They would essentially translate the song for the audience so you never felt you couldn't understand. Granted I'm a little biased in this statement becuase I could for the most part understand the Spanish so it didn't seem that bad to me but I'm not sure what it would be like if you didn't know Spanish, maybe it would take away from the show.

All in all, I would give this show 5 stars. It's one I would see again, and like I said I can't wait to get the soundtrack!!!

Post in Comments:

Have you seen In the Heights? What did you think of it?

Foodie Wednesday, Restaurant Review, Marsielles

2009-08-05T13:54:00.003-04:00

(Outside view of Marseille Restaurant)

On Sunday, my friend Katie and I decided to start a great tradition. Once a year we are going to meet wait in line at TKTS, grab brunch and see a show. This is going to be our "special" thing. We finally got our schedules together and last Sunday was the day! I'll be blogging about the play we saw in my Entertainment Thursday post. I didn't really know of any good brunch places over in the Theater district as it's not a place that I eat with any sort of frequency. I figured we could just walk 9th Avenue and see what we found.

(Interior Shot of Marseille)

What did we find? A gem of a restuarant with great prices, delicious food, fantastic service and a great atmosphere. Don't you just love it when things work out like that? We were walking and saw Marseille across the street and thought it looked perfect. After checking out the menu (to make sure the prices were reasonable) we decided to give it a go.

We couldn't decide on what to get so we decided to split two dishes. We got the asparagus and goat cheese omelet which came with delicious pesto pan friend potatoes and a side salad. There wasn't a bad thing about this meal, every component was delicious. The other dish we got was the Belgian Waffles. They were dusted with a cinnamon sugar and we were provided with syrup, strawberries and whipped cream for toppings. These waffles were easily the best Belgian Waffles I've had. They were so yummy. I'm glad we split our meal though because both dishes were so outstanding!

We also each enjoyed a Cava & OJ mimosa - YUM! Katie also had a pot of tea and I enjoyed a hot chocolate. Our server didn't once rush us out of there and we were there for a good two hours. The best part with tip the bill came to about $26 per person or something like that! Not bad for NYC brunch.

I mentioned the place to my brother who lives in the area and he said they've been there for dinner and thought it was really good. I also mentioned it to my mother who said she's been there with friends before a show for dinner as well and that it was fabulous.

This is definitely a restaurant that I will be returning to without a doubt. What a great find!

Post in Comments:

Have you eaten at Marseille? If so, what's your favorite dish?

Monday Bookworms: Angelica

2009-08-03T11:16:00.004-04:00

Angelica, Arthur Phillips

331 pages

Jon got me this book for Easter 2008. He found it at Borders and thought it looked right up my alley. In my quest to read the books Jon buys me instead of saving them I decided to pick it up.

The book takes place in the late 19th Century in England. They classify it as a psychological thriller which I'm not sure I agree with. Essentially "something" is occuring in the home of the Barton's. The Barton family includes: Joseph Barton, the father; Constance Barton, the mother; Angelica Barton, their 4 year old daughter and Nora the Irish live in maid. Constance believes that she sees a ghost haunting Angelica and becomes very over protective of the girl, calling in a spiritual advisor. Joseph, sees how distraught his wife is but does not understand the reason for her bizarre behaviour. Angelica sees the division between her parents and is unsure what to do so she plays into both of their weaknesses.

Angelica is a well written book and what I loved most about it was that there were 4 parts. The first part was the story told from Cosntance's point of view, Part 2 was told from Anne Montague's point of view (the spiritual advisor brought in by Constance to assess the situation, Part 3 was told from Joseph's point of view and the final part was told from Angelica's point of view. I thought this was a clever way to tell the story. The reader was able to understand everyone's point of view.

As a psychological thriller I would say it fell short. I knew there was going to be a twist and I was turning the pages waiting and waiting for it to come and when the twist came it was a little rushed and just fell short of my expecations. However, waiting for that twist definitely kept me engaged and turning the pages.

Overall Rating - 3 stars

Post in Comments:

Do you like psycholgoical thrillers?

Catch-All Fridays: Catching Up on Bar Reviews

2009-07-31T10:45:00.000-04:00

(Interior shot of Galway Hooker)

Last we left off in my bar reviews from ABC Club NYC was at Fiddlesticks many months ago. I thought I would provide a run down of G, H, I, J & K for you all! We've been to some fun places and had some great nights!

Galway Hooker (on E. 36th Street between 5th and Madison) was a good time. I have to say that we received the best reception and service as a group from Galway Hooker. They gave us great drink specials. We had a semi-private area on the 2nd floor with awesome comfy little booths. The downside is that this place is a popular hang out so it definitely good really crowded!

(Interior shot of the bar area at Half Pint)

Half Pint was definitely a smaller crowd. We had originally wanted to go to Havana on the Upper West Side but they had like 3 parties booked that night. Unfortunately they didn't get back to me in a timely manner and so we had to scramble to let everyone know about the change of location! Half Pint (at 76 West 3rd Street) is one of my sisters favorite bars. It's a small Irish pubby type place. Even though we had a smaller crowd we had a good time at Half Pint (perhaps too good a time...!)

(Interior shot of the private room at Inc. Lounge)

Inc. Lounge was the largest turn out we've had for ABC Club NYC. We had about 50 people so it was great that we had this awesome private room at the back of the club. Inc. Lounge (at 224 West 49th Street, between Broadway and 8th Avenue on the 2nd Floor of the Time Hotel) was so much fun. The private room had a pool table and Wii (so people were bowling, playing tennis, baseball, golf, etc). The staff was very friendly and the food from Serafina's downstairs was delicous. All in all this was definitely one of my favorite ABC Club events!

(Semi-private area at Jadis Wine Bar)

That was until we hit up Jadis Wine Bar just two weeks later! This is hands down my favorite bar that we've found for ABC Club. Jadis (located at 42 Rivington Street in the LES) is a wine bar (although they do have beer). We had the back area reserved which was filled with plush leather couches surrounding a large coffee table. The decor was awesome and the food & wine were delish! They have scallops wrapped in bacon on their menu...I mean are you kidding me...best wedding appetizer ever! I've never seen them on a menu before. I also had a pear and goat cheese salad that was so good. This is a bar I definitely want to go back to again and again and again.

(Exterior Shot of Kings Head Tavern)

For K Bar we ventured to Union Square (222 East 14th Street) for the very fun Kings Head Tavern. They reserved the whole back area for us and a beruit table (what could be better than that!) They also had a jukebox so of course I put in 5 bucks and Shion, Emily & I got to pick out a ton of good music to play. Kings Head Tavern gave us great drinks specials (basically extending their happy hour). So it was an affordable and fun night.

Where will L Bar take us...I know...but I'm not telling...you'll just have to wait and see!

Post in Comments:

Have you been to any of the above mentioned bars? If so, what's your favorite one?

Entertainment Thursday: Maria Full of Grace

2009-07-30T10:24:00.002-04:00

Maria Full of Grace

Maria Full of Grace has been on my netflix queue for sometime. Recently it was playing on the IFC channel and I dvr'd it. The other day I was looking for a relatively short movie to watch and seeing as it was only 1 hour and 45 minutes I decided to dive in.

I don't remember how this got on my netflix queue, whether it was recommended by netflix, or by a friend, but I do love foreign films so I was kind of excited. The movie is in Spanish with English subtitles.

The premise of Maria Full of Grace is a 16 year old girl from a small town in Columbia is pregnant and becomes a drug mule in order to make some much needed money for her family.

The movie was incredibly disturbing. I do not know how true to life the story is but if that's really what these women have to go through as drug mules it's just awful. I understand that they are desparate to make money but to take such a risk... While disturbing it was also bizarrely fascinating to watch. The movie was very well done; it didn't drag out, it was efficient with it's time in telling a compelling story, the acting was good, and the story itself was powerful.

Overall, I am glad I finally saw this movie and would definitely recommend it as long as you don't mind a heavy topic!

4 stars

Post in Comments:

Have you seen Maria Full of Grace? What did you think?

Foodie Wednesday: The Turkish Kitchen

2009-07-29T10:14:00.000-04:00

Not long after I moved to NYC my aunt and uncle were in town and big group (about 10 or so) of us were planning on going out to dinner. Now, the McDonagh's (that is my maiden name) are notoriously picky eaters. So when my cousin Terence, on the pickier side of eaters, recommended the Turkish Kitchen for a McDonagh outing I was pretty surprised, shocked and concerned. I'd never eaten Turkish Food, was I going to like it, etc, etc. Terence assured me that if he could find something to eat there, I could too, which is true. So I went in with a semi-open mind.

Since that dinner I have been back to the Turkish Kitchen at least 3-4 times! It is a great restaurant, delicious food, and great for group dinners! Although the bill can definitely add up if you're drinking bottles of wine and ordering a lot of appetizers for the table.

Our table always always gets this lamb appetizer. It's ground lamb on almost a pita. It's delish but of course it's not on their online menu (I hope they still have it!) After going numerous times and ordering all different kinds of meat, I have come to the conclusion that their best dishes are their chicken dishes!!! Specifically the Chargrilled cubes of chicken breast and fresh mushrooms on a skewer served with rice. Instead of rice though I asked them to substitute in their pan fried potatoes (so good, although probably not good for you!)

This is definitely a restaurant that I would go back to and I would recommend it to anyone in NYC!

Turkish Kitchen
386 Third Avenue
(between 27th and 28th Street on the west side of the street)
212-679-6633

Post in Comments:
Have you ever eaten at the Turkish Kitchen? What's your favorite dish?

Tuesday Travels: NYC High Line Walkway

2009-07-28T12:13:00.000-04:00

The High Line was a train track that was lifted 30 feet above ground. It ran along the West Side. No trains have run on the track since 1980. This non-profit group called Friends of the High Line, formed in 1999 when this historic landmark was threatened by demolition. They are working with the City of New York to turn this elevated landmark into a NYC Public Park.

Jon and I had heard a lot of buzz about the High Line. (See my friend Shion's review. Our computer is broken currently so I can't load up my pictures from Sunday. Shion's review has great pictures! ) Right now the section from Gansevoort to 20th Street is open to the public. They are currently working on the next section which I believe will run from 20th Street to 30th Street. We were looking for something to do on Sunday morning after church that wouldn't take the whole day, but that would allow us to spend some time outdoors. Exploring the new High Line was a natural fit.

We entered at the 20th Street entrance and climbed the stairs to the high line walkway. The great thing is that they do have an elevator so people with strollers or who are in a wheelchair can also get up to the walkway to explore. We walked the path all the way down to Gansvoort and back to 16th Street (which only took us about 15-20 minutes). We enjoyed the views of the water, the Statue of Liberty and just NYC in general. I loved how they incorporated the old tracks into the design. I think the plantings mixed in with the train tracks looks so cool.

The whole walkway follows a very sleek, clean and simple design. It has very smooth lines and I thought that they took the space and made it a very nice, modern, community, public park! They also have plenty of options of seating for people to take advantage of. Getting their early on a Saturday or Sunday and grabbing one of the wooden lounge chairs to read for a bit I think would be a great way to start a weekend day. Hopefully we'll make it back soon to do just that!

Afterwards we wandered through Chelsea Market, which I had never visited before. I plan to go back and have breakfast there with Jon one weekend and perhaps take the Chelsea Market Tour (which we discovered existed when we were there) and I'll do a full and proper blog post on it!

Post in Comments:

Have you visited the High Line yet? Do you feel it is a good addition of Park Space in NYC?

Monday Bookworms: Voyager

2009-07-27T15:08:00.002-04:00

Voyager, Diana Gabaldon
1059 pages, @1994

I recently noticed on Goodreads, one of my favorite websites (thanks Joe for introducing me to it!) that I had rated 299 books. Now I know for a fact that I've read more than 299 books, but since 2007 when I joined Goodreads I have rated (some that I had previously read and every book I've read since) 299 books. In realizing that whatever I read next would be my 300th book rated on Goodreads I decided it had to be good and fun (oh and because I try to read a couple of Amy's book recommendations each book journal period I was looking for a book she had read and recommended as well!)

I've recently reviewed the first two books in Gabaldon's famous series: Outlander and Dragonfly in Amber. Voyager is the 3rd book in this series of 8 books. I do not normally read books in a series so fast, because I like the series to linger and to always have something to look forward to, but since Amy had loaned me the book, and I figured I could return it to her in September when she came to visit, I decided to give the 3rd book a go!

Ahhh....Jamie Frasier and Claire Randall Fraser! In this installment, Claire Randall is in Scotland in 1978 and is searching for Jamie Fraser among the history books to see if the father of her daughter (Brianna) survived the Battle of Culloden. As she gets closer to discovering the outcome of the Battle of Culloden, she begins the big decision of will she return to Scotland circa 1700's and return to Jamie or will she stay in the present with their daughter Brianna. Well, there wouldn't be 8 books in the series if she decided to stay in the present day:) So back to the 1700's she goes and after 4 months of being reunited many adventures ensue: Jamie's smuggling operations are thwarted and he (per usual) is a hunted man, his nephew is kidnapped by pirates, there is a voyage across the Atlantic Ocean to the West Indies, a witch, a serial killer, a hurricane, and all the while Jamie & Claire are discovering the secrets of their twenty years apart.

Now as I've said before this is a romance novel before anything else (historical fiction, mystery, etc), but as far as romance novels go it has it all. I will also add that this installment was not nearly as smutty as say the 1st installment of the series! All in all the 1059 pages flew by - Gabaldon has really succeeded in creating characters you want to root for in Jamie & Claire. I thoroughly look forward to seeing where their adventures take them next but I think I'm going to take a break from the series as their adventures were seeming slightly riduculous for me by the end of the book.

All in all if you are into the Romance Genre this is definitely a series that you should pick up and the 3rd book was very good.

4 stars

Post in Comments:

Do you read romance novels? If so, who's your favorite author?

Entertainment Thursday: Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

2009-07-23T23:27:00.005-04:00

I've been waiting for Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince to come out since I left the theater almost two years ago exactly at the end of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I was pretty bummed when it was delayed from November to July.

Tonight I went with two of my girlfriends and my sister-in-law to see HP6. I have to say that my expectations going into the movie were pretty low based on some reviews I read beforehand.

In HP6, Harry is still trying to defeat Voldermort. Although there isn't exactly a face to face throwdown as there has been in many of the other movies. The dark magic is trying to overpower the light magic (good vs. evil; love vs. hate).

As the kids return to Hogwarts, security has been heavily increased. Draco Malfoy has a secret mission, that could endanger people's lives. Severus Snape has made an unbreakable vow. Dumbledore is taking secret trips off the school premises. And left and right teenagers are falling in love!

This movie was visually very appealing. The director really continued to bring the Hogwarts we know and love to life. As always it was good to see the cast of characters again. The movie started off right where HP5 had left off (I'm glad I re-watched it on Monday for a refresher!) The movie moved slower than the other ones in my opinion, there just wasn't as much action. I can't remember if that's really how it felt when I was reading the book as well, or not. I did enjoy all of the "relationship awkwardness" that they students are going through. They are 15/16 after all. It definitely added a lot to the movie in the way of comic relief (in my opinion).

Standout performances: Shion & I both felt that Rupert Grint (Ron) was awesome! He was so funny! Luna Lovegood - gosh, I love her. She's just so refreshingly different from everyone else, and Evanna Lynch plays her perfectly. Professor Slughorn - ah, who doesn't love Jim Broadbent. Every since he was Bridget Jone's dad, I've had a soft spot for him:) And while he didn't have a big part - how creepy was Fenrir Greyback - he scared the crap out of me. I'm not looking forward to his larger role in HP7! eek!

While I can't say this is going to go down as one of my favorite Harry Potter movies ever, I thought that the director did a good job of setting up the 7th movie (Parts 1 & 2). I am slightly concerned about HP7 Part 1 because while I loved the 7th book I do remember the first half seeming really long and slow and I'm wondering where they are going to make the break and how they are going to keep it moving at a good pace to lead up to Part 2.

I think this is a movie that any Harry Potter fan would appreciate! I'm glad I saw it and now I think I'm going to have to go and re-read the 7th book:)

Post in Comments:

What's been your favorite HP movie so far? Mine's a toss up between Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire!

Foodie Wednesday: Frittata with Potato and Prosciutto

2009-07-21T21:11:00.004-04:00

(The Potatoes, Onions & Garlic cooking...is there anything that smells better than onion and garlic?)

(The egg, whipping cream, basil & prosciutto mixed together)

(Everything cooking together in the pan)

(The Finished Product!)

(Side View of my Piece)

So for my latest Giada creation I chose the Frittata with Potato and Prosciutto. After I made Giada's other frittata I spoke to my mom and she told me this one is even better. She was SO right! This fritata had a whole lot more flavor, not that the other one wasn't good, because it was, but this one was AMAZING! And amazingly easy to make:) The leftovers re-heat well too!

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 onion, chopped

1 (15-ounce) potato, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes (I didn't peel my potato).

1 garlic clove, minced

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

6 large eggs

1/4 cup whipping cream

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

2 ounces thinly sliced prosciutto, coarsely chopped

2 tablespoons fresh basil

Directions

In a 9/12-inch-diameter nonstick ovenproof skillet, heat the oil over medium flame. Add the onion and saute until translucent, about 4 minutes. Add the potato, garlic, salt and pepper, and saute over medium-low heat unil the potato is tender and golden, about 15 minutes.

Preheat the broiler. In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs, cream, Parmesan cheese, prosciutto, and basil to blend. Stir the egg mixture into the potato mixture in the skillet. Cover and cook over medium-low heat until the egg mixture is almost set but the top is still runny, about 2 minutes. Place the skillet under teh broiler and broil until the top is set and golden brown, about 4 minutes. Using a rubber spatula, loosen the frittata from the skillet and slide it onto a plate. Cut the frittata into wedges and serve.

Post in Comments:

What are you favorite frittata ingredients?

Tuesday Travels: 2009 Vacation Plan Unveiled!

2009-07-21T14:59:00.004-04:00

(View of Munich, Germany)

Jon and I were going back and forth on what to do this year for vacation. If you talked to me before mid-June I had probably told you we were going to go to Burlington, Vermont for 4-5 days. However, in mid-June I brought of the topic of vacation again and we just decided you know, let's take a big trip, why not, what's stopping us?

So Wednesday, August 19th we leave for 10 days in Germany & Austria. We will be spending our first two days once we arrive in Munich, Germany. I was in Munich in December of 1999 on my crazy 8 country in 4 week trek during my junior year abroad. Erin, Sarah and I spent 2 days there and had SO MUCH FUN! I can't wait to go back especially during the summer so I can experience Munich in the nice weather (although the Christmas Market in the Marienplatz is the best I've ever seen!)

While in Munich we will of course enjoy the important museums, cathedrals, palaces, plazas, etc. We'll also be taking a 1/2 day trip 20 minutes outside of Munich to Dachau. And of course we will thoroughly enjoy the beer gardens!

(View of Salzburg, Austria)

On Saturday we will take the 90 minute train ride to Salzburg, Austria. I've been to Vienna (during that same crazy 8 countries in 4 weeks trip in December of 1999 - we actually spent Christmas in Vienna) but I've never been to Salzburg. Everyone that I've mentioned this trip to that has been to Salzburg says it is amazing. I can't wait to see for myself.

While in Salzburg we will enjoy the Sound of Music Tour, the famous Salzburg Music Festival, Mozart's birthplace (and cathedrals, palaces, etc). During our 4 days in Salzburg we will be taking two day trips.

(A View of Lake Konigsee)

The boat ride on Lake Konigsee is a very highly rated tourist attraction in this region. It's a 1 hour and 15 minute train ride from Salzburg and you can get off at two different spots to hike for awhile before being picked up by the next boat that comes by. We're hoping to do this in the morning and then spend the rest of the day in Berchtesgaden (home of Hitler's Eagle's Nest - which oddly enough is now a restaurant). This day is probably our most aggressive travel day!

(Views of the St. Gilgen Lake)

The other day trip that we will be taking is to St. Gilgen. A spot I read about on http://www.slowtrav.com/. This is in the lake region of Austria just 30 minutes outside of Salzburg. We're going to hike from St. Gilgen half way around the lake to the town of St. Wolfgang, have lunch and take the boat back across the lake. We're really trying to incorporate a lot of outdoor activity on this trip something we've never done on an international vacation before.

(View of Neuschwanstein Castle)

Then we will be spending 3 days in the town of Fussen, Germany at the end of the romantic road (or I guess beginnging depending on where you start from!) This region is known for it's quaint medieval towns and great outdoor activities (hiking, biking, boating, etc). It's also famous for Mad King Ludwig's castles (specifically Neuschwanstein Castle pictured above.) Here we will visit the castles, hike hopefully a part of every day, perhaps bike or kayak if we can find a good place for rentals).

Then it's back to Munich for our last day of the trip! So that's the tentative plan as of right now. I'm busy working on the full fledged itinerary so that I can create my packing list and make sure there is nothing we need that we do not already have prior to this trip. We leave 4 weeks from tomorrow. It's pretty unlike Jon and I to so spontaneously decide to take a big trip at the last minute (I know I know this is not really that spontaneous, but planning a big trip like this and buying plane tickets just two months before we leave is spontaneous for us!)

We're both really looking forward to the trip and while I may not have access to blog every day between August 19th and August 30th I will certainly put a trip recap up when I return with lots of pictures!

Post in Comments:

What are your vacation plans this summer?

Monday Bookworms: A Count in the House

2009-07-20T14:59:00.003-04:00

The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas

618 pages, c. 1844

Back in 2002 I saw the movie version of this book and Love, Love, Loved it! A couple of years later on an HC Ladies trip my friend Kirsten said she had just read the book and loved it. Not to mention it came highly recommended by my husband Jon. I finally decided it was time for me to open The Count of Monte Cristo.

The Count of Monte Cristo is the story of Edmond Dantes, a sailor who lives in Marsielle, France. He is in love with Mercedes and plans to marry her. His father whom he loves dearly is old and fragile. Upon arriving home from his most recent excusrion, he is determined to marry Mercedes. However, in his absence another has vied for her attentions. The night before their betrothal, Edmond Dantes is arrested for treasonous activities against the crown, and for being a Bonapartist. He is sentenced to Chateau D'If.

His time spent in the Chateau D'If is filled with thoughts of revenge on those who betrayed him. Once he escapes from the Chateau D'If that is all that consumes his mind. He slowly lays his traps to ruin the lives of those who betrayed him.

For a book that was written in the mid 1800's this read really easily. I was captivated by his character description & portrayals. The book is slow and steady but then as it all comes together really takes off. I've heard that the unabridged version is amazing and I'm slightly sad that I chose to read an abridged version. I can always re-visit the unabridged version at a later date.

If you like classic literature, and tales of deceit, love, betrayal and friendship you'll certainly enjoy The Count of Monte Cristo. And when you're done reading the book, check out the movie, it does not disappoint!

Post in Comments:

Have you read The Count of Monte Cristo? Did you enjoy it?

Entertainment Thursday: West Side Story

2009-07-16T08:11:00.003-04:00

For my 30th birthday Jon got us tickets to see West Side Story. I had been saying for years "When are they going to bring West Side Story back to Broadway??" Low and behold the year of my 30th birthday was the answer.

I was so excited to go! I love the story, the music, everything about West Side Story. We had dinner beforehand and then walked over to the Theater which is at Broadway and 47th Street.

Our seats were in the last row of the orchestra. The last three rows of the orchestra were a raised section though so we had a clear view of the stage.

The play did not disappoint! The music and the dancing (espcially the dancing) was amazing! The choreography, especially during the fight scenes, was awesome. My favorite song, "America" sung by Anita and friends was easily the best song of the night. It had power, dancing, color, humor, it was spot on. And Karen Olivo, who played Anita stole the show I thought with her spunky character. She was amazing.

Maria, played by Josefina Scaglione, was also very good. Her soprano voice (she was trained as an opera singer) was beautiful. She nailed every song!

I did have two complaints though about the show. First, I though Tony, played by Matt Cavenaugh, was weak. He had a great singing voice and when he and Maria were singing their duets I loved him. However, when he spoke his voice was so "over-acted" that it really took away from his character. He just sounded ridiculous.

Second, the play was partly in Spanish. I didn't mind that so much because I was able to understand most of it, but I thought that was an interesting decision by the director, given that the average American probably does not have a solid grip on the Spanish language. The other weird part about it was that in my opinion, you either needed to commit to all The Sharks (girls & guys) speaking Spanish every time they spoke or they shouldn't speak in Spanish at all. Instead, it was very sporadic. Sometimes the characters would speak in Spanish, sometimes they wouldn't. Sometimes every other sentence was in Spanish. There were two whole songs in Spanish - "I Feel Pretty" and "A Boy Like That". It was a bummer not to be able to hear and enjoy the version that we know and love. In addition, Anita & Maria sing "A Boy Like That" in Spanish and as they finish they lead into another song "I Have a Love" that they proceeded to sing in English. The inconsistency just bothered me.

Overall, though I LOVED IT! I had so much fun watching the story unfold and I just enjoyed hearing all of the songs sung live right in front of my eyes. I would definitely recommend it to people, as long as, part of the play being in Spanish doesn't bother you. If you know the story, you'll get the gist of what's going on...

Post In Comments:

Have you seen West Side Story yet on Broadway? If so, what was your favorite song?

Foodie Wednesday: Musroom Risotto with Peas

2009-07-15T08:02:00.005-04:00

(The Risotto in the pan cooking!)

Even though I may not have had a Foodie Wednesday post in awhile (last week due to internet technical difficulties at my house and prior to that just being busy with work) does not mean that I have not been cooking up a storm!

In my quest to cook all of the recipes in Giada DeLaurentis' "Everday Italian" cookbook I present to you Mushroom Risotto with Peas.

Ingredients

8 cups canned low-salt chicken broth
1/2-ounce dried procini mushrooms
1/4 cup unsalted butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cups finely chopped onions
10 ounces white mushrooms, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 cups Arborio rice or short-grain white rice
2/3 cup dry white wine
3/4 cup frozen peas, thawed
2/3 cup grated parmesean
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, optional

Directions

Bring the broth to a simmer in a heavy medium saucepan. Add the porcini mushrooms. Set aside until the mushrooms are tender, about 5 minutes. Keep the broth warm over very low heat.

Melt the butter in a heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add olive oil. Add the onions and saute until tender, about 8 minutes. Add the white mushrooms and garlic. Using slotted spoon, transfer the porcini mushrooms to a cutting board. Finely chop the mushrooms and add to the saucepan.

Saute until the mushrooms are tender and the juices evaporate, about 5 minutes. Stire in the rice and let it toast for a few minutes. Add the wine; cook until the liquid is absorbed, stirring often, about 2 minutes.

Add 1 cup of hot broth; simmer over medium-low heat until the liquid is absorbed, stirring often, about 3 minutes. Continue to cook until the rice is just tender and the mixture is creamy, adding more broth by the cupfuls and stirring often, about 28 minutes (the rice will absorb 6 to 8 cups of broth.

Stir in the peas. Mix in the Parmesan. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.

(The finished product!)

I will say that this did take a long time to cook - I was stirring for what seemed like forever - but it was well worth it. I was nervous having never previously made a risotto and it doesn't start to really look like risotto till towards the end, so I was unimpressed with my big brown glob of mush in the pan while I was cooking!

However, the final product was outrageously delicious!!! Jon and I could not stop saying how good it was. It made about 6 servings and had 4 as leftovers. It was a fight as to who got them! I will definitely make this recipe again and I look forward to trying additional risotto recipes. Now that I've done it once it doesn't seem so scary anymore.

As a side note, when purchasing the 1/2 ounce of Porcini mushrooms you really only need 1 maybe 2 mushrooms. They are $49.99 a pound (at Whole Foods) so be careful how many you throw into the bag!!!

Post in Comments:

Have you ever made a risotto?

What are your favorite risotto flavors?

Tuesday Travels: NYC Museum Rankings

2009-07-14T16:07:00.005-04:00

Well, we've finally done it. We visited every museum that was on our list to visit in NYC. That does not mean that we've visited every museum in NYC just the ones that we felt interested us or were just too famous to miss. I've reviewed many of them (although not all) but thought it would be interesting to compile a ranking of the 12 museums we visited. I've solicited Jon for his input as well.

Jon's NYC Museum Rankings

1 - The Frick
2 - The Metropolitan Museum of Art
3 - Ellis Island
4 - Museum of Natural History
5 - The New York Historical Society
6 - The Whitney
7 - The Tenement Museum
8 - The Museum of Modern Art
9 - The Folk Art Museum
10 - The Guggenheim
11 - The Skyscraper Museum
12 - The Museum of the City of New York

Beth's NYC Museum Rankings

1 - The Frick
2 - The Metropolitan Museum of Art
3 - Ellis Island
4 - The Tenement Museum
5 - The Whitney
6 - Museum of Natural History
7 - The Museum of Modern Art
8 - The New York Historical Society
9 - The Folk Art Museum
10 - The Museum of the City of New York
11 - The Guggenheim
12 - The Skyscraper Museum

The only museum on the list that I feel I wouldn't recommend to someone is The Skyscraper Museum. It just wasn't impressive at all and although only $5 to get, you'd do better going across the street and having a glass of wine while looking at the Statue of Liberty from Wagner Park!

All the others I think are definitely worth the visit and would be a good use of 2 hours on a rainy or winter or cold day. I find it interesting that our Top 3 were spot on...but then we have differing opinions.

Now we are concentrating on re-visiting some of the big ones (The MET, Museum of Natural History, MOMA, etc). I'll review them as we go.

Post in Comments:

How would you rank the museum in NYC that you've visited?

What is your favorite NYC Museum?

Monday Bookworms: Netherland

2009-07-13T20:58:00.003-04:00

Netherland, Joseph O'Neill

Netherland was our July book group book picked by Jen. She said she chose this book because it was recommended and given to her by one of her clients. She said another reason she picked this book was because when she was reading the reviews about half said they loved the book and about half said they didn't love the book and she thought that would provide for good discussion. And a good discussion, we did have!

Netherland is primarily the story of Hans Van Der Broeck. He is originally from Holland, but moved to London for a job in his 20's and ended up marrying a Brit named Rachel. In 1997 or 1999 they decide to move to NYC just for the experience. After 9/11 Rachel becomes fearful, distant and unemotional and eventually says she's leaving, she's going back to London and she doesn't want Hans to go with her and their son.

Hans is left in NYC, living in the iconic Chelsea Hotel with other"misfits", and looking for a place to fit in. He rediscovers his love of cricket and through cricket he meets Chuck. Chuck is a dreamer, always only looking at the big picture, always living "larger than life". Hans and Chuck strike up a bizarre friendship during the rest of his stay in NYC.

This book is a story about a man, a marriage and a friend all tied into one. It deals with the immigrant experience in New York City, love, friendship, sports, family and loyalty.

So where do I stand on the book - I'm kind of teetering on the fence. My biggest problem with the book was that I didn't feel O'Neill painted any of the characters as sympathetic so really I just didn't care what happened to them, which doesn't keep you reaching for a book day after day. And Hans, oh Hans, he was so blah, he had no fight in him, no passion, no anything he was just a lump on a log used as a vehicle to tell the story. It was a shame because he was the narrator and you wanted to root for him but at the same time you just didn't really care!

One of the things I did really like about it was that New York City itself (in all of it's glory and weirdness) was a central character in the book. We all agreed that since we live in NYC that made us like the book a little more, because we could relate to some of the things that were said, or we new some of the places or people mentioned in the book. We were curious during our discussion as to what a non-New Yorker's opinion of this book would be.

All in all it was OK, but as we've discovered in book group, sometimes it's the books that are just OK that provide the best fodder for discussion. In the case of the Netherland that proved true.

As an aside, many have compared Netherland to the greatness that is The Great Gatsby. To this I strongly disagree! I mean his prose is just not as beautiful and his characters are not crafted as well. Fitzgerald has a gift (IMHO) for creating characters that you love so dearly you almost wish you have their life. Then he shows the reader that in all their glamour, they're real people, with real faults, but you love them so much that you still root for them in the end. O'Neill did not in my opinion achieve this.

However, as one of my fellow book group members pointed out, maybe when Fitzgerald wrote The Great Gatsby, his contemporaries didn't feel that way about his writing. Perhaps in 50 years if I was to revisit this book I too might feel different.

Post In Comments:

What books have provided your book group with the best disccusion??

Tuesday Travels: The New York Historical Society

2009-07-07T15:05:00.000-04:00

I have openly admitted numerous times on this blog that Jon & I are historical junkies. We have thoroughly been enjoying learning more about the history of the city that we live in and decided to cap that off with a visit to the New York Historical Society. This was our last museum on our museum list for NYC. Now we get to go back and visit some of our favorites.

The New York Historical Society is located on Central Park West at 77th Street. We weren't quite sure what to expect and were pleasantly surprised. We started on the top floor at The Henry Luce III Center for The Study of American Culture. Almost the entire floor is dedicated to artifacts from New York's history. They house the largest collection of Tiffany lamps for example. You'll see busts, sculptures, toys, a real horse drawn carriage and furniture among many other things. We spent a good part of our visit wandering this floor and pointing out things from NYC's past.

There were some paintings on the 3rd Floor, but most are on the 2nd Floor. One whole side was portraits of children and adults alike, some who were even family members, all real New Yorkers. The other part of the floor was dedicated to paintings that were Hudson River School landscapes. They were large and beautiful almost entirely landscapes without people in them.

The first floor we first took in the visiting exhibition of "Landmarks of New York". This is a collection of over 80 photographs of New York's more important landmarks. They are separated out by the year in which they were built, so as you walk through the room you essentially watch New York evolve. It was hands down our favorite exhibit.

The second visiting exhibition we saw was Harlem: Photographs of Camilo Jose Vergara 1970-2009. This was a collection of photographs that would show one storefront in Harlem from the 70's, then that storefront again in the 90's and then again in present day. Not just storefronts but schools, apartment buildings, streets, etc. There were also just great photographs of Harlem in general in this exhibit. I'd have to say the coolest thing about this exhibit though was seeing the changes of time right in front of your eyes when you see how something was at one time and then you see it again in the present. Those of us that haven't lived here our entire lives don't have those images in our heads. I found it very intersting.

The last visiting exhibit that we visited which was on the second floor was Abraham Lincoln in His Own Words. This was a very small exhibit that had writing samples and letters directly from Abraham Lincoln. It was basically set up as a U shape and took you through highlights of his career. It was small but incredibly powerful (especially to one so interested in the President's). I mean to see an actual letter that Abraham Lincoln wrote, his handwriting and all...pretty cool.

All in all, we thoroughly enjoyed our visit to The New York Historical Society. It was the perfect size, we were able to meander our way through in 2 hours or so. I can't say that it's a museum that would have me coming back again and again, unless they had a great visiting exhibit I wanted to see, but I was certainly glad that we took the time out of our day to have the experience. New York is full of history and it's always interesting to learn more about the place where we live!

Post in Comments:

Have you ever been to the New York Historical Society?

What is your favorite time in NYC history?

Monday Bookworms: Blog Reading

2009-07-06T11:25:00.003-04:00

Well, it's Monday and you are expecting me to blog about a book that I recently read, and while I have recently read a book, I'm not ready to blog about it! That is because it is our most recent book group book and we do not meet until this Wednesday, July 8th and I want to wait to see what our discussion adds to my experience of the books.

So with no book to discuss I thought I would talk about another "reading related" topics. Reading is more than reading books and one thing that a lot of people are reading now are blogs!!! So I thought I would share with you some of my favorite blogs with the hopes that you might share with me your favorite blogs.

Our Grand Tour of Europe - I found this blog when I was working in a dead-end job with literally nothing to do day in and day out (don't worry I've since left said job). I love to travel and I somehow stumbled upon this website www.slowtrav.com. It is a great resource of travel related information - where to stay, where to eat, what tours to take, where to hike, what cities to visit, etc. They have a community forum where you can search for related information or post your own question and they have numerous members who are bloggers.

The "Our Grand Tour of Europe" Blog is the blog of a woman Kathy Woods. Her, her husband and their daughter took off for 14 months in Europe. They would spend a week in each location and then they spent 6 months of the time in Provence so that their daughter could go to school. I loved reading this blog, and still go back sometimes to re-read parts of it, because who wouldn't want to pack up their life and head out on a European Adventure such as this. The blog is chock-full of usefull information on numerous European regions! If you love to travel, or wish you traveled more than you do, this is a blog you would certainly enjoy. They took this trip 5 years ago and have since turned their passion for travel into a job - www.european-experiences.com.

Mile Markers - I feel like I may have already blogged about this, but I love this blog! Kristin Armstrong (ex-wife of Lance Armstrong) blogs weekly about running related & family related themes. As much as I am a runner and can appreciate the running anecdotes she uses, I read this more for her writing style. I love the way she writes and find that her blog entries always center me and put things in perspective a little bit. It's nice to get those weekly reminders of what's really important in life! Sometimes in the fast paced NYC it's easy to get caught up in the little things and forget the big picture.

My Malleable Reality - This blog is written by my friend Shion (who has been mentioned many times on this blog). She writes about a variety of topics, fun things she's done in NYC, movie reviews, recipes, product reviews, or just her thought of the day. I always love reading friend's blogs because it gives you a new perspective on their thoughts (and really she has the best recipes!!! She's a great cook!)

Rockin' to the Gentle Beat - This blog is also written by a friend of mine, Ashley. I knew Ashley when I lived up in Boston, we were in Book Group together. Ashley also writes about a variety of topics: entertainment reviews (movies, tv shows & music reviews primarily), her many travels, her upcoming move, and much much more! I love Ashley's entertainment reviews and reading her blog is a fun way to still feel connected to someone that you no longer live near.

KERF - I found this blog through another blog and totally love it. It's a food blog primarily but the way Kath writes you end up feeling like you know her as well. I am always looking for new recipes and while I'm not quite as adventurous as Kath I do like reading her blog! It has tons of tips on how to eat healthy & make time for exercise. I recently tried her Kale Chips recipe, which I will blog about soon!

Post in Comments:

What is your favorite(s) blog that you read?

Entertainment Thursdays: Les Miserable

2009-07-02T09:05:00.000-04:00

Les Miserable is my favorite musical of all time. I know it's not the most uplifting show, but god, is it amazing! I have seen it now seven times: 2x in NYC, 2x in London, 1x in Boston, 1x in Wichita, Kansas and 1x in Lancaster, PA.

My mom had asked me to do a little research before our trip to Lancaster and come up with a couple of things I wanted to do. Because my buddy Okie Amy, works in a Regional Theater, it has made me more aware of Regional Theaters in general. So when I saw there was a theater in Lancaster I decided to check and see what was playing. Imagine my delight when I clicked on the link and it said Les Miserable would be playing while we would be in Lancaster.

I immediately sent an email to my mom, who promptly called me, and then called and got us tickets!!! (Thanks Mom!) I could tell that she wasn't nearly as excited as I was.

After dinner at Checker's we drove down towards the Fulton Theater and parked in a lot across the street. We got there about 45 minutes before the show started to pick up our will call tickets and enjoyed some wine & snacks while we waited (this experience reminded me how expensive it is to live in NYC!)

The show was great! While probably not the best performance I've ever seen it certainly didn't disappoint. The man who played Jean Valjean was great, he voice was amazing, and he nailed my song ("Bring Him Home"). My one complaint was that he just didn't look old enough to be a believable Jean Valjean...but I got over that. The woman who played Cosette was also remarkable. Since I've seen the show so many times now it's interesting to me that each time I see it a different character stands out. The guy who played Enjolras was outstanding, he really stole the show from the Marius character in my opinion. I found myself saying, "I don't remember this part being so prominent in the past." And the best part is that the guy who played Enjolras is touring with "The Little House on the Prarie" tour that is coming to the Paper Mill Playhouse in the Fall! I might have to go see it...

The other thing I've noticed after seeing this show so many times is that when I was younger I used to think that the 1st Act of the play was the better part of the show and that the 2nd Act wasn't that great. The older I get and the more I go to see it I realize that the 2nd Act is really the krutch of the play. It's interesting how your perspective can change the more you see a show. I mentioned this to my mom and she agreed that she always had thought that the 1st Act was better but that after seeing the show in Lancaster, she realized the 2nd Act was better.

I think my mom was pleseantly surprised by the show. She stayed awake for the whole thing, which is a fete at an evening show! Overall we both enjoyed our night out at the theater in Lancaster. Where, oh where, will I see Les Miserable next?

Post in Comment:

What is your favorite Act in Les Miserable?

What is your favorite song in Les Miserable?

Foodie Wednesday: Lacaster Eats

2009-07-01T07:40:00.000-04:00

When my mom and I arrived in Lancaster on Friday it was lunch time and we were starved. We checked into our hotel (the Marriott Courtyard) and asked the woman at the front desk for a lunch recommendation. She recommended Isaac's Restaurant & Deli, she said it was a chain that was only in that region of Pennsylvania.

There happened to be one right around the corner where we were staying so we headed over there. Isaac's is a typical low-cost restaurant, the decor is a little cheesy, but the food is delish! We got our menu's (which were extensive) and immediately decided on Pretzel Bread Sandwiches. We couldn't decide what we wanted so we decided to get two sandwiches and go splitsies. I ordered the Salty Eagle (grilled ham, swiss cheese, fresh tomatoes and lettuce) and my mom ordered the Rose of Sharon (sliced portabella mushroom, fresh tomatoes, onion, spinach with melted provlone cheese). Both sandwiches were delicious but we both agreed that the Rose of Sharon was the better sandwich. What made this sandwiches extra special was the pretzel bread - it looks like a roll, but tastses like a soft pretzel - it was so good that we ended up purchasing pretzel bread to bring home with us!

Isaac's was so enjoyable that we returned on Saturday for lunch and visited the Staussburg location. I once again ordered a Pretzel Bread Sandwich, the Whooping Crane (sliced turkey, onions, fresh spinach, and swiss cheese, grilled). I think the Whooping Crane was my favorite of the three different pretzel bread sandwiches that we tried.

If I was back in the area I would definitely return to Isaac's! 4 stars

Friday night we headed to Gibraltar's restaurant for dinner. Gibraltar's is on the outskirts of downtown Lancaster and actually is practically on the campus of Franklin & Marshall. The restaurant was very fancy, a little fancier than we had anticipated. The restaurant was big and open and our waitress was very knowledgeable!

I ordered a ceasar salad to start and followed it up with the Salmon dish. The ceasar salad was delicious with homemade sourdough croutons but the Salmon was just OK. It was a little dry and it was a huge piece of salmon probably 3 times the actual portion size that you should eat. I ate about a third of it and was full!

Overall, my mom and I agreed that while this restaurant was very nice, the food didn't line up with the expecations. The restaurant was very expensive and fancy and we expected better food then was delivered. Not that our meal was bad perse, it was just OK.

If we were back in Lancaster, I can't say I would return to this restaurant. 2 1/2 stars

On Saturday we headed into Downtown Lancaster for the evening. We began the night at Checkers Bistro, also recommended by our hotel. Checkers doesn't seem like much from the outside, and our experience didn't start out great, as the hostess was incredibly rude, but we got over it.

Our waiter was extremely friendly and knowledgeable! I started with the half portion of the ceasar salad and then ordered the scallop dish for dinner. The ceasar salad probably wasn't as good as at Gibraltar but it was still a good salad. The scallops however were to die for - they were so good!!! We were both pleasantly surprised because the entrees at this restaurant were half the price of the entrees at Gibraltar's.

We both agreed that Checker's Bistro was a great restaurant. Very affordable, the food was delicious, and the atmostpher inside was very nice. The restaurant is bigger than you would think when you first walk in.

If I was ever back in Lancaster, I would definitely return to Checker's for a meal (and I'd probably get those scallops again!) 4 stars

Bird-in-Hand Farmer's Market

On Saturday we went to the Bird-in-Hand Farmer's Market on Old Philadelphia Pike. My mom had originally wanted to go on Sunday to bring home some fresh produce but we both realized it would probably be closed on Sunday. She wanted to visit it regardless so we headed over for a visit.

This farmer's market reminded me a lot of Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia, just much smaller (probably only 1/6 of the size). There were places were you could eat a meal, and places where you could by produce, jams, meats, desserts, etc. I was on a quest to find a delicious whoopie pie (and I succeeded!) My mom decided to make a couple of purchases at one of the jam sections. She bought a pear butter for herself, a sweet potato butter for her mom, and then a selection of james for each kid (I helped pick them out!) They had these mini sample jams that you could load into a little box, 6 per box. The varities were: Apple Cinnamon, Apple Raspberry, Pineapple, Peach, Pepper Jam, Blackberry, Blueberry, Grape, Strawberry, Red Raspberry and Four Berry. I'm excited to try out my sample jam pack!

All in all it was a pretty cool little farmer's market. I think we both wished we had gotten there earlier in the day when they were really stocked up, but at least we got to have the experience.

Post in Comments:

If you have ever eaten in Lancaster, what is your favorite restaurant?

Tuesday Travels: Lancaster, Pennsylvania

2009-06-30T08:37:00.001-04:00

(James Buchanan's House - Wheatland)

30 years ago my parens took a long weekend trip to Amish Country and my mother has been dying to go back ever since. My dad however was traumatized by the Straussburg Railroad (or as he has dubbed it "the train to nowhere") and has refused to go with her. So for years we've heard her plea of "who wants to go to Amish Country with me"? Last weekend I took one for the team!

My mom and sister are going to Seattle in August and I couldn't go with them so my compromise was that my mom and I would spend a long weekend in Amish Country after my Golf Tournament was through. We left on Friday, June 26th and came back on Sunday, June 28th. It's not a bad ride from NJ - just about 3 hours. I have to say that there is a nice variety of things to do in Lancaster, PA.

Friday when we arrived after lunch we headed to the Sturgis Pretzel Factory in Liditz, PA for a tour and of course to purchase some pretzels. The tour was $3 and lasted about 30 minutes. We started out each getting our own piece of dough that we rolled out and were taught how to twist it into a pretzel shape! It was pretty exciting as someone who grew up in a pretzel loving family (more like pretzel obsessed family!) Then the tour guide explained to us the history of the pretzel and how Mr. Sturgis was the first person to open a pretzel factory in the US. She also explained how they used to make pretzels versus how pretzels are made now. It was all pretty interesting. The tour leads out into the gift shop and of course we had to purchase pretzels. My mom got a nice assortment for my dad and I purchased two bags of Cheese Pretzels (that are divine!) We also shared a soft pretzels straight from the oven. I have to say it was the 2nd best soft pretzel I've ever had (1st place goes to the pretzels in Munich, Germany.) We learned that the average person consumes 2 pounds of pretzels a year and the average Pennsylvanian consumes 20 pounds of pretzels a year. I think my dad should have lived in Pennsylvania!

After the pretzel tour we did a driving tour suggested in my mom's guide book that drove us through typical Amish Country where we got to see some farms and many Amish people traveling in horse & buggy, by scooter or by foot along the road.

(The Carriage House at Wheatland)

On Saturday morning our first stop was Wheatland, where President James Buchanan lived. You know me and my Presidents! James Buchanan was the 15th President, the President right before Abraham Lincoln. He bought Wheatland with the intention of retiring. However, under President Pierce he was the Ambassador to England and then he was nominated for the Democratic ticket. He actually ran his campaign for the Presidency from Wheatland. When he was nominated for the ticket and elected President he made both of his "thank you" speeches from the front porch! He was our only bachelor President, never married. I found the tour very interesting and I love seeing places that were such a part of our history. It was an hour tour.

(Mom with our rail car at the Straussburg Railroad)

After Wheatland we headed down to Straussburg to ride the railroad! After hearing about "the train to nowhere" for 30 years I certainly wasn't going to come all the way to Lancaster and not ride on it! We got there 15 minutes before the next train was about to depart and snagged ourselves "First Class" tickets. We boarded the train at noon and sat in our plush comfy chairs. The train ride began and the conductor pointed out different items to us as we went along. We rode for 20 minutes to a "rail yard" and then the engine moved to the other side of the train and we rode 20 minutes back to the starting point. It really is a "train ride to nowhere"! I could see if you had small children that the novelty of riding on a train would be worth it but as adults I think my mom & I both felt that it was a little overrated. Nevertheless, I'm glad that we did it.

After that we went to the Mennonite Information Center and watched a movie about "Who Are the Amish?" It was a very interesting 30-minute segment that literally answered almost every question that I had asked out loud to my mom over the course of our weekend. I'm glad we took some time out of our day to learn about the people who make the community of Lancaster, PA so special.

I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by the variety of activities that there are to do in Lancaster, PA. There was more stuff we wanted to do but we just ran out of time! I can't say that I'll be running back to Lancaster, PA but if I ended up there again someday I know I'd have a good time.

Post in Comments:

Have you ever been to Amish Country?

If so, what was your favorite activity?

Monday Bookwors: The Novice

2009-06-29T09:34:00.001-04:00

The Novice, Trudi Canavan

Back in January of 2008 I read the first book in this trilogy, The Magician's Guild, and really enjoyed it. I was looking for something light and unchallenging to read and so I decided to pick up the 2nd book in this trilogy, The Novice.

In the Novice, Sonea (the magician we met in the first book who was unaware of her magical abilities) joins the Magician's Guild and begins classes as a Novice. It is immediately clear that none of the kids like her or want anything to do with her because she is from the slums. Even having a magician guardian, Rothen, does not seem to help her status.

There is one novice in particular who makes life difficult for Sonea, Regin. As the book progresses he plays many pranks on her and she struggles with what is the proper course to defend herself. Then the High Lord takes an interest in her and the trajectory of her year changes.

On the side, her guardian's friend, Dannyl, has become an ambassador for the guild and while gone he begins to uncover some of the High Lord's secrets. What exactly will he uncover?

Overall, I didn't enjoy this book as much as the first. I don't know if it was because of the timing of when I read it, (being swamped at work with a big event coming up), that I just couldn't get into it. Or, perhaps it had to do with Regin picking on Sonea and that just irritating me after awhile. His character kind of ruined my reading experience. (Remember that teacher in HP 5, ugh, she almost ruined my reading experience of that book, I just hated her so it became painful to continue to read the segments she was in!)

It was still a good read and I look forward to reading the 3rd book in the trilogy and learning exactly what the High Lord is up to!

3 Stars

Post in Comments:

What science fiction have you read recently that has been good?

Monday Bookworms: More Tween Lit & Real Literature

2009-06-15T21:24:00.003-04:00

Runner, Carl Deuker
216 pages, @ 2005

Funny story about this book! Jon and I exchange small easter baskets every Easter and we set a small budget to purchase little things (candy, lotto tickets, etc). This year, Jon was in the bargain book section of Borders and saw this book for $2 so he was like "perfect"! He gives it to me in my basket and I'm of course thrilled to get a new book (the little things in life!)

Well, after receiving the book I realized that I haven't read a lot of the books that Jon has gotten me during our relationship, because I've been "saving" them. So I decided I wanted to pick up Runner and looked it up on Amazon to see if it had gotten good reviews. This is when I realized that it was a "tween" book! I called Jon and told him but said it didn't matter (heck I was reading the Twilight books at the time) and I was excited to read it. We had a good laugh about it.

The premise is that Chance Taylor, a senior at Lincoln High School in Seattle, lives with his dad who is an alcoholic who has a hard time keeping a job. They live on his dad's small old sailboat. Since his father is unable to keep a job money is very tight. One day this man at the Marina offers Chance a job that makes easy money. All he has to do is wear a backpack when he goes out on his daily run and pick up a package at his turn around point. What is he picking up? He doesn't want to know. Easy money however always has consequences.

Deuker is a much stronger writer then say Stephanie Meyer. The flow of the story was good, the characters believable, and the problem very relevant to the times. Would I recommend it, that depends on if you read "tween" books? My only complaint with the book was that I felt he rushed the ending a bit. All of a sudden it was upon us and it was suddenly over with a shocking ending.

3 stars

The Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro
245 pages, @ 1988

This book was Shion's pick for our book group discussion in June. I was excited to pick this up, as I have heard a lot about Ishiguro's other novel "Never Let Me Go".

This book is about Mr. Stevens, a butler in a large home in England. The book takes place in the 50's after Mr. Stevens main employer, Lord Darlington has already passed, and an American, Mr. Farraday has purchased Darlington Hall. Mr. Stevens decides to make a cross country journey as part vacation and part visiting an old colleague from the days of Lord Darlington. During his journey he recalls times during Lord Darlington's life and explores his reasons for working where he did, for whom he did, doing what he did. His recollections take place in the 30's.

My biggest problem with this book was just the pace. It was only 245 pages so I expected to breeze through it, but the pace was much slower and it was a book I really needed to "read" not just read (if you know what I mean). That slowed me up a bit. Once I got into the story though it flowed more smoothly and became more interesting. It was a self examination of himself to see if his life had meaning and if he served the world well by serving Lord Darlington.

I will say that I felt the book group discussion allowed me to look at the book in a way I had not previously. It made me sit back and reflect and appreciate the sublties of this novel. It was a pretty powerful story when I really sit and think about it. I would definitely read Kazuo Ishiguro again.

3 stars

Post in Comments:

Do you ever save books for later?

Monday Bookworms: Devil in the White City

2009-06-08T20:03:00.003-04:00

The Devil in the White City, Erik Larson
390 pages, @2003

I have had this book on my shelf forever (at least 5 years) and I've always meant to read it but I've never picked it up. I decided some time ago when setting up what books I was going to read during this current 6 month period of the book journal that I would finally get to it and it did not disappoint.

Devil in the White City is a non-fiction account of the World's Fair in Chicago in 1893. It chronicles the building of the Fair from the very beginning, the year of the Fair, all the marvels that those that attended got to experience and what happened to all the key players after the Fair was over. At the same time, every other chapter is dedicated to telling the story of H.H. Holmes, a serial killer on the loose during the time of the Fair. Larson was attempting to show two sides of the city - the hope & greatness of humanity depicted in the Fair and the pure evil of humanity depicted in the story of H.H. Holmes.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. I had never realized what an impact The World's Fair in Chicago had on modern day society. There were so many ideas that originated at The Fair that inspired different people and new ideas. I would wow you with all of the information but then that would take away from the ah-ha moments of the book. The story of H.H. Holmes was interesting and some times it was nice to have a break from the Fair to read about what he was doing in Englewood, Illinois! Pretty scary stuff.

I would definitely recommend this book to the avid reader. It reads like a fiction book most of the time so don't be turned off by it being non-fiction.

4 stars

Post in Comments:

Did you like Devil in the White City? What was your favorite ah-ha moment?

Catch-All Fridays: Fiddlesticks Bar Review

2009-06-05T19:55:00.003-04:00

I could not find a cool picture of Fiddlesticks Pub but I couldn't leave you guys hanging - so hence the letter f - representing Fiddlesticks!

A couple of weeks ago ABC Club visited F Bar - which was Fiddlesticks in the West Village. Let's face it if you've lived in NYC for at least a year and you're under 30 you've been to Fiddlesticks!

Fiddlesticks is a HUGE bar with indoor and outdoor space. It's segmented into like 3-4 different rooms inside. They play awesome music, they always get an awesome crowd, and you can't beat drinks in an Irish pub.

We certainly got a great crowd and Fiddlesticks hooked us up with awesome drink specials! We celebrated 3 bdays, had some parents in attendance for the 1st time ever and rocked the pub until well after midnight!

If you live in NYC or just visiting and you are under 30 I would definitely recommend Fiddlesticks for a good time. It's definitely a younger crowd then most places!

Fiddlesticks

56 Greenwich Avenue

New York, NY 10011

212-463-0516

Post in Comments:

Have you been to Fiddlesticks? Do you have a Fiddlesticks story?

Entertainment Thursdays: Twilight Movie Review

2009-06-04T19:40:00.001-04:00

I know, I know, this blog has been very "Twilight Centric" but hey that's what happens when I'm blogging about things I do, read, see, etc and this dominated my life for a good 10-14 days so fortunately or unfortunately for you (depending on if you are a fan) you get to hear about it!

When we were out to dinner at Penelope's Cafe my friend Christina and I were talking about Twilight and we agreed that we needed to watch the movie together! I rented it from Netflix and we picked a date to get together.

I picked up wine because let's face it when watching cheezy movies they're always better accompanied by some cocktails! We were probably a little too excited given all the bad reviews we had heard about the movie.

I'm not going to get into what it's about because I've already reviewed the first book. Let's just say the movie was JUST OK and I think we both felt that way, well maybe I liked it a little more than Christina. The first half of the movie was just incredibly awkward and intense and it made me a little uncomfortable (and glad I wasn't still in high school!) The second half of the movie had some redeeming qualities. The story picked up which alleviated all the awkward and intense staring and I forgot about Edward & Bella's weirdness and got into what was going on on the screen. I enjoyed the second half of the movie much more.

Overall, I enjoyed it, I would not say it was a great movie by any stretch of the imagination but I was glad I saw it being a Twilight fan and all. I do think that the New Moon preview looks better than the first movie - everyone seems a little more natural - well everyone but Bella. So I will admit that even though the 1st movie was sub-par I'm totally going to see New Moon (and probably in the theatres if I can convince anyone to come with me!!!)

3 stars (Well OK it should probably be 2 1/2 stars)

Post in Comments:

Have you seen the Twilight movie? Did you like it?

Foodie Wednesday: Frittata with Asparagus, Tomato & Fontina Cheese

2009-05-27T22:08:00.001-04:00

Giada De Laurentiis' Frittata with Asparagus, Tomato & Fontina Cheese

Have you ever cooked everything in any of the cookbooks that you own? For a couple of years I've thought about it...and now I've decided I'm going to do it. Yes, I'm going to cook every recipe in one of the many cookbooks that I own.

I chose my Everday Italian cookbook by Giada De Laurentiis for a couple of reasons. 1) As I've said again & again, you cannot go wrong with Giada, everything I've cooked from one of her recipes has been delicious! 2) Her cookbooks are smaller than some of the other cookbooks I own.

So the other night when I was looking for a new recipe to try I immediately took out Everyday Italian and flipped through it deciding which recipe to pick. I chose a Frittata! I haven't made many Frittat's in my life but the few I have made I've enjoyed. It looked nice and light and like it would re-heat well as leftovers so I decided to give it a go.

The Frittata was delicious and so easy to cook. I would use a smaller pan next time because it came out thin but the flavors blended together perfectly! I love asparagus and the crunchy pieces that were all throughout the Frittata gave the meal a good texture. And it re-heated well the next day for dinner and the day after that for lunch at work. I would definitely recommend this dish it was easy to cook, flavorful and delicous! (Also, as a side note, you could really put anything in this frittata: canadian bacon, onions, mushrooms, etc.)

Frittata with Asparagus, Tomato & Fontina Cheese

Serves 6

6 large eggs
2 tablespoons of whipping cream
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
12 ounces asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1/2 pieces
1 tomato, seeded and diced
3 ounces fontina cheese, cubed

Preheat the broiler. In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs, cream, salt and pepper to blend. Set aside. In a 9 1/2-inch-diameter nonstick ovenproof skillet, heat the oil and butter over a medium flame. Add the asparagus and saute until crisp-tender, about 2 minutes. Add the tomato and saute 2 minutes longer. Pour the egg mixture over the asparagus mixture and sprinkle the cheese over. Cover and cook over medium-low heat until the frittata is almost set but the top is still runny, about 2 mintues. Place the skillet under the broiler and broil until the top is set and golden brown, about 4 mintues. Let the frittata stand for 2 minutes. Using a rubber spatula, loosen the frittata from the skillet and slide the frittata onto a plate. Cut the frittata into wedges and serve.

Post in Comments:

What are you favorite frittata ingredients?

Tuesday Travels: The Botanical Gardens

2009-05-26T21:45:00.002-04:00

(Jon in the Haupt Conservatory in the Palm Room).

On Memorial Day Jon and I were looking at our NYC list trying to find something we hadn't done yet that we wanted to do. After some discussion we agreed to visit the Botanical Gardens in the Bronx. You can take the Metro-North train to the Botanical Garden stop. It's only a 20 minute ride and $10 round trip per person, not too bad!

We checked the schedule before we left and agreed that we would spend about 2 1/2 hours walking around the Botanical Gardens so that we could get back and still have some of the day/night to enjoy (cooking dinner, watching a movie, etc).

(A picture of the fountain in the Haupt Conservatory that features aquatic plants).

The Haupt Conservatory is the nation's largest Victorian glasshouse. It features a sampling of different climates & environments. There is the Palm Room, the Desert Room, the Rainforest Room, the Aquatic Plant Room and the Seasonal Flower Room.

(A cactus that looks like a "seat" in the Desert Room - don't sit on it!)

If I had to pick a favorite section of the Haupt Conservatory I would say either the desert or the Season Flower section. Either way the Haupt Conservatory is a neat place to explore and walk through.

(Some of my favorite flowers from the Season Flowers section!)

After we fully explored the Haupt Conservatory we wandered around through the "marshlands", through the "forest" and enjoyed the peace and quiet that is the Botanical Gardens. Next time I would pack up a back pack with sandwiches and drinks and have a picnic while we were there.

(Me with yellow roses in the Rockefeller Rose Garden).

The last place that we visited before we left was the Rockefeller Rose Garden. The Garden was designed in 1916, but it was not until 1987 that the Garden was totally rebuilt to the original design thanks to a generous donation made by David Rockefeller in honor of his wife Peggy Rockefeller. The rose garden was beautiful. There were all different colors and kinds of roses and it was just a really pretty place to wander and walk.

All in all, Jon & I really enjoyed our visit to the Botanical Gardens. It was nice to get out of NYC for a while and be in a quiet peaceful place. It was a beautiful day, perfect for strolling through such a picturesque place. I would definitely recommend a visit to the Botanical Gardens to everyone & anyone.

Post in Comments:

Have you ever been to the Botanical Gardens?

What was your favorite section?

Monday Bookworms: The last 2 books in the Twilight Series!

2009-05-25T21:27:00.000-04:00

Eclipse, Stephanie Meyer
629 pages, @2007

Elipse is the 3rd book in the Twilight series:) In Eclipse, Edward is back in town and him and Bella are as inseparable as ever, much to Jacob Black's chagrin. It becomes apparent that a vampire is creating "newborn vampires" in Seattle without monitoring them and they are on the loose killing people. The Cullens realize that the only way the are going to win the upcoming battle is to pair up with Jacob and "his friends". This forces Edward and Jacob to work together to (once again) save Bella. Will they be able to?

Breaking Dawn, Stephanie Meyer
754 pages, @ 2008

In the 4th and final book, Bella has finally made her choice between Edward and Jacob (thank goodness!) Looking forward to her future and joining her new family. On her honeymoon something shocking happens no one ever though possible. Soon the wrath of the Volturri is upon them and Bella and her new family once again have to fight to protect themselves.

Meyer's once again weaves a great story in both books. I will say the whole Edward or Jacob decision in the 3rd book was a little wearing...you can't love them both and have them both you have to choose! I was glad that the decision was made at the end so that in the 4th book the characters could move forward. In addition, I will say that I felt that the 4th book was too long. It was 100+ pages longer than any other book in the series and it felt longer. There were just some "waiting" parts and I wish Meyer had shortened some of those scenes up. However, I thoroughly enjoyed and devoured both books (finished them in 3 days I think!)

I would definitely recommend this series for someone looking for a brain break and to escape to another world via a book! I definitely escaped reality for a couple of days.

The only other comment I have about the whole series was that I thought that Meyer's writing was pretty atrocious. She's lucky she weaves a good story because if these books were at all judged for her writing effort it would not be nearly as positive. I say that only because as a serious reader, you will need to adjust your literary perception and just get over it from the beginning and remember that you're reading the book for the story not for her literary prowess, otherwise you might not get through them!

Storytelling: 4 stars Writing: 2 stars

Post in Comments:

Did you read the Twilight series?

Did you enjoy all 4 books? Which was your favorite?

Catch-All-Fridays: Bar Review of Bourbon Street Bar & Grill

2009-05-22T20:44:00.003-04:00

Our B Bar for ABC Club NYC was Bourbon Street Bar & Grill on West 46th Street between 8th and 9th. I picked it because our first bar was in Midtown East and so I wanted our 2nd bar to be in Midtown West. I figured that Midtown was the easiest place for people to get to so that we could begin to build a following. (A following of what - ABC Club NYC of course!)

Bourbon Street Bar & Grill has a great raised back section that we reserved for the night. It's part of the bar but separate enough as well. Every night Bourbon Street has $5 hurricanes - can we say danger, danger, danger.

It was a great space, a great atmosphere, really fun music (REALLY FUN MUSIC!!!) It is definitely a place I would go back to!

Post in Comments:

Have you been to Bourbon Street Bar & Grill?

Do you love hurricanes (the drinks, not the storms)?

Entertainment Thursdays: AFI's 10 Top 10 Challenge

2009-05-21T20:05:00.001-04:00

Jon and I have decided to begin a movie challenge! A couple of months ago we watched the AFI's 10 Top 10. We were shocked by how many movies we have not seen that were on the AFI's 10 Top 10. So we decided not too long ago that we are going to try to watch all 100 movies. We're going to watch them one genre at a time and where we can we're going to go from 10 down to 1. I'm going to review them as they are watched and then once all 10 in a genre have been seen I'm going to put what are thoughts were on the list overall. Were they in the right order? In our opinion was there a movie not on the list that we felt should have been? Vice versa was their a movie on the list we really didn't feel deserved to be there? You get the picture.

The 10 genres are: Animation, Romantic Comedy, Western, Sports, Mystery, Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Gangster, Courtroom Drama and Epic. I think it is realistic for us to finish this up in 2-3 years (that would be about one movie a week...OK maybe 3-4 years...we'll see how it goes!) We are going to re-watch any movie that we have already seen unless we've seen it within the month that we started the genre. We are starting off with the Gangster genre (that wouldn't have been my 1st choice but we recently just watched The Godfather and The Godfather II so we figured 2 movies down let's just start there...unfortunately we watched the out of order but I'm going to review them in order.)

So here we go....

#10 in the Gangster Genre is:

Scarface

Release Date: December 9, 1983

Duration: 170 minutes

Scarface is the story of Tony Montana, a small timer from Cuba who recently emigrated to the United States. He begins to work with Frank Lopez and as he earns more trust and responsibility he also earns more money and power making him unable to stop as he rushes to get what he wants to ultimately be the lead guy. Will anything stop him from getting what he wants? How long will he be able to hold it all together?

So we were really excited, here we were starting our movie challenge, and watching a movie that we'd heard of with stars that we knew (namely Al Pacino as Tony Montano) and boy were we disappointed.

Scarface is totally 80's. It is so cheezy it had me laughing when I should have been covering my eyes. The music, the hair, the outfits...it was HILARIOUS! I just felt compared to other Gangster movies I had seen this did not cut it. It was pretty horrible from beginning to end. The story was the same as every other gangster movie (guy starts to get power hungry, guy tries to take over the mob, guy takes over the mob and realizes that it isn't that easy, guy loses control and everything falls apart) and it just didn't have anything to me that really made it stand out except for it's ridiculous cheeziness.

I would give it 2 stars, Jon said he would give it 3 stars. I'd say take it or leave it (unless you too are working your way through AFI's 10 Top 10!)

Post in Comments:

What genre are you most excited to see me review?

I personally am looking forward to the mystery genre and western genre!

Foodie Wednesday: Arthur Avenue

2009-05-20T19:51:00.001-04:00

As a continuation of Mother's Day after the Bronx Zoo we picked up Tim's wife Christine and drove over to Ann & Tony's restaurant on Arthur Avenue.

Arthur Avenue, is the heart of The Bronx's Little Italy. My mom had heard a lot about it and wanted to go try it out. She had done her research which landed us at Ann & Tony's restaurant. We were probably the only "non-regulars" and non-Italian people in the place! They literally had to put a table together for us towards the front of the restaurant. It was pretty cool!

We started off with a bottle of Chianti (yum!) and bread with olive oil. The olive oil was only the best dipping olive oil any of us had ever had. From what we could tell it was a combination of olive oil, salt, pepper, oregano, garlic and crushed red pepper. It was divine. They had to bring us seconds because none of us could stop eating it!

It was a prix fixed menu so for our appetizer they brought out for the table: eggplant parmesean and fried mozzerella cheese. They were both delicious although I perferred the cheese because I'm not quite an eggplant lover yet. Then they brought out our pasta. We had a choice of two and I chose the penne in vodka sauce. It was delish! I should have bought some to bring home it was that good. Even though I knew I had another dish coming I just could not stop myself from finishing the bowl!

My entree was chicken parm (of course!) and it was huge. I brought 3/4 of it home for Jon for dinner that night so he got to enjoy a taste of Arthur Avenue as well. Lastly, we all had a small bowl of ice cream for dessert. We had wanted gelato but their freezer had been left over and their basement was covered in gelato so that was not meant to be.

The meal lasted about 3-3.5 hours! It was a lot of food but it was over a lot of time and it was so good. I came home and immediately changed for the gym and was down there for 90 minutes. I felt fine the next day!

Overall, I loved eating on Arthur Avenue. I would definitely return (with reservations again of course.) I would know to eat light before going next time:) It's a hidden gem and next time I would love to look in the Italian Deli's and Gourmet Food Shops to see what unique ingredients I might be able to pick up.

Post in Comments:

Have you ever eaten on Arthur Avenue?

What's your favorite Italian restaurant?

Tuesday Travels - The Bronx Zoo

2009-05-19T19:32:00.001-04:00

(Tim on the tram as we're trying to meet up with our parents & Bridget!)

For Mother's Day my mom wanted to go to The Bronx Zoo. I hadn't been to The Bronx Zoo since I was probably 12 (oh if you could only see the photos from that trip - bad haircut and all!) So my brother and I met up and took the 5 train (because I have an aversion to the 1,2,3 trains) to 145th Street where we promptly had to switch to the 2 train because that was the only way to get to the Zoo (oops sorry Tim!)

We walked the couple of blocks from the subway station to the Zoo and were ready to go. Only problem, my parents were in Parking Lot B waiting for us and they had already purchased our tickets. We realize Gate A is not where we need to be so we ask the woman there how to get to Parking Lot B. She tells us to go out the corner and up the block and turn right when the street ends. So we walk the 15 minutes in the direction she says only to end up in Parking Lot C! Yikes. We walk up to the guy collecting money from the cars (and yes, a car pulled up behind us as we were asking him directions!) He informed us that Parking Lot B was literally on the opposite side of the Zoo from where we were and that the best way to get to them was to go through the Zoo.

We discovered that our parents could return the tickets they had purchased for us so we bought tickets and then tickets on the shuttle because everyone informed us that we couldn't possibly walk to where we needed to go. As we were on the shuttle driving to the other side of the park my brother was looking at the map and realized it would have taken us 10-15 minutes to walk it. Oh well...lesson learned.

(The trainer feeding the sea lions.)

After meeting up with our mom, dad & Bridget (our grandmother) we caught the feeding of the sea lions! I love the sea lions. They did all sorts of fun tricks and it was fun to watch them.

(A picture of the baby sea lion - he was just a pup!)

After the Sea Lions we walked through the monkey house, saw the bears, baboons, tigers, etc. We also took a tram ride through the Asia section of the park. There we got to see the elephants, rhinoceros, different kinds of deer, wild horses among other things. We spent a good 2 1/2 hours wandering the zoo.

(The Giraffes!)

All in all once we met up we really had a nice time at the zoo. We just walked our own pace and saw what we were able to see. Everyone had a really nice time! Jon and I need to go back this summer...I didn't get to see the gorillas which I'd like to see and Jon has never been to The Bronx Zoo and it's on our NYC list. So I'm sure I'll be posting about it again. It's a great day trip for people of ALL ages!

Post in Comments:

What is your favorite animal to see at the Zoo?

Mine is easily the penguins or the giraffes!

Monday Bookworms: Dragonfly in Amber & New Moon

2009-05-18T11:05:00.000-04:00

Dragonfly in Amber, Diana Gabaldon
961 pages, @ 2001

A couple of months ago I started the Outlander series. Dragonfly in Amber is the second book in the series.

In Dragonfly in Amber, Claire Randall returns to Scotland with her 20 year old daughter, Brianna, who has flaming red hair! She is there to do some research on the Battle of Culloden. She then flashes back and picks the story up from where it left off with her and Jamie Fraser arriving in Paris, trying to thwart the Bonnie Prince Charles from taking the thrown in order to protect Scotland and it's people.

Dragonfly is a good 2nd novel. It dragged a little bit in the beginning because there was not as much "action" more plotting and a lot of characters to get to know! However, once past page 300 it was back to what one expects from Gabaldon - action, romance and suspense! I could not put it down. And I cannot wait to start on Voyager the 3rd book in the series.

If you are into romance, action and light on historical fiction then these books are for you!

4 stars

New Moon, Stephanie Meyer

Ok, I have already warned you in my last Monday Bookworms post that I have become totally addicted to the Twilight Series.

In New Moon, Edward decides that the best thing for Bella would be him leaving. She is upset beyond belief and turns to Jacob Black for comfort. The friendship blossoms until all of a sudden he won't return her calls or see her. Soon she learns his secret. Towards the end of the novel Edward is in danger and Bella has to go rescue him and she has to choose: Jacob or Edward.

Once again, Meyers weaves a great story together. I liked that this book focused on Jacob Black's character. It sets up the 3rd book nicely. I would say that Meyers writing is a little better here or maybe I just thought the story was better and didn't notice the writing as much! I'll review the 3rd and 4th book in the Twilight series next Monday....bet you can't wait.

4 Stars

Catch-All Fridays: Bar Review Artica Bar & Grill

2009-05-15T10:47:00.001-04:00

I mentioned when I started my bar reviews with Donnybrook Bar that I would backtrack and review bars we had visited prior to D with ABC Club NYC!

Our first outing back in March was at Arctica Bar & Grill. I had never been there even though it's in my neighborhood. There were not that many "A" Bars to choose from.

The owner of the bar was awesome. We were able to use the private room in the basement level of the bar for free and he extended the Happy Hour for us till 10PM. Can't beat that!

I definitely like the upstairs part of the bar (in the above picture) better - it has a lot of character and there is this great seating in the back with big couch type chairs and a fireplace, which would be cozy for a cold winter night. I love the decor. The downstairs room was big, had a couple of high top tables, a pool table and of course TV's! It was the perfect spot for an event for 40 people.

Arctica Bar & Grill is definitely a bar I would return to most likely during the winter months! If you haven't been you should check it out.

Arctica Bar & Grill
384 3rd Avenue (between 27th and 28th Streets)
New York, NY 10001
(347) 329-4277

Entertainment Thursday: 1776, The Musical

2009-05-14T15:21:00.000-04:00

Ah...what's that you say...you didn't know that 1776 was a Musical? Well, it is and it's fabulous!!! Maybe it's a Jersey thing, but I grew up on the musical 1776. A musical about the writing of the Declaration of Independence and the birth of our nation. I own the DVD, I've seen the show on Broadway, I've had sing-a-longs of the whole soundtrack on school field trips, and a couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of seeing the production once again at the Paper Mill Playhouse.

My mother, grandmother and aunt have season tickets to the Paper Mill Playhouse. With those season tickets you get two opportunities to purchase just two tickets to any show that season for just $20. My mother has been kind enough since I've returned to let me know the season ahead of time and ask me what I'm interested in seeing. Since I've been home, I've accompanied them to Kiss Me Kate, Little Shop of Horrors and Oklahoma.

Well, 1776 is soooo good, that not only did I go but my sister and my uncle went as well! We had lunch beforehand at David Burke's, Restaurant M.C. (Foodie Wednesday, Restaurant Review to follow soon...) and then walked over to the theater for the show.

The set is basically Independence Hall and John Adams, Ben Franklin & Thomas Jefferson are the main characters in the play. The music is fun, the history lesson is always important, and I thought the Paper Mill's production was so good, I almost cried at the end (they almost had me)!

If you are a history buff, this is definitely a movie you should rent, if not, then you probably think I'm incredibly dorky! For me, I know that if it ever comes back to Broadway, I'll be there!

A congressional incubator, Lord knows that the temperature is hot enough, to hatch a stone, but let alone an egg.

Post In Comments:

Have you seen 1776? What's your favorite song from the soundtrack?

Foodie Wednesday: Restaurant Review, Penelope Cafe

2009-05-13T15:10:00.000-04:00

A couple of year's ago a girl I went to college with recommended this restaurant with me. It's literally blocks from where I live but I didn't get there until the end of 2008, right before Jon and I thought we would be moving out of the city. We had such a great experience we were so sad that we weren't going to have more time to go back.

Then we decided to stay in town, since then, we go back every opportunity we get. It's definitely one of our two favorite neighborhood restaurants.

Last Wednesday, I went to Penelopes with Shion, Christina & Emily after book group to celebrate Shion's new job. I suggested it because it was close to our book group meeting and close to the 6 train, so easy for everyone to get home.

We only had to wait about 10 minutes for a table, so we each got a drink at the bar, and ended up brining them to our table. We ordered the artichoke & spinach dip for an appetizer. This is THE BEST artichoke & spinach dip I've ever had. They serve it in a bowl and toasted pieces of homemade bread are what it is served with to spread the dip on. It is divine. (Hopefully everyone else liked it!)

For dinner I was debating between trying something new and getting my "usual". Shion suggested that we split our dinners so that I could try something new and she could try two different things. So she ordered the Hummus and Avocado sandwich (description: Hummus and Avocado with tomato, red onion, arugula, and a drizzle of balsamic dressing on somun bread). I went ahead an ordered my usual the Veggie Burger. I am not a vegeterian by any stretch of the imagination but their Veggie Burger is out of this world! (description: Veggie Burger Heaven flame-grilled garden burger on a toasted english muffin with pesto mayo, sliced red onion, greens, and tomato). It is so flavorful and after our dinner Shion & I both agreed that the Veggie Burger Heaven was the better sandwich.

Next time I go I'd like to try one of their salads...but I don't know that I'll be able to pass up the Veggie Burger....we'll see! If you're ever in NYC and looking for a real kitchy, eccentric, low key, neighborhoody place with good prices and great food, Penelope Cafe is definitely worth the visit.

Penelope
159 Lexington Avenue at 30th Street
New York, NY 10016
(212) 481-3800

Post in Comments:

Have you ever eaten at Penelope's? Did you love it?

Tuesday Travels: A Day in Downtown NYC

2009-05-12T08:22:00.000-04:00

(Tiffany & I outside Fraunces Tavern after lunch!)

Ever since Jon and I moved to NYC - we've been talking with our friends Gary & Tiffany about doing a downtown New York tourist day. After two years of talking about it last Saturday we actually did it! We started out with lunch at Fraunces Tavern. This was an establishment frequented by General George Washington himself. He was good friends with the then owner and this building was used for many secret meetings. He gave his farewell address to his officers on the eve of his retirement on December 4, 1783. It's a pretty historic place. We went there for lunch and ate in the Tavern side. It was pretty empty, which I wasn't that surprised by. What did surprise us was the quality of the food. We were expecting an over-priced tourist trap and while it was a little overpriced I have to say that the Turkey Club was amazing!!! I would definitely go back there again - I love being that close to history.

(Jon and I standing where George Washington was inaugurated as the 1st President of the United States.)

After that we mosied on down past the Stock Exchange to the place where George Washington was inaugurated as the 1st President of theUnited States. We stood up on the stairs and imagined what it must have been like with the streets lined with people during the birth of our Nation. Pretty powerful stuff!

(A View of Trinity Church from Wall Street.)

Then we headed up to Trinity Church. This building used to be the tallest building in New York prior to the building of the skyscrapers. Pretty crazy to think about now! The church on the inside is beautiful but very small. Much smaller than I was expecting. We went in and walked around and then spent some time meandering through the graveyard. Alexander Hamilton and Robert Foulton (inventor of the Steam Ship) are both buried here so we found their tombs and read a few others.

(Jon, myself, Tiffany & Gary with the bull!)

We then of course went and got our picture taken with the Bull! He looks pretty angry. The main purpose of our day was that we were going to visit the Skyscraper Museum over in Battery Park. It was only $5 to get in but once inside we understood why. It's pretty small, just one floor, and we were unfortunately disappointed. Don't get me wrong we were glad we went because we would have wondered what it was like, but it didn't live up to our expectations. I thought there would be all these great exhibits on the building of the skyscrapers in NYC during the early 1900's. You know all those old pictures of the guys sitting way up in the sky on those beams seeming to not have a care in the world??? Instead there was none of that and the whole museum is a visiting exhibit. So the exhibit we saw was about Hong Kong and how it compared to New York - which is the Skyscraper capital of the world. We're all glad we went but it's not something we would recommend.

Afer that we walked down to Wagner Park where you can see the Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island. We went to Gigino a little restaurant right there with outdoor seating and enjoyed a couple of glasses of wine and bruschetta (delish!) It was a nice way to end the day with great conversation, great friends, great wine, and great views! I think that Jon and I may have to go back there this summer for dinner because the food looked amazing.

Post in Comments:

Have you spent time exploring downtown NYC? If so, what's your favorite thing to do downtown?

Monday Bookworms: Vampires & Salinger

2009-05-11T21:15:00.002-04:00

Twilight, Stephanie Meyer

498 pages @2005

OK, so I know that I have been MIA from my blog and this book, no this series, is the reason why. IT IS SO ADDICTING!!!

When my new co-worker started 6-8 weeks ago she recommended the series to me and brought the first book in the series in for me, therefore making it more likely I would read it. I had a gazillion books home from the library that I needed to get through before I could pick this up. Finally once I finished all the library books I decided I would just read this real quick so I could return it to Christina.

I had NO IDEA what I was getting myself into. Twilight is the story of Bella Swan. She moves from Phoenix, Arizona to Forks, Washington (?) to live with her dad because her mom is getting remarried. On the first day of school she sees Edward Cullen from afar and is instantly drawn to him. She doesn't understand his hositility to her at first but then as she discovers what he is she begins to understand. But can she help herself from falling in love with him? Even though she knows his secret?

This is totally a PG romance novel for tweens (at least so far...). Meyer's writing is not at all impressive and I found the 1st book a little repititive at times but her storytelling is pretty addicting. She's certainly weaved a good story, one that keeps you turning the pages, and continuing on with the series.

I'm currently on book 3 and hoping to finish the 4th book by this weekend. Then you'll have my take on the entire series (so far I can say that each book is getting better in my opinion.) I would recommend the series, especially as a good summer, brain break.

4 Stars

Franny and Zooey, J.D. Salinger
202 pages, @1961

On to more literary books! Franny and Zooey was Emily's book group pick for May. I was excited to pick it up because I'd read Catcher in the Rye and remember liking it so I was looking forward to getting to read Salinger again.

The book is broken down into two shorter stories. The first story, titled Franny, takes place in a small college town. Franny is meeting her boyfriend Lane Coutell for lunch and a football game. However, over lunch as she listens to him talk on and on about his most recent essay that he's written, she begins to have an unexplained mental breakdown.

In the second story, titled Zooey, Franny is back at home at The Glass Family home in NYC. Zooey, one of her older brothers, and Bessie, her mother, are trying to figure out how they can help Franny. During this part of the book you get a lot of background information on The Glass Family.

This was definitely a piece of literature. One that at times I felt was a bit over my head. I was glad that I was able to make it to book group to discuss the book because I felt it helped me to understand it better. Themes in Salingers's book are: family, defining moments in life, intellectuals, religion and perhaps even the meaning of life.

We all agreed during our discussion that the character of Zooey was probably an accurate portrayl of Salinger himself. And while I didn't love the book, I definitely would be curious to read, The Nine, by Salinger. I've heard that some of the short stories in that book are about The Glass Family and I'd be curious to learn more.

3 Stars

Post in Comments:

Have you read the Twilight Series? If so, what did you think of it?

Have you read Franny & Zooey? Which character did you like best?

Catch-All-Fridays: East End Bar Review

2009-05-08T21:06:00.000-04:00

As you know from my bar review of Donnybrook a couple of weeks back, I'm part of this group called ABC Club NYC. This is my review of our "E Bar" which was East End Bar and Grill on the Upper East Side.

The place was a decent size and we had this little section up in the front to ourselves. We didn't get as big a crowd as we had when we hit up the bars in midtown and downtown. People felt the Upper East Side was a bit far.

While the atmosphere of the bar itself isn't anything to write home about their drink specials certainly are. Every Thursday you can pay $15 and have an open bar from 7-10PM. Granted the open bar only consists of Bud Light and Well Drinks. But hey, I'm a Bud Light kinda of girl, so this is my kind of deal!

They have a juke box and so there is always a good selection of music playing and it definitely gets more crowded the later it gets. I wouldn't go out of my way to go hear again but if I found myself on the UES on a Thursday night I would certainly take advantage of the drink specials.

For more information you can click here to visit their website.

East End Bar & Grill
1664 First Avenue (between 86th and 87th Street)
New York City, NY 10028
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Entertainment Thursday: Reservoir Dogs

2009-05-07T17:58:00.004-04:00

Reservoir Dogs

@ 1992

Randomly Jon and I got this movie off our Netflix queue. OK well, it wasn't that random, I mean I had put it in our queue, but it was pretty random we chose to watch it.

I had remembered hearing about it in high school and I remember the soundtrack well! I was excited as I felt this was kind of a movie that everyone my generation had seen.

Boy, was it bizarre. Essentially the plot is that this group of men are going to rob a jewelry store and something goes wrong, the cops come, people die and a few of them end back at the meeting spot. Everyone jumps to conclusions and it's basically a long drawn out conversation with flashbacks as to what they should do next.

I can't say that I really enjoyed it necessarily while we were watching. There were a lot of long drawn out scenes and at times I was like, "What is the point of this movie?" But the ending was so enjoyable...in a weird way...but I liked the way it ended and it brought the whole movie together for me. So I found that redeeming. I can't say that I would outrightly recommend it but I'd be curious to hear what other people thought of this movie (Quentin Tarantino's first!)

3 Stars

Post in Comments:

Have you seen Reservoir Dogs?

Did you like it?

Foodie Wednesday: Cooking Light Cinnamon Raspberry Muffins

2009-05-06T08:37:00.000-04:00

(Muffins in the pan having just come out of the oven!)

My friend Christina had a housewarming party in early May for her new condo! I offered to bring something and immediately decided on Cooking Light's Raspberry-Filled Cinnamon Muffins. These are a family favorite and I've been making them for years. This seemed like the perfect excuse to make some!

(A View of the Muffin broken open - see the raspberry jam in the center - YUM!)

These are really easy to make. I made a double batch and it took me about an hour overall. They are delicious, freeze well, and make a great breakfast or snack!

Raspberry-Filled Cinnamon Muffins

(The Complete Cooking Light Cookbook @ 2000)

1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup sugar

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

2/3 cup low-fat or nonfat buttermilk

1/4 cup stick margarine or butter, melted

1 large egg, lightly beaten

Cooking Spray

1/4 cup seedless raspberry preserves

1 tablesppon sugar

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, 1/2 cup sugar, baking powder, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, and salt in a medium bowl; make a well in center of mixture. Combine buttermilk, margarine, and egg; add to the flour mixture, stirring just until moist.

3. Sppon about 1 tablesppon batter into 12 muffin cups coated with cooking spray. Spoon 1 teaspoon preserves into center of each muffin cup (do not spread over batter), and top with remaining batter.

4. Combine 1 tablespoon sugar and 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon. Sprinkle evenly over muffins. Bake at 400 degrees for 20-minutes or until muffins spring back when touched lightly in center. Remove muffins from pans immediately; place on a wide rack. Yeild: 1 dozen (serving size: 1 muffin).

Post in Comments:

What is your favorite kind of muffin?

Tuesday Travels: Biking Around NYC

2009-05-05T19:34:00.003-04:00

(Jon on the West Side Highway path - with Jersey in the background!)

One of the items on our list of things to do in NYC was to bike around the entire island of Manhattan. Now we didn't quiet accomplish that on Sunday, April 26th when we headed up to the Upper East Side to rent bikes & helmets, but we still had fun. We rented our bikes from Bike Heaven on East 62nd between 2nd and 1st. It didn't take that long and we were off on our way.

I'm not an incredibly strong biker, I probably bike once a year, and it's always a challenging experience for me, yet I continue to suggest these crazy bike riding ideas and end up doing them. Last year when we biked Valley Forge (another one of my crazy ideas that almost got us killed when our bus driver dropped us off in the wrong spot on the side of an almost highway that we had to cross...but that's another story for another time) I broke the bike (chain fell off) and didn't learn how to use the gears until we were almost done (and let me tell you those hills at Valley Forge without bike gears - really tough!)

So needless to say, you can imagine how nervous I was about biking in NYC. I informed Jon that I was going to walk my bike to the path about 3 blocks away along the river because I wasn't comfortable riding next to the taxis on 2nd Avenue. He met me there opting to ride.

(Me at the top of the stairs on the East Side River after we carried our bikes up - Roosevelt Island is behind me - I think!)

We biked up the east river to about 116th street where the path ended. We opted to just go straight across the island as opposed to going North and going all the way around. I made it across the island biking in the road with the cars although it wasn't nearly as congested up at 116th street. When we got to the West Side Highway or River Side Park we biked down to about 67th street.

At that time we decided to be adventurous because Jon really wanted to bike in Central Park. We biked part way across Manhattan in a pretty congested area to Central Park and entered at 72nd Street (and yes, we survived and it wasn't nearly as scary as I thought it would be but I was also feeling more comfortable on the bike having been on it for about 2 hours). We biked down Central Park and exited on the Southeast corner and then rode in the streets again heading back to the bike shop.

It was definitely an adventure. It was such a great way to see NYC in a different way. It was calming, relaxing, there were a ton of other people out on the paths enjoying the perfect NY day, and we just really loved every minute of it.

Next time I think we're going to rent bikes down by the Seaport and bike along the path towards the Southern part of the island! I'll make sure to blog and let you know how it goes....:)

Post in Comments:

Have you ever biked in NYC? Do you enjoy it or find it hectic?

What is your favorite bike route?

Bookworm Monday: Tom Wolfe & Jodi Picoult

2009-05-04T13:39:00.004-04:00

The Bonfire of the Vanities, Tom Wolfe

685 Pages, copyright 1987

Ahhh...at long last (and a good 3 months late) I finish the New Classics Reading Challenge. The Bonfire of the Vantities was the 6th (and final) book that I read for my very first Reading Challenge. Even though I finished late, I finished. The New Classics Reading Challenge was the reason I picked up this book, although it has always been on my list of "must read" books.

The Bonfire of the Vanities takes place in New York City in the 1980's. It follows Sherman McCoy, a bond tradesman, at Pierce & Pierce; Peter Fallow, a British ex-patriate, who works for The City Lights, a local tabloid newspaper; Larry Kramer, an assistant district attorney in the Bronx; and Reverand Reginald Bacon an activist.

One incident that occurs in the book will bind all of these characters together. Bonfires of the Vanities tackles the issues of GREED, social class, racism and ambition. The title literally means a huge fire of the vanities/conceits of all the characters in the book. I don't want to say what the incident is because I do not want to give away too much of what happens, so you'll just have to read the book to find out.

I have only read Tom Wolfe one time prior to this, I Am Charlotte Simmons. Wolfe's strength is taking everyday life and filling it with the most despicable, unsympathetic characters. There are few characters I have hated more than Wolfe's. He takes it to excess.

The first half of this book Wolfe works in great details to build these characters, to make you the reader understand each of them and what makes them tick. Then the incident occurs and the book really takes off. While I criticized what I felt was his excessive character development I understood why he did it as I was reading the 2nd half of the book.

I felt that the 2nd half of the book redeemed itself. Wolfe certainly makes you think. When everyone's motives are wrong then who is right? How many of us every given day are motivated by truly selfless motives? What would we have done if we were in the shoes of any of these different characters (well, I hope a lot - because like I said they were pretty despicable!)

Overall, I would say this book is a take it or leave it purely based on the length. It was a long haul and a real commitment to read and I'm not sure at the end I was satisfied. I was certainly happy that I had read Wolfe's most beloved and well known novel but I can't say I would enthusiastically recommend it. If you told me you were reading it though I'd be interested to discuss it with you.

3 Stars

Perfect Match, Jodi Picoult
352 pages, copyright 2002

I decided it was time to pick up another Jodi Picoult book because I hadn't read her in awhile.

The premise of Perfect Match is, Nathaniel Frost, a 5-year old boy, is sexually molested and his parents decide to take justice for their son into their own hands. The book makes you question what makes a good parent and what would you or wouldn't you do to protect your child?

I did not think that this was one of Picoult's stronger novels. I just felt too much happened, once you got over one hurdle something else went wrong and so on and so forth. Most things that went wrong centered around the mother, Nina Frost. She was not a sympathetic character and it was hard for me to get behind some of the decisions she made. I found her incredibly selfish, claiming to do the things she was doing for her son, but it seemed like she was doing them more for herself and what she could and could not live with. Now granted I'm not a mother so maybe I would have felt differently if I had a 5 year old son and I was reading this novel.

In addition, I found child molestation a very difficult topic to read about. It's not very uplifting and you really do not want to know the details. Thankfull Picoult was not too graphic. I will also say that I was displeased with the ending of this book...but I won't say more about that because I do not want to give it away.

With all that said I did not hate the book. I thought her writing was strong and she once again tackled a very timely issue. This book was published in 2002 during the Catholic Church scandal. I would not outright recommend it but if you were to pick it up I wouldn't say it was a bad read, it was just OK.

3 stars

Post in Comments:

Have you read Tom Wolfe? Do you like his writing style?

What's your favorite Jodi Picoult book?

Catch-All Fridays: Running Challenge

2009-05-01T11:13:00.004-04:00

Man oh man, lesson learned. Last week I was so excited to blog about the show Castle and I had just seen the movie 17 Again so I decided to just blog twice on Entertainment Thursday leaving me where this Thursday - nowhere - becuase I had no fun entertainment news to share, no new movie reviews, nothin'. Lesson learned, next time I'll just share one and save the other for later! I'm watching a movie tonight though so I'll definitely have a movie review for next Thursday.

Running Challenge

Ok, Ok I'll admit it I've totally let my stress fracture from almost two years ago and the fact that I say I don't like running in NYC ruin my running stride. So I'm setting a running challenge for myself to keep me motivated and to get back into the running shape I used to be in. So here it is:

There are 35 weeks left in the year and if I average 15 miles running per week then I will top 500 miles for the year (not including miles I've already logged).

I am going to sign up for at least 4 road races between now and the end of the year, starting possibly with the Mother's Day run at 8AM in Central Park next Sunday - 4 miles - totally doable although it may not be pretty! My friend Shi is running and I'm thinking I may join her as long as my mother doesn't have early morning plans for us all that day.

I will run in new places in NYC (ie: around the reservoir in Central Park, finally do the full 6+mile loop in CP, run North along the East River instead of always running south, run North along the West Side Highway, etc). I'm going to explore.

I'll post reviews of any new routes that I try and let you know what I think. Maybe just maybe by the time I leave this city for the suburbs I'll be converted to a runner who loves running in NYC (doubtful but I'm keeping an open mind).

Post in Comments:

How do you keep yourself motivated with your running?

PS - Shi, I might steal your idea of running on Roosevelt Island. I've always wanted to go over there but never had a reason to. Maybe running around RI will be one of my new routes!

Foodie Wednesday: Restaurant Review, Babbo

2009-04-29T13:59:00.001-04:00

Monday was my hubby's birthday - the big 30!!! He took me somewhere special for my birthday so I wanted to take him somewhere special for his. He had mentioned he wanted to eat at Babbo, Mario Battali's restaurant and so I was off to make reservations.

When I initially called they had no reservations left but when I called back the Saturday before to see if anyone had cancelled they had a reservation for 2 at 9PM available for me. The timing was perfect.

Babbo's 1st level is small and tight. We ended up having to wait 20 minutes for our table and there really was NO good place to stand but we muddled through. Babbo's decor/style is very interesting. It's fine dining at it's best and the decor is very simple and understated but the crowd is very casual and they were playing Led Zepplin, which while great because I love Led Zepplin is not the type of music I imagine listening to during my fine dining experience. The music continued on to U2 and other classic rock throughout our entire time there.

We were seated in the dining area on the 2nd floor which I was very happy about. There was more space up there and it was quieter because it was away from the wine bar area. We ordered a bottle of wine and of course water for the table and then the waiter brought out a chef's taste of chickpea bruschetta for us to enjoy. Every table received this. It was good (especially since I don't really like chickpeas - maybe I should try them again...) but it was a little spicy for me.

For my first course I ordered the Duck Bresaola which was divine. It was thinkly sliced duck (think like prosciutto) with shaved asparagus on top of it marinated in some great dressing and then there was this parmesean cheese little pie with it that was perfectly browned on top. The 3 flavors together were delicious. Especially the asparagus. Jon had the crispy spring vegetables with goat cheese. The plate was smeared with goat cheese and then layered above that were peppers, snow pea pods, arugula with something sweet drizzled over it. It was also very good - it had a good crunch and went perfectly with the goat cheese.

For my pasta dish I had the pappardelle bolognese. The waiter had warned me it was a large portion so when it arrived I immediately halved the portion and now I have delicious Babbo leftovers for dinner again tonight!!! The pappardelle took me back to Italy. It was perfectly cooked and the meat sauce was the perfect compliment to the pasta. Jon ordered the Bucatiniall'Amatriciana (which I loved in Italy but tends to be spicy in the US). I had a bite of his and it was also very good. It's presentation was not as pretty as it really just looked like a bowl of spaghetti and it didn't have pancetta in it which it usually does in Italy.

For my meat dish I ordered the grilled pork chop which was ginormous!!!! It was a double chop - I was almost embarrassed to have it on my plate (especially with my aversion to bones!) I quickly cute the large piece of meat away from the bone and moved it to the other side of the plate. The waiter came over and suggested that per the chef I use the 16 year old balsamic oil as a dressing for it which I much obliged. The pork could not have been cooked better. I cut this in half as well so that I could enjoy all my meals without feeling like I had over done it. It had peppers and onions with it. Jon ordered the Brasato al Barolo (Braised Beef with Porcini Mushrooms). The presentation on this dish was so beautiful! It was this perfect square of braised meet with sauce on the bottom and the mushrooms piled on top. Jon's dish was melt in your mouth good but it was sweet which surprised me!

All in all our experience at Babbo was thoroughly enjoyable. Ahhh...and now that both of our 30th birthdays are over and our 5 year wedding anniversary we probably won't be "Fine Dining" again for awhile. If you're willing to spend the big bucks for the experience and a special occassion Babbo is a great place in NYC to do it. Babbo on the cheap - it might be possible - if you each ordered one pasta dish and just one drink and didn't get anything else. It wouldn't be quite the same experience but it would be amazing food.

Restaurant Review: 5 Stars

Post in Comments:

Have you ever eaten at Babbo? Did you like it?

When you go out for Fine Dining what kind of music do you like to listen to?

PS - I haven't posted reviews on our other two "Fine Dining" experiences but have no fear they will be appearing sometime during a Foodie Wednesday post!

Tuesday Travels: Puerto Rico, Day 3

2009-04-28T22:09:00.002-04:00

(The view as we approached the old Fort of Filipe del Murro)

Our 3rd day we spent exploring actual historic Old San Juan. We allowed ourselves a nice slow start to the day and then walked up the hill and down along the water to Castillo Filipe del Murro. You can't see it in the picture above but all outside the fort were hundreds of kids with kites. It was so windy there it was the perfect spot to fly a kite.

(Kirsten, Beth, Amy, Meghan & Alison at the Castillo Filipe del Murro)

We spent a good couple of hours wandering through the castle. It was huge, filled with stairs, ramps and plenty of knooks and crannies to explore. It was incredibly hot though out there with only concrete below us!

(An old guard tower at Castillo Filipe del Murro)

After we felt we had spent enough time exploring the fort we walked down to try and visit the old Cathedral in San Juan where Ponce de Leon is buried. It was closed and someone recommended that we come back for Easter Vigil as that's when the church would be open.

So we walked back down the block to the City Walls. You can walk outside the City Walls and there is this great path along the water. Amy and I had gone running that morning out in a different direction away from the city. It was a beautiful where we ran but if I had to do it again I would have run on this path outside the city walls. The views were just beautiful and it was a little bit nicer. We found a nice shady bench and enjoyed our handmade lunches from our apartment (we're so thrifty!) After lunch some people got icees and then we decided to hit the shops.

It was so funny because a lot of the shops were American and discounted. Discount Coach, Ralph Lauren, etc. I got my ornament (I purchase an ornament from every new place I visit for vacation - it makes my Christmas tree one big story!) We split up for a bit while shopping and agreed to meet up again at 4PM to head to Castillo San Cristobal which was the fort that guarded against a land attack. It was along the same side of the city but at the opposite end from Castillo Filipe del Murro (which guarded against the water attack).

(View from Castillo San Cristobal down the coast to Castillo Filipe Del Murro)

We spent about an hour or so exploring this fort, which was much smaller and much the same as the other fort. Then it was time to head home and get ready for the night out.

Once ready we walked back to the Cathedral and about 2 minutes after we got there they opened the doors. It was nice to see we weren't the only tourists there to see the Cathedral as opposed to attending the Easter Vigil. The church was small but at the same time had this elegance about it. We did get to see where Ponce de Leon was buried which was pretty cool!

After the Cathedral we walked to the other side of the city (all of 7 minutes!) to have dinner at Cafe Puerto Rico which I had read many great reviews about. I think I might have been the only person who didn't love my food (don't get the pork chops with onions -they come fried!) The wine was flowing and we had good conversation and the service was good.

After that we headed to this alley to go to Cafe Nureycan which we had read a lot about - known for it's salsa dancing. When we arrived there was an improv comedy duo on. I could only partially understand what they were saying but it was still pretty funny. We watched the end of their act and then the salsa dancing began! Almost everyone in our group was asked out to Salsa at some point in the night. We were there enjoying the music until after 1AM even though we had an early wake up call.

It was the perfect last day in Old San Juan. Overall, San Juan & Puerto Rico is definitely a place I would recommend for a vacation. It's really accessible and easy to navigate. Everyone speaks English and is very friendly and accomodating. It also offers a wide variety of activities (cultural, beach & relaxation, active & exploratory, and of course an enjoyable and relaxed night life).

Post in Comments:

Have you ever visited a fort outside of the US? If so, what fort have you visited?

Catch-All Fridays: Bar Review, Donnybrook

2009-04-24T10:18:00.003-04:00

Friends of mine in Boston started ABC Club last year. The premise is that every other Thursday a group of people get together at a bar and over the course of the year you work your way through bars A-Z!

Recently, Shion, Jenn and myself started the NYC Chapter of ABC Club. So I've decided that every other Friday (or every Friday until I catch up) I'm going to review the alphabet bar that we visited.

ABC Club is awesome for a number of reasons: 1) It's the perfect excuse to get together with all of your friends on a Thursday night. 2) It's a great way to explore the bars of Manhattan. Not only are we working our way through the alphabet but we're also visiting different neighborhoods in NYC. 3) It's a great opportunity to meet new people whether it's to network for work, make a love connection or just make a new friend! 4) It's just a fun time!

Last night was D Bar, we're already 4 letters in. D Bar was Donnybrook in the Lower East Side. Donnybrook is a relatively new bar with an upscale Irish pub interior. The set up is great for a large group because there are tables that line the wall and chairs that line the bar and a lot of empty space in the middle for people to congregate. Meghan the owner was very accomodating. I called before hand and she reserved two large tables for us, arranged happy hour to be extended from 7-10PM for ABC Club NYC members and then even showed up and introduced herself! The bartenders were very attentive and the music was perfect - a little bit of DMB, U2, music you want to hear when you're out.

All in all Donnybrook was a great find. Everyone that was there last night seemed to really love the bar and I would definitely return for a chill night in the LES. The one downfall I guess is that they do not serve food. In typical NYC fashion they do have take-out menus at the bar and you can order food to be delivered to the bar.

We had a great time there. I would definitely recommend it.

Post in Comments:

Are you a member of ABC Club NYC or ABC Club Boston? If so, what's been your favorite bar so far?

Entertainment Thursday: 17 Again, Movie Review

2009-04-23T10:04:00.004-04:00

Two months ago my friend Shion and myself went to go see Confessions of a Shopaholic (a great chick flick!) and while there we saw a preview for 17 Again and agreed that when it came out we both wanted to see it. Last night we met up for Pinkberry at 6PM to catch up and chat and then walked over to the movies to catch 17 Again.

The premise of the movie is that Mike O'Donnell (Matthew Perry) is 37 and has forgotten all the reasons that he married his high school sweetheart Scarlett. He resents his life with her and their kids feeling like he passed up opportunities. They are in the middle of a divorce and he is questioning his life. He goes back to high school to reminisce about his great basketball days and a janitor asks him if he would "want to do it all over again". Without hesitating Mike says, "absolutely". On his way home he tries to save the janitor from falling/jumping off of a bridge and ends up falling off himself. When he arrives back at his friend Ned's house he realizes that he is his 17 year old self again (Zac Efron). As he re-enrolls in high school, he gets to REALLY know his kids and tries to help them out and be the father he feels he wasn't.

I have to say that Zac Efron really impressed me in this movie. He really carried the whole movie and was really funny. His friend Ned, stole the show many times, making for some of the movies funniest moments! All in all I would say this would be a great rental. It's perfect for that night you're really feeling like watching a "feel good" "chick flick", with just the right amount of humor, and love story wrapped up to one, that ends the way you want it to end!

I enjoyed it and would rate it a solid 3 stars!

Post in Comments:

Have you seen 17 Again? Did you like it?

Entertainment Thursday: Castle

2009-04-23T09:50:00.003-04:00

So I know that almost two months ago I blogged that I would not be adding any new shows to my Television watching list and that I was in fact trying to get rid of shows off my television watching list (narrowing it down to 5 hours a week or 1 show per day).....but I have made an exception.

I saw many commercials and promos for Castle on ABC and I was intrigued. The premise is that Richard Castle, a very famous mystery, suspense novelist, is writing a new series of books. He has been paired up with Detective Kate Beckett (the muse for his new main character) and he shadows her as she solves homicides in NYC. He's using the real life material to write his new novel the 1st in the series.

I think maybe I was intrigued because I LOVE mystery and suspense novels and the idea of a writer shadowing a homicide detective seemed interesting. I watched the first episode to give it a shot and I am officially hooked. Nathan Fillion plays Richard Castle perfectly and his chemistry with Stana Katic is great, just the right amount to be believable. It's filled with mystery and suspense as you try to figure out who-done-it, but at the same time it is really funny. For a "cop" show it's pretty light, which I enjoy. Nathan Fillion makes me laugh every week!

The supporting cast is also entertaining and completely enjoyable. I really hope this is a show that sticks around...it might bump one of the shows that I put in my Top 5 off the list...it has definite potential.

Post in Comments:

Have you watched Castle yet? If so, do you like it?

Foodie Wednesday: Nacho Spuds

2009-04-22T21:49:00.004-04:00

I tear out all recipes in magazines that look good and have the potential for me to make them! This was one I tore out of Everyday with Rachel Ray! Above is a picture of the nacho spuds on the baking sheet.

Here is a picture of my serving of nacho spuds with a dollop of sour cream on top! I have to say these were delicious, very tasty, easy to make and great to reheat for lunch or dinner the next day. I would definitely recommend these to anyone looking for a fun dinner. I would also imagine that these would be pretty kid friendly. Maybe they'll become your family's new favorite meal....

Nacho Spuds

Ingredients
2 large baking potatoes (1 1/2 pounds total), sliced into 1/2-inch-thick rounds
2 1/2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper
1/2 pound lean ground beef sirloin
One 15-ounce can black beans, rinsed
2 tablespoons taco seasoning
One 8-ounce package shredded sharp cheddar cheese (2 cups)
1 cup grape tomatoes, quartered lengthwise
Sour cream and shredded lettuce, for serving

1. Position a rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat to 450°. On a rimmed baking sheet, toss the potatoes with 2 tablespoons olive oil; season with salt and pepper. Arrange in a single layer and bake until golden, about 20 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, heat a heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Add the remaining 1/2 tablespoon olive oil and the ground beef and cook, breaking up the meat with a wooden spoon, until browned, 2 to 3 minutes. Mix in the beans, taco seasoning and 2 tablespoons water. Lower the heat and simmer, stirring, until heated through, about 10 minutes.

3. Transfer the potatoes to an ovenproof platter. Sprinkle half of the cheddar on top, spoon on the meat mixture, then top with the tomatoes and remaining cheddar. Place in the oven and turn off the heat. Let stand until the cheese is melted, 2 to 3 minutes. Serve with the sour cream and lettuce.

Enjoy!

Tuesday Travels: Puerto Rico, Day 2

2009-04-21T19:31:00.003-04:00

(Me, Kirsten, Meghan, Amy & Alison posing at the visitor center before we embark on our day at El Yunque.)

Sorry for the long hiatus - but blogging on vacation is not something I'm ready to do just yet! I'm back though and won't be going anywhere for awhile so let's get right back to it.

Last Tuesday I cataloged our first day in Puerto Rico - for this Tuesday Travels edition - I am going to focus on Day 2 - another adventure filled day. We started the day a little later, since our previous day (wake up time 6:45AM, bed time midnight) was not a very vacation like schedule. We got on the road about 10:30 and headed straight for El Yunque, the national rain forest, in Puerto Rico. It's about an hour drive south east from San Juan.

Upon arrival we stopped by the visitor center to watch the movie on El Yunque as well as to pick up a map. Our only goal for the day was to swim in a waterfall. The guide at the front desk informed us of some good stop points for photo ops and we headed on our way (in the car). We stopped at the observation point, the waterfall along the roadside filled with tourists and visitors climbing all over it, and at the Observation Tower.

(View from the Observation Tower - 100 steps up!)

After that we headed for a "hike" to Minka Falls. The hike was along a concrete path taking a little bit of the fun out of it and said path was pretty crowded. It was a pleasant walk to the waterfall but boy were we shocked when we got there! It was pretty crazy - there were hundreds of people just hanging out at the waterfall, perched on rocks, with tons of food, drinking beers while they swam. We had our lunch and then Alison, Meghan & myself decided to brave the freezing cold waters and the crazy swarms of people to swim in the waterfall. It was chilly but well worth it!

(Minka Waterfall)

After that we packed up and headed back to the car where we drove back to Luquillo Beach (the main entrance this time) and spent about 2-3 hours just laying on the beach, swimming in the ocean, and enjoying our time in the sun. On our way home we stopped at the kiosks for a quick snack (eating on the roadside is a big thing in Puerto Rico.)

That night we took advantage of our kitchen. It was Good Friday and everyone we had encountered had warned us that a lot of places would not be open. So we decided to have a night in. We had a simple pasta dinner with salad and wine followed by fun games!

It was a much more relaxing, slow paced day, where we once again got to experience a couple of things and spend good quality time together. My one complaint would be that if I were to go back to El Yunque I would talk to the guide about hiking paths a little less traveled and touristy so that I could really get a feel for the rainforest. I felt that it was definitely a very touristy destination and having so many people crowded around you kind of takes away from the beauty of being in nature!

Post in Comments:

Have you ever felt that a place you were visiting was just "too" touristy? If so, where were you?

Tuesday Travels: Puerto Rico, Day 1

2009-04-14T19:28:00.005-04:00

(This picture is from the inside of the Clara Cava, it's the only good picture I got from the inside.)

You may have noticed that I wasn't around to blog last week! That's because I was in Puerto Rico!! Every year starting in 2005 my Holy Cross girlfriends and I get together somewhere for a couple of days. In 2005 we went to New Orleans, in 2006 we went back to HC for our 5 year college reunion, in 2007 we went to St. Louis, in 2008 we visited Philadelphia and in 2009 in celebration of our 30th birthdays we decided to take it up a notch so we decided on Puerto Rico. It was a blast, we had a great trip, fun conversation, and a good variety of activities. I definitely know how lucky I am to have such amazing friends in my life and I cherish that we are able to get together once a year and explore together. I decided to break down the blog entries about our trip into a 3 parts, one for each full day that we were there to explore. So this is Day 1!

We all arrived on Wednesday, April 8th at varying times and had a fairly chill afternoon and evening together. Thursday was when all the craziness began. When we're planning our trips, depending on how many days we have, we each pick 1-2 activities that are a "must do" for us and then we try to arrange the itinerary to accomodate everyones wishes.

The first activity we did on Thursday was to get up early and drive about 90 miles Southwest of San Juan to visit the Camuy Caves. You get there and have to wait for your number to be called. Then you watch a short video on the "history" of the caves and their safety rules for your visit. You then hop into the "modern & fun" trams and travel down 200 feet to Clara Cava the Cave that is open to visitors.

(The above picture is from inside the beginning of the cave looking back up to where the tram dropped us off.)

Once there you walk through the cave out the other side. Inside it is amazing. My pictures didn't come out because it was all lit up inside the cave and so they came out all dark. It was breathtaking. Our guide Hector, was incredibly passionate about his job. Kirsten and I were able to walk up front with him for awhile and ask him questions about caves in general and Clara Cava in particular. You could just tell that he loved what he did and he loved exploring caves.

(Meghan, Alison, Kirsten, myself & Amy wearing our hardhats as we came out the other side of the cave!)

(The view looking up from the other side of the cave.)

It was about a 45 minute tour but definitely worth the drive out there. I wish we could have repelled down the cave but alas maybe next time. The one thing I would say about visiting Camuy Caves is that you have to be patient. We waited about 80-90 minutes before our tour started so make sure to leave yourself plenty of time and if you're in a rush then skip it because you won't enjoy your visit.

Afterwards, we drove back East past San Juan and spent an hour at Luquillo beach. It took us awhile to figure out exactly where the entrance was and as we found out the next day we didn't even go to the real entrance, we were definitely at the local entrance, but we were there. It was beautiful (although very windy when we were there). Everyone was just enjoying themselves, drinking, eating, playing in the sand & water.

(Amy, Meghan and myself wrote our names in the sand and snapped the above picture before the water came and washed it away!)

After our hour at the beach we drove Southeast about 30 minutes for our kayaking tour of the bioluminscent bay. It took us awhile to find it as it was tucked snug away in this little fishing village but we got there with about 5 minutes to spare, which we spent running around finding the restrooms, changing, etc. We paired up: Kirsten & Alison, Meghan & myself and Amy was paired with Matt from Chicago who was in Puerto Rico on vacation with his parents.

The kayaking was amazing, we were kayaking in the dark with the moon shining bright towards a lagoon that was going to glow! The trip to the lagoon was pretty adventures as the current was pushing us towards the lagoon at a pretty good clip. Where we were kayaking was a pretty thin waterway with each bank covered with mangrove trees (let me tell you those things are pretty dangerous, not a lot of give!) After quite the adventure we arrived at the lagoon, a vast open body of water, that was still. When we swirled our hand in the water it worked up the tiny microorganisms and it glowed, when we paddled the wake it left glowed, it was pretty cool. We sat in the lagoon for awhile while our tour guide gave us the rundown on how the bioluminscent bay worked then it was time to kayak back.

Kayaking back was much more difficult as we were against the current, it took a lot of hard work, paddling & communicating to get back to the start but it was worth it. It was by far my favorite acitivity of the trip, although the caves were a close 2nd, it just was so peaceful. I love to kayak and it isn't something I get to do often, I hope it's something I get to do more often in the future!

After kayaking we had dinner at the Oceanview right near the kayaking start and then headed home. We left San Juan at 8:30AM and got back around midnight. It was a long day but it was so much fun. All are activities that I would recommend for those that are traveling to Puerto Rico. Just make sure to make reservations for the kayaking ahead of time!

Monday Bookworms: Watchmen

2009-04-13T16:39:00.002-04:00

Watchmen, by Alan Moore and David Gibbons

Back in the late fall/early winter when Jon and I were going to the movies pretty much every week before every movie we saw a preview for the movie Watchmen. After seeing like the 5th preview for Watchmen I finally turned to Jon and said, "I think I would like to see this movie...". I mentioned this to both my Uncle Joe and my future brother-in-law Josh and they recommended that I read the book first. I won't lie I was skeptical about a graphic novel but I was also excited about branching out and experiencing a whole new genre of reading! My Uncle Joe lent me the book and thus I began....

Watchmen is the story of costumed/masked super heroes. At the beginning of the book we learn that The Comedian has died and another masked man Rorschak is trying to find out who is behind his murder and why. As the novel unfolds we learn the hisotry of the costumed/masked super heroes and what happened to them. The novel goes between the present and the past to unravel the mystery of who would be behind getting rid of the costumed/masked super heroes and why.

There are 12 chapters in all and each chapter consists of about 25-30 pages of graphic novel and then 4 pages of "regular book writing" which provides the reader with information about the person featured in that chapter or additional "historical" information about the time that was discussed.

I will admit that it definitely took me 2 chapters to really get into a rhythm of reading this book because it's just so different. You have to train your eyes to read the bubbles in each box, take in the pictures in each box (especially because sometimes the writing & the picture do not directly correlate) and process the information to make the story in your head. Once I got into a rhythm though I was turning the pages until the end. I actually ended up finding the graphic part more interesting and easier to read in the end then the journal entries at the end of each chapter.

Overall, I would rate this book 4 stars. I enjoyed it, it was very different from anything I am used to, and I thought the story was interesting. I don't think that I'll become a die-hard graphic novel fan but I could definitely see myself picking one up every now and again for a change.

Post in Comments:

Have you ever read a graphic novel? If so, which one? Did you like it?

Monday Bookworms: chick lit & mystery!

2009-04-06T14:48:00.004-04:00

Good In Bed, by Jennifer Weiner

This book has been on my "to read" list for years. Whenever I go to the library to check it out it's never there. I finally just reserved a copy from the mid-town Manhattan library and got it last week. I was exited to see what all the fuss was about (even though I'm about 8 years behind said fuss!)

Good In Bed follows the story of Cannie Shapiro, an over weight, 20-something, newspaper writer living in Philadelphia. When we meet Cannie she has great friends, has a bizarre family situation and has just broken up with her boyfriend of 3 years Bruce. Bruce then proceeds to write about their sex life in very intimate detail in his new column for Moxie Magazine, titled, Good In Bed.

The book weaves between Cannie's present and her past in a very subtle manner as we follow Cannie through registering for "Fat Class" (as she calls it), a surprise pregnancy, an important trip to Hollywood, among other adventures. Weaving through her past helps the reader understand Cannie as she is as a person today, her insecurities, her relationship issues, and of course her self-protecting sense of humor.

While Good In Bed was perhaps a little to racy for me at times (I could have done without the descriptive reading of Bruce's column...) overall I thought it was a really good read. It's about learning to love yourself for who you really are, accepting yourself, realizing your self importance and self worth in the eyes of others, and loving your family for they are regardless of their quirks. There is also some classicly good chick-lit in there as well with an ending that you'll root for. But I don't want to give anything away....

Overall, I enjoyed the writing style, I enjoyed the story, I did however think it was a bit long winded. I would say it was a solid 3.5 star rating. A book you'd enjoy if you picked up but I'm not saying it's a must read.

Fade Away, Harlan Coben

This is the 3rd book in Harlan Coben's Myron Bolitar series. I had read many of Harlan Coben's books but the stand alone ones. A year ago I decided to start ready the Bolitar series because they were his first books.

The gist is that Myron Bolitar, a super-star basketball player out of Duke, was injured early on in his career with the Celtics. Since then he had a stint with the FBI and is currently working as a sports agent. His sidekick Win runs a financial institution of impeccable reputation that all of Bolitar's clients use. Together Myron and Win work cases on the side, disappearances, murders, etc. They are great tag team and in this 3rd book in the series Fade Away they are as fun as ever.

Greg Downing, a guard for the New Jersey Dragons (and Myron's biggest college rival) goes missing just weeks before the playoffs begin. The owner of the Dragons brings Myron and Win onboard to help find Downing. Before long Myron and Win are in deep, gambling, debts owed, murder, blackmail, you name it. Can they solve the mystery and find Greg (hopefully alive) in time....you'll have to read to find out.

One of the things I love about Coben's writing is that it's simple, and it builds and builds until you get to the end. I can very rarely figure out who's done it before he reveals it to me. The only book where I've actually figured out the end was the 2nd book in the Bolitar series. The pagees keep turning and I know when I pick up one of Harlan Coben's books that I'll finish it in a day or two.

This book lived up to my expectations, it kept me turning the pages and kept me guessing until the end. I would give this book a solid 4 stars in the mystery department. I look forward to finishing this series and seeing Coben's writing style continue to develop!

Post in Comments:

Have you read Good in Bed? Did you like it?

Have you read Fade Away? Have you read any books by Harlan Coben?

Which do you prefer: chick-lit or mysteries?

Entertainment Thursday: Definitely, Maybe

2009-04-02T13:14:00.002-04:00

A couple of weeks ago I received a little Netflix red envelope with this delightful movie inside! I had heard good things about Definitely, Maybe so I moved it to the top of my queue. Jon was working late so I was enjoying some "me" time in our apartment and I was in the mood for a good chick-flick.

Definitely, Maybe stars Ryan Reynolds as Will Hayes, a 30-something New Yorker who is getting divorced and trying to explain to his 11-year old daughter what went wrong. She asks him to tell her the story of how he met her mother. He starts at the beginning (the beginning being his graduation from college). Tells the story of his last 3 relationships and lets her guess who her mother is.

It's a sweet story and the casting I thought was just right. It made me realize how much I enjoy Isla Fisher, I wish she was in more movies. She is just so sweet and likeable and enjoyable to watch! Ryan Reynolds, I thought carried this movie well, he was certainly a very likeable guy, although off the top of my head I couldn't tell you one movie I remember him being in...I'll have to look in to that. And Abigail Breslin was perfectly adorable.

This is a definite chick-flick, but one that I think is worth renting and watching!

I give it 4 stars.

Post in Comments:

Have you seen this movie and if so, did you enjoy it?

Recipe Wednesdays: The Cupcake

2009-04-01T12:57:00.002-04:00

I am a sugar addict - there - I said it! Every afternoon I get this craving for something sugary whether it's chocolate, candy, a cookie, whatever. Sometimes I give in to my craving and sometimes I just have the snack I packed.

Since moving to NYC I have been eagerly awaiting trying the infamous Magnolia Bakery cupcake. However, the location was not really close to my house, and the long lines that I constantly heard about kept me away.

That was until last December on the way to our Theater Benefit, my co-worker Rachelle and I, spotted Magnolia Bakery midtown (photo above). We were very excited! We decided that for the next birthday or celebration we'd have Magnolia cupcakes.

The first celebratory event was the engagement of our other co-worker. I gladly walked to the corner of 49th and 6th (not too far from our offices) to have my first Magnolia Baker experience. It smells like heaven when you walk inside. There are separate lines depending on what it is you are looking for (cakes, cookies, cupcakes, etc). See the cute cupcake sign to the left!

Since that day last fall we have had 3 other occassions for celebration and I've decided which cupcake I prefer. The first time I got a cupcake I got chocolate cake with vanilla frosting. It was delicious but it was a little too sugary and that's saying a lot coming from me. The red velvet frosting looking more creamy then sugary so I wasn't really interested in that, but the chocolate cake with choclate frosting intrigued me....

It is so deliciously decadent, it is everything that a cupcake should be! NYC is cupcake central. I've had Crumbs cupcakes (they're alright - I personally do not like their frosting), I've had Sugar Sweet Sunshine Bakery's cupcakes (those are pretty good), I've had Amy's Bread's cupcakes (those are delish) and now I've had Magnolia's Bakery (I don't think I'll return to a different cupcake store when I can get Magnolia!

So when you come to NYC and you see that line the answer is, Yes, it's worth it, you should wait, they're delicious!

Post in Comments:

Have you had a Magnolia Bakery Cupcake? Did you think they were worth the wait?

If not, what's your favorite cupcake in NYC? And if you're not from NYC, what's your favorite cupcake place from where you're from?

Tuesday Travels: Atlantic City

2009-03-31T12:36:00.004-04:00

Saturday was the awaited day - our first trip ever to Atlantic City - I was not expecting much but I was super excited just to go somewhere new! The plan was to drive down to AC, check out the casino, check out AC, then have dinner and go to the LIVE (as in the band) concert at The House of Blues at The Showboat Resort & Casino.

Unfortunately for us the weather was less then cooperative! It was misty, cold and certainly not a day to stroll the boardwalk and check out AC. I was so happy that I ran in NYC before driving down as opposed to doing my run on the boardwalk as I had originally planned. On top of it all Jon had a conference call that began at 4PM right as we arrived there and went pretty much until our friends Gary & Tiffany arrived. Matt (my brother-in-law) and I checked in to the hotel, got everything squared away with our room and then decided to hit the casino (neither of us big gamblers!) He played some online poker, I played some slots, he played some slots, he won $50, I lost $10. We had not realized that in the casinos you can still smoke (I'm sorry if you are a smoker and you're reading this) which makes being in the casino not a very enjoyable activity. We got sodas, watched some of the basketball game, got a lay of the land (ie: found the concert venue) and then Jon was off the phone!

We all decided to walk down the street to a bar that guest services recommended to us to watch more NCAA March Madness action. We only walked 3 blocks and it was pretty miserable. We had one beer left and went back to the hotel and got in line for the House of Blues restaurant for dinner. Our dinner there started off great - a round of Miller Lites, fun apps for the table, dinner is served, plenty of time until the concert....and then....I found a lady bug in my ceasar salad! A lady bug (maybe I'll have good luck in the near future!) The manager walked by asked us how we were doing, Jon mentioned the lady bug and good things started to roll...50% off our dinner, a free round of Miller Lites and a free round of shots later we were off to watch LIVE up stairs in the concert venue. (I guess in away you could say I did win big in AC, just not in the typical gambling fashion.)

The place was just a huge open floorplan. We got as close as we could to the stage and the opening act began. They were awful, really awful! So we chatted and kept ourselves entertained. Then it was time for the real performace - LIVE! We were all so excited as were our "new friends" standing around us. They were awesome. Jon and I saw them last March (me for the 1st time) in Sayerville, NJ at the Starland Ballroom and they were amazing. I've been listening to a lot more of their music getting ready for this concert and once again they did not disappoint. They played a lot of songs I was unfamiliar with but they still sounded amazing!!!

Our 5AM wake up call, to get Matt to Newark Airport for his flight to London, came soon after our heads hit the pillow, but we got him there by 7AM and were back in NYC and in bed by 10AM after breakfast with my parents in NJ (we tried Bagelicious' competition, Fair Lawn's Hot Bagels...definitely not as good as Bagelicious!)

All in all it was definitely an interesting Saturday and I enjoyed exploring somewhere new, but I'll be honest, I'm in no big rush to get back to AC. Maybe if we had had a nicer day....

Post in Comments:

Have you been to AC? Did you like it? Did you win big?

Monday Bookworms: Lucia, Lucia

2009-03-30T14:49:00.002-04:00

I picked this book up based on a recommendation from my friend Amy. She read this book a couple of years ago and I was recently perusing her reads looking for something good when I stumbled upon Lucia, Lucia by Adriana Trigiani.

Lucia, Lucia is of course the story of Lucia Sartori, a young woman 25 years of age, who lives in Greenwich Village during the 1950's. Her Dad is from Italy and owns the local Italian Groceria, her mother stays at home, and her 4 older brothers work with her father. She works at B. Altman's creating custom dresses, wedding gowns, suits, etc for the wealthy women of New York City. She is fiercely independent and struggles to find a balance between meeting her families expectations of getting married to an Italian-American man from the neighborhood, keeping house, and raising a family with her dreams for herself of being a career woman.

We follow Lucia as she meets the man she thinks will enable her to "have it all". Then as always life gets complicated!

This was an enjoyable and entertaining read. Of course as someone who lives in New York City reading about life in New York City during the early 1950's up to present is always interesting! The cast of characters in this novel or loveable and you'll feel like you're in the Sartori's kitchen at Christmas eating Tartuffi!

It is a quick, light and easy read although I did feel that the ending was a bit rushed. It's the perfect book inbetween some heavy reading that has your brain working overtime as it will certainly not tax your brain to read this book.

Overall, I'd give it 3-3.5 stars.

Favorite Things Friday - Bagels

2009-03-27T16:19:00.003-04:00

This Friday I'm going to share my love of bagels with you all! Ever since I was a really young girl I've always loved bagels. I would only eat plain bagels until the age of 19 when I was working at Cool Beans (the coffee shop on campus at Holy Cross) and I needed to eat breakfast. They had all sorts of bagels but no plain that is the day I became an adventurous bagel eater. Now I like poppy bagels, marbe bagels, cinnamon raisan bagels, wheat bagels, and my two favorites are the Everything Bagel and the Onion Bagel!

When I lived in Boston I was a Brueggers girl. There bagels were small (and probably healthier for us for that) but they were by far the best in Boston (IMHO). My favorite bagels from my hometown of Ridgewood, New Jersey come from Bagelicious Bagels on Broad Street in town. They are hands down the best bagels I've ever eaten in my life! If you ever roll through Ridgewood check them out.

Moving to NYC the bagel mecca of the US I was psyched to find the perfect bagel. The two that stand out the most to me are: Smilers (across the street from my office) they have a damn good bagel for a deli and Pick-a-bagel a true New York Classic I'm told! The one that I have yet to try is Esse bagel - maybe I'll give it a go this weekend.

Regardless, bagels are the perfect comfort food breakfast, unfortunately you can't eat to many of them a week because they're not great for the waistline. They're a special treat!

Post in Comments:

Do you have a favorite bagel?

Do you have a favorite bagel place?

If you live in NYC, what's your favorite bagel place in the city?

Entertainment Thursday: I Love You, Man

2009-03-26T16:08:00.002-04:00

Thursday night I went out to Astoria to have dinner and catch a movie with my good friend Jen. She made a delicious dinner of stuffed shells (a variation that I had never had...but may have to try in the near future!) and we shared some wine and then headed over to the movie theater to watch I Love You, Man.

The premise is that Paul Rudd's character, who just proposed to the girl of his dream, his girlfriend, realizes that he doesn't have any close guy friends. When he realizes that his future wife is concerned that she's going to have 7+ bridesmaids and he won't have any groomsmen he sets out on a series of "man dates" to find a Best Man.

Enter Jason Segel, as Sydney Fife, a fun loving guys guy that Paul Rudd's character, Peter Flaven, hits it off with. As they bond over their love of the band RUSH, and start spending all of their time together, Peter's fiance, Zoe doesn't appreciate their new formed friendship.

I'll be honest, I don't watch How I Met Your Mother (HIMYM), and I know I should start, but the few times I've seen it Jason Segel seems really young to me (in real life he's a year younger than myself). In this movie however he seemed much older and it took me about half the movie to reconcile that in my head. There were plenty of laugh out loud moments, and plenty of awkward Peter Klaven moments where you just were cringing in your seat embarrased for him! It was definitely a feel good movie, that goes exactly where you think it's going to go and then brings it back to finish exactly how you want it to finish.

I would say that it's a definite rental - 3 stars!

Recipe Wednesdays: Orecchiette with Mini Chicken Meatballs

2009-03-25T09:56:00.002-04:00

Last week I made another Giada creation: Orecchiette with Mini Chicken Meatballs. Once again, it was delish!

If you would like the recipe you can click HERE. It was fairly simple, more prep time than cooking time. It was more flavorful then I thought it was going to be. The chicken meatballs were divine and I was nervous seeing as I had never used ground chicken as a base before in place of ground turkey or beef.

This meal heated up great as leftovers, I ended having it for lunch most days last week. I just added a little bit of chicken broth each morning and some salt, pepper and cheese and it was delicious once heated in the microwave for about 2 minutes.

This is definitely a recipe I would recommend!

Tuesday Travels: Top 5 Domestic Dream Vacations

2009-03-24T16:33:00.004-04:00

Last week I blogged about my Top 5 International Dream Vacations so this week I'm going to write about my Top 5 Domestic Dream Vacations (again in no particular order). I love to travel and it doesn't matter if it is abroad or in my own country, exploring new places, meeting new people, discovering new running routes, that's my main objective!

First up is Texas, I know it may seem pretty random but I have had a desire to visit Texas for a VERY LONG TIME and I have yet to get there. I don't know what it is that entices me but I have got to get to Texas sooner rather than later. Whether it's exploring great music in Austin, running where Kristin Armstrong runs in the hills of Austin, visiting the Alamo (even though I've been told by all that it is over rated), seeing the river walk in San Antonio, going to a high school football game, going to the rodeo, vacationing along the Gulf of Mexico or eating delicious barbque, I just want to experience Texas in all of it's glory.

Ah, Yellowstone National Park. I love doing outdoorsy things: hiking, white water rafting, kayaking, swimming, and just being in awe of Mother Nature. Where better to experience that then Yellowstone National Park, the grand daddy of all National Parks. My parents recently took a trip there and my cousin visits Yellowstone frequently. I just want to see the Buffalo blocking the middle of the road, visit Ole Faithful with all the other tourists, and walk the trails. I'm thoroughly looking forward to the day that we get to go here...although I will say I'm not much for camping...I'll do it, but it's probably the outdoorsy activity I like the least!

Wow, I'm really sharing myself with you guys. Mount Rushmore is one of my OBSESSIONS. It's bizarre and pretty random, I know, but I am obsessed with Mount Rushmore and my need to visit it. It is a running joke in our household. Maybe it's because of the President's, or maybe because it is just so random and cool - faces of our Presidents carved into a rock in North (or is it South) Dakota. I mean look at it - you know you want to see it too!

I don't know how I'm going to get to Mount Rushmore, as I do not believe there is much to see out where it is except Mount Rushmore. I may have to combine it with my trip to Yellowstone even though I'm not sure they're near each other....hmmm...this one is going to take some pondering. But when I get there, ahh, I'll feel I've truly accomplished one of my life goals.

Hawaii!!!! Who doesn't want to go here??? Not only do I want to visit the beautiful beaches, go snorkeling and enjoy the blue blue water, but I also really want to visit Pearl Harbor (a time period in history that facinates me to no end), take the Road to Hana, walk near a volcano, visit the pineapple farms and eat fresh pineapple, among numerous other things.

It might have been the episode of Saved by the Bell or Full House that introduced me to Hawaii (you know which episodes I'm talking about!) Either way it's beautiful, it's not part of the continental US, and it's a MUST visit!

Last but not least, The Grand Canyon. I already have my trip to The Grand Canyon planned out although it requires the attendance of our unborn children. We're going to spend a week rafting down the Colorado River and then spend some more time hiking and exploring all the nooks and crannies and swimming holes that The Grand Canyon holds.

You have to be 12 to raft on the Colorado River and you have to book the trip 3 years in advance. Seeing as we do not have children yet, and I'm not pregnant, I guess this trip won't be happening for awhile. Although I've already started saving for it because it's going to cost a pretty penny. It'll be worth it though when I'm standing at the rim with Jon and our 4 kids looking across the Canyon saying to myself, "We finally made it here!"

Post in Comments:

What are your Top 5 Domestic Dream Vacations?

Have you visited any of mine?

Monday Bookworms: A President & A Shopaholic?

2009-03-23T15:01:00.003-04:00

For those of you who know me or have been following my blog from the beginning you know that one of the reading challenges I have outlined for myself is to read a book about every President in order. I've been working on this for about 4-5 years now and I usually try to read 2 President books a year.

I just finished a book about John Tyler, the 10th President. I chose a book from the American Presidents Series. These books are good for Presidents that you want to read about but you perhaps do not want to read 600+ pages about. John Tyler was one of those Presidents.

I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by this book. John Tyler was the first Vice President to replace a President who had passed away in office. That in and of itself is interesting. He was a lot of other firsts as well: The first President to lose their spouse in office (his wife passed away in his first year or second year of Presidency); he was the first President to be married in office (to his 2nd wife); he had 15 children total, the most of any President (8 by his first wife and 7 by his second wife); he was the first President to lose his parties support and be ousted from his party during his Presidency (the Whigs were so upset by his numerous vetoes they told him he could no longer be part of the Whig party!); he was the first incumbent President to not run for re-election; and he was the first President to betray his country (after he was out of office when the South voted to secede from the Union, John Tyler voted with the South).

Many say that he was not a great President, unfortunately for him he was up against a lot. Many people didn't feel that he should be President, they called him "The Accidental President". Henry Clay, especially felt very strongly about this. At one point during his term it is said that Clay orchestrated that Tyler's entire cabinet (minus Daniel Webster) resigned in the same day!

While maybe not the most important President, I still found it interesting to read about his life, his Presidency and his family. I'm finding that sometimes it's the Presidents that I do not know much about that are proving to be the most interesting reads!

From President John Tyler to shopaholic Becky Bloomwood, my reading tastes are certainly varied! Shopaholic & Sister is the 4th book in this hilariously fun series. I'm sad that there is only one more to go.... I've thoroughly enjoyed this entire series and it seems to me that each book gets more outrageous and funnier as I get further into the series. I think also having seen the movie that just came out and having a picture of Hugh Dancy & Isla Fisher in my head, had me laughing harder as I imagined them acting some of this stuff out...oh, how I hope they make sequels to that movie!

In this 4th installment of the Shopaholic series, Becky Bloomwood and Luke Brandon are finishing up their around the world honeymoon. After 10 months they decide that it is time to come home to see family and friends and begin working again. However, upon arrival, Becky's parents seem to be keeping a secret, her best friend Suze has a "new" best friend, and Becky worries about how much she actually ended up purchasing and shipping to Luke's flat in London. As she discovers that her parents secret is that she has a half-sister, Becky thinks this is grand, she'll show Suze. She envisions that her and her half-sister Jessica will be best friends forever, that is until she meets Jessica. Jessica is everything that Becky is not, frugal, spend thrift, hates shopping and excesses, and is passionate about the environment and rocks. As Becky tries to form a bond with her new sister, handle stressed out Luke who's trying to close a new deal, and adjust to being back in good ol' England, hilarity ensues.

Once again Kinsella managed to capture my heart. I may not be as crazy and over the top as Becky but how can you not root for her again and again as she gets herself into all sort of funny situations. I thoroughly enjoyed this book (I actually had to put it down a couple of times becuase I was laughing so hard my eyes were shut!) If you haven't read the Shopaholic series I absolutely suggest them as fun, outrageous, light, laugh-out-loud reads - you will not be disappointed! Just make sure to start from the beginning!

Favorite Things Friday - Netflix

2009-03-20T16:12:00.003-04:00

Ahhh...Favorite Things Friday! It's fun coming up with what my favorite things are that I want to write about. Today it is NETFLIX. I became a netflix user in the summer of 2006. We were training for the Chicago Marathon and watching movies every Friday night because on Saturday we had to be up at 6:30AM to get our long runs in. We realized that it was cheaper for us to register for Netflix then it was for us to go to Blockbuster every Friday and pick out a movie plus there were no late fees if I forgot to return the movie on time. In addition, this was the summer when Jon was living in New York City and I was living in Boston so I had many evenings free. With Netflix I was able to rent television shows that I had missed when they were on or just watch chick flicks that I knew Jon wasn't going to want to watch with me on Friday.

There are many reasons I love Netflix, here are a few of them:

1 - I love mailing things, I know it's weird, but I do. Mailing my Netflix movies when I'm done is so satisfying.
2 - I love lists (in case you didn't know that already) so I love that I have a queue that I can add movies to at anytime. I have a problem manging my queue though which is why we currently have over 120 movies in it! It's a little overwhelming at times.
3 - Netflix has totally broadened our movie watching. Before when Jon and I would go to Blockbuster or Hollywood Video we would just browse the new releases. With Netflix we watch television shows, miniseries, old classic movies, new releases, documentaries and foreign films. We've watched movies and shows that we might never have explored if we had kept going to the video store evey now and again.
4 - We love how when all else fails and your plans fall through you always have a Netflix movie or show waiting for you. We rent two at a time, unlimited for the month, so there is always a red envelope with something waiting for us to watch!
5 - You can have friends on Netflix! You can see what they're watching, what they liked and what they didn't like, and this opens up your movie watching world as well.
6 - Netflix recommends movies for you. One of my favorite foreign films that I've seen, The Dinner Game, was a random French movie that Netflix recommended for me. I've recommended this movie to many people who have also loved it. Thanks Netflix!
7 - You can rate your movies. It's so easy to remember what you liked and didn't like, just type in the movie and look it up. Netflix keeps track of everything you've ever rated. I'm rating obsessed - as soon as we finish a movie (whether it's at home or at the movie theater) I'm logged on to Netflix to update our queue and rate the movie.

Those are some of the many reasons that Netflix is one of my favorite things. Tonight we're watching the last episode on The Wire, Season 2: Disc 3 then we get to return it for Disc 4!

Post in Comments:

Do you have Netflix?

If so, what do you most love about Netflix?

Entertainment Thursday: Phantom of the Opera - The Play vs. The Movie

2009-03-19T16:00:00.003-04:00

On Friday Jon and I saw The Phantom of the Opera at the Majestic Theater. It was a treat to ourselves. Back in December orchestera seats were on sale for $60 per ticket which is essentially buy one get one free in the orchestra. We had each seen Phantom once before. I was definitely in middle school when I saw Phantom and Jon saw Phantom for the first time in 2003. We both love love love the music from this show and decided that at buy one get one free it was time to see it again!

All I have to say is Phantom and Les Mis, in my opinion, are just in totally different stratospheres compared to other Broadway shows and it's not just the music, it's the entire theatrical production that puts them on such a different level. When the Phantom takes Christine to his lair and their in the boat and you just feel like they're really floating on water with the fog and the lighting it's just amazing (possibly my favorite scene besides the opening or masquerade)!

I cried at the end because I just think that The Phantom of the Opera is such a tragic character. His one desire is to be loved but he doesn't understand what love is....I don't want to say more in the event that anyone reading this blog post hasn't seen the show or movie!

On our 15 block walk home Jon and I were singing songs from the show, talking about our favorite scenes, disecting which performances we liked the best and which the least, and just in a general state of europhia from seeing a live show on Broadway.

As we were walking we started comparing the show to the movie that was released in 2004 starring Gerard Butler as Phantom and Emmy Rossum as Christine. We saw the movie in the theater and then later purchased it and have watched it quite a few times. We LOVE it - it allows us to see the story & music unfold again and again without having to pay the hefty theater ticket price. However, over the past 5 years as I've spoken to people about it there seems to be a strong dislike for the movie among those that love the show in the theater. Jon and I agree that of course while it's better in the theater, we feel that the movie is a good representation of the show and the music and sticks very closely to the story which we like.

Regardless, of which you prefer, The Phantom of the Opera, in my opinion, is a must see theater experience. My favorite songs from the show were Music of the Night, All I Ask of You, Point of No Return and of course The Phantom of the Opera. I think after writing this blogpost I might have to put the CD on:)

Post in Comments:

What is your favorite song from The Phantom of the Opera?

Do you prefer the theatrical production or the movie? And why?

Recipe Wednesdays: Comfort Food

2009-03-18T22:05:00.005-04:00

This Sunday I was making my meals for the week and I made one of my favorite dishes that is totaly comfort food for me - Skillet!!! Skillet was something that we ate all the time growing up. I don't know if my mom just made it up or if she got the recipe from someone but I have very fond memories of skillet night (my brother and sister might feel differently!)

Here is the recipe:

1 lb. ground turkey

1 onion

1 box of frozen peas

1 box of beef rice a roni

Chop up the onions and cook them with the ground turkey. Drain the fat from the ground turkey. Add the margarine/butter and the rice to the pan and brown the rice. Add the water, seasoning packet, ground turkey, peas & onions to the rice and bring to a boil. Simmer for 15-20 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

On a cold day I find a piping hot dish straight out of the pan extra yummy! The great thing about this meal is that it heats up in the microwave well so it's great to have for lunch for the week.

The drink in the background is my new concoction - 1/2 seltzer water and 1/2 grape juice - yum!

Post in Comments:

What is your favorite comfort food?

Tuesday Travels: Top 5 International Dream Vacation

2009-03-17T16:15:00.007-04:00

Ok, in getting ready for this post today and thinking about what NYC activity I was going to highlight I realized that Jon and I haven't had an NYC experience in a couple of weeks. So I had to come up with a different topic for Tuesday Travels! Easy, peasy! I'm going to share with you my current Top 5 International Dream Vacations, in no particular order.

The Scandanavian nations - These 3 countries have always held some intrigue for me because you never hear people talk about them they way they talk about other European countries. Last year, I was watching Passport to Europe with Samantha Brown on the Travel Channel (I love that show!) and she went to Norway or maybe it was Sweden. Either way it was beautiful! And it made me realize that Sweden, Finland and Norway are places that I would definitely love to visit. The above picture is from the city of Bergen, Norway - isn't it charming?

New Zealand - My sister and her fiance first turned me onto to New Zealand. I did some research and realized this country would definitely be in my top 5. There are only 4 million people living there making it one of the less crowded countries in the world. It's less crowded than a lot of cities in the world - take Manhattan for instance. What can you do there? Everything - hiking, kayaking, swimming, gambling, wine tours, hot air balloon rides, it's the perfect place to go and rejuvenate (or so says their tourism website). I'll get there some day....

Macchu Pichu - Hiking Macchu Pichu is a dream of mine. Well, really just getting to South America would be pretty darn cool! The landscape, the history, everything about Macchu Pichu is enticing. Hopefully one day I'll be able to make the trek. And maybe while I'm down there I'll hit up Patagonia as well, another beautiful destination in South America...it didn't make my Top 5 but it was close.

Greece Glorious Greece! - I've wanted to go here forever. Jon and I debated Greece for our honeymoon but we decided on Fiji instead. I'm hoping that we'll soon take an Anniversary trip here! Aside from the history and the Parthenon, there are the islands with their white buildings and blue tops. I can't wait to take a boat out and go island hopping, spend nights wandering the streets of Santorini taking in the perfect sunset, eating breakfast on a patio overlooking the vast blue sea...I have a feeling that if I ever get there it's going to be hard to convince me to come back.

Lastly, Costa Rica because it's a great combination of beaches, and rainforests, laying around and doing nothing, and experiencing class 5 rapids among other adventures. Hey and it's closest to where I live and probably the most affordable and realistic trip for me to take in the next 5 years or so!

Post in Comments:

Have you been to any of these countries?

What would your Top 5 International Dream Vacations be?

Monday Bookworms: Cholera, Homelessness & Love, Oh My

2009-03-16T16:13:00.007-04:00

Back in September I signed up for The New Classics Reading Challenge, which I was supposed to finish by the end of January. While, I did not finish in time I have decided that I would still like to finish. To that end, Love in the Time of Cholera was the 5th book of of 6 that I needed to read in order to complete the challenge.

I was excited to pick this book up because I had had it on my shelf for over a year, it had been much hyped, and I read 100 Years of Solitude also by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, which I loved.

Love in the Time of Cholera is the love story of Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza who as young struck teenagers & twenty-somethings profess their undying love to each other through daily letters. However, after some time Fermina Daza marries a young, wealthy and successful doctor, thus breaking Florentino Ariza heart. Instead of moving on, Florentino decides that while he may have various relationships with other women he will never marry another who is not Fermina Daza. Through out the years he continues to follow the path of her life, he runs into her at many public functions, and he becomes a very successful businessman for the River Company. When Fermina Daza's husband dies, after 50+ years, Florentino sees his opportunity. Even though they are 70+ years old he pursues her friendship so as to ultimately win her hand in marriage.

The premise of this book seemed like it would be an interesting story but it wasn't. The character development was dry and while the reader learned everything there was ever to know about Florentino & Fermina, you just weren't pressed to care enough about either of them, to really root for them in the end. The writing was long winded and very drawn out making this read the opposite of a page turner. Overall, I would say this was just an OK read and I certainly would never recommend it to anyone.

Last year, I attended the celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. One of the guest speakers at this event was Colum McCann. When he was speaking he was so eloquent that I was just drawn to what he was saying (or maybe it was that fabulous Irish accent!) Either way he was hands down my favorite speaker of the night.

It was my pick for our March book group book and I chose This Side of Brightness by Colum McCann. I wanted something different, I wanted a book that took place in NYC, and I just really felt that it was time I picked up one of McCann's books.

This Side of Brightness weaves between two stories, that of Nathan Walker, a sandhog in the early 1900's, who works to build the tunnels, with that of Treefrog, a homeless man in his mid-30's who lives in the tunnels that Nathan Walker built 80+ years ago. As you follow both Walker and Treefrog's stories to the point where they join you look at life from different perspectives: those of the sandhogs, those of the homeless men and women who currently populate NYC, those of the immigrant families in the tenements, those of the families in Harlem and you look at what "family means", what it means "to belong to a community", and how the actions of one person or one misstep can tear a family apart as quickly as one can bring a family together.

I really enjoyed this book, it was gritty and even thought it was an easy read it was one that made me think about the issues and topics that were addressed. Our book group discussion was thoughtful and I appreciated hearing other peoples takes on this book. It's not an uplifting story but it's one that I'm glad I read.

Post in Comments:

Have you read Love in the Time of Cholera? If so, would you recommend it? What did you like and dislike about the book?

Have you read This Side of Brightness? If so, how did you interpret the title of the book?

Favorite Things Friday - Holy Cross

2009-03-13T13:01:00.003-04:00

OK so anyone reading this blog who personally knows me knows that I went to Holy Cross, Class of 2001 baby!!!! And also knows that I LOVE EVERYTHING HOLY CROSS!

When I was applying for colleges I didn't want to apply to HC. I mean Worcester, MA, I had never heard of it and after living in NJ for 8 years my main goal was to get back down South to warmth and sunshine. My dad however, really really wanted me to apply to HC. So when I sent in my 6 college applications Holy Cross was one of the schools that got one.

To everyone's surprise (including mine) I got in. This changed things because I knew there was no way I was going to get away with not going to HC since it was the best school academically that I got into. So August of 1997 off I went to Worcester, Massachusetts to live in Hanselman 407.

Early on in my experience I decided that college was going to be what I was going to make of it. I made the decision right then and there that I was going to make it awesome and I was going to make it the college experience I had always dreamed of! I studied Spanish (although in hindsight I probably should have been a history major), I lived in Sevilla, Spain my junior year, I lived in Leon, Spain the summer after my Freshman year, I was an RA (resident assistant), I was a tour guide, a member of the purple key society, a volunteer at reunion weekend, I went on the spiritual exercises retreat (where I couldn't talk for 7 straight days and yes, I did it, I didn't talk for 7 straight day - I know it's hard to believe!), I did a spring break trip to Appalachia my senior year, etc.... These are just a few of the amazing memories and experiences that I have from HC.

Holy Cross was a huge part of what made me who I am, it's where I discovered myself and who I wanted to be, it's where I blossomed. I'm so grateful for all the things that HC gave to me, here are just a few:

- My husband Jon and I met first day of Class, Elementary Spanish of all things!
- My girlfriends: Amers, Megs, Kirsten and Al - go Hanselman 4! We get together every year for a HC Ladies Weekend and they are some of my favorite memories.
- My guyfriends: Jon (now my husband!), Gary, Forni, Dowling & Will. We get togehter often in NYC and it's great to have the group all together just like in the days of Wheeler One although perhaps a little more civilized!
- Dean Joe, a true friend and mentor. I was lucky enough to meet him my Sophmore year and share 4 years with him. I learned so much from him and there are not many days that go by that I don't think about Dean Joe and how he would handle certain situations, or what his answer might be to the 1,000 questions running through my head about life, religion, relationships, family, politics, and so on and so forth. I miss him!
- The close knit HC community! We all have our good friends but the great thing about Holy Cross is that we're ALL "good friends". Whenever you meet some one from HC there is an instant bond that you share of good times, memories and just the experience of living on the hill regardless of when you graduated and if you knew each other. We're a social bunch of fun loving, smart, successful, drinking fools and I wouldn't have it anyother way.
- Holy Cross was where Jon & I got engaged and got married so outside of being our college it will always have a very special place in our hearts.

I hope one day that one of our children thinks HC is the place for them, but more than that, I hope that regardless of where they go, they find happiness, great friends, support, guidance, and the space to become themselves, just like I did.

Post in Comments:

If you're a fellow HC Grad, what were some of your favorite memories, or things you're most grateful about HC?

If you're not an HC Grad, where did you go to college? Share what your college community was like.

PS - HC vs. American today at 4:45PM, winner take Patriot League Title and a spot in the March Madness Tourney! Go 'Saders, we'll be rooting for you!

Entertainment Thursday: Buzzsugar

2009-03-12T12:45:00.000-04:00

Okay so since yesterday I wrote about Food Blogs it got me thinking on what I wanted to write about today which is Entertainment Blogs. My go to entertainment blog is BUZZSUGAR! I have been following this blog for years. I read all the movie reviews, television show reviews and I find myself saying to Jon sometimes as the lights are dimming and we're crossing our fingers that we've picked a good movie, "Well, buzzsugar, said this movie was great!"

Buzzsugar and I have similar tastes. I've rarely been steered wrong by Buzzsugar (although it has happened once or twice where we've disagreed). Now I do not consider myself a crazy entertainment guru (although when it comes to popculture that you'll find on people.com I usually know the answer...) but I do enjoy watching movies & television and I do make sure that I watch a full range of genres to broaden my horizons. I appreciate shows & movies more for the story then the cinematography or the directing, I just don't feel "I get" all of that.

It got me to thinking though with all those varied entertainment tastes out there:

Where do you get your entertainment information from?

What are your go to entertainment websites?

Are there any entertainment blogs you hate and stay away from?

I'm curious to know, please post your answer in the comments.

Recipe Wednesdays: Food Blogs

2009-03-11T12:30:00.000-04:00

I didn't cook anything mind blowing this week so instead of focusing on a recipe I wanted to write about Food Blogs. I like reading food blogs for a number of reasons: 1) You get great recipe ideas, 2) they provide suggestions for products that are healthy and delicious (as someone who is constantly striving to become a little less picky and introduce new foods into my world this is great for me!), 3) I find that it motivates me to eat healthier throughout the day when I read a couple of people's blogs who always eat healthy (within moderation!), and 4) I just like reading blogs and reading what people have to say.

There are two particular food blogs that I follow on a relatively regular basis. The first is, Carrots'n'Cake, written by Tina in MA. I was introduced to this site by a friend of mine. I'm currently participating in The Yoga Challenge on this blog. It's been interesting thus far, although I confess that I have not been able to do (or rather have not made room for) Yoga every day since March 1st. But I have done it more than half the days this month. It was nice to have something to motivate me to add it to my routine. I enjoy the peace, the balance, the time to center, and I can certainly use the stretching! (I have horrible flexibility). My breathing has gotten better and I can see slight improvements in my yoga. The most difficult thing for me is to calm my mind. I naturally am thinking about a gazillion different things at once so it is a challenge for me to be in that quiet place in that quiet moment for a full 20 minutes.

The second blog that I follow is Kath Eats Real Food. I actually found this blog through Carrots'n'Cake. They both have a very healthy outlook on food and balance and that is something that I'm working towards achieving. Reading about how they always fit in activity, fruits, veggies, protein, fiber, and all that good stuff helps me to realize that I can do it to with just little adjustments here in and there. They also both are obsessed with OATS! Now I've eaten oatmeal packets before but I've never made my own oats. After months of reading about it next week might be my week...I wonder if I'll enjoy them.

The other things that I've realized from these blogs is that I need to go to bed earlier each night. When we lived up in Boston I would be in bed at 10-10:30PM and awake at 6-6:30AM without fail every day of the week (weekends included). When we moved to NYC that all changed. People in NYC are nightowls and they always sleep in and arrive later in the day never earlier. The best time to go outside for a run in this city is from 7:00-8:00AM - there is no one around, not even cars, it's awesome! I miss being an early bird and I hate waking up and feeling like I've already missed part of the day. I think maybe next week I'm going to aim to get to bed 30 minutes earlier each day and try to get up 30 minutes ealier each day. I'll keep doing this till I work my way back to a sleep pattern that I'm happy with. I know this is a random thought and has nothing to with food really...but it's something I noticed while reading both food blogs so I thought I would throw it in there!

Post in Comments:
Do you like reading food blogs?

If so, which food blogs do you follow?

What do you like about food blogs?

Tuesday Travels: The Empire State Building

2009-03-10T23:03:00.003-04:00

Well, it's about time that we crossed this NYC experience off our list - The Empire State Building! We had both been there before moving to New York City but seeing as we live so close to this massive and beautiful building we felt that it would be sad to be it's neighbor for 3 years and never visit it.

The other weekend we saw that there was no line outside and decided "today is the day!" No line outside does not mean no line inside. It probably took us a good hour to get to the top between waiting online for tickets, waiting on line for one elevator, waiting on line for another elevator, etc.

The views however are amazing! I definitely appreciated the visit more as a New Yorker then ever as a visitor to the city because I finally knew what I was looking at. I knew all the buildings, the rivers, what direction I was facing, etc. It really is breathtaking to see the park, the Chrysler Building (see picture above), and the southern tip of NYC (also see pic above). We spent a good 30-40 minutes up at the top pointing out different sites, talking about what it must have been like to build the Empire State Building and just enjoying the view.

I would definitely recommend this to visitors and native New Yorkers alike. Next tall building to visit...Top of the Rock so we can enjoy the view of the Empire State Building!

Post in Comments:

Have you ever been to the top of the Empire State Building?

Monday Bookworms: Outlander

2009-03-09T19:12:00.002-04:00

I was hoping to finish one of the 3 books I'm currently reading in time for today's post but alas I didn't. So I'm going to post a review on the book I finished prior to starting the 3 books I'm currently working on finishing - Outlander, by Diana Gabaldon.

This book was recommended to me by one of my high school girlfriends and college girlfriends. With a recommendation coming from two different directions I felt it was time to pick this book up. As a lover of all things historical fiction I was excited to see that it alternated between taking places in Scotland 1946 and Scotland 1743.

The premise is that Claire Randall is reunited with her husband after WWII and they decide to take a second honeymoon to Scotland. While there Claire finds this cirlce of stones (picture Stonehenge) and while leaning against one of them is catapulted through time to Scotland 1743. As she struggles to adapt to her new circumstances and works to get back to her husband Frank in the 1940's Claire encounters a band of Scotsmen who take her in and provide her with protection. One of them is Jamie Fraser. As she gets more and more entwined in her life in Scotland 1743 she struggles with her love for two men....

As you can tell from my description this book ended up being more of a romance novel than pure historical fiction. However, I still LOVED it. The character development of Claire and Jamie had me turning the pages to see what would happen. 850 pages later I was not disappointed and proceeded to begin on the second book in the series right away.

It had been a long time since I was so wrapped up in a book that I didn't want to put it down! I realized how much I had missed that. If you enjoy a some romance, great character development, peppered with a small amount of historical fiction you will certainly enjoy Outlander. If nothing else, you'll escape to Scotland 1743....

Entertainment Thursday: Television that Evil Contraption

2009-03-05T14:32:00.001-05:00

Recently Jon asked me how many shows I watched on television and I was forced to admit not only to him but also to myself how bad my TV addiction really is...and I'm an active person with an active social life...but when I'm home it is so easy to get sucked into the tube. So here it goes, a straight out confession to everyone:

Sunday
The Amazing Race

Monday
Chuck
Heroes
The City

Tuesday
The Biggest Loser
Privileged
The New 90210
The Real Housewives of Orange County (wow Tuesdays are a really embarrasing night for me!)

Wednesday
Lost
Top Chef

Thursday
The Office

Friday
The Ghost Whiperer
Friday Night Lights

13 shows!!! That's insanity and that doesn't count movie watching and sports (baseball, football, basketball, olympics, etc, etc). Granted some shows I watch while I'm at the gym, and every show I DVR so I can skip the commercials (cutting down my TV watching time a little) but who am I kidding, I need to grab control over this craziness!

Now some of these shows are finished for the season (ie: Top Chef and Real Housewives of Orange County, Privileged). For the rest of the shows I'm going to finish out the season and then I'm going to have to make some tough decisions. I want to cut my TV watching down to no more than 1 hour a day (unless I'm watching sports or a movie because those are obviously more than an hour but if I watch sports or a movie then I cannot be watching shows on top of it).

So if I had to pick 5 shows that I would not give up they would be:

Lost
The Ghost Whisperer
Friday Night Lights
The Amazing Race
Chuck or Heroes are going to have to battle it out for that last slot!

A year ago if you had asked me I would have put The Office in my Top 5 easily but lately I feel that The Office is really going down hill. It's just not nearly as funny as it used to be and they're trying to hard.

Post in Comments:
What shows could you not give up???

Recipe Wednesday - Giada's Turkey & Artichoke Stuffed Shells

2009-03-04T22:14:00.004-05:00

I'll admit it - I love Giada recipes. They have never failed me! Recently I received her new Everyday Pasta cookbook (now I have all 4) and I wanted to try a new recipe from it. My mother made these stuffed shells when I was growing up with ground turkey and eggplant that we all LOVE so I thought I'd try a new variation on stuffed shells. I made them on Sunday for the purpose of having them for lunch each day this week. They are delicious and they heat up well in the microwave. I would definitely recommend these for anyone who loves bakes pasta.

Click HERE for the recipe! The only change I made was that I did not use the arrabiatta sauce because I do not do spice and I used jar sauce as opposed to home made. It was still delicious.

Post for Comments:

If you were to make stuffed shells what would you use as a stuffing?

Tuesday Travels: The Guggenheim Museum

2009-03-03T12:45:00.004-05:00

Tuesday is Tuesday Travels so it's all about traveling. My Tuesday posts will cover New York activities, local travel, big trips, past trips, reviews of travel blogs and sites, and travel ideas. Basically anything related to travel!

As you know, if you've been following my blog, Jon and I are taking advantage of everything that New York City has to offer. We are currently on a quest to get to the major and some of the not so major museums. We only have a few left - once we've completed the quest I will post a ranking of NYC museums.

Most recently we spent a chilly day visiting the Guggenheim, one of the few large museums or famous museums left on our list. I had not visited the Gugegnheim since high school some 12-13 years ago and was excited to return because I remember the experience being a positive one.

The first thing you notice about The Guggenheim is the building itself. It's unique and beautiful and it's Frank Lloyd Wright people how could you not love it. We checked our coats, got our tickets & audioguides and proceeded to begin. I had remembered recently during Jury Duty hearing that The Guggenheim was meant for you to walk down from the top, which made sense to me. However, the museum staff had set up the visiting exhibit so that you traveled from bottom to top. This did not make sense to me. So Jon and I decided to go against the grain and visit the exhibit backwards.

The way The Guggenheim is set up there is art all along the center walkway as you make your way spriraling downwards but there are also wings off certain parts of the ramp where you can explore other exhibits. My problem with The Guggenheim is that they have this beautiful permanent exhibit tucked away on the 2nd level in alcoves off the main ramp - filled with Van Gogh, Kandinsky, Picasso etc and it's such a small part of the art in the museum. Therefore when you visit The Guggenheim the experience is really all about what special exhibits are currently visiting the museum. This is the case at many of the museums that we have visited in NYC. In some instances we have been very pleased with the special exhibits in other instances, such as our visit to The Guggenheim, we have been very disappointed.

The main exhibit, The Third Mind: American Artists Contemplate Asia 1860-1989, held very few pieces that interested us or inspired conversation between us. This was unfortunate because my hopes were so high for this museum. Obviously art is objective and this is just two people's opinion, so take it for what it's worth. I still think it's worth visiting, just make sure that the special exhibit is something you're very interested in exploring because it takes up most of the museum.

Post for Comments:

What is your favorite museum in New York City and why?

If you do not live in New York City or have never been to the museums in New York City then what's your favorite museum in general?

Monday Bookworms: Top 10 (err...11)

2009-03-02T21:48:00.005-05:00

Yesterday I wrote about changes to the blog this week I'm going to test out my new structure and see how it goes. Well Monday is Monday Bookworms so it's all about books...ahhh...how I love books! I'm going to use these posts to post reviews, recommend book websites or blogs, or just talk at random about the greatness of reading!

I decided to start out with the much dreaded question that big readers get: "What's your Top 10 books of all time?" How to begin to answer that, especially off the top of your head. Yet as a reader, I love hearing people's answers. One, because it gives you a sense of what kind of reader they are and two, you may get great recommendations out of it, assuming you do not share similar tastes.

Recently a friend of mine asked me for my Top 10 and after combing my goodreads.com list I came up with the following 10 (err...11) and they are listed in no particular order:

1 – Time Traveler's Wife, Audrey Niffenegger
2 – The Autobiography of Henry the VIII, Margaret George
3 – Here Be Dragons, Falls the Shadow & The Reckoning, Sharon Kay Penman
4 – The Alienist, Caleb Carr
5 – In Cold Blood, Truman Capote
6 – The Eight, Katherine Neville
7 – The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
8 – Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
9 – A Walk in the Woods, Bill Bryson
10 – Trinity, Leon Uris
11 – The Historian, Elizabeth Kostova

I feel this list encompasses all my reading passions: historical fiction, a good mystery, great classic literature and the occasional laugh.

Post in the Comments:
You knew this was coming...What's your Top 10 or 5 or just Top 1 (if you can narrow it down that much)?
and/or
Have you read any of the books on my Top 10 (err...11) and if so would they end up in your Top 10?