NYC at Christmas Time

My husband and I decided to take a much-needed day off from work to go to New York City for the day because the city is always so beautiful at Christmas time.  We decided to drive in, which took almost 2 hours, parked our car in a random side-street garage in Chinatown, and began trekking through the city.  Our plan was breakfast in Little Italy, lunch in Chinatown, and dinner at Les Halles, the restaurant Anthony Bourdain (our fave) used to be head chef at. We also wanted to get to Central Park and then see where else the day took us.

Of course, when you plan things nothing goes the way you want so we ended up having to go with the flow, and it turned out great!  We got there close to 12 pm so we ate at Sambuca's Cafe for lunch. 

http://www.sambucascafe.com/

We ordered a small pizza with fresh tomatoes, mozzarella, cheese, basil, and Greek olives.  The pizza could have been good...if it was cooked!  It was raw dough in the middle and drenched in olive oil.  MAJOR FAIL.  However, they had relatively good coffee (they seemed to specialize in alcoholic coffee beverages although we just stuck with regualr coffees), and they claimed to have the best Tiramisu in Little Italy.  We had to give that a try. The tiramisu was good, it was drenched in coffee liquer but it was definitely not the best I have ever had.  It was pretty though :)

From here we headed to McSorley's, a super-old pub that used to be for men only back in the day. 

http://www.mcsorleysnewyork.com/

There are sawdust shavings covering the floor, they serve two types of beer (light or dark) and they have a small menu.  When you order a beer they pour you two because it's very foamy and the glasses are small.  It's a cute place with lots of old history on the walls. 

We took the subway to Central Park and walked around for awhile.  We saw the ice skaters and the horses and carriages.  I have to say, I have always wanted to do a horse and carriage ride through Central Park, but when I saw those poor horses on the side of such a busy street, waiting to pick people up, covered in blankets to keep them warm and wearing blinders so the traffic didn't freak them out, I felt too bad for them.  When I heard car horns honking right next to them my heart actually broke for the poor animals who are only there to serve people who don't care about them.  It was terrible :(

From here we went to Rockafeller Center to see the tree, of course.  It is big and fluffy with the usual tacky colored lights, but it's the tree you gotta see :)

Of course Swarovski will always hold a special meaning for me... My husband and I had our first date in New York City on November 8th, 2007.  We went back for my birthday and spent the day roaming around, ended the night at Rockafeller viewing the tree.  The star on the top of the tree is designed with Swarovski crystals.  When we got back to his apartment that night he gave me my birthday gift which was a gorgeous Swarovski crystal bracelet.  I wear it (almost) every day and it's a constant reminder of such wonderful days and awesome memories :)

After Rockafeller we headed over to the Channel 4 Restaurant for a snack (buffalo chicken spring rolls--excellent!) and a beverage.  It was cozy in there but our bartender was horrendous, unfortunately.  She was not even busy and she gave us really crappy service, but the food and the time spent together was wonderful

From here we walked 1.5 miles to Brasserie Les Halles Park Avenue, where Anthony Bourdain has his home base and used to be head chef.  We have been wanting to go here for awhile now and it is actually affordable, so we went. 

http://leshalles.net/brasserie/

My husband ordered goose liver pate for an appetizer, which he loved.  I took one bite and at first all you taste is garlic and seasonings and the texture is tolerable...then the liver flavor kicks in and I almost gagged.  I am not a liver fan of any sort but my husband really enjoyed it.  For his meal, he ordered the roasted Amish chicken.  I'm sorry we did not get great pictures but I felt kind of crazy taking foodie pics in Anthony Bourdain's restaurant!  Couldn't bring myself to use anything but my iPhone out of embarrassment.  The Amish chicken was 1/2 a bird, breast served boneless and separate from the leg/thigh portion.  It came with a side of au jus gravy and fries.  I ordered the skirt steak with bleu cheese, medium rare, which also came with fries.  Before our meals came, I told my husband I did not really want to eat the fries but guess what...when I tasted them they were just about the best I ever had! (Fried in peanut oil, according to the website)  So eat them I did.  My steak was amazing, perfectly cooked and the bleu cheese was served on the side.   In all, I think our meal came to $68 and that included a glass of wine and a beer.  Not bad for NYC!

Pine Mouth...It Happened to Me!

All day today I have been tasting bitterness in my mouth.  I thought it was the allergy meds I took last night for a rash I randomly broke out with yesterday.  I decided to google it.  Don't you know I found abundant information about people who ate pine nuts and then had a bitter taste in their mouths for up to four weeks?!?!? 

Sunday morning before work I made myself oatmeal for breakfast.  The only nuts we had in the house were pine nuts so I figured what the heck, and threw some in.  That was two days ago...let's hope this does not last four weeks!  Everything I eat or drink tastes terrible.  And now I'm wondering if the rash is also from the pine nuts?

Check it out for yourself, and beware if you decide to eat pine nuts!!!!  

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Wellness/pine-mouth-pine-nuts-leave-bitter-taste-lingers/story?id=11097222

A Simple Thanksgiving Dessert

Looking for something quick, easy, and absolutely delicious to wow your guests this Thanksgiving?  Try this recipe I just created!!
You will need:
2 Bartlett pears
One cup frozen cranberries
orange juice
red and white wine
balsamic vinegar
1 box of puff pastry shells (6)

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.  While preheating, take your puff pastry shells out of the freezer to thaw on the counter.

When the oven is heated, place the pastries on an ungreased baking sheet and bake for about 20 minutes.  Let sit on a cooling rack for a few minutes until you can handle them without burning yourself.

Dice up two large, peeled Bartlett pears.  Toss them into a nonstick pan (or coat a regular pan with cooking spray) on medium heat.  Add a quarter cup of orange juice, a teaspoon balsamic vinegar, a quarter cup red wine, a tablespoon of white wine, and let cook for about two minutes.

Toss in one cup frozen cranberries, stir, and add 1/3 cup sugar and 1 tablespoon flour.  Mix well and let simmer for about 5 minutes.  If the sauce is not thick enough add 2 teaspoons of cornstarch until your gastrique thickens up nicely.

Take your slightly cooled shells apart by lifting the top part so the pastry can be filled with your delicious gastrique.  When filled, top with the top part of the pastry and serve with whipped cream, vanilla ice cream, or on it's own.  Very delicious, tart and sweet...sure to impress your guests!!

Please comment if you try the recipe!

A Selfless Christmas Gift

In the words of my husband:

This year, I'm giving up my Christmas. I'm asking everyone that would've bought me gifts to instead donate that money to help me build a well. I'm also asking other of you to join me and give up your gifts. 100% of all funds raised go directly to the water projects.

Don't get me wrong - I love Christmas. It's time for family, for comfort, for love. And for Christians, it's a time to celebrate what's most important, the birth of Jesus Christ.

But there are a lot of things we get wrong about Christmas.

For one, we give each other so much stuff. Whether it's out of obligation or just to truly show someone we care, we're still essentially material-rich people giving other material-rich people more... materials. The purpose of our holiday, though, is Christ. And Jesus made his purpose clear to us - sacrifice. He died so that we could live. And we struggle to keep that the focus of Christmas while we're busy buying and unwrapping gifts.

Let's face it, we actually sacrifice very little. But what's small to us can be huge to someone who lacks basic health necessities. Just $20 is enough for one person to have clean water for two decades, for example.

Between now and Christmas, I aim to raise $5,000 in my charity: My Christmas Wish .

Jesus sacrificed himself for me. This is the least I can do.

Please join me on this milestone this Christmas season.

Thank you for your donations.
Happy Holidays!

Love you all

If you wish to donate specifically through the website my husband has set up, please comment after the blog and leave me an email address through which I can send you that information.  Thank you and God bless!


Check out the Charity Water blog!  http://www.charitywater.org/blog/

Running Journal: Couch to 5K week 5

Four weeks ago I started a couch to 5k running program.  Having never been a runner or even an athlete, minus powderpuff football in high school, I was hoping I would not have too much trouble sticking with the program.  What I was not expecting was to find myself enjoying running, enjoying getting up early, getting out of bed when it's still dark out, and going to the gym.  But I do like it!  And of yet, my workouts have been doable.  I did my first workout for week 5 this morning.  It entailed 5 minutes of brisk walking, followed by 5 minutes of jogging, 3 minutes of walking, 5 minutes of jogging, 3 minutes of walking, and 5 minutes of jogging.  It feels great to know I can run for 5 minutes straight at a time- when I used to get on the treadmill I would be lucky if I wasn't panting like a dog by minute 2.  Now my breathing is under control and my body holds up...let's hope this continues for the rest of the program.  Fingers are crossed!

Saw an inspiring movie about marathons the other night...http://www.marathonmovie.com/

Highly recommend it for anyone who would like to get inspired to run, it's easier than you think! :)

Connecticut Wine Trail

Connecticut has a wine trail?  You can imagine my surprise when driving through Wallingford, CT, one bright sunny day, and seeing a blue sign on the side of the road pointing this way to the Connecticut Wine Trail.  How good could Connecticut wine be?  Well, actually quite good, depending on where you go.

Our first stop on the wine trail was at Stonington Vineyards, in Stonington.  http://www.stoningtonvineyards.com/
Their Seaport White is our favorite white wine...it's light, refreshing, and slightly bubbly.  I highly recommend it.  When at The Hills in Waterbury CT for my bridal lunch we all drank Seaport White.

Next was Jonathon Edwards, also in Stonington.   http://www.jedwardswinery.com/wines/  This vineyard felt like we were not in Connecticut.  The acres were sprawling with grape vines and there was a wine cellar you could walk in to, filled with wine barrels.  One disappointment after seeing the beauty of this place was that most of their grapes are imported from California due to poor growing conditions here in CT.  However, Jonathon Edwards is worth the visit for the experience!

Next was McLaughlin Vineyards in Sandy Hook, CT.  http://mclaughlinvineyards.com/  This place was adorable and very country-cozy.  There is a wood stove inside which was fabulous because we went on a snowy day in January.  The wine here was mediocre at best and even the labels on the bottles were not attractive.  However, it was very cute here.

Digrazia Vineyards in Brookfield, CT: Now HERE is the place to be!  http://www.digrazia.com/  A doctor makes the wines and he tries to create wines with high antioxidant levels.  He has won awards for such wines.  Our favorites included Paragran, a wine made strictly from California pomegranates and Connecticut pears, no grapes included.  Another was their blueberry brandy which was thick, much sweeter than I usually like, but really delicious!  The scenery at Digrazia is not as pretty BUT it is so worth it to go there for all of their fantastic wines.  I highly recommend them.

Jones Winery in Shelton, CT: decent wines, very busy place.  http://jonesfamilyfarms.com/  There is a farm, they have cooking classes, and the area in which they do wine tastings was packed when we went on a Saturday afternoon.  Sort of defeated the purpose of a relaxing afternoon and wine tasting...there were too many people bumping into us!  However, they did have some good wines, particularly their strawberry blush, which was a fruity sweet yet dry strawberry wine with a hint of carbonation.  It was sparkly and delicious, a great dessert wine or wonderful for a celebration.

Just Do It

Life is really about the decisions you make. This morning my alarm went off at 6 am, as it has been doing at least three times a week when I get up and go to the gym before work.  Well, after last night I had a hard time thinking about getting up at 6 am.  You see, I went to bed around midnight, tossed and turned, worried that my husband's alarm was not going to go off at 3 am, at which time he had to get up and get ready to leave for California.  I finally fell asleep at some point and was promptly woken up by his alarm at 3 am.  Then at 3:30 I was woken up by my husband telling me he was leaving.  Then, of course, I had to pee.  The next thing I knew it was 6 am and my alarm was going off.

First I hit snooze.  Then I decided I would set my alarm for another hour and go back to sleep. This only made me realize that then I would have to go to the gym when I got home from work tonight.  However, when I get home I also have to make dinner, do homework, and so on so the gym wasn't going to fit nicely into those plans.  Finally I sucked it up, decided to get out of bed at 6:15 and I went to the gym.

Driving to work, I realized I felt good.  Tired, but good.  A lot better than I would have felt if I decided not to go to the gym this morning.  So this is why I say life is about the decisions you make.  Sometimes, the decision I make in the beginning of the day sets the stage for the rest of my day.

My Goal: Couch to 5K

For those of you who know me and for those of you just starting to get to know me through what I disclose in my blog, I am not a runner.  I like to cook, eat, drink, shop (splurge), indulge, and over-indulge.  One thing I hate: exercise.  Not that I hate being active, but it interferes with what little down time I have to sit in front of the boob tube, read a good book, enjoy a glass of wine and a bubble bath, and other such indulgences.

Don't get me wrong, I never REGRET a good workout.  My workouts just tend to be few and far between, like walking for 30 minutes on my lunch break at work when it's nice out (nice meaning not too hot, I don't want to sweat, and not too cold, because then after exerting myself in the cold air, when I come back inside to the heat to work, I sweat).

For these reasons, when my husband ran 14 miles this weekend as part of a relay in a marathon and my step-mother ran 12 and I was surrounded by 13,000 runners, I was inspired to get active and stop sitting on my ever-growing ass.  I have been careful to exercise and not hurt my knees, because they hurt me every day.  Finally I had them checked out.  Turns out it is typical for young females to have knee caps that slide side to side instead of staying in alignment when one moves about.  This sliding causes pain during activities but I found out it is best to strengthen my knees and the surrounding muscles, ligaments, and tendons in order to ease the pain.  Therefore, I am no longer treating my knees gingerly when exercising.

My step-mom was essentially the same way as me prior to running marathons, meaning she did not exercise much.  However, she told me there is a program called "Couch to 5K" for couch potatoes who have never ran before.  DING DING DING!  Bells started going off for me.  That's what I need!

I came home from the marathon and the first thing I did was research the program.  The focus is on easing into the program, not trying to push yourself too hard because then you turn yourself off to running and working out.  However, it says that if you follow the program you will be running over 3 miles in about 8 weeks. We will see.

My first day on the program was yesterday.  It requires that you do the program 3 times a week (I have chosen Monday, Wednesday, and Friday).  I am going to strength-train on Tuesdays and Thursdays to keep myself in the habit of going to the gym/working out every day, because habit is what I really need.

The first week, the program tells you to walk on the treadmill at a brisk pace (for me 3.8).  Then you alternate jogging for 60 seconds (I do this at 5.5) and then walking briskly for a minute and a half, for a total of 20 minutes.  In all, you end up walking for 17 minutes and jogging for 8.  It actually felt really good!  My first day in the gym I could not stop smiling, thinking of how good I felt, how I was not panting or out of breath, I was enjoying the music on my IPOD and dreaming of finally working my way down a few pounds.

That was yesterday. Today I went back to the gym after work and worked out my arms and legs for 30 minutes.  Tomorrow morning I plan to get up before work and hit the gym for some more walking/jogging.

Any advice/words of wisdom/words of encouragement would be greatly appreciated!

Cooking Fall Foods

This past weekend I could not get myself out of the kitchen!  The air was chilly, the leaves are turning bright shades of yellow, orange, and red, the scent of fall is carried in the breeze, and all I wanted to do was cook.  Often what I do is get an idea in my head of something I want to try making.  Then I browse through online recipes to see if I find something similar, and then I try to create it in my own way.  My favorite recipe website is All-Recipes.com.  It's fabulous!  You can search for recipes by type of meat, course, or ingredient.  You can even ask the search to not include certain ingredients you don't like.

Fridays I work a half-day at work.  I stopped at the grocery store on my way home and then got to work.  I was having my mother over for dinner Friday night and had gotten a pumpkin from a patient at work, a sugar pumpkin, one that is perfect for cooking.  I decided to make some sort of pumpkin pasta.  Also, since it was cold out and I was craving beef stew, I decided to make a beef stew.  In addition, I was craving apples and cinnamon, so I made a fresh apple salsa.  I also made some French horn cookies, which one of our patients makes and they are SOO GOOD, and I made a poke-cake.

The spicy apple salsa was an appetizer that I served with both blue corn chips and jalapeño-lime corn chips.  I chopped up some apples and soaked them in a little lime juice, then also chopped up some peppercinis and walnuts for the salsa.

For the main course, we had the pumpkin pasta, which was made with grated pumpkin, sautéed for about 10 minutes, then mixed with some tomato paste and water as well as chili powder and light sour cream.  This made a delicious and hearty fall topping for the wheat fettuccine I used.

I also made a Dijon-mustard beef stew that had potatoes, carrots, celery, onions, shallots, and buffalo sauce in it.  This cooked for about 2 hours in my dutch oven and was really delicious, if spicy.

Dessert was going to be the poke-cake but my mother and husband were picking at the French horn cookies that were cooling on a wire rack on the table and after the meal, no one was hungry for dessert.  The cookies are made with a cream cheese dough, then filled with a walnut-sugar filling and rolled up into crescents.  Very tasty, although I have not perfected the recipe as the patient that comes to our office has.  Her cookies are much better.

For the poke cake, all you do is bake a cake, I used yellow cake mix.  When the cake comes out, you use a wooden spoon handle to poke holes in it about one inch apart, and then you layer on and fill the holes with pudding.  I used instant chocolate pudding.  When we finally ate this cake, it was a real hit!  The cake itself was light and fluffy.  It actually sat for a few days in the fridge which made it more moist and delicious!  I also made some poke cupcakes and topped them with both pudding and chocolate frosting...yum!

On Saturday, my husband was working and what do I do when left to my own devices but COOK SOME MORE!!  I made a batch of wheat bread which came out fantastic!  I also made some pesto sauce with basil, pignoli nuts, olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic cloves.  I made some applesauce too, which I have never made before.  I did not realize how simple it is!! You boil apples in a little bit of water, add in some sugar, cinnamon, and whatever other spices you like, and mix it up.  I left mine on the chunky side but you can puree it so it's more smooth too.  Delicious!!  I was quite productive and we had leftovers for days!