So cute!

Kikkerland shop is officially one of my favorite websites for cute house stuff. How cute are these honyebear salt & pepper shakers & the campfire votive? Adorable! 

I've been doing a lot of online browsing and have a few websites to share over the next few days hopefully. Stay tuned! 

Bryant Park

As much as I love packing a lunch (or picking up lunch) to take to the park, I was happy to enjoy something a little more high class last night. I fear tho, that we just had drinks and were a bit squished in like sardines. Oh well. One of the first beautiful Thursday nights in the City what can you expect! Some gal pals and I stood in a long but moving line and finally were able to grab drinks from the lovely & very outdoor Bryant Park Cafe. 3 ladies in the education field, enjoying Spring Break, among the suit & high heel types - it was fun! 

The park always has a great number of chairs & umbrella tables, which are great for grabbing snacks from 'wichcraft which sells really yummy sandwiches. The Cafe is in the middle of the Park, on the Upper Terrace. You can look up and see the NY Public Library and even further up, the sky! Like their website says, "When you first discover it, nestled in its canyon of skyscrapers, it's like an oasis - a refuge of peace and calm". So very true.

If you're far from our great city, you can check out the webcam! 

Kitchenette!

I admit it. I get in Food Ruts.

Pink Vitamin Water. Cheddar cheese on Triscuits. Salad dressing marinades. Rice as the main & only course. And cereals - oh. my. this is SO easy for me.  I blame my father really, same shredded wheat every morning for as long as I can remember. Tho rumor has it he eats oatmeal now too. Figures, the man leaves the cold north east for Florida and starts eating oatmeal...oy. Freak. love ya daddy!

Anyway, I think we as Urban dwellers easily get into food ruts. More specifically, Restaurant Ruts. We have our favorites for everything possible in the food and drink department. And for somethings that's great. The work gals & I have our 2 places we usually go to for HH on Friday afternoon. Husband and I have our favorite sushi place. And don't get me started on Pizzzzza. It's as much a religion to some of us as the Yankees. :) 

Brunch is one of those meals that just makes it easy to get into a RR. You have your nearby place with strong coffee & mimosas, good greasy eggs and toast just tan enough. I won't mention my brunch RR place, but let's just say it was time for a change. 

Enter Kitchenette! Cute is not the word to describe this place. Every inch of the design was so carefully thought out (perhaps tho not the U shaped dining area, kinda weird but very Urban I think, where space is so so so valuable). So much cute fun stuff. A lot of pink & poka dot details. We were seated after only about 15min waiting and after we ordered we were shocked at how quickly our food came. I had delicious huevos rancheros and a yummy mimosa. Can't wait to go back - the menu has SO much on it! No RR here :) 

Pizza AND a bagel!

What's more better than a bagel AND pizza?? 

I really think pizza bagels are up near the top of my comfort foods list. SO so so good! 

sidetracked

This post is a bit off topic for The Whisk, but since it's April & Earth Day is approaching, I feel the need for a little Green. 

I'm trying to do my part and fill up a re-usable bottle with water rather than buy bottled. We can ALL do our part - even with our makeup! 

I've only begun to use eye-make up in the past year. Wearing glasses, I don't usually wear much everyday and even when it's a special occasion I don't wear a lot. But I am trying! I love Urban Decay's Primer Potion because as much as I try I always tend to rub my eyes during the day or find more eyeshadow on my glasses or worse, somewhere off my lids.  SO UDPP has been my first step whenever I go to put anything on my eyes. The funky purple bottle with it's genie in a bottle shape makes it SO fun to use. The only problem is that the applicator only goes up and down meanwhile the tube inside is curved to fit the fun shape. So there's tons of left-over product inside.

Clumps of Mascara first blogged about this...or rather this is the first place I have heard about it. The pretty packaging is very deceiving. I've also found a cool youtube video about this as well. 

Think of all that lost product!! SAVED! Think of all the plastic (or whatever the tube is made of) SAVED! More pics are on Flickr.

Snack Time!

Had a lovely weekend in Philadelphia for a dear friend's wedding. Pics to follow this week...whatever good food habits Husband & I have had the last two weeks went out the window. Mashed Potato Martini Bar. Sushi. Cheesesteaks. Hummus and Pita. And that was just cocktail hour...

But for now...my favorite snack as of late: ta-da  Terra Chips! All the chips are exotic and SO yummy. They began with  all different kinds of root veggies - what a cool idea- and now include some exotic potatoes as well. They are the official snack of Jet Blue airlines, which I think is where I had my first chip, probably on a flight to/from la familia in Florida. Seeing as I always have a difficult time making snack decisions, I prefer the potpourri bag, which has a few yummy kinds all in one.  Healthy, yummy & treats my snacking cravings - they are a hit with me!!  I love the different colors, so much more fun for entertaining when there's color as well. Enjoy the chips in action here on flickr.

rice is nice

I made a delicious rice side dish last night. My co-worker had it as part of her lunch and it smelled so delicious, I just had to try and copy it at home for myself :) 

I used 1 bunch of celery (about 6 stalks) chopped finely

1 green pepper, chopped finely

half a carton of mushrooms (although this was a lot!) chopped finely

and almost a whole onion chopped finely as well. 

I warmed some Olive Oil in a pan and added the onions. The smell is heavenly. Then the peppers, celery and mushrooms, and some dashes of salt & pepper. Warmed it all over the stove. Possibly for too long - it was somewhat mushy. 

I mixed it all in with about 2 cups of brown rice. DELICIOUS! Mushiness wasn't all that bad.

I also made my salad dressing marinated chicken using quite possibly the world's stinkest dressing. Ken's Northern Italian. Ewww. I could barely stand the smell of the Romano cheese. After I went through all this I found a regular bottle of Italian hiding on the door of the fridge. DOH! I hate when that happens. 

Pics are over on Flickr, starting here. 

Aqua Ban at NY Hot Spots - NY Post

Aqua! 

Hooray for the dozen restaurants or so around NYC that are no longer offering bottled water, in an attempt to be more eco-friendly! 

And restaurants aren't the only ones - Goldman Sachs cut bottle water from its offices, JP Morgan Chase installed purification systems & my beloved homeland of Suffolk County no longer uses taxpayer money to buy water in servings under a liter in gov't offices. Go them!

I will use my pretty nalgene more often from now on :) 

Unicef youtube Video about clean water...drip, drop

charity: water

Juno & Movies & Food

If you haven't seen the movie - go now. I was a bit late to join the bandwagon and now it's only playing in 1 theatre here in the big city. 

So finally Saturday we went and saw it. I already have the soundtrack after my mom & sisters raved about it. Great songs btw. Get thee to iTunes!

There is really nothing I love more than popcorn & soda at the movie theatre. I try to not get it alot but it's my favorite! So Saturday I treated myself and got popcorn. Yummmmy. What is up with a Medium being as big as my head? Portion control people! 

Besides the hamburger phone, there's a few funny food references in the movie that had me giggling. 

One - when the dad says to Liberty bell, Juno's step sister - "Liberty Bell, if you put one more Bac-O on that potato I'm gonna kick your little monkey butt!"

What is more suburban and normal than Bac-Os?? You certainly start to feel like they could be your family in a way. And you want a nice big baked potato!! 

And second would have to be when Paulie Bleeker's mom comes to his room to call him for dinner and says "It's your favorite, breakfast for dinner!" Who doesn't love breakfast for dinner?!??! I could have cold cereal in the am and something hotttt like eggs or waffles at night. Everything in the world would be right :) 

Great movie, funny quotes - go see if you haven't already!!

How to Eat, Dress, Travel, Behave, and Stay Six Forever

In a month or so, we'll be enjoying tea in celebration of my 27th!!! year...here!

Chowhound has some posts about it and of course it's been in the news since the hotel reopened in March. 

And I love this review from Bloomberg.com!! 

CANNOT wait! Fingers crossed for pretty spring weather...

*reminding myself to put up a pic from their website soon! 

Take a Look

Brown rice is nice. I've made the switch from White finally, in an attempt to cook a little healthier. 

I also organize iPhoto a little. I made a new album for just 'kitchen' photos. See how long that lasts. 

I took this pic of a candle I got from Eckerd, now Rite Aid, of all places. It smells delicious and looks beautiful I think. Being from a family of 3 daughters, I just so love anything in 3. And in the shape of a heart?! Suhweet!!! 

Uploading is taking forever so just enjoy the flickr. Night!