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Monday, December 21, 2009

"City Sidewalks, Busy Sidewalks...Dressed in Holiday Cheer"

"Hey Look! It's the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree!"
Is it just me or do tourists get stupider every year?
News Flash - it's one block over. KthanksBye

"Strings of Street Lights, Even Stop Lights, Blink a Bright Red and Green"
"As the Shoppers Rush Home, With Their Treasures"
Lyrics from Silver Bells by Livingston & Evans. I love that it describes the holidays in an urban setting! Yeah!

Snapped those pics last night on 6th Avenue. Love the decorations out front of the office buildings. In midtown the uniform is pretty much gray & black so it's SO nice to see some color during the winter. It looked beautiful with our first snowfall too :)

The last of our "Happy New Year" holiday cards were finished last night. Thanks to Tiny Prints for such awesome designs, as always. I celebrated with a glass or two of California's finest. The taller the glass the more bubbles you see, remember that for your New Year's parties. We're off to Mexico Thursday so I lift my glass in a toast to you. May your last days of 2009 be merry and your 2010 even brighter! Thanks for reading!


xo,
Michelle


It smells like the holidays


I am a firm believer that smells bring up memories, hopefully good ones this time of year. Since moving to Florida 10 years ago (holy cow!) my mom (i think) has enjoyed the open layout of the kitchen/dining room/family room in what was my grandparents house. I guess the formal term is a 'great room' with an attached small kitchen. While it's sometimes a little odd to celebrate a holiday so often associated with winter things in a place where there are palm trees in everyone's yard instead of pine trees but mom always makes it magical, like we were all little girls living back on Long Island again. I know we missed the snow our first Christmas there but I think not having to shovel was the best present our Upstate NY born dad has ever been given. Anyway back to mom - yum making her hot chocolate, cookies, and her 'magic' smelling mixture. No idea where she got the recipe for this but wow it's amazing. I wish I could knock down a wall in my little apt to get the smell to travel throughout and bring me back 'home'.

Fill a pot at least half way full with water. If you are like me and have a tendency to forget you have a pot on the stove, add more water to prevent burning - eek! Add Cinnamon Sticks, Whole Cloves and Star Anise. Add a liberal amount of cinnamon sticks but you can go easy on the cloves and star anise since they are so strong. Let simmer. Prepare to be amazed with a delicious licorice but cinnamon-y smell. Enjoy!

xo,
Michelle




Sunday, December 20, 2009

"Lorelai Does Santa's Dry Cleaning"


Gigi: Why do you have Santa's clothes?
Lorelai: Because ... I ...used to do Santa's dry cleaning.
Gigi: Wow.

Ahhh how I managed to twist dry cleaning, Christmas and Gilmore Girls into one post is remarkable (if I do say so myself) so here I go.

Living in a 5th floor walk up with no laundry facilities in the building is um an experience. I have learned to love drop-off service where gasp, someone else does my laundry. I got over the weirdness factor very quickly when I realized it would save me precious time during graduate school.

We love our laundry/dry clean place and I think the sweet husband and wife owners love us too. My husband is a little like Santa himself every weekend carrying our huge bag over his shoulder down the stairs and across the street. And sometimes the dry cleaning & dress shirts too. He has taken it on as one of his chores and I can' t thank him enough for doing it faithfully every weekend.

Enter yesterday - picture me slightly hung over from work holiday party not wanting to get out of bed for anything. And him going to the office. "I'm leaving you the laundry slips. Can you please pick up my shirts & dry cleaning?" I must have mummbled yes because when I finally stumbled out of bed around 2pm there they were on the coffee table. Crap. Not only was my mouth dry, my head in some kind of dull pain but it was also starting to snow. So being the great wife I am I sucked it up, got dressed and went down to pick everything up right?

Wrong. You veteran wives are shaking your heads at me I know. Lucky for me the store was opened today, despite all the snow, and husband can go to work in a freshly washed & starched shirt. And I have learned a lesson about not putting things off.



xo,
Michelle


Thursday, December 10, 2009

Holiday Breakfast: Huevos Rancheros

Before Hannukah, Christmas, Kwanza and New Year's come and go...here's one last post about the food fest that is Thanksgiving. We went to the movies & dinner at Maria Pia . Maria Pia had great Turkey & wine...my favorite! Really want to go back for a proper Italian meal there...looked so so good. While out and about I snapped this pic of the Empire State Building decked out for the night.
I suppose one of my favorite traditions is cooking breakfast the morning of Thanksgiving. Well, any holiday for that matter. And my favorite breakfast is anything to do with eggs. Especially, thanks to Yuca Bar, huevos rancheros. This is my go to recipe from the Food Network

The kinda lousy thing about buying a dozen eggs is well then you have a dozen eggs and when you're just cooking for two you have to try to figure out what else to make. But no brainer, let's make more eggs! So the day after Thanksgiving, when everyone else was in Black Friday Madness (or if you ask me, one of the layer's of Hell) I scrambled the remaining eggs, used the left-over bean sauce (yum so good) and made wraps.


What's your favorite thing to cook for breakfast?



xo,
Michelle


Friday, November 27, 2009

Live from my Inbox - it's Black Friday!

Happy Day after Thanksgiving! Hope you had a wonderful day with family & friends :)

Here are a few deals that showed up in my Inbox this morning...

Edible Arrangements - sales every hour

Lenox - 70%off sale until Sunday

Crate & Barrel - Wusthof Knife Sale

Godiva - free dipped strawberries with a $25purchase this weekend, in store only

Happy Shopping

xo,
Michelle


Sunday, November 22, 2009

Turkey Day is Coming!

Are you busy getting ready for Thanksgiving? Nope, I'm not. We stay here in NYC & eat out. Yippie! I love picking a new place to eat at every year. I'm really looking forward to watching the parade on TV, cooking a fun breakfast and relaxing all day.

But if you are cooking for the masses I'm sure you're worrying about things like the correct tart to sweet ratio of your cranberry relish, finding a divided dish for the pickles and olives (sidenote, as a kid I loved to pig out on these), and finding enough chairs so everyone has a place to sit. One issue that you don't have to worry about is your turkey getting dry (horrors!) here's a handy tip from WeaselMomma

If your turkey is too dry, open a bottle of white wine, pour a glass. Repeat continually until you no longer care that the turkey is dry. @WeaselMomma

hahahaha

Happy week of cooking!

xo,
Michelle


Friday, November 20, 2009

Cooking in 1st grade

Apple for the teacher? Why yes...


That title is a bit of a white lie. We make food that doesn't require heating :) haha

1st grade is in the middle of amy favorite Literacy unit - How To. Besides the fun crafts that we can learn how to do there's 'cooking' projects! So far we have made pudding and fruit salad. YUM

No pics from the pudding project but here are some from making our really really good 3 ingredient fruit salad

Step #2 Cut the Fruit. Look at those motor skills!


Step # 4 - Mix the fruit!

We had so much fun :)



xo,
Michelle


Thursday, November 12, 2009

Pizza Awwws

It's been a hectic life these past two weeks. Despite none of them being full 5-day work weeks and 2 field trips - which is a bit troubling. Oh well.

During times like this I'm very very grateful & so so lucky to have a husband who worries about me burning my tongue when we're sitting at home on the couch eating pizza. In pajamas. :)

"Don't eat the top slice, you'll burn your tongue"




xo,
Michelle


Saturday, October 31, 2009

HEB is for me...

Even tho my sister's HEB is nicknamed 'the ghetto HEB" I still love it. I mean come on we found Cherry Limeade from Minute Maid & Sonic there this summer!

They have a great recipe on their website that I just cannot wait to try.

Roasted Sweet Potatoes and Apples
Courtesy of My H-E-B Texas Life Magazine

Ingredients:
3 pounds sweet potatoes or yams, peeled and cut into 1-inch round slices
1 pound Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and sliced
1 cup chopped sweet yellow onions
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh ginger
4 tablespoons H-E-B Butter
1/4 cup H-E-B Blossom Honey
1/4 teaspoon Central Market® Organics Ground Cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon Central Market® Organics Cayenne Pepper salt

Directions:
1. Heat oven to 450°F. Line a roasting pan with foil and spray with nonstick cooking spray.

2. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and season to taste with salt. Spread mixture in prepared roasting pan and roast for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes.

And um Amanda? Please get me an HEB reusable grocery bag? KTHNXBAI!

xo,
Michelle


Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Typical Tuesday

I just had a healthy dinner, in typical Tuesday fashion - Salmon & Couscous. YUMM I always feel soo accomplished when I cook right after the Peapod delivery comes.

No Husband at home for the next few days, he's away on a biz trip, sooo...I "made" some chocolate chip cookies afterwards. Cause why not?

And by "made" I mean I opened the huge vat of cookie dough that I keep in the fridge and then baked & ate 4 cookies :)

What's your favorite food to "make"??

xo,
Michelle


Monday, October 26, 2009

Weekend in Waco!



Where did this past weekend go? I flew out to see my little sister at Baylor this weekend for their 100th year of celebrating Homecoming. I went to a small college so it was a great experience to be on a big campus & see all the fuss over floats, a football game & such. Everything really is bigger in Texas! And of course since I was in Waco I had tons of my favorite soda - Dr. Pepper! Yummy! AND since I had a stop over in Atlanta I also got a few Diet Coke from their 'homeland' too. :)


At the game we grabbed the best snack/dessert of all time....Funnel Cake. I snapped a quick picture before I got dusted in most of the powdered sugar. New flash - black fleece & white powder = one big mess.


Funnel Cake has its roots in Pennsylvania Dutch region here in the North East. Batter is poured thru a funnel and deep fried, then sprinkled with the powdered sugar. So good. I've had it at the Shore & it is typically at State Fairs too. I skipped on the other typical State Fair food - the corn dog. Are you a fan of Corn Dogs? Got any other favorite fried foods?? Love to hear from ya!

Sic'em Bears!



xo,
Michelle


Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Healthy?


Sooo...great healthy dinner of grilled salmon & couscous w/ tomatoes.

Look at the leftovers all ready for my lunch tomorrow!

Healthy right??!!

Only...dessert.

Isn't that always the way? You eat a great meal and splurge on the dessert?
Say Hello to My Little Friend - Cream Cheese Dip!

But mixed with raspberries it's healthy right???

In my cooking dreams..

xo,
Michelle

Monday, October 12, 2009

Time for Chilly Fall Nights

Columbus Day already? PEOPLE!! that means October is half way over!
Where does the time go??

These chilly Fall nights call for my favorite easy dinner...soup and a sandwich. But ummm missing anything that could resemble a sandwich so the soup must be extra hearty. Enter Campbell's Select Harvest Garden Recipes Minestrone soup.



I love hearty soups like this, whatever the brand. The picture on the can shows it all - some pasta, veggies, beans and a delicious rich broth. Love it.


I think I may eat it all :)

xo,
Michelle


Sunday, October 11, 2009

In this post---I try steak!

If I could eat anywhere, it'd be a steakhouse. NYC has some great ones that serve a great steak with big bigger and biggest sides. But cook a steak at home?? Woa scary!


I bravely took on steaks this week. Challenge accepted & I think I won this battle. Tho omg look at how HUGE those babies are! I will not be afraid of the beef!




In a great Lime Marinade with brown rice & salad.

My favs for steak in NYC include
Del Frisco's - despite being in midtown...go on a snowy day when the wall of windows = magical
Dylan Prime in Tribeca Valentine's Day earlier this year - great wine list & bar room
Ben Benson's all male waitstaff is so old school ya gotta love it
Bobby Van's go for the downtown Broad & Wall Sts location and ask to go see the original JP Mogran Bank Vault downstairs (these days that's a little piece of finance history!)


xo,
Michelle


Sunday, October 4, 2009

Sunday Dinner

This delicious pizza is becoming our new Sunday dinner. YUMMM Great sauce & part skim cheese. It's soooo good. And it beats delivery 1,000 times over. Amy's Kitchen products we LOVE you!!


xo,
Michelle


Friday, October 2, 2009

Hi October. Meet the Flu.


It's no fun being a sick bunny. Snuggled up in my favorite blanket, hair fluffy, sipping tea & eating soup. No fun at all. Great dinners I had planned for this week? Sitting uncooked in the freezer & fridge. Sigh.


Enjoy your weekend & stay healthy!


xo,
Michelle


Sunday, September 27, 2009

Welcome Fall!


Sweet Potatoes & Bartlett Pears

What better way to welcome Fall than with a side dish of baked sweet potatoes and Bartlett pears?? Martha, you done good yet again!

from Everyday Food: Great Food Fast I cannot sing the praises of this cookbook enough. Divided by season, color photos of every recipe, prep & total cooking times, and a great selection of 'basics' and how to make them.

*2 Sweet Potatoes *3 Tbl Olive Oil *1 tsp Dry Mustard
*1/2 tsp Ground Ginger *1/4 tsp Cayenne Pepper
*Coarse Salt *2 Bartlett Pears

1. Preheat oven to 400F. Scrub sweet potatoes. Quarter and slice, about 1 and 1/2 inches thick. On a rimmed baking sheet, toss the slices with 2Tbs olive oil, mustard, ginger and cayenne; season with the salt. Roast, tossing occasionally, until crip-tender. 20-25minutes.
(since I use a toaster oven, I set it on the bake setting and used a deep pan)
2. Core and quarter the pears; halve cross-wise. Add to the potatoes; toss all with remaining tablespoon oil. Continue roasting until potatoes are fork-tender. About 10 minutes more.
Serves 4



the Potatoes and Pears were a perfect side to Lemon-Parsley Pork Chops

*1 Lemon, zest removed and minced *2 Tbl chopped parsley
*1 Garlic Clove, minced *Coarse Salt & Ground Pepper
*2 Tbl Olive Oil *4 Bone-in Loin Pork Chops (abt 8oz each)

another great thing about the cookbook is the helpful hints & technique tips, like for this recipe, how to mice lemon zest: with a veggie peeler remove the zest in long strips (avoid the bitter white pith). Using a sharp knife cut the zest into thin strips and then cut crosswise.

1. Combine the minced lemon in a small bowl with the parsley, garlic 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper. Set Aside. I put everything into my mini food processor to chop, mince, etc and it came out aok.
2. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over high heat. Season pork chops on both sides with S&P. Cook in skillet until browned, 2-3 minutes per side. I used the grill pan...what can I say I love that thing!
3. Add 1/2 cup water to the skillet, bring to a boil. (hard to do this in the grill pan, shoot!!). Reduce heat to medium- low: cover and simmer gently until pork is cooked through. 8-10 minutes. Transfer to a platter or serving plates; drizzle with the pan juices as desired and sprinkle with the lemon parsley mix.
Serves 4. Prep Time - 10minutes. Total Time - 25 minutes.


For greens, I added some mixed greens from the 'floral salad mix', topped with sprouts. Such a good dinner, will be making it again!!



xo,
Michelle


Monday, September 21, 2009

Last Day of Summer

If you are like me, you wish you could wear flip-flops year round, but you love the place where you live waaaay toooo much to move somewhere more tropical. I'm so sad today is the last full day of summer. Sad. Sad Sad. BUT in CELEBRATION of such a fabulous summer, here is a post dedicated to my fabulous NYC and a place to experience summer food all year round -

New Yorkers...we've got tired feet. We do a lot of standing. Standing on a crowded rush-hour subway. Standing in line at TKTS for discounted same-day Broadway tickets, standing online for the ladies room at Penn Station (has the renovation at the LIRR level really done anything to help the line???). Standing on the street waiting to enter a Sample Sale. And finally...standing for food. Soup. Cupcakes and even....hot dogs.
Yes Hot Dogs. Yes Upper West Side.

Shake Shack started in Madison Square Park in NYC. It's a fun looking kiosk and there are tables and chair set up in the park for you to sit and eat at. They sell amazing hot dogs, hamburgers, fries & custard desserts. The line at the park location can get so long they have a web cam "the shack cam" so you can check the line before you start standing on it. Yes they really are THAT good! They now have 2 other locations - Upper West Side & out in Queens at Citi Field. Went to the UWS location a few times this summer for a fun Sunday night dinner.
I love the packaging - these simple green food pics remind me of neon signs. So simple.

There's the Shake Burger - mmm mmm good


And my favorite - the New York dog. Tons of mustard & kraut please.


While the UWS location has some nice indoor seating, I prefer to dine al fresco. So I head to this cute park across the street near the American Museum of Natural History.




Grab a bench, sit criss-cross apple sauce and have a little lap picnic.

So long sweet summer...but thanks to Shake Shack it's never that far away!


xo,
Michelle


Sunday, September 20, 2009

Getting ready for the week

Took a trip to the new Whole Foods on the Upper West Side at 97th & Columbus. Let me just say - I know it is new but it is faaabulous. 2 levels, wide aisles, great selection & helpful staff.


And look what I found in the produce section....

That's right FLORAL salad. There's flowers in there with that lettuce folks.


How excited am I for a salad at lunch this week?!?!



xo,
Michelle


Thursday, September 17, 2009

Keeping it Real


Some days...you just want fries & a diet coke after work. You know you probably shouldn't but you do. So you get them anyway. As Wendy Williams says "It is what it is".

I have a lot of comfort foods and McDonald's is high on the list. Their food is, as I'm sure it is for many of us, tied to happy childhood memories. For health reasons of course I can't eat it every day. But when I want it, I WANT IT! Today was one of those days and it got me thinking about a time long long ago it was mommy, daddy and Michelle. Daddy worked nights :( On Thursdays, mommy took me with her while she babysat for a family on our street. She did it as a favor and never expected to get paid but the mom would give her $5 because it meant so much to her. On Fridays before kids club AWANA at church, mommy and I would go to McDonald's. Sometimes we'd meet with other families that went to AWANA with us, sometimes it was just us. Perhaps what comforts me now isn't the food (thought umm hello can we discuss how amazing those fries are?!?!) but that fun special time with mommy & I always had together. Chicken nuggets, fries and a diet coke --- I am 5 years old again :)

Do you have favorite foods from childhood? A comfort food you eat after a hard day?

xo,
Michelle


Tuesday, September 15, 2009

What's For Dinner? Herb Crusted Salmon

Is this not the most delicious looking piece of salmon? YUM Thanks Peapod!

So here's what I did with tonight's delivery. First, I usually cook salmon once a week and was in the mood tonight for something other than just olive oil, lemon juice and some rosemary. I quick google search of "Herb crusted salmon" found me on BigOven.com with this great recipe using some fresh chopped herbs. But all I have fresh is rosemary? Hmmm

Enter a conatiner of dried herb mix from Marshall's of all places. That'll do. I AM Martha meets McGuiver after all :) So in the words of Tim Gunn I made it work. Put about a quarter cup of flour into a bowl and crushed the dried herbs in my fingers as I scooped them out. Mixed it all together. Few squirts of lemon juice on the fish, then dredged it in the herb mix and onto the grill pan. Perfection.
Awesome grill marks WAY TO GO ME! yes, I flip to the skin side for a little bit while it cooks
Served with some brown rice (some of the rice served Bronx style, a little brown & crunchy) and mixed greens. YUM

What is your favorite recipe that you don't follow exactly? Cook with a sense of adventure and your outcome will never be boring! While I love to use a recipe as inspiration you've probably noticed I don't always follow a recipe....and survive the meal to blog about it :)



xo,
Michelle


Monday, September 14, 2009

Back to School!




Back to school time again! I'm back to work with a class of 13 fabulous 1st graders. This year we actually have lunch at a decent time, just after 11:30. So I can have a nice breakfast at home, a mid-morning snack and a healthy lunch! YAY!

This year, my goal is NOT to order lunch from the neighborhood stores. While I loved seeing my deli guy at Bravo across the street from school everyday, I think I can do some healthier things for myself...not to mention more economical things for my wallet buy bringing lunch.

Now, if you saw my tweet this morning you know I had PB&J today. Way to go, some cooking I did! Monday I think will be a difficult day for me to plan lunch and I see some more sandwiches in my future.

Last week though, I had a great start to the new school year. I made a big pot of penne pasta and divided it up into my Tupperware vent & serve containers. The containers have feet so when you microwave them the heat can circulate all around. There is also a vent to pop open to help the cooking process as well. I love them they were a great investment!

On my grill pan I cooked some chicken and at the end threw on some spinach to warm up and some sliced grape/cherry tomatoes. When they were done, I sliced the chicken and added everything to the pasta. I added some of my quick and easy homemade dressing for some added taste. I mix some Olive Oil, Balsamic Vinegar, salt, pepper, and spicy mustard together to make my dressing - so simple I love it.

What do you have for lunch?



xo,
Michelle


Sunday, September 13, 2009

Think of a Lovely Thought


Should I post something happy? Ok HAPPY!!!!
Seriously - when my mom, sister & I were moving baby sister in at college we - of course - started crying when it was time to go. In the midst of a big group hug she yells out "HAPPY!!! HUGGING" And of course we all started laughing! It's my new "happy thought"

So now when I'm a little blue - I just think to myself "HAPPY!!!!! HUGGING!!!!!!" and I giggle :)


SO ughhh Sunday night, work tomorrow, stress I don't need because we are one staff member short this year, US weekly didn't come bc I forgot to send the check in...oh wait "HAPPPY!!!! HUGGING!!!!!!!"


Works every time.....

xo,
Michelle

ps- back to food blogging this week!

Friday, September 11, 2009

We Belong To Each Other

If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.
~Mother Theresa

Took this looking South from the top of the Empire State Building in 1999 the day after my Senior Prom.
Can you see the WTC in the distance?
I think for some it will always be there, in between the criss-crossing streets of Lower Manhattan, even if it's harder to see these days. Some people, places and experiences never really leave us...they stay in our hearts forever.


xo,
Michelle