Carrots!

Saturday when I was making chili, I over chopped the carrots in the mini-food processor. Apparently there is a fine line between chop and really really fine pieces of carrots. :) The chili was still good but I have a lot of left over carrots. I'm thinking I will check Deceptively Delicious for something that takes carrots and see how it goes. 

Time for Reservations again!

It's that time of year again.....time to make your Reservations for you & your sweetie for Valentine's Day! It's on a Saturday this year, making it an even hotter ticket to snag.  

Thanks to opentable.com you can see which restaurants have a special menu and make your reservation free of charge. I used it to book ressies in Paris too. It's easy to use! OT usually lists special menus for the holidays. We normally pick one at random for Thanksgiving dinner and looks like we'll add Valentine's day to the list too. Check it out now, tables are going fast ALREADY! 

We'll be going to Dylan Prime, down in Tribeca. I not only looove to try new restaurants on holidays but I also love heading downtown to neighborhoods which we don't usually travel to. Tribeca is over 200 blocks South of where we are :) Last year we were getting ready to leave for our honeymoon so I cooked homemade meatballs & we had a little Italian feast. I'm super excited to be going out this year!!! 

Slow Cooker

We registered for a slow cooker following my mom's suggestion. She makes great Sunday dinners in hers that not only taste great but fill the whole house with great smells by the time we are home from church. We received it from a dear friend who geberously gave us some other great gifts that we will use for cooking and entertaining for years to come!

It is only today, over a year since we rec'd it, have I started using it. Can't really say what took me so long. Not only does it make a great meal it makes leftovers too!! Yay lunch for two days!

I jumped in head first last weekend and made a beef brisket with carrots and potatoes. Yummmm. After that success I went out to the bookstore for a cookbook devoted to slow cookers. The Family Circle Slow Cooker Meals won. Its got great recipes in a fun categories like stews, main dishes, veggie and even desserts! The pictures are colorful and each recipe has nutritional info - two features I like in a cookbook.

Today I cooked Confetti Chicken Chili - cannelini beans, peppers, carrots, chicken and just the right amount of spices. My one mistake was chopping everything too small but otherwise it is delish!

I plan on using the slow cooker throughout the winter and cannot wait to try more recipes!

Pictures - I fear my camera cord is missing in action ugh

We'll always have Paris

Before I continue with 2009 posts...let's see some food pics from Paris. We didn't do much shopping, but boy did we eat! Dinner is a slow, delicious event. I have a new appreciation for fizzy bottled water. The croissants are so buttery, flakey and good. 

As far as restaurants go they were VERY accommodating to tourists. Many had English menus and some had other languages as well. Many Parisians speak English, of course. We were told how rude they would be to us but didn't find that to be true at all. It was the other tourists who were rude. C'est la vie. :) 

Aside from our special Christmas night dinner at Market we were creatures of habit. We stuck to our neighborhood in the 7th and went to 1 place three times. A little embarrassing to admit I guess but the food was SO good! Onion soup, steaks, creme brulee, delicious bottles of Cote Rhone reds. Luckily this place was close to the Champs de Mars, the big park by the Eiffel Tower so we could walk off our meal a little. Rue Cler was nearby and tho we never got up early enough to go to the market I did catch a pic of my favorites - oysters! 

having issues with uploading pics, sorrrrrry

Eleven Madison Park

Eleven Madison Park from Nick Cannell on Vimeo.

The man in the suit who makes a few appearances in the video is the GM Will Guidara. It's a fun way to spend the next 2:39min.  EMP is on my list of 'must eat here!" 

Test

Test post from my bb. Happy New Year!