Mmmmmmmmmmm …



Last Sunday morning, I woke up bright and early to throw some laundry in a machine at the laundromat and then take off on a crisp, fall run. I got in about two miles before I had to flip my clothes, but it felt so good that I went back out for another four while my stuff was in the dryer. I love it when accidental runs happen!

I had brunch plans after the run and the laundry, but I couldn’t help treating myself to a little pre-brunch treat: a jumbo Medjool date stuffed with homemade nut butter and 70% dark chocolate …



Mmmmm, can I just eat these for every meal the rest of my life??? Sadly, I can’t! There’s too much free food in the world, and I need to save belly space to rescue it all. On a mission, I headed into the city for an NYU Alumni Homecoming brunch. Yes, that’s right. NYU does not have a football team but couldn’t stand being left out of Homecoming season. The solution? Free food.

NYU held brunch in the fancy student center that opened up in my last year there, probably just to rub in my face everything I missed by such a narrow margin. Like this view:



(Psssst, that very park is where I graduated on a blistering hot day in May 2004.)

NYU has always done buffets well, and Sunday was no exception:





I made about four trips back and forth from the buffet to my table because I didn’t want to miss anything! My tablemates were strangers and therefore unaccustomed to my bottomless pit of an appetite. I got some glances. But I bet they wished they were bold enough to do the same thing …



Kate arrived a little bit later, so I was able to go up for even more food with her 😀 The buffet included various pastries (bran muffin, mini scones, apple fritters, danishes), fruit (grapes, berries, watermelon, pineapple, other assorted melons), quiche, sesame crackers with jaw-achingly delicious goat cheese spreads, arugula and grape tomato salad, and bowtie pasta salad with pesto and sundried tomatoes:







I stayed just long enough to eat. As soon as the plea for donations begin, I scooted out of there … and not just because I am poor. I had a date with some Brooklyn babies!!



I’ve mentioned before that I used to be a director for SCORE! Educational Centers. Occasionally (i.e. not often enough!), I am able to pull myself together enough to coordinate plans to visit with my old coworkers. Deana and Karimah made their blog debut back in March, much earlier in their coincidentally almost identically-timed pregnancies. I haven’t been able to see them since then — I even missed both of their baby showers due to the craziness of my summer session and all of the papers I had due — and apparently enough months have passed that two perfectly formed children now exist :-D. Karimah had Zuri first in mid-August …



And Deana’s AJ followed about two weeks later:



These two had better watch out — their moms are already plotting the wedding!

I got to spend a good chunk of the afternoon snuggling with Zuri and AJ while they snoozed on my chest. Holding sleeping babies is my favorite favorite favorite activity in the world. I even like it more than eating, if you can believe that. Deana and Karimah, thanks for sharing your perfect bundles with me!

Since we all met up at Deana’s mom’s house, we also got to experience some of Deana’s mom’s famous home cookin,’ like this shrimp and sausage gumbo with fresh cornbread:



Mmmmm, eating that was fun, too. But not as fun as holding the babies!

What is better than food for you?

Sometimes, I just can’t stand the thought of doing what I should be doing. In those instances, food and friends come in very handy!

A couple of weeks ago, Vani, Diana, and I finally managed to coordinate a meal at Rawstar, Brooklyn’s newish raw restaurant. The restaurant is kind of in the middle of nowhere, and it had a very islandy, tropical feel.



We started with an eggplant rollatini appetizer:



Mmmm, these were good! As soon as these snacks arrived, I knew we were in for a treat of a meal. I don’t mind spending money on food when I know I’m getting something special that would be tough to recreate on my own. These rollatini fit the bill.

After giving the menu a serious study, we made our dinner selections. Here’s what the girls got:



You can see their respective reviews here and here. Obviously, they enjoyed it and ate every last bite (except for the bites they gave me!).



I ordered the veggie pizza really had no idea what to expect from raw and vegan pizza.



The crust was nutty and grainy, and it was topped with some sort of raw cashew “cheese” and a brilliant selection of veggies, including pineapples and olives. Once again, I really felt like I was eating a serious treat. Plus, it was only one slice of pizza, but it was definitely satisfying and filling. I want a dehydrator!

For dessert, we ordered the coconut banana cream pie to share:



This pie was delicious, but I also think it would not be challenging to recreate at home. Next time I go, I want to try the cheesecake or see if there’s a different dessert that would be harder to raw-ify.



Then last weekend, my friend Vinny made an impromptu trip down from MA to help me out with a certain project I was working on. Friday night, we checked out this new bar/cafe called Provini right around the corner from my apartment. I had actually just gotten out of an NYU reunion-related event that involved platter after platter of fancy appetizers (no pictures, sorry!) and an open wine bar. I generally don’t like wine, but I may have had four glasses of chardonnay. Sometimes, you’re just in the mood! Since I’m not used to drinking wine, I didn’t want to do anything crazy at Provini that would taunt one of those rhymes to come true. I asked for a dessert wine, but then the bartender got all excited and asked if we’d rather try something we’d never tried before. Enter this:



The bartender invited us to take a sip and asked if it reminded us of anything familiar.



Vinny and I both agreed that the drink had a definite caramel essence. That was when the bartender confessed it was actually dessert beer. And it was delicious! We each ordered a glass.

I had already eaten at the NYU event, but Vinny ordered the homemade linguini with fresh basil and tomato sauce:



Yeah, there was no way I could resist that. I had many many bites:



We followed the pasta with a chocolate souffle:



Ohhhhh my goodness, it was warm, gooey, molten, and everything I ever wanted in a chocolate souffle.



I had to pop out of bed early the next morning for some errands involving the subway:



(I think that the Carroll Gardens subway station might be my favorite underground stop because of that view alone. This picture doesn’t do it justice.)

When I got back home, I processed my CSA produce and then divided everything in half so Kate could come and collect her portion later in the day. The full share included butternut squash (!!!), pears, apples, green beans, cabbage, baby bok choy, rainbow chard, romaine, and arugula:



Once the produce had been successfully processed, Vinny and I headed out for brunch in the Slope at Scottadito, a lovely little organic Italian restaurant:



I love the attention to detail in this restaurant and their ability to carry a theme/motif throughout the whole place, even down to the cement tables outside:



It was a nice day, so we sat outside. Inside looked so cozy, though! I’ll have to remember this for winter:



Our spot:



First things first. This amazing rosemary focaccia bread arrived for us with a red pepper dipping sauce:



We dipped and dipped and dipped and dipped. We dipped so much that Vinny mastered the art of dipping without looking:



Vinny also mastered the art of sipping orange juice like a lady:



We decided to split two brunches. Yay, I love when fellow eaters will go halvsies with me! The more I can taste, the better.

We ordered the Florentine poached eggs (well done, of course) with the Hollandaise (which I don’t like) and the pesto (which Vinny doesn’t like) both on the side:



And we ordered the French toast with mixed berries:



Here’s my slice, mmmmmm:



This was like the thickest, moistest, densest French toast ever.

And here’s my plate of poached egg with all the pesto and all the salad and a teeeeeeny bit of potato (I’m working on the potato aversion, slowly but surely!):



We hung out a bit more after brunch, and then Vinny took off to return to MA, and I returned to the papers. I am so lucky to have friends who can just swoop in and distract me from stress at the perfect moments!

Who distracts YOU?

First, as you read this, I am hopefully gracefully soaring across the country on my way to San Francisco 😀 My brother’s wedding is tomorrow, and then I’m staying out there for the week so I can get in all my sibling- and niece-visiting. I can’t wait! This plan also very likely means that posting is going to be sporadic (and perhaps nonexistent) next week again. I foresee many exciting food experience taking place during my trip, however, so I should have some fun reports when I return!

Second, I am aware that posts containing food I have created myself are few and far between, but I have still been cooking/chopping up my usual storm. There was one morning when I made myself a breakfast of sliced CSA peach with homemade mixed nut butter and cinnamon:

I have also continued to delight in my daily portions of CSA crudites:

I recently baked a CSA spaghetti squash, roasted the seeds, and tossed the whole thing with some homemade CSA three-leaf pesto:

I received a sample of sprouted soybean silken tofu from Wildwood, so I blended that with fresh ginger, ground flax, CSA pear, and nutmeg to make a flax pudding of sorts (which went especially well topped with cinnamon and more homemade mixed nut butter):

I’ve been getting home late at night due to class and other obligations, so dinners have been relatively low-key. Behold: Carr’s rosemary crackers topped with Wildwood probiotic raspberry chipotle hummus with a centerpiece of frozen grapes and 70% dark chocolate from a CVS ExtraCares coupon:

(P.S. CVS is my favorite store in the world … and even more so now that it gave me a coupon for a free giant bar of chocolate.)

I have also been using my Nature’s Pride 100% whole wheat bread (Thanks, Foodbuzz!) for egg sandwiches:

This type of egg sandwich was a staple of my childhood. I have missed it!

And free bread isn’t too shabby, either.

Many snack times have featured my high-end glamorous dehydrated fruit salad, courtesy of my mom and her fancy kitchen appliances. Kiwi, watermelon, mango, pineapple, cherries, raspberries, strawberries, apples, peaches, plums, banana, and more:

The most dramatic food story of all, however, has involved my urban garden. If you recall, I’ve been nurturing a little tomato plant from seed ever since last fall when I saved and planted the seeds of an heirloom tomato I had bought from the Farmers’ Market. I actually had several little tomato seedlings, but all but one got crushed in an unfortunate incident with my window shade back in May. I transplanted the one remaining seedling to a pot on my balcony in the beginning of summer, and I have been devotedly following its growth — and the growth of my very first tomato — ever since. The weekend before last, I noticed that my one tomato was finally starting to turn red. I was SO excited!!! After my wild night in Jersey with Erin Gunn & co., I came back home and rushed to the balcony to check on my steadily ripening treasure. There was a problem:

Where the f did my tomato go??????!!!!!!!!!! I started looking around wildly for a squirrel I could scream at. And then I looked down:

Closer:

In all the rain and wind, my poor little tomato had simply blown off the plant and landed in the backyard of my downstairs neighbors. I debated the best course of action. Would it be weird to ask my neighbors to retrieve my surely destroyed tomato so that I could say a real goodbye in person?? I don’t live in Kansas where people understand that sort of thing. I live in Brooklyn! I tried to restrain myself, but I eventually sprinted down the steps to knock on the door of my neighbors and confess my craziness. They were not home!! I grabbed a post-it and wrote a hopefully-not-creepy note about how my first tomato ever was in their backyard. And then I signed it with my address, my phone number, my email, and probably several other methods for contacting me. I had dinner plans, but when I got off the subway later that night, I had the sweetest message ever from my neighbor, stating that she had found my tomato, tried her best to clean it up, and was holding onto it for me so I could decide for myself how to proceed:

I gave my tomato a slice to check internal integrity:

There were no slugs, and that was good enough for me! I chopped the tomato and tossed it with my pesto spaghetti squash, baked BBQ tofu, and spicy spaghetti squash seeds:

Yummmmmm, my tomato was excellent!! I am so proud of that little seed for growing into a real live plant that gave birth to a real live fruit.

Have you ever felt maternal pride toward something you have grown or made?

Ohhhh, Erin Gunn! Her wedding is the reason I am trying to eat reasonably this month, and her wedding is also the reason I absolutely cannot eat reasonably this month. You may remember the food involved in our wedding-planning-motivated-trip to visit her sister in Buffalo (recounted here, here, and here) as well as the food involved in her bridal shower/ballfest bachelorette party. Well, a couple weeks ago, Erin Gunn’s soon-to-be in-laws threw her another shower so that the New York contingent who had not been able to journey to MA for the first one could have a chance to participate in the showering as well.

Erin’s cousin-in-law-to-be hosted the very classy function at her Long Island home. You know I was in heaven when I saw this platter:



I don’t quite remember how it happened, but my hand seemed consistently occupied with a steady mimosa supply throughout the afternoon:



I also did bridesmaidy things:

The lunch selection (as if I had not already eaten my weight in dill havarti) was genius:



I had a plate with grilled chicken and onions on sundried tomato olive bread, barley salad, and mediterranean pasta salad:



And then there were desserts!



I obviously had to try it all: white cake with strawberries and whipped cream, half a pink-frosted cupcake, apple pie, and chocolate layer cake:



I definitely went back for more slivers of everything, too.

Erin’s future brother-in-law’s girlfriend put together these sweet favors in honor of Erin’s mom’s ongoing battle with breast cancer:

Jordan almonds were inside, and I ate them all 😀



And Erin’s future mother-in-law brought along the goody bags left from Erin’s first shower in MA:



The next weekend, while Mike and the guys had their bachelor party on a party bus that hit all the Manhattan hot spots, I joined their significant others in New Jersey for a good, old-fashioned girls night in. We had brownies and Moe’s:



I ordered a black bean burrito and ate it ALL.



(And you know I also did some serious damage to that tray of brownies!)

Things started to get a little out of hand when Kari decided to go brunette (a theme lately!), and Laura took on the mixology duties:







Post-dye-application, I took over mixology duties for the alcoholic segment of the evening. Who was the genius who assigned this job to me?? I made some shots. I don’t remember what was in them:



And the photos stopped there. We might have gone out on the town and done all sorts of crazy things that cannot be blogged. Or we might have also collapsed on the couch to watch Never Been Kissed on TBS and fallen asleep in the middle of it …. You’ll never know for sure 😉

Do you prefer bridges or tunnels? Islands or mainlands? Bars or girly movies?

… from the tree! Belkis went apple picking recently. As a result, this situation has been taunting me every single working hour for the past two weeks:

All day, every day, I sit right next to a steady supply of apples and peanut butter and a bunch of ladies who love this combo as much as I do:

My little seating area has gone through approximately 7 jars of peanut butter in the past two weeks.

And perhaps hundreds of apples.

In an effort to put a dent in her undentable apple supply, Belkis asked me if I knew how to make apple pie. I told her she had come to the right place, and she promptly handed over seven of her hard-earned jewels:

I warned her that my apple pie would not be traditional, and she gave me permission to put any spin on the dessert that I chose. I decided to go with my Apple Pie with Millet Crust, which I felt would be wholesome and hearty enough to bring as my offering for that Thursday’s department breakfast in honor of Mildred’s last day (tear :-().

The pie vanished. I was so excited to have supplied a healthy offering that my fried-food-and-cake-loving coworkers gobbled up 🙂

Here’s the rest of the table:

Highlights included fresh avocado:

Homemade whole wheat-oatmeal waffles with nutella, banana, and whipped cream (go Angela!!):

Just because I want to make your mouth water even more:

Jessica’s famous omelettes (said with a French accent, of course):

Here’s my first plate with Angela’s waffles, Belkis’ yuca and onions, my apple pie, strawberries and grapes from Rosey and Pansy, pancakes from McDonald’s via Deborah, Jessica’s omelet, avocado, and turkey sausage:

Aaaaaaaaaaand plate number two:

There were more plates, but who’s counting?

I did, however, have the foresight to save some of Belkis’ yuca masterpiece and bits of avocado for the next day’s lunch!

Also that Thursday, I finally made it to karate with the help of my coworker Erik, who is already a member. I started out brilliantly confident because the instructor made us run 15 laps around the gym. It was nothing for me, but all the boys were panting. (Side note: The class is ALL guys who are significantly bigger than I am, except for one kid who is approximately 11 years old whose dad put him in the class to toughen him up.) Then, I got selected to spar in the middle of the circle and got punched in the eye by accident. Next, I got sent into this space designed to simulate an elevator with Erik. Erik was supplied with a red marker intended to simulate a knife. He had to try to mark me up, and I had to try to defend myself. I may have left that drill covered in red marks. I would be so dead if I had really been stuck in an elevator with knife-toting guy. So, officially covered in bruises, I officially joined karate. As the instructor said, “Better you get hurt in here than out there!”

On the long subway ride back to Brooklyn from East Harlem, Erik helped dull the pain with these homemade alcohol-infused grapes that another grateful mom had gifted to him:

After one grape, the pain became a thing of the past. These could be dangerous!

Erik and I almost went back to karate on Friday night. But instead we walked through the prettiest part of Central Park:

And ate cheese and crackers:

Here’s the difference between boys and girls. Erik was responsible for the arrangement and photography of the above photo (of mind-numbingly delicious aged gouda with Carr’s rosemary crackers). I arranged the photo below:

Which would you rather eat???

I also stir-fried the rest of my CSA veggies (cabbage, green beans, and bell peppers) with the rest of Mildred’s arroz con gandules. Erik convinced me to put in the two whole jalapenos — seeds and stems included — that Dorothy had given me from her CSA, and I seasoned the whole thing with Emeril’s Essence seasoning. I topped it with baked firm sprouted tofu from Wildwood in a Country Bob’s glaze.

As delicious as this was, I could not take the insane heat from the jalapenos and their insides. I told Erik it was on him to eat it all since no food that I had cooked was going to end up in the trash. He accepted the challenge and valiantly powered through a full body sweat session to house the whole meal for lunch at work the following Monday.

Do your apples fall far from the tree? What’s your experience with physical combat? And how much heat can you take?