Yesterday morning was uneventful in terms of food, so I actually had my packed snack for once. Sliced cucumbers with office peanut butter:

Once noon rolled around, however, I was off and running for the rest of the day. Several food items fell into my mouth along the way. Inginia and I did a fruit project with the moms and kids in the parents’ group, so I nibbled on some orange pieces and banana pieces:

I also had quite a few pieces of corn muffin with peanut butter because, well, everyone else was doing it 😛

We also received some donated mini-cupcakes to use in the group but didn’t end up needing them … so I ate some frosting:

And more frosting from one of the chocolate ones:

( I packed up the rest and brought them home to feed the freezer.)

When I got back up to my desk, Maria offered me her last hunk of coconut, and I very enthusiastically accepted:

I love all the fresh coconut that has been in my life lately!

I ran right out for a visit — while there, the mom fed me a chocolate cream wafer (no picture, lo siento!) and a bottle of water. I ended up staying late at the visit because I was stuck on hold trying to make a phone call for the mom. From there, I raced back to the office and into another meeting. I finally had my snack of fat free ricotta with apple, mango, strawberry, and hemp seeds around 4:45:

Jessica dragged me out of the office at 5 on the dot because she wanted a subway buddy, so I have a bunch of loose ends to tie up today!

I got home at 6, did a little prep work for tomorrow, and then ran over to Prospect Park to meet Olga for opening night of Celebrate Brooklyn. (Vani was there, too, but it was so packed we didn’t end up seeing her.) As you probably know already, Olga is working there this summer and has the inside scoop on all the happenings! David Byrne was there last night. I did not know who he was, but apparently he used to be in the band Talking Heads.

I only recognized one song, but there were others who knew them all. Check out these die-hard fans:

And the crowds!!

(That’s the line to get in!)

I’ve never seen this many people in Brooklyn, let alone all crowded into Prospect Park. Lucky for us, a buddy of Olga’s had arrived super early to get in line, so we were able to skip through about a mile of people to score a good spot on the lawn.

How smart are Olga’s friends?! Here is Constantine pouring wine from a Camelbak.

I brought along a snack to share: the TJ’s jalapeno lime salsa that Elisabeth sent and these Brown Rice Vegetable Snaps from Edward & Sons.

These crisps were delicious, and I dipped them in everything — salty things, sweet things, and both together — all night long. We/I pretty much finished off the package!

Olga and her buddies also provided an amazing spread because they had gone to the Red Hook Fairway (aka heaven on earth) right before the show to stock up.

Cinnamon raisin challah:

Cheddar cheese and some other fancy kind:

Freshly ground honey-roasted peanut butter:

And more! Here’s my plate with challah, pb, baguette, hummus, cheese, triscuits, berries:

I put the triscuit crumbs to work with cheese crumbs and more hummus:

And found some chocolate covered pretzels in the mix (excellent dipped in the pb, as per Olga’s suggestion):

I kept nibbling alllll night! I probably had a full half cup of that peanut butter all by myself!

Check Olga’s recap for more!

I left around 9:45, though the show was still going strong. Olga sent me home with some delicious goodies: the rest of the berries and a belated birthday card and bar of Russian chocolate.

Thanks, Olga 🙂 It was an awesome night, and I’m looking forward to more Prospect Park shows all summer long. Yayyyyy summer!

Even if your schedule is just as loaded and overextended as always, what is one thing you do that makes it feel like summer?

Once again, last night’s dinner and this morning’s breakfast were twins 😛



The process for this rainbow of delight unfolded as follows. I cooked 2 tbsp oat bran and 2 tbsp ground flax with 1/2 cup of water and then immersion-blended in a huge bunch of spinach (stems and all), nutmeg, cardamom, vanilla, and 2 tbsp lucuma powder. After the blend, I added a heaping tbsp goji berries (fyi, I’ve been using the goji berries (and chia seeds and lucuma powder) from Navitas Naturals. I actually don’t really like goji berries on their own, but I’m finding these delightful as oatmeal and yogurt enhancements!), 1/4 cup chia seeds, a big grated chunk of fresh coconut, and 1 cup water. All of that sat in the fridge for a couple hours to let the chia seeds work their absorption magic. I used half of the finished pudding in my dinner last night.



For the “filling” of my oats, I mixed together the “fruit on the bottom” from a Stoneyfield chocolate underground yogurt and a Ronnybrook Farms creamline coconut yogurt (the actual yogurt parts went toward the week’s batch of homemade yogurt … which I had to make with 1% milk because the store was out of skim!) with 1/4 cup fat free ricotta.



The whole thing got decorated with mango (I ate the peel of the mango for the first time ever while I was chopping this one. It wasn’t bad!), apple, strawberries, and Artisana goji bliss. My first bite of the goji bliss tasted so familiar — I was surprised because I’ve obviously never tried goji bliss before. I was thrilled when I realized it tasted just like the cacao bliss! I’m so excited that my “bliss” has been extended a couple more days.



Side note: This was the best oatmeal (I’m using “oatmeal” loosely here because there were barely any oats in this!) ever. Healthy, lip-lickingly delicious, and cheerfully colored! I might even choose it over cake in a standoff.

But … why choose when you can have both?



Dessert was a piece of Pat Shannon’s famous carrot cake with an Oh! Nuts dark chocolate-covered strawberry.



Oooooh, the cream cheese icing. Gets me every time!



I was up and at ’em with my 5:00 alarm this morning and took off for legs and 30 minutes of cardio at the gym. Breakfast was the other half of my spinach pudding. I wish I had made more than two servings!

The only difference between last night and this morning was the yogurt component: today’s yogurt was fresh out of the oven 🙂

I can feel your halo (halo) halo …

OK, time for some quality time with the subway. Happy Monday!

Oats, cake, or both?

I woke up hungry this morning. I don’t know how it happened after all the eating I’ve done the past two days, but it did! So, I made breakfast:

Two of Jessica’s omelets from Friday topped with TJ’s peach salsa:

And chopped apple and pineapple with nutmeg, cardamom, and hemp:

I also couldn’t help a little snacky sprinkle of strawberry medley/golean crunch with soymilk:

It was a beautiful, beautiful morning, so I power walked out to “the mall,” where I hit up Old Navy and Target for hot-yoga-appropriate moisture-wicking attire. I had not bought new clothes in over two years (ever since I left the full-time-salaried life to go to grad school), so this was exciting and a big deal because all of my workout clothes are 100% cotton (aka NOT moisture-wicking) and also starting to tear at embarrassing seams. Still, I was horrified by the number on the cash register. Even thinking about how I just spent $90 on clothes is kind of really sending me into a panic. But, I know I’ve made a good investment, and these clothes had better last me another two years!

I also went to the grocery store and found lots of good deals (and lots of free gouda samples), so it was a very successful shopping day. But I think I need to hide my credit card from myself for a while until my $25/week spending money budget catches up with itself!

Lunch involved something repurposed and something new. I mixed what I had left of Rosey’s spaghetti with my last thawed serving of mom’s chicken cacciatore and broiled it in a pie plate for about 15 minutes until crispy.

For the “new” part of lunch, I decided to try my hand at this “massaged kale salad” that I’ve seen around [blog]town. I mixed the leaves from the huge bunch of kale I got at the grocery store (I saved the stems to steam with broccoli) with some of my mom’s herb-infused olive oil, red wine vinegar, lemon juice, some squirts of wasabi paste, coarse sea salt, and freshly ground black pepper. It was fun to get in there with my hands and give the kale its full-body massage, working all of the dressing components thoroughly into the kale leaves. I could actually feel the texture of the kale softening as I worked.

I put some of the massaged kale salad in a bowl with a bit of arugula (the gourmet market had clam shells of local arugula on sale for $2.99!!! I bought two :-D) and topped it with a scoop of the broiled spaghetti and some grated homemade parmesan.

I loved the kale this way!

Kale is such a substantial green when it is raw, and this massaging let the kale keep its satisfying chew while flavoring it nicely. (Vani and I actually had a whole discussion about kale on the subway yesterday — probably what made me buy it today and try the massage.) I bet it will be even more delicious as leftovers after it marinates some more.

Dessert was a hunk of the fresh coconut that Jessica gave me at work last week:

The rest of my afternoon was full of homework. Ughhh, I forgot I was going to have to go back to dealing with homework with my summer classes. Sigh, only 12 more months …

What are you more likely to do first: get a massage yourself or give one to a big pile of raw kale?

Also, Kate posted the pizza tossing video from last night. You probably need a pretty fast connection to be able to observe the full extent of Nino’s abilities, but you can give it a shot here!

After all of the perfection yesterday, a perfect dinner was clearly in order for last night. Gina brought us to Pizzeria Del Corso, an Italian restaurant near her house in Marine Park. From the outside, the restaurant looks very “Brooklyn” …

But inside, it is full of old-world charm and class:

(Left to right: Kate, Kareen, Chris, Gina, me)

What makes this restaurant particularly special is that Nino, one of the owners, is an Olympic pizza tosser!

(He’s the one in the hat, top right, and in the hat, bottom left-ish front … read to the bottom for his live demo for us!)

As we perused the menu, some of my favorite things materialized right before my eyes.

Sesame Italian bread:

And olive oil with balsamic vinegar that our server painstakingly poured for us:

We went through two whole baskets, most of which were probably eaten by me!

To start, Gina and Chris ordered the meatballs:

I had a bite (of course). If I had an Italian grandma, her meatballs would taste like this!

Kate and I split the chickpea appetizer (with garlic, oregano, and olive oil):

There were big chunks of garlic in there! I love it. And we made sure to sop up every last drip of olive oil sauce with the bread 🙂

For her main meal, Kareen ordered the homemade ravioli (all of the pasta at this restaurant is homemade):

I had a bite … also tasted like it was made by my [imaginary] Italian grandmother.

Chris, after much hemming and hawing and general trepidation, eventually broke down and ordered the fresh barracuda special. (Nino seemed to have gotten a huge barracuda in honor of his father’s birthday celebration, also taking place in the restaurant last night, and he came over and bullied Chris into ordering it instead of his planned swordfish.)

I had a bite and was so pleasantly surprised! Given the predatory and huuuuuge nature of the barracuda, I would have expected a very aggressive and strong fish flavor … but it just tasted like a light and fresh white fish. Delicious, especially with those grape tomatoes all over it! Chris ended up eating it all (we were so proud!) except for a broccoli stalk that he was about to let leave the table with the server until I sent him the evil eye and rescued it!

Gina ordered the spaghetti carbonara with pancetta:

So cheesy and rich!

Kate and I split the grilled calamari arugula salad:

These calamari were so perfectly grilled. The texture had just the right amount of chew.

I would have been completely satisfied with that, but we had also ordered the pizza with chantarelle mushrooms and truffle oil! We shared one piece with the others and split the rest between the two of us.

This might be the best crust I have ever tasted!

The toppings were also delicious, but I have to say, the pizza could have been enhanced by goat cheese (or something equally tangy) and more truffle oil. I’m sure that would have taken away from the “traditional Italian simplicity” thing going on, but as far as truffle pizza goes, I think Olivia still has the market cornered!

After successfully inhaling every crumb of food on our plates, we were planning to share the tiramisu for dessert … until our server clued us in to a brand new dessert Nino had just developed the day before. We’re suckers for trying new things (except for Chris, who generally needs some prodding :-P), so we switched gears and accepted the challenge.

Zeppoles filled with cannoli cream!! These were super tasty, but we all agreed they could use a little extra pep … perhaps by adding almond liqueur to the cream or serving them with more blueberry sauce. (We also discovered that each zeppole had a little blueberry hidden inside — very cute.)

I had a whole ball and used it to collect all of the sauce on the plate 🙂

While we were waiting for our check, Nino finally came out to perform!

I tried to take some pictures without flash, and Nino all but disappeared because he was moving so fast!

Nino then brought out a second pie to freestyle toss both at the same time, and he disappeared even more!

Kate actually took video on her camera, so I might try to get my hands on that later to see if I can figure out how to upload it. This was seriously so impressive! It was like Nino was hip hop dancing while juggling constantly twirling pizza doughs. I’m amazed!

*** Edited to add: The pizza-tossing video is here!!! ***

After dinner, we were glad we had walked to the restaurant because we really needed more walking with our full bellies! On the way, we saw some beauteous spring sights.

And, in Kareen’s own backyard (she also lives in Marine Park):

Again, this was such a lovely day! Even though Marine Park is very much a part of Brooklyn and the city, it has a much more residential feel to it and serves as an excellent “day trip” location as long as you’re accompanied by someone in the know (like Gina!).

Have you ever seen (or heard of) Olympic pizza tossing?

Today was steamy from the start.

Vani and I met at the subway bright and early this morning to head up to midtown for my first ever hot yoga class! Despite really wanting to love yoga, I’ve definitely always had a like-hate relationship with it. Until today, I had never taken a class at an official studio — just at various gyms and from yogadownload.com. I had afternoon plans, so Vani and I chose the morning 60-minute class (most of the regular Bikram classes are 90 minutes) which happened to be a hot Vinyasa class. I could tell I loved the place the second I walked in. The studio was so pretty with the hardwood floors, natural light, and colorful mats!



I tried my best I’m serious about yoga pose.



Yup, mostly scary. I know.

Anyway, I loved the class!! Vani and I agreed that the instructor was excellent right up until the last 15 minutes or so when her voice inexplicably changed from a pleasantly gentle encouraging tone to more of a jarring barky commanding tone, but I can overlook that. I love how I felt like I was doing something good for my body — inside and out, organs, joints, the whole thing — and felt like I was getting an excellent workout at the same time since I worked up such a sweat with the 100 degrees. I’m even inspired to go buy actual non-cotton workout attire so that I can continue … and you know the class was good if it put me in the mood to spend money!

I came back home briefly after yoga for a quick shower, change, and breakfast … at noon. I didn’t eat anything (except for a teeny spoonful of peanut butter) before I left this morning because I had been advised (thanks, Amanda!) not to eat for two hours before the class. I ate at least two days worth of food yesterday anyway, so holding off a few hours on breakfast was no biggie 🙂



Breakfast’s main course involved 1/2 cup leftover cooked brown rice and triticale berries, 1/3 cup unsweetened soymilk, cinnamon, cardamom, and berries.



Photographs of berries might get old to you, but they don’t get old to me. So I am going to show another.



On the side, I had a bit of chopped apple and pineapple with hulled hemp seed and cardamom.



Another pang of hunger hit as I walked out the door at 1:30, so I filled a baggie with more fruit to accompany me on my walk to the subway.



As soon as I stepped on the train, I spotted Kate. How convenient! We were both heading down to Marine Park to hang out with Gina. Kate lives three stops before me, and we luckily ended up on the same train and the same car for the journey! Thirty minutes or so later, we reached our destination and got collected by Gina … who inquired whether we might be up for some Mister Softee!! You should know that I consider Mister Softee my husband. I once had him make an office call when I had a serious craving at my old job. I actually called Mister Softee HQ and spoke to a man there who understood my urgent need and connected me to the dispatcher who very kindly connected me to the Mister Softee driver himself. From there, Mister Softee and I continued making arrangements directly until he had pulled up safely right outside the building. He even stood up to Bed-Stuy policeman wrath for pulling over in a no standing zone, shouting Just let the girl get her ice cream!

Anyway, after all that, the truck Gina had seen was a generic impostor.



Regardless, we all had ice cream on the brain by that point and forged ahead with the plan. I got a vanilla cone with chocolate dip and rainbow jimmies.



From there, we walked back to Gina’s house to hang out for a bit until her husband arrived with the car, a key component of our afternoon plans. While waiting, we nibbled on some carrot cake leftovers.



There’s a story behind this carrot cake. In fact, Gina and I have had an email chain going back and forth between us for weeks with the subject line, “Carrot cake!” The chain includes such gems as, “Sarah, I have carrot cake, but I’ll be out of town this weekend! Should I bring it to work so you can swing by my office and get it?” and “Gina, can you put a slice in the freezer for me until we find a time for me to collect?” and “How about you come over this weekend for a trip to the beach so that you can pick it up?” We’re serious about our carrot cake. This cake is even more special because Gina’s mother-in-law, Pat Shannon, is reputed to make the best carrot cake this side of the universe. The fates have been conspiring against me for ages because I have been out of town for every single party the carrot cake has graced since Gina and her husband got together five years ago. Finally, Gina scored some cake for me at a party couple weeks back, providing inspiration for all this fervent carrot cake plotting. My frozen slice is safely stashed in my freezer now, but the picture above is from the leftovers Gina still had in her fridge. It only took the three of us about 30 seconds to polish it off completely.

I also discovered a cup of leftover Easter chocolate on Gina’s desk.



I had a field day with these dark chocolate Nestle crunch eggs with caramel. I didn’t even know these existed, but they were amazing! Salty sweet is always the way to go.

Chris arrived back with the car shortly after the chocolate discovery, and the three of us girls were off to the waves!



It was late in the afternoon and not quite warm enough for actual bikini sunbathing, but we passed a very pleasant two hours chatting and napping on the sand at the water’s edge.



Today included the ideal sequence of events. Every Saturday should involve hot yoga, Mister Softee (or impostor in a pinch), and beachy naps. Perhaps that should be my goal for the summer.

What are your summer goals?