Once upon a time, there was a girl named Sarah. For a whole year, no matter where she went, cake followed her. Cake did not seem to care that she had to fit into a very expensive bridesmaid dress, nor did cake care that she had a family history of diabetes. Cake only cared that Sarah ate it. So she did.

On August 30, Gina and Chris celebrated their first wedding anniversary.

They knew that the entire top tier of their wedding cake had been waiting in the freezer for a year, and they also knew that they could not possibly conquer the entire tier between the two of them.



Gina and Chris put their heads together and came up with a plan.



The plan involved calling in reinforcements.



Kate and I heard the urgency and desperation in our friends’ voices and responded immediately to the call of duty.



Before we could dig into the cake, however, Gina had to strengthen our stomachs with a hefty dose of sodium in the form of her baked ziti:

With that, we were ready to get down to the matter at hand.

We held Gina and Chris at camera-point and forced them to re-enact their very first slices of cake together as husband and wife. Things got messy.







Chris had a slightly violent reaction to the year-old cake:



Gina fared better:





And then Kate and I went in for the kill. Here’s my plate:



I beefed it up with a mini-sliver of chocolate cake from The Chocolate Room that Chris had bought the day before:



And I also left Gina’s with a baggie full of frozen birthday cake that Chris’ sister had made for Gina few weeks earlier:



It was delicious when I got around to eating it a few days later, but I wish I had seen it live because it looks like such a wonder in the pictures:



A few other cakes have also invaded my life as of late, though I doubt anyone is surprised. Sister Pat brought treats to work from an East Village bakery to celebrate three years with the agency:



I had a little sliver of napoleon and a bite of carrot cake:



And Belkis made a cake with her son Emanuel and brought it to the office for Emanuel and other kids of my coworkers to decorate:





I had a small sliver … and then another small sliver 😛



I always say it — there’s something about boxed cake mix and canned frosting that is SO addictive! Mmmmmmmmm.

But now I must switch gears and take a break from all the cake! Dear cake: I appreciate your persistence, but you really must stay out of my way now, at least until I get through these fall weddings. I think Erin Gunn will literally kill me if I don’t fit into my bridesmaid dress. And I want to live. Please? Thanks. Love, Sarah

Horrifying dress-too-small stories, anyone??

As indicated yesterday, I headed back to Brooklyn after brunch to take care of some business and change into evening attire, and then I returned to the city for a night with the boys:



(Ummm, in case you are wondering, Rami is married … to a woman.)

Gina met up with us at Gabe’s apartment, and then we were off to the bars! Except we got sidetracked along the way:

Hmmmmm, any establishment with that sign on the window is guaranteed to grab my attention!



Gabe’s apartment is conveniently located across the street from Rice to Riches, and all signs seemed to be pointing toward an immediate need for rice pudding:

We carefully studied (and sampled) every flavor:

And debated the merits of each option:



Until Gabe stepped up to the plate and placed our order:



We settled on a small bowl with half cheesecake and half sex, drugs, and rocky road:



And we enjoyed it thoroughly:



Satisfactorily rice puddinged, we made our way across the street to Vig Bar where we found my favorite thing to find in a bar: a good-looking man making drinks with fresh fruit!!



Gina and I both ordered fresh strawberry martinis, and they came complete with floral accents:

The flower garnish was picked right from this plant immediately pre-delivery:

Gina had watched the drink preparation and warned me that the bartender poured in a hefty serving of vodka, but I paid her no mind.

The first sign of trouble may have been when I assumed the flower was edible since it came with no warning label. I popped it into my mouth like it was a skittle without a second thought.

I was not impressed. Gina can vouch for the look on my face.

I rallied with a fresh pineapple martini:



Courtesy of Rami, wingman extraordinaire:



The second sign of trouble may have been when I made best friends with the bouncer, Mustafa:



I was quickly whisked away to another bar, where the third sign of trouble appeared when I met a half Peruvian man and had to tell him about all my Peruvian adventures in my atrociously imperfect Spanish, even though he spoke atrociously perfect English. Luckily, Gina’s husband had just finished his hockey game in the city around that time, and he swung by the bar to collect us and drive us home, where I proceeded to eat several unphotographed meals in an effort to prepare my swirling stomach for bedtime 😛

All in all, I’d say I had a successful night in terms of nutrition: grains, dairy, fruit, flowers, bouncers. I covered all the bases. How do YOU ensure proper nutrition when you are out on the town?

During the last weekend of August, I had an excellent Saturday brunch at Camaje in the Village. It was a rainy, sleepy day, and it took all my energy to drag myself into the city, but I knew that my favorite Australians would make the effort worth my while:

(From left to right: Rony, Ross, Jenny, Nicola, Ali, Daniel, me, Rami, and Gabe)

The plan had initially been for Rami and Ali to throw a pool party at their place, but the rain put a damper on that arrangement … so brunch it was!

I was excited that Rami and Ali chose this restaurant. I took a one-night fall dessert-making class here in my last year of college — a 21st birthday present from my old roommates — but I had never actually eaten there for a real meal despite wanting to for ages and ages!

I ordered a pot of Early Grey with milk and honey, aka the best rainy day beverage:

Our food took forever to come, but that was fine because we all had hours and hours of chatting to do.

Plus, my granola and yogurt was worth the wait:

The server had told me it did NOT come with fruit, so I was quite pleasantly surprised when it arrived with apples, blueberries, and pears on top!

Rami ordered the chocolate brioche french toast:

With blueberries and bananas:

Ohhhh my goodness, words can’t describe! The chocolate flavor was SO rich and amazing:

I also finished the last bite of Nicola’s banana pancakes, mmmmmmm:

When the bill finally came (again, hours and hours later), Rami took care of business with some quick calculating:

From there, we all parted ways … only to meet up again a few hours later! I so rarely see these guys (I met Rami in an NYU elevator in 2001 when he was studying abroad here and stayed in touch because I was planning to study in Sydney the next semester … which is when I met Gabe and many other friends of theirs) even though they live here now, so we had to maximize the opportunity. My Australian adventure part two will be along shortly …

What’s your favorite English accent: Australian, Irish, or British?

A couple Fridays ago, I headed back over to Amanda and Meghan’s apartment for the third installment of our book club (you can see the first and second installments here). Our book this time was We Were the Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates, and we settled into discussion with a round of cosmos, of course!

While we gossiped about things that had nothing to do with the book worked our way through the questions, we also nibbled on french bread toasts with brie and fig preserves:



Fig + cheese = one of the best combinations ever:



For dinner, I brought along some CSA salad, and Meghan (who has become the chef of these evenings!) put together a delicious pasta with sweet corn and tomatoes:

The pasta also had a very light cheesiness. Amanda was right when she said it was like grownup mac-and-cheese:

We actually did discuss the book after we ate the pasta because we needed some digestion time — there was a lot of pasta there! However, dessert could not stay hiding in the wings for long. Dessert was my other responsibility of the night, and I had taken it seriously and gotten preparation underway right when I arrived home from work that day. I gathered the last of my CSA watermelon, crenshaw melon, and nectarine:



After cutting everything into chunks, I added some balcony basil and a spoonful of Olga‘s Russian apricot jam and then coarsely mashed everything together:

I put the whole mix in the freezer — first in mine and then in Amanda and Meghan’s when I got to their apartment — until we were ready to eat it. I had no idea how it would come out, but it turned linto a refreshing summer sorbet:

On the side, we had the last bits of my Ulimana raw chocolate and the marzipan that Wife and Ted had brought me from Sicily (both had been waiting in the freezer for this moment for weeks!):

Amanda and Meghan sent me home with tons of leftover pasta, so I mixed it with my own leftover veggies … and turned it into pasta salad to last me through the next week’s lunches 🙂

I kept repeating the melon and basil combo the rest of the week, too — it made for such a peppy little fruit salad:

Amanda and Meghan, thanks for another installment of the best book club ever … and for keep me fed for an entire week after it 😛

Speaking of books and food, do you have a favorite book about or related to food? I think mine is Like Water for Chocolate. I haven’t read it since I was maybe 15, but I remember loving it.

The rain-motivated cancellation of my agency’s planned picnic in the park for the families a couple weeks ago had far-reaching ramifications, the main one being that I was left lunchless! Before I could mourn the loss of lunch, however, I had to call all my moms and let them know about the change in plans. While doing so, I ate a couple of Deborah’s cinnamon melts from McDonald’s:

Mmmmmmm.

Belkis had brought her son Emanuel to work for the picnic. He also ate a few Cinnamon Melts but really kept himself occupied with our no-longer-picnic-bound balloons:

I also had a few of these farm-fresh “melts” — my latest batch of CSA cherry tomatoes:

Finally, it was time to address the whole no-lunch issue, as we were all getting hungry and cranky that the picnic had been cancelled. After a lengthy discussion of options and cravings, we eventually settled on Mi Abuelita for the selection of appetizing soups on such a rainy day.

Myrna modeled the menu and then agreed to split the Mofongo de Camarones with me:

I had a slice of toasty buttered bread while we waited for our feast:

Emanuel provided the entertainment:

And so did the beverages. Myrna and I shared a papaya shake, and Jessica had a limeade:

Next up was the soups. I had a bite of Belkis’ sancocho and all of the carrots from Jessica’s sopa:

And then came the best part!! I was so excited for the mofongo because I’ve heard my coworkers talk about it plenty but had never actually eaten it myself:

Mofongo is a mound of fried green plantains, and Myrna and I ordered ours with shrimp:

Obviously, this was delicious and gave me even more reason to move to the Dominican Republic.

The mofongo came with the perfect side salad of avocados, beets, and tomatoes:

This was such a delicious, satisfying, and fun meal … and a great way for us to console ourselves after the disappointment of the canceled picnic. I have plenty of stressful days at work, but all of the positives (wonderful coworkers, excellent food, meaningful work, fun) really help to balance things.

How would you order your mofongo?