Living in Brooklyn has its perks — namely, more space and happier people than you can find in Manhattan — and easy access to Brooklyn Bridge Park is one of them.



The week before last, Kate, Gina, and I met up at the park after work to enjoy one of the last “Movies With A View” of the season: Edward Scissorhands.



The park filled up f-a-s-t:



But we were safe in a spot because Gina has connections and had arranged for the reservation of a patch of grass. While we waited for sundown, we did some nibbling of course. I brought along the rest of my lunch to eat for dinner:



And then I got jealous of Gina’s ice from Uncle Louie G’s and had to get one of my own: a small cup with coconut and cookies ‘n’ cream.



Mmmmm, Uncle Louie has the creamiest ices with the most exciting flavors ever. The coconut had actual pieces of coconut in it — I felt like I was eating the fruit/nut itself!

The sun finally went down, and we got ready for the main attraction …



… after an announcement that the park was filled to capacity and people were getting turned away at the gate for the first time ever:



Some of Gina’s in-laws were part of the group that couldn’t get in, which worked out well for us as it meant their picnic needed eating! From the giant bag of sandwiches, I selected a salami and cheese:



I don’t know why I selected salami and cheese since it is the last thing I would ever order, but a craving hit and I was dying for the salt:



And it was exactly what I needed, especially with that perfectly crusty bread!

Finally, the actual movie began. As enjoyable as Edward Scissorhands was, however, I had a hard time concentrating on the movie with this sight distracting me:



P.S. Edward Scissorhands was totally different from the movie I saw when I was 8. I remember watching it for the first time and crying over this crazily tragic-but-scary love story … and having to leave the room because it was too much for me to bear. Twenty years really changes your perspective because it was just not that serious this time! Have you ever been surprised by a re-viewing of a movie you hadn’t seen in years? And, since this is a food blog: What’s the best outdoor movie snack?

Sometimes, there is just too much perfection in my life. After a brilliant day at the beach for work, I braved the deepest depths of Brooklyn for a brilliant evening at Olga‘s house for play.



OK, perhaps I [happily] brave Brooklyn on a daily basis since I live there and all, but Olga’s parents have an apartment that is connected to a rare patch of NYC wilderness, complete with countless tomato plants and other verdant greens. Some of that vegetation made its way onto our balcony dinner table, courtesy of three generations of Martha Stewart Olga, her mom, and her grandma.



Olga and the ladies of her house had invited Vani and me over for an authentic Eastern European feast. When I arrived on Tuesday night and saw the spread awaiting us, I sort of thought I was the luckiest girl in the world.

To begin, Olga set us up with a meal’s worth of appetizers. We had garden tomato and basil salad with brinza cheese:



Half-sour pickles and more fresh tomatoes:



Pickled herring with seaweed and cranberries:



And special Russian juice of a flavor I can’t recall (or decipher):





I was quite satisfied with the spread as it was, but then Olga’s mom kept materializing with more food!!

Warm blintzes with red caviar:



And brown bread:



And homemade pickled tomatoes:



My beautiful, fresh plate:



I obviously had seconds of everything …

As I explained to Olga, I had never really given any thought to Russian food. This meal turned my thinking around — little did I know it had hardly begun! The next course was grandma’s famous borscht:



(Even though there’s no sour cream in the picture, you can bet I heeded the instructions of the ladies and added in a healthy mound!)

And grandma’s famous cabbage pierogies:



(same deal on the sour cream)

At this point, I was ready to be carted away since I was quite sure my legs could not support the weight of my belly … but it was time for dessert:



Olga’s mama brought out a giant thermos of tea which I elegantly enjoyed with almost an entire loaf of poppy seed danish and Russian tea cookies:



This poppy seed bread was amaaaaazing. I kept tearing the pieces apart and eating all the poppy seed paste … and then not wanting to waste the delicious sweet bread part and eating that, too.

While the three of us desserted, we watched this spider spinning a web that was almost as detailed and intricate as the gossip we had to share:



Olga, thank you for an awe-inspiring meal and hours of your company! Come back from MA soon. We miss you! (And in the meantime, let your parents know that I’ll be stopping by for dinner tonight and every night around 7pm. They won’t be able to get rid of me now :-P)

Have you discovered an appreciation for any new cuisine lately?

Last Tuesday, the early childhood department at my agency loaded tons of families onto two buses and drove us all out to Greenwich, CT for a day at the beach. This was a brillllllliant plan because (1) I have not gotten in anything resembling appropriate beach time this summer, (2) many of the families have not gotten in anything resembling appropriate beach time in their lifetimes, (3) it was a beautiful, sunny day, and (4) all food was provided!

Before we left the office, Mildred supplied me with a buttered and toasted sesame bagel:



I had not exactly slept the night before, so this bagel in all its toasty, carby, buttery glory was just what I needed 😀

When we arrived at the beach, our hosts handed out ice pops to everyone:



Mmmmmm, just as sugary as I remembered.

And since infants and toddlers clearly can never have enough sugar, there was a whole spread of Dunkin’ Donuts munchkins waiting for us, too:



So I might have had like six of these:



And seven of these:



With a belly full of sugar, it was time to head down to the water:



Ahhh, could this day have been any more beautiful??



The children frolicked:



And frolicked:



And so did the fish:



And the grown-ups:



And the geese:



At around 1:00. we rounded up the troops for lunch of potato puffs, chicken nuggets (with real chunks of whole meat inside!), wraps, and mayo-infused salads:



I saw this roasted veggie and fresh mozzarella wrap and knew what I would be eating!



Here’s my plate with half a wrap, chicken nuggets and dijon, and some lettuce from the macaroni salad garnish:



Our hosts followed this perfect beach meal with the perfect beach dessert: watermelon!



And the other perfect beach dessert: Oreos!



And the other perfect beach dessert: ice cream sandwiches!



So many desserts, so little time 😛

It was another one of those days that made me so thrilled to be able to work where I do. I love my job 😀

What’s the best field trip you’ve taken this summer?

Amidst all the chaos, out-of-whack schedules, and missed sleep of August, one thing has remained consistent: work food!! I swear, the world could be coming to a complete stop outside, but my agency would not miss a single beat on the food front. There’s no way I can possibly capture all the goodies of the past two weeks, but I think I’ve got enough material for a decent-sized summary!

Even though I didn’t eat at the “informal staff gathering” a few Fridays back due to other plans, you can rest assured that I packed up plenty of leftovers from the event, including pounds of salad, crudites, and this turkey and cheese sandwich that took shape as a perfect lunch the following Monday:

I also scrounged up a Kudos bar (I don’t think I’ve had one of these since high school!) from Belkis’ candy jar in a particularly munchy moment:

And found Nydia’s leftover chorizo taco and chicken taquito on the conference room table at the end of one day:

East Harlem makes the best tacos in the world … except for maybe Mexico.

I have to admit that I did supplement the tacos with a purchase. I noticed the juice bar was unusually well-stocked with fresh coconut, so I picked some up on the way home that day for subway snacking:



(Ummmm, disclaimer: Those are not my stubby boy fingers holding the coconut. They belong to my coworker Erik, who generously agreed to hand model. I happen to have graceful long and tapered fingers, fyi.)

A granola bar from Jessica also made its way into the work food repertoire somewhere in the abyss of the past two weeks:



Have you ever had this flavor?? It tasted like a waffle!

Lillian revived the all natural macaroons from “Health Food Store.” I guess the store can get away with calling itself that since it’s the only one in east Harlem …

Apparently, I ate a mint-choxie, too, which I’m pretty sure appeared on my desk courtesy of Jessica:

The big windfall of recent weeks happened when I participated in a focus group about health care workers’ views of climate change. As compensation for being a part of the group, I received a $25 AmEx gift card AND free lunch from El Paso. I started with half a veggie burrito, black beans, and yellow rice:



And followed it up with half a chicken burrito:



I definitely think that researchers should visit my agency to conduct their focus groups more often.

The other phenomenal food experience of the past couple weeks arrived courtesy of Mildred, who just came back from a month visiting her family in the Dominican Republic. She smuggled many goodies through customs, including several jars of dulce, a coconut-milk-sugar pudding-esque concoction.

The office went mad for it, as it is a serious Dominican delicacy. Jessica, Belkis, and Mildred worked on dulce distribution in a secret corner of our floor by the fridge, and I documented the adventure, as usual:

Ohhhhhhh dear, this was soooooooooooooooo jaw-achingly amazing! Please, somebody, take me to the DR asap!



Now, I can sort of see how the dulce would have been smuggle-able through customs, but how about these fresh Dominican avocados?????

I have to say, I have never ever tasted such a delicious avocado in my life, and avocados are already my favorite “fruit.” I didn’t even know it was from the DR when Myrna gave me a bite and I exclaimed something about its sweetness. The insane flavor made total sense when I found out how fresh it was.

Rosalie also made a trip to the DR this month and came back with all manner of delicious Dominican confections, most of them coconut-based:

Nothing like a good dessert sampler platter 😀

All of this coconut candy got me craving the real deal, so I graced the juice bar with my presence again:

In addition to the coconut, I picked up a Spritz It Up juice (spinach, celery, ginger, and parsley) because I was so full of authentic Dominican coconut brilliance that I couldn’t contemplate a solid lunch:

Except for maybe this bite of Deborah’s mama’s cooking:

Myrna offered up her tres leches cake, but I stuck to one bite.



The reason for my cake restraint? I also went to pick up my bridesmaid dress for Erin Gunn’s wedding last week, and it fit me like the tightest glove ever. Since I cannot afford to not fit in this dress, I am going to need to practice more moderation than normal for the next couple of months. I put my coworkers on alert about the dress situation, and Myrna graciously disappeared to some hidden corner of the office with the rest of her cake!

Near the end of last week, however, Belkis proudly brought in a pan full of homemade yellow cake, and I obviously sampled some:

But, again, I stuck to one piece for the reasons mentioned above! I had to work hard to restrain myself with this one because the cake was sitting on the table next to my desk allllll afternoon. Luckily, we had a lot of balloon animals hanging around since we had been planning to have a picnic for the families on Friday before it got rained out. The little dogs came in handy when I needed to hide the rest of Belkis’ cake from myself:

Jessica was so sad about the picnic getting rained out that she decided to dress up in her clown costume anyway and entertain us:

And then she and Belkis broke out the hula hoops that we had intended to use for the picnic, and we got started with the exercise portion of our Friday afternoon at work:

Jessica and Belkis in da howwwwwwwwwwwwse.

Finally, I took a swig of Jessica’s chocolate milk and called it a day!

How do you let off steam at work? Have hula hoops and balloon animals ever made an appearance?

I have at least three critical CSA deliveries awaiting blog fame, so let’s not waste any time!

Two weeks ago, Kate was out of town and left me responsible for the full share:

I made it to the pickup just in the nick of time and had to tearfully beg for my share until the powers that be acquiesced. I made out with loads of salad greens (romaine, arugula, baby bok choy) and salad veggies (broccoli, kale, eggplant, green peppers), big tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, jalapenos, peaches, and donut peaches:

Every Saturday is like Christmas with this bounty! I fell in love with an eggplant:

So I broiled it after a quick soak in balsamic, evoo, sea salt, and coriander and then layered it in the bottom of a baking dish with balcony basil:

I threw some sliced CSA tomatoes on top along with cheddar and homemade parm for a roast, and the end result was surprisingly gourmet! It tasted like eggplant a la vodka, mmmmmmm. I also roasted the rest of the CSA veggies and steamed the reject greens (broccoli and kale stems, wilted lettuce, etc).

I froze about half of that food so that Kate could experience this delicious share when she got back. I ate the rest pretty close to immediately 😀

I didn’t get to pick up last week’s CSA from Kate until about mid-week due to the Buffalo trip and ensuing chaos, but I was thrilled that Kate saved everything for me:

This share conveniently had a ton of arugula, basil, and romaine, as I needed to replenish my salad supply because I’d had no time to shop since getting back from Buffalo. In addition to the greens, the share also had corn, tomatoes, nectarines, crenshaw melon, and watermelon (!!!).

Finally, this past week’s share was brilliantly exciting … but soooo heavy to carry!

We got a big eggplant, red/green bell pepper, finger eggplants, cherry tomatoes, heirloom tomatoes, beefsteak tomatoes, green beans, cucumbers, baby turnips, garlic, braising greens, crenshaw melon, and watermelon.

Beautiful! Most of the fruit has been making its way into fruit salad form along these lines:

But plenty has worked perfectly well in whole fruit form, such as this glowing peach:

And I’ve been keeping aside a crop of veggies each week for daytime finger snacks at work:

(baby turnips, green beans, tomatoes, bell pepper, cucumber …)

Por ejemplo, this snack baggie of grape tomatoes and green pepper strips:

I’ve also done some wild things with my produce supply. Remember the steamed reject greens from the beginning of this post? I immersion blended them and then mixed them into some Stonyfield raspberry white chocolate chunk ice cream, along with a square of unsweetened baker’s chocolate and frozen grapes:

It looks (and sounds!) scary, but I love broccoli … so I thought this was scrumptious.

The CSA eggs have been working out well for breakfasts in crepe form (and occasionally topped with guacamole or hummus, depending on whose leftovers have made their way to me each week):

And there have obviously been loads of salads! Some are heavy on the roasted CSA veggies:

(topped with homemade guac again)

Others are heavy on the greens:

I love bringing these salads to work for lunch since they are light enough to allow me the wiggle room of snapping up tastes of all my coworkers’ home-cooking, such as Belkis’ Dominican rice, beans, and spaghetti:

Finally, thanks to the loads and loads of eggplant and tomatoes in the most recent CSA (and the loads and loads of basil growing on my balcony as a result of several scorching days followed by several rainy days), I’ve been able to recreate my “eggplant a la vodka” from a couple weeks ago (aka the beginning of this post) with double the layers! I layered broiled eggplant in the bottom of the dish and topped it with balcony basil and heirloom tomatoes:

(Sorry for the blur — I was feeling lazy!)

Layer #1 went back in the oven for a roast until the tomatoes got wrinkly, signaling that it was time for layer #2 to come out and play.

I layered the broiled finger eggplants over the tomatoes with more balcony basil:

And topped it with the beefsteak tomatoes for another roast.

Once those tomatoes got tight and wrinky, I shredded some cheeses that I located in the back of the fridge and gave the whole dish a broil until the cheese got bubbly and brown:

Seriously, this dish is criminally delicious and ridiculously easy.

Pleeeeeeease make it immediately while eggplants and tomatoes are still in season. You will thank me, I promise!

I am so sure there were other exciting things I’ve done with my produce over the past few weeks, but they’re escaping me at the moment. I think I’ve covered the most important things anyway. Today’s take-aways: (1) steam your leftover greens and puree them into ice cream (I dare you!) and (2) make this eggplant-basil-tomato-cheese mess immediately!!

Have you ever gone through a vegetable-less period of time and, if so, which vegetable do you choose to mark your return to the world of produce?