Sweet Blog o' Mine

Where in the World?

As of this moment, the only travel I have planned next year, aside from business travel, is a trip to Florida for a wedding in February.  I'd love to save up for another bike trip if at all possible (would love to find a bike trip in Asia), but am starting to ponder where else to go.  This list certainly got me thinking about potential destinations!

Today, I'm merely off to Maine for Thanksgiving.  All the best to you and yours -- have a tasty one!  To get you in the mood, here's my first piece for Serious Eats New York -- a Q&A with the owner of Jive Turkey.

Easy as Pie

Of course, I forgot to take a picture of it, but I baked an excellent apple pie this weekend to take to a dinner party (well, a pig roast, actually).  The crust was just perfect -- flaky and delicious.  Thanks to a suggestion from Smitten Kitchen, I used the Cook's Illustrated recipe, although I used all butter instead of the butter/shortening combo (perhaps this is why the pie crust was crack-like in its goodness?).  The Kitch'n highlighted the same recipe today.  For the innards, I used a variation of this recipe (thanks again to SK), but used macintosh apples from my CSA and juice from 1/2 a lemon.  Good stuff, people.

Baby, It's Cold Outside

Sigh.  I am not feeling quite ready for this weather.  It's a balmy 26 degrees out (about 16 with the wind chill), which makes me just want to snuggle up and hibernate.  Instead, I'll pile on the layers and head out into what looks like a gorgeous sunny day to go to the gym and go grocery shopping.  All I can say is that I'm damn glad I bought some new slippers this week to replace my old ones, which mysteriously disappeared.  They're nice and toasty.

Currently in My Fridge

It is leftover heaven.  A hunk of roast pork with rosemary and garlic; arugula; pasta with sausage, swiss chard and onions; truffle cream sauce to go with the cheese ravioli from Arthur Avenue in my freezer; carrot potato soup; olives galore; cranberry apple crisp; a huge hunk of perfect Parmesan.  I've also got two nice bottles of wine that people brought over recently.  Why leave the house, really?

Europe -- The Pro Bono Tour

In pictures, as promised. I'm sloooowly re-adjusting to life back in New York. Had a day off on Thursday and a full work day on Friday, and have had a mellow weekend, gearing up for a busy week. Lots of cooking, staring with Friday night dinner of fried green tomatoes and pasta with sausage and chard.  Tonight is a carrot potato soup, arugula salad, and ravioli from my trip a few weeks back to Arthur Avenue (they've been frozen).  Doing my best to use the last round of CSA produce. I'm also roasting some pork, which may end up being part of the meal, but may end up being lunch for the week. Topping it all off with an apple cranberry crisp.

Recovering from the Journey

Got back last night and am recovering from the trip -- I had today off and will be going to bed pretty early as I'm about to keel over.  That said, for whatever reason, I woke up with the absolute perkiest song in my head this morning.  Very strange, as I haven't heard it for years!  Pictures from the trip to come this weekend.

Buda/Pest

Sadly, haven't seen much of the city yet aside from a wander in Buda yesterday afternoon, but have all of tomorrow to myself.  Plan is to head to the market and one of the baths before heading to the airport for London.  Did manage to have a tasty dinner at Café Kör on Wednesday night and dinner at the Hungarian Parliament last night (the building was much more impressive than dinner).  Now am doing a little work before tonight's adventures.

I Am Not a Morning Person

But DAMN it's great to wake up in Frankfurt and see this!!!

If It's Tuesday . . .

it must be Frankfurt!  Am about to head off to bed but had a great meeting in Paris.  Sadly, though, I didn't have nearly enough free time.  Based on a wonderful suggestion, we did have time for a drink (a quite spendy but outstanding drink) at the Hemingway Bar at the Ritz, and filled up on so many little munchies that I only had room for some huitres et soupe a l'oignon gratinee for dinner.  Our Paris office pro bono meeting was wonderful, and then we ran off to catch our Frankfurt flight.  Crummy hotel dinner (we got in late) and an early breakfast meeting tomorrow.  Our Frankfurt colleagues are taking us out to dinner tomorrow night -- dreaming of beer, wurst and schnitzel!