Life, Home, Work, Cocktails, Cooking and a Blog

Work is busy. Life is busy. Blog is neglected. Freelance writing requires lots of time juggling/multi-tasking prowess… I. IS. TIRED.

But let’s attempt a real update, shall we?

In life updates, I stupidly made the decision to go back to spinning and irish dancing at the same time. This means my body has been sore for the entirety of a month. Normally, the pain would ease off after one or two classes of either, but since I’m doing both, and  averaging two spins and two dance classes per week, my body is basically angry at me ALL THE TIME. The sense of accomplishment feels great, the pain..not so much. But regardless, I’m really excited that I’ve started back with irish dancing in particular and actually stuck with it. It’s easy to do it once or twice and then be too tired after work, have a headache, etc. so the fact that I’m being consistent is pretty awesome. It also helps that I’ve started over from the beginning. It’s very no pressure. I know what I’m doing and by the time it gets really hard I’ll be determined to keep going.

In other news, we painted one wall of our kitchen with chalkboard paint (see above photo) so we could start listing our weekly meals on the wall. Beyond it being kind of ridiculous (but cute and charming!) it helps us (okay, me) stay on track with cooking. If I have a plan I am good to go. If I get home after work (and after dance class) with no plan for dinner it’s pretty much guaranteed that take out is happening, and that gets old real fast.  So the board is helping. And I like crossing things off lists so it’s just all around good fun for my planner brain!

Also, I mad a new cocktail. With gin! I’m usually a vodka girl but I’m branching out like a real grown up. My first gin at home creation – a lavender honey cocktail. I’ll post the recipe once I get it just right. But basically it’s gin, fresh lemon juice, and a honey lavender syrup. I mix honey, water, lavender, and lavender bitters together and let it sit for a half hour and then use it as a syrup basically to add to the gin and the lemon.

YUMMMMM

Topped off with a sprig of lavender and you have this gorgeous little cocktail:

so pretty – almost too pretty to drink…ALMOST.

The weather (except for the rain today) has been pretty exquisite here and we’ve been eating outside almost every night enjoying dinner and cocktails. It’s a little piece of heaven in the midst of all the chaos of this city. And while our rent check keeps us at home instead of going out most nights, I gotta say, I can’t complain that much. Home is pretty fucking awesome.

Home is also soon to be more awesome as we are painting the back bedroom this weekend! My mom will be visiting in two weeks and the goal is to get the room nice enough for someone besides the cats to actually sleep in it. So this Saturday will be all about painting.

Sunday meanwhile will be all about cooking – hopefully a new roast! I’ve been struck by a strange desire to roast a duck but that might prove to be too expensive. But expect a roast update soon! Perhaps it’s time to take on a roast chicken…the most intimidating of roasts for me as I have never tasted one better than my father’s. And I’m not glorifying his memory here. It was just THAT FUCKING GOOD. UGH. More evidence that I should have been paying attention!

Finally, in other VERY important news – today is apparently National Moscato Day! Made up no doubt by some random alcoholic! In honor of that alcoholic I give you my favorite moscato – La Caudrina Moscato d’Asti. It’s perfection in a glass. It’s usually available for anywhere between $17 – $20 a bottle – but bear in mind that’s half a bottle. Delish.

So there you have it – a lengthy update that could have been various blogs over the past two weeks if I actually had the ability to multi-task. Blogger of the Year – CLEARLY.

Amelie Wine Bar – A NYC French Gem

photo courtesy of yelp

My latest article for Ma Vie Francaise/My French Life is up! The focus this month is my favorite wine bar (on both coasts) Amelie. It’s my go to end of week place for happy hour drinks with my dearest friends and a MUST visit for any francophile, French expat, or happy hour loving person in NYC.

To read the full article, click here.

Merci!

Classic California

This post is going to basically be nothing but a photo blog of all things food from California. So avert your eyes now if you’re not interested.

As I mentioned previously, going home was extremely therapeutic, so much so that I’m actively trying to figure out when I can move back. Who needs the mean streets of NYC when you can have the calm, relaxed back roads and wineries of northern California? Proof is in the pictures:

Healdsburg farmer’s market – vegetables just don’t come that fresh and colorful here in the city

Mimosas on a terrace in wine country – also known as heaven

well HELLO brunch…

my amazing omelette – post farmer’s market visit

and then we went to a harvest party at J Vineyards! Seriously found my happy place

wine barrels everywhere…ahhhhhh

ultimate setting

and then there was a wedding at a winery

beautiful, gorgeous, wish you were here…

My gorgeous Mom

a few days later there was dinner at Gary Danko’s…but I only took a pic of my cocktail. I devoured the food too fast to photograph it. SO GOOD.

More brunch – this time at La Note – a provencal restaurant in Berkeley. One of my absolute faves. And yes, that tastes even better than it looks.

So there you have it – more or less my trip. Not pictured are countless lovely evenings with my Mom at home, many cocktails, cupcakes from Love at First Bite, much needed coffee from Peet’s, a Jack in the Box run (or two), and the beautiful faces of my amazing friends.

Needless to say, I left my heart in San Francisco and it’s many beautiful surroundings, and I will be back as soon as possible.

My French Life – Bakehouse

My latest article with the online magazine My French Life/Ma Vie Francaise is up! This time around I highlight the bakery and bistro Bakehouse. To view the article, click here.

Happy reading!

Baking and Backyard Beautification – A Weekend in Brooklyn

This weekend was a tough one. I could be all flowery and positive on this blog and pretend I’m strong all the time and kicking this break up’s ass, but it’s not true. And when my sister came to visit this weekend to offer moral support, it became even less true. Because, let’s be honest, there’s something about being around your family, where your walls just crumble to the ground and you know you can be vulnerable, so you are. And it’s a great thing, but it’s also really really hard, because all that stuff you’re trying to push down and more importantly push past walks up and smacks you right in the face.

So emotionally this weekend was really hard, but on all other levels it was great. Great to see my sister and more importantly great to have some real quality time together, something we really haven’t had since her job has taken her abroad for the past three years.

And in an effort to make the most of my time with her, we decided to take on the kitchen together and bake a cake. While I’ve been somewhat brave taking on the kitchen and making meals, I’ve been very wary of baking. I think my first real attempt at “cooking” was baking back in God knows what year and it was something stupidly easy, like baking brownies from a box and I somehow managed to screw it up. And I do believe that scarred me for life and contributed to me avoiding the kitchen for YEARS. But my sister, the real cook in the family, is also a great little baker, so I thought I’d rip the baking band aid off with her there so it would be less painful and maybe I could learn a thing or two.

So what did we decide to make? A pineapple upside down cake. The last time my sister made one was probably the last time I ate one so it a baking project and nostalgia all wrapped into one. We took the recipe from my Williams Sonoma cookbook and spent our Saturday afternoon in the kitchen.

the ingredients – already enough to make me overwhelmed.

pineapples ready to go in the pan on top of the brown sugar butter yumminess on bottom

the whipping ingredients into submission. Apparently there are fancy tools that can do this for you. Something to consider if I start baking more often.

putting the cake batter on top, ready for the oven

Ta da!! We didn’t burn it! And it actually looks good enough to eat.

Everything up until this point went swimmingly but then we misjudged the flipping of the cake onto a plate and kinda broke it. But it still looked good to me!

kinda broken….but look how pretty!

Despite it being a bit broken it was DELICIOUS. Props to my sister for her baking skills and making it always look so easy. Now it’s my turn to try it on my own. I really want to master the tarte tatin (French apple pie) and I think I can do it…but I might try making a banana nut bread first. For some reason that feels less intimidating. We’ll see. Either way, this weekend, I am going to bake something new and force myself right out of my fear.

So yay us, and yay me for again trying to break out of my comfort zone and take on new kitchen challenges.

Another notable event this weekend – the arrival of my tables and chairs for outside. I finally found a really good sale for patio furniture and while it’s nothing fancy and not the most comfortable, it does the job and fits the space I’m working with. Voici my new backyard tables and chairs (two bistro tables pushed together):

Who wants to come over??

Isn’t it nice? Now I just need to figure out the lighting. I got some cute little lights from Pottery Barn with birthday money but I’m not sure if they’ll work. It all depends on what I can pull off with outlets…I might not have any to work with…we’ll see. If anything, a girl can do a lot with candles and mason jars so that’s also in the works. I’m having some girlfriends over on Wednesday night so I’ll have to have something ready by then. Until then, it’s cocktails at dusk:

Enjoying life as best I can…

So that was my weekend – crying, baking, sister bonding, and backyard decorating. Making the best with what I’ve got to work with, trying to keep it all together.

Chateau Cherbuliez – a French Oasis in New York

As I mentioned in a previous post, I am now writing a monthly article/column for the online magazine Ma Vie Francaise/My French Life highlighting the best of France in New York City and my first article has officially been posted! Please check it out here.

Updates to come on life when the dust has settled a bit. There’s been more transition in the past few weeks than a new apartment and I am officially broken mentally and emotionally. Trying to rebuild day by day and will blog and update once I’m ready.

Weekly Roundup – Bastille Day Plans (i.e. drinking!)

This week was extremely uneventful. If anything, this roundup will be more about what is going to happen this weekend and less about anything that took place this week.

In very important news, the weather is actually trying to kill me. Muggy, sticky, oppressive heat is what we’ve been getting lately and I don’t know if I can survive through the end of August. Last summer I was in Paris where it felt like fall all summer long and I couldn’t have been happier. This summer I’m among the millions of unhappy, sweaty, disgusting New Yorkers. You know – the poor ones who can’t flee to the Hamptons or the coast of Italy? Le sigh…but such is life at the moment.

In other news, it looks like we’ll be checking out the garden apartment in our building at some point this weekend. We’re hoping to get the lowdown from the current tenant on problems with the apartment so we can negotiate down on the rent when we speak with the landlord. If he refuses to budge, I suppose it’s not meant to be. There are other apartments in Brooklyn…this one would just be the easiest and quickest move. And let’s be honest, a garden apartment in Brooklyn Heights is hard to come by since tenants rarely give them up. The current tenant has been there ten years and is only leaving because he got a job in Buffalo, so we’re definitely gonna do our best to get in there if we can.

This weekend there will also be drinks at Mulberry Project on Saturday with my girls (yessssssssss) and the glorious Bastille Day celebration in Brooklyn on Sunday. Our neighborhood has a huge French community – one of the many reasons I am so happy where we live – and is known for its Bastille celebration every year, which includes a serious Petanque competition (80 teams!), a plethera of beautiful and delicious French food and drink, and all kinds of French entertainment. There are tons of French people and of course many francophiles and it is all around a lovely time. I plan on getting myself a merguez sandwich and quite a few glasses of wine while I’m there so Lord knows I’ll be happy. If you’d like a little preview of how Brooklynites celebrate Bastille Day check out this video. And I will of course do my best to take pics and post them on the blog next week of all my food and drink adventures.

So there you have it. More happening this coming weekend than anything that happened this week! Have a great weekend and bonne fete!

The Mulberry Project

Oh Mulberry Project, be still my beating heart. It’s like the cocktail Gods created you just for me.

This particular blog post is a long time coming as I have now been to Mulberry Project a number of times, each time as glorious as the next, but for some reason I couldn’t bring myself to write about it. I wanted to keep it a secret, pretend it belonged to me, because that’s how perfect it is. But, of course, knowing full well that nothing amazing in New York remains a secret for long, and the fact that I just can’t contain my love for it anymore, it is officially time to blog about it.

Let’s start with the cocktails – the glorious, glorious cocktails. While they have a standard list of speciality house cocktails, The Mulberry Project specializes in bespoke cocktails. Tell the bartender or server what you like – rum, tequila, bourbon – what you’re in the mood for – sweet, tart, spicy, fruity – and they’ll create something better than you could have ever imagined. Think it can’t get any better? Wrong. You can get it in a pitcher. That’s right – pitchers of bespoke cocktails. It’s my version of cocktail heaven. Combine this with their amazing back patio and their pretty stellar menu of food items and you’ve got the perfect New York cocktail bar.

And let me just say, that given the multitude of cocktail bars in New York, it’s rare to love a cocktail bar enough to commit to it and continuously go back for more. Why do that when there are so many options out there? No, it’s true, and I am admittedly a slut when it comes to cocktail bars. I have no shame, I will try them all, use them for all they’re worth, and then tell my friends all about my experience. I just can’t help it. And because of all the beautiful options galore, I don’t ever really have to go back to the same place twice. But Mulberry Project seduced me on our first night together – she seduced me hard – and I think I now might actually be in love.

So I’m going back this weekend and likely soon after that. And if I weren’t a girl always on a budget (life is so unfair) I would be back every weekend just because I could. And now that you know about it, you should go there too. But be warned  - it’s my bar – I fell in the love with her first, and I will fight you for her if necessary.

Mulberry Project

149 Mulberry Street

New York, NY 10013

646.448.4536

http://mulberryproject.com/

Closest subway: N, R.Q, 6, J, Z Canal Street

Spanish Tapas Heaven – Tertulia in New York City

Alright – back to blogging like a big girl. You know, about things other than work. First up, a lovely review of Tertulia, an amazing Spanish restaurant in Manhattan.

First off, I have to say that a restaurant hasn’t made this good of an impression on me in a very long time. So be prepared for a pretty stellar review.

Let’s start from the beginning – with the reservations. Knowing I had a group of Londoners coming to visit, I called the restaurant two weeks before to make a group reservation for 6 people. They happily made the reservation and informed me that groups of 6 or more had to partake in the Chef’s Menu for $55 a person (excluding drinks, taxes, and tip). This sounded like a great and reasonably priced option and I happily obliged. The next week I found out we had to change the reservation to 7 people and while at first it seemed that we may have to cancel due to this small change and their available tables, the manager or whoever answered the phone pushed the reservation up a half an hour and made it work. So basically, even before I’ve shown up at the restaurant customer service has been stellar and I feel like they want to provide us with as good an experience as possible.

Arriving at the restaurant, our fantastic London visitors fell prey to commuter hell and found themselves to be a half hour late. At some places in NYC this can screw you out of your reservation but the staff at Tertulia were nothing but gracious and patient providing us with drinks at the bar and making sure we did not feel rushed at all.  Once we were sat at our table, the server explained how this particular chef menu worked – the chef would select various items from the menu that night to serve to us and food would just continue to come out, until finished by a selection of desserts. The server took note of any food allergies to avoid any problems with the chef’s selections, ordered us a few pitchers of sangria, and then we were off! Ready and waiting for whatever food they decided to bring us.

And man, oh man, did they bring us food. The first round of food was a Spanish favorite of mine Pan con Tomate with Iberico ham. I had this exact same dish when I was in Madrid in March and have been dreaming of it ever since. Sufficed it to say, this version was definitely up to par, the only thing missing were the sounds of Spain and the outdoor patio. During this round we were also served the Tosta Mejillones – grilled mussels on toast with fennel jam, raisins, and aioli. This was by far one of my favorites of the evening. So unbelievably simple yet incredibly delicious. And quite honestly something I may not have thought to order but will now order every time I go to this restaurant, provided it’s on the menu of course.

After that more tapas continued to come to the table including the delicious Tupinambures – crispy smoked sunchokes with sumac and citrus yogurt, Coles de Bruselas – crispy brussels sprouts, pork belly, and mojo picon, Pimientos de Padron – classic fried Padron peppers with lots of sea salt. There was also an amazing lamb dish, a cod dish, a special sea bass dish, and a monster sized mouth watering paella with the most tender chicken I have ever tasted. All this food, was then followed by a sampling of desserts all of which were better than the next.

When all was said and done, after a plethora of food and quite a few pitchers of sangria, tip and tax, the bill came out to about $105 per person which for what we got was a great deal. I’ve paid that much in New York for much less food and drink and not even of this kind of quality. On top of that, the service was stellar from start to finish – from the minute I picked up the phone to the minute we left the restaurant. It was so good in fact that I might just make another large party reservation for my birthday in August.

That’s right, it’s THAT good.

All that being said, I do wonder if my experience would have been as good if my first time there had not been with a bigger group and the chef’s menu. While I’m well versed enough in Spanish cuisine, I am sure I would have ordered what was most familiar to me rather than take a chance on a few menu items that came out thanks to the chef’s choice that evening. So while I’d advise anyone and everyone to go to this restaurant, I can’t recommend the chef’s menu enough as I think it really made the experience for us that night and allowed us to get a full sense of what the chef could do and what the restaurant had to offer overall.

But it can’t all be good right? Well, actually it can. I really have no complaints beyond a few things that are impossible to fix in the reality of Manhattan dining. First off, the noise. It’s a loud restaurant. Be prepared to have to project in order to be heard, especially if you’re in a bigger group. Personally, I think noise levels like that are par for the course in New York at popular restaurants, but it really bothers other people, so it’s definitely something to consider if you’re planning a trip to this restaurant. The only other small thing I would ever change about this place would be more outside seating. Currently they have a small area in front of the restaurant for outside seating, but with the buzz and heavy traffic of sixth avenue, it’s not the best outside seating if you’re looking for leisurely dining al fresco. As the restaurant is really loud inside, having an outdoor space that’s a bit more serene in nature might help that a bit. Also, I selfishly prefer eating outside, especially when it involves sangria, and if this place had a backyard patio they would be seeing me every week. Not even kidding.

But let’s not pretend, they will definitely be seeing me again soon, perhaps even this weekend with the husband in tow for some tapas and cocktails to end a long work week.

So there you have it. Obviously, I highly recommend this restaurant to New Yorkers and tourists alike. It is a true New York restaurant offering a level of Spanish food one usually needs to travel to Spain to get. Service, food, and drinks alike – all top notch. Of course be warned, the wait is long, but I promise you it’s worth it.

Tertulia

359 Sixth Avenue at Washington Place

New York City

646.559.9909

http://tertulianyc.com/

Closest Subway: W 4th Street A, C, D, E, F, M

Making Lemon Vodka – A Cocktail Addict’s Home Experiment

In effort to do budget friendly activities that speak to our interests (i.e. drinking) Erik and I have been playing around with infusing spirits at home. Our first experiment was with basil vodka, and it turned out quite well despite perhaps letting the leaves infuse for a bit too long. So this time around we went with the more simple lemon vodka.

And here is our journey (very exciting):

First – the mason jars. Ideally they’d be bigger but the store I went to only had small ones. I think they’re cuter anyway. And cute is obviously important for vodka experiments.

Then the bottle of vodka. We went with the cheaper variety and Sobieski is good for mixing anyway so we figured it would be good for infusing.

And most importantly the lemons. Glorious lemons.

For vodka infusing purposes, cut the lemons into rounds like so.

Stuff as many lemons as you can into the mason jar

Poor the vodka into the mason jar(s) with the lemons and fill to the top.

Seal them – and admire them (if you’re me).

Now shake ‘em! Into oblivion apparently.

Then store the mason jars full of lovely lemons and wonderful vodka in a cool, dry place for 1-2 days. We tasted ours after day 1 and decided to let it infuse just a bit longer and by day 2 we had a beautiful and tasty batch of lemon infused vodka.

Finished product!

I am now extremely excited to make a good old fashioned lemon drop with our new concoction, one of my all time favorite cocktails.

So there you have it. Cheap and fun home experiment completed! What should we do next? I’m debating branching out into infusing tequila or rum…but we’ll see. Experimenting with basil was fun, so perhaps mint or rosemary next? And since we made lemon vodka perhaps we should take the extra step and make some limoncello? Either way, this is an at home project I can get behind.

If you have any suggestions for more infusions please share!