Fiesta & Poached Eggs

Chef Barbara (I enjoyed her demos the most) presented a vegetarian fiesta meal... black bean enchilada, guacamole and a green salad with jicama.

I've never been a fan of Mexican cuisine (ironic since it's in my ancestry). But what I love about this cooking class is that it's causing me to be much more open minded with food. I have eaten and enjoyed so many different foods that I have always been afraid to try. 

I say that, and then comes the part where I tell you I made a beautiful poached egg (Julia Child would be so proud) but I couldn't bring myself to eat it.

I'll keep eating my eggs scrambled with onions and sprinkled with chives. 

Tonight, Scot and I had dinner at Tartine. It's a small French bistro located on an adorable corner in the West Village. 

We chose to sit outside because the temperature was gorgeous once the sun set.

We ordered their spicy chicken and puff pastry cream chicken. 

Of course, we had to get dessert. Dark and white mouse chocolate for Scot and tarte tatin a la mode for me.

Leisurely walking through the West Village on our way home was so wonderful. There are moments here in New York that I wish would last forever. But, soon after, we walk by a mound of trash bags on the edge of the sidewalk and it totally killed the mood!

Goodnight.

Sushi

I'm weird when it comes to food texture. The thought of eating sushi has always given me the creeps. But, today was sushi day and I made my own roll. This was a vegetarian roll: tempeh, green beans, carrots and avocado.

I lightly drizzled tamari sauce and shoved it in my mouth... 

Chew, chew, chew. My first thought was that the nora maki was a bit rubbery. Chew, chew, chew. Second thought. I really should have cut these into smaller pieces. Insane chipmunk cheeks. Chew, chew. Not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. Chew, chew, chew - gulp. 

I'll be making vegetarian rolls when I get home!

Vegan Pesto, Anyone?

Today I had breakfast with a friend from class. She had lived in New York before moving to Qatar with her husband. We found a deli close to school where we sat and chatted for a while.

We learned knife skills in class. Chef Demar (my first chef at Sullivan University, where I did the baking and pastry program) would have been so proud of me. I kept bear claw the whole time and had such symmetrical cuts.

Our menu for lunch consisted of cannellini-escarole soup, toasted baguette with pesto, tricolore salad with lemon shallot dressing and strawberries with balsamic vinegar. I'm not the biggest fan of soup, so I wasn't that impressed with ours, but the baguette and pesto were absolutely divine. I will certainly be making this recipe when I get home.

The vegan pesto was so good that I couldn't get a before picture. Everyone at the table dove in right away!

For dessert, we had fresh strawberries with reduced balsamic vinegar.

Scot and I had already planned on doing a spin class, so around 6 o'clock, we headed down the street to the gym. I didn't enjoy this spin class as much as I remember liking them at the YMCA. There is a gym in New York that specializes in cycling called "Soul Cycle". I would love to try a class there sometime. What makes a spin class fun and such a great workout is the vibe you get from the instructor and the energy from the other riders in the class.

Crawling into bed listening to sirens outside, how NYC is that?

Natural Gourmet Institute

There is such diversity among the twenty students taking the summer intensive class at The Natural Gourmet Institute. From a local that lives on the upper east side of Manhattan, to a previous New Yorker who is now living in Qatar. New Zealand, Brazil, Spain, West Africa, Jersey, Miami and a few from Westchester, NY sum up the rest.

I've noticed that the majority of us (all women, the Chef said that it's never been only women before) are here for our own personal benefit. Second, to see if this is an area of interest for a career.

Meet Chef Judith Friedman

Our menu consisted of spiced chickpea-tomato stew with spinach, brown basmati rice, romaine salad with tahini dressing and, to end with a sugar buzz, a peach blueberry crisp.

                                      

Today was rice and bean day. I've learned a few useful tips (you don't learn this stuff in a baking and pastry program) when it comes to cooking these two staples.

Tip 1.  Soak beans in cold water overnight. The next morning drain and rinse with fresh cold water. You may begin cooking the beans in a pot of fresh cold water. I always knew this was important, but never understood the health reasons behind it. Once the phytic acid is released and drained from the soaking, your body can absorb the vitamins and minerals much better.

Tip 2.  You can quick soak, if you don't have 8 hours to soak the beans. Place your beans in a pot of cold water and bring to a boil. Let boil for about two minutes, then turn the heat off and cover with a lid. Leave the beans covered for an hour. Drain and restore beans with cold water. You are then ready to start cooking the beans in cold water.

Tip 3.  Dry toasting your rice before cooking it in hot water will give you nice fluffy rice, and who doesn't love good fluffed rice?

Tip 4.  Another way to help get fluffy rice is to add the hot rice (from the dry roasting) to the simmering water.


There is an hour break after lunch, and since our apartment is only a few blocks away, I walked back to check on Scot. He was having a rough day to say the least. I made him lunch and headed back to class.


The East Village is NYU college town. It's home to pubs, bars and small restaurants. It's not exactly my favorite part of town, but I wanted to take Scot to Crif Dogs. Scot ordered a chihuahua and a spicy red neck.

A chihuahua is a bacon wrapped dog with avocado and a smear of sour cream. And the spicy red neck is another bacon rapped dog with chili, cole slaw and jalapenos.

I opted for the tsunami dog, a bacon wrapped dog (do you see the trend?) with teriyaki, pineapple and green onion. It was so good!

Must have the after shot.

Just a few buildings down from Crif Dogs is a bakery that I wanted to check out. Whole Earth Bakery is owned by a husband and wife. It's a vegan bakery and a vegetarian kitchen. When Scot and I walked in the door, the owner (a cute elderly gentlemen with a hearing aid) was there to greet us with a smile, ready to answer any of our questions. After talking for a bit, I ordered a chocolate chip cookie and the fruit cobbler. Scot got a mango smoothie.

The cobbler was amazing, and Scot's smoothie was delicious. We walked our 2 miles back to our place and called it a night.

1st Day in New York City

Where do I even begin? It started at 3:30 in the morning, and you know when your alarm goes off that early, it's going to be a long day; and a long day it has turned out to be.

We got to the airport and I had some time to squeeze in a short workout :-) After some walking lunges down the terminal, wall sits by a window, arm dips on a chair, decline push ups, incline push ups and last but not least, some burpees, I was ready to get on the plane. But, our flight was delayed due to maintenance issues which is NEVER a good thing to hear. After 15 minutes, they started redirecting people's flights. Scot and I were suppose to have a layover in Washington D.C. before landing in New York at 1:30. Instead, we ended up with a direct flight and were in a taxi by 11 am.

Oh, by the way, cab drivers are crazy SOD's (son of a driver). This was our first taxi ride, so being virgins to the insane herky jerky-ness and the abrupt slamming of brakes, I was dying laughing in the back seat. But, I must say, at the end of the ride we were alive and swiped a credit card for $33 with tip.

Since our plane landed a couple hours early, we had some extra time before we could check into our apartment. So, we hit the side walk and started to explore. We found a Home Depot, the Flat Iron building, Madison Square Park, the best hot dog EVER, the Museum of Sex, signed up for a two week gym membership (like we're not going to get enough exercise just walking), the busiest Whole Foods and last but not least my favorite Lululemon.

We wondered around Home Depot and I noticed that their garden center is underground. How New York City is that? We stopped in the park to refuel. I stuck with the good stuff like raw almonds, an orange and carrots. But, Scot had to get something from the Shake Shack. As soon as he saw the list of hot dog options he had to get one, a Chicago dog in New York. He came walking back to the table with this proud look on his face. I must admit that hot dog was the absolute best all beef dog I have ever tried. It even beats Joey's hot dog on the beach of Captiva, FL. The wildlife here in the city is very reminiscent of the people: bold and they know what they want. Birds and squirrels will come up to you and scavenge for food. Tiny little birds will peck things out of your hand if you don't shoo them away fast enough. These blow the annoying ducks and geese at Rockland park (Hendersonville, TN) right out of the water. We found our favorite place, the place that makes us feel a piece of comfort and home, Whole Foods. Whenever Scot and I have traveled, as soon as we walk into a Whole Foods, he breathes a sigh of relief. It's just familiar. The employees are always helpful and you know you can find good food. On our way home, with a few groceries in tow, we walked by the Lululemon store. It was the biggest one that I have seen so far. Nashville's store is small potatoes compared to this. I know I will be back in there to stock up on running shorts!!!

It was 1:30 and we were able to check into our apartment. When we finally figured out how to unlock our apartment door and walked in, I had such mixed emotions. First thought was, "relief, not that bad". Second thought, "WOW this is small". It's roughly 500 square feet. Our bonus room is bigger!

I felt so gross from the traveling and walking around the city toting luggage that I had to take a shower in our closet sized bathroom. I felt like I was in my parent's old motor home!

I think small spaces are good. It forces someone to be a minimalist and only get what you need. Something I love, but have a hard time doing.

We ended up going to a market that has a salad bar, hot bar and pre-made sandwiches for dinner. Scot got a wrap and I opted for the salad bar. I had an array of fruit and a bit of fried rice. It ended up being really good. As we were heading out, I had a hanchoring for a tasty treat and I saw this coffee cake (Scot "it's a crumb cake not a coffee cake." Me "I know but I'm calling it a coffee cake.") that instantly made me think of my grandpa. I had to get it. Right when we stepped out on the street, I yanked the wrapping off and bit into that bad boy. My grandpa would be proud and would have loved that coffee cake with chocolate chips and powder sugar!

I had a pair of heels on that started to kill my feet so we made our way back to our apartment so I could change. I had heard about a place called Limelight thanks to a twitter followee. It sounded so cool that I wanted to check it out. It is an old church that has been renovated to house small independent shops. From a hair salon to gelato to hand made men's shirts and anything in between. My main pull was the gelato. Scot got his first gelatochino and I got a chocolate drizzled marshmallow gelato! So delicious. Mom, you would have loved it!

After our sugar buzz we started to make our way south towards 14th Street. We stopped in at Lululemon again so I could look around a bit more. We got directions from some of the girls (all Lulu's are SO nice) that work there on how to get to Greenwich Village. "Just keep walking down University Street till you see the big arch way, walk through the park and vier to the right". It worked, but of course, before we got to the Village we got sidetracked by some crazy talented street dancers. There is talent over flowing in this city!

After about 15 minutes of watching the guys dance and jump over girls, we kept trucking south. We didn't have a plan or know where we were going, but it ended up working out. We started to see water and realized we were in the Hudson River Park. There was a parade on the pier with people dressed all crazy, twirling flags and even stilt walkers. They said it was "Calypso" who knows what that means? Scot fell in love with this area. He wants a pent house apartment over looking the Hudson River with a rooftop garden. It really is a wonderful spot. You have the water, beautiful green spaces and a bike/walking path that stretches quite a ways. And, this location puts you very close to the charming West Village and the family friendly Tribeca area. We found out later that a three bedroom apartment in this neighborhood would run you about 8 million. No biggy!

We walked the path north and enjoyed the sunset over the water. I was feeling a bit puny so we stopped in at Whole Foods to get a late dinner. I'll tell you, the Whole Foods by Union Park is hopping come 10 o'clock at night. I had never seen lines that long. On our way out there was a women playing the harp and selling her cd's. It sounded so pretty!

We made our way back to our humble abode and hunkered down for the night.

All in all it was a fabulous first day in New York City. I can't wait for our first Sunday brunch tomorrow!