100th Post!

Whoopie! As I was about to create this entry, Blogger told me I currently have 99 posts.



So what's been going on here? What's this magnificent post going to be about? Cooking, of course! I had a long weekend - done at noon on Friday and of course Memorial Day off. I spent most of Friday spending TOO much money - Container Store, TJ Maxx, Farmer's Market (didn't get much - I was too exhausted by then), thai food. Saturday, I slept in, bummed around, cleaned some and made some pretty awesome Enchilada Muffins. Recipe to follow!

Sunday, Omar had the day off so we decided to head to Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn. Waterfalls Cafe has some absolutely AMAZING middle eastern food. The grape leaves were honestly as good as my Aunt Violet's, which is saying a LOT. After eating, we realized Sahadi's, a really awesome shop, is closed on Sunday, so we headed to Trader Joe's. My brother had never been before, and I think he was fairly impressed. The meat looked pretty good, the dried fruit and nut prices are good, he was a fan of the single beers, and he pretty much wanted to buy every cookie, chocolate, and frozen dessert. After shopping, we came home and crashed. And then got some amazing sushi for dinner. I must say, my brother always finds the most delicious restaurants to eat at, but my budget gets blown out of the water.

Today, after getting a mani/pedi - god I love New York, $20 for the two - and some quick grocery shopping, I came home to cook. Homemade granola, sauted shrimp, roasted eggplant and some thai dressing. I made this delicious dressing with thai basil from my herb garden, fish sauce, a chile, lime juice, agave nectar, sesame oil, garlic and ginger. Then, I spilled it all over the counter, wall, and kitchen rug. Can we say PISSED? I attempted to recreate it, but it was nowhere near as good, especially since I didn't have much basil left. Oh well. Tried to roast some eggplant in the toaster oven - bad idea. I was just going to eat the shrimp and eggplant with the dressing/dip, but since it was subpar, I sauteed the other half of the eggplant and made yummy eggplant curry dip. I'm going to post all the recipes in one or a few posts.

So...the subways...

Those suckers are a bit confusing. To get to work, I have to take the N train to 34th st/Herald Square and transfer to the F train southbound to Brooklyn. But when I got to Herald Square and went to find the F train, I must have gone the wrong direction. Every F train that came was going northbound, but I didn't figure this out till I rode one a few stops down. Hah...

So hopefully, today I can figure out how much time it actually takes to get from home to work without screwing up! I did find Indigo Handloom, but that was fun too. I somehow missed my original stop and got out at Jay St and Borough Hall (or something). I was in the 400s block of Jay St and had to go to 68 Jay St. Ehehe, that included walking under the Manhattan Bridge and figuring out that Jay St. ended at one spot and picked back up around the corner.

BUT if I had gotten off on the right stop, it's only a block from Indigo Handloom. So, I took the F train back to 34th st/Herald Square. Either that or the 42nd St/Bryant Park are the closest to the Garment District. I wandered around the world's largest Macy's (because, oh yeah, the strap to my bag broke in Brooklyn). Everything was too pricy there, so I wandered through H&M and Forever 21. I finally settled on a bag, but it's pretty meh. I'd like to have one a bit smaller than this one, bigger than the purse I have. Whatever.

I hung out in one of the little squares between the roads at Herald Square where there were bistro tables and lots of people. I had my greek yogurt and blueberries. :) Then I walked down um maybe Sixth Avenue? No, that probably wasn't it, but whatever. I ended up on 33rd st, at Madison Square Garden. Wandered through the Borders there and found some NYC guide books and a book of panoramic postcards. Settled on a small pocket guide with maps and my postcard book, and chilled out.

I learned that the Sketchers I wore the day before for the trip to Astoria Park Shira and I made blistered my heel, and thusly my Nikes got SUPER uncomfortable. I really wanted to walk up to Times Square, but I decided to come back to Astoria and attempt to switch shoes. I had to meet Shira at Whole Foods at Union Square at 7pm, so I left and got over there around 6:15ish. Looked through a small shoe store, then just chilled outside of Whole Foods and people-watched. That was FUN.

Trip to Whole Foods for YUMMY, expensive icelandic yogurt, Siggis. Then walked down to Trader Joe's. It was my first trip to TJ's and I loved it. Crazy busy but awesome. We hung out in Union Square for a bit after that and got home after dark last night.

Right now, I've made lunch and I'm trying to motivate myself to get in the shower so I can get moving again for the day. :)