Yesterday Rick and I had a planned dinner date in New York City. He goes in fairly often to meet with a business associate and inevitably ends up in the evening commuter rush which isn’t too much fun. We decided to take advantage of the fact that he needed to be in the city anyway, so why not have me go along and have dinner afterwards, thereby avoiding the rush? Works for me!

It was cold and blustery. (Don’t you just love that word? That’s what the weather guys called it: blustery. Really, they meant downright frigid with a nasty, biting wind!) I thought I would be warm enough with what I had on given that we weren’t planning on doing much walking. (We were taking the train in and cabbing it from place to place.) But I was freezing!

You would think that all those tall buildings would shield the wind from you. Oh, no quite contraire mon amie! Those buildings act like a giant wind funnel, collecting the wind and sending it straight down whatever street you happen to be walking down. Brrrrrrrr!

We arrived at our destination and the sign by the elevator said “Louie auditions, 7th floor.” I don’t know what “Louie” was but we rode up in the elevator with a few hopefuls clutching a piece of paper. We got off before them so I have no idea if the line looked like American Idol try-outs or not. Probably not, although one child looked like he had an instrument with him. I took a book and sat in the employee break room and read while Rick conducted his business. I wasn’t bored since being in the industry there were plenty of issues of Entertainment Weekly laying around. I grabbed the issue with Avatar featured on the front and pretty much read it front to back.

We arrived at our choice of restaurant, craft, right on time for our reservation. craft is one of Tom Colicchio’s restaurants. You know Tom—Mr. Top Chef host? We had eaten here once before but not in the main restaurant (in a private dining room) at a business function. We were considerably impressed with the food, so decided we should go back by ourselves. Here is a somewhat blurry shot taken from our table. I took only the baby camera with me and trying not to look like a tourist, did not use the flash.

Upscale and elegant, yet not stuffy in atmosphere. Food here is served “family style,” meaning your plates don’t arrive with your food on it, but in a serving dish placed on the table. Everyone can help themselves if you care to share. Which we did. We ordered two appetizers and shared them, and one main entree to share with two side vegetable dishes and a shared dessert. We had plenty to eat without feeling stuffed and with our “diet” in place it worked well. We want to keep the momentum going with our weight loss (so far I’ve lost 3 pounds; Rick has lost 10, but men always lose weight faster, don’t they?) so we are still watching our portions and what we eat. I can’t say we ordered the least caloric or fat content of any of the items on the menu though. Let’s just say I am a foie gras fanatic (I know! Not very PC, is it?) and their roasted foie gras was just to die for! Probably one of the best I’ve ever had, and I’ve had my fair share in its country of origin. It was a lovely dinner. And sadly, Tom did not make an appearance. Probably out filming the next Top Chef or visiting his restaurants in other parts of the country.

I snapped these photos in the Seacaucus train station on our way home as we had some time to kill to catch our NJ Transit connection. This sculpture is new since the last time I was through here.

Since Seacaucus is located in what they call the Meadowlands, this cattail sculpture is very fitting I think. To me the surrounding terrain looks more like marsh land than meadow land, but what the heck. Going in to Seacaucus from the North the train runs alongside a canal where herons can usually been seen looking for something to catch. A little further along, the land is marshy with lots of little tributaries winding around hummocks of grass, and more herons and water fowl.

The cattails changed color. Very soothing.

I happened to catch a fellow traveler in one of the mirrored bits of the fronds. See him? You can also see part of my coat and scarf in the bottom one.

The bottom of the sculputre was just how it should be, and kind of like I described the terrain above. A winding rivulet of water around the base of the cattails. A very cool sculputure.

Alas we missed the express train and it took forever (or at least it seemed like it) to arrive home. I was worried about the dogs a bit since they were alone for about eight hours straight at a time of day when they are not used to being left, but they did great. It’s probably not something we’ll do all that often, but we hope to take advantage of the city more than we have been. It’s still unreal to me to step off that train in front of Madison Square Garden and have the whole of New York City spread out before me. It’s a heady experience!

Addendum: I almost forgot! They gave us these delicious looking muffins as we left the restaurant for our breakfast. Of course, we forgot to eat them today!

Anybody out there watch the Food Network’s CHOPPED with Ted Allen as the host? Rick and I watch religiously. Mostly because we just like cooking competition shows, but also because this one is different. When we first started watching we weren’t sure we were going to like it. I mean, really, they take bizarre ingredients and have to make something out of them. They start with four chefs. If you don’t make it through the appetizer course you get chopped. The next three chefs move on to the entree and another one gets chopped. The last two battle out the dessert course, and finally one chef reigns supreme. I honestly don’t think I could figure out how to incorporate the things they get in their baskets into something edible!

Did you know it’s filmed right here in New York City? It’s actually filmed in a studio of an industry related friend of Rick’s. I’ve been to the studio before for a gallery event (the reason the little gold dress was purchased!). They mostly do food commercials and Rick has loaned him cameras for various shoots. You’ve probably seen some of his commercials.

Anyway, why am I telling you all this? Because, dear readers, Rick and I have been invited to watch a segment of CHOPPED being filmed in a few weeks! Yes indeed! I am so excited!!! It will be so much fun to see what goes on behind the scenes, and of course to meet Ted Allen in person. I hope that Alex Guarnaschelli is on the judging panel that day. She’s such a ... well, you know ... let’s just say she doesn’t exactly hand out compliments.

Can’t wait!!!!

It’s both of those things out there this morning. Not only is it pouring rain, but the wind is howling and the trees are doing a frenetic dance to its tune. The rain is being lashed against the windows. By looking at it out there you’d expect it to be really cold. But it’s 51 freakin’ degrees! Yesterday it never got above 33 degrees during the daylight hours. Cold and damp, too. If it had stayed cold we’d be having a blizzard.

It’s not really cold enough to have a fire going, but I started one anyway. It makes me feel better. I liked this rather creepy reflection of the fire and the rattan chairs in the sun room. Do you see Mrs. Cardinal on the bird feeder? Poor thing!

I am going to hunker down inside today. No way am I going out in that gale. I’ve already got the ingredients for dinner, (either Chicken Fingers with Chipotle-Honey sauce or Cornflake Crusted Chicken Fingers with coleslaw) so no need to do any grocery shopping. I am almost finished with my slippers and I hope to finish them up. Just one more sole to go (and I am halfway through that already), and then all the sewing up and weaving all the ends in. I have a good book to read too. And ... the Food Network is back!! Thank goodness! The dogs have some tasty filled bones that I bought the other day for such a rainy day occasion to keep their boredom away. Bella just went to the door asking to be let out. I opened it. She just stood there sniffing the air, watching the rain pour down and decided she really didn’t want to go out after all.

Wherever you are today, no matter what your weather is, I hope you stay warm and dry! I’m just glad to be staying home.

Lynne Lynne with that big grin
How does your garden grow?
(sorry it had to rhyme!)

with basil, oregano, epazote, savory, thyme, sage & red rubin basil,
thank you very much!

With our Christmas present: the Aero Garden which grows plants hydroponically.

Right now we have the herb version “planted.” The seeds were started a few days after Christmas. It was fun watching them germinate—which they did rather quickly—and get large enough to take their plastic caps off. You can see how nicely they’ve grown since, especially the regular basil. Before too long we’ll be snipping away at our fresh herbs!

You can also grow different lettuces, cherry tomatoes, beans, and flowers. I would have to see the cherry tomatoes and beans to believe it!

I had originally planned this post for a week or so back so I had taken all the photos at that time. Here are what the herbs look like today just a little over a week later.

They are really taking off!

This weekend we had arranged a walk for us and a play date for the dogs with a friend and his Golden Retriever. When we got to Jungle Habitat we were greeted with a barrage of cars, people, and a lot of activity. What the heck? we thought, is going on here? The vehicles with “State Forest Police” emblazoned on their sides were particularly worrisome. We decided to park and see what all the fuss was about before getting the dogs out of the truck. As it turned out they were only there to set markers on the paths regarding certain hazardous spots. They said “an accident” had occurred back in December. When I asked about taking the dogs for a walk he said “sure, the trails are open but remember it’s hunting season.” I mumbled something about probably not safe to let the dogs off lead and he was quick to point out to me that dogs were supposed to be on lead in the park, never off. oops. I never knew that. Every time we’ve been there people have their dogs loose all over the place. We opted not to be drug around the Jungle by our dogs on lead, so we headed off to Green Turtle Pond instead and we parked at the top of the road and walked down.

Bella likes her Golden friend, Kayla. At first Bella is a bit overwhelming for Kayla, being too pushy and a tad dominant. She just wants to play and Bella has always played hard. Before long they settle into a happy companionship that consists of running. A lot.

The call this shot “the three amigos.” (Alex, Kayla & Bella)

The snow has mostly melted but the road was still icy in spots and we really had to watch our footing. Bella did pause now and then to offer me a good shot of her by herself. Can you believe how big she is?

We thought they would wear down after a while, but they were still at it on the return trip. Of course, they had to find a puddle of mud to play in! Kids!

We hope to have more play dates/walks in the future. Next time we’ll try our normal Jungle walk, hopefully without all the state brass!