after dinner drinks

Yesterday I paid tribute to the best food in Manhattan. Now it's time for drinks!

5. Pinot Grigio at cute dinner spot 212 Restaurant and Bar. I've always been a fan of whites, but Pinot is my latest preference
4. Cosmos at Onieal's Speakeasy AKA Scout to S&TC fans. The pink drink lived up to the hype
3. Pike Place roast. Brewing at every Starbucks in North America, but nary a drop to be found in the UK
2. Passion Fruit cocktail, while doing our best impression of Gossip Girl at the Palace Hotel bar
1. G&T at Tao. One is the magic number if you're planning to stay sober on your night out (as I was). Two will push you over the edge (as I was).

good things: the food edition

I'm home, nursing a puffy lip and a pair of sutures. For all the criticism, the NHS is really pretty efficient.

But while I'm very much in Aberdeen at the moment, my stomach is in Manhattan (or longing for it, at least). One of the best parts of my stateside visits is that I rediscover that food can be enjoyable. Here are my top pics from NY:

5. Greasy pizza by the slice after an equally indulgent viewing of Mamma Mia
4. Black fusilli with scallops at Sette Mezzo (Oprah's favourite spot in Manhattan)
3. Homemade rhubarb pie, Fort Green greenmarket
2. Cream cheese and spinach egg whites at Lou Lou in Fort Greene
1. Brûléed grapefruit at the Pod restaurant

Now, about the grapefruit - On average one would expect to pay about 50 cents (or 48p if you're a poor sucker in Scotland like me) for a nice pink one. So why pay $5.50 for just half of one, three mornings in a row? Encrusted with a sugary brûléed shell, the grapefruit goes to a whole new level, and makes one feel like a healthy Amélie. Jules and I liked it so much we spent a morning hunting for a brûlée torch to make our very own.

The recipe is simple, if a little time consuming:

Cut a grapefruit in half and scoop the contents from both halves, removing all that annoying clear skin in between (is there a name for that stuff?) and returning the fleshy leftovers to one half shell. Alternately (but less attractively), just slice in half and split the sections with a paring knife. Next sprinkle some raw sugar over top and, in absense of your own brûlée torch, just stick it under a hot broiler for a minute or two and Voila! the breakfast of champions and champion shoppers alike.

jogging in amish country

6 miles:

5 friendly waves from Amish wifeys
3 one-room schools
1 ground hog
4 team-led ploughs
2 blue jays
1 covered bridge
8 identical black dresses out to dry
0 electrical lines

Pennsylvania is a good place to unwind.

ladies who lunch

New York has been everything it ought to be so far:

great shopping, brunch in Brooklyn (with some real live Brooklynites), a Broadway show, street hot dogs, pizza by the slice, and a brush with celebrity.

Our little pod Midtown has amazing showers, and a stellar breakfast menu. We're just about to put in an order for half a bagel and grapefruit brulee.

xoxo

bad timing

Leaving on a plane tomorrow for four days in New York, followed by a wedding in Pennsylvania.

Surely a set-up for photo gluttony... and today I woke up with an eye infection :(

good things: the paper edition

My list of good things has been building up for some time. Nearly time to open the floodgates... but first a trickle.

Calendone by Industries Stationery - hung on a bold wall, this perpetual wall calendar makes a striking (and eco-savvy) statement. (from Domino mag.)

Ecojot journals - on my last visit home, a trip to Chapters procured the journal I've been holding my breath for - paper heavy enough to endure my Uniball pens, and enough pages to survive five months of introspection! And while I'm currently trying to embrace all things British, I can't help but point out (with pride) that these are Canadian made. Creators, Mirage paper, have a pretty blog.

labpartners make these simple but lovely screen prints. I like think of them as cutsie-indie art (certainly one of my favourite genres!), perfect for for a kids room... or a modest Oxford flat. I check back regularly to see what new treasures they've created - and so should you!

This is a recent discovery, but it comes from an old favourite - Sharilyn Wright, of Lovely Design has started a blog, documenting her picturesque life on Burnaby mountain (less than a stone's throw from my alma mater). And while I may be perpetually disappointed when I check back to see if she has new address files, I AM rather inspired by the depiction of her daily life. Design junkies will eat up what she's done with her downtown studio.

rationalizing

Somehow I can eat half of bag of Haribo Tang-fastics before bed and still feel quite chuffed with myself when I skip the sugar on my morning oats. Oh the concessions we make!

It's a busy time.

We are hoping to move Dean down to Oxford on the first weekend of July, the day after a much anticipated wedding. I'll fly back up to put in a final week at the College (got to fund my summer visit home!) and spend some time with twin sis who will be in town visiting her lad :)

The last week has been a blur of car and flat and flight and job hunting while executing a pet project at work, planning and running a Bean Responsible workshop AND getting together all the bits for my trip to New York and Pennsylvania this Friday.

In the midst of it all I squeezed in a blissful night up north near Inverness and a few visits to the gym. whew. Looking forward to sleeping through my KLM flight on Friday.

analogue us

I have been neglecting my AE-1, so I shot some film on our time away.

My treasured Canon got hauled all over the place...

To the Museum of Natural History:

through the rain in Knightsbridge:

On an Oxford double decker:

To lunch at Pizza Express (where no one had pizza):

and even to Paddington station. It's a well-travelled camera.

All the other shots can be found here.

may day

I'm midway through a long weekend here in Scotland. If I had looked forward to a quiet weekend to catch up on writing and cleaning, I gravely missed the mark!

Spent yesterday morning in the company of women of every age learning about/practicing contemplative prayer - a really good exercise in light of my frenetic schedle these days.

From there I ran off to fill a shift at the Adult Learning tent at the Belmont Street farmers' market, and on the way I picked up this little gem (below) at a quirky new shop on George St called Johnny Come Lately (which coincidentally is also the name of a movie about a Baltimore serial killer - guess Oxford really was the best choice). I may have also acquired a number of new screen printed cards coming to mailbox near you in the not-so-distant future :)



We rounded out the evening with the pre-wedding celebration of a coworker who's moving to Australia. At the request of the bride-to-be all the women wore hats... well in our office those instructions can be very loosely interpreted:

the second installment

Photos from the London portion of our recent travels with inlaws have been posted here.

Oxford was all shot on film - partially with my new 28mm lense bought for a steal at the Oxfam I'll be frequenting in a few months :) Watch for those shots after the weekend.