First Summer Friday!

My first summer Friday this year

was so much fun.

I just wish I'd worn a jacket.

It was basically freezing if you wander out without one,

and it rained a ton.

The best part of the day was when we holed up

in the back of a cafe in LIC

that played some great music.

For lunch Pam, Kat, and I went to M.Wells at P.S. 1 MoMA,

and it was quite delicious.

Bryan met up with us shortly after,

and we explored the museum.

One of the rooms was a room of ice.

I believe they were glacier specimens from an old glacier,

but it was too cold to really figure it all out.

Another room had global trashcans.

Some had actual trash (from snarky visitors I suppose.)

The building is much like the grammar school I went to,

though there are two sets of stairs,

and two stairwells in each corner.

It seemed a bit excessive.

The art in the halls was much more enlivening

than my grammar school's halls though.

As part of the rain exihibit at the MoMA in Manhattan,

there's this other exhibit at P.S. 1.

Basically in the atrium part,

they built an indoor pond with koi fish (see above).

And a waterfall.

I am not so much into standing around and reading about the art

as much as I am about seeing and taking in the art.

I've not had a chance to read about it,

but experiencing it was pretty cool.

The cold weather and the rain and the constant waterfall sounds though,

well, good thing there were some bathrooms around.

One other cool thing was the boiler room.

One of the pieces had saliva in it.

You just have to wonder why and where and why.

After lunch, museum viewing, and cafe catching up,

we headed into the city and join Nat and Dani

(Kat went home)

for dinner at Empellon

to celebrate an intimate birthday dinner with Pam.

The food was good, but it was all a bit expensive and loud,

and I wished it were just as cozy and low key as the cafe.

Dance, Dance!

So we're fortunate enough to have cool things like

this come to our building's gym.

And luckily we didn't have other plans

and the weather was pretty terrible,

so I went to both of these classes.

The class was wonderful!

I forgot how choreography is almost cerebral.

It's memorizing and understanding steps and movements,

then adding more.

I've been taking dance classes for years now,

and I've not had to memorize a routine since high school.

I've always just followed the instructor in the front.

But today I felt my brain working.

John was very nice

and his choreography worked surprisingly well with different genres

of music.

We kept doing the same few steps over and over,

and he built on it.

In total it was about 20 steps 

(8 counts each, so about two minutes worth of music)

and then it looped again.

So much fun!

During the stretch portion of class,

he noted that my pointe

(when you point your toes)

was very good and that I must've danced before.

He said very few people are born with a naturally good pointe.

Ah, all those years of pointing paid off!

A bonus of both of these classes was that

Jessica Williams from The Daily Show was in attendance!

She's quite tall.

I couldn't place where I'd seen her for a short while,

but then after ruling out everyone at work and friends of friends

and moving on to TV and movies,

it just made sense.

She's really pretty and is a good dancer.

It'd be fun to have her in more of my gym classes.

Nick Cave Horses in Grand Central

I went with some friends to try to see the

Nick Cave horses that were at Grand Central last week.

Unfortunately, so did every other person.

So we didn't get in,

but it was kind of nice out,

so at least we got some air.

This is what we missed:

You know Nick Cave.

He did this song:

NYC Armory Show 2013: Part 4: Some Cool Art from Jon's Phone

Tilda Swinton is sleeping under this.

Just kidding!

It was Jon himself.

Just kidding!

This was art nonetheless.

I think it's called Sleepeh.

An artist was signing/giving away Andy Warhol Brillo boxes or something.

I didn't get one or see where they were getting them from,

but it looked neat.

These acrylic legs are Matthew Barney-esque, no?

Word art is in these days.

This is awesome art.

It's represents the worst times of the winter holidays.

I bet there are already cards and T-shirts on etsy with this print.

They're synchronized enough to make a tree

out of their poop,

as if the poop tree is walking jauntily toward them too.

The men are in a yoga position.

They have such terrible diarrhea 

that it shoots through their underwear!

They're average weight men

that are identical except for their facial hair

and their underwear. 

Art made up of hundreds of unsmoked cigarettes.

The machine was automated to push holes through the tape.

It was interesting and random.

A woman suggested it was Braille.

A cool photo taken of a building not in this area.

We need cool colorful buildings architects on the eastern seaboard.

Enough of this steel, red or orange or beige brick, and glass garbage.

Color our concrete jungles for us sexy beasts!

You entered this galley's booth with a flashlight

to look at the art.

I don't know why.

The gallery was from Istanbul.

There's something so appealing about the circle it creates.

The rose gold gleaming and all.

Copy of the score by John Cage:

Jon says it's probably the most famous piece of 

experimental music.

The music is the ambient noise of the silence of the musician

not performing.

(This just underscores my anxiety at a live performance.)

Jon thinks I closed the video,

but it's still playing.

Scary stone babies.

Ma-ma?

NYC Armory Show 2013: Part 5: This Guy Is Having a Better Day Than I Am

Why can't I be a skull encrusted in diamonds?

Or even the print of that?

NYC Armory Show 2013: Part 1: Intro

It's a pier that you pretend is an armory

for a few days

that houses a huge collection of art from

galleries all around the world and the country.

But here's a better explanation.

Jon and I went back in college and a few other times.

It never seemed as popular as it did today.

It was $30,

but since there were galleries from around the world,

it was like the best contemporary pop-up show

in all the world at that moment.

We could literally see our apartment

from the show,

so it seemed best not to waste the opportunity.

Every cube was a different country it seemed.

Instead of just a few people

who really seemed like ardent collectors,

there were all types of people

who were just interested in seeing new/classic modern art.

It's a nice change that they have real food options now too.

My Green Thumb (?)

For Christmas 2011,

Jon got me a device that grows stuff in foam.

I opened it up the other day,

and planted some Japanese tomato seeds that

he got me in spring 2012.

At first nothing seemed to grow,

but then they started to sprout!

And shortly after,

they grew some more!

And some more!

Now I have no idea what to do once or if they actually grow into

a real tomato plant.

(I feel like they're probably going to rip themselves out of the machine.)

But trial and error and all

that survival of the fittest stuff.

Grow, my little ones!

Grow! 

Grandma's Chicken Soup and Meatballs

Today, I made my grandma's chicken soup and meatballs recipe.

It really sucks that she can no longer make it for us,

but I think her recipe was accurate enough

that it tastes similar. 

Add chicken thighs to water and salt for up to three hours or so.

Rinse the thighs before and after the salt bath.

Make the tiny meatballs with lots of love.

1 pound of meat

1/2 cup or less bread crumbs

1 cup or more Parmesan cheese

2 eggs

Mix together. Pinch about a thumb and two fingers of meat and roll.

(Three fingers will be too big.)

Freeze or refrigerate while you're getting the other stuff prepared.

Make this the day of the soup.

Mirepoix.

How much you want, is what she calls for.

We use one or two packs of the premade stuff from the market.

It's amazing how much time it saves since my knife skills are terrible.

Sweat mirepoix.

Brown chicken slightly.

Add as much water as you'd like soup--

make sure there's enough water

for the meatballs to float around in.

This isn't in Grandma's recipe, 

but if it's not chickeny enough, 

add some chicken flavorings (via bouillon cube or stock).

Bring to a boil then add meatballs

--one at a time!--

and cook for two or three hours on low heat.

Ladle it up, shred up the chicken,

and every bite will have a little meatball and a little chicken.

It tastes even better the next day!

And it will fill your heart containers to the max

and cure all ailments immediately.

Your belly will feel really cozy.

My 2013 Calendar

This was my 2012 calendar.

It was a great calendar.

It did its job really well,

and it looked cool whenever I looked up.

It was much better than this ghetto thing I cobbled together in 2011.

This year I decided to draw some little scenes:

It brightens up the place.

I used some watercolors and gauche

and some pen ink.

I took some close-up photos,

but I'll post them later.

I'm afraid when my blog gets too food heavy.

But when your hobby is food,

what else do you post?

FreshDirect Has Il Laboratorio del Gelato's Basil Ice Cream: Eat It

So the Lower East Side is about a half hour to forty-five minutes

from our apartment in Midtown West.

Ludlow is simply far.

But FreshDirect has saved us some effort

by providing Il Laboratorio del Gelato to come straight to our door practically.

Since a container of it costs about $10,

and our freezer was meant for New Yorkers who don't shop at Costco,

we got one of these babies.

And it was delicious on its own.

Jon was fantasizing about eating it with mozzarella and tomatoes,

extra virgin olive oil and aged basalmic.

This is what his fantasy looks like in real life.

Unfortunately we eat all our dinners around ten at night

since he gets home so late,

so the lighting doesn't make it look as awesome as it tasted.

Believe me though,

basil ice cream is a revelation to accompany what we think as normally savory foods.

Eat it.

Eat it now!

Obika's Delicious Balls

The other day

Jon and I went to Obika,

the NYC branch of an Italian mozzarella bar.

So we obviously got the mozzarella sampler:

Classico: Good

Ricotta: Delicious! (Get this one)

Burrata: So creamy, but needed salt

(They ran out of the roasted mozzarella.

We need to get that next time.)

And we got the crostini:

Ndjua and mascarpone: So good!

Capers and peppers: Needed more pepper flavor

Tomatoes: Good

It was off to the side of one of NYC's public spaces.

It was like alfresco dining, but indoors.

A big Italian family sat near us.

It felt like we were in Italy.

Bellissimo!

Crouching Eggs, Hidden Lamb Bacon

After doing a yoga class, some elliptical, some rowing, and then a zumba class,

so two and a half hours later,

Jon 

(who only did forty minutes of ellipticalling)

made us each an egg and a whole lotta lamb bacon.

Of course, we were still starving after that and ate a whole bunch of 

more stuff

from our fridge.

The lamb bacon was delicious.

Like bacon, but with a lamb taste.

Not gamey.

If your butcher has it, get some!

Katherine's Hepburn's Pants at the NYPL

I love, love, love living in Manhattan.

It's disgustingly expensive to live here

(did you see the article about the middle class in the NYTimes?)

but there is so much free stuff!

Unfortunately, the headache of getting into or out of the city

from anywhere else in the world 

to take advantage of this stuff 

is usually not worth it.

I'm saying that if you're in town,

it's awesome, but asking someone to trek in

is kind of asking a lot.

Take this Katherine Hepburn exhibit

 at the NYPL in Lincoln Center

for example.

It was free, and it was wonderful because it was free.

Definitely a must-see if you were around and had a half hour to stop in.

Though, most people would probably prefer making an effort to see 

an Audrey Hepburn costume exhibit, I'm sure.

Still, Katherine was adorable 

in her crazy accent/pants-wearing ways.

Her costumes in her plays and movies weren't as beautiful,

but they helped create her memorable characters.

Other stuff, like sketches of herself, and a Dorothy Parker review

of her play (Dottie hated it) were nice touches.

It's hard to tell if I'd be able to fit into her clothing.

Some seemed too long for my stature,

some seemed too small for my waist.

Others seemed huge.

I feel like the pants display would be a good campaign for Gap 

or maybe an older women's clothing store.

They should make replica pants.

These are cute, especially since pleated pants,

aren't the worst things in the world any longer.

By the way how cute is that hat?

Pinterest wish list that baby.

Armory Swings

So Jon and I popped by the Armory

on Lex and 66th

on the final day of this exhibition,

and we saw that the line basically wrapped around the building.

So we walked around to the back

to a window,

and we took a photo of it.

It was just like being there,

but not having to suffer for it.

This NYTimes piece does it better justice

than waiting two hours on line—

and then some more to swing—

with some really cranky people.

Last Year's Dumpling Party

Around this time last year, we had a dumpling party.

There was a small ordeal in actually finding the wonton wrappers

above 14th Street and on the west side,

but I overcame that obstacle after visiting a handful of stores.

We filled dumplings with different ratios of shrimp, pork, and beef.

And shaped them freestyle.

There were quite a few dumplings made

that night.

There were quite a lot of us to make them, thankfully.

Jon's roasted sweet Japanese potatoes

with fancy aged balsamic.

Mmm . . . appetizer.

Jon's homemade seafood broth, homemade garlic soy sauce,

shiitake, and greens, and all that good stuff.

With a freshly made soft boiled egg.

Dessert was leftover corn cookies

with a dab of ice cream

and a bit of citrus on the side.

It was sandwiched and dusted with extra corn flour.

Dani brought flan.

(So delicious!)

Pam brought cupcakes from Chikalicious.

(So delicious too!)

That was a really fun evening,

though I don't think everyone enjoyed eating the dumplings

as much as they enjoyed making them.

At least there were a ton of desserts!