3 on Thursday

I love coming back to work for a short week!  I hope your long Memorial Day Weekend was as fun-filled as mine!

On Saturday, Steph and I strolled the SoHo neighborhood picking out her bridemaid gifts, sipping wine, and doing a little shopping.  C. Wonder was having a blowout sale and I couldn't resist.  This store, brought to you by Christopher Burch (Tory's ex-husband), has my name written all over it.  Literally, there is a lot of monogramming going on in this place.  I'm pretty sure I've previously mentioned my love of monograms and all things prep so it should come as no surprise that this store is my preppy piece of heaven.  There was a nice 50% of room where I picked up a shirt, two bangles, and a pair of earrings for $47.  I had to hold myself back from all the great housewares.  Mid-move/renovation is not the time to pick up new decorative pieces.

The only things I had on my must-do list for the long weekend were nail polish and Central Park.  I picked up Essie's 5th Avenue for a nice orangy-red that seemed perfect for the kick-off to Summer.  I'm not sure if you can tell in the pic, but I gave my ring finger a top coat of Essie's new Luxe Effects polish in Shine of the Times for a little glitz.  I loved the final result!  Once my nails dried, I grabbed my latest book club read and headed to the park for some tanning sunburning.

Many thanks to Aunt Angie, Uncle Skip, Seth, Rachel, and Bret for the gorgeous orchid they sent as a housewarming gift!  Even though all my stuff is still in boxes, seeing this on my windowsill makes it less of an apartment, more of a home. 

Eggplant Pizza

I love pepperoni, but antipasti plates and pizza aren't meals that lend themselves to the "cooking for one" set.  A big thank you goes out to Pinterest for giving me an outlet for my pepp craving.  Instead of pizza crust, I used a round of eggplant that I topped with a spoonful of tomato sauce, some fresh mozzarella, and a couple pepperoni slices.

Pizza crust doesn't reheat well so I know I would end up throwing away whatever I don't eat.  That was a lie.  We all know I would end up eating the entire pizza while sitting on the floor of my apartment watching the Real Housewives of Timbuktu.  This recipe keeps me from stuffing my face full of dough and it still tasted great.  This didn't taste like a healthy version of pizza; it was just a new and interesting way to serve myself pepperoni.

Shrimp Salad Cups

Because I'm hoping to start renovating my kitchen soon, I'm trying not to unpack the boxes of kitchen supplies and utensils and have been eating off paper plates since I moved.  Because I would be utterly poor if I ordered take out every night, I've been trying to keep up the cooking but with recipes that require few pots and pans.  This inevitably leads me to make simpler meals with fewer ingredients.  I've learned simple often correlates to fresh and healthy (yay! considering bikini season has just arrived), but simple can also mean harder to design interesting dishes with limited resources and ingredients.  I think I did pretty well this time with the shrimp salad I made this weekend.

Now that it's warming up, I'm happy having a chilled meal to cool me off at dinnertime.  I mixed shrimp with mayo, hearts of palm, and capers.  The capers have enough salt for the dish, but I added a dash of pepper and garlic powder for seasoning.  I piled the salad inside purple cabbage leaves because we eat with our eyes first and I thought it looked nice and pretty that way.  I'm not a big fan of celery in tuna/chicken/shrimp salad, but you need more than just protein and mayo to make it a meal and this combo is just about perfect.

  

BLT Pasta

Everyone loves a good BLT and I love pasta dishes of all shapes and sizes so it was time these two joined forces to make one powerhouse dish.  The best part is that takes only five ingredients and about ten minutes to make.  Get ready because a meal this easy might just change your life.

While I cooked up a pot of corkscrew pasta, I cooked some pancetta and added some halved grape tomatoes when it was almost done.  When everything was cooked and ready, I tossed it together with some arugula (the lettuce of the BLT) that wilted with the heat of the dish.  To incorporate the toast that a BLT is always served on, I toasted some fresh bread crumbs (from day old baguette I had lying around) and threw them into the bowl for texture.  The pancetta provides more than enough salt and the arugula adds the pepper, but if you want the mayo that usually accompanies the sandwich, feel free to add that in for more of a pasta salad vibe.

3 on Thursday

Yay for short weeks!  I have lots to get done so this four-day weekend is just what I need.  Having more time should hopefully mean even more fun than this past weekend which included all of the following:

A couple friends are in the process of doing something big: starting a business that will hopefully fill a niche that's looking for a little love.  While keeping their day jobs, they have followed every step in the book toward building their empire.  It's all quite impressive, though I can't give you much detail now other than that the centerpiece will be a great website.  Over the weekend they shot their promotional video and asked if I would help out.  I firmly believe this acting debut will propel me to my deserved level of fame, but in case it doesn't, I walked away a great gift.  As a thank you for helping out, Emily and Rachel gave me this adorable ribbon bracelet.  It's nautical and green - my two favorite things.

Last weekend was gorgeous and Central Park was littered with sunbathers.  Once I felt myself getting nice and pink I headed home and passed this painter on my way out.  He was just there, doin his thing.

One of the biggest projects I had to accomplish before moving out of my old apartment was painting the bedroom and bathroom back to white.  Matt and Karina came over and we made a little Painting Party out of it.  They provided the helping hands and I provided champagne, pizza, and banana pudding from Magnolia.  I don't like cupcakes, but Magnolia is always on my radar because of this banana pudding.  I don't really want to put this in writing because in my family it is an offense punishable by death, but I think it might be better than Mildred's.  I've never said that about anything before and I'm sure I'll never say it about anything else, but this stuff is gooooood.

Split Pea Soup

It may sound shocking, but I had never tried split pea soup until last night.  My mother loves the stuff, but I always associate it with institutional cafeteria slop and would never let the spoon touch my lips.  Last night, however, I found a new appreciation for the soup after trying Matt's version.

For Jen's big 30th birthday Mark and Allison gave her and Matt an evening of dinner, drinks, and a movie at Brooklyn's hip Nitehawk Cinema.  However, with a baby in the mix, the only way they can enjoy date night is if they have someone to watch Avery.  My services as babysitter were the perfect contribution for poor me who can hardly afford a real gift and helped bring the whole present together.

I don't know how I wound up with a gift on Jen's birthday, but I arrived to find a huge pot of split pea soup, courtesy of Matt.  This looked nothing like the pureed green slop of cafeteria days.  The split peas reminded me of lentils and were mashed, not blended, alongside all sorts of goodies like carrots, sweet potatoes, and ham hock.  This was easily one of the most filling soups I've ever had.  I would even go as far as to call it a stew.  I can also say it restored my faith in split pea soup.  I'll still probably steer clear of it in cafeterias, but I will no longer immediately turn my nose up at it.

Vic's Bagel Bar

The best part about living in a new neighborhood is getting to explore the new neighborhood.  On Saturday afternoon when I was bored and couldn't find anyone to play with I walked out my front door and just wandered down 3rd Avenue.  Suddenly, I found myself 30 blocks south in the East Village.  I then turned around and walked all the way back up 2nd Avenue.  After 60 blocks I got in a little exercise and saw what my new hood has to offer.

As wonderful as that was, I did my walk before lunchtime which means I didn't get to sample the food options.  If you know me, you know I think the food scene is the most important quality of a neighborhood so I decided to start this week with a bagel from Vic's Bagel Bar across the street.  Vic's is a nouveau bagel place that uses the Cold Stone method of mix-ins with the cream cheese.  Warning: this is not your typical New York Jewish bagel.  The mix-ins are diverse and include fruit, nuts, veggies, pesto, wasabi, potato chips, and sprinkles.

A couple other things set Vic's apart: unlike most down-and-dirty bagel places who have vats of coffee (which, don't get me wrong, I love) they serve Stumptown, my favorite.  They also have beer pong tournaments at night where they serve pizza bagels.  I haven't checked that out yet, but it doesn't sound bad and good for them for capitalizing on the fratty Murray Hill crowd.

I ordered cream cheese mixed with chopped lox, cucumber, and green peppers. I was hoping to get some dill mixed in there, but they were all out.  It's probably good they were short on dill because my bagel had already reached the staggering price of nearly $7.  Sure, my cream cheese tasted great and I got enough of it for two to three bagels, but that's super expensive.  I think I'll go back for Stumptown when I want a treat of a coffee but I'll have to get my bagels at one of the two old-school bagel places that happen to be next door.