Sunday, September 19, 2010

More Cathching Up: Rhode Island Weekend



Last weekend we trekked to Rhode Island to cater a surprise Birthday party for our son, the oldest!

It all started very innocently, by asking our daughter-in-law what the plans for the weekend were.  We suddenly had more free time than we had expected and figured we'd drive up on Friday, and depending on their plans, have a barbecue on Saturday. Within a few hours and a ton of back and forth emails it turned into a surprise party of 20 on Friday.  That way our presence would also be a surprise!



Meanwhile the Birthday Boy is inviting people over for Saturday night having no clue as to what's going on.  His wife convinced him to come home from his extra job and they'd go out to dinner for Date Night, after dropping the grandsons with a friend! We did successfully surprise him, even though as he's pulling up (the ONLY time in his life he was actually early) he spotted one of the guests walking towards the house carrying wine!   Bobby's response was great, he acted confused and said he thought Burke had invited him for Friday not Saturday.  Burke's thoughts were that Monica had switched days to surprise him, but still only imagined Bobby and his family were inside!



It was text book surprise, when he walked into a room full of friends and family and the bonus his NY parents!  It was great fun, the house had been quickly decorated in a tropical theme to signify the true end of summer!



Here's the menu:



SPINACH BALLS

TEQUILA LIME CHICKEN THIGHS W/ROASTED TOMATILLO SAUCE

TACO & TORTILLA FIXIN'S:
BEER MARINATED GRILLED SKIRT STEAK
PULLED PORK
BARBECUE SAUCE
PERUVIAN AJI VERDE SAUCE
COLESLAW
SHREDDED LETTUCE, TOMATOES, GRATED CHEESE

MINI SCALLION CORN MUFFINS
CUBAN STYLE BLACK BEANS & BROWN RICE
WHITE RICE
SMOKED PAPRIKA ROASTED BABY POTATOES
MEXICAN CREAMED CORN W/CREME FRAICHE & COTIJA CHEESE
TOSSED SALAD W/SHERRY VINAIGRETTE


BROWNIE BITES
STRAWBERRY CHEESE CAKE
CHOCOLATE CAKE



We all had a great time, good food, wonderful family and friends to share it with! Even the Grandsons were excited to surprise their Dad!
The picture to the right are Nana's Favorite Boys!






The Great Fire Pit

And we even managed to take some leftovers for an impromptu tailgate party at the beach on Saturday night, with cool ocean breezes, crisp salt air, sunset, kite flying and glorious fire pit, what could cap a great weekend better?



Cold Chef Eating
Sunset @ the Beach

Tailgating!
Tailess Kite Flying




Saturday, September 18, 2010

Catching up!

Wow, where does the time go, it's been too long since I sat down and wrote and so much to write about!


First we had a wonderful breakfast two weeks ago at Danny Meyer's Maialino located in the Gramercy Park Hotel. We started with Donuts and Cream and Toffee Glazed Brioche.  Both were heavenly pastry beginnings!  Next we enjoyed Ricotta Pancakes with Peach Compote and Maple Syrup and Baked Eggs in Spicy Tomato Sauce & Guanciale, both of us chose roasted potatoes with rosemary for our side dish.  The food was amazing, the room is bright and open with huge windows overlooking Gramercy Park.  Service was relaxed and sufficient.  All in all a very good experience.  Want to return for Dinner soon!!


From there we browsed through Fishes Eddy, on of all time favorite places, to stroll the displays of dishes we don't need!  If you've never been go, or visit online it's always tempting!


After Fishes Eddy we went to Paragon Sports to do some sneaker shopping.  Got a new pair of high top Nikes.  Haven't even had a chance to break them in! 


Now we trek up to 23rd and Fifth to check out the newly opened Eataly.  It literally had opened the previous afternoon @4 p.m.  First impression: WOW!  You can read the details in an article from EATER, NY here. It is truly a sensory overload!  Of course it was busy, and we arrived a little after 11.  We marvelled at all the food counters and amazed and the fresh products then strolled the "grocery aisles" filled with wonderful imported Italian products from dried mushrooms, to dried pasta, to the Olive Oils and Vinegars!  By 12 the place was jammed with lunch-goers snapping up tables and ordering from the various venues! 


We walked around in awe and decided to take it all in this trip and come back prepared to shop in the near future!  We did succumb to temptation in the wine store and brought home two bottles of Bastianich wines, one a Rose, that we weren't overly impressed with. We drink Roses in the summer a lot and this year discovered some awesome Spanish versions to join our usual French favorites.  But the Bastianich was weak in comparison.  Have higher hopes for the white we brought home.  Will report on it after we've drunk it.


Nana got to shake Joe B's hand, that was the only sighting we had, Mario and Lidia were not there or at least not visibly.  It's a very exciting market and we all hope they do very well.  Already planning to add it to our out of towners lists of must dos on their next visits.


Here are some random pictures and you can see more in the article referenced above.








Drooling for our return trip!  More "cathcing up" to come, stay tuned!