The Holidays are over!

Wow, we had lots of great times during the holidays and thankfully, were very busy with cooking for clients both regular cookdates and special parties!


We enjoyed a New York Christmas this year!  Spent Christmas Eve with our Daughter and Son-in-Law in the City, having a magnificent meal at Bobby Flay's Bar Americain.  The room is very modern but warm in feeling, there's an open kitchen/raw bar on one side and a bar on the back wall.  We sat in the mezzanine with a comfortable view of the buzzing below us.  The food was outstanding everyone loved their choices and the bites of each others that we shared.  YUM!  


After dinner we did the typical and walked to Rock Center to see the Tree and watched the light show reflected on Saks Fifth Avenue's Walls.  It was a chilly night and it was crowded, but not awful.  


Christmas Day they came over for dinner and exchanged presents, we had a great time.  Simple Meal with Roasted Garlic Shrimp Cocktail; Glazed Spiral Cut Ham; Macaroni & Cheese; Corn and Edamame Succotash;, Green Peas; Pickled Red Beets, Cornichons and Deviled  Pickled Red Beet Eggs.  Apple Pie and Ice Cream rounded out the meal and everyone was very pleased.


The Rhode Island contingent came down for New Year's Day Dinner and the locals were able to rejoin us.  We had sent our gifts to RI for the Grandsons but they brought ours to us on New Years.  The five year old was so proud to present us with each gift one at a time!  It was adorable to see him get as much pleasure out of giving gifts as he certainly enjoys receiving!  His eleven year old brother was happy to help out from time to time but very careful not to steal his thunder!  


When Daughter and Son-in-Law arrived we had Hors d'oeuvres while they opened gifts and spoiled the nephews!  We had Brie en croute; Spanakopita; Parmesan Palmiers; Shrimp Cocktail and Roasted Red Pepper Hummus.


Dinner was awesome, Roasted Tenderloin of Beef with herbed tomato halves and wild mushroom sauce; Potatoes Au Gratin; Peas w/pearl onions; Corn; Rice; Salad with roasted garlic balsamic vinaigrette.


Dessert was Red Wine Poached Pears w/Espresso Whipped Mascarpone Cream; Pecan Pie and Vanilla Ice Cream.


No one left the table hungry!  We started the evening with Proseco & Casis Kirs continued with Red and White Wines, Beers for those who preferred and finished with Godiva Chocolate Licqueur!


As you can see we had some great food and great times with our wonderful family! 


Our hope is that everyone enjoyed their holidays as much as we did and that the New Year brings everyone good health and happiness.

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







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!