Summer Veggies

Just having fun using my camera at the Union Square Greenmarket. We bought some of these radishes. Super fresh and a little kick to them. How can you not love the color?

I also bought some beets and roasted them in the toaster oven. Delicious!

Almost Too Empty!

The new Trader Joe's opened on 6th Avenue and 24th Street, in what used to be a Barnes & Noble. It was empty for a while, with no indication of what would come fill it. And then I heard it would be a Trader Joe's. And that it would be open Summer 2010.

But then this new one came, and it's a 15 minute walk over. And it was downright empty. I wonder if it's because it's summer or people are on vacation. We'll have to see!

We've been troopers and used to walk to the Union Square store for the 8 am opening on Sunday mornings. After a weekday trip when we first moved, and feeling like I was in a communist country back in the day, with empty shelves and long lines, it was Sunday at open or nothing. The big win was when they changed the opening from 9 am to 8 am. And even then there could be 50 people waiting out front. It was always a nice walk over there to get the blood going. Honestly, it's fun to see the city just getting started.

But this is one is in the neighborhood. I like how they maintained the internal structure of the building and kept the columns. Same items, just more space!

Between TJ's, our trips to Costco, Chelsea Market Fruit Exchange and the Union Square Greenmarket we are pretty set now.

Hot = More Ice Cream

I vowed to eat more ice cream this summer. In order to achieve the this lofty goal, I shared a Shake Shack concrete today. You have to love the B line (only for ice cream) because the burger line looked about 1/2 hour and in this heat, that's a long time.

Two spoons, park bench and shade. We beat the heat. For a bit at least.

I'm quite loyal to the original Shack in Madison Square Park. You can't beat the outdoor setting. The Hopscotch Concrete is a favorite and reminds M of Cable Car Crunch growing up. You can't go wrong with custard, toffee, caramel and chocolate chunks.

I know I post quite a bit of yummy food items. Doughnuts, ice cream...we eat a lot of veggies, too. To balance it all out, of course. My sister thinks I just eat and post all the time. So here is my plug for dailyburn.com. I'm type A and like to record, so just record everything and make sure I've got the majority of the days in the green (a bad day is a red day). It's free, available online, and works well on the go with the handy app.

Donuts, Again!

I've now posted about doughnuts three times now.  It's not like I'm eating doughnuts all the time.  I can assure you that I've had them three times this past year.  But I love to give them a try, especially when there is some history behind them or something that makes them different.

The scene of the crime this time was Gerry's Donuts of Ellington, CT.  More on my very relaxing weekend with the family to come later this week.  But right now the focus is on the fried dough at hand.  Gerry's is just a local place, but the one thing that can get me up and out for 8 am mass...knowing there is a doughnut at the other end.  

They have a slight crunch on the outside and are nice and cakey inside.  And they have great coffee.  I love the crumb one as well, but opted for cinnamon and sugar today.  And mom had a powdered.

It's such a small, local place.  And I love it.  Not that you may get to Ellington all that often, but it's definitely worth a stop.

The Street Fair: All 321 of Them!

When summertime rolls around, and you are wandering the streets, you will inevitably come upon the New York street fair.  Blocks and blocks of grilled corn, gyros, crepes and lemonade.  Traffic will be blocked off with pedestrians wandering in the streets.  


And the stalls will repeat themselves so if you pass on the mozz-arepa on one block, you can get it again.  Yes, that's a mozz-arepa and they aren't really that tasty.  I think it could do with a tastier cheese.


My favorite part is the grilled corn.  For the price of one ear, I could buy more than a dozen.  But where can I grill it, or have them put the spicy seasoning on it with a little bit of butter?  It's hard to pass up!  And they are so yummy.



There are over 300 street fairs in the city.  There is a movement to limit the number, or make them a little more individual.  I have to admit, they are all very very similar.  In addition to the corn, you can get sheets and socks.  It's one of those New York things that just makes me smile when I see it.


This one is from the Upper West Side.  I even got the corn guy to pose once he realized I was taking pictures.

The Fourth and Fifth

I do enjoy a good 3 day weekend and with the Fourth falling on a Sunday, find myself with another day to relax before heading back to work.


For the 2nd year in a row, we were lucky enough to get tickets to watch the fireworks from the Chelsea Piers Sports Center sun deck.  I suppose I could use the sun deck anytime, but it always just seems so hot and sunny out there.  But it's perfect for viewing fireworks in the Hudson in the evening.  I was afraid we wouldn't be two of the 150 members to win, but we both did (phew because I would have had to leave someone behind!).


The afternoon started out with a little ice cream to cool down.  Cookshop has a little stand outside the restaurant with homemade ice cream.  I don't even like strawberry, but had to go for the Red, White and Blueberry flavor.  Yum.

And then a little later we set up camp at CP.  Honestly, if I don't get these tickets I'm not likely to brave the crowds.  It was warm and sunny all day, which in my mind is not good waiting weather.  The sun is finally going down and there are a ton of boats out in the Hudson.

The beauty of this viewing spot is the chance to see all 6 barges in the river light the sky with the fireworks.  I learned a little shooting fireworks.  You need to leave the shutter open for a longer period of time and also need to keep the camera very steady. Or just use the fireworks setting on the camera.

And one more for good measure:

And the Holiday Weekend is Upon Us

It's the start of a 3-day holiday weekend (and it hasn't come soon enough after last week).  To get the festivities started, a little NY style patriotism for the 4th of July:

This is a good opportunity to share my favorite fireman story.  We were walking south through the meatpacking this spring on our way to dinner at Paris Commune (a restaurant we went to when we first moved here and then have never really managed to walk by ever again, that happens in NY.  No matter how many times you walk through a neighborhood).  We were jut a little past the cobblestone area near Pastis and this firetruck is blaring and coming in very fast.  I hear a thump and the scratch of metal.  The truck hits a street sign but makes it to the front of the restaurant and a fireman jumps off the truck to propose to his girlfriend who was sitting outside eating (I'm assuming they knew each other!).  Meanwhile, the mowed down sign has punctured some sort of hole under the truck so it's leaking.  Funny and sweet.  Might be hard to explain that one back at the station.


More photos to come!  I'm planning to test out the fireworks setting tomorrow night when we hit the Hudson River area.  Stay cool out there!