NYC Bucket List

Today is one of those days where I'm less than thrilled with my transient lifestyle. Maybe I'm getting old, or maybe it's because I've now been out of town almost every week for a year straight. I was in St. Louis from June 2010 until January 2011 and then immediately started traveling to NYC from February 2011 until now. I think I've hit a wall and now all I want to do is be at home during the week and stop missing out on weeknight activities. I felt this way in early 2007 when I was working in Chicago, living in Connecticut, and visiting Joe every weekend in D.C. At the time my friend Erin called my a "gypsy" since I couldn't even manage to be in one place long enough to schedule doctor or dentist appts. As soon as I stopped traveling and started living and working in D.C. I was immediately restless and wanted to be traveling again. The grass is always greener on the other side...

So to keep myself motivated there are a few things I want to make sure I experience before I stop traveling to NYC. There are probably hundreds of restaurants I'd like to try and places I'd like to visit, but to keep things manageable, here's a short list:

• dinner at ABC Kitchen - a few of my coworkers and I have reservations for tomorrow night so this will definitely be accomplished


• walk through Central Park - I've walked through Central Park many, many times on previous NYC vacations, but have yet to visit this summer


• visit to Bouchon Bakery - I'm a sucker for French desserts, especially macaroons, and I've heard that Bouchon has some of the best macaroons in the city


• dinner at Social Eatz - while Angelo wasn't my favorite Top Chef contestant, I've heard great things about his new sandwich place and am interested in trying it


• attend another Broadway or off-Broadway show - my friend and I saw Wicked in April, but I'd like to try and see one more show before leaving


• attend another show at the Comedy Cellar - my favorite comedy club - another visit from my dad will ensure this gets checked off the list

Any other suggestions of places I should try to eat at or things I should try to experience before leaving NYC?

Can you Meet Me Halfway

Yesterday marked the halfway point of this pregnancy! 20 weeks down, 20 weeks (approximately) to go! These 20 weeks have gone by pretty quickly and I hope the next 20 do as well since I'm really looking forward to getting back to intense workouts, sushi eating, and coffee drinking. Joe and I are spending week 20 in the Outer Banks sitting in the sun, walking along the beach, eating seafood caught hours before and hanging out with these guys.

Charleston Trip Recap

So even though I’m about two weeks late, I want to post a little recap of the anniversary trip that Joe and I took to Charleston. From the history, to the food, to the shopping, it’s by far my favorite destination. This trip might have been our best one yet because it was by far the most relaxing. On previous trips we’ve tried to pack in as much as we can because there is so much to see, do, and eat. Leading up to the wedding we also had to try and cram in as many vendor appointments and tastings as possible. This time we enjoyed tons of delicious food and spent a lot of time just walking around, but some of the highlights of this trip were:

King of Pops – since Charleston was hot, hot, hot we enjoyed several gourmet popsicles from King of Pops. We tried the coconut-lemongrass, grapefruit-mint, chocolate-banana, and pineapple-habanero. All of them were fantastic and very unique. My favorite was the pineapple-habanero since it was refreshing with a little kick at the end when you bit into a piece of habanero. A close second was the chocolate-banana . King of Pops is in Alanta, Athens, Asheville, and Charleston and they tweet each day to let people know where their cart is parked.

Husk – Joe and I have been wanting to eat dinner at Husk since we first read about Sean Brock’s concept for a restaurant that uses only Southern-sourced ingredients. After reading countless rave reviews about Husk, we had high expectations and it didn’t disappoint. In fact, I’d say our dinner was one of the top 5 meals we’ve ever had together (with other top meals being our engagement dinner at CityZen in D.C., our meal at FIG in Charleston, and a couple of our meals at McCrady’s). We went to the bar first for drinks and bar snacks. Joe was in bourbon heaven since they have an incredibly extensive bourbon list. He tried a new bourbon, a Southern beer, and was then given a free sample of Pritchard’s rum, which is a rum aged in bourbon barrels. We shared the Giddy Goat Pimento Cheese appetizer and made a pact to start making our own pimento cheese at home because it was so delicious and inspiring. We then moved over to the main restaurant for dinner. Everything about dinner was fantastic, but the highlight of the meal might have been Joe’s cornmeal crusted catfish entrée. It was served with summer squash, zucchini, and tomato broth and as he put it was the “perfect Southern bite”. I also give Husk rave reviews for their pecan pie. I generally consider my pecan pie to be the best I’ve ever had, but Husk’s matched mine in that the inside texture was perfectly smooth without the slightest hint of graininess from the sugar.

McCrady’s – as in past visits and during our wedding, the food and service at McCrady’s was spot on. We went early and enjoyed some of McCrady’s bar snacks, drinks, and bar ambiance. The deviled eggs were the highlight of the bar menu. We then moved to the dining room for dinner and once again Joe ordered slightly better than I did. His appetizer of butter poached octopus with squid ink potato puree had the perfect texture and brininess. I started with a chilled English pea soup with smoked trout and yogurt that tasted like it has just come out of the garden (which it had since Sean Brock has his own farm a few miles outside of Charleston). For dessert we shared a strawberry rhubarb clafoutis. Clafoutis is one of my favorite desserts and I thought this one was perfectly executed.

Shopping – Joe and I tend to do a lot of shopping each time we’re in Charleston since some of our favorite clothing stores are there. This time Joe got some new clothes at M. Dumas and Sons, where we had a lengthy conversation with the sales clerk about what a quality brand Southern Tide is. Another store we found that we had previously never been to was the Heirloom Book Company. Although our suitcases were too full to purchase anything on this trip, we will definitely be going back. The Heirloom Book Company specializes in cookbooks. They had everything from Grant Achatz’ tome Alinea to Martha Hall Foose’s “Screen Doors and Sweet Tea”.

Baked – I think we made 4 visits to Baked during our 4 day stay. From iced teas and coffees to delicious baked goods, a visit to Baked is a must on any Charleston trip.

Kayaking – our hotel concierge suggested we go kayaking in Shem’s Creek since it’s something we hadn’t done on previous Charleston visits. Joe and I are big fans of kayaking so we headed over to Mt. Pleasant and rented kayaks from Coastal Expeditions for Sunday afternoon. We spent two hours going up and down the creek and out into the harbor. We saw several dolphins and tons of birds and fish. It was nice to see an alternate view of Charleston and Arthur Ravenel bridge.

Clothes for Mama and Baby

I have had the hardest time figuring out what to wear now that I have a baby on the way. I am very particular when it comes to clothing and normally really enjoy putting together outfits. However, as my clothing options that fit have become more limited I have started to dread getting dressed in the mornings, especially for work. My biggest issues with the usual maternity clothing stores are that all of the clothes look so cheap! I really wish Lilly Pulitzer and Kate Spade would start maternity lines, but until then, there are only two things saving me from starting to wear yoga pants to work 1) I work in NYC which has infinitely more shopping options than I have in Michigan and 2) I’ve discovered some great online companies (mostly British) that seem to understand that some pregnant women don’t want to wear cheap looking clothes for 9 months.

For future reference for myself and for anyone else who might be looking for more high-quality maternity clothing options, here are my current favorites:

Boden

Isabella Oliver

AG Jeans from A Pea in the Pod

Rosie Pope

While shopping for my clothes has been less than fun, shopping for baby clothes is the opposite. Now that we know baby M is a BOY (he was very cooperative for that part of the ultrasound so there's no doubt of his gender), I've started making purchases for him instead of just browsing. Yesterday I ordered two outfits from Zulily. For anyone not familiar with Zulily, it's sort of like Rue La La or Gilt Groupe for baby and kids stuff. They have wonderful deals on great brands. I ordered two items from the Kate Quinn Organics line. One is an infant footie outfit and the other is a track suit (both pictured below). I'm very excited for the UPS man to deliver these!

Our First House

After signing our names no less than 1,000 times, Joe and I are now first-time home owners. The below picture was taken a few weeks ago, but that is now our little part of Ann Arbor. Now begins endless hours of cleaning, painting, yard work, trips to Home Depot and a host of other labor-intensive, money-sucking tasks. It also means tailgates, dinner parties, kids' sleepovers and lots of other fun.

Wednesday Thoughts

I really need to be better at posting on the weekends! It's tough since I spend Monday-Friday constantly on a computer I tend not to even look at a computer again until Sunday night when it's time to check in for my flight. I will get better though...as soon as I have a weekend when I'm not traveling or moving...hopefully that weekend will come before I'm 30. This week has been incredibly busy so far with unpacking from traveling, packing for the big move, doing work, and visiting family.

For now, here's a few things on my mind this Wednesday:

• I'm spending 13 days straight at home in Ann Arbor - no work travel, no personal travel - this must be some kind of record.


• Being home allowed me to attend the Wednesday Farmer's Market this morning where I picked up some first-of-the-season asparagus and some eggs. Made my morning wonderful, but I realize asparagus and eggs might not sound terribly exciting to most people.


• The University of Michigan added men's and women's lacrosse as varsity sports today! This means Joe will have yet another Michigan team to obsess over. I have to be honest though and say that I'm excited about it too since lacrosse is one of the few sports I'm ok with watching. This also means that Baby M will be given his/her first lacrosse stick at approximately age 2 and pressured to obtain a lacrosse scholarship to U of M. (sort of, but not really kidding here - tuition to U of M is expensive!)


• Our anniversary weekend in Charleston was wonderful and I'll do a detailed post soon about all the amazing, butter-laden food we ate and all the activities we did to burn off the calories of said food.


• One highlight of the Charleston trip was my purchase of a cookbook called "Southern Pies: A Gracious Plenty of Pie Recipes, from Lemon Chess to Chocolate Pecan". This book is the accompaniment to the cookbook Joe gave me two years ago for my birthday called "Southern Cakes: Sweet and Irresistible Recipes for Everyday Celebrations". To say I'm excited to start baking some southern pies in an understatement!

Cheddar Chipotle Biscuits

On this day last year, Joe and I had just arrived in Charleston for our wedding weekend. We were in the final hours of working out wedding details and were busy welcoming friends and family as they arrived in our favorite city. It's amazing how much has changed in the past year. A year ago we were living in Bethesda, MD and both working as government consultants. Our main focus was on wedding planning and preparing to move to Michigan. One year later I'm working in NYC, Joe is halfway done with law school, we're pregnant with our first baby and will soon be home owners. In this past year we've traveled to Charleston multiple times, Sea Island, GA, Ashville, NC, Lexington, KY, Cleveland, OH, Chicago multiple times, Annapolis, MD, Baltimore, MD, St. Louis, MO (me for work), New York City, Tarrytown, NY, Traverse City, MI, Glen Arbor, MI, New Orleans, LA, Harbor Springs, MI, plus lots of day trips. It's been a busy year!

I have photo records of all the places we've visited over the past year, but I really wish I had recorded all of the recipes I made. Hopefully I'll be better about that this year. In honor of Charleston and our upcoming anniversary trip I figured I'd post one of my favorite recipes that reminds me of Charleston. Cheddar Chipotle Biscuits are a huge hit every time I make them. The recipe comes from the Baked Cookbook. Baked has locations in Brooklyn and Charleston. Joe and I have visited the Charleston location a couple of times since it's right around the corner from where we often stay. As a side note, the Baked Cookbook is hands down my favorite cookbook, but every recipe in there is fairly labor intensive so the recipes aren't the kind that can be made last minute. And now, after that long-winded intro here's the recipe:

Cheddar Chipotle Biscuits

Ingredients:
2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 Tbsp chipotle powder (amount can be adjusted depending on spice preference)
1 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup frozen, unsalted butter
2 cups grated sharp cheddar cheese
1 1/4 cups lowfat buttermilk
1 large egg
salt for topping

Directions:
Preheat over to 400 degrees F.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, pepper, chipotle powder, sugar, baking powder, cream of tartar and salt.

Grate the frozen butter using a cheese grater and using your hands work the butter into the flour mixture until it resembles coarse sand. Add the cheese and stir with a wooden spoon to incorporate it into the flour/butter mixture.

In a small bowl, whisk together the egg and buttermilk. Pour into the flour/butter mixture and stir until just incorporated.

Using a small ice cream scoop to scoop the dough and drop it into mounds on the baking sheet, about two inches apart. Sprinkle with salt.

Bake for 18-20 minutes, rotating pan halfway through the baking time, until the biscuits are golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.