Brooklyn Bound

Made a day trip to NYC today - picked up Meredith, our BU sophomore, on her way home for spring break - and spent the day with Liv, our Parsons freshman - her break is next week. First things first - lunch - at A Salt and Battery - in the Little Britain section of Greenwich Village - a tiny, little hole in the wall restaurant making delicious and authentic fish and chips - weekly fat quotient in one meal!

After that we were on the 3 subway to Brooklyn - the Park Slope section - we've never explored this section of Brooklyn. Olivia told us that the artist responsible for the arrow below, and seen in many locations in Brooklyn, spoke with her class earlier this week - she is graphically mapping Brooklyn with these directional symbols - it's art.

The following 3 photos are of mosaics on the walls of the Brooklyn Museum Subway Station - it is a beautiful station.


Here's my family outside of the Brooklyn Museum of Art. We didn't have time to take in the museum today - Liv's mid-term week has her under a great deal of pressure --- next time.
This is a photo of the entrance to the Brooklyn Library - again, beautiful.
Guess what I found in Brooklyn - an excuse to return, well, many really. One in specific is an upcoming quilt show sponsored by the Quilters' Guild of Brooklyn - girls - time for a field trip!
Look what we found on Park Slope - the Van Leeuween ice cream truck (parked right out side of Haggen Dazs - that took nerve!).
Yes - I know we had more fat today than nutritionally correct, but it's not everyday you find the Van Leeuween truck! We sampled the vanilla, mint chip and Earl Grey - all delicious, and LOCAL!
I would have loved to snap photos of all of the beautiful homes on Park Slope, but you'll have to visit to see for yourself - the neighborhoods reminded us of Notting Hill in London.

I love reflections on mirrored buildings - I'm always looking up to see the reflections. In this case I was looking in the wrong direction. Here is the mirrored building - nothing interesting.
Meredith pointed out the show was really across the street on the Macy's building - take a look at the reflections - how cool!

I actually made a visit to the Lion's Brand flagship store in NYC today, finally - but enough already - I'll save that for tomorrow - what a fantastic shop!

Casing the Joint

I twisted my husband's arm again today - field trip to Lancaster. I need to get my bearings for the upcoming AQS Quilt Show - review the best route into town, identify parking locations and hone in on some good local eateries. The show runs March 24 - 27th - make sure it's on your calendar!

It's a Saturday, so our first stop was Lancaster's Central Market - the country's oldest farmer's market, pictured below - the building is beautiful. When I first started coming to this market I expected all Pennsylvania German vendors, and an older crowd, thick with the local accent. I was completely surprised to find a multi-ethnic market and a very young clientele.One of my favorite stands at the market is the celery stand - all they sell is celery - and, yes, it does taste better than the standard store bought celery.
I took this picture for Cheryl - look at all of the jelly candies! Mmmmmmm! Calorie free if all you do is look!
The market is open Tuesday, Friday and Saturday - make sure to put an ice chest in the car if you're planning to stop while you are at the AQS Quilt Show. After we stashed our goods in the car (in our snow filled ice chest) we were off to lunch - this visit we tried Rachel's - a lovely little creperie in the Uptown section of Lancaster, a quick walk from the market at 309 North Queen Street. We had a very satisfying lunch of crepes - definitely recommend it for lunch. Now onto Gallery Row, on Prince Street.

Honey - come on, stop trying to pick up the mannequin --- men!
Our first stop was City Folks - beautiful home store!!!This is a pillow I saw in City Folk - it was made by a local artisan - Christine Morgan. I've googled her but cannot find any info for her. I recommend a quick stop at City Folk just to see this stunning pillow - it is quilted and chenilled - and this photo does not do the colors justice.
Our next stop was the Red Raven Art Company - a beautiful art gallery. I was captivated by the work of Art Harrington - a local artist who is currently being featured in the gallery. His farm / barn series is a fresh and contemporary view on the stunning landscape of Lancaster County. He works in two completely different techniques and his exhibit gave you a sampling of both. His use of color is captivating. Last night was First Friday Gallery Night in Lancaster - wish I would have been there to meet the artist. A quick dinner tonight - one of our favorites - reminiscent of a French bistro. A bed of mache and radicchio topped with crisp bacon lardons, potatoes and carrots fried (shhh!) in the bacon fat, pan roasted asparagus, dressed lightly with a shallot vinaigrette, and topped with poached eggs - a crisp rosemary and olive roll and a glass of zinfandel - perfect. Tomorrow - off to Brooklyn!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Wishing everyone a very Happy Valentine's Day - please help yourself to a delicious, calorie free chocolate from my favorite candy shop - Reppert's of Oley, PA (www.reppertscandy.com). If you have any reason to be in the Oley Valley area it is worth planning a visit - check their website first - they do close for a few months out of the year. Their Easter candies are stunning!I apologize for my absence - it was my birthday last week and, well, life got busy. I had a surprise weekend visit from my daughters - Meredith attends Boston University and Olivia is at Parsons School of Design in NYC - I wasn't expecting to see them again until the snow melted - it is going to melt, right?

We had a wonderful weekend. Saturday we took a drive out to Lancaster County. Our first stop was Central Market in downtown Lancaster - this is the oldest farmer's market in the country and will get a post all it's own very soon. We lunched at the Lancaster Brewing Company (www.lancasterbrewing.com) - a great local brewery and restaurant located on Plum and Walnut Streets in downtown Lancaster - keep it in mind while you are visiting Lancaster for the quilt show in March - what - quilters love beer! We had delicious beer and very respectable bar food.

We tried to take country roads home from Lancaster - it was challenging as the snow drifts were massive in places - towering over the car. At one point we were traveling on Stratsburg Road when the road simply ended - the wind had drifted a wall of snow across the road at least 5 feet high - thank heavens for the GPS! The scenery on that ride home was breathtaking - the angles and ripples of the drifting snow, the icicles lacing down from every rooftop and more, the beauty of the landscape blanketed in snow. I know there are many places on this earth that see far more snow, but to see this amount of snow, here in our home, is a rare opportunity. If you have the time, take a ride out to Lancaster and enjoy the scenery.
These past few days have been all about food - some very good food - definitely too much food. Friday evening we went to one of my very favorite restaurants - Restaurant Alba in Malvern (www.restaurantalba.com).Dinner was amazing - for appetizers I had the pig trotters and my husband had the grilled octopus; for dinner it was goat for my husband the the delicately sweet Birchrun Hills veal special. Sean and Kelly Weinberg are wonderful hosts - the service and the food are always excellent.

I really wanted to keep dinner light for our Valentine's Day. I cooked up a flavorful broth using clam juice as the base and infused it with red chili, lemongrass, ginger, basil and garlic. I allowed the broth to simmer for 30 minutes to develop flavor, then strained it and seasoned it with fish sauce, soy sauce and rice vinegar. I added sweet potato, bok choy, asparagus, and cooked udon noodles to the broth, then topped the vegetable rich, noodlie-broth with a serving of grouper that I had bathed with Korean barbeque sauce and roasted till just flakey. I topped the dish with slivered red chili and a chiffonade of basil. It was delicious - light and healthy. O.K. - here is a peek at a quilt I was working on last week - it is a breath of spring. Most of the fabric in this quilt is from one of Amy Butler's first lines. As I said - this is just a peek - I don't want to spoil the surprise. I have it all sandwiched and ready to quilt which I hope to start and, maybe, finish tomorrow.

Cabin Fever Epidemic

If you live in the mid-Atlantic. you simply cannot believe your eyes when you look outside - SNOW EVERYWHERE! We had about two feet of snow this past weekend, and today, in the blizzard of 2010, we had another two feet or more. I was outside helping my husband shovel today when I met this lovely snow lady all bundled up in a quilt. I expect she is enjoying this weather.

I did make forward progress on Olivia's quilt today - I have now finished quilting all of the geometric shapes. This is a big quilt, queen size, and I think I need to surrender it to a long arm quilter to complete the background. You can get a taste for the design in this photo - the inspiration for the design was a mobile the shapes have a very 3-dimensional appearance.

Dinner - I like nothing better than spending time in the kitchen when trapped by a winter storm. Thing is, after the snow melts I am going to need some serious time working off all of the extra calories I've eaten. I actually think I am going to focus on healthy eating next week - a recipe a day for a low calorie meal - I hope to have the menu together soon, complete with a shopping list. For tonight, I'll let you guess what I'm cooking up --- if you guessed Linguine with clam sauce --- you're right.

Not just any linguine, home-made linguine. I use the recipe from Marc Vetri's cookbook, il Viaggio, it is the best pasta recipe I have ever used - calls for 9 egg yolks! The recipes in the book are based on the menu from his restaurant Vetri (http://www.vetriristorante.com/) in Philadelphia. I had the pleasure of having dinner at Vetri - an unforgettable experience! I've tried many recipes in Marc's cookbook, every one has been exceptional!


Making pasta is so easy. One hint - always weigh your ingredients to achieve the best results. I use my Kitchen-Aid mixer to combine the ingredients and then knead the dough by hand. I have an Impreza pasta roller / cutter which makes quick work of handling the dough - no motor for me - I need some physical exercise - cranking the pasta cutter is the least I can do!

I dry the pasta on one of our wine racks - works better than the pasta rack I have. When I double the recipe I use my laundry drying rack to dry the pasta.

This was the finished dish - linguine with a simple pantry clam sauce. I added mustard greens to the sauce - I love the flavor of mustard greens in soups and sauces - it is the most flavorful of the "greens".

I also sauteed some fresh baby artichokes with shallots, garlic and grape tomatoes for a quick side dish. You can see below how I process the artichokes - simply remove the tough outer leaves, trim the tip, slice in half length-wise and scoop out the choke. After processing be certain to place artichokes in acidulated water (water with lemon juice added) to prevent browning.


Enjoy the blizzard!

Seeing Spots

I drive a Bernina Artista 200 - purrs like a kitten. Let's be honest here - I admit to having more than one machine - what if one breaks and I am in the middle of something - believe me - I've tugged every heart string on my husband's conscience and wallet to bring new machines home. Over the years I have collected a slew of various feet and attachments for my machines and honestly, I've never used some of them. The Circular Embroidery Attachment, or kreisstickapparat as Bernina likes to call it, was one of those attachments that had never been freed from the box. Truthfully - I really wasn't sure what it did.

Then the need arose - I promised my friend I would make a quilt for the quilt gallery in her soon to be published book - more exciting news on that later. I was to follow one of her patterns but could alter slightly to show how to manipulate the pattern. I chose to add circles - to a bed quilt - a lot of circles - and they had to be appliqued to the quilt using a button hole stitch - by machine - this is not one of my strong points. My initial attempts took a perfectly good circle and turned it into an egg. Then I remembered the kreisstickapparat - or CEA (circular embroidery attachment).

FYI - no fusing of circles for me - I don't particularly like to fuse, and I really don't like it on bed quilts. I cut out circles and basted around them by hand (while watching TV - I should have been knitting). Once basted, I replaced the cardboard template and pulled the basting thread to cinch. A quick press using starch gave me a beautiful circle to start my applique.



I set up the attachment per instructions - yes I used the stinking instructions and Bernina's tutorial (http://www.berninausa.com/product_detail-n26-i172-sUS.html). You can adjust the CEA to change the size of the circle you want by simply sliding the guide. Your fabric attaches to the CEA, with the sharp, protruding pin which will scratch your hand every time if you are not careful - this pin acts as the axis. I was using the buttonhole stitch and found it easy to adjust my stitch during sewing by moving the needle position left or right a tic or two if my circle was slightly off at certain areas - no one is perfect. In about 30 seconds you can sew a perfect 3 inch circle.


Bernina suggests the use of stabilizer - I did not use it and had great results. I suppose if you were using this as intended - to embroider stitching onto a single piece of fabric - you would need the stabilizer. I however I had 3 layers of fabric - background, the circle and the turned edge of the circle - and the power of spray starch! Ta Da! Love this attachment!

What's for dinner tonight - Puebla Chicken and Potato Stew (http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Puebla-Chicken-and-Potato-Stew-109026). Stopped by Talula's Table in Kennet Square last week and picked up some of their house made chorizo - should be great in this recipe.

Evolving as a GEEK

This was a very busy weekend for me - I am diligently working on my website and am basically ready to launch - hallelujah! I've tried a number of different sites and have finally found one I can use - WIX at www.wix.com - a knowledge of html is not required. Before the end of this week, perhaps by the end of the day I will have my website live!

All geekery and no fun can mean a very boring weekend - can't have that. Saturday my husband and I had reservations at Zahav in Philadelphia - one more week of Philadelphia Restaurant Week to go - make your reservations fast! The tasting menu at Zahav, http://zahavrestaurant.com/, was excellent - middle eastern food, excellent service, amazing beverages! We actually stopped by one of our favorite watering holes before dinner - Monks' Cafe, www.monkscafe.com - wonderful Belgium beers (Tripel Karmeliet on tap).

Saw 2 movies this weekend: the Blind Side - excellent; and Crazy Heart - Jeff Bridges was great as was the music, but not much of a story.

Made time to cook on Sunday - a recipe that bears repeating, and I rarely repeat a recipe - Spicy Vietnamese Beef and Noodle Soup (http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Spicy-Vietnamese-Beef-and-Noodle-Soup-103111) - the rich homemade stock gives it a hearty flavor, but the addition of raw veggies keeps it light at the same time. The recipe calls for oxtails - they make a great stock - if you can't find them you could just use meaty soup bones. Don't skimp on the spices - they give the soup a very intense flavor!