Put on the Glasses

Last Saturday, I went with a group of friends to the Brooklyn Botanical Garden to see the cherry blossoms.    The gardens were beautiful.  I took a few shots and thought I would share them with you. Here's the crowd near the cherry blossoms.  They are right at the end of their run and the blooms were just starting to wilt. Up close they still looked great though: They were like balls of fluffy cotton candy: Tulips: That's about it.  I recommend the Botanical Garden when it's in season.  It is a beautiful park and it's free Saturdays from 10am to Noon.

As I am sure almost all of you have heard by now, Brian and I are packing up and moving back to Minnesota.  We are extremely excited. Photo from Doug Wallick's Flickr Stream . Yes, this is out of the blue.  We literally made this decision on Saturday.  I don't hate Brooklyn.  It didn't beat me, we aren't broke or going back with our tails between our legs.  I love Brooklyn.  I think it is just time to move on.  I don't have negative things to say about New York.  We love our friends here and we will miss them.  We'll miss the bars and restaurants, the excitement and the museums.  We will be back to visit. However, that being said, we are elated by the prospect of the following things in Minnesota: Family Our Minnesota friends Targets that are organized, well stocked and staffed by helpful people Caribou Coffee Twins baseball Malls that aren't packed with people Parks Grass Trees Camping Hiking Fishing Snow Grilling Square footage at a re

I looked out my window this morning and saw this guy across the street: He looks like a film noir P.I., a gumshoe or a modern day Sam Spade.  I had to take a picture and share it with you fine folks. Maybe I am being followed.  Just kidding.  Seeing this guy just invoked this sudden urge to watch The Maltese Falcon , The Big Sleep or Laura .  Those are probably my three favorite film noir movies.  Does anybody know of some other ones I should see?  I love a good crime story.

Music I am still using Grooveshark a lot but mainly I just repeat the following songs: "Fight Song" by The Republic Tigers "Electric Feel" by MGMT "Rock Lobster" by The B52s "White Rabbit" by Jefferson Airplane "Psychobilly Freakout" by Reverend Horton Heat "Tik Tok" by Ke$ha  I would also like to note that I just don't get the whole Justin Bieber thing.  Maybe I am getting old. Food Brian and I are trying the chicken challenge this week.  This involves trying to stretch the meat from a chicken into as many meals as possible.  I kind of cheated and made two chickens at once because they were super cheap at CostCo. and this recipe from the Pioneer Woman looked too good to resist. So far Brian and I have had 3 dinners based on the chickens.  The first night was just the herbed roast chicken.  The last two nights we have had chicken salad sandwiches à la Kenny Shopsin (see my previous post about his book).  T

Back in early march I read the Kitchn review of Mark Bittman's Hainanese Chicken and I had to make it.  It looked so darned good.  I mean look at it: Just look at it.  I made that and it was as delicious as it looks.  I guess I'm proud of myself because I had to poach a chicken to make it.  I had never poached a chicken before.  I can barely poach an egg.  Plus, the method seemed a bit sketchy to me. My mom taught me to have a good, healthy fear of food born illnesses.  I grew up in a house where we cook our food until it is good and dead.  This recipe calls for you to only boil the chicken for ten minutes, turn off the heat and just let it sit there for an hour.  Just sit there.  This seemed like crazy talk.  But I trusted The Kitchn and the New York Times to not steer me wrong and by golly if it wasn't delicious.  The chicken was nice and juicy, perfectly cooked and it was extremely easy.  What is easier than boiling water? Here's the chicken when it came out

Continuing my post from yesterday, here are the rest of the books I read this month: The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova I think I would have liked this book if I had not had high expectations for it.  I really loved her first novel, The Historian .  Who doesn't love a good vampire novel?   The Swan Thieves  just didn't pack the detail-ridden punch of the last novel.  In this story, an artist attacks a painting in a museum and is arrested.  When he is placed under psychiatric care, his psychiatrist tries to unravel what drove this him to attack that specific painting.  I think I would recommend the book to art lovers and possibly Dean Koontz fans. The Invisible Kingdom: From the Tips of Our Fingers to the Tops of Our Trash, Inside the Curious World of Microbes by Idan Ben-Barak This was a very entertaining, quick read about microbes.  It doesn't go deep into the real science; it briefly explains the world of microbes and their importance in a fun way.  You get

I can't believe a month has passed by since my last series of book reviews.  I am proud of the fact that I got through another 8 books this past month.  Writing these monthly blog posts has really pushed me to read more.  Here are some of the things I read: The Gates by John Connelly I loved this book.  It was a funny, fast read about the gates of hell opening up.  I know, that sentence does not make much sense.  It was fast in that I polished this book off in one night.  It was funny in that the writing didn't gross you out or frighten.  It simply told the tale of a boy trying to stop demons from flooding out of the gate and overrunning his town.  I definitely recommend this book if you like Neil Gaiman or Susanna Clarke. Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout I think this book was beyond me.  It concerned many facets of small town life, senior living and marital relations that I just couldn't relate to.  It was beautifully written and the characters were fascina

I made this recipe a few weeks ago and I cannot possibly praise it enough.  I loved it.  The sauce was rich and full of complex flavors.  The beef was perfectly tender.  It lasted several meals for me and Brian.  All of those things are big pluses in my book. The down side to the recipe is the time that it takes to make.  I didn't start cooking until about 5:30pm one night and we didn't eat until around 11:00 pm.  It takes a lot longer than you would expect to prep all of the ingredients and get it ready for the oven.  However, don't let that stop you.  It is actually really easy to make if you just follow Child's instructions. If you want a copy of the recipe, Knopf-Doubleday has PDFs of the recipes needed  here .  You will need to print and follow the main recipe and the two sub-recipes for onions and mushrooms.  Don't worry.  It's not that hard. I was too lazy to go to the butcher to get real, uncut bacon.  So, I bought Oscar Meyer Thick-Cut Bacon a

To finish off my Boston pictures, here are just a few more highlights from our day trip. Here's Brian playing with his dinner: Here is my first ever Lobster Roll.  Delicious: Paul Revere's house: Here I am in front of Faneuil Hall (a big marketplace), getting despondent at Brian's picture taking speed: Finally, here is a picture that makes me giggle.  Brian trying to lift a very big chain.  There was a lot of grunting: That wraps up my trilogy of Boston posts.  We had a great time.  I recommend going if you haven't been there!