More City Pictures....

In Soho...

5th and the Park

Soho

On 57th

5th and the Park

Madison, UES

50th and 5th/Steps of St. Patrick's

Lower East Side

Chinatown

Coney Island



copyright 2007

City Pictures...

Below are some pictures I took years ago, with a little black and white contrast doctoring thanks to the computer...






copyright 2007

The Devil Wears Prada

Two good lines (even if we hate Lauren Weisberger since she was Cornell class of 1999):

Every woman can relate to: "I'm just one stomach flu away from my goal weight" and a line that every law firm associate can relate to, vis-a-vis vague requests from partners: "Where is that piece of paper I had in my hand yesterday?"

Dollar is Down Against The Euro?

Then go outlet shopping.

Lunesta...

I saw a commercial earlier for Lunesta one of those prescription sleep aids. In the list of potential side effects the commercial indicated that sonambulism with amnesia of the event may occur. You don't hear that every day.

In other tv viewing news, Donald Trump was on the Tyra Banks show today. (Don't ask-- it was 12pm and nothing better was on) Tyra introduced The Donald and then told him that he "looked like a pimp... but in a good way."

Blog Rating, courtesy of Texas Jack

Mingle² - Online Dating

Geesh. I guess I've gotten soft in my old age.

Dinner...

Last night we tried a recipe from Giada's Everyday Pasta cookbook, with some revisions. Giada's recipe is for penne with asparagus, proscuitto and smoked mozzarella-- we made farfalle with asparagus, proscuitto and mozzarella in a lemon cream sauce (because everything tastes better in a cream sauce). It was really easy-- first you boil the pasta and asparagus (chopped into one inch pieces) until the pasta is al dente. Saute garlic, olive oil and butter in a large sautee pan, switch the pasta and asparagus (and some of the pasta water) into the pan and toss with cream, lemon juice, fresh basil, salt, black pepper and a little white wine. The cream allows the sauce to thicken and once the pasta is cooked to your liking you can add some grated pecorino romano and then toss in proscuitto (cut in strips) and fresh mozzarella. Pretty easy for an evening dinner and tasty!

News of the World...

A new report out today states that high seas piracy is on the rise, clearly because Johnny Depp makes it look so glamorous.

Ms. New Jersey will be allowed to keep her crown, all I can say is, when dealing with someone from New Jersey, if you're going to blackmail them you have to do better.

And, in travel news on MSNBC, 7 were gored in the 6th day of the running of the bulls in Pamplona. Should this really be travel news??

The Singing Bee

Did any of you watch The Singing Bee? I love that the back up singers are dressed like Bees. I guess NBC had some left over costumes from the SNL days. I won't be happy until Joey Fatone is in a Bee suit too.

Temper Tantrum?

The BBC claims that the Queen didn't really "storm" out of a photo shoot with Annie Leibovitz, but if you ask me she still looks pretty well pissed. Maybe its still that whole Helen Mirren thing??

Standard of Perfection: Show Cats

Tonight our local PBS station broadcast "Standard of Perfection: Show Cats", right after a special on Synchronized Swimming, ah, PBS at its finest. If you follow the link above, the review of the show from the NY Times (back in 2006), likens it to Best in Show, which is pretty accurate. It's great when a cat named Nicole Kidman wins best in shorthair breed, shortly thereafter, while being inspected by a judge, another cat freaks out, flips backwards off of the inspection table and runs through the audience. You hear in the background the show announcer saying: "If you see the cat, please don't grab for it." Of course one of the spectators grabs the cat, it hisses, fur flies and off it goes again. Reasons why cats shouldn't do shows.

Baby Einstein....

Why is it that all music featured in the Baby Einstein line (whether their CDs, DVDs or musical toy products) feature the xylophone so prominently?

Brain Cloud...

On June 21st I bought two tickets to see Chris Isaak at the Beacon Theater (you may recall an earlier post where I noted that he was playing the Potowatomi Bingo Casino in Milwaukee but not visiting the tri-state, well, since then new tour dates have been added and my choices were the Beacon or the Borgata.) The show is in August and at this point it's still not clear how we'll be seeing the show given that it may be a little loud for Miss S., but that will be figured out at a later date.

Regardless, I bought the tickets. After having lost (a) prior Chris Isaak tickets (which were later found, mysteriously, on the toile ottoman) and (b) our Chorus Line tickets (which were never found...) I opted to have the tickets emailed to me.

Did I open the email? Did I move the email to my "saved messages" folder on AOL? Of course not! Do I think about any of these things? Not until I'm watching the fifth replay of the "Concert for Diana" on VH1 at 1:15am this evening. As I'm sitting in our overpriced, undercomfortable Pottery Barn Kids Glider rocking Miss S. to sleep while watching Duran Duran belt out Rio I think to myself-- "those tickets never came in the mail, wait, sratch that, I had them emailed.... e-mailed...wait, did I delete the email? Did I even get an email?" Thus causing me to have to head down to the kitchen, fire up the computer and frantically search for my ticket email.

Luckily, for some reason AOL is now allowing you to keep four months worth of email in your in-box. I found the message-- from June 21st, still unopened (thank goodness I hadn't deleted it figuring it for junk mail...) it is now safely tucked into my "saved messages" folder-- one of these days I'll print out the tickets (but even then, I'll have to do what I did with our Westminster Kennel Club tickets-- print out multiple copies and store them in various locations in case I lose any of them, and then still print out new ones the day of). Geesh.

A Few Things...

The Tour de France has started again! This means every evening will be filled with replay hosted by naked Bob on the Versus channel. (I liked it better when it was known as OLN-- the Outdoor Living Network). Today's event started with the prologue in London. Tomorrow coverage begins at 8am with Stage 1 going to Canterbury. Needless to say we'll watch a replay later in the day.

In honor of the Tour (actually, it was mere coincidence) we made Tour-tilla Soup. I started by sauteeing chopped green pepper, chopped onion and diced jalepeno in a bit of olive oil. Once the onions were translucent, I added to the stock pot almost an entire box of low sodium chicken broth. I brought the broth and the vegetables to a boil and then added one small package of Bear Creek Tortilla Soup Mix. Then I added a small can of diced tomatoes (with jalepenos), a can of diced green chiles and a can of Southwest Black Beans (in lime juice and also with jalepenos). I added a bit of cumin and chili powder. I also added a bit of heavy cream, lime juice and fresh chopped cilantro. I then boiled two chicken breasts and once the chicken was cooked I shredded it and added it to the soup. Once the soup was thickened I cut up three flour tortillas into strips and fried them in a bit of olive oil. I served the soup with some monterrey jack cheese on top, a dollop of sour cream and some of the fried tortilla strips. Overall it was pretty tasty.

In other news, everytime I read a horoscope for Gemini (Miss Sophie's sign) it always has the following phrase (regardless of where the particular horoscope is found): "like fellow Gemini, Heidi Klum", as in: "like fellow Gemini, Heidi Klum, you've got all the right moves" or "like fellow Gemini, Heidi Klum you've got what it takes"... really, I'd rather they be a bit more specific, for instance: "like fellow Gemini, Heidi Klum, you'll find yourself insulting top American designer Michael Kors on Bravo!" or "like fellow Gemini, Heidi Klum you'll be working on your line of gummi bears and designer Birkenstocks this weekend while losing baby weight in order to headline the next Victoria's Secret runway show on CBS!" that would be much more interesting.

Toasted Ravioli Alfredo...

Back during my days at Cornell (1994-2000), the big restaurant to go to in town was Joe's. It was quite a sad occurrence when I went back for the five year reunion and Joe's was no longer (apparently though, it reopened, under new management, in December of 2005). This evening in a bit of nostalgia, I made a Joe's signature favorite-- Toasted Ravioli Alfredo, thanks to Giada's "Everyday Pasta" cookbook. On Page 33 Giada has a recipe for fried ravioli. I was excited when I first saw this! This is the pasta dish that I would get practically every time I went to Joe's (or more often, Little Joe's in Collegetown), the toasted ravioli, with the bottomless salad and breadsticks could a meal make for about $10!

Anyway, according to Giada it's pretty simple-- just get some store-bought refrigerated ravioli (I chose Buitoni), dip the ravioli in buttermilk and then bread with italian seasoned breadcrumbs and then fry in olive oil. Giada suggests serving these with marinara sauce (as the reinvented Joe's does these days), but that is far too healthy-- instead I made alfredo sauce and served the fried ravioli sitting on top of it, just like they used to do at the old Joe's and as an accompaniment we had artichoke sauteed in garlic and olive oil. Who knew, all these years I could have been making this at home (though in the long run my waistline may regret that I have now discovered this information!)

Did Somebody Say Something About a Pot and a Kettle?

Love Tony Snow's response. Really, should any of these people have been pardoned, Clinton friends included??

The Simpsons!

You too can make your own Simpsons character!

Williams-Sonoma

Who, exactly, is it that writes catalogue text? Back in the eighties and nineties I know that the folks at J. Peterman elevated catalogue authorship to an artform, but just regular, old catalogue writing-- who actually has this job and is it that they assume no one is reading the descriptions underneath all the colorful pictures? Case in point, the July 2007 Williams-Sonoma catalogue. On page 76 they are offering up "Personalized Silicone Spatulas" for $22.50 for a set of three (now really, who doesn't want their name embossed on three spatulas? but that's besides the point).

The text for the item states:

"Molded from the finest-quality silicone, the heads are heatproof to 800 degrees Fahrenheit and stand up to the most punishing work. Hand-wash."

So let me get this straight, they can withstand 800 degree temperatures and "punishing" work but can't go in the dishwasher?

Then there's the White Mountain ice cream maker on page 81. "Churning ice cream by hand is a wonderful experience that's never forgotten." Doesn't really sound like a selling point, especially in light of the next entry which is for the White Mountain ice cream maker with electric motor, "for effortless hands-free churning." clearly meant for those looking for a more forgettable ice cream making experience.

Gettysburg

In honor of the Fourth of July we're watching all four hours of Gettysburg. Sophie is asleep, the cat is passed out, but we're all in agreement that Martin Sheen was a poor choice to play Robert E. Lee. What, is he like five foot four or something?

Restaurant Week...

Thanks to David for finding this... I guess we'll never go back to the Bombay Palace again!