Crown Publishing Group is responsible for publishing many cookbooks each year, including the titles for many of the stars of the Food Network. My coworker, Anna, runs a website called The Recipe Club as part of Random House’s social media outreach for our cookbook and food-related titles.
When I mentioned to Anna that I enjoyed cooking, she asked if I’d be interested in making a recipe or two from one of our cookbooks and writing a little blog post for the ‘Kitchen Visits’ section of the site.
Well, nothing motivates me like free cookbooks, so I happily agreed and snagged two of Giada De Laurentiis’ most recent efforts. Today I went to the Greenmarket with my roommate and her sister and found THE BEST and most perfectly ripe cantaloupe.
I brought it home and decided to tackle a recipe for Melon Prosciutto Soup. It sounded a little weird, but I knew I liked the combo of cantaloupe and prosciutto, chilled soup was perfect for such a hot day, and basically the only thing you had to do was chop the four ingredients and throw things in the blender.
It turned out weird, but pretty good. The fresh basil and prosciutto (baked in the oven until crispy!) that were sprinkled on top definitely made the soup. And I have about a million gallons leftover, so I know what I’m having for lunch next week!
Last weekend I went to the wedding of one of my best college friends, Katie Longwell. She and her husband Roman met while studying abroad in Argentina and if you scroll back enough pages you will find plenty of pictures of them shepherding me around Buenos Aires and generally indulging my ridiculous tourist behavior.
The wedding took place in Katie’s hometown of Galesville and was a small, super fun affair. As you can see, a good group of us from college were able to make the trip to celebrate with Katie and Roman and we all had an amazing time.
In fact, we had such an amazing time that I am still not caught up on my sleep (or my unpacking, or my laundry, or my grocery shopping). VERY WORTH IT!
On Saturday my friend Molly, who is in town for the weekend from Orlando, and I went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to see the Alexander McQueen exhibit, Savage Beauty.
The museum doesn’t open until 9:30, but they’ve been having record attendance and long waits to get into the exhibit itself and it was 100 degrees out and a Saturday, so we decided to meet at 8:45.
This meant getting up at 7 so I could be out the door at 7:45, but it was completely worth it. As it turns out, Random House has a corporate membership to the Met, so Molly and I were able to get free admission - which was amazing! And we were far enough up the queue that we only had to wait about 10 minutes to get into Savage Beauty.
The exhibit was MUCH bigger than I expected and pretty spectacular. There was absolutely no photography allowed (since the pieces were all on loan from private collections), but some of the work can be seen on the Met’s website. We had a great time looking at all the intricate detailing making plans for our own knock-off fascinators. Afterwards we hit up the gift shop and only the extreme weight of the exhibit companion coffee table book kept me from dropping $45 on it right then and there.
All in all, very highly recommended! And it closes in two weeks, so I was super excited to be able to go (and not have to go alone) before it no longer exists.
Yesterday after work I had to take care of a few errands before I could head back to my apartment. Plus, I knew it was going to be sweltering in our building and my roommate had gone away for the weekend so the air conditioning wouldn’t be on when I got home, so I was in no hurry.
First I picked up a few things at the pharmacy, then hiked over to the shops at Columbus Circle. There is a large Borders there and I was hoping to find some good items in their going out of business sale. Unfortunately, the prices weren’t great and the lines were HEINOUS. But, the shops had air conditioning so it was definitely worth the trip.
Last, I headed over to 10th Ave to check out a gym I’m thinking about joining. By the time I finished the tour there and started hiking back to the subway to start my ride home, I realized I could really do with a snack. I wasn’t going to be back in my apartment for more than 45 minutes and I knew I’d be ravening at that point. Lucky for me, I stumbled upon the pictured truck, parked right outside the shop of the same name.
Let me tell you - EVEN THE TRUCK SMELLED HEAVENLY. I ate half of my miniature peach pie on the way home on the C train last night and half about 10 minutes ago sitting in front of the air conditioner. I don’t know if I should join this gym because the inevitable pie consumption is going to cancel all that exercise out.
One of the (awesome!) perks of working at Random House includes a thrice yearly free book period wherein employees can order up to 5 books from a select list of Random House titles and receive them totally free.
I happened to be hired right in the middle of one of these periods and spent part of my lunch hour on Tuesday deciding which five I wanted. From the description it looked like I would have to wait a week (or even two) before my books arrived from the warehouse in Westminster, but to my delight, they arrived in my cubicle on Friday morning.
I ordered so many amazing, hardcover, heavy books that I couldn’t bring them all home at once, but I snagged one of the paperbacks for my purse and Larousse Gastronomique has taken up happy residence on my office book shelf for the time being.
And yes, that gorgeous Ina Garten cookbook trio counted as ONE BOOK.
BROOKLYN BOTANIC GARDEN
I woke up this morning in my new apartment to a perfect sunny day, a brand new neighborhood to explore, and a schedule chock full of nothing.
On my new roommate’s suggestion, I walked just under a mile to the Grand Army Plaza Greenmarket and bought my breakfast (a sour cherry and thyme scone, mint iced tea with lemon juice and maple syrup from the maple syrup vendor) there. No pictures because my hands (and mouth, less relevant) were full of food. I explored all the booths, but didn’t buy anything to bring home because I didn’t know when I’d get back to the apartment and even at 9:30, it was already quite hot.
Next I wanted to check out the Brooklyn Botanic Garden - also on Noelle’s tip. There is free admission from 10am - noon every Saturday when they are not holding an event. On the way there I stopped at a cool cart on the street.
It’s called Water-On-the-Go and it’s one of the NYDEP’s initiatives to highlight the delightful taste and sustainability of NYC tap water. Really cool program!
I got to the Botanic Garden just as it was opening its gates, so there was still plenty of shade and not too many people standing around getting in the way of my snapshots. Literally the only downside to this beautiful garden is that I got four - FOUR - horrendous mosquito bites right near the entrance and was kind of itchy for the rest of my visit. It was pretty much worth it, though, as you can see below.
First thing first: this was, seriously, like three months ago. SHE IS OLD NOW.
And, as many of you know, I have permanently (I hope) relocated. I just moved into my new apartment in Brooklyn last weekend and if we’re perfectly honest, I’m writing this post on my bed, surrounded by a huge pile of clothes I have not yet put away from my suitcase.
I don’t know if I’m going to be blogging here as much as I have on previous adventures since this one involves things like an actual full-time job and perpetuity, but we’ll see.
Presented without comment.
We like to spend blustery Monday mornings in our pjs.
