Big Bogus Apple

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-22T21:43:58-05:00

Joe and I always make a trip to Rockefeller Center to see the tree. We love this time of year in the city, it's one of the best times to be here. As crazy and touristy as this place gets it is always worth the trip. Look how pretty and huge this tree is!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Cruising the Waters of Lower Manhattan

2011-11-23T15:40:51-05:00

Ever since I moved to NYC I wanted to go on the boat cruise that cruises the waters around lower manhattan. Joe's parents were nice enough to buy Joe and I tickets to check it out. We should have gone in the summer but we decided to go on Veteran's Day since I had off from work. NYC had beautiful weather this day so my pictures of lady liberty turned out really nice. Joe and I were both surprised to even learn a few things about Manhattan and the buildings the line the edge of the water. Really worth doing if you have the time. I think tickets are around $20 and the cruise lasts 1.5 hours. Fun way to spend the day!

Happpppppy Halloween!

2011-11-04T10:17:28-04:00

Halloween holds a very special place in my heart ever since I moved to NYC. Halloween weekend 2008 was my first weekend ever in NYC and I spent it with my roommate at the time, Mallory, going to an apartment party in the financial district. I became so engrossed with the holiday because the city felt so welcoming, safe and fun! I never really cared one way or another about Halloween before that but now I will go all out for it!

This year I got to celebrate twice. On Saturday, Joe's high school friends Nina and Jamie threw a house party in Jersey City. We went last year and had an amazing time so we knew we would be repeat guests this year. Getting to Jersey City is actually more convenient than it sounds but this year there was a twist because it snowed about 7 inches on Saturday. The snow made it feel more like New Year's Eve than Halloween but nothing was going to stop me from going to this party. Nina and Jamie go all out and I love them for it! The had a Dexter beer pong room that was lined with see-through plastic sheets with fake blood sprayed all over it. The theme was Beetle Juice so they had a fog machine and homemade fireplace in the main room. The bathroom is probably my favorite decorated room. All the lights are removed and replaced with red bulbs, there is fun music playing and a scary fake window to make it extra spooky. The party was fabulous and I am so glad we went!

New Yorkers love parades. I have no idea why but they throw a parade for just about everything here and Halloween is one of the biggest parades of the year. Friends of my sister live right on 6th Ave & Washington Place which is the mid-point for the parade. Their apartment would make anyone jealous because they have access to their own private roof deck which provided everyone at the party with the best view of the parade in the city! They even decorted their place all cute with blood hand prints, spider webs and dry ice in our drinks! The party was fantastic and I was so glad I went because I have never seen the Halloween parade before.

Enjoy the pictures!

~Montville boys hanging at the party, Joe and I were Christopher & Adrianna from Sopranos!~

~Girl shot and weird Anthony~

~The Dexter Beer Pong room~

~I was a devil on Monday for the parade~

~Great shot of Spiderman about the jump down the side of the building~

~And the parade begins!!!!!~

~Ken, the host, enjoying his amazing view of the parade~

~My favorite shot of the parade!~

~View from inside of the apartment, it can't get better than this~

~Empire State Building lit up for Halloween with the parade going on below~

My 3rd Year Anniversary!

2011-10-26T11:19:25-04:00

October 27th is my anniversary with New York City and this year we turn three together! It is amazing how close I know feel to this city compared to when I first moved to Long Island City, Queens. I am very glad that I decided to move into the city, expecially the East Village area. This area is my favorite place to be. I love being able to walk to work and almost anywhere, have hundreds of bars and restaurants at my fingertips, and live in a newer apartment that is well taken care of and safe. I honestly love living here even though there are days where I dream of grass and a walk-in closet but you can't have it all....

Cheers to three years!

Cheese & Wine - A pair known to many

2011-09-27T16:27:07-04:00

I LOVE daily deals and I buy them all the time. Last month GroupOn featured a deal from a well-known cheese enterprise in New York called Artisanal to take a Cheese & Wine 101 class for $65 for two people (originally $150). Artisanal is a very popular restaurant in NYC that serves all things cheese. They specialize in fondue and even have a small cheese cellar that you can ask to be seated in for a special occasion. I went here last summer when I had friends in town from Cincinnati - you care read that post here. Great place!

The class Joe and I signed up for focused on the nutrition aspect of cheese and wine. There is nothing like celebrating cheese and wine on a Saturday afternoon only to be told that the more cheese you eat the better! The class had us try seven cheeses with four wines and you were asked to keep track of your favorite pairings. I never realized that there are very bad pairings of cheese and wine but there definitely are. The class lasted two hours and they really make sure you leave with a full stomach and abuzz. My wine glasses were never close to empty so you definitely get your money's worth :)

I highly recommend taking one of these classes. The next one we want to take is called Hands On: Mozzarella where you make buffalo and burrata mozzarella. Yum!!!!!

Dog Sitting in NYC

2011-09-15T14:50:01-04:00

A colleague of mine asked me to dog sit his Besenji named Noah while he takes a cruise around the Caribbeans Islands for nine days. I know how much Joe loves dogs so I decided to offer up my services. Also keep in mind that this is my good deed for the year :)

Besenji's are great apartment dogs. If you have never heard of them I recommend watching their Dog 101 video on YouTube.

Since our apartment is soo small and there is no room to play, we took little Noah on at least two long walks everyday. I didn't mind this at all because if gave me an excuse to explore are neighborhood more. I found more good looking restaurants that week than I have since I moved here. The longer the walk meant more places to add to my list that I have to check out.

Luckily Noah is a great dog and we would have him back anytime!

Rib Festival - NYC Style

2011-08-31T21:50:14-04:00

I love ribs and I aint afraid to admit it. I grew up going to rib festivals in Pittsburgh where my love of ribs began with world famous Michelbob ribs. Yum! They really are the best. The rib festivals in the midwest host over 100 bbq vendors and allow the attendees to cast their vote for the 'best' ribs. The winner gets a big chunk of change. It was always obvious who the front runners were by the long lines but every vendor offered a sampler platter for a few bucks so you could try out as many as your stomach could handle. Great way to get people to stick around, eat and drink beer. The NYC festival is MUCH smaller. When Joe and I found out NYC was having a 'mini' rib festival back in June, we marked the calendar immediately. The festival was held on Pier 54 by the Hudson River and had five vendors. They didn't offer sampler sizes so we only tried two places. The best we had was from Dinosaur BBQ. Their ribs were tender and full of flavor. See pictures below!

~Wiating in line at Dinosaur BBQ~

~Joe wearing his pork shirt, waiting in line to eat pork!~

~Yum~

~Joe Lovin it~

Dinner Time!

2011-08-10T13:50:50-04:00

I haven't written a restaurant review post in a while so here we go:

Il Vagabondo - I've been wanting to go to this place ever since I moved to NYC. Emeril featured it on an episode of Food Network's 'Best Thing I Ever Ate.' The featured dish was veal parmesan which is the size of a big plate covered with muenster cheese! I took my family here with Joe before our trip to Africa and I think everyone ordered this dish based on my mouth-watering recommendation. Even my sister, who is not a huge red meat eater, ate the whole thing! It is AWESOME!
Peels - I love biscuits and gravy and I'm not embarrassed to admit it. I read online that this place makes homemade biscuits and I had to try them! The place is one of those noisy, packed NYC restaurants but for good reason. The biscuits and gravy are delicious! Get you brunch here!
David Burke Kitchen - David Burke opened up a new restaurant in the meatpacking district so Joe and I decided to check it out. We accidentally booked a reservation the week of Restaurant Week so we ended getting a huge bang for our buck! The deal is $35 for a three course meal. We started with a jar of chicken liver and prosciutto & mozzarella salad. I had the braised short-rib entree and Joe had the BBQ chicken, both very god. But the most amazing part of the meal was the dessert. I ordered the apple tart which came with cinnamon ice cream and Joe ordered the berry panna cotta which was a play on cheerios with milk! The dessert came in a glass cereal-like bowl and you got to pour in the 'milk' which was a lemon sauce and top it off with chocolate cheerios. Classic David Burke! Love it!
Whitmans - Much to my surprise, most restaurants don't do a good job cooking burgers. They are either way over cooked or covered in weird grill stuff. Whitmans does not fall into this bucket. They make an amazing burger and it is only $8 with cheese. The burger is the perfect size, not too big not too small, and topped with their special sauce, tomato, bibb lettuce and fresh-made pickles. Great place for a burger! Highly recommend.
Mermaid Inn - I love happy hour! I will not go to a bar between the hours of 5-7pm unless there is a happy hour special. Mermaid Inn has one of the best food happy hours I have ever seen. They offer $1 oysters, $8 lobster sliders, $3 tacos, $6 glasses of wine, and much more. I LOVE this place because of their deals and their food is very well prepared. Bravo Mermaid Inn!

Hope you enjoyed this!

Free Movies - Who doesn't love them?

2011-08-04T17:53:26-04:00

HBO does something amazing in New York for us city slickers. They sponsor a free movie series every Monday night at Bryant Park! I went two summers ago - you can read the post here - and Joe and I went again on Friday night to see Cool Hand Luke.

This movie drew a much bigger crowd than The Magnificent Seven. If Paul Newman knew that Luke would still be such a relatable character I'm sure he would have named a salad dressing after him! Ok bad joke but people were going nuts during famous lines like 'What we got here is... failure to communicate,' 'Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand,' and 'I thought it was a nice round number.' It really is a great movie if you haven't seen it.

I love that NYC has this kind of stuff to do. Another funny thing about these free movies is that probably 10,00 people show up with blankets, towels, sheets and anything they have to lay on the ground with. I obviously bring my blanket in a bag that has served me quite well since moving to NYC. People cram into the lawn and there is no grass showing, not even one strand by the time the movie starts. So when most people go to the movies to be in an extreme air-conditioned, quiet place with open seats next to them, New Yorkers cram together like sardines to watch a movie on the ground. Makes me think we are all a bunch of weirdies :) but it really is great fun.

Beat the Heat

2011-07-19T10:55:11-04:00

NYC, also known as the Concrete Jungle, gets very hot during the summer months which is fabulous after a snowy winter! One very big negative of living in New York though is that there are no pools to to cool down at or go swimming in so New Yorkers get creative on beating the heat. Here are some tricks New Yorkers use to cool down.

1. Stroll through Duane Reade - There is a Duane Reade on every street corner in New York. Duane Reade is a local NYC pharmacy in case you have never heard of it. I often walk through these stores for two minutes when I need access to AC.

2. Benches - Unless I am waiting for someone, I never sit on the city benches. For some reason I associate them with bums so I don't really like to be near them. My one exception to this is when it is super hot out and the bench is in the shade. I'll take a quick 5 minute breather to get out of the heat.

3. Fountains - I don't think anyone is ever allowed to get in the NYC park fountains other than your occasional child or freak. In stuyvastant town (big apartment complex by where I live) there is a grassy area to lay out and if you position yourself near the fountain, you get the mist benefit when the wind blows. Very important on a very hot afternoon of laying out in the sun.

4. FLEE - The heat, lack of swimming pools and beaches are the main reasons why New Yorkers flee the city during the summer weekends. Some head to Coney Island, others head to Mantauk and if you are classy you go to the Hamptons. I've only been to Coney Island once and it is a great place to creep watch, you can never be bored at Coney Island. I don't usually flee the city but I completely understand why others do.

As random as the above bullets may sound, I guarantee every New Yorker has done the above.

Stay cool readers!

*Joe Pool - anyone remember him?!