More pasta.....it's good for you

This is my 100th post! Be excited. I sure am.

Tonight, I continued my game of "how many CSA vegetables can I get into one dish?" It's a really fun game. I eat healthy, I cook with new things, Zack doesn't bother me about how I never use vegetables......everybody wins.

Tonight, my dish is very similar to last nights.....whoops. It's different though and it's still good.

CSA Grab Bag Pasta

1 box whole wheat rotini
1 bulb fennel, chopped, fronds reserved
1/2 can whole peeled tomatoes
1/2 package ground turkey
1 bunch swiss chard
fresh basil
salt
pepper
olive oil

1. Boil your water, salt it good, and cook your pasta al dente.

2. Heat some olive oil in a saucepan (not too much), and saute your fennel.

3. Add your turkey and season it well. Brown it up good! Remember, raw turkey = death.

4. Remove the stems from your swiss chard. I don't usually do that, but I thought that the stems would be weird in pasta. Chop up the leaves and throw it in the pan with the fennel and the turkey. Wilt it down.

5. Squish up your tomatoes and throw them in the pan. Add more salt and pepper and let it all break down. It looks pretty right?


6. Now add your pasta! Let it all heat together and let the flavors mix.

7. Eat it! Add some cheese if you want. I love cheese.


I feel like I have to make more varied things.....any suggestions?

Onwards and Upwards....

I started unpacking. I've made some progress. For example, there is now contact paper in all the cabinets and the contents of several boxes have been placed on top of it. See?


Oooooooh.


Aaaaaaaah.


More progress to come (I hope).

I can't cook under these conditions....

...but I try anyways. Boxes are everywhere, my utensils are in a plastic bag on top of a filing cabinet, I can't find most of my pots and pans, but I soldier on, because I have a fridge full of CSA vegetables to use. Since all I've really been able to locate is one pot, one pan and a cutting board, I make a lot of simple dishes - no food processor, nothing that would require me to wash a lot of dishes or use a lot of space. Here's tonight's adventure. It's just me this time, so I've made it small. No leftovers! If you're not here, you can't eat my food.

Whole Wheat Bowties with Beef and Fennel

1/4 box whole wheat bowties
1 small bulb fennel
2 oz thin sliced beef
a few canned tomatoes (or fresh ones, I had canned)
a sprig of fresh basil, ripped up
salt
pepper
oregano

1. Boil water, make pasta to al dente (a little firm). While it cooks, make the rest of the dish.

2. Heat a pan on over high heat and add some olive oil.

3. Slice the beef into strips, salt and pepper them. Throw them in the pan. Let them get brown on one side, then the other. Take them out and set them aside so that they don't overcook.

4. Turn the heat down. Chop up your fennel (minus the fronds, save those for later) and throw it in the pan. Let it get a little brown.

5. Squish some tomatoes, throw them in as well. Add some salt and pepper and oregano. Let it all mix together.

6. Add the beef back in, then the cooked pasta. Then throw on some of the fennel fronds and the basil.

Eat it! I crumbled a tiny bit of ricotta salata on top, but it would be good with any cheese (or no cheese) or whatever you want.

I forgot to take a picture before I ate it. I'm really bad at that. It would have just been a cell phone picture anyways.

Grrrrrrrrrrr....

I'm very grumpy. The subway broke late at night and I had to take a cab home again. I don't have the money for these kinds of things. So instead of blogging about anything of substance, I've decided to just put up this video of the Muppets because Muppets make me happy.

A secret obsession

Today Meredith and I head out to Six Flags Great Adventure as part of our artistically stimulating summer job. Am I most excited about going on rides? Riding on a bus for over two hours to New Jersey? No. I am the most excited about the prospect of eating Dippin' Dots.


I LOVE Dippin' Dots. I can't quite remember how the obsession started. I remember a vending machine that dispensed packages of dots at the old Emery Bay movie theatre. My sister and I used to get them every time we went to an Oakland A's game. There were stands hawking them in Santa Monica. However it happened, whenever I see them, I am powerless against them. It's like a weird sickness - but much less detrimental than say, heroin, or really expensive shoes, as they are fairly cheap and not that common.

Last year, on our camp trip to Six Flags, my co-group leader and I blatantly broke the "no spending money until 6pm rule" and let all of our kids purchase Dippin' Dots, mostly because we wanted some ourselves. It was totally worth it. I'll let you know if I'm a crazy daredevil rule breaker again this year.

Oh and my favorite Dippin' Dots flavor? Mint Chocolate mixed with Banana Split. It sounds gross but it's crazy good. Try it. I dare you!

Giving Lambchop a Fighting Chance

A few weeks ago, Zack read this article in the New York Times. "Did you see this?" he pestered me. "We should eat more like this." So I, being the accommodating girlfriend that I am, made an effort to make our meals more like this.

For those of you too lazy to read the article, it basically talks about the merits of eating less meat (not no meat, just less). Having grown up in the land of tofu, I feel pretty much the opposite of that sentiment. "Meat!" I grunt. "Bring it on. Extra bloody. I will suck on the bone marrow!" (No, I haven't had bone marrow yet. We should go! Yes, I mean you.) However, we're getting our CSA deliveries every week now, and I basically have more vegetables than I know what to do with, so I can see the merits of eating more veggies and less meat.

Tonight for dinner, I throw together what is rapidly becoming my go-to salad: baby arugula (thanks, CSA), cherry tomatoes, avocado, lemon juice, olive oil, salt, pepper and a few shavings of Parmesan cheese. It is really good, plus it uses up a lot of lettuce and I get A LOT of lettuce every week now.

I moved on to polenta (which you've all seen me make a thousand times. Click here if you feel nostalgic) with sauteed swiss chard. The more CSA veggies I eat, the more I feel like Alice Waters. Instead of cooking really complicated things, I just get really good produce and cook it simply. I sauteed half an onion in some olive oil, chopped up my beautiful rainbow swiss chard and threw it in the pan. After it wilted, I hit it with some salt and pepper. Super easy and delicious. Anyone could do it.

I finished my plate with some tiny loin lamb chops. I figured, if I'm going to eat less meat, it may as well be a really good cut. I just sprinkled some salt and pepper on them and threw them in the broiler. They sure were tasty.

Here's our meal after I ate half of it and then decided to take a picture with my cell phone. I miss my camera.

Pouty face

There's an excellent chance that I left my camera in Silver Spring, MD. It may also be in the bag that Zack did not bring in from the car when we got back from our trip. However, it's far away, so I'm not going to check right now.

This really is putting a crimp in my blogging. I really don't like living in this constant state of transition. We moved in 21 days ago!!! Shouldn't we have less boxes by now? I guess not when we both have full time jobs.

So, instead, for what feels like the 15 millionth day in a row, I'm linking to something else. Click here to see the NYTimes video about my friends Anna and Alan who just got married. Scroll down to the video part and they're the first ones. Yay! Enjoy.

We're heading for a wedding.....(no, not mine)

I wouldn't expect any blogging this weekend, dear readers. I'm off to Maryland for a wedding! My friends Anna and Alan are tying the knot after about a billion years (okay, maybe 7) and I am super excited and happy for them! Zack and I are driving down tomorrow, so I'll probably be fairly incommunicado until Monday. But who knows? You might get lucky....I'm leaving you with a clip of one of my favorite movies about weddings:



I toyed with the idea of leaving Fred Astaire's famous ceiling dance from Royal Wedding, but then I thought that the only person who would actually be interested in that would be me - and of course, I'm not the one who reads this blog. I'm compromising and linking to it instead. Feel free to not to check it out - but it's pretty sweet.

Food, glorious food!

Another week, another box of veggies from my CSA. This week, I got so much stuff, I had to fill not just one tote bag, but two. What did I get? Well, I'll tell you.

More Rainbow Swiss Chard - I love pretty-colored veggies.
Romaine Lettuce - good for salads, if only my sister was here.
Strawberries!
Rhubarb! - oh I love rhubarb. Remember that crumble I made? Oh deliciousness.
Baby Arugula - which Zack and I had for dinner....along with steak.
Broccoli - we get the smallest head of broccoli ever. It's almost comical.
Flat leaf parsley - ok, it says it's cilantro on the website, but I swear it's not.
Garlic scapes - do you know what those are? I do.
Kohlrabi - I bet you really don't know what those are.

Ok, here they are - garlic scapes:


And kohlrabi:


(No, I did not find my camera cord. But I took these of my Astoria CSA website, so I figured this is as close as I'm going to get to pictures of the actual vegetables that I have)

According to Astoria CSA, garlic scapes are "are the stems of the Allium plant, with the flowers attached." I diced mine up and sauteed them in olive oil, then added my kale from last week and chicken broth. I also added red pepper flakes which Zack did not especially appreciate. Oh well. The scapes gave off a really strong flavor - way more taste than I was expecting.

Kohlrabi is "a cruciferous vegetable like broccoli, kale, cabbage, bok choy, guy lan and brussels sprouts. High in Vitamin C and soluble fiber, it is great for you as well as tasty." I asked the lady at the CSA what to do with it and she suggested salad....I guess we'll see. I'll make sure to tell you how it is!

A little slice of awesomeness

In case anyone wanted to see Lin-Manuel Miranda's acceptance speech - yes, the one with the rapping. It's pretty great.

An Ode to the Baskin-Robbins Clown Cone

Oh Baskin-Robbins Clown Cone,
how deliciously strange you are.
Why should you be so yummy
and so weird and bizarre?

My sister decided that she needed one
And so, to Emeryville we went.
My sister was out of money
And so it was my cash that we spent.

Frosting? Ice Cream? Funny clown faces?
It's a good thing there were parking spaces.

Maybe I should stick to regular, non-rhymed blogging.

Spaghetti Monday

Oh my readers. As soon I find something that I'm looking for, I lose something else. Find the salt, lose the utensils. Find my tape measure, lose my camera cord! Argh. But what can you do?

Tonight, I had what is affectionately known to me as "Spaghetti Monday." There's something about Monday that just screams "carbs!" to me. I'm not sure what it is. I made this recipe, minus the turkey. This is my ultimate comfort food - easy to make, yummy and heavy on the pasta. I love pasta (whole wheat now that I'm so healthy).

So I have no pictures of it, but I did find this picture of a pig wearing boots. So, you win some, you lose some.

An Insane Fan's Guide to the Tony Awards

My minute by minute take on the Tony Awards. It's like watching the awards, but faster. I warn you now - many Broadway references are below that I don't have time to hyperlink for your convenience - I have to teach at 8am tomorrow. Hopefully, you will still enjoy this post. It may be a little confusing. Just go with it.

8:00pm - We open with Rafiki (from The Lion King) chanting the opening bits of Circle of Life. Viewers are immediately confused and think that it is 1998.

8:02pm - Those Lion King puppets make their way down the aisles of Radio City Music Hall. The audience applauds. I sigh internally.

8:04pm - Whoopi Goldberg enters dressed like Sebastian from The Little Mermaid. No one is sure why. She makes some lame jokes about Disney and cuts to commercial.

8:06pm - Whoopi Goldberg enters in a dress. It's not an improvement.

8:09pm - Rondi Reed (August: Osage County) wins the Tony for Best Featured Actress in a play. It's the first of what will surely be many awards for this play. She has a speech prepared, so there's no big drama there.

8:11pm - John Waters introduces a musical number from Cry Baby called "A little upset." It makes Zack a little upset (he feels that the integrity of the films are compromised when they become musicals). A rousing prison number with dancing inmates enrages him even more. There's been a lot of talk about the choreography in this show and it's pretty entertaining. The rest of the number is bland/nonsensical out of context.

8:21pm - Whoopi pretends to be lost backstage and plugs cbs.com. Oh backstage antics. You are so fake.

8:24pm - Laura Linney gives out the award for Best Featured Actor in a Play and pretends not to be insulted that she wasn't nominated for anything. Jim Norton wins his first Tony at age 237. I am secretly sad that David Pittu doesn't win, but since nobody else knows who that is, he never really stood a chance.

8:25pm - Adam Duritz appears on stage to introduce Passing Strange. Zack yells a dirty word at the screen. I am struck by being able to understand the lyrics (unlike when I actually saw the show).

8:34pm - Billy Elliot the Musical gets a plug. I'm intrigued by a musical that has both young dancing ballet boys and fat British men.

8:35pm - The infamous LL Cool J/Carol Channing from years past is replayed. Audiences find it just as weird the second time.

8:38pm - John Lithgow presents the award for Best Direction of a Musical to Barlett Sher for South Pacific. Why isn't John Lithgow in another Broadway show? I love him. Anyone who can make the stupid award show patter funny deserves more work.

8:41pm - Jack Klugman (the original Herbie in Gypsy) introduces La Lupone's musical number. There's a crazy cutaway to Mandy Patinkin masquerading as my dad circa 1995 (huge beard). Zack is annoyed by Patti's "acting" in the lead up to "Everyone's Coming Up Roses." Audiences realize that La Lupone's performances are simply ridiculous on screen and should be kept in the theater.

8:45pm - Whoopi pretends to be Christine in The Phantom of the Opera. It was funnier than I was expecting.

8:52pm - All the non-flashy awards are presented on tape. Boeing Boeing beats Macbeth for Best revival. I know, I was surprised as well. Also, since when are the awards for choreography and Best Revival relegated to a pre-show taping?

8:55pm - Best Score goes to Lin-Manuel Miranda for In the Heights! The 12 year old girl inside me swoons. He raps his thank yous. Seriously. My favorite line? "Look Mr. Sondheim - I made a hat! Where there never was a hat." The crowd goes nuts.

8:58pm - Harry Connick Junior introduces South Pacific. I think he's secretly having an affair with Kelli O'Hara. The cast performs a medley of the shows musical numbers.
Paulo Szot sings "Some Enchanted Evening" and I thank whoever thought it would be a good idea to cast an opera singer instead of a musical theatre performer in the show. I could listen to him sing all day long. I'm a little annoyed by all these short cuts of songs. Couldn't they just have picked one? I'm sure "I'm gonna wash that man right out of my hair" would have been a big crowd pleaser.

9:08pm - Whoopi flies in as Mary Poppins. Ashley Brown, watch out for stunt casting.

9:10pm - Kristen Chenoweth can't get through her patter with a straight face as she gives the award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical to Laura Benanti. She's all flustered and happy. She clearly has no idea what to say, even though she was the front runner for this award. Zack goes "awwww" when she says she loves her husband.

9:13pm - Barry Boswick introduces the musical number from Grease. All the audience can think is "Hey, you're not John Travolta." That's all I really have to say about that.

9:23pm - Brooke Shields wears her prom dress from 1989 as she gives out the award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical. Boyd Gaines wins for Gypsy. It seems like a clean sweep for Gypsy acting awards...but I guess we'll see.

9:26pm - Marisa Tomei pretends that she can act while she introduces The Little Mermaid. Why does The Little Mermaid get to perform? Why is the mermaid costume so hilarious? Who thought that was a good idea?

9:28pm - Faith Prince sings a song from A Catered Affair. She was in the first Broadway show I ever saw (Guys and Dolls - 1993). She's considerably older now - but no less talented!

9:29pm - Young Frankenstein gets to sing as well! It's like a party over here. There's a cut to Bradley Whitford...not smiling. Not clapping. Ouch.

9:35pm - The boring part of the Tonys - those old guys talk about the American Theatre Wing.

9:37pm - Whoopi wears another outfit. Who picks these clothes for her? They are not flattering. CGI sets appear as Whoopi talks about the nominees for Best Play. Why do they bother with these "clips"?" They're boring. They don't really make sense. If you're watching the Tonys (and not many of you are), you probably know what the plays are about anyways.

9:43 - Gabriel Byrne gives the award for Best Director of a Play to Anna D. Shapiro for August: Osage County. Not much suspense there. But yay for women winning Best Director! Plus, she's got a tattoo. A Tony Award and a tattoo? That's pretty cool.

9:47pm - Whoopi enters as a knight in Spamalot. More than anything, this year's Tony Awards are just one big advertisement for Broadway.

9:53pm - Mary Louise Parker gives out the award for Best Actor in a Play. She is so beautiful. I can't believe Claire Danes stole her man from her. Mark Rylance takes home the award. Patrick Stewart has a very good "gracious loser" face. Mark Rylance gives the most out of left field speech I've ever heard. Mary McCormack looks like she can't believe what's going on. It's all very endearing.

9:56pm - Alec Baldwin gives the award for Best Actress in a Play to Deanna Dunagan for August: Osage County. I typed that out before she even won. Awards can be so predictable.

10:00pm - Lin-Manuel Miranda starts the musical number from In the Heights. I swoon again. I love watching this cast move. They're so full of joy. It makes me smile.

10:09pm - More pre-taped awards - mostly design. South Pacific wins a lot of awards. The designers from Sunday in the Park are robbed blind.

10:10pm - Harry Potter and Uncle Vernon present the award for Best Play. August: Osage County takes home the prize (surprise, surprise). The playwright thanks for the producers for "an amazing thing. They decided to produce an American play on Broadway with theatre actors."

10:14pm - Mandy Patinkin gives Stephen Sondheim a lifetime achievement award. Sondheim does not show up to accept it. Burn!

10:18pm - The musical number from Sunday in the Park with George is presented - Move On. I can't believe this show didn't win any design awards. They were robbed. Robbed!

10:21pm - Whoopi does Spring Awakening. Oy vey.

10:27pm - Glenn Close pulls off a strapless dress at age 61. She also presents the award for Best Revival of a Musical. South Pacific takes home the prize. I have flashbacks from the 2003 Willows Theatre production.

10:31pm - Lily Tomlin mocks Marisa Tomei on national television and introduces the musical number from Xanadu. They sing bad '80's songs and skate around. It's all very silly.

10:42pm - The cast of Rent performs La Vie Boheme. The 12 year old inside of me is really really happy. The original cast enters and the crowd goes wild. They sing Seasons of Love and everybody cries. They keep cutting to Patti LuPone who wonders why they're taking this time to sing instead of giving her an award.

10:47pm - Liza Minnelli freaks me out and gives the award for Best Actor in a Musical to Paulo Szot for South Pacific. I am bummed that Lin-Manuel doesn't win, but Paulo does sing like a god (but does he rap?).

10:49pm - David Hyde Pierce gives Rob Ashford a shoutout and gives La Lupone her award. She mugs it up big for the camera. Diva lovers everywhere rejoice. They try to play her off and she screams "Shut up, it's been 29 years!"

10:54pm - There's a creepy Mario Lopez/Whoopi Chorus Line. There's a show I won't be seeing.

10:58pm - Whoopi Goldberg gives out the final award - Best Musical! I'm crossing my fingers for In the Heights. Clearly, it was that last little bit that put them over the edge and let them take home the award. Lin-Manuel and Whoopi dance it up and everyone storms the stage like it's Normandy.

11:00pm - The show ends on time. The Oscars could learn a thing or two.

Congrats if you made it to the end of this post! If you didn't, I won't be insulted.

Almost Tony Time

In honor of tomorrow's Tony Awards (8pm on CBS if you care to know), I am posting a video of years gone by.....back when shows had nine minutes to present a musical number. Nine minutes! I think they get something like 3 minutes now. It's sad. And I am telling you......to watch this video.

I scream, you scream

I really want one of these:


These are ice cream sandwich molds! How awesome is that? I mean, who wouldn't want an ice cream sandwich shaped like a whimsical chicken? I think that's so cute. You can read more about it here.

I miss my camera cord.

Find one thing, lose another

I got my second box of CSA veggies today. I am liking the CSA so far. You pay for it in advance, so after you pay a (rather large) lump sum, you don't have to give anybody any money and they just give you a giant box of freshly grown veggies. It feels like it's free (even though it's not).

I got some pretty things, my favorites being the strawberries and rainbow swiss chard. I took some pictures for you, and I was all set to post them (since I finally have internet in my apartment again), but then - I couldn't find the cord to my camera. Figures. I'm like a Buster Keaton character over here. Oh well. I stole this picture off the internet instead.


I made a great whole wheat pasta dish with my swiss chard. You can expect many vegetable based recipes in the months to come!

Moving ate my life....

...just like Cadence ate this piece of watermelon.


For those of you who don't know, Cadence is James and Kate's baby (I pretty much refer to them as "you know, my friends with the cute baby) - you can read about their family here. I stole this picture from them (they said it was okay, I promise).

I will get back to blogging regularly soon. However, right now, all my time that I would normally spend blogging is spent unpacking/building ikea furniture/huddling in a fetal position trying to hide from the stress (which is not actually a good technique. I don't recommend it).

I've got to start cooking again soon though - otherwise my CSA veggies will overtake my apartment. Good luck to me.

I'm in the dark ages....

...because I can not get the internet to work in my apartment. Zack can do it (which is frustrating) but my computer refuses to acknowledge the ethernet cord that I plug into it and then curse at because it's not doing anything. Someday, we will unpack more boxes and find our airport, but until then, I am stuck posting at work, where the internet works fine - most of the time.

Last week, Rita and I were on our way to Chennai Gardens (New York's finest vegetarian kosher Indian food) for lunch when we passed Les Halles. For those of you who don't know, Les Halles entered my conciousness when I became obsessed with Anthony Bourdain - see here). However, I had never actually been inside. "Why don't we just eat here?" Rita asked. "Hmmmm..." I thought. "Why don't we?" And so we did.


It was fairly late for lunch, about 2pm, so there was no wait at all. We poured over the menu, trying to decide what to order. French Onion soup? A classic, but it was pretty hot. Steak frites? Might be too heavy for lunch. We ultimately decided to split grilled calamari over fennel salad and then move on to the Hamburger Rossini (me) and Moroccan Sausages (her).

I enjoyed the calamari way more than I thought I was going to. In the past, my favorite thing about calamari is how it's breaded and deep fried. Whenever I've had it non-fried, it's always seemed a little limp and/or overly rubbery. But this calamari was very well done - it had a meaty consistency that I wasn't expecting - not rubbery at all. I'm always a huge fan of fennel, so this was a big crowd pleaser.

Rita's Moroccan Sausages were very good as well. Served with some spicy hummus, salad and fries, it made a nice little meal. Ground lamb has an intense flavor, but the hummus balanced it out nicely.

My Hamburger Rossini? Possibly the craziest hamburger I've ever ordered. Topped with a slice of foie gras (seriously) and served with a red wine and black truffle sauce, it easily wins the prize for most decadent hamburger ever. It was really good - maybe the richest thing I've eaten in some time. I could only make my way through about half. The sauce was especially tasty with the grilled onion that came with my burger. Oh grilled onions. Why are you so tasty? The world may never know.

We finished with a chocolate banana tart. It was more like a brownie with bananas than a tart, but that's not really something to complain about. Brownies? Good. Bananas? Good. Everyone was happy.

I'd love to go back for some French Onion soup and Steak Frites....perhaps during a time that is not my non-existent lunch break. Who's with me?

Greenies

Today is my first day as an offical tree-hugging-veggie-eating-birkenstock-wearing "green" New Yorker. That's right, today is the first day of my CSA.

What is CSA, you're probably wondering? It stands for Community Supported Agriculture. Basically, Zack and I have bought a share in a local farm (out on Long Island) and each week from June until Thanksgiving, we get a box of fresh local organic vegetables. It's pretty neat. At least, I hope it is. Kate over at pie in the sky has had one for a while. She seems to like it (or so I gather from reading her blog). Plus, Katie from the Red Terror Squad (or from many other posts on my blog - see here) has one. Meredith just got one as well. So, bandwagon, consider yourself jumped upon. I'm getting my veggies. And fruit!

My CSA is called Astoria CSA (clever, no?). I'll take some pictures and post them just as soon as I get internet in my apartment....any day now.

A trip to 2nd Ave.....I mean 33rd Street

I love meat. I feel about meat the same way that born-again Christians feel about Jesus. I just can't believe that there ever was a time that I didn't accept it into my heart (or my stomach, in my case). Lately, I've been thinking a lot about corned beef sandwiches. I've recently come around to accepting rye bread (I used to hate the taste), so it's opened up a lot of metaphorical sandwich doors. So far, the quintessential corned beef sandwich comes from Katz's Delicatessen (at least, that's my opinion....which is pretty much all you get reading this blog), but I wanted to give the new 2nd Avenue Deli a try. I hadn't been there since my dad took me and my crazy college roommate (who eventually tried to stab me with a butter knife - true story) several years ago. We sat in the Molly Picon room and thought about how Jewish we felt (which is what people do when they find themselves in rooms named after Molly Picon). I thought it was time to give it another try.

Rita and I, after a few failed attempts, finally made it over to 33rd St between Lexington and 3rd Ave (no, the 2nd Avenue Deli is not on 2nd Avenue anymore. It's weird). We both ordered the corned beef sandwich on rye with mustard. It comes with these neat little packages of Russian dressing and mustard and of course, pickles.


Personally, I don't like anything but mustard on my corned beef. I'm a purist. So I skipped the Russian dressing. I liked the pickles a lot. They were good and crunchy. Here's the beautiful sandwich.


Yum. The bread was a little soggy for me, but what can you do. It's a take out sandwich. Can't expect perfection. It didn't beat Katz's, but it was still very good and it has the benefit (for me) of being around the corner from my office - unlike Katz's which is way downtown.

A side note - Rita thought it was too much meat - she actually picked out half the meat and then ate the whole sandwich, which to me seemed crazy. I'd rather eat half the sandwich piled high and then save the other half for later. Then she complained that it was too much meat for her and she was breaking out in meat sweats. So, a warning - this is not a sandwich for the faint of heart. If you're not used to eating huge stacks of meat, maybe you should steer clear. Or work your way up to it with smaller sandwiches first.

Vegetarians, look away

I'm going to type something that may gross a large percentage of you out: I want to eat bone marrow.


Yes, bone marrow. Ever since reading about it in Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Kitchen (one of my favorite books of all time. I'm obsessed. I AM Julie.), I've wanted to have some. But time went by and it slipped from my mind. It then re-entered my consciousness when The Amateur Gourmet (my foodie role model) posted about it. I was holding off on trying it because I thought that it was like fat - and therefore not fitting with my new thinness. But then I heard that's not actually bad for you (if that's not true, please don't tell me), and so, I am now newly determined to try it.

I've heard that the best place in New York to have it at is Blue Ribbon. And so, that is where I will go. Who wants to go with me? I bet you do. Yeah, you. Let's go.

I have my reasons

Hello, my dear readers. I've noticed that very few people have read my blog lately. Probably because I haven't written anything. To that, all I can say is moving = death. Death! I'm not doing it again until I'm rich and can pay people to do it for me.

But moving on.

This thought has been plaguing me for some time now. It may be controversial, but I don't care. Here it is, my dark secret: I don't want to see Patti LuPone in Gypsy.


But why? Lena, don't you know that Patti LuPone is so amazing? And isn't Gypsy the best musical ever? What's wrong with you?

Here are my reasons. They are sevenfold.

1. I saw Bernadette Peters as Mama Rose five years ago and she was amazing.

2. I did Gypsy in regional theatre four years ago and experienced the show 49 times (not including rehearsals). That's a lot of Gypsy. I still haven't gotten over it.

3. It's three hours long!

4. Tickets to Broadway musicals cost a lot of money and I'm poor now because I just moved (I'd be poor anyways. I don't make much money. Can you get me a job?).

5. I secretly think that I would be the best Mama Rose ever and I don't want to see anybody else do it but me.

6. It's three hours long! I thought that was worth pointing out again.

7. I saw Patti as Mama Rose at City Center last summer (Ana and Sarah took me for my birthday). I know, you're thinking, what? So you have seen her! Aha! But apparently, all the reviewers say she's so much better now and that everyone who didn't like it that much should see it again. I won't believe it until I see it. But I don't want to see it. So maybe I just won't believe it, period.

Those are my reasons. Disagree with them if you must.