a pastry pop up on a rainy day

 

chanda reminded me last night that she and lucien would be baristas at a cafe pop up hosted by the restaurant she works for. (the restaurant is not intending to open fully for breakfast until april.) i immediately wrote ellen to see if she wanted to meet for coffee and pastry (it's her favorite place).

the space is very small and we almost didn't walk in because it looked so crowded. however, several people walked out, leaving room for us at the bar.

here are our lattes made by chanda. lucien served up the oatmeal with cream and brown sugar and rhubarb . .

it was so delicious . . so incredibly creamy! the pastry chef was jr ryall from ballymaloe house hotel in shanagarry, county cork, ireland, and there were many cakes and other beautiful looking pastries all laid out along the bar. too bad i didn't take a pic! (you can see the cookbook in the prior photo.)

(it rained today, so many of the very dirty hills shrunk in size. the street cleaners have also resumed their rounds, so sidewalks and streets are beginning to look a little better. also, it poured during my walk home and i got very wet!)

greg's birthday

 

leica gallery had an opening for their latest exhibit of photographs which we attended . . 

an exhibit of ballet photography from three different photographers, two of whom were ballet dancers, and one of whom had documented misty copland's final performance with american ballet theatre. pre-registration for tickets was required and i was fortunate to have seen the advertisement for it in time.

korrina met us there and we walked home to celebrate greg's birthday.

i was going to make fettucini alfredo, but korrina had brought delicious food from work so i didn't need to: foccacia, arancini and cauliflower salad.

discussing japanese kanji characters . . 

while whipping up cream for the chocolate mousse dessert . . 

i used a recipe from my new york times cooking app. it called for six egg whites, four egg yolks, twelve ounces of bittersweet chocolate, and a teaspoon of vanilla. i made sure the eggs were at room temperature and i added the sugar very slowly. also, chanda helped me fold in the whites. it turned out so good! i made mousse for his birthday once before . . years ago . . but i'm not sure what recipe it was. (actually, i just found the blog post about it here. i was so much more motivated to make dinner in those days!)

geese (again) at the park and an evening history talk

 

it's wet and chilly, but not freezing.

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 in the evening, greg and i attended a program at the greene space with gilded age actress denée benton, historian leslie harris, the tenement museum's marquis taylor and wnyc's alison stewart. you can find the full lecture on their youtube channel.

walking crosstown

 

i walked over to east village organic today to buy chestnut honey and a wildflower honey for greg and i (we like it on yogurt) and passed abraço coffee on the way. i was going to go in for a "kaffee mit schlag," but decided to meet greg at union square where he had just arrived for his bloodwork appointment (i miss meeting korrina here so much!). 

after his appointment, he went back downtown to work and i ended up walking home through washington square . .

for dinner i made sesame soba noodles (from the mollie katzen cookbook) which i haven't made in ages. i used to make it when the girls were little. it was delicious and the three of us almost finished it completely, but there's still a little bit for someone for lunch tomorrow.

breakfast for dinner

. . at 7:30 pm . . 

and strawberry rhubarb pie for dessert.

very dirty snow piles and pics from morgan

 
our snow piles are very disgusting. i took this photo to send to my sister. i wrote in a text: "our lovely snowy hills!"

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morgan sent a photo and video from east of london of friend james' brother's sweet scottish terrier dog . .

having a lot of fun!

walking milly again

 

it's been so cold that i haven't walked milly in weeks . . but today was more mild . . only in the teens! (14, to be precise.)

the geese always amaze me . . i think they're so beautiful.

they're not bothered by everyone walking by . . or even those people jogging by . . (at the end you can see milly waiting patiently for me to finish filming).

snow day