spring is nearly here

:) :) :)

the days are getting longer and the sidewalk ice is starting to melt. temperatures in nyc reached highs of 60F today, though it was still a bit too brisk to go jacket-less. and i wore my birkenstock gizeh sandals for the first time this year, signaling the start of the running season again.

we scored a walk-in table for four at basta pasta this evening and enjoyed a high-carb dinner with kris and jessica. construction on their loft began on monday and we were overdue a get together. we literally feasted at dinner. lol. for appetizers, we shared the hamachi crudo, spaghetti with tobiko, and spaghetti with proscuitto and parmigiano. for dinner, kevin and i doubled up on pastas - fusilli with chicken ragu and linguine with uni, while kris and jess indulged in the chicken and duck breast. for dessert, we had the almond flan, which tastes a bit like chinese almond tofu, but a little richer, and the parmigiano reggiano cheesecake! it was my first time trying the latter and it was surprisingly light, and oh-so-tasty!

(that reminds me, i still have to check out harbs when we get back from taiwan.)

best: received the latest comics from shawn cheng in the mail! the drawings are so intricate and detailed, and each comic has a dedication to one of his family members.

worst: leaving my coat at home today. haha. it's definitely not warm enough for birkenstocks + skirt weather yet.

smile: lorelai poured her heart out singing "i will always love you" at karaoke to luke and logan asked lorelai for rory's hand in marriage!!! gilmore girls is coming to a close very soon, and hopefully i will find something a bit more intellectually stimulating to do with my time afterwards. or something outdoors - the weather is on the up and up!

reconfiguration

happy hump day!

it's a snowglobe outside (again) today so we are enjoying our 肉燥飯 and catching up on gilmore girls tonight. i think we only have 4-5 more episodes until we finish the seventh and final season, and poor kevin is still trying to figure out how luke and lorelai, and jess and rory are going to get together by the end of the show.

we also reconfigured our bedroom furniture by turning everything 90 degrees tonight! now our bed is against the northern wall, and our nightstands are below the two windows. we lose a little privacy this way, but it might be a better use of the space and creates a cozy little sitting area. anyways it's one of the ideas kris, our homepolish designer, proposed, and we wanted to try it out for a while to see how we like it.

good night!

sick day

didn't sleep well last night, headaches in the morning, kevin left for work around 7, and i decided to sleep-in and take a sick day. when i awoke, it was snowing out! it was a serene day to be home catching up on sleep, gilmore girls, some cooking, and a little baking :)

this is a photo from our master bath window.

cheese rocks

since moving to chelsea, my commute time has been shortened to 10-15 minutes door-to-door, with 1 train stations one block from my office and one block from the loft. it's extremely convenient in the winter or rainy seasons - just short enough to manage without donning hat, gloves, or an umbrella!

today, however, was an exception to my commute home. instead of heading north on seventh ave as i usually do after getting off the train, i decided to walk west on 23rd ... straight into the big booty bread co!

now, what to pair with dinner? well, herb cheese rocks and cheese buns, of course. and a fudge brownie for dessert. both kevin and i have been recovering from a lingering cold accompanied by massive headaches, so tonight we would treat ourselves. the cheese breads were fresh out of the oven and still warm in the bag - i couldn't wait to get home.

unfortunately, or fortunately, i was caught by a condo board member on my way into the building and pulled aside for a twenty-minute tour of his newly renovated 3 bedroom apartment in addition to discussions about a multi-million dollar proposal for the lobby and hallway renovation. he was looking for support before the upcoming annual shareholder's meeting. oh boy ..

when i finally made it home an hour later than originally intended, kevin had beat there and was more than happy to help take down the cheese breads. they were somehow STILL warm, and the insides were very QQ, almost mochi-like. we finished both of them in minutes.

on the side, we nibbled on cherry tomatoes with MOMO sesame dressing. it's delicious! MOMO dressing is a company based on brooklyn which makes a variety of salad dressings with no preservatives. whole foods in chelsea and tribeca recently started carrying their products, so we were fortunate to be able to purchase them across the street! talk about freshness :) you can also pick them up at smorgasburg in williamsburg, which is where we originally got them from.

finally dinner, an amalgamation of superbowl chili and red quinoa - high in protein, for sure (cheese, beef, beans, quinoa - LOL), with sauteed kale on the side. i found a comfortable spot on the couch and stayed there for the rest of the night watching gilmore girls :)

back in the saddle

we went for our first weekday morning run this morning, after snoozing half a dozen times. time to get back in the saddle with just 13 weeks before the asics marathon on march 15th (and the last two weeks don't even "count" as you're tapering). we took it at a comfortable pace and i finally checked out the skate park at the piers! super cool - can't wait to go watch thinley and pema do those 10' drops!

work was sheer madness as almost every single index rebalance announced changes late friday night. the day went by in a blurrrrrr. i find myself so tired these days after work, probably because i don't get a break at work anymore. looking forward to hiring an analyst in jan!

quick dinner at chipotle where we got a free order of tortilla and guac, and i found myself back on the chaise with a cup of peppermint tea watching gilmore girls, with my tech geek hubby busy fiddling with the server, and commenting on my show which i think he's started to enjoy :) 

before the night was over, we baked a big batch of granola, this time, putting the sour cherries in only for the last 15 minutes of baking. they're chewier this way!

mmh mmh mmh

baking + cooking + jeni's ice cream + chinese music + gilmore girls = relaxing sunday

daisy came over around noon and we whipped up a batch of these delicious chocolate chip cookies from the not-without-salt blog! i think it was equal amounts sugar, butter, flour, and giant chocolate chips :) note the sea salt!

 

and we had our first meals on the new dining table! spaghetti with bolognese for lunch and taiwanese for dinner :) she's a beauty!

dinner menu

地挂葉 (sweet potato leaves)

braised beef with daikon and beancurd

broiled wild-caught alaskan salmon with koji

select kagayaki short-grain white rice

best: daisy brought over two pints of jeni's ice cream for us to try: intelligentsia black cat espresso and sweet corn with blackberries. they were BOTH DELICIOUS!!! yes, we pigged out from 11am onwards on 蛋撻, spaghetti bolognese, straight-out-of-the-oven chocolate chip cookies, jeni's ice creams, satsumas (yes they're in season again!!!), and more. and didn't get our workout in - darn.

worst: surfing online searching for toilet brushes, but they are all pretty ugly. well, i saw a couple nice ones which cost upwards of $150, and since we need three of them and will need to replace brush-heads, i'm not sure i'm reading to go that route yet. still looking ...

smile: kevin felt inspired and set up his computer on the new dining table and set up our server! soon we'll be able to access a common storage space for files, movies, photos, etc. i love my nerdy hubby :)

gilmore girls

best: figuring out how to use the remote for our living room tv. JK :p eating 汤圆 and watching gilmore girls season 1 with dais! a relaxing wednesday evening ...

worst: so busy at work again today that i didn't have a chance to buy lunch. i had phil's leftover sweet potato fries and a kitkat bar from the snack machine. terrible :/

smile: dais arrived to our place with her handbag and a huge box of jeni's ice cream - 5 pints ordered from their ohio headquarter! they were delivered to her office that day and the ice cream is carefully packed with dry ice so it can withstand a day of non-refrigeration. so cool! i've found someone else that loves ice cream as much as me ;)