snowpocalypse of 2015

we awoke to a very quiet city on tuesday morning. the streets and sidewalks were void of cars and pedestrians. all we heard was the low rumble of snow plows going down seventh ave and the comforting crackle from kevin's burr coffee bean grinder. our new houseplant was settling in nicely by the southwest window, basking in the morning light.

deblasio had implemented a car-train-bus-subway ban starting at 11pm last night, so we decided to walk to work. there was about 6-8 inches of snow on parts of the sidewalk, but for the most part, the streets and most major sidewalks had been cleaned overnight. the temperature was in the mid-30s, not too cold for a 25 minute walk, so i put on my ice breaker base layers, a fleece pullover, and a hard shell jacket and pants! armed with kevin's nikon and freshly brewed coffee in our top pot double-walled stainless steel mugs, we were ready to go!

the walk to work and back home were really nice! with so many people taking the day off or working from home, the streets were quiet and cars and public transportat did not re-enter the streets until 7:30am. maybe we should do the walk a bit more often, well, maybe just on workday holidays or days with terrible weather when it's less crowded out.

during the day, one of my close friends, monica, asked if it was okay to put me down as her older son's emergency contact at his high school. she'd asked us last year to be his emergency contact as well. it feels nice, like we are family. i am almost always at my desk or in the city reachable by my mobile, so of course i accepted.

we made a quick and easy dinner tonight. spicy sesame noodles with chicken, cucumbers, and pea shoots on the side. we've been working on a pot of chicken-pork soup with daikon and seaweed this week as well, good comfort food during these cold days and just like my mama makes it :)

getting to know our neighbors

today kevin did the unthinkable - he accompanied me to the divine trinity: bed bath & beyond, container store, and home depot, all in one trip! hahaha ... walked into bbb with the intention to pick up some pillows and sheets, and came out with those, as well as a red kitchenaid stand mixer. yay! last weekend when daisy and i made cookies, we used a mixer that i'd purchased straight out of college which probably cost me less than $15 and felt like it had the power of a construction tool, not a kitchen appliance. haha. time to get our bake on! kevin was grimacing the entire time - sorry hubbs! :) apple red, on sale, i basically SAVED him money by buying it.

also, CHA-CHING! found my bath waste baskets at containerstore! for some reason, public bathrooms (yuck) and waste baskets in general have a huge ick factor for me. so when it came to choosing a waste basket for our baths, i was having a difficult time. the opening on top has to be the perfect size! not too large or you'll be graced with a view of its contents and not too small because then it's impractical for nonchalantly tossing items in. no lid, because then you actually have to touch it every time you want to use it (ick), and to find a waste basket that's actually proportional with the size of the modern one-piece european-style toilets is actually not easy. it felt like everything we saw in bbb and container store were quite large - "american" style. most of the openings weren't much smaller than the toilet bowl itself lol.

anyways finally found these simple white plastic square waste basket from the containerstore. i removed the flip-lids and they go pretty darn nicely with the toilet brushes we got from muji too. done!! woohoo ~~~ mini challenge complete.

enough about baths and waste baskets. kevin and i spent the majority of the morning cleaning, setting up the guest bedroom, and stuffing packed boxes into every closet possible so we could make the apt somewhat presentable for friends in the afternoon.

oh and kev found time to make us this simple yet delish soba lunch :)

around 2pm, the doorbell rang and we were greeted by some cold guests: vadim, monica, john, sonam, thinley, and pema! kevin gave the adults the tour while i hung out with thinley and pema. they are so much fun to be with - not shy, very open and happy kids. afterwards we all naturally gravitated to the island (or perhaps it was due to the cheese, grapes, and olive bread), with the kids perched on the stools. it was really nice to see everyone, since the last time we really all got together was wow over the summer.

a little later in the afternoon, we had our second set of chelsea neighbors, kris and jessica, swing by for wine and yumm maison kayser desserts! they are about to remodel a loft just two blocks north of us so it was fun to hear about their process and hopefully pass on some lessons learned from our process (so that no one has to go through that again)! it turns out that jessica has a good amount of experience managing these types of projects in line of work and she seems much more level headed than me so i think they will be just fine.

rest of the night? pecorino, gouda, proscuitto, pears, apple, and gilmore girls. winding down and ready to start one of the last weeks of 2014!

little moments

today was cold and raining cats-and-dogs! a series of little moments throughout the day brightened my mood though :)

started off the morning with a little love: an 8 oz white moustache homemade yogurt in the kiss with orange blossom honey & walnuts. at first i was a little confused because when i mixed the yogurt, i didn't see any honey or walnuts, but when i put the first spoonful to my lips, i tasted the subtle flavors of a orange blossoms with little morsels of walnuts. it was heavenly!!! also a greek yogurt, the consistency of the white moustache was much creamier and luxurious than siggi's, fage, or chobani. and it tasted extremely fresh, similar to the yogurt my mom makes at home with homegrown bacteria cultures (but hers is watery, which i don't care for much). despite the 8 oz size, i finished the entire serving without a hitch and as a little bonus, i was left with a cute glass jar which i can't wait to repurpose!

the only thing that makes me wonder is what are the nutritional facts for this product? as i researched the product online, i learned that it's a small father-and-daughter business based in brooklyn, but no nutritional facts on their company website either. what makes this thing so creamy and delicious?

the white moustache homemade yogurt: kiss

at the apartment, today the stone guy and the backsplash guy came! here is a photo of our waterfall island and kitchen countertops. one of my favorite details is the mitered joint where the vertical and horizontal stone pieces meet. so pretty.

i'm still deciding between backsplash colors (eggshell white, lace white, or polar white? reminds me of american psycho hahaha) and the leadtime is 5-10 days so that will take a bit longer. i am getting excited for hotpot gatherings in the winter!

waterfall island

then i was off to dinner with monica and sonam at toro! in the pouring rain, i managed to bus one block, train one stop, and walk one block. lol. thank goodness for the unlimited metro card! saw that a sorel shop is opening on w14th st by ninth ave. yay! they make the best boots for the winter! i love my sorel joan of arcs - they totally saved me through the rain, snow, ice, and slush of last winter.

also found these adorable rice bowls at anthropologie that i want to get. check out the colors and designs! i want like 10 of each :/ but that is not practical ..

sorel on w14th st

anthropologie finds

dinner at toro was lovely! this is how it looked when i arrived ... it was completely packed and every table was full by the time we left three hours later! for monica and sonam, i think it was rare to get a night off so it was nice to get out with them. it's the first time we've managed to get out without the husbands and boy is the conversation different. food-wise, almost everything we ordered was delicious! we had the pan con tomate, tortilla espanola, and pimientos del padron for starters. and then we ventured into some of the slightly larger tapa dishes, including sausage with chickpeas, galician octopus, patatas bravas, hamburguesas (dry aged), and grilled corn with aioli. it was all superbly done - especially the three pinchos. my one complaint was the grilled corn, basically mexican corn, had waaaay too much butter and mayo on it. oh and for dessert, we had a chocolate ganache cake with crushed peanuts and sea salt with a side of olive oil ice cream. a great way to end the night before stepping back out into the unforgiving rain.

toro

best: spontaneous walk with my gf, daisy, to our go-to-spot, diginn, on 40th and madison for a spicy meatball lunch. it was the only time of the day where it wasn't raining and it's always nice to catch up after the weekend. it's become a weekly ritual!

worst: not wearing tights or pantyhose today. it was so cold and the rain was coming down sideways today. really looking forward to having all our stuff again after we move in next friday, though not looking forward to unpacking after 1.5 months. who can remember what's in those boxes at this point ...

smile: monica made me smile big time over dinner with her stories about her boys. her 10 and 15 yr old boys dislike getting shots at the doctor's office and have broken down at appointments begging not to have to take the shots. after the appointment, andrei, the younger one, bragged to me that he got 4 shots and his older brother, sasha, only got 2! shots apparently give you bragging rights - they crack me up. shots are inevitable. i don't look forward to getting shots, but their inevitable so i just look away and wince ... luckily it's usually over in 5-10 seconds or so.