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 :)

winterstorm juno prep

winterstorm juno has started! we are bracing for 2-3 feet of snow over the next two days, as forecasters are saying this could be the largest storm in nyc's history. and for the first time, kevin is actually IN TOWN for a natural disaster so we can experience it together :)

when we got home, he started with the doomsday prep, which included:

• filling up the tub with water
• taking out our flashlights and headlamps
• charging all our portable electronics
• testing out his hand crank radio <-- LOL

better to be safe than sorry! it's really nice to prep together and the possibility of being snowed in for a couple days together is actually appealing :)

we stocked up on groceries on sunday afternoon so good for a few days there. not to mention we have four bags of quinoa - white, black, red, and semilla. the three pictured below are the ones lawrence and catherine brought for us from peru! so for a quick and healthy dinner, we made a little dent in our quinoa reserves: red quinoa, sauteed curly kale, roasted golden beets, and broiled salmon.

and yes! it's that time of year again - time for ... SUMOS! :) sumos, a cross between the mandarin and navel orange, are one of our favorite fruits. they are sweet, juicy, and oh-so-tangy! in the pic below, they are the ones with the thick scaly peel, with a giant nob on top. they look like ... sumo wrestlers with the little bun :) and they are only in season for a few weeks in the winter, so along with the ruby red grapefruit, cara cara oranges, and bananas, we have a bunch of sumos to brave the next couple of days with.