Bachelorette at the Casino

As you read this, I'm currently in a car on a 5-6 hour drive upstate for my friend Elaine's wedding at a fingerlakes winery. I just got an SLR camera so hopefully I will have some amazing photos to share when I return. In the meantime, here are some photos from her fabulous bachelorette weekend last month.

Originally we had planned on a winery tour in the Ithaca area for her bachelorette, but our plans changed and we ended up at a casino outside Syracuse instead. It was kinda ironic because none of us are wild party n gambling types. In fact we tried to gamble for the heck of it but couldn't even figure out how to work the slot machines (which are now computerized) so we got our money back and moved on to other activities. aka gambling FAIL


It seems like just yesterday we were BFFs in high school, but somehow 10 years have gone by since those days we went by the name "The Hefs" (we're not heifers we just eat a lot)


We brought way more snacks and drink for the hotel than the four of us could actually ingest.


Getting ready for our night out



Our dinner out was a long, enjoyable, and memorable meal at the resort's nicest restaurant. Excellent service and pretty excellent food, with some strange twists in there that had us laughing our a**es off. For example, here we have Elaine grimacing at the dessert amuse bouche "chocolate surprise" which turned out to contain pop rocks!


Our last stop of the night was Club Lava, which tries to be hip and trendy, with bottle service and soap flake confetti falling from the ceiling, but they played music from our high school era.


We had fun dancing anyway. Leave it to Caitlin to start a dance off!



It was a great weekend with great friends!

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To The Beach

We spent a lot of weekend time in late May and early June at this little beach on Long Island's north shore lately. Luckily we had nothing but beautiful sunny days whenever we head out there. It's private, quiet, and relaxing. And I think it would be perfect for a BBQ soiree someday.

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Garlic Scape Pesto

Garlic scapes are the edible curlicue shoots that emerge out of the ground as the top part of the plant in springtime, before the garlic bulb itself is edible. Here in New York, scapes came into season in late May and are still around now, so you might be able to find them at your local farmers market.

Scapes have a spicy garlic flavor, which you can mellow out by sauteeing them, but I prefer to turn garlic scapes into pesto.

I spread the pesto on sandwiches as a spicy alternative to mustard...


Add it to mayonnaise for a dipping sauce that feels like the essence of springtime...
(Here it went especially well with roasted potatoes, asparagus, and grilled soft shell crabs)


And freeze it in an ice cube tray so that I can defrost only as much pesto as I need later in the season.

It's easy peasy to make if you have a food processor or blender. I use almonds because that's what I tend to have on hand, but you could also sub in walnuts or pine nuts - it's flexible. And I like to add vinegar for an extra kick, but you could leave that out. Other great optional ingredients include: parmesan, lemon juice, basil, parsley, other herbs.

Garlic Scape Pesto
1 lb garlic scapes
1/4 cup almonds
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup vinegar
salt
pepper

Combine ingredients in food processor until smooth. Add additional oil or vinegar until it reaches a creamy consistency and desired taste.

first photo via flickr

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Meet Milo!

Among the many backlogged updates that await you...my boyfriend got another puppy! (Yes there are now two dogs living in our apartment).


One morning last month my boyfriend couldn't sleep and was browsing puppies on the internet. He woke me up around 6am, brought over the laptop and showed me a very cute blurry looking puppy (to my groggy eyes). "Yeah he's cute," I said but thought little of it. But surprise! once I got to work, he called to say that he really really wanted the puppy and so...


Milo arrived at the apartment late at night, plucked from the wilds of the Adirondacks. He has two different colored eyes, is fairly mild for a puppy, loves to hide under things, and is good at some commands (sit, down) but not so good at others (Off!) The other dog Spencer was depressed for a few days, but he finally started smiling again earlier this week. The two dogs are getting along surprisingly fine. And oh it is such a pleasure walking a dog who gets along with everyone (ie. not Spencer who has to kept on a short leash lest he bite someone/thing).

But let me tell you, if you are thinking about getting a puppy, it is a LOT of work...a lot of cleaning up...keeping a close eye on him so you can use every opportunity you can get to train...hiding things so they don't get chewed...feeling like the house is a kennel with dogs running around and jumping all over the furniture (since we currently have no yard for them to play).

Anyone out there have any advice or good books on training puppies?

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Welcome!

Welcome to Color Me Green, now at http://colormegreenanew.blogspot.com
I merged my food blog, The Wounded Chef, into the new Color Me Green, which will meander through my slow food, DIY, eco-friendly life in Brooklyn. Please remember to update to this new URL (http://colormegreenanew.blogspot.com) on your blogroll, list of links, following, reader, subscriptions, bookmarks, etc. Welcome and feel free to take a look around!

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Misshapen Dulce de Leche Cupcakes

I'm wayy behind. Got lots of posts for you.

I made these cupcakes for a coworkers birthday last month with dulce de leche from my trip to Argentina. They came out kind of misshapen because I overreached and tried to have too much going on. I wanted the cake part to have both melted chocolate chips and a dulce de leche center; however the chocolate and dulce de leche both sank to the bottom, hardened, and stuck to the pan. The crumb was also very crumbly, so the cakes fell to pieces when I tried to remove them from the pan. Hence they were very misshapen and small and sad looking, but no one really seemed to care. Coworkers thought they were delicious anyway. Especially the frosting, which I whipped half a jar of dulce de leche into!


I don't remember the recipe so well anymore, so I'm going to leave it out. Suffice it to say, dulce de leche frosting would go well with any standard vanilla or chocolate cupcake recipe. To make the frosting, combine a lot of butter, a lot of dulce de leche, a little powdered sugar, a little milk, and scant vanilla until the taste and consistency seems right to you.

As for the leftover crumbs and scraps, I formed it into a "cupcake detritus ball" and left it in the fridge for some sinful snacking.

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Pick up and Move to Colorado

My dear friend Gina is on a plane to Colorado today. She decided she'd had enough of the crazy life in NYC and that it was time to start afresh by moving to Colorado, where she can spend time with old friends and lead a slower-paced life. I'm excited for her, because it takes a lot of guts to realize what's making you unhappy and to change that by leaving a life you've made. It may seem a little crazy but it's also smart. Plus Colorado is so beautiful, I wouldn't mind living there myself, among the mountains and the clean air.

I met Gina on craigslist, and she was roommates with me for over a year, but more than a roommate she became my friend. One of those friends I can be myself with and is kind enough to listen to many many hours of my venting, which I'm very thankful for. I don't know why we didn't see each other last fall after she moved out, but I'm glad we picked up where we left off this winter. I will miss her, but I'm already looking forward to visiting Colorado sometime in the coming months! Here's to us both finding the right projects we've been seeking that will make our lives meaningful and joyful.

To my readers, have you ever done something totally crazy or different to make a fresh start?

photo via flickr

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