Tourguides.

I know you're all anticipating the clips of Broadway Man, but we're waiting on appropriate video footage.

This week we will have had 7 different relatives in the City from all 4 sides of our family.

We enjoyed the High Line, Chelsea, SoHo, and the Staten Island Ferry with Melinda & Jason.

Yes, she is a supermodel (and supermom).

My uncle Matt was here for a meeting Tuesday. We couldn't meet up, but made him promise he would go to Shake Shack before he left.

Dana & James are here on business, and Dana and I wandered 5th Avenue (Veterans' Day Parade!), FAO Schwartz, and the Fabric/Trim District all afternoon today. Unfortunately I only took one picture, and it was of the back wall of Tinsel Trading.


Christoph & Emily are here this weekend... and perhaps we'll fit in some Shake Shack.

And two weeks from tomorrow we will be sitting down at a table for eleven for Thanksgiving Dinner with both our families in Central Park.

Potpourri

This morning Taylor and I woke up early for a pilgrimmage to the Doughnut Plant on the Lower East Side (okay, only a 15 minute pilgrimmage). This was Taylor's reward for making it through a week of class after his surgery. We've wanted to try these doughnuts for almost a year now, ever since we saw it featured on the Travel Channel. Yes, we're nerds.

The flavor options did not disappoint (crème brûlée? coconut creme? pumpkin?), but the place is a little over-priced and over-hyped when it comes down to taste.

Then it was time for the Yankees' Victory Parade! I braved the cold and headed to Wall Street to meet up with friends (though we never found each other - it was too crowded!). I went a little crazy with my camera, and took over 100 pictures.

It was a sea of BLUE.


Big Bird was there!






My view of the parade (and I got there an hour early).


While headed up to work, three old men came on the subway car and started singing for money. When they realized they weren't making a lot of money with their augmented-4th harmonization, they started "Take Me Out to the Ballgame." People started singing along, and by the end of the song the entire car was singing and cheering for the Yankees.

I immediately called Taylor once I was out of the subway - "I just had a New York Moment!"

Speaking of New York Moments, I forgot to post this - last Saturday I found these signs posted all around the pharmacy. I know East Coasters like to pronounce Halloween "Holloween", but I didn't know they spelled it differently, too!


The next installment chronicles our next door neighbor, the Broadway hopeful with the constipated voice (oh, the sound clips!). Stay tuned.

Halloween in the Village

Greenwich Village is the place to be on Halloween. Here's some pictures I snapped while running errands:

I saw this as I came out of the Bigelow Pharmacy.


Inside Sweetiepie (the CUTEST little restaurant)


The psychic lady on the corner was handing out candy (she has a crystal ball and everything!). She must be looking for new, younger clients.


This couple lives in the cutest house across the street from The Little Owl (which, I found out, is the location of "Central Perk" and Monica Geller's apartment on Friends). They were so darling - I stopped and chatted with them for a while.

Later that night I sneaked out for a few minutes to catch the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade - the biggest Halloween event in the City. It was INSANE and pouring rain, so I didn't take a lot of pictures.

The parade going up 6th Avenue.


My view of the parade.


Best costume of the night.

Taylor survived.

His scaphoid (bone in his right wrist) is now mostly made of bone from his right hip.

The surgery was a little more intense than planned, and required a little more hardware. It turns out Taylor's scaphoid had all but turned to mush after two months of no treatment for the fracture.

We walked to St. Vincents, and walked home from St. Vincents (did I mention that Taylor is hard core?). An hour later, the anesthesia had faded, and it was Percocet time (I owe the Pharmacist cupcakes for bumping Tay's prescription up to the front of the line).

Poor Taylor didn't leave the apartment for over 48 hours, barely able to walk, and trying to keep his right arm elevated. His fingers are swollen to the size of hot dogs, and a fun yellow/citron color. He made the trek to class tonight, which is huge progress.

One month until finals.

Mini kitchen (and recipe overload)

This was my walk to the library on Friday.

I love New York!

I spent Friday at the Union Square Greenmarket with some friends, and for $8 I got a butternut squash, gourds, pumpkins, fresh cider, and 3 pounds of apples.

We did a LOT of cooking and baking this weekend.

This is our mini-kitchen. Yes, that is our refrigerator. It is awesome. We have learned that cold water is a luxury (don't get me started on ice). That is our mini oven. That is our square foot of counter space (we are trying a week without the dish rack to see if it helps). It's crazy when you get both of us in there cooking - this was definitely built as a kitchen for one!

The kitchen and I spent some quality time together this weekend (Taylor has his first final tomorrow). Here's what we put together over the past 3 days:

Butternut Squash Harvest Bisque (recipe was posted a year ago here)
Amish bread
Apple Pie (we made it for someone else, but we LOVE this recipe!)
Halloween sugar cookies
Pumpkin Gnocchi with Sage Brown Butter (YUMMY)

Recipes follow. Enjoy.

Amish White Bread
This bread has zero nutritional value, but makes your apartment smell divine.

1 c. water*
1/3 c. sugar* (I used 1/4 c. plus some honey)
2 1/4 t. yeast* (1 packet)
3/4 t. salt^
2 T. vegetable oil^ (or canola)
3 c. flour

Dissolve *. Add ^, then flour. Rise for one hour. Knead 5 minutes, then let rise for 30 minutes, or until one inch above the pan. At this point, it is advised that you do not get impatient with the dough and toss it back onto the counter in contempt. This will cause the dough to deflate, and double the necessary rising time (not that I would know). Bake @ 350 for 30 minutes.

Apple Pie
This recipe is SOOO easy!

Any pie crust recipe (make sure it makes 2 crusts). I like to add a little cinnamon & sugar.
8 Granny Smith or McIntosh Apples, peeled, cored, sliced.
1/2 c. butter (1 stick)
3 T. flour
1/4 c. water*
1/2 c. sugar*
1/2 c. brown sugar*

Melt butter. Add flour, combine. Add *, and bring to boil. Reduce to simmer while you fill your unbaked pie crust with sliced apples. Form lattice crust over apples (my favorite part!). Carefully pour caramel sauce over the entire pie.

Bake @ 425 for 15 minutes, then reduce temperature to 350 and bake 35-40 more minutes. The sauce caramelizes on the crust, and is so good!

Sugar Cookies
This is for a soft cookie recipe - they taste like the pink frosting cookies!
Warning: this makes a TON. I usually halve the recipe, a little over 2 dozen cookies.

1 1/2 c. sugar*
1 c. sour cream*
1 c. cold butter*
1 egg*
1 t. vanilla (I double this, and add 1 t. almond extract)*
1 t. baking soda^
1/2 t. salt^
4 1/2 c. flour^

Combine * in large bowl. Combine ^ in smaller bowl. Combine * and ^ in large bowl.
Bake @ 425 for 5-7 minutes.

Frosting
This recipe gets a more glossy/hardened frosting, though cream cheese frosting is awesome with these cookies.
1 c. powdered sugar
2 t. milk
2 t. light corn syrup
1/2 t. almond extract

Pumpkin Gnocchi with Sage Brown Butter Sauce
We cheated and bought our Pumpkin gnocchi at Murray's Cheese ($3!), and then sauteed them in the brown butter sauce with fresh Parmesan.
Sauce recipe here.

...and the verdict is...

Wrist surgery, next week.

Happy Halloween, Taylor!

(He looks really cute in a wrist brace.)

This year's costume will cost between $10,000 and $20,000. Thank you, NYU Health Insurance, for covering most of that.

Taylor is hard core.

Remember when Taylor had his bad accident in August?

Though he had 6 staples put in his head, the thing that hurt most was his right arm. The "doctor" moved it around, and was convinced nothing was wrong. No fractures. After Taylor BEGGED for x-rays, the "doctor" did one x-ray of his elbow, and told us 45 minutes later in broken English, "Uh, your arm fine. You can go."

For the past 2 months, Taylor's arm has still been hurting. A week ago, he finally went into the NYU Health Center to get it looked at.

Long-story-short, Taylor has TWO fractures in his right arm - one in his wrist, the other near his elbow. Today he is visiting with an orthopedic surgeon, to see if he needs surgery.

I'm sorry, but how do you miss TWO fractures?! We spent 4 hours in the ER, and they didn't notice 2 fractures? Now we understand why people said, "Oh, I'm sorry," when they found out what hospital we went to.

And now Taylor can brag that he ran a half marathon with a broken arm.