Good eating....

Here are a few images of the good food we ate while on our trip to NJ/NYC. On our first night, we had Italian food (previously I showed you the lemon-mint granita dessert) at a restaurant where the pasta is all handmade. I had a pesto on little twisted pasta. It was so delicious. On Saturday, after seeing a documentary at IFC, Encounters at the End of the World by Werner Herzog
we stepped out into rain! A nice cool down. We tried to have dinner at one place but it wasn't open so we stopped at a place on West 10th for wine and appetizer. A yummy melted brie with honey and pine nuts. Perfectly scrumptious. I have to remember to make this at home. The food being prepared for dinner smelled so good that we ended up having dinner at this same little restaurant. A nice end to that day. On Sunday morning, we had brunch with our family in New Jersey. One of us decided to have the Napoleon...can you believe how this looks! It was an amazing breakfast dish. Okay, so maybe I'll make this at home some day, too.

After dinner at a Mexican restaurant on Sunday night, we went for dessert to Red Mango for REAL yogurt with toppings. I had green tea yogurt with dried cranberries and Chuck had vanilla yogurt with pineapples, strawberries and graham crackers crumbs. Whew!

At the market

I had to post this image. I love the way the produce looks, as much as I love cooking and eating it. Amy had set up some of our produce shares at the end of our market time. The only items missing from this group are our eggplants, peppers and tomatoes. If you'd like some of my recipes, check out Sprout Organic.
Cooking is so relaxing for me. I'd been feeling kind of down since returning from vacation, oh no wonder, because aside from the humidity (did I mention how humid it was?) the trip was sooo good. I spent some time cooking today, and it's lifted my spirits. We're having family and friends (who are like family) over tonight for dinner to celebrate the new year. We're putting together food. which is so fun. I made my radish spread (see Sprout for recipe,) some tiny salmon cakes, farfalle with my home made pesto, a honey cake, some honey butter to spread on it, and a bread, which is still in the bread maker. I borrowed the bread maker from my friend Phyllis and this is the first time I'm using it. I'll let you know how it turns out. It smells good. I used to make bread from scratch years ago, same time as I made my own yogurt, and sewed clothing and crocheted and ........aaaagh, I was so crazy busy!