It's Been Awhile...

Oh no! I got on here to check something yesterday and realized I haven't posted anything since... MAY! Ahhh! And now it's June... oh, no, July, July 1st already!

Well, since May 7th I made the Big Decision to move home, to Ohio, for the summer. So things were crazy for awhile as I crossed all those things off my "To Do While Living in New York" list (and had a pretty fab time doing everything) then had the fam with me and all those sad goodbyes with my friends then packed up the last year of my life (actually, I couldn't really get myself to pack up like anything so thank goodness my family understood and could do everything for me -- thanks Mom, Dad, and Bec!) and headed west, back to Ohio.

I've been back for a week and a half and so far it's been pretty great. I've done some odd jobs, painting and such, a little unpacking, a lot of fun cooking, and gotten to enjoy the slower pace of life that comes with the country and not being in New York City.

How long I'll be here, I can't say for certain. I'm weighing a lot of options right now and doing a lot of praying. I could go on a new adventure somewhere else in the world/country, or go back to New York. For now though a break was needed and I'm content to enjoy where I'm at and treasure the time I have with my family :)

One Lucky Dinges

Soon after moving to New York, I saw a video online or read an article or something, about the best food trucks in NYC. Two of those food trucks went on my list of things I had to do/see/try while I was living here (at the time it was only going to be a 3-month period of time).

The first food truck was the Big Gay Ice Cream Truck. I haven't actually seen the truck ever but I did visit their store location in the East Village when my room mate from college visited me over the summer. Yum!!

Fortunately, I did get to stay longer than 3-months because I never got to try the second truck, Wafels & Dinges, until today. I'd seen the truck once, before I even knew what it was, on the street where I had my first internship in Brooklyn. I was still new and didn't realize that the truck wasn't always there until one of the other interns came into work wondering aloud if anyone else had seen "the magical waffle truck of happiness?"

I haven't seen the truck again since that day but I have seen a food cart set up in Central Park and been tempted to pay it a visit, the timing wasn't right however. Today though, I went to pilates and noticed a Wafels & Dinges cart set up right by the subway stop I got off at. It was a lovely day and since everyone seemed to have plans or work to rush off to right after pilates, I went back to the cart and looked over the choices.

I'd heard of their savory wafels -- chili con carne, pulled pork, bacon and syrup -- which all sounded amazing, however this cart was a smaller version and didn't seem to have those options. There were a few different "wafels" to pick from -- brussels or liege -- then you could top them with one "dinges" or pay extra for more dinges.

I went with a liege waffle (more caramelized than the brussels variety which is more like what Americans know as the "Belgium waffle") topped with strawberries, which were fresh, not the syrup-y strawberries I half expected, and topped with powdered sugar.

Oh. My. Goodness. It was sooooo good!! I can't wait to go back (hopefully the cart is there again next week!) or actually catch their truck, and try something else. I hadn't had a real Belgium waffle before, not like the kind my mom always describes as being her favorite part of visiting the Netherlands, and it was awesome. I'm hoping to take my friend who is visiting me this weekend and see how they measure up to the waffles she ate in Belgium last summer.

Mmmm, just writing about these is making me hungry all over again! If you're ever in NYC, you must try out a waffle from Wafels & Dinges. If you have Twitter you can follow them @wafeltruck to find out where their truck is any given day.

After my wafel, I wandered to a Barnes & Noble to buy a new journal (I have so much time to write while I'm on the subway they've getting filled up really fast since I've been in NYC!) and moseyed around there for an hour or so before heading to work. It was a nice, relaxing afternoon :)

PB&J Oatmeal

This morning I woke up hungry for PB&J, probably because the last thing I ate last night was half of a PB&J cupcake from Hill Country (yum!!). I refrained from eating the rest of the cupcake as my breakfast (although I have to admit that I do eat cupcakes for breakfast on occasion...) and tried to figure out how to satisfy this craving in a more breakfast-y way.

Grilled PB&J? A PB&J smoothie...? Toast with peanut butter and strawberry jam?

Then I thought about oatmeal. Since coming to NYC I've found oatmeal to be a tasty, versatile  quick, and healthy breakfast. Having tried out many recipes from the internet, I was finally feeling comfortable with it enough to try making up my own recipe and I think it turned out pretty great, if I do say so myself :)

But try it yourself and you be the judge!

PB&J Oatmeal

3/4 cup old fashioned oats

1 cup milk

dash salt

2 teaspoons brown sugar

1 1/2 Tablespoons peanut butter

1 Tablespoon grape or strawberry jam/jelly

peanuts for garnish (optional)

Cook the oats with the milk and salt according to package instructions (either stovetop or microwave). I put them in a microwave-safe bowl and nuked it for about 3 1/2 minutes. Add brown sugar and peanut butter to cooked oats and stir to mix. Top with a dollop of jam (I used strawberry) and sprinkle with peanuts, if desired.

Enjoy this grown-up spin on a childhood favorite with a big glass of milk!

The peanut butter oatmeal would also be good with chocolate chips stirred in, instead of jelly :)

Springtime Smoothie

Hello all!

It's been a long time between postings... again :( I apologize. Time is just flying though! Can you believe it's already May?? I have a few fun updates to give then have a refreshing and delicious smoothie recipe to share in celebration of the fantastic sunny weather that most of the country is experiencing, on and off at least.

Exciting news! I got my first (big) freelancing job last week! Redoing the site for an actor/comedian/musician who I'd met eons ago (as in during the summer) and just got into contact with me again asking if I'd still be interested in the job. Of course! I'm super excited for this chance not only because it's, like, a job but because New York is FULL of actors and dancers and bands and singers who will need sites at some point in their career and if I can get started and into that niche now... fantastic!

I met with the guy today (that sounds unprofessional... my client?) and got a starting plan and outline figured out, now I just need to buckle down and get to work! Which is really what I should be doing instead of blogging... but it's been too long since I've posted... so here I am :)

I went to pilates again on Monday. It was a rainy day, the type where you were too warm with a coat on but chilly without one. I woke up and wasn't sure I'd been going but after a perky text from Summer (having her as both my friend and my instructor works great for accountability!) I knew the class would be well worth the money and trip. Sure enough, it was a great time with Ebony and I being the only students that day. It was great with just two, although there's so much talk now in the restaurant about the classes I expect it to be blown up with people next time. Afterwards we went out for frozen yogurt, which may have cancelled out the workout, but was absolutely delicious!

I have some big events coming up that I'm also really looking forward to.  Next weekend, one of my closest friends from college is coming for a visit. One of the choirs from our college is coming out to perform at Carnegie Hall and she's coming out with them. Her dad is head of alumni relations and often travels with the choir, which works out really well for us not only in that she's able to come with them as well, but we get to tag along with them for a Broadway show and to watch their Carnegie Hall performance. Some sweet bonuses in addition to seeing my lovely Kara :)

The next weekend is my aunt's wedding so I'll be going home for that, just for a few days. I'm happy to be going back already though.

Now for this smoothie. It stemmed from a random seeming assortment of fruits I had lying around and turned into a lovely combination. This is a very sweet smoothie, I'll warn, but also refreshing light. To turn down the sweet, you could use water as the base and add some lemon juice, rather than the pre-made lemonade. I think it's a great springtime smoothie, since it's not tropical, and is aesthetically pleasing even before being blended up. It's perfect for sipping on while you're reading a book in the back yard to sneak in some outside-time.

 Grearberry Smoothie

(Grape, pear, strawberry)

1/2 cup prepared lemonade

6-7 strawberries

1/2 cup green grapes

4 oz Dole fruit cup of pears, drained (or about 1/3 cup chopped pears)

Place all ingredients in your blender in the order they're listed. Blend until smooth. You could also add ice if you prefer a slushier or colder smoothie. Pour into a pretty glass and enjoy in the sunshine! Or on a rainy day when you wish there was sunshine...

**I have a single-serving sized blender which is super handy since I'm just one person :) Just don't get thrown off by the blender being full of liquid and thinking this recipe makes a ton of drinkage. It seems to be right around 16 ounces.

Pilates and Burritos

Does it cancel out the good if you eat a burrito right after a Pilates class? I hope not!

I get in such a health conscious mood when the weather turns nice -- like it's been doing lately! The sunshine and warm days inspire me to exercise and eat healthier and drink lots of smoothies!! (I still enjoy a good ol Salted Caramel Cupcake though...)

Today I tried Pilates for the first time ever. My friend Summer, a server at Hill Country, teaches Pilates and set it up so that  HCers could go in once a week for a group class. Today was the first one and even though only 3 of us were there, I think it was very successful! 

It was a small enough group that we could still get one-on-one attention from Summer which was great and we could all easily go out for Mexican afterwards :) 

The biggest difference I noticed between Pilates and many other forms of exercise is how much you have to focus on various muscles and body parts as you're working out. It will definitely take some getting used to, but I really enjoyed Pilates and hope to return in the next few Mondays!

Love Us Some Hummus

I love hummus.

I first tried it while in college. One of my more health-conscious friends had it to snack on, or for when meals at the caf just weren't up to par. At first I wasn't quite sure about it, and my room mate agreed. I don't remember what we even tried it on, crackers of some sort maybe? However, later that evening, we found ourselves returning for another try. And thus it began. We soon bought our own container of roasted red bell pepper hummus at Wal-Mart to keep in our mini fridge, sneaking potato bread from the caf to eat it with.

When I was home for the summer between that freshman and sophomore year, I remember telling my mom about my newfound love for hummus and asking her to buy some for them to try. She wasn't too keen on the idea and suggested I try making it myself. So I found a recipe and whipped it up. Excitedly pairing it with Wheat Thins and carrots at suppertime and eager for my parents to try and love it as well.

Well. To put it lightly -- it was awful. I'd added waayyyyy to much garlic powder and it wasn't very creamy. Just thick and lumpy and spicy, garlic-spicy.

Disappointed, I decided I'd have to find a recipe that was a little lighter on the garlic and a little more reliable before trying to re-introduce my parents to hummus.

Back at college, another friend was bragging up her mom's hummus recipe which she made for all family gatherings. I begged for the recipe and got it over text when I was home for Fall Break. Unfortunately, it called for tahini which neither my mom or I had never heard of and couldn't find anywhere among the spices. So I tucked the recipe away and the can of garbonzo beans my mom had bought along with the first recipe, just waiting to miraculously find some tahini somewhere.

Fast-forward 1 1/2ish years and here I am in New York City. I learned that tahini is not a spice but a paste made from sesame seeds. I scoured the aisles of my local grocery store as well as any store I happened to wander into that sold groceries. Surely here in New York, tahini would be a common household good, right? Wrong. I couldn't find it anywhere. I looked by the spices, I checked by the peanut butter and various nut and seed butters, I searched up and down the racks in the exotic or specific-culture food aisles. Nothing. Well lots of other stuff. Sunflower Seed Paste and Duck Sauce and Caribbean Jerk Chicken Rub, but no tahini, no sesame seed paste.

As I mentioned in my last post (Playing Catch-Up), last weekend I went to my friend Mindy's dance gala. Before heading to work, my friend Selina and I wanted to grab some lunch in the area and Mindy suggested Bread and Honey, a deli and market on 8th Avenue. After getting a BLT to go, I was wandering the aisles in search of the beverage aisle and low and behold, in the first aisle I walked down, my eyes fell upon jars of tahini, right there by the peanut butter. Imagine that. Just for kicks, I also checked if they sold rice noodles, something else I haven't been able to find but want to use for homemade Pad Thai -- sure enough, they had those too!

I didn't get either item that day since I was on my way to work, but happened upon another Bread and Honey, closer to my job, the very next day and found that they also stocked tahini (though no rice noodles) that was actually cheaper than at the other location. I'd call that Fate.

I did find it funny: tahini must not be a big seller there -- the girl ringing me up had no idea what it was and didn't quite understand that it went into hummus.

Finally, I could make this infamous hummus! And boy was I excited.

To start, I'd like to say that I don't have a food processor so I used a blender to make mine. If you have a food processor, use it! It's completely possible to make hummus in a blender, but it definitely involved a little extra work of stopping the blender to push the beans down. Many, many... many times. But in the end, this hummus was totally worth it! I also halved the recipe (hence some of the funny measurements) because it's just for me, not a family get-together. Lastly, I didn't have bulbs of garlic so I used garlic powder. The original recipe would have called for 1 1/2 cloves of garlic + 1/8 teaspoon garlic powder.

This recipe is for a basic "original" hummus, but I think you could easily add red peppers, roasted garlic, olives, or whatever additives you like :)

Jan's Original Hummus

1 15 oz can garbonzo beans, drained reserve the juice

1 1/2 Tablespoons lemon juice

1/8 teaspoon + 5 shakes garlic powder

1/4 + 1/8 cup tahini

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 Tablespoon olive oil

Add all ingredients to a food processor (or in my case, a blender. But, as I said, a food processor would be much easier). Blend the ingredients until smooth and add 1/4 a cup of the reserved bean juice for thinning. Add another 1/8 of a cup until you get the consistency you want. 

**Using the blender, I had to add the 1/4 cup bean juice from the start so that it would all blend together and I thought that gave it a good consistency. I also had to stop the blender and push the beans down or stir it up with a spatula multiple times so be prepared for that if using a blender.

Playing Catch-Up

Hello my friends!!

I know, I know, it's been too long. At first it was because nothing that interesting was happening (well except for a spray tan that left me darker than I've ever been in my life...) but don't worry, after nearly a month, I have plenty of fun happenings to report :)

I went home to Ohio for a week over Easter which was wonderful! Except for the part where I had a major cold... which quickly became laryngitis. Oh, then I had to get my wisdom teeth all removed :/ It's alright though, I'm just glad that I was home for all of that and could be taken care of by my sweet parents.

Ohio was filled with family events, church, ice cream dates with my sister, recovery, amazing home cooked meals, and a little thrift shopping. But I did, for the first time, actually miss the city and especially my friends here.

Back in New York, I jumped right back into work at Hill Country. Arriving on a Thursday afternoon (after many delays and what ended up being a 16-hour bus trip) and heading into work that night.

Last weekend I felt like I was living at HC. After working there 8 months I finally had my New Hire Orientation (a 3 1/2 hour event, it did include pastries from our sister restaurant so that made it worth it). It wouldn't have been so delayed except the last orientation was scheduled on the same day Hurricane Sandy rolled into town...

I'd taken my laptop into Manhattan and got to relax at the wonderful Birch Coffee, a new favorite spot of mine, between orientation and the time I actually went into work.

Friday morning, there was a semi-secret concert by Brad Paisley at HC. NashFM, the first country radio station in NYC has been hosting a few little events in our downstairs area and let me tell you, when I picked up the phone my first day back from Easter to hear a guest wanting to make reservations for after the Brad Paisley concert, I got pretty excited! I woke up early and headed into HC once again, and got to watch Mr. Paisley live and up close, playing for just a couple hundred people, packed into the club level of HC. What a great perk of my job, no?

I had another fun, cultural experience on Saturday. My friend Mindy is part of the company at Elisa Monte Dance which had their 32nd Anniversary Season Gala last weekend. After some schedule shuffling, Selina and I, as well as some other HCers who we saw there, were able to go out and support our girl! It was an awesome show.

I'd never been to a dance gala like that or seen much modern dance. I was in awe of the grace and synchronization of the dancers as well as the abilities and endurance of a well-trained human body.  My dance repertoire is mostly fun and I hadn't experienced pieces that held so much emotion and stirred up feelings like these did.

My latest new experience was last night -- I went to my first Broadway show!! My high school always has a senior trip to NYC (I didn't actually go on the trip my senior year, having gone to France the summer before and not having the money for both. Oh well, I thought, NYC is close enough to Ohio, I know I'll make it there someday... Little did I know that 3 years later I'd be living here!) and lucky for me, one of the chaperons is not a fan of the Broadway show part of the trip, and gave me his ticket! Yay!

Yesterday morning I found out there were two tickets up for grabs if I could find a friend who wanted to join me, so I called on Samantha who also had never been to a Broadway show! I have to admit I was a little skeptical of seeing Spider-Man: Turn Out the Lights on Broadway... I mean, it's action-packed Spider-Man! And what, now he's gonna sing? But it was great! It took me a bit to get into it but by the end I was loving and very impressed with the stunts and special effects. They stayed true to the comic book nature of the story as well as bringing in the musicality and choreography of Broadway.

It was a nice night (loving this warm, spring weather!!) and we kept it true to New York form. Grabbing dessert at Roxy Delicatessen in Times Square before hitting up the Broadway show then finishing the night by meeting up with Selina for supper (at 11 o'clock at night... we run on a different time schedule than most) in Koreatown.

I hope your last few weeks have been just as delightfully eventful as mine! And I'll really try to do better at consistency... TTFN :)