I have lots of cookbooks, but I rarely open them. I usually start with an idea of what I want to make and then search Martha Stewart or Smitten Kitchen or some other trusted source for recipes. This means I have to either put my laptop in the line of fire (I am a very messy cook) or print the recipe which means wasting paper. M told me about an application called Sous Chef that he got as part of a bundle a while ago but like a lot of things M tells me, I didn’t pay close attention. Five years of marriage and I still haven’t learned that he knows his stuff! Today I have off work and I decided to finally open the program. I can’t believe how much I love the program already. Importing recipes is super easy and when it comes time to cook, you hit the full screen button and you can read the ingredients and directions from 10 feet away. There is voice control as well, I haven’t figured that out yet but it seems like a great feature. Now I can keep track of things that I made that I liked, make notes, add pictures and not waste paper. Apparently you can also find recipes based on what is in your fridge as well. I wonder if I can get a monitor built into my new kitchen…

As you can see we definitely need a better set up for picture taking.

M&I just celebrated our fifth anniversary. We have never really been big on big anniversary hoopla with presents and parties or fancy restaurants so this year while talking about what we wanted to do, we decided to make a miniature wedding cake. Armed with the cupcake cafe vanilla cake recipe, smitten kitchen’s mango curd and swiss buttercream recipes we felt up for the task. Here is the blow by blow. Monday: Shopping for 3″, 4″ and 5″ cake pans, gum paste mix and tools, and frosting colors. Tuesday: Make gum paste and let sit for 24 hours. Wednesday: Temperature in the apartment is 90 degrees, pull out all recipes, realize we do not have nearly enough eggs or sugar or butter, realize that we have papayas and not mangoes, separate more eggs than I have ever in my life, bake cakes, make and color buttercream, start making gum paste flowers. Thursday: Temperature in the apartment is 85 degrees, shop for missing ingredients, separate more eggs, make mango curd, make more gum paste flowers. Friday: Take all our pieces and parts to put together a mighty fine cake! All in all the cake came out very well. It was nice to spend all that time together working on a project. Baking a cake is very similar to creating a sculpture only your final product is edible. What would I do differently? Wait until it was at least 20 degrees cooler!

This past weekend, M’s sister Kelly came for a visit. When people are in town we tend to take them to the same places. It is easy, we know what to expect. Not this weekend! We started at the Brooklyn Flea which where we enjoyed People’s Pops and Shave Ice. I had a roasted apricot and lavender pop, M had a peach shave ice and K had a cantaloupe pop. All delicious. From there we headed to the Highline. This park is amazing, if you are in NY you should absolutely check it out. Then off to Chelsea Market for some cupcakes before we headed over to the meatpacking district to browse through racks of clothes we couldn’t possible hope to afford. This is where we veered back to what we know. Roasted corn and rice pudding in Soho and shredded orange chicken in our hood. I think we need to have guests in town more often.

On Thursday August 13th, after making her family wait for over 24 hours, my niece Isabela was born! She is 6lbs 1oz, 19 inches, and 100% cute! I haven’t seen her in person yet, but from what I hear, she is a little peanut who is calm and happy as long as she is bundled. I have started knitting her a little sleep sack to keep her snug as a bug at night. I can’t wait to meet you Izzy, Love Auntie Lizbeth.

(People, this post is filled with shock, outrage, and possibly a touch on the dramatic side. I do understand that there are real atrocities happening all over the world and this does not rank among them. With that said, on to my rant.)

What do White Owl Cigars, Mad Dog 20 20, and hot coffee poured over ice to make iced coffee all have in common? They are cheap imitations of the very things they claim to be! No cigar aficionado is going to smoke a White Owl, no sommelier is going to add Mad Dog to their wine list, so why should I have to drink a terrible iced coffee! I suppose I am not exactly a coffee expert, I couldn’t tell you the difference between one coffee roast and another, but I know what I like and what I don’t like. I like a strong brew, allowed to reach room temperature if not already chilled, undiluted with a splash of half and half and lots of ice. Cold brew if you have it, please. Today I ordered what I assumed would be a passable cuppa cold joe from a fancy pants eatery in Soho (I am looking at you D&D), what was handed to me was almost white in color. I didn’t see the preparation method at this point so I asked to have it a little darker. I watched the barista pour out what was in the cup and add more coffee, still not quite seeing where it was coming from. The cup was handed back to me without much change in color. The woman at the register could tell I was still not happy and offered to remake the drink and this is where I saw that they fill the cup with ice and pour hot coffee in the cup. And I paid a premium for them to perform this atrocity! I walked out without a word (in stunned silence more like it) and a doppio espresso later I was able to somewhat salvage the drink.

I can’t say this enough times, you can not make an iced coffee by simply pouring hot coffee (and weak coffee at that!) over ice. What you get is a watery mess of brownish liquid that tastes about as good as a watery mess of brownish liquid can possibly taste. Not good.

I love this picture titled Lonely Sunset. I wish I was on this bench right now.

Photo by ~jillysp~ from the Brownstoner Flickr Pool via

What could be better than dinner and a movie on date night? How about dinner and a drive in double feature! It was a real after school cartoon kind of line up with G.I. Joe and Transformers 2. It was a beautiful night and we have a van so we blew up an air mattress, threw in some pillows and drove over to the theater in Hyde Park. G.I. Joe was surprisingly well done with lots of action, cool gadgets, not too over the top nods to the cartoon, and a decent story. A very satisfying summer blockbuster. Transformers, in a word, sucked. Not worth it at all. Confusing plot, terrible new characters (think Jar Jar level annoying), unnecessary subplots that lead nowhere, and too many explosions. The coolest part of the evening was watching the moon rise above the tree line, something we most likely would not have seen if we hadn’t been at the drive in.