New York {1}

We are so grateful for our dear friends, Jake and Heidi. We love them so much, and we hope to always be able to have rendezvouses with them in cities around the world. We have been able to share good times with them in Tacna, Peru; Cusco, Peru; Santiago, Chile; here in California; and now in New York. Currently their adventure involves: Heidi going to culinary school in NY and Jake interning at the U.N.... which takes us to New York:








* the view from their window - the empire state building in the distance
* the amazing breakfast j & h prepared for us!
* visiting Jake's work, the United Nations
* rainy day in NY
* times square in the rain
* view from their apartment at night

Feeling

This is how I'm feeling:

Take it as you will, I can't explain it, but this is how I feel right now.

I am going to post photos from New York soon, hopefully tomorrow...

Weekends

I don't want to live my life for the weekends, but man, they are so amazing. Those in between days are cool and all but...

Weekends are for (but not limited to) friends, family, food, hiking, movies...

Last weekend we hiked to Henninger Flats. It was a good, long, steep hike. I think our bodies needed it.

This weekend, we spent time with family and good friends, rode our bikes to the movies (TWICE! It's the $2 theater, we can't help ourselves), ate good food, and just relaxed.

I don't get much time to cook during the week, so I try to do more cooking on the weekends. And right now, I'm going through this phase, and I'm sort of stuck. See, I am trying to stay away from gluten, and I've been doing really good for the most part, but it's really worked over my meals. I've had to rethink all my usuals. But it's going really well, I kind of like the challenge and change. I think I've figured out that I am not allergic to it, but I have found that I feel a lot better when I don't eat a ton of it. So, for that matter, I am experimenting!

... And in other news, this coming weekend we are going to: NEW FREAKIN YORK!

Breakfast Hash

2 potatoes, chopped up in small pieces

2 squash, chopped up in small pieces

1 onion, finely chopped

4 decent sized okras, sliced

2 eggs

1) Saute the onions in a little oil for a few mins then add the potatoes and okra. Add a splash of water and cover till the potatoes are soft 5-10 mins. Add the squash and cook for a couple more minutes. Salt & pepper to taste, and set aside.

2) Cook an egg as you like, fried, sunny side up, poached and serve over the hash.

Green Breakfast

Breakfast can be magical, and it looks so pretty on this blog. Makes me want to make a big breakfast, sit down on the porch with a big cup of tea, and start of the day extra slow and thoughtful.

But truth is, I don't want to wake up that early.

For the last few weeks I have had one of these every morning for breakfast: a green smoothie.

I first heard about green smoothies here. But then I found out, a lot of people know about green smoothies and I'm late to the game.

Well, let me tell you, Justin and I have been feeling great ever since we started drinking these. That sounds like I am selling something, I'm not. They are just that good, I had to share!

Here's my favorite version so far:

Green Smoothie:

2 whole oranges, peeled

2 bananas

1 cup frozen pineapple

4 cups of spinach

Blend. Add water if more liquid is needed and blend, blend, blend till smooth. I have to do this for 2-3 minutes. If you have a cool vitamix, it's easier, and I am envious of you.

Bluegrass

We love San Francisco. We had a great time, and thank you so much Cait for being such an incredible host. We listened to music, went to a neat farmer's market, I discovered "Mrs Munchies," I tried Pho for the first time - and I am hooked.

The farmer's market we went to was so amazing, so much good stuff I was paralyzed, I couldn't think of what I wanted to buy and what I wanted to try. We got some basil goat cheese, bread, some fruit. But I want to go back... There are some good farmer's markets around here, but that one... amazing.

After the market we head to the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival...



Let me tell you, it was insane. That white mass above Justin's head, that's the crowd and it doesn't do it justice.

We got to the park a few hours before Gillian came on to get a spot and we found ourselves stuck in the middle of a crazy crowd-people on all sides, that feeling of "there is no way out, I'm trapped." People around us were saying, "this isn't good" "you need crowd control!" "stop hitting my daughter on the head with your chair!"

To escape the chaos we opted to go up on a hillside to listen to the show. Unfortunately we didn't have a good view, but it was still great. Gillian is incredible. For the last song she brought up Emmylou Harris and Old Crow Medicine Show to play the Weight (by the Band). Here is a video of it that I love. That song made it all worth it...


A guy sitting in front of us offered to take our photo, he told us to look up into a tree, I was a little confused. He said "you laugh now, but when you see the photo you will see how awesome it is!" Yeah.. sooo, haha. Ok, here is the photo.


On our walk back we heard these characters playing "Billie Jean" ... they were a lot of fun... started spontaneous dancing...


I had heard about the mass amounts of bikes, but seriously, there were so many, they were hanging from trees...


Saturday Evening Moonrise off 21st street...


Sunday was a little less insane. People were climbing trees to get a good view, but there was no freak-out-I-am-trapped feeling...


We had a huge dilemma. Old Crow and Amadou were playing at the same time... horrible, HOW COULD THEY DO THIS TO US. Well, we had to choose. We ended up getting a decent spot for Amadou & Mariam, and I am so happy that we did. They were so much fun. We danced, and it was great. Amadou kept yelling to the crowd, "Do you feel alive?!" ... it was sweet!

Hardly Strictly...

Soon we will be on our way to San Francisco to visit a friend and to see the amazing Gillian Welch, my new favorite Amadou & Mariam, and good ol' Old Crow Medicine Show at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival. Our bags our packed, I have lots of snacks, and a few CDs burned with episodes of This American Life and Radio Lab.

Hope you all have a good weekend, see you on the flip side! Hopefully I will have some photos to share.

What are you doing this weekend?

This is from our trip to SF last fall..