Greece

via cup of jo

I love New York with all my heart, but wouldn't it be a treat to sneak off to this place for a mere week? A few days would suffice. Send me there, adventure fund!

Julie & Julia

I finally saw Julie & Julia. I can't believe I hadn't seen it earlier. It was nearly two hours of sheer bliss (except when Julie leaves a stick of butter for Julia a the Smithsonian and says to her photograph "I love you"--could have done without that.) I slipped into Julia's affected speech continuously last night and succumbed to midnight hunger pangs by following her video instructions on how to make the perfect French omelette.

Alas, I was really craving boeuf bourguignon with crusty French bread, but midnight eggs it was. What's fun is that Judith Jones, the original editor of Mastering the Art of French Cooking, was the subject of this past Sunday Magazine's Food section, and the article was accompanied by a small recipe for my craving! I'm very anxious to make it. I think I'm going to start carrying my cookbooks around with me and reading them on the subway--shoulders, take note.

i want to be a wild thing

Where the Wild Things Are x Opening Ceremony

Natural Living

photo from my trip, Bash Bish Falls. Sept 2009.

+Enjoying reading The Last American Man, soon to be completed
+Bit piece on trekking in the Himalayas in yesterday's Travel Section, makes me want to dive back Into Thin Air
+"Sometimes naked, sometimes mad, now foolish, they appear on earth, the free ones." - Hindu adage found here.

This Sucks

Roman Polanski Arrested in Switzerland Based on a 1978 Arrest Warrant

kill me now

via

Ganges

Beautiful photo via

We could do this, too. In the Ganges, maybe?

"Some Hindus also believe life is incomplete without bathing in the Ganges at least once in one's lifetime."

camp crazy

This past weekend, I was a part of an exhilarating camping trip in Taconic State Park with a group of 8 friends. The trip was intended to replace the Burning Man excursion that everyone had been really looking forward to, but couldn't make it to this August. A month in the making, we had two wonderfully relaxing, rugged, cell-phone free days in the woods. In all honesty, I'm still catching up on all of the sleep I lost, what with the rocks under my mat-less sleeping back and the black bears roaming outside my tent after dark. Nonetheless, every waking hour was fun-filled. Some highlights:

+playing Catch Phrase nearly all the time
+warming up in front of the campfire
+coffee from an old-school percolator in the mornings
+discovering a playground after dark and enjoying swingsets with flashlights in hand
+scrambled eggs and bacon for breakfast
+collecting logs
+playing house in our little private tents
+a 5-hour hike up to and past Bash Bish Falls
+climbing and scaling every boulder in sight
+running off the trail into the leaves and over log bridges like a witch
+dinners: BBQ chicken, baked potatoes, grilled veggies, hot dogs, cheeseburgers, baked beans, mac 'n' cheese, cole slaw, mushrooms
+whiskey lemonades by the fire
+a new love for head-lamps
+a cute little frog sighting
+no bear sightings
+S'MORES!

Early Night

photo via flickr

Getting home one hour early after work this evening is unexpected and about as good as it gets this week. Maybe I'll get some work done. And maybe I'll even turn on the T.V. Or delve back into this book that I'm loving.

Back from Camp

Back from camping with Team Exhilaration Club. Had a fantastic time. Carrying around a lingering grill scent in my hair. More later, working like mad this week.

exhilarating

via

Gearing up for my camping trip! We leave tomorrow morning from my apartment. I spent the bulk of the day preparing for the weekend, packing, organizing, and making food. With the help of my accompanying girls, I made nearly 2 lbs. of spicy spaghetti with tomato sauce, a container of cole slaw, and a pound of delicious looking martha's mac 'n' cheese.

We're called Camp Exhilaration Club.

Temptation

I just stumbled upon this video on a cup of jo. I was laughing out loud endlessly. I remember reading the New Yorker article about this experiment, as well. This is so very funny. Enjoy.

Oh, The Temptation from Steve V on Vimeo.

In-I

For my birthday, B got my tickets to see In-I, a dance-theater piece at BAM (the best place to see theater in the city!), featuring my favorite actress in the entire world: Juliette Binoche.

The piece combined movement and text to deconstruct the story of a relationship as it ages and matures. It was passionate, funny, innovative, and spectacular to watch. Getting dressed up and biking to a Brooklyn art house theater in heels alongside your boyfriend is one of the pleasures of life.

An interview with Juliette Binoche and choreographer, co-performer, Akram Khan.


I adore her. This interview made me tingle and giggle.

See her in this killer movie:


or this one (i named my kitty after her kitty in it!):

Italy

This is why I want to travel. No scenic views like this anywhere on the East Coast.

via a cup of jo

Pursuit of Happiness

Summer is almost over, but next year is sooner than we think. Rosh Hashana, the Jewish "Head of the Year", is this weekend. Already thinking about trips to be had next summer.

via Burning Man Gallery

Listen: Kid CuDi - Pursuit of Happiness

CSA overload

After a long weekend of incessant and boring work, today proved to be quite a relief. I had nothing dull to do today, just a day's worth of enjoyable activities.

I woke up really early for some reason, then Billy and I took of by 10 AM for a walk through Central Park and the Upper West Side, eventually getting breakfast at a sweet little place. Then I headed down to USQ for a meeting, then back to my apartment for some final camping planning and grocery organizing. After 2 hours devoted to that, I headed over to bridget to participate in my first volunteer shift at my CSA. Lucky for me, Jessica was also working that night and I hadn't seen her in awhile, so it was a good opportunity to catch up, shift some crates around, re-stock piles of vegetables, and intake a glass of wine with some cheese. I stationed myself in front of the herbs, which was very pleasant.


The best part of the night, however, was the loot we got to go home with at the end. It turns out that approximately 15 people didn't show up to pick up their shares this evening, so after a crate was set aside for Bridget (the winebar/distribution center) and another for the soup kitchen delivery, the rest of us volunteers got to take home as much as we could carry. This meant that I got the equivalent of nearly 3 shares tonight! It was a pain to carry home and my shoulders are screaming at me, but it was worth it because I shaved off some money off of our camping grocery list since I was able to bring home so many goods. In case you don't understand how stocked my kitchen is right now, let me break it down for you.

17 onions (red, white, and yellow)
11 potatoes
10 apples
7 zucchini
5 nectarines
4 pears
3 heads Boston lettuce
3 bunches basil
2 bunches radishes
2 bunches beets
2 bunches carrots
2 bunches cilantro
2 bunches mint
2 1/2 dozen eggs

I could open a little larder in my loft. I'd call it Farmarina.

Tracey Baran

Photographs by Tracey Baran. At Leslie Tonkonow Projects through October 17.

via Vulture

trotting along

Thanks to a tip from Cold Splinters, I'm currently listening to Adventures in the Simple Life with Eustace Conway on This American Life. Conway, an American naturalist, takes a cross-country trip on horseback with his brother. Hearing their ecstatic shrieking voices savoring the adventure of their journey is thrilling and inspiring. My camping trip has finally come together. We're leaving next Saturday morning and going to Taconic State Park. I'm currently working on the grocery list and conjuring up a few recipes to make the day before. So far I'm thinking potato salad, spaghetti in spicy tomato sauce, mac n cheese, chili, and blueberry pie... Any easy suggestions?

Give it a listen. The Southern accent is mesmerizing. Also, look into the book about his life.

Ayn vs Phil

After finishing Atlas Shrugged a few weeks back, I had to put the book away from awhile in order to sense the relief of completion so that I could savor returning to think about it. I felt like looking up some Ayn Rand video clips. Here's a good one. I adore her accent combined with her humorous and coherent intelligence.

like africa

when he loves me. in bed. when he puts his arms around me, and i can feel his skin, his heart beating, his breath, and i smell him, it’s like africa. it’s like, i get scared because all of my guts shake. sometimes i press my hands against myself because i think things are coming loose inside. he just touches me, starts to barely touch me, and i’m so frightened because it’s so much, it’s so hot, it’s so close to losing my mind.

- john patrick shanley

everything via sarah

Tea Party

via excavation by spoonfuls

I'm drinking breakfast tea right now and it's lovely, but oh how I wish I wish drinking it like this.

Robinson Family Weekend

Some pictures from the Connecticut pool party. Jen wrote a lovely description of our time up at the Robinsons' home and even expounded on my propensity to win water games like smallest splash etc while Tim wasn't playing.

Tim picked us up looking like James Bond. His dad collects MGs.

The Robinsons' beautiful garden.

Kicking off the party with a mimosa toast.

The Robinson barn.

Their backyard forest!

This is what we did all weekend:

Slept

Drank

Chatted

Boobs!

Dolphins Love to Surf

I know you've been eagerly awaiting video proof of the 100 dolphins I claimed to have seen surf off the coast of New Jersey on my birthday. Here it is:

Pool Party

Image via Carlo Van de Roer

Going to a pool party in Connecticut for the next few days. See you on the other side...

Sweet sweet corn

This afternoon I made my first recipe from Suzanne Goin's Sunday Suppers at Lucques. I've been hauling this book around with me all week, devouring her descriptions of seasonal produce and her excellent menu suggestions. Left with pounds of potatoes and corn from my CSA, I chose to go with a Sweet Corn Soup with Avocado Cream. It took a bit of time from start to finish, but it wasn't labor intensive nor complicated.

You can see the recipe right out of the book here.

Also for your viewing pleasure, my fat cat gearing up to watch TV. (Thanks Chloe.)

Swoon Worthya

The floral arrangements and design from this wedding make me swoon:

Excited for margarita Friday!

Documentary Justice

Remember my impassioned rant about The Cove? Well, it looks like the film and all the hype it created actually worked.

Snippets of My Today

Found this book at the library on Tuesday. I've been wanting it for awhile.

I also found this guidebook for Morocco. I've been saving up since May! Plus, little sea shells from my recent Hamptons trip, a lucky bunny my Mama gave me, and a deck of cards from Valentine's Day.

Birthday cards and a paper mache tiger from my Mama (1986 = year of the tiger), smooshed in between my cactus and a jar of cheap flowers I got at Marlow & Daughters today.

Fresh produce from Marlow & Daughters, plus a slice of leftover Motorino pizza. Chloe and I used the maple syrup and heavy cream to make this pie, which is currently in the oven. The corn and avocado is for a Sweet Corn Soup I plan to make from the Sunday Suppers at Lucques cookbook.