Packing material from my new best friend, delivery groceries.
April 16, 2012
Packing material from my new best friend, delivery groceries.
April 15
Seen in: Williamsburg
Bacon & Ramp Pierogis
Ramps aka wild leeks are in season in New York right now and are actually a food that is quite often foraged. Ramps herald the beginning of spring, often appearing just as the snows recede. Ramps have a tender spicy/oniony/leek-y taste and oniony smell. Yum. We also ran across some delicious looking pre-made pierogis at a local gourmet market and couldn’t resist. This makes a very quick throw-together dinner for a weeknight. If you don’t have preserved lemon or citrus salt, regular lemon zest and kosher salt will do in a pinch.
Bacon and Ramp Pierogis
8 potato & cheddar pierogis (thawed if they are frozen)
1 bunch ramps, slice thin
3 oz. home made bacon, cut into 1/4 inch chunks
1/2 Tbsp. unsalted butter
2 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp. preserved lemon, diced
1 tsp. fresh thyme, chopped
1 pinch citrus salt
In a large pan over medium heat, sautee bacon until browned and crispy. Place onto paper towels to drain. Set aside.
Pop your pan back over the heat, crank the heat up to medium-high and add 1 Tbsp. of the oil. Add pierogis (non frozen). Sautee until browned on both sides. Set aside.
Add the rest of the oil to the pan and toss in the ramps. Sautee until ramps are tender and wilty.
Add the pierogis, butter, preserved lemon and bacon back to the pan. Toss.
Turn off the heat. Top with thyme and citrus salt.
Serves 2 for a light dinner.
April 14, 2012
One Hanson Plaza
April 13, 2012
Yum. Cabin In The Woods FTW!
New York Aquarium & Coney Island
The New York Aquarium opened in 1896 on Battery Island and is the oldest continually operating aquarium in the United States. In 1957 it relocated to Coney Island and has become one of the five parks participating in the Wildlife Conservation Society (The Bronx Zoo, Central Park Zoo, Queens Zoo, Prospect Park Zoo are the other 4). The Aquarium hosts the Society’s Aquatic Animal Health Center, which includes a state-of-the-art marine animal hospital complete with full medical services, pools and recuperation facilities. Keepers work with the animals at the park to enrich their minds and bodies and participate in Species Survival Plan cooperative conservation and animal management programs.
Aside from its historical and conservation value, the park is well worth checking out. It’s not huge, but has some really cool animals (even a few I hadn’t seen at an aquarium before), and the setup is top-notch with lots of learning opportunities for kids and adults alike.
Here are just a few shots from our first trip.
Coney Island
Coney Island’s history as ‘New York’s Holiday Destination’ began in the 1830s and 40s when roads and steamship services cut the trip from Manhattan down from a half day trek to 2 hours. Hotels, electricity and attractions soon followed and in 1896, Coney Island’s Elephant (now gone) was actually the first sight to greet immigrants (it was visible before the Statue of Liberty). Although the amusement park’s peak has come and gone, it is enjoying a revitalization with the MCU Park and minor league baseball team, the Brooklyn Cyclones.
On a side note, wtf is wrong with the NY Aquarium and Coney Island’s websites? They’re nice and all, but don’t people care about the history of a place any more? Neither of these sites had squat about their history. I had to go to Wikipedia (so take the history part with a grain of salt) to find any information – luckily what I did find had footnote references, so one can be somewhat assured that the information is accurate, but damn. Where are all the history nerds?
April 12, 2012
Still life
April 11, 2012
Glasses day 2
April 10, 2012
Since I woke up in the middle of the night with a gush of tears running down my face and my eye doing some sort of weird convulsion thing to dislodge whatever had managed to work its way way into the back of my eye socket in the middle of the night, I’m stuck with glasses today. Headache-inducing glasses. My eye still feels like it got beat up from the inside. I’m seeing glasses in my future tomorrow, too. Providing my head doesn’t fall off from the weight of these babies, that is. Taking them off periodically to squint inches from the screen probably isn’t helping much.
Brooklyn Botanic Garden
Spring is bursting at the seams all around us and since we finally had a Saturday that was warm enough for two recent Miami transplants to want to spend time standing still, we took a picture-taking excursion to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. And fell in love. This place is stunning, not only because of the blooming cherry trees and tulips, but because it is a very well thought out, very walkable garden with more than enough room to encompass the throngs of cherry blossom obsessed people visiting on the gardens’ free day. Admission all other days is only $13, and a yearly membership is only $50 – well worth the price of admission (and then some).
First, the star of the show and the reason I couldn’t wait to visit, the cherry blossoms.
Only the first blush of trees were ready with blooms and they were mobbed by people wanting to experience Hanami, or the Japanese tradition of enjoying every possible second of cherry blossom season. I can’t wait to go back for the Sakra Matsui Festival later this month when every tree should be in bloom. The cherry tree esplanade promises to be a beautiful sight to behold.
Moving on….
I can’t wait for this garden to bloom. These lattice shots are from the large rose garden. Roses just might be my favorite flower to shoot, other than orchids.
The tulips are also in bloom, as are hyacinth, early rising crepe myrtle, a few dogwood buds and magnolias (to name a few).
Want to see more? Check out our Flickr page.
Gastography 