Take Out...well, delivery

Who gets take-out anymore? It's too labor intensive, especially for something that should be easy. I call, I order and they ring the bell.

Before our move in mid-January we were very happy with our weekly sushi delivery order - Saga was good to us even if it took the an hour to deliver the goods. We moved on a Friday which is martini and sushi night for us. Our first night in the new place, the sushi came with a great salad, but the sushi wasn't what we expected. We gave them another chance or 2 before moving on. Next we tried another nearby restaurant called Fusha. Their sushi for 2 came with a Valentine's roll which was strawberry over rice. I don't know about anyone else, but sushi means fish to me. I even tend to question the California roll as sushi. I know it is crab, but it's cooked. I love eel so I guess I should just let California roll go, but strawberry is a no-go. I couldn't let the strawberry go - that was just wrong. We tried one other place and had lack luster results. This week we tried a new place and ding, ding, ding we have a winner! Thank you sushi hana for a nice dinner last night.

Brown Rice with Avocado and Cherry Tomatoes

Ever make, from scratch, the same dish for dinner 3 times in the same week? Well I did, plus I ate leftovers of it for lunch one day. This avocado and cherry tomato dish is quite tasty and I would make it for for dinner without being on the cleanse. After a couple of nights of steaming random veggies and throwing them into cooked brown rice we decided to try a recipe from the cleanse diet's site. We were very pleasantly surprised with how tasty it was and we cooked it again for dinner the next night and again a few nights later. Either this cleanse has so deprived our taste buds that brown rice, avocado, tomato, lemon juice and garlic now constitute high cuisine or we like to eat blandly more than we ever thought, which is probably not the case.

Here's the recipe:
2 cups short-grain brown rice, cooked
1 avocado - dices
15 cherry tomatoes - halved or not
2 garlic cloves - minced
juice from half of one lemon

Toss the last 4 ingredients in the cooked rice and serve - bon appetit!

The Brown Rice Cleanse Diet

Well, the grilled cheese and martini diet definitely has a down side and my waist line has been bearing the brunt of it lately. A week or so ago J and I decided that something had to change. We were both tired of shoehorning ourselves into our clothing and feeling uncomfortable and gross. We decided to kickstart our latest attempt to lose weight with a cleanse diet. I did some quick googling and found the 7-day brown rice cleanse diet on www.justcleansing.com. The diet is bland and boring - no caffeine, no booze, no protein other than brown rice and fat came in the form of avocado. I won't lie, there were days - especially days 3 and 4 - when I really thought about caving, but I didn't. I have 1 more weigh-in to go, but so far I lost 5.5 lbs and over the past week I have consumed more fruit than I have in the past 6 months. Hopefully I will stick to my new eating plan - brown rice, fruits and veggies from Monday through Friday at 5pm, martini and sushi on Friday night, some wine and good food over the weekend and then back to the grindstone Monday morning and avoid my old bad habits - half sandwiches in the middle of the day, eating off of Rex's plate, and an extra glass of wine during the week (as if those are my only bad habits).

Cheers!

P.D. O'Hurley's, Hummus, Crooked Tree, Landmarc

We were busy this weekend. we got out with the boys all three days of Labor Day weekend. On Saturday we tried to take a tugboat ride on he Hudson River, but even stand-by tickets were hard to come by. We ended up settling for lunch at P.D. O'Hurley's. I had some sort of mozzarella and pesto sandwich which was mediocre. Rex refused to eat the hot dog we ordered for him and I guess J's burger was OK. The funny part was when they delivered my lunch as mozzarella sticks and I had to explain that I had ordered the sandwich. Clearly attention to detail is not their strong suit.

On Sunday we went to the East Village. We had to forage for a lunch spot. J had looked in Zagat, but we forgot to bring it. On one street there was a bar/restaurant with loud music, which was not good for my sleeping Dash. The hummus restaurant was my first pick. Unfortunately the wait was going to be too long for my antsy toddler. Lunching with kiddos is definitely not the same as lunching as adults. Then we fell upon a place called the Crooked Tree. There were people at the outdoors and inside tables - good sign. We sat down and had a pretty nice lunch. It definitely qualified as a hole in the wall, but a good one.

Monday we headed to the carousel in Central Park. Rex had a good time on the carousel and then we walked to the Columbus Circle Shops and had lunch at Landmarc. There were strollers pared along the whole wall outside. We got inside and there were many tables with kids. The hostess brought crayons for Rex. The decor was contemporary. The service and menu were upscale. J and I enjoyed a half-bottle of Caymus Conundrum while our toddler drew on the paper tablecloth and our infant napped in my arms - LOVED IT! It didn't hurt that my caesar salad with salmon was very tasty!

Heirloom Tomato Terrine and NY Strip Steak

YUM! This was my meal last Wednesday when J and I treated ourselves to an acclaimed Manhattan eatery to celebrate our 9th anniversary. Granted the celebration came 1 week early, but the timing allowed us to take advantage of my mom's "free" babysitting. It was monetarily free, but emotionally expensive - nothing is EVER free. All that aside, it was nice to come home and not have to fork over $80+ for a sitter plus pay for her to take a car home. The car is pretty cheap and I would be horrified if I didn't get her the car and something happened to her - definitely a worthwhile added expense.

Back to dinner...I met J at the bar of the restaurant. It has recently relocated so everything was super spiffy. We each had a drink, chatted and took in the crowd. Then we went to our table in the dining room. As we made our menu choices we each had a Hendrick's Cucumber Gimlet - I couldn't go through dinner without a cuke! We are so much more than foodies - I need to come up with another word, like drinkies? J also picked out a bottle of Pinot Noir with the help of the sommelier. It is funny that when we were younger we never wanted help from the sommelier, now we readily accept it. Is it because we were too uncomfortable in our early years, too lazy now, too embarrassed by our young palates years ago or so confident in our "mature" palates today?

Our first courses came and mine was delicious - light, flavorful and beautiful. My strip steak was amazing - super tender and rich. I followed it up with a dark chocolate torte and a glass of 20 year tawny - how I missed my ports when pregnant. I used to always get scotch after a meal, but my mid-thirties have really rung in the era of the port.

We came home, let my mom off duty and crashed. It was a great night. In addition to the meal, we chatted about our kids and our future - 2 of my favorite topics!

Tomorrow is our actual 9 year anniversary. We will celebrate at home with a meal/snack more reminiscent of our early dating years - shrimp cocktail, cheese, crackers, salami, and some antipasti items. I am sure the conversation will be grand and the wine from the wine fridge will do the trick.

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

My mom made this cake for us today to help commemorate our upcoming year anniversary. It was a very tasty cake, especially considering I eat cucumbers for dinner during the week. This week should be much different. J and I are going out to a great dinner on Wednesday so my diet will be shot this week. I am looking forward to the awesome meal bit I do like the hungry feeling - it makes me feel thinner.

Grass-Fed Beef Burgers

It seems we have have burgers on the grill every weekend. We typically order 4lbs of grass-fed beef in hamburg form from our CSA co-op each month along with some steaks and other meats. Tonight my mom joined us for burgers. I may be in the minority, but I prepare my burger with mustard, ketchup, lettuce, tomato and onion and then eat it. I rarely look at the beef. I think having a 3 month old that just went to sleep for the night and who could wake up at any moment makes me eat fast. I still enjoy the food, but can't take the time to pleasure in it. I realized when I cleaned the plates that my mom had left small pieces of slightly reddish beef on her plate. Maybe I don't care if my burger is on the rare side - actually I know I don't care if it is on the rare side. I just don't get how/why she needs to inspect every bite. And you may be thinking my mom is a size 2, but no she's a size 14 - at least.

I often wonder why while I love and salivate over good food, I am not all that picky about what I eat. I will try just about anything and any disappointment I have usually has more to do with lack of flavor or spice than with texture or degree of "doneness". I find that most of family is stuck in a food rut. I am very grateful that I am not in that same rut. I really hope my kids avoid the rut as well.

Tomorrow night...another helping of Chinese Cabbage Salad.