Spring!!

I realized I am doing a horrible job blogging.  I haven't blogged at all since we have gotten back from our trip to the United Kingdom.  I need to go through all my pictures from that trip and do a blog post about it, I just haven't gotten around to it yet!  Meanwhile, the weather here has been sunny and beautiful.  Here is what we have been up to lately.

We have been taking long walks around NYC (which I told David will have to come to end soon or become much shorter...6 mile walks are a bit much for me now!).  A few weeks ago on Saturday, we ate at a restaurant called Mission Chinese.  It is pretty well known, and the first location was in California.  It is not traditional Chinese food, but it was excellent.  Here is what we had, I know it looks kind of gross in the picture, but it was really good food.  We had the beer brined Sichuan Pickles, Kung Pao Pastrami, and the Egg Egg Noodles.  http://missionchinesefood.com/ny/

I have also been busy hanging out with friends here in Jersey City.  I think some of the husbands are starting to catch on that maybe we are spending too much money while they are at work;)

 

Last week my friend had us over for Wine Wednesday (or in my case Water Wednesday;)).  Her view of NYC is amazing!  The tall building on the left is the new Freedom Tower.

 

Two weekends ago we went for a walk along the Highline (an old elevated railroad track converted into a public park).  We have been there numerous times, but it is such a nice break from the traffic and streets of the city.

 

After our looonnnggg walk, we went to one of our favorite restaurants on the

 Upper East Side called Peking Duck House. 

On the way home, we had to stop at David's office for him to print some stuff out for work.  He is not this messy, it's actually not his workspace.  Because they are out of the office at clients so often, they don't have permanent desks, they "reserve" them while they are in the office.

 

 

Last week David had to go to a client in Princeton.  I decided to tag along and explore more of New Jersey.  This area of Jersey is VERY nice (now I understand where a lot of the tax money goes, since we are living in the highest real estate taxed state in the country!).  I had a nice day walking around the campus of Princeton and shopping.

 

 

 



 On Saturday across the Brooklyn Bridge and we went to the Transportation Museum in Brooklyn, it was a lot of fun!  It is in an old Subway Station.

We had lunch at a pizza place in Brooklyn called Krescendo, it was excellent!

On the way home, there was someone who climbed up to the top of one of the arches of the Brooklyn Bridge to jump.  The police shut down the bridge when we were not even 5 minutes from Manhattan, so we sat and waited for an hour until they opened it back up.  The police were eventually able to get the guy down.

 

I just realized this post includes a lot of food - I think David has learned that in order for me to take such long walks, I require good food:)  He also surprised me with roses on Tuesday when he came home from work!  This Thursday I will be 28 weeks pregnant!  What is even crazier is that as of last Wednesday we had only 3 months until the due date- I can't wait!!!

 



Recently.....

We have started packing, selling things, and selling more things.  A couple weekends ago though, we went to Holeman and Finch, a restaurant we have been wanting to go to since we moved here.  They are very well known for their burgers, and every Friday night starting at 10:00 they make 25 burgers, when they are sold out, they are gone.  But, on Sunday mornings, they have an unlimited amount during brunch.  So, David's friend Paul was in town for work and we went on Sunday morning.  It was so crowded that there was an hour and a half wait (even at 1:00pm on a Sunday!!), so we ate at the bar.  The burgers did not disappoint, I have to say hands down it was one of the best burgers I have ever had!!!  I am just bummed I didn't get a picture of it!



Since we are moving, we have been trying to eat and drink EVERYTHING in our house.  In 2010 while we were at my parent's house for Christmas, we bought a bottle of sparkling beer at Troegs Brewery.  It has been in our fridge since then while we waited for a special occasion.  We finally decided to drink it last Saturday night, it was good, but not worth an almost 2 year wait!



Last night my friends at work had a happy hour for me.  They brought a cake and made me a frame with pictures of me at school...it turned out really well. 

This week is a busy one - Tuesday the packers come, Wednesday the moving truck comes, Thursday we close on hour house, Friday we fly to Chicago for the weekend, Saturday a wedding in Chicago, and Sunday a one way ticket to New York City!!!!!

Oh, and my parents were in Columbus, Ohio for a wedding last weekend, they went by our old house...it doesn't look like much has changed.

Chicken, Waffles, and Wreath

A few weeks ago David and I went downtown to eat at Gladys Knight's Chicken and Waffles.  We have wanted to try it since we moved here, but there is ALWAYS a wait outside.  Since we had a 50% off coupon from Scoutmob, we decided to deal with the wait and try it.  On a Sunday morning, we got there around 11:30, 30 minutes after it opened.  There of course, was already a 45 minute wait.  I gotta be honest, it was not as good as I expected.  David and I both got the two pieces of chicken and a waffle...the waffle was excellent, but unfortunately the chicken was just ok.  I have defintely had better friend chicken, it was a bit of a let down.  Luckily thanks to our coupon, we only paid $20 instead of $40. 

On to Valentine's Day....I had nothing for the front door.  I found an idea I liked on pinterest, that looked simple, so I went Michael's to get the supplies.  I only spent $11 on everything.  All I did was cut circles of red felt and folded them into fours and pinned them on to the foam.

There's Naan Left!!

I tried to think of a creative title:)  This weekend was pretty relaxing.  Since Thursday night we have watched 3 movies, and they were actually good!  Thursday night we watched "Lincoln Lawyer" which was about a defense lawyer who works out of his Lincoln.  Saturday night we watched "The Adjustment Bureau" which I really liked!  It was about the path in life we are meant to be on and what happens when someone deviates from that path.  Then, today we saw "Captain America" in 3-D, which was cute.  I actually liked it much more than I expected!

Now on to the reason for my post title!  Last night we had Indian food, chicken tikka with rice and naan bread.  I was in charge of the naan bread, it was easy and it turned out well!  If I say something is easy to make, then trust me, it's easy to make!  I will admit David does most of the cooking in our house.  All I did was mix flour, baking powder, salt, sugar and vegetable oil.  Then I kneaded it for about 10 minutes and let it rise for an hour.

After I let it rise, I rolled it out with a rolling pin into 6 pieces of bread.  Then, before putting it in the oven I put cilantro on top and sprayed it with extra virgin olive oil.  The oven was set on broil and I had the pan in the oven heating up before I put the bread in the oven.  The bread only takes a minute in the oven.

 Here is a picture of our dinner.  David made the chicken and rice of course.  Dinner turned out well.  But, to be honest, the thing I hate about eating Indian at home is the smell.  Our kitchen still smells like dinner last night 24 hours later!

Tomorrow is my 30th birthday, I don't care what anyone says.....30 is NOT the new 20.  For some reason, birthdays seem to loose their charm when you get older and don't have a "fun" birthday party to look forward to like you do when you are a little kid.