Megan Blocker

Chufi, that is GORGEOUS! Is it a recipe of your own creation? Just beautiful.

Yes, something about Ina Garten and Mario Batali's love child, no?

Though not nearly as kitchen-y, one of my favorites for cheap plates and platters is the Crate and Barrel outlet - especially good for seasonal stuff that you can't bring yourself to pay full price for, and also for serving stuff. The actual kitchen stuff is eh - but the napkins and table settings are good buys!

My little brother (straight, yes) is ADDICTED to GG. I bought him seasons 1 and 2 on DVD for Christmas. I have him over for dinner on Tuesday and we watch it together.

Sazji, those pastries look DELICIOUS. Especially the strawberry tart and the babas. Wow. Did you taste everything?

Me, too - and trust me, the coffee just put it over the top. Tonight was also an ice cream-y night, but after the Coldstone pint (gulp), I decided to be good. I got a Tasti-D-Lite, coffee and cream. Sigh. I really want some Haagen Dazs. Luckily, living in a third-floor walkup keeps you from running out to satisfy every craving.

This may be my favorite line from that site... Um, yes. And here we are.

I think this is what Valentine's Day is, if it's celebrated in the right spirit, just like any other holiday. I do not think, however, in the majority of cases that I have seen, that this is the case. I could be completely wrong on this. I have no real opinion on the markup of food - it's kind of obnoxious, and I also feel weird going out on Valentine's Day, whether or not I'm in a couple - it's like some sort of weird group date. I don't know - it kinda freaks me out. That said, I love Valentine's Day cards and the idea of celebrating. But maybe I don't like/get the whole public aspect because I'm so private about celebrating my own life.

← Wait...are you saying that's NOT what it's about? Huh. K ← Me? I'm saying that's totally what it's about, and I loved the way Lindacakes put it. Sigh. Public is the key word, though - it's all about showing your love off to the world.

And this, my friends, is why I am still single. Men are evil. FFB, if you want a full report via PM, let me know!

So, a Coldstone Creamery opened up less than a block from my apartment a couple summers ago, but I'd never been. Tonight I was walking home thinking, I don't really feel like eating dinner, but I could go for some ice cream. My usual fix is Haagen Dazs coffee, but I decided to mix it up and finally try Coldstone. I got a pint of coffee with chocolate chips and oreos mixed in. The ice cream itself isn't fabulous, though it's not terrible, either - but oreos with coffee ice cream? GENIUS.

Yetty, I love that this is what you're served at the office. Today for lunch, a few colleagues and I had a lunchtime pow-wow and ordered in Wu Liang Ye for fuel. Shredded smoked beef with spicy capsicum, prawns with chili asparagus, broccoli in garlic sauce, eggplant in garlic sauce, veggie mai fun, veggie dumplings, and pork dumplings. You know, just a little food.

Luke and Lorelai and breakfast in bed - delivered by the breakfast santa!

Wow, those are pretty bad. Ouchers.

My all-time favorite way to eat a Wahoo? When I was fifteen, my grandparents took my entire extended family (all 8 cousins, one pair of parents and my single mom) to Turks and Caicos for a week-long vacation. We stayed on Provodenciales in a small hotel - no Club Med for these intrepid folks! We went parasailing one day, snorkeling out on the reefs another, and one day, we took two boats and went deep-sea fishing. I don't remember which boat brought home the biggest haul (which probably means it wasn't my boat and I've suppressed the memory of losing ), but I do remember that we caught a huge amount of wahoo. We took it to the restaurant we'd eaten at for New Year's Eve (when we were seated next to Denzel Washington and his wife, who I'm sure were so thrilled to have a rowdy bunch of hooligans right there), and they cooked it up for us two ways - fried and grilled. It was delicious. And, to this day, when Pops gets excited, he shouts "Wahooooo!" So, no, I have no suggestions or recommendations (sorry!), but I do want to thank you for bringing back memories. I wonder where my cocktail napkin with Denzel's signature went?

Well, I do know that some of the concern over changing the blue laws in New York (by allowing liquor to be sold on Sundays) was that smaller businesses would not be able to afford to stay open seven days a week, and would therefore be steamrolled by larger establishments. Hence the provision that the stores still have to be closed for at least one day out of seven. A lot of stores have picked Monday, or are still closedon Sundays. Might be the same kind of thinking...though it seems kind of silly when we're talking about an hour.

Then we don't want to know about it! BTW, the restaurant list included Brooklyn spots, too, as does the term "NYC."

Yes! You should check out Chufi's dinner posts and Dutch cooking thread for inspiration - she makes the most amazing, creative mashes!

The latest edition of New York Magazine lists a few romantic restaurants that still had Valentine's Day reservations for two available as of press time, which led me to wonder... What are my fellow NYC eGulleteers up to tonight? I'm watching Pride and Prejudice and Gilmore Girls and ordering in - celebrating singledom with my kind of TV (No sharing that remote, woo-hoo!) and whatever greasy food strikes my fancy. Would love to hear other folks' plans - coupled or not!

New York Magazine Digest - 2/13/06 Reviews Gilty Pleasure In a review sure to delight those who feel the attention Gilt has received so far has not been focused on the food, Adam Platt goes into great detail about, among other things, the Pekin Duck, the milk-fed chicken, and the loup-de-mer. While noting that the atmosphere and pricing are a bit over-the-top, Platt awards Liebrandt three stars, acknowledging that a more varied menu might bring four. Openings and Buzz Openings for the Week of February 13, 2006 Included this week are El Centro, Little Dishes, and El Dar, among others. El Centro: El Dar: Pasanella and Son Vintners: Little Dishes: Features Last Minute Table For Two Spots with romantic settings and available reservations include Oceana and Fizz. Two For Fondue Places all over the city that serve fondue, that Valentine's Day favorite. The Layered Look The magazine examines the current rise of strudel in popularity, partly spurred by Nora Ephron's Op-Ed about the cabbage strudel from Andre's Cafe. Spots serving Strudel in addition to the UES Hungarian spot include Del Posto and The Modern. Papaya King: Juicer Melvin Major A Q&A session with Melvin Major, LifeThyme Natural Market's most popular juicer. Pets or Meat? Inspired by the recent spate of tabloid photos showing huge rabbits, the magazine provides a list of places serving lapin. Cocoa Loco A list of spots where you can find superior hot chocolate. Ask Gael Cocoa-flavored Gnocchi? Do I Dare? Gael Greene hits Spiga, the latest addition to the Upper West Side's burgeoning retaurant culture. Those chocolate-kissed gnocchi are "the hit of the night," but not every dish makes it that far.

This was my dessert last night - isn't it precious? I bought it at Two Little Red Hens, a bakery about a block from my apartment (they have a shop in Park Slope as well). The cupcake underneath the delicious and adorable frosting was banana - a bit dry, but good. Tonight I had one of their "Brooklyn Blackout" cupcakes, and it was better, but not nearly as pretty.

Best thread title - ever.

71 is fantastic - it's not in my neighborhood, so I could never claim it, but I do love it there. This is how I feel about Java Girl on 66th Street - walking in is like arriving in my own space, no matter how crowded it is. If this thread proves anything, it's that there's nothing precocious about that at all. "Morning coffee routine" has quickly become "morning coffee ritual." I'm reminded of one of the duller books I read during my time as a religious studies major - we all hated this book, rebelled against it, and yet it was one of the more important, conceptually. It was about the study of ritual as a means of identifying the truly important aspects of a religion - ritual theory, something borrowed from anthropology. This thread reminds me of how interesting that concept is in application, if not as reading material in and of itself! New York may be crowded, and it's certainly expensive, and, yes, it can even be painful at times. But one thing it is not is dreary. Can you tell I love it here?

Woo-hoo!!! Go, Toasted! And congrats to Dave, Marlene and Susan (and Matt, Maggie, and all the other fabulous quitters) for a fantastic and inspiring blog. Way to go, guys - this has been awesome!