Hello everyone,
Besides being rainy here in the NYC area over the weekend, I had a great, relaxing and productive weekend. Yup, great, relaxing and productive - wow! That's a tall order to fill.
Friday night Dave and I worked a little late, then threw together some fettuccine alfredo with zucchini and spinach for dinner (Thanks Trader Joe's!).
Saturday morning we had planned a quick trip to Costco for plastic wrap, paper towels, and a few other items. We're really not big fans of weekend errands, preferring to spend our time in NYC relaxing. But no more big roll of plastic wrap called for desperate measures. It took awhile to drive to Costco, then we needed to find a parking spot. We were both still resigned to this trip. But once we got in the elevator to go upstairs, we discovered the elevator was broken and we figured "Well, that's a sign, no Costco for us!". We also skipped picking up the dry cleaning, driving straight to NYC. Ahhh, much better.
Looking for a little snack, we decided to try Olives at the W in Union Square. Olives is part of the Todd English family of restaurants, predominately located in the Boston area. Now, we love his pizza places, Figs (try the spinach salad with warm bacon, parmesan and lemon dressing... mmmmmm). Olives in Boston was a bit of a let-down, some of the food was exceptional and some was just ordinary. The open kitchen was pretty loud, and we ended up smelling like grease when we left. That's never a good thing. But we figured we might as well try the Olives in NY.... what's there to lose?
We ordered drinks (mine was tasty - watermelon juice, muddled limes and light rum), a classic flatbread with tomato sauce and fresh mozzarella, and arancini (crispy risotto balls stuffed with cheese, served over roasted tomato sauce). Both the flatbread and the arancini were ok, lacking a bit in the flavor department but the flatbread did have an amazingly tender crust. Check totaled $50 for 2 drinks and the 2 snacks, a little high. We could have gone to pie though, and paid alot less for much better pizza. Live and learn. At least the scene at the W didn't disappoint.
While we were at the W, I got a call from a good friend who wanted to meet for drinks at the Ritz Battery Park then dinner at Porto Bello on Thompson. Sign me up! Dave and I decided to catch a movie first, so we saw 'Thank You for Smoking'.... which I highly recommend.
Drinks and dinner was fun. Good company and good food. After dinner, we walked over to Cones where Dave and I had corn gelato. Yup, you read that right, corn! The sign said it's Brazil's favorite flavor... who knew. The taste was just like vanilla ice cream blended with a can of Green Giant niblets corn. Without a doubt the best flavor I've ever gotten from there. Growing up, my mom would make pancakes with niblets, served with maple syrup, so this corn gelato was pure comfort food. My friend C also got dark chocolate and white chocolate gelato, and I suffered through a few tastes. :)
Sunday Dave and I went futon shopping, and we think we found a new one. Yay! Just in time to throw the old futons into the dumpster we're renting at the end of the week (we've been sleeping on three futons, just like the princess and the pea). Then we drove to Ikea to check out bed frames, and to pick up some lamps and picture frames. Dave made dinner, roasted fingerling potatoes with feta and sauteed swish chard and kale, and we watched Entourage.
All in all a great weekend. Hope you all had a nice weekend as well!
Oh, and the picture? That's T-Bone, my friend Susann bought him at Renegade. You can find him and his friends hanging with Mr. Pickles.