La vie, toujours, la vie

Aw, guys. I really want to thank you for sticking with me - I know I've been all over the place lately, and I'm so glad you're still here.

My mom was visiting for the last week and we had the loveliest time. We ate at Resto, shopped at Ann Taylor (I bought this sweater), and visited the High Line. We also tried to navigate the insanity of the TKTS booth in Times Square (result: an hour in line and NO tickets to Mary Poppins). Here's the view of the insanity inTimes Square (photo by Mom):

And my mom is on a restricted diet as of late so making up a menu was a challenge: limited dairy and animal protein, limited wine, no refined sugar, everything multi-grain and whole wheat. Here is one thing I made while she was visiting:

Food and Wine's Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Cabbage and Pine Nuts, served with ricotta-topped grilled bread (I omitted the ricotta on my mom's plate).

I've also been busy working on my iTunes playlists. As you know (here and here, among others), playlists play an integral part in my kitchen and eating life. And with the new computer, I've had to work on reorganizing my 10,000+ tracks. A huge task but one I love, actually.

Also, those of you who have been reading awhile are familiar with the Soul Twin and her husband, My Other Husband. They've had a family tragedy recently that has left me feeling helpless and sad. Ugh. I'm just sick over the whole thing, and I don't know what to do. Cooking, hugs, love...sure, that's all great but it won't bring someone back who never should have left. Shit.  I just can't find words.

But I was going through the blog the other day and looking through past posts (from waaay back!) and thinking about things that I've done, what a full life I've had, and how much I've laughed.  And how much amazing food and drink I've had.  So if you'll indulge me, I'm sharing my trip down memory lane with you:

Back when I still blogged children's books, I went bowling during BEA with Chris, Jack, Scott Westerfeld, and David Levithan.

My first souffle!

Adam and Bug: one of my first photos with my new camera

Homemade calamari is so simple!

Relaxing at home while Adam was on a business trip (this was a Stratus Chardonnay).

A trip to Florida with the Soul Twin

My first taste of Cubanisimo's Rosado

My trip to Anguilla that I never did tell you guys all about, as I promised.

Mixing work and foodie pleasure with In-N-Out (thanks again to Liz Burns and Angie Manfredi for creating one of my favorite conference memories)

Golden Globes party with the Soul Twin 

Beer, sausages, and pretzels for breakfast

My first macarons at Bastille Day 2011!

Lastly, on a really high note, I have to share a video with you. I've been mum about it but now it's known worldwide that Dogfish Head Brewery and some Googlers collaborated on a beer together: Urkontinent. Guess who's Google-y husband spearheaded the project? Mine! Guess who's husband got to brew beer with Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head? Mine! I couldn't be prouder of Adam. The video is below. It's a little on the long side but I promise that it's entertaining and you'll learn some interesting stuff about the brewing process. Not to mention that there's a tall, cute blond guy for you all to look at. Enjoy!



Eat, drink, and let someone know today that you love them.

Beer for Breakfast

As mentioned, we're in the middle of a move...which means that, basically, I'm semi-permanently in Grump Mode.  Love the excitement, love the adventure, love the promise of a move.  But hate the grunt work, the physical labor, and disorganization of it all.  I realize how silly it is for me to be so grumpy so I try to keep my head above water by playing lots of fun music, drinking an extra glass of wine or two, and trying unexpected recipes (where permitted since, you know, I've packed half my kitchen).

In the midst of weeding through my magazine recipes and articles, I found this one from Saveur, "Breakfast Times Two*."  It's a short blurby article about Munich, specifically, and their traditional zweites Frühstück, or second breakfast.  After a light breakfast, there is the late morning second breakfast, which usually consists of sausage, a soft pretzel, sweet mustard, and a beer.  A beer!  At 11:00 a.m.!  I knew this would be a brilliant way to alleviate my bad attitude.  I mean, how fun and out of the ordinary!

Adam and I started with some yogurt, granola, and coffee around 9:00.  And here was our 11:00 a.m. zweites Frühstück :

Now, I didn't have the traditional pretzel - I am so embarrassed to admit that I used those generic Super Pretzels - but, nevertheless, it was awesome.  The knackwurst we had with it was sweet, the pretzels were salty, the mustard was a tad spicy...and the beer washed it all down to perfection.

Like the photo in Saveur, we drank Schneider Weisse - first, we split a bottle of  the original Schneider Weisse, which was so light as to be almost "American lager"-esque.  Our second beer was the Weihenstephaner, which was a wheat beer with a little more heft and spice.  I liked it a bit more than the Schneider Weisse, but it was purely a personal taste issue - they were very different beers.  If you can't find either of these, you can just stick with anything German and/or wheat - you'll most likely get the spice you'll need for this.

Talking about spice and sausage aside, this is just what the doctor ordered.  We got out of our routine, Adam and I gushed about how delicious and fun it all was, and Bug got to be all shocked about us having beer at 11:00 a.m.  Lots of of laughter all around.  And you can bet that I matched the music: there's a German band that came on my radar a couple years ago, Wir sind Helden**.  They played in the background.  Overall, the whole meal was a triumph and started off my weekend just right.

Eat, drink, and Deutsch werden.


* Apologies for lack of a link to the article - it's not available on Saveur's website.  For the record, the short article was in issue #114, "The Breakfast Issue."
** Never heard of Wir sind Helden?  You don't need to understand German, I assure you, to get addicted to their sound.  Check out the concert footage here and here.  Try to resist the pop sound and the adorable lead singer!