food - Mandrin Duck Musings

Tag: food

Head on over to Green Vegan Living today

I have a guest post over at my good friend Geanna’s blog, Green Vegan Living, this morning. I encourage you to check it out. Particuarly if you like scones because I made up my own recipe. Although really how original can you get with a basic scone recipe? Still, I haven’t ever been able to settle on one from a cookbook so I mixed and matched and threw in some ingredients I particularly like. I also encourage you to dig around on Green Vegan Living. It’s a great blog about practicing a gluten-free, vegan, green lifestyle.

You can also follow Geanna on Twitter @greenvegnliving. (You can follow me there too, @alyssaagee and @sorbetshop)

Author name:: Alyssa
Discussion:: No Comments
Categories:: Household
Tags:: food
recipe

First Canning Experience

A few weeks ago my sister and I rolled up our sleeves and canned green and purple beans. The project was so much fun! It involved lots of squealing, accidentally setting a dish towel on fire and overfilling the canning pot so that we ended up with a hot waterfall at one point. No one was injured (thank heavens) and last night we opened the first jar of Dilly Beans and were so pleased that they tasted absolutely delicious. With only 11 jars left I don’t think they will last long.

Author name:: Alyssa
Discussion:: No Comments
Categories:: Family
Personal
Tags:: family
food
funstuff
household
projects
summer

Day 4 NYC Trip

I think I mentioned the fact that B and I tend to be loyalists to places we love. Such is the case with good coffee. There wasn’t even any discussion around the fact that we would be heading back to Stumptown Saturday morning before doing anything else.

The weather was still just as bright and sunny as it had been yesterday and we took advantage of the all that Vitamin D by walking up to Central Park. We stopped briefly for crepes and then strolled leisurely through the park before hopping over to 5th Ave. I am no longer enamored by the upscale neighborhoods of the Upper East side of Manhattan. I actually started getting a little sick thinking about how much money the designer storefronts were displaying in their window cases. To spare both of us from my grumpiness, we walked back to the park and took a longer route back down to the southeast corner.

With some time to spare before our flight to Seattle Bryan found an Irish pub to grab a late lunch at and then we went hunting for DVDs to watch on the plane. That became a slightly more involved process than we were intending and by the time we arrived back at the hotel to pick up our luggage we were calling it close to make the train out to Newark on time. Come to find out, as soon as we had jogged over to Penn Station and crammed ourselves on the very full express line to the airport, our plan was more than three hours behind schedule. Seriously. We have THE worst luck when it comes to the actual traveling portion of taking trips.

Click here for Day 3 NYC Trip Continued

Author name:: Alyssa
Discussion:: No Comments
Categories:: Travelogue
Tags:: coffee
food
new york
travel

Day 3 NYC Trip

No alarm clock. That was probably one of the best parts about the trip. Somewhere between 9am and 10am we wandered a few blocks away to Stumptown in the Ace Hotel. There was no way I was going without good coffee. The line wrapped around the coffee bar and extended out into the hotel lobby but it was well worth the wait. Sipping cappuccinos at the window bar was the perfect start to the morning.

Then we strolled down towards Greenwich Village, stumbling upon an outdoor farmers market on our way where we enjoyed a few breakfast pastries. The next stop on our walking journey was the Strand bookstore. I could have spent all day here amongst the endless stacks of books. As it was I managed to escape with only a slim novel by Paulo Coelho.

At noon we ducked into a small chapel off of a beautiful church that, I am sorry to say, I never got the name of. It was Bach’s birthday that Friday and as it turned out one of the clergy played Bach twice a week during the lunch hour and we had stopped just in time to enjoy over thirty minutes of music. We sat for almost as long waiting for it to start and it was probably the longest the two of us have just been still and quiet in ages.

After passing through the NYU campus for old times sake (I once spent a summer living here), we were famished enough to need real and true sustenance. I found us another winning spot…Amity Hall. Down in the basement, seated against the wall where it was quiet we were not disappointed by the beer list and they have the best fries I’ve ever tasted.