The Incredible Salad Spinner

What do you do when your CSA gives you 1-2 pounds of greens each week and sometimes heads of lettuce? You make a lot of salads! All of these greens come with a little bit of dirt and the occasional live bug (or if you're extra lucky, a huge live grasshopper) and they all need to be cleaned.

This spring, my stepmom Nancy found out that Sean and I were living without a salad spinner. We were usually buying pre-washed greens and just not washing them again. On the occasions that we did find ourselves needing to wash greens, we would just dry them with paper towels. Very time consuming and not kind to the earth. I was thrilled when Nancy decided we HAD to have a salad spinner because it would change our lives and gifted us with one. It is a beautiful large stainless steel salad spinner from Williams-Sonoma that we had been coveting. And she was right, it did change our lives and we are so happy to have it. Thanks Nancy!

Big bowl of CSA greens ready to be dried

The salad spinner in action!

Huge salad made with greens fresh from the salad spinner

Brunch at Il Bambino

One of Sean and I's favorite restaurants in Astoria is Il Bambino. They specialize in crostinis and paninis, have delicious soups in the winter months, and a cute back patio for when it's warm out. Their coffee is great and they even have nutella and peanut butter hot chocolates (!!!). They have a very affordable wine list with many wines that are organic. The icing on the cake is that they DELIVER. When Sean and I first realized this, we were beyond excited.

The Bacon Butty, sans Bacon

I could go on and on about how much we love it (waiter always wearing a Detroit Tigers hat). It is the place we often find ourselves when we don't know where else to go and we just want some good food. Last Sunday that was us at 3 pm, realizing we hadn't really eaten anything since breakfast. Brunch at Il Bambino lasts until 4, so we ran out the door to take advantage of the amazing brunch paninis.

The Filthy Sombrero

One of my favorite things is the spicy mayo that appears on some paninis and on the delicious goat cheese and avocado crostini. Il Bambino is heavy on the meat, vegetarians beware, but they are very willing to make substitutions and recommend items that will go well on the paninis. I ordered the "Bacon Butty" panini, with roasted mushrooms instead of bacon. It also includes scrambled eggs, blue cheese, avocado, and the spicy mayo. Sean ordered the amazing "Filthy Sombrero" with dulce de leche, granny smith apples, and goat cheese. To fully enjoy both the sweet and the savory, we each had half. We also enjoyed two rounds of guava mimosas, a nice branch out from the usual.

Thank you Il Bambino for being another reason Astoria is a great place to live!

Favorite Salads

I love to have a big plate of salad for dinner. It's easy, delicious, and (usually) good for you. I remember the first time I made my own salad dressing, I was shocked by how fresh the taste was. Now it is rare that we have bottled dressing in our home, we usually make it fresh for each salad.

Here are two of my favorite salad recipes. The dressing on the first one has become my go to for every green salad!

Baby arugula, with roasted pine nuts, parmesan cheese, and lemon vinaigrette

Peperoncini chopped salad with chickpeas, red onion, and feta cheese.

Birthday Dinner

On Tuesday night Sean and I went to my favorite NYC restaurant, ABC Kitchen, for a birthday dinner. Sean hadn't been yet and I think it lived up to my glowing description. They have the most amazing small plates including the infamous crab toast and roasted carrot salad. Sean and I tried their tuna sashimi which was our favorite dish. They also had a spicy soft shell crab which was wonderful. We enjoyed some cocktails, Sean took an embarrassing amount of photos of me, and by the end of the meal I was so stuffed. We had to get dessert though: salted caramel sundae and a slice of birthday cake. It was a really wonderful evening and the best birthday dinner I can remember having. The only thing that would have made it better was if the rest of our family could have been there too. We miss you all!

Drinks at Beecher's before dinner.

 Acting casual but actually very excited about dinner!

Birthday cake

Twenty-five

Today is my birthday. I have thought for a while about what to say about today, which is really just another day that I am probably going to be five minutes late for work and complain about the humidity, but not just another day at all. But at the risk of rambling and sounding cryptic, I have to say something.

This past year of being 24, I have often found myself thinking that we just had to survive, we just had to push through. We didn't have to make big plans, we didn't have to be very productive, we just had to live through each day. It was ok if we spent the whole weekend on the couch watching episode after episode of Mad Men. It was ok if we ordered Thai food again. It was ok if we didn't know where we'd be in five years. Of course, despite myself, it ended up being a busy year with big plans made, and in many ways a great year.

Now that we are on the other side of this one year mark, I know there isn't going to be a magic change that stops painful memories from springing to mind on the subway, or happy moments being tinged with sadness. I do have one good feeling about today, which is that I am confident that after supporting each other through some very difficult times and a year full of grieving, Sean and I can and will be able to handle whatever life throws at us in the years to come. I wouldn't wish that full knowledge on any young couple, but it is nice to know. So we are going to celebrate my birthday today the best that we are able and continue to take the good with the bad.