My Weekend in NYC

Two years ago, my boyfriend (now fiancé) and I visited New York City in the fall, so we were excited to take a repeat vacation to the Big Apple this year. We stayed at the Even Hotel near Grand Central, which was a cool, hip hotel with a great location; the room featured exercise equipment (yoga mat and block, foam roller, resistance bands, and a big exercise ball), and since they gave us free drink vouchers, our first night there we had a happy hour drink at the hotel bar before playing a game of ping pong (my fiancé couldn’t get over the fact that I didn’t hold the handle of the paddle…don’t worry, it’s a Dartmouth thing!). We could easily walk or take the subway from our hotel everywhere we needed to go, so the location was perfect!

We walked around everywhere (we didn’t even take the subway until our second day in town), so we definitely got our steps in! Even in the rain we were walking around getting our much-needed exercise. It’s the best way to explore a city anyway; you never know what you’ll find!

Here were the highlights from our trip:

1.     1. Visiting friends and family

Friends and ice cream is the best combination!

We know a lot of people who live in and around New York, so we made plans ahead of time to make sure to see them. We had dinner with two of my friends who moved to New York after leaving DC this summer; her cousin recommended Bistango, an Italian restaurant in the Kimberly Hotel, and it was very good. Then we stopped by Van Leeuwen for dessert, where my fiancé and I split a mini chocolate lovers sundae. Can’t beat that!

The next day we had Italian food again (this time pizza at Motorino) for lunch with my fiancé’s family. Both his niece as well as his nephew’s girlfriend are pregnant, so we got together with them and their significant others to celebrate their future babies (and our own recent engagement, too). I had met his niece and her husband before, but I had not met his nephew or his girlfriend, so it was lovely to not only meet them but get to know them a little bit. They are all really nice, so it was a very pleasant lunch. AND we went out for ice cream again, and the peanut butter brownie honeycomb is AMAZING!

 Later that night we had dinner at Sabai Thai with a frat brother of my fiancé and his wife; these are people he’s known for DECADES, so I wanted to make a good impression. They were friendly and totally welcoming, so I had nothing to worry about. We enjoyed a long, leisurely dinner of pad thai and yummy cocktails. We almost didn’t want the night to end, but they had a long trip back to New Jersey, so we parted ways late that night, but we hope to see them again soon.

2.    2. Culturing ourselves at the Met

Image found here

W  While we are spoiled with so many free museums in D.C., NYC has lot of great museums, so we figured we’d pay the fees to visit one of them. The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a HUGE museum, and they have a special Manet v. Degas exhibit, so we thought we’d certainly get our money’s worth there. That exhibit was interesting, and we learned a lot about the two artists who were contemporaries and even friends. I thought it was cool to compare their art side by side, especially when the content was similar, such as dancers, bathers, or horses. We also looked at a lot of Roman and Greek statues, pottery from ancient Persia, and many paintings from the Impressionists like Monet. We could have been there all day!

3.    3. Enjoying nature

The "Imagine" mosaic in Central Park in honor of John Lennon

While you might not think of getting out in the Great Outdoors in New York City, they do have some wonderful parks. We walked through much of Central Park despite the drizzle the day we arrived, and on the morning we left, we took the subway downtown to check out the High Line and the Little Island (which only opened about two years ago). It’s always relaxing to just walk amongst trees and plants, surrounding oneself with greenery. And we had no rain on our last day, so that was even better!

The Little Island is cool from far away as well as inside the park itself!

4. Exploring Chelsea

      After we walked along the Highline, we stopped by Chelsea Market, which my fiancé had never been to before. Many of the stores weren’t open yet that early on a Sunday, but the market itself was all decked out for Halloween, and we did find a cute shop selling lots of Japanese merchandise like Hello Kitty and Tokidoki.

Vintage vibes at the Hotel Chelsea

      After the market, we walked over to the Hotel Chelsea (colloquially called the Chelsea Hotel). I had recently read an article about the hotel in the Wall Street Journal magazine, which explained the famous history of the hotel (many celebrities and artists used to live there); it had been closed for many years for renovations and only recently re-opened. I loved how they kept the old vibes of the place; you felt like you stepped back in time. And the walls were covered with artwork from former tenants who occasionally paid their rent through their artistic works. We may have stayed for a drink at the bar if it hadn’t been mid-morning!

I feel like this list doesn’t do our trip justice. We walked around so much that sometimes we would just stumble upon random things. We found yummy places to eat (we enjoyed bagel breakfast sandwiches from Ess-a-Bagel and Brooklyn Bagel & Coffee Company, and read my Yelp review for Clinton Hall), came across family-friendly street markets, and escaped the rain playing house in CB2 and Design within Reach. For only having been in the city for almost exactly 48 hours, we packed a lot in!

Stevie Nicks and Billy Joel in Concert

Image found here

Stevie Nicks and Billy Joel are such rock legends, so when I saw that they were performing together in Baltimore, I knew I wanted to see that show. They are both in their mid-70's: who knows how long they will keep doing this! I thought this could be my last chance to see either of them live. We were in the nosebleed section of M&T Stadium, and it was a chilly October night, but I was prepared with a blazer, windbreaker, and faux fur coat (I even brought a towel to sit on to keep the plastic seat warm). I wasn't going to let the cold weather stop me from enjoying this concert!

I know Nicks mostly through her music with Fleetwood Mac (which I think is true for a lot of people). She sang some of those songs, but also included music of her own. Here are my two favorites:

Landslide

Edge of Seventeen (not called "White Winged Dove" like I thought!)

While Nicks only sings, Billy Joel is an excellent musician in his own right, playing the piano (of course), the guitar, and the harmonica (and maybe more!). And his band was just as talented! Crystal Taliefero, who played percussion and the saxophone, sang River Deep Mountain High, and it was great!

And his lead guitarist, Mike DelGuidice, can sing opera! He was amazing! I think this was my favorite part of the night, mainly because it was just so unexpected! The video below is from 2016, but he sang the same song and sounded just as good:

And then of course Joel has all of his huge hits. He has so many songs that he kind of did the concert in three parts: the first part, then what you thought was the encore but actually the second part, and then the encore. So it was a lot of music!

Paino Man (My favorite!)

Scenes from an Italian Restaurant (my fiancé's favorite)

You May Be Right

Uptown Girl

We Didn't Start the Fire

It's Still Rock and Roll to Me

Big Shot

The list could go on and on! So much talent and for such a long time! I'm sure they never imagined when they first started out as performers that they would not only become so famous but stay so famous. LEGENDS! Such a great concert!

Recipe: Buttermilk Quick Bread

I still had some buttermilk left over (read about the buttermilk brownies I made), so I thought I'd try making a bread with the ingredient, too. I found this recipe on the Kitchn blog, and it seemed easy enough. I also liked that the recipe offered several variations; I love mixing up recipes, so this was right up my alley!

Ingredients

·        2 cups all-purpose flour (10 ounces)

·        1/2 cup white sugar (4 ounces)

·        1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

·        1/2 teaspoon baking soda

·        1 teaspoon salt

·        1 cup buttermilk (8 ounces)

·        1 large egg

·        1/4 cup unsalted butter, olive oil, or vegetable oil (2 ounces)

Directions

1.      Heat the oven to 350°F. Grease or spray with nonstick cooking spray a standard 9x5 loaf pan.

2.      Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium mixing bowl. Melt the butter, if using. Whisk it in a separate bowl with the buttermilk and the egg.

3.      Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients. Gently stir and fold the ingredients until all the flour has been incorporated and a shaggy, wet batter is formed. Be careful not to over-mix.

4.      Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and pat it into the corners. Bake for 45-50 minutes. When finished, the loaf should be domed and golden, and a toothpick inserted into the center should come out clean. Let the loaf cool in the pan for 15 minutes before removing and slicing.

Basic Variations

• Sugar can be reduced to a tablespoon for more savory breads.
• Up to half the flour can be substituted with an alternative flour.
• Replace the buttermilk with a mix of yogurt and milk or milk and a squeeze of lemon.
• Use up to 1 1/2 cups fruits, nuts, olives, cheese, or other ingredients, added to the dry ingredients.
• Use 1-3 teaspoons of herbs or spices, added to the dry ingredient

Reading the variations was helpful to know how much of what I should use. I already planned on using blood orange olive oil, and ended up not having enough, so I used both the orange and lemon olive oil. I also added nutmeg and ground ginger, as well as a cup of dried cranberries. I feel like orange and cranberry are frequently featured together, so why not in this bread I was making?

This is an easy recipe to make, although I ran into a few minor issues. Usually in baking you mix the dry ingredients in a smaller bowl to the side, and you mix the wet ingredients with the mixer, and then add the dry to the wet. In this one, you add the wet to the dry. So I just poured the dry ingredient mixture into the mixer bowl, added the wet ingredients, and used the mixer for just a few seconds to mix everything together. There was a bit of dry mix left at the bottom that didn't incorporate well. But all in all, this was easy and came out nicely. I thought it was yummy, especially with the craisins! Highly recommend doctoring it up with your favorite flavors.