I went out with some friends to The Bier Abbey on Union Street in Schenectady for dinner tonight. It’s advertised as Belgian and pub fare with a huge selection of craft beers, and it’s on that little section of Union Street, with Cafe Nola and Orenda and Manhattan Exchange, and other places that I’m forgetting, … [Read more…]
I wasn’t emotionally prepared for all of that snow. But if you spent any time outside in the afternoon, it was about as gorgeous and spring-like as a snow day could possibly be. Cute W was working late (and then driving from up north, through the snow) last night, so we slept in a bit … [Read more…]
Recently it was Cute W’s birthday, and instead of cake, I made him a family favorite: chocolate mousse. We all love this mousse. Cute W brought some leftover mousse with him to work the next day, and while he was eating (and probably moaning, just a little, with pleasure), one of his co-workers apparently asked … [Read more…]
So lately I’ve been baking our family’s bread. For one thing, we don’t have a make-a-sandwich bread that we really like. For the longest time we loved Pepperidge Farm Nutty Oat bread, but these days we can’t ever find it. When I look for bread, I’m always trying to find something with, I don’t know, … [Read more…]
Cute W likes to make delicious breakfasts: waffles, pancakes, French toast. . . usually while I’m still sleeping. So at some point we got him his very own mini donut maker, and I reported on our first experimental attempts at making mini donuts. On Monday morning I woke up to find that our kitchen had … [Read more…]
I had a fun weekend with more than my fair share of leisure activities. On Saturday night we went out to Casa Real Mexican Restaurant in Rotterdam for a friend’s birthday. It’s fairly new, and it was pretty good. The staff were all friendly, and it was that lovely little balance of as-easy-as-a-chain-restaurant-feels-without-being-a-chain-restaurant. Does that make … [Read more…]
Remember how I said I wanted this Topchips veggie chip maker for Christmas? Well, I got it, so I thought that I’d share a little report. Here’s what it looks like: Basically, it’s a mini mandolin slicer with a tray that you put in the microwave (it’s all supposed to be okay for the dishwasher, … [Read more…]
We’ve been eating some tasty food lately. Not too long ago J and I stopped at Shalimar for the lunch buffet. How had I never been there before? I’d heard that it was tasty, but somehow I hadn’t connected “tasty Shalimar” with the place in Peter Harris Plaza in Latham. Am I just slow? Did it move? … [Read more…]
I’ve struggled for years with trying to make a decent lasagna. Okay, not like I’d stay up nights fretting about it or I’d try recipe after recipe for weeks on end. More like, once every 6 months I’d try a recipe, and it would fail for one of the following reasons: 1) it was an … [Read more…]
Over the weekend at church, we had our annual Thanksgiving service, one of my favorites of the year. Several members of the congregation bring bread: a great-grandmother’s recipe, the new recipe that the 4-year-old always requests, the gluten-free vegan recipe, or the bread they always pick up at Perreca‘s because nobody bakes at home. On … [Read more…]
