Posts Tagged ‘lunching’

  1. Short Races, Long Runs, and Divine Sandwiches

    September 18, 2011 by justgathering

    Yesterday was the Fitness Mind, Body, and Spirit 4 Miler, a race for which I signed up quite a long time ago.

    It was also 10 miles on my half marathon training plan. What to do? Run a 4 mile race in the middle of a 10 mile long run, of course.

    I left my apartment around an hour before the start of the race and charted a course that took me downtown and around Central Park on the roads. I wound up at the start of the race with 4.6 miles down. I chatted with friends who were running it, ate a handful of sport beans, and took off for the speedier part of the long run.

    This race was a little unorganized, but it was fun. I wasn’t taking it seriously at all, so I didn’t mind too much when a random lady tried to cross the road right in front of me as I sprinted toward the finish line. She probably minded when I body slammed her, but I’m pretty sure she was fine.

    Official time: 34:22, a PR. I grabbed an apple on the way through the finish and kept on running for the last 1.4 miles. Then, with 10 miles under my belt, I wandered through the little expo with my lovely friend Amy and ate my free food.

    Delicious apple.

    Yogurt, berries, and granola. Definitely a nice change of pace compared to the usual bagel.

    I actually really liked running a short race in the middle of a longer run. It broke up the long run into manageable chunks, and it was a good mental exercise to pick up the pace for a few miles in the middle. I might start doing this more often.

    Today was purely relaxing. Daniel and I joined Leslie at the Brooklyn Book Festival. We checked out all the book stalls, ogled some literary magazines and nonfiction anthologies, and successfully attended a ticketed reading (quite the feat, apparently).

    We also ate some amazing food. Sandwiches from Tazza, where we ate on Labor Day.

    Our experience there was just so good that we had to expose Leslie to the wonder that is Tazza. Daniel and I split two sandwiches again.

    Tomato, basil, and fresh mozzarella.

    And roasted eggplant, red peppers, and goat cheese on focaccia.

    Followed, of course, by ice cream. Blue Marble mint cookie, to be exact.

    Not a bad weekend at all.

    Category run., write. | Tags: ,,,,,,,, | 7 Comments

  2. Fuel for a Rainy Week

    September 10, 2011 by justgathering

    It’s been a long and rainy week, made possible by a few wonderful things, such as Sunday night pizza and wine with amazing people. Other sources of sustenance:

    A seriously higher coffee intake. Rain causes warm beverage cravings. I might need to buy some tea. Or not.

    Drinks with spinach in them. To counter the coffee.

    A Labor Day lunch split with Daniel at Tazza in Brooklyn. Savory: roasted eggplant and red peppers with goat cheese.

    Sweet: ricotta with dried figs and honey.

    Midweek meals cooked at home. Roasted vegetables with large chunks of garlic and kalamata olive polenta.

    And most of all, this poem: each is accepted into as much light as it will take.

    This weekend: letting in the light. Happy Saturday, folks.

    Category Uncategorized | Tags: ,,,,,, | 2 Comments

  3. Labor Day Weekend, Part 1

    September 4, 2011 by justgathering

    If I call this post “Part 1,” that means more fun things have to happen, right? Putting it out into the universe. Can’t hurt.

    The good times started rolling yesterday afternoon when I met up with an awesome group of people at Keg 229 to surprise Megan for her birthday. (Sofia’s got some spicy pictures of this little get together in her post.)

    I had a Captain Lawrence Brown Bird Brown Ale, which was pretty delicious. I think I had another beer after this as well, but I honestly don’t remember. Either I was having too much fun talking to everyone or I didn’t eat enough lunch. Maybe both.

    Cupcakes were eaten, drinks were had, hours passed and felt like minutes. Awesome Saturday afternoon.

    Relaxing Saturday, chill bar, full pint = happy boyfriend.

    The conversation was probably quite hilarious to anyone who was not either a food blogger, a runner, or both. A popular question was, “Did you run long this morning?” I believe Kelly had just finished running 18, and a few others had done very long runs as well.

    Me? I was quite happy with yesterday’s 8 miles, actually. Sure, 8 miles isn’t incredibly long compared to the long runs of those training for marathons, but there are two main reasons my long run left me feeling extra good:

    • I had good listening. Last week’s episode of This American Life (Episode 444: Gossip) went straight to the top of my list of favorites. I am not exaggerating: Act 2 features the best contemporary short story I have heard or read in years. Possibly ever.
    • I ran a lot faster than I’d expected. I told myself I’d run 8 miles at a 9:30 pace. When I looked down at my Garmin sometime around mile 3, I was coming in under 9. I tried to slow myself down a bit, but I just kept falling into a faster pace. Since it felt fine, I went with it and ended up doing 8 miles in 1:11:04, an 8:53 average pace.

    The breakdown –>

    Mile 1 — 8:41

    Mile 2 — 8:49

    Mile 3 — 9:04

    Mile 4 — 9:01

    Mile 5 — 8:58

    Mile 6 — 8:55

    Mile 7 — 8:38

    Mile 8 — 8:59

    Nice! I didn’t think I could maintain a pace like this for anything over 6 miles, but I finished running and felt absolutely fine. Good sign for the upcoming half.

    After Megan’s party, I met up with my friend Joe, who was in town visiting. I lived with Joe in Dublin the second year I was there, and I have amazing memories of cooking and eating with him. Joe really likes food, so I was excited to find somewhere new to enjoy together. (Isn’t it just more fun to eat with people who love food? I think so.)

    We were wandering around the Lower East Side looking for something (a) tasty and (b) not too pricey, and the place we stumbled upon was perfect.

    Souvlaki GR started as a food truck, won a bunch of awards, and now has its own place on Stanton.

    I could not resist the sign out front. Who wouldn’t want to taste the tzatziki rainbow? (By the way, Joe had to coach me through dinner on how to say tzatziki. I blame my inability to pronounce words on my midwestern heritage, but he wouldn’t take that excuse and by the end of the dinner I was pretty much able to spit it out.)

    This place looks like a Greek villa inside. I kept expecting to look outside and see crystal blue waters instead of NYC streets. Very charming.

    We got started with Brooklyn Lagers. I was going to go for a Greek beer, but the offerings were lighter and I’m not into light beers at all. So Brooklyn it was.

    We each got a veggie souvlaki, which was basically warm pita stuffed with cucumber, onion, tomato, kalamata olives, and a ton of really delicious tzatziki.

    Then we split the Greek fries, which were totally covered in feta and sprinkled with oregano. These were so good. I’m not even a fries person, but I would go back for these. The whole meal was exactly what we were looking for.

    Definitely hitting up their food truck, and can’t wait to make it down to the restaurant again.

    Woke up this morning to a text from a neighbor wanting to run and ended up doing around 5 at a pretty fast pace. (I don’t know how fast because I operate by the rule that when I’m running with others, if my Garmin doesn’t load by the time the other person is ready to go then NO GARMIN. But it felt fast.)

    Now I’m looking forward to the rest of our Labor Day weekend festivities, which involve more friends and more food. Perfect.

    Category run., write. | Tags: ,,,,,,,,,, | 7 Comments

  4. week in review: exploratory running… and eating

    August 21, 2011 by justgathering

    We got back from Chicago a week ago, but I have yet to settle back into my routine when it comes to running. I was all over the place this week, mostly because I had several opportunities to run with great people. In fact, I didn’t look at my training plan once in the last seven days, choosing instead to give myself up to running when and with whom I wanted to… and fueling it all with the summer foods I know I’m going to miss the most.

    One of the highlights of my week: running with Steff, Sara, Ashley, Leslie, and Sofia. We met up to do a group run put on by Athleta on Wednesday, but it was a bit disorganized so we ended up heading off on our own for a few miles around Central Park. Seeing these ladies all in one place was a total midweek treat.

    My favorite run this week: 3 easy miles around Central Park on Friday morning, alone and sans headphones. Yes, I love running with friends and I almost always use solo runs to catch up on my podcasts, but Friday I just needed it to be me and the park. And my breathing. And the sunrise. Perfect.


    This weekend’s long run was sort of broken into two parts. I set out with a friend for 9 miles along the Hudson on Saturday, but her knees were hurting around 6.5, so we walked the rest.

    I figure I’m about as ready as I’m going to be for the Bronx Half at this point. No use in stressing about my training now. I’ve got a whole lot of great runs under my belt, and I’m just going to give it the best I’ve got next week.

    Plus, I wasn’t about to head out for another few miles right away because we had plans that involved (a) food and (b) beer.

    Yes, Smorgasburg. I have been looking forward to this pretty much all summer. Daniel and I made the food tent rounds with a group of friends, some old and some new.

    We started with a vegetarian papusa filled with beans, cheese, and jalapenos and topped with pickled onions and cabbage, salsa, more jalapenos, and sour cream. This was excellent. Mighty heavy, but excellent.

    We followed that up with a pretty delicious falafel filled with tabbouleh and some sort of tomato jam or chutney. Also quite good.

    But what I couldn’t stop thinking about was a giant ice cream sandwich. I sampled a bite of one of these when our friends got one a few weeks ago at the Brooklyn Flea, but this time I wanted at least half of one to myself.

    I say half because these things are huge. Two gigantic oatmeal chocolate chunk cookies with fudge and about an inch and a half of vanilla ice cream. Insane.


    Of course, a lunch like that required beers afterward. To aid in digestion, you know. We wound up first at a German beer hall in Williamsburg where I had a wheat beer bigger than my head. Then we went to d.b.a. in the East Village (the site of our first date!), where I had the Goose Island Summer. Both good, though not favorites.

    This morning I did another 4 miles with another friend — part recovery run, part attempt to get my weekend mileage up. We gave ourselves the mission of exploring un-run paths in the park, which turned out to be a really fun task and something I’m going to do more often, rather than sticking to the same old loops.

    Looking back now, my training was better this week than most, despite the fact that I wasn’t thinking about it and just running when I felt like it. Here’s how my runs measure up to what I’d planned:

    3 miles + Strength 4 miles speed Strength XT 3 miles tempo 9 miles Rest/Yoga 19 miles
    4 miles tempo 4 miles speed 3.5 miles easy Rest 3 miles easy + 1 hour power Yoga 6.5 miles 4 miles easy 25 miles

    Yeah, apparently I suck at getting in that strength training. Gotta do that. But even so, I’m pretty proud of my miles this week.

    Post-run, my Sunday turned into one big sugar rush and involved a whole lot of this:

    Oh yes. More on that tomorrow. Mwah ha ha.

    Category run., write. | Tags: ,,,,,,,,,,, | 5 Comments

  5. On Running Long Enough

    August 14, 2011 by justgathering

    This weekend’s long run was supposed to be 12 miles.

    Sometimes scheduled runs don’t go as planned. With all the traveling and weddings this summer has involved, I’m actually surprised that this is the first long run hiccup I’ve had.

    I managed 10.25 miles in 1:34:30 for a 9:13 average mile. I ran along the Chicago lakefront, which was hot and sunny and almost completely flat.

    This run felt surprisingly good most of the way, but I didn’t hit 12 for a few reasons. One was that this was our vacation day. This trip to Chicago was a working trip for both me and Daniel, so every minute I was running on the weekend sort of felt like I was stealing our one day to actually see the city together. So when I found myself back at our friends’ apartment having not reached my full 12 miles, I bagged the rest of the run in favor of some fun in Chicago.

    With two weeks til the Bronx Half Marathon, this was supposed to be my longest run. Am I worried that I didn’t get that last 1.75 in? No. Here’s why:

    1. The night before this run involved a ton of super cheesy Mexican food and Tecate-n-hot sauce cocktails. And perhaps a cup of water for the whole day.
    2. The night before this run I slept roughly six hours on a pull-out couch, waking up pretty much twice an hour.
    3. My breakfast before this run consisted of a hamburger bun, plain.
    4. My mid-run fuel was two prunes, roughly 40 calories. Not enough.

    I figure, if I can keep up a 9:13 pace for over 10 miles when I’m tired, sore, dehydrated, and have not been treating my tummy nicely, then I can definitely pull out 13.1 when I’m rested, watered, and properly fueled. No regrets.

    Once I got cleaned up, we set out to do some fun Chicago things. We started with lunch at a lovely Armenian restaurant called Sayat Nova. (This was a Yelp find. Love it when the Yelp app comes through for me.)

    Beers were had.

    We split a mezza platter of hummus, babaganoush, and cucumbers in yogurt and dill.

    Followed by a vegetarian entree that included rice, salad, spinach spanakopita, and plaki (white beans stewed in tomatoes).

    With a side of tabbouleh.

    This is my favorite kind of food. I would surely request it as my last meal. Or much needed replenishment after a long, hot run.

    After lunch, we hopped on Chicago’s First Lady for the Chicago Architecture Foundation’s seriously cool boat tour.

        

    I’ve been on this tour once before, along with a few walking tours put on by the Architecture Foundation, and I have never been disappointed. Their volunteer docents are extremely knowledgable, and I’m always impressed at how much information they can pack into an hour and a half. Plus, the view from the Chicago River is the best.

        

    Could not recommend this tour more highly, especially if you’re interested in 20th century schools of design (or literature or music, for that matter). Daniel freaking loved it.

        

    Between work and weddings, we managed to sneak in a few other fun Chicago things this week.

    We tried to see a night game with my dad at Wrigley Field on Monday, but it got rained out.

    We were pretty bummed to miss out on this, but then (hooray!) my dad drove us in for the rescheduled afternoon game on Thursday.

    The weather was spectacular, our seats were the best I’ve ever had, and the Cubs won. Could not have been a more perfect game.

    Anyway, here’s how my last two weeks of training measure up to what I’d planned.

    Intended:

    Actual:

    Should I have so many rest days in there? Nope. I would have liked to do a lot more running and cross-training. But traveling, especially when you’re staying with friends, requires flexibility. Thankfully, now it’s back to New York and to routine and normalcy.

    So here’s my question for you seasoned (or not) runners out there: do you rigidly stick to your training plan when traveling, or do you go with the flow and trust that your best is good enough?

    Category run., write. | Tags: ,,,,,,,,,,, | 11 Comments

  6. Eating and Drinking in Philly

    July 25, 2011 by justgathering

    Like I said, I did things other than run in Philly. We had a whirlwind weekend, but we managed to cram a ton of stuff [read: beer and food] into a 24-hour-ish trip.

    Barbara and Gulliver came along for the ride, but we parted ways once we arrived. Daniel’s parents babysat the pups for the night. [Thanks again, D + A! Hope you had fun with these crazies.]

    And then the eating commenced. First up: Manakeesh, a Lebanese cafe in West Philly. (Yes, I was assured by our host that we did indeed pass by the playground where the Fresh Prince spent most of his days.)

    Apparently, manakeesh means Lebanese flatbread sandwich and also heaven. We ordered a few to split. I was a big fan of the Veggie.

    This folded one is the Za’tar Labneh, also delicious.

    Spinach and cheese.

    And, of course, hummus. This place was hell of cheap, too — 5 gigantic flatbread pizzas and hummus to share between 5 people for 30 bucks. You cannot go wrong with that.

    After lunch, we made our way to the Rodin Museum, where we looked at a whole lot of sculpture.

    This work accurately depicts the way we felt walking around in 100+ degree heat.

    Parched. I’m parched. Give me water.

    Rodin was really into hands.

    His own hands, God’s hands holding him, hands reaching up from the grave, the devil’s hands holding a woman. That sort of thing.

    Hands with a secret.

    Hands with a reflection of me. I am not a good photographer, but gosh I try.

    We left the museum and walked around the city, looking at more sculpture.

    We made our way to Monk’s, the bar that I think is Daniel’s favorite thing about Philly.

    It’s up there on my favorites list as well. So. Many. Beers.

    I had the Dogfish Head Theobroma (made with cocoa nibs) and Stoudt’s Fat Dog Stout. Both beyond excellent.

    Our little group, sans me: Chuck, our host and knowledgeable tour guide; Jayme, our up-for-anything traveling companion; and Daniel.

    We set off walking again and after a few hours found ourselves in search of food.

    Ethiopian food, to be exact. I had never had it before, so we made it our goal to find me some representative Ethiopian.

    We wound up at Era, an unassuming restaurant with strange decor and really tasty food.

    Oh, and walls covered in cool murals.

    We started with beers, of course. My choice of the Yards Brawler was a really, really good one.

    And then we ordered a combo platter with mostly vegetarian options.

    I am now obsessed with injera. Does anyone have a tried-and-true recipe for this? I want to make my own.

    We devoured this platter of food, and it was good. I cannot wait for my next encounter with Ethiopian food. Now that I know what I’m getting, I will probably order twice as much. When this was done, I wanted more.

    We ended the night at another [very dark and hence unpictured] bar and turned in early-ish so that Jayme and I could be semi-fresh for our Sunday morning run.

    [Insert grueling 8 miles in the sun that ended in Rocky pictures here.]

    After running and refueling with bagels, we set off for more exploring on foot. We hit up Reading Terminal Market and then headed to Old City to gawk at historic buildings while complaining about the crazy heat.

    We stumbled upon the Headhouse Farmers Market and I practically leapt into the arms of the people making these cucumber and mint lemonades. This was gone far too quickly.

    True that. Several hours of dragging ourselves through the heat, and we were happy tourists but tired ones.

    We had a train to catch back to New York, but we enjoyed one last meal, at Marathon Grill. Quickly ordered upon seating: iced tea and water.

    No more beer; just a gigantic salad. Lots and lots of greens.

    We followed this up with gelato on the way back to the train station, but the heat was so intense that my gelato melted off the cone before I could snap a focused picture. It still tasted awesome even though I had to lick it off my arm.

    We reunited with our pups and made our way home to New York. Thoughts on Philly: Lovely town. Good beers. Awesome variety of cuisine. Can’t wait to go back.

    And maybe for more than a day next time.

    Got Philly recommendations for my next trip? Want to recommend another East Coast city for this midwestern gal to try on? Hit me up with a comment.

    Category run., write. | Tags: ,,,,,,,,,,, | 9 Comments

  7. More Weekend Eats and a Trip to BIG!

    July 11, 2011 by justgathering

    I found out about Build it Green! NYC through an Apartment Therapy email last week, and Daniel and I put it on our list of places to go immediately.

    Build it Green! is a nonprofit that sells salvaged, surplus, and donated building materials. It’s all about reusing the tons of stuff that is already circulating this city and getting that stuff into the hands of people who want to make something new out of it. Proceeds go to environmental education in the city. Pretty darn cool.

    The whole place is full of doors, fireplaces, windows, appliances, flooring, toilets, hardware, and anything else you can think of that might be saved from a building deconstruction. Everything is priced ridiculously low, so all you have to do is trek out to Queens and then have some way of getting whatever you find home.

    Daniel and I made the trip with our friend Jayme. We were looking for salvaged wood to build a shelf for our (yet to be planted) herb garden, but we didn’t find exactly the piece we’re looking for. I did, however, fall in love with this:

    Check that out. An old school projector screen, in perfect condition, for 2o bucks. Now all we need is a projector and we’ve got our very own movies in the park. I love it.

    Since we were in Astoria, we decided to follow up Build it Green! with some Greek food. We hit up a place called Athens Cafe. The food was delicious, mostly because we were really, really hungry.

    The three of us split dips and pita, which included hummus, roasted red pepper dip, tzatziki, and an unidentifiable fourth dip that none of us liked. We asked the waitress at the end of the meal and were informed that it was mashed potatoes with fish eggs. To me, it was just really, really salty.

    We also split a roasted vegetable and goat cheese sandwich with very herby and salty fries. Also good, also probably because were overly hungry. (This is in retrospect; at the time, this was pretty much the best meal I’d ever had.)

    More weekend eats? Okay.

    Saturday night, we made pizza with another couple.

    Mozzarella with tomatoes, mushrooms, and half caramelized onions and roasted garlic.

     Parsley pesto with mozzarella, olives, sun-dried tomatoes, and roasted red pepper.

    On Sunday morning, we woke up late and made French toast.

    Good weekend in food. Oh, and I had gelato twice. And I’m on my way to get some more now. That’s what happens when you live dangerously close to Screme and have friends in the hood who are as obsessed with it as you are…

    Category Uncategorized | Tags: ,,,,,,,,, | 2 Comments

  8. Fantastic Fourth

    July 5, 2011 by justgathering

    I really couldn’t have asked for a better Fourth of July. The fun started with a killer 4 mile run around Central Park with my building friends Dawn and Jane. (Yes, I’m friends with people in my building. No, that’s not very New York of me.) The run was followed by a brunch double date at Good Enough to Eat with one of said friends and her husband. Daniel and I split a savory dish (Asian vegan scrambled tofu) and a sweet dish (strawberry almond waffles). Amazing.

    Not three hours later, we were out in the park for Sofia and BT’s potluck picnic. Sofia loved our picnic so much that she decided to recreate it, and I personally think this should become a weekly affair. Friends, food, drinks… what else do you need?

    Sofia, Megan, and Kelly have already covered the picnic extensively, but I’ve got a few pictures and words of my own.

    I started with one of Megan’s kohlrabi and mozzarella crostini. This was a yummy little crostini, and I am excited to try cooking with kohlrabi in the future. I have always been intimidated, but Megan explained her technique to me, and I feel confident now that I can handle it.

    Daniel and I contributed a beet and barley salad. It was just roasted pink and golden beets (diced), spinach, barley, chopped and toasted walnuts, walnut oil, apple cider vinegar, and salt and pepper. Simple, and it turned out alright if I do say so myself.

    And I absolutely love that adding beets to barley turns the grain pink. Pink food always tastes better.

    Sofia made this killer apple pie. Look at that lattice. It was light yet chewy, exactly how I like my pie crust. Forget the flaky crust; I want something really worth eating, and this was it.

    With vanilla gelato from Screme. Even better.

    Barbara and Gully waited patiently for their treats. They were rewarded with plenty of picnic leftovers. These pups love to picnic.

    After we said goodbye to our picnicking friends, we headed downtown to watch the fireworks from my friend Sarah’s roof in the West Village. Check out her view.

    I know.

    Seriously.

    It just keeps getting better.

    We relaxed, listened to music, and had some beers, including this old favorite:

    Just as the sun was setting, the Empire State Building was illuminated with red, white, and blue.

    Around 9, we decided to venture down to the Hudson to try to get closer to the fireworks.

    Magical. I do love a good fireworks display.

    The day was full, mostly of awesome people and the food they cook. Pretty much my perfect Fourth of July.

    Tomorrow, I’ll post about tonight’s running class. Let’s just say, I’ve got high expectations for my weekly class now, and I was not disappointed. But for now, this tired lady is heading to bed.

    Hope you all had a wonderful Independence Day as well.

    Category run., write. | Tags: ,,,,,,,, | 5 Comments

  9. Just Journeyed: My Sister’s New Orleans Wedding

    June 26, 2011 by justgathering

    This space has been a bit quiet for the last few days, but life’s been a whole lot louder—loud and hot and humid like three generations in one room, like cupcakes in every color, like Mardi Gras.

    My little sister’s wedding was gorgeous and simple and very her. She was radiant.

    And the new Mister and Missus had the most adorable ring bearer I’ve ever seen.

    Congratulations to my sister, to her new husband for getting the greatest girl in the world, and to my new extended family in Louisiana. Cheers to the happy occasion!

    Other than attending weddings in gazebos in parks, Daniel and I spent our days finding new and amazing food to eat…

    … and exploring, usually with iced coffees in hand.

    I managed to sneak out for a few runs, though I couldn’t manage to get acclimated to the heat. 4 miles Thursday and 5 on Saturday, all at around a 9:15 pace.

    Another wonderful NOLA trip. And now, for a few more pictures of food. (You knew they were coming.)

    Iced tea, unsweetened.

    Fire-roasted tomato salsa, chips, and Abita. Followed by the mahi mahi and veggie tacos with black beans and polenta above. This was our best meal of the whole trip: The Rum House on Magazine Street.

    Avocado pesto po’boy with potato salad from Surrey’s.

    Surrey’s Veggie sandwich. Daniel and I split these two sandwiches. Both delicious.

    Strawberry smoothie with live granola from Super Food Bar. (I also got housemade kombucha from this place, which is brand new. If anyone from New Orleans is reading this right now, check this place out. Delicious.)

    Other highlights: chocolate chicory caramel ice cream from Creole Creamery, the decadent chocolate and strawberry cake my sister’s friends made for her bachelorette party, the chocolate and marshmallow cupcakes her friend made for the wedding reception. Sensing a theme here? Now that I’m back, I’m intent on eating as many fresh veggies as I can this week. But for now, one last big toast to my sister and brother-in-law. Happy honeymoon, kids!

    Category run., write. | Tags: ,,,,,,,, | 7 Comments

  10. Potluck Picnic in Central Park

    June 19, 2011 by justgathering

    We have the good fortune to live ridiculously close to Central Park. Daniel jokes that it’s our backyard, and it really is almost that close. I take advantage of this by running in the park as much as possible, and we’re there with the puppies several times every day.

    We also made it one of our unofficial goals this summer to squeeze in as many picnics in the park as we could. Eating is just better when it’s outside in the sun, with friends. And beers.

    So today we decided to throw a little potluck in the park. Around 25 of our friends showed up, all bearing delicious food and drinks and some with puppy friends. I took a few pictures in the calm moments before the party, and once it got going, I just enjoyed. But here’s what we made:

    Chickpea and Israeli couscous salad with a creamy lemon dill dressing.

    White bean and walnut pesto.

    Fudgey flourless chocolate cookies.

    Sofia brought a tasty quinoa salad that was quickly devoured, and Leslie made a dip with garlic scapes that I absolutely loved.

    All in all, a successful picnic. Now, after several hours in the sun, we’re crashing on the couch for a low-key evening, but I’m planning on posting my cookie recipe tomorrow. Trust me, you’ll love them.

    Category Uncategorized | Tags: ,,,,,,,,, | 5 Comments

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