Central Park, Sunshine, and perfect grill lines

Nik and I had a little picnic in Central Park yesterday in the beauuuuuutiful sunshine, before embarking on a shopping excursion for the rest of the day. I wanted to sit in the park all day and he wanted to go shopping for new sneaks, so we compromised and did both. We sat on a rock for a little while, until we couldn't take all the little kids climbing to the top of the rock we were on and screaming in our ears. Cute for the first couple times. :) We found a pretty awesome bench right by the bike road and chilled there for a bit. I think I even got a little color on my face!




I started a new project I'm excited about today:





I had a funny craving for dolmas the other day, but I can never find grape leaves in the store when I'm actually looking for them, so I improvised and used swiss chard. I made a chickpea salad, which consisted of chickpeas, chives, red onion, and a light dressing of garlic, olive oil, apple cider vinegar, and mint/thyme/salt/pepper. Some rice was added later. I blanched the swiss chard first, and let it dry before filling and rolling. Maybe next time I'll try using kale, since the swiss chard was a bit wimpier than I thought it would be, and ripped pretty easily. Super-tasty though!




Stirfry with those yummy giant TVP-like thingies from the asian market, that were rehydrated with soy sauce, water, spices, rice vinegar and then boiled in liquid until soft and then sauteed until crispy. Check out that pretty radish!


Whole wheat pancakes for brunch this morning (recipe from VWAV, but subbing whole wheat flour)


I used my new cast iron grill pan on some italian-style tofu (from Vcon) tonight and was pretty proud of my first-timer grill marks. So fun! Haha. Can I tell you how juicy it was served with a bit of veganaise in a sammich?? Served with some lightly sauteed swiss chard and a PICKLE.




It's been driving me crazy how much I depend and use the internet, so I've been trying to cut back a ton, which is why posts have been further apart than normal lately. I just am on it all day at work, and then I come home tired, and try to work on my personal work, but end up getting lost in the internet again. Before I know it, it's too late to really start anything and I end up mad at myself. So! I'm trying to cut off distractions. We'll see how far I get in that. There's just too much to see and do in a day! Sun-filled days help a lot. I moved my stuff to the kitchen today, far away from my computer and it worked out pretty well. I think the internet has given me ADD. I go to do/find one thing and end up somewhere completely different. I need to make a giant FOCUS sign, me thinks.

Memorial Day weekend

So I had today off of work, but I used it as a personal work day to catch up on stuff for an upcoming craft fair. I compromised a bit though, and took my paintings to the park near my apartment to enjoy the sunshine. It was just way too depressing to be sitting inside on a day like today (and my workspace gets NO sunshine). I think I even got a mini-burn on my arms from the hour or so that I was outside.

I have a confession to make. I am addicted to pretty paper. Some girls spend all their money on shoes or clothes, but no, not me. I spend mine on PAPER. I only intended to buy a few sheets at the paper store yesterday, for some new recipe boxes, but I couldn't resist all the new spring/summer ones they stocked. PLUS, there were new BOOKS full of pretty paper and I had to get one of those. Ah well, I just have to make sure I put them to good use. I have a whole bunch of fun new recipe boxes that I made in the past few days and I have an assembly line of a bunch more prepped. i think I'm going to put a few up in my shop in the next couple days and then the rest go towards the craft fair.


Dinner tonight was leftover Mac Daddy (from Veganomicon) and a kick-ass salad.

Picnic in Central Park!

Yesterday was one of those absolutely perfect Spring Days, and Nik, Amina, and I took full advantage and packed up a picnic to take to Central Park. I made an Eggplant and Spinach Muffaletta (From Veganomicon, with olive relish, roasted red and yellow peppers in a fresh sourdough bread) and brought some fruit from the fruit stand. A yummy Avocado Bean salad and marinated Eggplant was also gobbled up, thanks to Amina. I forgot to take a picture of my plate. I was excited because I got to play my favorite card game in the world: Uno! Nik totally sucks at it. Ha!

Central Park is such a great people-watching place, and in the springtime it is especially beautiful with the blooming flowers surrounding you. It never gets old. And even though you know that there a million other people enjoying the park alongside you, it never really feels extremely overwhelmingly crowded.

After our picnic, we meandered around random paths, taking in the lack of traffic noises and enjoying all the fresh blooms and sights. All the Cherry Blossom trees are in full bloom! And we're talking MASSIVE trees here. So Beautiful.

People carved their names with their sweethearts on this tree, as high up as we could see. The higher up you go, the more serious it is, you know.



I loved these leaves. They felt fake! like thin foam core or something. So much detail in them though.



I always remark on how "cute" flowers are. Cute flowers always remind me of Alice in Wonderland. Best part of the story! These flowers most definitely fall into the cute category.



That girl in the rowboat had two shirtless boys rowing her around!


This has to have been the most pimped out bike I have ever seen. We were all mesmerized for a good 15 minutes by this Roller-dancing party we stumbled across. Girls with synchronized dance moves and coordinating outfits; Guys with some serious 12-packs moving in slowmotion around the "dance floor", senior citizens getting down with their bad selves on their rollerskates to the bumping beats. Pretty insane.

This is one of my favorite parts of Central Park; The mall area, with these enchanted looking trees surrounding you. I think I like it because it's hard to see the buildings surrounding the park, so you feel like you are in the middle of grand forest with happy people all around you.