26 April 2011

Grilled Cheeses across America

When I was a kid we took family road trips every summer. One summer on one road trip I ordered a grilled cheese at every roadside restaurant. I always keep a travel journal and for some trips is was more about what everyone ate and what motel we stayed in and less about actual memories and feelings. Anyway I started ranking the grilled cheeses and we labeled this adventure "Grilled Cheeses across America".

So when I saw that the New York Magazine's "Best of New York" issue had a category for best Grilled Cheese I knew I had to have it, but when my friend and I arrive at the address in Williamsburg we found a dark building with no signs. Hmmm where was the Commodore? I saw some hipsters walking out a door so we knew we had found the place.

The ambiance was a bit classy and a bit backyard bbq. After a difficult start with getting the attention of the bartenders to order the service was pretty good even though our symmetrical hair styles didn't quite fit in.


To the grilled cheese. Described as an adult grilled cheese it included: housemade spread of roasted poblanos, grated Cheddar, cream cheese, and mayo, topped with a dollop of salsa roja, sandwiched between two lavishly buttered slices of Arnold Country White and cooked until crisp and gooey... I didn't notice all those layers, but it was amazing. We also got way too many fries that were also amazing.

24 April 2011

John F Murray Playground

Playground isn't the best description of this park it includes a playground, huge turf playing field, basketball courts, handball courts, benches, and small gardens. The northeast corner of this park looks like it has been taken over by a new gardner. I've walked past this area a few times lately (mostly due to spotty 7 service) and was surprised to how creative they were with the area. My phone camera picture doesn't do it justice, but there are birdhouses, a lavender patch, daffodils, and little path.

20 April 2011

Gantry State Park time

We've finally had a few nice days here in NYC (even if as I write this it's a dreary 45 outside) so I've gotten back in the habit of enjoying the sunset over Manhattan. If you live in NYC and haven't been out to LIC and Gantry State park, you are really missing out. Great views of the Empire State Building, the UN, the Chrysler building, the Pepsi sign, and tons of other buildings. One thing I didn't really realize while living in Manhattan was that you never really see a sunset. Yes you see it getting darker, but the beautiful shades the sky turns as the sun goes down are always blocked by buildings.

18 April 2011

Touch football

I've been playing a lot of touch football these past three years. This past winter I played a few winter games and really wished I had receiving gloves (especially the games in 1 to 3 feet of snow), but was having a hard time finding them in stores when I thought to go look for them. After I had a pretty spectacular game (if I say so myself) after borrowing a teammate's gloves (I had applied the moisturizer a little heavy before the game) a few teammates have been pressuring me to buy gloves (I'm pretty amazing with out gloves though) well I found myself near a sports good store and went and looked if they had any gloves. They did and I purchased them... still to determine if I wear them ;)

Anyway when I opened the package I see this warning:

"Participation in football and other contact sports can result in serious or even fatal injury. Football gloves will not eliminate injuries."

Really?

16 April 2011

Quick knit

One of my coworkers just got married. We worked together on the same project for the year or so leading up to the wedding so I wanted to get her a small gift. I checked out her registry and noticed she registered for navy and biscotti kitchen things so I thought some hand knitted dish clothes would go with them perfectly. I like hand knitted dish clothes way more than anything you can buy, in fact when I was looking for a store bought cloth to see what an average size was, I couldn't! Apparently I've completely replaced all of them with knitted (and a few crocheted (thanks mom!) cloths). They are much better at scrubbing and hold up better (at least that is my humble opinion). I paired the dish cloths with some fancy Meyer's geranium scented dish soap. I made up the pattern as I went on these, but have made some more since then using the "grandma's favorite dishcloth" pattern which is knit on the diagonal.




02 April 2011

Seen in the Subway

"Moustaches" written to look like moustaches.

on Helen Mirren
on some other movie poster
on model in clothing ad (I think)