Five on Friday

Happy Friday! This afternoon we are headed up to Rochester for the weekend.  I’m looking forward to sharing more about this city in upcoming blog posts! This week flew by, like most do.  Here are five from this week:

1. Super Bowl – I am not a football fan.  However, this year our office had a Super Bowl pool. I bought two boxes and wanted to watch the game to see if I won.  Since we don’t have cable, we bought Peacock for the month so we could watch.  For dinner we made a bunch of appetizers to eat while we watched the game.  The best part was definitely the half time show!

2. Valentine’s Day – We celebrates a very low-key Valentine’s Day. We ordered sushi for dinner and I bought a fruit topped cheesecake for dessert.

2. Reading – I finished Reckless Girls by Rachel Hawkins.  It’s her newest suspense/thriller book.  I enjoyed her previous book, The Wife Upstairs, but this one was just an okay read for me.

3. Cooking – This week one of our favorite dinners were these Vegan Tofu Katsu Bowls.  They were fairly easy to put together and my daughter helped me make them, which made the time go by even quicker.

4. Watching – Last week my husband and I saw Spider-Man No Way Home on the big screen. LOOK Dine-In Cinemas just opened in Dobbs Ferry and we were invited to the ribbon cutting event.  It’s a great theatre where you can enjoy dinner and a show.  I’m posting the full write up on the blog next week.

I also watched Marry Me on Peacock this week. It was a cheesy romantic comedy but was fun to watch on Valentine’s Day.  

5. Eating – My husband is finishing doing our closet remodel. We needed a few pieces from IKEA that were only available at the New Haven, CT location. It was our quickest IKEA store visit ever! Since we drove so far to get there, we figured we would get lunch in the area.  We found an Ethiopian restaurant, Lalibela.  Our local Ethiopian restaurant in Mount Kisco recently closed so it was so nice to get to have Ethiopian food! If you’ve never had Ethiopian food before, you use the injera (a spongy, sour flatbread) to scoop up the food. There are no utensils.

I saw an ice cream shop, Milkcraft, that looked interesting when we were driving around looking for parking.  We stopped in and shared a strawberry with aged balsamic ice cream in a bubble cone.

6. Puzzle – Over the weekend I finished this Wizard of Oz puzzle. I’ve been working on it for awhile and was glad to finally get it done.

7. Guilty Eats Contributor – I’ve recently become a contributor to Guilty Eats, a site that’s part of the FanSided network.  I’d love for you to check out my articles:
Honey Graham M&M’s
Cereal Flavored Popcorn
National Snack Food Month

ICYMI this week on the blog:

Tuesday I posted about Snowshoeing at Winter Fahnestock Park.

Sharing with Friday Favorites!  Have a great weekend!

Hello Friday! As I write this Thursday evening, I’m hoping for an “ice” day tomorrow.  We are expecting freezing rain all day.  A day off would be so nice! ! Here are five from this week:

1. Snowshoeing – last Saturday we got hit with a big snowstorm. With the fresh snow, my husband and I went snowshoeing Sunday at Fahnestock Winter Park.  This was our first time snowshoeing.  It was a little more challenging than a regular hike.  It was a fun experience, but I’m okay not doing it again!

2. Reading – This week I finished Wish You Were Here by Jodi Picoult.  It’s weird reading a book about COVID, while we are still living through it.  It was a good read, but I didn’t love it as much as some of her other books. 

3. Cooking – This week one of our favorite dinners was General Tso’s Tofu. My husband got the tofu nice and crispy and the sauce was sweet.  I didn’t add the red pepper flakes so it wasn’t spicy. 

4. Watching – Friday nights have unintentionally become movie and pizza nights.  Last Friday night we watched Dune. I kind of knew before watching that it wasn’t my type of movie.  But I ended up watching the entire thing with the family and I was right.  I will not be watching the sequel, whenever it comes out.  

5. Eating – we bought this Cocojune lemon elderflower yogurt at Whole Foods.  I’m not a huge yogurt lover.  However, this yogurt was delicious!  It’s non-dairy made from coconut milk and is super creamy. It tastes more like a dessert than a yogurt.  

We made BLTs with Morningstar Farms veggie bacon.  Since becoming vegetarian I do miss bacon.  But this is a good substitute. 

6. Science Honor Society – this week our daughter was inducted into the National Science Honor Society at her high school. We are super proud of her and her hard work. 

ICYMI this week on the blog:

Monday I shared our Westchester County Valentine’s Day Dining Guide.

Sharing with Friday Favorites!  Have a great weekend!

Hello Friday! The days have been flying by and it’s hard to believe January is almost over!  We are supposed to get hit with a big snowstorm tomorrow but as of now, the meteorologists can’t agree if we are getting 2 inches or 12 inches of snow. So, any plans are now on hold. Regardless, I hate snowstorms on the weekends! Here are five from this week:

1. Rhinebeck – last weekend we took a family trip to Rhinebeck.  This was the first time we visited this town as a family.  We enjoyed some tasty eats, like this combination platter from Aba’s Falafel.  

There are also some great shops like Megabrain Comics that has a retro arcade in the back! They have a couple of pinball machines that I spent a bunch of quarters playing!

And Samuel’s Sweet Shop, a candy shop that is owned by actors Paul Rudd and Jeffrey Dean Morgan. Sadly, they weren’t there during our visit! LOL!

2. Reading – Last week I went to the library to pick up my book holds. Four books had come in that are all due in two weeks! And I really want to read them all! I finished one of them, Reminders of Him by Colleen Hoover in 2 days.  It had me in tears but it was so good! I love her books.

3. Cooking – This week one of our favorite dinners were these Cauliflower Shawarma Bowls with Green Tahini.  They have a lot of components but are easy to make.

4. Watching – This week we watched Shangi-chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. This is the first Marvel film by an Asian director. And it was nice to see a largely Asian cast.

I also started watching Truth Be Told on Apple TV. This is a show based on the book Are You Sleeping. It stars Octavia Spencer as a crime podcaster relooking into a case where she helped put the man in prison.

5. Eating – we picked these Korean Cheetos up from H-Mart. My husband was hoping they would be spicy.  But they were more sweet with a hint of heat.

I was intrigued by these pickled mushroom chips that I saw at IKEA and had to try them.  Sadly, they didn’t taste tangy or mushroomy.

6. Date Night – my husband and I went to Levity Live, a comedy club at the Palisades Center Mall, and saw Jared Fried.  It was a fun date night out.

ICYMI this week on the blog:

Tuesday I posted about our weekend in Hartford County, Connecticut.

Sharing with Friday Favorites!  Have a great weekend!

Hello Friday!  Anyone else get some snow over the past week? I was disappointed that it snowed on Monday when we had the day off.  However, it was a good excuse to watch TV, read and be cozy for the day! And we got a snow day yesterday! Here are five from this week:

1. Christmas Celebration – My parents came over last weekend for a belated Christmas celebration. We hadn’t seen them since before the December holidays due to my daughter having COVID.  We enjoyed dinner and exchanged presents and now I think we are officially done with Christmas 2021.

2. Reading – This week I finished The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams. I didn’t know much about this book prior to reading it, except that it was a 2021 Godreads nominee for best fiction. It’s about the power of books bringing people together and I really enjoyed.

3. Cooking – This week one of my favorite dinners (the kids would not agree) was this Couscous Loaf with Feta, Eggplant and Onion.

4. Watching – This week I ended up watching a lot of TV! I finished watching the second season of Emily in Paris (Netflix).  I have also been watching Abbott Elementary (Hulu).  My husband and I have watched the first two episodes of Next Level Kitchen on Hulu. It’s a new cooking show with Gordon Ramsey, Richard Blais and Nyesha Arrington.

We also watched the movie Dear Evan Hansen.  I had no idea what the musical/movie was about before watching.  I really liked it and am curious what the Broadway production looks like.

5. Eating – My husband and I had a lunch date at Little Drunken Chef in Mount Kisco.  We shared some tapas which were delicious as always.

6. Shopping – We stopped at The Hamlet after lunch. This was our first time visiting this shop.  They sell all kinds of British products from food to books to housewares.  Of course we bought some snacks to try! Look at all of the different chocolate bars they sell!!

7. Band Concert – School life is back to normal and the kids are super busy with their activities.  Wednesday we went to my daughter’s band concert.  She’s a sophomore, but because of COVID, this was her first high school band concert.

ICYMI this week on the blog:

Tuesday I posted about the specials that Fatt Root and Goosefeather are serving to celebrate Chinese New Year.

Sharing with Friday Favorites!  Have a great weekend!

Hello Friday! This week seemed to go by soooo slowly and I am exhausted! I am looking forward to a long three day weekend, but not for the snow storm we are expected to get on Monday, our day off. Here are five from this week:

1. Snow Day- Last weekend started early with a snow day! We ended up getting our first snowfall of the year on Friday with about 3 inches of accumulation.

2. Reading – I finished reading My Oxford Year by Julia Whelan. It was an enjoyable contemporary romance set in England.

3. Cooking – This week one of our favorite dinners were these roasted potato tacos with Chimichurri sauce. This is on my recipe favorites list and a dish I’ve made several times.

4. Watching – I haven’t had much tv time this week but I started watching Stay Close on Netflix. A friend from work was raving about it.  I haven’t read the Harlan Coben book that the show is based on, and I usually like to read the book before I watch the show/movie.  But two episodes in and I’m hooked.  

5. Eating – my husband and I had a lunch date last weekend.  We went to a new-to-us Indian restaurant for lunch, Royal Palace Indian Cuisine.  They had a buffet which I was so happy about.  Most Indian restaurants near us stopped doing weekend lunch buffets because of COVID.  We don’t have Indian food very often so I love a buffet where I can try a little bit of a lot of different things.  Plus, there are usually several vegetarian dishes.

6. Playing– Do you like word games? Then you need to be playing Wordle! It’s a website, not an app.  Every day you try to guess a new 5 letter word in 6 guesses or less. Each guess you will be notified if you have a letter in the correct spot (green), a correct letter in the wrong spot (yellow) or a letter that is not in the word (gray). You only get to play one word a day.  So far, I’m 7 for 7.

ICYMI this week on the blog:

Tuesday I posted my December 2021 reads.

Sharing with Friday Favorites!  Have a great weekend!

Hello Friday! Welcome 2022….so far, so good!  I’m looking forward to a happy and healthy new year. This week the kids and I had a surprise “ice day” off from work and school on Wednesday. I didn’t realize how bad the ice was until I heard about several multi-car accidents on the nearby major highways. We are expecting our first snowstorm of the year tonight (Thursday) and may have another delay or day off! Here are five from this week:

1. First Day Hike- My husband, daughter and I did a NYS Parks First Hike to the Cornish Estate at Hudson Highlands State Park. Fortunately, the rain held off until after our hike and the temperature was pretty warm.

2. Reading – I finished my first book of 2022 and it was a good one. The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot by Marianne Cronin was such a touching book about a friendship between two likely women (one 17, the other 83) who are both terminally ill.

3. Cooking – This week one of our favorite dinners was this Creamy Vegan Orzo Risotto with Butternut Squash & Brussels Sprouts.

4. Watching –  I finished Season 2 of  The Handmaid’s Tale on Hulu. I have also started watching Little Fires Everywhere, also on Hulu.  I read the book awhile back and liked it. And even though I’m only 2 episodes in, I’m really enjoying the show.

5. Dog walking – Our family volunteered at A Good Dog Rescue this weekend.  Every Sunday morning they have a pack walk where volunteers take the dogs out for a long walk.  All the dogs are adoptable! While we are not getting a dog, this is a great opportunity for the kids to enjoy spending some time with them.  

6. Playing – New Years Eve we have a tradition of eating appetizers for dinner and playing games. Due to COVID spreading like crazy, we had both kids home with us. I don’t think next year we will be able to continue our tradition, as they will likely be off with friends. But we enjoyed our time together this year and had a fun night. We played a bunch of games including Mine Shift (pictured here), Sushi Go Party and Wits & Wagers and ate pizza, mozzarella sticks, homemade spinach and artichoke dip and lots more snacks!

Sharing with Friday Favorites!  Have a great weekend!

Happy Friday and Happy New Year’s Eve!  It’s been a long two weeks here.  Our Christmas plans ended up getting canceled, as my daughter tested positive for COVID a little over a week before the holiday. Fortunately, she is vaccinated and her symptoms were mild.  But she was isolated in her room for 10 days and was NOT happy about it! Somehow, my husband, son and I all managed to not get it, which is pretty miraculous. I am actually working today and we will have a quiet night at home.  Our New Year’s Eve tradition for several years now has been a dinner of appetizers and snacks and family game night. I don’t even usually stay up until midnight most years!  Here are five from this week:

1.Christmas – We had to cancel our Christmas Eve and Christmas plans with family. It ended up being a quiet holiday and makes two Christmases in a row that we have spent just the four of us. 

2. Reading – I recently finished reading The Road Trip by Beth O’Leary.  I really enjoyed The Flatshare by this author, but didn’t enjoy The Road Trip as much.     

3. Cooking – This week I made Crunchy Roll Bowls again. These are so quick and easy to make and are so tasty! 

4. Watching –  I have been binge watching The Handmaid’s Tale on Hulu. I read the book years ago and liked it.  We’ve had Hulu ever since the Olympics but I only just recently remembered it was on this channel.  I am almost finished with season 2! 

5. Eating – We got takeout from Dog Haus Biergarten, a new “craft casual” restaurant that opened in the Cortlandt Town Center.  They of course sell hotdogs but they also serve burgers, chicken and sausages. This is a Beyond Sausage topped with wild arugula, avocado, tomato, crispy onions and a spicy basil aioli. It was really good!

6. Puzzles – We were all in a self-quarantine waiting for our COVID test results so a lot of time was spent at home.  I ended up finishing two puzzles including this this New York one and this Star Wars one.  

7. Shopping – My husband and I managed to make it to Half Time in Mamaroneck.  We love this beer store where you can buy singles of almost every beverage they sell.  My husband loves getting to try a bunch of different craft beers.  I’m not a big drinker but I do like finding new hard ciders to try.  This trip he stocked up on seasonal winter beers including Dog Fish Freezin’ Season. 

ICYMI this week on the blog:

Tuesday I posted about the new Dog Haus Biergarten opening.

Sharing with Friday Favorites!  Have a great weekend!

Happy Friday!  I cannot believe that Christmas Eve is a week away! Fortunately, I think we are almost ready for the holidays. Our Christmas shopping is almost done and I think multiple packages were delivered almost every day this week! It was a busy week that included holiday parties and a band concert. Here are five from this week:

1.Girls Night – Last Friday I went out to dinner with some girlfriends. It was a much needed night out! I didn’t take any pictures but it was a lot of fun catching up. 

2. Reading – This week I completed my Goodreads challenge of 75 books read for the year! I read One More for Christmas by Sarah Morgan. This was a feel-good holiday read.  I’ve read other books by this author and have enjoyed them all.  

3. Cooking – This week some of our favorite dinners included this Vegan Meatball Soup with Pasta & Kale (it would taste good with regular meatballs using ground beef!) and Vegan Taco Pasta (which I’ve made many times. I do use regular cheese though).  

4. Watching –  My husband and I watched Free Guy.  I had no idea what the movie was about before we watched it. Both my kids had seen it in the movie theater and had enjoyed it so my husband and I decided to watch it. It ended up being a fun movie that even had me tearing up at the end.

5. Eating – Last Friday a bunch of us from work ordered takeout from Brothers Fish & Chips.  While I’ve had the tasting menu at the sit down restaurant, this was my first time having takeout.  This fried shrimp and fries was so good! 

6. Band Concert – My son had his middle school band concert this week. They did a good job of social distancing the kids and parents and it was nice to finally see/hear the kids play in person again.

ICYMI this week on the blog:

Tuesday I shared my November Reads.

Sharing with Friday Favorites!  Have a great weekend!

Hello Friday! I know I say it every week, but I’m so ready for the weekend. I’m exhausted! I blame it partly on it getting dark earlier. I just want to come home from work and put my pajamas on. But it was also just a long week. This weekend is being spent Christmas shopping and being a chauffeur to the kids, who both have a bunch of things planned. Here are five from this week:

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1. Hersheypark –  Last Saturday we took a drive to Hersheypark for Christmas Candylane. We had never been to a theme park at Christmas before and thought it would be fun. The park was decorated beautifully for the holiday but it was really crowded. Fortunately, it wasn’t super cold. Check out the reel above to see some of the holiday lights!

2. Reading – This week I finished reading Such a Good Wife by Seraphina Nova Glass. This was an okay suspense book.

3. Cooking – This week’s menu included Mediterranean Veggie Wraps, Crispy Gnocchi with Roasted Honeynut Squash, Cherry Tomatoes and Ricotta and Sheet Pan Cauliflower Fajitas. Sadly, there are no pictures this week.

4. Sugar Wish Select –  My received a holiday gift from Sugar Wish Select. He was able to choose a candy, cookie, popcorn, snack or coffee/tea box. He knows how much I love popcorn so opted for the popcorn box. There were over 50 flavors to choose from and he was able to select three. We chose pizza, peppermint bark and wing night (buffalo and blue cheese mix). The popcorn is really tasty and it was packaged so nicely.

5. Baking – Thursday we had a birthday celebration at work for a colleague and I made these Italian Ricotta cookies. I like that the recipe makes a lot and the ricotta makes them so moist.

Sharing with Friday Favorites. Have a great weekend!

Happy Friday! I hope everyone had a very happy Thanksgiving! We spent the holiday at my sister’s in Maryland. My parents and brother were there and it was so nice to have the family together again! We have a fun weekend planned and are taking a little road trip. Catching up on two weeks so here are more than five from this week:

1.Birthday weekend – To celebrate my husband’s birthday we stayed at the Truman Gillett House Bed & Breakfast in Granby, CT.  This is a historic home built in 1805 and was conveniently located to everything we wanted to do.

We had an amazing dinner at Present Company. Each dish was seriously delicious and so picturesque! This was black cod in sweet miso crust with seaweed succotash and a yuzu béarnaise!

And then Saturday we visited the New England Air Museum.  My husband really wanted to visit here (he’s a huge history fan and enjoys building model airplanes).  So we built his birthday trip around visiting the museum. It was neat that you were able to sit in some of the planes and helicopters.

2. Reading – This week, just in time for Hanukkah, I finished reading The Matzah Ball by Jean Meltzer. It seemed like she made reference to every single bit of Jewish food and culture which was pretty annoying. However, there are not many, if any other Jewish holiday books that I am aware of. I also read Rock Paper Scissors by Alice Feeney which was a good suspense read!

3. Cooking – This week some of our favorite dinners included these Swedish Meatballs which I served with mashed potatoes and gravy and roasted green beans. We made them vegetarian by using Impossible grounds. I also made Thai-Inspired Tofu Rama in Peanut Curry Sauce and Slow Cooker Creamy Tortellini Vegetable Soup (but not in the slow cooker – she gives stovetop directions).

4. Watching –  I watched Love Hard on Netflix this week. This romcom about catfishing was, eh. However, I did like that an Asian male was one of the main leads.

5. Dining Out – On our way home from Maryland we enjoyed lunch at Veganized in New Brunswick, NJ.  This is an all vegan restaurant.  This Mash-n-Gravy, made with crusted tempeh was tasty!

When we arrived in Maryland we made our annual Thanksgiving Eve visit to Aberdeen Korean Restaurant. I had my usual tofu bibimbap.

6. Hanukkah – we celebrated the first night of Hanukkah with homemade latkes and lighting the menorah.

7. Family Game Night – While we were in Maryland we played a bunch of games. I played Picwits with my nieces. We have this game too and it’s always fun to play. We also played Lord of the Rings Monopoly.  As someone who has never read the books or seen the movies I didn’t really understand the details.  We actually finished playing a game though, which rarely happens! My nieces had previously taken the playing tokens out to play with and couldn’t find them. So one of my nieces gathered up different toy figures for us to use (including that blue figure with the troll like hair on the board in the picture!). We also played Liver Pool Rummy.  This was a card game that I played with my grandparents so it’s fun that my kids are learning to play.  Card games are great multi-generational family  games.

8. Maryland Hike and Waterfall – My husband and I did an early morning hike the day after Thanksgiving to Kilgore Falls.  This is one of the highest waterfalls in Maryland.  While it was pretty, it sadly doesn’t compare to all of New York’s beautiful and tall waterfalls!

ICYMI this week on the blog:

TuesdayI shared my updated Winter Outdoor Dining in Westchester County Post.

Sharing with Friday Favorites!  Have a great weekend!