4. Watching – I finally finished watching Maid on Netflix. And I’ve started watching On the Verge, also on Netflix.
5. Dining Out – My husband and I had lunch at The Greekish Nyack after our hike. This Spanish Octopus was tasty!
6. Christmas Cards –last weekend we took our Christmas card pictures! I even ordered them last night. This is the earliest that I can remember having them ready!
Happy weekend! The days are just flying by. It was nice to have the day off yesterday for Veteran’s Day and I’m ready for the weekend! Here are five from this week:
1. Kids Update – The kids have been busy! Last weekend my son was in Saratoga with his Boy Scout troop. Yesterday he attended our town’s Veteran’s Day ceremony and then did road clean up. He also has stage crew and jazz band.
Tuesday night our daughter went to a special performance of The Radio City Holiday Spectacular with her boyfriend and his family. She also finished up a Red Cross babysitting class and babysat for the first time yesterday. She’s super excited to start working and earning her own money.
Sadly, most of my husband’s and my time is spent planning our schedules around chauffeuring our kids to and from their activities!
2. Reading – This week I finished reading a Netgalley ARC of The Lifeguards by Amanda Eyre Ward. It will be published in April 2022. I didn’t really enjoy it and I’m not sure if my ARC wasn’t complete, but I found the ending to be very abrupt.
I also made Nourish Bowls that my husband claimed could rival any restaurant bowl.
Photo Credit: Ricardo Hubbs/Netflix
4. Watching – I’m almost done watching Maid on Netflix, which is based on a non-fiction book. The show is good….just very depressing.
I also watched Passing yesterday on Netflix. I read the book last week, which is the first of the Netflix book club. The show followed the book fairly closely.
5. Baking – Besides the no-knead bread we had with dinner this week, I also made blueberry muffins. I just left off the crumb topping that the original recipe called for.
6. Eating – We love The Hummus and Pita Company in Brookfield, CT. We stopped for lunch after shopping last weekend. We shared this bowl, a falafel laffa (that was humongous, but not photogenic!) and fries.
We also got lunch from Brooklyn Organic Kitchen for Hudson Valley Restaurant Week. They are a restaurant in Mahopac that makes all their dishes either vegan OR traditional. This is a picture of their take on a short rib dip.
7. Drinking – STASH kindly sent me a variety of teas to try. So far, I’ve made a big pitcher of cranberry pomegranate iced tea. I have a bunch of other tea drinks that I’m looking forward to making.
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Happy Friday! This week has been a long and busy one. I’ve been so tired all week and am looking forward to that extra hour of sleep on Sunday for day light savings. This weekend my son is heading to Saratoga with his Boy Scout troop. Here are five from this week:
1. Halloween – The kids both had parties Saturday and slept over friends’ houses. Sunday I took my son trick or treating with his friends to some townhouses near us. One of these cows is him! My daughter had some friends over and they went trick-or-treating in our neighborhood and then watched a scary movie.
2. Reading – This week I finished reading The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowely Heller. This is a Reese’s Book Club pick so I thought I’d give it a try. It was a bit slow for me with unlikable characters. Overall, I didn’t think it was a great read.
4. Watching – My son is one of the stage managers for his middle school production of High School Musical. Since none of us had seen it I got a copy from the library so he could become familiar with the show he’s working on.
5. Eating – This week my husband and I had a rare weeknight date at Maria Restaurant. This is a 2020 and 2021 Michelin Bib Gourmand winner and rightfully so. The food is always so good but this Wild Mushroom Ravioli was amazing!
6. HVRW – Wednesday night I attended a media dinner for Hudson Valley Restaurant week at Terrapin in Rhinebeck. This is such a beautiful restaurant and has been on my want-to-try list for awhile now. This I enjoyed this morel and wild mushroom bisque. I have to go back during the day though to explore the town.
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Hello Friday! I cannot believe that it is already the end of October! With the rainy weather and the rise of COVID cases in the schools, my son’s middle school Halloween Bash was canceled. The kids still have Halloween plans for the weekend that I hope will still work out. Here are five from this week:
1. Sports – My daughter’s field hockey team made it to sectionals. They won their game last Friday afternoon in overtime but lost in the quarterfinals against the first seeded team. My son’s last modified soccer game got canceled this week due to the rainy weather. I love watching the kids play their sports, but I’m not going to lie, I’m looking forward to a more relaxed upcoming activity schedule!
2. Reading – This week I finished reading Brunch and Other Obligations by Suzanne Nugent. This was just an okay read for me about female friendship. I just downloaded 4 books from Netgalley onto my kindle and have several books out from the library. There are too many books and not enough reading time!
4. Watching – Friday night my husband and I watched Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain. I’ve also started watching the limited Netflix series Maid. Both are good but pretty depressing!
5. Eating – Saturday my husband and I had a lunch date at Badageoni Georgian cuisine in Mt. Kisco. This was our first time visiting and our first time having Georgian cuisine. The food was delicious and included this adjaruli, a traditional open-faced cheese boat.
6. Jack o’lanterns – Saturday night we carved jack o’lanterns. I think my husband did an amazing job on his Baby Yoda!
7. HVRW – Hudson Valley Restaurant Week takes place November 1 – 14. We were invited to the kick-off party held Monday at Tilly Foster’s Farm. My husband went, representing NY Foodie Family and got to sample local beer, spirits and food products from local farms and businesses. We like the milk from Ronnybrook Farm Dairy and my husband loved the eggnog he sampled. They just started producing it for the holiday season!
8. Dinner with my parents – My mom had knee replacement surgery last week. She’s slowly recovering so we brought Chinese takeout over Sunday for a visit and to give my dad a night off from cooking. I stopped at Homestyle Desserts and picked up some pastries for dessert. These were soooo good!
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Happy Friday! Hooray for making it through another week! It was a busy and long one and I’m so ready for the weekend. Here are five from this week:
1. Homecoming – Friday night was our Homecoming football game. The homecoming dance got moved from Saturday to Sunday because of the rain. Here is my daughter in her homecoming dress that I talked about shopping for in my Instagram stories and previous Five on Friday post!
2. Reading – This week I finished The Younger Wife by Sally Hepworth. This is an ARC that I got to read from Netgalley. I’ve loved all her other books but this one wasn’t a favorite. This week I also read Crying in HMart by Michelle Zauner. This is a memoir that I really enjoyed.
3. Cooking – Kimchi Pancakes. I picked up some kimchi at HMart and made a batch of these on Sunday. I find that this dish really cuts the spiciness of the kimchi.
Sunday night my husband made French Onion Meatballs. We substituted Impossible Meat for the ground beef the recipe called for. We served this with mashed potatoes and sautéed vegetables. While this recipe is on the lengthier side, I purposely chose it as a weekend meal.
4. Watching – Friday night while my daughter was at the football game we had a pizza and movie night with our son. He got to choose the movie and picked Bill & Ted Face the Music. I don’t remember if I ever saw the original movie, Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure. Let’s just say that I was just there to enjoy the time with my son and wasn’t a fan of the movie!
5. Eating – over the weekend we took my son out for Korean food at SGD DUBU in Hartsdale. With me being Korean, you’d think we’d eat it a lot more. I’m hoping to change that and plan on trying to cook some Korean food at home. Since we eat it so rarely, my favorite is the bibimbap. This was served on a hot stone plate versus the bowl that I’m used to. Every restaurant makes it a little differently but it’s always so good!
6. Netflix Book Club – Did you see that Netflix is having a book/watch club?! As someone who always prefers to read the book first, this is right up my alley! The first book is going to be Passing by Nella Larsen. I just picked the book up yesterday from the library and hope to read/watch along.
7. Playing – Saturday we had an impromptu family game night and played several rounds of Canine Chaos. It’s a fast-paced card matching game that we all enjoy. We also have the similar Cat Chaos too and switch up which edition we play!
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Happy Friday! It’s been a sad week around here. Over the weekend we attended the wake for one of our son’s friend’s older sister. Tuesday we also attended the wake and funeral for my husband’s aunt. It was nice to have a 3 day weekend though. This weekend is homecoming weekend with the big football game tonight. The homecoming dance, which is being held outside on the football field, got moved to Sunday evening because of rain in the forecast for Saturday night. Here are five from this week:
1. Field Hockey – this is how I’ve been spending most of my afternoons/evenings. While the kids’ sports keep us super busy, I will miss this when it’s over for the season!
2. Reading – This week I finished The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave. This was a good thriller that lived up to all the hype.
3. Cooking – Monday I had the day off and my husband and I ended up baking a batch of soft pretzels.
And we made a big batch of naan to restock our freezer supply.
I made Black Pepper Stir Fried Udon for dinner. These were super quick and easy and tasty! Even though I probably didn’t use as much pepper as I was supposed to.
Photo credit: Youngkyu Park / Netflix
4. Watching – We finished Squid Game this weekend. While I can see the draw of the show, I’m not into all the violence. As I mentioned last week, I really enjoyed spending the time with our son since he, my husband and I all watched the show together. We’ve been super busy otherwise that I haven’t watched anything else this week!
5. Cleaner – I bought this Mrs. Meyer’s cleaner in the apple cider limited edition scent. Is it crazy to say that using this makes me happy when I clean since it smells like fall?!
6. Eating – This weekend my husband and I had another lunch date. That seems to be the extent of our alone time recently since we are so busy driving the kids everywhere! We went to El Coyote, a new to us Mexican restaurant. They had a variety of vegetarian options so we shared vegetarian chimichangas and a combo platter that included a vegetarian burrito, tostada and enchilada. It was way too much food and we discovered that leftovers don’t reheat very well.
We also picked up cider doughnuts from Vera’s Marketplace. This was where we got doughnuts from last year and we liked them a lot. They have four different varieties to choose from (plain, cinnamon sugar, white powder, cinnamon powder).
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Hello Friday! I hope everyone had a great week. The weekdays have this routine of picking the kids up from their sports practices and/or attending field hockey and soccer games. Then we rush home to get everyone fed and make sure homework gets done. I’m looking forward to a three day weekend. Here are five from this week:
Fall Things – Saturday we went to DuBois Farms for some cider doughnuts. We are trying to sample as many different cider doughnuts as we can this season!
2. Reading – This week I finished The Seven Day Switch by Kelly Harms. I enjoyed this Freaky Friday type story that addresses the still present mommy wars argument.
3. Cooking – My husband made this delicious sandwich for dinner Sunday night and we bought enough ingredients so that we could enjoy it for lunches the next day. It had roasted eggplant, sautéed broccoli rabe, roasted red peppers, fresh mozzarella and some balsamic vinegar. It was so good!
Watching – My daughter has binge watched the entire season of Squid Games, which has become THE show amongst the teen aged crowd. So I of course had to see what all the hype is about. My husband, son and I ended up watching the first episode and it’s now become our nightly thing. Honestly, I just love that the three of us have this bonding experience.
Other than that my husband and I have been continuing to watch Top Chef Kentucky and Ted Lasso and the new weekly episodes of Only Murders in Building and The Great British Baking Show.
Eating – Besides cider doughnuts we enjoyed an apple crisp sundae from Tantillo’s Farm.
And we had this apple cider slushie from Hurds Family Farm.
My husband and I also enjoyed a lunch date over the weekend at Raga Indian. I’ve been craving Indian food and haven’t had it in so long! I miss the lunch buffets that all the Indian restaurants near us have stopped because of COVID. I love sampling lots of different dishes since we don’t eat Indian very often. We enjoyed a mixed appetizer and a veggie korma with naan.
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Happy Friday! I am so excited that fall is officially here! It’s my favorite season an I love everything about it – pumpkin spice, cozy sweaters, fall foliage, the cooler weather. It’s been a rude awakening adjusting to the kids’ crazy schedules these past couple of weeks. By Friday, I’m dragging! But we are surviving! Here are five from this week:
1. Supper Club – Saturday night we had a supper club gathering, the first one since before the pandemic. We went with a salad and sandwich theme (one of each per couple) and ate outdoors. It was a delicious evening! I made this Peach Mango Caprese Salad and my husband made a vegetarian Muffuletta. I bought the peaches and tomatoes for the salad from the Peekskill Farmers Market. The peaches were perfectly ripe and this salad was such a great end of summer treat. We ate so much food and we were so stuffed!
2. NYC – Sunday my husband and I went into NYC for the first time in almost two years. We went to see Curtain Up! Broadway is Back – a celebration of the reopening of Broadway. We got to see numbers from many of the shows that are reopening or will start previews. The top of my to-see list includes Wicked, Dear Evan Hanson and Six. Do you have a favorite Broadway musical?
3. Reading – This week I finished The Ex Talk by Rachel Lynn Solomon. It was a fun contemporary romance about two co-workers who host a dating show.
4. Cooking – Cooking is not too exciting as I try to find quick and easy dinners. With two kids in two different sports, weeknights are busy! Just in time for fall we enjoyed these pumpkin pancakes. I didn’t add the ginger or allspice, since I’m not a fan of those spices. Breakfast for dinner is always a hit with the kids and these were a perfect way to celebrate fall. I also made Tofu and Brown Rice Lettuce Wraps and Sheet Pan Cauliflower Fajitas.
5. Watching – This week my husband and I binged the first season of Ted Lasso on Apple TV+. I now know why this show won so many awards. It is SO good….and I’m not a big football (soccer) fan! I want to savor the second season, which I know we will watch a lot of this weekend. It’s been renewed for a third season, so there is something to look forward to.
6. Eating – Krispy Kreme doughnuts. Did you know you get a free doughnut at Krispy Kreme when you show your vaccination card?! If you have never had a fresh, hot Krispy Kreme doughnut, you must!
I had a free birthday pastry reward from Panera Bread so I got this Chocolate Croissant this week. I had never had one from the before and it was very good!
Sharing with Friday Favorites! Have a great weekend!
Happy Friday and happy birthday to me! Thursday was my birthday and I had the day off of work for Yom Kippur! I’ve never made a huge deal about my birthday, and especially so as an adult. However, this year, my husband and I went away for a one night getaway to the Roxbury Motel. We had not been away for a night by ourselves since my birthday two years ago! It’s good that we got in some quiet relaxation time, because this weekend is going to be a busy one! Here are five from this week:
1. The Roxbury Motel – We first visited the Roxbury Motel two years ago for our anniversary. Each room in the motel has a different theme. Last time we stayed in Maryann’s Coconut Cream Pie room. This time, we stayed in the Flintstone room. I felt like we were in the Flinstones! Rooms book up here so far in advance and this was a pretty last minute trip so I’m glad we got a theme room at all. The amount of detail that the owners, Greg and Joe, put into each room is unbelievable. Pictures don’t do it justice and I will hopefully have some Instagram reels coming soon.
2. Spa Time – Due to COVID The Roxbury isn’t offering spa services, like massages, which we got on our anniversary trip. They have two small spas, one at the Roxbury and one at their newest property, the Roxbury at Stratton Falls, a couple of miles up the street. For $20/person per stay, you can have access to both of the spas. During COVID, they make you reserve the spa rooms, which you get all to yourself! Sadly, we only stayed for one night, but we made the most of our spa passes. We enjoyed hot tubs, saunas, the steam room and the heated pool. We also had this beautiful relaxation room to ourselves where I got to get in some reading time.
3. Reading – This week I finished The Guncle by Steven Rowley. It was a great read and was more serious than the cover lets on.
4. Cooking – Some of this week’s dinners included Spaghetti with Crispy Zucchini and Vegan Swedish Meatballs over egg noodles, using Impossible Ground Burger crumbles.
5. Watching – My husband and I started watching Only Murders in the Building. It’s a dark mystery-comedy series on Hulu that we’ve been enjoying. I don’t like how Hulu presents their original series by releasing 3 episodes in the beginning and then only releasing one new episode a week. You can’t binge watch!!
6. Dog Walking – Sunday our family walked dogs with A Good Dog Rescue. They are always looking for volunteers to come out and join the Pack Walk on Sundays at 10 AM. Volunteers walk a dog on a 1 ½ – 2 hour walk (with a big rest stop!). All the dogs that are walked are adoptable. Since we are not getting a dog, no matter how much my kids ask, this is a great alternative. We all had a great time. This is me with Jasper, who was active, but such a mush.
7. Hike – The Roxbury at Stratton Falls has its own little hiking path for hotel guests only that leads to Stratton Falls. I LOVE waterfalls and this was a good one!
8. Eating – My husband and I shared a Goat Cheese Salad and this White Shrimp Pizza from Chappie’s. This restaurant is within walking distance to the Roxbury, so we opted to dine here and the food is pretty good.
We stopped at Maeve’e Coffee Shop on our way home for a quick bite to eat. We weren’t super hungry so we shared this fried platter that had fried green beans, fried avocado, french fries and fried cheese curds served with a sriracha dipping sauce. It was really good!
9. Drinking – When I saw that Maeve’s Coffee Shop had chai milkshakes I had to get one!
Since my husband let them know our stay was to celebrate my birthday, the Roxbury left us a split of champagne in the room fridge. We ended up using it in the morning to make mimosas to enjoy with our breakfast!
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Happy Friday! We enjoyed a nice five days off from work and school. Unfortunately, my daughter had a field hockey game Saturday and practice Tuesday and Wednesday, which prevented us from going away on any kind of trip. We were supposed to go upstate for a one night stay to visit Herkimer and some state parks. But the weather forecast was predicting rain and everything we wanted to do was outdoors. So we canceled our hotel reservation at the last minute. We still managed to have some great days off though! Here are five from this week:
1. Bike Ride – Saturday we rented bikes from Leisure Ride rental in Poughkeepsie. We enjoyed a family bike ride on the Dutchess Rail Trail. The last time I was on a bike I was probably a teenager myself. But surprisingly, just like they say, it comes back to you! It was a fun experience and something we had never done before as a family.
2. Reading – I finished two books this week! It took forever, but I finally finished We Ride Upon Sticks by Quan Barry. I also took One Last Stop back from my daughter and finished it over the weekend. Of the two, I recommend One Last Stop. It’s a lighter, romance read.
4. Watching – Friday night we had a family movie night and watched Luca. Overall we thought it was just an okay movie but I did like the ending. Honestly, I just enjoyed having all four of us watching a movie together with no one on their phones! It’s really the little things!
5. Eating – we enjoyed macarons from Amanda’s Macaron Shoppe up in Poughkeepsie. They have such interesting macaron flavors. We tried Lavender Honey, Cherry Limeade, Peach, Rainbow Cookie, Salted Caramel and Spicy Pickle. Yes, that green macaron is spicy pickle flavored and it was actually very good!
We also shared this Glazed & Confused milkshake from Spoons Ice Cream.
We got Vietnamese takeout from Saigon Pho in Wappingers Falls. My son had a banh mi and my daughter, husband and I shared vegetarian pho, fried rice and this vermicelli. It was too much food, but it was so good!
6. Listening – I binge listened to the new episodes of The Dropout. This podcast covers the Elizabeth Holmes Theranos story. I find it so fascinating that she was able to convince people that she had a viable product. I had listened to the first six episodes when they first came out almost a year and a half ago. The newer episodes are now covering the trial.
7. Hike – my husband and I went on a Labor Day hike. We wanted to visit Constitution Marsh but the parking lot was closed so there was no way for us to access it. We ended up visiting Hudson Highlands State Park and hiked Little Stony Point. We got some spectacular Hudson River views for very minimal effort!
