Five on Friday

Hooray for Friday! My daughter is having a blast in Portugal. We check in daily via WhatsApp and she is enjoying her trip. The five hour time difference took some getting used to, but it’s so nice to hear what a great time she’s having! Here are five from this week.

1. Dave & Buster’s – Over the weekend, with our daughter away we asked our son what he wanted to do. He requested we go to Dave & Buster’s so we went to the one at the Palisades Center. We hadn’t been there in ages! I’m not a huge arcade person so my son and husband mostly played the games. My son was really good at this Pop the Lock game and even won the jackpot bonus.

2. Reading – This week I finished reading The Celebrants by Steven Rowley. It was a slow start for me, but got better later on. It’s very different from The Guncle!

3. Cooking  – This week we made Salmon Bowls with rice and roasted broccoli, Gardein chikn sandwiches with fries, Trader Joe’s Beefless Bulgogi with rice and bagels with cream cheese and lox. It was a week of quick and easy dinners!

4. Puzzle  – Last week I finished this “It’s Showtime” puzzle. I actually bought this puzzle for my mom for Christmas one year. Since she also enjoys doing puzzles, we like to trade when we finish them.

5. Watching – Over the past couple of weeks my  husband and I watched Secret Chef (Hulu). I’ve been watching The Bachelorette (Hulu) and The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and The Real Housewives of New York. 

6. Boulder Game – since we were in Rockland County Sunday, we went to another Boulders game. This game was more exciting than the last game we went to!

7. Eating –  We had a late lunch/early dinner Sunday at Little Buddha in the Palisades Center mall. My son had a salmon poke bowl and my husband and I shared a bunch of appetizers. We enjoyed these vegetarian lettuce wraps.

We had some bananas that were too ripe for eating so we had our son make some banana chocolate chip muffins. It’s nice to have teens who can follow a recipe and cook/bake!

I’ve been taking this salad for lunch every day to work this week. Peaches are so good right now and I looked forward to lunch every day!

8. HV Shakespeare Festival – Wednesday, my husband and I visited the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival again. This time we saw their production of Love’s Labors Lost. They put on such a great show! There was music and comedy. And we got a seat upgrade! We originally purchased side seats, the second row back. However, they had ASL interpreters the night of our visit and removed our seats. So, we got upgraded to the center, front row.

ICYMI this week on the blog: 

Monday I posted Westchester Weekly.

Sharing with Friday Favorites!  Have a great weekend!

You may want to check out:

Happy Friday!  I can’t believe August is here already! It’s been a little busy over here. My daughter is leaving tomorrow to go to Portugal for eleven days with her boyfriend and his family. We’ve been trying to make sure she is all set. Here are five from this week.

1. 15th birthday celebration – Saturday we were finally able to celebrate my son’s 15th birthday with family. Breakfast is his favorite meal so we did a brunch. This Blueberry French Toast Casserole was a hit! 

2. Reading – This week I finished the historical fiction book The House of Eve by Sadeqa Johnson. I’ve also read one of her other books, Yellow Wife, and really liked it as well.

3. Cooking  – This week we made Penne Vodka with Caesar salad, cauliflower steaks with Chimichurri sauce, mashed potatoes and roasted carrots, Cauliflower Fajitas, Roasted Eggplant Curry with Chickpeas, Trader Joe’s Chickenless Orange Chicken with rice and Cheese Calzones.

4. Puzzle  – Last weekend I finally finished this “The Secret Garden” puzzle. It’s 2,000 pieces and was challenging! I had purchased it at Savers, a thrift shop in Danbury. I can’t tell if the two pieces missing were from the original owner or if my kitten lost them.

He really likes sleeping in the puzzle box and sometimes pieces would stick to him or he’d knock them out of the box. Regardless, I ended up getting rid of the puzzle once I completed it. 

5. Boulders Game – Last Friday night we went to another NY boulders game. It wasn’t a great game and the best thing about it was this funnel cake! LOL! The Boulders lost 7-3 and it was just a slow and unexciting game.

ICYMI this week on the blog: 

Monday I posted Westchester Weekly.

Wednesday I posted about “A Taste of Westchester” Cooking Demonstrations.

Sharing with Friday Favorites!  Have a great weekend!

Check out August Events in Westchester County.

And it’s Friday again! It’s looking to be another busy, hot summer weekend. Here are five from this week:

1. Goodbye Salem – Saturday we had to say goodbye to one of our cats, Salem. He was recently diagnosed with hypothyroidism, which we got under control with medication. But when he started not eating again we knew something else was going on. A visit to the vet revealed liver and gallbladder issues that may or may not be helped with surgery. It would require an emergency surgery, an extensive stay in the hospital and ultimately a quality of life issue. So we made the difficult decision to put him down. It was heartbreaking for us all.

2. Reading – This week I finished reading Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld. It was a good romance book and I loved the behind the scenes of a sketch comedy show remind Saturday Night Live.

3. Cooking  – This week’s dinners included broccoli rabe calzones, Tortellini w/Spinach in a Lemon Cream sauce, Summer Corn Chowder and pierogies. The tortellini recipe is the first recipe that I’ve found on “TikTok” and made. I discovered that I’m not a big fan of trying to follow a video and that even with the printed recipe in the caption, it’s annoying listening to the video play over and over. The recipe itself wasn’t bad, but when I google Tortellini with Lemon Cream Sauce, I find a bunch of online recipes that would have worked just fine.

4. WCC Cooking Demo  – Saturday afternoon my husband and I attended a WCC Taste of Westchester Cooking Demo at Maria Restaurant in New Rochelle. We love this restaurant and it was nice getting to meet Chef Gio and hearing how he makes some of our favorite dishes, like these Eggplant Fries.

5. Lunch – Monday I had an appointment in White Plains. My husband drove me and we had lunch before heading home. White Plains has SO many dining options! We opted to share a falafel pita from Falafel Place. These are some of our favorite falafel!

We also shared a Tofu Banh Mi from the Banh Mi Shop that was very good!

6. Memes: Parenting two teens, one of whom just got her license, these were very relatable!

ICYMI this week on the blog: 

Monday I posted Westchester Weekly.

Thursday I shared August Events in Westchester County.

Sharing with Friday Favorites!  Have a great weekend!

Happy Friday! The days are just flying by! I’m catching up on two weeks, since I just had no energy to get a post written up last Thursday. Today I’m running on fumes again, but it’s been a busy fun week!  Here are five from this week.

1. Braces – Last Tuesday my son got braces. It’s been some time since my daughter had her braces, so it’s been a bit od adjustment with his pain management and finding foods that he can eat.

2. Reading – This week I finished It Goes. So. Fast. by Mary Louise Kelly. As a mom of a soon-to-be high school senior I could relate to several parts of this book.

I also read The No-Show by Beth O’Leary. This was an okay contemporary romance that I found to be a bit confusing to follow.

3. Cooking  – Between the two weeks, not a lot of dinners were made. There was leftovers and a bunch of eating out. The dinners we made included Salmon with Basil Sauce and Tomato Salad,  Vegan Street Corn Tacos, Cajun Shrimp Alfredo (I omitted the chicken sausage), plus there were some quick dinners like Trader Joe’s Masala Burgers and Gardein Chik’n Sandwiches. 

4. Birthday Dinner – Last Friday my son turned 15. We will be going out for sushi soon, which is his fave. But his teeth hurt from his braces so we had to postpone. He loves breakfast so we went to the Mount Kisco Diner and he enjoyed Banana Nutella Stuffed French Toast. 

5. Trivia Night – Tuesday night my husband and I went to Trivia Night at DogHaus Mohegan Lake. This was our first time attending a trivia night there. It was also our first time playing trivia online on a phone. We were shocked that we came in first place!

6. Ice Cream – Homestyle Desserts in Peekskill has a $2 soft serve cone special on Tuesdays. My son and I went after I got home from work this week.

7. HV Shakespeare Festival – Wednesday night my husband and I were invited to attend the HV Shakespeare Festival. We saw a performance of Henry V and enjoyed it so much! A full post is coming soon. But this theatre group does modern interpretations of Shakespeare’s works. The actors and actresses were amazing! 

We also enjoyed dinner at the Valley Table before the show. The three-course prix-fixe dinner started with this delicious vegetarian antipasto platter.

8. Driver’s License – In other exciting news, my daughter passed her driver’s test this week! I’m excited that she can now drive herself to and from work but this also adds a whole new level of anxiety for me!

9. Back at the gym – With my week off from work, I also took a week off from the gym. This turned into two and then three weeks that I didn’t go. I decided to get back into it on Monday with a Body Pump class. I was sore for three days after the class! Like, it hurt to walk up and down stairs sore, from all of the squats and lunges. That put a damper on my workout schedule, but I’m hoping to get back into my classes.

ICYMI this week on the blog: 

Monday I posted a new, updated version of Westchester Weekly.

Sharing with Friday Favorites!  Have a great weekend!

Happy Friday! Summer is in full effect here! It’s been HOT! We spent last weekend through the Fourth of July at my parent’s house in Rhode Island. The weather was a mixed bag and we didn’t get to do everything that we wanted. We had planned to go out on a fishing boat, but the day we wanted to go out, they had cancelled their charters due to the strong winds. The neighborhood annual 4th of July parade was cancelled due to the pouring rains. But we made the most of our four days in Rhode Island as seen below. Here are five (+6)  from this week.

1. Beach Days – We managed to squeeze in a couple of beach trips during our stay. Reading on the beach is my fave as well as watching the sunset and hunting for rocks and shells.

2. Reading – This week I finished Zero Days by Ruth Ware. It was an okay mystery suspense book. 

3. Cooking  – This week was a short week for cooking but included Peanut Noodles with Roasted Broccoli, Chili Crunch Tofu with Rice and homemade pizza tonight. 

4. RISD– On one of the not-so great weather days we visited the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) Museum. This Chihuly chandelier is one of my faves there!

5. Eating – Besides the meals my mom cooked for all of us, we enjoyed ice cream from Brickley’s. 

New England Clam Chowder and Clam Cakes from Cap’n Jack’s.

Korean food for lunch at Den Den in Providence, which included Vegetable Kimbap. 

6. Audrey’s Coffee House & Lounge – Any other Bachelor Nation fans? This coffee shop and lounge is owned by Jared Haibon and Ashley Iaconetti from Bachelor in Paradise. It’s only about a 10 minute drive from my parent’s house, so I made my husband stop in with me. Jared was actually working in the kitchen the day of our visit! 

7. Threads – Yes, I hopped on the social media bandwagon and joined Threads. I linked my Instagram account which has a link to follow on Threads if you so wish!

8. Meme – This had me laughing since it’s so relatable! 

9. Puzzle – During a time when the weather wasn’t great, a lot of the family worked on this puzzle and completed it in a couple of hours.

10. Game Night – We played Mexican Train and Cards Against Humanity during our visit.

11. Feeding Alpacas – Matunuck Alpaca has Open Farm Days one a month. We happened to be there for this month’s date and got to feed carrots to the alpacas! 

Sharing with Friday Favorites!  Have a great weekend!

Hello Friday! I cannot believe it’s the last day of June! It’s been a slow, lazy week for me since I was off from work. Here are five from this week.

1. Summer Fancy Food Show – Sunday I ventured into the city for the Summer Fancy Food Show at the Javits Center in NYC. It was a bit overwhelming with the number of food and beverage vendors. It was a long day with a lot of walking. I clocked 10 miles of walking!

2. Reading – This week I did a lot of reading and finished The True Love Experiment, which I loved! I also read the nonfiction book, The Power of Fun and the thriller It’s One of Us.

3. Cooking  – This week’s menu included Coconut Braised Tofu,  Cauliflower Fajitas, Peach and Goat Cheese Balsamic Flatbreads and Tacos.

4. Watching – My husband and I have been watching an episode of season two of The Bear (hulu) every night, when we can. I’ve had a lot of free time this week and have watched the first two seasons of The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip (Peacock). The newest season of The Bachelorette also started this week, so I’ve been in reality television heaven!

5. NY Boulder Game – Last night my husband and I went to our first NY Boulders baseball game of the season. We enjoy watching these minor league games that are close to home.

6. Kitten Pic – I had to share this pic of Blackjack, who is now over a year old. I usually have a puzzle in progress on my dining room table and he LOVES to sit/sleep in the puzzle pieces box. This pic of him with the puzzle piece hanging from his mouth had me laughing. He had no idea it was there!

7. New purse – The zipper of my crossbody pocketbook broke and I needed a new purse before I headed into the city. I ended up finding this one at DSW. Except one of the cashiers and then later my daughter noted how it resembles Gucci. I am very much not into designer labels, so now I’m a little self-conscious wearing this Gucci knockoff bag.

ICYMI this week on the blog: 

Tuesday I shared July Events in Westchester County.

Sharing with Friday Favorites!  Have a great weekend!

Hello Friday! I’m so happy for the weekend! I am on vacation for the next week. I’m not going anywhere until next weekend but had some days that I needed to use. Here are five from this week.

1. Broken Collarbone Update – My son had surgery last Friday. They put a metal bar and screws into his collarbone so the bones are aligned correctly and will heal properly. Although the actual surgery was only an hour surgery, there was a lot of waiting. So, we spent most of the day at the hospital.

2. Reading – This week I finished The It Girl by Ruth Ware and I Will Find You by Harlan Coben. Both were enjoyable, quick suspense reads.

3. Cooking  – This week’s menu included Crunchy Roll Bowls (a quick and easy favorite), salmon with roasted potatoes and veggies, 3-Ingredient Vegan Alphabet Soup and pierogies with roasted broccoli.

4. Watching – I finally watched Top Gun Maverick. It was really good! Season 2 of the The Bear came out last night on Hulu, so I’m excited about watching that as well!

5. Listening – The SmartLess podcast hosted by Jason Bateman, Will Arnett and Sean Hayes. I think I may have mentioned this podcast in a previous Friday post. I hadn’t listened to this in ages but recently got back into it. I’ve started from the beginning and am listening to the older episodes. These guys are so funny and have great chemistry. It’s an entertaining listen!

6. Six the Musical – Father’s Day we drove down to the Hershey Theatre to see Six the Musical. We were supposed to make a weekend of it and spend the night in Hershey. We had originally planned to visit Hersheypark on Monday. But then my son broke his collarbone and wouldn’t be able to go on any rides and my daughter’s girl scout troop were having their end-of-year celebration, so we ended up driving home after the show. It was a great show and I’m happy I was finally able to see it!

7. Father’s Day “Linner” – We ended up eating Linner near Hershey at Funck’s Restaurant. While the food wasn’t super impressive, service was good and we did devour this Half Baked Chocolate Chip Cookie!

ICYMI this week on the blog: 

Joey G’s Nyack Food Tour

Sharing with Friday Favorites!  Have a great weekend!

Happy Friday! It’s been a week. Here are five (plus five) from this week.

1. Broken Collarbone – Friday, I thought I was going to be going to my son’s Freshman Awards Ceremony. Instead, I got a call from the school that he thought he broke his collarbone in physical education class. I raced over to the school, rode the ambulance with him to the hospital and we discovered that he was correct and did indeed break his collarbone. Unfortunately, you can’t really do much for a collarbone except let it heal on its own. So, he’s been taking Motrin for the pain and wearing a sling to immobilize his left side. Fortunately, he’s right handed and he broke his left collarbone, so he was able to take his finals and Regents exams this week. 

We went to the orthopedist yesterday afternoon to discover that the bones shifted and he needed surgery ASAP. So, depending on when you are reading this, he is in surgery today getting hardware and screws put into his collarbone to realign the bones to ensure he heals properly. Not quite what we were expecting to hear at this appointment! Unfortunately, this had to happen right at the end of school/beginning of the summer. So he is going to have a very relaxed, laid-back summer. 

2. Reading – This week I read Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez. This was a 2022 Goodreads nominee for historical fiction. It’s based on true events in the 1970’s when the government decided to take away the reproductive rights of poor, black women. It was a good read and was educational, as I wasn’t even aware that this happened. 

3. Cooking  – This week included a track team end-of-season dinner and a Boy Scout Court of Honor ceremony and cookout, so we didn’t do a ton of cooking. We did make Roasted Cauliflower with Maple Jalapeno Glaze, Trader Joe’s Vegan Bulgogi with Kimchi Pancakes (that my daughter cooked for us) and rice and Trader Joe’s Ube Mochi Pancake Mix (box mix) with vegan sausage for a breakfast for dinner meal. Tonight we are supposed to be making Lemon Flatbread Pizzas with Hot Honey but will probably end up with takeout after my son’s surgery!

4. Watching – We finished watching Jury Duty this week and I recommend it! It was a fun show. Other than that, it was a pretty busy week and I didn’t watch much of anything else.

5. Food Tour – Saturday, my husband and I went on Joey G’s Walking Food Tour. We enjoyed small bites from different restaurants and learned about the village of Nyack. It was a fun tour! Nyack is filled with so many different restaurants and shops and you need more than one visit to take advantage of everything. I’ll have a full post coming soon.

6. Memes – This made me laugh!

Anyone else remember these scratch and sniff stickers?! 

7. Yoga Dogs – I finished this Yoga Dogs puzzle this week. I still haven’t found the missing puzzle piece though!

8. Playing – Connections. This new NYT game is about categorizing groups of four words that have something in common. I still play Wordle, but this is a fun new diversion for me.

9. Awards – Even though we didn’t make it to his awards ceremony, my son received the geometry, band and Presidential Excellence award. My daughter received the Presidential Excellence award as well at her junior class awards ceremony.

10. Rainbow – We saw this rainbow Wednesday night during the Boy Scout Court of Honor. This was the most complete rainbow I’ve ever seen. Both ends were visible! 

ICYMI this week on the blog: 

Tuesday I posted  about Innisfree Garden in Millbrook.

Sharing with Friday Favorites!  Have a great weekend!

Happy Friday! The kids cannot wait for Monday, their last day of school. Then they go in only for their finals and Regents exams. I work during the summer….so there’s no count down for me! Here are five (plus 3) from this week.

1.Canadian Wildfires – If you’re in the northeast United States you’ve probably experienced or heard about the Canadian wildfires. This is a picture from NYC. Fortunately, we live about an hour outside the city and didn’t experience the smoke this bad. But we had a day or two of intense haze and strong smoke smells.

2. Game Night – Saturday we had a game night with my daughter’s boyfriend’s parents. We ordered takeout and then played Bananagrams and Sushi Go Party. We had a fun time!

3. Reading – This week I finished All the Dangerous Things by Stacey Willingham. This was an okay suspense read.

4. Cooking  – This week’s menu included Garlic Sauce Pasta with Roasted Broccoli and Shrimp (and lots of shredded cheese!), Kung Pao Cauliflower (without the hot peppers), Burst Tomato, Prosciutto and Goat Cheese Quiche (we left out the prosciutto to make it vegetarian), chik’n sandwiches and fries and tonight we are having broccoli rabe calzones.

5. Watching – The Ted Lasso series finale. It was so good and had me in tears! 

My husband and I have been watching Jury Duty on Amazon freevee. This is a mockumentary style show where everyone is an actor except one juror, Ronald Gladden. I’m so curious if there will be a big reveal at the end where he discovers it was all fake.

6. Eating – Sunday my husband and I went out for lunch at Birdsall House in Peekskill. We shared this Seitan “gyro” and cauliflower “wings”. Then we walked around Peekskill Open Studios where we got to see local artists showcasing their work.

7.  New account to follow – @TraderJoesAirFry If you have an air fryer and shop at Trader Joe’s, this account is for you! They give air fryer cooking times and ratings of different TJ’s products.

8. Meme – This had me LOL! It’s funny how kids and adults see things so differently.

And I need to embrace this secret!

Sharing with Friday Favorites!  Have a great weekend!

Hello weekend! It was nice having the long holiday weekend. We got a lot done! Here are five (plus!) from this week.

1. Beacon Trip – Saturday we took a quick trip up to Beacon for some doughnuts from Peaceful Provisions. They are a vegan doughnut shop, but you would never know. They are delicious! We also ended up getting breakfast bagel sandwiches from The Bagel Shoppe., to counteract the sugar!

2. Reading – This week I finished Yours Truly by Abby Jimenez, which I highly recommend! Part Of Your World is the first book in the series, but it can be read as a standalone. I’ve loved every book by this author that I’ve read. 

3. Cooking  – This week’s menu included Greek Salad Garlic Bread, BBQ Tofu with mashed potatoes, string beans and corn on the cob, Buffalo Broccoli Pasta, Pierogies and homemade pizza.

4. Watching – My husband and I started a new-to-us show, The Peripheral on Amazon Prime. It’s a suspenseful sci-fi drama. We will hopefully be watching the final episode of Ted Lasso tonight. I’m so sad, I don’t want it to end!

5. Eating – These S’mores clusters from Trader Joe’s. They are really good!

6. Supper Club Dinner – Our supper club finally got together for a dinner out. Life has been too crazy for us to cook elaborate weekend dinners, but it was nice to finally get together again to catch up. We had dinner at Pubstreet in Pleasantville. I enjoyed my Broiled Wild Cod. You can check out our entire meal in this Instagram post.

7. Band Concert – This week was the kids’ spring band concert. I am always impressed at the caliber of their performances.

We got my daughter flowers from Trader’s Joes. They have beautiful bouquets at such a great price! We also got my son a dragon fruit plant from TJ’s for doing such an amazing job, since I couldn’t give his sister something and not him! After the concert we went to sweetFrog with a couple of their friends and parents for some frozen yogurt.

8. Catskill, NY – Monday we took a family trip to Catskill, NY. They had just debuted the cats for the annual Cat’n Around Catskill 2023. There are 65 cats around the town that have been designed/decorated by local artists. The cats will be auctioned off in September. This was one of my favorites. We also enjoyed lots of tasty eats as we walked around!

ICYMI this week on the blog: 

Tuesday I posted June Events in Westchester County.

Sharing with Friday Favorites!  Have a great weekend!