Five on Friday

Hello Friday! I didn’t have a post last week since it was such a busy one. So lots to catch up on today! This week the kids had their last finals and regents’ and are officially finished with school! Here are five from this week:

1. Cirque du Soleil  – Last Thursday I had media tickets to see Cirque du Soleil Crystal. This is their only show that takes place on ice. If you’ve never seen a Cirque du Soleil show, I highly recommend. They are filled with amazing talent!

2. Menopause the Musical – Friday I had media tickets for Menopause the Musical, which is playing at the Chappaqua Performing Arts Center through tomorrow. Fortunately, I’m not experiencing menopause yet, but it was a fun show.

3. Reading – This week I haven’t finished reading anything. But last week I finished listening to I Kissed Shara Wheeler on book on CD. I feel like this has gotten rave reviews, but I thought it was just an okay listen. 

4. Cooking – This week I made these Portobello French Dips with Horseradish Aioli. As mushroom lovers, my husband and I thought these were sooo good! 

5. Watching – Last weekend we watched the original Top Gun as a family. My daughter saw the new Top Gun sequel and loved it, so we thought she should see the first one. Now she is adamant that my husband and I go see Top Gun: Maverick.

6. Moving Up – Yesterday my son “graduated” from 8th grade and had his moving up ceremony. I can’t believe this September I will have two kids in high school!

7. Summer Leagues – My kids are both participating in summer sports leagues in preparation for the fall. Field hockey for my daughter and soccer for my son. The leagues started last week so they are playing games a couple nights a week.

8. NY Boulders Game – For Father’s Day my husband wanted to go to a local baseball game. The Renegades weren’t playing at home so we went to a NY Boulders game. We ended up going Saturday night since my son had a soccer game on Sunday. We didn’t realize it was going to be so cold! We were freezing but stayed until the end, when the Boulders had a winning run in the bottom of the 9th.

9. Miami – How did I almost forget about our trip to Miami for my brother-in-law’s wedding?!! It was a whirlwind couple of days and my son ended up getting sick and was not able to attend the wedding. But it was a beautiful ceremony and super fun reception. I wish we were able to stay a couple of extra days to explore Miami, but it was the weekend right before the kids started finals and regents’ so we had to get home.

Sharing with Friday Favorites!  Have a great weekend!

Happy Friday! Today I am in Miami because my brother-in-law is getting married tomorrow! This wedding has been postponed for two years because of COVID. They ended up getting married over Zoom last January and they are finally getting to celebrate in person with family and friends. It will be a busy but fun couple of days! Here are five from this week:

1. Newburgh: Illuminated– Saturday we drove to my in-laws house to drop off our luggage. They drove down to Miami so we had them bring all of our dress clothes and suitcases. It helped us save on luggage fees and not have to stuff our clothes in a garment bag. While we were up in the Orange County area we stopped at the Newburgh Illuminated Festival. We enjoyed taking a historical bus tour of the city, listened to some live music and walked around a bit. It was very crowded!

2. Eating – When we were up in Newburgh we stopped at Pizza Mia on the way home. We picked up a variety of slices and garlic knots to take home for dinner. This was the first time I had a Detroit style slice and it won’t be my last time! I like the thicker dough and square slices!

Sunday my son had a Boy Scout event at The Castle Fun Center in Chester. So the we took the whole family. After we dropped him off my daughter, husband and I had lunch at Allan’s Falafel. We ordered the falafel deluxe platter and eggplant salad. It was so good!

3. Reading – This week I read Dessert Can Save the World by Christina Tosi. This is a short, memoir/motivational read.

4. Cooking – This week we made Big Flavors From a Tiny Kitchen’s Falafel-Spice Chickpea Flatbreads again. These are quick and easy to make and very tasty!

5. Watching – Friday night we watched the movie Licorice Pizza.  It was an Oscar nominated movie. We also finished watching Stranger Things and have started watching the new episodes of Somebody Feed Phil.

6. Goose Pond Mountain – After lunch we found a short hike in the area. It was very short at only .4 miles. But we saw a rainbow and some birds.

Sharing with Friday Favorites!  Have a great weekend!

Happy Friday! I hope you had a great week! It was nice having a long three day weekend last week. A lot of the weekend was spent doing house stuff including power washing the deck and taking care of an unexpected HVAC issue. I also did a bit of shopping in preparation of my brother-in-law’s wedding next weekend. But, we did manage to fit in some fun. Here are five from this week:

1. Dia Beacon – Sunday we went to Dia Beacon. This is a contemporary museum in Beacon, one of my favorite Hudson Valley towns. Even though we’ve been here several times, we took a museum tour for the first time and it was so enlightening!

2. Eating – I treated myself to The Angry Lobster Roll from Wild Fusion. It has tempura shrimp and spicy crabmeat rolled in a soy paper wrapped topped with steamed lobster and an eel and sweet chili sauce.  Very tasty! 

I also enjoyed the stir fried eggplant from P.F. Chang’s. However, the Kung Pao Brussels Sprouts that I also ordered were a bit disappointing.

3. Reading – This week I finished Part Of Your World by Abby Jimenez and it was SO good! I’ve read all her books and I highly recommend them if you like contemporary romance. 

4. Cooking – This week one of our favorite dinners was Grilled Chimichurri Portobellos with Goat Cheese Mashed Potatoes. I love mushrooms! And adding goat cheese to mashed potatoes is so delicious!

5. Watching – Of course we started watching the new season of Stranger Things! Anyone else? I also finally finished watching Candy on Hulu this week.

6. Two Way Brewing Company – after the museum we visited a new-to-us brewery, Two Way Brewing, in Beacon. My husband had a beer flight and we ordered some food. We plan on visiting more breweries this summer!

7. Buff City Soap – A Buff City Soap just opened in Mohegan Lake. I visited and picked up two soaps as well as a mystery box. I love the items I received in the box and they all smell sooo good!

ICYMI this week on the blog:

Thursday I shared our Hudson Valley Summer Fun List.

Sharing with Friday Favorites!  Have a great weekend!

Happy Friday! Is anyone else looking forward to the long weekend? Memorial Day Weekend is the “unofficial” kick-of to the summer. Unfortunately, the weather isn’t looking great for today and tomorrow. So, we didn’t travel to Rhode Island like we normally do. Here are five from this week:

1. Yard cleanup – most of last weekend was spent doing yard work. Yes, it was 90+ degrees last weekend, but when you have a rare, free weekend, you gotta do what you gotta do. It was a lot but I felt so accomplished!

2. Eating – After running errands Saturday night in Danbury, CT we went out to dinner at Edo II. It’s a sushi and Korean restaurant. I had shrimp gobdol (bibimbap hot in a stone bowl). 

3. Reading – I finished The Summer Place by Jennifer Weiner. It wasn’t my favorite book of hers. Just too many unbelievable situations.

4. Cooking – This week one of our favorite dinners was Ridiculous Baked Gnocchi with Vodka Sauce. I’m saving this for rotation in the fall/winter. It’s a bit of a heavier dish, but it was good!

5. Watching – My husband and I have been watching an episode of Ozark here and there when we have time to watch TV together. I’ve been watching Candy on my own. I can’t believe how Jessica Biel is almost unrecognizable!

6. Letterboxd– Not new, but I don’t think that I’ve shared this site before. I keep track of the movies I watch on Letterboxd. It’s like goodreads, but for movies! 

7. Guilty Eats – I’ve been writing a lot about beverages for Guilty Eats. Here are a few of my recent posts.

4 Cocktail Recipes for Memorial Day Weekend

The Return of MTN DEW Typhoon

Healthier Hydration with Karma Water

Snapple ElemeNFT

8. Spring Band Concert – this week my daughter had her high school band concert. Although they are a small school, their band is so good! The band teacher did a tribute to all the graduating seniors and they really are like a small family.

Sharing with Friday Favorites!  Have a great weekend!

Hello Friday! So happy to see you! It’s been another long, busy week. I’ve been really looking forward to the weekend! Here are five from this week:

1. Family birthday celebration – Last Sunday we celebrated my daughter’s 16th birthday with the family. It was only a month after her actual birthday! It was nice to have everyone together and we loved getting to see our 6 month old niece again! We made a ham (for the meat eaters) and had a bunch of sides including mac and cheese, mashed potatoes, caprese and zucchini pie.

2. Reading – I recently finished listening to The Golden Couple by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen on book on CD. This was a good suspense book that helped make my work commute enjoyable. 

3. Cooking – This week one of our favorite dinners was Millionaire Gnocchi with Herbed Whipped Ricotta. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time for the sauce to cook for 35-40 minutes. It ended up being more like 5!

4. Watching – Saturday night we had a family television/movie night. We watched the first episode of The Pentaverate (which we didn’t like) and Senior Year (not as bad as we had expected, didn’t love/hate it). Both are on Netflix. 

5. Ipsy Bag – I subscribe to Ipsy and opt to get a bag every other month. I really like this month’s floral bag! I likely won’t use the eyeshadow primer, since I rarely wear eyeshadow or the lip pencil. My daughter wanted the lip pencil so it’s at least not going to waste. But I will use the concealer, face wash and eye cream. So, overall happy with this month’s bag.

6. Bookly – I keep track of my reading on both goodreads and most recently, Storygraph. However, I’ve just heard of a new reading app called Bookly. It’s a book organizer but also tracks your reading speed and has lots of personalized stats. As an avid reader, I’m tempted. But I’m already using the other two and don’t want to get sucked into another book tracking site/app.

7. Basil Plant – I bought a basil plant at our local grocery store since it ended up being a lot cheaper to buy the large plant versus a small amount of basil. Now, I have to work on keeping it alive! I am notorious for killing basil plants….and almost all other plants.

ICYMI this week on the blog:

Wednesday I wrote about the new Chipotle opening in New Rochelle.

Sharing with Friday Favorites!  Have a great weekend!

Happy Friday! I hope you all had a great week and are looking forward to the weekend as much as I am! This week was a quiet one in comparison to last week and I’ll take it! Last Friday, we took my daughter and her friends out for hibachi for a belated 16th birthday celebration. This weekend we are having her family birthday celebration and then we are finally done celebrating her turning 16! Here are five from this week:

1. Catskill Animal Sanctuary – For Mother’s Day we went to the Catskill Animal Sanctuary in Saugerties. This is a farm where more than 200 rescued animals are able to live out their lives. Guests can book a tour and get to meet some of the animals up close. 

2. Eating – Since we were in Saugerties, we HAD to go to Slices on Saugerties to get our favorite slice: the Caprese Grandma slice. 

Then we HAD to go to Alleyway Ice Cream, my favorite ice cream place, where we shared Ube Heath Bar Crunch, Honeycomb Chocolate Swirl and Thai Tea Cookies & Cream (my FAVE!). 

3. Reading – This week I finished Book Lovers by Emily Henry. I recommend this book so much! I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve read by this author and she’s quickly becoming a favorite.

4. Cooking – This week one of our favorite dinners was Baked Crispy Shrimp with Dynamite Sauce. I also made tofu for my husband and daughter since they don’t eat seafood.

5. Watching – My husband and I have started watching Ozark on Netflix. I had started this show ages ago but didn’t get into it. We’ve now watched six episodes and I’m hooked! It’s funny how you sometimes have to give shows another try. The rare time I have to watch TV on my own I’ve been watching the new season of Sweet Magnolias.

ICYMI this week on the blog:

Tuesday I shared my April reads.

Sharing with Friday Favorites!  Have a great weekend!

Happy Friday! This week was so busy with errands and activities. My daughter is having her Sweet 16 birthday dinner with friends tonight and trying to get her cake was an ordeal! My son had another track meet yesterday. My daughter has been doing study sessions for her AP Euro exam, which she’s taking today. Plus over the next several days it’s my mom’s birthday, my brother’s birthday and my niece’s birthday. I’ve been running around picking up presents for everyone. I’m exhausted! The weather isn’t supposed to be great this weekend so not sure we’ll be able to enjoy Mother’s Day outside like I was hoping. Here are five from this week:

1. Theatre– Friday night my husband and I saw Million Dollar Quartet at the Westchester Theatre at the Chappaqua Performing Arts Center. Although the Westchester Broadway Theatre closed, it’s wonderful that theatre is still accessible Westchester County. 

Sunday afternoon we saw our high school’s  production of In The Heights. I may be biased, but they always put on an amazing show! For such a small school district, I am amazed at the number of talented students we have!

2. Reading – I read Sadie on a Plate by Amanda Elliott. It’s a romance set on a reality cooking show (definitely gives off Top Chef vibes). As a fan of cooking and cooking shows this was right up my alley! 

3. Cooking – This week one of our favorite dinners was Greek Baked Orzo. It was fairly easy to put together and tasty.

4. Watching – We watched a couple episodes of Bullsh*t on Netflix. I could NEVER be on this show since I’m such a horrible liar! It’s hosted by Howie Mandel and was something to watch that I didn’t have to pay a whole lot of attention to.

5. Drinking – Cavit moscato. I’m not a huge wine drinker, but if I am going to drink wine I like it bubbly and sweet. Moscato is my favorite type. Palm Wine International sent me a couple of bottles for a post I did for Guilty Eats. 

6. Cinco de Mayo – Yesterday my son had a track meet. We ended up going to El Coyote after the meet with three other families. It was a fun evening out. It was just sooo busy that our food took a long time to arrive. These shrimp tacos were very good though!

ICYMI this week on the blog:

Tuesday I posted about Million Dollar Quartet debuting at The Westchester Theatre.

Sharing with Friday Favorites!  Have a great weekend!

Happy Friday! Today’s intro is short and sweet. It’s been a long, busy week and I’m so happy for the weekend! Here are five from this week:

1. Orange County Arboretum -It’s been over two years since we visited the Orange County Arboretum. It’s beautiful in the spring and on our recent visit the tulips were in full bloom!

2. Eating – Sunday after our visit to the arboretum we stopped at Thank Goodness It’s Vegan for lunch. We shared the Shrooms basket, Chick’on littles with teriyaki sauce and cheese taquitos.

3. Reading – This week I finished reading Home Made by Liz Hauck. This was the April book pick for my local foodies book club. We had the meeting last week but I hadn’t quite finished the book. I ended up finishing it this week and am glad I did. This is a nonfiction book about a woman who starts a cooking program at a residential home for teenage boys.

4. Cooking – This week one of our favorite dinners was Cauliflower Grain Bowls. I substituted farro for quinoa and also bought a tahini salad dressing instead of making homemade. I’m all about the shortcuts, especially on a weeknight!

5. Watching –  Being quarantined for several days I ended up finishing watching all the episodes of Old Enough on Netflix, which I had written about last week. It’s such a cute show!  

I also am almost through watching the second season of Bridgerton.

6. School Play– My son was one of two stage crew managers for his middle school play, High School Musical. We saw it Saturday night and it was so good! 

7. Drinking – Boba Bam kindly sent me samples of their instant boba tea for a post I wrote for Guilty Eats. Our family, especially my teens, love bubble tea. This is found only at Costco and select Aldi’s 

8. Check out my recent articles for Guilty Eats:

Cocktails to Celebrate Mother’s Day

Surprise Mom With a Vinebox for Mother’s Day!

Up Your Sandwich Game with French’s Mustard Spreads

Palm Bay International has the perfect bottle of wine for mom

HEINZ DIP & CRUNCH Will Transform Burger Night

Give the Gift of Lenox This Mother’s Day!

AHA Sparkling Water Introduces Three New Flavors!

Sharing with Friday Favorites!  Have a great weekend!

Happy Friday! I hope everyone had a happy Passover and Happy Easter! I didn’t have a Friday post last week because we were on vacation! We flew to Barbados and went on a 7 night Caribbean island hopping cruise. The trip was in honor of my daughter’s 16th birthday. Instead of a big party, she asked for a tropical vacation. Seeing that we hadn’t taken any real vacations in over two years, we thought it was a great idea. It was a fantastic trip and although there were so many things that could have gone wrong, we had a seamless trip. It was definitely a bit stressful pre trip – packing, COVID tests, etc. However, the trip itself was amazing. It was so nice to unplug (we didn’t buy wifi) and spend some real quality time as a family. Here are five from this week:

1. The Cruise Ship – We sailed on Royal Caribbean’s Grandeur of the Seas. This is one of their smallest ships, which was fine with us for this trip. There wasn’t that much to do in terms of activities, but that was fine since we were off the ship every day exploring the different islands.  The ship left from Barbados and then went to Grenada, St. Kitts, Antigua, St. Vincent, Dominica and St. Lucia. I’ll be posting more pictures of our travels on Instagram. 

2. Eating – Overall, I was actually pretty disappointed with the food on the cruise this trip. Normally, I really like the food on Royal Caribbean. I did enjoy this lobster tail for dinner on one of the formal nights. Our head waiter told us a story of a previous cruise where a woman ended up eating 32 lobster tails! Pretty unbelievable.

3. Reading – I ended up bringing my kindle on the cruise since I didn’t want to lug bulky books around with me (and our suitcases were already stuffed!).  I borrowed a bunch of digital books from the library…..and realized when I went to read one that I hadn’t downloaded them to the kindle! So, I was stuck reading what was already downloaded.  Fortunately, I had a Netgalley ARC of Bet on It by Jodie Slaughter.  This is a contemporary romance about, “a bingo-based sex pact” that is set to be published this summer. 

4. Cooking – It was so nice having a week off from grocery shopping and cooking! Reality set in though and I’m back at it. One of our favorite dinners was Pinch of Yum’s Spicy Peanut Tofu Bowls.

5. Watching – On the plane headed to Barbados I slept, since we were up at 1:45 AM to head to the airport! On the way home I watched 22 Jump Street with Jonah Hill and Tatum Channing. I didn’t realize this movie was so old (2014), but it ended up being an entertaining, light watch.

I also found the show Old Enough on Netflix and have been binge watching it. The short episodes feature a Japanese toddler sent out to run errands. These kids are so adorable and are only 3 -4 years old (some are even younger!). They are walking busy streets, going into stores, etc. by themselves.  

6. Driving Permit – Of course as soon as we got home, my daughter wanted to go take her permit test.  She went Monday afternoon and passed. We now take her out every afternoon driving (in parking lots and empty streets).  She’s not quite ready to hit busy roads yet! 

7. COVID – I thought the cruise did a great job with their COVID precautions/testing requirements. We tested the day before we left for our trip, we also got tested before we could board the ship. Then we got tested Saturday before we could fly home on Sunday. Monday I had a cough that got worse later in the week. Wednesday I finally took an at-home test and tested positive! It’s crazy that I made it over two years without getting COVID and then got it now! I am so thankful I was not positive on the ship though, where I would have had to quarantine on the boat for 10 days! So, I’ve been home the past two days quarantined in my bedroom. I’m fine and just have a cough and runny nose. It feels like a cold, which is what I thought I had. Unfortunately, we had to postpone my daughter’s birthday brunch celebration with her friends. But thankfully, the rest of the family is negative! 

Sharing with Friday Favorites!  Have a great weekend!

Happy Friday! This weekend starts the kids’ spring break. We are going on vacation so there won’t be a Friday post next week. I wish everyone an early happy Passover and Happy Easter! Here are five from this week:

1. Hike – Saturday morning we went on an early hike to Rockefeller State Park Preserve.  We walked around Swan Lake and walked the Old Railroad Bed Trail to Peaceful Path. It was nice seeing spring trying to make an appearance. I am excited to be able to get more hiking in, now that the weather is starting to warm up!

2. Eating – After our hike we stopped at Falafel Taco for lunch. This is an Israeli-Mexican fusion restaurant. We shared several items including this Fatoosh Taco (fried eggplant, fried egg, black bean hummus, and Israeli salad) along with an Israeli Corn Salad and Mexican Latkes!

3. Reading – This week I finished Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. Even though this isn’t my usual genre, I was surprised at how much I enjoyed his other book The Martian. I’d heard such good things about Project Hail Mary, I thought I’d give it a try and I’m glad that I did.

I also finished listening to The Therapist on book on cd.  It was an okay suspense read. 

4. Cooking – one of our favorite dinners this week was Honey Sriracha Tofu that I served with rice and roasted broccoli.

5. Watching – Friday we watched King Richard, which was a great movie. Kind of makes me want to play tennis again! 

We also watched Tick tick Boom, the musical about Jonathan Larsen.  I saw Rent on Broadway twice and it was so interesting to see Jonathan Larsen’s life before that.

A fun television show that I’ve been watching is That’s My Jam on Hulu. Hosted by Jimmy Fallon, it’s a music and trivia game show with musicians and celebs competing against each other.

ICYMI this week on the blog:

Tuesday I shared a post about Brothers Fish & Chips.

Sharing with Friday Favorites!  Have a great weekend!