Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Fruit Guys.. You ROCK!!

Okok, so I'm a little late getting to this post.. if you've read my previous post you can see that I was a little busy over the weekend baking.

So, Back to the FruitGuys box.

I was expecting my delivery Thursday night.. so when I heard someone in the driveway at 7am on Thursday morning I didn't think anything of it, I thought it was my landlord or one of his jerky kids.. But it wasn't... it was the delivery guy who was cool enough to not just toss the box over the driveway gate and leave it (like most of them do) it was left at my side door just like I had asked. When I went to leave at 7:30 I was really shocked that the fruit was already there, especially since the delivery times stated that it would arrive by the end of the day, so first thing in the morning was a totally awesome surprise. I was running a little late getting the kid to school (as usual, he has Chronic Lateness Disorder) so I brought the box inside and thought about that box all dang day.

When we got home the kid, of course had to be the one who took the honors in opening that box and inside were 2 giant fennel bulbs, 3 different kinds of apples, 2 meyer lemons, 1 tangelo, 1 gold nugget orange, 1 blood orange, a handful of sunchokes, about 5 yellow squash, a handful of red potatoes and a package of fresh rosemary (which I was excited about since after 3 years my Rosemary plant didn't survive this crazy NY winter).

That night I made roasted rosemary chicken with sauteed fennel, I'd never made fennel before, but both the kid and myself loved it.

Monday night I made pasta with roasted fennel, garlic and yellow squash.. it was unbelievable!

The apples and oranges are all gone.. all the freshest I've ever had aside from getting it straight from the farm (which this all is)

I still don't know what to do with the sunchokes. Raw, to me, they taste like dirt and I have no idea what the heck to do with them and any suggestions are welcome.

I will definitely be ordering from the FruitGuys again. I was very pleased with not only the quality of everything I ordered, but with their excellent customer service and the courtesy of the grower for adding in a handwritten note that the cherry tomatoes weren't available and substituted red potatoes in their place.



I did take a pic of the box when it arrived, I will upload it later when I get home.

Monday, April 26, 2010

The Biggest cake I've ever made

Sunday was my best friend's son's 3rd birthday party. We've been planning the cake for weeks, first it was going to be a Buzz Lightyear cake, then she called me around 10 one night and had an idea, she wanted to make a train cake, but not just any train, we made the train from the book Freight Trains by Donald Crews.


In Particular, this train, that moves throughout the book.. in it's entirety!


We started baking early Saturday afternoon and after taking a break for a few hours to have dinner at her brother's for her sister in law's birthday (and running home to grab a change of clothes and my hand mixer because we burnt hers out!) the baking resumed around 9:30pm until almost 2am Sunday morning.. baking cakes, cupcakes and whipping up batches of buttercream frosting. By the time we got to bed the cakes were all filled, layered, shaped and mostly iced and all we had to do come morning was bake a batch of mini cupcakes and finish icing them as the wheels on the train.

It was a big job.. the biggest I've ever done at least:


We had to put the leaf in the dining room table just to fit the whole cake!





But, it was a huge success and her son was so excited when he saw the cake... and Everyone loved it!

Monday, April 19, 2010

Excited for my first Fruit Guys delivery

I’m really excited about my box of fruit & Veggies I ordered last night from Fruit Guys that is scheduled to be delivered on Thursday 4/22. I had originally was going to order earlier, but the kid wanted to wait to see what was available this week since they still had last week’s mix up and the box wasn’t going to be delivered until this week.. And just for the sake of seeing what was actually going to be coming.. We waited... but I’m nonetheless excited to get a box full of apples, pears, plums, fennel, Meyer lemons (YEAH BABY!) Sunchokes (I have no idea what to do with these), yellow squash, cherry tomatoes and.. And.. Oh crud, I think that’s it. What’s good is there’s no bananas or kiwi’s in this box.. Don’t get me wrong.. I love me the bananas and kiwi’s, but they’re something so regular that I was really hoping would be omitted from the box this week.. And horray it was. You can always choose to Not have the bananas or kiwi’s.. but then again they do charge you a fee for and changes. I would have gotten it regardless, but this was like my ‘first box bonus’ lol.

I’ll post when the box comes and then again let y’all know what I did with the sunchokes and if any of you have a recipe or a clue as to what to do with them I’d be very appreciative.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

I don't eat right & this is going to change.. NOW

After much consideration I decided on Monday that I was going to start recording what I eat, because I know that I don’t eat right. I don’t normally eat breakfast and I often go without lunch too finding myself absolutely starving at 3pm and then when dinner comes around I fill my plate. This isn’t good. I’m not gaining weight.. But on the other hand, I’m not losing it either. I’m not a ‘big girl’ I’m average, I've never been stick skinny and I don’t plan to be 100 pounds anytime soon.

To help me on my journey I've started using My Plate to keep track of what I’m eating and I’ve discovered one HUGE thing.. I consume way too much sugar... mostly in the form of my beloved large caramel latté from Dunkin Donuts 5 days a week. I didn’t realize it was really that bad.. But I’m consuming almost twice the amount of sugar I should if I want to lose any weight.

I also realized that we don’t eat enough fruit in my house.. Last night when the craving hit that I really wanted an apple or an orange... something instead of leftover Easter candy there was nothing.. Absolutely nothing. The grocery stores around here have fruit (of course) but lately I haven’t been happy with the quality of the fruit I’ve been getting. So I decided we’re going to try something new. I remembered something I saw on Twitter the other night and I quickly typed in Fruit Guys into Google.

I am totally willing to pay a little extra for a box of quality fruit, especially when the health and well being of not only myself but also my kid are at stake here. Since there are the two of us and I like to take fruit with me at work because it’s something that I can eat while sitting at my desk, answering phones and greeting clients without looking like a fool and the kid can toss fruit into his backpack. My first box of fruit is scheduled to arrive on Wednesday, April 21 and I'm so freaking excited.. I will do a blog post along with pics of the fruit and all when that comes.

My goal here is to get healthier, the kid is going out for the lacrosse team and so I'm going to have to instill all the good eating habits into him too.

This is my journey.. and y'all are coming along for the ride.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Disappointing dinner from Wild Fig in Garden City

I called The Kid before I left work tonight to ask him what he wanted for dinner since we've been eating Easter leftovers for the past 2 days. He said he could really go for a gyro, ok.. I was up for that. I decided to call in an order to Wild Fig which is the closest Greek place to my office. I hadn't stopped there in a while and I know there's always parking there.

What a mistake! I ordered a small Greek salad and 2 gyros and it all smelled so good I couldn't wait to get home and tear into it. Well, as soon as I opened the bag I knew something was amiss.. the dressing from the salad leaked all over the inside of the bag, the salad was overdressed and soggy, the tzatziki was so full of dill it was all I could taste and the kicker? There was overdressed salad inside my gyro and the meat was overcooked, over salted and chewy.

This is definitely not the same food I remember from the last time I was there. As I'm sitting here looking at this Gyro that I really don't even want anymore (after the first 2 bites) I'm really mad that I wasted $21 on this crap when I should have just gone to the place closer to home even though the parking is a nightmare. I know the food is excellent, with crispy lettuce, tender, well seasoned meat (not overly salty like Wild Fig's) and fresh tasting, chunky, cucumber filled tzatziki. I also ordered a side of fries with one of the gyros and not even The kid wanted to eat them because they were totally soaked full of grease, blech!

I don't think I'll be going back to Wild Fig and I'm really glad I decided against getting the $5 smoothie that was on the menu, no matter how badly I wanted it I'm sure it would have been as disappointing as this crummy dinner was.

Monday, April 5, 2010

Del Prado Gourmet Nectars

John from Del Prado was cool enough to do a shout out on Twitter to ask if anyone wanted samples to send him a message.. So I shot him a message, gave him all my info and within 2 days I had 2 cans of this amazing nectar sitting here on my desk. 1 can of pear and 1 can of pineapple. Now, truth be told I am NOT a huge fan of pineapple juice, especially canned pineapple juice because it always tastes tinny and it’s way too acidic, so I set that aside to share with The Kid when I got home later that evening.

I got home and tossed them both in the fridge and when my kid asked me what there was to drink with dinner I pulled both cans out of the fridge and asked him which he wanted, and he chose the pineapple, well.. He nearly downed the whole can in one sip! I managed to get about 1/4 cup of the pineapple and couldn’t believe how Smooth it was, almost creamy and not tinny or even a hint of the acidity you get with other pineapple juices. I split the can of Pear with the kid later that night and it was like biting into a ripe pear, it was absolutely fantastic that I can’t wait to get my hands on more of this stuff. I’m a little bummed that it’s not sold in stores by me, but still happy that it’s readily available from Amazon and I’m no stranger from ordering from Amazon grocery since they tend to have unbeatable deals and they are currently the only place I can get my Senseo cappuccino pods (On Auto-ship baby)

Not only does Del Prado make these wonderful nectars and juices, but they are the founders of The Children of Ayacucho Fund which was established with The Resource Foundation to build schools, dormitories, and orphanages for impoverished children in Ayacucho, Peru.

I will continue to spread the word of Del Prado Nectars, they are absolutely delicious, organic and support a great cause.

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Craigslist: the Mecca for scammers

As Many of you know I've been looking for an apartment for over a year now. I have quite possibly The Most inconsiderate family that I rent from.. I rent their basement, they have parties any day they please until all hours of the night, crank the TV and music whenever they're home that in most cases is loud Hispanic music that literally shakes the foundation of the house leaving me absolutely no peace at all. For instance, last Wednesday the kids had spring break, well la de freaking da.. I had to work, but they didn't take that into consideration since their TV AND radio was blasting until almost 1am. Right now, as I'm typing this the TV is cranked so loud I can hear everything. I can complain, sure.. but they don't do anything about it except tell me if I don't like it, to move.. which I'm trying to do.

For months I've been scouring craigslist daily for an apartment, so far I found one.. but even though the owner was a sweet old lady I was not going to pay her $1,100 for her basement.. not to mention I will NEVER again rent a basement apartment.. EVER!

so I get a response to an ad I had replied to on Craigslist and I get this today:

Hello,


Thanks for the response concerning my apartment and the apartment is still available for rent and i want you to know that i do need a good tenant that can take good care of the apartment and make it clean and i want you to know that the apartment is $900 include the ultilites bills and i want you to know that you will have to pay for the apartment monthly fees which means you will have to pay the deposite fees include 1month fees which is $1800 and i want you to know that the apartment is now available and i want you to know that the apartment have been locked just because am not in the country for now because am in Uk doing business and i want you to know that you will have to drive pass the apartment so that you can view the apartment and i want you to know that you can check the apartment at ( E 80th St New York, NY 10116 ) and i want you to know that as soon as you drive pass the apartment you can email me and i want you to know that am a very honest person and i do need a good tenant that will take good care the apartment and i want you to promise me that when you move in you will take good care of the apartment and make it clean as well and the inform of payment for the apartment fees is viw Western Union and i want you to know that is the only way the payment for the apartment can be payed and i want you to know that the keys for the apartment is with me and i want you to email me and hope to read from you soon today and you will have to fill the application form for the apartment .i want you to fill the application form and i want you to know that the apartment is still available for rent and you to know that i do need a good tenant that is very clean and neat that can take good care of the apartment just because am not in the state right now am in Uk and that is why am giving the apartment to a good tenant that can take good care of it and will like you to fill the application form below:::::

I want you to do fill the application form below::::::::::::::
How many are you coming to the apartment:::::
Your full name:::::::
Physical Address::::::::::::::::::
Phone Number/Home/Work:::::::
Do you have Pet:::::::
Do you have Car::::::
When are you moving in::::::
How old are you:::::::::
What is your occupation:::::::::
How many years are you staying:::::

I want you to email me back with the application form and email me as soon as you drive pass the apartment.

Thanks

Tom


This was my response to "Tom"

Please do not email me again, I am looking for an apartment in a certain part of NYC as described in your original Ad, NOT that part of NYC.

Oh, and I'm not falling for your scam anyway.. nice try though creep.

and then I blocked his email address..

GRRRR!