Tea Sandwiches for 60

Yeah that's right 60. 

I snapped this pic last week, no idea what I was in store for. 

I volunteered to make sandwiches for a local collegiate chapter of my sorority for their last round of formal recruitment, know as Pref.  Aren't I a nice alum?

Here's the menu, all laid out at the grocery store check out

~Cucumber slices with cream cheese on white bread

~Hummus and sprouts on whole wheat

~Nutella and granola on cinnamon raisin

2 loaves of each bread - yes I had 6 loaves of bread to attempt to get home unsquished. 

Yes, I cut all the crusts off....I still can't believe I did that!

I bought twice as much as I thought I would need for everything. Wooops

The sandwiches were a huge hit - and my fellow volunteers and I maaay have snuck a sandwich or two. :) 

xo,

Michelle

The Simple Things

Christina at Soul Aperture is doing a "Simple Things" post with a twist. For every "Simple Things" blog post her family will donate $1.00, to Doctors Without Borders (up to 250.00). Here's what a "Simple Things" post is...

"dear january, we love you but, it's time to show you who's boss! my friends and i are posting the simple things in life, that we appreciate. we will weave our words with love, gratefulness, meaning and spunk.no matter how big or small, we will bring light with the simple things."

Please consider writing your own "Simple Things" post and comment on her blog. 

So on to my "Simple Things"

*Watching it flurry at dusk*

*Making Hot Chocolate for a class of chilly 1st graders*

*Text messages from my mom*

*A nice glass of red wine*

*Having dessert first*

*Giggling over something really immature w/ a co-worker during our weekly mtng*

*I still have my Christmas tree up and I don't care who knows it*

*Turning on the lights of said Christmas tree every night*

*The little boy wearing pajamas that light up under his school uniform*

*Oatmeal*

*Ugg boots...I don't care what you say, my feet are sooo warm!*

*Texts, Facebook Messages, Voicemails and finally real conversations with my sisters*

*"Hey Miss...I brought something HEALTHY for snack!!!"*

*5years ago tonight my husband and I met and he remembers!*

*Comfy pajamas*

*Mittens that change into fingerless gloves*

*Stella Artois*

*Grilled Cheese Sandwich & Tomato Soup*

*The flicker of a candle*

*Dancing in the apt before I leave for work to whatever music I feel like*

*Escaping back in Mexico at least in my mind*

*"It's our pleasure to serve you" coffee cups*

*For compassion, faith, love and miracles, especially for and in Haiti*

xo,

Michelle

Help for Haiti

How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong.  Because someday in your life you will have been all of these.  ~George Washington Carver

Laptop still out of commission. But there could be bigger problems. On that note, please consider donating to help with the disaster relief in Haiti. 

The Mayor's Fund for us NYC folk is devoting 100% of donations to the Haiti Disaster Fund. I love this story  posted on the Dept of Ed website about a few schools who gathered bags of change and sweet letters written by the students.  "Dear Haiti: here is some money and a bag of hope," wrote Hana, a third-grader at P.S. 188, in a letter. "I am praying for you every night. Remember there is always hope! Very soon everything will be fixed." Ohh...I cry just reading that letter! Kids have the biggest hearts and say such real, honest things. 

I got an email from International Medical Corps letting me know what their organization is and what they are doing in Haiti. IMC is a global, humanitarian, nonprofit organization, committed to the rescue effort. According to their website they are currently working at the  Hospital De'l Universite d'etat d'Haiti treating the injured. You can donate $10 simply by texting 'Haiti" to 85944 or you can donate online.

I'm also including a widget from their website in this post, hopefully it shows up. You can also donate here.

xo,

Michelle

Sounds like Chicken Pizza

But it's really Chichen Itza

Mexico - ahhh sweet Mexico. What an awesome, restful, relaxing, warm, tequilla & cerveza filled week. However...."someone" dropped the laptop. Laptop has a huge sad face right now which I'm trying to fix. In the meantime just a few photos I managed to upload

Agave - the Mexican restaurant at our resort - we went Christmas Eve & again a 2nd time. So yummy!

What I loved about the restaurants was you could tell careful thought was put into the interior design to help them feel authentic - beautiful drapes & furniture in the French place that made me think of Versailles - red fabrics and an overall very minimal feeling at the Asian place, etc. Very well done!

Yummy dessert

Beach days - wonderful!
Up on our rooftop deck - which will be the 'happy place' in my mind for days to come. Drinking some bubbly, but of course...

xo,

Michelle

"City Sidewalks, Busy Sidewalks...Dressed in Holiday Cheer"

"Hey Look! It's the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree!"

Is it just me or do tourists get stupider every year?

News Flash - it's one block over. KthanksBye

"Strings of Street Lights, Even Stop Lights, Blink a Bright Red and Green"

"As the Shoppers Rush Home, With Their Treasures"

Lyrics from Silver Bells by Livingston & Evans. I love that it describes the holidays in an urban setting! Yeah!

Snapped those pics last night on 6th Avenue. Love the decorations out front of the office buildings. In midtown the uniform is pretty much gray & black so it's SO nice to see some color during the winter. It looked beautiful with our first snowfall too :)

The last of our "Happy New Year" holiday cards were finished last night. Thanks to Tiny Prints for such awesome designs, as always. I celebrated with a glass or two of California's finest. The taller the glass the more bubbles you see, remember that for your New Year's parties. We're off to Mexico Thursday so I lift my glass in a toast to you. May your last days of 2009 be merry and your 2010 even brighter! Thanks for reading!

xo,

Michelle

It smells like the holidays

I am a firm believer that smells bring up memories, hopefully good ones this time of year. Since moving to Florida 10 years ago (holy cow!) my mom (i think) has enjoyed the open layout of the kitchen/dining room/family room in what was my grandparents house. I guess the formal term is a 'great room' with an attached small kitchen. While it's sometimes a little odd to celebrate a holiday so often associated with winter things in a place where there are palm trees in everyone's yard instead of pine trees but mom always makes it magical, like we were all little girls living back on Long Island again. I know we missed the snow our first Christmas there but I think not having to shovel was the best present our Upstate NY born dad has ever been given. Anyway back to mom - yum making her hot chocolate, cookies, and her 'magic' smelling mixture. No idea where she got the recipe for this but wow it's amazing. I wish I could knock down a wall in my little apt to get the smell to travel throughout and bring me back 'home'.

Fill a pot at least half way full with water. If you are like me and have a tendency to forget you have a pot on the stove, add more water to prevent burning - eek! Add Cinnamon Sticks, Whole Cloves and Star Anise. Add a liberal amount of cinnamon sticks but you can go easy on the cloves and star anise since they are so strong. Let simmer. Prepare to be amazed with a delicious licorice but cinnamon-y smell. Enjoy!

xo,

Michelle

"Lorelai Does Santa's Dry Cleaning"

Gigi: Why do you have Santa's clothes?

Lorelai: Because ... I ...used to do Santa's dry cleaning.

Gigi: Wow.

Ahhh how I managed to twist dry cleaning, Christmas and Gilmore Girls into one post is remarkable (if I do say so myself) so here I go.

Living in a 5th floor walk up with no laundry facilities in the building is um an experience. I have learned to love drop-off service where gasp, someone else does my laundry. I got over the weirdness factor very quickly when I realized it would save me precious time during graduate school.

We love our laundry/dry clean place and I think the sweet husband and wife owners love us too. My husband is a little like Santa himself every weekend carrying our huge bag over his shoulder down the stairs and across the street. And sometimes the dry cleaning & dress shirts too. He has taken it on as one of his chores and I can' t thank him enough for doing it faithfully every weekend.

Enter yesterday - picture me slightly hung over from work holiday party not wanting to get out of bed for anything. And him going to the office. "I'm leaving you the laundry slips. Can you please pick up my shirts & dry cleaning?" I must have mummbled yes because when I finally stumbled out of bed around 2pm there they were on the coffee table. Crap. Not only was my mouth dry, my head in some kind of dull pain but it was also starting to snow. So being the great wife I am I sucked it up, got dressed and went down to pick everything up right?

Wrong. You veteran wives are shaking your heads at me I know. Lucky for me the store was opened today, despite all the snow, and husband can go to work in a freshly washed & starched shirt. And I have learned a lesson about not putting things off.

xo,

Michelle

Holiday Breakfast: Huevos Rancheros

Before Hannukah, Christmas, Kwanza and New Year's come and go...here's one last post about the food fest that is Thanksgiving. We went to the movies & dinner at Maria Pia . Maria Pia had great Turkey & wine...my favorite! Really want to go back for a proper Italian meal there...looked so so good. While out and about I snapped this pic of the Empire State Building decked out for the night.

I suppose one of my favorite traditions is cooking breakfast the morning of Thanksgiving. Well, any holiday for that matter. And my favorite breakfast is anything to do with eggs. Especially, thanks to Yuca Bar, huevos rancheros. This is my go to recipe from the Food Network

The kinda lousy thing about buying a dozen eggs is well then you have a dozen eggs and when you're just cooking for two you have to try to figure out what else to make. But no brainer, let's make more eggs! So the day after Thanksgiving, when everyone else was in Black Friday Madness (or if you ask me, one of the layer's of Hell) I scrambled the remaining eggs, used the left-over bean sauce (yum so good) and made wraps.

What's your favorite thing to cook for breakfast?

xo,

Michelle

Live from my Inbox - it's Black Friday!

Happy Day after Thanksgiving! Hope you had a wonderful day with family & friends :)

Here are a few deals that showed up in my Inbox this morning...

Edible Arrangements - sales every hour

Lenox - 70%off sale until Sunday

Crate & Barrel - Wusthof Knife Sale

Godiva - free dipped strawberries with a $25purchase this weekend, in store only

Happy Shopping

xo,

Michelle

Turkey Day is Coming!

Are you busy getting ready for Thanksgiving? Nope, I'm not. We stay here in NYC & eat out. Yippie! I love picking a new place to eat at every year. I'm really looking forward to watching the parade on TV, cooking a fun breakfast and relaxing all day.

But if you are cooking for the masses I'm sure you're worrying about things like the correct tart to sweet ratio of your cranberry relish, finding a divided dish for the pickles and olives (sidenote, as a kid I loved to pig out on these), and finding enough chairs so everyone has a place to sit. One issue that you don't have to worry about is your turkey getting dry (horrors!) here's a handy tip from WeaselMomma

If your turkey is too dry, open a bottle of white wine, pour a glass. Repeat continually until you no longer care that the turkey is dry. @WeaselMomma

hahahaha

Happy week of cooking!

xo,

Michelle