Tag: brooklyn

Playing Catchup

Hello from the most negligent bloggers in the land! We kept drafting posts, then not posting posts, then deleting posts, and ultimately ignoring the mere existence of posts. So here’s a little highlight reel of the last few months. We have trips to Chicago, Minnesota, and even India. We have weddings, and sightseeing, and family reunions. We have lots of friends, and lots of amazing skies. It’s been a great year and we’ve been, apparently, too busy to document it properly! Here’s to the close of 2013 and a 2014 with even more to show.

Big Apple BBQ
We came, we ate all the meat.

Chicago
Celebrating an old friend’s wedding in Jason’s favorite city.

Jekyll Island
Another wedding—this time family—on the beautiful Jekyll Island, Georgia, known for Driftwood Beach.

Bo Ssam
Shared an incredible bo ssam with ten friends and ate until we couldn’t see straight!

Beach Week 2013
Summer vacation tradition continues, but this time with a heavy heart for Jersey.

Fete Paradiso on Governor’s Island
An antique French carnival set up in New York Harbor? Ooh la la!

NYCC 2013
The boys headed to ComicCon again, this time with Cameron, too! (see more on Jason’s Flickr account).

India
Erin took the work trip of a lifetime.

Thanksgiving
Once again we hosted our family and friends for pie, stuffing, and turkey turkey turkey.

Minnesota Weekend Getaway
Braved 2° high temps to see Lauren and Peto! Escaped to Mall of America.

Bring on 2014
And as the sun sets on 2013, we are ready for a whole new year of adventure!

December 23
A Look Back at 2012

Happy new year! We’re looking forward to a fantastic 2013, but wanted to take a moment to look back at 2012. It was a fun year, though not all of it has been documented here (we only started the blog in June, after all!). Not only did we finally walk across the Manhattan Bridge, listen to the Philharmonic in the park, and take a trip to San Francisco, we weathered Superstorm Sandy, hosted a delicious Thanksgiving, and had our annual beach week vacation.

But there’s more, of course, that never made it onto the blog (we promise to be better documenters this year), and we wanted to share some of them with you.

For Jason’s birthday, we took a trip to Chicago, where we went to see Second City with Lauren and Peter.

A photo walk in our neighborhood, Bay Ridge.

Erin made her favorite quilt ever.

Jason went to the Renegade Craft Fair in Brooklyn …

… and met Carla from Top Chef, our favorite past contestant! (Photo by Jodi, photobombed by Elizabeth and Chris.)

Erin had an idyllic weekend away with friends in the mountains of West Virginia.

Revered Erin performed the wedding ceremony for our friends Jes and Michele!

George and Ally came to visit and we dragged them on an epic walk from Manhattan to Brooklyn.

Tim came up to brave the madness of Comic Con with Jason, Chris, and Loc.

Erin, Holly, and Tania had a classic New York fall day: brunch, shopping, and a walk in Central Park.

We took another trip to the Park Avenue Armory to see The Event of a Thread.

We spent a snowy Christmas with Erin’s parents in Maryland.

So here’s to 2012, a fun and friend-filled year, and to more of the same in 2013!

January 1
It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Jason would start decorating for Christmas before Thanksgiving if it were socially acceptable, but this year we got our first real tree, which meant we waited a full week after Thanksgiving to start decking the halls Chez Kriegaker. But oh, it was worth the wait!

We live just two blocks from a nursery, so we headed over there to pick out our tree (Jason’s first real one ever!). The owner showed us two trees and I narrowed them down based on scent (and price): a balsam fir (less expensive, it turns out, than a Fraser fir). Strongman Jason carried it home for us on his shoulder while I breathed in the wake. We set it up in the corner, gave it a lot of warm water, and left it for the day to settle into place. On Sunday we started up White Christmas on Netflix and set to stringing on the lights and hanging the ornaments! This year Tania gave Erin a little Brooklyn ornament, which got a place of honor, and Erin made a cute tree skirt. We had some fun taking photos of the process to make a little video in homage to the one that our friends Caro and Boon made.

It’s so festive in here now!

Oh, and we made you this . . .

(Merry Christmas!)

December 8
Hurricane Sandy

Thank you to all our friends and family who have gotten in touch to be sure we are OK after Hurricane Sandy swept through. Our apartment wasn’t affected, thankfully (Hurricane Irene, in contrast, caused extensive water damage in our apartment), but Jason had to weather the event on his own, filling bottles with water and managing all the electronics, because Erin was stuck in Chicago on a business trip that lasted three days longer than originally scheduled. We ended up having quite different experiences: Erin was in a 4-star hotel, meeting up with friends, while Jason was in our apartment hoping to not run out of power or food! Luckily we never lost Internet or electricity, so we could stay in touch the entire time. Both of us documented our days…

Jason has uploaded more photos and a few videos if you want to see more. Erin posted a few other photos to her own blog. Also, if you can find the means, please donate to the Red Cross. The recovery for the city and, notably, New Jersey, is going to be long. Our hearts go out to everyone affected directly. And a huge thank you to Jodi and Chris, who went out of their way (with Jason) to pick Erin up at the airport when finding a car service wasn’t looking good!

November 2
Free Concert: New York Philharmonic

One of the greatest things about New York City in the summer is the sheer number of free events you can attend. There’s Shakespeare in the Park, movie showings, and more. Every year, the New York Philharmonic has free performances in city parks, notably Central Park. That show is always packed blanket to blanket, so we went to the one in Prospect Park in Brooklyn along with our friend Holly—we hoped to have a smaller experience closer to home. We arrived early enough to be on the main lawn but thought the more sparsely populated edge would be a nicer location. (This was our first time listening at Prospect Park, and it turns out we were wrong: though you can hear the music pretty well, the speakers are not aimed at you, which meant many quiet parts of the pieces were completely lost on our area. This also means people in attendance chatter incessantly and don’t sit quietly. Next time, we’ll go farther in!)

We went the easy route and ordered food to go from Dizzy’s right near the entrance to the park. We spread it all out, ate, and then Holly and I both knit as the sun set. The show began at 8pm, when the fireflies were starting to come out and the sunset was casting a glow over the park. The performance included Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4 and two pieces by Respighi: Fountains of Rome and Pines of Rome. None of us was familiar with the pieces, but they were beautiful. Erin’s always loved going to the orchestra but prefers being able to see the musicians playing, and Jason is eager to go to one where he can actually hear it; we’re looking into the schedule at Lincoln Center for the future.

After the concert ended, there were fireworks to celebrate! Though there was a tree in the way, we had great seats; this sure made up for the lack of explosions in the sky on Independence Day!

Take a listen to the concert yourself in the video Erin took.

(shot with the 7D)

July 22
Independence Day BBQ

Hot dogs and apple pie: It doesn’t get more American than that, right? Well, we had hot dogs, rabbit sausage, Mexican corn (elote) and strawberry-balsamic pie, and our friends are from all over the globe, but it sure was a great BBQ. And what’s more American than that?

Our friends Tania and Loc had people over to celebrate Independence Day on their rooftop deck. The temperature was pushing 100°F that day, which meant everyone was clamoring for the shade. We braved the heat for the sake of grilled meats, though. Christina brought rabbit sausage, Jason’s new favorite thing, while Erin insisted on good ol’ Hebrew Nationals for her July 4th menu. Erin made her family favorite cucumber-onion salad (recipe below) and a potato salad that uses goat cheese instead of mayonnaise so the heat wouldn’t make things too disgusting. Everyone found a spot in the shade of the umbrella and gathered around the great big table.

Cucumber-Onion Salad (at lower left in photo above)

2 cucumbers, peeled and thinly sliced (leave a small bit of peel for decorative purposes; use a mandoline to get really thin slices)
1 small onion, thinly sliced
1/2 cup sour cream
1/3 cup white vinegar
3 tablespoons sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon dry mustard

Combine all ingredients in a bowl. It tastes like summer!

We ate dessert in their air conditioned apartment. Strawberry-balsamic pie from Four and Twenty Blackbirds, plus homemade lemon meringue by Christina and a lemon-olive oil cake from Pam rounded out our citrussy, tasty dessert spread. Once the sun had set, we made our way back upstairs to see if we could spy the fireworks, despite their location over the Hudson. And we could see them, sorta.

Jason was committed to getting a great fireworks shot.

Erin preferred her view.

July 18

Tag: brooklyn

Playing Catchup

A Look Back at 2012

It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Hurricane Sandy

Free Concert: New York Philharmonic

Independence Day BBQ