Tag: friends

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
Cocktails & Loctales!

To celebrate our friend’s 40th birthday, his wife organized a surprise birthday party complete with a program, elaborate decorations, a bitters tasting, a take-your-own-infused-spirit home, and a roast! She enlisted Jason’s help ahead of time for all the graphic designing, of course. He made an 8-page program, designed a banner, and more.

On the day of the party we made ourselves available early to help set up, and Erin was put to work making a “40” out of photographs of the birthday boy, friends, and family. It was really a lot more tricky to get this onto the wall than you’d think, and it took a while to get just right!

We cooked, cleaned, organized, and more with a few other friends and got everything ready for the big moment. No one was quite clear on the best way to handle the “surprise”—do we turn off all the lights and hide in the dark? Do we leave the lights on to create a semblance of normalcy? Do we even shout “surprise”? There was a lot of frantic whispering but the truth is, it doesn’t matter: In the confusion of entering your home and finding people there shouting at you, it probably doesn’t much matter how well lit it was or what exactly they’re saying! Finally, we could eat the food.

The organized activity for the night was a bitters tasting. Six different bitters were provided (Angostura, Peychaud’s, Regans’ No. 6 Orange, Dutch’s, Bittermens Xocolatl Mole, Fee Brothers Grapefruit) and they were each sampled 3 ways: plain, in seltzer, and in an otherwise bitters-less Back 40 cocktail (bourbon, maple syrup, lemon juice). It was really interesting how each could be so different in all 3 tastings. One that smelled delicious was vile to Erin. A few were transformed completely when added to a drink.

We also got to make our own infusions. Rum and bourbon were the base liquors; choices for additions included lots of herbs, zest of many citrus, dried fruit, and spices. We chose quite different flavors: Jason went all citrus with Meyer lemon, lemon, orange, and lime, while Erin went with her favorite herb, rosemary, along with Meyer lemon and apricot. We’ll crack them open in a few days and see how they came out!

We had such a great night and hope he did too!

March 3
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
Giving Thanks

They always say that the times leading up to holidays fly by, but it seems more true now than ever! We can’t believe it’s been a month since Hurricane Sandy and a full week since Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving is Erin’s favorite holiday by far (a holiday devoted to food, at which she alone receives presents (for her birthday)? perfection!) and we’ve hosted at our apartment for three years now. Our Thanksgivings in New York have always been for our “New York family,” our closest friends who also don’t travel for this holiday. But this year, because it was Erin’s parents’ first T-day back in the States, we invited them to join us. In all we were due to have 11 adults and 1 kiddo at the table, and food assignments went out early so everyone could chip in.

We were in charge of a few things besides the turkey, of course. We had to make Lindsay‘s stuffing, a tradition for all of us now that we keep up while Lindsay lives in Beirut. We also made the gravy, mashed potatoes, roasted yams, cranberry relish, pumpkin pie and apple pie. The menu was rounded out with wine and beer and these food additions from the guests: Nanda’s homemade cranberry sauce, Holly’s green bean casserole and appetizers, Tania’s Brussels sprouts and appetizers. Plus biscuits, ice cream, and whipped cream and cool whip from Heather.

Our day on Wednesday started early, with stuffing and pie prep well underway before lunch. Thursday was dominated by the turkey and stock, of course. We used Martha Stewart’s years-old method of soaking cheesecloth in butter and white wine to baste the bird. Folks started to arrive around 3pm and because of all the help in the kitchen, we were ALL able to sit at the table and enjoy some appetizers. (Adding Mom to the kitchen to cook and Dad to help with dishes meant everything went amazingly smoothly.) Everything came out great, even the un-brined turkey (though it was a touch dry). Sadly, we got late word that the McKee family were plagued with a stomach bug, so we were down two.

The rest of us gathered around our makeshift table (made up of our table plus a desk) and ate until we were full to bursting. We had a house full of dear friends and family, a table full of food, and a room buzzing with conversation. What more is there to be thankful for?

[left: Erin’s plate, including a bit of everything; right: Jason’s plate of nearly all stuffing.]

December 1
Brisketlab

Science never tasted so good. Brisketlab came to the Foursquare offices, and our friends had an extra pound of brisket to sell, which we snapped up. We all snagged seats at a picnic table in the Foursquare cafeteria—along with a few hundred other hungry people. There was a choice of “fatty” or “lean” brisket, or both (Jason wisely got us half a pound of each rather than split our orders), and some sides: Whole Foods mac n cheese and jicama-melon salad. Those stamped with a blue cow on their hands were in the first wave; though our wave (red) wasn’t ever called, it was clear the crowd was managing the flow themselves. Both types of brisket were pretty tasty, but both of us preferred the fatty. The spice rub had a decidedly pastrami vibe, and don’t get us wrong, we love pastrami, but it wasn’t what we were expecting. Our friends, who’ve sampled Brisketlab before, tell us that last time it was unbearably salty on the outside and flavorless on the inside. I don’t think that was the case this time—go go experimental method!

Of course, because it was at the Foursquare offices there had to be some kind of perk for checking in, right? They didn’t disappoint, giving anyone who checked in a free can of Six Point beer (not a tiny thing). The cafeteria accommodates far more than the 110 employees we hear they have, and damn was it noisy. The band, Emily Asher, was fantastic though, and the music was a nice addition to the evening. Cap it all off with some great friends, and we had a fantastic time.

September 7

Tag: friends

Playing Catchup

Cocktails & Loctales!

A Look Back at 2012

Giving Thanks

Brisketlab