Hide & Seek

Today (Christmas Eve) I woke up jonesing for one of my favourite treats.... pickles! my cousin informed me that her bar makes their own so I ventured to the hideaway to check them out.

Located at 185 Duane street TriBeCa (Triangle Beneath Canal) one of the many districts of New York shortened to a cool name. I enjoyed the chillaxed atmosphere of this bar and meeting some of the regulars and of course the ever attentive bartender, Zoe.

Upon my arrival I received a Christmas treat from Baked By Melissa. Delicious bite size cupcakes in funky new age flavours.

 I enjoyed a snow covered pretzel (a salty cupcake with sweet icing and piece of pretzel on top)

 and a PB & J (Peanut Butter & Jelly)

Flavours

Now onto the menu...

described as gourmet bar food I knew I was in for a treat

but first to set the mood I ordered a drink

 Sleepy Hollow ~ Hot house mulled cider with Rum (I chose Whiskey)

For appetizers Truffle fries were highly recommended.

Hand cut potato chips deep fried and served with a dash of truffle oil, sprinkle of parmesan cheese and slivers of scallions (spring onion). The truffle oil gives an earthy taste to the ordinary french fry and the parmesan and scallions compliment it oh so well.

Mains

Egg in the hole benedict with a side of pickles... obviously

soft pastrami

creamy hollandaise spread*

greens

wholegrain mustard

This dish was heavenly! eggs benedict is a personal favourite of mine and this has definitely put a new spin on a classic dish.

To top it off I ordered a raspberry vodka caipiroska a perfect end to a perfect day of absolutely nothing.

~JBomb

 *unlike normal hollandaise sauce it contains more oil and less butter and is refrigerated to use as a spread

Breakdancing is the new Pilates

I feel that in the past movies & television may have led us to believe that the subway is somewhat unsafe and full of shady characters, not once did they prepare me for the awesome talent of subway breakdancer's! 

I was sitting on the train and suddenly a boom box was placed near the doors an announcement was made to grab our attention so I paused my ipod like any good traveller would do to see what was about to happen.

Please see below a taste of the B-Boys that have taken the task of busking from the platform to the rails.

The third guy is my favourite his flexibility has led me to believe that Breakdancing is the new Pilates!

Performed at the station.

Performed on the subway!

These dances take place on longer journeys and express tracks giving them plenty of time to entertain you. 

I found this to be extremely entertaining, I love how innovative they are with the limited amount of space and with the audience so close up of course you cannot beat seeing it live.

~JBomb

You can't always get what you want...

When travelling you are bound to get homesick and maybe even question your decision to leave that is why I love that a friend can know exactly what to say at the precise moment you need to hear it. My delicious friend Capri (Cabbage) pulls this task off often and effortlessly.

I found these quotes below posted on her blog

capri-everydayamazements

and just like that I breath a sigh of relief that this is the best decision I have ever made, thank you.


... but if you try sometimes you might just find you get what you need.

~JBomb

New York Icon - Bill Cunningham

On Friday evening I headed to the Beach Point Club for movie night.

The movie ~ Bill Cunningham New York

I found this documentary to be simply beautiful and extremely moving it has everything I love - passion, fashion & New York City. I have now added Bill to my stalker list, I am determined to find him on the streets of NYC purely to shake his hand and do a twirl for him.

~JBomb

Cookie Monster

I'm back upstate and the weather is fine and i've got baking on my mind. My source the Joy of Cooking book.

I haven't made cookies in forever so I tried Sugar Drop Cookies with currants & hazelnuts so easy and delicious!

 I am in love with this apron so vintage I wish it was a skirt

The next concoction one of my all time favourites Pecan Pie!

My homemade pastry

G-dawg said it was bad to lie.... I used pre made pastry.

You can use Vanilla Essence or Rum I choose my choice

I am in heaven!

-JBomb

Vermont - Where my bro's at

This weekend I ventured to Killington, Vermont for some sweet skiing action! 

..but before I could ski I had to buy a proper winter jacket so I headed to Macy's suitcase in hand and a slight hangover from a late night of dinner and drinks, oh New York giving me a lil taste of my life for the next 12 months I'm sure. So I went to Macy's feeling dry and tired as you do and I asked what floor woman's coats are on the lady said "8th Floor" I was like what you have a ladder to Jack & the Beanstalk seriously 8th floor I'm not even sure if that was the top! So I get up there and of course its "Miracle on 34th street" and kids are lining up for Santa so I had to make my way through the masses and I broke it down for the sales assistant I'm hungover, I'm going skiing and I need a winter coat after trying a few I settled on Calvin Klein and got the hell out of there.

After catching the train from Penn Station in NYC which is literally the address of Madison Square Garden! We got off in New Jersey and road tripped it to Vermont.

First meal of the weekend vegetarian pasta - artichokes, peppers (capsicum) carrot, spices and home made garlic bread. I love that my cousins are as into food as me!

View from my window

Scrambled eggs with fruit salad - energy for the day!

 You never need an esky in winter

Hot Tip # 1 (there is going to be a lot of them): Always stretch before any sport especially skiing I cramped up something chronic in my robot boots and had to run inside and stretch my calves after that I was ready to glide... ish

Having no actual ski experience I was pretty much winging it using skills I obtained from all balancing sporting experiences such as rollerblading, skateboarding (fell on my tail bone a lot!) gymnastics and rolling down hills - totally a sport we've all done it to see how fast we could get to the bottom of a hill definitely applies to skiing for beginners.

So I practiced going down the bunny hill for the day and attempting to learn how to brake and slow down and then it was home time for us skitards so we snuck off to make a delicious birthday cake for the birthday boy red velvet cake with Betty Crocker frosting...more on that later.

My cousin Zoe got busy in the kitchen concocting delicious tacos a feast like no other

Menu

black bean sauce

mixed roast peppers 

roasted butternut pumpkin

goats cheese

yellow rice

tomato & silantro salsa

avocado

spiced chicken

It was epic!!

Once dinner was over we surprised Chris with our cake Happy 30th!

 Then we decided to hit up the Pickle Barrel, some may live to regret this the next day but hey thats for your future self to deal with! and lucky for us it was the annual Pimps n Ho ho ho's party! and may I say there were some fine costumes. Everyone was doing shots of Jameson which led me to discover I cannot shot whiskey it makes me gag I have also discovered so far on my travels in America that people like to do a shot of whiskey and then drink a pint of beer I also discovered I cannot do that either so I stuck with Jacks & Ginger ale it is sooooo good! another favourite drink is Dark & Stormy a combo of Jack Daniels, Ginger beer and lime delicious!

After many shots, drinks, dancing, a slice of pizza and a bar fight we called it a night to wake up to this....

As mentioned before some of us may have regretted the shots but we still soldiered on after an extreme clean of the apartment and packing our gear we were ready to ski!!! again. 

We decided to go to a new resort and try their easier trail.

Up 

& up we go

I love a real white christmas tree

So being my first real trail I just went for it and discovered skiing for real is pretty awesome not being able to stop yourself is just plain scary my brake device involved mounds of snow, humans, and a rubber pole.. good times!

Seriously though it is the sickest rush however I conquered three hills and saw the steep incline of the fourth and decided I was done with this hill after hurting an innocent bystander when attempting to stop I knew it was time to get back on the gondola and go down the hill. Then we met Howie I'm going to call him a ski mountain ranger who showed us how we could get to an easier trail as this trail was the easiest for ADVANCED skiers kind of a key word when skiing guys just another hot tip from me to you.

However I don't regret going up there check out the view

Once we hit the bottom slope with a few little hills I finally got to experience skiing and when I got to the end I literally got some mad air from a snow mound, skidded, did an army role and landed 1 metre from the waffle hut luckily I did not go through it and that was the end of my skiing adventure. I have decided that with a longer amount of time and some lessons I could easily become a pro and this little taste was just what I needed.

 Home time!

-JBomb