Astor Center

Top 5 reasons why I love Astor Center, my favorite neighborhood wine and liquor store. (I may have extended what I consider my neighborhood to be to include Astor)

1. They have excellent customer service. It rivals that of Wegmans and Nordstrom. Every employee knows their wine and where it is in the store. They also know when to as someone else. 

2. They have a ide variety of inexpensive wines

3. The wall of boxed wine. From Franzia to Black Box and beyond.

4. They use real glassware for their wine tastings

5. Their wine tastings are generous.

As if I need another reason, they deliver! I opened my door at 8:45 on Saturday morning to a delivery guy with two boxes from the liquor store. Merry Early Christmas to us! Zach got 10 wines under 10 bucks. Genius. 

This is how you prepare for Y2K

Favorite Things

Pork Buns at Momofuku Noodle Bar

Oprah's not the only one with a list of favorite things. Stina's got one too. Here are a few of my favorite edible things that will end any conversation and totally steal the show when they hit the table.

• Doughnut Plant's coconut creme filled doughnut
• Momofuku's pork buns
• Clerkenwell's sticky toffee pudding
• Freeman's bacon
• DuMont Burger's DuMac n' Cheese
• Sugar Sweet Sunshine's Bob cupcake

Doughnuts before brunch are okay if you call them appetizers. 

Prosperity

Prosperity Dumpling, that is. Five dumplings for a buck at a hole in the wall on Eldridge. You just can't beat that. It makes you wonder how that is possible i.e., what is in them that is so cheap... But let's not go there because curiosity killed the cat, which is quite possibly what those perfectly fried, piping hot, delicious little pods are filled with.  I kid.

Dinner for two: $3.00

Siracha

So hot! 

So good!

Seek and you shall find

I plotted my errands across the east and west villages today. They didn't seem so much like errands/annoying holiday preparation so much as a delightful little walking tour. I walked with my camera in my front pocket, looking for things I like. Here are some of the things I found that I like:

kiehls. red bows. historic trivia
(its the site of peter stuyvesant's pear tree)
free samples. chandeliers. employees
who make you feel special.

red shoes 

the chrysler building and stamps. bonus points because
they are together.

this color combination, iron, and the light fixture at 30 vandam st. 

chess table amid the christmas trees.
or christmas trees amid the chess table?

earrings in chinatown

mismatched tile floor in a boutique on center street

Mohawk

I got one. Or a faux hawk. My hairdresser gave me one while my glasses were in my lap. He picks the cut. Even when I tell him what I want, he picks the cut. Good thing he is a genius with scissors. 

Four days and two new products later, I'm loving it. Channeling Rhianna, Robyn and a little Andy Warhol. 

Preacher Cake

The Preacher Cake recipe comes from Farm Journal Cookbook, a yellow canvas covered cookbook that was one of mom's go to resources. Clare and I made Preacher Cake for birthdays, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, Mother's and Father's day, Sunday night dinners... you get the point. We looked for reasons to make it. I remember dragging the kitchen stools over to the cabinets to get the sifter down and asking mom to get the chocolate chips out from wherever she hid them so we could make the frosting. Yes, the chocolate chips were hidden.

Delicately sifted flour. Almond extract. Hot water. Knee weakening chocolate frosting. The knife lives in the pan under the aluminum foil because the edges of the cake always need trimming and straightening.

Eldorado Canyon

Our hike in Eldorado Canyon may have been my favorite part of our trip. It was exactly what the doctor ordered. Just cold enough to feel alive, but warm enough to shed your jacket in the sunny spots. Can't get much better than turkey sandwiches while overlooking the Continental Divide.