Toddy!

Last week my new Toddy came in the mail! It's a cold brew coffee system and I'm obsessed. We got a restaurant sized Toddy at Cluny (old stomping grounds) a couple of months ago and I became hooked on what I liked to call, "Magic Coffee", always begging Nicole (the sweet barista) to give me more ;) 

So, I got my own! 

Cold brew coffee is 67% less acidic than regular coffee :) 

I had to wait a couple of days on the coffee. You need coarse ground beans and the ONLY coffee shop in town's grinder was broken for two days...... 

Chris says this is not "coarsely ground"..... shoot. 

Once you add the grinds and the water, you must let it brew for at LEAST 12 hours. Then the concentrate is good in the fridge for up to two weeks. 

muddy.

So now I'm sipping my magic coffee and catching up on the adorable blog: Olive Singley and the beautiful blog Kiss My Spatula (she blogs about Vietnamese iced coffee today...process sounds kind of similar).

Week in Review

Monday Night: 

We savored the delish Mexican feast I spoke about earlier, sipped refreshing margs, and chatted with new neighbors. 

Tuesday: 

My mother-in-law Eva came to visit. She drove down from Guilford, CT-bringing with her the most beautiful hydrangeas and some seriously delicious zucchini bread. The bread was made by Chris' sister, Tina, using a zucchini from Isak's (his 5 year old nephew) garden :) 

Eva drove me all around Greenwich, Cos Cob, Riverside. It was so nice to be in a car cruising around with someone that knew where they were going! We stopped for lunch at Mediterraneo on Greenwich Avenue. We took a table outside and two glasses of cooling white wine. It was a SCORCHER Tuesday. Chris got home early and we drank MORE wine and cooked Omaha steaks (house warming gift from nice brokers) on the our little Weber. 

Wednesday: 

Chris went to work early and Eva and I walked Tod's Point, TWICE! She can really move. It's so beautiful there in the early mornings. I started to fade during lap two, having not had coffee or breakfast yet and we decided to head back. We got our coffees to go and had toast and jelly from the farmer's market at home. We carefully chose a restaurant for lunch, Nuage in Cos Cob. It was delightful! Would def go back....when we have a vehicle. After lunch, Eva set off for Guilford and I took a long nap. The HEAT those two days totally drained me....and maybe the wine at lunch ;) 

Thursday: 

I had my first photography class in the city! Took the train in, totally underestimated how long it would take to walk from 42nd & Park to 26th & 11th Ave. Late and sweaty upon arrival. Class was great and I can't wait for next week's! 

Met up with Alston for cocktails on the roof at Soho house, Chris came to meet, Tony got stuck at work, and the three of us went up to Terminal 5 for the Gomez show. Lots of cocktailing and not enough dinner! We left early and Chris and I headed to the train station for our tired commute back at 11PM. We ended up on two different trains and I ended up in Stamford-long story... I hopped in a cab and picked my husband up on the side of the road as he was walking home. HA! 

Friday: 

I took my bike to the beach for the day. It was so lovely and SO hot! I had a cheeseburger and fries at the concession stand. Later, Chris and I attended the Greenwich Hospital-Under the Stars Benefit at Bell Haven Yacht Club. GORGEOUS party. Regis was the MC! There was an auction and I raised my hand and bid on a trip to Paris and London :) Thank GOD others bid higher or Chris said: there goes our hard wood floors....

Saturday: 

Chris and I slept in. He rode his bike into town and got us Hotsy's breakfast sandwiches from Garden Catering. 

Later we packed up our beach bags and our bikes and went to Tod's for the day. It's much easier to hang at the beach when you have company. We stayed till 6PM! Then dinner at The Beach House and a little ice cream to end the night :) 

Sunday: 

Chris took an early train to Old Saybrook. He's meeting Reinier there and they are going to sail the boat back to Stamford. 

AL in CT

Last night I decided to create a Mexican feast at home, daring not to venture our for Mexican as we now know it does not exist close by.  

The Menu:

Fresh Watermelon Margaritas

Homeade Guacamole

Tequila-Orange-Lime Marinated Chicken Tacos (marinated for 6 hours)

Paprika-Garlic Marinated Fish Tacos (marinated for 4)

Mexican Grilled Corn...I lie. After 3 watermelon margs, i forgot about the corn. No corn.

It was like 91 degrees yesterday up yonder. Chris got home around 6PM, complaining that the AC had shut off on the train about half way in. Poor thing in that hot suit... ;)

So, I handed him an icy cold marg and we sat out in our plastic lawn chairs, enjoying the breeze & the view. At this hour there are lots of folks milling around on our street. Excercising, walking the dog, kids playing. 

I cute woman called over the fence, "Did y'all just buy this house?" YES, she said y'all. I, per usual, immediately thought: "Southern. I need to know her." 

Chris and I get up and walk to the edge of our yard and meet Winnifred, the mom from Montgomery, ALABAMA. Her 9-year old Winnie. And their cool Labradoodle, Skipper. We chatted with Winnifred for about an hour. She's our neighbor! And she has Alabama Football PARTIES at her house! Her husband John walked over and we spoke with him too. They've lived on this street for 14 years. 

Another neighbor stopped by to say hi. Her name is Francisca. "Like Franciso, but with and A" Got it. She seemed great too :) She's been on our street for 9 years. 

They all raved and raved about our street, the neighborhood, Old Greenwich. 

It got me a little excited about our future here...

Gorgeous Gowns in Dirty Stables

Last week I got this text from a friend:

"Any chance we can talk you into modeling for us?"

Suni started a magazine here in CT called Serendipity. It is such a cool mag, and it's doing SO well.

I am desperate for work. ANY type of work, so I answer: "Umm, sure!" 

This was her reply:

"So, it's a non-paying gig. But you may be on the cover of our fall issue! It will be from 3PM-8PM at Yonkers Race Track. You will have your own makeup artist and hair stylist on site and you'll be wearing high end gowns from some amazing designers!" 

Um. SOLD. I am OBSESSED with dresses. And I love having my hair and makeup done, considering I don't so much as own one hair product or styling tool and my hair doesn't even see a hair dryer in the summer.... As for my typical makeup regimen?? Eyeshadow, mascara, and blush. I love being made up :) 

So here are a few iphone photos from the shoot. I really did have a blast. And everyone was so great. Awesome photog. Hilarious makeup artist. Cool hair stylist. 

it rained... I have on like 7 Alexis Bittar bangles here. MY FAVORITE. 

$4,000 dress. I am standing on tarp to make sure it never touched the dirty ground! We are in the stables here. Horses coming in an out-muddy, wet. 

gimlet at the end of the shoot :) we didn't actually wrap up till like 9:30ish.

I cried.

Chris and I were both out of town this weekend. He in the Hamptons and I in the City with my bestie from home who was wedding dress shopping :) 

We met at Grand Central this afternoon and took the 3:07 train back to the burbs. The weather was perfect today. We arrived to our sweet little home around 4PM, chatted with our neighbors and Chris did a little yard work. 

Not having much to throw together for dinner and kind of wanting to try something other than The Beach House-one of the 3 or 4 restaurants walking distance from us. We called a cab and decided to try something new in Stamford. I had heard that a Bar Taco was opening up soon! The one in Port Chester gets RAVE reviews and a marg sounded GREAT! Well, it hasn't opened. So we decided to try Barcelona! We'd also heard great things about this resto. 

Being a gorge night, we opted to wait the half hour for a table outside. We sat at the bar, had a round of blood orange margaritas, some croquettes, and a couple of empanadas. All delish. 

A table becomes available just as the live music is starting and we are ushered to the patio. 

This is where it all went down hill...

We were not greeted within the first ten minutes of sitting down. Huge no no. Then the server said he couldn't take our order until he found the signed check from the previous table he had lost. 

I finally ask for a taste of a crisp dry white and I am sent a sip of flat champagne. The server knew NOTHING about wine or the menu. 

Chris' glass of rose came with about 15 ice cubes floating on top. Seriously?? When sent back, they simply poured the wine into another glass and returned it to the table messy and with a strange something floating at the bottom. He returned it AGAIN, at this point just asking for a simple glass of red wine. This never came....

I ask about another white listed and the server says to me something about this particular wine tasting a lot like Spain and it's definitely one of his favorites on the menu. What does that mean? Tastes like Spain? 

He takes our dinner order. Five minutes later he returns, "Do you have any questions about the menu?" Chris and I glance at each other, confused. Um, no buddy. We already ordered, remember? You should have already taken these menus out of our way. 

The table next to us has asked for bread twice now. We receive bread and offer it to them as we did NOT ask for any. We begin to chat and they tell us that bottles of wine are half off on Sundays. That's a fun fact I would have liked to have been aware of. Oh, and what happened to the specials? Why didn't we hear those? 

We still have no wine. Chris's patience is beginning to fade. Same couple notices our frustration, agrees that our service has been extremely poor and starts doling out restaurant recommendations. They ask where we live. I tell them we just moved from Manhattan and I believe our expectations are a bit high ;) She giggles and agrees with me saying, "ahhh, I see, yeah, you're expectations are too high" 

Still no wine. Chris wants to leave. I insist he speak with a manager first. And we do. The manager is super nice and apologetic. We tell him, it's just an off night and of course we will be back another time. And we mean it. But it just wasn't the night for us. 

In the city if such were to go awry we'd just pop into the next cute spot and have dinner. Instead, we call Yousef, the taxi driver to come pick us up and take us home. We stopped at ReNapoli close to home to get a pizza and then walk home. I see this on the menu:

I get sad, lose my appetite, opt out of dinner all together....and then I cry.

Chris laughs and calls me dramatic and jokes about how one night and one server should not be arousing such a reaction. But for me, it wasn't necessarily about the terrible service or the fact that we couldn't just walk to an amazing restaurant and pop in or even the fact that on our walk home it was completely dark on the streets and there was no one else cruising around.

It just kind of hit me. Right there.

We're not in New York anymore. We moved. We live in CONNECTICUT. We're officially Yankees. We own a house. We have to mow the yard. We're ADULTS. We can't stay out till 2AM. Not that I want to, but the option would be nice. It's really dark here at night. Everyone has kids and dogs. We don't have a car. OR a dog. Or a kid. The restaurants are not the same. Our expectations are too high. We're spoiled. 

(I also realized, that I need to open a mexi joint AND a cheese shop on Sound Beach Ave. Oh, and I should totally be a restaurant consultant.)

Chris continues to poke fun at my ridiculous tears as I continue to assure him that it's not because of one bad dining experience, I'm just a little emotional. We laugh if off and then open a good red wine at home and Chris thoroughly enjoys his slice from our little pizza place on Sound Beach..

Dutch Style-Danish Design-German Made.

I get a LOT of questions about Big Red. Just this morning, in front of the coffee shop, "WOW! What a classic! Where did you get this bike? How old is it??" 

I equate having such a beautiful bike to having a really cute puppy. People are always staring, usually smiling, and always stopping you to ask questions. 

So I brushed up on my facts: 

• She is a Velorbis bicycle. Velorbis is a made up word and is composed from the words “VELO” which means “Bicycle” in several European languages and the word “ORBIS” which is the word for “Rotation” in Latin. 
  
• She is a Dutch-style bicycle designed by a super talented design team in Copenhagen, Denmark-the no. 1 cycling city in the world!
• It the Dannebrog (pronounced ’Dan-eh-broh’) bike-beautiful red upright bike for ladies that reflects the history and heritage of Denmark and its world renowned chic and relaxed cycling culture. 
• All Velorbis classic bicycles are equipped as standard with all-inclusive leather luxury from Brooks - the world-leading English saddle maker since 1866.
  
• The sit-up-and-beg style provides a posture-friendly and relaxed riding position and gives a high vantage point from which to view the traffic. It also makes it easy to look behind you and take in all of the sights and sounds of the city, like that 19th century Parisian - the flâneur. 

And there ya have it :) 

Good Morning