NYC: Top 5

With the start of my new job on the horizon, my Mom and I took advantage of the time in between to celebrate my birthday a little early. I flew home to my hometown, Niskayuna, and from there Mom and I drove down to NYC for some time together to walk, talk, shop and see the musical Mary Poppins on Broadway. I have been saving money to purchase my own digital "Mom" camera, as my friend Paige would say, but since I'm not there yet, I was able to borrow my Aunt Linda's camera. Here are my Top 5 favorite pictures I took on our trip.

A photo of one of the many floral sculptures that lines Madison Ave. 

It was raining our first day, and the mood made these trees in 

Central Park even more interesting.

You can stand under my umbrella, ella, ella... in Columbus Square. 

Late afternoon light; a view from the Brooklyn Bridge. 

So close, and yet so far away. I love NYC, always have, always will. 

There's No Place Like Home

So I grew up in a small town just North of Albany New York, called Niskayuna. We were taught growing up that in the Iroquois Indian language, Niskayuna, meant "Field of Corn." Quite the fun fact, I know. Since I have graduated college I make it back home, on average, once a year. But when I do go home, my family knows that there are two places I must visit straight away; and those are my two favorite restaurants, Blue Ribbon Diner and The Fireside. This last trip was no exception. Before I started my new job, I was able to sneak in a quick trip home to see Mom and Dad, and celebrate an early birthday with Mom in NYC. I will post my Top 5 favorite pictures from that trip soon, but here are some snapshots of my hometown favorites.

Classic pic of a NY diner; snow on the ground and a used car lot in the background.

A picture of the decorative fireside at, well, The Fireside. 

Not your typical NY pizza, but it is my absolute favorite! 

In My Mind I'm Goin to Carolina

My first of two recent trips back to the East Coast was courtesy my friendly federal tax return, and it was money well spent to visit one of my best friends Emily. I lived in Charlotte, North Carolina for a little over a year so it was fun to visit some of my favorite local salons, shops and eateries. I got my hair done at Fuze Salon, tried not to buy up everything at Paper Skyscraper, and sampled several dips at Dean and Deluca.

Friday night we chose to stay in and create our own tasty dinner. Inspired by Argentina we paired our Malbec wine with some steak we bought at a local butcher and made a fresh Chimichurri sauce. As a side we made quinoa with fresh vegetables, a little lemon juice, salt, pepper, oil and cayenne pepper.

Oh yeah, we were ready for a great night!

Em, chopping up some veggies for the quinoa.

The finished meal! So delicious!

 And for dessert we made Tres Leches Cake from scratch. It's actually quite a misnomer because there are in fact four different milks used in the creation of the cake and it's sauce. Here's a pic of Court de-stressing by stabbing the cake so it can soak up the creamy sauce goodness.

Get it Court!

So incredibly tasty! 

For our last night together Em and I decided to celebrate the second half of our late 20's by going out to a fancy new restaurant called Dresslers in Charlotte's new hot spot, the Met. The food was absolutely fantastic, and I highly recommend the calamari appetizer. It was so nice to relax and spoil myself for the first time in a long while. But the best part of the night, and the entire trip, was spending time with a life long friend. Love ya Em!