Fingerlakes Birthday Weekend!

Sorry I'm a bit behind, but I still wanted to post these photos!




Usually for my birthday Alex plans something as a surprise. I've been dropping hints to Alex since forever that I wanted to go wine tasting, particularly since I heard about the Fingerlakes region in upstate NY. He had been planning on taking me, but when we heard about the rally for sanity going on the same weekend, which he knew I also was interested in, he let me chose where I wanted to go.

I opted for a weekend up north.

Even though I didn't end up being surprised, I was SO excited to go! Wine tasting is one of my most favorite things, and the fingerlakes did not disappoint.

First off, upstate NY is BEAUTIFUL. We drove through beautiful mountain valleys and rolling farmland and even though we missed the peak foliage, it was still breathtaking.

We left Brooklyn on Friday morning and it was a about a 4 hour drive to Ithaca where we stopped for lunch at Moosewood Restaurant, whose cookbooks I've been enjoying for awhile now. From there we headed out around Lake Seneca and found our B&B, The Red Brick Inn, which was about half-way between Lake Seneca and Lake Keuka. The Inn was very nice, and I would recommend it if you're ever looking for a nice affordable place in the area.

We spent the remainder of Friday going for a walk around the farmland, relaxing, and then heading out to dinner in neighboring Watkins Glen which sits right next to Lake Seneca.






Looking back at the town.

On Saturday we enjoyed breakfast at the Inn and then headed out for the wine!



So much fun! The wineries in this region are SO relaxed, there is no snobbery at all. In fact, perhaps one of the highlights was a winery that had a little fun poking fun at those who take their wine a little too seriously.



Yes, their wine was actually quite good! :-)





After going tasting in California and Long Island, I was pleasantly surprised to find the wineries here so affordable! Most of them were either free or $2, and with that came 5-7 tastings and a free wine glass! Many of the vineyards offered delicious cheeses, fresh pesto and crackers, handmade fudge, or other snacks with their samples as well! The priciest vineyard of the day charged a hefty $5. NICE! This fit our student travel budget for sure.






Views from the Glenora vineyard, the oldest in the region. Not too shabby, even if most of the colors on the trees were faded.






Alex and I decided we definitely want to come back in the summer and rent a cabin on the lake.




Even though the trees had lost their leaves, the grape vines were a beautiful shade of gold.


A fantastic time had by all!




Our haul back in Brooklyn!

Around The World in 80 Dates: South Korea and Bibimbap!

So we haven't been keeping quite as on top of this as we'd hoped, but slow and steady wins the race right? For more on the original challenge, click here.

A few weeks ago Alex and I decided we were going to make Korea our next stop on the adventure. Many people may know that NYC has a fantastic Chinatown. Not as many people are aware there is also a strip around 32nd Street and 6th Ave known as Korea-town. K-town, as it's known around here, is one of the many reasons I love NYC. Wander down one of these blocks, and you may well have wandered into Seoul. All of the restaurants, grocers, businesses, everything is in Korean. It's fantastic.

I'd been there many years ago with my friend Diane, but Alex had never been through, so we decided to hit it up one Friday after work since we're both in Manhattan then. I'd googled for a few reviews, but ultimately we just ended up walking around and finding a place that a. fit our budget, b. looked tasty and pleasantly busy, and c. looked authentic/not completely all tourists.

The place we picked out had the option of entrees downstairs and then Korean BBQ upstairs. Since Alex had never had the BBQ, we went for it. If you've never done Korean BBQ, I highly recommend it!

*I promise to bring my camera next time for the restaurant part!

There is a mini grill in the middle of your table, and then you order a selection of meats to grill yourself table side. You are also served a huge assortment of mini bowls of all kinds of fun vegetables, kimchi, greens, etc. Tons of food and loads of deliciousness.

The at home version!

So the problem came with part two of the challenge. It turns out our tiny apartment kitchen doesn't really come with a ready made grill for BBQ. So, I'm cheating a little, but decided just to make something traditionally Korean rather then imitating the restaurant.

Enter, Bibimbap! First off, if that isn't the most fun food to say, I don't know what is!

Bibimbap was super duper easy, and is seriously my new favorite dish. This was SO good. Make it tonight. The name literally means (according to wikipedia) "mixed rice" and my understanding is you can pretty much toss together whatever you like and it'll work! There's even a comic about how easy it is!

Here is the recipe I came up with after googling around and combining a few:

Bibimbap

Serves two

1/2 pound of grass fed strip steak
Assorted Veggies: Green Pepper, Two Carrots, Zucchini, handful of fresh spinach
2 eggs
2 cloves garlic, grated
1 tsp grated fresh ginger
1 TBS sesame oil
3 TBS soy sauce
1/2 tsp honey
1.5 tsp brown sugar
fresh ground pepper
red pepper flakes
1 C rice

Gujuchang (Korean red pepper sauce) for serving

Combine the garlic, ginger, soy sauce, sesame oil, honey, sugar, a few grinds of black pepper, and a shake of red pepper flakes in a bowl. Slice the steak thinly and add to the marinade, turn to cover and refrigerate for an hour or two.


As a side note, this steak was AWESOME. It's from a vendor at the farmers market who I've seen lots, but never bought from. I will be getting more for sure. If you don't know why you need grass fed beef, watch Food Inc.

Slice your veggies thinly. I actually used a mandolin to get them into nice shoe strings, which worked really well!



Cook the rice to package directions. Usually 2 cups water, 1 cup rice, boil, turn down the heat and simmer until the water is gone.

In a wok or large skillet heat a few tablespoons of oil. When the pan is nice and hot, toss in the steak. Since it's thinly sliced, you really only need to stir fry it for a couple minutes at most. It should cook really quick.

Some people leave the veggies raw, but I decided to throw them in with the steak to mix in the flavor and cook them for just a bit nice and fast.

While the steak is cooking or as it finishes, drop two eggs in another skillet and cook to over easy.

To serve, traditionally this should be in a big stone bowl. However, in our house, we piled the rice on a plate, topped with the steak and veggie and capped it off with the egg.

Serve with gujucahng sauce, which you can find at a korean grocer or your local Whole Foods. Spicy, but not overly so, it adds a great flavor to the dish.



DELICIOUS!

29.

That's a pretty big number. Last week I celebrated heading into the last year of my twenties.

In honor of the occasion, and the fact that I love making lists, I decided on a 30x30.

The first 30. I'm always scheming up new things I want to do. Often times when I'm telling Alex about all these cool things, he tells me I need to remember that I have actually already done some pretty fun things. And I shouldn't forget that. I figured this was a pretty good idea to remember, so thought I would start off my quest by listing 30 cool things I've done before turning 30.

The second 30. These are 30 things I hope to accomplish in the next year. Stay tuned, I will plan on a third rendition with the list of 30 post 30 in a year! :-)

30 awesome things DONE. (In no particular order other then my remembering them. Well, some things are probably in order. :-) )

1. Married a most amazing husband.
2. Managed to have a wedding story that involved: sunshine, hail, tornado wall clouds, and double rainbows.
3. Have kept in touch with and can still count many of the girls I was friends with in the 8th grade as some of favorite ladies. For some of you 6th grade! Wow, that's almost 20 years!
4. Lived in Spain
5. Lived in Ecuador
6. Taught English in a tiny indigenous village
7. Went sky-diving
8. Learned Spanish enough to pass for decently fluent-ish.
9. Pedaled furiously by bike to see sunrise over Angkor Wat in Cambodia.
10. Hiked to the top of Macchu Picchu.
11. Cooked an entire Thanksgiving feast on my own, from scratch.
12. Ran a half marathon.
13. Completed 5 triathlons.
14. Started a photography business.
15. Backpacked across Spain, France and Italy solo.
16. Survived a move to one of the craziest cities in the world. And learned to love it.
17. Consumed street food on 6 continents.
18. Completed a fast paced, though complete RTW trip.
19. Spent a night in the Sahara Desert.
20. Walked through the Sistine Chapel and saw Michelangelo's David.
21. Picked out fish fresh off the beach from the Dakar fish market.
22. Rode a motorbike through the Vietnamese country-side. (Rode not Drove, I let Alex do that.)
23. Got a black belt in Taekwondo.
24. Saw monkeys in Tikal.
25. Surfed in Hawaii. (Surfed is a big word here. More like stood up on a board while drifting on a ripple, however, I'm counting it. :-) )
26. Learned and now regularly practice yoga.
27. Snorkeled with sharks in Thailand.
28. Learned how to cook from scratch without a recipe.
29. Went white water rafting.
30. Went wine tasting in France, New Zealand, Hungary, California, and New York.

30 things TO DO before 30:
1. Run a half marathon under 2:30.
2. Finish an olympic distance triathlon.
3. Bake leavened bread.
4. Get a logo designed for my photo business.
5. Take more photography classes/workshops. (At least 2!)
6. Learn web design. (Basic web design)
7. Build my photo business.
8. Bake a pie completely from scratch, crust included.
9. Make apple crisp.
10. Make homemade cheese.
11. Run a 10K in under one hour.
12. Plan a 30th birthday trip extravaganza! (I have many ideas, now to buy the tickets)
13. Stay at a beach house on Long Island.
14. Get new glasses/contacts.
15. Bake something without a recipe.
16. Go fruit picking.
17. Design a better website/blog
18. Learn more about investing, and where my retirement deductions are actually going.
19. Cross country ski.
20. Make a meal from every country I've traveled to.
21. Try a new NY restaurant every month.
22. Make pasta from scratch.
23. Organize my recipe file.
24. Organize my drawers.
25. Rent a cabin on the fingerlakes.
26. Go somewhere awesome with our free AirTran tickets.
27. Have a dinner party. (This may be tricky in our little space...)
28. Get out to shoot more for fun in NYC.
29. Complete more countries for our 80 dates challenge.
30. Find direction. I'm determined to figure this out before next year.

New Photo Blog!

Hey Kids,

I'm attempting to get a blog started just for the photo business. So, look for any new photo/portrait session posts to be up over there! I'll still be posting fun stuff here, but am giving the photo sessions their own space.

Announcing the De Nueva Photo Blog!

I'm still working on it, but for now, I'm pleased with the progress! Give it a visit, and hopefully more photos will be up soon!

Happy Monday!

Minestrone Soup!

Alex was feeling a little sickly on Sunday and requested soup for dinner. I gave him a choice between sausage and lentil or a vegetable minestrone, and he opted for the veggie soup. (I think this may be the first time ever he picked the non sausage option. :-) )

I googled around a bit, but couldn’t find a recipe I liked so decided to make something up. Minestrone is basically veggies, beans and pasta in a tomato-y broth right? Close enough.

This turned out REALLY good! YUM. Soothing and filling, and super healthy I might add. Perfect for a chilly evening and sick husband.

Minestrone Soup
1 yellow onion
1 large carrot
1 stalk of celery
4 cloves of garlic
½ can of black beans drained and rinsed
1 15oz can of diced tomatoes
1 small zucchini
1 small yellow squash
1/3-1/2 Cup corn kernals
1 box of vegetable broth (about 5 cups)
¼ Cup or so quinoa
About 1 cup of small pasta
Olive oil
Spices: parsley, basil, oregano, Marjoram , sea salt, black pepper, bay leaf

Finely chop all of the raw vegetables and garlic. Saute onions, garlic, carrot, and celery in olive oil in a large pot until the onions soften. Add diced tomatoes, zucchini, squash, and black beans. Stir. Add the veggie broth, quinoa and corn. Add spices, to taste. I ended up with probably 2 TBS of parsley, 1 TBS of Oregano, 1 TBS of basil, 1TSP of marjoram, a few grinds of pepper, salt to taste and a few shakes of crushed bay leaf. Add what looks right and smells good!

Bring to a boil, cover and let simmer about 15-20 minutes. While this is cooking, cook the pasta to package directions. When it’s al dente, strain and add to the soup. Enjoy!


I forgot to take a picture at the table, but this works just as well!

A breath of fresh air.

I love living in the city. However, one of the great parts of NYC is that on days when you just need a breath of fresh air, a bit of peace and quiet, you can head north for 30 minutes, and find this.



And a little of this as well.





This Sunday was truly a beautiful fall day and just the right amount of chill in the air to make hiking in Harriman State Park the perfect way to spend the afternoon. A great time had by all!

Warm Beet and Lentil Salad

So I realized it's been WAY too long since I last posted. Opps! I'm not quite sure what happened, but I figured I couldn't leave you hanging too much longer without something new and exciting from the kitchen.

I have been pretty uninspired by the recipes I've been finding in my reader lately, but saw this one on Savory, Spicy Sweet this morning and thought it might be just the thing to get me out of the slump.

I have never actually cooked beets before. In fact, I tried them for the first time ever this summer at Alex's grandmothers. Since they're still in season at the farmers market, I figured today was as good a day as any.

Aside from roasting the beets, this was actually really quick and easy. I wasn't sure how it was going to turn out, but both of us thought this was delicious! Light but filling and the flavors worked great together!

I modified things just a bit for what we had on hand, otherwise, stuck pretty closely to the recipe. I cut the dressing amount in half from the original, and it ended up being perfect for the two of us with just a bit of lentils left over.




Warm Beet and Lentil Salad

For the Dressing:

Sherry Vinaigrette:

*1/8 cup sherry vinegar
*1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
*a few dashes of dried thyme
* a dash of sea salt
*1/4 cup olive oil

Whisk all ingredients together in a small bowl

For the Salad:

* 3 medium beets
* 3/4 medium yellow onion, peeled and quartered
* 1 carrot, quartered
* 1 stalk celery, quartered
* 4 cups chicken stock (I used 2 C stock 2 C water)
* 1 cup dried French green lentils
* Salt and Pepper
* 2 tablespoons olive oil
* 1/4 pound sliced turkey bacon, diced (about 3-4 good sized slices)
(I imagine fancy bacon would be better, but this is what we had)
* 3 large cloves garlic, finely chopped
* 1 small carrot finely diced
* A few shakes of dried thyme
* 2 tsp sherry vinegar
* mixed greens (we had a mixture of lettuce and arugula)
* goat cheese
* French bread, for serving

Begin by roasting the beets.

Preheat oven to 375-400 degrees F.

Take 3 medium beets (red or gold), scrubbed, leaves trimmed, and coat them lightly with olive oil. Wrap them loosely in tin foil and place them on a baking sheet. Bake for about an hour until cooked through. Let cool for a few minutes, peel, and then cut into thin slices.

While the beets are roasting, start to cook the lentils. Fill a pot with 4 cups of water or stock and add the carrot, celery, and half an onion. Bring to a boil. Add the lentils and turn down the heat and cover. Cook about 20 minutes until the lentils are tender. Drain well and remove the carrot, celery and onion.

As the lentils cook, Add the bacon to a frying pan and cook until lightly golden brown. Remove the bacon. Add the garlic and carrot and a quarter of chopped onion to the pan and cook until soft, about 3-5 minutes. Add the cooked lentils and bacon to the pan and stir to combine. Stir in a bit of thyme and 2 tsp of sherry vinegar. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Keep warm.

To assemble the salad, place the mixed greens on a plate, top with the lentil mixture, and then add the beets. Top with goat cheese. Drizzle each salad with vinaigrette. Serve with slices of French bread.

Enjoy!