Thank you Cake

This afternoon we are having a thank-you lunch for all of our student interns here in the office as they will be finishing up the semester in a few weeks. I decided to make a chocolate cake with a layer of chocolate pudding in the center and decorate the cake to look like a family tree--these students are part of the intern family! I liked how it turned out but it really took a long time to make! However, in the end it was worth it... Onto Cake Decorating 3 later this month--we are learning fondant!

Gazpacho

What's better than a cold soup with fresh vegetables and topped with parmesan croutons when the weather begins to heat up? Not much, which is why this lovely soup hit the spot and even better is that the soup is actually healthy. Luckily (or unluckily for Mr. E.) this soup made about 10 servings so there was enough to serve it as a side dish each night for dinner this week and it met nearly all of our vegetable requirements for the day!

NYC Restaurant Reviews Continued

Restaurant Review #2
After my final meeting of the day I took the subway back to lower Manhattan and decided to find something to eat in between the subway and my hotel which luckily led me right through Soho. As most of my friends and family are aware, Mr. E. and I spent our honeymoon in Espana and we love Espanish food! So when I stumbled across Boqueria (www.boquerianyc.com), I could not have been more excited. Boqueria means market in Spanish and this was a Spanish tapas restaurant. In tapas style I had the house salad with parmesan shavings, a house vinaigrette, snap peas and croutons. I also had to sample their patatas bravas which are essentially salty/spicy hash browns drizzled with a spicy sauce. These would have gone beautifully with a Spanish beer but alone they were a bit salty for my liking. However, the tapas that my waiter suggested took the prize. Almond and Bleu Cheese stuffed dates wrapped in bacon. I could not have been a happier customer.

Restaurant Review #3
During my travels this week I was able to coordinate my work schedule with that of an old high school friend. She suggested we meet at a Mediterranean restaurant near her office in Midtown. As noted in the above review, I am a big fan of food from this part of our world. Ammas has a beautiful interior with nearly a full wall covered in bottles of wine (of which we did not partake as it was lunch and I was going to be a meeting with hundreds of seventeen year-olds). For our lunch we shared an appetizer of spreads with pita and for lunch we both had a greek salad with grilled chicken. The spreads were fine—typical of these kinds of restaurants, satisfying but they did not blow my mind. The salad however, was filled with ripe (rare, I know!) red and yellow tomatoes, generous squares of feta cheese, a few lovely black olives as well as slices of purple onion and cucumber. The grilled chicken was the perfect accompaniment to move the salad from just a salad to an entrée. The meal was wonderful and I would go back again… however, it was on the pricey side so be prepared.