Great Woods

Good Morning! I have a short recipe post today on Great Northern Woods Soup. This recipe made it into our rotation of recipes. It is oh so tasty. I can only imagine how good it's going to be come this Fall/Winter when it's cold outside. Considering, the soup sounds good and I'm in Florida and its a scorcher here you know its good! So give this one a try even this weekend or go ahead and freeze it for after the weekend when you need a break from all the grilling and pies.

Since we'll be leaving for the beach and then down to Orlando to spend some time with the Little Man and Baby O I won't be blogging until the end of next week. I hope you all have a wonderful and safe 4th of July!!

Ingredients

• Cooking spray
• 1 cup baby carrots, halved
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 14 ounces turkey kielbasa, halved lengthwise and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 4 cups fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
• 1/2 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 (15.8-ounce) cans Great Northern beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 (6-ounce) bag fresh baby spinach leaves

Directions:

Heat a large saucepan coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat. Add carrots, onion, garlic, and kielbasa; sauté 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to medium; cook 5 minutes. Add the broth, Italian seasoning, pepper, (I threw in some red pepper for a bit more of a kick) and beans. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer 5 minutes.

• Place 2 cups of the soup in a food processor or blender, and process until smooth. Return the pureed mixture to pan. Simmer an additional 5 minutes. Remove soup from heat. Add the spinach, stirring until spinach wilts

Florida & Shows

I leave for Florida today for a whole week to spend with my family!! I couldn't be more excited! I also am having a trunk show an hour after I land in Jacksonville - let's hope I don't get delayed.

Summer Fashion

I haven't done a fashion post in a while and after shopping last week I think it's time. Check out some of these fun fashions we saw at Saks.

What do you think??

Weekend Musings

Good Monday morning! This was an action packed Summer weekend in our household. The weather up here in NYC was the perfect temperature (even if Friday was extremely overcast.) With that being said, Mom and I braved the "rain" which was more of a mist and went up to Central Park to see my favorite band perform on Good Morning America. Florence + the Machine played that morning. We got there about 30 minutes before 9am when it ended and still heard 3 songs! As a plus, the GMA anchor was interviewing Jason Bateman and the 2 other guys from the movie Horrible Bosses. After the concert we walked/ran through the park until we got to Sarabeths, which is one of my favorite brunch spots. (We also found out this weekend that our lovely neighborhood, TriBeCa is getting a Sarabeths.)

Hubs returned that night from his San Francisco trip and the 3 of us went for pizza at a neighborhood joint, Deans. Before Mom left Saturday afternoon we made time for another great brunch at Bubbys. Hubs and I met up with some friends at the Standard Beirgarten (beer garden.) This is a great place for a Saturday. It's in the Meatpacking district and underneath the Highline. We walked back just in time to meet up with some new friends for a dinner by the water in Battery Park. We even hit up Shake Shack for a late night shake! Sunday was spent furniture shopping with friends that are moving here from Boston. I can't wait to show you before and after pics of their amazing place!!!

What did you do this weekend? Was it jam packed?

My girl, Florence (+the Machine)

Interview for Horrible Bosses

Beer at the Bier Garten

Bar

Pretzel tree at the bar. They also have sausages to make it like an authentic German bier garten

Got there early enough to get a table

Montauk to NYC

Going from Montauk and now back to the city. However, this week in the city is spent with Mom! It's always fun when "visitors" come in town because that means shopping, dinners, and plays. That is exactly what we did yesterday. Here's the rundown:

Exercise video in the AM

Walk to South St to buy 50% off Broadway tickets

Shake Shack burger, fries, and of course a shake

SHOP

Fig & Olive for an early pre-play dinner (I love this place)

Broadway play - Memphis (awesome and yall should see it!)

Magnolia Bakery for cookies

Sleep

We'll see what today holds for us. I'm hoping a warm lentil salad from Alice's Tea Cup (and a scone)

Montauk, NY

I've been trying to figure out how to fit our trip to Montauk, NY into a cohesive post. It was only two nights but the minute we arrived we became so relaxed that it felt like we had been on a week long spa trip.

We arrived late Wednesday night at the Montauk Yacht Club and Inn. (Back in April a sale came through on Jetsetter.com was for this pricey Inn and we scooped it up.) If only we had known how much we would like this place we would have booked another night, or two. The Inn was a bit further from the beach and center of town than other well-known places. However, they have a shuttle service that runs on the hour as well as bikes for the guests to use during the stay. We rode our bikes into town the first morning and had breakfast at Joni's. A little fresh and healthy restaurant a block off the beach. My heart skipped a beat when I saw the beach! I have been quite homesick lately and this just made me that much more excited about going back to Florida with my family for the 4th of July. But I digress. The beach was great. Different than those of the Florida/Southern coast I grew up with but very pretty! So pretty in fact we took a walk and just kept walking. Finally coming back to the Royal Atlantic hotel beach bar for a beach side drink. (There's also the Sloppy Tuna a couple doors down) These were a bit less relaxing due to Brittany Spears playing over the loud speakers. But really, we were at the beach so can't really complain. We finally made it back to the Inn that evening in time to head over to Gosman's Dock. It's a restaurant in a cute little village spot where we watched the gorgeous sunset. We had many different opinions of where you get the best views of the sunset so I won't say it was the best but it was amazing to see it over the water. Gosman's was also tasty and again relaxing.

The next day was rainy and gloomy but we still headed into town for some of John's Pancakes. Its been around since the 1950s. Anthony's is right across the street which is suppose to also have good breakfast. After our pancakes, we had to check-out of the Inn but we didn't leave! We just weren't ready to head back into the chaotic city. So they held our bags and we hung out. We had some Lobster rolls and John Dalys at the Inn's bar. (Again, we've heard many opinions on where to get the best lobster rolls but choose connivance.) They were fresh Lobster, though. While sitting at the bar we made some friends who offered to let us take their car up to the lighthouse point! We actually took them up their offer and made our way. It was worth it.

The sun finally came out which meant some good sleeping/reading out at the pool on the Inns cozy pool beds. That late afternoon we walked over to Star Island Marina to see the weigh -in of the shark tournament. Quite interesting! When we got back to the Inn there was a whole new "weekend crowd" that had arrived. Definitely not as laid back or quiet. It was a much more fashionable crowd. We decided to go to the one place we had heard about from every review we read, The Surf Lodge. It was quiet when we arrived but by the end of our dinner/drinks it was definitely the place to see and be scene. Hubs and I didn't even realize we weren't talking to each other due to the each of us people watching. The food was good so I think we'd come back during the day instead of a Friday night.

It was finally time to catch our 10:38 PM train back to the city. We got home and into bed at 4AM. Needless to say, we were exhausted but it was completely worth it!

Joni's healthy breakfast next to the beach

We had a healthy breakfast so we should obviously get a fresh doughnut. Also, would it be a proper vacation without a doughnut?!

John's Pancakes in the center of town- yum!

Cute little town. I was riding my bike while taking this picture. Probably not the smartest of ideas but I had to capture how Hubs was "low ridin" on his bike

Royal Atlantic beach bar

Gosman's

Lighthouse in a distance

I felt like I was filming Jaws

That's most of our trip to the lovely Montauk, NY. I can't wait to go back!

Beyond Rocky

Here's to showing the "real" Philly and not just the movie version. Here's some real photos from our weekend.

We're leaving today for a quick 2 night jaunt to Montauk, but will be back on Monday! Hope you all have wonderful weekends!

The cheesesteaks deserved their own photo log

Thought this was amusing - obviously in historic "old city"

We made it to the top and back down! Que the victory music (truth be told there are not that many steps)

City of Brotherly Love

This past weekend Hubs and I ventured into Philadelphia. It was my first time to visit this lovely city and was pleasantly surprised by how much fun we had during our weekend. We stayed in a part called, Old City, which was close to most everything we wanted, especially restuarants. And speaking of, we walked by multiple restaurants that looked fantastic. There were Asian, tapas, BBQ, American, Cuban, and of course straight up Philly Cheese Steak style restaurants. To make the decision which to choose even that much harder, they were all within a street from each other and could see all were getting more crowded by the minute. We finally boiled it down to two spots but still couldn't decide. So with all logic aside, we went to BOTH. Luckily, we hit two amazing places and would recommend them to anyone visiting Philly. The first meal of the night was at Buddakan. A great and swanky Asian restuarant with a 10 foot Budda statue in the middle. We then moved on down the street to Amada, a wonderful Tapas restaurant. Both had great food and atmosphere! We ordered the chocolate cake to end a perfect night.

After our 2 restaurant night, we decided food fest weekend was on! Welcome, breakfast. So we decided on a place we had seen the prior (gluttonous) night called, Continental Restaurant. Yet again it did not disappoint. (Although the service was less than to be desired) They also had yummy bloody marys. After the 8th meal within 10 hours we thought it might be a good idea to walk a bit and see some of the historical sights. Liberty Bell, Congress Hall, Betsy Ross' house, Second Bank, Independence Hall and all within Old City and walking distance from our hotel.

After checking out of the hotel, we thought to drive around the city since we were running out of time. Looking at the map, it seems as though we saw most all parts of the city before heading to the Phillies baseball game. But of course we made a stop at Campos for an original Philly cheese steak - with cheese whiz. (and some yogurt but that was just an appetizer) Once we got inside the Phillies' stadium the crowd was loud and excited. The rain began before the first pitch which delayed the game for about 30 minutes but allowed for the perfect time to then grab one of Philadelphia's famous soft pretzels. Did not disappoint! One of the best soft pretzels I've eaten. The game started and the Phillies won. It was then time to get to the train station and head back to the our own lovely city. However, we made one more stop along the way. We had to run up the steps of the art museum just like Rocky Balboa. Took some pictures and finally finished our whirlwind (eating) trip of the great city of Philly!

It's a great family vacation spot but also a great short trip from NYC. Hope this gives you some good ideas if you're going to visit.

(we heard that Genos and Pats are actually better philly cheesesteaks than Campos -next time!)

Summer Staples

Check out the Summer look-book on Facebook!

summer fun

Have a great weekend!

Samples and Lines

One thing that's great about living in NYC - sample sales!!! Most of the designers have sample sales at some point during the year (most are in the summer) and it just so happens that they are in NYC. I ventured to the Diane Von Furstenburg sale yesterday...during lunch hour. I obviously did NOT think before leaving the house. If you can help it, do not go to sample sales during lunch time or you will have to stand in line (also in the sun.) However, once you're in to the sales you can find some gems! Next week will be James Jeans and the JCrew sample sale - hoping for some staples or a bathing-suit.

This is only part of the line

Needed some line patrols

Inside the crazy chaos

Sis's new black, yellow and pink silk dress

It'll be cute even this fall with a black blazer