My Day in Cheese – New Amsterdam Market June 24, 2012

•July 13, 2012 • 1 Comment

It’s been a while since I got to do a market with my father. The New Amsterdam Market invited him down to their Cheese Market & Diary Fair — a special market showcasing cheeses from around the northeast and other dairy delights. They also held the Cheesemonger Invitational the day before.

We ended up having a great weather and it was a fun time getting to meet people and introducing them to Berkshire Blue‘s smoked cheese. It was a big hit.

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Getting set up.

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Eat grilled cheese!

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These blueberries looked amazing.

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Slicing up some smoked Berkshire Blue.

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A nice close-up of the inside of the regular blue. Great marbling.

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Smoked samples.

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The Big Cheese talking to Colleen from Cheese and Champagne.

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Talking with the Kate Arding, the founder of Culture Magazine, which is a magazine all about cheese. My dad actually found the ad for the monks who smoke his cheese in that magazine, which was cool.

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Some great cherries I bought at the stall that had those amazing blueberries (along with Culture Magazine).

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Our good family friends, the Palestines, came down to the market to visit and say hi! It was great seeing them!

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Danny and his girlfriend Ayelet posing while the Big Cheese munches on some samples and yours truly.

We lucked out with the weather — it wasn’t too hot out yet and we had a lot of people come by and sample cheese and talk. Hopefully I can help out again at some markets in the future! A shout out to Zsa Zsa Balza for trekking down to the market to say hi and everyone who came out to support our product!

Posted in Around NYC, Cheese, Friends, Markets
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Mine & Dr. Awesome’s Wedding Celebration Extravaganza!

•June 19, 2012 • 2 Comments

RoriBen

Though Dr. Awesome and I got married back in October 2011 at City Hall, we wanted to share that moment with everyone, so we threw a wedding celebration party at the lab where him and his dad work at: Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in the Palisades.

We wanted it to be laid back and fun. And in the spirit of that, we decided to have an extended cocktail hour. We enlisted the help of Radish in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. I had heard of them through Twitter and we decided to one day try them out at a picnic on the waterfront (see this blog post). Of course we thought it was great and booked them a year in advance, especially since they use seasonal and local ingredients. The following two photos of the food at our party are courtesy of our family friend Jodi Gingold. There were passed appetizers and then a stationary bruschetta bar with lots of tea sandwiches and roasted carrots, along with an awesome open alcohol bar. We also had a dessert bar, but there are no photos yet since we’re waiting on the professional ones. There were brownie bites, cookies, and shortcake with strawberry-rhubarb preserves and cardamom cream. There was also iced tea and lavender lemonade at the ceremony. Don’t be too jealous!

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Radish Food 1

Our flower arrangements were by Pristine Events. My brother’s best friend, Arielle, has been doing this all her life and wanted to do this for us. They were beautiful and my wild flower bouquet was perfect. Photos of the tables are by Jodi again, along with Dr. Awesome and his boutineer. Arielle took the photo of me and my bouquet. All the table arrangements were slightly different and the table with the food and presents had some arrangements on them, too.

Dr. Awesome looking Awesome

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Flower Arrangements

As a memento to give to people, we decided on some great local jams by Anarchy in a Jar. They were triple berry and are so delicious. We got them personalized too which was great. We have some jar left over, but they’re going quickly.

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The day really couldn’t have gone any more perfect than it did. We had great staff, bartenders, and felt all the love and happiness from our friends and family.

Posted in Around NYC, Cheese, Family, Markets
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Making Aged Cocktails with @Tuthilltown

•May 30, 2012 • 1 Comment

Wow. Long hiatus, huh? Party planning just takes up a ton of time. Mine and Dr. Awesome’s party will finally be happening in about 10 days and then this blog will get updated more regularly. I’ve missed you blog and readers!

The Alcatraz post I promised will happen next time. It’s mostly going to be pictures since everything is really self explanatory and we had such a beautiful day.

This post is all about Dr. Awesome’s new passion – aged cocktails. Thanks to the good folks at Tuthilltown Distillery (which is in the Hudson Valley), he was able to make this dream a reality.

We bought a few bottles that had a piece of barrel already in them. All we had to do was just mix whatever cocktail we wanted and pour it in there to let the aging begin.

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The ingredients for some Manhattans and Negronis.

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The Negroni recipe.

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Aged Negronis in progress.

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All mixed.

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Pouring into the aging bottles.

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One aged and one “raw” (so we can taste the difference).

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Dr. Awesome is now labeling the date on each one so that 10 days later, we can enjoy the fruits of his labor.

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The aging really makes a difference. The bite in the drinks isn’t has hard. It’s definitely more smooth. Tuthilltown also sells some mini barrels which we are probably going to invest in once we get things rearranged in the apartment and have a proper bar/aging area. Their Hudson Valley whiskey is also amazing. Some of the best whiskey I’ve had and I’m not a huge whiskey drinker.

Thanks for sticking with me! Summer is already here and that means many farmer market visits, maybe a camero at the New Amsterdam Market selling some Berkshire Blue…the possibilities are endless.

Posted in Cocktails
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The San Francisco Chronicles – Day 5

•February 27, 2012 • 1 Comment

As I watch Twin Peaks, it only makes sense that I post about my outing to Muir Woods.

I set up a trip to Muir Woods and Sausalito with Dr. Awesome’s younger brother, Nic. We were on a small tour bus with two other couples, one from Australia and the other was there for the AGU conference. The bus took us over the Golden Gate Bridge (which was really cool…I want to walk over it next time and take the ferry back) and before we got to Muir Woods, we went down the windiest roads I had ever been on. It was quite an experience.

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Yup.

Unfortunately, we only had an hour to explore. It’s a good thing I had bundled up because the redwoods shut out the sunlight. It was hard to capture how magnificent the trees were. They were endless and touched the sky. So glad that a place like this exists. We had a lot of fun and got to nerd out in front of the tree rings at the beginning (since that’s what Dr. Awesome and his father study).

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Yours truly.

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I’m a tree hugger.

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So is Nic.

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Some perspective.

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The leaning tree freaked me out a bit. Can’t imagine what would happen if it fell.

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I’m tiny.

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Really tiny.

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A Hobbit hole.

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The second half of our tour went to Sausalito. I think this place is more of a summer town because it was really quiet and there wasn’t much to see…cept some burgers being grilled on a rotating grill and some art galleries. Plus a street sign that was dedicated to Stan Lee.

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Next up…Alcatraz! (And not J.J. Abrams)

Posted in Family, Travel
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The San Francisco Chronicles – Day 4

•January 20, 2012 • 2 Comments

Dr. Awesome’s mother and I took a little day trip to the Ferry Building to check out the farmers market they hold there every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. We got to take a ride on an old Italian trolley on the way there.

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There were a lot of great vendors outside. We were wishing we had rented an apartment so that we could take back all this great produce and cook something great! Nothing is ever out of season there. I also got to try persimmons for the first time. They’re interesting.

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Persimmons!

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An awesomely freshly opened peapod for us to try. I’m not a huge fan of raw green veggies (like broccoli or sugar snap peas), but these were amazing.

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We then ventured inside the Ferry Building where all the vendors there are locally owned, which is really cool.

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This place just featured mushrooms. It was literally mushroom heaven.

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Next door was this meat stand that had the best shirt ever. Naturally I got it for Dr. Awesome as a present.

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Another stall was from famous TV chef Chris Cosentino and his tasty cured pig parts – Boccalone. I didn’t get a chance to try any of their stuff, but I definitely will next time. They cure all their stuff right there. He has restaurants that focus on offal and the like.

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Our next stop was the Cow Girl Creamery store where they let us taste a really great goat cheese. I could just go back and forth between there and Boccalone all day.

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And the best sign I saw during my entire stay:

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Dr. Awesome’s mother and I bought some sandwiches and ate outside to enjoy the lovely weather.

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We said our goodbyes and I went off to venture down Crooked Lombard Street. The whole thing was a little anticlimactic, but it was still cool to see. I took a video of a car coming down so everyone can see what that’s like. On my way to catch the cable car, I was walking along the wharf when I passed by this shrubbery that all of a sudden yelled out at me. Of course I got scared and screamed and the guy who was holding the FAKE shrubs was laughing. Looking back at this incident, I find it quite amusing.

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I had a nice little walk back to another cable car and then chilled back at the hotel until I met up with Sheeda, a good friend of mine from grad school. We went to a restaurant in the financial district called Barbacco. Great Italian Trattoria!

They had their wine lists on an iPad.

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I now leave you with a funny video. It’s funny cause I thought I was taking a picture of us, but it was actually on the video setting. Oh, Rori.

Posted in Family, Friends, Travel
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