Balloons and weddings

It's been a four-Groupon kind of month! I've already said that we went to Tamari with Edwin, which was an ace choice by the way. I also had a Groupon to Dante's salon and I took myself and Peter there for a little pre-wedding trim. They did a great job and I might have to go back! But anyway. That's two. We finished out a Redbox three-for-one that week too, and, oh yeah, went on a hot air balloon ride. Four.

One of these things is not like the other, hmm? But I was so swept with the idea of crossing "hot air balloon ride" off my bucket list that when a deal came up on groupon, I (after much deliberation, because I am never decisive) pounced. Trouble was, the company did rides out of Lancaster, so we had to pair it with a trip east. Once Lizzy's wedding was scheduled, I figured we could hit it on the way to NYC - not too far out of the way (easier when you're staying with an aunt that has no bedtime). We just had to cross fingers and toes that it would be a nice evening...




Guess it worked. It was a gorgeous afternoon, although very hot. Guess what else is hot? The burner in a hot air balloon. Surprising, I know, but for some reason neither of us had accounted for this little fact, and the part where it goes WHOOOOARRRRRRR. But once you got used to that off and on, the ride itself was very relaxing and awfully scenic. There's no wind and not really a dangerous feeling of being too far up - the basket is steady and the balloon enormous. Watching people pull off the road to take pictures, dogs barking in circles wondering what the hell we are, Amish people waving... that was all pretty awesome. For our finale we landed on the shoulder of a highway, which was hilarious. And then they drove us back to our cars and gave us some champagne and cheese. Not an experience I will soon forget. Funny, we haven't bought any new Groupons since...




But back to that wedding. It was a very posh kind of affair, held in a space that had a fantastic view, lots of stairs, and no handrails. An obstacle course in waiting when in conjunction with an open bar, but hey, it looked nice. I had similar thoughts about Lizzy's crazy-tall shoes. Unfortunately it was kind of misting and crappy out, but it worked out. The food was excellent and it was great to see that side of the gang, especially after I totally failed at being healthy for Kathy's wedding.




The next day we headed to Beth Ann's house, which is just awesomely decorated. I want her to do my house whenever that happens. We caught up over waffles and fruit (sharing typical Jewish recourse such as "there were no appetizers at the wedding?!?!" to which I about snorted milk out my nose) and then Peter and I promptly fell asleep on her couch. Sup, cousin? We were preparing for the drive, of course...hehe. She has an enormous garden and we swiped some fresh lettuce from it as well. The visit with that side of the family, including the three little girls I've barely met, was too short, but it's a heck of a haul from Long Island to Pittsburgh so we had to get on the move. We did have a little spare time to hit the I-78 scenic overlook (here because I know you're fascinated) that I spotted on my last NYC-PGH drive. It's actually disappointingly pointless, as it probably hasn't been scenic in the last thirty years judging from the dense tree growth (if it ever had been), but now my curiousity is sated. It's a good place for a driver switch and/or being a sketchy dude in a pickup. Now you know.

Finally, as a belated birthday cake and as penance for dragging him everywhere, I ordered some malted milk and made Peter a chocolate malt cake. It was basically the Hershey's Dark cocoa box recipe plus some malt, and it was pretty darn good. I also tried my hand at kohlrabi (think green vegetable sputnik) and rabbit in mustard sauce. Never too busy for crazy food!

Late breaking

I keep meaning to post roundups of links I really like and, well, you know how that goes. But this week has been pretty stupendous in terms of the hilarious factor. Observe:

Neil Patrick Harris' 2011 Tony Awards Opening Number - amazing


Whole Foods Parking Lot rap - probably the only rap song I've identified with since Josh Tobin's "Playa Hater"


Go the F**k to Sleep read by Samuel L. Jackson - a masterpiece


Homemade pixie sticks - imagine, mango strawberry... =D


And finally, I've invented a fairly successful vegan dessert of which I am proud. Riffed off the lovely Pittsburgh blog Forked but with apple butter and a few other twists to empty out my pantry a little (our CSA starts tomorrow!!).

Apple Butter Muffins

1 3/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup sugar - I split between demerara and brown but plain would be fine too
1/2 cup vegetable oil*
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar or white vinegar
8 oz // 1 cup apple butter (or pureed strawberries in the original recipe)

*I split between canola and a blood orange oil because I had it and I really thought it came through. I would encourage you to add a bit of orange zest if you don't have such a fancy thing in your pantry (although it is worth having around for salad dressings also).

- Preheat oven to 350 F.
- Combine wet ingredients as best you can (they probably won't combine super well).
- Sift dry ingredients into wet OR, to make it a one-bowl recipe (and why would you not), just dump on top and whisk quickly to get the baking soda evenly dispersed.
- Pour into 12 greased and/or lined muffin cups.
- Cook for 20 minutes or until tester comes out clean.

Bonus step - if you want to take them from cupcake-muffin hybrid to full fledged cupcake, add some frosting (this comes to mind), but I'm not a big frosting person and didn't feel it really needed it.

Pots and pans

When I told my friend Edwin that the All-Clad factory was near Pittsburgh, and that they were having a dramatic sale on all their Seconds items the first weekend in June, he told me "we're going." He actually has a real job that pays quite well - paired with a passion for cooking and the finer things in life and it spelled out the possibility of a huge haul. He brought the pricing spreadsheets and know-how, I brought my car and another friend.

It was hilarious.


We got there a little bit before the fairgrounds were due to open and there was already a pretty huge line. Everyone was very pleasant, as you might expect; the folks in front of us bonded with my friend Amy over their hometowns and cracked jokes to keep us awake. As we waited, we saw people wheeling out dollies full of boxes that could only house very expensive cookware - high rollers, maybe budding restaurateurs. As we entered the warehouse we each were given a huge moving box with a twine loop around the handle so you could drag it behind you radio-flyer-style. We thought that was excessive, but then we saw the heaps of awesome cookware and Edwin's brain might have short-circuited. Boxes filled up to the brim. It was organized madness. People were shuffling through boxes, looking for the least-Seconds-like item, running to get matching lids from a different table, grabbing the cutest terrines $80 can buy (!) off stacks, woo hoo. Me, I was having the decision-sweats, faced with the prospect of buying a new pan and pot that would last a million years versus their price. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Amy and I got talked into our respective purchases, and I'm rather glad we did - I've never bought a more functional memento of an event.


(most of that is Edwin's!)

The boxes were too heavy to carry out to the car so we just dragged until the tape on the bottom damn near fell off. It was a very nice day, we were all playing hooky, had bought some really shiny and badass cookware, and life was good. Later Ed and I would go to Brgr for some burgers and their amazing vanilla salty caramel bourbon milkshake and life was even better. Peter and I also took Edwin to Salt of the Earth and Tamari (groupon!) that weekend, just for added mindblowing. We don't spoil ourselves like that almost ever, so it was great just to let loose and pretend we weren't grad students for a while.