CAPow & Kramer Photo Walk v. 1.0 pt3

from state street, we turned down broadway and wandered our way over to the bus station.

CAPow & Kramer Photo Walk v. 1.0 pt2

our walk took us from the empire state plaza down state st, where there is a historic hotel that is being gutted and renovated

CAPow & Kramer Photo Walk v. 1.0 pt1

my bestie kramer (i can not emphasize how awesome this girl is) and i recently spent an entire afternoon walking around downtown albany, exploring and taking photos because that's what we do. we started off at the empire state plaza, which is where this set of photos were shot. we're hoping to make this a more regular thing now that the weather is getting nice, and i'm psyched!

this week...

...woke up on the first day of spring to fing a raging head cold in full bloom.

...dreary cloudy rainy spring weather

...had a "cheat dinner" with m at our favorite Chinese buffet, felt really gross all night afterwards

...been exhausted all week!

...dragged on so much that even when iras doing something I wanted to be doing, I couldn't wait for it to end

-- Post From My iPhone

headbands

1. bronzed leafs

2. bejeweled headband

3. art deco goddess

4. fabian no. 3

there are so many beautiful headbands on etsy, i wish i could buy one for each day of the spring and summer. i would really love to own a love, taza headband, but they get snatched up as soon as naomi lists them!

letters

dear head cold,

thank you so much for arriving on the first day of spring. i really didn't want to enjoy this gorgeous weather anyway. i'd much rather blow my nose and deal with my watery eyes. thanks for dropping in!

dear spring weather,

you know i love you, but you're making it very hard for me to concentrate on work. i know once i get used to having you around again i'll eventually start taking you for granted. but right now, you're all i can think about.

dear homemade chai tea,

you're really helping me deal with the unexpected visit from head cold. thanks for your support.

dear impossible project,

you're going to make this summer so much fun! thank you, thank you, thank you!

mint julep cupcakes

recently we had a potluck lunch at the office where i work. i signed up to make cupcakes because i couldn't wait to try out the recipe i discovered last year: mint julep cupcakes. i made them last year for our kentucky derby party, and i thought they were pretty tasty. i was sure that my co-workers would like them too.

yep, that's some jim beam bourbon in that batter...

i even hand lettered a little name card, hoping to entice them into trying one of the bet cupcakes i've ever had.

i tinted the creme de menthe butter cream with a little green and sprinkled on some green sugar crystals, i also baked them in foil ups to mimick the traditional silver cups mint juleps are usually served in. i thought they looked pretty terrific!

here is the recipe i used, it's from hostess with the mostess

mint julep cupcakes

{adapted from Cooking and Booking}

Ingredients:

Cupcakes
1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon mint extract
4 eggs
2 3/4 cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1/2 cup bourbon (or whiskey)
1/2 cup Creme de Menthe

Icing
3 cups sifted powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon mint extract
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 stick unsalted butter, melted
milk

Directions:

Cupcakes
Preheat the oven to 350º F, and grease or line 30 cupcake cups.

Combine salt, baking powder, and 1 3/4 cups of the flour. Beat butter, sugar, eggs, and extracts in a large mixing bowl until creamy. Gradually beat in the flour mixture. Add the milk and liquors to the batter, then the rest of the flour (1 cup). Mix as little as possible, just until the batter comes together. Divide the batter evenly among the cupcake cups. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean. Let cool.

Icing
Combine the powdered sugar, salt, extracts and melted butter and beat until creamy. Gradually add milk until the texture is right for piping. When the cupcakes are completely cool, pipe or spread the icing on top. Garnish with cake sparkles or sprinkles, a straw (trimmed to size), and mint leaves.

first cook out of 2010

we love to cookout on our grill, and this past weekend gave us the best weather yet for the first cookout of the season!

hanging out on the porch sipping wine and wearing a strapless sundress <3

yay summer! we are so ready to spend some time with you!

gateway

m and i are usually very loyal to our favorite diner (the metro 20) but recently we've had the itch to sample some other breakfast fare to see if we are overlooking some local gems. so far, all we've found is guilt and shame for stepping outside our monogamous diner relationship with the metro...

I've been to the gateway plenty of times for dinner and late night food needs, but this was our first time at the breakfast show. the coffee was decent enough diner coffee.

this is my spinach and feta omelet. sounds mouth watering, right? it was dry as hell and there was barely any feta in it. i was pretty disappointed. the bacon (as you may have trouble telling in the photo) was severely undercooked and limp. the homefries. oh, the homefries. i don't know how the gateway managed to achieve this feat, but the homefries tasted like that fake "buttered potato" in a box that is sometimes passed off as mashed potatoes...but it was also kinda lumpy, like maybe there were a few small pieces of real potato sliced in there. either way, the only flavor they had was of artificial butter. yuck. m had his standard two eggs overeasy with homefries and bacon. he was pretty satisified with his meal except for the homefries.

this wall behind m ends directly to his left and right. to the right of him there was a setback booth containing a family with two small children whom the parents weren't supervising. the one little boy kept putting the top of the salt shaker in his mouth and knocking his head back...taking "shots" of salt. it was pretty revolting. 

i'd like to say that at least the gateway had a great atmosphere, but i think m summed it up best when he likened it to eating in a high school cafeteria. it was packed to the gills (expected for prime brunch time on the weekend) and loud. and it took our waiter 20 minutes to bring m the glass of water he asked for. it made us really miss our good old metro, where even if it's packed, customers still converse at a civilized enough level for you to be able to hold your own conversation too. we're going to trudge on through our brunch tour of the region, but i have a feeling that after we've had our fun we'll go crawling back to the one who has always been there for us, and been good to us.

this week...

...date day with m: breakfast out, getting stuff done all day, dinner out, ...heavy metal show?...

...Dear Beloved Downstairs Neighbors,

So, this weekend was daylight savings time and we lost an hour of sleep. What more opportune time than this lovely Monday morning for you to allow your alarm to go off at 5:30am and continue to ring for the past hour and a half and counting? How did you know that this was EXACTLY the way I had hoped to be able to start my week? I love getting through a Monday on 4.5 hours of sleep.

Thank you!! You're AWESOME!!!!!!!

..."recovery" week for my Insanity program, then back into a repeate of month 1...not sure I'm ready to tackle the craziness of month 2 yet.

... sliced open my index finger trying to open a lid on a plastic yogurt tub

...rediscovered that having a glass of red wine with dinner = passing out by 10pm

...first Cookout of 2010!

-- Post From My iPhone

last chance...

...now that spring is due any time, it's the last chance to post these...somehow they slipped through the cracks earlier. our snow day!

i liked this license plate we came across.

and were puzzled by this sign.

letters

dear daylight savings time,

you really mess up my internal clock, but i love how much longer you make the days...our relationship is complicated.

dear dmv,

do i really have to come in and renew my drivers license? i'm so lazy i just can't being myself to get it over with.

dear insanity,

you are kicking my ass and i love it! we've only been seeing each other for one month, but already you've dramatically changed my life. thank you.

dear styles,

you make me feel so guilty for not wanting you on my lap, but it seems the only time you want attention from me is when i have work to do. we need to work on communicating better.

luck o' the irish

1. luck of the irish coasters

2. paddy

3. forest green cowl with olive green flower

4. almost four leaf clover

5. the grass is always greener

6. bartley

what's this?

styles seemed to initially get the hang of it...

"seemed to" being the key words. after this first encounter with this new awesome toy i thought they would love, neither of them would touch it. we tried putting treats in it, turning it on it's side. no go. so we ended up selling it on craigslist. your loss, boys!

fancy birthday dinner

recently, it was a friend's 30th birthday. a few of us got together to have a fancy dinner at New World Bistro, one of the nicest places in town to do something like that. it was the first time m and i have eaten there, despite the fact that it's been open for about a year. i can't believe we waited so long to try it! the atmosphere was perfect, and the food was incredible. we will be back, for sure!

my drink of choice: kettle one and tonic.

m ordered a non-alcoholic beer by accident because he asked our server if she could tell him about it, and she didn't know anything about it...so instead of finding out for him, she just let him order it. that was really our only major complaint of the evening.

one dinner roll per guest. thank you for helping curb my carb binge by serving them this way!

my entree was delicious! i ordered the arugula pesto stuffed tofu and green tea soba noodles with edamame, basil, dried tomatoes in red miso-seaweed nage. so good.

m had the yellow curry gulf shrimp and big noodles. he loved it. we also had their famous appetizer pan blackened string beans with creole remoulade sauce. those were probably my favorite. perfectly seasoned. remembering them is making my mouth water. and their menu is seasonal, so it changes several times a year. i can't wait to go back and see what they come up with next!