New York City Trip!

Had the most amazing time in New York city with two friends. Our flight left Monday (March 5th), and there was a long delay in Toronto but we finally made it to our hotel around 11:00 pm.

We then left to walk over to McGee's

We got the story from the bartender that was working there that night. For those who have seen the show How I met your mother, the producers often went there for drinks and got the idea for a new show and used that bar as inspiration. We thought it was the other way around but it's cool knowing that. He also told us that they sometimes close the bar and the cast and crew go there to hang out. They have pictures of them up on the wall, the bar is longer and more narrow then the actual bar on the show but the look is similar, and they now have the drinks that were created on the show on their menu. I tried the Robin Sparkle drink and it was delicious!

Tuesday we got up early, had a light breakfast at the hotel and headed out to explore New York which started with a subway ride to Time Square. Didn't do so well since we went the wrong direction, but luckily someone was nice enough to tell us and helped us take the right train in the right direction. It was a cool experience and cheaper to get to Time Square, and we started with going to Carlo's bakery

For those who are a fan of food network, that is the Cake boss, Buddy Valastro. They had so many delicious options

Cakes


                                       Cupcakes
                                      & cookies


We each picked something different so we can try each other's dessert

At the top is what Samantha chose, a cannoli, to the right is what Anne picked, it's like a cinnamon bun but with pecans and caramel and a bit of icing, and mine is called a lobster tail, it's stuffed with custard mixed with whip cream. All very delicious!

We then went to explore Time Square and shopped around a bit, but didn't buy anything

That is me on a large piano on the floor of a store, I think it was Macy's, made me think of the movie Big with Tom Hanks, many years ago, so I had to try it out

So many big buildings, adds and huge screens, it was amazing!! We did stop for lunch at the Outback, we are all a fan of that place and miss having one here in Ottawa. We decided to share a few appetizers

So we had the blooming onion, but it wasn't blooming, just some on a plate, a quesadilla, fries with bacon and cheese and we also had the wedge salad, with some raspberry ice tea.

We did walk around a bit more and then made our way back to our hotel to relax a little bit and then walked over to Central park. We were about a 10 minute walk away

Just so beautiful there!!  It's huge, and there's so much to see and do. There's a skating rink, a gift shop, zoo, a place to play chess, tables along the walkways selling mostly paintings. There's even rocks to climb up on and enjoy the view. It was a beautiful day, and I was so happy being there, I really didn't want to leave and also made me feel like going for a run. We did stop in at a mall near by to sit and relax for a while and have a drink

On our way into the restaurant I saw a store I really wanted to check out after, and we did stop in

My happy place, I love book stores!!  It's similar atmosphere as Chapters, and a neat thing about this is it's like shopping online, you connect to your online account to get a discount and here's what I bought

It's just the two books at the bottom, I'll explain later about the book at the top. I have always wanted Jacques Pépin's cookbook. The one on the left caught my attention, they had a sign up saying it's amazing so I looked through it quickly and it's my type of book, healthy cooking and so many recipes look delicious!! We also checked out a kitchen store and then made our way over to have some supper. It was an Italian restaurant that was recommended by someone working at our hotel so we went to check it out.



Starting on the left, it's what Anne ordered, spaghetti, then I ordered ravioli, and Samantha got the margarita pizza, all very delicious! I did have red wine with my supper, and they gave us a bread basket which you see a bit of it above the spaghetti and they gave us capers in oil to put on it, and it was really good.

The top one is my dessert, it was a cake with chocolate and whip cream and a puff pastry at the top with a strawberry, and it was good but I have to say Anne's was better, Tiramisu. I'm not a huge fan of tiramisu cause it does have coffee taste to it but hers seemed more fresh and more flavor then mine did. I also enjoyed a nice port wine with my dessert. The food was really good, but it was quite pricey, especially the drinks, just a regular mixed drink was about $20, and they even had a shooter of tequila for $50. We are downtown New York though, and it was a fancy restaurant so makes sense that they bring the price up pretty high. To be honest I was ok with an expensive meal, we really didn't buy much and with doing so much walking and exploring it was nice to sit down to have a really nice supper and talk.

We then walked back to the hotel and the plan was to explore night life in New York but we got an email letting us know our flight the Wednesday night got cancelled and changed to Thursday morning because they were calling for bad weather. Airports do specify that if it's weather related they aren't at fault, meaning they won't cover our cost for our hotel, so started the search, first starting with the hotel we were staying at since it was such a nice one, but they were already booked up, so we spent a good hour trying to find another decent hotel and finally found one a few blocks away. It was an additional $40 each for the night and it was just 1 king size bed but it was just for one night so thought why not since all the other places were either booked up or way to expensive. It put a damper on our plans, but we needed some fresh air after all that, so we decided to walk over to the new hotel to make sure we were booked and to see what it looked like. At the end of the evening this is what my step count was

Let me tell you once I relaxed in bed it hit me on how tired I was since I only slept about 5 hours the night before so I slept really well that night! We were up early again though, had a bit of breakfast, got ready and then checked out but they kept our bags for us in a safe room so we didn't have to worry about it. We took uber to Chelsey NY to line up for the Rachael Ray show which was the whole reason for our trip to New York city

There was just another lady in front of us, and her friend was gone to get warm drinks and food so she joined us later on. We chatted a lot with them, and a few more ladies showed up so made more friends in line to chat and help pass the time. It was a cool morning and standing there for 2.5 hours we got quite cold. Around 9:00 am security guards came out to chat with us a bit, and then more came out and we got our tickets

They let us in, went through security but I was able to quickly take a picture of myself, sorry that it's a bit blurry though I had to hurry up to not slow down the line

Then they had us go into a waiting room, which they provided bottles of water, and small packs of goldfish crackers. Then we got to see Joey! For those who watch the show, he has been shown a few times, he's the entertainer. He is a comedian, and he truly is funny! He showed us the signs he will do to have us laugh, applaud, the mmm sound when she's making delicious food, ext... We were all color coded on our ticket and we got to go in first which we got to sit up front. I was so excited!  It of course looks smaller then what it seems to be on TV but it really is a nice studio. Couldn't take any picture unfortunately, I had to turn off my phone completely. Joey appeared again and had us laughing and then introduced Rachael Ray when she came in!  It was so amazing to see her in person, I unfortunately didn't get the chance to ask any questions or get to take a picture of her or even get her autograph but so cool to be in the same room and be fairly close to her! My dream has been to meet a chef in person, and I have but now my goal is to actually meet them, like get to talk to them a bit at least and get a picture taken with them and get their autograph. They didn't have any celebrities on this show but we did get to see Grant, her culinary baker, we also were part of another show, just the part where they have a band play a song. I really don't remember their name, or know them at all but they were really good. You will see that band if you watch the March 29th show, and hopefully they show us in the audience.

Thanks to our flight being changed and also thanks to bad weather, there weren't as many people that were able to make it so they had extra tickets to hand out to stay for the next taping, so we got lucky we were at the front and we got another ticket to stay!  They brought us back to the waiting room and had a slice a pizza for us to have for lunch. We then got back into the studio and we got seated just one row up from where we had sat. We again go to see Rachael and she talked to us a bit before the start of each taping. In between commercials we had Joey that had us laughing, she did have to get ready for the next segment so understandable that she couldn't talk to us to much. The second show we got to see Lucy Hale, she's from pretty little liars, which I hear is really good so I'll have to check that show out. She seems really nice. We also saw Auli'i Cravalho to talk about her new role in the movie Rise and funny thing is that we had another celebrity sitting right behind us that she was working with, so he got to go up and take a picture with her and Rachael and went back to sit, I remember his first name being Nacho, but don't remember his last name. We also got to meet Dan Harris, he's a news guy and he wrote a book, which is the book above that I said I would tell you more about. It's on meditation and we got the book for free. =)
We again got the chance to stay for the third taping, by getting more tickets!!!  The weather wasn't that nice out there, it was wet snow so it was wet and messy out there and colder so why not stay inside and take advantage to see more!

We again went back to the waiting room, where they had still more water and goldfish crackers for us, and then brought back to sit in the studio but this time we were on the other side and the before last row. It was kind of nice to be up higher cause there are a lot of cameras and camera men that were in our way at times so it was nice to be higher up to see. If you watch TLC and have seen the show trading spaces, well they are coming back, they have revamped the show, so we got to see Genevieve Gorder, Ty Pennington, John Gidding, and I believe it was also Paige Davis and Doug Wilson that were there. I have seen Genevieve and John a few times on the Rachael Ray show so it was awesome to see them in person and I'm a huge fan of Ty from Extreme makeover home edition. I have seen the show a few times back in the day and I really liked it so I'm excited to see it revamped next month. Also at the end of each show we went to, Rachael went in the middle isles on the stairs and they took a group photo of us, which we are suppose to be able to get on their facebook site but the last update was September, so not sure how long it will take till we finally see our group photos.

Overall it was a great experience to check it out. Would be nice if she had more time on her hands to interact with the audience. She did make us laugh here and there between recordings and she was really nice. The first show they also made cookies with bacon and it smelled so good!! They had some to share with the audience but not enough for everyone and we unfortunately didn't get to have any. Would have been nice if they would have had some for all of us. Joey did give away some prizes to a few people and again we had no luck. I was also just on the Rachael Ray show website to see if maybe they had the group photos there that's maybe more up to date, but they don't put them up on there but in the link I provided above for her website they do show the next episodes coming up this coming week, and I noticed that the date they say ours will air, also have Milo from This is Us, which we didn't get to see him, so looks like they tape the same day sometimes and other times it's bits and pieces of shows cause looks like it's everything we were there for except Milo which I'm so disappointed because I'm a huge fan of Milo, he was on Gilmore girls which I absolutely love, and I also watch This is Us and he's amazing on the show. I never realized that the audience changes, and I mean I guess no one really would unless they are part of the audience.

So you want to see us in the audience, we will appear on March 13 (minus the part when Milo is there), March 16, and the 29th (only the part with the band playing), then again on April 6th, but not sure yet if we are there for the whole show or only part of it. I always do tape her show to watch so I'll for sure be checking it out to see if you see us. The link I also provided for her website, the short video they show, if you watch it, right after the part with Milo, they show what she cooks, which also smelled delicious when we were there, right after that they show part of the audience for a few seconds, they show two ladies which we got to know a bit, but just behind them, you see part of Samantha, Anne and a little part of me, I'm like the far left (you don't see our faces). I wore a light blue shirt with a black cardigan on top. So hopefully they did catch us well on camera, I'm really looking forward to seeing the show on Tuesday to see how the part with Milo went and from the video it looks like audience members were able to ask a question which I would have loved to ask him a question!

We got out of there at about 5 pm, we took an uber back to the hotel to get our bags and then another uber to our new hotel. it wasn't a far walk but weather wasn't nice enough to drag our suitcases with us. We got somewhat cozy in our hotel, it was really small, and we then went back to the Outback for supper since it's a place we know we love and they have good prices.

The top is what Anne and Samantha shared, which they also started their meal with the wedge salad, and Anne gave me a little bit of her salad, and I had what's at the bottom, a steak with shrimp, and had wine with it. I had to show their amazing bread that they have there as well.

That's our desserts, the cheesecake and the brownie with ice cream which we pretty much shared but I really wanted the brownie so I ate more of that. I also tried two of their drinks before and after supper. We then went across the street to a bar to have a drink. The music was awesome and it wasn't big but it was cozy. We then went back to the hotel. We were able to sleep in a little later, got ready, and then headed to the airport, had some breakfast there and then waited for our flight. There was just a minor delay again in Toronto but the trip back home went well. My hubby picked us up and we got to tell him about our trip.

I really had a good time, it was great to finally get to see New York, but I know there's still a lot more that I haven't seen!  If your ever interested in being in the audience, sign up now for free tickets cause it took us about 2.5 years to finally get them. Our plan is to hopefully be on Ellen's show next, but I'm sure that's an even longer wait to get tickets.

Well I hope you get to see us in the audience on the dates above, I know I'm excited to check it out to see how each show turns out!

Overdo post

It has been way to long since I have posted anything. Life has been quite busy, starting with Christmas, which we had a wonderful time with family, then after taking 2 weeks off, it was getting back into the swing of things, and then we had a lot of company come over. First it was my cousin from Alberta, for 2 weekends, she had to work during the week near our place, and the second weekend, her brother and his family came down, and as usual, I laughed so much! It was so great to see them all, and I had so much fun. Then my cousin from Sudbury came down, it was a more relaxed weekend which was great, and we of course stopped in at Chapters. Then my in-laws came down for a visit, we did some shopping, and played cards and had a great time.

When I was shopping for presents, we do this Christmas gift exchange, and I was already on my way to Ikea to get my goddaughter a gift, so I stopped in at Terra 20 to get a few things I needed, and decided to see what they had in hopes to find something for the gift exchange and I did. I have been seeing these bento boxes here and there, and unsure if it's something I should try out, but decided this would be a pretty good gift, and the game we play can sometimes lead to getting your own gift which isn't a bad thing, so decided why not. The more I thought of it, the more I wanted to get one for myself, which I didn't get mine back, I ended up getting a Chapters gift card and home made caramel sauce, that my hubby's cousin made, and it's delicious!! So I made another stop in at Terra 20 to get a few.

So I didn't have enough room for my veggies to snack on so those are in a baggy, but to the left on top is 2 boiled eggs with half an avocado, under that is half a banana, raspberries and blueberries, next to that is a salad, and that small container is the dressing. Bento boxes are my new obsession. I tend to fill up pretty quickly so this is a good way to snack on different things during the day. Here's another bento box I put together

So this one to the top left is carrots, celery and a bit of humus, under that is macaroni salad that I made. It's brown rice pasta with chopped up celery, green onions, radishes and broccoli, and the dressing is Dijon mustard, a bit of relish and some mayo with a bit of paprika and pepper. The top right is a bit of Greek yogurt, chia seeds, a tsp. of maple syrup and blueberries, under that is a whole wheat wrap with tuna salad. My tuna salad has very thinly chopped up celery, red onion and radish mixed with half an avocado, Dijon mustard, and a tiny bit of mayo. Along the right side is raspberries.

Over the weekend I also made a banana bread and some guacamole, and cooked up some chicken for my hubby's lunch. I'm trying to stay away from meat again, except fish and shrimp because I have been getting some endometriosis pain here and there, so on Sunday night we had shrimp with aioli sauce, some of the macaroni salad, and a garden salad with an avocado dressing. Yesterday he had pork, and I had salmon with sweet potatoes and roasted asparagus. Tonight will be a vegetarian stir fry for me and he will have chicken with his.

I will try to blog more often to share more information and recipes. Next week I'm off on a girls trip, so stay tuned for the details on that! One hint, if you watch the Rachael Ray talk show, you should be seeing me in the audience!  So excited!!!

Girls trip during black Friday weekend

Last weekend I went with some friends to Syracuse. We left Friday after work, which we got quite the scare because we drove right next to a huge male deer which was taking up the whole first lane and facing our way and luckily we were in the second lane. We all saw it except Anne, and funny enough, the three of us that did see it, stared in shock and didn't say a word till after. That was a little to close for our liking and I did look back after and it looked like we may have put a spot light on the deer cause it looked like the cars behind us stopped and I didn't see the deer at all, so hopefully it make it back to safety in the woods. You know when people say it happened quick but in the moment it was sort of like in slow motion, well I know what they mean cause I got one very good look at this deer cause it seems almost in slow motion. Scariest thing ever, and let me tell you we were on the lookout for more cause I for sure wouldn't want to hit one.

We did make it in Syracuse safe and sound, and stopped for supper at the Outback, which not sure who remembers when we use to have one open here in Ottawa, but I do miss it. The bread is so good!! Here's my super

It was delicious but they cooked the steak a bit to long, and I could have asked for another but it was about 8pm or so and I was starving. We did a bit of shopping after which the mad crowd of people was done at that point. We then went to our hotel and the true shopping started on the Saturday.

Before starting our shopping we went to the Crackerbarrel for breakfast, and Anne and I shared because it's way to much food for one person. We got the french toast which tasted like cinnamon buns, it was delicious!!

We also got eggs, potatoes and bacon with these french toast and also enjoyed a delicious hot chocolate. We then went to the huge mall in Syracuse and spent many hours there, but it went by fast! I managed to get a few more Christmas gifts and some clothes for me at some very good prices. We of course had to stop in at the cheesecake factory

Anne and I bought one slice to share for later on in the evening and Samantha and her friend did the same thing. We also had to stop in at Margaritaville

We then decided to stop for a late lunch at the Outback and since we had a reservation to an Italian place for 7 pm we decided to just share a few appetizers

We did a bit more shopping after that, then went to a different hotel to change and rest up a bit before heading to the casino, it was very festive there

We then went for our reservation at an Italian restaurant, I forget the name of it but it was amazing there! She was able to reserve a table in front of the kitchen so we can see them work and it was awesome!

I of course had to get red wine, and they were very kind in giving us a free plate of meatballs sitting on a bed of ricotta, they were delicious!!!

I ordered a spinach pasta dish, it's really long round pasta stuffed with ricotta and spinach, topped with sauce and cheese

It was so good!! I had a nice take out box and got to enjoy it again, and the left overs where just as good. Anne got spaghetti which also looked good and Samantha and her friend shared the same thing I got. She mentioned how amazing it was so I had to try it and I'm glad I did. Next time we go, I would love to try the lasagna. We did also get bread, which was also really amazing.

Sunday we had the complementary breakfast at the hotel and made our way to Watertown were we did a bit more shopping and then had lunch at the steakhouse

The steak was perfectly cooked, I also had a salad with this and they have some really good bread here as well, with a cinnamon butter which is delicious! We did one last stop at Walmart to help walk off lunch a little before heading home so we can have supper at home and have time to unwind before starting the work week.

It was one amazing trip, had so much fun!! Thanks again ladies and we need to do this again!

Christmas is coming

The other day my friend and I got together to do some Christmas baking/cooking. I went to her place after she was done work on Friday, since I had the day off, and then we went out for dinner, bought what we needed, and got dough ready for the next day. We tried 3 different kinds, my mom's recipe, the crisco recipe on the container, as well as the tenderflake recipe on the box. The one that actually turned out great is tenderflake. I'm not sure what when wrong with the other two, but I'm thinking maybe I have to do it the day of but not quite sure. Really wish I would have taken then time with my mom to master her dough recipe. I will ask around and also try out a few ideas I have and hopefully I end up being successful.  Here's a few pictures of what we made yesterday

So we made a lot of meat pies, some potato pies as well which I forgot to take a picture of, apple pie (picture of Samatha's pie, mine is just the traditional full crust on top like the meat pies), pecan pie, pet de soeurs and my mom's famous recipe of oh henry bars, which I also forgot to take a picture of.

For those who haven't heard of pet de soeurs (why it's called that, I really don't know), but it's very simple, it's a very good way to use up left over dough once your done, you just roll out your dough, as square as you can, slather it with butter, add brown sugar and then roll it up fairly tightly into like a cylinder shape and then slice it up and place on a cookie sheet and bake I think it took ours about 15 min or so. Don't let it over cook cause then it will be really crispy rather then nice and moist.

Today I got busy in the kitchen again and made a butternut squash soup

This soup is so simple and delicious! I removed the skin of a large butternut squash, cut them into bite size pieces, making sure to remove the seeds towards the bottom of the squash, I added 3 carrots, some onions and garlic. I sauteed the onions for a bit, added in garlic for about a minute then added the squash and carrots and let that saute a few minutes. I then added 1/4 of lentils and some quinoa then added some stock that I made and had in the freezer (took it out a few days ago to let it unfreeze), I let it come to a boil and brought it down to medium heat and let it cook for about a half hour and let it cool down a bit. With a hand held blender I pureed the soup adding some pepper a touch of thyme and some nutmeg. You can make this soup all kinds of ways, you can roast the vegetables in the oven to add some more flavor to the soup, you can add celery as well, you can omit the grains and beans but I added some to make it heartier. You can also add milk to add more creaminess. I have once added a bit of greens pureed but that does change the color of the soup but it does add more nutrients. You can add some parsley for a bit more freshness as well or for a bit of a crunch you can add pumpkin seeds, raw or toasted. These two jars are going to be going into my freezer to enjoy another time, and I also have 3 bowls to enjoy this week.

Most of the pies went into my freezer so I have things on hand over the holidays since things can get pretty hectic. We were so exhausted and tired by the end of the day but they turned out amazing and we had fun, well except when we were disappointed with the other two dough's that didn't work out.

I really can't believe Christmas is a little over a month away. It's coming fast! I started some Christmas shopping but I do still have more to do, so will try to get that done soon to not leave it for the last minute. Hope everyone is enjoying their long weekend!