Tag Archives: books

Countdown to Baby

1 Mar

So I had this list of big events that were happening leading up to our due date.  There was the holidays, then New Year’s Eve, then my birthday, then my baby shower, then Adam’s birthday, then my parents were coming for a visit in February, then the Independent Spirit Awards and then… baby.  Well… here we are and there’s nothing left on the calendar but BABY!  What a crazy feeling!  I’ve gotta say though – I’m feeling pretty prepared!  We got all our nursery furniture and our nice shaggy rug arrived on Tuesday.  I’ve been ordering supplies from Amazon and Diapers.com like a champ.  I’ve been doing loads and loads of laundry and now our apartment has that little baby smell.

The one thing I have said goodbye to already is sleeping through the night.  That is no longer happening.  Though I guess that’s inevitable anyway with a newborn on the way.  I go to sleep on my left side (snuggled with my humungous body pillow named “Hans”) and then I wake up with hip pain on my left side.  So I flip over (which is a bit of a project these days), hoisting Hans over as I go, and go back to sleep on my right side.  Then I wake up with hip pain on my right side… and the drama continues.  Then at around four in the morning I wake up to pee and then I’m usually wide awake.  So I read in bed for a while until I fall back to sleep.  I just downloaded Tina Fey’s Bossypants, which has been a fun middle-of-the-night read for me.  Oh yeah, and most nights I have to chew a couple TUMS at some point because I’m enjoying that lovely heartburn.  My TUMS are now kept in my bedside drawer.

So yes, this is a little bit of a drag.  But really – I don’t even mind that much because I know it means he’s coming SOON!  And within a matter of weeks, I won’t be pregnant anymore and I’ll probably miss it a little bit.  I have definitely liked being pregnant.  It has felt rather natural for me.  But don’t get me wrong… I can’t wait to meet this little boy in the flesh!  And it will be nice to be able to bend over and tie my shoes again without grunting like a body builder.

Meanwhile, I’ve been playing with the camera a bit more this past week.  My friends Rob and Amie (writer of awesome baby blog Bohemian Babies) were over on Sunday for bagels.  I have this crystal hanging in my window and the sunlight was streaming through creating this awesome rainbow on the wall.  So Rob was playing around – stepping into the rainbow and posing for me.  Here is my favorite shot:

"Rainbow Rob"

I promise I will post more photos of the nursery once we finish it off with our tree wall decal!  That’ll hopefully get done this weekend or on Monday.  In the meantime, enjoy your Thursday!

Oh yeah – one more thing…

This February was the biggest month yet for views on nellsdish.  In fact, this little blog broke through the 6,000 views in one month mark (which is huge and tremendously exciting for me)!  In February 2011, there were under 2,000 views – so in just one year lots of new people have discovered my blog. That makes me happy – because I have been trying to just keep it really intimate and honest and just write about my life and what I’m into.  I’m touched that all of you care enough to keep up with me and check in with me and say hi to me with your comments.  And seeing this little baby (my first baby) grow (just to be clear, I’m talking about the blog) just gives me more fuel to keep it up.  It has definitely evolved over the two years since I started it.  From photography, to career change, to cheese, to Adam’s film career, to cooking, to Brooklyn, to restaurants, to pregnancy … thanks for joining me along on the ride.  I hope to keep you on board as I start this next phase of my life – motherhood.  Though I promise to write about more than just motherhood… because you know me… I have way too many interests to just focus on one thing!

Anyway – happy March!!

A little creative inspiration for the holiday weekend…

24 Dec

Carousel at Bryant Park

Happy holidays everyone!  It has been a lovely start to the day over here.  Reading in bed until ten-thirty (currently reading On Writing by Stephen King), a delightful egg and cheese sandwich on a toasted Bays Multigrain English Muffin, made with love by my breakfast chef supreme husband.  In a couple hours we are heading out to go see The Artist at BAM (down the street) and that is pretty much the main event on this quiet and sleepy Saturday.  Tomorrow we’ll probably catch another movie and a Chinese dinner (Jewish Christmas).  My kind of weekend for sure.  I hope you are all traveling safe and that you enjoy your weekend filled with family, food, friends, presents and all things merry.

I’ll leave you with a fun, creative, foodie-inspired stop motion short by an artist named Pes that Adam turned me onto this week. Enjoy!

Oh – and here’s a little stop motion holiday gem – created by Adam and the talented team at Bodega:

Happy holidays to all of you and warmest wishes for a wonderful weekend!

xoxo

Car Trip Nostalgia

15 Dec

Last weekend my parents picked us up in Brooklyn and drove us to our annual Brooklyn Boys holiday party in NJ.  My sister and her husband couldn’t make it, so my parents brought my niece (Monique) and nephew (Zach) along all the way from NH.  So it was all six of us – packed in the car for the hour and a half car ride to NJ.  Adam was in the way back next to Zach and I was in the middle seat next to Monique – my parents in the front.  Of course – as is typical in cars that drive around small children, the seat was filled with activities… books, markers, games, etc.  As I sorted through the pile I noticed two books from my own childhood – A Light In the Attic and Where The Sidewalk Ends by  Shel Silverstein.  I picked up Where The Sidewalk Ends and instantly found my old favorite poems… remember these?

"Lazy Jane" - by Shel Silverstein - Image Source: imgspark.com

"Sick" by Shel Silverstein - Image Source: luckyeahshelsilverstein@tumblr.com

We spent the entire car ride reading Shel Silverstein poems aloud.  It was so much fun!  I remember going on long car trips with my family when I was little (before there were TV’s and iPhones to distract).  We used to take eight hour drives to Buffalo to visit my grandparents and we would play games like “I’m going on a picnic” (do you know that game?) and we would read poems and try to memorize them.  Those are such happy memories for me.  I feel like that time spent in the car turned me into the lover of driving I am today.  I LOVE road trips!  It also made me think about car trips with my future little family.  I know iphones are great and all for distracting the kids when you need some quiet… but I’ll always cherish that family time we spent together in the car and I want to try to re-create that with my own family.

Oh and a shout out to Shel Silverstein.  He rules.  His poems and illustrations are so simple, clever and whimsical.  Have I mentioned that one item on my list of things I’d like to accomplish in my life is writing a children’s book?  I think I’ll wait for inspiration from this little dude in my belly.  But in the meantime, Shel’s pretty good inspiration as well.  Taking this little trip back in time with these books made me want to go re-discover more of my old favorite childhood books.   Here are some I remember best:

What are some of your favorite children’s books?  I need to start up a collection of quality stuff!

The week in review – nell’s dish style.

23 Jun

Good morning all.  It’s a foggy day here in NYC and I’m excited to be sitting at my desk, drinking a big mug of coffee and dishing.  Lots to talk about today – but we’ll start with an awesome video that Adam posted on his blog the other day.

Great right?

I do several of these things on a regular basis…

  • drink coffee
  • make lists
  • sing in the shower
  • get lots of rest
  • write down ideas
  • listen to new music
  • be open
These are the ones I want to work on most: 
    • Get away from the computer
    • Collaborate
    • Allow yourself to make mistakes
    • Break the rules
    • Stop trying to be someone else’s perfect
    • Clean your workspace
    • Finish something!! 


A good list of goals to focus on this summer!

Meanwhile, I’m sure you’ve noticed I haven’t been blogging as much lately.  Since the end of my 365 project, I’ve been finding blogging everyday (or almost every day) to be a bit overwhelming.  I’d like to have a little more time to digest my days/moods/experiences and process more what I want to write about before I share with all of you.  I’m also trying to work on some other projects and it’s amazing how fast the days just zoom by!  Plus, I’ve been feeling the need for a little more structure and regularity lately.  Therefore, I’m going to try a new blogging schedule – twice a week – on Mondays and Thursdays.  Then you’ll know when to look out for my next dish and I’ll have time to marinate my dishes so they’re even tastier!  Sound good?  
Anyway, last week was a productive and exciting week.  Tuesday night I had the first of twelve group workshops (via conference call) with my career coach Maggie Mistal.  The “Mastermind Program” is made up of a small diverse group of clients whom Maggie has worked with in the past.  The purpose of the group is to “help us master the right mindset to enable, encourage, and support us in achieving our career goals.”  We’ll go over things such as:
  • Regaining focus
  • Envisioning success
  • Committing to follow through
  • Asking effectively for what we want
  • Redefining how we spend our time
  • Transforming our inner critic
For the first call we had to prepare a kind of elevator pitch – who we are, what we do (or what we want to do) and what we wish to get from this group.  Of course, this gave me anxiety!  Anytime I’m asked “what do you do?”  or even “what do you want to do?” for that matter, I get stressed out.  Right now… I do a little of everything!   What do I want to do?  I’m not really sure… a lot of different things!  I remembered a book that Maggie had me read when we first started working together:

When I read it the first time I had an “AHAH!!” moment.  Other people make this work – amazing people… like Benjamin Franklin!  Here is an excerpt from the book that I enjoyed:

Just for fun, let’s imagine that Ben [Franklin] is alive today.  How might his friends and family react to his revolving-door approach to careers?  Having played his key role in the drafting of the Declaration of Independence, they might expect him to head for a tenured position at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.  But what about his strange fascination with kite and key experiments?  Fine, his wife might say.  Why don’t you go to MIT and pursue a nice stable career in science?  But no, it turns out that Ben also wants to go abroad to study French culture and language!  Okay, his friends suggest,  he can work for the United Nations or Berlitz.  But wait – he also has plans to design a post office, invent bifocals, and print his Poor Richard’s Almanac!  Looking at Ben’s life this way reminds us that a life can look scattered and fragmented while it’s unfolding but still go down in history as a smashing success.”

Isn’t that fun?

I digress.  Anyway… for my elevator pitch I decided to say that I was in transition career-wise, but I want to create success for myself (including financial compensation) as a Renaissance Soul.  I want to continue to explore many of my interests – writing, photography, helping people, food  - and I want to be able to make an income in at least one of not all of these areas!  That way I can keep things fresh!  I can take opportunities as they come – as they excite me!  I can use many of my skills and talents simultaneously!  I can grow in multiple ways, cultivating different aspects of my personality!

I was afraid I would come across as unfocused and flaky with this response, but when I was finished talking two of the other group members instantly spoke up with support saying they felt the same way!  One of them actually told me I was her “Renaissance Soul sister”!  It felt good.  I felt accepted and energized to follow my non-traditional all-over-the-place dreams.

The Mastermind group will continue to meet once a month for an entire year.  I am excited for this… it is a tool which will keep me on track, focusing on what I want out of life and giving me the guidance and support to help me get it.  Our first homework assignment is a fun one that I will have to give much thought to.  You can participate too if you like.  For next month I have to come up with a list:

  • five things I want to DO
  • five things I want to HAVE
  • five things I want to BE
all before I die.
When I complete my list I will share it with you!  I’d love for you to share yours with me as well. :)
Last week was also a big week for photography.  On Friday I photographed that anniversary party I was hired to shoot.  It was definitely a challenge but I’m satisfied with the job I did. The most difficult part was adjusting for the environment.  When I first arrived, the entire wall of windows made for beautiful natural-light photos of the flower centerpieces, the cake, the room, the hors d’oeuvres, the details. Then all of a sudden the small room was very crowded with people hugging and chatting – this made it difficult to get great people shots – but I did my best.  I always feel a little weird interrupting conversations to get a photo… but that’s part of the job! Then, as it got dark outside, the room shifted to being dimly lit with candlelight and very warm-toned overhead lights and the wall of windows was now a nuisance as it reflected everything indoors.  TOUGH!  I used my new flash, I did my best and I took a LOT of photos.  Of course, there are things I’d do differently next time – but that’s the whole point! Everything’s a learning experience.  Here are a couple of my favorites (haven’t delivered them to the client yet… so no people shots).
On Saturday I did another entire day of shooting with my friend Amie.  She brought home gorgeous hand-woven textiles from her last trip to Guatemala and made dozens of beautiful one-of-a-kind pillows out of them.  She wants to create a website to display and sell her pillows so we were shooting individual pillow shots as well as scenes (like out of an Anthropologie catalog).  This proved to be quite ambitious and after an eight-hour shoot day, we were a little disappointed with what we were able to get done.  After reviewing the shots however, we both felt better as we got plenty of GORGEOUS images and again… we learned a lot for next time! For example, I want to get a cable to hook up my camera directly to my computer so we can see the images larger while shooting. It’s too difficult to tell what you have when viewing it only on a three-inch monitor on the back of your camera.  Looks like another trip to B&H is in my future!

So all in all a very productive week.  I’ve become even clearer that shooting events is not my favorite thing – though now I feel more confident and it’s definitely a good way to  make a little money!   I can probably cross ‘wedding photographer’ off my list of possible careers though.

I definitely enjoyed my shoot with Amie even though it was extremely hard work.  I loved collaborating with her!  It was fun having a stylist and being able to focus on getting the shots.  I felt good as I realized that I actually have learned a lot over the last year.  I was pretty impressed with my knowledge of the advanced camera settings… and I was using Adam’s 7D, which is even more complex than my Rebel!   Anyway, it was exciting and Amie and I are already planning the next shoot.

Blah blah blah… sheesh – when I post less frequently I have so much to say!  I hope I haven’t bored you to death.  So I’m putting my new blog schedule in effect.  Stay tuned for my next dish on Monday and have a fabulous weekend everyone!  I’m going to be enjoying a weekend-long bachelorette extravaganza so I’m sure I’ll have plenty to write about. :)

Brooklyn Boys, Photo Gear and Kicking Fear in the Butt!

16 Jun

Hi everyone!  Sorry for my absence over the last week.  As always – lots of fun stuff going on.  We took off for the Poconos last Friday for our annual Brooklyn Boys summertime reunion.  For those who don’t already know about the Brooklyn Boys, my dad grew up with this bunch of guys in Brooklyn, NY and most of them have known each other since elementary school.  We get together with all of them as well as their wives, children and children’s children, two or three times a year.  We’ve been doing it since before I was born.  We always go to a big resort-type place somewhere between Maryland and Massachusetts (typically in PA or NJ) and we spend an entire weekend eating together, playing together and visiting!  Here is a photo of the entire group this year (minus a few who were not able to make it) in our matching “Brooklyn Boys 2011″ T-shirts.

Brooklyn Boys & Fams

This week was also my dad’s sixty-fifth birthday as well as my parents’ forty-first anniversary… not to mention Father’s Day this weekend.  June is a busy month!

Speaking of anniversaries… I’ve been hired to photograph a fiftieth anniversary party tomorrow night!  I got the job through a friend who recommended me.  I’m totally psyched (and a tiny bit nervous) – but mostly psyched!  I paid B&H a visit on Tuesday and finally bought myself an external flash – a Canon 580 ex II.  It’s awesome.  Just like all photography gear – it wasn’t cheap – but I’m looking at is as an investment in myself as a photographer.  Now I feel like a total pro.  And as with most things… I feel like more confidence (and the right gear) = better performance.

I’m also re-reading a book my mom gave me ages ago called Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway.  Anyone ever read that book?  The main point is that as long as you’re learning and growing and trying new things, you’re always going to experience fear – it’s human.  So the important thing is to expect the fear (because everyone has it), accept the fear (don’t let it scare you away) and make the choice to power through it.  As you keep ‘feeling the fear and doing it anyway’, you’ll gain confidence and feel less fear… until you try something totally new again. It’s a productive read… a good kick in the butt.

Meanwhile, I stumbled upon a great website this week called Creative Edge, where for a not-so-steep monthly fee you get unlimited access to thousands of books, videos and tutorials covering all kinds of creative topics.  Right now I’m learning a ton from this book called “Speedliter’s Handbook: Learning to Craft Light with Canon Speedlites“.  If you’re a learning/book addict like I am – it’s a very good resource.

Now – I’m off to see Super 8!  Will let you know how it is tomorrow!

“The days are long but the years are short”

24 May

This is a quote from a book I’ve been reading called The Happiness Project by Gretchen Ruben.  It is one of the four splendid truths she uncovers during her year-long quest to find her inner happiness and make herself an overall better/happier person.  I haven’t finished the book yet, but I’m enjoying it very much so far and it’s a thoroughly appropriate read for where I am in my life right now. I’ll write more about it once I’ve finished.

The Happiness Project

Meanwhile, though I believe that quote has so much truth to it, lately, my days have NOT been long!  They’re just flying right by like crazy – hence my lack of blogging.  So – please forgive my absence.  Here’s what’s been going on the past couple weeks – the condensed version:

I had some friends over and did a little experimenting with Mindy Fox’s roast chicken cookbook myself.  Last time my friend Amie made the chicken and it was FABULOUS!  So I pretty much wanted to recreate her success.  The menu was as follows:

  • Vermont Creamery Bonne Bouche – aged goat’s milk cheese from VT with fresh sliced baguette and honey to start
  • Roast Chicken with Green Olives, Fennel Seeds and Thyme (out of this world – best chicken I’ve ever made)
  • Roasted Red & Golden Beets with Basil (beets are a bit labor intensive – but delicious)
  • Warm Sugar Snap Peas with Mint
  • Basmati Rice cooked with sauteed shallots
  • A beautiful raspberry cinnamon tart that my friend brought over for dessert

Everything came out wonderful!  I can’t wait to try out some more of her roast chicken recipes.  The  next on my list is Peruvian Roast Chicken with Avocado Salad.  Mmmmmmmm.

Last Tuesday I worked with a small team from Bodega (Adam’s company) to shoot a music video for Jones Street Station‘s new track “The Understanding” (click for free download).  This was actually quite exciting.  The video stars Danny Pudi from the NBC show Community.   Here I am with Danny Pudi and Joel McHale (ran into him on the street while shooting nearby – NBC upfront in town)

Yes - I look like a nerd. But I was excited to be sandwiched between these two.

I’ve also been doing some Brooklyn apartment hunting.  I’ve seen about six apartments in the last couple weeks – none of which feel right… oh Brooklyn brownstone on a majestic tree-lined street… why do you elude me so?  Two of the apartments I saw last week didn’t have doors to any of the “two bedrooms” they boasted.  One of them didn’t even have a sink in the one bathroom.  And of course these apartments cost thousands of dollars a month.  Insanity!  However, now that we’re going month to month in our current apartment, I feel much more relaxed and comfortable with the fact that we’ll just wait until we find the right thing.  But this is what I’m talking about… ahhhhhh.

Lovely Brooklyn Tree-Lined Street

Last Thursday I helped my friend Beck shoot some tests for an amazing new stop-motion music video she’s putting together.  It was so cool to see the process that goes into stop-motion.  It’s kind of magic.

Then Friday we flew off to Jacksonville, FL for the weekend to celebrate the twenty-five year marriage anniversary (and vow renewal) of some very dear friends/extended family of ours.  Turns out… a weekend away with loved ones was EXACTLY the kind of breather we needed!  Because during all of this we’ve been preparing for…

THE OFFICIAL OPENING OF HELLO LONESOME IN NYC THIS FRIDAY 5/27!!

Yes, that’s right – Adam’s film is opening at the Cinema Village theater this Friday night where it will run for a week.  If you live in NYC, you should totally come!!  You can buy tickets online right HERE!  Check it out – on the Marquee!  So exciting!

Hello Lonesome on the Cinema Village Marquee

Oh – and if that’s not enough, we got contacted by Jdate, because they’re in love with the short film Adam surprised me with at our rehearsal dinner and they want to use it for a national television commercial!  Craziness.  Many of you have seen it already – but it’s so special so I’ll post it again for you in case you haven’t seen it.

So that’s been my world since we last met.  I felt a void not blogging over the past two weeks so I’m going to try to carve out some morning time for myself so I can make it more of a regular thing again.  I missed sharing with all of you!

Heavenly Berkshires Getaway

8 Nov

Well hello everyone!!  It’s nice to be back… well sort of.  I mean I totally wasn’t ready to leave our little idyllic country cabin in the woods, but it is nice to be back to the blog and to a social life!  I do have to say though, it was quite refreshing and restorative to completely disconnect and spend some quality time with my hubby away from the internet and the television and the craziness of NYC!

So – before we get to the weekend, I have to post my photo from last Tuesday night.  Tuesday we had a screening of Hello Lonesome at Tribeca Cinemas as part of the Big Apple Film Festival.  It was a tiny theater and a rather small screening – but the audience was great and really receptive to the film.  Thanks to all of you who made it out… and to those who couldn’t… don’t worry, I think there will be more NY screenings at some point!  I’ll be sure to keep everyone posted.

So, Tuesday night I got home around midnight and I hadn’t taken any photos that I liked yet.  Therefore, photo 207 was a result of a last-minute before-bedtime perusal around my apartment for something interesting to photograph.  I ended up with this:

Photo 207 out of 365 – “Headboard with Extremely Shallow Depth of Field”

Headboard with Extremely Shallow Depth of Field - Settings: ISO 800, f/1.4, 1/40 sec, 50mm lens

This is a photo of our headboard – it has horizontal ridges like you see here – but I used the lowest aperture setting available with my lens (f/1.4), you can see how the shallow depth of field creates a really interesting blurry look – with just that sliver of headboard in sharp focus in the middle.  In contrast, here is a very similar photo, this time taken with an aperture setting of f/3.2 instead of f/1.4.  You can see how changing your aperture setting can really affect the look of the photo.

Headboard 2 - Settings: ISO 1600, f/3.2, 1/13 sec, 50mm lens

In this photo, the area in focus is a little wider.  Of course, f/3.2 is still rather shallow (this lens goes up to a maximum aperture setting of f/22) – so here you still get blur, but it is a definite change from the f/1.4 setting above.  This is one reason to abandon your auto settings and start playing around with the manual camera settings… it gives you more control over the image and allows you to be more creative with the look!  Please feel free to email me with any photography questions if you are interested!

Now – let’s go away to a little cabin in the woods!

So – I booked this mini vacation only a couple weeks ago.  Adam has been working straight through since our honeymoon without a break and with everything going on in the month of October, we hadn’t had a chance to celebrate our one-year anniversary at all.  Thus I thought it would be perfect to get away for a long weekend and kiss our frantic city life goodbye in exchange for some quiet R&R in the country.  What a good idea.

We hit the road on Wednesday afternoon at around one o’clock.  We rented a mini-SUV as the owners of the cabin alerted us that it tends to be snowy this time of year and the cabin is located on an unpaved road towards the top of a mountain. AWESOME!  I found the cabin on homeaway.com a few weeks earlier.  It looked very simple in the photos – but that is what I wanted… simple and cute.  And the reviews were all stellar!  With good reason.  The cabin is located just outside of North Adams, MA – in the North of Berkshire County… about a twenty minute drive into Vermont.  Adam and I both love mountainy country landscapes – so we were in heaven before we even arrived.  Here, we pulled over along the way to document the beautiful road taking us to our cabin:

On the road on our way to the cabin

And here she is…  very plain and simple on the outside… but magical, warm and cozy on the inside.  We grew very attached in no time at all.

Our little cabin in the woods... ahhhhh.

We got the tour of the cabin from Randy, one of the owners, unloaded the car and then hopped back in for a drive to the town to load up on groceries.  When we got home, we got the fire going in the wood-burning stove and made a simple dinner – pasta with some local arrabiata pasta sauce, a big salad and some chicken breast I cooked up on the cast-iron skillet.  Here is photo 208 – the fire, which became a major focus of our weekend!  We’ve discovered we’re both sort of pyros!

Photo 208 out of 365 – “Cozy Wood-Burning Stove”

"Cozy Wood Burning Stove" - Settings: ISO 3200, f/3.5, 1/15 sec, 50mm lens

 

Now it was a good thing we stocked up on groceries on Wednesday night, because it poured all day Thursday and we did not leave the house!!  It was wonderful.  Adam had a couple film-related things he needed to get done, so he worked away on his computer, while I kept the fire going all day, took photos around the house and got experimental in the kitchen.  I wanted to make a potato soup – similar to one I loved as a child, but I had no recipe.  There used to be this baked potato soup at Houlihan’s restaurant… do you remember Houlihan’s?  Anyway, it was delicious and thick and chunky with little crumbles of cheese and bacon on top and I was craving it.  So – without a recipe, I decided to follow a recipe for clam chowder instead, substituting chicken broth for the clam broth and adding shredded cheese to the mix.  It ended up coming out pretty good – though it wasn’t as thick and chunky as I wanted it to be.  But – it made a good hearty dinner on a cold rainy day!  Here are some of my cabin shots from Thursday:

Photo 209 out of 365 – “Cabin Interior”

"Cabin Interior" - Settings: ISO 3200, f/3.2, 1/100 sec, 50mm lens

The thermometer on our front porch... was under 40 most of the visit!

Adam at work - of course he still manages to sneak in some computer time!

Stones piled on one of the cabin's wood beams

After a relaxing day, we ate our potato soup for dinner and watched About Shmidt on Adam’s computer.  I thought it was ok… very depressing and slow, but entertaining nonetheless.

On Friday I had a bit of literal “cabin fever”… from not leaving the house on Thursday, so after a nice home-cooked breakfast by Adam our breakfast chef, we headed into town to explore.  We went to a great little coffee shop in N. Adams called Elf Parlor, where we got hot drinks and Adam took advantage of the free wifi for a few minutes to send out some important documents.  Then we checked out the little town of Williamstown – super charming.  Here is Adam taking my picture standing in the middle of Main Street… as you can see… it was rather quiet.

Adam standing in the middle of Main Street in Williamstown, MA

Then we took a drive out past the center of Williamstown to look for this country farm store the waitress at Elf Parlor told us about.  Along the way, the sun started to come out a little bit and we saw this gorgeous rainbow form – we pulled over immediately to capture it!

 

Photo 210 out of 365 – “Rainbow in Country Paradise”

"Rainbow in Country Paradise" - Settings: ISO 200, f/10, 1/60 sec, 50mm lens

I mean, come on!  Could it get any prettier?  I was freaking out.  Then we arrived at the Green River Farms, which was also ridiculously picturesque and wonderful.  At the country store I bought some beef & thick cut bacon for the beef burgundy recipe I planned to make on Saturday.  Here are some pictures from the farm:

A scarecrow at Green River Farms in Williamstown

I couldn't resist... little Adam drives a tractor!!

The sky was CRAZY beautiful and stormy! I pulled over to take some shots as we left the farm.

When we got home, we decided to make some cocktails and have a rummy 500 tournament.  We are both rather competitive when it comes to rummy 500, so this resulted in a rowdy evening to follow, including lots of trash talking and finally a drunken dance party!  Good times!  I believe Adam won that round of rummy… but I won our other two games, making me the overall rummy 500 champion of the weekend!  YES!  Victory is mine.  Here is Adam winning (for the time being).

Adam shuffling the cards and laughing at something...

On Saturday we had an artsy day.  We started off by exploring these artists lofts in N. Adams that are located in old mill buildings.  One of the buildings is called the Eclipse Mill.   Here we found a book seller with the most amazing collection of books!  We spent about an hour checking out his selection and left with a few purchases.  I bought a photography book about Edward Weston.  Adam bought a book about the making of Woody Allen’s movie “Radio Days“, a book about Hawaiian birds (for a movie idea we came up with on our honeymoon) and a movie poster design book.

After the mill, we headed to the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA), where we first ate lunch at the Gramercy Bistro, which is located in the museum.  I had the most wonderful curried sweet potato soup and a vegetarian lasagna made with butternut squash, spinach, ricotta and a brown butter sage sauce.  It was heavenly!  I want to re-create it at home.  After lunch, we toured the museum, which was very cool.  I had never been there before but read a lot about it when researching the Berkshire area for our wedding.

Mass MoCA Museum (Museum of Contemporary Art) in North Adams, MA

One of our favorite exhibits was called “Material World: Sculpture to Environment” – where artists used everyday materials to make large-scale installations, which took up entire rooms!  The best one was made by Tobias Putrih – here is a description from boston.com:

One installation, by Tobias Putrih, stretches long strands of fishing line across a dark and cavernous gallery. Bunched neatly together, the parallel lines start high on one wall, ending low on the opposite one. A single light source illuminates the strands at about the midway point, causing an optical effect reminiscent of spinning rotor blades or a mystical halo.

You can follow the path of the stretched filaments, which slowly descend below head height to waist level, in a tunnel-like space the dimensions of which become harder to perceive as you move away from the light.

I wasn’t allowed to take photos in that gallery – but here is one from the MASS MoCA website – it was an amazing exhibit… I walked through the tunnel of course and it felt really cool… like you were entering some time warp or something.

 

Photo from MASS MoCA website (www.massmoca.org)

Another great exhibit was in the kidspace called “Pink and Blue Projects” by Portia Munson.  Here is the museum’s description of the exhibit:

Munson will use paintings, photographs, and everyday objects to organize an installation focusing on how the colors pink and blue help to shape and reinforce gender roles. Her work will also be used to discuss the mixed messages sent to children about gender and about mass consumption. The sheer mass quantity of collected pink and blue material goods to be displayed will make plain how children are indoctrinated into the world of materialism and are taught social rules for gender identity.

It was interesting (and a tad disturbing) to examine even adult products like deodorants and razors marketed to us in pink and blue packaging!  In one section of the gallery space, there was a room set up of everything PINK!  My niece Monique would be in heaven in this room!

 

Photo 211 out of 365 – “Pink Explosion”

"Pink Explosion" - Settings: ISO 1600, f/5.6, 1/160, 50mm lens

 

After our day of art appreciation, we picked up a few more things at the grocery store and headed back home.  We were a little homesick for the cabin now after being gone all morning and afternoon!  Immediately upon arriving, I started making my beef burgundy, which was from a Cooks Illustrated recipe.  I had the Meryl Streep version of Julia Child in my head talking about “beef bourguignon” with her high-pitched voice!  I kept mimicking her as I danced around the kitchen putting together all the ingredients.  The recipe looked like it would take about three hours to cook.  After all was said and done, it took over five hours from start to finish!  We ended up eating our beef bourguingnon at ten o’clock at night – a little heavy, yes… but yummy – and RICH!

I learned something with this recipe… first, beef bourguingnon is NOT worth making for two people… though we ate the leftovers last night for dinner and it was divine reheated the second day!  Second, this is a type of recipe for people who simply love to cook.  If not for the experience of cooking, I do not know why  you would make a dish this complicated and labor-intensive.  As you know, after five hours of cooking, it is gone within ten minutes of eating!  That being said, I did actually enjoy the process and the cabin smelled heavenly all night long!  So, I’m glad I did it.

Finally, we arrive at Sunday… boo hoo… it was time to pack up all our belongings and leave our little cabin in the woods.  We were super sad.  We have vowed to return someday not too far away – maybe in the Summer or even during the winter when everything is covered in snow!  It was a wonderfully relaxing weekend and truthfully, time in the country like that really just fills my soul.  We will miss our little cabin in the woods.  I wish I were still there right now… typing at the little writer’s desk, looking out the window at the trees and mountains in the distance… ahhhhhh.

Before we left the area, we decided on a slight detour and took our car up a switchback-heavy road to the summit of Mount Greylock – the highest point in all of Massachusetts.  As we started nearing the top, the tree branches became covered in frost – then, all of a sudden it was snowing!  It was so beautiful seeing the top of the mountain covered in a dusty snow:

Approaching the summit of Mount Greylock... things started getting all snowy!

Which brings us to the final photo of our Berkshires weekend getaway:

Photo 212 out of 365 – “Wintry Branch”

"Wintry Branch" - Settings: ISO 100, f/6.3, 1/100 sec, 65mm (28-105mm lens)

 

So there you have it… I’d say we definitely have a fantasy now of having a house in the Berkshires at some point in our future.  It is so beautiful and open and quiet… and with our wedding weekend there, it sort of just feels right – you know?  I enjoyed this northern Berkshire County area too (our wedding was in the Southern Berkshire County).  The town of N. Adams has so much character – with the old mills and the houses climbing the steep hillsides.  It is really an awesome place.  Our snowy send-off was the perfect end to a lovely weekend, which exceeded all expectations.  If only it could have lasted just a bit longer…

Photo 200 out of 365 – “Big Juicy Tomato”

27 Oct

"Big Juicy Tomato" - Settings: ISO 1600, f/5.6, 1/30 sec, 50mm lens

Now don’t you just want to take a bite out of that??  Yum.

Anyway, I’m now reading a book called The Auberge of the Flowering Hearth.   It was recommended to me by Cheese Master himself, Steven Jenkins along with a few other foodie books that are wonderful treasures.  This book is a total pleasure so far.  In it, a man goes to visit a tiny, isolated and nearly impossible to travel to valley town in the mountains of France near Grenoble – called St. Pierre de Chartreuse.  He initially goes on a quest to discover the origin of a green liqueur of the same name (Chartreuse), which is made in that town.  Once there, he settles into an auberge (inn), where he is blown away by the culinary mastery of the two female owners who create perfectly balanced meal after perfectly balanced meal made with all local fresh ingredients and paired with local wines and liquors.  The simplicity of place and the pleasure derived by this wonderful food in this wonderful setting inspires the man to instead, focus on this auberge and on the food that is created there.  The book is a story of his stay (told over many visits) and details the menus served along with beverage pairings and then shares the recipes for these extraordinary meals.  One recipe I can’t wait to make is the Souffle aux Fromages des Alpes – yummy alpine cheese souffle!

I’d like to share with you one blurb from the book that I found it quite pleasing and inspiring.  It is from the chapter titled “The Balanced Menu – Learning the Rules”.  The speaker is Mademoiselle Vivette – co-owner of the auberge who is in charge mostly of menu planning and beverage pairing.  She describes the rules of a balanced menu, taught to her by her mother:

Each dish on a menu must compliment and enhance all the other dishes.  Clearly, if the dishes are to be truly complementary, their flavors must not clash with or kill each other.  A highly spiced dish will so deaden one’s taste buds that a light subtle following dish will seem to be bland and dull.  Serve them in the reverse order and the light dish will be a delicately lovely experience.  After one’s senses have been attacked by something aggressively strong, one should be soothed by something gentle and soft.  A menu is the script of a dramatic performance.  It builds, step by step, to a climax.  Then it quiets down, before rising again to a secondary, smaller climax.  Finally it closes in peaceful relaxation.  I learned from my mother that harmony is the key to a great meal.

Wow.  That makes me want to go eat a really awesome meal.  Food is so sexy!

Oh – and PS… every single menu in this book finishes with a plate of three local cheeses.  I should so move to France.

 

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