Family Visit for Graduation

Last week, these good looking people came and visited. My parents and Cass' bro, Colby, came out for my graduation. We  had an awesome time touring the city for the last time.

Everything worked out perfectly. The weather was beautiful, we didn't have any problems getting into our favorite restaurants, we got discount tix to Jersey Boys, and my parents even ventured to eat (and enjoyed!) the halal food from the cart on 6th and 53rd.

We walked into a building at Rockefeller to find a restroom and discovered this incredible, sprawling, mural by Frank Brangwyn and Jose Maria Sert called "Man's Intellectual Mastery of the Material Universe."

Heidi getting her fix.

Random author talk at Bryant Park. The hilarious Ali Wentworth and Justin Halperin.

Cass loved Halperin's Sh*t My Dad Says so she asked him for an autograph on the back of a piece of paper she found in her purse. He set aside the paper and signed a copy of his new book, I Suck at Girls,  for her instead. He is awesome. And Ali Wentworth was hilarious, too.

Spotted Louis C.K. shooting in LES.

No itinerary in New York is complete without a trip to Meatball Shop.

The weather was perfect. The evenings were beautiful.

Wild and Crazy Spring Break in the City

It started with paninis.

Frank's Prime Meats was delicious and well worth the train ride to Brooklyn.

She was happy with the pork chop.

The met opened a new American wing.

Like all wild and crazy spring breaks, it ended with a super-geeky tour of the library (Marshall's idea). And also Meatball Shop.

Milky Way Cake

This cake has no words. It's hard to even know where to begin. I will start with this...it is the most delicious dessert to come out of my kitchen. It may be because there are 11 full sized Milky Way bars involved...I don't know. 

I followed Pioneer Women's recipe, found here. I love you Pioneer Women. I followed the recipe exactly but did let the cake set up in the fridge so that I could cut nice clean squares. It is a must however that you heat it up and serve with vanilla ice cream.

Christmas Break in Utah (Cont.)

Now that we're busy again with work and school, we look with envy at ourselves in these pictures of our Christmas break. I don't know who we thought we were, spending two weeks free of responsibility in the comfort of our parents' homes. We were like kids again out on break. We bowled, we watched movies, we played cards, we played pool, we went hiking, we went out to eat. We justified it by telling ourselves it was the last time for a long time that we'll have so much free time - since next Christmas I'll be working and who knows, maybe we'll have a baby. To tell you the truth, we were both having so much fun hanging out with family to even worry about it. 

One night we went bowling in Heber. Holiday Lanes is the epitome of a classic old school bowling alley. It's amazing. It feels like you're on a movie set. 

Being deprived of good Mexican food in New York, one of our first orders of business was to get tacos. Lonestar (below) is one of the best.

But nothing beats Red Iguana. Mmmm...killer nachos. The stuff of dreams.

And puntas.

I'm happier than I look in this picture. In fact, we're both convinced that there is something in Red Iguana's food that causes a slight euphoria. We've both felt it a number of times: in the hours after eating it, we both feel sustained but slight tingling sensations throughout our bodies. We might just be crazy. But I'd be curious to know if anyone else has felt this.

We love Caputo's, too. New York has great delis, but it's actually hard to find a good, fresh sandwich that hasn't been sitting in plastic since that morning (at least on the Upper West Side). The meatball: 

The Caputo:

And of course, In n' Out.

French toast foolishness at Park Cafe.

We were pretty gluttonous the whole trip. We also had Mazza, Jimmy Johns, Cafe Rio at least once, and the Mandarin. But we did fit in a hike in the unusually warm weather for January in Utah. We hiked the Lone Peak trail up Emigration Canyon.

Hard to believe this was Utah in January. No snow. It was sad.

-M

Coconut Macaroons

These macaroons turned out really great. They have the best texture! Crispy on the outside but soft and chewy on the inside. They're not supersweet to start with, but the chocolate drizzle on top gave them a good amount of sweetness.