1. Happy Hour
It has been one year and three months since Hubby began working from home. There is no end currently in sight, and I’m completely okay with that. On Fridays, my favorite day of the week*, we’ve started having happy hour. Every week we take turns making a different cocktail.
*Which it has been since my days of teaching third grade. There is something about knowing there are only those final eight hours of work to put in before two days of freedom.
Here are some of my favorites…
Strawberry Mojito–fresh local strawberries and homegrown mint!
Limoncello Collins–with homemade limoncello
Cucumber Basil Smash ala Seasons 52 and recent read
Mint Julep–homegrown mint!
I feel like Happy Hour might have deserved its very own post, because wow. So many pictures to share.
2. Branching Out
As the world slowly comes back to normal, we’re trying to, also. We went into NYC for the first time in well over a year and it was everything I dreamed it would be.
Crowded. Bustling. Loud. Open.
This little guy might have been my favorite part
And I loved it. We spent some time in Hudson Yards and then had dinner at one of my favorite spots, Butter. Our meal was absolute perfection, yet still, we decided it is time to retire this spot simply because of a statistic we’ve read about before, but remembered through an ad we saw during this visit. Based on our previous knowledge vs this ad it would take 22-30 years of eating in NYC to eat at every single restaurant.
This, my friends, means I should never, ever eat at the same restaurant twice.
But I have.
Because the ones I have eaten at more than once or twice or thrice…are so good.
Just look at this steak!
3. Enjoying Outside
One way I think COVID positively has impacted me, is that it’s really made me embrace spending time outside. During quarantine, Hubby did some fancy work on our patio, making it a little more appealing. And then, while I was outside reading there one afternoon, I looked out onto the grass and the sun was shining brilliantly on an empty spot, and it said to me, “Buy a hammock for this spot!” And so, I bought Hubby a hammock for that spot for his birthday*.
*I know this sounds like a gift that was totally for me, but let me plead my case: 1.) I bought a two-person hammock. 2.) It is the same kind of hammock we enjoyed while we were in Hawaii, so, fond memories?
I’m still not a major nature geek. I will scream bloody murder if anything creepy crawly comes near me, but I am enjoying soaking in my little postage stamp of the great outdoors.
4. Birthday
Hubby’s birthday was last week and for his special day I ordered a cake from Milk Bar. We discovered Milk Bar years ago in NYC. There are several locations around the city, but this one was underground and kind of hidden away from the hubbub. In recent years, the Milk Bar locations have changed drastically. When we first went, all you could get were their cookies, pie, or their cereal milk ice cream. We ordered the ice cream—because, hello, cereal milk ice cream?!—and have been hooked on everything Milk Bar ever since. So much so that we have even gone in the bitter cold of winter.
I have both of founder, Christina Tosi’s, cookbooks and the birthday cake recipe in there is so beautiful and perfect that I wanted Milk Bar to make it instead of attempting to do it myself.
And for the first time in my life, I think I enjoyed the icing even more than I enjoyed the cake. Altogether it was one perfect bite, where cakes are concerned, but the icing alone had this delicate body and lovely sweetness. What I’m saying is, I wouldn’t be sad to get one of these cakes for my own birthday.
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