Valentines Day 2009 Part II: Honored Guest B&B

And now for the highlight of this trip: Honored Guest Bed & Breakfast. I feel like 2009 so far is filled with first experiences, and this was our very first bed & breakfast.


At first we felt a little weird about staying in a stranger's house, then we got real comfortable real fast thanks to the good hospitality of the Innkeepers Bob and Lauren . Lauren gave us tea and brownies when we first checked in, and even gave us good pointers on good restaurants around the town.

We stayed in the Rose Room, the best room in the house, and it looks like this:


With a bathroom:


The room was so cozy, and the bed was comfortable. It wasn't cold at all even though it was middle of winter, and considering it's the bedroom of someone's house, we had privacy.
Some more pictures of decorations in the room:

My Valentines Day present by the bedside with His glasses on

decorations on the dresser

Outside view of the house from the car

The breakfast the next morning was delicious, a real home-cooked american breakfast, eggs cooked just the way you like them. We were well prepared for the exhausting day of skiing!



It was a short trip, but definitely one of the more memorable ones. Can't wait for our next B&B!

Corning Glass Museum - Corning, NY

I know I've been lazy and haven't posted anything in months, so here it is. I really need to take more pictures. I'm running out of material over here.

Winter 2008. One of the several trips we took our last year of college as we realized we won't have the time to take trips once we graduate. The Corning Museum of Glass is definitely one of the most unique places we visited, and the glass sculptures were so pretty. Here are some of my favorite exhibits:



Toy tea set. Adorkable!

Pretty ass bottles

Fruits!

Check out the kick-ass resolution in my camera

I wish we had more time to do stuff like this now... but there are more exciting events coming up in the next couple of months! yay!

Hilderbrandt's - Willy P, NY

There nothing better than eating good food after doing your tax returns. After paying a little visit at H&R with George (who couldn't spell "analyst", or "Binghamton", or "gmail.com" LOL) He was getting A BIT antsy as his hunger took over him. So I suggested we go to Hildebrandt's for a classic American lunch and be Zagatty. lol.

We always love coming here, it's one of our local favorites. I like the old fashioned soda fountain atmosphere. I ordered a meatloaf sandwich and He ordered cheeseburger with fries:


His Cheeseburger and Fries - the fries are amazing here, they slice them thin and fry them.

Of course, he gobbled it up in seconds, as usual.

My Meatloaf Sandwich - first time i had it here, this is delicious!

We had peach ice cream too, but the pics didn't come out so good.. and we also ate most of it before I remembered to take a picture. lol

Zagat never disappoints me :)

Town House Diner - Willy P, NY

Some pics from dinner last night at my new favorite diner. I guess I like it because of the cozy atmosphere? lol.




One of His obsessions - Lobster Bisque!
He dropped his biscuits in the soup with the plastic on. haha!

His Roasted Chicken w/ Stuffing and my BLT with fries on the side.
mmmm...Party in my tummy!

Valentines Day 2009 Part I: New Roc City - New Rochelle, NY

Now, for the real stuff worth posting. For valentines day this year, we planned a weekend getaway to a bed & breakfast. This was a president's day weekend, so we had planned a day of skiing at Catamount for that Sunday with a couple of our friends, so I figured it would be perfect if Him and I spent Saturday night at a bed & breakfast nearby.

But before we got there, on the way we stopped by at New Roc City, an entertainment complex comprised of go karts, bowling, arcade, etc.

New Roc City

We didn't have much time and the place was pretty dead, but we had fun riding the go-karts! It was just me and Him on the tracks, and his go-kart didn't go fast enough to catch up to my bullet speed lol.

Speedway at New Roc City

We also got these adorable little rubber animal things for 50 cents each from the gumball machine by the go-kart tracks. They are now sitting on my computer monitor at work.

Super cute!

My Zagat Guide!

I bought a Zagat Guide! Yay!

It was totally an impulse purchase at the Penn Station book store, and I LOVE IT.

I'm on a mission to eat EVERYTHING in my Zagat guide (within the price range I can afford). As you can see I already started marking the places I wanna try. The book comes with little stickies that you can mark the pages with.. super cute!

I'm also gonna start marking the posts with restaurants mentioned in the Zagat. Zagating is my new passion <3

Bayville Adventure Park: Mini Golf - Bayville, NY

I feel like everything I'm posting is about food... so here's another Blast-from-the-Past. Well, not that much into the past, but this past summer.

Bayville Adventure Park is a small theme park in Bayville, NY across from a beach. They open the park with different things to do each season, and since it was the summer, we went there and did a little pirate-themed mini golfing.


For the most part it was cute (although a bit creepy at times with the moving pirate robot things), and the golf course itself was pretty interesting, it was a long course with many different varieties in course design. I think it took about 1-2 hours to get through the entire course. So I thought it was worth the price... And of course, He won the game.

Here are some pics of the creepy pirate things I mentioned:


lol...

Oh, and there was an ice cream parlor there but it was closed at the time we went... but the next time we go, I definitely wanna try that out! Another perfect day-date <3

Ham & Spinach Quiche

Finally a recipe with pics! I haven't cooked anything for Him lately, but I got a new oven last week, and thought I would bake Him a quiche (or as He calls it over and over, a "quickie" lol). He kept calling it that, and by the end of the day he forgot how to pronounce it the real way. haha. This is a wallet-friendly version, so it has cheddar cheese instead of the traditional feta. (Feta is expensive!) I also took a shortcut in making the crust, to avoid the floury mess in my small kitchen. He devoured this one in minutes!


Ingredients: (the measurements might not be accurate, because I never measure anything - I "eyeball" that shit like Rachel Ray)

This recipe makes 3 small pies.

1 roll of store-bought pie dough
3 eggs
about 1 cup of milk
1 box of frozen chopped spinach (thawed and drained)
1 cup of diced red onion
sliced ham (as much as you wanna put in)... or bacon if you prefer that
shredded cheddar cheese (as much as you want lol)
seasoned breadcrumbs
salt/pepper to taste
butter

1. preheat oven at 375 degrees.

2. Mix the eggs, milk, spinach, onion, ham, cheese and salt/pepper in a bowl.

3. In a buttered pan, cover the bottom and sides of the pan with the rolled out pie dough.

4. pour in the egg filling into the pan. Then sprinkle the top with good amount of cheese and breadcrumbs to cover the entire surface.

5. bake for 25 minutes, or until the filling is cooked fully. You can check by sticking a fork in the middle and if it comes out with nothing on it, it's cooked.

6. let it cool for 10 minutes.

7. serve!

mmm. cheesy goodness.

Gahm Mi Oak - NYC

In my effort to introduce Him to some real Korean food, last night I took him to one of my favorite Korean restaurants in K-town, Gahm Mi Oak. It's a great place to get warmed up with Korean style comfort food, and they are famous for their Sul Long Tang and Bin Dae Duk.

Sul Long Tang is a white ox bone soup that has been simmered for hours served with slices of beef, rice, and white noodles. Right before you eat it, you add raw scallions and salt/pepper to taste.

(half eaten) Sul Long Tang

The Sul Long Tang was so good, I ate half of it before I realized I forgot to take a picture! lol. And of course, one cannot have the complete Sul Lung Tang experience without a side of the most kick-ass kimchi! This place makes their own kimchi, and it is so nice and juicy, it's the perfect complement to the mild beefy taste of the Sul Long Tang.

Kimcheeeee

The weather was pretty cold last night, and this dish just hit the spot.

I know He loves Bin Dae Duk (Korean pancakes made from mung beans with pork, scallions, and other vegetables in it) and I finally took him to a place where they make them authentic. In my opinion, this is definitely one of the few places in NYC where you can find authentic Korean pancakes the way it's supposed to be made.

Bin Dae Duk

That was a good meal. mmm.

Tuna Burger w/ Spicy Mayo Sauce

This is one of my "healthier" recipes, for when He used to be more health conscious and into one of his "Arnold" phases. Also a surprise snack for when He came back from the gym in need of major protein. This is a great substitute for a boring tuna salad sandwich.

Ingredients:

Patties:
1 can of tuna drained (makes 2 patties)
1 small onion chopped
1/3 cup plain breadcrumbs
1 egg
2 tbs parmasan cheese
salt/pepper
1 tsp lemon juice
1 clove of garlic minced
some parseley for color
3 tsp olive oil

Spicy Mayo Sauce:
2-3 tablespoons of mayo
2 teaspoons of hot sauce

1. To make the patties, put all the ingredients above in a bowl and mix until all the ingredients are evenly distributed.

2. Divide the mixture in half and form one flat patty with each half. (pack it hard, or the patty will break apart in the pan.)

3. in a frying pan with hot oil, fry the patties until the outside is golden brown. (The trick is to not lose too many onion pieces, as they tend to fall off and burn in the pan.)

4. Bake the patties in the oven for about 10 minutes at 375 degrees.

5. To make the sauce, mix the mayo and the hot sauce.

6. Serve the burger on a roll with your favorite toppings - lettuce, tomato, cheese, etc. Don't forget to dress it with the mayo sauce! (He's obsessed with the mayo sauce, so I always make extra.)

New York Renaissance Faire -Tuxedo, NY 2008

This trip was definitely among the ones that surpassed our expectations. It was also a result of one of our efforts to take advantage of long weekends during our last year in college. He was a bit hesitant about this one since it was a long drive there and the gas prices were on a climb at the time. But I'm so glad we did it!

NY Renaissance Faire Homepage

The events are different depending on which day you go. We used the pamphlet which had the schedule of events. Jousting, Shakespeare performance, belly dancing, etc. Giant turkey legs and pickles out of a barrel sold by a dirty fat white dude in tights (which I thought was pretty gross). I was really disappointed I couldn't take any pictures - that was the day my camera broke! But He got me a flower hat and I was all happy :)

And of course, the one event that was His highlight of the day - the infamous white chemise contest... so I guess we were both happy for different reasons. haha.

Oh, and I almost forgot - we kept the plastic cup with the Renaissance Faire logo on it after finishing our drinks. I drank a million cups of milk in that cup (with my grape jelly sandwich mmm) ... and yelled at Him whenever He used it to make his disgusting protein drinks...lol