Blogging From the Skies! Part 2!

Well....................  this time blogging from the skies is NOT very comfortable!  I saw that an exit row seat was available when I checked in and snatched it!  Unfortunately, this is my seat 

What the heck is in front of me?!?!?  There is hardly room for my legs, the window next to me is so hot I burned myself on it (is it the sun, the engine, a volcano ?), and the guy next to me can't keep his elbows to himself AND is eating a leftover turkey sandwich that smells SOOOOO GOOD!!!!  


Well, now that my complaint about the flight is over -- on to happier stuff!  Like the fact that Sarah and Marko got married last night!  Still doesn't feel real!  But I am sooooo very happy for them and had such a good time getting to know Sarah's family more and seeing Milos's family (including the dog!) in one of my favorite cities - San Francisco!


Seeing each other outside of the restaurant - 

The beautiful table with tons of origami butterflies folded by Sarah's sister Andrea.

The GORGEOUS view!  And the GORGEOUS couple!

The intimate dining area - 

Best wedding food I've ever had - 

Sea Bass with Pesto, Roasted Carrots, and Wilted Spinach!

The first course was a delicious lobster bisque - It was my first time eating lobster and I loved it!

Cake time!

Who's this crazy guy?

The first dance!

Me and Marko - I loved my new dress from Anthro!

The day before and the day of the wedding included some of my favorite things about SF:

- The Ferry Building and yummy food! (finally tries Blue Bottle Coffee - soooooo good!  And finally tried a Frog Hollow Farms pear!)

- Shopping (especially at AE -- American Eagle was MY store for most of my teen years - the first one I went to was in SF after learning that they were the official clothing provider for Dawson's Creek!!!!!)

- Seeing my Sarah (even if it was for only a few hours!)

Back to reality and work on Monday :(  

I had a wonderful 45 hours in San Francisco......

Love, Allison 

Blogging From the Skies!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving yesterday!  I am currently on a Delta flight to SF to see Marko and Sarah get married!  And I have free wifi!  Yeah!  So here is my Thanksgiving post!  

I had a perfect day with my sister and Scout!

The night before Thanksgiving we went to see the Macy's parade balloons being filled!  Crowded beyond belief but totally worth it!

Isn't Scout adorable?!  She is the ultimate NYC dog and enjoyed the balloons very much!

After previewing the balloons we were up bright and early on Thanksgiving morning to watch the parade!  The Spongebob balloon is always my favorite!

New York was beautiful this morning and we walked to Zabar's to get a few last minute touches for our feast!  Since my sister is vegan and it was just me and her this year - we decided to make a vegan Thanksgiving dinner!

Here is out appetizer platter - 

We enjoyed pickles/olives from Zabar's, pickled pumpkin from the Chelsea Market, and Kendall's Lentil-Walnut dip!  Everything was washed down with hard apple cider!

Here was out dinner spread:

- Amazing Raisin Pecan Bread from Zabar's 

- Orange Cranberry Sauce

- Corn and Millet Pudding from Peas and Thank You

- Roasted Cauliflower with Dates and Pine Nuts

- Roasted Brussel Sprouts with Maple Syrup 

Dessert was a raw tart - the crust was date/rosemary and it was filled with vegan cashew cream and figs!  So delicious - but unfortunately no picture :(

Here is a shameless picture of the cranberry sauce in my Le Creuset pot -- I am obsessed with my Le Creuset set!

Last but not least - here are some pictures from Scout's graduation from obedience class!  She is so grown up!  Here is a picture of her 2 months ago - 

And now she is a graduate :)

She really enjoyed her graduation present!

Even though I was far away from most of my family - I had an amazing day with the best sister!  I will always remember this Thanksgiving in New York with Kendall, vegan food, and Scout!

Love, Allison 

I MET THE BAREFOOT CONTESSA TODAY!

Hello All, 


  I am still getting the hang of this blogging thing - so excuse me for cramming alot into this post - but the past few days have been pretty busy food/fun wise!


My Top 5 (from the last 4 days):


#1 Meeting Ina Garten (AKA The Barefoot Contessa)

I got her new cookbook, "How Easy Is That"  autographed!  It was all surreal - she really is my cooking icon and I would want nothing more than to be invited to her house for dinner!!!  My sister and I waited in line for about one hour (in crazy New York wind) which I though was pretty reasonable!  The Sur La Table staff was so wonderful and passed out hot chocolate and cookies that were made using the Barefoot Contessa Mixes!

We even spotted Ina's friend who often stops by for dinner - check out the tall guy in the back!

#2 Vegan Brunch at V-Note 

My sister found a great coupon on the Living Social site for 50% of a new vegan restaurant!  So we went there for Sunday brunch!  It was so delicious and I was excited because they had a sampler platter which included a little bit of everything -

- Vegan French Toast

- Tofu Scramble

- Tempeh Bacon 

The tofu scramble was out of this world!  I don't know how they got it so creamy and fluffy! The tempeh bacon was also fun to try - it had a hashbrown texture (thanks to my sis for that description) and was really good dipped in syrup - which is my favorite way to eat bacon!  Because we had such a good deal - I was even able to splurge and order a juice (with only veggies - since I hate to drink my calories/points!)

#3 Serbian Zito

Zito is Serbian dessert that most non-Serbs will encounter if they visit a Serbian household during the holidays, as it is used to "welcome" a guest into the house.  My Serbian has been missing his Serbian cooking so he decided to whip some up this Sunday.  

Zito is usually made with wheat (what type I am not sure...) but we had farro on hand so that is what we used. 

It is then mixed with sugar and ground walnuts.  Sometimes the wheat itself is ground, but sometimes if it left whole.  

I was told that the walnuts could not be processed in the food processor but had to be "grated" - enter our first Kitchen Aid attachment!

This thing can grate, ground, slice, and shred - its really amazing and did the job well!

Since I am in LOVE with pumpkin right now - I made Pumpkin Spice Zito instead of the traditional Serbian variety.  I added: 

 1/3 cup pumpkin

2 tbsp Trader Joe's pumpkin butter

 cinnamon

nutmeg

1/2 cup farro

 2 tbsp ground walnuts

It was DELISH!

#4 Peanut Butter Banana Bread 

Saturday night I fired up the oven to bake Peanut Butter Banana Bread from Cooking Light magazine.  I substituted egg whites for the eggs and greek yogurt for the regular yogurt because that is what I had on hand - and it turned out beautifully!  However, it is

4 POINTS for 1/16th of the loaf!!!!!! I thought this was supposed to be a "light" recipe! :(  Therefore, I had one slice while it was warm and let the boyfriend finish the rest off over the week for breakfast and snacks.  

This is a shot of the bread looking out onto the building next to us - I love the brick in NYC!

#5 Oatmeal Breakfasts!

I have been taking a nod from Kath and putting all sorts of toppings on my oatmeal!  This week was a crumbled Pomegranate- Cranberry Fiber Cake from Trader Joe's (only 1 point!) and some pomegranate seeds!

Love, Allison 

Serbian Saturday

I hope you all had a wonderful Saturday!  


My day was filled with good food, good memories, and shopping! 


For breakfast i decided to make Kath's Baked Banana Oatmeal since it takes too long to bake on a busy weekday morning - It was delicious and only 5 points for 1/4 of the recipe!  I had mine plain and the boyfriend drizzled his with maple syrup!  I especially liked the hard brown sugar crust that came from the broiler!  Just don't forget to take yours out or your bananas will look burnt like mine!

The boyfriend and I then went to the largest Serbian Orthodox church outside of Serbia - the structure was gorgeous and dated to 1855 - I LOVE churches and their art/architecture!  They were really nice and let us go inside to light candles even though it was not open!  

After church, we headed down to the only Serbian restaurant in Manhattan, Kafana.  It is on the lower east side and definitely a hidden gem!  I have been craving Serbian food lately and we thought it would be fun to check out!  I was happy to see that many non-Serbians were eating there and enjoying the food!  


The decor was lovely and we both reminisced about our wonderful summer and all the fun we had in Nis (shout out to all my Serbian friends!).  

We both sipped a wonderful wine called Grasevina from Croatia and then split some Gibanica and some Sopska Salata.  Gibanica is delicious - basically feta cheese layered in dough - there are many vairations, but the one at Kafana was soooo tasty - I think due to its "puffiness" as you can see below :)

I ordered the famous Serbian pasulj (beans) which had caramelized onions in them - something I had never seen before (and I have had pasulj MANY times since it is my favorite Serbian dish).  I was happy to see that Kafana put their own spin on classic Serbian dishes :)

The boyfriend ordered MEAT - what else would a Serbian boy order?  It was HUGE and came with fries and cabbage.  I ate the cabbage since I was trying to fill up on zero point veggies  :)

Our wonderful Saturday was topped with some shopping at Macy's - which was all decked out for the holidays!  I didn't buy anything today but I do have my eyes on some boots - I think I am the only New Yorker without any :(

Love, Allison 

P.S. I have something wonderful baking in the oven right now and will blog about it tomorrow :)  

P.P.S.  Thanks for reading :)