Anti-Valentine's Day Paprikash

My first attempt to make Great-Grandma Andrews's chicken paprikash all by myself. I think I did a great job at least for having never done it before. Grandma Elsie would have been proud. Of course, there were several phone calls to my mother for emergency assistance, but generally all went well. I mostly cook vegetarian stuff, so this was not my usual kind of meal.

Chopping took up a lot of the day. Five onions! Four cucumbers, green peppers and fresh tomatoes. By the time dinner rolled around I was exhausted and wondering how women in the past did two big meals a day all the time.

Another challenge was my teeny kitchen with no counter space. It comes complete with a teeny stove and teeny refrigerator with a moderate-sized sinks. I've navigated smaller kitchens before -- that were literally closets or just a corner of the living room, so I wasn't too put off by this. The key is a butcher block with a big-ish space to work with. Living in NYC teaches you to make the best of every inch of space you have. I think this is a good lesson for me, especially coming from the suburbs where there is oodles of space to spread out and collect things you may not need.

I invited a couple of girlfriends over and we had the Paprikash with the famous cucumber salad, citrus salad with mint and feta and mini-cupcakes. Of course, the Hungarian wine was flowing. After that we just hung out at my place watching the olympics and having some laughs together.
Also, it was the first time I was able to open up my table to its full size. My apartment is small, but if you move things around you can fit six around the table. How exciting!

Sledding at Columbia

On February 10, a big snow storm hit NYC and the tri-state area. Usually, everyone gets all excited and we get a little dusting or something, but this time the storm was big.

My job let us out early at 2 pm, and I am was looking for someone to play in the snow with -- maybe a snowball fight or possibly sledding. I checked in with my friends and Annique was sledding with Thalia near Columbia. I quickly threw on my ski gear and headed uptown to 116th street to check it out.

The hill was covered with students, family and people of all ages with various kinds of substitutes for sleds -- plywood, plastic bags, tupperware containers and, of course, the famous lunch tray. Thalia had a proper sled, purple plastic, so we used that.

The hill at Riverside park was packed and you couldn't even see NJ past the Hudson because of the snow and clouds. The hill was really a double hill, a big one at the top a flat part and a smaller one that led to the road next to the river.

Annique and I had a couple of amazing runs. One of which we nearly hit a tree and then a man in overalls. He wouldn't move and steering was difficult!! We avoided both obstacles and ended up in a heap at the bottom of the hill.

After that we headed to a Norwegian restaurant near the Law school and had some dinner and some warm cookies for dessert. They offered "free sled parking" with your meal. All in all a great snow day!

Andrew's 30th Birthday Party

In Janaury, my good friend Andrew celebrated his 30th with a fancy cocktail party at his house. The dress code was "excessive" and everyone followed it in their own special way. In the above picture, we are pretending that we are at the prom. We had a lot of fun.

Pictured: (L to R) Andrew, me, Rosa, Stephen

Skiing With the Girls at Windham

A couple of weekends ago, two of my girlfriends and I had a ski weekend at Windham. It was that weekend when there was supposed to be a big snow storm, but of course it missed where we were and stayed south, so no fresh snow for us.

We stayed at cute little hotel that had an indoor hot tub and pool. After a long day of skiing, there is nothing better than a hot tub. We skied for two days. The first day we were just getting used to east coast icy conditions. We started off with some green trails and moved on to harder ones.

The weather was frigid. We had all of our layers on and heaters in our gloves and boots. I had to wear two scarves! Any piece of exposed skin burned when the wind hit it. It was difficult to keep your face covered.

The mountain was crowded and the conditions were icy, but we had a blast just the same. As we got more comfortable with the cold and the conditions, we were shooshing past the others. At 4 pm when the lift closed, we headed back to the hotel for some time in the hot tub and then dinner.

We picked a local restaurant called Horton House or something because Carrie was craving steak. It was a cozy, woodsy place with a big fireplace. We sat near the fire place and enjoyed the locals. Larissa got a photo of a man in a red checkered shirt and overalls. Another man in his 70s or 80s grabbed his wife to dance to "Mony Mony" that was being played by a live band of men in their 60s. It was quite a sight!!

We skied on Sunday and then piled into Larissa's Outback to head back home. It was an excellent weekend.

Having trouble with Blogger tonight. Photos to come!