CSA Beauty!

How is everyone enjoying summer? It's been such a beautiful week and I've been trying to absorb as much as possible...well that is the time I'm not in lab or watching Weeds. I started watching last Wednesday and have since gone through 2 seasons, such a good show!

I've also been bathing in vegetables thanks to my CSA share.

Right now greens, particularly lettuce, are in season, thus salads has been on the menu for most of the last week. Tonight I decided to saute bright swiss chard, throw it onto a whole wheat english muffin spread with pesto, a bit of feta thrown on top, and placed under the broiler for a few minutes.

For a bit of protein I made an egg white puff by microwaving 1/2 of eggs whites in the microwave for 1 1/2 minutes.

Topped with a bit more chard.

Mmm, so good!

Night,

Nicole

RawStar

I'm really tired and ready for a nap, to take a nap or push for 9 and an early bedtime? For now I will push on while clothes are being washed and food is cooked.

The week prior to my trip I went to see my little cousin in her ballet recital. She was amazing and such a beautiful and graceful ballerina.

Afterwards we went to a Caribbean vegan, raw food restaurant in Brooklyn, Rawstar. This was the best raw food experience I have had by far!

To start I had their house tea sweetened with agave:

For my main course I had the Nappa sandwich:

I also tried my cousins pizza, which again was incredible. The crust was a nut base with I believe a macadamia nut cheese and plenty of fresh toppings.
My aunt had the curry tempeh with pineapple chutney and the tree fish salad (tried a bit of this seaweed based salad and again delish):
Before leaving for the afternoon, one of the owners took my cousin into the kitchen to show her around and let her create a dish of her own. She came out with zucchini spaghetti topped with tomato sauce and pesto. She was ready to dig in but was convinced to save it for dinner.

By the end of the afternoon, it seems I inspired a future food blogger:Later,

Nicole

La Roux

On the Monday before my trip, June 7th, I made my way to Terminal 5 to hear the electro pop duo, La Roux. It's hard to think of the group as a pair because Eleanor Jackson is the face of La Roux. The bands' other half is Ben Langmaid, co-producer, and co-write for the group, but he remains behind scenes.

Before La Roux, Atarah Valentine hit the stage. Looking at his My Space page prior to the show I was intrigued by his possible antics, I was expecting a Marilyn Manson/Lady Gaga mix. When a live orchestra came out I immediately thought, oh, we must have a new act. A few seconds later Atarah ran out dressed in black from head to toe, with long, straight black hair. Through his entire set, I was just confused. The lyrics were not developed, and Atarah was just all over the place. He went from the live orchestra to dancing with 2 back up dancers. Perhaps in a smaller venue I would have got into the techno beats?

When La Roux hit the stage the crowd immediately got to it and danced the night away with songs like "I'm Not Your Toy" and "In for the Kill." Eleanor also slowed it down for a few songs and even went acoustic. Not only did la Roux sound just as good if not better live than on the album, Eleanor proved herself as a great vocalist in her acoustic piece.

Hope this video clip works for you!

Cheers for now,

Nicole

Ready for Sleep...or I Should Be!

I'm back from my trip with my Mom Mom (grandma), a cruise through the Mediterranean Sea, and although I've now been up for nearly 24 hours, I can't quite sleep so I thought I would try to get a start on my backlog of blogging with a picture highlight of our trip!

We arrived in Rome and on Day 1 I introduced my Mom Mom to gelato, she fell in love and had one just about everyday of our trip:

More eats in Rome:

Turkish carpet demonstration in Turkey:

Athens:

More ice cream for her...coffee for me!

Greek salad later in the afternoon for me as well:

Venice:

Amazing views in Nafplion, Greece:

That's it for now....more to come, I promise!

Nicole

Random stuff update

Hi everyone! I've been busy with subbing, looking for jobs, and many other things this week. Sorry for not posting!

I am a huge music fan, but I'm not lucky enough to live in NYC and see cheap performances all the time like Nicole does. I LOVE Glee! It's a fun show with all kinds of interesting things happening every week. The season finale was Tuesday, and it was a great episode. The team went to regionals, and sang a Journey Medley. That is not really a plot spoiler, because the episode is called "Journey." I won't give much else away, you should watch it for yourself! If you go to Glee's facebook page, you can see their regionals performance.

I have a mulberry tree in my front yard. It was supposed to be ornamental, but it's not and has a TON of berries on it. I have this crazy idea to try and make mulberry jam. I picked a lot last weekend and froze them. I've never actually made jam before, but I think I'll give it a try!





And have you ever heard of flavored skewers? We have some and they work pretty well for shishkebabs. I soaked the skewers in beer for about 15 minutes, then put spice-rubbed shrimp, onions, and peppers on the skewers, and let them sit for about 20 minutes before grilling. They were great!




Have a nice rest of the weekend!

~Sarah

Yeasayer Governor's Island

I'm behind in posting and am leaving tomorrow for Europe so we'll see how much I can catch up!

Rewinding to Saturday night and Gone to Governor's-

The music was great...getting there was not! Basically, Governor's Island is a 4 min ferry ride from the seaport (downtown Manhattan). The first ferry taking off for the concert was at door's open, 6 pm. We arrived at 5:55 to find the line wrapped around to State St (about 2 blocks I guess) and just 2 minutes later it seemed the line had doubled. Thankfully at 7:20 or so we made it onto a ferry, the second to last ferry. I can't imagine how many people were turned away because the island was at maximum capacity!!

Anyhow, all the waiting was worth it in the end, the music and crowd were great!

First up was Delicate Steve a purely instrumental ensemble. I wasn't sure what to think when they first began, I kept waiting for someone to sing, and when I saw the drummer to the side hunched over and beating away, I immediately thought of the White Rabbits. However, as the set continued I found their originality and fun spirit contagious.

Up next were the threesome of Keepaway. Again, wasn't sure what to think of the band originally. I kinda had to laugh during their first 2 songs-ie "5 rings" which was about playing Sonic. From there the set, although short, was much improved. The band was fortunate to play during the beautiful setting sun. Originally forecast called for rain, and although I've had fun times in the rain, getting on a ferry with hundreds of smelly concert goers would have been less than ideal.

Finally, with the sunset, Yeasayer hit the stage and gave an awesome performance. When Amanda and I saw them last year our biggest criticism was of the venue which made it hard to hear the unique vocals and musical styles of the band. This year, no complaints, everything was great and the crowd got really into it and danced the night away.
Thankfully, getting off the island was not nearly as difficult as getting on, we were back to Manhattan 20-30 minutes after the concert ended. In fact I think we had to wait for the subway longer than for the ferry.

Post to come-Rawstar lunch in Brooklyn, La Roux concert, Week 1 for CSA, but first I need to finish packing!!

Nicole

Aroma Espresso Bar

Hey Bloggies-

Yesterday didn't exactly go according to plan but ended up wonderfully in the end!

Original plan

• Laundry
• Clean
• Boot camp class in Central Park
• Kayak on the Hudson
• Yeasayer concert at Governor's Island

Laundry-check

Clean-mmm?

Boot camp-Well, I ended up with a horrible night of sleep so I slept in an hour later and nixed the boot camp class. Instead I went for a 5 mi run and took a pilates class, still a great workout but on my pace rather than the go go go of boot camp!

Kayak-Apparently it was too windy and so they temporarily closed the section at pier 72. My friend Tammy and I chatted while we waited for about 15 minutes but saw no calm in the winds and went for a walk through Riverside park. With time to spare before she had to be to work and I had to meet up with others for the evening concert we walked crosstown.

We came across Aroma Espresso Bar and Tammy wanted to pop inside. We loved the atmosphere and menu and decided to grab a bite to eat. We ordered the Avocado sandwich and Aroma salad special and split to share.

This huge salad was only $10.50, can't beat that in New York! And both were absolutely delish:) I will definitely be returning to this spot!

After a quick shower once home (I must shower 2-3 times a day on the weekends in the summer. Walking around in 88*=disgusting!!!). I met with Anna, Sara, and Elin for Governor's island. This trip is worth a post of it's on and I'm running late so I'll leave you with a few teasers and post in full later in the week.

Have a blessed Sunday!

Nicole

Looking back and moving on

Hey Guys-

As I uploaded pictures from Ena's party I began to look through some of my past albums and reminiscing over my last few summers.

Summer 2006 I lived in Boston and worked as a research assistant at Joslin Diabetes Center, part of Harvard Medical:

Free Yeah Yeah Yeah's concert, my first time seeing the band!

Summer 2007 and 2008 I worked for Merck and lived in Philly:

And of course I graduated in 2008 and made the most of my senior year:

While the plan for the summer is to work, work, work, I also have a couple of trips and of course several concerts to look forward to-Yeasayer only 2 days away, and I leave for Europe in 6! I hope these scattered events keep my spirits high because a string of failed experiments can definitely dampen my spirit. I try to look at the positive, but it's definitely getting harder. For example I worked a 12 hour day on Tuesday to turn around on Wednesday to find out it didn't work...I'm repeating it today (currently in lab and waiting for the last incubation) fingers crossed my time tonight is not wasted.

What are your summer plans?

Nicole

Ps-Download "Promises" from the Morning Benders here free for a limited time.

And a free mix tap here including "Cold War" from the Morning Benders and "All Talk" from Kid Cudi.

Pps- The Morning Benders are giving a free concert in Governor's Island and I'm incredibly bummed that I will be missing it (that said I will be in Rome during the time so don't feel too bad for me.)