This looks good. And really, James Franco: Take a vacation.

I'd be lying if I didnt tell you that it has been a pretty rough year, as could probably be deduced by all the missing posts on my blog. I even forgot to celebrate my New York anniversary this year. It was five years on October 5th and I didnt do anything new to celebrate this fair city. I had a pretty great summer though. I had some girly beach excursions, saw a handful of awesome open air concerts and tackled that tricky lobster cooking thing!

30 things to do before 30

1. make french macarons *
2. update my portfolio*
3. go to a black tie affair *
4. bowl  a turkey this is actually really hard
5. perfect crow pose in yoga
6. buy a couch i love
7. plant a tree
8. get rid of clothes I dont wear
9. find my perfect hairstylist soulmate Jaime & I are "hair dating" but I cant be sure yet if hes my soulmate.
10. put some money in my savings account and leave it there
11. go to the dentist
12. take a trapeze class going this Tuesday!
13. get new business cards
14. make 1000 paper cranes. (why not?) probably not gonna attempt this afterall
15. catch a fish season is over for this :(
16. ride the staten island ferry *
17. get up while water skiing same seasonal restraint, plus i dont have a friend with a boat
18. drive cross country
19. do a cartwheel
20. go for a hike I sorta did this. but didnt break a sweat. not sure if it counts
21. make a perfect souffle *
22. walk the length of manhattan *
23. see a drag show *
24. get photographed by a street style photographer
25. Eat at WD-50 *
26. invest in something
27. cook a lobster
28. Have high tea at the Carlyle I misunderstood this. Tea with Eloise is actually a kid thing
29. go to atlantic city *
30. have a picnic *

New business cards via Oh Happy Day

Attempts at a cartwheel

So awesome, in fact, that she wrote me little poems in my lunch every day of school until I was in the 8th grade.

So awesome, that when my brother and I were going through our cranky, teenage "I'm bored. I'm hungry. I don't know what I want to eat" faze, she made us little menus as if we were in a restaurant, and we could check a box without having to articulate anything.

This year she has gone above and beyond with a month of presents for my 30th birthday. A few days ago I received this giant shipment with a flurry of little presents inside. Each was individually wrapped in its own hand painted paper and a little poem attached for the corresponding day. Kinda makes up for her losing all my baby albums. Love you mom!

On Sunday I made apple honey challah. I mixed, I waited, I punched down, I kneaded, I waited, I braided, I brushed, I baked, I waited, and in the end an amazing thing happened... I was not disappointed!

The loaf came out pretty darn similar to the picture and tasted amazing. The apartment smelled wonderful and the boyfriend came home and proclaimed it delicious. I am rarely happily surprised by bread baking attempts. But I must say this is a pretty accessible recipe that yields tasty results. On my bakers high, I made some chicken soup and we dunked big buttered slices into the broth. Then later we tore of chunks for a snack. The next day we had some challah toast. The round was quickly vanishing, but since challah is similar to brioche it gets stale rather quickly. So today I made french toast with last slices. Then we still had some nibbles left and a plate full of egg wash, so I made some chocolate raspberry bread pudding with whipped cream. Then i felt like I was going to explode. Then the apple honey challah was finally all gone. Every last crumb of it.

Then I made some banana bread. 

Well, hello there strangers! I haven't given up on this blog completely. I assure you. In fact, I am planning a redesign and hope to get to a point where I'm not apologizing for my absence at the beginning of every post!

But never mind that, lets get down to brass tacks. It has come to my attention this morning that my beloved Laduree has opened shop in New York City! How? Whhat? Why, Why did I not know of this sooner? It is like learning that your summer fling just started working in your office. Its almost too close for comfort and while I love it I'm nervous that it wont be as good. Or if it is as good, I will positively gorge myself on its decadence. From the photos it looks like its standing line only, you cant really sit  and absorb all the Parisian inspired loveliness which is half of the experience. I just want to go and kiss one of those fabulous minty green boxes...

It is starting to feel like if you live in NYC long enough all the stuff you love in other cities will just magically come to you. Now all we need is a Coffee Bean. Oh Wait...Wow.