Brace yourselves because you are about to be inundated with pictures! (Consider yourself warned.) Two friends and I just got back from a trip to New York City and boy do I have the pictures to share.
We squeezed as much out of our 3 day trip as we possibly could - Central Park, Rockefeller Center, Broadway Shows, Times Square, Chelsea Market, Shopping in Chinatown, Pizza in Little Italy, Strolling through SoHo, Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, 911 Memorial, Wall Street, Walking the Brooklyn Bridge, Wall Street, Taxi Rides, Subway, Ferry Boats and that doesn't even begin to cover the food that we tasted while we were there. (It's no wonder that we were exhausted when we got home.)
I decided to break this blog post up into several days - so as to not overwhelm you with hundreds of photos all at once. Where, oh where do I start with these hundreds of pictures of my trip? I guess I'll start with pictures from when we first began our adventures in the Big Apple. We got off the plane at and within just a few hours, we had checked into the hotel, had lunch at the Carnegie Deli and were wandering through Central Park.
These are just a few pictures from our stroll through Central Park.
I even found a little friend in Central Park.
It was almost like going back in time because the trees in New York were just starting to bud, the daffodils were blooming and the air was crisp. (My polite way of saying that it was chilly!) It looked like Atlanta did about 3 weeks ago.
It's hard to believe that it's been nearly a week since we were in the heart of New York City's Central Park. I'm still having trouble getting my brain out of vacation mode.
We had so much fun in New York City and we definitely ate WELL while we were there. We had some great meals at Bar Americain, Sardis, Fig and Olive, the Carnegie Deli and Lombardi's Pizza just to name a few.
The food was awesome and the atmosphere was even better. We sat down for dinner each night to a table covered with a crisp white tablecloth and a wait staff that was top notch. (You can guess why it was hard to come home, right?) As much as I love to cook and to serve food to my family, it was great to be the guest for a few nights and to sit back and enjoy my glass of wine while my dinner was being prepared by someone else.
It's taken a couple of days but I think I'm finally getting back into the swing of having dinner prepared by 5:15 every night. I am definitely using the fresh strawberries that we picked on Monday as inspiration for our meals this week. Monday night, I made a strawberry balsamic chicken dish that was outstanding. (If I do say so myself.)
Last night, I made tacos for dinner and buttermilk biscuit strawberry shortcakes for dessert!
This dessert is definitely worthy of being served in a fancy New York City restaurant. I found the recipe for the buttermilk biscuits in Southern Living. (A magazine that I borrowed from a friend on the plane ride home.)
Whether you like your biscuits smothered in honey or butter or jam or made into a shortcake, you are going to LOVE these biscuits. I modified the recipe to make them even easier to prepare and they are as light and fluffy as any biscuit that I've ever tasted.
Buttermilk Biscuits
1/2 cup butter, frozen
2 1/2 cups self rising flour
1 cup buttermilk
Grate butter in food processor while frozen.
I had a couple little pieces that I couldn't seem to get through the feed tube but I didn't think it was enough to worry about.
Transfer to a bowl and add flour. Stir to combine. Refrigerate 10 minutes.
Make a well in the center. Add buttermilk and stir 15 times.
Dump out onto floured counter and gently knead by patting and folding. Pat into a 1/2 inch thick rectangle.
Use a biscuit cutter to make circles in dough.
Place circles on a silpat lined baking sheet with sides touching.
Bake 15 minutes at 475.
Enjoy!
Sooo good. So maybe there was no white tablecloth on our dinner table last night, but we did have a fabulous dessert. Easing my way back out of vacation mode slowly.
Ciao!
