Score!

So, Katy and I were hanging out today. Went to The Point, went to Bed, Bath, and OhmygodIhavetobuyeverythinghere, and headed home so I could make some risotto and breaded eggplant. I had all intentions of making a healthy eggplant dish, in the toaster oven, but it wasn't browning, so into a pan of oil and butter it went. And lo, it was wonderful.

Anyway, I digress. So, we're heading back to my place, and on my street we see a guy digging thru some bags of recycling. And on the ground seem to be a lot of pots and pans. Nice ones. Professional ones. And, some Dansk ones. Apparently, someone in the building next to mine had passed, or I dunno, got engaged and decided to get all new pots and pans, and left a treasure trove on the streets.

I have a special fondness for Dansk cookware. My german grandmother, my Omi, had Dansk pots, and cooked the best soups and braised dishes in them. She had a yellow one and light blue one. My mom took the yellow one, and I took the blue one. One day, I was making mushroom soup, and I used my immersion blender, like you're supposed to. I don't know, something was out of whack, and my blender absolutely shredded my pot. The porcelain coating was gone. It was unusable. And yes, I did cry. But it was my own stupidity, and Dansk ain't cheap, and no way was Mom going to give me her pot, so I've be without Dansk for a few years now.

(Note: I just looked up some Dansk on Ebay, and okay, it's not that expensive. But still.)

So, there were pots on the street. And some of them looked like they had be used. But I had to rescue them! My Omi was sending them to me! That may be a bit much, but really now. These were good pots, and stew season is acoming.

So, check out what I got.



The upper left one isn't Dansk, and I've already cleaned it up and made the risotto in it. And yum. Nothing like a heavy duty heavy bottomed pan. The red one, I dunno if I can rescue that. It's pretty far gone. The others just need a little elbow grease. And Bon Ami and steel wool. The lids are in good shape, luckily.

So, no other reason for this post. I just had to share how happy I was I had found these. Thanks Katy for helping me carry them.

And, for your enjoyment, a few pix of the Empire State Building, taken from the Javits Center


This one is reflected in the Javits Center. Artsy, no?


New York, it can be so lovely at times....

Especially when you'be been awake for twenty hours.

Queens For A Day

Well, I've abandoned the big ol list of what I've been up to - it's too long. Maybe I'll work on it on the side and do a sort of meme later on. So because I'm completely procrastinating putting my kit together for a job tomorrow and needing to go to bed before 2am I figured I'd finally update a bit. Just a little bit.

Oh, before I forget, and cause apparently you can't be a knit blogger without crowing this to all and sundry, I too have gotten my Ravelry invite. Y'all can find me there, under CityMinx, natch.

So, yesterday was lovely. Yay for the weather! Yay for fall! Yay for the fact that I live in the most amazing city on this here planet, a city where you can in a day, cross continents and centuries, and I did it all yesterday. And I wasn't even all that tired afterwards.

I spent the day with blogless (but still lovely) Johanna. We met up in front of her building in Astoria, Queens around 1pm. Yes, Queens is still part of New York City. I maybe a NYC snob, but I'm not that much of a snob. Shush, I can hear you sniggering. Right there, in front of her building, there was a Ukranian church fair. I should of taken pictures, but man o man I was too busy stuffing my face with Pierogies and Wurst and pastries. Yum yum. We visited the church, it's beautiful. If you ever have a chance to go to a Ukranian church here, or lucky duck, in the Ukraine, you'll be amazed at the art, the mosaics, the painting and architecture. Gorgeous. We listened to Ukrainian disco music - not to be missed, and Ukranian doo-wop. It defies description. We bought frozen pierogies to stash in the freezer, and then we head out.

If you take a longish walk, two subway trains, a half hour bus ride and another, but shorter walk, you come to Queen's only working farm. Swear to God. A working farm on the eastern end of the Borough. And this past weekend they had a County Fair!!!! No joke. Here's a link. This was so much fun, I finally dragged out the camera.

We saw sheep!

Or, as I called them, Yaaaaarn

And, apparently, they quite like Kettle Corn:

Hope I didn't make them too sick.

One of my favorite things (other than fried dough and cotton candy) about County Fairs are the blue ribbon competitions. Remember Charlotte's Web? And Little Boy on the Farm? I always remember how Almanzo thought he might have cheated, cause his prize winning pumpkin was milk-fed which is what made it so large. Or something. Kids had high morals in those days, apparently.

Anyways, Johanna showed off some Blue Ribbon winning pickles And Veggies

And me, being a baker, and a Jewish one at that, I was really really happy to see the Tribe represented by some Blue Ribbon Rugelach


Musta been since we were so close to Long Island.

We saw disaffected teenage girls in colonial costumes demonstrating colonial cooking techniques. I swear, these girls were so apathetic you could practically see "I'm doing this for school credit, and nothing else, and omigod I hope no one from school sees me like this, and like, I really miss my iPod". And Johanna and I knew more about the spinning wheel than the tour guide. Heh heh.

And the crafts were amazing. We saw a whole bunch of Medieval Recreationists show us how to use a Lucet, and damn, now I want one. They were very nice, if a bit enthusiastic and a mite bit scary. So we ran away quickly, despite that some of those brawny bearded men were quite...mmmm. But, since I really don't want to spend my weekends frolicking in the woods with my boobs squished to my chin in a corset, actually, that sounds kinda fun. And they have mead. No, I need indoor plumbing. Strike that.

After the we escaped the SCA folks, we went to the craft barns, where we met Lynn.


Lynn is awesome. Lynn is who I want to be when I'm her age, with a little Auntie Mame thrown in. Name the fiber craft, she does it. She works 6 days a week, she's in her mid 80's, by my estimate. She's funny, quick, and a pisser. A ballsy broad. And she makes bobbin lace.


Beautiful! She was throwing those bobbins around like she was playing Three Card Monte. Not that this is a new craft I want to learn, mind you. I can just appreciate this one. And I'm in awe.

Well, nothing could top that. So we hiked back to Astoria and visited the Biergarten, cause we hadn't had enough Eastern Europeaness in our day. Note: dumplings are not all the same. Sometimes, dumplings are squooshy white bread. Just so you know. And then I had Reese's Pieces.

It was a great day. And night. And weekend.

Next up, the three projects I've finished, the three I'm working on, and will I ever learn to walk in those stiletto's? And, honestly, do I really need to?


xoxo

-minx

PS: Almost forgot! We saw a chicken lay an egg. Don't recommend watching that again. Ugh.

TBA

Hi!

I made it. I'm alive. I'm compiling a list of what I've done in the last month. Including an American Sign Language dictionary, restaurant reviews, Feng Shui techniques and stiletto heels.

I just wish I had taken more pictures


And I bet you do, too....