We got the pre-game going on Wednesday night, of course. Reagan had already received a huge order from Fresh Direct, and stopped by Gristedes on the way home. But of course, that did not preclude me having to rush back out to the bodega, as soon as I walked in the door from work. So, after buying a $10 bottle of pure cranberry juice, along with some fresh sage and rosemary leaves (for the turkey brine), we rolled up our sleeves and got after it. Reagan made three pies: Apple (below), Pumpkin (above) and Chocolate.

I whipped up some turkey brine, dropped in the turkey and put it out on the fire escape to marinate over night. After doing all of this, and a bunch of other stuff, we finally retired to the couch to watch the second half of a James Bond movie. Syfi, is having a JB marathon all weekend. Around 2ish, we finally called it a night.

We got up kind of early (by holiday standards) and headed up to Westchester to hang out with Piper (I’ll write more about that in a different post). We got back to our pad around 12:30 or one. I fired up the oven and got the turkey going. Note, this is the first time that I have ever attempted to cook a turkey. After 6 hours of meticulous tending (and a cat nap), this is what I pulled out of the oven:

I wish that I would have thought to get a shot of it before I started carving it up. It was juicy and delicious. I had to give myself a pat on the back for that one. Since we don’t really have a dining table, Reagan made some cute little place settings at either end of the coffee table, where we sat on the floor and ate our T-day dinner together. I hope that everyone else had an awesome Thanksgiving!

In June, I saw this crazy thing called a burgermelt (a Friendly’s invention, consisting of a burger between two grilled cheese sandwiches) on the internet, and asked Reagan to make it for me. She totally did it.  So, last weekend, when I saw this thing called a Fried Cheese Melt, which is apparently a new addition to the menu at Denny’s (it is a grilled cheese sandwich with fried mozzarella sticks in the middle),  I once again forwarded the link to Reagan, asking her if she could make it. Friday night, when I arrived at my house, Reagan had already purchased all of the stuff to make it. She even fried her own mozzarella sticks!

The finished product came out better that it looked in the Denny’s photo (and I’m sure tasted better, too).

So good.

I mean, look at this thing:

I have complained about New York City’s lack of authentic Mexican food, on more than one occasion. Several kind people have made suggestions of restaurants to try. The suggestions usually did end up leading to some pretty good food. But, I think that maybe after seeing the photo above (purchased from a taco truck in the bay area, CA),  it will be a little more clear what I’m looking for. I feel like I shouldn’t have to go all of the way to Cali to get a $5 Tijuana-special carne asada. Thanks to Zach for documenting the very thing that I have been searching so diligently for in the city that supposedly has everything.

Speaking of diligently searching. I was finally able to track this down, late Wednesday night.

Reagan and I have a terrible habit of eating out at all of the same places, all of the time. We have a couple of “usual” spots in just about every neighborhood. It is a safe approach. We are never disappointed, because we already know what’s on the menu and what’s good. I’m not going to pretend like I’m some sort of foodie or something, but, there is nothing worse than shelling out the big bucks for an overrated mediocre meal. Ok, there are actually a lot of things that are worse, but overpaying for a sub-par meal is pretty annoying.

The downside to always playing it safe, is that we are missing out on about 9 million other great places to eat. But it is so tough to weed through all of the mediocrity and locate a place that really hits the spot.

There are couple of methods that we employ for branching out. Reagan will normally go by, either a place that she read about in some local mag at her salon, or a place that she walks past and thinks looks cute. I normally choose something that has been personally recommended to me. Actually, I normally just shoot down Reagan’s choice and go to one of the usual spots. Empirically, none of the above methods are foolproof. It is always a bit of a gamble, no matter how cute they look.

Wellllaaahhhh, there is a solution to this debacle that comes around every now and again, called Restaurant Week. During this time, the participating restaurants will offer three course meals at a prix-fixe lunch for $24 and dinner for $35. Summer 2009 Restaurant Week begins on Sunday and contrary to the name (which seems to indicate that it only lasts for one week), Restaurant Week lasts for three weeks! In past years, Reagan and I haven’t really taken advantage of it, as much as we would have liked to. I have already been checking out the menu and planning different ways to get fat over the next three weeks.

Every once in a while, I start feeling kind of dehydrated. It is usually at that point that I think back and realize that I have had nothing but Diet Coke, to drink for the last several days. Is that bad? I guess it must be, since I start to get dehydrated. I have tried to stop drinking cola on previous occasions, for this very reason. I was afraid that I was going to develop some sort of painful stone somewhere in my system. Other than that, is there really any reason to quit drinking it?

So often I will read about people who are trying to give up drinking Diet Coke, or soda in general. I can understand giving up soda, for those people who find themselves constantly imbibing the sugary variety. I mean, empty calories are going to catch up to anyone, at some point. But what about diet soda?

I guess there is the cost factor. But that rarely applies to me. I would estimate that I only pay for about 1/3 (or less) of the DC that I consume.

There is the addiction factor. I love Diet Coke so much it is crazy. But I wouldn’t exactly say that I’m addicted. I can go for a weekend, sometimes without having any. Ok, maybe I’m in denial about the addiction thing. I don’t know. I mean, there are plenty of other drinks that I also enjoy. For example: water with lemon (evidenced by the photo above [and, no, I did not fill up that cup just to pretend like I drank it]); pretty much any flavor of Gatorade; most energy drinks, and water with lime.

I guess my question is: If I don’t have to pay for it; I supplement my DC intake with water, often enough that I don’t become dehydrated; and I’m not additcted to it, is there any good reason to stop drinking it?

I’m not just being asinine, here. I am really curious if there is some sort of medical (or other persuasive) reason for me to give it up.

Reagan and I had a blast in RI. I mean, we always do, when we visit the Truscotts.  So, it’s not exactly breaking news. We arrived in Newport on Thursday night, in time for 2 full days of playing in the pool croquet, barbeque, etc.. Mucho mas fotos here.

On the way home, we stopped by this crazy-huge antique store. Here was my favorite item.

Thanks again for being such great hosts, T and J!

This month, I came across a kind of cool article in Details. It was published in the “Know and Tell” section, and titled “Prescription-free Antidepressants.” According to the piece, consuming nuts (one of my favorite foods) and fish supposedly help fight stress, etc.. So what better way to fight depression that doubling up a peanut-avocado roll for dinner? Hahahahah. This place on Maiden Lane, Sushi Ala Kawa, is the only sushi joint I have ordered from that makes these rolls. It has become, probably, one of my top 10 favorite foods (but still pretty far behind NY pizza and pub burgers). The fact that it also keeps me antidepressed is just a bonus.

Saturday, we had lunch in midtown west, at BRGR. The venue is cool. The food was good. The value was not so great. For $9 I want a burger that is at least a pound. The sweet potato fries were also cut a little thin for my liking. We had fun though. Afterward, we met up with one of our friends in Chelsea and had cupcakes at Billy’s.  I had a mini chocolate cheesecake. Reagan had a cupcake. It was pretty good. Reagan said that she liked it more than Magnolia, and as good as Crumb.

Something awesome that I saw, when we were out and about, tonight. I couldn’t wait to share it.