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Back in the day, whenever Chris & I would approach FDR Drive, we'd throw Frank Sinatra's "New York, New York!" into the CD player. I mean, it really is the only way to enter Manhattan (in my humble opinion). Talk about getting a trip off to the right start! 
Chris was tying up some work things and as soon as he was done,  we hit the Museum of Natural History and a playground just up the street so the kids could run around before the 3 hour drive home. We were in New York about 2 weeks ago, and while we hit the Museum of Natural History then, we also spent most of the time in Central Park. 
I miss city parks. They just can't be beat. Henry and Kate took turns guiding the sailboat: 
My girlfriend Trish brought us the most delicious donuts (because letting our family of 5 stay in her 1-bd apartment wasn't enough….) from Doughnut Plant that were supposed to be for our drive home, but they of course, never made it out of the park 🙂Everytime I'm in New York, I want to move there. Then I think 'I'm about to have my 4th child! I'm too old to live in a rinky dink apartment with 4 kids'. But honestly, it sounds kind of tempting. Chris is moving there this summer while I take the children out west. Not sure where we'll all end up. Entirely too much for me to wrap my brain around at this point. 

Last Sunday we took a post-church drive to the beach. Chris was away so it was just me and the children. It was the first time we'd been on a beach in about 10 months since we left L.A. Chris and I used to come to Crane Beach before we ever had kids. I think the children were beginning to wonder if MA really did have beaches or not. 
It's a leave your shoes at the boardwalk kind of placeand pants are optional. The beach is so rejuvenating. We just sat on the blanket and nestled our feet in the warm sand. The children built sandcastles and played on the dunes.  I feel lucky that over the past 13 years I've always been close to the shore. May is one of my most favorite months of the year. It's the month I got married and the month I birthed 2 babies. It's a busy month for sure and will be even busier with the husband out of town missing it all and a potential move in just over 3 weeks AND we've got some Kickstarter episodes to film the last week of May (so thrilled!) It just means I need to try to plan (which I'm horrible at) and force myself to stay up later to get some things done (I'm out by 9 p.m.!) Kate said I'd better wake up early and have the house all decorated as a 'surprise' for her birthday. She's a girl who knows what she wants, surprises and all!

We are getting ourselves another one of these:
We are over the moon!

XO

Yesterday we packed up the children and headed into town. The mayor asked families to come down to Boylston street on Saturday & support those businesses that were shut down while they were investigating the marathon. We opted to go a few blocks down to the Public Garden because well, the public garden just makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. 
The swan boats are open now and we enjoyed a little jont around the pond then we headed across the street to the Boston Common.




We jumped on the red line over to Cambridge for a litte bit and then came back to Boston. 
Back Bay is so gorgeous right now. It feels like Spring is just starting here. 
We went to Boylston St (which was packed) to see the Boston Marathon Finish Line. 


And then we drug our tired bodies home (stopping, of course, for a last minute impromptu marshmallow roast- Thanks, Jenny!) 


I love this town. 

The kids were all on spring break last week and Chris was out of town until Thursday. Monday we hit the marathon and Tuesday was my birthday. It was pretty low key with the spouse out of town because you know, 3 kids under the age of 7 don't really care that it's your birthday. Chris had some work to take care of in NYC on Friday so we all drove down Thursday afternoon. It was kind of like a late birthday present for me because I love New York that much.

We were out the door bright and early on Marathon Monday. This is the first time that I've cheered the runners on from Heartbreak Hill. When we lived in Brookline (2000-2005) we always went to straight for the finish line. I was really, really looking forward to taking the children there this year after we left Heartbreak Hill. I wanted them to see the truckloads of bananas and water bottles they hand out to the runners just as they cross the finish line. I wanted them to see the thousands of runners draped in their heatsheets with metals strung around their necks. But for about 4 hours we cheered the runners on from the sidelines. The runners in wheelchairs were the first to pass by, then came the elite women and not too long after, the elite men and then everyone else.
Kate was my #1 cheerleader clapping them all along. Henry stood on the sidelines, his left arm stretched straight out with little cups of water in the palm of his hand. Sometimes, the runners were going so fast, you  didn't realize they were going to grab a cup until after it happened. Most didn't say anything, but one man grabbed a cup from Henry's palm and yelled "Thanks, Buddy!!" He turned to me with the worlds biggest smile on his face.

We sat with the Whitcombs and EP who got there extra early to save us a front row seat. Chris was out of town and didn't go with us and so Henry was determined to take a photo of every single runner that passed to make sure Chris didn't miss anything. My camera died shortly after. We can't find the charger anywhere. So click their blogs and check out their amazing photo's. 

We hopped in the car at 2:15 to head to the finish line, but stopped for some ice cream in Chestnut Hill on the way. It was while we were sitting there, the breaking news came on the t.v. It felt like total chaos. All cell phone service was intentionally shut off. We came home instead and I found myself glued to the t.v. all night long. Kate was concerned and hoping that the runner wearing the hamburger costume didn't explode at the finish line. I assured her  that he was ok. She closes her eyes and puts her hands over her ears when she hears anything about it. It's clearly too much for a 4 year old to understand I've kept a lot/most of the details from her. 

We'll be back at the marathon next year, cheering on the runners, handing out water and definitely going to the finish line. 

It's APRIL! Gosh darn it, it's finally April. The last patches of snow on the lawn have nearly melted away. We are hopeful that tomorrows cold weather will be the last of the season. We've managed to go a few days without the fire burning and have officially turned off the oil to heat the house. The plants & herbs around my kitchen sink are slowly helping me to feel a bit like warmer day are ahead (the basil- oh the basil smells so good!)
You can see the little patches of snow that are left. Kids are dying to go swimming and are done with this snow mumbo-jumbo (Me, too!) 
Last weekend we met up with some old friends (Hi, Kirse & Tim!) at the Minute-Man visitor center in Concord/Lexington. It's one of my most favorite historical areas around Boston (The movie they show there is amazing). We are gearing up for Patriot's Day/Marathon Monday next week. The kids are all on Spring Break and I'm excited to see some awesome reenactments and cheer on the runners! It's such an emotional thing to witness. Mostly, we are excited to watch the leaves grow back on the trees and feel the warmth of sunshine. We are excited for more hopscotch (I'm the moron who drew the 6 backwards- I was upside down!) and riding bikes. 2 little ducks have already taken residence in the pond out front and the animals in the forest are getting louder and louder each night. It's coming. Yes, yes it's coming! Hooray!

 Traditional Italian Easter Bread. Hmmm. So delish. If you are thinking about making rolls/bread this Easter,  you just might want to consider this one. It's a sweet bread thats pretty simple to make especially if you have a kitchen-aid. I found this recipe a few years ago on The Italian Dish.  She makes individual rolls/breads but I tend to like the larger braid better especially if serving to a big crowd. If you were having a smaller gathering, the individual sizes would work out great. 
When I took my bread class last year up in Vermont at King Arthur Flour, I bought a bag of this sparkling white sugar which is really coarse and great for sprinkling on sweet breads. 
It makes the bread nice and sparkly. Gorgeous, I tell you! Here's the recipe:

Italian Easter Bread 

Adapted from: The Italian Dish 

makes 6 individual breads or 1 large braided loaf 

*I've included my notes in italics below if you want to make a braided loaf 

Ingredients: 

• 1 package Rapid Rise (instant) yeast, about 2-1/4 teaspoons
• 1.25 cups milk
• pinch of salt
• 1/3 cup butter
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1/2 cup sugar

• 3.5 cups flour (approximate)
• 1 egg, beaten with 1 teaspoon of water
• 6 dyed Easter eggs *
• sprinkles or pearl sugar

Instructions:

* tip:  the Easter eggs do not need to be hard boiled.  They cook when the bread bakes.  I usually just dye the eggs uncooked, without hardboiling them.  Saves time.  Just be careful they don't crack! 

In a small saucepan, warm the milk and butter together, just till butter melts.    In a large mixer bowl, combine yeast, salt, eggs and sugar.  Add the warm (not hot – it will kill the yeast) milk and butter. Add about half the flour and beat until smooth with dough hook.   Slowly add the remaining flour to form a stiff dough.  Don't worry about how much flour it ends up being, just keep adding until the dough is not sticky anymore. I ended up using about 5 cups of flour before it wasn't sticky anymore. 

Knead until smooth with either dough hook attachment or turn out on floured board and knead.  Place in a greased bowl, cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about an hour. It took my dough about 2 hours to rise because it's still quite cold here in MA. Give yourself extra time esp. if you are preparing same day for a special occasion. I started at about 10 a.m. and it was done at 2:30 p.m. 

Place on two baking sheets lined with parchment paper or on Silpat (1 baking sheet for the braided loaf).  Cover and let rise until double, about an hour again.  (Again, took about 2 hours for me)  Brush each  bread with beaten egg wash.  Put on the sprinkles or sugar.   In the middle of each bread ring, gently place an Easter egg, making an indentation with the egg. Likewise, if you are making a braided loaf, gently tuck eggs throughout the bread and push town slightly. I initially was going to do 6 eggs, but as I started putting them in, I ended up using 4. I'll probably do 5 next time. 

If making individual bread, bake at 350 degrees until golden - about 20 minutes.  Cool on rack.

If making a braided loaf, bake at 350 degrees until golden- about 30 minutes. Cool on rack. 

When the bread came out of the  oven, I gently brushed it with a little bit of butter. Be careful when you do this because if the butter touches the eggs, it will cause the dye to bleed on the bread and then you'll have blue bread. Which I guess isn't the worst thing in the world. So regarding yesterdays post, I'm not saying I invented the chocolate no bake cookie. They have probably been around for 50 years. I get that. I don't even know where my recipe came from (if it was you, let me know!) I just have a handwritten recipe in my book that I wrote in probably 20 years ago. That makes me sound really old. My gripe was/is just having my pictures taken off my site. Ironically I can't even stand that no bake pic. Gag. It gets pinned like crazy on pinterest and I have no idea why. But I started thinking about those chocolate no bake cookies last night and thought they would make the cutest little birds nests for Easter so today, I decided to give it a shot. I used the recipe (here), made them as usual. 
I used a scoop to scoop them out so they were all about the same size and then made little indentations in the middle and used my fingers to shape the outside into a circle. You'll have to work quickly or have someone help you because by the time I scooped my last cookie, the first cookies were already starting to set. I took about a 3/4 of a cup of shredded coconut and added 2 drops of food coloring to turn it pale green. It's easiest to mix it up with your fingers. Set a little coconut grass inside each cookie and top with jelly beans or we used pastel colored junior mints.  

XOXO

Last night I had a little date night with myself  and had the pleasure of attending a 1 1/2 hour  interview with the one and only Ina Garten. People, it was AWESOME!! She is so down to earth and inspiring and just as wonderful in person as you'd hope she'd be. I'm still on cloud 9 thinking about it. She gave wonderful advice, talked about her favorite foods & restaurants and experiences in the business. It was amazing all around. I love her. 

We are gearing up for Easter and planning the last minute lunch/dinner details. I'll be back tomorrow with a recipe for a yummy Easter bread. Ina's having rack of lamb and risotto with roasted vegetables (in case you were wondering, which I know you were.) And she'll be at the White House on Monday teaching kids how to make guacamole (sign me up!!) Easter always calls for asparagus in our house and I"m really looking forward making that this year.

Unrelated, I generally don't like to talk about people snaking my photo's (which happens frequently) here on the blog. But I'm kind of bent out of shape about it tonight. Please don't take my photo's/recipes and claim them as your own. I always try to credit where I've gotten any recipes that are not my own. I almost never use photo's on this blog that are not mine. But when someone alerted me to this  (a recipe that I posted nearly 4 years ago) and it's been shared over 13,000 times, I don't know it just gets me bothered (yes, I already went on and commented on her post.) So give credit or link back to people's work/photo's/etc.,. that you might use on your blog or anywhere for that matter. Can't we just all play nice? That is all. 

Happy St. Patrick's Day! It's March- it's… okay- halfway though March but oh my- Spring is just around the corner. Winter has been so long and COLD! We are getting another 6-10 inches of snow tomorrow. I hope I can make it (I am not so sure.) Our computer is in the office which is a part of the house that we do not heat in the winter, so that somewhat explains my absence these last few months. It's a balmy 52 degrees in here now which is warmer than it's been in a long time but chilly! I'm all bundled up hoping to make it through this post 🙂 We cooked up a yummy Irish Stew for St. Patty's day (with some modifications). We made it last year and loved it so much. It's really thick and so yummy on a cold day.
You can't have Irish Stew without Irish Soda Bread so we made some of that, too (san's caraway seeds & raisins). It had a slightly greenish hue because when it came time to make the bread I realized the only little bit of milk I had left was the milk I had dyed green for the kids to drink (they were not amused). So there you have it. 
And because we wanted to see how close we could come before slipping into a sugar coma, we made these mint brownies.  I don't know what the deal is with these mint brownies are. They were such a bear to make. What gives? I think I must be at a crazy altitude or something- 25 minutes was not nearly long enough to bake- it took almost twice the time and then at that point they were overcooked. I made another batch and pulled them out at 25 minutes and they were gooey inside. Blah. You are supposed to use a chocolate icing but I just melted chocolate and swirled it in. I will tell you one thing, that mint icing is so delish. I used this to flavor it- it was so good (and it improved my mental accuracy- ha ha). I've been feeling sick all week and laying on the couch smelling the bottle of peppermint essential oil really helped. 

Anyway, hope you enjoyed your St. Patrick's Day. My Christmas wreaths are still hanging up outside. Oy oy oy. 

XOXOXO