I’m back!

Whew!  4,000+ miles later, my ever-trusty Corolla and I are back from my seven week work trip to New York and Ohio.  Yes, I decided to drive and think it was totally worth it in the end.  The more you know: Red Hook, NY seems MUCH further away than Cleveland, OH.  My bum can vouch for this 100%.

So what was I doing this trip besides not blogging very much (sorry…)?

Macaron Café in NYC

The weekend before last I headed down to the city from upstate NY to visit some grad school friends that I hadn’t seen in a few years, which was so great!  On Friday night after eating at a Greek place, we baked a batch of red velvet cupcakes and a loaf, then ate most of it while drinking wine and watching youtube videos.  Honey badger don’t care!

We went into Manhattan the next day where we walked around 5th Avenue (I finally went into the crazy Apple store), then meandered through Central Park.  At this point, I thought I’d try to look up the whereabouts of the Big Gay Ice Cream Truck via twitter, but it turned out that they had gone to Maine for a friend’s wedding.  Sad panda.

But then a lightbulb flashed, and I said I wanted to look for macarons!  Luckily I found out at that point that my friend Amanda was obsessed with them and had even had some at the famed Ladurée in Paris.  Jealous!

It turned out that we actually weren’t too far from a macaron-devoted bakery: Macaron Café!  Once there, we were greeted with the biggest selection of macarons I have seen yet.  This was actually only the second time I had really tried them at a bakery though, and there were only about five flavors the first time.  The shop was very small and cute with a little seating area in the back.  The menu also listed breakfast, salads, sandwiches, daily specials, and beverages, but we just bought macarons and left. 

Picking Blueberries!

Up until a couple weekends ago, I hadn’t ever even seen pre-picked blueberries.  However, it just so happens that my temporary summer location is 3.5 miles away from a pick-your-own farm, and the blueberries are currently in season!  So yes, I took a billion pictures to document the occasion.

When you arrive, there’s a little hut at which you pick up a plastic bucket for filling to your heart’s desire.

Alright so blueberry bushes?  They’re way bigger than I thought they would be and there were so many of them!  The berries themselves were also the biggest I’d seen, which had pretty much only been the kind in pints at grocery stores.  (I haven’t seen them at farmers markets in Texas before maybe because it’s too hot?) 

Little Czech Bakery: Kolache Pit Stop in West, Texas

Guess what!  I’m going to be fancy and do a block quote.  What’s the occasion?  Kolaches!!  (aka Czech bun-type things filled with yumminess)

There’s apparently a big Czech/kolache center in Texas; sounds like I need to do some traveling for science (or vicarious traveling…maybe I can find a Texan-baker willing to do some research…? >.>).
- Mary from n00bcakes on kolaches

Howdy!  I am happy to report that this Texan-baker (1/4 Czech/Bohemian to boot!) has finally done some field research for blog pal Mary.  The Czech/kolache center that I assume she was referring to happened to be on the way to New York, but umm, much closer to San Antonio than my final destination.  It’s in West, Texas and every time I say this, I feel the need to add a dramatic pause where the comma is so as not to sound like I’m referring to West Texas.  Totally not where this place is…it’s 75 miles south of Dallas and 15 miles north of Waco, which is the northeast part of Texas.

This gem of a place is known as Little Czech Bakery which is part of Czech Stop.  There are gas pumps in front of it making it also a gas station, which you can use as justification for stopping to Czech it out (hur hur).   I had to get gas, so this was convenient, but there were so many people that I had to wait 5 minutes.  No biggie.

bake me away…is away!

I’m living in a dorm room, my car has an extra 1900+ miles on it than last week, and I’m missing my kitty like crazy.

If you follow me on Twitter, you probably know that I am currently not in Texas anymore, at least for the next several weeks.  I’m spending about a month in upstate New York playing in the orchestra for a conductor training program, then am going to Cleveland for a few weeks to help out at my old job there.

What does this mean for the blog then?  Funny, I’ve been asking myself that for weeks now!

The dorm kitchen isn’t very well-equipped or conducive to make very much of anything.  However, I actually have a few unblogged baking things to write about, will still do the Wordless Wednesdays (new places to photograph!), and will probably do some travel/review posts.  Boom!

Next weekend I’m hoping to go down to New York City and visit some friends, so if anyone has some must-sees/dos for me, fire away!  I’ve been there several times over the past 10+ years, but come on…it’s huge!  Revisiting the Big Gay Ice Cream Truck (and maybe the new shop if it’s open?) is definitely at the top of my list.  (I’ve been dreaming about the Salty Pimp and Bea Arthur…)  Oh and maybe I should go to Blue Bottle to try their New Orleans Iced Coffee for a comparison with their recipe that I made?  (side note: I’m hoping to NOT spend all the money I make from this work trip…)

Anyway, hi!  I’m still here.  I just won’t be complaining about the unbearable heat for a change.

Wordless Wednesday: The world’s steepest street!

Baldwin Street, Dunedin, New Zealand (January 15, 2010)
For the rest of my Blog4NZ posts, see the end of this post.

For more WW, click here.

The Grape Escape: Winery Tours in Hawke’s Bay, NZ

I have a disclaimer to make: I was not a blogger while in New Zealand, so I didn’t take notes or snap as many photos as I might have otherwise (though 1300+ pics/vids isn’t too shabby, eh?).

As promised in my last post, I was going to talk about wine next, but then realized I couldn’t remember the names of the wineries I went to!  Luckily, I could figure out two from my photos, and am pretty sure the other two are correct: Ngatarawa, Alpha Domus, Sileni Estates, and Moana Park

One of the things that struck me while on the road in New Zealand was the sheer number of vineyards I saw!  I knew that it was an important contributor to the wine world, but my knowledge in that department is pretty minimal to say the least.  In fact, this was my first wine tour, and before taking it, I wasn’t even sure which type of wine was my favorite! 

Two Things…

Thing One

A year ago from today, this is what I saw:

I’ve been having a really hard time wrapping my head around the fact that it’s been a whole year since that trip.  It feels like it was just a little while ago!  Maybe it’s this way with all big journeys, or maybe it’s just the first?

Either way, I’ve shamefully only uploaded several of the 1300+ photos that I took during my 5 weeks in New Zealand.  Until now, that is.  And guess what?  I’m sharing them with you!  My plan was to post them all at once, but I’m going to do this gradually because it’s daunting and evidently a year wasn’t long enough. 

Did you know that I have another blog?  (Answer: nope.)  I’m going to post NZ photo updates over there, but will let you know whenever those happen.  Like now: First set is up!