Some friends are calling it the end of en era.  After almost 20 years in New York City, we're moving to New Canaan, CT.  However, after 20 years in the bustling center of it all, we're excited about a new adventure.  We'd prefer to think of it as the start of something different; change is good.  We'll miss being able to have delicious dinners delivered (up 4 flights) to our door, Central Park, the smartest, most driven people ever, the noise (well, maybe not the noise) and the uniqueness of every day here.  Plus the immediate access to the greatest food, wine and design resources in the universe!!  But we're looking forward to discovering New England.  We love our new home, our working fireplace which we expect to use all the time, a friendly neighborhood, a quaint downtown, being a block from the train to Manhattan, more space, lower prices, parks, shops and having a car nearby.  CT is home to great people, beautiful places and unbelievable food, wine and design!  We hope that you'll come with us at www.foodwineanddesign.com to New Canaan, CT to check it all out!  Fingers crossed for a successful move. And hey, let's keep in mind that the city will always welcome us back!  It's very forgiving after all.

 
Rather than dwell on the terrible storm damage the Hudson Valley suffered about a month ago, and the thousands of dollars Food Wine and Design will have to pay to have the dangerous "widow makers" clipped from the tops of our now-sad looking trees, etc. etc., we thought we'd focus on sweeter things.  Food Wine and Design thought cupcakes were in order, yes...again (see Crumbs Bake Shop Cupcakes posted November 10, 2010 at http://www.foodwineanddesign.com/blog/2010/11/crumb-bake-shop-cupcakes.html.html).  This time we sought out yellow cupcakes with vanilla frosting.  We grabbed one from the Irving Farm Coffee Company in the village of Millerton, NY.  We love this spot for a quick sandwich right in the middle of all the village action.  Then we made our way over to check out Back in the Kitchen (great name!!), Peggy McEnroe's newly opened and wonderfully designed and decorated cafe' (January) in Amenia, NY.

See photos of the sweet treats above.  The cupcake from Back in the Kitchen is on the left and the cupcake from Irving Farm is on the right. Yum!! Cupcakes are always great, but if we're picking strengths here FWandD would mix the moist and delicious yellow cake (i.e., the bottom of the cupcake) from Back in the Kitchen with the sweet, rich vanilla frosting and multi-colored sprinkles (i.e., the top of the cupcake) from Irving Farm.  And isn't "the mixing" what's great about the Amenia/Northeast/Millerton/etc. area after all?  It's a wonderfully eclectic area where people from all walks of life mix together sharing a vast array of foods, arts, activities, causes and defense of the environment while local businesses support each other.  Coincidentally, we understand that Peggy McEnroe used to bake for Irving Farm. See what we mean?

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.  Don't forget to have a cupcake!

 Before the hallway was nursed back to the 2000s.

 and the closets!

  ...and the door to the B&B suite...
 We're so excited to be moving forward. This is gonna be great! Thanks for all the ideas and support.

 Food Wine and Design made this salad recipe at a recent Valentine's Day gathering with family in NYC and it stole the show, mostly due to the easy and delicious dressing.

From Paula's Home Cooking/Savannah Country cookbook

Servings: 10 to 12 servings

Prep Time: 20 min

Cook Time: 5 min

Difficulty: Easy

 Food Wine and Design made this salad recipe at a recent Valentine's Day gathering with family in NYC and it stole the show, mostly due to the easy and delicious dressing.

From Paula's Home Cooking/Savannah Country cookbook

Servings: 10 to 12 servings

Prep Time: 20 min

Cook Time: 5 min

Difficulty: Easy

 Food Wine and Design made this salad recipe at a recent Valentine's Day gathering with family in NYC and it stole the show, mostly due to the easy and delicious dressing.

From Paula's Home Cooking/Savannah Country cookbook

Servings: 10 to 12 servings

Prep Time: 20 min

Cook Time: 5 min

Difficulty: Easy

Foodies of all types have discovered the Valley and its wide variety of top-flight restaurants. One chef even predicts we’ll soon be vying with California’s Napa Valley as a dining destination. Find out what all the buzz is about with these profiles of local eateries.

By Lynn Hazlewood

Published in Hudson Valley Magazine February 18, 2011

http://www.hvmag.com/Hudson-Valley-Magazine/March-2011/Where-to-Eat-in-the-Hudson-Valley/

 Tonight we're hosting a Valentine's Day dinner for our family on the Upper West Side.  It turns out that our all-white furniture scheme is perfect for the holiday--it really makes all of that pink and red pop!  For our centerpiece, we used branches from upstate, spray painted them white, cut out construction paper hearts and scotch taped pink ribbon to them which we then tied to the branches.  We fed the remaining pink and red construction paper through our paper shredder and filled the glass vase with it.  It creates an additional decorative element while holding the branches in place.  We used a red runner and place mats (the latter as napkins) from Pottery Barn for the table linens and we'll fill white ramekins with Sweethearts candies (not exactly a great accompaniment to dinner, but fun and colorful). Finally check out the favors (below)! 
 We found these great hearts, roses and lips (yep, lips, like those wax lips from when we were kids) magnets!  So we crossed the silverware at each place setting and topped them off with one of the magnets. They hold them together, look cute and our guests can take their magnets home. Love it! For our meal, we'll start with mixed olives, butter toffee cashews, an herbed French brie, a NY extra-sharp chedder, baguette, red and green grapes and a sparkling rose' (bubbly pink wine for Valentine's Day of course).  We'll follow with an orange walnut salad with sweet and sour dressing, mixed veggies and beef macaroni and cheese--simple and comforting.  We'll end the night with chocolate chip cake from Corrado Bakery in Grand Central. Recipes and more photos to follow! 



 

 
FWandD spent the snowy, snowy day inside prepping for our upcoming Valentine's Day party.  It's amazing how therapeutic it can be to cut out pink and red construction paper hearts!  The menu is yet to be decided although ideas are being floated (read: the sparkling rose' and chocolate were no-brainers).  Photos to come!

 
Most weeks FWandD stops in to Grande Harvest Wines in Grand Central Terminal to pick up wine "supplies".  At Grande Harvest they have a great frequent buyer program. After seven stamps on your card, you can pick up a pre-selected bottle for free or a bottle of your choice with a 15% discount. The beauty of the pre-selected bottles is that since Grande Harvest only sells good wine, you're bound to discover something casual but nice. This week they selected a bottle of Down Under Shiraz 2008 (label shown is from the chardonnay). It was delicious and makes a great weeknight selection. FWandD went back and bought another bottle for a friend.  We also found a post from The Wine Curmudgeon that seems to agree with our Down Under experience.  For ten bucks, you can't go wrong with this one. Happy sipping!