BRAND BALLOT'S TOP 100 MOM BLOGS FOR 2018!!
Recap of Monday in NYCHello!!! Starting to get excited for Thanksgiving, which is only two days away!! Me and Kelsey went to Trader Joe's last night to get the bulk of the items we will need for our small family feast on Thursday and I finished up with the remaining items needed at Stop & Shop this morning. Although it just me and the girls and my Aunt Ro, I still have a bit of cooking to do. I'm going to do a portion of it tonight, which will make tomorrow a much easier day. Let me get to my day yesterday! As I had mentioned in my blog yesterday, I was heading into NYC to meet my friend Elisa - not to be confused with Travelin' Elisa - to catch up and grab a bit to eat. It was such a fun morning! We met at Penn Station, since I arrived from Long Island and Elisa was coming from New Jersey. Here is a video and picture I took while waiting for my dear friend to arrive: At Penn Station yesterday Our initial plan was to go for lunch at Blossom Restaurant in Chelsea (a Travelin' Cousins Vegan Approved restaurant), a short walk away, but considering how tight our time was because I had to get back to Garden City to get my girls, we decided to save "travel" time and just eat locally in Pennsy Food Hall, right in Penn Plaza. It was a great choice because I was also eager to eat at The Cinnamon Snail, which has one of its locations in the food hall. Elisa is not a vegan, but is a foodie, so she was happy and flexible to try out their food. The hall itself opens at 11am and was not terribly crowded when the doors opened, but what I can say is that just about the entire group of patrons were lined up at The Cinnamon Snail!!! Wow - we were both struck by just how many people were on the line for this one food counter, while the other vendors were empty. We both decided to try their burgers - I went for the Lentil & Artichoke burger, while Elisa tried the Barbeque burger. She was quick to tell me how yummy her choice was!! There was no way we were going to leave without some sweet treats - so off we went with some donuts and I wanted to try their Lavender & Pear turnover, which was delicious! What a nice day. In the process, I finally decided that I was going ton join Tanya and Dave in the 2019 TD Five Boro Bike Tour on May 5th. This will be my dear cuz's second year at this event and she encouraged me to join them. Well, during our lunch, Elisa was telling me how her hubby, Andy has become an avid biker and I mentioned the Bike Tour to her as something for which, he should be a part. Then, as we were chatting, I told Elisa how I was considering it, but, was not as serious a biker as my cousin and Dave. Realizing that we were both at the "same" level of biking, Elisa decided that she would partake, provided the date works with their schedule. Yay!!! So, I've got to confirm that Elisa and Andy will be registering and if so, your's truly will be biking 40 miles on May 5th!! Hey - did you guys check out Tanya's blog with all of her foodie pics from her eating adventures in China?? It's super interesting!! Well, I'm off to begin my cooking - yup - already. See ya back here tomorrow!! -Travelin' Elisa xoxo | What we ate in ChinaHey Guys, Only 2 days before Thanksgiving. Are you excited? Are you indifferent? Is Thanksgiving a huge holiday for your family? Do you travel? Drop us a line, we really want to know. As for myself, I've got a plate piled high of things to do before the big day. And on the big day, I've got a ton of work in the kitchen so that we can all have plates piled high with our annual feast of feasts! One thing we definitely did not do while in China was FEAST. In fact, being that we traveled within a group and mostly ate with the said group, we did not even have the time to go out to find one of the many vegetarian/vegan restaurants of which I happened to take a brilliant list with me - as I always do. So you might wonder what did we eat while we were over there. Well sadly for the most part our lunches and dinners consisted of a very boring BOK CHOY dish and a boring CELERY dish. Now I want to make it clear, I have nothing against Bok Choy or Celery. I love just about all veggies. But I also like good food - not boring tasteless food. One other incredibly funny thing was the fact that each of these restaurants would also serve us a plate of super gross looking French Fries. Because Boy Choy, Celery and Fries are just about as creative as the non-vegan/vegetarian chefs in China could be! I do mean seriously gross fries. Fries that looked as though they were frozen and defrosted and served up on a plate. Hey, I'm already not much of a fry girl and there was definitely no tempting me with this plate of limp potato starch logs! It wasn't long before we were the butt of a running joke as to "How was the Bok Choy today?" LOL I mean come on, the omnivores (yes that is what I am calling the rest of you non vegans - you might think you are a carnivore, but you are an omnivore) had a table full of plate of plate of meat filled veggie dishes along with plenty of other unidentifiable plates. Which leaves me with with the question as to why they couldn't make us a variety of veggie dishes? It really made zero sense. Breakfasts were by far the most interesting meal of the day and with the most options... But I didn't find this out until after Day 1: After figuring out the ropes of the breakfast and of course the ingredients. We were definitely able to make out with a much better meal. Breakfast buffet after breakfast buffet and plenty of oddities that I didn't even bother asking what they were. At breakfast there were choices for everyone! There was a Peking Duck lunch where we chose to not eat with the rest of the group and found a restaurant located just next door with a ton of items and something for everyone. We tried to order other veggies and got yet another version of what seemed like Bok Choy. We also shared a rice roll that was filled with mushrooms. On an evening out on the town our subgroup of new and old friends had found a restaurant that showed us the vegan options of the menu. The items all sounded a bit too bizarre for my picky taste and I opted to order a dish of mushrooms and a spinach and garlic dish that we were told was sold out! You might be thinking that the desire and day dreams of flavorful food would only be coming from us because of the extremely boring veggies we were being given. Well it wasn't, we heard from everybody in the tour how they can't wait to go home and eat their favorite foods! I just wonder how long it will take before any of us are in the mood for Chinese again. lol Anyhow we've suffered enough and on Thursday we are going to FEAST!! I'll be signing off now and catch back up with you tomorrow. Toodles, -Travelin' Tanya |