Blustery Outer Banks

We decided to celebrate the end of the summer with a little beach vacation in the Outer Banks which is, it seems, where WalMart shoppers spend their holidays. Being the end of summer and on the tail of a hurricane, it was deserted and we had the place to ourselves. We rented this beach house with one of my oldest friends, my roommate senior year of high school, and her boyfriend.
It wasn't lie on the sand weather--it was more like walk on the beach in a sweater weather--but it was a lovely little holiday. Highlights included:

The raw bar where J. polished off 34 oysters

Spotting a great blue heron

Cooking a bouillabaisse, complete with a garlic rouille

Breakfast at Sting Rays, Cape Charles, Virginia, where a sweet potato biscuit with country ham was $1.49

On the drive home, I was employing my usual methods, including tailgating and intimidating the slower vehicles, until one of the cars I was harassing began emitting a siren and lights. It was an unmarked police vehicle manned by a very twitchy, furious North Carolina cop. "Do you know what, Ma'am?" he began. "I have half a mind to throw you in jail for reckless driving!" I rolled my eyes and handed him my license. What North Carolina calls reckless driving, we in New York call simply driving. It didn't help that my last extended stint behind the wheel was in South Africa, where it's necessary to drive like a hellion to avoid being run off the road. As it was, I was sent on my way with no more than a warning and an admonishment that "If you exceed the speed limit by one mile from here to the Virginia state line, you can look in your side mirror to see me COMING TO ARREST YOU." Sure you will. And with that I went on my way.

Fairmount Day, Benefit and Barbecue

When I was in college, I worked summers at a place called Fairmount Homes, a wonderful Mennonite home in Pennsylvania on a hill in Farmersville, Pa. Every year, they have a chicken barbecue / benefit auction where quilts, theme baskets and farmhouse dinners are auctioned off. When I was in college, I always missed the event, because it takes place after Labor Day, when classes have already begun. This year, J. and I trekked to Pa expressly for Fairmount Day.

Food is, of course, a big part of the event, and eats included freshly made soft pretzels, raspberry soft serve ice cream, lemonade and a barbecued chicken dinner. Additionally, baked goods were auctioned off and for some reason, there seemed to be dozens of ground cherry pies at auction. By the end, these pies were going very slowly, so out of sympathy for the last lone pie, J. and I bid on it. It was a ground cherry crumb pie and turned out to be absolutely delicious.

Out of the 100+ quilts for auction, we settled on a few lovely, old fashioned ones, wedding rings in yellow and cornflower blue and Irish chains in dark green and white. As our quilts came up for bidding, the prices rose, some well past 1000 USD. We were soundly outbid, but we certainly did our bit to push the prices up for charity. As the quilt auction continued, we became determined to go home with a quilt. J. selected a raspberry Trip Around the World patchwork quilt, and we bid until it was ours. And here it is, modeled by our cat, Kusa.
The Fairmount Auction wasn't the only auction in town. My aunt told me about a produce auction that takes place early in the morning in a corn field not far away, so I stopped by early one morning to bid on some end of the season tomatoes. And here they are, my tomatoes, each box costing 2.00 USD. Not a bad deal! (The lot of peaches went for 6.00 a box, also a pretty good deal!)

When you have hundreds of tomatoes, you do what my people have done for a hundred years: you can them! At my favorite dry goods store in Pa, Goods Store, the canning aisle is will stocked with everything you need.

Anyone for Tennis?

You know summer in New York is coming to an end when the US Open begins the Monday before Labor Day. For me, going to the US Open is a favorite annual ritual. It's got everything: triple match points, shopping at Ralph Lauren and my personal favorite, courtside cocktails! This year, our seats at Arthur Ashe were great; we were practically on top of the players. In fact, we were sitting right behind Andy Roddick's wife, Brooklyn Decker, who was cheering him on as he easily trounced Stephane Robert. In addition to Roddick, we got to see two of my favorites, Melanie Oudin and Kim Clijsters.

Tennis and I go way back. From the age of 12, I was my dad's doubles partner and I played on the team all through high school, ending up as #1 my senior year. I liked the strategy and the psychological component of it. To win, you've got to psych yourself up! That said, I was happy to give it up when I graduated and, not incidentally, got kicked off the team for insubordination. (In my experience, high school sports are all about conformity of the most draconian kind).

So, tennis. It's kind of like opera: I love it, but I prefer to be a spectacter rather than a performer. Plus the cocktails are better on this side!

Bandu on the Roof

So I was walking along, minding my own business in Central Park when I saw something odd on the roof of the Met Museum.
Looks like a giants birds nest! Like anyone who adores birds, I had to get closer. So I popped into the museum, took the elevators to the roof and stumbled into the best Friday evening party in town!

Shapely Vegetables from my CSA

Not too shabby for 20 bucks a week!

Purslane, a tart, succulent green, was a first for me. My brother Chris made a purslane salad with tart yogurt, mint and thyme from the rooftop garden. Simple and delicious!

4th of July Midwest style

My brother Chris returned from his Europe jaunt, full stories, and we decided it was high time to visit our other sibling in Wisconsin and his baby, who is 9 months old and absolutely beautiful. So we spent Fourth of July in the Midwest, first in Milwaukee, where we saw our gorgeous nephew, A.

He's the first grandchild on both sides of the family and is universally adored! We toured a brewery (which you've gotta do in Milwaukee), stopped by a cheese shop (cheese curds!) and enjoyed frozen custard (awesome!). Where can I get frozen custard in New York? Anyone know?

Then we drove to Michigan, where we visited our grandparents and attended my friend M's wedding celebration. Her celebration, which doubled as a 30th birthday party for both the bride and the groom, was at a park on the most beautiful day imaginable. She had a yellow and white striped tent and served delicious barbecue where guest brought sides dishes. As befits a guest just in from Wisconsin, I contributed the smelly cheese platter. After the barbecue, there was rugby, frisbee activity and swimming. How many brides can say they went for a swim at their own wedding? So cool! That's just the kind of bride she is!

Salty Dogs on the Roof

At our first braai of the season, held, as always, on our rooftop, we served the usual: hot dogs, burgers, roasted vegetable kebabs, chicken kebabs, roasted corn, barbecued chicken, lemon and herb potato salad, oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, lemonade and Cape Town Collins. My favorite new recipe was for Salty Dogs, a tart refreshing vodka cocktail. (Technically, it's a Greyhound with vodka instead of gin and a salty rim.)

Ingredients:

• 2 oz vodka
  
• 4 oz grapefruit juice
• coarse kosher salt
  
• lemon for garnish
  

Preparation:

1. Rim the glass with salt and lemon juice
   
2. Pour the ingredients into an ice cube filled collins glass
3. Stir
   
4. Garnish with a lemon wedge

It's my favorite new drink of the summer. Enjoy!

PS We were also going to serve homemade ice cream at our braai, but, as it turns out, our icecream maker--which is the old fashioned bucket kind that screetches and makes a mess rather than the dainty William Sonoma model--is a lemon. Guess this warrents another trip to our favorite dry goods store in Pennsylvania!

Pa, reprise

And here we are back in Pennsylvania. This weekend we attended my cousin's wedding at an Amish church in southeastern Pa. This gave us an excuse to enjoy an extended weekend in Pa, doing what we do best: shopping and eating! Eats included stacks of blueberry pancakes, peanut butter pancakes, waffles, veggie omelets, Eggs Benedict (bacon on the side), scrambled eggs with sausage, quiche, apple dumplings with ice cream and corn fritters with maple syrup. And that was just breakfast--lunch and dinner were equally extensive.

As for shopping, we got enough dry goods to weather the apocalypse, which J. anticipates with glee. I swear, we must have a year's supply of rice and beans in our pantry! We also purchased an ice cream maker, the old fashioned bucket kind, so we can try our hand at making ice cream for our next braai on the roof. When I was a kid, I got homemade ice cream at every birthday and beyond--there's nothing as delicious as a Pepsi float (hey, it was the Philippines, no root beer to be had!) made with homemade ice cream.


The wedding itself, on a hot Saturday afternoon, was absolutely beautiful and it was a treat to see my Pennsylvania Dutch relatives. There are always newborn second cousins (my cousins' children) to meet and new gossip to hear, like which of my cousins has started dating. It's a vast family--my father was one of seven children, I have 30+ cousins, and now my cousins have started building their own, large families--and I only see them at family gatherings held at Thanksgiving and Christmas. I love their old world way of life: canning produce from the kitchen garden, sewing clothes by hand, baking their own bread. Some days, I wish I lived that way. It would be a respite from my silly urban life where I run hither and thither.

Green Hills of Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania is one of our favorite spots to visit on a long weekend like Memorial Day. It's green, there's lots of beautiful produce to buy, enormous buffets of farm-style cooking to devour, antiques to peruse, furniture to commission and friends to see.

This is our very favorite place to order furniture, C&S Rustic Furniture, on Route 897. It's a family business, and the Amish guys, as we call them, will make any wooden piece that we dream up. J. is in the market for a new desk, and this fall we have our sights on a kitchen renovation, meaning that we will need lots of wooden cabinets. These days, they are too busy picking strawberries, zucchini and tomatoes to do much carpentry, so we'll have to wait for our pieces. After a long weekend of eating, shopping, and hanging out by the swimming pool we head back to Brooklyn...only to come to a dead stop in traffic on the New Jersey Turnpike. I forget how bad traffic is every year, and every year I say "I'm never going to do that again!" But I do.

I'm not a true Arenophile...

...but I do like colorful sand. I collected sand from the deserts and beaches of eastern and southern Africa--Shela beach on Lama in Kenya, colorful rocky sand from Cape Town, white sand the color of sugar from Cape Vidal, South Africa, etc--and smuggled my collection across every national border in 1 ounce Nalgene bottles. I was reassured by my geologist friend, Meghan, that any microorganisms in the sand would be dead by the time I reached home. Now, I'm home and I can display my sand in glass spice bottles. Here is red sand from Sesreim Dune 45 in Namibia,
and here is yellowish-white sand from Kendwa Rocks, Zanzibar.

Commencement in the rain

Although I finished my classes in December, it's officially commencement! I commenced twice: once with the Mailman School of Public Health event, where Bill Clinton spoke, and once in the rain on the Columbia quad with all of the other schools. This is the public health graduation:

Here I am in my blue regalia with two buddies. Thanks for cheering me on, guys!


And here I am with J. Characteristically, I have a plate of food. J. had more restraint and waited for dinner at Nonna's, also known as "John's Italian grandmother," as in "Let's go to Nonna's. I haven't seen my Italian grandmother in a while."

And here is the next day commencement in the rain on the Columbia quad. All schools are represented, and various schools carry / throw things that are emblematic of their degree. Dental school students carry toothbrushes, business students wave cash, Teacher's College students have red apples, and what do public health students have? Condoms, of course!

I can't overstate what a miserable day this was: bone-chilling cold, windy and spitting rain. J., his parents and my brother Chris stood in the rain for two hours to cheer me on. Are they rock stars or what? The Columbia president, Lee Bollinger, said "Rain on commencement day means that you will have a fantastic life." Hope so!

New York Madness

How did I forget? Life in New York is absolute madness! A mere three days after touching down at JFK, I was back to the grindstone of work at the venerable Columbia U. I have been spoiled by long, languid days of leisurely breakfasts, pleasant game viewing and bird spotting, afternoons reading a novel by the pool and sundowners enjoyed with a glass of wine. I'm not quite ready for the tedium of 9 to 5 work! But here I am, working and trying to cram everything into 24 hours. There's work, running in the park, yoga, parties, film festivals, dinner with friends, interesting public health lectures to attend, errands to run, graduation festivities to plan, all of the various bits and pieces of life in New York. It's such a cliche to say that the pace is dizzying, isn't it?

In addition to my day job, there are also future prospects to consider. Two weeks after returning, I landed an interview with a big fat pharma company smack dab in the center of the city. It went well, and now I have a second interview scheduled for next week. Wish me luck!

Things I have done since I returned include:

1. Tribeca Film Festival! Jackie and I saw "A Brand New Life," about a little girl abandoned at a Korean orphanage. Sounds like a downer, right? It was actually very sweet & sad, an entirely beautiful film.

2. Ordered a spinach and garlic pizza at the best pizza joint in town, San Remo's, which is, luckily, just down the block from me!

3. Ogled the cherry blossoms at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden with J.

4. Baked a belated birthday cake for J. Although he got a chocolate brownie with ice cream plus a staff sing-a-long at Spurs restaurant in Kuruman, South Africa, he moaned that he didn't, in fact, get a real birthday cake this year (or, for that matter, the two birthday dinner parties with all of his friends in attendance that he is accustomed to). I thought I would try my hand at a double layer cake to assuage his sorrow. Here it is, a two-layer "Sunshine" cake with raspberry filling and white icing, plus the appropriate amount of candles. I believe in the true amount of candles on every birthday cake, fire alarm be damned!

5. Planted my summer garden. J. and I joined a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) group this year, so we will be getting boxes of veggies every week, probably more than we can eat. Anticipating the boxes of tomatoes, zucchini, eggplant, etc, I planted less veggies this year and more spices. I was happy to see that some spices from last year, including cilantro, catnip, mint, rosemary, oregano and lavender have come back on their own. And my strawberries plants look beautiful!

6. Dined at my favorite restaurant in the world with J., Al di la. It boasts delectable northern Italian cuisine in a friendly, homey setting. Its The only downside is that it's very popular and it does not take reservations, so you have to be prepared to eat dinner at 5:30p!

7. Attended both the Met Opera and the New York City Opera. I've got to say, although I'm a snob at heart, I really do think that City Opera could give the Met a run for its money. The modern production of Handel's Partenope that we saw was fantastic.

8. Spent a late afternoon reading in Sheep's Meadow in Central Park.
9. Put my cat on a diet. I swear, he must have gained three pounds since I left! A pound for every month I was away, perhaps. He's now eating high fiber cat food and he seems lighter already.

Top shots

By special request, here are a few favorite pictures from my trip to Africa.

To start with, have you ever seen a happier pig than this warthog at Mkuze National Park in South Africa?

This is something I have always wanted to see: a giraffe drinking water. Totally awkward and vulnerable to lion attack!

This is the lovely Paternoster, with whitewashed fisherman cottages, in the Western Cape, South Africa.

This is the Sea Point Pavilion, where you can do laps with an ocean view, in Cape Town.


This is the interior courtyard at the lovely Winchester Mansions in Cape Town.


My village, Tsineng.


Petrified forest in Sossusvlei, Namibia (where part of the J. Lo movie "The Cell" was filmed).


Sunrise over the Sesriem dunes, Namibia.

Rock formations, Namibia.

Giraffes at dusk, Etosha, Namibia.

Okavango Delta, Botswana.

Victoria Falls by helicopter.

Victoria Fall, dangling over the edge. I didn't take this picture; instead, my guide took my camera and clambered over rocks until he was barely clinging to the edge. I was like "Dude, the shot is not worth dying for!"

Sunset over the Zambezi

Zanzibar! Now you see why I stayed an extra week.

Lions, Ngorongoro Crater.
Olduvai Gorge, the "Cradle of Humankind."

Baby lion cub, yawning. You know all about its tragic fate.

Antelope, Masai Mara.

Full Moon, Lamu