Sam I am

i Trulli on Good Day New York

This morning, Patti Jackson and the Marzovilla family were on Good Day New York on Fox 5. They made cavatelli with broccoli rabe. Four segments were shot; Dora was shown with the grandkids making the pasta and then Patti prepared the dish with the anchor. I'll post a link to video later.

Update: You can see the video of Patti making cavatelli with broccoli rabe at i Trulli at the Good Day site, or see it below.

Labels: food, friends

Peter turned 40

My friend Peter turned 40 in August. His significant other, Valerie, threw him a surprise birthday party at Stella, a restaurant in the South Street Seaport.



Peter works in the wine industry, so my friend Patti made a wine bottle cake. To celebrate the birthdays of my friends Anne and Mike, she added a wine "bible" (also made of cake), written by them.


Darrin, the chef at Stella, roasted a small pig.

Labels: friends, wine

Hiking on the Appalachian Trail

My friend Phil Jache's is very close to the Appalachian Trail. I went to his house for Thanksgiving this past November, and we hiked a couple of small segments. Hiking through the forest is relaxing and energizing.


Phil, Anne, Kathy, and myself


The flora and fauna on the trail are amazing. I could probably spend hour just documenting an area of land less than ten square feet.


The trail winds up and down mountains of all sizes, from hills to high peaks. It also dips into valleys and wetlands. Across many of the swamps, people have build walkways across the mud and water. Since it was November, this land was semi-firm mud.


Hiking trails are marked with blazes at irregular intervals attached to features like trees and rocks. The Appalachian trail is uses one white paint blaze most of the time. When the trail turns, you will sometimes see two blazes pointing the way.


If you walk the trail quickly, you sometimes miss odd features. I found the skull just to the side of the path.


The views from the peaks can be fairly spectacular, even if they aren't actually that high. The second photo is a self-portrait. It was back-lit, and it wasn't possible to get a perfect exposure on my small camera.




Anne, Phil, and I hiked two sections of the trail, while Kathy left after one. The trail goes by a lot of houses; a man was walking dogs along the trail.


A video of one minute of the hike.

If you live on the East coast, it's definitely worth taking a day trip along the Appalachian Trail. And it's arguably a good reason to visit the East coast.

Labels: friends, hiking, nature

Go Emily!

My friend Emily ran the New York City Marathon today. As far as I know, she is my first friend to run a marathon. It was my first time watching any marathon in person; I went up to Sarah and Jeremy's new apartment in Park Slope to watch her go by. It was a ton of fun, and something I want to repeat next year.

Emily wrote about her training for the marathon and also raised over $1,400 dollars to fight cancer. This was her first marathon, and she completed it in under five hours. She looked great when she passed Jeremy, Sarah, and I at 4th Avenue and 1st Street--not only was she right on pace, but she looked fantastic. She called out to us as she ran by. (Jeremy made a large cardboard "Emily" sign that Sarah was holding.)

Congratulations Emily!


I also took some poorly composed video of the marathon before Emily came by.

Labels: friends, New York

Boating and hiking

Last weekend, I rode on a yacht, had food poisoning, and climbed Anthony's Nose.

I took Friday, October 3rd off to sail around the New York Classic Week Regatta, a schooner race around New York Harbor. Anne, Ginny, and I met at Chelsea Piers to board the yacht Manhattan. We paced most of the race to the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge and then made our way up the East River before heading back to the finish line at the Hudson. There was a bit of extra time, so we continued up the Hudson to see the Intrepid before returning to dock.

The day was overcast, but it was still pleasant outside and we all had a great time. We were supplied with a brunch of waffles, quiche, ham, salmon, and bagels; not to mention a fully stocked bar.




The Pride of Baltimore


New York harbor is a working harbor, and the sailboats navigated along large container vessels and barges.



Turning at the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge.


Anne and Ginny


The Manhattan was comfortable, fast, and fun. It's worth looking into if you want a pleasant cruise around the city.


The New York City Waterfalls. The project just finished this past weekend. We were able to get very close to the falls.


The day before our ride, the Intrepid returned to its permanent berth.


The view of Manhattan from the middle of New York harbor.

Unfortunately, several hours into the ride, I started to become sick. I was still fatigued and weak after the ride, and took a nap when I went home. I woke up shaking several hours later and realized that I had food poisoning. I don't think it was from the food on the ship since no one was ill; I think it was from my breakfast at a coffee shop or my lunch the day before. The details are a bit gross, but the good news is that my fever broke that night at 3 am, and by the end of Saturday I was in good shape.

So on Sunday, I went up along the Hudson to visit my friend Phil at his house in Garrison. Anne, Mary, Phil, and I started out the day by climbing Anthony's Nose, a peak overlooking Bear Mountain. We climbed the mountain fairly quickly; it's a fairly easy, but steep, climb with a beautiful view.


Phil and Mary at the peak of Anthony's Nose.


Bear Mountain Bridge


Me (Sam Greenfield) overlooking Bear Mountain Bridge from Anthony's Nose


Anne, me, Mary, and Phil

Climbing down the mountain, I saw many weird looking mushrooms. I would have taken more pictures, but I didn't want to keep everyone waiting.





I didn't do as much this past weekend, but I did walk down to Brooklyn Bridge Park with a friend of mine. It was a clear, warm day.



I finished up the weekend playing with my camera. I want to work with the strobe to see if I can capture better images of water droplets.

Labels: friends, nature, New York, river

Carpe Diem, New York City edition

I had a fantastic weekend and took advantage of quite a bit of what the city had to offer.

The weekend started out with Dance. Friday evening, I met my friend Mary and her father and we went to see my friend Kristen perform in Sawdust Palace at Dance Theater Workshop. The piece, by Susan Marshall & Company, was a fun and entertaining 80-minute set of 20 dances. Kristen and her fellow dancers are extremely talented. The pieces were sensual and athletic. Some pieces were whimsical, while others were heart-rending. It was a great set of shows, and I wish they had more performances. That being said, they had a grueling schedule of six shows in four days; Friday and Saturday had back-to-back shows at 7:30 and 10.

After the dance, Mary, her father, and I went to Brooklyn and had some light dinner and drinks at Clover Club on Smith Street in Carroll Gardens. I had a "Gin-Gin Mule," a tall gin drink with ginger, and an Anejo Mole Old-Fashioned. The Old Fashioned was made with tequila and flavored with mole seasonings; even though it sounds nothing like a traditional Old Fashioned, it managed to incorporate non-traditional ingredients while still remaining true to the spirit of the original drink. (I apologize in advance if I mangled the names of the drinks.)

Mary headed home, and I wandered towards my house down Smith Street. A few doors down from Clover Club is Char No. 4. I decided to stop in for a quick nightcap. Char No. 4 features over 150 whiskeys, including scotches, bourbons, and ryes. I decided to have a 2-ounce pour of Wild Turkey Single Barrel. It's a very strong bourbon at approximately 100 proof, so I had it with a bit of water and a couple of cubes of ice. To further cut the heat of the alcohol, I ate a small order of deep-fried cheese curds with pimento sauce. Deep fried cheese and hard liquor? Not the worst end to a fun evening. I have two suggestion for Char No. 4, one silly and one serious. It would be nice if the strength of the alcohols were listed on the menu. And it would be nice if they had poutine. I leave it as an exercise for the reader to figure out which idea is serious and which idea is silly.

Saturday morning, I got up bright and early to prepare brunch with my friends Harri and Kristiina. I always have fun making brunch, and this was no exception. In addition to fresh pastries from Almondine and berries from the farmer's market, I also prepared Eggs Florentine and fresh homemade biscuits. It's gotten easier to prepare brunch the more times that I do it. I've realized that the key to poached eggs is that they can be prepared ahead of time and kept in water before serving. (Thanks Mastering the Art of French Cooking!) This allows everything to come together very quickly. Also, fresh spinach, while a pain to clean thoroughly, is easy to prepare and tasty. This was my first time making biscuits for guests. I used cake flour. While it made for a very nice tender crumb, the biscuits did not rise as much as I would have liked. I think I will try all-purpose flour next.

Saturday evening, I met up with Betsy. We started the evening by going to Los Dos Molinos for dinner. They are a good New Mexican restaurant. It's a bit pricey, but the food is very good with a fair amount of heat. It was also the perfect location for the next stop on our itinerary....

After dinner, we headed down Irving Place to the clumsily named The Fillmore at Irving Plaza. After waiting around for thirty minutes or so, we saw an opening act by Shawn Mullins. If you don't recognize the name, you would certainly recognize his music; for example, check out this video of Lullaby.

The main event of the evening was a performance by Dar Williams. Dar is on tour in conjunction with her latest album release, Promised Land. She performed at one of the first concerts I attended when I first moved to New York City. I remember going to shows of hers at the Bottom Line and Town Hall. I really admire her, and once stood in line after a show to get her autograph on an album. She now lives in New York State very close to my friends Phil and Karen. Below are two shaky, poorly recorded clips from the show; in one she is performing Spring Street and in the other she other she is performing As Cool As I Am. You can really hear the crowd singing along during As Cool As I Am.


Dar has such a great energy, and it was clear that she loved performing in New York City. I'm really happy that I was able to catch her performing again.

Betsy and I stopped by The House for a quick drink after the show. In the future, I would not order a cocktail here; I ordered an Old Fashioned and received a very odd watered-down drink that tasted like it was made with muddled lemons and cherries and no added sugar. Betsy had a perfectly decent glass of Moscato D'asti. We were both going to switch drinks, but our waiter misunderstood us and brought another round. The twist on the evening was that I was charged extra for Maker's Mark without requesting a premium liquor. Despite the odd drinking experience, the wine list and menu look very nice. It's also a very elegant space, and I would love to check it out on another occasion.

I was looking for a fairly calm day on Sunday. I spent most of the day poking around on the computer and reading Elements of ML Programming, and then I met up with my friend Anne for Chinese food and soup dumplings. The default, and arguably best, choice for soup dumplings in New York City is Joe's Shanghai. We enjoyed a terrific meal of soup dumplings, shrimp, and eggplant. Joe's always has speedy and attentive service, and the food is terrific. (When my friend Andrew was visiting town, it was one of only three restaurants we went to in a city full of excellent restaurants.) After a nice late lunch, we walked through Chinatown and picked up some ice cream at the Chinatown Ice Cream Factory. I had lemon sorbet.

We walked around a bit; the day was surprisingly hot and muggy. (I wish I had worn shorts.) At the South Street Seaport, I was able to scope out my apartment from the Manhattan side of the East River before taking the subway back to Brooklyn Heights.

Overall, I had an amazing weekend. It was the kind of weekend that reminds me why I love New York City.

Labels: food, friends, liquor, music, New York

Sharon and Mark

I owe a big thanks to Sharon and Mark for joining me in Beijing and putting me up in Shanghai. They are experienced world travelers, gracious hosts, and most importantly, good friends. I can travel around the world or stay at home, but as long as I have friends like Sharon and Mark I know I will never be alone

Labels: China, friends

Firebrand

A friend of mine recently told me about a new site called Firebrand. They are a site that shows commercials; there is also an iTunes tie-in and a show on Ion at 11 pm. It may seem counter-intuitive to have a website that only shows commercials, but it's actually a lot of fun and a good time waster.

They are currently running this promotion called 12 days of Firebrand. Since it's a new web site I decided to enter (greater chance of winning). And just the other day, I received the following email:

As the independent judging organization for the 12 Days of Firebrand Sweepstakes, I am pleased to inform you that your entry in the December 3rd drawing has been selected as one of the twelve winners. Pending your prompt response to this email notice, you have won an iPod Nano valued at approximately $149.

Not so shabby....

I recommend checking out the site, watching a few videos, and entering to win valuable prizes.

Labels: friends