Let's hear it for New York! DAY 1

You know you're approaching Jersey when the number of Indians you see increases exponentially. That was a Facebook status I uploaded when we were nearing Jersey and it's soo true! Even the radio channel switched to Bollywood music!

Interesting things I've done/seen in the Big Apple on day 1  (I'm trying to keep it brief here)  :

Times Square

Tunnel to Manhattan

Elmo and Cookie Monster from Sesame street hanging out at Times Square ^.^

15 Central Park West - Sting lives here!!!!!

Her painted behind attracted a lot of attention ^.^

                                                                                                        Both these are in memorial of John                                                                                                               Lennon who was shot at his home                                                                                                                 nearby          

Museum of natural history - The movie 'Night at the Museum' starring Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson was filmed here. How exciting!

The sign reads 'Please do not sit in clam' . LOL !

Andy Warhol is a strange artist. How are corns on a foot artsy?!?! Ugh.

Pablo Picasso's famous 'Harlequin' painting

Atlantic city, New Jersey

Our drive to Atlantic city was rather interesting! It began to rain and the car right in front of us hydroplaned ... he skid across the road, across the grassy median onto the other side where cars were driving the opposite way. It didn't end here. He skid back onto our road and it looked like he was about to ram right into us (I was , of course, screaming the entire time). Luckily he came to a halt and we were able to drive past him. My heart was pounding so hard. Thankfully nothing happened to him!!! Not a scratch! What an awful thing to witness.

The rain eventually died down much to our relief! We drove through 7 states to reach Atlantic city - Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Delaware and New Jersey. We stopped at Florence, a suburb of Cincy, on Thursday night. I tried getting pictures of all the states' welcome boards but I failed miserably and ended up with a bunch of pictures like this - 

Supposed to be Ohio. 

On the way we saw something dead on the side of the road and I ignored it because roadkill is not a big deal here. Jonathan looked at it and said "Oh my god. Awwww", in a very sad voice. I looked at him wondering what he Awwwing sadly about. Then it struck me ... Ohmygod could it be, I wondered! No it cant! Tell me it cant be! Was it .. a dog!?!?!?!! I looked at him questioningly and he patted me on the head and under his breath said, "Old Yeller" . In other words, dead dog. 

Some interesting things I saw on the way  - 

A giant blimp was overhead and we drove right under it

 A town called Laboratory!

A big, lit up ferris wheel

I wish I had gotten a video of the hydroplaning car but I was too busy freaking out to remember I had a camera on my lap.

We reached Atlantic city at around 5.30 on Friday evening.

The weekend was wonderful and we had a great time with the Pauls!! On Saturday morning my cousins, husband and I went to 'Trump Plaza' , a casino in Atlantic city. We decided to give the slot machines a miss and stuck to Blackjack instead. SO much fun! I, OF COURSE, got asked for my ID because (and I quote Miss Blackjack dealer) , I "look like a babyyy"  *rolls eyes* . 

Jonathan dropped me off at my friend's house in Manhattan on sunday afternoon 

 Manhattan's skyline as we drove towards it  ^ 

The Lincoln tunnel that enters Manhattan ^

It's going to be a fun week. 

America's monster potatoes etc

There are some days I  simply don't feel like cooking a full fledged meal. These are some of the things I quickly whip up. 

My cherry tomatoes are finally turning red so they make a great snack before dinner :) 

Oven baked potatoes with sour cream, chives, salt and pepper. Soooo good! And Americans, you may not realize this but you produce MONSTER potatoes  - some of them are ridiculously huge!! I'm in constant fear of being eaten by one. 

 (This is a very real possibility!!!!) 

Garlic bread pizza - fresh garlic bread topped with tomato puree, hot n spicy pepperoni, shredded mozzarella cheese, parsley, oregano, basil and sesame seeds; baked in the oven for 10 minutes. 

Yummy! 

New York bound!

Tomorrow we leave for Atlantic city, NJ to attend a Paul family weekend get-together. It's about 15 hours from here.. waaay too long. So we're spending tomo night in Cincinnati with a friend. On friday morning we leave at around 7am and go straight to Atlantic City.

On Sunday I'm going to stay at my friend's apartment in Manhattan for a week while Jonathan drives back to Murray for work on Monday. I'll be meeting with 3 other friends in New York .. definitely looking forward to that.

I'm very excited and have my entire week's schedule in New York planned out including a hop-on hop-off double decker bus tour!

Sayonara folks.

You can expect lots of blog updates about my week in NYC. 

Bridesmaids

On friday night we decided to rent out three movies from the library to watch over the weekend. I told my 26 year old husband he could pick all 3 movies.

This is what he picked :

Yes, my grown up, 26 year old, manly man picked a movie called 'Bridesmaids' whose DVD cover has a picture of five ladies in pink :-P .

 And yes, that's how I responded.

So I withdrew my generous offer and picked the remaining two movies myself - 'New York, I love you' and 'Revolutionary Road'.

That turned out to be a big, fat mistake because Bridesmaids turned out to be hilarious and my movies turned out to be just awful. So a certain someone looked all smug the entire day today :-P . Moral of the story - never underestimate a DVD whose cover has five ladies in pink on it.

Oh well.

p.s - My husband wants the moral of the story to be "Always listen to the husband" .... but I'm pretending I can't hear him ^.^

Easy Blueberry cobbler

I quickly whipped up some easy, blueberry cobbler for my in-laws since it was their anniversary last week. This recipe using Betty Crocker's Bisquick mix is quick, simple and yummy. As a twist I added the granola I bought at the farmers market yesterday.

Zucchini bread ?!

We finally managed to wake up early enough to go to the Farmers Market this morning. For those of you who don't know what those are, farmers markets are outdoor markets where farmers sell their fresh produce to customers - fruits, veggies, preserves, jams, bread, meat etc. It's held every saturday morning and nearly every city has one.

I made a huge mistake though - my fridge is still stocked with veggies and meat so I didn't really need anything! Next time I go, I'll make sure my fridge is empty and veggie-free so I can stock up on all my produce at the farmers market instead of walmart.

There were two interesting things I saw though - granola and zucchini bread. Yes, you heard right, ZUCCHINI bread. Now zucchini is a nasty looking vegetable that I thoroughly dislike. It's long, green and ugly and I am definitely not a fan.

So the first question that crossed my mind when I saw this was how in the world did someone think this veggie would make good cake?!?!! Sheer curiosity makes me do a lot of things and buying zucchini bread was one of those things. I simply HAD to find out how it tasted. Vegetable cake?! 

And whaddaya know. It actually tastes quite nice. The awful zucchini taste is concealed by cinnamon and the other stuff in it. It's a bit dry but I still like it! Vegetable cake .. who would have thought! 

The other thing I bought was granola to put in our oatmeal every morning. It's healthy and has flaxseed which is supposed to be a great source of protein, good for building muscles which I so desperately need :-D. 

P.S - 

   

In case you were wondering about my 'muscular' ambitions, this is not the look I'm aiming for :-P. My current definition of 'muscular' basically means being able to open bottles and doors on my own.

Being able to flex a muscle or two would be awesome but for now, if I can manage to open that darn ginger garlic paste bottle from the indian grocery store I shall be the happiest girl in lil ole Murray, Kentucky.