Destination: Gym

I wasn't feeling so hot after a long week of work but that was remedied with a weekend of tasty delight. Saturday and Sunday, Jen and I discarded our architecture / advertising thinking caps and became cooking / baking machines.

SATURDAY
What was supposed to be a basic meal at home after a couple mediocre $20 meals in the city suddenly became fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and macaroni & cheese. No recipes involved; all greasy goodness.





... and for dessert, carrot cake cupcakes with cream cheese frosting! The recipe was super simple. Made with real carrots. Everything home-made, even the frosting :)

Suck it, Magnolia Bakery.

SUNDAY
Jen made some delicious banana pancakes for breakfast. Unfortunately I ate them too fast to take a picture of them.

For dinner, we planned an ambitious meal, which resulted in amazing goodness.

• Mussels in a white wine, butter, garlic sauce (not pictured)
  - Easier than expected and very delicious
  
• Roasted shrimp with bacon
  
• Sautéed green beans
  
• Button and porcini mushroom risotto
  - This was kickin! It was our first attempt at risotto, so we were unsure how it would turn out, but it was amazing thanks to left over sauce from the mussels. As noted by many before us, this is a laborious dish since it took 2 hours of stirring, stock, simmer, repeat.

...

Other fun bits from the weekend--

Friday was a co-worker's goodbye celebration. We collected almost all the Asians at AKQA into one very red (thanks to yours truely) photo.
aZn prYde.

In true Asian fashion, karaoke followed.




Sunday, Jen had an errand to run at photographer heaven, B&H, so we booked it to 34th Street before the flurries attacked New York. We discovered the awesomeness that is B&H, where purchased products are placed in bins and transported to the check-out counter via conveyor-like belts throughout the store. It was like Santa's workshop "where they wear Yamakas instead of pointy hats" (Jen).