25%

Hi, friends, how are you?

It’s been awhile… this has been quite a week for me.  How was yours?   I handed in my last finals of the Spring semester!  I am officially 25% closer to getting my MSW.  Hard to believe!  My Summer term begins on Tuesday; I’ll start having class four times a week for a total of 18 hours instead of the current 10.  It’s going to be a challenge, but I just have to power through.

As I finished up my last final after class one night, I feasted on Amy’s gluten free, dairy free veggie lasagna.  This was old- it’s been in the freezer since we moved in!  The consistency was fine, but I found the taste to be a bit bland and ended up adding a lot of nutritional yeast and chili flakes.  And despite the sky-high sodium content, the lasagna still didn’t taste salty enough.

Although I ate frozen meals a couple times a week in college, I never eat them anymore because a) I love to cook, b) holy sodium poisoning! and c) I prefer not to buy processed, pre-made food.  All the same, it’s a decent “emergency” food to have on hand… and come next week’s new class schedule, I can foresee quite a few “emergency” situations.

I have made time for fun and games, though.  Last Saturday, my friend Anna and I went to The Great GoogaMooga Festival!  Three days of food and music in a New York City park?  We were pretty excited.

We got there around noon, so the lines weren’t crazy yet.  Lots of local beer and wine!

I’m still craving seafood, so I splurged on a lobster roll from Luke’s.  I’ve heard mixed things about their rolls, but this was fantastic and just what I wanted.  Since I’d already chowed down on a hot dog bun, it seemed like a pretty good idea to have some sweet cookies from Momofuku, too .  It was a good thing we got to the festival on Saturday, because all the rain we got- and are still getting- resulted in Sunday’s events being canceled and all of the vendors losing out on the day’s revenue.

My mom and I celebrated Mother’s Day a week late over brunch at Le Pain Quotidien.  It’s one of the only places that serves before 11 on a weekend!

I enjoyed a soy cappuccino and a spinach + goat cheese frittata, leaving the bread after yesterday’s gluten fest.

B and I have been enjoying the few days of relaxation, too… we picked some herbs from the garden, muddled up a little cucumber, and enjoyed a cucumber-lemonade chiller on our porch.  Hello, Spring!

We made the drinks to go with these Sesame Noodles with Chili Oil and Scallions from this month’s issue of Bon Appétit… unfortunately, even after bulking up the recipe with peppers, kale, basil, tofu, and more sauce, the dish still had zero flavor.

We’ve got big plans this weekend: two weddings and a party!  What are you up to?