Following Rabbits Blog

There's a truck named Sugar that parks a block from my office on Tuesdays and Thursdays, from which a cheery Miss wheels and deals delicious cookies, rice crispy treats, and brownies. The sweets are baked in Red Hook, Brooklyn, and the truck is parked at different city locales throughout the week to spread the sugary goodness! Today we had such beautiful weather in the city, so I took a little walk on my lunch break. The line for the Treats Truck was pretty long, but I didn't mind standing for a bit in the sunshine sans jacket. (Besides- the cookies are so worth any wait you could encounter there!) Kim Ima, Treats Truck owner/driver extraordinaire, was serving up the sweets today, and I snagged two caramel creme sandwich cookies. They're $1.75 apiece for these babies, but trust me when I say they're ahmaaazing. (I gave one to Brian, and he agrees.) Next time the weather bids you away from your desk or PowerPoint's got you ready to commit computer homicide, check the Treats Truck schedule and get yourself a little pick-me-up!

Last night I went out to dinner at the Bryant Park Grill with my coworkers. As the name suggests, it's located inside Bryant Park, on the east side of the park (5th Avenue) at the corner of 40th Street, behind the Public Library. I commute to the Bryant Park subway stop, so I walk by the park in the morning and evening every day. I love it there! I've always wanted to eat at the Grill, since it's just so pretty inside the park. They have a large outdoor patio that would be divine for Sunday Brunch on a warm day. Yesterday was a bit chilly after dark, so we ate inside. There were five of us, and we each got drinks, an appetizer, entree, and dessert. We changed our reservation last minute, showed up 20 minutes before our new reservation time, and they sat us without an issue. The service was impeccable, and the menu-while not extensive- still offered enough variety to suit us all.  The food was good, not amazing for the price, but it's certainly one of the restaurants in NYC where you pay a bit extra for the atmosphere. Which I'm okay with, provided the atmosphere really is great (see: Battery Gardens). I started with a caesar salad (boo anchovies) and for an entree I got the grilled chicken with garlic whipped potatoes and sauteed green beans. (Hellooo comfort food!) We were there for a while talking and laughing up a storm, and each got dessert. The chocolate cake was very good. I'm taking a look at their menupages menu and the dessert menu is different. It lists a "Cake & Shake: blackout cake, vanilla milkshake" - wow, that sounds amazing! I would go back, but on a warm night in the summer when I can eat outside and enjoy the surroundings more. (And perhaps they'll reinstate the milkshakes in time for outdoor summer dining!). 

I had a most unproductive weekend... relaxing, fun, just-what-I-needed, but unproductive. Last night I managed to do something "blogable"- I made chocolate-dipped coconut biscotti. Yum! I know, another coconut recipe... I couldn't help it! I'm sure you could get creative with the recipe and substitute something else if coconut doesn't suit your fancy. The recipe above is for plain biscotti, but I sweetened it up a bit and dipped them in chocolate since I had two containers of Baker's dipping chocolate that Brian found for me. This recipe is fairly easy to make, it just takes quite a bit of time (baking time alone is a total of an hour!). I didn't eff up these cookies, as I've made them before, but as always I'll share a few tips. Once all ingredients are combined, the dough is very (very!) sticky. You'll need quite a bit of flour to manage to knead the dough and get it dry enough around the edges to pat it into a loaf shape on the cookie sheet. You can see from my photos the consistency of the dough and also how it is shaped to bake. Also, I cut mine a bit thick, which makes them a small challenge to eat (helloooo crumbs!). If you're looking to be polite or have these at a tea party, cut them into thinner, more manageable pieces. Without the chocolate they have just a small hint of sweetness. I like to have them with my tea (which I take with milk and sugar) so the chocolate was an indulgent little addition on my part. Enjoy!

On Sunday I went to a craft meetup at Etsy Labs, which is right near the Brooklyn waterfront. It was a gorgeous day out, so I decided to walk back to Manhattan over the Brooklyn Bridge. It's something I've been meaning to do since I moved here, and should have done while I lived in Brooklyn. I wound up walking over it right at sunset, and it was just beautiful. I walked really slowly, stopping to lean on the railing and take it all in. What a pretty city I live in! The walkway was crowded but everyone seemed to be in a serene mood. Walking around the city I'm always walking super fast, head down, pushing through the crowded sidewalks just getting to where I'm going. It was great to take in the views and have a meandering, relaxed walk. I will definitely do it again when it's warmer out... get an ice cream first and sit on a bench on the bridge and hang out. Above are my favorite photos... you can see the rest in my picasa album: 

I've been wanting to do an Alice in Wonderland photo shoot for a while now, and am finally making plans to do so. All I really needed was the gorgeous spring weather we've been having in NYC the past few days to jump-start my brainstorming. I've wanted to take the photos in the park, and obviously need a bit of sunshine for that. I'd like to do part of it on and around the Alice in Wonderland statue in Central Park. Tea with the March Hare? Sure! Of course the most important part of all this is the outfit... which I've given a lot of thought to. I want to be an alternative Alice... think Carroll's Alice with a goth/steampunk edge. I've been scouring etsy and faving lots of inspirational listings! A few of my very favorite items so far are pictured above... they're about 2 steps away from my etsy shopping cart (c'mon pay day!). The ornamental steampunk watch necklace by a second time is brilliant. Shout-out to the white rabbit. The knee-length tulle tutu by sisters of the moon comes in 20 different colors! This aqua blue is perfect. Okay... this pheasant feathered facinator... amazing! I'm in love with absolutely every item in bubbles & frown's shop. So much fun! The striped corset gloves by Dark Destiny are going to be perfect for my tea party shots- white porcelain teacups and black lace. Love it! With all of these fabulous accessories I'll be wearing a plan white top to try to balance out all of the feathers, stripes and jewels. Hopefully I can pull off this look! I've got a talented photographer lined up, and I'm aiming for the photos to be really whimsical and playful. I'll be spending the next couple weeks gathering all of these fine goodies and deciding whether to get a blonde wig or be adventurous and color my hair. I'll write a follow-up post about the shoot itself and share the album with you all the moment it's done!