new jersey grocery & cooking crazed

I really love grocery shopping.

I have a food "thing." It's frankly pretty obvious from my backside, if you know what I mean?

Sounds silly but you can tell a lot about a community by what's in their grocery stores.

After getting to our hotel during our trip, we ran to the store to grab a couple of essentials, like water bottles to take into the city- snacks & some kid friendly foods for Trent.

I was so glad I brought my camera!

Shoprite here in New Jersey they had an amazing produce section!

Chloe said- "people in New Jersey must eat really healthy...."
then she said-- "look at those huge plums!"
So- I've never cooked egg plant? have you?

Also- look at these really great brussel spouts on the vine here. I've never seen them sold like this in a grocery store. We may not eat egg plant, but we love brussel sprouts.

A lot of brands have different names from East to West.

Does anyone know why?

Dreyers Ice Cream is Edy's here...

We love Dreyers & don't have coconut pineapple flavored- at least I've never seen it- but want to!

The prominent religion in Utah is of course Latter Day Saint. We don't have Matzo Balls in the freezer section - I'm sure you can get them somewhere...

But I don't know about Kosher Cokeor pickled tomatoes.

This was a fantastic opportunity to talk about Passover & world religions. I WIsh we had this stuff.

I've seen this brand on TV- but not at the store. Yum- I didn't think we could eat or should eat a whole tub of marshmallow fluff in just 4 days so I passed.

A whole section of restaurant quality Italian food!

Now this is living!

We are totally missing out here... there were all kinds of Italian specialties.Here at home- I've gone cooking crazy!

I've been cooking up a storm ever since I got back.

I don't know if it was the week off or what... but besides making jam-I've put casseroles in the freezer- made a huge pot of marinara & froze 3 quarts-

I've made Kristy's bread sticks-- so good.

Banana bread... cookie dough & last night I made rolls to go with our lasagna...

and put two extra lasagnas in the freezer!

This is my favorite roll recipe & it will be on Blogger mom's cook- later.

*do you like to grocery shop?

*have you ever cooked with eggplant?

*have you ever seen Kosher Coke?

getting there- UTah to NY-

After a long night of not really sleeping wednesday night, brett & I got up, ready, then woke up the kids. Brett said when he went to get hailey - she said - hooorrayyy! that is how we were all feeling. After so much planning & anticipation- we were really going on this vacation!! My niece Brittany drove us to the airport.

Trent was a little nervous, but within minutes looked & acted like a seasoned travelor. It was so amusing... his every action can kind of be summed up in this picture. He was so fun & funny & expressive & loved everything. He is a big fan of Calvin & Hobbes the comic books. We found a t-shirt in New York with Calvin on it & the words- NEw York Attitude. (photo in my phone, still...) The rest of the week he would say-
Trent-"I have one word for you, New York Attitude!"
finally Jack said- that's three words
Trent- Oh ya?
I told Trent that a New York Attitude was - a good attitude, happy about being on vacation & not complaining but being good & having a good time.
He fell for it.
Whenever he wanted something or was getting impatient he worked on his New York Attitude.
Chloe too- was an absolute dight. The last time she was on a plane, she was too little to remember. So she was thrilled about the plane ride!

Hailey & Jack...
They have both flown a couple of times.
Hailey is so excited to experience the big apple she has repeated regularly the countdown of days until take off- and here we are!
Jack's enthusiasm was hard to contain!
He was bursting with joy & excitement. His thrill & appreciation for his parents who are taking him on this vacation is overwhelming. We had to tell him to stop thanking us & telling us over & over we were the rockinest,coolest, parents ever- it was getting embarrassing.


We had a layover in Minneapolis that was supposed to be 45 minutes but ended up being 2 hours... so we checked out the airport a little..

they have this amazing Ipod vending machine!
SEriously- you can buy an ipod here in a vending machine.
-wow-
all you need is a credit card- too but you can't get one with a couple of quarters-

the ride was a little long & it was a long day but we made it. When we flew into the city Trent's side of the plain was nearest. He could see all the tall buildings etc. He was so excited, to the delight of everyone around he was exclaiming "look there she is, the statue of liberty!!"
It was really sweet.

We were happy to get here- to our hotel. We drove through some interesting (scary)neighborhoods & Newark that day stunk, bad like dog food or something. At least at the car rental pick up place outside did, gross.

The kids knew right away that we were not in Utah anymore!

day two in the city: april 10th

We headed into the city a little later than yesterday.

Just a little tired.

For sure no one reading this will ever want to go on vacation with me!

I tend to over plan... if you didn't notice from our adventures the day before.

I just don't want anyone to miss anything.

Who knows when/if we'll ever be back?

Some houses on the way to the train.

It was overcast, a little cool, but not raining- so the weather was good!

It was just about lunch time so we stopped to get some New York street food. Oh boy- street carts are regulated like restaurants. You shouldn't worry about eating at these, not to mention... the hot dogs are FANTAstic! I think food tastes better in New York. Actually, I think food tastes better if I'm not making it-

(notice the fruit cart in the background?- you can buy fruit on carts just like hot dogs & pretzels)

Do you ever watch Unwrapped?

We love that show & saw how they make these Sabrett hot dogs for these street carts. They are only sold here in New York & they are made of the finest ingredients. Fantastic- a hot dog with everything $2- not bad!

Jack had this skewer of grilled chicken- also very good!
The girls shared a pretzel- why don't I have a picture? Because I am an idiot.

Today we were headed to Times Square-
the busiest, most touristy place in the city.

First stop
Toys R Us
This place is insane- and voted Trent's favorite place in all of New York city!
It's kind of like a toy store amusement park.
Right when you walk into the revolving doors there are people taking your photos with characters. Today it was Spider Man- I don't know if it's always spider man? Trent refused to take a photo with spider man- who cared we weren't going to buy it at the photo desk- so there you go- There is an INDOOR ferris wheel here. It is full sized 3 stories, maybe 4 high.
Trent also refused to ride on it & seeing the size of the line again- score.


While Brett & the kids were in here watching toy demonstrators-
everything from a guys using a magic set to puppeteers-
I ran over the the Time Square ticket booth just to see what time tickets went on sale.
In Time Square you can buy same day tickets for Broadway shows discounted up to 50%.
We were hoping to score some tickets to Mary Poppins, Phantom, Lion King or The Little Mermaid. I found out that Phantom & The Mermaid- don't do discounts... but the others didn't go on sale until later- we didn't get back this day-( but more on that tomorrow when we did get some.) It's kind of a crap shoot getting tickets this way- it's first come, first serve, long but fast lines & only what hasn't been sold up to the actual performance is available. We didn't do Wicked like this because we just couldn't risk not seeing it- but if you want to see theater- save a little money & you don't really care what you see because you have several choices- this is a great way to go.

Next stop

M & M World!Again- this place was very full of people- to but it nicely.
I am sure Times Square is always full of people.
You just wouldn't believe all the merchandise they sell here!?

Everything is cute here-

EVERYTHING

m & m mugs, pens, bags, t-shirts....... on & on cuteness

Walls & walls of m & m's and merchandise for sale-

(but really it's all junk.)
Thankfully- I had just stared de junking & spring cleaning at home.

the thought of picking up more junk or sending m & m stuff to the goodwill in a couple of months helped me keep my whits together.

Next up-

right across the street

THE HERSHEY STORE

Trent really, really wanted to buy this 5lb. Hershey bar.

Who can blame him??

The kid doesn't even like candy....

so just like every stinkin' piece of candy he has ever brought home

I would've eaten it-

Not to mention- I didn't want to carry this around all day- so we passed on it.
The Hershey store is like 1/8th as big as M & M world.

They do have loads of great stuff & it smells .....

like chocolate.

The good news- they give out samples of miniatures to kids.

They let kids turn these cranks & candy comes down through the ceiling & down slides into a bucket. REally fun & then - they didn't give big kids or adults sample- not cool.

Next we headed off to lunch at another favorite place that we always eat at.

Europa Cafe

I don't know if this chain is located in other places, but you see several of them in Manhattan.

The lime bars are so good- they are always my favorite.

I've never seen lime bars anywhere else.

Does anyone have a recipe for these?

they have kind of a cheesecake like filling in the middle, lime on top... oh they are so good.

Next we walked down to Central Park.

Brett took the kids over to see the temple, not too far from the park- while I took a side trip to one of my other favorite places in the city.

It's hard to believe there is a temple here - right in the middle of this bustling city!

You can't even tell it's here- it's on a regular city block. Just one block from the ABC studios where they film Regis & Kelly. The last two times in NY we took the time to go to the temple. This time we just stopped by.

I took pictures on my phone of where I went & I will hopefully add them later.

This place is so cool, upscale & heavenly for me.

Kate's Paperie
I did splurge & bought some beautiful little sticky notes...

oh the joy.

Anyone who really knows me knows- I LOVe daffodils.

They are really my favorite flowers.

Central Park was Full of them!

Central Park is truly a treasure- It's gorgeous- It's amazing.

All this beauty & life here in one of the busiest cities in the world.

There are baseball fields for public use.

Walking & bike trails.

The famous Tavern On The Green is here.

I love this photo- even though it is blurry.

At this point we were getting pretty tired.

Trent refused to take a picture.

We were headed to the Metropolitan Museum of Art -

on the other side of the park & farther down.

We decided to get a taxi.

This was an absolute thrill for Trent who immediately started quizzing the driver about the cash cab... thankfully he told us that he had NEver seen him in his 13 years of driving around the city. He also said almost everyone who gets in his cab asks about him.

Driving across the park.

We made it to the Met- which is open late on Fridays & Saturdays, thankfully.

I couldn't believe the fresh flowers in the entry.

All the fresh flowers are donated by someone. I should have taken a picture of her name plate. What an amazing gift to the museum & all it's many visitors!

We went immediately to the Amoury section of the museum because I knew the kids would love it. This museum is absolutey a MUST see if you ever come to the Big Apple. I love it here.
To be honest, I think brett gave the kids a mini lecture about not complaining- maybe not- but they were very good, acted interested (except for Trent) and behaved the whole time.

When we walked in here (this amour is from the 1400- 1600's- stunning!)

Trent asked "are we going to see the armour of God?"

We had a little FHE lesson on 'putting on the armour of God' a few weeks back.

I tried to explain that you cannot 'see' the armour of God. Can you see honesty? Can you see someone's clean thoughts? he replied very sadly, "I have dirty thoughts!" I said- what?

he said "I think bad words! But Hailey makes me think them! She makes me so mad!!"

I nearly laughed my head off.

I could spend days in this place. It really takes days to see everything. We were only here a couple of hours.

The EArly American section was closed for renovation.

I was bummed because Jack- a total American history lover- would have loved to see the original painting of George Washington crossing the Delaware.

The painting of a rich early New Yorker would have to do.

His actual sword was in the case below. I think he may have had something to do with Central Park... sorry fella' hate to get your story wrong, please forgive me?

We split up & Chloe & I went into the Eygyptian section.

Chloe made a wish.

We walked past hundreds of European & Greek statues with arms or heads of even worse... other body parts broken off. These statues are centuries old! It's amazing they exist at all. Trent kept asking " why is that guys 'private' broken off" it was getting upsetting to the poor little guy.

Finally we made it up to my favorite section of the museum.

The European masters.

What a chance of a life time!

We saw this beauty

By Claude Monet- absolutely thrilling!

We also got to see Piccasso & this Sunflowers by Van Gogh.

Then....

my camera battery died.

I'm seriously. not. kidding. folks.

Thanks goodness for cell phones that take pictures!!

as soon as I figure out how to get the rest of the pictures off my cell phone I will keep this going-

for now-- back to real life here in Utah.

Today I am ballet driver & working at a wedding dinner/reception tonight.
Plus it is actually SUNNY HERE!!! I think it is supposed to be sunny all week. I can't believe it, I may live? I am so happy to see the sun- I really, really missed it.