Tuesday, October 31, 2017

The Lotte NY Palace and St Patrick's Cathedral, NYC....

Sarah from Hyacinths for the Soul and I checked into the Lotte NY Palace in NYC on a Thursday as we prepared to meet a few of the Tales of the Traveling Tote bloggers.  The Lotte is located on Madison Ave and is a lovely hotel, once owned by Leona Helmsley and the Sultan of Brunei.  


Our room was on the 12th floor and we overlooked the rear of St Patrick's Cathedral:


 What was once The Villard Mansion’s carriage entrance on Madison Avenue is now Lotte New York Palace’s Courtyard, with tables and chairs and at night the trees were lit with spotlights.  We were lucky that each evening the temperatures stayed warm and we could sit outside and enjoy a glass of wine!


Looking up to the 12th floor from the courtyard:




The coffee cart was delivered in style one morning, with shiny silver and a little yellow rose:


Pumpkins were scattered throughout the courtyard raised gardens:


 Across the street was St Patrick's Cathedral.  I visited the church during 5:00 Friday Mass.  The cornerstone of St. Patrick’s Cathedral was laid in 1858 and her doors swept open in 1879.  This church is in the heart of the city and the recent restoration is almost complete:


I can't wait to return!

Come back tomorrow to read about the Highline and Chelsea Market!



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Sunday, October 29, 2017

The Tales of the Traveling Tote Bloggers Meet in NYC....

A weekend spent with new friends can hardly be shared in one post, so all this week I will post highlights of my weekend in NYC!
 

I arrived in NYC on a Thursday and met Sarah from Hyacinths for the Soul at the Lotte NY Palace....


....the following day we walked the Highline and ended up in Chelsea Market where we met Linda from Life and Linda and her husband Paul.  We stopped at the Meatball Shop for a quick drink ...


...before meeting others for Happy Hour at Fonda...


Our totes were displayed in the window as we sat down to meet Debbie from Mountain Breaths,  Emily from The French Hutch and their husbands!


Sarah, me, Linda, Debbie and Emily:


The next morning we went to the Russian Tea Room for brunch and met Katie from The Preppy Empty Nester ....



...and Linda from More Fun, Less Laundry, who was celebrating a special birthday!


The Maitre d' took us upstairs to see the glass bear aquarium and the Glass Egg Tree...

     

...and we took many, many photos!

  

 After brunch we walked down to the Mackenzie-Childs store...


...and met Greg and his colleagues, who set up a lovely dessert table for us...

  

...Magnolia cupcakes, brownies, champagne, wine and sparkling water, served on our favorite platters and dishes:


What an exciting day spent with lovely ladies, but we missed our other two members, Rita from Panoply and Jenna from The Painted Apron, who were unable to make the trip!  


Follow along this week to see what else I did in NY!


  

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Tuesday, October 17, 2017

Roasting Garlic....and its benefits

I grew garlic this year...my heads were small, but they were full of flavor:


Roasting garlic is so simple.

Typically you would cut off the tip of the garlic head to expose the bulbs, drizzle with olive oil, wrap in foil, and bake for about 45 min at 400'.


To give it a different flavor, I took this idea from another recipe (see this post).

I placed the garlic head in a small baking dish, covered it with a slice of bacon, cut in half, enough to cover the head, and roasted it for 45 minutes at 400'.

I squished out (new culinary term) the garlic, mixed it with 1 T butter and some crushed red pepper flakes and Florida Seasoned Pepper (from Hey Rose) ...


...to make a paste:


I cut 2 dinner rolls in half and spread the paste on each, put them under the broiler to toast...


...and we devoured the garlic bread with dinner!


Oh, and I ate the slice of bacon while preparing the paste :-)

Most people know that garlic keeps the vampires away, but it also has other benefits:

•Garlic lowers blood pressure (9% to 15 % with one or two medium cloves per day.) 

•Garlic lowers LDL Cholesterol (9% to 15 % with one or two medium cloves per day.) 

•Garlic helps reduce atherosclerotic buildup (plaque) within the arterial system. One recent study shows this effect to be greater in women than men. 

•Garlic lowers or helps to regulate blood sugar. 

•Garlic assists digestion, alleviating digestive disorders. 

•Garlic helps to prevent blood clots from forming, thus reducing the possibility of strokes and thromboses (Hemophiliacs shouldn't use garlic.) 

•Garlic helps to prevent cancer, especially of the digestive system, prevents certain tumors from growing larger and reduces the size of certain tumors. 

•Garlic may help to remove heavy metals such as lead and mercury from the body. 

•Raw Garlic is a potent natural antibiotic that works differently than modern antibiotics and kills some strains of bacteria, like staph, that have become immune or resistant to modern antibiotics. 

•Garlic has anti-fungal and anti-viral properties. 

•Garlic illiminates yeast infections due to Candida species. (Women can insert a garlic clove into the vagina overnight and remove the next morning. Repeat nightly until the yeast infection is gone.)

•Garlic has anti-oxidant properties and is a source of selenium. 

•Crushed raw garlic can be used to kill bacteria and other tiny lifeforms such as E. coli in contaminated water when there is no other water available. Just crush it and let it wait as above and then mix it into a bottle of strained water and let set for an hour or two or overnight to have time to kill as many of the bacteria as possible.

•Garlic can be used on snake and insect bites. Crush it and rub directly into and around the marks.

•A way to use garlic on a stuffy nose, sore throat and infection that has gone into the lungs is to crush the small end of a clove and use it like a Vick's inhaler so you breathe the fumes through your nostrils. This will help clear the passages as well as fight the germs. Eating garlic is not enough, it has to get to the site of the infection as directly as possible and breathing it in takes it all the way into the lungs. Another way to do the same thing is to crush the garlic and wrap gauze, cheesecloth or thin fabric around it and breathe through the gauze to get the vapors into the lungs.

•If you get one of those massive brain-pounding toothaches and there's no dentist around, crushed raw garlic actually knocks out the infection and relieves pain.

•Taking a bath in garlic water will help aches, pains and flus. The healing properties are absorbed faster through the skin.

•Garlic kills many fungi on contact including athlete's foot fungus.

•Eating garlic gives the consumer an enhanced sense of well being - it makes you feel good just eating it. 


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Saturday, October 14, 2017

JOSH’S LAZY ROASTED GARLIC & POTATO SOUP....



I love soups.
Any kind.
Hot or cold.

So when fall comes around I am always on the hunt to try some new ones.

While shopping on the Beckman 1802 website I came across this Roasted Garlic and Potato Soup recipe and had to try it!

My table is set for just the two of us - no need to share this soup as it was so tasty!!


I served warm rolls with this hearty soup...


...and we ate in the dining room.


I set the table with matching blue checked bowls...


...and a bread plate, all purchased many, many years ago at the Christmas Tree Shoppe 

These would actually be a nice compliment the new, Limited Edition Taylor FETE bowl:


This Fete Bowl is handmade and hand painted in Aurora, NY and will be signed by Rebecca Proctor, Creative Director at MacKenzie-Childs.


I served the soup with this large silver spoon that Mom passed down to me!


I anchored the soup bowls with my 38 year old Corelle luncheon plates and MacKenzie-Childs enamel dinner plates, and placed the serving bowl on top of my Courtly Checked compote....


and I used Pottery Barn flatware.


My hand painted candlesticks held battery operated candlesticks from Ikea.

I followed the recipe from their website, Beckman1802.com...


...and only the only thing I would add is some more spicy seasonings...


...pureed it in my blender and added a few cups of stock...


..and heated it quickly on the stove....


...and I must say, it was delish - very garlicky and creamy!
And I served it with garlic dinner rolls:




I highly recommend this recipe and it can be found HERE

Sharing with Worthing Court

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