dear men in my life...

new dream job: fortune cookie copy editor.

oh, susan! my susan!

well, how long did you think i was gonna go before mentioning another one of susan's delightful baked wonders?

oh, my readers.

ooooooooh, red velvet cupcakes.

this could be the end for friday...she may sell everything she owns to support her red velvet cupcake habit.

i would have to pay susan all of my meager earnings, equip her with the best baking tools money can buy...recite her poetry...anything...just to have these cupcakes all the time.

there are no words to express the intensely satisfying texture and flavor of these little packages of happiness. my tastebuds have been taken for a ride straight to the heart of OMGville off the *delepic expressway.

what can i say?

i'm smitten.

*delepic refers to the rare occurrence when an item of food is both delicious and epic...webster's dictionary does not define this word as anything because i made it up.

they say it's your birthday...

well, it turns out that "they" are correct.

yep. today was my birthday and with it came a slew of lovely surprises in the form of tokens received from co-workers and well-wishes sent from friends and family.

my outlook this year is slightly more upbeat than most years. i have a feeling i'm getting better at denial...or it's that thing called "wisdom"...accordingly to the report on the radio this morning, age does, in fact, bring wisdom. i'm starting to think that it's slim pickin' for things to report on these days.

nonetheless, my office really set me up for the most pleasant of days.

the morning was filled with the scent of fresh flowers from liza and susan. liza upped it by adding in the one murakami book i don't own and katherine bestowed make-up upon me...which came just in time for my birthday dinner this upcoming weekend. meanwhile, joellen gifted me with some of my favorite foods and a card.

to top it all off, i got a upbeat, chirpy "happy birthday!" from my boss first thing in the morning followed by a hug. i thought he had remember this year. he proudly nodded and then mentioned, under his breath, that my co-worker had emailed him about it. at least he admitted it.

i'm not going to lie. i felt like all morning should start this way. all the hugs of thanks and appreciation. i work with a great bunch of people...this much i know.

word on the street is that humans should get at least 8 hugs a day.

i believe this to be true.

the day was also filled with desserts.

i'm never one to complain about such things so long as my teeth are intact at the end of it all...a hoho-cupcake during lunch (many thanks to the register girl at bread & butter who, upon finding out it was my bday - joellen ratted me out - told me to pick a cupcake and take it with me) and a chocolate mocha cake with ice cream later in the day...the cake even had my name on it. nice touch.

lunch was spent strolling around madison square park, enjoying the 80-degree weather and sunshine.

i also ducked out early to grab dinner with my brother and his girlfriend.

of course, good food was in store!

i feasted on a filet of sole with sliced almonds in a lemon-butter sauce paired with zuchini & potatoes. all of it melted in my mouth and i could sense my eyes rolling to the back of my head in sheer ecstacy. the frank sinatra playing in the background only heightened the melodramatic savoring of my food.

...and, yes, dessert.

we split fresh strawberries with marscapone cheese AND a chocolate lava cake.

i died on my birthday of a sugar overdose.

by the time we headed back to our respective homes, i was done.

...and this is a week-long birthday festival for friday...so, be ready for more updates on gastronomical adventures!

sorry about not taking photos of dinner...and sorry this post isn't more involved.

i'm seriously crashing from the seemingly endless act of eating good foods.

well, 35 minutes left till my actual birthday is over.

in retrospect, it was a pretty good one...and i have my co-workers, friends and family to thank. sending my love to you all.

i really appreciated today. xo.

food, flowers, friends & festivities

despite the distinct chill that crept along the city streets in the shadows during the day and everywhere during the evenings, i decided to take a stand and laugh in the face of spring's bi-polar temperatures.

how does one do this?

by going out wearing shorts and living in blissful denial (which also involves jaywalking an exorbitant amount to keep on the "sunny side of the street").

along the same lines, there's nothing like deciding to eat brunch outside with an equally dressed party (melissa was wearing a t-shirt and jeans. i was wearing a leather jacket and shorts...combined we would be one warm individual and one frozen individual).

we brought my god-dog, melissa's bebeh - tank, along just to cement the decision...and, let me tell you, little tank was not pleased by our outdoor extravaganza...he curled himself up into a tight ball, shivering, and decided not to unfurl until after our meal...covered in melissa's panino crumbs.

...however, let's not rush to conclusions. i enjoyed the meal immensely, which is why i didn't run away screaming and/or crying when my knees turned red from the howling, shadowy wind and i was almost convinced that they might actually crack off.

what would keep our girl, friday, (who despises the cold if not dressed properly) in her seat while being beaten down by an unrelenting crosstown blast?

a basil pesto & egg panino, a latte, and 5 bruschetta at inoteca...that is what keeps friday at bay.

i know. i know, you're curious about which bruschetta:

noci

tapenade

fagioli del giorno

alla toscana

ricotta fresca & pomodoro

they were epic. the two of us left with full stomachs and numb limbs...and i would've done it all over again. red-knuckled and covered in crumbs.

next?

cupcakes...naturally.

gluten-free cupcakes...obviously.

so, it was off to babycakes for a vanilla vanilla cupcake, which was lovely in that it didn't make my teeth melt off...because, i don't know about you, but i kinda like having functioning teeth...i'm just sayin'.

...and, yes, that's tank in the photo.

all of this gastronomical wonder was followed with much needed wanderings around the city streets, catching as many sun-drenched corners as we could.

eventually, as earth is on that silly axis that makes it spin and such, the sun began to slowly dip and spring decided to punish me for laughing at it earlier by making the temperature drop significantly.

after goodbyes with melissa, i sprinted to a flower shop to pick up some daisies for a birthday party and continued to sprint to said birthday party in order to keep myself from keeling over into a pile of frosty dust.

lucky for yours truly, i made it to the building just in time. the sun had finally dipped below the buildings and there weren't anymore sun-drenched corners for miles around.

the rest of the evening was a beautiful melange of catching up with old friends, eating too many chips with too much garlicy salsa (a large dollop of which i found haphazardly balancing on the collar of my leather jacket - thank goodness for partially sober friends who are watching out for me), dancing, claiming the kitchen as my post, listening to confessions and stories fluttering out of the mouths of inebriated party-goers in said kitchen, and finding a warm place to close my eyes by night's end.

quite possibly one of the more eventful saturdays to date.

tell me if you've heard this one before...

it's official.

i'm gross.

...ok, let me explain.

now, i love food. you know this if you've read any of the stuff i've written...especially in recent months (again, a special thanks to recovered tastebuds).

...but when do you say when?

i thought i had figured it out, people.

i thought i had finally solved the mystery that is enjoying all types of food without feeling like a grease spot.

the solution was balance.

well, yesterday, i took that solution and covered it in tar and feathers, lit it on fire and chucked it into a blackhole...made of more fire.

the day started out ok.

why, yes, a croissant is a lovely idea. i haven't had one in a while. so light and flaky and made almost completely of butter...how could i say no? dare i say, i deserve this little baked gem.

...and then i remembered, with much delight, that my design department had planned a homemade indian lunch bonanza...we got chickpea curry & eggplant curry (kudos to my dearest kristina), a healthy dose of basmati rice and naan bread from our local curry-in-a-hurry, yogurt-cucumber dip (thank you, sherry) and a luxurious rice pudding (made by the infamous susan)...

i thought i would be ok, but i thought wrong.

why, yes i'll have a pile of rice the size of my head...and, yes, i'll cover it in heaping piles of curry. oh, of course, i'll take a huge piece of naan and how could i say no to the yogurt dip. oh, susan, this rice pudding is so good i could die. yes, i'll have seconds!

by the end of lunch i couldn't sit up for fear that food would come shooting out of my eyeballs and ears...all i could do was let out exasperated sighs in response to the knowledge that i have no gauge when it comes to tasty foods.

i spent the next hour walking back and forth between the front office and the design department to try to get all that food to settle.

...and settle it did...

JUST IN TIME FOR DINNER!

...so, off i skipped to the shake shack line in madison square park...to the shake shack line that was a mile long.

it was time for dinner with elizabeth...the thursday ritual...and i was determined to get a shackburger. elizabeth showed up and we caught up on two weeks' worth of no-dinners while trying very hard not to stab the three very loud girls in front of us with 200 needles and 5 knives...each. we just didn't have the right equipment, lucky for them.

45 minutes of waiting in line and we were finally blessed with what we had been waiting for. our burgers and fries...a double shackburger with cheese and some fries, to be more specific.

oh, i'm completely full and i haven't even finished my burger.

...but i can't waste something so precious...so hard to come by...

oh no! it's getting cold...i have to finish it.

*nom nom nom*

mmmmmmmmmmmmmm. delicious...and epic.

delepic.

...did i mention that the loveliness of spring that was bestowed upon us during the daytime hours slowly melted away into a rather chilly evening? no? well, that's what happened...and i was not dressed appropriately...so, i suggested we find an indoor seat and have a spot of tea.

...but, of course, i can't just have tea. tea needs to be accompanied by something else.

in this case, it was a cannoli so riddled with chocolate chips that you could barely make out what it actually was. from the outside, it resembled a pipe assembled purely of dark lusciousness.

on the inside, a savory wonderland of cannoli cream in a cradle of cannoli crust awaited me.

...and down the rabbit hole i went...willingly.

by the time i was on my way home, i had a paunch that looked and felt like a football and the cold, hard truth that i knew nothing about balancing out my foods.

...but in my failure, i found comfort...

my day had been a culinary victory...and that, my friends, is how you tell mr. balance to take a number and get in line.