Date night in NoHo

Last weekend we got all fancied up and went out for a date in NoHo. This is us on the train. I even wore lipstick. (I know. It was a big deal.) We went to Great Jones Cafe and stuffed ourselves with delicious cajun hot wings and burgers. Then we came home and watched a netflix rental. Okay, we're not that fancy. But we sure have fun.

Free Energy and Cajun food (worth the wait)

Klane heard about a free concert in Chelsea last night. Free? In NYC?! Yes, please! We'd heard a couple songs by this band before and liked their sound. Even though we had to wait in the cold for over an hour to get in (I hate waiting.) it was fun once we got inside and Free Energy started playing. Their music was upbeat and they gave off this "peace, love, happiness" vibe that made me feel like they were time warped here straight out of the 60's. They were fun to watch. (Click and listen to their song "Something in Common". My fave.)

It was a mistake to wait 45 minutes (I hate waiting.) to see the second band. Super weird electronic music, with a creepy lead singer that made me uncomfortable to watch. We laughed, and left after one song.

After the show, we went to try Delta Grill in Hell's Kitchen. Despite the promised 25 minute-turned 45 minute wait (I. Hate. Waiting. Grrrr.) and my resulting bad attitude going in, we ended up having a great time. The atmosphere was awesome; they had a great live band and we felt like we were in New Orleans.

I've never tried (or even thought of trying) Cajun/Creole food, so it was fun to try something new, and the food was incredible! The fried green tomatoes with black pepper cream sauce were addicting. The barbecue St. Louis ribs fell off the bone, and I am not exaggerating at all when I tell you the baked mac and cheese was the best I've ever had in my whole life. I wanted to take a second order home. Next time we'll be a little more daring and order a crawfish po'boy or andouille sausage jambalaya or fried catfish.

Here are some pictures of the restaurant found on the internet, since it was too dark to take phone pictures last night but I want you to see it:

A long walk, Chef Yu and homemade brownies

Klane promised to take me on a date Friday night. I walked down to his office after work to meet him. Then we walked to the restaurant, which was near Bryant Park (we thought we might go ice skating there after dinner). Our original plan was to go to this place with Mongolian BBQ, but it was closed, so we ended up going to Chef Yu, a Chinese place on 36th St and 8th Avenue. All in all, from my office on 62nd down to the restaurant, I walked 2 miles! But the great thing was it didn't seem that far at all. There is so much to see in the city, and I could walk around holding hands with Klane for hours. :)

Chef Yu was yummy, and the service was fast. Klane asked me if I'd come back there again, and I thought for a second and decided I would, if there weren't a million other places in the city I wanted to try. It's exciting to have an endless supply of new restaurants to try for date night!

After dinner I was thinking of dessert, and after throwing around ideas of a few places to go for something sweet, we decided the best option would be homemade fudge brownies with ice cream at home. Turned out delicious, and we got to enjoy it while catching up on hilarious episodes of The Office. What a fun night!

Spicy diced chicken and shrimp lo mein. Yum!



dessert!

A Real Weekend!

This was the first Saturday that I haven't had to work since the beginning of December. Yes, Christmas break was in there, but still! I've worked way too many Saturdays around here lately. So I was very excited to have a real weekend, especially since the weather was supposed to be so warm. The high yesterday was close to 50 degrees!

We slept in and then went for a run/walk (we're a little out of shape) through Central Park and down to the East 60s-80s. I wanted to show Klane some of the beautiful Upper East Side buildings I saw on a couple lunchtime walks this week. It was a lot of fun.

After returning home and resting up, we headed back over to 74th Street and 3rd Avenue on the Upper East Side to try the famous burgers at JG Melon. We've heard from many sources that these burgers are some of the best in the city. The verdict? They were really delicious! But we're not sure if the 45 minute wait and poor service would lure us back a second time. We're glad we went though, it was definitely worth experiencing at least once.

We stopped at Williams-Sonoma on the way home to look around and attempt to spend the large chunk of store credit I still have from our wedding. There is so much goodness in that store, I still can't decide. Then we came home, had some dessert, and watched The Office online. It was a nice Saturday spent with my best friend!

Snowy Night Out

After bundling up and heading to the church, only to find out the stake dance had been cancelled due to the approaching blizzard, we decided we couldn't waste the evening. We were bundled, we were outside, it was snowing, and we were excited. I wanted to be outside in the storm, to run around and frolic in the snow. And so we did.

On the way to dinner we walked through Madison Square Park. I was SO excited about the snow, I was running and jumping around and throwing it in the air. We took a fun little video and I wanted to post it to show you the snow and lights. But I can't because I was embarrassingly crazy and overexcited. I don't want that on the internet. :)

We headed to Blue Smoke to try their barbeque (the sweet potato fries were definitely the highlight). I guess since people aren't used to snow around here, most people just stay inside when it snows. It was amazing! The city was so quiet and there was no wait at the restaurant! We loved it. It was like a whole different city. And the snow falling was definitely magical. I was so excited. We walked up to 34th street to see Macy's and just to appreciate being out in the falling snow. It was so fun!

Believe it or not, this abandoned Taxi was sitting in the middle of Broadway. Crazy!

monday night at the shack

Monday night. Spontaneous FHE date night. Shake Shack.

I love the shack at night, because I love the lights hanging from the trees. I also love the fall leaves. And I loved that there was almost no line, but it wasn't too chilly out. Every time I eat that burger I love it more.

Mostly I love love love the man sitting across from me at our little table under the lights. He is so good to me. I could never make it out here without him by my side.

let's stay in tonight

A the end of a long, tiring week, we both agreed that picking up a pizza and staying in with a movie sounded like a great Friday night plan. Giovanni's is just a few blocks away. Hurray for huge greasy pizzas!

stand burger

We heard that Stand serves one of the best burgers in the city, so we went to check it out.




Loved the sweet potato fries, the delicious burgers, and an apple pie shake!
We're searching for a thick ice-cream shake like you get in Utah, such as at JCW's...
nothing so far has even come close, but we'll let you know what we find.





Then we went for a walk, and eventually found ourselves at Madison Square Park.
Took some pics, admired the Empire State Building.



We found these fun hats in the 23rd Street subway station.

getting creative

On the last day of the month, we looked at our budget on Mint and realized again how expensive it is to live here.

So instead of a night out, we had an inexpensive gourmet dinner at home:



To complete the "six-year-old" theme, we built a fort and watched movies.




A double-header:
10 Things I Hate About You (classic 90's movie; a little overrated)
and then Juno (we think that movie is just awesome).

(The double-header wasn't really planned, but once you start Juno you can't just turn it off.)



Good times with my favorite person.