Tag Archives: Dessert

The Standard Grill

I’ve been wanting to head to this restaurant for a while now, but unfortunately it’s one of those places that you need to call a month in advance in order to get a convenient reservation time — and obviously, that can get pretty difficult to do when you have a crazy schedule. But with out-of-town friends visiting, we were able to snag an 8 p.m. reservation. Unfortunately, we weren’t seated until 8:45! I was very worried that the long wait we were put through was going to be just the start to an ugly dinner.

Thank goodness… I was wrong!

Located in the heard of Meatpacking, The Standard Grill is a hot-spot and will probably be for a while. They have a beer garden located right next door, and it’s open year-round. Tucked underneath the Highline, the beer garden is open rain or shine and in the winter time walls are put up in order to keep the heat in. When you arrive at the beer garden you will need to purchase beer tickets (if beer is what you want to drink) in order to get your drinks at the bar. It’s a great place to start your night out at.

Inside the restaurant there is a back room/ main dining room that I strongly suggest you request to sit in — the room is filled with stylish New Yorkers that not only came for the scene, but came for the food. While some of the booths are made from plush red leather, others are made from what looks like park benches — and they are perfect for large groups! Even though we had a rough start to our evening, our waiter ended up being unbelievable — he really knew the menu well and he was full of energy and was very attentive.

We started with a few appetizers — the calamari, yellowtail, and shrimp cocktail. The Standard Grill has a great raw bar selection in case anyone is looking for cocktails and raw bar as a start to their night out.

For a long time I had such a hard time with shrimp cocktail, to me biting into shrimp cocktail felt like I was biting through flesh (or something gross like that). Thank goodness I was able to get past that because I now love chowing down on these fabulous hors d’oeuvres.

Yellowtail on the other hand has always been easy for me to eat. This fish is full of flavor and paired with castelvetrano olives, uni and golden raisins tastes unbelievable! I loved scooping up all of these flavors onto my fork — the yellowtail is a must order if you eat out at The Standard Grill!

Everyone at the table really enjoyed the Charred Spanish Octopus that was served with sweet potato and chilies. The octopus was grilled to perfection and that charred taste was perfectly infused into every bite. I also really enjoyed the extra sweetness from the potatoes and they complimented the rich charred flavoring. Next Christmas when my family makes squid I will be sure to bake-up some cubes of sweet potatoes to serve with the fish!

For my main course I ordered the scallops that were cooked with sesame seeds on top. I had to show you all this photo at a larger size because I wanted you to see how beautiful the seeds look on the scallops. They also tasted incredible! They were served with what to me tasted like a pureed avocado dip that really livened up the scallops’ flavoring.

My boyfriend ordered the duck which was also a great pick off of the menu. Thanks to the blood orange on the dish, the duck had a sweet taste to it’s rich flavoring. Lately, I have really been enjoying duck — I don’t know how I went so long without eating it!

I loved our dessert too! We ordered the plate called “The Deal-Closer” which is described on the menu as a bowl of bittersweet chocolate mousse topped with whipped cream. This is actually made for two people or more and it was the perfect way to end our meal. The presentation for this dessert was pretty cool — the dessert chef got very creative. Personally when I bake, my favorite part is licking the batter off of a spatula. Which is why I felt like a little kid when our bowl of mousse was brought to the table in a traditional glass mixing bowl with two rubber spatulas that were used to scoop up the dessert to put on our own individual plates… But the cutest part was licking the spatula. This got me thinking… Why not use this as a way to serve dessert at a dinner party? People might not think that it’s a “pretty” way to serve chocolate mousse, but it sure will have your guests feeling like little kids again.

Even though I was disappointed that we had to wait an extra 45 minutes even though we had a reservation, I overall really enjoyed my dinner. Plus, the service was impeccable. When can I go back next!?

Bar Pitti in The Village

It’s one of those restaurants — cash only and no reservations.

I had expected a brutal wait for a table at Bar Pitti on a Friday night during a very busy time of night when most New Yorkers are just starting to get hungry. But to my surprise my boyfriend and I only waited 20 minutes for our table! It was luckily the last beautiful evening before the weather went back to being chilly — so the restaurant had indoor and outdoor seating available. We luckily got the best of both worlds and sat technically inside but right in front where the walls/windows were opened.

While waiting for a table, those waiting will stand outside on the sidewalk (which isn’t a big deal if the weather is nice, but if it was the middle of winter I can only imagine how upset I would be being both cold and hungry).

So we got a fabulous table and quickly began to eye down the menu to pick out what we wanted to order. The wait staff is fairly pushy and it’s obvious that they are running around trying to serve a jam-packed restaurant but they are rather sort and quick to the point. But who can be mad at a waiter who is very kind yet talks insanely fast?

First up was our appetizers and of course I had to order the caprese salad with fresh bufala mozzarella which came out beautifully seasoned with some salt and pepper and was exceptionally creamy and fluffy. I love a good bufala mozzarella but my boyfriend and I agreed that we loved Da Silvano’s unbelievable burrata. (Da Silvano is Bar Pitti’s sister restaurant and they are located right next to each other.) Although we did dig into our caprese and garlic bread was even served to the table (I’m not sure if it was part of the order or complimentary) but it was a perfect way to scoop up some bufala mozzarella and tomatoes. Besides being convenient it also added so much flavor to the cheese! Who would ever say “no” to garlic?

My boyfriend didn’t think that the caprese salad was enough to order so he wanted to snag one another item off of the specials menu (Note: the restaurant changes their specials menu daily based off of what is fresh). He picked the asparagus and veal dish. Hmmm, okay, this was a rather strange plate. The food didn’t taste bad in any way whatsoever but it was so damn odd. First of all, it’s a cold plate. Second, the asparagus is pureed. And third, you can’t see the veal, but the veal was literally just a thin layer of meat that was sliced and put on the plate before the asparagus puree was poured on top. Again, it didn’t taste bad, but the dish was just very unusual.

Next came our main courses. We both ordered off of the specials menu — I picked the spinach ravioli in a sage and butter sauce. This was such a phenomenal pick because after filling up on appetizers I desperately needed a light entree. I am such a sage lover. And I couldn’t help but laugh with my boyfriend over the fact that we were literally eating the same exact dinner that I had made him for the first meal I cooked for him. Aww, so sweet! (I made him a fresh caprese salad with a spinach ravioli in a butter and sage sauce — super easy to make at home!) But the chef at Bar Pitti did a great job infusing the fantastic flavor of sage into the butter. And I loved that there was plenty of butter sauce to scoop up from the plate onto the ravioli!

food at bar pitti

My boyfriend ordered a farfalle with salmon and asparagus in a pink sauce. I am not a fan of salmon when it’s cooked — I love love love it raw but forget cooking it and feeding it to me. Ick! But I surprisingly enjoyed this farfalle dish! Full of flavor and not an overwhelming taste of salmon, I really enjoyed all of the different tastes that were cooked into this dish. I was disappointed about one thing though — the farfalle aka bowtie pasta was wayyy over cooked. I’m such a typical Al Dente type of girl that loves her pasta just cooked enough that there is a slight firmness to the pasta. The texture of this pasta reminded me of the way my macaroni turned out the first time when I cooked it in the microwave back in college. Luckily the taste of the pasta was no where near Easy Mac!

Last but not least was our dessert. I have been on such a sorbet kick lately so I couldn’t help but order a serving of tangerine sorbet. (I think of my new obsession of sorbet is just a way for me to do research. My friend Brittany and her friend Gina recently gave me a KitchenAid ice cream maker as a thank you for letting them stay in my apartment for a long weekend. How nice is that! So now I have been learning all about what flavors taste great in ice cream and sorbet!) The tangerine sorbet was loaded with flavor and reminded me of my gelato experiences I had on my recent trip to Italy. The presentation was also fantastic — the sorbet was stuffed back into a tangerine! (My boyfriend and I were actually debating this… I thought that the tangerine looked like an orange, he thinks it looks like a tangerine. Please, someone agree with me on this that a tangerine looks exactly like an orange! )

And then my boyfriend ordered the tiramisu which tasted fantastic! I laughed at him though because this tiramisu tastes exactly like coffee/espresso and my boyfriend hates coffee (so I find it odd that he enjoyed this dessert!) Perfectly rich, and creamy this tiramisu really hits the spot for someone looking for both a sweet and savory dessert.

So besides having over cooked farfalle I am going to rate this restaurant a 9 out of 10. It really was a great experience and I was even able to speak the few words of Italian that I know. (I could easily order double of anything and I have fantastic manners saying please and thank you, and I know how to say “how do you say this in Italian?” So obviously I learned several new words as well.)

By the way, I do have to share with everyone something funny that happened at our dinner table. My boyfriend huffs and puffs whenever the food arrives because he can’t dig in right away. I always have to take a photo of our food first (of course, so I can share the pictures with all of my blog followers). But lately I’ve been noticing while I put my camera/phone away I manage to glance at my boyfriend who is snapping a few pictures himself…. Hmmmm, I think we might have a new food photographer!

Recipe: Homemade Whipped Cream

It’s almost that time of year where strawberries will be back in season! I’m already finding beautiful strawberries for an inexpensive price at Trader Joe’s!

I’ll typically eat strawberries by itself, but yesterday I wanted to spice it up a bit and add some whipped cream. When a friend told me how easy it is to make whipped cream from scratch I figured I’d give it a shot rather than buy it at the store.

This recipe for whipped cream is so easy — even someone who may consider themselves a horrible cook can pull this one off!

how to make whipped cream from scratch

So here’s the scoop:

1. Put 1 cup heavy cream, 3 tablespoons sugar, and 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract into an electric mixer.
2. Whip ingredients together on medium speed until you can form soft peaks (meaning the peaks are able to bend over at the top when you remove the whisk from the electric mixer).
3. Scoop into a bowl, and serve with strawberries (or any other dessert you’d like to pair it with).

It’s seriously that easy! It’s Whipped Cream 1-2-3! My favorite part (besides that it’s so easy to make) is that the flavor is a 100 times better than the fake stuff at the store! The flavors are real, the texture is soft, fluffy, and of course creamy at the same time!

Rock Candy in a Refined Way

Growing up I had a candy crush on three specific sweets: rock candy, Nerds, and Sugar Daddys.

I’ve always thought of rock candy as the boring old “white” flavoring, aka raw sugar without any flavor — and the grape flavor that would turn my tongue, teeth, and lips purple. But, it wasn’t until I moved to New York when I realized that the boring ol’ white crystal rock candy could be used to sweeten up a cappuccino or latte. When I ordered a latte at my corner block’s pizzeria they delivered my mug with a stick of rock candy. It dissolved beautifully into my hot espresso and milk.

This made me think: how fantastic would it be to arrange these on a plate to serve after hosting a dinner? It takes ordinary tea and coffee times and puts such a chic and at the same time childish spin on the candy. I love it!

You can organize them in several ways, but my favorites are placing them in a small hurricane glass that is filled half way with sugar. That way the sugar crystals won’t crack and break if they get moved around in the hurricane.

I also love just delicately placing them on a plate. In this photo, you’ll see a combination of both the white and brown rock candy. I love this because it shows that sugar comes in two different ways. Just make sure you don’t serve some random flavored rock candy — you want them to be the original sugar-tasting flavor rather than something like cherry or bubblegum (my bet is that would taste nasty with coffee or tea).

(Note: these photos were taken from Pinterest. Take a look on my site for further references! And be sure to follow me, I’ll follow back! I’m always interested to see what everyone is pinning about!)

Crispo, Meatpacking Restaurant

This past weekend, my boyfriend and I decided to go out to dinner at a restaurant that was recommended to us by a coworker of mine. I am always up for Italian food! I could eat Italian cuisine every day for the rest of my life and be satisfied — I’m one of those people. Even though I enjoy sushi, thai food, Mexican, and French cuisine… I never really crave the foods! But Italian food, I think about it all the time.

Crispo is located right on 14th Street near 8th Ave. It’s so close to Union Square, but I’m going to guess that it’s technically in the Meatpacking neighborhood. If you’re looking for a restaurant close to the hot spots, fun night clubs, and rowdy bars that can be found in Meatpacking, this restaurant is just a 5 minute walk from all of those shenanigans.

The restaurant is loud but intimate. The lighting is magical and you’ll feel cozy at whatever table you are seated at. The low ceilings probably help a lot with the cozy and intimate setting.

The menu is gigantic and a bit over whelming and I was surprised that there’s an entirely different menu for the “specials of the day.” Can you believe it? Of the dayyyy!

Off of the main menu, we started with Parmigiano Crusted Roast Asparagus — this plate contained 4 massive pieces of asparagus spears cooked perfectly (not too over cooked and mushy and it had the perfect crunch to it) and half of the spears were covered with my favorite type of cheese — parmigiano reggiano cheese. The cheese was nice and crispy on top but there was a large amount of it on the vegetables so the cheese was warm and melted underneath the crispy layer.

Another appetizer we ordered off the of the main menu was the Caramelized Brussel Sprouts, Toasted Almonds, and Maple. If you are limiting yourself to only one appetizer, this is the one to get. It was my favorite (and my boyfriend’s favorite too). The brussel sprouts are cooked perfectly and the maple glaze on top adds so much sweetness to the vegetable you will forget what you are eating. Personally, I love brussel sprouts — they can be steamed in a Ziploc steam bag and I’d eat them just like that. But the maple adds loads of comforting flavor to it — I think I’m going to try to recreate these in my own kitchen!

Our final appetizer we ordered was off of the daily special menu — it was a zucchini popper dish that came with cheese stuffed on the inside of the popper and a spicy red sauce. This was our least favorite, the bread on the outside of the zucchini poppers was rather soft and kind of soggy. There was also so much cheese on the inside, I may have been lucky to have one full bite that included a piece of zucchini. The flavors weren’t bad, but the texture was lacking.

For our main dishes I knew exactly what I wanted I didn’t hesitate when ordering — the Butternut Tortelloni with Roast Italian Chestnuts, Sage and Parmigiano.

Anything with butternut I know I am going to love. Perfectly cooked and nice and sweet, exactly what butternut dishes tend to be like, I indulged in every bite. Not a single piece of food was left on my plate. The sage also brought out fantastic flavors in the dish! I recommending this plate as an order if you venture to Crispo.

My boyfriend ordered a pasta dish and he ranked it as just ok. There could have been some more flavors added into the plate. But for all your ordinary pasta lovers that don’t need much to say “wow” I’m sure you would have been happy with the order. (I believe his pasta dish came off of the daily special menu so I can’t tell you exactly what was in it.)

Finally, for dessert… We ordered the tasting of creme brulee and chocolate pot de creme. The creme brulee is definitely one of my favorite desserts and the chef at Crispo did a fantastic job with this! The brown sugar was perfectly torched on the top and all of the flavors were beautiful. The pot de creme was also very tasty and satisfied my chocolate sweet tooth!

Over all I really enjoyed this restaurant — thank you coworker for your recommendation! The restaurant isn’t too far from my apartment and I plan to go back. Hopefully I can bring my friend Stef… I can see her falling in love with the appetizers just like I did!

Malted Milk Chocolate Chip Cookies

I have been on one heck of a Ree Drummond kick lately! This chef is a fairly new addition to the Food Network channel and I am loving her show every Saturday morning. There’s something about homemade food, cooked in the middle of nowhere, that’s whipped up on a ranch filled with cowboys. Anything that’s homemade, homestyle, and baked with love I’m sure tastes fantastic.

The other week I made Ree’s Spinach and Mushroom Quesadillas — and since then I have managed to pass this recipe along to all of my coworkers and a number of friends. All have cooked-up the recipe and they loved it!

I was totally infatuated with Ree’s episode the other week where she baked Malted Milk Chocolate Chip Cookies. Here’s what I loved about it: she adds an ingredient that I never knew could be added to a cookie recipe — malted milk, while the cookies bake they end up spreading out and baking flat because of this special ingredient, and you have the choice of making the cookie crunchy or chewy. Since I prefer my cookies to be crunchy, yet so many prefer them to be chewy, I figured I could kill two birds with one stone and make half the batch my preferred way and the other half the way my friends would enjoy it.

Since I recently got a KitchenAid mixer for Christmas, I knew baking these cookies would be easy. But, I realized quickly that I owned only a few ingredients. Since I now have a mixer, I knew it was time for me to buy basic ingredients — like flour, sugar, etc. So off to the store I went.

When I got home from Trader Joe’s I put all of the ingredients I would need on the counter. They include: unsalted butter, brown sugar, sugar, eggs, vanilla extract, flour, baking soda, baking soda, salt, malted milk powder, and milk chocolate chips. (And just like Ree, I figured I would take a photo for you.)

While the oven preheated to 375 degrees, I added the room temperature unsalted butter to the mixer, gave it a bit of a stir and combined it with 3/4 cups brown sugar and 3/4 cups sugar. Once the three ingredients were mixed together and became fluffy in consistency I added the 2 eggs and 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract to the mixture. With the mixer still on, I added 1/2 cup malted milk powder. While the ingredients were mixing, I sifted together the following: 2 cups all-purpose flour, 1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda and 1 1/4 teaspoon salt. With the KitchenAid mixer on low, I added the ingredients to the bowl. Once all of the ingredients were combined, the chocolate chips were gently stirred in. By this time the oven was preheated and ready to go!

I placed small scoops of the cookie dough onto the cookie sheet. Plenty of space between the cookies was needed since the cookies become flat when they bake and they end up taking double the space on the sheet compared to the stereotypical chocolate chip cookie. I baked for 12 minutes for my crispy cookies and 10 minutes for my chewy cookies.

I couldn’t get over how easy it was to make cookies from scratch! Well, it was easy after I lugged home all of the heavy ingredients from the grocery store.

For the rest of the weekend I couldn’t stop indulging in the cookies I had made. I loved that my crispy cookies were crispy on the outside but still had a soft chewy texture on the inside.

There’s nothing like baking home made chocolate chip cookies and making your entire apartment building hallway smell like cookie dough. I’m sure I made my neighbors very jealous!

All Things Nutella!

Over a year ago, someone had the audacity to comment on my Nutella post saying, “I just don’t get it with you people and your love for Nutella.” Excuse me? You don’t get it? What is there to get? I truly enjoy Nutella. I’m not obsessed with it in any way whatsoever. When I run out of a jar, I don’t rush out to the store to get more. Nor do I find myself eating it every week. It’s a great sweet to have in the house because you can do multiple things with it! Really, you can. It’s a versatile sweet that can be used at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Have you ever made french toast, skipped the maple syrup and added Nutella and loads of berries (like: raspberries and blueberries)? It’s a great topping, especially if you have run out of maple syrup! Have you ever put Nutella on waffles? Another fantastic surprise! It tastes great!

While browsing on tumblr. I discovered that there are so many people out there that are in love with Nutella. It’s a universal name — no wonder why people all around the world are turning to this chocolate hazelnut treat! While checking out photos, I realized there is so much out there I can be doing with my Nutella — add it to donuts, dip a chocolate bar into the jar, spread it on your pancakes, make homemade Nutella ice cream, buy the little packets so you can carry some in your bag (I do this with Jiff peanut butter), dip strawberries in it (I do that with raspberries), and put it in between layers of pound cake for a decadent dessert.

So, I must know… what is everyone putting their Nutella on? How are you eating it? My good friend Jesse just likes to eat it right out of the jar with a gigantic spoon. But I prefer it with food!

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Milk and Cookies, A Perfect Dessert

Who said that cookies and milk are just for Santa?

If you ask me, it’s a perfect dessert to serve for friends at a party — especially this time of year! By using double shot glasses for the milk and by placing a small cookie over top — it turns into a perfect mini-dessert at a cocktail party! Be sure to bake the cookies nice and fresh so they come out perfectly warmed up for your friends. Not only are they the perfect serving size, but they are also seasonally themed for the holidays and it will bring back so many memories for your guests. Those that celebrate Christmas surly remember the times they put out cookies and milk for Santa!

My Santa Memory:

I must have been about 6-years-old and my family was still living in our New England home… I remember it being a very cold winter in New Hampshire that year. The design of our home had our wood-burning stove downstairs in the basement and our nice decorative fireplace upstairs. So we would hang our stockings at the nice fireplace so they wouldn’t catch on fire. The big Christmas tree was set up in our gigantic sun room that was technically located between the two floors in the back of our house. On Christmas Eve I put out the milk and cookies by the decorative fire place upstairs. Naturally, I was anxious for Christmas to arrive and I woke up very late (probably around midnight) to peek to see if Santa had come yet. I quietly walked down the hallway because I knew my parents were still awake downstairs. I saw that the stockings were stuffed! And the milk glass was empty and the cookies were gone! I ran over to the staircase that over looked the sun room to see if the presents were under the tree. But to my surprise, there were no gifts! I realized this when I was half way down the stair case. I froze in my steps realizing this: the stockings were stuffed, but the Christmas tree didn’t have any presents under it. What the hell was going on!?! And then I realized the most petrifying part: that must mean that Santa is in the house!!!!! I clung to the stairs, completely frozen, and scared that Santa would take my life if he saw that I was out of bed. I think that was the last year I believed in the Jolly ol’ man.

To this day, it’s a pretty funny story. My parents were probably peeing their pants when they saw me clinging to the staircase. I refused to go upstairs, and I refused to go downstairs. I seriously thought that Santa was in the house some where. And for some reason the man that brought so much Christmas cheer to my life was now a serial killer out to get the children who were out of bed! I have been laughing while telling this story to you all. I would love to hear your holiday stories too!

Food Adventures This Weekend

Where ever you turn, you’ll find food! Especially in New York City!

This weekend I headed to my neighborhood’s local market with my friend Stefanie. We were both on a quest to pick up a few Holiday gifts — and of course we had to go on the weekend because we have both been so busy with work during the week. On the weekends, the Chelsea Market is packed with locals and tourists — all determined to discover the newly opened stands and shops throughout the market.

While waiting for Stefanie to arrive, I strolled through a few of my favorite places. For one, I spent some time in The Lobster Place taking a few photographs to show all my readers. I watched as fresh sushi was made (yum! I love avocado on my sushi!) and I took in the smell of the store… All fresh fish! The smell reminds me of New England — the place I grew up for the first half of my life.

During this time of year the most gorgeous lights are hung in the very center of the Chelsea Market. They drape down below the clock and light up the market place. These are not up year-round and I love when they are put up at this time of year!

The Chelsea Market stretches a full avenue long, going from 9th Avenue to 10th Avenue. There are two entrances/exits both are on each side of the market. On the 10th Avenue end this weekend, there was a small petting zoo with cows. City children gathered ’round to pet the baby farm animals. I love seeing things like this… especially in the heart of Manhattan. It just shows that you truly can find just about anything in the city — and the city children get a taste of country life. Yes, I believe that children should experience the fresh country air. But I do believe that the city is a fantastic place to raise children.

On Saturday night I went to the new Spanish-Moroccan fusion restaurant only 1 block from the Chelsea Market (and only a few blocks from my apartment). I went with my boyfriend, his cousin, and his cousin’s wife. Ventanas is a new tapas restaurant located on 16th Street and 10th Avenue. The menu is large and may seem overwhelming, but you want to order plenty of plates because the portions are rather small (this is the only down-side to this restaurant). We ordered the following: Pisto (Spanish Ratatouille), Guacamole with Plantain Chips, Ceviches de Camarones (Shrimp Ceviche), Croquetas de Bacalao (Codfish Croquets), Frituras De Queso De Cabra (Goat Cheese Fritas), 2 Empanadas Espinaaca (Spinach and Manchego Empanadas), Albondigas (Lamb Meatballs), and Dulce de Leche Empanadas for dessert.

We enjoyed everything! Perfect bite-sized tapas that everyone was able to share with one another. I love tapas-style meals because everyone is engaged with one another over something as simple as the food on the table. Instead of ordering your own plate and keeping it to yourself — you are able to pass the plates around while saying “yum! Try this, you’ll love it!” The food also came out quickly so we would order 2 or 3 plates at a time! That way we weren’t too overwhelmed with an obnoxious amount of plates on the table. We all enjoyed the food, but we also loved the music playing in the background. Lots of exotic tunes had us practically dancing in our seats — like The Gypsy Kings (a French band that plays flamenco-style music), as well as other current, more popular songs as well. But I was excited to hear some music that I grew up to! My father often played The Gypsy Kings and over the years I managed to memorize some of their songs like Bamboleo. Besides the music, I loved the decor as well. You felt like you were some place exotic the moment you stepped into the restaurant. The shapes, the colors, the plush booths — you felt like you were in Morocco!

At 10 p.m. a belly dancer came out and circled the restaurant for some extra entertainment. A few rowdy people got up and danced with her — which was great entertainment for us! By 10:30 some tables were cleared off and pushed to the side and a bunch of people started to get up and dance … including us! I wasn’t expecting my tapas-style dinner to turn into a dance party! But we were all quick to jump to our feet and make our way to the dance floor!

This is such a fantastic place to go with friends! Order some drinks, get a little rowdy, but overall experience some fantastic food! Watch how much you order though, because the bill can get pretty high rather quickly!

A Chelsea Market Bakery

Barbie CakeInside the Chelsea Market you will find so many amazing surprises… We all know how much I love this market and the thought of it ever shutting down upsets me so much. Over a month ago, an elderly man asked me to sign a petition and I asked him what it was for and he told me “to save the Chelsea Market.” I couldn’t believe what he was telling me, it has been in the works to shut down the Chelsea Market. I have no clue what the current status of all of this is but he told me if I signed the petition and included my email address then I would be updated. I haven’t heard anything yet but I will keep you all posted once I have received any news.

From Australian food, to cheap vegetables to take home to cook, to Italian cookies and cheese — The Chelsea Market has it all. Really, it has it all. If I had the time to cook everything from scratch I could actually do all of my grocery shopping from here. I love it!

There are a few bakeries in the Chelsea Market and there is this one I pass by all the time and see all of the cakes decorated in their store front window. I had to show you all this insanely gorgeous Barbie cake. Any little girl would be lucky to have this as her birthday cake. It’s okay if you can’t go all out with such a massive cake, instead you could get adorable Elmo cupcakes! I have been hearing loads about Elmo lately, probably because Good Morning America did a special on the puppeteer of Elmo. I thought this cupcakes were adorable and everything little boy and girl would love these!