The Weekend

Pin It now! I'm still in the honeymoon phase of my Instagram crush.  I'm still wondering whether it's worth the $1B, but someone said it was about the user base.  I don't know what that means.  I just know that someone paid $1B for a company that makes my cellphone pictures look like the ones my parents were taking the year I was born...and I like it.  So this weekend, I ran my first 5K of the season with Alysse and Matt in Prospect Park.  There were a lot less runners for this race than the Lincoln Tunnel 5K I did last year and it was just one loop around the park, so there weren't markers indicating how far we had run and the race seemed to go a lot faster than expected.  By the time I thought I needed a break, we were done!  I hardly head out to Prospect Park or Park Slope so it was nice to walk around the neighborhood after the race.  We were loving the brownstones and the quietness of the neighborhood.  That night, Michael and I made our way to Best Pizza.  Anything that says it's the best better be good (and always reminds me of the scene in Elf when Buddy finds the World's Best Cup of Coffee..."You did it! Congratulations! Great job everybody!...")  It wasn't the BEST pizza but it was pretty close.  Their meatball sub is to die for and we couldn't go wrong by adding bacon and caramelized onions to the pizza.  For the rest of the weekend, I purged more clothes from the closet and storage, had my first Dough donut of the season (my favorite) and we went to Long Island for a wedding.  I'll post more photos of the wedding soon, but in the meantime, here's the weekend Instagram-style.

Homemade Pizza & Hot Wine Sunday

Pin It now! My first attempt at homemade pizza.  It actually came out better than expected.  I guess it's true what they say about it - even bad pizza is good pizza...or something like that.

Pizza dough from Whole Foods
Crushed tomatoes with basil
4-cheese Pizza cheese (low sodium)
Pepperoni
Grated Parmesan cheese

1. Let the dough sit out in room temperature for at least 1-2 hours so it's easier to stretch.  Stretch dough out on a pizza crisper or pizza pan.  Let it sit for 5 minutes.  Stretch it out again.
2. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees
3. Lightly brush with olive oil or butter.  Use a fork to dot the entire pizza with small holes
4. Cook the dough for 10-15 minutes
5. Let it cool for 5 minutes.  Add sauce, cheese, and pepperoni and sprinkle Parmesan cheese on top.
6. Cook for another 15-20 minutes.
7. Cool for 5 minutes.  Enjoy!!

After our pizza lunch, we headed to see the French for their Hot Wine Sunday party.  Delicious mulled wine, roasted chestnuts, homemade apple pie, hot apple cider, cheese and more wine.  What more could you ask for on a freezing NYC afternoon?  Stay tuned, the French are hosting an Ugly Sweater Party in a few weeks.  Lots of fabulous photos to come...