I love the products that Garnet Hill offers. Of course my pocket book does not. So I just drool on the brochure they mail me every few months to cope that my pocket book won't allow me to purchase any Garnet Hill items. I don't know why I sign up for catalogs with products I most likely won't purchase. I am a masochist I guess.
Below are some of my favorites from their Winter 2006 collection.

This clip from Family Guy makes me laugh.

Because my neighborhood has a large Irish immigrant population my local large supermarket has an international isle with some British products. It's neat to find brown sauce and ambrosia. The other day in the freezer section I noticed that Stouffers now offers Welsh Rarebit. I guess Stouffers decided to sell it at my particular supermarket because of that reason. I wonder if it tastes as good as scratch or when I had tried some at a British restaurant.

I found this fun quiz on Lisanne's recipe blog. I know its getting a little chilly for ice cream but hey people enjoy it in the fall with their crisps. And by people I mean me.

You Are Strawberry Ice Cream

A bit shy and sensitive, you are sweet to the core. You often find yourself on the outside looking in. Insightful and pensive, you really understand how the world works. You are most compatible with chocolate chip ice cream.

What Flavor Ice Cream Are You?

Thursday night Niel picks me up after a long day. He also had a long day mind you. He was getting some food when I called him and aske him to pick me up at the bus stop. Which is twenty minutes from our house. He said he would be at the bus stop in no time to get me. Then I realized holy hell its Thursday night and the first episode of season 3 of The Office would be on and neither of us had remembered to tape it. So I call him up practically in tears asking him to turn around and go back home, not because Niel would be hungry but to tape the show. That's how much The Office has gotten under my skin. I totally forgot the show didn't start till 8:30. Well we made it home in time and I was nervous as hell about seeing it. I don't know why because once again the show didn't fail to make me laugh and also be a bit sad at the same time. Now the writers have made me feel bad for Roy though. Bastards.

Saturday Niel and I had breakfast at a diner we pass sometimes on the bus ride home. The diner is where parts of the movie Good Fellas was filmed. Niel was pretty psyched about that.
Afterwards we went to a Corn festival in New Jersey. I saw it advertised on the local morning news and it seemed fun. That was ok. There wasn't any pig racing like they promised but Niel did bump into some childhood friends of his. What a small world. They seemed liked really nice people. We did eat a lot of corn products of course, corn fritters and corn dogs. Afterwards we ran some errands and I got to finally try Baja Fresh. It was pretty good. Niel got to try the new Chili Burger at Dairy Queen. That was yummy too. We then came home and vegged out in front of the television. Pictures here.

Sunday Niel got a hair cut and we went to a street festival in his old neighborhood. I didn't take any photos cause we all know what a street festival looks like. Heh heh.

A few shows shows coming back to TV I am excited about Little People Big World(Oct 6), Drawn Together(Oct 5), Gilmore Girls(tomorrow night), Degrassi(Sept. 29) and Nigella Feasts premiering on the Food Network(Oct 1).

Ahh Summer was lovely. Sad to see it go really. The yummy grilled meats, hearty salads, stuffing myself with watermelon and berries, getting reaquainted with Netflix, a great vacation in Toronto. Autumn brings getting to crunch leaves, see their color change, comfy sweaters and lots of soup! It's nice to get back into familar mode with television too. Oh Fall shows how I have missed you.


Photo from microsoft

I have mentioned Carmel before. It's my favorite Middle Eastern shop in Queens. Here are some pics from a recent visit. The store is not very large but it sure does pack some tasty goodies. Dried fruits, pita, spreads, spices, olives, pickled veggies, Armenian pizza, Armenian cold cuts and a whole lot more. Have a good weekend all.

Another installment of interesting things I see around the city. It is mostly food centered.


Tiny bananas


White eggplant


Multicolored tomatoes



Orange Cauliflower



Flat round peaches



Pretty sunflowers



Underwear Models

What type of Tea are you? {-With Anime Pictures!-}

Green Tea...You are Green Tea!Strong and very smart you prefer peace to violence and very rarely take action if it involves confrontation. But you make up for this with your keen insight and understanding of the world and people around you, you have a very mysterious nature. Many people see you as laid back and that may be true, but you are very intelligent and make good decisions.
Take this quiz!








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While watching an episode of Degrassi The Next Generation I overheard the meal they were enjoying was vegetarian Moussaka. It was cheesy and gooey looking. My ears, eyes and tummy perked up. Vegetarian Moussaka? The kind of Moussaka my mom had made although simple did have some veg in it but also meat and certainly not cheese. My mom's recipe called for eggplant, ground meat in tomato sauce, and a cherry tomato on top for decoration. Her version is tasty but I never considered there could be other types of Moussaka. Hah! While on my quest for veggie Moussaka I found a recipe in May/June issue of Donna Hay magazine for a meat and veg Moussaka. I got to working to making it and the recipe is fantastic! There a few steps to the dish but worth it. Especially since the days are cooling off. I still will be on a lookout for a vegetarian Moussaka.

Donna Hay's Moussaka

3 large potatoes
large canister of ricotta
Half a teaspoon of oregano, basil and rosemary
2 eggs
Ground Meat
1 medium Onion chopped
2 to 3 cloves of chopped garlic
1 medium to large eggplant
2 cups of tomato sauce
1 tablespoon of tomato paste
2 cups of mozzarella cheese
A handful of grated Parmesan cheese

Wash and slice eggplant. Lightly coat with olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. Bake in 350 oven for ten to fifteen minutes. While the eggplant is baking, heat a pan and coat with olive oil. Cook the onion and garlic about five minutes. Put in dish. Add the ground meat to the pan and cook till no longer pink. Drain any extra water. Add the onion and garlic back in. Add the tomato sauce, paste and spices. Simmer on low for ten minutes. While the meat mixture is cooking slice the potatoes and place on the bottom of a large baking pan. In a separate bowl mix the eggs and ricotta together. Add half the meat mixture on top of the potatoes, add ricotta. Put the baked eggplant on top of the ricotta. Add the rest of the meat mixture, the rest of the ricotta top off with the mozzarella and Parmesan. Bake for 45 minutes.

The sunny weather was such a surprise this past weekend after feeling like Autumn for a few weeks. Weekend was very relaxing. I stumbled upon a fancy shmancy supermarket on the Upper East Side before an appointment for some freelance work. The supermarket had incredible variety. But a 12 ounce bag of popcorn for $9.99. I don't think so. The rest of the weekend Niel and I ran some errands, lounged, visited my parents, cleaned, ate some good food. Home made and dined out. Home made food I made sanwhiches, Moussaka, veggie gratin, and cold pesto pasta salad. Out we ate at Chili's and Arby's. Chili's because I thought they were serving the fried mac and cheese I had seen advertised on TV. But nope it is only being offered at TJI Friday's, as our Chili's waitress told me dryly. LOL. Niel says I'm tempting fate by eating the fried mac and cheese. He's right but it looks so good. Decorated the apartment for Fall too. I know Fall is technically not till Saturday, but we have out of the house plans for that day. Niel also decorated for Fall by putting Mets stuff all over the living room. He wants to be a part of the Bloggy Parade of Homes for Autumn/Halloween edition. Heh heh. Two movies I would recommend are Zathura and Dave. I am so pissed Toby didn't win Rock Star Supernova. So pissed infact I left the room when he was eliminated.
The dumb asses, I mean UN is meeting this week so NYC is going to be an even more crowded. I really liked the music of Queen so I was sad to read that some idiots forced a concert in Freddy Mercury's memory to be cancelled.

Week seven of Bloggy Parade of Homes brought to us by Shannon!! This week's theme is bonus rooms. As mentioned last week in addition to our bedroom we have two extra rooms. That's a lot of extra room for New York City. Heh Heh. Niel and I each took a room for ourselves and made them little offices. They each have an air conditioner and window. They're are the only two airconditioners that currently work. Although the five years we've been at this place neither of us have ever tried turning on the AC in the kitchen. We each also have a picture of Mark Twain in the rooms. We dig him. Warning there are a lot of photos. I don't know how many more BPH's are left. I won't be participating in next week's which I think is the final because I don't have a back yard.



Niel's "man room" is very much a reflection of him. It is primarily sports themed with the major team being the Mets. But he also has other collectibles from favorite movies, authors and shows. As well as books.






Our modems, photos, bobble heads of Dwight and Edgar Allan Poe




Poster that was at Niel's birthday that the guests signed and a Planet of The Apes Poster.




A dark photo of his window with the Met Lights


Niel's first article at our college paper, another Planet of the Apes poster but we think in Portuguese


One of his bookshelves holds our boardgames


His guitar next to his book case.





Mine is obviously a reflection of me. I have two shelves of books, plus a lot of cake, gift wrapping and craft supplies in there. As well as a few knick knacks here and there. Mine is the smallest of the rooms.

img src="http://foodiechickie.com/100_3892.JPG"width=200>

Various little pics that make me smile and my writing supplies.


Mirror I really like


Tori Amos poster


My cat mousepad


Some of the stuffed animals


On top of one of my bookshelves. Mark Twain is in the background.


My bins of craft, and wrapping supplies.

The holidays are coming up and that makes me think of sweets partly. I thought I would share with you my cookie cutter collection. I think I missed a few though because I was too lazy too go through all my drawers. The ones I am showing you I keep in a box. I must find the others. I think there might be about a hundred here though.



The collection


My fall set


Some of my favorites. Jennifer gave me a set. It's very old timey.


These you just press into the cookie before baking and it gives a face. I have a set for Christmas, Halloween and Easter.


This looks like a Christmas Ornament.


These aren't cookie cutters but you sprinkle sugar through the holes and it makes a face on the cookie

As I mentioned a few times before I love pita bread. And I looooooove pita chips. Plain or flavored. Especially savory. I usually buy Stacey's because that is the only brand I know of. But the other day I found Polis Pita Chips. I brought the Greek flavored. It has lots of Oregano, which I adore. It also comes in plain, pesto and cinnamon. I'd like to try the pesto too. If it's flavored I like to eat it without any dip, but if its plain I dip it in hummus.

I hope everyone had a nice weekend. The weather has stayed cooler. I've finally stopped resisting and put away my Summer clothes. I do love Autumn but it has been a really nice Summer. The weekend was very nice. I'm always sad to see it go but I guess we have to work in order to have nice weekends and pay bills and what not.


Friday after work I went to Union Square and did some veg shopping at the Farmer's Market. I purchased Heirloom tomatoes, basil and wacky shaped eggplant(Rose Bianca). Then I walked over to Whole Foods and got some dough for a Pizza Margarita I would be making. They sell really cheap whole wheat frozen pizza dough. How cheap? $1.50 total cheap! I also purchased Hummus,red pepper/feta dip and pita chips. I do love my pita chips. Their Hummus is so much better then the Seven Seas brand. But Niel says he likes my Hummus best. Blush. He did enjoy Whole Foods' red pepper and feta dip though. He says it tasted like mine. Heh heh. I met up with Niel and we went home and relaxed the rest of the evening in front of the television. We watched Stick It. It was very good.


Saturday we went to two fairs. We would have gone to a third but we were enjoying being lazy so we got a late start leaving the apartment. The first fair was an Oktoberfest at the super neat relatively new mall a few neighborhoods from us. Niel enjoyed a beer and we shared a Bratwurst. Very yummy!! Afterwards we drove to Sandspoint in Long Island to a Medieval festival. Very entertaining. There was jousting, face painting, reenactments, dancing, vendors, and just plain fun.


Sunday Niel had a scout function. One of the scouts became an Eagle Scout. He went to get some bagels, spread and to set up. Then at the ceremony Niel and other scout heads spoke about the newest eagle scout. It was nice. I took some pics but the first set was a little dark. Afterwards we went to a Mets game. His mom got four tickets. The weather was lovely, the seats were good. Unfortunately the Mets lost. We went home and watched Fox the rest of the night.


We also did our grocery shopping and cleaning. I also did some cooking, besides the pizza and the calezones I also made some pesto and froze it for future use. Pictures here.

I can't believe its been five years since 9/11. Time really does go by quickly. The city was almost identical to 9/11/01 when I emerged from the train station this morning. Times Square was at a standstill with people watching the large television screen on the ABC building. This time though they were watching the names being read, they are read every year since. I am really sad and discouraged that after five years we can't find the lunatic responsible for this, that as a country we easily got side tracked with other things. I am sad for all those children who lost parents that day. For people who lost loved ones but happy for those who were able to escape and have managed to go on. I don't know if we as a nation can really be at peace though unless the maniac responsible is caught.

I had this entry saved and didn't want to miss week six of Shannon's Bloggy Parade of Homes. This week's theme is bedrooms. Besides our living/dining room, kitchen and bathroom we have three extra rooms. One of them is our bedroom. The other two we use as individual offices. Although I check my mail in Niel's office or "man room." Anyway below are pics of our bedroom in is pretty much leaf themed and a light Sage color. My parents gave our bedroom set as a wedding gift. Have a good weekend everyone.


The first thing you notice is a little cubbie when you walk in. I put candle holders in them and on top a few flowers and photos. We also have glow in the dark stars on the walls that keep falling off after 5 years.


The ivy plants are now in the living room. Baby pictures of Niel and I hang there. The TV is still in the same spot. Above it are Mickey and Minnie wedding set. A wedding gift from the Squilky's.


That is our bed and mirror/drawer set. Next to it are our leaf curtains.


That is my side of the bed. Photos galore. And our non working AC.


That is Niel underneath our quilt. As you can see the mirror/drawer set is gone. It is infront of the bed and in its place is a little Ikea chair that Niel picked out. Makes the bed larger.