Northern Spy Food Co.

I love New York City. Bottom line, it is my favorite place on Earth. But, as much as I hate to admit this, I am really not that big of a fan of the Lower East Side. It's hard to get to by subway (and what subway stops are there smell horrendous), the sidewalks are a mess (try walking on those in heels!), and I always manage to have to go there on the most humid hot days so by the time I get there my hair looks a mess, I'm sweaty, and all around gross. These days it takes a really special occasion (or a really special person) to get me to go there. And when I was home for Spring Break, a combination of the two got me out there to have dinner with one of my best friends, Jen, at Northern Spy Food Co.

Jen teased me before hand saying how it was a big deal that I agreed to step foot in that area (and believe me, I crossed many many feet as I walked A LOT of blocks). When I finally did arrive at my destination (which I'll admit was not as far into the LES as I was expecting), I was welcomed by a warm and cozy room that was exactly what I needed after a brisk trek on a cold late winter's night.


Next up I perused the menu. Much to my delight, everything on it was locally sourced and sustainably farm. That, as you know, is always a huge score in my book. It means I can order whatever I want off the menu and not feel guilty. But, as is normally the case, I'm so used to not eating meat that I opted for a vegetarian option anyway. Well, semi vegetarian anyway. I got an appetizer of the crispy gnocchi (made with a butternut squash puree) and duck fat fries (french fries, fried in duck fat). Both were amazing. The gnocchi was really light and fluffy (hard to imagine for something that is normally sits like a rock in your stomach) and the fries were big, crispy, and flavorful. The perfect proportions with a little bit left over to share. Jen got one of the soups and her favorite, a side of the meatballs (which were also fantastic).

When dessert came around we were both really stuffed, but since we were sort of celebrating I pushed Jen into order something. We went back and forth about a lot of things (there were so many yummy options, like cookies, tarts, and cheese), but we ended up compromising and each getting a small scoop of house made ice cream to share. I opted for vanilla honey, and it was so rich and delicious, as good as it was, it actually made me wish we had ordered another dessert. If the ice cream was THAT GOOD another dessert (especially one that comes with ice cream on the side) would have been that much better.

All in all, it was well worth the trip into my least favorite part of NYC, and I have to admit, I'd do it again. No complaints (well, maybe a little bit).

And now for some pictures of the food!

Sweet Grass Grill

One of my favorite restaurants back home is Sweet Grass Grill. I've been there a few times, each time ordering something different, and have had an amazing meal each time. The restaurant is housed in what used to be an old market back in the late 1800s. The dining room has an old farmhouse feel to it and is very warm and cozy during the winter, but with the modern colors also feels light and open during the summer. It's casual and great to hang out with your mom or friends for brunch, or go out with a group of friends for dinner. But at night when the lights are low, it makes the perfect date night spot too.

The menu changes seasonally (with a few old favorites sticking around) and is sourced from local farms. I have come for brunch, lunch, and dinner. I've tried the french toast, burgers, sausages, salads, chicken, and everything in between and everything has tasted fantastic.

And now a few pictures of food from their website:




I'm writing this on Wednesday in the AM and I still haven't eaten my breakfast yet. Now I really want donuts. Maybe I'll have to make a run to Whole Foods and use Nick and I being home at the same time for the first time in over a week as an excuse to buy some food (including donuts) for a nice dinner and dessert.

Napa meets San Fran: The Inn on First

In celebration for our anniversary last week, Nick and I went to Napa. Just like when we went to Deer Hill Inn a few years ago, we decided to go to a hotel that was part of the Select Registry. There's a couple of places in California wine country, but we picked the Inn on First, a completely Green inn, because the food on the website looked amazing and they had a really good price for winter (which is the off season).

From the moment we booked the vacation I was really excited. Granted, celebrating my anniversary in Napa had a little bit to do with it, but the inn keeper had a lot more. Jamie emailed me right away with my reservation email which included tons of extras the inn offered and recommendations about local wineries, restaurants, and things to do. I saved the email and when we got closer to our getaway, I found that list really helpful as I tried to find a places to have dinner or to visit. We followed through on a couple of the things on the list and were really glad we did. Jamie continued to make great recommendations and take the time out to sit down and chat with us at least once every day we were there. It was a really nice touch to be able to have such personalized service.

The inn is made up of two main buildings. The main house, which is an old Victorian. The upstairs has several rooms and then downstairs has a lounge and the dining room. Both of which always have beverages and treats waiting. The other building has more rooms. Our room was in the house and actually a lot bigger than the website made it look. We had an extremely comfortable bed, a fireplace, a jacuzzi tub big enough for two, plus a separate bathroom. We also had a small bottle of champagne and truffles waiting for us. Considering we booked what we thought was one of the "cheap" rooms, there was nothing cheap about it.

Breakfast was included and each morning there was a selection of cold things (granola, yogurt, fruit, etc.) and a different hot main course. Each of the three breakfasts we ate were AMAZING. Homemade flat bread with caramelized onions, rosemary potatoes, and a fried egg; homemade focaccia with assorted veggies; scramble egg omelet corn dog (which was really corn dog breading with eggs, prosciutto, and gruyere cheese). They must have known I was coming. Everything was amazing, and the website has even more amazing looking things. Nick and I kept talking about Deer Hill and how amazing the food was there and comparing the two inns. While the feel is very different (mountain cozy warm comfort inn versus chic California airy inn), we concluded that it was nice to know there was somewhere on the West coast that had amazing food and would be a great place to run away to if we needed to relax.

All in all it was a really great stay and we would definitely (and will probably) stay there again. My family is coming in August to celebrate my brother's 21st birthday and after showing my mom the inn she suggested we go for a night or two. I hope we do, and considering the inn is dog friendly we may even bring Charlie next time!

Ok, now just a few more pictures from the website:

Great gift idea for your Thanksgiving Hostess

(or for Christmas), up to you!

My family loves to give gifts to a fault. Any excuse to buy something and we are all over it. Easter, Valentine's Day, Halloween, getting into grad school. Everything must be celebrated. When Nick and I were first dating it actually drove him crazy. He came from a family that had nothing and he didn't get how my family could be so extravagant. My family hasn't always had money, but I always appreciated whatever they gave me. I know that sounds a little spoiled, but I always looked at it from the view point that gifts in our family came from love not from the desire to just spend money. You go to visit someone who is letting them stay in your house, you bring them a little something to say thank you. It's Valentine's Day and you want to tell your family you love them too, so you get them a box of chocolates. Nothing major, just a simple act to show that you care.

That being said, with Thanksgiving less than a week away, my mother of course bought Nick and I a gift, and my aunt also got a gift for her daughter. Each of them are hosting the holiday at their house (one in New York and the other in Illinois) so I won't be partaking in their Holiday feast, but if I could, and I had to get them a gift, I think the following would make the perfect hostess gift...

My friend, Katrina, worked for Dena Designs after graduating from college and while there designed an apron:



She recently was given permission to sell the PDF on Etsy. And after reading one of the latest blog entries on Modcloth, I got me thinking, what else makes the perfect hostess gift than a cute apron and an easy recipe?

In Mod Cloth's entry they mention a great way to reuse glass jars by filling it with the ingredients of one of your favorite baked goods. Tape the directions onto the jar, put a ribbon on it. That coupled with a cute apron makes the perfect Thanksgiving hostess gift (and the whole thing probably cost less than $15 with tax).

Who said showing love had to be extravagant?

Restaurant Review: Dirt Candy

As a vegetarian it's really hard to find good food that is not overly doused with flavor. Most chefs think that vegetables are too bland and need traditional Asian or Hispanic seasonings to kick things up a notch. Every restaurant has almost the same exact menu with subtle changes once in awhile. Personally, I generally don't even like those kinds of cuisines (much to the disappointment of my husband who loves Indian and Mexican food), and I really need to be in the mood to have them even if I did eat meat on a regular basis. Ao I really don't want to go to any more restaurants that force tofu with vegetables and curry, cilantro, or soy sauce on me. When I found Dirt Candy all that changed.

Run by Amanda Cohen, Dirt Candy's motto is, "Anyone can cook a hamburger, but leave the vegetables to the professionals." That is so true. I can't even tell you the number of times I have gone out with friends and had to bat around several restaurant ideas always concluding with me saying something along the lines of, "ok, I can eat something here." Sometimes I really love the restaurant and sometimes it's just a compromise and I'm stuck watching everyone order amazing food while I am less than enthused by steamed vegetables, or just plain pasta with sauce. At Dirt Candy, though, everything is vegetarian and anything can be made vegan too. They are on my turf, but at least they have great menu options!

Now, before you click on to the next entry because you're not interested in rabbit food, let me just show you some pictures from the website. Like the jalepeno hush puppies with maple butter. I am not a fan of spicy food and even I could not stop eating the appetizer THAT MY MEAT EATING FRIEND ORDERED. My appetizer was a pumpkin salad with several types of winter squash. Normally I think of pumpkin with ravioli, pie, or as a side, but here it was with some spice and blue cheese croutons. Again, not your typical way to eat vegetables. Not your typical vegetarian food.

During our meal, I also ordered Parsnip Gnocchi with Creamy Root Vegetable Slaw, Sour Red Cabbage and Carrot Cake Crumbs. It much lighter than regular gnocchi, and the vegetables had a sweet and sour tug of war going on that was really satisfying. And Carrot Cake bread crumbs on top? Undoubtedly delicious, and whoever said dessert had to come last never had Parsnip Gnocchi from Dirt Candy.

By the time my friend and I left the restaurant, we were both sufficiently stuffed and I even had a free dinner (a mistake was made and my leftovers were thrown out instead of put in a doggy bag). The only reason I've never gone back was purely because of lack of time. Like Spring Street Natural menus, just like vegetables, are seasonal. If you go, just make sure you make a reservation ahead of time. The restaurant is very tiny and fills up fast on date night. They can seat you, but you will have to wait awhile, and with the colder weather quickly approaching wouldn't you rather be enjoying those warm hush puppies and glass of wine and not outside freezing your butt off?

Here's a few other pictures of some of the amazing food:







Now doesn't that make you want to eat all your vegetables?

Restaurant Review: Spring Street Natural

I think Spring Street Natural is probably my favorite restaurant of all time. I stumbled upon the restaurant Christmas season of 2006 while doing my Holiday shopping in the Soho area of New York City. Starving and tired, my friend and I decided it was time to finally eat lunch (I think by then it was 4pm) and as usual had a hard time picking out a restaurant. I generally do not eat meat unless it's locally and ethically raised, and he may as well eat raw steaks all the time, plus he's a very picky eater. After what seemed like an eternity we looked at the menu for Spring Street Natural and both were happy enough to go inside.

The first thing that I really liked about the restaurant was the decor. It's simple and rustic with open glass windows and light colored wood tables and chairs. Yet, it's not dress down plain; it's warm and inviting. At night, when the lights are on low, and tea lights are burning on the table it has the feeling of a cozy cabin. It's casual enough to go with a group of friends in jeans; but because of the nighttime ambiance and jazz trio that plays a few nights a week, I also suggested it as a neutral meeting ground for many first days. Meat eating boys could be happy because there was chicken and steak on the menu (that incidentally I could eat if I wanted because they were free range from farms on Long Island), and I could go for the creative vegetarian parts of the menu too.

Everything I've tried on the menu has been delicious and everyone I have ever introduced to the restaurant has liked it too. And the best part is that the price points for a lot of the items are very reasonable. You can get the Pan Roasted Free Range Chicken for $17, Organic Rice and Seasonal Vegetable Dinner with $12.50, or Pumpkin Ravioli for $18. Some of the red meat or fish dishes go up to $24, but their sandwiches, like the Grilled Grass-Fed Hanger Sandwich is $15. And there are salads and appetizers that are around $10, plus or minus $2-3.

I've tried all the dishes I mentioned, but if I had to name a favorite dish it would be a toss up between the Goat Cheese Ravioli with Pesto sauce and zuchinni and the Grass-Fed Steak with blue cheese and caramelized onions (because of Nick's love of this dish, I have replicated a different version of this meal several times at home and will eventually put up a recipe for it). I loved the ravioli because the cheese was not dry and overcooked, and the pesto was creamy with a rich nutty flavor. It wasn't too salty or too garlicy. All the flavors were perfectly balanced, and it was a great summer meal that you could relax with after a hard day at work. Bring me a Mangorita (my drink of choice at SSN), and I'm in heaven. But I also loved the steak which was a great fall/winter dish, with a side of buttery mashed potatoes. The mixture of savory, sweet, and tangy was also a perfect blend of flavors. As I often say to Nick, I like food that confuses my mouth (ie. hits on different areas of my tongue), and that meal is definitely one that does that. Nick paired that with a glass of red wine and was so happy it was like a scene from When Harry Met Sally. When I ordered it another time we went I stuck with my Mangorita, but the red wine is obviously a better drink choice.

Dessert was no slouch either. With an ever changing dessert menu you never really know what's going to be served (a trio of ice cream, chocolate torte, apple blueberry cake, etc.), but I love the fruit desserts the best. Generally they were warm, served with ice cream, and always delicious.

Menus are seasonal and change every few months with daily specials. However, some items do stay the same or only change slightly. So don't be surprised if you're favorite isn't on there for long, but you can always find a new one! I can't recommend this restaurant enough, I've never been disappointed and I will definitely be stopping by the next time I'm home.

Impressing for Less with Late Summer's Veggies

Peppers, eggplant, cantaloupes, apples, potatoes, figs, shallots, certain tomatoes, grapes, okra, green beans, and a whole host of other goodies are seasonally harvested as the end of summer. And now that fall is approaching some of my favorites are also available, like pumpkin, butternut squash, spaghetti squash, artichokes, brussels sprouts, parsnips and pears. In an attempt to keep cooking with produce that is seasonal, for our first dinner guests in our California apartment, I scoured my cookbooks to come up with a recipe that might include some vegetables from the above lists.

I tend to always go to the same cookbooks, so first I decided to go through all of my books and use post it notes to flag off recipes that I want to try (it helps to cut down on future searching time). And once I had done that I settled on a recipe from Impress for Less. My mom got us Impress for Less and it is one of the perfect cookbooks for us. We're big foodies, and this book basically gives you recipes from famous/expensive restaurants in several different cities around the country so that you can make really good and creative food for less than you would have spent going out to eat.

Now I admit, because I was really excited to have people over (two students in my PhD program who were coming over to study for our first quiz) I went a little bit over board. But they claimed to be foodies as well, and I promised them a good meal, so I rationalized that it would be ok to cook so much.

My main dish was the macaroni and cheese I wrote an entry about a little while ago. And while that's definitely enough food for four people, as I said earlier, I wanted to make some seasonal veggie dishes just to pretend to be healthy. So I made up one dish and picked another from the Impress for Less book.

Roasted Tomatoes:
-2 Shallots
-5-6 crimini mushrooms
-1 package of grape or cherry tomatoes
-fresh rosemary
-olive oil

1. Take tomatoes (I like smaller ones like a cherry or grape sized) and put them in a baking dish (like a pie dish) that has sides. Cover with a little bit of olive oil and bake at 350 degrees until they become soft and/or start to pop.
2. On the stove top, cook sliced scallions in olive oil for a few minutes. Then as they start to cook add some crimini mushrooms that you've also sliced up. Once the mushrooms start to look like they're a little cooked add fresh rosemary.
3. When the scallions and mushrooms are just about completely cooked take the tomatoes out of the oven and dump the contents of your frying pan in the pie dish. Give everything a good stir and drop the temperature of the oven to 200 degrees. Let the food cook for another 5 minutes and if everything looks cooked, then it's time to serve otherwise let it cook and keep checking until it's done.

With this next recipe, I changed it around because when I went to the super market I forgot to pick up some ingredients and then purposely left out others. You can click the link to get the real recipe, but mine is listed here.

From Impress for Less - Brussels Sprouts with Bacon, blue cheese, and Green Apples:
-olive oil
-1 cup peel and diced Gala Apples (you can use any but I liked these because they were sweet with only a little bit of tartness)
-8 tablespoons (1 stick) of butter
-2 tablespoons sugar
-1 tablespoon cinnamon
-1/2 cup of sweet dry wine (like Riesling)
-5 slices of smoked bacon
-3 cups of Brussels sprouts, trimmed and halved
-1 1/2 tablespoons of a good quality smoked BBQ sauce** see note at bottom
-1/4-1/2 cup of crumbled blue cheese

1. Fry bacon until it's semi cooked in a frying pan. You don't want them to be crispy because you will be baking it again later. Save the fat in cup or bowl. Cut the bacon into 1 inch pieces and put them in a baking dish. Preheat the oven for 350 degrees- but don't put the dish in there now.
2. When you've dumped the fat in a bowl, without cleaning out the pan add 2 tablespoons of olive oil. When it starts to get hot add the apples. Give them a stir and after one minute add 4 tablespoons of butter. When the butter begins to brown add the 2 tablespoons of sugar and 1 tablespoon of cinnamon. When the sugar begins to caramelize (that's when it bubbles up like it's boiling), add the wine.
3. Cook the apple mixture for 5-8 minutes. Let some of the liquid evaporate, but not all of it. When it's done, spoon out the apple with a slotted spoon into the baking dish with the bacon and continue to let the contents of the frying pan cook. Keep your slotted spoon handy and keep stirring it so the liquid doesn't burn. After a minute or two dump that into the baking dish.
4. Take a paper towel and clean up pan (it doesn't have to be perfectly clean, but make sure you get the bottom of the pan where the dribble went). Then dump the bacon fat you saved back into the pan and heat it up.
5. When the fat is hot again, add the brussels sprouts face down. When they begin to cook a little bit add the rest of the butter and 2 tablespoons of olive oil. When the butter completely melts flip the brussels sprouts over (I found it easiest to use tongs, and don't worry if some of the leaves come off).
6. When they've cooked for another 3 minutes dump the entire contents of the pan into the baking dish, add the smokey BBQ sauce, and stir everything around. Then put it in the oven (do not put a top on) and bake for 10-15 minutes until the brussels sprouts become tender.
7. Serve in the baking dish with the crumbled blue cheese on top.

At first I was skeptical of all the cinnamon and how liquidy this dish seemed to be before putting it in the oven. But after it came out and we were eating it with the macaroni and cheese, it was the perfect side dish to it. Smokey, sweet, with a bit of a kick from the cheese. Sometimes I impress even myself!

**A note about the BBQ sauce. So I think this is the second time I've mentioned using a good quality BBQ sauce and I know it will not be my last. When I keep talking about that, I'm not talking about going to the super market and buying one step up from Heinz, I mean a specialty sauce. My personal favorite is the Smoked Maple Chipotle finishing sauce from Bittersweet Herb Farms. I discovered them at an Artisan Craft fair in Tarrytown, NY and Nick and I are addicted to it. The craft fair is expensive, and we like to go to see the art (both wearable and not), but we save our money for the gourmet food and buy 3 at a time to get a discount. Three lasts us just about a year and I put it in half the stuff I cook, steak, hamburgers, and obviously vegetable dishes...I think at heart I might be from the South...

Fashionable Spring Gnocchi

When I was in high school I spent the last 6 months before college thinking about how wonderful college would be. I used Binghamton as the idea of a mecca, like when I got there I'd be free from the pettyness of high school, free of the stress of living at home, and free to be who I really wanted to be. Free to be introspective, change, and grow up.

I have to admit that Nick and I have been living the last few weeks thinking like that, and I'm sure the feeling will only intensify the closer we get to our move. We keep thinking about living in a bigger apartment with more amenities, not being stressed out by certain aspects of our jobs, having better weather, being away from family drama, living a Greener lifestyle, and being in a more liberal enviornment (that's not to say New York isn't liberal, but certain things are more available in California).

This Friday I plan on booking a moving van, which means we will officially have a moving date. The frenzy of packing and reality of what it means to be 3,000 miles away from everything we know will truly set in. It does sound like we're putting too many expectations of Palo Alto being a perfect haven from life here, but there truly are many things that are going to change. And we're about to embark on a major adventure, so it's exciting nonetheless.

Part of what I've been doing to get excited has been revolving around our kitchen. Even though I can't go out and spend money on Spring Fashion and light and airy homeware, I have to eat. So I've been using my reusable shopping bags and getting seasonable vegetables to make delicious and light dinners.

After doing a google search on what exactly those seasonal vegetables are (apricots, beets, kiwis, radishes, and stawberries just to name a few), I came up with a recipe that sounded so yummy I had to invite people over to try it out. We now have two seperate evenings which we plan to have 4 or 5 people over, and the 1950s housewife in me is jumping for joy at the idea of planning meals for so many people.

Last Friday we had my friend Danielle over for dinner so I could experiment the following gnocchi recipe on her. Now I know gnocchi is not normally thought of as a spring food (most people think the potato sits like a rock in their stomach), but for someone who enjoys a heavier meal (like I do), this is the perfect balance between filling and light for the warmer weather.

Ingredients:

-2 pounds of regular potato gnocchi
-2 whole shallots
-1 bunch of thin asparagus
-3/4 cup of peas (I used frozen)
-crimini mushroms
-oyster mushrooms
-2 cloves of garlic
-nutmeg
-good quality parmesean cheese
-4 tablespoons butter
-4 tablesppons olive oil
-3 pieces of bacon

*Start off by cooking the bacon. Don't cook it like you would cook your breakfast bacon. Cook it about half way, then remove it from the pan.
*Slice up other veggies while the bacon is cooking. First start with the shallots and garlic. Chop/mince the garlic and slice up the shallots in small pieces. Then melt the butter and olive oil together. When the butter is completely melted, add the garlic and shallots.
*Around here is when you want to turn on the pot you're going to cook your gnocchi in to get the water boiling.
*To cut asparagus, bend a piece until it breaks. Where it breaks, cut the rest and throw the bottom pieces away. Then slice the rest on an angle into bite sized pieces. Add those next.
*Cut up the mushrooms into small pieces (smaller than you could for a normal pasta dish, but not diced). Add those next and add in the peas too.
*By now the water for the gnocchi should have boiled and the gnocchi should be in there too. Right around the time the gnocchi is done cooking you should cut up the bacon into small pieces and add to the pan with the rest of your veggies. Add the nutmeg as well. I usually add spices by covering the whole pan, giving a stir, then covering the whole pan again. I'm not sure how much that is, but if you're a real measurement Nazi, I'd say start off with a teaspoon and go from there.
*Fresh gnocchi cooks very fast (less than 5 minutes). So once you're done adding the nutmeg you will only have a short while to sit back before you need to drain the gnocchi. When you do, add it straight to your frying pan (tip: make sure you use the biggest frying pan you have because this is A LOT of food).
*Once the gnocchi is mixed, start grating your cheese on top. I pick out cheese by smelling it. That sounds gross, but it's the same as buying produce. How do you know if something is fresh and will taste good if you don't smell it first? Anyways, half the time I pick out cheese and have no idea what the name of it is. I just know that it's in a certain family and it will taste good. Use your own tastebuds on this one, but I picked out something in the parmesean family from Whole Foods. And add as much or as little cheese as you want. I usually add a little bit at first and then put the cheese out on the table in case other people like a lot of cheese on their pasta (tip: I don't know if you've noticed but I don't like to cook with salt. I'm really sensitive to it, so I never use it. Rarely does anyone notice. Usually when using certain spices or ingredients (like parmesean cheese), the cheese is salty enough that no one misses it. That being said, I always put salt and pepper out on the table just in case.)

I served this for three people with a very simple salad (mixed greens, tofu, an apple, trail mix, and olive oil and vinegar) and a loaf of french bread. This Saturday I plan to make the same thing but with a steak, and a side dish of sauteed red, orange, yellow peppers, and onions. I'm also planning on making another vegetable side dish, but I can't decide just what yet. I'll let the market inspire me. Dessert will be mini pavlovas with berries and whipped cream.

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While we're on the topic of food, I stumbled across this cookbook today online and I thought it looked really good. For the fashionista mom (if you're stil looking for another Mother's Day gift), it would be perfect. I'm adding it to my Amazon.com wishlist, if I ever get it I'll let you know if it turns out to be a good buy.


$29.50 at Amazon.com

The last pages have a food questionnaire that you can fill out with your guests. I figured I'd fill mine out now just for fun:

My favorite restaurant: Spring Street Natural in NYC
My favorite person to cook for: My husband of course
The ingredient that is most indispensible to me: Rosemary or Nutmeg
My favorite "sinful" indulgence: Coldstone Creamery Ice cream
The most sensual meal would include: a dessert that can be shared
My favorite cuisine: Italian
The most unforgettable meal I have ever experienced: dinner at the Deer Hill Inn in Vermont
My ideal dinner guest list includes: several of my best friends and their significant others (but I can't fit 20 people at my dinner table)
The strongest memory of my mother's cooking: Baking brownies together and getting to lick the bowl afterwards
My idea of a food extravaganza: Italy or France, especially on market day
The most fashionable dish I can prepare: Maybe this gnocchi? I also make amazing desserts
The most edible person: A gingerbread bear
My dream dinner date or location: In Greece on the Meditteranean Ocean with my husband (or the actor Matthew Goode)
An ideal dinner party should: have the right music mix and lighting
The most appropriate time for dinner to begin: 7pm if it's just us two, 8pm if you're entertaining
My dream pattern or brand of flatware and table setting: Simple flatware with white plates. Plain white plates makes your food pop and look that much more delicious. White flowers with bright accented table linens only add to that.