Side Of Spaghetti: #15
A sneak peek into a summer week!
Monday 6/30- Okay so I’m back in NYC and I am eating a lot of carrot ginger dressing. More on that in just a bit. I started the day with a trip to the gym and it felt great to get back in the swing of moving my bod. It’s good for my brain, especially now when the reality of the world is so heartbreaking. I had made iced coffee at home and it came out incredibly shitty because believe it or not folks, I am earths worst coffee maker. I am allergic to it. I mixed it with some homemade pistachio milk, which was not shitty, and chugged it, but it was unsatisfying, so I grabbed a make up coffee at Octavia on my way home and caught up with the lovely Dion who works there M-F. I had a salad with spinach, tofu, radish kimchi, avo, cukes, cherry toms and shisho and dumped an unreasonable amount of carrot ginger dressing on top. I worked on the very last edits for my book, which I have now read close to fifty times, and felt a rush of excitement and gratitude with each chapter I finished. For dinner I made a classic vegetable mush, my go to, especially in summertime. People think that chefs make themselves elaborate meals, and maybe some do, but I tend to sauté a bunch of veggies and eat them with a mountain of pecorino or parm on top. This one was eggplant and yellow squash from Lani’s, red onion, garlic, cherry tomatoes, artichokes, spinach, basil and shisho. I at a big bowl with parm and bomba Calabrese and caught up hate watching And Just Like That and fell asleep early.
Tuesday 7/1- I bought a bottle of premade Stumptown cold brew and made coffee ice cubes from my failed coffee experiment. I was up at 5:30 from jet lag so I went to a 7am hot yoga class and watched Ace Ventura: Pet Detective on the treadmill because I want to ensure that a nice guy that I could potentially fall in love with never approaches me at the gym. I had a crave to watch this, and it made me lol. I didn’t make it to the horribly transphobic ending, so I was able to enjoy it, but this movie does not stand the test of time and morality as a whole. Better to just watch the first 2/3 or not watch at all. I came home and worked on my book and did errands. So exciting right? Aren’t you glad you are reading this?? I had some recipe testing to do for the book, which is a memoir but has some fun recipes in it too! I made marinara sauce and it came out great. In the late afternoon I went to a hot Pilates class (really trying to keep myself from spiraling into complete nihilistic dread), and stopped into BK Wine Exchange on the way home to talk to my buds and catch up with Thomas. For dinner I made spaghetti tossed together with the veggie much and a big kale salad with lemon and red onion and swirled it all together. I watched Rushmore and was out by 10.
Wednesday 7/2- On this day I realized that the spare key my stepfather had sent me didn’t have chip in it and wouldn’t start the car, so I had to call a locksmith and pay $250 to get a chip. WTF. I felt sick from the news, so I didn’t eat breakfast, but I did recipe test a carrot cake and my dad’s potato salad from the book to bring to my friend Mary’s BBQ on Friday. I went to yoga, popped into BK Wine for a laugh and had the same salad I ate Monday, SO good! I watered the plants and worked on my book. The potato salad was perfection, but the carrot cake, while very tasty, still needed tinkering to be where I wanted it to be. But it was still pretty effing good so I frosted it and packed it away to bring to Mary’s. I went to a 5pm screening of Materialist’s ( review to come), and actually really enjoyed it. I think it had some issues, but overall I liked the kind of strange tone and pacing, which felt similar to a Whit Stillman or Eric Rohmer film. Despite it being flawed, I loved the viewing experience and had a great time slurping Diet Coke and watching Pedro Pascal be totally perfect in every way. I popped into Frankie’s to say hi to my friend Nicky and had some olives and a negroni and ran into my buddy Mark from Lucali on the way home. He was jet lagged too from his recent trip to Milan, so we had a preeeety loopy conversation. I came home and watched The Larry Sanders Show and you guessed it, fell asleep.
Thursday 7/3- I’m headed to Long Island today to hang with my folks, hooray! Love those cutie pies! I started the morning by making another batch of CGD so it would be there for me when I got home. I posted a recipe on IG and people seemed very excited. I proclaim this the summer of CGD! I’m working on a hippy sandwich recipe for an upcoming installment of “Summer Of Sandwich” in which CGD will have a staring role. Drove out to the Island and had lunch with Bobbie at Parea, our fave Greek diner. We had a big Greek salad with sides of chicken kebab, falafel, tzatiki and tahini. Incredible.as always. After lunch I took a long walk at Caumsett and thought about life and cried as I walked. My folks and I sat outside in the backyard and played with Cher the poodle for a while before going to dinner at Joannina, a delicious and fun Italian restaurant in Huntington Village. We split fried calamari and Bobbie and I shared a whole wood grilled branzino with sautéed spinach and a cavatelli with shrimp, artichokes and pesto. We had mint chip Ralph’s ice at home and looked at pictures from my trip on the TV and watched Stanley Tucci’s new Italy show which was great obvi. He was in Rome and it was fun reminiscing about the times we have been lucky enough to all be there together. RIP to Michael Madsen, a true one of one.
Friday 7/4- I woke up and snuggled with my mom and Cher, then went with mama to get coffee at this weird little coffee spot that was directly out of the year 1996. I grabbed the cake, potato salad and some nacho cheese I had had in my freezer and headed to Sayville to meet Mary, her sister Catherine and some of their friends and fam at their family’s home. The O’Malley house is big and old and lived in and probably the warmest most inviting place I have ever been. Such a joy and a pleasure to be there. Mary lives in Georgia now so I rarely get to see her, and today was a major treat! There were bagels there when I arrived from a good LI bagel spot and I had an everything with scallion cream cheese and some cherry tomatoes that were lying on the counter. We rallied our group and headed to the ferry which is walking distance from their house, and went over to Cherry Grove on Fire Island. There is a huge drag parade on the 4th, so we basked in the good vibes from that and then lounged on the beach and swam in the sea and ate chips for a few hours, then back to the O’Malley house for an epic BBQ!
The O”Malley family id huge, and there were a lot of aunts and uncles there, all of whom are just as warm and cool as Mary and Catherine’s parents. Mary finished up so fab ribs, and I made coleslaw, spicy mac and cheese and then we jumped in the salt water pool. Catherine manned the grill and cranked out like 30 cheese burgers and hot dogs. Mary cut up four monster racks of ribs and we had a feast! There was also grilled chicken thighs, succotash, my cheesy potato salad and lots of chips. We laughed and laughed and even though I definitely do not celebrate the 4th of July, I cherish the times I get to spend with people I love, particularly the O’Malley’s. We cleaned up and watched some fireworks and had the carrot cake, which was VERY well received, but Mary picked up on the same things I wanted to change about the recipe. She’s a great cook and an even better friend. I drove all the way back to BK and crashed hard.
Saturday 7/5- I woke up early and went to two yoga classes and did a treadmill sesh while watching Kramer vs Kramer. I know, I’m beyond help at this point. I had coffee at Octavia on the way home and for lunch I did a salad with CGD. Same as the other days but with tuna instead of tofu. I worked on my book, then went to visit my new friend Susan (the sweet woman who broke her hip last week). Unfortunately she will be in the hospital for like six weeks. We had a great chat and I got to know her a little better. I went for a foot massage, then did more writing and met Thomas in the evening for dinner at Sal Tang’s. Love the vibe here, great drinks, amazing service from the same sweet people that make Cafe Spaghetti so special. Not going to talk about the food too much, as it isn’t what I enjoy the most about this spot. I recommend going for drinks and having a few snack-a-roos! We went to BK Social after and talked about movies for what felt like hours and then back to my stoop and I didn’t get to bed until 3am. OMG!
Sunday 7/6- I was up at 7am for an early yoga class, and I drank like five drinks last night so I had a hangover. I took a migraine pill and it went away, but I have decided I really just don’t enjoy drinking anymore. I value my sleep and feeling good during the day, so I just really can’t do more than one or two drinks, but even that is just becoming less and less appealing. I went to hot yoga and sweated it out, then to TJ’s and the Carroll Gardens farmers market where I bought eggplant, shisho, squash and cukes from Lani’s and some brocoli from the stand at the other end. I came home and made some eggs with brocoli and gruyere and drank coconut water. I whipped up a batch of cookies to bring to Susan in the hospital. She requested white chocolate macadamia nut and so that is exactly what she got:) I brought over the cookies and a crossword puzzle book and she was very happy. Susan is amazing, and I’m terribly sorry that we met under such unfortunate circumstances, but happy to have a new friend. For lunch I had cukes and more broccoli with CGD. I FINALLY, REALLY finished my book AHHHH! I tested the cake one more time and totally nailed it, and also wrote a recipe for this kale sauce/dip thing I have been obsessed with. For dinner I made spaghetti with the kale sauce, MORE broccoli and a kale salad and finished Kramer vs Kramer.
Stay safe and sane out there folks and see you all next week <3
Z
I do enjoy reading this, yes xx
CAN'T WAIT TO READ THIS BOOK! Also your folks have a poodle named Cher??? Amazing! ♥️