my week in food and excitement!

Last weekend was probably my most social one yet. I spent all afternoon on Saturday making sweet potato pies with Ben. Much more simple than I expected! Though I'm not sure if I could bake a pie by myself...

our graham cracker crust which I thought tasted like Momofuku crack pie

Ben using his nifty apple peeler/slicer/core remover

apple beehives!

On Sunday, I went to the Mr. Philippines man-pageant to support my girl, David! And he won first runner up!!

All week, they've been setting up the Holiday Market in Union Sq. It finally opened on Friday! I haven't looked around thoroughly, but I did see my favorite molasses cookie booth! I also need to make a stop at the Waffel & Dinges booth!

Thursday was the last day of Priceless NY, where ten food trucks paired up around Manhattan to serve free lunch, on MasterCard. I was beyond happy when I found out the night before that Korilla would be in Union Sq! I got myself a bulgogi burrito with bacon fried rice.

After, my friend Amanda and I went to the Coolhaus truck, where she interns, and got red velvet cookies for a J. Crew event they were doing a few blocks away. Complete with edible wrapper!

Also on Thursday, my classes were cancelled due to the NYU4OWS demonstration. Over a thousand students met in Union Sq at 3pm on Thursday and then marched down to Foley Sq. Though I read it was very peaceful (I was way too scared to go outside since I live in Union Sq) I heard the protest for hours, and lots of police sirens and helicopters.

This week for my lunch with Ben, we decided to go to La Pain Quotidien, though it's a bit pricier than our usual lunch. But it was also raining that day, and lpq is close to campus. I had a smoked salmon tartine.

The real highlight of the week was tonight, when I went to my first cohort event!! Eunice is the cohort director of Murray Hill, so she invited me to her event, dinner at Ruby Foo's. It was so much fun! I wish we had things like that in Steinhardt. I had Korean fried chicken sliders and sushi taco trio (really yummy with the crispy wonton 'taco'!). And then we went to Juniors for cheesecake!! Four of us split a six inch cheesecake. I'm still stuffed!

I also wore an exceptionally cute outfit for the cohort event, as per Eunice's instructions. I wore a summery orange Zara skirt, and made it more winter appropriate with tights, boots and cashmere sweater. And I dried my hair for the first time in forever. Ray even thought I had gotten another hair cut! Guess I should dry/style/brush my hair more often....

Snapshots from the week:

awesome tassel I found in the education building stairwell. I'm thinking of making it into a keychain

Herald Sq at night

antique furniture for the Diesel windows

washington sq park 

OPI in Royal Rajah Ruby 

Macy's windows

working on the rugby windows

I love the Times sq buildings at night.

My week in inconsistent weather

I started off the week by seeing my roommate's show, The Triangle Project. It is based on the Triangle shirtwaist factory fire, and this year marks the 100th anniversary. Half the play was outside, in the northeast corner of Washington Square Park. Actors were placed in a circuit, and the audience was split into three groups and rotated around the loop.

I mentioned last week how I'm obsessed with sweet potatoes. I still am. This week, I decided to make mashed sweet potatoes, using the same ingredients as the fries. Check out my earlier post for the recipe!

Thursday, in Union Square they started setting up the holiday shops! I can't wait to take advantage of all the yummy food vendors! Thursday was also unseasonably warm. In the morning, I comfortably walked to the gym in shorts and a tshirt.

Friday, at work we had the first day of our sample sale! I was able to snag a blouse and a headband before the doors opened. Good thing because the blouse rack was ransacked!

before 

this lady brought her extra fluffy doggy!!

I also really liked my outfit on Friday, but sadly I wasn't able to snap a full length pic. I wore a white collared shirt, light grey cashmere sweater, black cropped pants and my glitter oxfords. I got a lot of complements on my shoes! But I certainly felt foolish for my bare ankles!

Snapshots from the week:

switched pencil cases. (left is the old one)

Macy's windows 

Herald Sq 

Brooks Brothers Flatiron 

baby parade in the distance! 

hk decorations!! 

Jeep PR stunt

mashed sweet potatoes

In case you haven't noticed, I've been in a sweet potato state of mind for about two weeks now! Tonight, I decided to venture one step further than fries and try sweet potato mash. I looked at several recipes, but I decided to go for the simplest recipe possible.
First, boil the sweet potatoes until they are soft. To check, use a nice to see if it cuts cleanly/easily through the potato. Instead of a timer, I used this as my indicator since my potatoes were quite large and irregularly shaped. I also used one Japanese sweet potato, and one white one. Both the insides are white, so it looks like regular mashed potatoes, but tastes sweet!

Once the potatoes are ready, peel them and cut them into smaller chunks.

I used butter, almond milk and salt to season. Some recipes also called for cinnamon and pepper.

And we're ready to beat! I used a hand mixer. Or you can use a potato masher thingy. or even a large fork if you're in a pinch.

Blend until you reach the desired consistency. I opted for smooth, with few chunks.

And you're done! Enjoy!

my week in firsts.

This week was kind of meh. I got to relax, because I didn't have any tests or papers this week. Next week I have my last two midterms, and then a paper the following week. Then, it'll be Thanksgiving and December and finals and the semester will finally be over! whew.
On Halloween, I went to Chinatown for a school assignment. I walked around Chinatown for awhile, before observing the old Chinese people in Columbus Park. I definitely chose the wrong day to wear a bright turquoise coat, because I felt a bit uncomfortable with so many people staring at me. However, I was pleasantly surprised to see kids trick or treating! I saw a really cute pumpkin baby in the park. To buy some time before the sun set (my assignment was to write about Bayard st at night) I had a small dinner at Xi'an Famous Foods. While I was eating my lamb burger, two kids came in the restaurant trick or treating. What a different Halloween from the suburban experience of walking house to house.

Wednesday, I decided to dress up a bit, since it was a tad warmer than the other days. I decided to try layering a pair of lacey-ish tights over a pair of opaque tights so it 1. didn't look as weird as usual and 2. would keep me warm! I was really happy with the way the tights look layered. That day, I did an unusual color combo of a mustard dress with eggplant cardi and turquoise coat. I liked how once I took my coat off, the eggplant really toned down the look, and made the mustard-eggplant combo look really rich.

On Thursday, I finally had Korilla! I got the pork burrito with everything (as in all the vegetables + kimchi) and bbq sauce, as per David's instructions. They were out of the bacon fried rice. It was delicious. I'm sad I waited this long to try Korilla!! I might even have to make it a Thursday night tradition....

Of course I had to pair Korilla with sweet potato fries!! I am seriously obsessed with making sweet potato fries. It is so, so simple, how could you not?

And I've discovered warmed up pumpkin butter over vanilla ice cream is magnificent! I need to get a few more jars from Trader Joes before they sell out!

This week I also saw the new season of Celebrity Apprentice filming in Union Sq. I even recognized Theresa from Real Housewives! I was too scared to go up to their booth though. I'm not even sure what it was for.

Snapshots from the week:

homemade sweet potato fries

Wanting something different for dinner, I decided to get a favorite of mine near St Marks, Tahini's shawarma sandwich. It's super filling and so, so flavorful yet fresh and light (unlike some halal carts). Anyway, to accompany my sandwich I opted to make my own sweet potato fries! It was quite simple and super easy and fast to make!

I started with two small sweet potatoes, which was about one portion.

you can peel them, but I was lazy and chose not to. Cut off the ends, and cut the rest of the sweet potatoes into fry like shapes.

toss with olive oil and salt and maybe pepper.

spread out on a sheet so nothing touches

bake at 450 degrees for ten minutes on each side.