This last full week of June

(NOTE 6/24: I just duplicated this post on Avec Sucre. Sorry for the duplicate material.)

Father's Day weekend here was a non-affair. As neither of us were able to travel to visit dad's, we took ourselves out for Father's Day brunch. We have a favorite coffee shop over on Court Street that makes quite excellent pancakes, with or without blueberries. It's called Cobble Hill Coffee Shop. That's kinda a no-brainer name, I know, but it suits it just fine.

The coffee shop decorates for the holidays and seasons. This past Sunday, they added blue banners hanging up on the walls proclaiming Happy Father's Day to all the dads who came in. The banners were up next to their spring "decor" of hanging paper/plastic flowers.

It's a real local joint. It's small and run, and I suspect owned, by two neighborhood guys named Frank and Nick. I have no idea which old guy is Frank and which is Nick, and I don't know their last names. The business card by the old fashioned, non-digital cash register simply has their first names. I think they are Greek as they and many of the older, life-time waiters have accents. Cobble Hill/Carroll Gardens has been a traditionally Italian neighborhood, but I don't think these guys are Italian. The place is always busy and full of all kinds of people - oldsters, young families, singles at the counter, and everyone in between. So far, we've only been there for breakfast on the weekends. They have a machine that squeezes oranges for fresh squeezed oj, a tiny griddle area, hand written tickets, large menu, and freezing cold air conditioning.

It's not a fancy place by any means and it doesn't try to be something it's not. I like it because it's a real neighborhood coffee shop that makes good comfort food, has a friendly staff (they don't recognize us yet even though we have been there three Sundays in a row), and isn't too expensive. In fact, if you get there before 11AM, there are really good prices on breakfast specials which include coffee and a small juice. No mimosas here!

The man who greets customers I assume is Frank/Nick. We had to wait a few minutes for a table twice now, and he keeps track in his head who is next and how many people in the party. There is no room to wait inside, so everyone just stays outside on the sidewalk. Besides, Frank/Nick won't let you wait inside. He will bring out chairs so people can sit. People leave their expensive Bugaboo and Maclaren strollers outside, too. (Side note: you know how in LA BMWs and Mercedes are everywhere? Yeah, that's what Bugaboos and Maclarens are like in my neighborhood. I have yet to see another brand of stroller.) He pokes his head out to give updates on tables and to call people in to sit. It's a system that he's probably been doing for a long time.

So that's what we did Sunday morning. We left the diner and went straight to Trader Joe's because we've figured out that before noon on Sunday, it's actually pretty decent in there. The shelves are stocked and it's not busy yet with the check out line wrapping along the back of the store from dairy to produce. We did run into one snag - their meat case was out of order so there was no sausage, beef, or pork available. I asked the cashier what was going on and she said it wasn't keeping things cold at the proper temp so it was being fixed. The repair guys were there and we saw them doing repair guys things to the huge meat case.

After that, we did some produce shopping across the street at Pacific Green. Picked up fresh tarragon, apples for Steve, garlic, onions, strawberries, and Camembert for a recipe later this week.

Our new push cart was cock full of goodness, so we headed home. We killed our previous push cart trying to get a huge bag of potting soil home from Lowe's last month. The $25 cart I got at the grocery store back in October had had enough of heavy hauling of cat litter buckets from Target and heavy groceries. It's little wheels just caved in. I had to hail a cab so we could get home with the soil. We went out to Container Store and splurged (I'm not going to tell you the cost because it's ridiculous) on a new push cart made out of stronger and lighter aluminum. It also has a slighter higher handle, which means Steve doesn't have to bend over as far to push it. It has about the same capacity as our old one and the wheels spin like they are in butter. It's a good cart but I still can't get over the price we paid for it. Shocking.

Saturday was a washout for the most part. New York City has turned into the east coast Seattle this June. It has rained and rained and rained. Sunday was gray but at least it didn't rain. Mind you, I still like the rain as I don't have to go out in it every day for work, but I know the cats would love a little sun. They have been missing those sunbeams.

Last night, I made a pasta with goat cheese, asparagus, tarragon, and lemon. It was so easy, light, tasty, and easily adaptable. The night before, I made Moroccan chicken which had ingredients of green olives, lemons, paprika, cumin, cinnamon, ginger, caramelized onions, and garlic. I used just chicken breasts instead of butchering a whole chicken. Quite good, especially the bites with the olives. I wrote on the recipe to add more olives next time.

Besides shopping for food, cooking, and eating, we've been whiling away the time by playing the new Ghostbusters game on the Wii, doing some light cleaning, laundry, reading (me), and buying window unit air conditioners.

I'm still working and ALA is in just three weeks. Then I'm off to Chicago. I've also been interviewing for two full-time jobs in NY. Hope to hear something soon from them.