Busy, Busy, Busy.....

I've been on vacation for the past 9 days, and they have flown by (don't they always???).  The first day Dan and I headed to New York City for 4 days.  We visited our usual haunts...Balthazar, Bobby Van's, Carmine's, walked around Manhattan checking out all the window displays, saw "A Little Night Music" on Broadway, and threw in a couple new stops.  We made the trek to Brooklyn (we walked over the bridge into Brooklyn) and stopped for pizza at Grimaldi's.  We arrived just in time, as shortly after we sat down the line started to form outside.  Great pizza, but in what I'm sure is a long debated issue, my allegiance lies with Lombardi's in Little Italy...sorry Grimaldi's.  Then we headed out in the rain to visit Baked.  Baked is a tiny little bakery with a big reputation and it didn't disappoint.  The chocolate cloud cookie was like a little piece of chocolate heaven.   We also enjoyed a Greek dinner at Molyvo's, the big highlight of that for me was the fig martini....delicious.  On Monday afternoon we had the pleasure of meeting none other than the Barefoot Contessa herself, Ina Garten, at a book signing in Columbus Circle.  Although it was a short shuffle through the line, you can really tell she is the real deal, just as friendly and nice as she comes across on television (so many others are not.... and you know who you are....).  Tuesday, we took a VERY chilly walk through Central Park and stopped to have lunch at PJ Clarke's.  Great, great comfort food.  Back in Denver, I set about prepping for a Christmas Party on Friday night.  We spent all day onFriday, chopping, baking, cooking, etc and it was all worth it!  So much fun.  Now, as the weekend comes to a close, I'm packing (back to reality) for my flight out tomorrow ....Christmas is less than a week now, and after a few days working in Nebraska, I'll head home for Christmas and back to Denver in time for the New Year.  Have a wonderful week everyone!