Flavors 518

My friend Jessica's Bachelorette Party was this weekend in Saratoga. It was a fabulous time. I couldn't believe how many really nice ladies she's friends with. I really love the movie "13 going on 30", and I watched it recently while out in North Adams dogsitting. I've probably seen it more repeat times than any other movie the last few years. I really love the pitch she gives on how to change the magazine. While her rival character gives the pitch to make the magazine more cynical, darker, more anorexic, the Jennifer Garner character says she wants to feature real women who are smart and pretty and happy to be who they are. Everytime I see that movie, I just love that scene so much. And so what a pleasure it was last night to meet so many interesting, accomplished ladies all in the mood to have a great time. We started out at Boca Bistro . Our friend Tiffany did a fabulous job organizing it for such a large party, and $30 per person for three courses was...

Yesterday we checked out the Ugly Rooster Cafe in Mechanicville. We tried it once last year too . It is a cute, old school looking place that feels very much like it fits in with the town. People all seem to know each other, a whole big group was huddled around a tv tuned to the local news at the counter, and the employees are all super friendly. They have an extensive menu with a lot of inventive things I'd still like to try, including: the omelette with asparagus, crab, and hollandaise sauce, the BLT with fried green tomatoes, and the southern style breakfast sandwich which sounds over the top (fried egg, cheddar, fried green tomato, on a buttermilk biscuit is what the menu online says but I'm pretty sure the menu there had added bacon and gravy inside the sandwich). Its hard to decide what to eat when so many things sound so good. Scott had the Huevos Rancheros, which were very delicious: I had a chicken sandwich (The Mechanicville Special) with bacon, ranch, and avo...

It's officially summer, and on the weekends I can't seem to get up off my chaise lounge. For this, I made up a great cocktail (pictured above - you can also tell I mean business by my Ryan Gosling Hey Girl notebook ). The consists of a lot of lemon juice, some honey, and a good amount of water, stirred and then topped with some gin and Lillet. I love Lillet, especially the back of the label, which when you read it out loud sounds like pure class (something about being meant to be enjoyed at the moment when evening becomes night). This drink also needs a ton of ice so it will stay cold long enough for you to sip it and get a lot of reading done. Recently, I read a very interesting book called Inside Christie's by John Herbert about the auction house. What I really enjoyed about it was reading about all these stories which would start out with the person from the auction house starting up a relationship with someone, some long winding plot ensues with colorful charact...