Oh Boy! So Much to Say...

Michael and I met my brother and his girlfriend for dinner last Monday night at Iavarone in Lake Success.  They have one shop with pizza up front and a sit down restaurant in the back, also they are renovating their food store into a larger space (http://www.ibfoods.com/cafe/).

We had:  Caesar salad, chicken scarpariello, lobster ravioli (kinda yucky I must say), chicken & shrimp Francese and chocolate cake.  Afterward, we checked out the new store in progress.  It was fun!

On Friday, we picked up some Cuban sandwiches and yellow rice and black beans from Amor Cubano (http://www.amorcubanonyc.com/IEHome.html) on 111th Street and Third Avenue.  Yummy, but way to long to take out.

Saturday night our friends from Maryland, Dean and Donna, came up for a visit, stayed with us and we went to see Craig Ferguson at Radio City.  He was too hysterical and my face hurt from laughing.  Before the show we ate at West End (http://www.westendnyc.com/).  Our friend Mike is the manager there :) We had:  Wine and rum and Italian Surfers (the bartender was nice enough to google the recipe for Donna: 2 parts pineapple juice, 1 part amaretto almond liqueur and 1 part Malibu® coconut rum.  We shared:  Tuna tartare -soooo good; veggie quesadilla; New England clam chowder and Beet salad.  Then we had a burger, grilled cheese and a chicken BLT.  Everything was great!! And the company was better!

Sunday morning was bagels from Adam's Bagels on Woodhaven, along with cream cheese, whitefish salad, juice and coffee.

Yesterday, my roommate from college, Sue, was in NYC.  I met her at her hotel and we went to Rue 57 (http://rue57.com/#Home).  We shared:  French onion sup and Caesar salad and good bottle of Cote Du Rhone.  It was great seeing her.  We really miss each other.  Afterwards, we met Michael at Penn Station and took the train to Secaucus, then transferred to another train to Giants Stadium (excuse me-MetLife Stadium) to tailgate with Steve Shapiro, his daughter Michelle and his brother in law Joe before the Jets game.  Great to all be together again (Michael, Steve, Sue and I all went to Brockport together).  They went into the game and we took the same two trains back to the city.  Sue realized that she lost her driver's license and called Rue 57.  They had found it!  Now the three of us went back together and decided to have drinks, coffee and dessert (apple tart-amazing).  We talked and laughed and reminisced and met a great couple from Canada. 

I always forget about Rue 57. I don't know why it is not on my radar.  I love that place!!

I wanted a buggy ride through Central Park, so we petted some of the horses and then changed out minds and decided to go back when it was lightly snowing and romantic :)  We went back to Sue's hotel, hung around her room, talked and laughed some more about college friends and antics.  Then Michael and I took a cab home.  Nice treat and a change from the subway.  It was an amazing day with our some of our greatest and long-time friends!!!!!

Today I made homemade pork sausage which I will make into meat sauce later.  The rest went into the freezer to save for a future lasagna.

Hopefully we will see Jill and Lenny for dinner Friday night, because believe it or not, we haven't seen them in a while.