Wilde in Montreal

No recipe today.  Why?  I was kidnapped this weekend!  Don't worry too much, Boyfriend did the kidnapping and it was a surprise for my birthday.

This weekend I celebrated my 31st birthday!  It was a very long week and I was looking forward to celebrating and having some good old New Jersey fun with BF.  I had spent the week with friends on Long Island due to the major problems with New Jersey transit.  Mid-week the coast was hit by a Noreaster and we woke up to 9 inches of snow.  At least all of our meetings at work had been cancelled while everyone recouped from the hurricane.

Friday night I made my way back to New Jersey, meeting BF at the Secaucus train station.  He handed me a birthday present and told me to open it right away.  Along with a sparkly bag filled with costume jewelry, there was a card.  It said to dust off my French language skills and get ready to fly away to Montreal! 

We celebrated my birthday weekend eating lots of delicious foods, walking around Old Montreal and riding Le Metro.  I thought I would share some of my phone pictures and try to convince you to make a trip to the Great White North.  And don't worry too much if your French isn't up for public debut, most everyone I met spoke perfect English.  In fact, they sounded like New Yorkers.

One of the most interesting colas I've ever had.  A traditional cola flavor with the aftertaste of christmas.

(At Lapin Presse - Cafe & Grillcheeserie)

  

Patisserie Rhubarbe offered a great brunch, but we decided to just pick up a Tarte Citron for dessert.

Montreal has so many beautiful churches, including a Notre Dame of its own

Marche Jean-Talon, I wish this was my neighborhood market

A trip to a French region isn't complete without a box of macarons. (La Maison du Macaron)

Poutine - a reason in itself to visit Montreal.  Fries, curd cheese & gravy

Look how open Le Metro is!  The NYC subway feels so cramped in comparison.

Tim Hortons - a Canadian tradition!

I may have gained a few pounds this weekend.  I can't imagine why!

Bonne Anniversaire a Moi!  Now plan your trip to Montreal.  They have beautiful summers and looked to be a beautiful place to spend the holidays.  Pack an extra scarf.

Pumpkin Cookies with Chocolate Chunks

Things around here are slowly getting back to normal. Yes, I've only been to work two days out of the past seven. Sure, my train line was washed out and will take weeks to fix. And yeah, BF had to wait in a long line this morning to get gas (it's an odd day, so he could fill up today). I can't complain because so many others are so much worse off.

Since I live in New Jersey and work on Long Island, I wasn't able to get to work last week. The one day I tried it took me four and a half hours to get there in the morning and five and a half hours to get home. Not a recipe for a happy girl. I was forced to work from home. Which, if you're a lab scientist, is very difficult to do. You run out of things to do rather quickly. I spent some of my work hours baking and working out. Between thinking about science and reading literature of course.

I made it to work yesterday in a record breaking tree hours. I have since taken a friend up on their offer to stay at their place on the island until train service becomes tolerable. I've been told that it's okay and encouraged for me to bake while at their house.

It's kind offers like these that I've seen throughout this disaster. Friends, neighbors and strangers helping each other. Humanity really shines when times are tough and people in the tri-state area are looking pretty bright. Stay tough everyone out there, things aren't great right now, but they'll get better.

Wilde in a Hurricane

Hello everyone!  I hope that you are all safe and sound after this crazy storm that ripped through the east coast.  If you are far away from the path of Sandy, I hope you enjoyed your Halloween last night!  Can you believe that Halloween has been rescheduled here in the state of New Jersey?

Kids in NJ have had a rough few years with trick-or-treating.  Last year there was a freak snowstorm just before Halloween.  It brought down so many trees and power lines, they cancelled trick-or-treating due to safety reasons.  This year it's the same problem.  Hurricane Sandy blew down so many huge trees and brought down a ton of tree limbs.  They fell on homes, cars and power lines, which is the reason behind postponing Halloween again this year. 

Boyfriend and I fared the storm with very little to talk about.  Montclair (our town) is located only ten miles from the city and shore, but we sit high on a hill overlooking the city.  We knew we would have no issues with flooding.  All day Monday, as Sandy blew and blew, our lights flickered until they finally went out around 6:00pm.  What do you do when the power goes out?  We stared out the window at the rest of Montclair, which still had power somehow.

Luckily we had just finished cooking dinner, so we enjoyed dinner by candlelight.  So romantic with all the wind and rain howling outside.  It isn't that cold out right now and our water continued to run, so we just hunkered down for the next few hours. 

Tuesday morning we woke without power.  My office had a delayed opening, but with all the bridges, tunnels and trains shut down, there was no way I could get to work.  BF and I had cereal for breakfast and spent the major portion of the day doing a puzzle.  Around 5:00pm the power came back on.  With a high five, we celebrated the return of electricity.  We are lucky, we were powerless for only 24 hours.  Our apartment happens to be on the same grid as a fire station and hospital.  Many millions of people are still without power.

My thanks go out to the hardworking people of the public transit, power companies and the first responders that are helping everyone in the tri-state area through this disaster.  Stay safe out there everyone.  I for one will be here at my apartment, because there is no public transportation for me to get to work!  Working from home this week, as much as a lab chemist can work from home!

Before the power went out on the Wilde household, I made this delicious fall cake.  Sure, you can make a pumpkin cake, but I thought I would change it up and make a butternut squash cake!  I made this last week and brought it to the office.  While placing it in the lunchroom, I put a label on it reading "Pumpkin cake!" because I'm pretty sure people would be suspicious of a squash cake.  Give this a try if you find yourself with an abundance of butternut squash this fall!