my roots

Last night I tried my hand at Swedish Meatballs.  They were sooo good!  I will make them again soon.  I'm not exactly sure if I'm Swedish, maybe just Norwegian.  I really want to try making lefse.

Spring Signals

This weekend Mike, Dylan and I had a very NYC Saturday.  First, we went to get bagels at Lenny's Bagels on the Upper West Side.

Then we walked through Central Park to the Upper East Side to go to the Museum of the City of New York. It was a beautiful day.

There was an exhibit on the fashion designer Valentina.

There was also an exhibit on toys and there were these crazy doll houses.

Look at these little guys...

We watched a short little film about the history of New York, which was very interesting, and now I know who this guy is!  (It's Clinton DeWitt who came up with the grid plan and the central park for Manhattan island.)

I saw this cute, little, old lady.

We walked through the park some more and Mike led us to the giant Egyptian obelisk.

Flowers are pretty.
We found Belvedere castle.

We rambled around in the Ramble.

And then we had some tasty pizza.

field trip

On Thursday my class took a field trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  It was a success! We toured the Egyptian wing because we are learning about Ancient Egypt in class right now.  The kids were really into it, especially the mummies.

It was interesting taking them into Manhattan.  I realized that most of them don't really leave their neighborhood in the Bronx.  One of my students asked me, "Ms. Duffy, why are there so many yellow cars here?"  (He was referring to the NYC taxi cabs!).  I would like to take them on more trips so they can have more experiences to learn from.

mac d griddles

I found these maple french toast english muffins so I made my own version of the McGriddle.

This is Mike at the gym.

banana lime cake recipe

Here's the recipe:

for the cake:

1 7/8 cups flour

1 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 cup light brown sugar

1 1/4 tsp lime zest finely grated

1 large egg, lightly beaten

2 tablespoons lime juice (FRESH)

1 large, ripe banana mashed (should be 1/2 cup)

3/4 cup sour cream or plain yogurt

for the icing:

2/3 cup powdered sugar

1-3 tsp fresh lime juice

1 tsp lime zest, finely grated

1 pinch of salt

*Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees

*grease an 8 in round baking pan

*sift together flour, salt, baking powder in a large bowl. Mix in the lime zest and brown sugar. Form a well in the center.

*In a separate bowl, mash the banana and mix in the lime juice. Pour the banana, beaten egg, and sour cream into the dry ingredients and mix. (if the batter seems to dry, add some more lime juice or a little water).  Pour into the baking pan.

*Bake 40 min or until a toothpick comes out to clean. Let cool 10 min and remove from pan.

*To prepare the icing, sift powdered sugar into a bowl and add pinch of salt. Add lime juice 1 tablespoon at a time until you reach your desired consistency for drizzling. (This icing is super easy and super tasty.

*Drizzle as you wish and sprinkle on the lime zest.

Snow Day!!!

Today all NYC public schools were closed due to snow!  I guess this hasn't happened in 5 years.  Snow days are probably up there in the top 10 best things ever.  Here is my snow day...

On the way to the subway...

I went to Dylan's coffee shop to read the newspaper and watch the snow fall.  Dylan hooked me up with a latte and a bagel!

Then I walked up to 9th street to get a massage at Keisy Oriental Nature Center.  While the lady was giving me a massage she told me my muscles were very tight and then she said, "no pain, no gain."

After that, I met some teachers for lunch at the ESPN Zone in Times Square (don't ask me why we ate there. I don't know.)

I made this tasty banana lime cake.