Monday, June 30, 2008

Fresh Direct + Tabla



Wednesday night I placed an order with Fresh Direct for a party I was hosting on Friday (more on that to come later) and saw the Chickpea Masala from Tabla listed as one of the 4-Minute-Meals and thought it sounded like the perfect thing to bring to work for lunch and/or dinner.

I just ate it and I must say, it was really good, not too spicy at all. I was surprised and a bit disappointed though to read the nutritional facts though. The container is about 2.5 servings and each serving is 310 calories, 11 grams of fat and 2.5 grams of saturated fat.

But if taste and convenience is what you're looking for I definitely recommend it!





Sunday, June 29, 2008

NYC Bachelorette Party Weekend

Last weekend I hosted a Bachelorette Party for my cousin and 7 of her friends (only one of whom I had met before) in NYC. I was thrilled my cousin wanted to celebrate with all her friends in New York but definitely challenged to keep things affordable and enjoyable, especially since this was the first time some of them had been in NY!

The girls arrived on Friday morning ready to shop! First stop: Tiffany's & Co. where each girl bought a special gift for themselves. After a long day of walking around everyone came over to my apartment for hors d'oeuvres and cocktails. Signature drink for the night was champagne with raspberries. I ordered all the food ahead of time from Fresh Direct and had it delivered about 20 minutes before the girls arrived. I ordered a big chickpea salad, grilled chicken strips (delivered ready to serve), artichoke dip, a big fresh fruit bowl and a vegetable platter.

Before going back to the hotel Friday night we wanted one last chance to publicly embarrass the bride-to-be so we headed to a bar near the hotel, Connolly's Pub on W. 54th St.

Saturday morning we all put on our matching T-shirts that said "Buy Her a Drink Before she Takes the Plunge" and headed out for the Sex and The City tour of New York. I definitely recommend going on this 3.5 hour tour that stops at NYC hot-spots made famous by the hit HBO series. Starting at The Plaza we all pile into a chartered (air-conditioned) bus all the way down 5th toward Soho, West Village, Meatpacking District, and more! Not only does our spunky guide, Emily Sproch, reveal a ton of Sex & The City behind-the-scenes info but we make three different stops throughout the tour to walk along the same streets as our favorite characters. The first stop was at the Pleasure Chest, where the SATC girls bought their "Rabbits." (Anything purchased at the Pleasure Chest was discounted for all tour attendees.) Next stop was to the famous Magnolia Bakery on Bleeker Street. The $42 tour ticket also included cupcakes from Magnolia for everyone! The last stop of the tour was at the bar Adian and Steve owned in the show, which is actually called Onieals Grand Street located on Grand between Baxter St & Centre Market Place. (Cosmos were served at a discount for all tour attendees.)

We ended the night at Tony n' Tina's Wedding, an interactive off-Broadway performance where the audience serves as Tony and Tina's wedding guests in their crazy Italian wedding. Tickets are $90 per person and free for the bride-to-be if you're there celebrating a bachelorette party, and include dinner, unlimited champagne and a slice of cake.

Overall, the weekend was a blast and now we just can't wait for the weeding in August!





Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Personalize Chocolates With Photos


A few years ago M&M's launched a personalization feature where consumers could order M&M's with customized notes on the candies (I ordered them in my school colors with the school name printed on them when I graduated college.) But now the company is taking customization to a more tech-savvy level. They have just launched M&M Faces where consumers can get their photo printed on to the chocolate candies.

Thinking this will be great for graduations, weddings, and baby announcements!

Monday, June 16, 2008

Tweet2Win

Thanks to Mashable for the heads up regarding a new Twitter-focused website and contest.

You will be automatically entered to win the $150 raffle just by tweeting about the Tweet2Win.com. Raffle is for a $150 gift card from Amazon, eBay, Victoria's Secret, iTunes, or Overstock.com. You can even increase your chance of winning by blogging about the site.

Apparently there's no catch. The site gets free promotion and traffic while Twitter users play their chances for a prize. A winner is chosen every week and for a different prize. And as Mashable said, "basically it’s a marketing gimmick that attempts to leverage Twitter, make money out of exposure, and essentially create a sort of user-generated advertising spam."

Follow Mashable on Twitter at www.Twitter.com/Mashable




Sunday, June 15, 2008

Per lei


Small Italian spot on the Upper East Side with great outdoor seating is full of real Italians. I had the Perlei salad but there are a lot of other great-sounding dishes like the special entree pear, apple and goat cheese stuffed ravioli and the pumpkin soup topped with pumpkin seeds.Per lei puts a unique spin on traditional Italian fare by being housed in chic location marked by white walls and bright, Andy Whorhall-like paintings and a massive chandelier lit up in the center of the room.

Atlantic City

Need to get out of the city and in the mood to gamble some money away?!?
A trip to Atlantic City may be exactly what you need. It's nice that such a place exists so close to Manhattan. Although I must admit even though I liked all the lights and loved the people watching, I definitely found out that gambling is not really my thing. However, I did enjoy the fine dining at Wolfgang Puck American Grille at the Borgata Hotel.

We listened to our friend's advice and spent the night gambling at the Borgata Casino Hotel but stayed at the Trump Marina Casino Hotel. It was definitely entertaining to see all the people who stay up all night gambling. Literally, the same people we saw at the tables before going to bed at 1:30am were still at the same tables when we left the hotel at 10am!

Thursday, June 05, 2008

"What's In Store?" Seminar in NYC

I am currently sitting among food and nutrition gurus listening to the speakers at the "What's In Store?" seminar in NYC hosted by Fleishman-Hillard. There are some fabulous speakers who are all discussing the future of food and nutrition- sustainability vs. organic, rising food prices, genomapping, etc. Fleishman is blogging and Tweeting live from the event

You can follow me on Twitter as well!

OMG! Ellie Krieger from the Food Network's "Healthy Appetite" is sitting a table away from me!
Within her question to the panel she included an interesting statistic: currently in the U.S. we waste 27% of available food is wasted, that's 1 pound of food per person per day!

Favorite speakers from today's seminar- Alan Rambam from Fleishman-Hillard's Youth & Mobile Marketing practice and Kathleen Zelman who is the Director of Nutrition at WebMD.