thanksgiving in nyc, and nieces in maine

this year, lee and i decided to spend thanksgiving on our own. last year, i was in savannah, ga and we didn't spend any holidays together. so we thought we deserved it and it was nice :) we stayed right on times square, in the edison towers hotel. not great, pretty basic, but clean and cheap. it really just allowed us to stay there--they "lost" my reservation, even though we had called to confirm only a week before and shut the water off from midnight to 6am one night. oh well.

our itinerary ended up being jam-packed! this is unfortunate--lee and i always do this and then get so tired from our trips. here's what we did:

day 1
travel to nyc
new york public library steven a. schwarzman research branch (arts & humanities)
bryant park
grand central station

day 2
rockefeller center
st. patrick's cathedral
museum of the city of new york for the eero saarinen exhibit
vosges chocolate store on madison ave. (where i inadvertantly bought exotic caramels i couldn't eat due to wheat starch!)
guggenheim for the kandinsky exhibit
comedy show at the comic strip live

day 3
moma for the tim burton exhibit
the highline
babycakes for gluten free baked goods (!!!)
storefront for art & architecture
risotteria for gluten free italian food (also !!!)
central park west for inflation eve (the floats for the parade are view-able from 3-10pm the night before the parade)

day 4
macy's thanksgiving day parade
travel back to boston

but it was fun. first, i must also say that babycakes are some of the best cupcakes i've ever had. i had gluten free brownie one and shared a gluten free banana with lee later that night. lee had spelt vanilla with strawberry frosting. then the next day we shared some gluten free ginger cookies. AMAZING...


the risotteria, in greenwich village, also might be some of the finest italian food i've enjoyed in a long time. the breadsticks, which are always gluten free, were to-die-for, and lee agreed that no one would know that they were not made of wheat. then we split a caesar salad with safe-for-me croutons and a gluten free pizza with red sauce, mozzarella, portobello mushrooms, and truffle oil. i had gone to heaven :)


now for some shots of what we did other than eat.

rockefeller center.


times square.


guggenheim.


the highline.


inflation eve in front of snoopy.


the parade.


then after nyc, we went to maine to see lee's parents and his brother's family who had flown in from portland, or. our nieces are 5 and 3 and we hadn't seen them in 2 years because lee's brother doesn't believe he should have to bring his family to see us. so they always go to buffalo to see his wife's family, but won't go to boston to see us. why you might ask? probably because we don't have kids... but that's another story and for the brief time that we were there in maine, we had a good time. here we are dancing to salsa music:


then i made a very allergy-friendly feast for a 2nd thanksgiving dinner. i have no pictures, but this was a challenge! lee's mom is allergic to shellfish and salmon. lee's dad has some kind of reaction to scallops only. his brother's wife cannot have cheese or beef for a specific health reason. i eat vegetarian 90% of the time and was recently told that i must be gluten free. sheesh! so here's what i made:

haddock in foil packets, baked with parsley, salt, pepper, lemon & pimentos
tofu & potato stew with miso gravy from my favorite vegans at the post-punk kitchen (the recipe is in vegan with a vengeance)
biscuits
root vegetable mash
green bean casserole (the vegan, gluten free recipe i used was not so successful...)
chocolate banana cream pie

also while in maine, i discovered a gluten free market and bakery in brunswick. if you go to maine or live in the state, you must go. the place has so many things and the staff is wonderful. it's called wildflours. i will definitely be going back--the breads and pastries looked just delicious. i did try a chocolate peanut butter rice crispy treat and bought some stuff to stock up on at home. it was great.

YAY!