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There are few weekends that I enjoy more in New York City than Summer weekends, especially holiday weekends. The minute Memorial Day hits, people start fleeing to the beaches and their weekend shares leaving the city surprisingly unfrenetic and peaceful. The parks have plenty of room to sprawl out in, the bars and beer gardens are empty enough to settle down for a good old session on a Saturday night and hard to get into restaurants are suddenly attainable. It’s lovely.
This past weekend was especially fabulous. It had been a long week. Lots of projects coming to a head at exactly the same time lead to insanely long days at my desk. Completely my own fault. At the point where my day planner and to do lists were already so filled with color-coded tasks and semi-legible scrawls that I was beginning to think that the Unabomber was sneaking in to add things while I slept, I got a last minute assignment from one of my favorite editors. And a copy editing favor request from a friend. Of course I said yes. To both. There are 29 hours in a day, right?
Work finally done, I fell into bed bone tired in the wee hours of Friday/Saturday, and when I woke up to cold, rain and howling winds on Saturday, I cast a weary eye at the detritus of my life that had been ignored during the week, the piles of undone laundry and unopened mail, smiled, then pulled the duvet up higher and rolled over. Many times. By the time I wandered out to the greenmarket well after noon, my hopes were not high for getting anything great. But I had doubted the beauty of the holiday weekend which once again came through. The holiday and the chill kept the crowds away and I was able to scoop up tons of ramps, alliums, and my first asparagus and strawberries of the season. I took a completely empty subway home and spent the rest of the weekend catching up with friends, drinking copious amounts of wine, reading the new Jo Nesbo and cooking weather defying Spring-inspired meals like this strawberry-mint-ricotta breakfast. Crazy simple, insanely delicious. I made a quick mint simple syrup — bring 1 cup of water to a boil, then turn down to simmer and add 1 cup of sugar and a few sprigs of mint, stir occasionally until the sugar is dissolved and then set aside to cool. (I store this in bottles in the fridge and add to iced tea or cocktails as well.) A scoop of fresh ricotta goes into a bowl, topped with sliced strawberries and shredded mint, then drizzle a spoonful of syrup on top.
Image may be NSFW.
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Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
