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A few months back whilst browsing the interwebs, I saw a post on Serious Eats about an event they were sponsoring at Astor Center’s new space with Hot Doug’s. Truth be told, I had never heard of Hot Doug’s prior to this but as soon as I saw the menu, I knew we had to get tickets. If I remember correctly, it was $60 for two and the meal included 6 Dos Equis beers, an amuse, 2 Chicago-style hot dogs, two of their foie gras topped hot dogs, and an order of duck fat fries.

Ed Levine and Doug Sohn

Beer

Chefs in the kitchen

Jason

Jason and JJ

Amuse of fancy pigs in a blanket with spicy mustard (not surprising that these were Jason’s favorite of the whole night, aside from the beer that is)

Chicago-style hot dog with the works

Foie gras topped hot dog

Duck fat fries

All of the food was good but surprisingly, my favorite was the “homely” Chicago dog. I thought it would be the foie gras dog but without anything acidic/sweet/tart, it was a bit too rich for me. The Chicago dog was perfect though with the refreshing and crunchy fresh vegetables on top. I think the duck fat fries had been fried a little bit earlier so by the time we got to them, they weren’t as crispy as I would have liked but the flavor was good nonetheless.

The highlight/memorable moment of the evening for me though wasn’t the food. It was getting to meet and speak to Doug Sohn for a few minutes as we waited in line to get our food. Yes, he is THE Doug behind Hot Doug’s. He stood at the front of the line and spoke to each and every person at the event. It wasn’t surprising that he did though because he apparently mans the register at the storefront in Chicago almost all the time. Being owners of a food establishment ourselves, we totally respect his passion for his craft and appreciate that he loves to talk to his customers. He is a very funny, down to earth, and approachable guy.

When he learned that we were new owners of a food place, he quickly offered up some hard-earned advice. He told us to never look at blogs and online review sites (i.e; Yelp). He said that our goal shouldn’t be to please everybody and that we shouldn’t change what we do based on the opinion of a few people. That’s hard for me to do and whilst I don’t agree 100% with that philosophy because I do think that listening to our customers is important, I do understand that there will always be naysayers no matter how good the food. Now every time I read a negative review or comment on Twitter about us, I think about Doug’s advice, take a deep breathe, assess whether there’s any merit in the person’s opinion, and usually just close down my browser because I find none.

In any case, Jason and I are heading to Chicago for our annual anniversary trip (read about last year’s in New Orleans here) this year. So far I have about 30 places on our Chicago Google map to go to but rest assured, Hot Doug is at the top of the list and one of the places that definitely will not be missed.

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In the video below, we were in a patient mood and decided this particular Saturday was as good as any to start letting her try to use utensils — and she LOVED it. Now two months later,
we have worked into the pattern of feeding her, helping her feed herself, letting her feed herself, and then letting her stir her food around in circles. It makes meal time a fun mess.

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Click here to see what your favorite bloggers are baking up for the sale!
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Buzz:

Call for bakers on New York Serious Eats
Call for bakers on In Jennie’s Kitchen

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I oftentimes look at Jasmine and feel so grateful that I am able to provide her with basic needs and I can’t imagine being one of those loving mothers or fathers who due to unfortunate circumstances, are unable to do the same. I knew I had to participate in a sale by me but when I emailed Gaby, she told me that nobody had volunteered to lead up the NYC bake sale yet. I told her that I would be happy to take up the effort because I know there are so many wonderful bloggers/bakers/eaters in NYC and it would be a loss if there wasn’t a bake sale here.

So I got started contacting a few venues and thanks to Eric at the Brooklyn Flea, we have a kick-arse location to hold it! I also contacted as many bloggers as I knew via email and Twitter and we’ve gotten a great group of bakers together so far! I’ve listed them and what they are planning on bringing in a separate post below this one.

Thanks for stopping by our little space on the interwebs and I hope that you can join us on the day of the bake sale to support your favorite bloggers and contribute to a great cause! If you can’t make it the day of, please consider donating towards our team goal here.

Thank you again and we hope to see you on April 17th!

Where: The Brooklyn Flea
176 Lafayette Avenue
Fort Greene, Brooklyn

When: Saturday, April 17, 2010 (rain or shine!)
10 AM to 5 PM

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She was taking a step here and a step there for a few weeks, but it wasn’t until Christmas Day that she finally put enough together in a row that we considered it walking. It was weirdly anticlimactic when she did start walking because there were so many “oh she’s about to start walking…nope she fell” moments along the way. It wasn’t as definitive as the movies would have you believe where the baby is crawling, pops up, starts walking and grabs a beer out of the fridge. That was the case with labor and her crawling too. And talking actually. You know, I don’t think TV is honest with it’s depictions. Unbelievable.

Here’s the video of her finally walking. It really did take me 2 months to capture this elusive footage; it wasn’t that I was procrastinating with the editing. The Christmas and birthday videos are a different story though…

For the record, I resisted the urge to overlay The Proclaimers on this video.

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Because I know all 10 of our readers love pictures, here’s a quick picture I took of Jasmine on my iPhone Christmas morning:

2009 has certainly brought huge changes into our lives. We are grateful for them all and can’t imagine our lives otherwise.

We have been busy the last few months of this year and look forward to things slowing down a bit so we can enjoy the “little things” a bit more in 2010. I hope to be more diligent in documenting our food adventures and to also share my new hobby — sewing — in 2010.

In the meantime, we’d like to wish you all a very happy new year!!

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Within the first 2 months, Jasmine lost a lot of the hair on the back and left side of her head. That tends to happen to babies since they mostly lay on their backs and a favored side. Jasmine’s hair loss however, did not stop her hair GROWTH. This means that while some parts of her head had very little hair, there were other parts that had very long hair. Case in point:

If the longer parts had stayed neatly tucked behind her ears AND if she managed to keep hair clips in for more than 2 minutes, we might have been able to last a few more months to uphold Jason’s preference that we wait until her first birthday to cut it for tradition’s sake. Alas, such was not the case and every day we woke up to a girl with the craziest looking hair. Therefore, despite Jason’s strong will, he broke down in November and conceded that we needed to get it cut.

Jason got to work doing some research to find a place that would do his little girl’s hair right and found Cozy’s Cuts. They have several convenient locations in NYC and specialize in children’s haircuts. The store is half toy store and half hair salon with fun little chairs for the kids to sit in. It was a quick and painless experience, if a bit pricey at around $35.

Here’s the AMAZING video that Jason took of the haircut in progress. As you can see, she did very well in the chair and didn’t cry or fuss one bit. I daresay she even enjoyed it a bit

Here are some pics of her in the middle of the haircut as well as a family pic of us afterward. The last picture is the next morning where you can really see the bob. She got a compliment on it at the coffee shop the very next day!!

It’s only been a month and a half since this haircut and our little over-achiever already needs another cut!

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While we initially really wanted to dress her up as some kind of food (Jason’s suggestion was a chili pepper, shocker I know), we thought it better to dress her up as something more relevant to HER likes. During my internet searches, I came across a very cute and high quality monkey costume by Paul Alma and since Jasmine has a deep love for her monkey, Mono, whom she sleeps with every night, it worked. Only one problem, it retails for almost $100 after tax and shipping.

Now I fancy myself a person who splurges once in a while, but to spend almost a hundred dollars on a costume my child will only be able to wear once and probably not for long was out of the question. That’s where Ebay and my quick-on-his-feet husband came in to save the day.

I checked if there were any auctions going on and just my luck, there was one ending in 2 minutes and the latest bid was only $25!! I tried logging in quickly but seeing as I haven’t used eBay in at 4+ years, had no idea what my password could be. A frantic call to Jason left me further disappointed when he said he didn’t know his either. I thought all was lost when the auction ended and I still hadn’t managed to uncover my password. That is, until Jason called me, told me he looked for his password in his gmail after hanging up with me on the off chance it would be there, found it, logged in, bid, and won. Yes folks, this was all in about a 45 second span.

So thanks to our (Jasmine and my) hero, here are some pics from Halloween with Jasmine, our little monkey!

Click here to see the video that grandma shot of us putting her into the costume.

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Click here for the video of us putting Jasmine into the costume.

Click here for the full post.

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