Food (the other kind) and Random Other Stuff

I haven't posted since Friday because I've been either a.boring or b.camera-less. I need to remember to post even if I don't have pics (although I do today!). Thursday night I went out with a group of about 10-12 people from my culinary class. We had dinner at Bobby Flay's restaurant Mesa Grill. I had the New Mexican Spiced Rubbed Pork Tenderloin. Yummy! I thought the food was great and the cocktails also (I was drinking Mesa Frescas which I learned about in Cabo last year - if you have never had it, go get one! Right away! This will be here when you get back!) Dinner was WAY TOO expensive though so I'm glad I went because I'm not sure I'll go back for that price. We went to a bar afterwards and ended up staying out pretty late and doing some dancing, etc. Yay, a night out! One of my classmates had a camera and you all know how I love to get my picture taken. Of course, by the time I arrived at class on Friday, the pictures had already circulated so people "spoke softly so my head wouldn't hurt." I said, "Give me a break folks, I'm a lightweight. Two drinks and I'm dancing!!" Which of course, it doesn't even take that! My weekend started great on Friday after class because I went to the MoMA for Target's "Free Fridays." What a great deal! Every Friday from 4-8 pm, you can get in for free. 0 dollars 0 cents. I'm really discovering all of the ways to see New York for free or cheap. Eating out is another story. But, anyway, back to the MoMA. It was very cool to see some works of art that have been reproduced so many times that you feel like you could paint them yourself (Starry Night by Van Gogh) and also a little intimidating. I wanted to ask, "Is this the real one? There is only one of these right? This isn't a poster? (Because I had a poster back in college and it looked very similar.) Some other cool things to see there were Dali's The Persistence of Memory ("the floppy clocks"), and tons of works by Matisse, Miro and Chagall, all of whom I admire. So, I did that (unfortunately by myself because I don't know anyone yet and Todd was still in NC) and then tried to save some money by eating in on Friday night. Saturday morning I took the train into the city and went back to the Union Square greenmarket (www.unionsquarejournal.com/greenmarket.htm). I bought a bunch of good, cheap produce (apples, beets, onions, lettuce, carrots) AND a wild boar shoulder. I discovered I love stewed wild boar when we were in Italy and have not really been able to have it since, so I bought the hunk of meat and decided I'd make it myself. Todd was coming back to New York on the 22nd, so I planned to make a special "welcome back" dinner for him. His plane was supposed to come in around 8 pm, so I'd planned for a 9ish dinner. He called several times from DC to say that his flight was delayed. Luckily, I'd done a lot of prepping and chopping, etc, and the meat was slowly simmering, but nothing was sitting on the table getting cold. I held off on finishing until he called from LaGuardia to say he was getting on the bus. Although he didn't get here until almost 11:30, we had a gourmet dinner right here in the apartment. Candles and everything! Here are some pictures of the food. Dinner was Red Wine Braised Wild Boar with Vegetable Ragu and a side salad with carrots, beets and kohlrabi. Some of you might turn your nose at this, but trust me when I say it was (courtesy of Joe Mauney) slap-your-momma-good! We have plenty of leftovers too, so please come on by if you want to try it. I got a chance to listed to one of the Venezuelan brothers speak today at the culinary school and I met with him to tell him I want a job. So......I have a job interview tomorrow at 10:00 at Tisserie. I'm even more excited about it now that I have met him and heard him speak. This week in class we're working on developing our written concept statements for our business. Mine has definitely evolved, but is coming together in a really solid way! If I previously shared anything about the name or theme of my bakery-to-be, it's probably changed. One thing that has not changed is that I DO WANT TO INCORPORATE PURPLE VELVET somehow into the color scheme! :) I'll present my concept to the class on Friday, so I'll let "Y'ALL" know how it goes.