best of 2013

In no particular order, some of my favorite photos from the last year from a bunch of places: Germany, Sardinia, Prague, Paris x 2, Stone Harbor, NYC, Barcelona, Amsterdam, Gran Canaria.

new jersey signs

From a morning bike ride when I was in the US for my brother's wedding: The Wildwood, New Jersey boardwalk has the best signs (with a sneaky guest appearance from a Stone Harbor hotel).

ryan & mariah

Ryan and Mariah got married not quite three weeks ago, and we all celebrated with them two weekends ago! It was really gorgeous fall weather in Stone Harbor for a lot of fun outdoor time: a pizza dinner on Friday on the deck at Stone Harbor Pizza, a lovely midday celebration on Saturday at a huge rented house on 103rd Street with catering from Back Bay Seafood, and a bagel breakfast at my parents' house on Sunday with bagels and coffee from Avalon Coffee Company. My cousins from both sides of the family were in the same place for the first time ever, I got to meet Mariah's parents and a lot of her extended family members, and basically everything about the weekend was delightful. One of our family friends pointed out that the weekend felt like one big happy relaxed reception, which I'm pretty sure was just what Ryan and Mariah were hoping for. And it was great.

Stephen and Gran and I did a little bit of cooking to supplement the catered food, specifically the following things (the eggplant salad in particular was very, very tasty):

+ roasted eggplant and herbed quinoa salad [only change was to roast the eggplant in the oven instead of grilling it, but grilling would be delicious]
+ black bean and roasted cherry tomatoes salad [approx. 1 cup of caramelized onions added]
+ salsa
+ quesadillas: take small corn tortillas, fill with a small amount each of grated pepper jack cheese, caramelized onions, and sauteed green peppers, and cook in a dry frying pan until cheese is melted.
+ gluten-free chocolate nut granola [made with 1/3 cup of coconut oil rather than the 1 cup the recipe calls for]
+ Smitten Kitchen maple walnut granola
+ Nutella-stuffed brown butter sea salt chocolate chip cookies [we have made these before, and I think they turned out even better this time, which is to say incredibly deadly]

And then we spent the better part of the following week eating leftovers of all of those things plus the catering. Trust me when I say that we suffered.

stone harbor water

  
My dad and I go on a lot of bike rides when we're both in Stone Harbor. When I was there in June, the water on the basins (mostly enclosed areas connected to the Intracoastal Waterway) was incredibly calm and the reflections were stunning.