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A date with Joey

Monday, February 9, 2009 by alana


I had a date with Joey this weekend! A city, 24 food and music date, with a little bit of shoes involved too. Honestly, sometimes I just feel old, and I’m not ready to feel old yet. So these little 24 hours things we do every so often, we pack with age appropriate activities.
The event of the weekend was Joey’s gift to me from way back in December, (age appropriate experience number one) tickets to see Beirut at BAM. Before city walking to the show, we ate at (age appropriate number two) Belleville, where we ate unpretentious French food and I got schnockered. It was very dark in there, and there were three desserts on one plate!

We walked and walked down 5th Avenue in Park Slope, and when we arrived at BAM, all I could do (schnockered) was to sit and look at people’s shoes. Have you ever noticed all the shoes in Brooklyn? No muck boots here.


Since the show, I’ve been only listening to one song over and over, worth while even for it’s title, My night with the prostitute from Marseille. You can also become obnoxious about this song by finding it here. Then imagine it with a full orchestra, and there is the highlight of my evening.

After the show, we city walked some more (45 degrees in February!), got some bubbly water at a corner market that had cats sleeping in the plastic bags, and dropped into bed at the illustrious home of Laurie Kellogg, who has recently opened up her amazing home to travelers in search of health care reform and really amazing breakfasts.

Did I mention breakfast? These waffles have bananas and applesauce inside of them.


If you find yourself devoid of lodgings in New York, email this woman at lauriekellogg@gmail.com She provides a fabulous room with your own bathroom, excellent conversation, and yes, I’ll say it again, breakfast. Her place is also very child friendly and and she offers babysitting if you need it. Email her. Really.

A word about dates. I know a lot of couples make the decision to hold off on having kids, and they travel the world together, having couple-centric culinary experiences and looking at art. And I know that there are many good arguments for following this schedule. But let it just be known that this was not our schedule. “Joey and Alana” as some sort of identity came over us hard and fast, and before we could catch our breath, it was “Joey and Alana and Sadie,” and well you get the picture. I think that the experience can be a little different for people who have had eons of time without kids, but then again, I’m not sure. But my experience is that when Joey and I are on our own for more than a few hours, everything takes on kind of a surreal, other worldly quality. And we tend to have all of these conversations about what life would be like if the girls weren’t with us alternating with conversations about how much we miss them. Makes for dynamic dates, maybe tinged with a little bit of exhilarating guilt anyway. And the other good thing is that we tend to come back home with plans about all sorts of things, and this proves to be good for the marriage in general.
So much for my relationship musings. But as I sit here a few nights later, after having physically dragged Rosie to bed as she squeaks like a mouse (and she’s still squeaking, every 10 seconds or so- I hear her through the closed door) and we’re picking up the remnants of chaotic valentine creation and uneaten squash soup, I’m choosing to ruminate a little on the importance of long dates, and of unpretentious french food and interesting shoes. Keeps me feeling balanced, I guess.

Filed Under: Family, travels Tagged With: marriage

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Comments

  1. Alisa@Foodista says

    Thursday, February 12, 2009 at 9:26 pm

    I can relate with you on this one. I think it’s great that you make it a point to have dates together 🙂

  2. Meg says

    Monday, February 16, 2009 at 2:44 am

    Just brilliant.

    xo

  3. allisonfloyd says

    Sunday, March 29, 2009 at 2:40 am

    Deirdre and I saw that show, wasn’t it amazing?!


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I’m Alana, and I write about food, family and the wonderful chaos that ensues when the two combine. If you’re new to the site, here are a few good places to start, or learn more about me on my about page.

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Instagram post 2337331591407595410_13442450 Sending off my taxes today with intention and prayer that they will be used to support programs for the most vulnerable, and that my little contribution will join with others to help move us towards the country I know we can be. #taxmagic ✨
Instagram post 2335726864949371764_13442450 Goodies en route to @north_plain_farm today for pickup! Word about town is that LOTS of moolah was raised for BRIDGE in this little #bakersagainstracism bake sale. Thanks to North Plain Farm and @raisinporpoise for the organizing, to everyone who bought and bid, and most of all to BRIDGE for the essential work they do. (Want to learn more about BRIDGE? Head to the link in my profile.)
Instagram post 2332756427273440195_13442450 So technically you’re not supposed to send food when trying to find an agent, but I did it it. 10 years ago, my granola helped seal that deal, and he insisted I send it to publishers when we were selling The Homemade Pantry (another general publishing no no) That Landed-a woman-with-no-platform-a-book deal Granola is up for grabs in this amazing bake sale, as well as goodies by some of my very favorite bakers (@madeinghent , @raisinporpoise , and @thedooryard to name a few). Oh and maybe my favorite item in there are the magical @susanspungen ginger chocolate cookies I mentioned a few weeks back, made by Sadie herself. All of this is to support the work of @multiculturalbridge , and the order form is up in my bio. Get to it! #bakersagainstracism
Instagram post 2330317921708403058_13442450 My friend @afgoldfarb has been part of a team of people working on this vital project. The link to learn more and help out is in my profile.
Instagram post 2330131706816229761_13442450 I’ll be baking up a storm for this! Local bakers- there’s still room for more! Let @north_plain_farm know that you want IN.
Instagram post 2324845496300301430_13442450 To those who ask here? In Great Barrington? YES. In Great Barrington.
Instagram post 2324091364266290851_13442450 I know there are so many resources out there right now, but I want to share one that’s been really helpful for me in the last several months. There are many seasons of this podcast, but I recommend Season 2 on Whiteness as well is Season 4 on Democracy. #sceneonradio
Instagram post 2322615811734696638_13442450 Black lives matter.
Instagram post 2319329508599466327_13442450 I did not bake these cookies, as I am no longer the cookie baker in this house. But this is the second time that  Sadie has made @susanspungen ‘s Triple-Ginger Chocolate Chunk Cookies (and also the second time I’ve talked about a recipe Sadie has made from the #openkitchencookbook), and I think these might actually be the best cookies I have ever had. I’m often looking for the perfect ginger cookie and this is it, and I’d also choose it over a chocolate chip cookie (or let’s be honest-any other kind of cookie) any day.
Instagram post 2316311882260313364_13442450 No matter how many rulers and pizza cutters and other magical tools I use, it seems that the straight line will always elude me.
Instagram post 2314127252740427104_13442450 Living it up. 💥
Instagram post 2312088043104000827_13442450 Every day my neighbor’s yard gets prettier.
Instagram post 2311325683330503572_13442450 @paulaperlis sent us @susanspungen ‘s new book and of course the first recipe Sadie picked is marked with the *project* heading. She’s been cooking all afternoon and the house smells like ✨✨✨ (With gorgeous images by @gentlandhyers ❤️)
Instagram post 2311141543964321092_13442450 When I took on a day job a few years ago, I found that the first thing to go was all the homemade stuff I’d been making and writing about over the years. I’m still going out to work most days, but I’m finding now with a full and captive house and more downtime in general that those things I love to make are back. For me, it’s granola, yogurt, bread. Hello, old friends!
Instagram post 2308503311808232748_13442450 All the things in the house pasta: roasted cauliflower, a few sad leaves of kale, one jar of fancy tuna saved for a special occasion (how about Wednesday?), Rosemary, homemade breadcrumbs from the freezer fried in butter, crispy sage leaves, pasta water, salt, so much pepper. Success!
Instagram post 2307412630968777107_13442450 @artbywoodgy made this beautiful thing for me for Mother’s Day. All the veggies are on Velcro so I can plan to my hearts delight.
Instagram post 2306345003953662730_13442450 Happy Mother’s Day to my brave and beautiful mom, who birthed two different humans in such different times in her life. With me she was so young, and she figured it all out just as she was learning how to be an adult. This picture was taken nineteen years later, when she was pregnant again and I was almost an adult myself. Thanks for keeping at it, Mom, and for always showing up with love. ❤️
Instagram post 2304888771283579843_13442450 What we do for cake.
Instagram post 2302665269449083186_13442450 It’s a magnolia year for sure.
Instagram post 2295808104927071821_13442450 A long time ago, Joey talked about his crush on this particular alien-like flower with a good friend of ours. Months later, little bulbs arrived in the mail. We put them in the ground last fall, and now they are everywhere. If that isn’t some kind of magic, I don’t know what is. ✨ (🙏🏻 to @wildflowers1 for the cool vase, too.)
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