goodbye New York, hello Minnesota

At some point in the last month - actually, at many points - I intended to update this blog with some big, exciting news, and offer some hopefully profound thoughts on What It All Meant and what I'm going to do with my life now that I officially have a certificate (with honors, no less) in Classic Pastry Arts.  But that obviously didn't happen, and so here I am writing to you with the Big Event - my move from Manhattan to Minnesota - having already come and gone about as well as a cross-country move from a studio apartment into my high school bedroom could possibly be expected to go.  (Read: there are still multiple boxes of homeless books and kitchen appliances lying around).

My last weeks in New York were a blur of friends visiting, dinner parties, and sentimental "lasts," interspersed with my daily chores of begging boxes off the friendly guys at my local liquor store, packing as much in them as possible and then walking to the Post Office and back often enough that the panhandlers and United Way employees along my route stopped asking me for money.  There were moments of excitement - my first trip to the Metropolitan Opera House - and moments of sadness - our last Sunday Supper Club and my last night out with former Lehman colleagues.  (well, considering how many of those nights ended, maybe that one's not so sad!)

And of course there was great food along the way.  My sister graduated from college and one of my best friends turned 25, both events requiring special homemade cakes.  I made the best slice and bake cookies ever, tried my ice cream maker for the first time with some interesting results, and punched up this summer's first batch of my favorite sangria with tangy sliced rhubarb.  All adventures I hope to share with you.

I'm also looking forward to cooking (and writing about) all the great local produce here - Minnesota in the summer offers some of the best eating opportunities around.  My family signed up for a share in a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) this summer, so every week we'll be getting a delivery of produce from a local farm.  My goal is to create dishes from this food that even my vegetable-hating youngest sister, who could eat medium-rare steak or or Chinese takeout every night, will like.  Our first shipment arrives next Monday - we're expecting strawberries and some cole crops (broccoli, cabbage, bok choy, etc) in the first weeks, so I've been perusing recipe books to prepare.  I'm thinking the strawberries would be perfect with some of the rhubarb that's growing in the garden at our cabin.  

Taking advantage of trading my studio apartment for a house with a yard, I've also planted some herbs in our garden, hoping to have fresh basil for pesto, and fresh mint for the mojitos my dad makes so well.  My thumbs have always been more black than green, so we'll see how this experiment goes - hopefully I'll have some good garden pictures for you soon.  I'll leave you with the number one reason I'm happy to be back in Minnesota for the summer, my favorite (and in my biased opinion, the best) place on Earth.  I hope you all are enjoying a relaxing summer evening somewhere just as special.