2011 Year in Review

2011 was a great year for me. Here’s a few of the highlights.

In February, Jim and I completed our first detox cleanse, which was something I’ve always wanted to try. We enjoyed it so much, we’re planning on doing it again next week to start off the new year on a positive, healthy note.

I changed my hair, a lot! Close to four times! I never changed my hair that often at any point in my life. It was fun and I plan on continuing this spontaneity into 2012.

I did the 30 for 30 challenge twice. Once was in the winter, and once in the summer. Looking back at all the photos, it’s a night and day difference between the two challenges. During the summer challenge my style really came into it’s own and my wardrobe finally started working for me as opposed to against me. It was a fantastic learning experience and I am way more confident in my style choices as a result.

I turned 30 and had the best birthday party ever! Jim and about 20 of my friends all joined me celebrating it doing my favorite activity, karaoke! I can’t thing of a better way to celebrate this important turning point in my life.

I made it a point to try out a variety of restaurants I’ve been wanting to try out for a while, and as a result ate an amazing array of delicious vegan food! I plan on trying even more in 2012.

I really got to enjoy my city and see and learn so many new things. From the Armory Show, to Eagle Street Rooftop Farm and most recently a screen printing class at Gowanus Print Lab, I explored so many new things. 2011 was not a couch potato year for me.

I traveled, a lot. For both work and for fun but mostly for work. Some destinations I got to check out included Las Vegas, Denver, Annapolis Maryland, Philadelphia, and Miami. One of my goals for 2012 is to visit and explore more cities in the US that Jim and I both have never been to, and I’m excited to begin planning that.

I participated in my first protest ever and it felt amazing. This was actually one of my resolutions for 2011 and it feels great to have actually done it. I hope to continue remaining active in causes important to me.

I survived an earthquake and a hurricane, all in the same week. Both were minor occurrences, but since we never have those types of things happen in New York City it made for a memorable week.

Jim and I celebrated out third wedding anniversary and he surprised me with this beautiful, candle lit meal from my favorite restaurant in the comfort of our own home. He also surprised me this year by announcing he decided to become a vegetarian.

Jim and I hosted our very first vegetarian (mostly vegan) Thanksgiving. It’s been a lifetime dream of mine to be able to do this, and I’m so happy and fortunate to have such a great husband, family and friends who were so excited and supportive of the event.

My blog was featured on some of my favorite websites, including MTV Style, WordPress’ Freshly Pressed and the best vegan blog ever, Vegansaurus. As a result, I’ve gained so many new readers all of which I’ve really enjoyed getting to know and interacting with.

One thing blogging in 2011 provided me with is an entire photo diary of everything that’s happened that I found to be interesting or important. Looking at it now, Brooklyn Bliss has become so much more for me than I had initially started it for, which was a fashion blog. It’s instead become my online journal and photo album, documenting life’s important moments. I’m so grateful to have taken the plunge and started my blog, because it’s given me back way more than I have put into it. I’m very grateful for that.

I hope everyone else enjoyed 2011 as much as I did. With that said, I’m excited to start 2012 and share that chapter of my life as well. Happy New Year to everyone and I’ll be back on here posting next year!

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Merry Christmas!

As promised after my Christmas card photos outtakes post, Here’s our Christmas card Jim and I sent to our family and friends this year. I hope everyone has a fantastic holiday weekend!

Featured on Vegansaurus

I’m so excited to have our veg Thanksliving feast featured on my favorite vegan blog, Vegansaurus!  There are two things in this world I love to death, one is veganism and the other is dinosaurs (yes, I’m a child at heart) so of course their website would be my most favorite site ever.  It also helps that the writers are just straight up hilarious.

Every Thanksgiving they do a roundup of some of the most delicious looking vegan dishes readers served over their holiday.  Be sure to check it out, but not if you’re hungry because that’s just torture.

Vegetarian Thanksgiving Feast / Menu and Recipes

How was everyone’s Thanksgiving holiday? Ours was a huge success. Jim and I had our first ever vegetarian Thanksgiving and all the food was a big hit with our guests. Here’s a sampling of what how I set the table, what we served, along with where to find the recipes and how I organized making all the dishes. I somehow managed to get all of these dishes made in my tiny, 10 foot by 10 foot kitchen with a 2 foot by three foot counter.

We had a total of 3 guests (5 total including me and Jim), and luckily our small round kitchen table had plenty of room. Here’s some photos of how we set the table. Thanksgiving morning we realized we had forgotten to pick up the gourds we had wanted to create a festive centerpiece, so I last minute came up with the idea of putting some pumpkin seeds in a serving dish and topping them with tea lights. Made for a really beautiful, yet simple centerpiece.

I’m of Italian decent, and anyone who’s been to an Italian American Thanksgiving knows it’s an all day eat-a-thon. Keeping in tradition, we had a variety of appetizers for our guests to knosh on prior to our formal dinner.

I made a traditional mozzarella and tomato salad complete with basil, olive oil and balsamic. This is one of Jim’s favorites.

Jim also selected some cheese and created a cheese plate, which was served with crackers.

I also made one of my favorite recipes ever, an almond cheese spread. It’s entirely vegan, and is really reminiscent to a cross between a feta and a goat cheese. It’s perfect with crackers, and serves up really nicely in a pretty bakery dish. You can find the recipe I used as a basis here.

I also made another vegan favorite of mine, Alicia Silverstone’s Artichoke Dip from the Kind Diet cookbook. One of the dips I really have missed since going vegan is spinach and artichoke dip, so I add about 10 ounces of spinach to my recipe, but it can be made with or without. You can find the recipe here.

We also had a tray of veggies and hummus out. I love carrots and hummus.

Moving onto dinner, last year I made the menu Vegetarian Times featured several years ago designed by Moosewood Restaurant in upstate NY. I love this menu. It’s very seasonal, festive and delicious. The menu includes a cranberry chutney with crystalized ginger, seasonal fall salad with beets, fennel and oranges, green beans with a crispy shallot topping, and amazing vegetable strudel, complete with mushrooms, peppers, onions, and vegan cheeses in a phyllo pastry shell. You can find links to the entire menu and recipes here.

I also made homemade mashed potatoes. Recipe is super easy, just chop some yukon gold potatoes, cover with water and boil until tender. Drain and run the potatoes through a potato ricer, and finish with vegan soy creamer, butter, salt and pepper. Delicious!

I did take a little help from the pre-made department as well in this menu. Jim absolutely loves stuffing, so I got a bag of Whole Food’s vegan stuffing which was great because it takes about 5 minutes to make. I finished mine off in the oven to give it a crispy top. I also got some Fresh Direct parbaked rolls as well.

Initially I was resistant, but Jim really wanted to get a fake turkey substitute for our guests being all our guests were omnivores. I decided on Field Roasts Hazelnut Cranberry Roast, and it was the sleeper hit of the dinner. Our guests LOVED it! It tasted more like sausage than turkey, but was delicious and complimented by the cranberry and hazelnut stuffing and puff pastry crust. Even Jim’s brother, who is a self admitted picky eater commented on how much he liked it.

I also made a really amazing sweet potato casserole, complete with dandies marshmallows but I forgot to photograph it before we devoured it. For dessert (yes, there’s more!) we had vegan pumpkin whoopie pies while watching a movie. For us, there’s not better way to handle digesting a huge Thanksgiving feast than by watching a movie. We’re not big football fans in the Feld household so movies work perfect for us.

So how did I manage to pull off cooking all of this in my tiny kitchen? Very careful planning. Here’s an outline of how I managed it.

Tuesday Evening

Fry the shallots for the green beans. They keep for several weeks in a jar in the pantry.

Soak the almonds for the almond cheese spread.

Wednesday Evening

Make the filling for the vegetable strudel. Store in a container in the fridge.

Assemble the sweet potato casserole. Store in the fridge with foil over it.

Chop the potatoes for the mashed potatoes and store in the pot I’m making them in, covered with water and the pot lid. I stored it on the stove.

Assemble the spinach dip in a pretty baking pan, store in the fridge.

Blend the almonds for the almond cheese and strain in the fridge overnight.

Make the dressings for the green beans and salad, store in separate jars.

Roast the beets for the salad. Keep them in their foil overnight in the fridge. Then chop all the ingredients for the salad and store separately in the fridge.

Determine what serving wear I was using for which dishes, take them out of storage and mark with post its. That way you don’t have to think about it the next day.

Thursday

Bake the almond cheese and allow to cool. Top with the olive oil.

Assemble the vegetable strudel and store in the fridge

Just prior to guests arriving, bake spinach dip and while it’s in the oven, put out your cheeses, crackers, and vegetables and dip

When ready for dinner, bake the sweet potato casserole, field roast and vegetable strudel at 425 degrees for 40 minutes.

While items are in the oven, turn on the mashed potatoes to boil. Also microwave green beans and toss with dressing and top with shallots, assemble the salad, and start the stuffing.

Take foil off sweet potatoes and let continue for another 20 minutes. Take field roast and strudel out and allow to set up before carving up.

Drain and finish mashed potatoes. Crisp up stuffing in the oven and add the rolls on a tray to bake for 10 minutes.

Add marshmallows and nuts to sweet potatoes and broil until marshmallows brown.

Microwave some gravy (I took some help from the store with this step)

Call your guests in to enjoy their meal!

One thing I did this year that helped immensely was to wash the dishes as we went along. We had really minimal dishes by the end of the meal even despite all the food we had. It worked out great. Another thing I did was to prepare as many things as possible in pretty, refrigerator and oven safe dish ware. I received a lot of Corningware for my wedding shower, which I love because it comes with plastic tops to make leftover storage a breeze.

How was everyone else’s Thanksgiving? I’d love to hear about what you guys had to eat and what traditions you have. Do share!

Bark Park

This past Sunday both Jim and I had giant to-do lists of stuff to take care of prior to the Thanksgiving holiday. So we woke up early, got our caffeine fix, and got to work.

By around 2 pm, it was so nice out it was a shame to spend all our time inside, so we decided to take a break and take Portia for a quick trip to the bark park (i.e. dog run). Portia got to run her miniature heart out in the dog  run playing fetch with Jim, and I had fun attempting to photograph her mid-air. She’s fast!

{Trench: Calvin Klein; Chambray Shirt; Old Navy; Jeggings: No name brand; Loafers: Delia’s}

Once Portia was bored with the dog run, we took a walk around the park, letting Portia play in the leaves.  The piles of leaves were so big she had a hard time maneuvering in them and it was adorable watching her hop around.  You could tell she was having the best time.

She was exhausted when we got home, which worked out great for us since we were able to get everything else done on our to-do list without her bugging us with her cuteness.

These photos remind me of how much I love fall. I don’t want it to end. While I’m super excited for Thanksgiving (my favorite holiday), it bums me out once December rolls around, so does the snow. Yuck.

30 for 30 Challenge / Summer 2011 Recap

It seems like it’s taken me all damn summer and into the first few days of fall to get this challenge up, but I’m proud to say I’m officially done!  Here’s the final post with all thirty outfits.  Enjoy!

The Grand Finale

{Shirt: H&M (husband’s); Shorts: H&M; Sandals: Alloy; Sunglasses: Payless; Watch: Michael Kors}

And here you have it, my 30th and final post of my summer 30 for 30 wardrobe challenge.  I’m so happy I finally completed it and have it on the site.  It’s funny though that as I write this, I’m wearing a sweater and boots now that it’s fall and here I am in this photo wearing shorts and sandals.  Next time I have to not procrastinate and get these photos up and on the site within a few days of taking the photos.  I have no excuse nowadays now that I have an iPad and it’s totes easy.  That or make it a goal to finish the challenge within the allotted season.

Stay tuned tomorrow for a recap post including photos and links to all thirty outfits.

Almost Done

{Tee: Forever21; Cardigan: Dolce and Gabbana (thrifted); Pants: Elle Tahari; Wedges: Dolce Vita for Target}

This week my main blogging goal is to finally finish my 30 for 30 Summer Challenge posts.  It’s getting ridiculous now, I finished the challenge over the summer and here it is fall now and I still don’t have them all up.  So consider my posting schedule out the window until I get this done, fo’ real.

Everyone have a fun week!

Chambray Day

{Chambray Shirt: Old Navy; Shorts: ; Sandals: Alloy; Aviators: Payless}

Here’s number 27 of my 30 for 30 challenge. Almost done! In the meantime stay tuned later this week for some guest outfit posts from some of my favorite bloggers while I work on my tan in Miami.

Labor Day Sailing

Last Monday for Labor day, my husband and I were invited by one of our favorite “couple” friends to go sailing. We were super excited because although I grew up on Long Island and am used to boating, I’ve never actually been on a sailboat, and never navigated city waters.

The day started off gray and bleak, but by the end of the afternoon the cloud cover burned off and it was one of the most beautiful days ever. We drank, had a barbecue, watched the sun set, then took the boat along the coast to view Coney Island by nightfall before heading back for the evening. It was the perfect way to end the summer and mentally prepare for fall.