road trip day one: baltimore

After one long day of packing we said goodbye to our friends and neighbors in Brooklyn and headed south toward Baltimore. Eva was part of our caravan, too! Our big yellow truck rolled into Balti at 3 am . Thanks so very much to all of our wonderful friends who helped celebrate Isabelle's birthday and make this big move fun.

Today in Baltimore we had the pleasure of watching our favorite musician, Delia, practicing her cello.

my town

my town, originally uploaded by isabelle gr.

Here I am in my town. I am standing outside my favorite bookstore, The Strand. Tomorrow is my 27th birthday.

In the midst of all of our packing and preparing to move, I am thinking about my past eight birthdays here in New York: at John's on 12th Street, Frank on 2nd Avenue, at our house on Bedford, the little french place on 13th, Little Frankie's on 1st Ave, at The Frick, in Central Park; and at my favorite place in the city, the Met. Here I am in my town.

another day, another latte VI

This lovely specimen was obtained at a crucial moment in packing up the apartment yesterday. Crucial!

I know we are moving to the coffee-obsessed culture that gave our nation the Bucks, but I have been cutting way back on the caffeine. Why? I can't even remember anymore.

homemade brooklyn slice

homemade pizza, originally uploaded by isabelle gr.

We've been on a bit of a pizza-making rampage these days. Pizza is so easy to make, incorporating whatever fresh ingredients you haphazardly chose at the farmer's market with some mozzarella and presto! Pizza!

Besides, it is so cheap and quick and less greasy to make it at home. Our secret weapon is Whole Foods' frozen pizza dough, which costs practically nothing and takes all of the work out of the process.

This pizza stars bell peppers and tomatoes (and artichoke hearts? I can't remember).

the best month of the year

pumpkin pile, originally uploaded by isabelle gr.

Happy October everyone! It truly is the best month of all. I know it will be an especially good month because of two auspicious - and hefty - appearances. The first is this mammoth pile of pumpkins that materialized like Cinderella's coach down the block from our house. The pumpkins in the front weigh about 75 pounds, so it's unlikely that they will be stolen.

The second good sign was tromping around Dumbo yesterday (DUMBO is the acronym for a neighborhood in Brooklyn. It stands for Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass.). I drove the car all the way down under the Manhattan Bridge O. and there met this unlikely Brooklynite:

He was in the hood to celebrate the Dumbo Arts Festival, but it looked more like he was having a lunch festival.

By the way, did I emphasize the fact that I drove the car? Like, drove? A car? On Flushing Ave! Talk about unlikely! It was my biggest excursion to date; the totally exhausting 9 minute drive even included parallel parking. Thank you Nick!

we're moving!

vanagon, originally uploaded by isabelle gr.

We're taking this show on the road! At the end of October we are leaving our beloved Brooklyn and trekking cross country to our beloved Seattle! We'll wind down through Baltimore, Charlotte, cut across to Nashville, then somehow end up in the Painted Desert, then hopefully California, then northish to Cannon Beach, Oregon and eventually the great state of Washington.

We've been talking about a big road trip for two years, and now we have such a great place to end up! I am so excited to set up my studio and printshop in our new space, not to mention the graduate school applications I've been gathering. Nick has freelance projects and his licensing exams, as well as the prospects of many new projects to come.

For now, though, I just want to plan our trip!

savory

Nick and I are very lucky when it comes to figs. We ate figs bathed in olive oil and ribbons of parmigiano with our aunt and uncle on a hot August day, and that set it off. Our annual love affair with figs sparked, just as September began and the summer heat hung low over the neighborhood. We almost forgot this year, but, as a I say, we are lucky.

The other day, as we were parking the car, our neighbor leaned over the fence into the empty lot he owns (where we park).

"Hey you kids!"

At first we thought we were in trouble. I glanced around. Then I noticed the tree he was hanging onto as he beckoned us. A fine fig tree, with wide leaves like the palms of hands spreading shade over the yard. Tall too, reaching up to the second story of the red brick row house beside it.

"Do you kids like figs? Commere an eat summa dees figs. Dare crazy!"

Eyes wide, we moved toward the old man with an outstretched fist full of plump fruit. Figs here? In Brooklyn? And they looked good, too.

"Dare like dis every yeeah. Once day staht, you gotta pick 'em ten times a day. Take some mowa! Take some mowa! Reach up dare, see that one? Reach that!"

With the old man's keen direction, Nick and I picked all the figs we could reach from our side of the fence. Our neighbor made us promise to come back and get more anytime, preferably every day.

When we got home, I washed them and set them out on the counter. They looked perfect; they smelled perfect. Figs a la BQE, I thought. How are they going to taste? I cautiously sliced one open and took a small bite. Nick popped the whole thing in his mouth. You can see the ones we didn't eat standing up at the counter in the photo above, sliced with some homegrown sun gold tomatoes from our aunt's garden, bathed in olive oil. Luckily, we happened to have a small wedge of parmigiano, too.