ashleyd /

Up and Moving and some morning EYE CANDY!

Good morning and Happy Thursday! Only one more day until the weekend! I am already excited for this weekend as I have a long run planned with Dori and Melissa which will also include the NYRR Run for Haiti 4 miler, a housewarming party for my cousin Meredith, and hopefully more Olympics watching! Did you see the half pipe competition last night? Amazing! Bo is especially fond of him due to his flaming red hair!
This morning I had speed work planned and some ab work Fitnessista style. My legs are still sore from Sunday and Monday’s long runs and 3 days of Core Fusion DVD. Therefore, this morning’s speed work was not my best. I did the following:
5 mins warmup 6.0
5 mins 6.2
2 mins 7.2
5 mins 6.2
2 mins 7.2
5 mins 6.2
2 mins 7.4
5 mins 6.2
1 min 7.8
Due to a late dinner last night I didn’t half my normal piece of toast and jam before the gym. I wonder if my body was missing that extra burst of food and nutrients?

Before moving over to breakfast, I wanted to make sure everyone knows about the awesome website Groupon. This site sends out a daily deal for over 50 different cities which is normally a 50%-75% discount. The discounts range which is what I love. My friend Elizabeth has benefitted from the Bikram discount last week, my girlfriend snagged Pole Dancing lessons/workout, and I’m thinking about taking advantage of today’s discount for Pilates on Fifth! Here is the link to todays!
If you want to join Groupon today for FREE click here!

This mornings breakfast was exactly what I was craving- Green Tea (Thanks Tea and Honey Store), 1/2 my Jolly green juice from One Lucky Duck, and pumpkin oats.

I hope that Power Vinyasa tonight with Lauren at Equinox will work some of this soreness out of my body. Also, either today or tomorrow I need to buy a new gym bag. Do you all have recommendations? Right now a Lululemon bag is my first choice but i’m open to ideas. My old school Vera Bradley bag from college is just not cutting it anymore. It’s a little akward when I walk into meetings with it up here in NYC.
And now, I leave you with some morning eye candy! I had the great opportunity to meet and hang out with Ryan Reynolds last week at a work event. He is funnier in person than you could ever imagine. This is definitely the worst picture of me (why was I on the end?!) in a while but regardless it was still a fun time!

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ashleyd /

Bears love fish on Valentine’s Day

I just realized that I never shared pictures from our first Valentine’s Day together doing what we love most, exploring Chelsea Market for inspiration and ingredients and then cooking together over wonderful wine. After seeing the fresh seafood we knew that we had to take advantage of the incredible selection. We purchased a dozen oysters across various types:
 
 After that we moved down to their fresh fish and decided that grouper looked absolutely amazing! We can rarely find quality grouper at our grocery store downstairs so were delighted by Chelsea Market’s selection. We used this grouper in our favorite Savannah recipe, Almond Crusted Grouper. This is influenced by the famous favorite at Elizabeth’s on 37th, one of Savannah’s top restaurants for over 15 years. I highly suggest this recipe as it’s very simple, delicious, and can be used on different fish.
Bo’s Almond Crusted Grouper
Ingredients:
6 6oz grouper filets
2 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp water
1 egg beaten
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 tsp hot chili sauce
1 c Wheat Thins (crushed)
1/2 c grated asiago
1/4 c chopped toasted almonds
2 tbsp toasted sesame seeds
1/4 c minced italian parsley
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp evoo
2 tbsp minced tarragon
Heat oven to 425
Butter a shallow baking pan
In bowl combine sesame oil through hot chili sauce.
In a food processor combine Wheat thins through tarragon- transfer to shallow dish.
Dip fish in marinade then in crumb mix
Place on baking pan (do not let them touch each other)
Drizzle fish with evoo and butter
Roast for 20 minutes.
ENJOY!

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ashleyd /

Bar Boulud: A serving of classic French fare
This weekend has been absolutely wonderful thus far filled with an 8 mile long run through snowy Central Park which was tough but so gorgeous and fun since Bo and I talked the whole time , long walks through the city, apartment hunting, drinks with friends at The Red Lion,
relaxing on the couch watching The Tudors, experimenting with healthy breakfast options, and dining out! Bo and I normally only order in once per week (normally from our local favorite Shi) and dine out on Friday nights after work. However, this weekend, due to the holiday we ended up eating out both Friday and Saturday night at two wonderful restaurants, Bar Boulud and Perilla.
Bar Boulud is Daniel Boulud’s casual classic French bistro located across from The Lincoln Center in NYC. Daniel Boulud is a famous French chef and restauranter who now has restaurants in NYC, Las Vegas, Vancouver, Beijing, Palm Beach, and Miami. He opened his first restaurant, and most famous, Daniel, in 1993 after his time as executive chef Le Cirque in NYC. Bo and I have often passed Bar Boulud during our long walks and Columbus Circle ventures and finally decided Friday night that we had to try it! After a work happy hour we wandered up to Lincoln Center around 7:30 in hopes of snagging a seat even though we didn’t have reservations. We were escorted to the bar area while we waited for a table but after fifteen minutes were told that we could in fact eat at the bar if we wished. This was a perfect option as the bar area offers the full menu, a first hand look at some of the cheeses and chartucerie, and wines. We started the evening with a glass champagne and the Degustation de Charcuterie to share (3 types of pate, charcuterie, condiments, pickles, and mustard) and the escargots persillade (wild burgundy snails garlic and parsley). The pates were amazing though the chicken liver pate was definitely my favorite. The snails were a treat as i’d never tried these before and they were rich and succulent. The parsley added to the flavor against the warm snails especially when paired with the small hushpuppy like potato balls.


As for our main meal, we shared a classic French fish dish, local catskills trout, toasted almonds

roasted cauliflower brown butter, verjus. This dish was absolutely divine as they used the cauliflower in so many different ways and the fish was perfectly crisp.
Bo and I agree that Bar Boulud’s food and wine was absolute perfection. Everything we tasted was seasoned perfectly and bursting with flavor. However, it was all very classicaly prepared which means the flavors weren’t innovated (to be expected at a classic French restaurant) and the service was attentive but a bit pretentious for our liking on a Friday night after a long week. We would definitely go back but we’d probably take friends so we could make our own noise and laughter. This Friday night it was painfully quiet and reserved which was ironic since Zagat warns of the noise levels.
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