A couple of weeks ago, nine of us flew from NYC to Memphis to celebrate the end of Nicki’s single life, and the beginning of her life as a missus. Our weekend included a visit to Graceland, listening to live music on Beale Street, a little history lesson at the National Civil Rights Museum, and most of all, making sure our bride-to-be had a memorable weekend! We stayed at the Peabody, dined on BBQ, found some wonderful blues and jazz bands, and indulged in some culture and history. Good times with the girls!

Posing with law enforcement at the Memphis airport

Morning duck walk at the Peabody Hotel

Duckies in the fountain!

On our way to Graceland

Our bride

Graceland

Living room

Elvis’ bedroom

Lisa Marie and Priscilla

Kitchen

Jungle Room

Recording studio

Stable and pasture

Memorabilia

So. Many. Records.

Jumpsuits

Me, Elvis and Nicki

Elvis’ private plane, which had gold-plated seat belt buckles and other luxurious nuances inside

Taking Care of Business

Fans used to steal the street sign, so the city had to hang it on a live electrical wire!

View down Beale Street

Gladiator gear and cowboy hats

Dinner and fun live music at Rum Boogie Cafe

Fried catfish, fried green tomatoes, fried okra, and (fried) hush puppies. I hit my fried food quota for the year with this meal!

Line dancing

Michael impersonator

This 11-year-old had an amazing voice!

What’s a bachelorette party without a scavenger hunt? We got this guy to “propose” to Nicki.

Sunday breakfast at Denny’s. Grilled cheese sandwich stuffed with fried mozzarella sticks, with fries on the side. Heart attack on a plate?

Cheese line (another of the bachelorette scavenger hunt tasks)

Pancake Puppies are yummy

Nady ate everything on her plate but the fruit

A little more Elvis

Stroll through downtown Memphis

The Lorraine Motel, where Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated, is now the National Civil Rights Museum

Early dinner at Pearl’s

Crab cakes and catfish

Signage outside the ladies room at the Memphis airport (in honor of Jessica, who survived a hurricane earlier this year at the St. Louis airport!)

Lori and I took a pasta making class at the ICE. I’ve taken a few classes there in the past and had a great time. It’s hands-on, so you do all the prep and cooking, with the guidance of a chef instructor. At the end, you sit down and enjoy the fruits of your labor. I spent the better part of my Saturday mixing eggs and flour, cutting onions for onion confit, grinding basil and garlic for pesto, and rolling out our pasta dough to make fettuccine and ravioli. I can’t wait to show off my new skills to my family!

My ball of pasta dough, two eggs mixed and kneaded with just under 200 grams of white wheat flour.

Lotsa pasta balls

Twelve cups of thinly sliced onions…

Cooks down to this!

Add white wine, chopped parsley and grated Parmigiano-Reggiano to onion confit

Mashed, roasted butternut squash, straining in cheese cloth

Mix with rosemary, thyme and sage

Add freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

Brown butter sauce

Boiled fresh peas

Cream sauce with peas, ham and onions

Browning duck necks and backs

Roasted duck parts

Meat for duck sauce

Mixed sausage for tortellini filling

Sauteed veggies for ragu bolognese

Making pesto in a mortar and pestle is a lot of manual labor. Thank goodness for food processors.

Add olive oil to the ground garlic, basil and pine nuts

Stir in Parmigiano-Reggiano and pecorino Romano cheeses

Fresh ricotta, egg, Parmigiano-Reggiano and parsley

Time to roll out my pasta!

Flat sheets of pasta for making stuffed pasta, like ravioli and tortellini. This is ricotta-stuffed ravioli.

Folded over and sealed with egg wash

Ravioli!

Wide cut paparadelle

Thinner cut fettuccine

Fettuccine with onion confit

Ricotta ravioli with pesto

Fettuccine with peas and ham

Tortellini with ragu bolognese

Butternut squash ravioli with sage brown butter

Paparadelle with duck sauce

Buon apetito!

(Thanks to Edward, Deirdre and Corin for an AWESOME Christmas present!)

Janet’s daughter Ellie is working on a fun project at school, and I was honored to be asked to help. Flat Stanley is a character in a series of children’s books, and the assignment was to send a flat version of themselves on a journey to a faraway place. Ellie wanted to send her flat self somewhere really far away, so she sent Flat Ellie to visit me! One day, we went ice skating at Rockefeller Center, went to see a show at Radio City Music Hall, and visited the Empire State Building. Another day, we took a boat out to Liberty Island to see the Statue of Liberty. Here are the photos of Flat Ellie’s adventures out and about in the Big Apple.

Flat Ellie ice skating at Rockefeller Center Ice Rink

Flat Ellie getting ready to see Madagascar Live! at Radio City Music Hall

Flat Ellie and Auntie Jen down the street from the Empire State Building

Flat Ellie on a boat on the East River, with Manhattan in the background

Flat Ellie on the boat, with the Brooklyn Bridge behind her

Flat Ellie with Auntie Jen and her friends, in front of Liberty Island

Flat Ellie in front of the Statue of Liberty

Flat Ellie really enjoyed NYC, and I’m hoping she will convince real Ellie and her family to come visit me soon!

Heather and I were in job limbo last year, so we couldn’t get our ski trip together, but we were determined to resume the girls ski trip in 2011. This year, we chose Park City, UT. We were joined by our friends Angela and Lori, as well as Heather’s college roommate, Jessica, and Angela’s friend from VA, Jen. Yes, there were two Jen’s in the house. It was an amazing trip, and we’re already talking about next year!

Our cute little townhouse had five levels, with each room on its own floor. We were just up the hill from Main St., where most of the restaurants, bars and shops are. We were also just a 10 minute walk to the Town Lift, where we caught the lift up to Park City Mountain.

Our first day of skiing started off very snowy, but once it cleared, we were left with fresh snow and sunny skies!

Jessica and Heather

Lori and me

(We did not walk up this hill to check out this run, but it looked pretty hardcore)

A snowboarder’s nightmare

Heather and I later discovered that this marker lead to a really beautiful but winding run.

Our snowboarders - Angela, Jen and Lori

Me and Jessica

Angela’s walk of shame - to retrieve her runaway board. Luckily it did not injure anyone. Also lucky, it was the end of our day on the slopes.

Aprés ski at No Name Saloon - me, Heather and Jen. That first beer never tasted so good! On a separate note, I ran into an ex-coworker from NYC at this bar!

Jessica, Lori and Heather

The whole gang

Our second day of skiing looked like this - gorgeous and sunny!

Park City Mountain has amazing, long runs. My favorite kind of ski resort! And check out all the fresh snow from the day before.

Heather and me

We were more confident and adventurous on the slopes on our second day, which lead us to check out a run called Vista. After a short distance through some trees, we came upon this wide-open area.

There was no one else back there, few tracks on the fresh powder, and views like this.

Jessica, Heather, Jen and Lori

And me

After about five minutes of this…

We realized why no one was back here. Because the second half of the run dropped off to moguls with trees on top! This pic doesn’t quite give you the perspective of how scary this was, but suffice it to say my first thought as I peered down the mountain was “oh crap.”

But here’s the view from below!

We all took our time getting down.

But everyone made it down without hitting a tree!

Woohoo! We did it! And we definitely earned our lunch.

Me and Jessica

The whole gang

Lori, me and Angela

Some post-lunch photos of the girls as we made our way down to the bottom of the resort

Friday night was our big night out - aprés ski beers at No Name, followed by drinks at Bistro 12 (while we waited for our terribly delayed dinner reservation), and an amazing dinner at Chimayo. Margaritas for everyone!

The new friends we made at Bistro 412 sent us a bottle of champagne. Cheers!

We skied on Saturday as well, but our third consecutive day on the slopes was tough. We’d all had a little too much fun the night before, plus we were physically exhausted. All in all, it was an amazing ski trip with a great group of girls. Can’t wait for next year!

With a few hours left before my flight back to NYC, Gabrielle and Andy took me to Windsor. Just outside of town is Windsor Farm Shop, which sells organic produce from Royal Farms and goods from other local specialty producers. Next, we roamed around the shops in the town of Windsor before stopping for sandwiches, tea and scones. A perfect ending to a fantastic trip!

The Long Walk leads to Windsor Castle

Statue of Queen Victoria

The Crooked House of Windsor

Well-lit scooter