Valentine’s Day is slowly approaching for all the lovebirds out there in the best city in the world! There are so many different ways a couple can celebrate this special day (seeing as I am single, I’ll probably celebrate it with a burrito and some Netflix, yay) that goes outside of the basic dinner with champagne and chocolates. That is too typical. Why not spruce it up with some incredible recipes made by some of the top Award-winning hotels across the country? Well look no further, because Manhattan Digest has got you covered. Whether it is a tasty Red Velvet Molten Cake or a delicious drink like a Fiery Mandarin, we take a peek as to what you should really be enjoying when the biggest day of love in the year comes around.
[Read more…] about Romantic Valentine’s Day Recipes For Manhattanites In Love
valentine's day
Valentine’s Day- Best Places For The Best Treats
Ah Valentine’s Day. The day of love. The day to tell that special someone in your life that you love them in more than just words. We are talking cake, cupcakes, flowers and so much more! Even single people have an excuse to get in on it just to enjoy more and more delicious sweets! When it comes to all of these amazing treats, you can’t get better than the bakeries here in New York City. Lucky for all my readers, four of my favorite ones, H Bake Shop, Magnolia Bakery, Schmackary’s and Treat House have some great deals going on for you and your special one to enjoy and devour! Take a look.
H Bake Shop- 601 West 57th Street- (212) 265-2399
I recently discovered this amazing bake shop through a good friend of mine and was introduced the the founder of it, Huascar Aquino! Huascar won The Food Network’s Cupcake Wars so clearly he knows what he is doing when it comes to cupcakes and so much more! Check out what he has going on for Valentine’s Day and visit his amazing site!
The Golden Heart: A chocolate fudge cake, filled with home made wild blueberry jam and frosted with blueberry icing and decorated with 24K gold sugar heart.
The Pink Rose: Pink Champagne cake. filled with pistachio pastry cream, rose water buttercream decorate with a sugar dough pink rose.
Chocotella Cookies: Gianduja chocolate (hazelnut milk chocolate), toasted salted hazelnuts, dipped in bittersweet dark chocolate and sprinkle with more salted toasted hazelnuts & a little red heart.
Treat House- 452 Amsterdam Avenue- 212-799-7779
Inspired by a charitable school bake sale, Treat House, a gourmet crisped rice emporium, provides a wide range of classic and innovative flavors, includingBirthday Cake, Caramel Sea Salt, Chocolate Peanut Butter, Cookies & Creamand more. For Valentine’s Day, treat your loved one with a limited edition Treat Cake – a crisped rice heart shaped cake. Other sweet gift offerings include Valentine’s Day themed treats or heart marshmallows. Plus, treat yourself while treating others: ten cents of every treat purchased will be donated to the Food Bank for New York City. For Valentine’s Day, they have delicious Treat Cakes available for $20, and individual treats starting at $2. Don’t forget their amazing heart marshmallows for only $1.50 each! Check out their official site for more information.
Magnolia Bakery- Multiple Locations Throughout NYC
Magnolia Bakery has become quite the big thing over recent years, and I was lucky enough to profile them in late 2014 about their booming success. Naturally, they have some great things going on for Valentine’s Day! Here is just a couple of what they are offering for V Day-
Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cupcake – NEW – $3.50
A strawberry cupcake made with fresh strawberry puree and topped with a rich chocolate ganache.
Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cake – NEW – $6.00/slice
Strawberry cake made with fresh strawberry puree, layered with a light strawberry meringue buttercream and finished with a rich chocolate ganache.
Flourless Chocolate Cupcakes – $4.00
A dense, rich fudgy chocolate cupcake topped with light and fluffy pink vanilla bean meringue buttercream.
Red Velvet Whoopie Pies – $3.50
Vanilla buttercream sandwiched between two handmade mini red velvet cakes.
Valentine’s Day Cupcakes – $3.50
Vanilla, chocolate or red velvet cupcakes with chocolate or vanilla buttercream, beautifully decorated with red and white hearts, Valentine picks and sprinkles.
Lil’ Bits of Love – $20.00
One dozen of our classic chocolate and vanilla mini cupcakes with pink and white vanilla buttercream, decorated with red, pink and white hearts.
Tag Me A Date Keeps On Trucking Into 2015
Niche dating has been all the rage in the past couple of years. No matter what your interest is you will find a particular site that works for what you like (there is even sites for Vegans and Boat Captains. Ahoy!) One of those particular niche’s is pro wrestling, and the one site worth visiting if that is your forte is Tag Me A Date.
If you didn’t read my fantastic interview with CEO Steven Glenwick last month, Tag Me A Date, which is now available in the United States, Canada and the UK, bills itself as “Wresting Night is Date Night”. When you create a profile on the site, it skips the redundant questions that other sites ask and focuses strictly on the love you have for pro-wrestling. You can find matches based on who your favorite wrestler, manager or tag team is which in turn can create great conversation and be a fantastic icebreaker.
Steven believes this is a concept that he’s glad he started but is long overdue. “Professional wrestling is a multi-billion dollar industry with millions upon millions of fans. We feel this is something wrestling fans have been waiting for, for a long time. One of the most featured questions concerning this idea is; “How come this has not been done before?” That is music to my ears as I contemplated that very question and came to the very notion of doing a dating site for wrestling fans. Wrestling fans are people at the end of the day and many people want to find their significant other.”
Since our interview, there have been a ton of great advancements that Tag Me A Date has made in order to attract more people to their site, sign up and ultimately find their one true love. On top of their great search functionality you also have the ability to create a promo video about yourself as opposed to the generic picture. Seeing as the WWE is so interactive anyways, especially with the pro wrestlers and their fans, this is a great idea in my opinion and will get the other person who is watching to know you that much better, both inside the ring and out.
There is also a huge bonus incentive for the ladies out there that want to try out Tag Me A Date! Seeing as the biggest day of love is coming up a month from today, Valentine’s Day, Tag Me A Date is offering one free year if they sign up next month. Tag Me A Date is also taking their initiative on the road in 2015, by sponsoring The Masters Of The Ring event in March and May as well as the first ever Hammerlock Awards with Northeast Wrestling that was held on January 10thin Connecticut (pics above). They also held a contest for that event- any women that signed up for the site now were entered for a chance to win a date to that event with either the“Thrillride” Jimmy Preston or the “Sure Thing” Mark Shurman. Another great event they are working with is pictured below.
Be sure to check out Tag Me A Date’s official site if pro wrestling and love are your thing, or if you happen to know someone that would find this suitable for the person they are really trying to find.
Gaby Brasserie Francaise- What is French for Delicious?
When it comes to dining in New York City, you have your endless amounts of cultural food experiences that you can enjoy in any of the five boroughs. However, for the ones who work around the midtown area, you are left with a ton of chain restaurants and your run of the mill local deli which doesn’t exactly leave you wanting more. Gaby Brasserie in The Sofitel New York on West 45th Street has proven itself to change your mind on how you can find a unique and delicious spot right in the heart of Midtown. This spot bodes a ton of convenience for me as I work directly across from it and walk past it on a daily basis yet never went inside to experience just how amazing this place is. Luckily for me, I got the chance to do some tastings last week with a good friend of mine and suffice to say we were both blown away by the technique, flavor and overall presentation of each dish.
The food was prepared by Sylvain Harribey, the hotel’s award-winning executive chef and a recent winner of the Food Network’s Chopped (one of my personal favorite shows. I gotta find the episode that he was on!) His friendly demeanor in presenting each course definitely gave me a better sense of the restaurant as a whole, which had a warm and inviting feeling to it upon entrance. The first course, or the “Amuse Bouche” that was presented to us was a Butternut Squash Cappuccino. I am normally not a fan of Butternut Squash Soup due to how sweet it is, yet this was presented in a great duality of sweet and savory for sure. Great balance and an overall great start to the meal. For our appetizer, I got to experience for the first time in my 27 years of existence Foie Gras, which is the liver of a duck or goose. As odd as it sounds, I was apprehensive due to this being a new type of food that I have never experienced before, but just like the soup I was pleasantly surprised by the taste of each way the Foie Gras was presented to us. The first one was a Foie Gras spring roll with Prosciutto, fig and mixed greens. The second was a Sesame crusted foie gras au torchon served on Brioche. The third option was Pan Seared Hudson Valley Foie Gras over sweet potato mash with an Asian Vinaigrette. All were delicious but I would have to say that the latter was my favorite due to the contrast of the mash with the Vinaigrette.
For our entree and sandwich courses (Because you really can’t have one without the other, right?) we were treated to two very different delicacies that were packed with flavor and punch in its own right. For the entree, we were presented with Oven Roasted Dijon Lamb Loin on a crushed white bean puree flavored with pumpkin seed oil, vegetable tian gratine (eggplant, zucchini, yellow squash, roma tomato, Provencal herbs and Parmesan cheese). As odd as it sounds, my favorite part of this dish happened to be the gratine due to the enormity in flavor that Chef Harribey prepared for each of the vegetables. Don’t get me wrong, the Loin was off the chain, but sometimes the supporting roles play just as much importance as the main star. For the Sandwich, it was what they like to call the “Franburger”– Served on a crispy baguette with melted brie cheese, lettuce, tomato and Provencale fries. I am not one for brie really on anything with the exception of a Ritz cracker, however it tasted really well and balanced with the burger and baguette. I am a big fan of french fries, and the sprinkling of Provencale on top of them really made it tasty and balanced with the burger.
We were then treated to an assortment of mini desserts including Caramel Cake and Creme Brulee to name a couple. Overall this was an astonishing meal, and I can totally see how Chef Harriby not only won “Chopped” but also runs such a successful establishment with some of the most professional staff me and my friend have ever experienced. Overall, a 4.5 out of 5 stars in my book!
What’s even better is what they have planned for Valentine’s Day on Friday. It is a Valentine’s Day menu so studded with aphrodisiacs it warrants a tongue-in-cheek “consume at your own risk.” The seduction begins with an amuse bouche of East Coast oyster with shallot raspberry vinegar, followed by a choice of pan-seared Hudson Valley foie gras with sweet potato purée and fig sauce or an assortment of smoked fishes served with mậche lettuce, avocado, citrus and vinaigrette. For their main dish, patrons can choose Filet de Boeuf – a pan-seared Angus beef tenderloin with almond, cauliflower and potato purée served with grilled asparagus and topped with green peppercorn sauce – or Sole Roulade with basil salmon mousse, fennel and vegetable gratin, and a sauce of saffron and fine herbs. Dessert is a delectable Saint Honoré of raspberry mousse with crème chiboust topped with Grand Marnier sauce.
Sounds insanely yummy! For more information on The Gaby Brasserie, be sure to visit their website! Definitely a place to check out for Valentine’s Day and beyond!
9 years after her death- what my mother taught me (please read).
Valentine’s Day should be about love of all kind. Here is why.
Some of us hate today because we are single, some of us hate it because of what Valentine’s Day stands for. The single ones dread it because they don’t have that significant other to buy flowers and candy and chocolate for, while others just see it as a stupid “Hallmark-esque” holiday.
Today is something different for me though. My mother Lisa’s birthday is today. She would’ve been 51 years old. Sadly, she passed away almost 9 years ago from brain and breast cancer. So where as today is a day that I usually grieve and have my moments of sadness, I also try to look at is as a day to be happy and see how far I have come since she passed back in 2004.
My mother was an incredible woman in every way possible. She always taught me to see the glass half full in every situation, and to not let other people get you down in the process. She was, is and always will be the strongest person I know for all that she had battled. Whether it was people on her side of the family, the constant struggle to keep our family afloat on Long Island, and her year long battle with cancer, she always kept a smile on her face and stayed determined no matter what the issue was in her life. She put her disease past her several times to help myself and my sister in need and anyone else that just wanted a shoulder to lean their heads on. That to me is the true mark of a person- when they can let the hell they are going through be put on the back burner to help other people out. My mother was just incredible.
Take today to give everyone in your life that you love a call and simply say “I Love You”. Those are three words that aren’t used enough anymore and if they are it’s either forced or just said as something nice or sweet. If you love someone, let them know. This is the day to do that. Don’t sulk about being single or whatever, embrace the fact that you have love in your life and be happy about that. I would give the world to have my mother back and I know that isn’t possible in the physical sense, but spiritually I know she is always with me. This is something to remember for everyone when they are down- you have someone that will always be down for you. Stay positive, stay upbeat, stay the best you you can be.
Happy Valentine’s Day everyone, and happy birthday Mom!
Sweat Sweet: Soffe.com
Since putting on some extra pounds I’ve found my home away from home, these days, is the gym. And as much as everyone likes to say “it’s a gym, not a fashion show,” us ladies know better. Throwing on oversized sweat pants and an extra large T-shirt seems like the logical idea, until you pass the mirror and realize what a bum you look like. Not to mention, it is extremely hard to feel good when the exterior looks lousy. I’ve tried throwing on a pair of leggings and a cute tank top and all that leads to is wedgies and sweat stains, eww! But today I came across an awesome site that sells cute work out gear, www.soffe.com! So, if you’ve read my previous articles, you know how much I LOVE to shop online, and when I saw the fabulous fitness wear on Soffe.com I knew I had to spread the word. They have everything from shorts, to straight leg pants, tee shirts, and tank tops. Everything is so stylish and comfy. Best part, awesome deals! Now don’t get me wrong, the clothes are affordable regardless, but who doesn’t love a sweet deal (pardon the V-day pun)? So for Valentine’s Day they have 25% off some really cute clothes. SOme of my faves are;
The Printed Authentic Soffe Shorts (the prints I’m showing are just 2 of my tops but they have 37 choices!!)
I am obsessed with these funky shorts and am having ADD trying to pick my favorite one!
Ok, so in the past, I don’t know, 4 years I have completely given up any kind of bell bottom. I love that straight legs are in and I really like how they look on me. That being said, I can never find straight leg sweats, not leggings, but FINALLY I’ve found them !
Soffe Nu-Wave Skinny Sweats
So these bad boys come in Gun Metal (as shown) or black and only $26 bucks…Love it!
And if you are into the legging thing they have them too … Only these are made for movement and won’t ride up when you are on the elliptical or treadmill.
Soffe.com has so many awesome items and the 25% off Valentines Day bunch are gorg! There is so much if I kept writing you’d be here till tomorrow, so I will start to wrap it up.
This site has everything from yoga pants to pool shorts, tennis skirts to tiny shorts, and tank tops to tee shirts. And don’t fret boys there is just as much options for you, but I’m not really an expert on men’s wear. But I will tell you this, I’m not mad at the selection. I could only hope some of the boys that I see at the gym grunting and grinning will see this article and step their gym gear up!
This site is an exercise junkie’s dream, a cheerleader’s heaven, and for those of us who have a love hate relationship with physical activity, a way to look sweet while sweating! Check them out and let me know what you think!