Lions and Pizzas and Sake, oh my

sake du jour

The weekend draws to a close, and you will need to forgive me if this post rambles a bit. I have had some wine (sake, to be precise) before and during dinner, and it's gone straight to my head.

No one will ever be able to accuse me of being someone who can hold my liquor.  I remember meeting a friend of the boy's for drinks one night at a bar, and we were chilling, and I didn't feel much like drinking.  So I just went up to the bar and asked for cranberry juice in a martini glass.  The friend was so impressed that I put down 5 or 6 "Cosmos" and told the boy that he really appreciated the fact that he had found a woman who could drink like I do. Hee!

Anyway, the weekend was great.  Yesterday was the boy's birthday and we went into the city to have lunch and see a show  We had a pizza and burger at Bobby Flay's Bar Americain in midtown... and it was devine!

Bar Americain, in NYC

Grilled pizza with bacon, onions, and other healthy stuff

And then a quick tour of Times Square, including the M&M store (yep, there's an entire M&M store, complete with a wall of M&Ms in just about every color you could possibly imagine)

Times Square... and the tourists

Wall of chocolate

 And our final destination.... to see The Lion King at the Minksoff Theatre.  I saw this about 15 years ago and it was just as good this time as I remembered....

The Minskoff Theater (sorry..."Theatre")

Overall it was a fantastic journey to the city, despite the forecast for rain.

Some cool costumes

Some more cool costumes

Today was relaxation time.  I did a huge amount of laundry (whoah, this blog is getting SO exciting now, isn't it?) and made a tofu/broccoli/red pepper/garlic/fresh ginger stir fry for dinner from my favorite cookbook in the world, the ATK's Healthy Family Cookbook. I think I've found the perfect summer stir fry sauce... here's the recipe!

Lemon Stir Fry Sauce 
(makes about 1 cup)
6 tablespoons low-sodium chicken broth
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice from 2 lemons
1/4 cup Chinese rice cooking wine (I use sake) or dry sherry
2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
2 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon pepper

Whisk ingredients together, and add after you stir-fry the veggies and let it all simmer together for anywhere between 30 seconds and 2 minutes, until it starts to slightly thicken.  It's totally delicious and would work with chicken or shrimp stir-fry too.