Re: A visit with Margaret and Terry in NYC
- From: George <george@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 31 May 2006 15:02:19 -0400
Stan Horwitz wrote:
I am in the process of organizing my web site. I shot three sets of photos this Memorial Day weekend, including my visit to New York City and lunch at Margaret Surin's place. The Valley Forge and NYC photos are online at http://picard.ocis.temple.edu/~stan/my_iWeb_sites/ so feel free to look at them if you want.
Nice photos.
A few weeks ago, Terry Pulliam contacted me, Margaret, and a few others from the NYC area to discuss getting together when she was in the area to visit her family. We initially planned to get together for lunch at the Carnegie Deli so Terry could satisfy her pastrami craving because good Kosher style pastrami is not available in San Diego where Terry and her husband Bill live.
Margaret then suggested we get takeout from the Carnegie Deli, but we eat lunch at her place so we would have plenty of time to talk and enjoy each other's company. No one in their right mind turns down the opportunity to enjoy Margaret's hospitality, so we all agreed.
I live about 90 miles south of NYC, near Philadelphia so I drove to Manhattan via the NJ Turnpike. This was Memorial Day so I had no problem finding free parking right around the corner from the Holland Tunnel. I road my bike all the way up to Margaret's place in order to burn calories and enjoy the nice spring weather. The details of that bike ride are on my web site.
If you ever get a chance ride the entire loop around Manhattan. We usually park on the Jersey side of the GWB and ride across the bridge.
.
Margaret served us an amazing feast! Everyone had something good to eat! I arrived at Margaret's apartment about ten minutes early. I was a bit sweaty from biking several miles to get there, so Margaret let me wash up in her bathroom.
Margaret had me troubleshoot her laptop before the others arrived. A day or two earlier, Margaret lost Internet access. Margaret called Sue to have her confirm with me about lunch and Sue told me about the computer issue. At first, I thought this would be an opportunity to try to convince Margaret to get a Mac, but it did not work out that way. Margaret was pouring all over her computer trying to figure out was wrong. As it turned out, her computer was fine. Margaret's cable modem had become unplugged. Margaret did not know what her cable modem looked like until I pulled it out from beside her desk and I showed it to her. She said her housekeeper may have accidentally dislodged the modem's power pack when she was cleaning. All I did was plug the modem back in and Margaret was back online!
Anyway, Terry arrived at 1:00 with her husband Bill and her daughter Daniel. Margaret invited Terry's other daughter Kristin too, but she had a schedule conflict. Curly Sue was there too, and Marcel.
Lunch consisted of cold cuts from the Carnegie Deli. Margaret served extra lean roast beef, pastrami, and sliced turkey breast. A few days before, I asked Margaret to serve something low cal, and turkey fit the bill. Margaret made it possible for me to eat only healthy things at lunch, but I chose to eat both the healthy and not healthy items! That lean roast beef did me in! It was some of the deli best roast beef I have ever eaten! The sliced turkey breast was also superb.
Margaret also served tongue, but I think Marcel was the only one who touched it. I tried one slice of the pastrami. Believe it or not, its the first time I ever ate pastrami and I don't feel like I have missed much. I guess its an acquired taste. Margaret also served corned beef. I meant to try the corned beef, but I didn't get to it. She also served health salad and two kinds of potato salad. One was german potato salad that had a light vinegar dressing and bits of ham in it. I tried a small amount of the german potato salad. It was quiet good. I am not a fan of regular mayo-based potato salad, which was the other type that was served, so I didn't touch that. Margaret served incredible Jewish rye bread and pumpernickel too. There were also two kinds of pickles.
Margaret had intended to serve french fries too, but it slipped her mind, so he had two large bags of frozen Nathan's french fries on her hands. It worked out because there was absolutely no more room for anything else on Margaret's dining room table.
In her living room, Margaret put out a cheese tray with three or four types of cheeses with those round water wafers. I tried a bit of the brie which was wonderful. She also had sliced Kosher salami with brown mustard and a bowl of fresh fruit with some wonderful cherries in it. She had a bowl of those vegetable chips from Trader Joe's which were quite good and some sort of chocolate candies with a fruit filling.
Of course, there was plenty of hard and soft drinks. Bill (Terry's husband) drank some beer. Margaret was none too shy about having a screw driver or three! I think the rest of us just had white or red wine. Margaret had the fixings for Bloody Mary's available, but I don't recall seeing anyone drink any.
We all chatted in the living room while we waited for Margaret to get things ready in the dining room. After lunch we adjourned to the living room while Margaret set out dessert. A fruit tart was the main dessert course. I had a very thin slice of the tart. She also served chocolate rugelach and sugar-free chocolate rugelach for me. The sugar-free was awesome! I ate one or two pieces. I washed it down with a glass of Australian Yellow Tail Shiraz plus some hot tea.
I kept my folding bike in Margaret's bedroom and when I got it out to go home at 5:00PM, it aroused a lot of curiosity. Margaret sent us all home with a care package. We each received a jar of Barb's jam. I got a jar of Barb's sugar-free appricot jam. I had some of it on a bagel for breakfast this morning and it was great. Margaret was also able to pick me up a bottle of Two Buck Chuck; the cheap red wine that Trader Joe's sells. I asked Margaret last week to see if she could get me a bottle of that wine because its impossible to get at the Trader Joe's in my area.
She also packed me a tray with some of the meats, some bread, and a container of pickles. I was surprised when I got home from New York that the meat was still cool. I ate a slice of turkey when I got home and it was fine, which was a surprise considering that I spent 90 minutes riding with it hanging from my shoulder biking to my car and another two hours driving home.
Dinner last night was some of the turkey and roast beef that Margaret packed me on the slices of pumpernickel that she also put in the bag. I will ate the sugar-free rugelach with breakfast this morning and a snack of it last night. I was concerned about getting all that stuff back to my car. Margaret packed all the goodies in a big burlap bag that she got from a trade show and I slung it over my shoulder. I managed to do fine riding all the way back on my bike to Soho with that bag hanging around my shoulders, although my back was stiff when I woke up yesterday morning.
The bike ride was fantastic too. I rode up the Hudson bike path from before where Chelsea Pier is located to 95th Street. I was going to leave the bike path at 59th Street to head over to the new Apple Store, but I was enjoying the ride so much that I decided to keep going for a while. I cut over to Central Park on 95th Street and I rode south to the end of the park where it meets 59th Street, then I locked my bike to a utility poll near the Apple Store and I spent about half an hour there. That store is amazing in how its designed and laid out. Then I went back to my bike and I road up 2nd Avenue to Margaret's place and after all that riding, I still ended up arriving ten minutes early! After I left Margaret's, I ended up going back through Central Park to the bike trail and taking it all the way south back to where i started, then I had trouble finding my car, but after a half hour riding around, I figured out where it was.
Margaret did a splendid job hosting another lunch! Thanks Margaret, and thanks for the Two Buck Chuck! I am going to share that bottle of wine with some friends next month when we go to their rented beach house in Delaware.
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- A visit with Margaret and Terry in NYC
- From: Stan Horwitz
- A visit with Margaret and Terry in NYC
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