BABA LOUIE'S

It's nice to get out of the city. Mindy, Susan, Tony and I drove up to the Dia Art Foundation in Beacon to see the art there. My favorite were the gigantic Richard Serra curved steel structures, but the whole place was fun to be in. Afterwards we drove up to Hudson for lunch at Baba Louie's and shopping at the great antique and modern stores lining Warren Street. I had pizza with turkey sausage and pineapple.

ANDREA!

Congratulations to my good friend Andrea who won the James Beard Award for Best chef in the Southeast yesterday. She also brought me some eggs and lettuce from North Carolina so I made an egg salad sandwich for lunch. I added Duke's mayonnaise, mustard from Blue Ribbon Market and tarragon. Ruby made a delicious, healthy dinner while we watched the awards streaming on my computer. We started with a salad with Shiso leaves and seaweed.

Brown rice with mushrooms cooked in coconut milk.

Broiled cod with miso glaze.

PERRY STREET

Perry Street is one of the nicest places in New York to have a meal. It was a sunny Saturday afternoon, so the modern corner room was bright. We could see boats cruising up and down the Hudson River. They have a three-course Spring prix fixe menu for $28 that is a great deal. I've lost some weight recently so I've been trying to eat food to fatten me up which is as fun as it sounds. We started with a spring pea crostini. From the menu I had an arugula salad and hamburger with fries. Dessert was a warm chocolate cake (I also had two Cokes). Afterwards we saw Lucy in her school's production of Oliver! She was great as a member of Fagin's gang.

WASHINGTON SQUARE DINER

Sometimes things work out perfectly. On the way over to the Washington Square Diner I knew I wanted a Belgian waffle, but not a whole one. Luckily, Kevin was thinking the same thing... and he wanted his eggs over easy and sausage, patty preferably. We split the waffle, eggs and sausage. It was a perfect combination of savory and sweet.

SEA VEES

I made Jonathan Waxman's asparagus for dinner while admiring my new Sea Vees. When Tony claims that he "discovered" them, remind him you saw them here first!

THANK YOU

Not to be too thingish, but thank you. I feel very grateful for all the visits, calls, texts, emails, gifts... gifts! Having so much support makes this whole experience much more tolerable. All of the friends and family and even people I barely know have been incredibly generous and supportive of me. This is just the first of many thank yous, but I was feeling it especially strong today. Thank you.

SUNDAY

The weather in New York was perfect today. I hung out in Washington Square Park reading the paper before going over to Kevin's for a meal based on a famous breakfast sandwich. After some laying around I bought the new David Kilgour and the Heavy Eights record at my favorite music store, Other Music and had lunch with Susan at The Noho Star. We shared two classics: Caesar salad and Fried Chicken salad.