Chinese New Year

Last night, we celebrated Chinese New Year with the Nyes. We held a CNY party last year with them, too, and I think this has already become a yearly ‘must-do.’

Mrs. Nye and I grab all our Asian cookbooks, our hot beverages of choice (coffee for me, tea for her) and we sit at her kitchen table and plan the menu. This year, I joined them on a trip up to Amherst to visit an Asian grocer to pick up fortune cookies and lucky money envelopes.

This year, we had: white and fried rice, chicken lo-mein, beef and broccoli, egg rolls, shrimp with snow peas, beets with chili garlic sauce and scallops over tropical fruit.

Mrs. Nye and I manned (or WOmanned) the stove, side by side, to stir-fry everything at the last minute.

Even Andrew made an appearance to lend a hand, if only to take a photo or two.

I’ve already started a list of dishes for nest year’s feast…

lunch for breakfast

It was a sandwich kind of morning in the Layer house.

A ham, cheese and egg for me, with 3/4 cup V8 Fusion juice, while Andrew had pb&j with a banana and strawberry kefir.

Kept me full from 7:30 to 11! I’d been craving a breakfast sandwich for awhile… The secret to perfectly cooked eggs that don’t make a mess? Whisk 1 egg with a splash of milk (shredded cheese optional) in a bowl and microwave for about a minute. Don’t forget to spray the bowl with non-stick spray; a perfectly round egg will slide right out and onto your sandwich!

Happy Friday!

back to school

So, I went back to school yesterday… I can’t say I was ready to end my break (who would be?), but it’s nice be getting into a new routine. Plus, the sooner I start, the sooner summer will come! Speaking of summer…it’s quite the opposite here. It’s been absolutely frigid here, and Buffalo is even worse being close to the lake. Let’s just say walking to and from class is absolute torture.