My boss was born and raised in New York. She and I have had discussions about New York bagels before. I’ve bought “New York Style” bagels before and brought them to the office and she would say “these are nothing like New York bagels – it’s all about the water.” So when I had about 45 minutes to kill before meeting up with everyone to go to the airport, I googled “bagel store near me” and the closest one was a mere 1/2 mile away. Brooklyn Bagels.
I ended up buying a dozen and a half bagels. Lauren, the winner of the contest, was talking about how she’d never had a New York bagel before. Her husband traveled with her, and I knew her husband’s parents were visiting to watch their small kids, so I gave Lauren six to take home for breakfast the next day. If you click on this link, you can see all the contests she’s won, she’s a seasoned recipe contest contestant – I learned a lot from her about recipe contests that will hopefully help me in future events.
I brought six bagels home for us, and brought six bagels to my boss. And I have to hand it to her – New York bagels ARE different. I can’t really describe it, other than the fact that they have a much chewier consistency, yet still a bit crunchy on the outside. I ended up making a bagel sammie. Shredded zucchini eggs with Cabot cheese on an everything bagel.
It was so good – I ate the whole thing! I took insulin like I normally do with a high carb breakfast. But around lunch time I checked my blood sugar – check it out!
The highest normal blood sugar should get is around 120 – so this was a bit ridiculous! I quickly took some fast acting insulin and brought it down in 15 minutes. Whew! When I got home I weighed one of the bagels – NO WONDER – each one weighed SIX ounces when bagels around here are only three.
My left knee is still bothering me, so I skipped the workout. I need to make an appointment soon to get it checked out, it’s been hurting for well over two weeks, and especially hurt by the end of Wednesday after walking 2.5 hours around New York for the food truck tour and me walking by myself all over Union Square.
So I never did grocery shop last weekend – Tony said he’d take care of his food while I was gone. So when it came time to put stuff together for lunch, I was kind of stumped. Then I looked in the pantry and I brought this:
Yep, I brought a Maruchan instant lunch! The only thing I did was add about 3/4 of a cup of shredded zucchini, and of course added sriracha sauce to make the broth spicy. Not going to lie, this actually was pretty tasty!
When I talked to Tony in the afternoon I told him that I was trying to figure out what to make for dinner, when he reminded me that we had a frozen Home Run Inn pizza in the freezer – done! We both had higher expectations of this frozen pizza, as it says it’s the #1 frozen pizza sold in Chicago. Neither one of us has ever had fresh Home Run Inn pizza, but there are probably 10 locations around Chicagoland. I plan on bringing a couple pieces for lunch today and am hoping the toaster oven can crisp up the crust a bit.
Next week I’ll be doing a more detailed break down of my trip, because it was an amazing time. Tony is already sick of me talking about it. He has said that I sound like Wolowitz of the Big Bang Theory who keeps talking about going up into space. So I look forward to sharing the details with you guys.
I don’t use twitter. Well, I have a twitter account, I just don’t tweet, but I was happy to see that Sunny Anderson (or her people) put me in one of her tweets a couple days ago:
And she’s following my Instagram page! She has 13,000 followers but only follows 152 people, so I am kind of excited to be in her small group of IG friends.
So as a thanks to all of you who got me to New York for voting for my recipe, I’d like to do a giveaway. I was given two of Sunny Anderson’s new cookbook – she autographed one for me, and I would like to giveaway the second one. She’s got some great recipes – one of the first ones that caught my eye was her flank steak fajitas with chimichurri and drunken peppers – yum!
Just leave me a comment on today’s post – you can say anything – if you’ve tried any of Sunny’s recipes, what the weather is today in your neck of the woods or even if you have plans this weekend. No rafflecopter, liking a facebook page, just a simple comment. I’ll pick a winner on Monday. And Susan – I haven’t forgotten about you – your salsa is going in the mail tomorrow, so expect it by Tuesday.
Time to jump in the shower – um, I kind of like the two day work week! Make it a great day – hugs!
Love your blogs and we have thoroughly enjoyed your recipes and enthusiasm for life!!!
Sorry you didn’t win but what an awesome experience you had! I haven’t bought any of Sunny’s cookbooks, but love to win this one to add to my collection.
Sorry you didn’t win the contest but glad you had a great time – Sunny is awesome!
Aww, I’ve never had a true New York bagel and, sadly, I never will. (I was diagnosed with celiac in 2006 — no gluten.) Congratulations on making it to the finals!
Love watching Sunny when she cooks on the Rachael Ray show. Glad you had a good time!
I love watching her on the Food Network but I have not had the chance to try one of her recipes yet!
Yes new york everything bagels are an experience. Thanks for paving the way for those of us who are trying to lead better eating lives!
My friend Mary and I are in the Thousand Islands for a girls’ weekend. Wish you were here (to cook for us, lol)
I love that you referenced Big Bang theory – I have quite a few of my Christmas gifts this year done and they’re t-shirts from tanga with Big Bang quotes
I’ve only ever eaten NY bagels because that’s where I’m from, so I have nothing to compare them to, but man, they are good. It’s SO awesome that you got to meet and work beside Sunny! I always enjoy watching her on TV. Envious for sure!
Ha – thanks Charlie for the video reference! Best brother evah! 😀 Love you!
The good part starts around 0:35:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cjl1sz78T2s
I love the city 🙂 So much to do and yes, good bagels. My husband is from New York and always talks about the pizza and knish. We keep saying we need to figure out a way to import NY water and make bagels here. I’m looking forward to all the details about your trip and meeting Sunny! She is one of my favorite FN cooks. She seems real and her food is real.
Glad that Lauren gave you some pointers. Looking forward to hearing you won the next cooking contest you enter. I’d vote for you! Glad you had a great trip!
I live on Long Island.. there is nothing like a NY bagel! I follow Weight Watchers so I know they are quite hefty. They have to be just a treat for me even though I could eat them every day 🙂
Glad you had a great trip. i bet you learned alot from Sunny. I wonder what you will win next.
So proud of you for making it to New York City! I would love to visit there one day 🙂
So glad you had a great time in NY! I’m sure there will be many more opportunities like this one coming your way & now you’ve got that much more contest experience under your belt! 🙂
I love watching Sunny Anderson. She just seems so natural & down to earth…and nice!
Another Alabama girl here…no, bagels are not that popular in my neck of the woods. But like Lisa said – buttermilk biscuits are! lol
Hope your knee gets better! For several years Hubby has been taking glucosamine chondroitin with MSM for knee pain & it never bothers him anymore.
I’ve never been to NY & not likely to ever go…so I’m looking forward to hearing all about it! 😀
Enjoy reading about your adventures. But what are “zucchini eggs”
Zucchini eggs are just shredded zucchini that is scrambled with the egg, then topped with cheese – can’t forget the cheese! 😀 At work I use a microwave egg cooker, but you could just scramble them in a skillet. 😀
Wow, you had a great time, as usual 🙂 Sorry that you didn’t win the contest, but I think of you as a winner in all things that you do. I love following your website. Thanks. Julie