Happy New Year from the Big Apple!

We were very excited for New Year's Eve this year because 2 of our very good friends, Craig and Ashley, were coming to visit us and we planned a very festive night out in the Big City (no, not Ramsey - Manhattan).  They arrived Thursday morning, Charlie picked them up from the airport and right away they had plans to go on a walking tour of the City while we went to work.  They definitely got their fill of NYC during their 6 and half hour walking tour and saw just about everything (everything except for the Rockefeller Tree) and even witnessed the remnants of the 2 feet of snow that fell the day after Christmas.  Later that evening, the 4 of us went to dinner at Dino and Harry's Steakhouse in Hoboken.  It had been highly recommended by one of Charlie's friends, however we felt like we needed a "local" to get noticed by the waiter, and were pretty sure are order was forgotten.  The service that night was a bit of a deterrent to the overall experience, and maybe by the time we got our food we probably would have eaten anything.  But the steaks were excellent! And although the waiter decided to go with the avoidance tactic, he partially saved himself by giving us a free dessert.

Friday morning, Charlie took Craig and Ashley to a New Jersey Diner (while Katie had to go into work).  They all seemed to enjoy the over-abundance of food that the diner always dishes out.

We took the 4:45pm train into the City for our big night out, but before dinner and drinks, we had a very important stop to make first...the Rockefeller Tree!  We got to the tree and, although Charlie thought it should be bigger, the rest of us felt that our holiday season was complete!

After our tree excursion, we tried to make our way to Bocca di Bacco, an Italian restaurant where we had reservations. However, getting to the restaurant became quite a challenge.  While Katie was trying to talk on the phone to the Emergency Veterinarian (more on this part of the evening below), we noticed tons of people starting to run past us.  We stood there for a little while trying to figure out why everyone was running....should we be running from something?  Apparently everyone was running to get into 7th Avenue because the NYPD was blocking off each cross street. Miss the cross-over, and you would have to go many blocks North before being able to cross to the other side of Times Square.  They do this to control the crowds and funnel the people down toward the ball dropping, but we started to panic about getting to the restaurant. Fortunately, technology saved the day! We told the police that we had dinner reservations on the West side of 7th, and Charlie could pull up the email on his phone to prove it!

The restaurant was really cute and decorated for New Year's Eve and served some very delicious italian. After dinner we killed some time at a random pub and then made our way to The Stone Rose at Columbus Circle.  We had pre-bought tickets for an open-bar party at The Stone Rose, which over-looked Central Park and Columbus Circle.  The 4 of us had a great time ringing in the New Year while definitely getting our money's worth at the open (top-shelf might I add) bar.

In typical NYC fashion, we had pre-arranged for a car service to pick us up at 2 AM and we were  thankful that we did.  The car was waiting for us and even had bottled water for the ride home.  Charlie chatted it up with the driver while the rest of us passed out in the back seat.

Aside from all the fun that we had, the evening started out with a bit of a scare.  Katie had taken Griffey to a new Vet on Thursday morning to get his updated Rabies Vaccine.  That evening, the poor little guy's stomach became upset.  He threw up several times but then seemed to be acting normal.  Friday morning, we gave him a little bit of food and he seemed fine.  We were having him stay at Best Friend's Pet Care ("Camp") where he stays when we are out of town. At 5 PM we got a call that he was sick again.  We were concerned so the good people at Best Friend's agreed to take him to an emergency animal hospital.  They gave him some IV fluids and something to calm his stomach and thought that he probably had a reaction to his vaccine.  Charlie and I could not wait till the morning to go get him and make sure he was ok.  They took very good care of him and the IV fluids and medicine seemed to help and he was back to acting like his old self.

The next day, the 4 of us and Griffey just hung out watching New Year's Day bowl games. We cooked pulled pork, vinegar-based cole slaw, hot cookies (recipe courtesy of Charlie's mom), and jalapeno dip. Charlie's hangover was not helped by Michigan's poor performance in the Gator Bowl - they were blown out by Mississippi State, but overall it was still a great weekend!

Kinchley's Tavern - Restaurant Post

Kinchley's Tavern is a pizza joint right around the border between Ramsey (our town) and Mahwah (the town just north of us). We've had a bunch of different pizza places since we've moved here, but this may be our favorite, at least in New Jersey.

About (What it is): Kinchley's Tavern. A classic pizza joint; they don't have a website, so we don't know the history, but the place was recommended by someone form Katie's Junior League.

Location (Where it is): Located on Franklin Turnpike on the North side of Ramsey. 5 minutes from our house, so we're glad we found this one!

Atmosphere (Why we go there): Another "tavern" - this term is again appropriate. Though "pizza joint" seems most correct. The place is located in a red building that kind of looks like a barn from the outside. There's a statue of a Clydesdale on top of the side entrance, which adds a nice touch. Inside, there is a small bar with a couple of TVs in the back that was fairly crowded - which made sense for a Friday night. We sat there and had a beer while waiting for a table. The tables and booths have the classic red and white plaid table covers. The place was crowded, comfortable and festive - it reminded us of Planks back in Columbus, though a bit smaller.

The food (What we ate): We split two small pizzas to try a little variety. Katie got one with sausage and tomato, Charlie got one with pepperoni and garlic. Both were excellent! The pizza isn't typical New York style - it's thin crust all the way around, including the edges (New York style pizza is thin in the middle, puffy crust at the end). The crust was crispy, too. It's closer to the Midwest style pizza we're used to, and that's a good change. Kinchley's also had some other options (pasta, etc.) but if you ever find yourself there, we'd recommend staying with the 'za.

The verdict (What we thought): Probably our favorite pizza place in New Jersey. Outside of Lombardi's in Manhattan, the best pizza we've had since we moved. The atmosphere was fun, and it's a good place to go for some pie and a few drinks.

Allendale Bar & Grill - Restaurant Post

One thing we've talked about doing in this blog (but haven't got around to yet) is to do a post for some of the restaurants we've been to while living here. We figured this would be a neat way to describe some of the local flavor we've seen when we're here. What better place than Northern New Jersey - which has plenty of it's own unique restaurants, but is also very close to Manhattan, which may have more unique cuisine options than anywhere else in the world!

The first restaurant we'll write about is called the Allendale Bar and Grill. We just ate there on Friday.

About (What it is): The Allendale Bar and Grill, opened in 1935 as a neighborhood tavern in the Allendale Hotel by the Connelly family. In 1948, the family moved the restaurant to a tavern built next to their house, and has been there ever since.

Location (Where it is): Located on W. Allendale Ave., the main street in the town of Allendale. Allendale is one town south of Ramsey, so the AB&G is 5-10 minutes from our house.


Atmosphere (Why we go there): The word tavern is appropriate - the restaurant isn't dark, but the lights are turned down appropriately to give it that pub/tavern feel. The place does good business - it's been fairly crowded every time we've been there. We've always had the type of friendly service you'd expect from a family-owned restaurant.

When you walk in, there is a good-sized bar right in front of you and a number of tables in the first room. There are 5 or 6 TVs in the first room. There is another room to the left with some more seating, and you can also head upstairs for 2 more rooms with more seating, a smaller bar and 2-3 more flat panel TVs. On weekends, they often have live entertainment set up in the corner of the front room.

The food (What we ate): The tavern has a good-sized menu with typical bar food and a lot more. You can order anything from wings to sandwiches to pasta to a steak. There is an insert to the menu with chef's specials (for the week?), and we often order from there. The food is fairly priced; appetizers and sandwiches will run you $8-$12, and an entree will run you a little bit more.

We've eaten here quite a few times; this is actually the first place we ate after moving to New Jersey. We stayed in a hotel in Allendale the night before the movers arrived to help us move into Ramsey, and Charlie picked up food from here to go. The menu has a sliced steak option over toast points, and we've had a variant of this from the specials menu, and enjoyed this each time.  Their burgers are hearty, tasty and have good options with quality toppings. There are a number of sandwich options; the "Godfather" and the "French Dip" are both really good. The chili is excellent, and a great starter option. We've ordered off the specials menu quite a few times, and they often have 

Charlie's Wings Test - *** (3 / 5 stars)
The buffalo sauce is spicy, but it looks like there is just one option. The wings are a good size, and have a little more breading than I'd like. They give a good amount of sauce. The wings are decent, but since the other food options are really good, I usually go with something else.


The verdict (What we thought): As mentioned, we've gone here a number of times. The atmosphere is friendly and we've usually enjoyed ourselves here, and the food is good and reasonably priced. It's a decent place to watch a game, though not every seat can see a TV, so it can sometimes be difficult when it's crowded. There is plenty of standing room by the front bar, so you can always have a drink or two and wait for a good seat. And the food is worth it, too. We did go there once to watch a Michigan football game on the same day as a Yankees playoff game, and they wouldn't put the Michigan game on any TVs. In all fairness, that might have happened at a number of places, but a place with more TVs wouldn't have the problem. They lost our business that day, and it took a while to decide to go back, but it's won us back over as a good place for dinner. We'll have to go back for drinks later on a weekend night to see the live music.

Go Redskins!!!

Sorry, I guess it's really go Redhawks!

This post is a bit late, but congrats to the football team of our alma mater. The MAC Champions won the Godaddy.com bowl last Thursday night with a 35-21 win over Middle Tennessee. It was the school's first bowl since 2004 and the first bowl win since Ben Roethlisberger led the team to victory in the GMAC bowl in 2003. Lead by an interim coach, Miami got off to a shaky start, but shook it off and played like they should have in beating an overmatched Blue Raiders squad.

By winning the bowl game, Miami finished 10-4 and became the first NCAA team in history to have a double-digit win season immediately following a season with double digit losses (after going 1-11 last year). The future is looking up for the Redskins, er, Redhawks!

Christmas 2010

This year Christmas took much more planning than usual, but we managed to get some good family time in Ohio.  On Saturday Dec 18th, we packed our car to the max including a spot for the dog in the backseat.  After the long 11 hour drive, we arrived in Cincinnati at 11pm and didn't waste anytime...we ordered LaRosa's Pizza.  The rest of week, we toured Ohio:

• Sunday morning - Charlie went to the Bengals-Browns game with 7 of his college friends. Due to some Jagermeister, he doesn't remember every detail of the game, but he is pretty sure the Bengals ended their 10-game losing streak, beating the Browns 19-17.  He also ran into the rest of the Mowry clan at the Hofbrahaus in Newport after the game.  Katie went to brunch with 2 of her college roommates and then drove to Eaton to see her parents.
• Monday - We met Abby, Charlie's sister, in Dayton where she attends medical school at Wright State and had lunch at Penn Station (another Ohio favorite).  After lunch, we drove to Columbus to see our nephews - Tommy, Joey, Ricky, Mikey and Eric.  We brought them Plank's Pizza and lots of christmas presents to open.  Another Ohio food staple checked off the list! We stayed with our friends Bryan and Kristen in Grandview.

• Tuesday - Katie had lunch with some of her old co-workers from AEP at El Vaquero and then we had eye doctor appointments to get out of the way.  Afterword, we drove to Eaton to spend a few days with Katie's parents.  We opened presents with Katie's parents.  Katie was excited for her Turkey roaster, and Charlie can finally put his degree up on the wall after he received a Miami University frame.  And most importantly, Griffey was excited for his new coat. Well, at least he seemed to like it when he's outside in the cold!

• Wednesday evening - We went with Katie's parents to see the "White Christmas" musical at the La Comedia Dinner Theater in Centerburg, Ohio.  It was the first time Charlie and I had seen the musical and we really enjoyed it.  La Comedia did a great job putting the production on and the food was fabulous!

• Thursday - We drove back to Cincinnati.  We stopped at a Best Buy and decided that we were going to get a big-screen TV as part of our Christmas for each other.  And of course had to stop at Buffalo Wings and Rings for dinner.  Senior citizen Homer didn't know what to make of Griffey, whom he'd met only a few times (and probably didn't remember because he is an old doggie). So he decided to try to dig into Griff's bag of food as soon as we entered. 

• Friday - Christmas Eve...we went to Gold Star Chili for lunch and then mostly relaxed until it was time to get ready for church service.  Katie's parents drove down from Eaton and we all went to church service at the Presbyterian Church on Wyoming Avenue where we got married 2+ years ago.  Afterwards, while we were having appetizers waiting for dinner, Griffey gave us all a scare.  Charlie had taken him outside and while he was coming back into the house he got spooked and took off in a sprint down the sidewalk.  Charlie ran after him and luckily caught a very scared trembling doggie after a few blocks.  When Charlie arrived back in the house with Griffey in his arms, we were all relieved and thankful.
• Saturday - Christmas Day, there were all the usual Mowry traditions, too many presents to mention (we think Charlie's Grandma Dorothy may have taken the prize for the most!), a big brunch and then playing some cards with "Grumpa", Charlie's grandpa. 

• Sunday - We began our trip back to Jersey.  We decided to drive only half way to split up the drive and there was a big snow storm hitting the East Coast on Sunday evening.  
• Monday - We drove the rest of the way home and arrived to 2 feet of snow.  The roads had been some-what cleared by the time we arrived but our house was barely recognizable with all the snow drifts.  Ugh...what a scene to come home.   We had to shovel our way in just to get out of the car and unpack.   

It was a fabulous trip back to the Buckeye State and like Katie always says...the BEST Christmas ever!  It was great seeing so many friends and family.

December weekends - visits from friends

In the weeks after Thanksgiving, we had a couple of visits from friends.  First, our friend Kyle came up from Columbus.  Kyle was attending training in Manhattan, and he came up the weekend after Thanksgiving to visit us in Ramsey.  On Friday night, we all went to an Italian restaurant in Ramsey, Bon Giovanni.  The dinner was great - what was interesting was that this was a "BYOB" restaurant (or in this case - bring your own wine).  We found this out as we were seated, so Kyle and Charlie headed to the liquor store to buy a couple of bottles for dinner. We all had some great pasta dishes (and a free dessert!), and then headed over to the local pub, Brady's at the Station, for a few drinks. All 3 of us are Miami-Ohio grads, but we unfortunately just missed the big end to the MAC Championship game, which Miami won in an upset of Northern Illinois. Watch the Redskins (OK, they are actually the Redhawks) in their first bowl game in a while this Thursday at 8 – it’s the goDaddy.com bowl.

On Saturday, we all headed down to the city and met up with our friend Kelly, who is on a rotation program in a different group from Charlie.  We had brunch at a delicious Jewish Deli on the Upper West Side (called Lanskey's) and then walked around in the freezing temperatures at the holiday booths at Union Square. After that, we went to Ship of Fools, a sports bar on the Upper East Side, to watch some college football and meet up with Charlie’s friend Brian.

The next weekend, Charlie’s college friend Jon came up from Baltimore to visit him and Mike. They had a guys night out in Hoboken that involved some 2AM pizza topped with Penne. The next day, Charlie was introduced into his first sandwich from Fiore’s deli, a famous Hoboken tradition. Roast Beef and Mutz, smothered in gravy. Delicious, and highly recommended for anyone who's ever in Hoboken!

The rest of the weekend involved some Christmas shopping for our next trip – a week-long visit to Ohio (post to come soon…)

Thanksgiving

This year our Thanksgiving holiday was a bit unconventional but definitely a memorable one.  We planned a very big weekend.  Thanksgiving morning we woke up at 4:30 AM to catch a train into the city for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.  We found a good spot on Central Park South near the beginning of the parade route and had over 2 hours to spare until the parade began at 9am.  We both enjoyed watching all the balloons and bands march by.  The balloon handlers were amazing and it was funny when they started chanting their balloon's name and got the crowd involved.  Although the performers only sang at the end of the parade at Macy's, we got to see Jessica Simpson, Kanye West and several other performers up close on their floats.

After the parade, we went to the Carnegie Deli for lunch (a non-traditional Thanksgiving meal!).  We were not brave enough to each get our own sandwich so we split a Pastrami and Fried Egg on Rye sandwich....very delicious!

We headed home to Ramsey for an afternoon nap and then woke up at 5pm to take the train to the Jets/Bengals game at the new stadium at the Meadowlands.  We got heckled by quite a few Jets fans while wearing our Bengals gear.... my favorite was a 5-year old girl who was boo-ing me while we left the stadium.  It was not much of a game for Bengals fans - the Bengals had a lead going into halftime but weren't able to hold it against the much more talented Jets. But we did get to see the Jets superfan "Fireman Ed" in action - he was in our section - and we sampled the stadium fare, having a delicious meatball sandwich and an italian pork sandwich.

The day after Thanksgiving is the biggest shopping day of the year, so being a Toys R Us employee now, Katie volunteered to work in one of stores.  The company always asks for volunteers for Black Friday to help customers and appreciate the core of our business.  I signed up for a later shift, so I did not see the craziness of the 5am shoppers, but it was still very busy at 1pm.

On Saturday, we cooked our first turkey ever.  Everything turned out pretty well, except Katie forgot to take the gizzard package out of the neck of the turkey.  We also made sausage stuffing, roasted tomatoes and took the easy route with instant mashed potatoes and gravy.  Overall, our first Thanksgiving cooking experience was a tasty success - Griffey thought the Turkey tasted excellent!