Author: cia
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I love making seafood dishes at home, but sometimes it becomes cost prohibitive when you need multiple kinds for stews like this cioppino. Enter Harvest of the Sea’s frozen seafood medley pack. One bag contains a generous combo of Asian shrimp, Indian-wild-caught calamari, Argentine scallops, and Canadian Prince Edward Island blue mussels. They’re available at…
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It’s been a month and half since we closed on our new-old house and it finally feels like something is happening! We officially committed to the same firm that helped us decide that we should make an offer after going over all the possibilities that the bones and current structure of the house provided. We…
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Right now, the kitchen and dining room are separated by a wall. We’d like to remove it to open up the space. As soon as it’s more open, there are a few things we want to do depending on budget constraints and time estimates. Extend the powder room inward to become a full bathroom We…
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Even before we got the keys to our new-old house, we put the mudroom at the bottom of our wish list when we were meeting with contractor candidates. The house faces the street and anyone can look in through the wall of windows, so my initial thought was for it to remain as a place…
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You should get your shit together before you make the biggest investment of your life; and while you’re in the process of making the biggest investment of your life, keep your shit together and tight. Buying a house–no, buying a house with a partner–is not for the faint of heart. I have owned my apartment…
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Whenever we searched “3+ bedrooms, 1+ bath, outdoor space, public transportation” in Jersey City against our budget, results dwindled; it didn’t seem like we would move out of Harlem any time soon. During the day, we would text each other listings we found but nothing seemed to stick. Jersey City is rich in history and…
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I know we don’t really have the house just yet, but I preemptively started designing my dream kitchen. When I was buying my Harlem apartment, the sales office said I was the only one who requested “an open kitchen”; that most people asked for a park view or a second bathroom first. Now you know…
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With our wishlist in mind and taking the Heights off the board, we narrowed our search down to the Bergen-Lafayette area where the Light Rail that connects to the PATH train is within walking distance. A Google search revealed 13 new home developments are either being planned or have already started construction in the neighborhood.…
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If you told me back in the day that I will be writing about moving to New Jersey after turning 40, I would have made a face and mouthed, Never. Funny how life happens: you meet the person who changes the trajectory you thought you’d already planned for in your head, and you love it.…
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Jammy eggs are my new jam! Ha! Even though they need more supervision than hard-boiled eggs, they’re easier to make than poached eggs. They’re perfect to top your sourdough-avocado toast with or to jazz up your instant ramen. A spider skimmer is useful here; in fact, it’s one of my most used kitchen tools. If…
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Baking instructions are weird. This recipe came from Bon Appetit and I had to enlist two of my friends’ help to decipher what the original recipe meant by “Butter pan, then line with 2 overlapping 16×12 sheets of parchment, making sure parchment comes at least 2 inches above top of pan on all sides.” Why…
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New York City temperature dropped to “feels like -15F” during the long weekend that I was forced to make this Spanish chorizo and potato stew before hibernating. Actually, “forced” is such a strong word; it was too easy to be forced to make it. It was a hearty meal that did not require much effort.…