New York Day 4 - China Town, Pizza & Brooklyn Bridge

Day 4 in New York, what can I say about day 4! I was getting pretty lethargic by now so a lay in was needed – especially after a late night the previous day. We hopped on the subway just after 10am and headed for China Town. When we got off the subway, I could actually smell Chinese food! It was great! It was really busy here and bizarrely I actually felt pretty safe. You can get so much fake merchandise here from watches to handbags – but be prepared to haggle! I didn’t buy anything whilst I was here but I was very tempted. 

Little Italy was just next door so we went and had a wander around there too. If you’re after some Italian food then this is the place for you! Our aim of the day was to walk over the Brooklyn bridge so we walked through the town to make our way towards it. We stopped for a hot chocolate in Starbucks first and I bought one of the famous mugs, I feel like I now need to collect them from all of the locations I visit now! Anyway, on we wandered, on the way we came across a little shopping area which looked pretty cute so we decided to do a bit of retail therapy. We all bought some clothes from Abercrombie and some sweets from the nearby candy shop. We then decided it was a good idea to get some lunch.



In the distance we spotted a McDonalds so headed that way for a quick lunch. Whilst walking past I saw the most amazing looking pizza’s in a window and instantly decided I needed a slice of that instead. This was by far my best meal of the holiday. I always wanted to go into a shop and just buy a piece of pizza by the slice, it was my New York fantasy. These slices weren’t your average slice, they were literally bigger than my head and cost less than $3. I went for 2 of course, one was smothered in garlic sauce and was an absolute dream, the other a cheese one. If I could go back to New York I would be in this place again in a second. I think if you watch my vlog you can genuinely see how happy I am, I was beaming from ear to ear. Next door was a restaurant that Sandra Bullock and Rihanna ate in whilst filming for Oceans Eight so there’s a bit of celeb spitting to be done here too.

After lunch we carried on towards Brooklyn bridge. It was easy to find by following the signs and the crowds of people. There were also food and merchandise stalls along the way if you wanted a quick energy boost before the walk. The bridge spans over the East River and connects Manhattan with Brooklyn. The views from here are great and the bridge is actually pretty fascinating too. There are separate lanes for pedestrians and cyclists so be sure to stick to the right one or you’ll get knocked off, there are a lot of people on bikes I noticed! It’s easy to navigate however, just a simple straight line across the bridge you can’t really get lost and the path is pretty wide.

If you’re going to visit New York I definitely recommend a walk over this bridge. It’s just over a mile long so it’s not too taxing for most people. It was well worth it in my opinion and you can then explore Brooklyn at your own free will at the other end if you wish. We didn’t do this as we were staying in Brooklyn anyway. At the other end we popped in a few shops and hopped on the subway home.

For dinner on day 4 we didn’t want to go too far so we had a look at places to eat in Williamsburg. Williamsburg was a quirky little place with lots of nightlife. We found a restaurant called The Meatball Shop which specialises believe it or not, in meatballs. The menu was simple to follow, choose a meatball from the selection, choose a sauce then choose a side. I chose pork meatballs, classic tomato sauce and rigatoni pasta. It came served with four meatballs, Parmesan and a yummy slice of focaccia bread. The meal was nice but for me didn’t have that ‘wow’ factor. It was tasty but when you come to America you expect to be stuffed, but the portions here were smaller than what I would serve up at home. Maybe I am just being greedy! Dessert was cookie ice cream sandwiches which didn’t float my boat but on the way back to the subway there was the most amazing looking cake shop so I bought a slice of chocolate fudge cake as big as my face and had that when I got home! Another day done!

I am sorry the pictures haven’t really corresponded with the text today but hope you enjoyed reading. Check out the vlog below!

Two Ingredient Pizza Recipe

When a colleague of mine told me you could make pizza bases with just two ingredients, I couldn't quite believe what I was hearing. All you need is natural fat free yoghurt and self raising flour. Simple, but surely this isn't going to taste very nice?...

 

It really was as simple as it sounds to make. Simply mix a large tub of yoghurt in with the same quantity of flour. I used 500ml of yoghurt and 500g flour.

This will eventually form a dough that you will be able to roll out. Research suggests gluten free flour can also be used, but your cooking times may vary. When you've rolled it out, knead it for a few minutes until it is soft.

Spread with tomato puree, and whatever other ingredients take your fancy. No need to even pre-cook the base. I rolled mine out quite thick because this was the only baking tray I could find at the time, but in the future I would roll this out thinner so it was a bit crispier.

Cook for around 20 minutes on 180 degrees, or until it looks like the edges are golden and the cheese has nicely melted. Cut and serve.

This pizza genuinely tasted really good, and not just because I put a whole packet of grated mozzarella on top of it. I really can't believe how quick and easy this was to cook, and how great it tasted. I will definitely be stocking these ingredients for when I next have friends round so we can home-bake our very own pizzas.

Is this something you're going to try?

Happy Halloween! Party Ideas!

Happy Halloween everyone!

Over the past few weeks I have been posting recipes that you can use for a Halloween party, suitable for a children’s party or even for nibbles for an adult party before hitting the town so I thought I would summarise and link back to all of the recipes I have posted!

These ghostly pizzas were super tasty, the ghost shapes can be melted onto mini pizzas or onto a larger one and sliced up which is what I have done. You can find instructions on how to do this yourself here.

 

These broken glass cupcakes went down a treat! The ‘glass’ was made from mints so was 100% edible and the ‘blood’ was made from red icing. Recipe can be found here.

This was pretty self explanatory so I didn't need a recipe post. I hollowed out a mini pumpkin and filled it with a ‘dip’ I used cottage cheese but you can fill this with anything! Serve with carrot sticks, peppers, celery, bread sticks or cucumber. The possibilities are endless and the pumpkin ties this in with the Halloween theme perfectly.

 

These mummified cake pops look too cute to eat! They were so easy to make and look great at any Halloween Party. I’m going to make these again tonight for trick or treaters! You can find out how I did these here.

My pumpkin cake pops came out slightly paler than I had hoped for, but still worked well for the Halloween theme. The eyes melted a bit under the heat of the lights but you can sort of see what they are, right?! Recipe can be found here.

 I hope you enjoyed reading about my Halloween food ideas.
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Halloween 'Ghostly' Pizza!

I saw these 'ghostly' pizzas in the most recent Tesco magazine and thought they looked so good! I really wanted to make them, but I'm not a fan of olives so I thought I would take my own spin on it. These are SO easy and can be served up for children on Halloween or placed on the table for a party.

I started off with a ready made pizza base which I spread tomato and basil passata on top of. You can then of course add whatever toppings you like. It's all about the cheese with these! I added peppers and tomatoes to mine.

The key to these is to make the cheese into the shape of ghosts. This may have worked a lot better with a ball of mozzarella but I only had grated so this proved challenging! 

 When the ghosts 'melted' in the oven, I used a knife just to tidy up the edges and I think they came out quite well. I used a bit of brown sauce for the face.

 These tasted lovely as well. You could even make mini ghosts on top of mini pizzas for snacks. What a fun Halloween snack!