Happy Labor Day!

What better way to celebrate Labor Day than with an all-American dinner of steak, spinach salad, tomatoes, cucumbers & corn on the cob?

Since most of yesterday was spent nursing the mother of all hangovers and I've been eating like crap all week last week, I decided to hit myself to a dinner courtesy of the Union Square Greenmarket. Monday's not the best day to hit the market, but I managed to snag some fresh, crisp cucumbers and a few super ripe Jersey tomotoes.

Corn on the cob came courtesy of the Garden of Eden market (not a decent corn purveyor to be had) and my skirt steak came from the always delightful (note sarcasm here) Food Emporium.

As the corn was boiling away I finely minced 3 cloves of garlic with some fresh rosemary to almost a paste-like consistency. After giving my steak a quick squirt of olive oil spray (for the calorie conscious) I generously seasoned with kosher salt, fresh ground pepper and rubbed my garlic & rosemary into the slivers I had cut into the meat.

Unfortunately my NYC apartment is not grill-friendly so the steak was cooked on the stovetop, 5 mins or so on each side. Oh to have a grill!

The produce was fresh, crisp and certainly makes one appreciate all the fresh food that New York has to offer. The steak was cooked to perfection - red on the inside, not too tough, not too rare and quite flavorful. I paired this with a 2005 California Zinfandel which had enough depth to stand up to the beef but not to strong to overpower the veggies!

What a fantastic end to a long weekend!

Now I know why I pack lunch

So the VMA's are over and while the (mostly negative I'm sure) reviews are in for the show, I am giving a catering/craft services review.

I arrive on site and pick up my credential and there's two tables of snacks and coffee. The 'breakfast' offerings included poundcake, danishes, some weird jelly roll and some other funky convenience store items individually wrapped in cellophane. WHO EATS LIKE THIS? Lucky for me I choose to eat breakfast at home.

We did get a walk away lunch for an hour during the day so there was the one opportunity to eat healthy and well. Just about every lunch chain is represented under 30 Rock so this became the one and only satisfying meal of the day.

If you are a snacker like me and try to keep it healthy - good luck. The fruit consisted of oranges - not a banana or apple to be found for miles! (Thank God for the fruit man on 14th Street!) Now I would think that someone would have considered the fact that cameramen, lighting, etc will not have the time to peel a sticky orange and clean their hands afterwards. But I digress...

There were also cups of nuts but the possibility of finding a cup of walnuts or peanuts or trail mix were slim. However, if you are a fan of red pistachios and pine nuts (aka pignoli's) then this was your lucky week! Pine nuts by the bushel!!!!!! AGAIN, WHO EATS LIKE THIS?

And then there's dinner...and if you plan on eating it, you were S.O.L. Most if not all of the restaurants under 30 Rock close at 6pm and there wasn't a chance to grab a bite before 8pm - so it was back to granola bars and cookies for nourishment and hey, if you felt like having a Sno-ball or a cup of pignoli's it was Thanksgiving for you!

Show day proved a bit better with two catered meals at Tuscan Square restaurant. Entrees included standard wedding-type fare like chicken cutlets, broccoli & rigatoni, beef, carrots w. string beans and was pretty good. And since it was one of my few fresh meals of the week it probably tasted even better than it was and I was certainly grateful for it.

Keep in mind this is usually the way these productions go, and I'm sure I am going to hurt some feelings here but I really thought that the person responsible for catering/craft services would put a little more common sense and thought into the food selection.

The upside was that it provided some comic relief for us - the tired & the hungry.