Cooking Class with Chef Chris Eddy

One of the other perks at my weekend stay at the Winvian in Connecticut was a morning pasta-making class with Chris Eddy (check out his resume!), the resort's down-to-earth chef with a nice Stanley-Tucci kind of handsomeness (always a bonus in my book).

Our class focused on pasta basics: creating a classic recipe from scratch (and a bit of muscle) starting with eggs, flour, and water. It was like magic.

[Note: Apparently, we all need to start using Antimo Caputo Flour "00" as well as Laudemio Tenuta Cantagallo extra-virgin olive oil]

Chef shows us how to put some power into rolling out the dough. (See? Stanley-Tucci cute.)

The filling: butternut and ricotta.

Ta-dah!

And the  pièce de résistance: we didn't end up cooking the ravioli we made, but the chef and his team did--and served us a sample at lunch that day. But I am SURE it would have been just as delish if I had cooked it up myself. Totally.

Preppy Perfection

Okay, so holy crap my weekend was amazing.

I was invited with a friend to a press weekend sponsored by Audi at Winvian, a private resort in Morris, Connecticut (about two hours north of the city). It was one of those experiences that I just can't find enough happy adjectives to use to describe it. The food! The quirky cottages! The spa! The service! The fireplaces! It was over the top and very luxurious and totally the kind of weekend I wish had every, well, day. Take a gander. P.S. One of the cottages even had a helicopter in it. A HELICOPTER. Check it here.

A few shots from our nautical-themed cottage, Maritime:

The spa:

Fun n' games in the main Gordon Brown House:

The food:

Peanut-butter cookies by pastry chef Gilles Ballay

(Oh, how I like a good breakfast...)

One Last Look

Whew! So I think I've about exhausted the pics of my China trip--thanks for indulging me. If you want to brave the more than 1,300 photos that I took during the entire journey, check out my Flickr page here. Note that I am still working on tagging everything; I'm finding that it's just too much to tackle in one sitting.

Hope you enjoyed. I know I did. And I would do it all again in a heartbeat. So thankful it's been part of my story! (And P.S. What am I even going to write about NOW? Stay tuned. And keep your fingers crossed for me...)

Shanghai in Slow Motion

In a few parks in Shanghai, I came upon several groups of people practicing tai chi, wushu, and other elegant martial arts-type exercises. It was beautiful and quiet and sort of fierce all at once. My favorite person to watch was the young woman in the first few pictures taking instruction from an older, white-headed wushu teacher. And that is because she was patient, skillful, cool-headed, and graceful--all while wearing bright-red Chuck Taylors.