Anthea the intern here with some updates on my busy bigLITTLE week! With our Great Expectations-themed dinner party fast approaching on Saturday, May 19th, The Ladies and I have been busy brainstorming menu ideas, prepping, and shopping. All that is left now is the cooking! Be sure to check back for pictures of the dinner soon. When not working with The Ladies in the kitchen or updating bigLITTLE’s newest Facebook page (go ‘like’ it now!), I’ve been doing a little foodie research of my own. Let me first say that any ‘research’ that includes lobster bisque followed by an ice cream and chocolate chip cookie sandwich is truly my favorite form of study. These delicious snacks were among my finds at The Chelsea Market last Monday, where a friend and I hit all of our favorite stops at the downtown food shopping concourse. That’s right. We started with some creamy lobster bisque from The Lobster Place, followed that with a much-needed frozen treat from Ronnybrook Dairy, some iced coffees and (yes, guilty) a final nosh of a seeded twist from Amy’s bread. I also snagged a whole-wheat raisin oat loaf to take home, which I enjoyed with melted Brie, ham, and a thinly sliced Fiji apple for lunch the following day-debatably one of the best combinations in the world, but we can leave that conversation for another time…

So, I started off the week eating well, to say the least, but it wasn’t until Saturday that my weeklong market-craze ended when I left a friend’s home in Columbia County in upstate New York after a springy food and farm-filled weekend. A regular customer and visitor at Kinderhook Farm, my friend took me to see the newborn lambs at the farm. But ‘newborn lambs’ does not cut it for a title here. These lambs were babies the size of small puppies! And yes, we were the chosen ones on Friday afternoon. And by the chosen ones, I mean we got to hold those little pups.

After some serious googoogaga talk to the lambs, we returned back home to get started on our own dinner: fresh pasta with a lemon cream sauce and asparagus (ALL credit goes to the host on this one, a close friend and incredibly impressive cook in whose presence I merely follow instructions as I am a clearly inferior worker in the kitchen!). After she made the dough, I was instructed on how the pasta cutter worked and was soon able to help crank the lever and catch the fringes of noodles that were produced by the metal blades inside the machine. Though labor-intensive, the dish turned out flawless– a perfect warm-weather dinner of smooth, thin pasta and a creamy citrus sauce that only further complimented the oh-so-seasonal asparagus.

Alas, that was my thoroughly enjoyed foodie research for the week. I think I spanned a good amount of territory-from Chelsea to Kinderhook Farm. Pretty solid geographical coverage, no? Don’t forget to check back soon for more of my intern adventures, as well as bigLITTLE event updates and postings!