Three years ago, we took our first overseas trip together to France. 

We rented an apartment in Paris (much cheaper than a hotel!), visited champagne houses in Eparnay, and ate to our hearts' content (especially when we ordered "le menu" instead of "a la carte" and got a huge multi-course fixed-price meal!).

One day we will return to France and I also hope to show my husband around Italy (another country where I constantly ate throughout my travels). 

In the meantime, we were happy to bring a bit of Paris and Italy home through the Foodie Exchange.

With the rain pouring down on us here in NYC, we decided to do a little clean-up.

A couple of months ago, we unfortunately had both our laptop and desktop call it quits on us at the same time.

We have since recovered all of our files (note to self:  backup! backup! backup!) and found lost photos from a restaurant in San Francisco.

It's Friday and the weekend's finally here!

For us, there's no better way to start it off than with one of our favorite happy hour deals in the city:  $1 oysters at Mermaid Oyster Bar. 

Normally we would not go near dollar oysters, but when they're coming from the reliable Mermaid Inn family, we show up right at 5:30pm to grab an available seat.

Perhaps one of the hardest things for me to do during Lenten Friday is dine at a burger/sausage place.

It becomes even more difficult when that burger/sausage place is owned by famed French chef Daniel Boulud and also features foie gras, bone marrow, and charcuterie. 

We decided to go to DBGB on my husband's day off because we could easily get a seat.

It was worth the visit - even though I had to painfully watch him eat a beautifully juicy burger (with pork belly!).

If you were this past Saturday, you know that we were traveling around NYC in search of free macarons.

What are these beautiful creations?  Little meringue-based sandwiches with various flavoured fillings.  Though simple in aesthetic, these macarons are temperamental creatures and can be fairly difficult to make.

Saturday was the first Macaron Day NYC.  Originated five years ago in Paris by renowned Pastry Chef Pierre Herme, Macaron Day would encourage pastry shops to give away free macarons.  In exchange, customers would be encouraged to make a charitable donation.

Since a quarter of our HLFD team is Irish, we knew we wanted to celebrate St. Patrick's Day with more than just green beer.

So we managed to find some Irish bacon in NYC to make a more traditional Irish meal in addition to a couple of Guinness beer-based desserts.

Nothing was going to stop us from our early dinner reservation at Amada, the restaurant owned and run by Chef Jose Garces (aka the newest Iron Chef and 2009 James Beard Award winner).

Not only do we love Spanish tapas, but we knew that this restaurant was highly regarded.

So despite having our bellies full of ice cream (from Franklin Fountain) and our hearts racing from watching the Canada/USA Gold medal game, we hurried over to the restaurant for their first seating.

Though snow canceled all flights and bus routes to Philadelphia from NYC on Friday, we managed to overcome Mother Nature and successfully made it to the City of Brotherly Love.

For the next few days, we will be sharing our weekend getaway with you.

(And since the ride back to the city gave us ample time to list and count the 300+ Cast Iron Skillet contest entries, we can reveal the winner at the end of this post!)