Cleveland Rocks

Landed on Akron early afternoon on Tuesday. We drove from there to Cleveland, stopping first by Cuyahoga Falls National Park, in hopes to see, what else? the Cuyahoga Falls.

Unfortunately, we had no map, and no desire to traipse around forever, and so we just drove around the edges of the park, finally venturing in when we saw a Farmer's Market. The market of course was outside of the park, but I'll count it as going in.

The market was very nice and airy, and the scent of fruits was intoxicatingly delicious. Unfortunately I was not able to partake of the locally made slushies.

because they were chillin'. Oh, yeah.

There was also a nice area for us to chill after buyin our fruits. I left with some clementines and nectarines. Naomi got herself some peaches.

About 30 minutes later we made it to our hotel, in downtown Cleveland. I loved my room - huge and spacious, with wooden floors, which you don't get often. I lucked out by having a whirlpool tub in my bathroom, but also this

Yes, that's a window inside the room. A window into the bathroom. So I can look at whomever's in the tub, I suppose. Or something. Wild. I love it.

For dinner, and still in a pub mood from the Saturday before, we went to Flannery's Pub, where I had a lamb and beef Irish stew with garlic bread

Not quite as savory and awesome as the lamb stews I ate in Dublin and that I've been craving for days, but it hit the spot.

A girl worth fighting for

Went to my Abuela's house for Sunday dinner and to visit with my uncle, who's here from the Dominican Republic. We had a nice walk over to Grandma's house, but did not run into a wolf, which actually was kind of disappointing.

Abuela made some Salmon, White Rice, Ensalada Verde (your regular lettuce, tomato, onion, broccoli, please don't give me avocados deal) and black beans with auyama. (That's pumpkin or your basic winter squash for you, anglos.)

Dessert was courtesy of Tio, who brought it from the D. R.

I know it looks a little suspicious, but don't be deceived - this is REALLY better than what it looks like. It's called Jalao, and its Coconut and Honey Candy and it's super easy to make. Literally, it's just dry ground coconut, honey, and a smidgen of oil. I used to make these all the time as a child, and it's great fun to do so because they're gooey and sticky. You boil your ground coconut with the honey, stirring often. After 2 to 3 minutes, you turn the stove off, you let the gooey goodness cool a little, and then you make little balls. The oil is literally just to place it on your plate or cookie sheet so it won't stick too much. You can eat it cold or just room temperature. The only other Dominican Candy that's even easier to make than this one is dulce de leche cortada, (and granted, this might be a Caribbean Candy instead of just a Dominican one.) If you'd like to know, dulce de leche cortada means "Ruined Milk Candy." And you take your Milk that has gone bad/sour, you boil it with sugar, a cinnamon stick and a bit of lemon rind and you've got yourself delicious goodness. I often got in trouble for "souring" the milk on purpose (pour some lemon on it and it's screwed up right quick.)

But back to the present. Jalao? Really good! My nephew and I finished the day by first watching Mulan as the "adults" talked and lounged. That's right. Mulan. I love me some Mulan. I will sing "Be a Man" at the slightest provocation, and "a girl worth fighting for" is not far behind. But even Eddie Murphy couldn't drown out the "adult" talk, so Nephew and I took a breather and went to the park.

Not bad.

Le'ts leave work early

What an afternoon off looks like.