Holidays...

So, last year Mi Cariño and I did a gingerbread house to celebrate the holidays. This year she came up with the idea for us to do our own ornaments.

We met after work in Queens, and the setting this time was cozier. We made the ornaments with pieces of cloth, needle and thread. It was easy, since I've done similar things with manualidades  growing up, but I'm just not really good at combining colors and what not. We were there with Mi Cariño's friend/coworker Becky, who chose some really nice colors, as did Mi Cariño. Ah well, everyone has their own strengths. Here's the finished product:

Mine is in the bottom left, the one with the crazy colors. Mi Cariño's is the beautiful one up top.

Afterward we were all ready for dinner, and so we walked to Wave, a Thai place we've been to several times now, but it's quite tasty. In an effort for something different, I went with Tofu Cashew Nut: onions, mushroom, carrots, baby corn and peppers. Couple that with some white rice:

YUM! I quite enjoyed it. Hopefully we'll be able to continue coming up with fun Holiday things to do in the years to come.

Que me des tu cariño...

So, Mi Cariño's birthday is coming up, and I've been toying with different presents and what not. One idea, since her birthday falls in the middle of the week is to cook for her. But that sounds cheesy, not to mention that I think she wants a shindig (a quiet one) with friends around that are not me.

Since I have no big plans for this beautiful Saturday, I decided to just cook while she's away working on her poetry. This has not been at all influenced by all the talking she did last night while we were at her Line Sister's home - you know, where she's talking about how I keep talking about knowing how to cook but that I've yet to cook for her and what not. This was unfortunate because indeed, I tried to cook for her on one of my days off last week, but it just didn't work out. In any case, this was my idea, don't you let her tell you any different.

This was quite the nerve wracking experience, and I wasn't sure as to what to cook. I decided to go for something easy and that I've often cooked: Locrio de salami. Now, Mi Cariño is not a habitual salami eater, but I figured she would eat it if I cooked it and so I went along. Locrio de Salami is special for me because it was one of the first meals I learned to cook, but most importantly it was one of the first (if not the first) meal I cooked that I was proud of.

In any case, the day began with shopping ingredients for the meal: rice, salami (of course), the appropriate seasonings, bananas, cabbage and tomatoes. Once back it was a matter of pre-cooking the salami, adding the seasonings, water, and when that boiled, the rice. Then it was just to cover it and wait.

Cooking rice is horrible. I never get the ratio of water to rice right it feels, but I got really lucky this time I think. While the rice was cooking I prepared the salad, which consisted of cabbage, some carrots, cucumbers, and tomatoes. When Mi Cariño got home, I asked if she wanted maduros as well, but I think she wisely wanted to take it slow.

Here's the finished product:

If I do say so myself, it was pretty tasty. I think Mi Cariño enjoyed it, too. So, not too bad.

Thursday Night In

After mucho planning Cesar and I eventually just decided to have dinner Thursday night. After work I took the train to Queens were I met up with him. He was already on his way to finishing dinner.

Cesar is a true entertainer, even when it's just a night in. We began the evening by having a delicious salad. It had figs, cucumbers, green peppers, strawberries, romaine lettuce, goat and blue cheese with a dressing of oil and balsamic vinagrette. He topped the salad with crumbled homemade rosemary bread.

We followed that with a main course that consisted of Fingerling potatoes smothered in extra virgin olive oil, garlic, onions, carrots and butter; fillet mignon, a veggie portion of chopped carrots, peas, corn and green beans, and some scallops.

I ate every bit of that, even the scallops which I did not really like, but I can now say that I've tried it. Everything was done to perfection, specially the fillet mignon and potatoes. I'm hungry again just by looking at that picture.

We finished the evening by watching "Win Win" on demand. A Paul Giamatti movie, the flick is about a lawyer in Jersey who does something unethical when his practice is running into trouble and his family is running out of money. But in the process he helps a young boy and eventually ends up helping his entire family and himself. It was a very subtle commentary on the times, showed a very level (under the circumstances) teenager, and a loving family that worked through their problems happily. The entire thing was well performed and you really fell in love with the teenage boy that throws Paul Giamatti's character and his family on its ear. I totally recommend. I also recommend driving down the highway with the radio on high, screaming a song (any song.) It's good for the soul.

Hint of Spring

Friday morning was glorious - a delicious hint of Spring was in the air and I was off from work. After doing some last minute work things (you can be off from work but work still needs to get done!), Cesar drove by to pick me up. First we hunted Latino Music Stores searching for an Olga Tañon CD, but no luck. We were starving, so we met up with his mom for lunch at an Ecuadorian restaurant in Queens. I unfortunately did not jot down the name.
They gave us some roasted peanuts to begin the meal

Then we shared some Fish Tamal

Which came with lots of onions

and white rice

I actually had a delicious grilled chicken salad, and tostones, but I was so excited to eat them, that I forgot to take a picture of them!
I did however, take a picture of Cesar's dessert, a slice of tres leches cake

Afterwards, we (as in I!) drove to the Home Depot to pick up some tulips, turf builder, pots and perennials and what not, because we decided to garden. Since neither Cesar nor I know anything about that, we picked up Mami and got to work.

Cesar, his mom and Bruce were very impressed with Mami's knowledge and speed. I tried my best to do what I was told. Hopefully the garden will grow beautiful and Mami will be able to visit and enjoy working on it some more. Here's the finished product:

and a close up

Afterwards, we finished the day with a good glass of red

and Carmen cooked for us all - pasta salad and breaded chicken cutlets. But no pictures of that. All in all, a great day.

Thursdays are made of this

Although still trying my hardest to save money, decided to go for lunch at work after flying in from Indiana. Mostly because that's about the only way I can guarantee I actually take the full lunch hour and not start working while I eat or something. Gaspar and I chose to stop by National Thai. I know, I know, Thai food again! But, I at least chose to eat something different. Pad Pak Thai, which is essentially tofu and veggies in a yummy sauce

Come night time, I joined Cesar for a small, small dinner party. This time I actually helped with the preparing of the meals! We had sausages and french bread toast

and many more delicious things: Corned beef and cabbage with roasted vegetables (potatoes, carrots, broccoli and what not, all tossed with a creamy substance I don't remember the name of). Then there was  the Irish Soda Bread, olives, mushrooms and canolis for dessert.

Here's the table set for the guests

I did not take pictures of the finished meal because I was too busy eating and having a good time. Wake up in Indianapolis, lunch in Brooklyn and Dinner in Queens... not bad for a day's work.

Of Rainy Days With Tons Of Food

Thursday found me working in the Chinatown area of Flushing in Queens, NY. Although I had packed my Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich, it felt like a crime to be there and not have some Chinese food, so during lunch hour Carolina and I walked a couple of blocks til we found Sunway.

The place was very clear and spacious, with Ikea like furniture. The menu was HUGE. The only hard part about it is that even though all items were in English  (and I have no idea if it was Mandarin, Cantonese, what) there were no descriptions of the dishes. I latched unto the idea of Soupy Noodles (they have a whole section) and basically just asked the waitress if there was anything with thin noodles in soup with tofu and vegetables. She hooked me up with some fried tofu dumped in soupy noodles and veggies and this is what I got:

Ah yes, I forgot to mention, you also got complimentary tea with every meal, which was perfect on a rainy day. The soup was huge and delicious and it was hard not to inhale the entire thing. My co-worker had some un-soupy noodles that were to die for as well.

We finished the meal by having pan-fried vegetarian dumplings for dessert

They were perfect. And Hot. And I kinda liked that they brought things as they were ready - the soup and the noodles were done first, and the dumplings last.

Later, after the workday was done and I braved the madness that was the 7 and the E trains during the evening rush hour, I found my way to another part of Queens: Forest Hills. There I visited sweet Cesar, who in true Gay Fashion was holding a dinner party.

Since we were all busy having fun eating and joking with each other, I forgot to take pictures of the food. We had, however, short grain rice with gandules, and pernil with a green salad. It was a very simple yet delicious meal. Afterwards we helped our hosts flip their mattress (I'm not kidding) since the thing was a gazillion pounds and it took about 5 of us to carry it. Having worked off our meal we retired to the living room to enjoy the fire and the company of Idina Menzel, Cesar's puppy.

Eventually it was time to head home and Cesar was kind enough to give three of us a ride. However we took a detour on our way to Bed-Stuy, and stopped by Japanese Restaurant Miyako in Williamsburg for some dessert. My flash wasn't working so I'm sorry for the picture darkness. We had red bean and green bean fried ice cream with tea

and deep fried banana with whipped cream

I was very proud of me in that I only had a taste of each. They were tasty, though!

Rain and all, the day was pretty great. It makes me wish I had a car - despite the traffic in the city, it's kinda great to go home and not have to wait for trains and get to enjoy some loud music as we drive.

Forest Hills

Headed to Queens after work last Wednesday, to spend some much needed down time with my best boy. We toured his neighborhood, walked his dog (not an euphemism) and settled for dinner at his local restaurant, Dirty Pierre's.

We sat outside, as the day was gorgeous. We also had a blast running into a former co-worker of ours. I talked my mouth off and he was kind enough to listen. For appetizers, we had deliciously spicy spanish sausages:

He also convinced me to try Mussels, which he loves. They came in this huge bowl, with warm Italian bread.

Add to that a nice glass of the house red. The bread was delicious, and the wine, whatever it was was good. The mussels though? Not so much. I don't know, I guess I'm just not much of a shellfish eater you know? I've tried so far, crab, shrimp, octopus, and now mussels. So not my cup of tea. I will try lobster, since people seem to love it so much, but I don't really expect to like it any more than I like the others.

For his main entree, he had a wonderful looking pasta. I on the other hand went with one of their wednesday specials, Meatloaf with Mashed potatoes and salad. It was downright perfect - the meat loaf was quite different from any I've ever tasted. I however deleted the picture of that by mistake. Instead, gaze at a dark pic of my boy and I