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Pete came over on Sunday to help us do a test run of the first ghetto BBQ pool party sans pool. We weren’t sure how well it would be since there isn’t any grass (hence the ‘ghetto’ term) but we got a nice shade umbrella and 2 fold up chairs with canopies. It’s been awhile since we had a BBQ but I think it turned out well! We kept it simple and just grilled hamburgers and I made potato salad and blueberry crumble! The potato salad required bacon and apples so I was a little leary of that combo but it was delicious! The blueberry crumble was actually a blackberry crumble recipe from Everyday Food but I didn’t have blackberries. It was so good I made it again later that week.

Waiting for Pete!

Checking out our canopy chair.

The Master at work.

The “enough with the pictures and gimme more food” face!

Pete also brought his Wii with him.

I would say the first ghetto BBQ of the summer was a success and it was a great day!

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Saturday we got Banh Mi sandwiches and summer rolls and had a picnic at Sunset Park. We haven’t done that with Sienna since last July, when she was just a little baby! 🙂 Hasn’t she changed?!

She will always try whatever you give her to eat. Even if she spits it out afterwards, she will still take it the next time. After the 3rd spit out of the summer roll, we figured she didn’t care much for it or at least for the texture of the rice paper.

There was no spitting out of Yves’ Banh Mi sandwich! He always gets the original and I always get the grilled chicken. Sienna really liked the original although she didn’t turn down my sandwich either!

Sienna smudging the camera lens.

It was a little chillier than expected and she managed to keep this hat on for just a little bit!

A little stroll with daddy!

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My May mix available.

01. So You Want To Be A Rock’n’Roll Star • The Byrds
02. I’m Just A Singer (In A Rock And Roll Band) • The Moody Blues
03. It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll (But I Like It) • The Rolling Stones
04. Rock ‘n’ Roll High School • The Ramones
05. You Can’t Hold the Hand of a Rock and Roll Man • Okkervil River
06. Sing Your Life • Morrissey
07. Folk Singer • Brendan Benson
08. Sing • Travis
09. The Songs That We Sing • Charlotte Gainsbourg
10. Aretha, Sing One For Me • Cat Power
11. I Sing The Body Holographic • New London Fire
12. Double Bass • Gorillaz
13. The Guitar Man • Cake
14. Guitar, Talk, Love & Drums • Gary Myrick
15. Little Guitars (Intro) • Van Halen
16. Little Guitars • Van Halen
17. The Guitar • They Might Be Giants
18. She Bangs The Drums • Stone Roses
19. We Will Rock You • Queen

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Monday I went to see The Swell Season (Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova of Once) with Brenda at Radio City. I didn’t bring my better camera so I knew I wasn’t going to get good pics inside so I made sure to take a pic of the marquee. They played for over 2 hours! It was a good show albeit a bit slow for my mood and Glen Hansard talks a lot! I was a little disappointed that they didn’t play one of my favorite song songs from the Once soundtrack, Fallen From the Sky. But Pete pointed out that they must not have packed their Casio keyboard on tour with them. LOL. We left right before their last song and I read here that they had a standing ovation. It was a good show.

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Saturday my youngest cousin, Peter, got married and I went to the banquet, held at East in Flushing. I was procrastinating writing about it because I did not really want to go. I’m not close with my family at all and I was predicting an evening of awkwardness and idle chit chat. Which was exactly how it turned out. But I thought showing up was the only proper thing to do (Yves stayed home with Sienna, I went with my parents) and figured I had the food to look forward to. I love banquet food. But the food turned out to be disappointing! Most of the dishes were overcooked, the fish being the worst of it. It started out promising with the roast pig platter. Crispy pig skin and baby octopus that was not chewy at all. Then my all time favorite, shrimp with walnuts and broccoli that comes in a creamy mayonnaise sauce. It wasn’t terrible but the shrimp was a little overcooked. And then it went downhill from there. The upside of the evening was the 2 babies sitting at the 2 adjoining tables to us. They were born right around the same time as Sienna. And although it made me miss my little one, it was fun playing peek-a-boo with them.

Roast Pig platter

Shrimp with walnuts and broccoli (walnuts not shown)

Pineapple Filet Mignon (was good actually)

Shark Fin soup (banquet tradition)

Abalone with bok choy

Lobster

Fish

Fried chicken with shrimp chips

Noodles

Fried Rice

Dessert (startiing from lower right-fresh fruit, cookies, sweet red bean soup and the wedding cake)

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This past Friday was a rainy day. We had our regular playdate at Prospect Lefferts Gardens in the morning and Yves was home from work by the time we got back. He worked late the night before so left early on Friday. Since he was home, i decided to try this bagel recipe. I never did any sort of bread baking or kneading or anything like that. It’s not very hard but you just need some patience because you have to knead and then wait, form the bagels and then wait, blah blah blah. I have to tell you, they were just ok. Not bad for the first time but just ok. They were crisp on the outside but too doughy for my tastes on the inside. I prefer a more lighter inside. I’ll have to research some more recipes. Of course, Sienna ate it up!

Forming my funky looking bagels.

Boiling them

Taking them out of the water to dry.

Out of the oven.

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Saturday we took my parents out for dim sum for Mother’s Day. Sunday is normally a busy dim sum day so I can imagine how crazy it would be for Mother’s Day. We tried a new place in Brooklyn, which I failed to notice the name. It’s on 65th Street and 8th Avenue. Their dim sum wasn’t bad, wasn’t fantastic, but wasn’t bad. They had some dishes I never saw before, which I appreciate. And Sienna tried everything we gave her!

The carb lover in me enjoyed these noodles. I don’t recall seeing this before at other places.


All finished! Sienna claps at the end of the meal and really seemed to like the steamed roast pork bun!

Then on Sunday for Mother’s Day, we decided to stay in the neighborhood since I had a hankering for Mexican food. We went to La Villita for lunch, a truly authentic Mexican place with delicious food!

Sienna eating some chips.

She really loved the fried plantains!

I also bought myself a resin necklace from stoopidgerl on Etsy. I’ve been admiring her stuff for awhile and when I saw this latest necklace, I had to get it! I hope to one day make some resin stuff of the same quality as hers!

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I think we take Sienna out to eat a good amount of time. Besides a little bit of food throwing, she is really well behaved. She’ll be a foodie before we know it! Last Saturday we went to our old neighborhood, Bay Ridge, and went to have Indian food at India Passage for lunch. The prices stung a little bit knowing how cheap we can get Indian food in the East Village. But I can just imagine Sienna in one of those restaurants. She’ll have pulled off all the lights in less than 5 minutes! I can’t even imagine fitting a hi-chair in one of those cramped restaurants. Anyway, Yves got chicken tikka masala and I got chicken tikka saag. She seems to really like both of them!

Having a bit of my saag.

Yeah so she still talks with her mouth full. LOL

Here we are sharing mango ice cream that they gave us after lunch.

Mango Ice Cream from Lisa on Vimeo.

Then last night we ordered Thai food for dinner and she seemed to really like that too! That’s when I thought she is truly an international baby! My parents made fried rice for lunch and last week she had mediterranean with the Gunns and brick oven pizza another day! So far there is nothing she won’t try. Just like her mom!

Having some of her dad’s Pad Thai

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Last week, Yves took off Thursday and Friday. Friday I had the luxury of getting a spa at Ohm with a gift card Yves got me a few months ago. Needless to say, it was wonderful! I had gotten the masseuse I got the first time I went and he is really great. Before my appointment, I decided to have a quick lunch at Rickshaw Dumpling bar, remembering the delicious dumplings DeeDee had brought over for potluck. Since I forgot to take pics of the dumplings at the potluck, I made sure I took some this time!

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Last Wednesday me and Sienna went over to Trader Joe’s to do some shopping. Instead of rushing home for lunch, I asked my friend Tammy for some good dining options for me and Sienna. She gave me an awesome brick oven pizza place and an awesome old fashioned ice cream parlor all on the same block as Joe’s! Who would have known? I was torn between which place to go but the ice cream parlor made that decision for me by not being open! They were so super nice at the pizza place! It was my first time eating out with Sienna in a hi-chair. We would usually stop off at more casual places for lunch and she would stay in her stroller. It wasn’t bad and she was so good when we went to the bathroom together! I forgot to take a picture of the pizza but here is Sienna enjoying a snack while we wait (which wasn’t much of a wait since it came out super fast!)

And since the ice cream parlor was just a few blocks away, we decided to check on it. It was open! Yay! I shared a banana ice cream cone with her. The ice cream was delicious and home made! YUM! This may have to be a regular stop after going to Joe’s! (please leave a comment or e-mail me for password)

Banana Ice Cream from Lisa on Vimeo.
Her very first taste of this ice cream yielded a face 5x as funny as the one in this video.

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