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Tuesday night I met up with Tammy and Joy for  a long overdue “band meeting.” Unfortunately, our ‘bassist’ Pete couldn’t be in attendance. I was in the mood for some BBQ and we decided on Wildwood BBQ near Union Square. Tammy and I sat at the bar while waiting for Joy. Since I couldn’t have my beloved wheat beer, I opted for a Maker’s Mark neat. On an empty stomach. Boy, I paid for that the next day. I actually told the bartender I must have been crazy to order it neat and she fixed it with some ice. I was feeling GROOVY! 😉

We had a very cool waitress serving us. Waitress! I am sorry! I know you told us your name but in my Maker’s Mark stupor, I forgot!

Anyway, she hooked us up with the pitmaster special. Wet ribs, dry ribs, beef brisket, pulled pork, chicken. YUM. Everything was awesome aside from the beef brisket, it was a bit dry. But no fear! We also ordered the Tuesday night special, Homemade Pastrami! AWESOME! Plus 2 appetizers- fried green tomatoes and cornbread so there wasn’t any shortage of food. We could not even finish it all! The shame! And yes, I cheated on my gluten free diet by eating the fried green tomatoes and cornbread but it wasn’t much so I am not going to feel guilty about it! Nope!

Oh Marky Mark, we used to be such close friends!

‘drummer’ and ‘guitarist’

Oh Hoegaarden, we used to be such good friends

Never before seen shrimp on top of a fried green tomato! No complaints here!

Who knew cornbread could taste so good? (Or maybe it’s been my lack of wheat talking!)

Awesome cool waitress!

Hello Pastrami!

Here is a close up so you can drool!

The pitmaster! We would have finished it if Pete was there!

Baked beans and creamed spinach sides.

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A couple of weeks ago, before my gluten free quest, we had the luck of having lunch with two of our good friends on two separate days. Yves was finally able to join Pete and I on a weekday lunch outing! Since we can no longer count on Lento’s as our go to thin crust pizza place, we tried Vezzo’s which I’m sure is related somehow to Gruppo’s, which me and Yves have gone to before. We ordered a pizza with carmelized onions, homemade meatballs and olives. It was quite tasty but the olives were a bit salty. The menu said black olives but kalamata olives were on the pizza. It was still good!

The day after, we had lunch with Joy and went to a panini place I’ve been wanting to try, Press 195. I like my steak and avocado sandwich and the frites and the dessert (nutella and banana press with ice cream) we got but I don’t think it was as awesome as I was lead to believe by some reviews I read. But I believe a lot of the reviews were for their Queens location. They did a good job with the kid plates by including sliced apples, which Sienna ate all of! Plue, there are over 40 sandwich combinations! I’m glad I got to check it out!

The frites were ok

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Last Thursday I attended Martha Stewart’s Stitchfest, an event to celebrate her latest craft book, Encyclopedia of Sewing and Fabric Crafts. I also have her first craft book, which honestly, I don’t look at much but I feel my craft library wouldn’t be complete without it. I met my friend, Rachel for a bite to eat at Chelsea Market. We went to the Green Table, a local, organic and sustainable food restaurant, but not before stopping in some cute dessert places! A lot has been added to the market since I’ve been there last (which was quite awhile ago.) We were quite drawn to the cute displays at Eleni’s (but not their prices!) and I got a (chocolate mint) brownie at Fat Witch, how could I resist? I foolishly only got something small to eat at dinner (meze platter and roasted butternut squash) thinking I would leave room for the hors d’oeurves at the event. Rachel got chicken pot pie, a smarter choice!

And on to the event. I’m not sure what I was expecting but I was a tad disappointed in it. Of course it was laid out beautifully, all the stations were organized well and it was very helpful to see some of the projects in the book up close (especially after having looked through the book last night). There were people showing some crafts at the stations, a make and take for the tomato pin cushion project from the book and lots of demonstrations of sewing machines. We got there shortly after 6 and the make and take line was already super long! We ended up not getting on it in time but did wait to get a free monogrammed tea towel (I got S for Sienna). The people coming out with the hors d’oeurves were hard to find and they came out with such tiny platters that the food was gone pretty quickly (I resisted the urge to lunge at them when I saw them! LOL) We did get this tasty green milkshake that I think was black pepper and I want to say….avocado? I forgot. Anyway, I think I was expecting to at least learn some little crafty tidbits. I don’t know why! As true about everything with Martha is that it all looks perfect, too perfect! We did enter a bunch of free drawings to win different types of sewing machines. I don’t think I won because I haven’t heard anything. The price of admission did get us a cool goody bag. It includes the book, a bunch of MSLO magazines (anyone want my extra Everyday Food issue?), a bunch of thread and needles, coupons and Martha’s brand of precision cut scissors. In the end I am still glad I went. You can see a goofy photo of me and Rachel ‘posing’ with Martha over at Rachel’s blog.

Hibiscus Lemonade

Stamping on fabric demo

I love this applique on the bedspread but I know me, this project is too daunting for me! But maybe the pillowcases!
Rachel is sewing!

Getting the S tea towel made

Using shells is a cute idea!

Goodie bag swag

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Yesterday was Easter Sunday and a beautiful 70 degrees. It’s too bad Sienna had a fever in the morning and threw up twice in the afternoon! My poor baby! ;-( She is better today, thankfully! Friday was the 2nd annual Easter Egg hunt that Starr so graciously organized again. It was a big difference weather wise than last year! And Sienna was pretty good with getting a decent amount of eggs unlike last year!

She’s ready to fill her basket!

On the hunt! She shared her find with Sylvie.

Look at all that she got!

Nico’s loot

Phoenix shows off some bling she got in one of her eggs!

Nico raiding his eggs!

Sienna was asking Nico if she could sit next to him. His only concern was his candy! LOL

Izky shows off a cool dinosaur head egg!

Chocolate face!

Carter stops by and is wearing the shirt I made him!

Sienna’s getting pretty good riding the scooter (Izky’s)

Pizza afterwards. She didn’t get any on her shirt!! Which, btw, is a Peeps shirt I made for her that I will blog about soon!

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Last Sunday was another beautiful day (this past weekend was quite the opposite!) and we spent part of it in Williamsburg. We were meeting Pete, Nate and Mari at Raymund’s and stopped by the playground beforehand. McCarren Park has a nice playground! 2 sets of swings, a bunch of slides and at least 3 different structures to climb. We picked up Joy before we headed out there. Sienna had fun playing with Joy.

Now on to Raymund’s! YUM!

Mari’s borscht

Pete eats white borscht (with a plop of mashed potatoes, ahem!)

Potato Pancakes MMMM!

Apple fritters! MMMM

Joy points to her big pile of goulash (on a pile of potato pancake!), which was pretty good. I might have to deviate from my usual pierogi order next time.

My pierogies!

Yves eats his kielbasa plate

Sienna enjoys some of Yves’ kielbasa and potato pancakes

Sienna and doggie

Pete laughs at Sienna’s rendition of Mana mana (from the Muppets)

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Today was Sienna’s birthday party to celebrate her 3rd year here! The weather couldn’t have been worse (well, I suppose it could have been snow!) with rain and wind. Actually the rain wasn’t too bad, it’s the ferocious winds! I had a couple of cancellations but those who showed up had a good time! I’m really grateful to those that were able to make it. Sienna had a ball! I was up at 6 am (with the help of Sienna) to make shredded BBQ chicken in the crockpot, baked macaroni and cheese, devil’s food cupcakes and vanilla frosting (I made banana cupcakes and 2 different frostings last night) and zucchini’s with goat cheese (Allen helped big time with those!). I was in a bit of a frenzy during the party so I didn’t get the best photos. Hopefully Yves got some good video. I set up a game called “pin the party hat on Sienna” which I’m sure you can guess what that is all about. I blew up a photo of Sienna eating cake from her 2nd birthday. I also had prizes for everyone. It was probably unnecessary to do the game since all the kids had a perfectly fun time just playing with Sienna’s toys! I guess I’ll just remember the game for when she is older.

Frosting choices are strawberry meringue buttercream, vanilla and chocolate sour cream. (the photo of the dog is Crusher and is part of a swap I’m doing!)

the kid’s table

Sienna couldn’t wait to get at the cupcakes! I don’t know why Emma has the pear! LOL

Allen and Leah

Allen says something funny

Playing in the living room (you should have seen Sienna’s room!)

Opening Uncle Peeder’s present!

Opening Phoenix, Geneva and Layne’s present (Phoenix made that card herself!!)

Checking out the present from Emma, Leah, Jana and Allen!

A froggie bank from Phoenix, Geneva and Layne!

The girls playing on the bed

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Pete and I made it back to Shopsin’s (at the beginning of February) in record time! Our last visit was sometime in November. I really enjoyed our picks this time vs. the last time. I ordered an ATW sandwich (never bothered asking what that means) which consists of pulled pork, onions, cheddar and bacon! MMMMMMMMM!!! I was surprised by all the bacon in the sandwich and I really thought I wouldn’t be able to eat it all (but I did!) Pete was surprised that I did since I made such a commotion about all the bacon. I told him that it’s because I’m a fat fuck! He also asked if that was going to be the name of this blog post but I didn’t have the nerve. HA! Plus you just can’t let a good pig go to waste! Pete ordered the famous Mac N Cheese pancakes! At long last! Hearing about the MnC pancakes is what brought me to Shopsin’s in the first place but I was never in the mood for them. They were quite savory and tasty! Not as decadent as I thought it would be as they don’t overdue the MnC.

My after…hey! There’s bread and lettuce still there!

Is that a whole pancake Pete leaves?? Gasp! There are starving children in this world! LOL

We made our usual stop at Economy Candy and I was in the mood for a cakey treat so we went to Sugar Sweet Sunshine where I brought home some cupcakes for everyone. I got 2 pistachios (by far their best cupcake!), a spicy pumpkin and oooooohhhh a peppermint chocolate!!! When I got home, which one does Sienna pick? MY peppermint chocolate one! Of course I am happy to share with her and gave her less than half of it. She ate all the frosting and about half of the cake. We usually don’t give her something that sweet so late in the day (it was about 4:30 maybe?) and yeah, we paid for that later. She was jumping off the wall that night!

I think Yves was explaining that he had the superior cupcake!

All cupcaked out!

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My SAHM friends and I have been talking about going to dim sum and we finally decided to do it 2 Fridays ago. I asked my parents to come so they can better translate and tell us about the dishes. There seems to be less English speaking in Brooklyn’s Chinatown than there is in Manhattan’s Chinatown, or so it seems in my mind. We met at East Harbor Restaurant at 11:30. There was 10 of us. It wasn’t too crowded. We got the standard stuff we usually get and a couple of different things. Everyone was more than willing to try everything…except the chicken feet. It was the very last dish and I actually wouldn’t have ordered it except my parents misunderstood and ordered it when they saw it. I was joking that I hadn’t seen the chicken feet and that I usually try to make the newbies eat it (I actually don’t mind it, it’s all about the sauce baby!). It was actually really tasty as it just came right out of the kitchen. The kids all liked looking at the fish tank. Everyone had a good time!

Poor chicken feet! No one wants to suck on them…except me!

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Chinese (Lunar) New Year fell on the 14th of February this year, aka Valentine’s day. We didn’t do much celebrating for Valentine’s day and I’m ok with that. I don’t know, I guess as I get older, it’s not a big deal to me. Yves is a great husband every day of the year (some days are better than others, of course! LOL) and I guess if you have a hard time showing affection, Valentine’s day is an easy way to show it. Yves doesn’t have that problem! I also think it is way too commercialized but I won’t get into that. It is, however, the anniversary of when Yves asked me to marry him! We didn’t celebrate that either but I did help Sienna pick out a card and a small box of candy. Normally, I would help her make a card but we were in the store and I found this card where you can record a greeting. I thought Yves would love to have a recording of Sienna saying something. He can bring it to work! So Friday I rehearsed with Sienna and helped record her saying “Happy Valentines Day, I love you Daddy.” It worked out well but she spilled the beans as soon as Yves came home. She kept repeating the phrase to him and I kept telling her to shush and we have to wait until Sunday. LOL

Anyway, this post is about Chinese New Year! It’s really hard to get a photo of my mother smiling. I had to tell her to smile! So I’m glad I got this photo, which is why I put it up top there. My family’s tradition is that we celebrate with a big dinner on the eve of the New Year (I don’t know any other Asian families that do that!) and then on the actual day, have lunch together. Here are some of the dishes.

Fried Rice (made for Yves)

Vermicelli with dried shrimp (one of my favorites and it only comes out during New Year)

Yves favorite (as well as Sienna’s!), chinese sausage and roast pork (sorry for the bad photo)

Turnips (not a favorite)

Chinese Broccoli

Abalone, another favorite of mine that only comes out once a year. My mother likes to tell me how expensive it is. Last year it was about $30 for a 12 oz can. Not sure how much it went up this year.

Traditional chicken

My view of the table. See that bowl of rice there on the far end? That’s for my brother Kenny. LOL. He always has a place setting even though he is never here for Chinese New Year. Made rational by some weird superstition of my mother’s.
Here is the dishes on the actual day, pretty much the same.

Offerings for the Buddha

The Buddha blessing station (aka fire hazard according to Yves)

More chinese sausage and roast pork!

MMMM! My favorite and apparently has become a Sienna favorite! Shrimp chips! My dad bought these on a whim because he saw them at the chinese bakery. It’s a rare treat as I only eat these at banquets.

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The last week of January was Winter Restaurant Week 2010 and I met up with Pete for our usual lunch. It was a rainy and windy day and if I remember correctly so was our last outing for RW 2009! We went back to our favorite place, Nobu, as it never disappoints. Well, maybe we jinxed it! It wasn’t terrible but there were aspects of the lunch we wished were better. Peter went off the usual RW menu and picked a special sushi plate. According to the waiter, it was an assortment of fish of the season and some exotic fish. I stayed on the RW menu because I was looking forward to the Rock Shrimp Tempura appetizer, which as usual was delicious. For the main dish, I picked the sushi plate, which was different than Pete’s dish but when it came, they looked very similar. Pete was disappointed in his. He said it was good but not what he was hoping for. I enjoyed my dish (with an added snow crab sushi) but then remembered that I did prefer their cooked dishes! Next time I should re-read my previous blog posts so I can remember this! That’s the reason I started this blog, to help me remember! LOL. Anyway, my disappointment came at dessert. It was a tofu cheesecake with carmelized pears. It was tasty but uh, come on! TOFU cheesecake? That sounds like something I would make at home to keep healthy! HA!

I gobbled up my Rock Shrimp Tempura so fast I forgot to take a before shot! LOL

My dish with the added snow crab

Pete’s dish with his added sea urchin

dessert.

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