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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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SNOW!

So indeed the weather people were right again and we got hit with about 14 inches of snow last Friday. Actually, the snow started Thursday night but it was slushy snow so it was quite a mess. Then it turned into real snow. They were calling it a snowacane because of the high winds but it didn’t seem that bad. We woke up and it was still snowing. This is how it looked at 7 am!

That’s the snow hanging over from the roof! 7 am folks!

Unfortunately, Yves had to go into work so it was just me, Sienna and my dad to play in the snow. We got our butts in gear and headed out at 9:30.

This time I put on like 5 layers of pants on Sienna. She lasted a lot longer in the snow than last time.

Sienna making a half a snow angel!

sittin’

I think this was Sienna’s best snow angel to date!

Sienna wants to help shovel the snow too.

The overhang from the outside!

Snowacane 2010 from Lisa on Vimeo.

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So that big mega snowstorm they were predicting a couple of weeks ago (the 10th) actually did happen! It actually started Tuesday night around 10 pm and didn’t really stop until about midnight Wednesday (there were a few times it actually did stop snowing but then it started up again.) I think we might have gotten about 13 inches? Yves was excited to finally be able to use the snowblower. Most everyone got off of work and Yves almost had to go in later that night for a special event that eventually got canceled. Yay! The day before the snowstorm, me and Sienna rushed around trying to find a snowsuit. No luck. I tried BRU, Target and S&D kids. As a last resort I bought what I thought were kind of waterproof spring pants that I figured I’d layer on top of pants and leggings on Sienna.The snow soaked right through. Oh well. I felt so bad. My dad spent the night from Tuesday through to Thursday and my mother stayed home. Well, what a delightful time we had with my dad. So nice and relaxing without the tension of my mother’s presence. After about 10-15 minutes in the snow, Sienna was ready to go in and have hot cocoa. After everyone finished shoveling snow, I made popcorn (big thanks to Geneva for showing me about making popcorn on the stove top. I’m never buying microwave popcorn again!) and we all watched 101 Dalmations.

Did I tell you that Sienna likes making snow angels?


Grandpa showing Sienna how to properly shovel snow

Sienna loves to help!

She was pouting a little bit. I didn’t make her go inside, she wanted to and I think she was pouting because even though she didn’t want to go inside, she was cold and wet and knew it was best to go inside.

Skippy seemed to enjoy the snow, except for the salty bits

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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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Last week instead of having a mixer, I went out to dinner with the ladies (Brenda, Ali and Joy). We went to Ippudo, a ramen noodle place. Yes, a ramen noodle place. The stuff you eat in college that you add water to. Go figure! But there were good things said about this place. If you go there too late, there is an hour to hour and a half wait. We made it just in time and when the whole party got there, we walked right in. It had a cool tree like (or maybe it was real? Couldn’t tell as it was dark and I didn’t go up to it) sculpture in the middle of the restaurant. There seemed to be a lot of workers there as they cheered when you walk in and there was always a bevy of different people filling your water or taking your plate.

We ordered 3 appetizers, well I guess it’s actually 4 since we got 2 orders of the Hirata Buns (steamed buns, filled with pork, served with lppudo original spicy buns sauce.) These were similiar in style to the pork buns at the Momofuku Milk bar. I felt like you get more pork at the milk bar but I guess because of the sauce, it was spicier, which I liked. We also got what I swear to remember as pork belly but I don’t see it on the menu at menupages! As well as a Phildelphia Cheesesteak egg roll. I was so curious about this! They were all delicious!

2 orders of pork buns

The pork belly

Joy breaking the egg over the pork belly

The Philly Cheesesteak Egg roll

The ramen soup I ordered (which Joy also ordered) is not on the menu on menupages so I can’t give the name or accurate description. I do know that it had duck and an egg in it! While it was very good, I have to say that the apps were way better and tastier to me. The soup was just ok and while I can’t seem to taste MSG (or know any effects it has on me), I read that they do use that and Joy did taste it.

My/Joy’s ramen

Brenda’s (I think she got this:Kogashi Miso tonkotsu based noodle soup, a dark, rich broth made from roasted miso, topped with slices of berkshire pork, fish cake, green bok choice cabbage, and glazed with a layer of oil.)

Ali’s classic (Shiromaru Hakata Classic ‘the original tonkotsu’ soup noodles with slices of simmered berkshire pork, kikurage, red pickled ginger, menma, 1/2 hard boiled egg, sesame & scallions)

Brenda ordered a salted egg on the side that she shared. When it came I thought the shell was still on it but that brown color is not the shell. I was told it’s steeped in tea? It was quite yummy. The inside was perfect!

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My friend Pete trekked out to our house this past Sunday for a visit. Sienna hadn’t seen him since summer and was super excited to see him! Thankfully we were smart enough to not tell her too early in the day that he was coming because once we did, she kept looking out the window and saying “Where’s Uncle Peeder? Where is he? I don’t see him!” He arrived for lunch where we were having cold cut sandwiches and I actually made a potato soup, a relatively easy recipe I cut out from the newspaper last week (minus the celery and added extra potatoes not on purpose). I also made these parmesan cream crackers (they were good but the middle parts were more doughy and needed to be baked slightly longer). And Pete presented us with some awesome donuts from our neighborhood shoppe.

Sienna took her nap and we were able to play some Boom Blox 2 on the Wii. Pete brought the Wii Fit Plus with him. That was a lot of fun and am considering getting it. Time to dust off that Wii Fit board! Sienna woke up while we were playing on the board. Since there were multi player options, we were taking turns doing stuff on the board and Sienna wanted to join in. It was funny watching her on the board! We all kind of worked up a sweat on the games we were playing so Yves took the opportunity to put on football. Sienna happily played with Pete; doing puzzles, dancing in her room and having stories read to her.

And I want to thank Pete for wearing her out. She didn’t give us any trouble going to sleep that night! She recently started this (hopefully short lived!) trend where she doesn’t want to go to bed. I knew that was bound to happen sooner or later (I was hoping for later!). We would do our usual routine, read her stories and she would climb into bed (she’ll climb in but won’t climb out.) Not more than 5 minutes later she is crying. As soon as we walk in there, she stops crying and informs us in her sheepish voice, “I don’t wanna go to sleep.” She is even started to tell us that the back of her mouth is hurting (we are beginning to think this is a ploy to get tylenol drops, which she loves!) Anyway, we don’t take her out or anything but try to reason with her and have her lay down and go to bed. We walk out of the room. 5 minutes later the show starts again! Monday night it happened for about the 4th time maybe in a week. By the 3rd outburst, we ignored her and she finally fell asleep. Argh! I wish Uncle Peeder could come over every night until this phase is over! (noted to add: it didn’t happen last night! Woohoo! Cross fingers that it’s over!)

Sienna’s turn on the Wii Fit board

Pete showing us the marching game

Puzzles!

(I know this one is blurry but I like how I caught Pete’s butt sticking out and Sienna in mid twirl while they were dancing!)

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Back in early December, I met up with my friend Rachel and we hit up the Handmade Cavalcade craft fair and Martha Stewart’s craft fair. It was a rainy and cold day, not the most ideal weather for trekking in the city but it was fun regardless! We went to the cavalcade on Mott Street first, right when it opened but boy, it got crowded pretty fast! It was hard to resist all the fun goodies and I tried not to be selfish and buy just for myself. I think I did ok! I managed to snag myself a beautiful handmade Betta Fish screenprinted journal from fisk and fern. I recognized her name from her participation in my gocco postcard swap I hosted. It was great to meet her as her card was one of my favorites in the swap. She’s super sweet too! I also met Simone of craftevolution and whose etsy shop is Groundsel. I actually was introduced to her via facebook from a Bay Ridge mom who said that we were the 2 craftiest people she knew. It turned out that I was already a reader of her blog! She was really nice and I had meant to go back to her booth and buy her super cute hair clips but like I mentioned above, it got crowded really fast and I forgot! I did pick up some pretty hand soap from Nordea’s soaperia and picked up a present for my father in law. Peppersprout had these cool wooden coasters with the names of the 4 boroughs of nyc on each one (Staten Island was left out, hmmm, wonder why?) I thought he would appreciate the hand craftness of it. Sadly I forgot to take any photos of the fair. Then we headed to lunch at brgr, which is right down the block from where Martha’s craft fair was. I was actually there in November and while the burger wasn’t bad, the onion rings were the reason I wanted to go back! MMM, red onions sliced really thin!

Anyhow, I digress! Turns out there was a bit of a wait to get into Martha’s craft fair. A line outside of the building and then another line once you get inside! The wait wasn’t too bad and it was definitely more spacious once we were inside and also included lots of displays from MS Living Holiday magazine spread. It was fun to look around but I didn’t buy anything.

I parted with Rachel after that and did a quick stop for some Christmas shopping. The reason I called this post Inspiration was because of the last store I passed before jumping on the subway. Beads of Paradise is a store on 17th street full of beads (duh) and lost of other fun stuff. I didn’t go inside (too tempting) but the window display was enough! So amazing and inpirational! Really, these photos do not do it justice. I just loved how it was filled up with so much fun stuff! I love the colors! I love the little dolls and the button eyes! I love it all!

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That’s what Sienna essentially asks me. I enjoy the hustle and bustle and excitement of Christmas but I am actually looking forward to getting back to a normal routine. I guess that makes you a real adult, huh? Anyway, I can prolong it a bit by posting all the ornaments (and some tags) I made for various swaps on swap-bot!

How the Grinch Stole Christmas ornament swap

The skull flower is from Sublime Stitching

The robot stencil from the Stencil Me In book. I used Tulip fabric spray for the color.
The dog and the Gingerbread house are from the The Softies kit. I made them into ornaments.

I really have a thing for these retro ornaments!

The pattern for this house is from Nini Makes blog

I thought the smiley face came out really cute. I was a little disappointed in the ball ornament.

This one is for the Spooky Christmas swap. This pattern is from Sublime Stitching (2 that I made into 1)

Embroidery tags. The top 2 are from Wild Olive, the bottom right Sublime Stitching and bottom left from the Stampin’ Up catalog.

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