Great Food Days
Friday afternoon we had a late lunch with be's mom at a Salvadorean restaurant on Jamaica Ave in Queens. The food was okay (i've had much better pupusas, tamales de'elote, curtido and horchata either homemade or at other places) but what made my year was the discovery of amazingly delicious corn nuts at the shop next door! We bought a bag of lemon-flavored fried corn - they aren't really nuts - and we ate the entire bag in less than 24 hours. These crunchy, addictive snacks were so good that i forced be to drive out to Jamaica today in order to get more! I ran in and bought one bag each of BBQ, cheese & hot sauce and lemon flavored fried corn (plus 1 Coke from El Salvador for be) and we downed 1/2 the BBQ bag on the ride home. If you ever come across
Elotitos you must purchase all the flavors. Definitely in the Top 5 Snack Foods of All Time.
Friday night be made his signature dessert: bosc pears stewed in plum wine. I'll post a recipe as soon as he writes it down. He also made a hearty dish of pasta with eggplant, spinach and tomatoes. I unpacked the box and we just have too much produce to keep track of now :(
Today, besides the drive to Jamaica, we went to Stop & Shop to load up on more food. Surprisingly, they didn't stock dried red lentils, but we picked up: Helluva Good Cheese, coconut water, grits, plantains, pasta, Morningstar Crumbles, 2 bottles of a great basalmic vinegar and a loaf of rustic bread. At home, we had a snack of toasted bread with olive oil, basalmic vinegar, sea salt, ground pepper and rosemary dip. It was such good bread.
Dinner tonight was tacos! be's been craving them for a while, so he heated up a can of refried beans, made seasoned fake ground beef and chopped up some cilantro and lettuce. I used a lot of hot sauce while be glopped on cheese. I'm on a no-dairy diet now as my nose has been super stuffy recently, but the tacos were so tasty i didn't miss the cheese at all.
O just gave me a Brazilian "milk flavor chewy lollipop" from the corner store - it's just like a vanilla Sugar Daddy!
More Produce and Too Much Cheese
I had a strange dream this morning where i was arranging produce into little piles. I woke up concerned that we didn't have enough room for another
box, and it's a real, valid concern! We're scheduled for another load tonight that includes "6 make ups." Our last box got turned upside-down or something, because our bananas, mango, kiwi and tomatoes were mushed, bruised or split open. This means that in addition to our regular load, we're getting the equivalent 6 more items.
This past week we reduced an okay amount, but right now we still have: 1 mango, 1 harmon orange, 1 big orange*, 5 bosc pears, 1 tomato*, 1 fuji apple, 1 banana, 2 kiwi (we found one under the counter from ? many weeks ago), 3 sweet potatoes, 2 butternut squash, 1 container of sprouts*, 2 bunches collard greens, 1 cauliflower, 1 Italian eggplant, 1 bunch cilantro*, 1 head green leaf lettuce and 3 bags of carrots.
*Denotes items not of the box
At least i still haven't gotten sick! My nose is stuffy, probably from too much cheese. My throat is irritated but it's probably the searing-hot heat blasting us to desert-dryness. I don't feel sick although i feel sickly, if that makes sense. be hasn't gotten sick in months either, and he attributes it to massive produce consumption.
Back to the cheese; O, be and i had dinner at
Three of Cups in the East Village last night. The bread basket we received was excellent: rosemary focaccia toasted on a grill, served with garlic-infused olive oil to dip it into. be really enjoyed his clam pasta while O and ordered personal-size pizzas. They had this thinnest, crispest crust imaginable, baked in a brick oven with little bits of char. The selection of toppings was quite good for vegetarians; i got the asiago cheese, portobello mushroom, pesto, olive and truffle oil pizza and it sure was yummy, although i picked off most of the cheese. They also listed a vegan, whole wheat crust pizza with chickpeas and roasted peppers. I would definitely go back!
Afterwards, O did a hilarious set of poems at that comedy open mic! We ended up at
Sidewalk for a post-comedy snack/dinner, but i can't comment on the food since i only ordered hot cider. It seemed like American diner-y fare plus quesadillas.
Sleep-Inducing Foods
A$, P, Anjali and i had dinner at
Tea and Sympathy in the West Village tonight. It's the British goods shop/restaurant i've been meaning to try for a while now. The vegetarian carrot soup i had was very good, but the Welsh rarebit was awesome! It's a piece of toast with a layer of English mustard and cheddar cheese, broiled and served with tomato slices and vegetable pickle. A$'s mushroom Shepherds' Pie was good; it was served with a side of peas and carrots. P and A both ordered the chicken and vegetable pot pie, which arrived complete with old skool bird steam vent. The restaurant is very cozy and friendly. It would be the perfect place for tea and scones and a good book.
Instead of tea, we had hot drinks at
The Chocolate Bar nearby. The whole place is decked out in white, orange and brown but in a very modern way. My hot chocolate was very good but i prefer City Bakery's version. Actually, i think my most favorite is
Maribelle's Aztec hot chocolate but that's reserved for intense times only. They sell a 99% cacao bar too! I once bought a
Michel Cluizel 99% bar just to try it, and shit was that shit bitter. I had half of it and couldn't eat any more!
Heavy foods, hot chocolate - i totally fell asleep on the train ride home.
O Wants Mac & Cheese
Links to mac & cheese-related articles keep appearing in my inbox! I think it's time to make my first batch from scratch this weekend. I usually make a box of
Annie's when i crave it at home, but i know box-kind doesn't compare to a real, baked macaroni and cheese casserole. This
link is about an all-mac & cheese cookbook and has a recipe, while
this one is a discussion about your favorite mac & cheese place. I have yet to try all the fancy places, but for real, Herald Square Macy's basement cafe makes a surprisingly tasty mac & cheese! Thanks
Omar!
Go NoVA!
In the last fifteen or so years, the Washington D.C. area has become a leader in ethnic restaurants. We lag behind New York City and Los Angeles, but we vie with Chicago and the Bay Area for third place in the United States. In some areas, such as Ethiopian cuisine, we are number one.
Interesting
guide, although
The Vegetable Garden is better than
Sunflower when it comes to vegetarian Chinese - American food. Thanks,
dude!
Go Granny!
I hope
this gets published! Thanks,
Z!
CFPs?
Alright, so last night be and i ended up at Taco Bell. At least this is better than McDonald's ... or is it? Anyways, be got his favorite "Cheesy Fiesta Potatoes" and i must admit they were really tasty. It's a little cup of seasoned roasted potatoes smothered in Cheez-Wiz, sour cream and scallions.
Tonight i wanted to try to make these "Cheesy Fiesta Potatoes" for dinner so i found this
recipe online. I doubled the cumin, added paprika, used all vegetable oil instead of olive oil & butter and just roasted the potatoes (cut much smaller than 1" cubes) as opposed to pan frying + oven crisping. be couldn't find Cheez-Wiz or Velveeta so he improvised and created a cheesy sauce from Kraft singles, butter and soymilk. This sauce was really good but the potato part was lacking. I didn't think it was like the dish they serve at Taco Bell at all - the potatoes were too oily and the seasoning still isn't right. The potatoes should have the slightest coating of flour with much more ground pepper. Overall, i think this recipe is all wrong; once i figure it out we won't need to visit Taco Bell anymore!
To round out the meal, i sauteed red chard with garlic. be pan-fried me a very tasty
Quorn fake chicken cutlet and made himself cheese ravioli. I think he really wanted more of that dal, though. We don't have enough red lentils now to make another batch but i'll pick a bag up this weekend.
Ian Sol and the Sugarless Beans
dude: lorraine loves the garlic beans
dude: ian took one of each gross flavor and ate them
me: he DID?
dude: the only ones he didn't like (he spit them out) were black pepper and earwax
dude: he said spaghetti and vomit tasted the same
me: he liked vomit?????
me: well, spaghetti is salty
dude: and he said they were all "pretty good, could use a little more sugar"
me: vomit is sour
me: hahahahahahahahahahahahah
me: he really said that?
me: shit
dude: true.
me: wow
me: the garlic ones are not bad!
dude: well
dude: when i walked in lorraine made me eat one without knowing what it was
dude: and i could not do it
dude: it was very interesting, but i can't eat them, just like buttered popcorn.
dude: lorraine likes them
me: but they're way better than popcorn
me: they're garlicky!
dude: she's eating them right now
me: i'm glad she likes them!
dude: i want to put a bowl of the harry potter ones on my desk at work
dude: but people might hate me
me: hahahahahahahahaha
me: you gotta!
me: do it!
me: it will be awesome
dude: i would get in trouble
dude: lorraine's breath stinks
I just mailed the Rice House some
jelly beans. Try them out for yourself, if you are insane enough!
Big Meels
I forgot to mention that my pad Thai and be's shrimp pad sew ew from our dinner on the 21st were the best we've ever had from Dow Thong. Maybe it's because we actually ate there as opposed to delivery. Maybe the chef on Friday night is awesome. Whatever the reason, our dishes were very tasty. It's always very good, but on the 21st: yum yum!
O wanted to take us out for lunch today, so we bundled up and trudged through the snow to Lite Bites Grill on the corner of Steinway and Broadway in Astoria. It's a diner-y type breakfast/sandwich/burger/salad place that replaced the cursed restaurant not too long ago. This was my second meal at Lite Bites and both times the food was above average. My simple grilled cheese was perfectly made, my curly fries were very tasty and my root beer was crisp and refreshing. be really enjoyed his "specialty sandwich" and O seemed to like his burger. I'd choose Lite Bites over CUP Diner for the food, but the atmosphere and desserts are better at CUP.
Afterwards, be and i shoveled out his car (the snow was past my knees in one snowdrift!). We did a little cleaning and i finished my knit glove things.
For dinner be was tempted to try to make paneer (fresh cheese) but we didn't have the necessary ingredients (milk) or implements (cheesecloth). Instead, we found a recipe for a nutty cream sauce from
Flavors of India, which sounded similar to the sauce for paneer muttar dhingra at Madras Cafe - be's most favorite dish. He ground up almonds and heated them with a pint of Silk Cream and spices, and cooked it with cauliflower and peas. The dish was slightly sweet and very yummy, but next time we should use de-skinned almonds. I made plain rice and a pot of dal from red lentils. I used to make this dish all the time in college but haven't in a few years (for some dumb reason). Making it, i remembered how good and flavorful it was; i love the mustard seeds, crushed chiles, ginger, cilantro, squeeze of lemon and the ground spices all held together with the lentils, which cook down and get soupy. Perfect for a cold day!
Snow Zombies
I didn't leave the house today, even for a quick walk through the snow to the corner store for bread. However, i was productive: i knit 1.75 gloves, made a big dinner, read and took an accidental nap (i woke up when i dreamt i stabbed someone with a ballpoint pen!)
Food consumed today (in order): 1 tortilla made by be, refried beans, 1 slice of queso de freir, cup of Assam tea, glass of gatorade, cheese sandwich made in the "sandwich maker," 5 slices fried fake ham, 1 baked russet potato with butter, broccoli with garlic, giant bowl of romaine and red leaf salad with tomatoes and cucumbers, can of coconut water, mug of hot chocolate, biscotti, vanilla wafer cookies, bowl of grated beets with dijon mustard.
What the boys did in front of the tv: played 4.5 hours of xbox with 3 different games, watched "The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King" extended version (4+ hours), watched 5 hours (and counting!) of Comedy Central, "Futurama" DVDs and "Transformers" box set.
I hear we're due for snow showers all day Sunday. Too bad this isn't mid-week back in school.
6-12" of Ice Cream
be,
O,
Cristin and i couldn't decide between Tokyo II (all-u-can-eat sushi) or Dow Thong (Thai) for our Queens Night Out. We flipped a coin for it (i somehow prefer one of the boys rolling a DnD die; it's more nerdy) and Dow Thong won out. It's a newish restaurant not far from our house. The food is better than our old Astoria joint, Thai Angel up on 30th Ave, and seems much more mom 'n' pop. Cristin got soup and green curry tofu, O got the duck, be got his usual shrimp pad sew ew and fried squid and i, my usual vegetable and tofu pad thai. Tonight i asked for dried crushed chiles like the batch i have from P's dad and it really made my dish even yummier! The chile wasn't nearly as good as P's dad's, but much better than some other Thai places i've had it in. Add to that 4 Thai iced teas and a brief, yet failed consideration to ordering the "warm chocolate volcano."
For dessert, we insane folks drove to
Uncle Louie G's for mega ice cream overload: 1 medium cup of mint chocolate chip, 1 pint of cappuccino crunch, 1 quart of rocky road and 1 ultra-cup of 1/2 honeydew and 1/2 passion fruit Italian ice. Unfortunately some of the ice cream flavors had a case of freezerburn but luckily we also had a container of Breyer's Rocky Road and a pint of Ben and Jerry's Oatmeal Cookie Goodness.
As we were leaving ULG's, be exclaims, "...we're going to get 6-12" of ice cream tomorrow! Oh, i mean ice cream! Wait, what did i say?" and of course we play him for a while for that.
Chickplants and Peas
After be's inaugural routine at a comedy club (he did really well!), we froze to death walking from Ave A to 3rd Ave in the East Village. It is COLD out there. It reminds me of Massachusetts, where the wind will make you cry and any exposed skin is immediately numbed.
Late dinner was a toss up between McDonald's or Chickpea, both on 3rd Ave between St. Mark's and Stuyvesant St. I don't like supporting McDonald's at all, but for some reason i love their
McVeggie burger value meal. Chickpea won out anyways, so no guilt was shed.
Chickpea is a kosher falafel and shawarma joint that opened last year. We've been there quite a few times because it's inexpensive, the service is quick and the food is yummy. They make the best falafel i've had since
Mamoun's in the West Village. The falafel are laced with delicious ground cumin, are not too dry or mealy and are very fresh since they're fried to order. They make their own pita as well, but honestly i like the pitas at
Moustache better. The lentil soup is delicious and filling, although sometimes salty so make sure you pick up a fresh lemonade too. Tonight they were serving samples of a yummy, crisp sesame cookie. I tried the "chickplant" sandwich, which consisted of: hummus, roasted eggplant, egg salad, pickles and shredded lettuce - it was good but i wouldn't get it again - the falafel is the way to go.
Cravings for Cold Weather
As i was laying in bed last night trying to fall asleep, for some reason all i could think about was
fermented tofu. I love eating it with spinach or other greens, but be absolutely hates it. It's an acquired taste, sort of like stinky, runny cheese. It adds a really rich flavor to sauces and is indescribable and distinctive. The jar i have in the fridge is the kind with sesame oil. It lasts a really long time because i only use 1/2 or 1 cube for each dish; i'm not the type to eat whole cubes on their own.
Some people eat fermented tofu cubes with
jook, or rice porridge/congee. When we were in Hong Kong in 2002, my mom and i could not get enough of it. She asked a random stranger at McDonald's for the best jook joint in Kowloon, and the woman did not lie. Every morning we wanted to eat jook and fried bread, aka yu ja guei or "oil fried devils." I could down 1 or 2 of the fried bread sticks, easily. You could dip the bread into the
jook or order it wrapped with a thin rice flour sheet (like at dim sum), sliced into rounds and drizzled with sauce. So good!
My Mom and Her Loves
The great thing about jook is the calming blandness of it; you can add whatever toppings and ingredients you want to create your
favorite combinations and flavors. I love jook with salted peanuts, cilantro and pickled vegetables with chile. A lot of people like scallions, thousand-year-old eggs and meat. Most of the places in New York make jook with chicken stock, don't have the fried bread or have a non-existent selection of toppings to place into your bowl.
VDSH makes a nice corn jook you can add chile oil to while
Buddha Bodai makes a yummy jook with fake pork and peanuts, but neither restaurant has a good supply of freshly made fried bread. I guess it's time to lug out the heavy pot and make my own batch of jook, but as for that fried bread, i'll have to buy 1, or 5.
Mmmm, real Chinese food.
Flavor
I'm at work and be's at home; we're on the phone:
be: "...so i'll make something for dinner."
me: "Do you want me to pick up anything?"
be: "We're out of garlic. I can't cook without garlic!"
I burst out laughing. This is the guy who practically hated garlic when i met him. Now he's exclaiming he can't cook without it. (He also added a bit of the hot red bean paste to his bibimbap last week and exclaimed that it was better with it! In 2001, his hot tolerance was so very low that black pepper made his throat burn.) I'm so proud of how far he's gone these past few years!
be's delicious dinner consisted of
cellentani pasta with sauteed fresh spinach, garlic, olive oil, tomatoes and toasted pine nuts. He added some feta crumbles to his while i used a little parmesan. I'm not that into feta, although chevre in France is a totally different story. I juiced 3 oranges and we had 1 kiwi each, as well.
I'm a garlic freak. Almost every dish i make must begin with sizzling garlic in hot oil. Sometimes a little ginger. I rarely use onion these days as it makes be gag; i don't really miss it except in some sandwiches and burgers. Besides garlic, i love using freshly ground black pepper, chiles, hot sauces, toasted sesame oil, ground cumin, pine nuts and fresh cilantro to obnoxious degrees. I really can't understand why half the population apparently hates fresh
cilantro (aka Chinese parsley and fresh coriander). I think it's the absolute best herb in the world. It's been described as "soapy" but i really don't get it.
Yesterday O, be and i ate at the CUP Diner (we wanted O to try the banana cream pie) and again, i think the place has promise but they need to work on making better quality food. For instance, my minestrone soup came with a filo dough fontina cheese "crouton" on top, but the actual soup wasn't that good. Progresso makes a way better canned minestrone! They have all these special touches on their dishes, but besides the aforementioned pie, nothing else has been rave-worthy.
Has anyone been to this "
Grilled Cheese NYC" restaurant i keep hearing bits about?
Ups and Downs
I used to eat at the various restaurants on 6th St in the East Village when i first moved to New York back in 1998. The incomparable 50% off deals and overall affordable prices fit into my meager non-profit salary quite well. Furthermore, the bounty of restaurants allowed us many chances to try different places, all on the same block. Within a few months however, i discovered much better Indian fare nearby (most noteably at
Madras) or in Little India (around Lexington in the upper 20's), so i stopped going. Well, maybe it also had to do with 2 stomachaches and 1 undercooked, doughy samosa, but those details are not that fun to write about.
The restaurants on 6th St have changed over the past seven years; there's now an Ethiopian place and a Thai one on the same block, as well as many restaurants that have come and gone (i never got to try Ghandi, the lone vegetarian Indian place). Today be and i attended a fun lunch with seven other people, mainly
Acentos crew and poetry scenesters. We all got the lunch special at Sonar Gaon and although some people enjoyed the lunch, O, be and i didn't think it was good. At our end of the table, our four different dishes were made with the exact same sauces and be's samosa arrived in a puddle of oil. I think the prices are great, but overall i'd rather pay a few more dollars for really great food.
Thinking about really great Indian food makes me want to go to
Vatan. It's expensive, but the food is so good it's definitely worth it.
Pongal is also yummy. I've been meaning to try more places in Queens, since everyone knows that the best, most authentic food of any ethnicity is found in Queens. (I keep hearing mixed reviews of
Jackson Diner; has anyone been there?) I hear there are pani puri joints in Jackson Heights! Anjali introduced me to pani puri as
Dimple (on 30th St and 5th Ave) serves it. Pani Puri is made up of little crunchy puffs that you break a hole into, fill with potato, chickpeas and chutneys and pop into your mouth - it's so addictive! When i saw it at a buffet in Queens, i went nuts!
Tonight O brought over 2 pints of
Ben and Jerry's Oatmeal Cookie Chunk. Not only is this a real flavor (as opposed to low carb crap with crap mixed in), it's Freakingly Delicious! Over dinner last week, the entire table was raving in unison. Try it out, if you like ice cream!
Missions
Saturday was a day filled with searches:
1) be was in need of good plum wine to make his delicious bosc pears dessert (failed) but we did get some great onigiri (Japanese rice patties wrapped in crispy seaweed with fillings) at the local Japanese market.
2) We grabbed some pizza at Dino's before heading over to Parisi for bread (completed).
3) After a longish drive, we arrived at the Manhasset Whole Foods only to find absolutely no parking. As be waited with the car, i ran in for 2 lbs of Wild Blend rice (completed) and a pear danish (failed).
4) The stopover at be's parents' house in Douglaston reaped a bagful of: tamales (but made with chicken stock), Walker's Shortbread, Strawberry and Orange Craisins, cookies and blueberries. Yes, we're always stocked with airline snacks.
Delicious & Nutritious
This morning we made a sick supplies delivery to a good friend and ended up bringing her to the Emergency Room. Hospitals are such depressing, disorganized places. After the six hour ordeal she's stable and correctly diagnosed. Sick supplies included: 2 kinds of Theraflu, Vicks, tissues, orange juice, strawberries and 4 kinds of canned soup.
At home, be and i wanted to make a good dinner after our consumption of Dunkin Donuts (coffee and 2 chocolate frosted for be, 1 glazed for me), Coke, ginger beer, potato chips and sandwiches (veggie burger for me, tuna melt for be) throughout the day. Another
box was due to arrive any minute, so we knew the meal had to reduce produce by a significant amount. We also wanted really healthy dishes - kids barfing and people with mysterious, hacking coughs in the same room will do that.
I made another batch of Wild Blend rice with pine nuts and golden raisins (in mine); sauteed spinach with garlic, fresh lemon juice and ground pepper; and green beans in a garlic tomato sauce. be was inspired by an eggplant pate recipe in
The Vegetarian Bistro, so he made roasted eggplant with grilled portobello mushrooms in a cream (soymilk) sauce with breadcrumbs and swiss cheese. It sounded strange to us as well, but it sure was tasty! Afterwards, we felt satisfied but not overly full. Besides the little bit of swiss cheese, the meal was completely vegan and mostly organic, and we used whole grains and a ton of vegetables. Now we just need to cook and eat like this every day...
On a strange side note, i
read about the woman who was the first person to actually finish a 6 lb burger with 5 lbs of fixins. I still don't think i understand how big this burger is. I mean, something with a cup each of mayonnaise, ketchup and mustard must be as large as a table! It's also interesting to note that the top ranked competitive eater in the U.S. is an Asian American woman,
Sonya Thomas. She's second in the world only to Takeru Kobayashi of Nathan's Hot Dogs fame. I think it's awesome that the person most likely to "bring the title back to the U.S. from Japan" is a 105 lb Korean American woman!
Don't Eat French Fries Twice in One Day
As the title of this post suggests, i surely had 2 big servings of French fries today! (The exclamation point is not because i'm happy with that fact, but rather, that it's somehow awesome. I didn't know i had it in me anymore.)
Breakfast was grits and 3 Boca sausages.
At work i drank 2 little cups of Pepsi.
be arrived with 2 orders of Ranch 1 fries with cheesy dipping sauce around 7PM.
Instead of a real dinner, we checked out the ex-All About Food, reopened as Deli 32 or something, in hopes that they were still making pizza. They got rid of the pizza bar but the hot buffet had lobster! be got 4 pieces for $3.53! Granted, it's previously frozen, but where else can one get lobster for $5.99/lb? I had Looza mango juice and an avocado roll from the sushi bar.
We walked to Whole Foods and bought: scone mix, 3 packages of St. Yves "The Good Dog," 1/2 lb Costa Rican Peaberry coffee, Quorn fake chicken cutlets and a box of real oatmeal (because i saw an episode of Good Eats).
We met up with O at a bar downtown, which was hosting this terrible comedy open-mic. I didn't know it was possible for so many people to NOT be funny.
Late dinner ended up being at
Veselka on 2nd Ave in the East Village. I had a grilled cheese with fries, be had 4 broccoli and cheddar pierogies and O had beef stroganoff and soup. The grilled cheese was good; they used real cheddar but their challah bread isn't the best in the neighborhood. For the BEST grilled cheese, check out
B&H Dairy, also on 2nd Ave but at St. Mark's. Trust me, i've had grilled cheese all over the country and B&H makes the absolute best one.
We're obviously failing miserably in the no-more-eating-out rule.
On another note, i keep reading about the new
dietary guidelines the government put out recently. They ditched the food pyramid and increased the suggested servings of fruits and vegetables from 5 to 9. They added beans and tofu to the protein category as well. Remember back in the day it was all about "The Four Food Groups?" Check out the
New Four Food Groups, based on a plant diet. You'll never see anything like that given the meat, dairy and sugar lobbyists in DC!
Benefit Update
I'm totally exhausted!
Ishle's benefit at the
Workshop raised over $4,000 for organizations working on tsunami relief! I expected about $2k, but to double that!? People were very, very generous and i want to thank everyone who showed up, donated, performed and volunteered to help make the event so successful. And if you got turned away at the door, i'm sorry. We usually don't ever turn people away but we had over 220 people jammed into a space for 80, 120 tops.
After a frantic clean up, we headed towards
Han Bat on 35th St. Crack introduced me to Han Bat back in 1998; i've since introduced it to about 20 people, who in turn have introduced 60 more, etc. and now it's the official dinner spot after large events at the Workshop. It's a 24/7 Korean restaurant that serves really good kimchee, has good prices for Midtown and big tables for big groups. Half our group ordered
bibimbap: assorted vegetables arranged over rice in a hot stone bowl, with meat and/or egg optional and a hot red bean sauce. As you eat it, the rice forms a nice crust from the hot bowl. You can get bibimbap cold too, but gobdol is better. Conversation topics included: bad relationships, Knitting Club, speed dating, tattoos, Catholicism and psychic readers!
Precautions
Even though i haven't officially gotten sick in a long time, i've been feeling stuffy and icky the last few days. be's had a runny nose without other cold symptoms, so it might just be our allergies acting up. We like to think our immune systems are stronger due to all the leafy greens we've been eating, but regardless, we're taking other precautionary measures just in case. Tonight i made a batch of my mom's infamous ginger/lemon tea. She used to make us drink it all the time growing up and she still has it often to this day. Of course we hated it back then (as we did most of her brews and broths) but i like the taste now and it does make me feel better.
My Mom's Ginger/Lemon Tea
2 c water
1 T peeled, chopped fresh ginger root
1/3 lemon, juiced
honey (optional)
Bring the water to a boil and add the chopped ginger. Let it boil for a few minutes, stirring occasionally, until the ginger taste is strong and hot. Add the fresh lemon juice and strain mixture into 2 mugs. Sweeten with honey if desired. Drink tea hot for it's full benefits: it'll warm you up and strengthen your immune and circulatory system.
Badness
We all were so hungry around 7PM that we just went to Burger King! Not only did we eat out, but we did it at a fast food joint! I'm disappointed, even though my veggie burger meal sure hit the spot. I'm an all-or-nuthin kind of thinker, so i was quite pro
Dunkin Donuts afterwards, but the good boys didn't feel like sweets. Later at home, we had leftover pasta and a ton of fruit to cancel out the burgers and fries.
I've been brewing some crisp batches of coffee recently, so i thought i'd share the ultimate recipe for using a French press. It took me many tries to perfect it; there are so many different directions out there it's easy to make terrible coffee with this method. When i first tried a few years ago, i gave up after too many yucky cups. Last year i gave it another go, and i'm glad i did - coffee brewed this way is the best! The main difference between French Press and an auto-drip machine is that a cup of FP is much richer and heartier. There's a bit of sediment at the bottom of your cup, so don't drink that.
French Press Coffee
1) The correct ratio, which might seem like a lot at first, is 1 T of coffee beans to each 3 oz of water. This means using 2 T for every 6 oz of water. If you need 12 oz to wake up, that means 4 T of coffee!
2) Use a good quality, fair trade coffee. If you don't have a coffee grinder, buy only what you can use in a week or two, since coffee starts losing flavor the second it's ground. Have it ground coarse for a French Press or a Plunger Pot. Also, don't make the same mistake i did and store ground coffee in the fridge - all the humidity will only make your coffee weaker and go bad faster. Store ground coffee in an airtight container on the counter.
3) If you do have a grinder, grind the correct amount of coffee right when you start boiling the corresponding amount of (filtered) water. Grinding is tricky - it must be coarse enough to not clog the metal screen but fine enough to let the good coffee flavors through. Check this
picture for reference. I had to make coffee a few times at varying grinds to get the right one, which is a tad finer than the coarsest setting on my burr grinder. If you have a blade grinder, i hear it's 10-15 seconds and you should shake it while you grind, to ensure even pieces.
4) Add the ground coffee to the Press. As soon as the water starts boiling, turn off the heat and wait until the bubbles stop. (If you pour it in off the boil, you'll burn the coffee!) Stir it quickly and put the Press cover on, but don't plunge it yet.
5) Wait exactly 3-4 minutes and then slowly press the plunger. Immediately pour out your coffee and enjoy!
6) If it's too strong for your liking, add some hot water to water it down. Never use a smaller ratio of coffee to water during the brewing, because extra water will take out more of the bitterness in the coffee. This is the main mistake when brewing coffee, thereby making a weaker but more bitter cup.
7) Experiment, since different tastes, brands, beans and grinders mean tweaking the recipe slightly. Overall, i wouldn't brew for more than 5 minutes, though. Also, don't change that ratio!
Hot Sauce Taste Off
Who is down to test hot sauces with me? I need 2 or 3 more people willing take part. I'm already envisioning our blind taste tests with scoresheets - it's going to be so fun! Let me know.
Good Food
What a sleepy day: i partook in leftovers for lunch, knitting, a nap and tv while the boys played video games. I didn't even leave the apartment today! As an early snack i set out some dried mango, pistachios, wafer cookies and cheddar Chex Mix. The late afternoon snack was cheese (cheddar, mozzarella and chevre with herbs), crackers, tomato slices and bosc pears. For dinner be made pasta with a tomato spinach sauce, grilled portobello mushrooms and red leaf salad with tomatoes and cucumbers. He also juiced 4 lbs of carrots, 3 red delicious apples, 3 Granny Smith apples and a 1" chunk of ginger. Finally, we ate 1 mango, 3 tangerines and used 1/3 of a lemon. We reduced our produce by an honorable amount, but there's still so much more!
On a side note, i think people on "low-carb" diets are totally the most high-maintenance eaters out there. I know most people relegate vegetarians and vegans to that label but everyone i've run across on a "low-carb" diet has been the biggest, whiniest baby about their meals - like death will strike them down in the form of too many rice particles or with the wrong portion size of meat. Most people i know who don't eat meat and/or dairy are quite aware of the options and limitations of eating out, while those low-carbers act like everyone's out to sabotage their precious diets. I'm glad that diet phase seems to be ending, cause you can't tell me all that steak and bacon and eggs are good for you.
Overall, i'm against the concept of dieting. Not only are we an oppressive culture obsessed with a specific definition of "attractive" and "beautiful," we're a country who's forgotten how to eat good food. I can't believe people feed their children bright blue drinks. I've seen 2 year old kids on the subway clutching 20 oz bottles of coke and eating candy bars. We're losing so many types of produce simply because it's not profitable for big corporations to grow and ship them anymore, plus the demand is so low. And, since most of the stuff at the supermarket is crap - crappy tasting and in terms of nutrition - we turn to more crap (esp. fast food) cause that's the only stuff that tastes decent. Eating is a thing we do to not die, whereas it should be something we also enjoy and look forward to. Don't you remember, when we were kids and summertime meant dark Bing cherries and juicy watermelon? Shit, i haven't had a good piece of watermelon in years. It's all been flavorless and mealy recently. Remember how apples used to be? Crispy, sweet and juicy? Nowadays at the supermarket, they're so waxy you can see your reflection but they're soggy, mealy and grainy inside. It's not right that local and/or organic foods are more expensive; that's the way it ALL used to be a few generations ago. Now it's a luxury or based on availability.
I think about my mom and all the food she misses. I've seen the markets in Hong Kong and Kowloon, and they're just insane. There are streets and streets filled with vendors selling everything and anything, blocks and blocks of only produce, only tofu products, only dried foods. We went to an indoor market that only sold seafood and meat, with many floors of people comparing prices and haggling. It's a place where food really, really matters. People live to eat a certain kind of item, grown only in a certain place, available only at a certain time, cause it's the best. The attitude in France is similar. Why bother eating it if it's not the best possible thing? My mom tells me about the mangoes and coconuts she used to eat. It's just not the same here.
I'm not exactly sure where i'm trying to go with this; i suppose it's late and i've been thinking about the concept of food a lot recently. We're trying to eat better and it also means defining what "better" is. I'm recalling my mom's reaction to farmers' market pink lady apples. I'm also missing cherries. And of course, calling low-carb eaters big babies.
Tripple
The last two times i made home fries i microwaved the potatoes instead of boiling them. Note that microwaving, although it sure saves a ton of time, produces cooked potatoes that are a softer texture and not exactly right for nice browning in a skillet. The texture is also a little uneven. Boiling is definitely the way to go.
So after my no-more-eating-out declaration, of course today i go and eat out at three places. BUT i have legit reasons! Kavita, aka Ms. Cornbread Chub was in town so P and i met up with her at
City Bakery. We sampled the pretzel croissant, a very tasty and unusual item. I also got hot chocolate of course. She told us about her recent trip to
Morimoto in Philly, and in sum, if you love seafood you must go - lunch was a 7 course affair! Afterwards, we all met up with be, O and E at
Lan for a special dinner. Note that the sunset special doesn't apply to weekend nights. The food was yummy and so was that water! Finally we ended up at
Krystal's Cafe on 1st Ave to have
halo halo. It's this amazing Filipino dessert consisting of sweet red beans, fruit, green things, coconut and a sweet syrup, topped with crushed ice and crowned with a slice of leche flan. Everyone received free cake too, since it was someone else's birthday! It made the terrible karaoke singing worth it.
For the rest of the week though, i'm not eating out (i hope). Sunday is P(roduce)R(eduction)D(ay), so we're planning to make a big salad, juice 4 bags of carrots, cook the spinach and green beans and do something with those beets from last week.
Taurus Magnified
We need to reduce. We just have too much stuff. Ever since be catalogued all his DVDs (he's still working on the CDs) it got me thinking about how many possessions we actually own. My culprit is books; be loves movies and music. We also have so much food it's like a corner store in our kitchen. I organized our food tonight after unpacking the infamous box and realized we have, amongst many other things:
Dried fruit: apricots, golden raisins, regular raisins, mangoes, preserved plums, prunes, dates, date pieces, strawberry-flavored Craisins
Salty snacks: tortilla chips, salsa Doritos, black pepper jack Doritos, Terra Chips, some sort of seaweed snack, Chex mix, BBQ pita puffs, BBQ soybeans, 2 bags hot wasabi peas, peanuts, cashews, mixed nuts, hot mix and 6 kinds of crackers
Cookies: 3 kinds of Hawaiian shortbread, Newman's alphabet, vanilla wafers, homebaked, a tin of Belgian chocolate, 2 boxes Thin Mints, 2 boxes Samoas
Rice: white long grain, Thai jasmine, sushi, basmati, red jasmine, red Bhutanese, Wild Blend
Dried Lentils: red, black, French green, chickpeas, black-eyed peas
Chocolate: dark, milk and white blocks; white chips, semi-sweet chips, 4 kinds of hot chocolate, 2 boxes candy, countless mini candy bars, a 75% bar
This isn't even counting all the produce, condiments in the refrigerator or tea and coffee! Nor the pasta, tomato sauce, canned beans, dried mushrooms, taco shells, ice cream cones and crap in the freezer! Not the mention all the various appliances, some useful and some not as useful, in cabinets or on the counter! I also have every pot and pan, utensil and tool needed. Plus, we also have 2 shelves of cookbooks ...
It's totally because we both have Taurus in our astrological charts. be has Taurus sun and i have Taurus rising. This means we both love food, indulgence and obtaining "stuff." Maybe it's also due to not having much growing up - we're overdoing it now as adults. Good side: we have enough ingredients to make multiple gourmet meals from many different cuisines. Bad side: we never know what to cook. We're so dumb. We need to stop eating out and reduce all this food.
And speaking of eating out, tonight we had dinner with O, Yumi, Doey and Vix at
Buddha Bodai in Chinatown. We originally wanted to eat at
Vegetarian Dim Sum House but the wait was about an hour. Buddha Bodai is really good, but overall i like VDSH better. One plus for BB, however, is that they offer 3 kinds of jook (rice porridge) and "vegetarian snail," which is really deep fried mushrooms - very tasty and addictive. Afterwards we had drinks at
Tea & Tea (it was too cold for
Chinatown Ice Cream Factory), where O immensely disliked his green barley drink. be tried his lychee with nata de coco HOT and it was actually really good! They add a slice of lemon to it, which adds a nice flavor.
Seriously though, after tomorrow i'm not eating out anymore. Okay, really only once a week. I'm now on a reduction rampage.
MK will be so proud.
Rainy Weather Dish
I feel like i haven't seen the sun in 2 years. If i wanted weather like this i would've moved to Seattle! Since it's such a crappy day outside i made Shepherd's Pie. I made up this vegetarian version with fake meat; most use lentils and although i am a fan of lentils, i'd rather eat them another way.
Vegetarian Shepherd's Pie, be Style
Potato Part:
3-4 medium russet potatoes
2 T butter
1/2 cup shredded Cheddar cheese (optional)
1/2 t garlic powder
salt & freshly ground pepper
1/4-1/3 c plain soymilk
Peel and de-eye the potatoes. Chop into big chunks and place in a pot of salted water, enough to cover the potatoes. Bring to a boil and cook until done, about 7-10 minutes. Drain and mash potatoes with butter, cheese, garlic powder and salt & pepper. Add soymilk in small increments until the potatoes are an easily-spreadable consistency.
Pie Part:
2 T oil
2 cloves garlic, chopped
10 oz fake ground beef (i used Morningstar Crumbles)
2 T ketchup (this is British food, you know!)
1 T vegetarian Worcestershire sauce or steak sauce
2 carrots, sliced or cubed
1 c frozen peas
1 can semi-condensed cream of mushroom soup (i used Amy's)
salt & freshly ground pepper
butter (optional)
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Heat the oil in a pan over medium-high heat and add chopped garlic, stir. Add fake ground beef, ketchup and sauce, stir until combined. Add carrots and peas and enough mushroom soup (don't water down, use straight from the can) until the Pie Part is a nice, gravy-encoated mess of goodness (i used the whole 14 oz can). Add salt & pepper to taste and let simmer for a few minutes.
Assembly Part:
Pour the Pie Part into a 7.5 x 11" (or similar) glass oven-safe pan, spread into an even layer. Drop small glops of the Potato Part onto the Pie Part. Using a fork, spread the potato until you get a nice even layer, completely covering the Pie Part and sealing the edges to the glass pan. Dot with butter if you want. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes, or until bubbly and it smells great. Extra credit: broil quickly to brown the Potato Part.
If you hate carrots or something, just leave them out! Want onions, add them in! Just use your judgment and adjust the other ingredients. Add more fake meat to compensate, or use less mushroom soup.
Benefit
The Asian American Writers' Workshop presents
small offerings, a Tsunami Relief Benefit
curated and hosted by
Ishle Yi Park, Poet Laureate of Queens, New York
Wednesday, January 12th, 2005, 7-9pm (doors open 6:30)
@ The Asian American Writers' Workshop
16 West 32nd Street, 10th floor
(between Broadway & 5th Ave)
New York City
$10-20 cover, sliding scale
In the aftermath of the tsunami, over 150,000 people have died and 5 million more are homeless in Asia. This event is but a small community offering to sustain ourselves and to try to help others far away.
Please join an incredible & diverse group of artists for a night of music, refreshments, and poetry. A silent auction and raffle will be held and informational brochures will be available. Bring your friends, your heart, and your wallet, and make your own small offering.
featuring:
Sabrina Margarita Alcantara-Tan * Founder of the amazing 'zine Bamboo Girl; Steve Cannon * Founder of A Gathering of the Tribes; Tina Chang * Author of Half-Hit Houses; Eric Gamalinda * Professor at NYU and Columbia, author of Zero Gravity; Edward Garcia * ASPIRA Program Director and Winner of a 2003 NYFA Poetry Grant; Kimiko Hahn * Winner of the American Book Award; Suheir Hammad * Author of Born Palestinian, Born Black, member of Def Poetry Jam; Bassey Ikpi * Three-time featured Nigerian American poet on HBO's Def Poetry Jam; Groove Therapy * soulful young Korean American singers; Kontrast * Filipino-American, Brooklyn-transplanted and unrepentantly radical hip-hop group; Joseph Legaspi * Founder of Kundiman, a non-profit arts organization dedicated to Asian American poetry; Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz * Tour-de-force woman and founder of Urbana, the three-time National Poetry Slam Championship Venue; Lynne Procope * Founder of the LouderArts Collective; Patrick Rosal * Winner of the AAWW's 2004 Member's Choice Award; Shappy * An amazing comedic poet, in high school Shappy was voted "Most Swinging Guy"; Prageeta Sharma * Poet and winner of the Academy of American Poets prize at Brown University; Hal Sirowitz * Former Poet Laureate of Queens '01-'04; Kevin So * singer, songwriter, guitarist, latest CD "leaving the lights on"; Florence Yoo * Lovely, original singer, songwriter, latest CD "Indelible"
...and much more!!!!
All Proceeds go to non-profit organizations actively helping with tsunami relief, including:
The Sri Lanka Relief Fund and
OxFam America
For more information, please email
desk@aaww.org. To send a check or to donate something to the raffle/silent auction, please contact
ishlepark@gmail.com.
Getting to the Workshop by Subway: N, R, Q, W, B, D, F, V trains to 34th St/Herald Sq; 6 train to 33rd St; 1, 2, 3 trains to 34th St
PS: thanks to
glo for helping me with that sidebar!
Bad Mood Factory
Last night we had a similar meal to Monday's: "Wild Blend" rice with pine nuts and raisins (in mine), sauteed red chard, baked sweet potatoes with whipped butt and grilled portobello mushrooms. As a small appetizer we had some cheese and tomatoes with olive oil and basalmic vinegar. To drink we had the wonderful Looza brand mango juice; it's the best one! For two days in a row we've eaten really healthily and we're trying to keep this trend up.
P told me about her trip to
Grimaldi's, the famed Brooklyn pizzeria. I haven't been there but i sure do want to try it out. Besides the long line to get a table at Grimaldi's, there isn't much around besides the
Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory (another place i want to try out).* P informed me that you can only buy a whole pie, no single or multiple slices. They have a thin crust, use fresh mozzarella and crushed tomatoes. She ordered a sausage pie and really enjoyed it. I've been lucky enough to live near great pizza in Brooklyn and Queens; the Park Slope place that used sesame seeds on their crust is now a fancy restaurant, but the Dino's on Broadway in Astoria is still around and still great. be used to go there as a kid and it's still his favorite slice. Check out this
pizza blog.
Tonight, due to bad moods and bad things at work, be and i ate dinner at Sushi Park on 2nd Ave in the East Village. Their sushi is hit or miss but generally good for the price. It's 1/2 off if everyone orders at least $14 worth of sushi or rolls. be likes to go there to fill up on sushi when he's in a BM since that's his favorite food. There's a sushi place by our house called Tokyo II on 31st St under the N train, which offers an all-u-can-eat deal for $15.95. It's never crowded and we're worried they might go out of business, but the sushi and rolls are very good. They also have more vegetarian options than most places.
* I love the
Chinatown Ice Cream Factory! It's a small, family-owned business that makes all the ice cream flavors by hand. They have "exotic" flavors like vanilla and chocolate but try the regular flavors like coconut and almond cookie. The mango/papaya sorbet is awesome!
Puff bebe
Tonight for dinner i made a fancy meal of:
1) "
Wild blend" rice with toasted pine nuts. I added golden raisins to my half because be hates fruit in savory dishes. On the other hand, i think the dish would be missing something if it weren't for dried fruit. I usually use dried cherries or cranberries but we didn't have any.
2) Spinach & feta puff pastries. I used half of the frozen puff pastry dough and this
recipe. Instead of frozen spinach i used fresh and i also added a little bit of parmesan cheese. They came out really good! We started eating them straight out of the oven so we burned our tongues (and for some reason i bit myself twice in the same place) but we just couldn't stop; they were just too yummy. The pastry is really flaky and light. Next i want to try the mushroom & basil cups.
3) Broccoli florets with lemon pepper. Too bad i overcooked the broccoli this time since i was preoccupied with pinching pastries shut. I haven't messed up broccoli in the last 20 broccolis!
A noteworthy fact: be actually finished all his food before me! He's the slowest eater imaginable and i usually beat him by an hour or so. I always find him on the couch watching tv with a plate of little piles of cold food.
Now he's working on databasing his media with
Delicious Library. I'm going to catalogue all my books with this too. You can't eat it but it's still delicious.
Nuuuutin??
I received a request to post about
this again. It's hilarious! So funny in fact, that i was actually disappointed when i saw the real commercial again.
Diner House
Happy 30th to Sania!
Big breakfast day today (at, ahem, 3PM) = diner house!
I fried up some fake sausage, eggs and home fries; toasted some bread and made Kona coffee! I usually make hash browns but i didn't feel like grating potatoes so i improvised and came up with a recipe for delicious home fries. I swear, it's better than any diner. be loved them so much he finished all the leftovers!
be's Delicious Home Fries
3 medium russet potatoes
2 T oil
1 T butter
salt & pepper
hot sauce, ketchup (optional)
De-eye the potatoes and scrub the skins. Peel away any skin that doesn't look so great. Place the whole potatoes in cold water and bring to a boil. Cook until you can easily stick them with a fork to the middle, about 15-20 minutes depending on size. Drain water and chop the potatoes (i left the skins on) into a coarse dice. Heat up your cast iron skillet* on medium-high with about 2 T of oil. Add the diced potatoes and stir to coat with oil. Cover and let sit for 3-5 minutes or until the bottoms start to crust. Uncover and stir potatoes every few minutes to evenly brown all sides until golden or medium-brown, but don't end up mashing the cubes. Lower heat if necessary. Add 1 T (2 pats) of butter and stir to coat. Add salt and freshly ground pepper to taste. Eat with optional hot sauce or ketchup, serves 2-3.
*If you don't have a cast iron skillet you should get one. Meanwhile, use a non-stick pan but you won't get the same kind of crust and cooking times will be a little longer.
Jackpot
I don't like the Whole Foods in Manhasset, Long Island. be and i took a drive out there and not only is it cramped and small, all the customers are assholes! It's like people don't know the concept of "excuse me" as they reach over you for something on the shelf. Whole Foods shoppers are not like the ones at real natural food stores; it's like they believe they deserve to eat better than anyone else. They don't even sell vegan cakes anymore!
Back in Queens, we walked to a shop called Garden of George on Steinway Street. I'm always disappointed in GoG because they always manage to NOT stock something that a "gourmet market" should. Once, be and i needed tahini to make hummus, and even the clerks were surprised they didn't stock it! This time, we left without purchasing anything because the cheddar was just too expensive.
We headed over to Stop & Shop off Northern Blvd, where we totally hit the supermarket jackpot. We usually shop at Pathmark since it's a closer walk, but after today i'm going to frequent Stop & Shop more. Whoever stocks that store does an excellent job; they offer many hard-to-find products, they even have a British section! The Spanish/Mexican section is 2 whole aisles alone! Among other things, we purchased:
1) Goya coconut water without sugar. It's easy to find coconut water with added sugar, but we think it doesn't need it. Coconut water is so sweet and refreshing on it's own. be likes to inform everyone that coconut water can be used as a I.V. drip.
2) My precious
Boca fake sausage! I was so happy to see this that i bought 2 boxes at full price! Now i must make room in the freezer and horde boxes.
3)
Ducal brand refried beans, one can red and one black. be's mom discovered this brand first.
4) Silk soymilk eggnog. Apparently be loves eggnog. I don't approve of eggnog.
5) Frozen
puff pastry sheets. Inspired by his mom and sister's experiments with
Pillsbury Crescent Rolls, i convinced be to try the real deal and make something with pastry. The crescent rolls were good, but overall i'm not a huge fan of the taste or texture of Pillsbury dough. That dough boy sure is cute, though.
Back at home, i cut off the beet top greens, saving the red stems and the actual beets for another time. I sauteed the greens with oil, garlic, salt and pepper and the resulting dish was so good! It reminded me of spinach, but heartier and didn't make my teeth squeaky. Alongside the greens, we finished the remaining grated beets with vinaigrette. be, who hates canned beets, actually ate a tiny scoop without gagging.
I also made a cheddar and beer fondue that we ate with toasted baguette cubes, Granny Smith apple slices, fake smoked mini sausages and mini pickles. I used an apple beer but it tasted too sweet, so next time i'll use regular beer or maybe stout.
Tomorrow is produce reduction day as we received another infamous
box Friday night!
New Year
I had my mind set on doing absolutely nothing last night but in the end, after frantic rushing, crescent rolls, emergency pit stops and secret stories in cabs, Ishle, be and i met up with P, Anmol and O at
Tsampa for a nice dinner. They don't make the thenthuk noodle soup as good as the now-sadly-closed Lhasa but O loved his chicken dumplings, the hot sauce was delicious and my potato/kale dish was yummy.
After drinks at
Saint's Alp (i had the mocha coffee with jelly) we headed up to Central Park. Hiroko told us about the little-publicized festivities that occur there: a midnight 5 k race, a DJ, fireworks and free hot drinks. We were prepared and brought
Brooklyn Lager, Looza juice and
Red Hot Utz but i still tried the free hot chocolate which wasn't bad. We all agreed it was a much nicer way to spend the evening than being crushed at Times Square or sitting at home in your jammies watching tv. As for fireworks, they sure have made leaps in firework technology. I recall the uni-color puffballs growing up, but now there are fireworks in purple and pink, ones that glitter and spiral, emit mini-explosions and puff out in hearts and other shapes.
We received the infamous
box last night so today is cooking and laundry. I've been craving fondue again so maybe we'll make that. We should also make something with potatoes as we have too many russets about to sprout.
