Monday, September 17, 2007

Why my teeth hate me, and other life updates:

Last year, right before my 25th birthday, my teeth decided to rebel. I had an infection that caused half of my face to puff up and I had to be on antibiotics (therefore totally sober) on my birthday. Not only did I look hot with a super-sweet swollen face, but I didn't feel that great either.
This year, because I'm a sucker for tradition, my teeth have once again decided that the place for them is not in my mouth. (you can't see me, but I'm shaking my fist at the sky) I had oral surgery on Friday and have spent the last few days hopped up on Vicodin and knowing the mental fog that only painkillers can bring. My birthday is on Saturday. Hopefully I will be done with antibiotics by then.
I threatened that I wanted them to just pull the teeth and give me dentures, but then my grandma said that since she got dentures, her sense of taste has been impaired. WHAT??? No sense of taste? I might as well not go on living. Seriously. What kind of sad, cruel world would it be with no sense of taste?

On a happier note, my friend Karen is flying in from LA to visit me for my birthday!!!!
Yeah Friends!

Onto the topic of my upcoming nuptials. I am hard pressed to find a place that I both like and can afford. The whole wedding industry is a scam and all the engaged people in the world are it's blissfully unaware pawns. A lot of the places that are affordable just aren't that great...and let me tell you, I would rather not do it at all then do it in a New Jersey banquet hall with red carpet and gold accents everywhere that looks like the mafia is just using the place as a cover for something...although, isn't the wedding industry profitable enough? You better be selling crack by the pound if you are using a price-gouging establishment like a banquet hall as a cover. I mean, $150 per person for dry chicken breast and dinner rolls is a pretty freakin high profit margin.
Al thinks I'm a snob...but I didn't just go on a shopping spree at French Connection UK, so there! Whose the snob now?

Tuesday, September 04, 2007

Our (almost) Neighborhood Italian Deli
If you can consider 2 stops on the G train (which never comes) still in our neighborhood, then yes, G. Esposito and Sons Pork Store is in our neighborhood. I mean, I could walk there...and I can remember walking home from there, but why miss all the fun of that mysterious G train? Will it come? When will it come? When it comes, will it stop? It's really a fun game.
Next time anyone, and I mean anyone...even a vegetarian, comes to visit us, I am taking them to this place. It's amazing. It's in the part of Brooklyn where everyone is Italian and has an accent. They make their own mozzarella fresh every day, and they have every kind of cured meat you can think of.
I wasn't in a particularly meaty mood when we went, but I did purchase some meat sauce, which I served with some home-made ravioli that we also bought there. It was the best sauce and the best ravioli...well, that's I've ever tried to pass off as something I made, and that's really saying something.
After we bought some stuff there we went next door to the Italian Deli and shared a cannoli...and thus continues my journey into being Italian. Yep, gotta prepare to slap on that new last name.

The West Indian Parade
On Monday Al and I hit up what I just discovered is the biggest parade/festival in New York. With the promise of Jamaican food, we headed to Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn and down Eastern Parkway. It was craziness. It was just how I pictured Carnival in Brazil, with scantily-clad dancers, loud music, and delicious food.

In the picture of me above, I am eating some awesome fried cheese bread, which I can't remember the name of, but which they usually serve with shark in it as a sandwich. I just wanted some delicious cheesy bread.
I love you fried banana...not so much with cheese in you, but I love you none the less.

Saturday, September 01, 2007

Catching Up
Much to the chagrin of Al, we haven't had internet for a few weeks. Last Friday, yours truly stayed home from work and waiting for the DSL man.
Once again there is happiness in this apartment. And I can finally post all these dang food pictures.














The above picture is of this wonderful chicken I made for dinner one night. I made it with one of those Indian bottled sauces from Whole Foods. I would tell you what sauce, but I forget.

I made baked apples for desert, only to discover that Al isn't such a big fan of the baked apple. I think his exact words were, "yeah, baked apples don't do me a whole lot of good if they don't have crust, or at least some sort of crumb topping." See what happens when you try to be a little healthy around here? Not that it was exactly lo-cal with the amount of brown sugar I put on it.

Isn't the saying that necessity is the mother of invention? Well, that's how I remember it.
One time Al said "just taking a stab in the dark" instead of "shot in the dark" and when I called him on it, he just leaned in really close, and in a threatening tone said, "lady, I carry knives, not guns." Point being, sometimes there really is nothing to make, and I gotta eat, so I'm forced to make something up...like this wonderful side dish. I had a green pepper, some sun-dried tomatoes, garlic and a can of potatoes. Saute up those veggies, add those potatoes, and throw on a little crushed red pepper, and you've got a pretty tasty concoction. It's dishes like this that earned me the nickname "Macgyver of the kitchen."

And it's cupcakes like the ones above that earned me the nickname EVIL. They are moist and good, and I made Nutella frosting for them. I started off with a basic buttercream frosting, but then cut back on the sugar a little and whipped in 1/4 jar of Nutella. It was delicious. I ate, well, I ate a few, but let's not talk about it.