Redo

We woke up bright and early at 11:00 to loud reggaeton music. Boomboxes are the birds of Sunset Park :-) We decided then and there that we'd take advantage of the gorgeous weather and redo our failed date yesterday. So off to the Village we went.

I was craving ramen and according to Yelp, Ippudo and Momofuku were in close proximity. We put our names down at Ippudo - even at lunchtime there is a 45-minute wait. That was an immediate turn-off. Waiting makes me grumpy. Since Momofuku was only a few blocks away, we decided to walk over and check it out. There was a large crowd of tourists there, which was an even bigger turn-off than waiting, so we walked back to Ippudo. Plus, I swear by Yelp and Ippudo is more highly rated. Ippudo was also recommended by Wendy, our ramenophile. Momofuku was more expensive - that was straw that broke the camel's back, for cheapos like me. Fortunately, our names were called as soon as we walked in the door - only a 25 minute wait. Not bad.

Verdict? It was SO GOOD.

I love eel and this una don was prepared perfectly. I didn't even take pictures of my ramen - I was too busy shoveling it into my face.



It was so good, in fact, that ST forgot about his beer. That has NEVER happened before in the history of ever.





Side note: I think ST is embarrassed that I take pictures of our food... :-D

We left full and satisfied. I felt like a G. Allow me to elaborate:

Or better yet, a Lannister.

The damage was $50 for two ramen sets and a Sapporo. Worth it! Our goal was to have a $20 date but its so hard in Manhattan. Also, I was really craving ramen so I was blinded by that. I'm not sure if we'll be heading back to Ippudo anytime soon due to the distance, wait time, and expense, but we've definitely tucked it into our little book of yummy places.

My goal is to find a great ramen place in Brooklyn.

After that, we needed to walk off our meal. We decided to head over to the Wall Street protests since word on the street was that Radiohead was going to perform at 4. Liars! Can you imagine the madness if Radiohead was there though? ST is a huge fan so we had to at least try.

Along the way, I couldn't help but notice these gorgeous wrought-iron, zombie apocalypse-friendly window and door bars.





The West Village is such a peaceful, beautiful neighborhood. A great place to stroll. We passed by Greenwich Letterpress and stopped in. What an adorable shop filled with delightful paper goods and vintage toys. Too bad the cashier guy wasn't nice and it was over-priced. Polka dot cupcake liners were $10 a set while vintage tin cars were $15 per pack.

I also stopped into Buffalo Exchange just out of curiosity. It was small, stinky, disorganized, and worst of all - expensive. There were stained Coach canvas bags, ripped leather bags, watches for $35 and plastic rings for $7.50. Basically, it was gross. I understand that thrifting is an art form - I just don't think it's always a deal. I was wearing this shirt from Gap that I got for $5 with a pair of old James Perse shorts from Marshall's, purchased for $40. At a glance, I saw old no-name dresses and tops ranging from $10-$25. Seriously? Thrifting only makes sense if it's cheaper than new for comparable brands. I support buying used items as part of a green lifestyle. I don't support getting ripped off, ever.

We stepped into Jonathan Adler because he rocks! I love his colorful, bold, and whimsical designs. We saw a boob vase and gorgeous porcelain coasters. I really like the snail box. At $78 it's really pricey, but maybe some day we'll have a place for it.

Boobies and butts!

Hello there :-)

Anyway, Wall Street was a mess.







Our friends who work on Wall Street describe it as anarchy. Half naked women, protestors provoking police, etc. ST doesn't know if he's for these protests - after all, what do they hope to accomplish? I think it's always good for people to speak out against injustice, no matter the timing or cohesiveness of the demonstrations. It would have been more helpful during the bailouts but I'll take what I can get. Go on with your bad selves, crazy peeps of Occupy Wall Street.

We only hung around for 15 minutes - it was total chaos down there. We got home, ate ice cream, took naps, went to church, and are now watching Pineapple Express for the 100th time.

Redo was a success.

$20 Date

ST and I are enjoying a four-day weekend thanks to Rosh Hashanah. We indulged ourselves by waking up late, catching up on TV (Awkward for me, sports for ST), and having brunch.

I am so glad Jenna chose Jake! Side note: Yes, I watch MTV and love it. My inner 15-year-old exults in teen drama.

I also finished A Dance with Dragons :-( I'm sad because it'll probably be like 7 years before the next book comes out. Le sigh. I really enjoyed it - Martin is a genius. Every character, plot, and setting is woven with intricate details and eccentricities. Love it. I can't wait until Season 2 of Game of Thrones airs :-D I'll probably re-read A Clash of Kings.

Cersei's walk of atonement was one of my favorite parts. You have to love this character as much as you hate her. Another great character development has been Jaime's - I missed the Kingslayer in this book. Side note: Spoiler alert, oops.

Then we attempted to have a $20 date in the West Village. The plan was to explore Christopher Street and just take a long walk in an unfamiliar neighborhood. Our standard go-to date whenever we don't have anything in particular we want to do.

It was hot and sunny when we left the house so I slipped on a pair of cute leather sandals despite the weather report of an impending thunderstorm. My iPhone ALWAYS says its going to rain and never does. I didn't want to be a sucker again so I left my cute boots at home. And my umbrella. You know where this is going.

Lo and behold, by the time we got out of the train station thirty minutes later, its pouring. Like, sheets. ARGH!

What the frack is with this weather?!

So we left the station to check out the situation. It was terrible. Definitely not walking, lovey-dovey weather. Without an umbrella and clad in leather sandals. So back into the station we went. Back to Sunset Park. Epic date fail :-(

We were soggy.





We came home and lazed around for an hour or so reading blogs, checking news - being defeated. Then, ST decided we'd still have our $20 date. We decided to stay local and head to Nyonya on 8th Avenue.

Dubbed the "Brooklyn Chinatown," 8th avenue has really come into it's own. Fujianese immigrants have moved in over the past decade and opened various shops and restaurants. They're not good restaurants, per se, but the area is bustling nonetheless!

I knew what I wanted before we even left the house: beef tripe noodle soup! Side note: I love that goofy smile.

Delicious chunks of beef tripe, lots of firm noodles, and plenty of curry soup laced with peanut sauce, I think. Hit the spot.

The best part? The bill, of course! $19 for the noodle soup, pad thai, and roti. Victory at last! I won't count the watermelon bubble tea that I had after because it was $3 :-D

Wisdom

A wise and beloved friend told me this tonight: "The best is not behind you, it is before you."

Someday she'll tell you all about my antics in college.

30 Minute Meals

Growing up, my mom was my Paula Deen, Rachel Ray, and Emeril. She could whip up a delicious meal in 30 minutes. We always had a nutritious dinner together every night. However, she did have this crazy/obnoxious rule about us not being allowed to drink anything until we were finished with dinner.

When I got married, I made it my mission to learn quick, (sometimes) healthy, delicious recipes that I could prepare for dinner. In high school and college, I used to be a terrible cook - too much oil, too much salt, too bland, too overcooked, etc. Now I think I'm at least proficient in the basics.

I love baking savory foods - potatoes, carrots, meats, pastas. One of my favorite things to make is of the meatloafy variety. After work today, I was suddenly inspired to make mozzarella-stuffed meatballs. Delicious? Check! Healthy? Um... sure!

After I Googling some inspiration, I got to work. Here's the line up...

• 1.5 lbs of lean ground beef


• salt, basil, garlic salt, paprika


• Worcestershire sauce


• brown spicy mustard


• fat-free mozzarella cheese


• two eggs


• a bunch of stale Italian bread, sliced

I decided to add two eggs instead of one and two meatloaf ingredients that I've never used in meatballs before - Worcestershire sauce and spicy brown mustard. I haven't made a knockout meatball before so I figured some modifications couldn't hurt.

I popped some stale bread into the blender to make bread crumbs. Saving stale bread = wasting less food + spending less. Woohoo!



Chop, food processor, purée... ét viola!



I unceremoniously dumped everything in...



...and mashed it all together.



Then, I cubed my cheese. We bought fat-free mozzarella cheese because it was on sale. Fat free cheese tastes funny - it's harder and drier.



I grabbed a chunk of meat, pressed in a cube or two of cheese, and made a ball. Plunk down in the baking dish and repeat. I made twelve large meatballs.





I've tried making meatballs by baking and frying. I prefer baking because I can make them all at once. My biggest problem was that the meatballs would be too dry. So I shortened the baking time by 10 minutes and baked them at 350 for 25 minutes. they came out perfectly :-D

I assumed the blogging position while I waited...



Hello my pretties :-) Side note: It's not necessary to grease the pan with olive oil. I don't usually but this website suggested it. There was so much grease in the pan, yuck! This was AFTER I drained them:



This little guy looked like he was sticking his tongue out at me:



Mmm...



I'm not sure if it was the weird fat-free cheese, but I think I'll nix the cheese in the future. The cheese hardened somewhat, which I didn't like. Fat-free cheese notwithstanding, this recipe's a winner!

Sacrifices

After purchasing three pairs of boots and being convinced by ST and several others to keep all three pairs, I thought my inner shopaholic would be satisfied for this season at least. Alas. The beast within cannot be tamed.

I check Ideeli kind of frequently just because I have a $25 referral credit and I want to use it. Today, they had this adorable bag that would cost a mere $55 shipped after applying my credit.



In an unprecedented display of restraint, I closed the window.

Even though I'd been looking for something like that, I decided not to buy it for the following reasons:

• We want a house! ST and I have decided to include Mel into our homeowner plans - as in, we are buying a house together! This is an ingenious idea for several reasons, most notably - 1) larger down payment, 2)  being able to live together, and 3) free babysitting! in the future. Mel had one stipulation: she wants to live in the Sunset Park area. Initially, ST and I wanted to shop around in more affordable, up-in-coming areas such as Crown Heights, but we have to compromise. The houses here are very expensive, so every penny counts.

• We need to reach our savings goal. We are a bit off in our savings goal. Things happen and that's what savings are for but it still makes us feel a bit crummy to miss the mark. Buying a stupid albeit delightful bag won't help that situation.

• I should be shopping my closet. I own way too many bags. What I really need is a new wallet. Check out this moldy ol' guy, purchased circa... 2005? I got it off eBay for $15 back in the day. Strangely, I can't remember a time when I didn't have this wallet. Weird.

Anyway, ST said something very insightful just now. As I was typing this post, he asked, "Are you typing a letter to our daughter?" To which I replied, "Aha! So you admit you want a daughter!" He'd previously declared for a muchacho. "No, you just write to a girl."

I'd thought about this long ago, when I posted about the infamous Target boots. I can't help it - this is me. It would be super weird for me to try to be gender neutral. Being yourself is what the Internet is all about :-D

$30 Date

The other day I chanced upon my favorite type of Groupon - movie tickets! This one was pretty sweet - $9 for two movie tickets + popcorn. Woohoo! I bought 3 since they're only good until November and ST and I aren't huge movie goers.

Anyway, we decided to go on a date while the weather was still relatively pleasant. We decided on Contagion because we both like movies that feature mass hysteria, infectious diseases, and the potential for zombie appearances. Alas, that last bit didn't make it into the movie, but it was still pretty good.

It was perfect boot weather :-)

While we were lounging around, ST clicked over to Brooklyn News 12 and heard about a Greek Culture Festival in nearby Bay Ridge. So we decided to stop by before the movie to grab some dinner. I think we're going to watch this channel more often on the weekends to scope out fun things to do.

It was kind of like Staten Island, but Greek instead of Italian. Also classier since they had guys dressed up like Spartans.

The part with the rides was literally two blocks long so it was pretty boring. However, there was this hilarious clown in a cage egging people on.

We made a beeline for the food court - pork souvlaki sandwich for me, huge platter of grilled meat for ST. I figured the pork would be awesome since it was roasting on a spit before my eyes:

It wasn't. The pork was tough and there were some pieces I couldn't even finish. Boo...  two dinners + drinks set us back $26.

When we got to the theater, we didn't have a problem getting our two tickets and popcorns. ST bought a medium soda for $3.75 so that puts this date at about $30. Not bad for dinner and a movie, even if the dinner was meh. All in all a fun date :-D

Ladurée

Two years ago, I spent two weeks in Spain and France. It was ridiculously awesome, and my last European trip as a single lady.

First stop was Madrid. Here I am, biking past some plaza in Madrid...





Next stop: Barcelona. Riding bikes again past some plaza. My hair makes me LOL and cringe at the same time - this wasn't that long ago :-(



Las Ramblas, with a creepy gargoyle guy:



Biking, yet again, in Paris. I remember we rode past some old military school. Random thought :-)



Prior to that, tía Mel studied abroad in Florence, Italy and took advantage of the trains and Ryan Air to travel throughout Europe (I think she was the little travel bug that bit me). While in France, she chanced upon the most amazing macaron shop called Ladurée. When I got to Paris, that was my first stop. Luckily, our hostel was right around the corner. Très bien!

Enjoying the yummiest, most delicious strawberry tart ever.







So fancy, it's fauncy.





A few weeks ago, my colleague told me that Ladurée had made it to the Upper East Side. I was beyond excited. I immediately texted Kim and Mel and we decided to make a girly date of it for Kim's birthday. Unfortunately, NYC was on lock-down due to 9/11 so we thought it unwise to venture out there. So that was that.

Then, Kim surprised me with 16 macarons from my beloved Ladurée! There was another box in the bag - don't worry, I can count :-)



Unfortunately, her experience wasn't that great. Apparently, there's a rushed line of impatient macaron connoisseurs that huffed impatiently when she was choosing her flavors. There wasn't much to the shop either. LAME.

That wasn't the only problem we had with the American translation of our beloved Ladurée. The packaging is atrociously cheap - like, McDonald's apple pie box cheap.



We brought over boxes and boxes of beautifully packaged macarons and tea. Thickly wrapped, rococo-stamped boxes. These boxes fell apart. DOUBLE LAME.

The taste was pretty legit though. Prior to this, we would make do with macarons from Dean & Deluca, which were chewier and taste as if they are made with inferior ingredients.

The rose flavor are mi favorito :-D



I'll pass on the the American version of Ladurée, though. I can wait until we go to Paris.