Spring Salad

Chinese Coconut Buns a la New York Bakery style. Mikaela and I made these on the fly and they came out fantastic. In fact, we were shocked at how well they came out. I don't plan to make these any time soon though, 20 buns were gone in two days. Ach!

Chicken Breasts marinated in Rosemary, Parsley, Lime juice, olive oil, garlic and bitter orange. So good and healthy too!

Some recent pics

My Pictures

Chicken Salad from 411 West. Sooooo good, I have to admit. I guess North Carolina has something to offer.



Egg and Cream noodle dish from 411 West. Pretty good.


Mikaela trying my squash with Marsala wine sauce. yum.


Me feeling bad for all the Turkey's dying on Thanksgiving day.


Trying my butternut squash semi-pasta dish.


My all-time favorite meal. Pastel de platano con arroz y frijoles.

More Pics from New York

Eating in New York and New York

I haven't written in a long time. I have a horrible time at keeping this page up to date. But I do have some great news regarding food and cine! I went to my favorite restaurant while I was in New York.... Balthazar's in Soho. I have amazingly fresh French Cuisine and almost died. Mikaela and I spent way too much money while there, but it was worth it and we both still think of that meal when we sit and talk here in the house. Pumpkin Ravioli with Sage, Nutmeg and Spinach. Fresh French Fries, goat cheese and onion tart, Chocolate Tart with fresh mint garnish..... and fabulous capuccinos. God help me, it was good.

We also ate some enchiladas with mole sauce in Queens and had veggie and chicken samosas while we were staying with luz. Her neighborhood is fabulous in Queens. We found a chinese bakery and every morning we would go there, have coffee and eat gai mai bows (coconut buns). I ate so many of those, I actually got sick of them. Can you imagine? I love chinese coconut buns.

I have decided I want to move to New York. I don't know how I am going to do it, but it is a dream to live there for at least a good bit. It has everything I want and then more.

As far as cine is concerned, I am looking forward to seeing "He's just not that into you". It comes out this weekend. I just read the book and it was hilarious. Sadly, everything they say in the book makes someone go over all the break-ups in their past and realize that all those excuses were just lines. If you believed the reasons and methods by which your exes got out of your relationships.... well, think again. They just weren't into you. And when I think about it and made excuses in my own need/want to get out of relationships.... well the bottom line was that I just wasn't into them. The one time I never wanted out, well I was super in love. I couldn't think of anyone or anything else. In fact, until this day..... while I am over it.... I still compare everything and everyone to that relationship. I look to recover the feeling I got in that situation.

I also watched "Summer Palace" last weekend and really loved it. It is about the Tianamen Square massacres in 1989 and the fall out of that scenario for a group of ex-college students. It is really great.... depressing, but really beautifully shot and written.

Vicky Cristina Barcelona

I watched Woody Allen's most recent film tonight and really enjoyed it. I felt that, as always, Allen really got to the heart of what "love" can do and does to people. I felt that his insinuations revolving around satisfaction and lack thereof, even when you seemingly should feel "complete", were right on target. Why is it that people always feel the need for more? Why, even when I was in a relationship that I know miss more than anything, did I feel dissatisfaction and even stray more than once? People are crazy and I think that Woody Allen really knows how to epitomize that sentiment.

I also liked his formulations on what love can and cannot be. It can be platonic, it can be half-assed, it can be hysterical, it can be violent.... love doesn't necessarily mean lovely. Again, the movie really reminded me about some of my own past relationships and made me wonder how people internalize and reflect on what love meant to them and why.

For me, my most cherished relationship was one which was stable and yet, unstable. Happy and, ironically, unhealthy at many points in time. I wonder if healthy equals positive and unhealthy equals negative. Maybe I am an absolute lunatic, but I preferred the relationship Marielena and Juan Antonio had with one another, over any of the other relationships. Vicky and Cristina both end up miserable in their own ways.... one married to a stable man and yet bored out of her mind and the other alone and wandering through the world. Whereas, Marielena and Juan Antonio really seemed to have a connection, even if slightly "fucked up". I definitely found the complexity interesting and "real" (for lack of a better word). It made me miss my own instabiliy...and wonder if my ex was happy in his "stable" life. Anyway, enough personal reflection.....


Here are some songs I have been listening to as of late:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-t6iNXgvRXU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkQuIPpKZoI