Opening day of Triple-A baseball: Rochester Red Wings vs. Pawtucket Red Sox.
Beautiful day and a great game!
Today, February 5th 2010 Papi would’ve been 79….and he would be 3.5 months away of seeing me receive by Ph.D. degree. You always think next year will be easier, but it really does not get any easier at all. Last year I did a nice post with some pictures, and no matter what I say it still hurts. And I think it will always hurt. Last year I was in a better mood than I am today, so this one will be a bit shorter.
But as this is a celebratory day, we will not let pain and absence rule.
Papi wasn’t too big on celebrating his birthday, I don’t have many memories of him blowing out candles, or even taking the day off. But he did like to eat something different that day. From what I can remember he would buy himself a lobster tail and bake it. And that would be his celebratory dinner.
So thinking about lobster and beer, I’ll wish Papi a ver Happy Birthday wherever he is!!!!!
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Went to Wordle and made a word cloud of the blog….Cool huh?
Don’t you just love the prominence of Pan con Cuban Bistec?
Moros con Cristianos Word Cloud
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I truly thought I would have more time for blogging once I finished my degree, but getting used to our new schedule has been kind of well, hard. So I apologize for my wayyyyyyyy late Christmas posting.
Last year, you might remember that my friend Marisol and her family came to our house….so this year it was our turn to visit them in Conshohocken, PA. I love spending Christmas with my Goddaughter!
Through our Holiday time in Conshohocken, I was able to spend plenty of time with my beautiful ahijada Gabriela. See?
Gaby and Me preparing for an outing!
For example here we are in Merchantville, NJ a place with a lot of snow and beautiful Victorian homes, as well as, strangely, a Hispanic peluquería and a Latino Grocery where I was able to get all the fixings for our Cuban-Rican Nochebuena.
Gaby and Me in the snow!
After hanging out, it was time to get to the task at hand of preparing all the Nochebuena fixins’! So I present to you the cooks of today – and the cook of tomorrow!
Marisol, Me & Gaby!
As I shared with all of you last year, our Nochebuena includes: lechon, arroz blanco, frijoles negros, arroz con gandules, morcillas, pasteles, tostones and yuca con mojo. For dessert we always have a Flan de Queso. This year’s Christmas celebration was particularly special since Marisol and Victor might be moving. So it may have been our last one in Conshohocken! Although I forgot to take a picture of what our plates looked like (I was too hungry!) I can show you what they looked like at the end.
Done!
So as you can see it was a success!!!! Now tell me, how was your Christmas??
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Six years ago today Alan and I got married, for the second time. December 5, 2003. Our first wedding, was July 26, 2003…and if you guess a couple of people in my family did not agree with the date, you guessed right. But that was the civil ceremony. Later in December we had the Catholic ceremony…’cause you know that all good Cuban Catholic girls that were chaperoned have to get married by the Church too!
Married!
We got married in a beautiful ceremony by Father Albert Lahens (currently at West Palm Beach) at St. John Neumann Church. For me it was a magical day as nothing, absolutely NOTHING went wrong. And although I was scared out of my wits, I was also very very happy. Alan, he doesn’t get scared easily so he was one cool customer throughout this whole thing.
December is a special month to us for many reasons. First of all, we started dating in December as we clicked at the birthday party of a friend whose birthday is in early December. Secondly, I live for the Christmas season. Anyone who knows me knows that. Thirdly, it is our blog anniversary, and lastly it is OUR anniversary! Six years seems like a long time and at the same time the memories of that day are so vivid.
Our First Anniversary Cake
For our very first anniversary we of course ate cake. I mean, c’mon, you save the top for over a year in the freezer and then really get to disfrutar your wedding cake a year later. In our case it was doubly special because that cake traveled from Miami to Rhode Island, and you will not believe the things we had to do to keep it frozen.
The Lambies at Rockerfeller Center
That year we also went to NYC for our anniversary, as I was dying to see the Rockerfeller Center Christmas Tree and of course all the Christmas decorations around the city and the windows of the stores. It was magical, and I felt like Natalie Wood in Miracle on 34th Street. I had never seen such productions for store windows and such beautiful decorations across a city!
Yes I know the NYC picture is not that good, we had someone else take it and it wasn’t as good a camera as what we have now (it was a digital camera), but it is the memory that counts!
Subsequent years we’ve always planned different things to do around our December anniversary. Sometimes we travel, some times we stay in city. For example, for 2006 (the year Papi passed away and I broke my hand) we spent the day in Boston. But whatever we do we always find a new place to have dinner….and this year is no different. We will go to dinner and have some wine, and celebrate our 6th year together! Here is to many MANY more happy years to come! L’chaim!
December 5, 2009
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As we plan to get pregnant soon, and I have some pounds to lose (keep your eye out for The Biggest Loser Lambie edition), I’m also taking a second look at the way we eat.
I get bombarded (a good thing) on a daily basis by ex-schoolmate Laura Posada who pretty much leads a one woman’s crusade for healthy family eating with her new book Fit Home Team. She also looks terrific – which motivates me to once again get my ass back in shape so it can hold precious healthy life for 9 months.
Although my body works amazingly well with a 40-30-30 or Zone diet, I absolutely positively LOOOOOOOOOVE pasta. And a 40-30-30 plan really limits your starchy carbohydrates. So I try to find various ways to make it as balanced as possible. I refuse to eat soy based materials – I actually read labels and actively avoid soy – so whenever I want to go meatless I opt for Quorn and either their crumbles or meatballs (both excellent – I’ve even done Chilean empanadas and Pastelón – recipes coming soon – with them and you can’t tell the difference).
So the other day at Wegman’s they were promoting pasta with butternut squash. Truth be told, it was way waaaay too sweet. But this reminded me of my friend Madelyn and her vegetarian ways and off I was to her Karma Free Cooking blog where I found exactly what I was looking for!
Pasta with Eggplant Puree! Of course, in my quest to have protein everywhere (it also helps keep your brain on target), I will add the Quorn granules – just do a simple sofrito and add the “beef” and sauté for a while so they take the flavor. Then just add this to the vegetable puree.
And in our case, Alan’s and I, it will more than likely be a side dish…..but at least I’ll get to eat some pasta!
So if you are looking for something different, good and healthy, scurry on over to Karma Free Cooking, and get some Pasta with Eggplan, with or without the protein. Your call!
Posted in Adriana, Recipes | Tagged Friends, Recipes | Leave a Comment »
I’m not much for Halloween. I did the usual as a kid, you know the trick or treat, but I wasn’t really big on decorations or costumes. Probably still traumatized by the time my parents and grandparents thought it would be a good idea to have a Haunted House for my birthday. You see I was born right in the middle of October – the 15th to be exact. And this Haunted House extravaganza was for my 5th birthday. Yes you read right, F-I-F-T-H.
Needless to say I was scared out of my mind, and it took some cajoling and major convincing for me to venture into the Haunted House in the arms of Abuelo. Unfortunately, our first stop was my bedroom that was now transformed into a morgue. One of the dead suddenly rose and I screamed. It didn’t matter that they turned on the lights. It didn’t matter that the undead was speaking to me reassuring me over and over again that she was Josie, my front door neighbor. That was it for me and the Haunted House….or Haunted Houses for that matter. But I digress.
So, I never really celebrate Halloween. But, here at Rochester one of our professors is a fan of Halloween. He grew up with block parties of costumed kids and adults, so he and his fiance have one every year. And 2009 was the 80′s Halloween party. Dude!
As Alan and I both came of age during the 80′s our biggest problem was deciding what the heck to dress up as. Magnum! I blurted. After all, a Hawaiian shirt, shorts and a Tigers’ cap is not that hard to get. Nope, he said. He wanted to be a headbanger….you know a heavy metal fan. Ok I said, but then I want to be Pop – a lá Madonna. ..you know the tul skirt with the leggings, the rubber pulseras and the big hair with the bow. So we went dressed as Pop and Metal – and boy did we have fun doing it.
Alan’s was much easier than mine. We got him a wig, a bandanna, zebra tights (no I’m not kidding) and a Def Leppard t-shirt. A little bit of black eyeliner and alas! I had a headbanger husband. See?
Me, well that took a bit of effort. First I washed my hair and used some extra body mousse. Then I set it up in choronguitos - you know I twirl them tight and set them as mini buns with an elastic. Then I blow dry the heck out of them. But what I was most looking forward to was re-enacting the makeup. Oh boy, did I ever.
After the makeup was done, it was on to the outfit, and the hair, and of course the BOW. Don’t believe me? What do you think of this?
What’s that? You want a close up of the hair and the bow? You got it!
So off we went, eager to see what other people dressed up as, and the comments on our costumes. Once there, Billy Idol was our host.
Spiderman, was our bartender.
Boy George decided to drop by for some entertainment (yes, we had a karaoke machine that YOURS TRULY brought because, ahem, we own one. I know, shut up!)
The Ghostbusters made sure no paranormal activity disrupted our fun and, in case we could possibly get bored, Rubik’s Cube was in attendance.
Everyone thought I was dressed up as Madonna *sigh*, but EVERYONE loved our costumes. So much so, that towards the end, one of my co-workers asked me if I had BOUGHT the outfit of if I had DUSTED it off from storage. That made my day, and made me feel so proud of my 80′s upbringing. So in the words of Huey Lewis, let’s go back in time and Rock On!
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