Living In New York

My Birthday

2011-01-05T18:52:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday to me! My birthday just passed and it was a couple of days after Christmas. This is my first birthday I celebrated in the snow. So Sunday night here in NY we had a huge snow storm. It was so bad that my father in law who is a bus driver got stuck in the bus he was driving from Sunday at 10pm to Monday 6pm! So the now was deep, the most I have ever seen. My birthday was Tuesday and there was still snow on the ground and cars and buses where still getting stuck. So my husband and I left our son with grandma and we headed to Manhattan. (Took the subway) We went to a bar in the greenwich village called La Palapa. There we met two of my friends and ate, had drinks and just relaxed. I had one frozen strawberry and that was more than enough. I can't drink like I used to. :( After we headed to a little cafe named Camaja for cofee and drinks. I was hoping to get some dancing but unfortunately it did not happen. We had to head back to home to pick up the baby around midnight. I'll have to make up the dancing next time I get to go out.

Christmas in Our Hearts

2010-12-27T16:53:00.000-08:00

I've noticed that in the US the holidays are not as celebrated as in the Philippines. I'm not talking about the christmas trees and lights and big sales at the stores. In that respect nothing beats New York during the holidays. I've never seen a more colorful city during that holidays than New York. It really is a beautiful city during Christmas. Where the Philippines beats holiday celebrations is on the personal level. People in the Philippines really take in the holiday spirit. There is a happyness in the people during the holiday season that is not present other times. Dancing, singing, eating and just being merry is seen in every household. Maybe it's that here in New York you don't know most of your neighbors. I hope one day I can install the holiday spirit on all my neighbors and relatives so it will be a Christmas I will never forget.

Keep a marshmallow warm with a fire

2010-12-27T16:15:00.001-08:00

Lighting Up The Christmas Tree at Rockefeller Center NY

2010-12-16T11:51:00.000-08:00

The famous Christmas tree here in NYC which we can see at Rockefeller Center NY was lit for the first time this Holiday Season last Tuesday,November 30,2010. It's quite late to post this but I want you guys to know what I've experienced. I was at home watching the live broadcast. I saw famous people sing Christmas songs and one of them was a Filipina girl. She was quite empressive and im proud of her. It was very nice seeing them perform in their costumes which is I loved most. Tons of people were there. The reason why I stayed in our house is because the weather was cold and my partner said that we could not get in because it was crowded. So there was no point of going if we were not in the VIP section. You know what i mean? Its not worth it...hahaha just kidding. Anyway so the show continued until the countdown began. So my partner and I counted down "3, 2, 1" and then boom the lights came on! The picture above is what we saw. Hopefully you guys out there can make it to NYC next year and experience the tree lighting ceremony live.

Happy Thanksgiving Day 2010

2010-11-27T13:14:00.000-08:00

Happy Turkey day everyone! Did you know the First Thanksgiving was celebrated to give thanks to God for helping the Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony survive their first brutal winter in New England around the year 1620. The first Thanksgiving feast lasted three days, providing enough food for 53 pilgrims and 90 Native Americans. So our thanksgiving dinner did not last three days but the left overs sure did. My wonderful mother in law (in the picture) and her sister cooked TWO turkeys. Can you say GOBBLE GOBBLE? The turkeys may looked burned but they were not. The meat was very tender and juicy. Now I love eating but there is only so much turkey I can eat. Thankfully my husband and his brother who was in town have a huge appetite. So on this Thanksgiving day I want to give thanks to God for all my blessing and thank you the reader for letting me share this day with you.

Taking Work Food Home

2010-11-22T20:10:00.000-08:00

Everyone has heard the expression "taking work home". Ask my husband about it and he will tell you it's what he used to do before we lived together. Now have you heard the term "Taking work food home"? I'm sure you haven't because I just made it up! :) So to celebrate the holidays my husband's company decided to have an event where eveyone brought a meal and shared it with the floor. My husband wanted to participate so we made our favorite spagetti & sauce fililipino style. From what my husband tells me there was so much food they are eating left overs tomorrow. They also got to take food home. So my husband took work food home for me and it was delicious. It would be great if my husband's company did this more often. It would be even better if we didn't have to cook next time. :)

Iron Chef (pancit canton----filipino style)

2010-11-20T20:32:00.000-08:00

Having conquered the Top Chef title with my chicken broth it was time to move up a weight class. Like "Pacman" Pacquio I'm taken on new challenges. This time I'm going for my Iron Chef title with my pancit canton. So I send my husband with our baby grocery shopping Saturday morning. After he came back I noticed I was missing two ingredients. So I told my husband to go back and to rush. Well he took a while and i was wondering what took him so long. It turned out he ended up going to three different places to find the two missing ingredients. But that's ok that's what husbands are for.. so I keep telling him.. he agrees sometimes. Anyway I was able to finish cooking my masterpiece and it was delicious. Ask my husband he ate most of it. If you want the recipe leave a message on my blog.

TImes Square

2010-11-17T16:59:00.000-08:00

Nothing says New York like Times Square. I had friends over from New Jersey and they requested to go to Times Square. It was a little chilly so I got the family dressed up in warm clothes and off we went. My husband tells me that back in the 80s there was only one big tv and now there are countless. There are so many lights I don't think you can count them all. The amount of electricity used in one day in times square must be more than our apartmet uses in 10 years. Not only is it crowded with lights but with people as well. There are tourist everywhere from all over the world 24 hours a day. No wonder they call New York the city that never sleeps.

Top Chef (Tinolang Manok - Filipino style)

2010-11-17T16:50:00.001-08:00

Today I was bored and wanted to do something. I was stuck at home and getting hungry so I decided to cook! Did you ever see the show top chef? I don't know how those chefs create those dishes. Most of the time I don't even understand what they are saying. And the judges keep stating the meals have good or bad "presentation" and "execution". Well I wanted my meal to end up with a good presentation a.k.a look yummy. The biggest question was how the heck will I execute such a task a.k.a actually cook it. Thanks to the power of YouTube I was able to become a top chef in less than an hour. Check out my "Tinolang Manok", it's a chicken broth and it taste amazing. I'm so proud of myself. Watch out Bravo, a new Top Chef is in the making!

Christmas Tree 2010

2010-11-17T16:48:00.001-08:00

I love Christmas in New York. There are colorful lights everywhere. This city must spend millions just on Christmas decorations. Well I don't have millions to spend but I don't need that much to show off my Christmas spirtit. Check out my first Christmas Tree ever! A lot cheaper than a million bucks and it looks great. This year I really wanted to celebrate Christmas so my tree was up and ready before Thanks Giving. I hope Santa Claus likes my tree as much as I do and gives me some good presents this year. :)

Autumn Beauty

2010-11-09T19:01:00.000-08:00

Back in the Philippines the days are hot then it rains then it gets hot again. We don't have the four seasons Summer, Fall, Winter and Spring. We have Summer all year round. So my surpirse when I first arrived to New York in November the trees did not look right. The leaves were different colors and some trees had no leaves at all! We don't see that in the Philippines. When the tree leaves start transforming from green to yellow, read and brown they look beautiful! If we only had the rainbow of colors without the cold weather New York could pass as the Garden of Eden.

Happy Halloweeny 2k10

2010-11-09T18:41:00.000-08:00

Happy Halloween everyone! Halloween is a strange but fun holiday. Back in the Philippines we don't celebrate Halloween. The closes we have is All Saint's Day and All Souls Day on November 1 and 2 and they are nothing like Halloween. On these two days we go to a cemetary and church to pray for our relatives that are no longer with us. But here on Halloween kids get to wear cool costumes and go around asking for candy. This year was my first year Tricker Treating! My husband and I took our son who was dressed as a Lion around our neighborhood. Most of the candy we got my son will never get to enjoy since he is too young. But I have to say I had a great time tricker treating. Now Halloween for adults here is a little different. Adults don't go around asking for candy. Instead they get dressed up and go drinking from bar to bar or party to party. I guess what's so great about Halloween is that for one day you don't have to be yourself. You can be anyone or anything and it's ok and fun. I already started thinking on my costume for next year.

Kurt 1st birthday bash!

2010-11-09T16:32:00.000-08:00

This is my family, nothing is more important to me. For my son's first birthday we wanted to do something special and memorable. I love spongeobob and so does my son. So for his birthday we threw a private spongebob party. The spongebob shirts was my idea and we got many compliments. I never had a birthday party like this one when I was kid. I am so happy that were able to do this for my son. We had such a great time and I will remember it forever.

Apple Picking!

2010-11-09T15:48:00.001-08:00

In the Philippines we have bananas, mangos, mansanitas, balimbing (aka starfruit) and a lot more. What we don't have is apples. Something about the weather being too hot. When I got to NY I kept hearing the term "apple picking" and I knew what it meant so I knew I've never done it. I've done more "picking" in a farm than the average person but it was never apple picking. So last week we took a little trip across the Hudson to the state of New Jersey. I have a cousin there and I stayed there for one week. The first weekend I was there she mentioned "Apple picking" and to my surprise I got so excited. So I went apple picking and the apples were delicious. I can now scratch apple picking from my "need to experience" list. Yeah!

Kurt's Recent Pics

2010-11-08T23:35:00.001-08:00