Just a small glimpse as to what the past month and a half has looked like.. (9ft christmas tree not pictured and yes, Karlos is under there).
Sleep has been our only friend, our only dependent ally against the defeating holiday season. If you've ever worked in any restaurant, in New York City, on any given day in December, you too have contemplated suicide. We've been warning off stomach bugs and the flu, kindly yet unwillingly resisting the urge to physically assault bitchy/rich/drunk customers (a fatal combination, I must say), dodging Ebola, offering up our holiday shifts for petty cash to make it home to Jersey for just a few days, rarely catching the light of day, hunting for quarters in the couch to afford gifts, attempting to plan my first trip out of the country (Canada counts?) whilst never catching up on three overpowering 30 pound bags of laundry - which I still haven't done.
BUT YESTERDAY WAS FINALLY DIFFERENT.
After making a full recovery from New Years, barely since we found ourselves still impressively inhebreated and at IHOP at 7am, we finally attempted family dinner. Not everyone could make it and we didn't necessarily follow the rules of my book - bodega ingredients only - but we did keep it pretty cheap and it was a successful first try. Bryan, my sous chef, chopper of vegetables and second in command came over early, we discussed the possibility of Mac and cheese stuffed peppers (yes, peppers stuffed with Mac and cheese) the likelyness of the mini fryer blowing us up and triumphantly headed to the grocery store like the domestic god and goddess we really are. We didn't find everything, improvised a few ingredients and agreed that next time everyone will give us twice as much money and we'll kick it at whole foods.
Karlos finally awoke (at 5pm) to the sight of us "casually peeling potatoes and talking taxes," he claims. Peeling five pounds of potatoes by hand that is, Bryan insists I don't have a peeler because I couldn't find a brightly colored one which is...subconsciously true.
Bryan chopped, I cooked, we constructed, we fried, we roasted and we broiled aaaaaand everyone else watched (act casual, I said).
Between the food prep and cooking time, I'd say it took us a full two hours. But we ended up with cheesecake stuffed strawberries, mashed potatoes, fried bacon and tomato mac and cheese stuffed peppers, and of course fried double-stuffed oreos. The pepper recipe came from my favorite cook book, Stuffed, a book about two meals in one - one wrapped inside of the other and typically fried to contain the intensity. Our meal landed at a whopping 7.9 on their 'pig-out' scale which all of us and our food babies would painfully agree.
Thursdays are our day, no matter what. We've all been through a lot, we face newer and greater challenges everyday and we're all stuck in this depressing rut of who are we? and what the fuck are we doing? But Thursdays are our biggest and most solid reminder that it's us against the world. No matter how defeated we are there are atleast 7 wide and slighty crooked smiles awaiting your arrival at 1357, holding that fat ass..bottle of wine.
AND COUS TOO
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