My New York City Trip

Hello everyone, its been so long since I've posted anything, I'm sorry. Its been pretty crazy around here since I've been back from NYC visiting my family. The main reason of visiting was to see my little brother Alex and his wife Heather, she's the second one in from the right. They came to NY to visit everyone, its been 5 years since they've been back so it was quite a reunion.

Here we are at my parents where my mom outdid herself for dinner. She made true Puerto Rican food. It was WONDERFUL, wish I had some now.

My dad wanted to show off his plate, as you can see and slice of Avacado, Pernil(pork shoulder), Arroz con Gandules(rice with pigeon peas), tostones, maduros and fried cod fritter. All so delicious. I can smell it now. My mom is a wonderful cook, all those smells coming from her kitchen brought back many memories of home.

For dessert I made peach pie, yes, from all those peaches I sliced and put in my freezer. I made the first pie this season. With homemade crust, of course.

My mom, my aunt, and  I, went to the grocery store where you can find everything and anything for spanish cooking. This is a must stop when we visit NYC. It's a really neat grocery store, as you'll see.

I think they take pride in their stacking of the vegetables, I'm always amazed with how beautiful it looks in there.

Look at the rows of yams, potatoes, yucca, etc. We could take a lesson here on how to stack the veggies, and not one on the floor of the store. Believe it or not!

This to me is art. The colors and freshness of everything. This all goes back to an earlier posting of mine where I would never of thought I'd be gardening, digging in dirt especially since I could go to the grocery store and have my pick. Now you see what I mean.

Ok, I had to take a picture of the firemen doing their grocery shopping. It never fails that EVERYTIME we come into the grocery store, the firemen start coming in. All dressed and ready to be called. There have been many a times when they've been shopping and you see them running out of the store going to a fire, or if they're about ready to pay and they have to leave everything behind to do their job. So proud of them, especially since this past weekend was the memorial of 9/11.

Now if you want the best pizza around, you need to find Rosa's in Ridgewood, Queens NY. Words cannot describe the delicious pizza's they serve there, only a picture can:

Oh, yea, baby. The best around. I made my husband's mouth water when he saw this picture.

And for the best Raisin Bread, Grimaldi's in Brooklyn. I don't like raisins too much, but I will eat their raisin bread in a heartbeat. The smell of it, the softness, when you bite into it, it just melts in your mouth, and if you want they'll drizzle it with icing, OH MY GOODNESS!! I regret not taking a picture of the loaf.(of course I couldn't because when we got it home it was attacked by some hungry wolves)

The next day we had a family gathering to attend. Family I haven't seened for a long time.

(BTY, I had to remove family pictures off the blog, unfortunately, I had someone contact me asking me questions, that I felt were personal and made me uncomfortable. DH asked me to remove any photos from the blog that had us in it or any friends or family, its a shame isn't it. errrrrrrr!!!)

Now comes the family cookout at my uncles in the Bronx. It was so nice. My brother there with his wife all the way from Seattle. He and my dad are two peas in a pod!! Kind of like me and mom.

We had the most delicious grilled chicken, not one piece left.. Then it was time to chow down....rice, chicken, ribs, potato salad, green salad.....all too good. Making myself hungry again.

The gang acting crazy: The neighbors across the street were throwing a baby shower, now, a hispanic baby shower is not your ordinary cutsie shower, no way!! The decorations are way out there, the food is incredible, the amount of family members and friends that attend do not fit in the house, and no shower is complete without music blasting so loud that you have to scream at the top of your lungs in order to hold a conversation. That is a baby shower. So we all went out front because the neighbors were playing some "old school" songs and well, we had to dance.

My mouth ached from laughing so much.

Then in the late evening the family took all kinds of pictures. We had a great time. We arrived at my uncles house, the one on the far left, at around 3:30pm and we left after midnight. We ate, talked, laughed, danced and just enjoyed each other's company. So until next time, its been great to see everyone. And although not everyone was there, we stay in touch on Facebook, which is an amazing website that allows us to stay in touch. La familia!!!!