San Gennaro- Little Italy, New York

When you're a New Yorker you know fall has arrive because the fest of San Gennaro is going on in Little Italy. The feast normally begins by the second the weekend of September. To find out the history and activities of the feast you can go to SanGennaro.org. At the feast you can get your favorite Italian American sandwiches, pizza, pasta and many desserts.

During the feast the street of Little Italy becomes a lot smaller. All of the restaurants set up tables on the sidewalk of their restaurants. Then you have your food carts or shops set up on both sides of the streets. It gets jammed pack when you go at night. Although I know it might be hard to go out the house without a stroller when you have a young child, but it's best to leave them at home. It takes up a lot of space and you don't want people to bump into the stroller and especially your child. That's just my opinion because you should be more practical in these types of situations.

So usually when I go to the feast (or any feast) I usually get a sausage sandwich with peppers and onions. This time I wanted to try something different so I got the pork barasoiel with onions and peppers. It was one of the best things I ever ate. With each bite I kept on saying how amazing and good my sandwich was. Also if you like the fat on your meat I definitely recommend getting the park barasoiel. There wasn't a lot of fat, but here and there you would bite into it.

After the sandwiched we walked it off for a while and started to scope out the other things to eat. I'm big on sweets so I passed by Ferrara's and saw they had gelato, but we stilled wanted to walk around. Plus I wanted to get calamari from Umberto's Clam House. At least my boyfriend and I figured out where we were getting our desserts from, so time was not wasted walking around. Then off we went walking and hit Umberto's Clam House. They had two stands, this year and I can only imagine the kind of profit they'll be making from it. Every time I go it's always been packed with people around. I love seafood so I appreciate good friend calamari. It was golden and crispy on the outside. Not too chewy either which was just perfect. We got the sweet marinara sauce on top of the calamari and everything was delicious.

Once we were done with that it was time to take a picture in the big chair. Usually my boyfriend and I take the big chair pictures at the feast in Brooklyn for Our Lady of Mount Carmel. It we don't get it at that feast then we'll take the pictures at San Gennaro and it's the same lady

Coney Island Date Night

Two weekends ago my boyfriend and I decided to go to Coney Island for a date night. I've been to Coney Island a million times with my family, but never with him. The journey down there isn't too bad from Queens and who cares when you're looking forward to a fun filled night.

Once we got there the first thing we did was go to Nathans between Schweikerts Walk & Stillwell Ave. I've never been to this location before and I didn't even realize it existed because I thought they only had the one location on the Boardwalk. This location had a whole bunch of seafood items on the menu, and I got the clams and chips instead of their hotdogs. At first when I got it I thought it didn't look like much and that I would be hungry. To my surprise it was very filling and the clams and chips also came with cole slaw and corn bread. For $7 I was stuffed so this was bargain eating at it's best. My boyfriend opt for the more regular Nathan's items like their hot dogs and french fries. Even though I didn't get it this time their cheese fries are one of the best cheese fries ever. You have to try them at least once. 

After we ate we walked on the Boardwalk then walked into the amusement parks. The first ride we went on was the Polar Express. For $10 per person the ride was at least ten minutes long and you do feel like you get your money's worth. This ride is not scary at all and they play music while you're on it (mostly hip hop). The ride goes around in a circle and it has little baby hills here and there. 

Once we were done with the Polar Express we decided to take a break from the rides and play some games. First we went to the Arcade and we played Skee Ball and then played Terminator 2. During Skee Ball my boyfriend and I can get pretty competitive. We always have been whenever we're playing a game. After the arcade we played two of the typical carnival games. We didn't have any luck with the carnival games and didn't win any prizes. 

So for our second ride I was so determined to go on the Wonder Wheel. We bought our tickets and got on line. Once the family in front of us got in, I then started to notice how high the ferris wheel was. Also the seats looked like they were made out of really thin metal. I started panicking and had to get off the line. I just couldn't do it. The Wonder Wheel is super tall and I hope one day I'll be able to get over my fear. So we got our tickets back and went into the hunted house ride instead. We were the only ones on it, but it was fine with me. The ride had your regular hunted house items inside. Nothing out of the ordinary. My boyfriend being the jokester that he is told the attendant that he was so scared that his hair fell off. You can't help but laugh since he's bald. 

After the haunted house ride we decided we went on enough rides for the night. We walked on the Boardwalk towards the F train. Before we got on the train we went to this new candy store named It's Sugar. It had every kind of candy there was. Even older candy from the 80s. At this store I got myself a king size Air Head and a cute little tee for my baby cousin that said "I Love Boobs" on it. The store offers a variety of things, candy, shirts, household items (dishware) clothes; a little bit of everything. 

Once we got done shopping and looking around we went home. Being out on the Boardwalk and enjoying the summer night was by far one of the best date nights I had with my boyfriend. It's not always about going out for dinner and getting fancy. What's more important is enjoying the moments you and that special someone share and having fun together. 

Daily Blog: Recap of the Weekend

My weekend started Friday at 1PM after leaving work. So thankful for my new job because at my old job summer hours started after 4th of July and you get out at 2:30 on Fridays. At my job now summer hours started after Memorial Day so after 5 years that was a nice change up. Friday was a low key kind of day. With all this rain we got there was no way I wanted to go out and meet the storm Andrea.

So after work I went to the nail salon. I've been going to the same nail salon for the past 10 years now. (I go to NYC Nails at 88-03 Jamaica Ave, Woodhaven.) The owners are a Chinese couple and I swear they look like they never age. Spent almost 2 hours three cause it took forever to do my nails. I had to soak them and then I had them put a silk wrap on it. At the end the two hours spend there was well worth it. 

After that I picked up some Chinese food nothing special buffalo chicken wings and pork fried rice. So Friday night was pretty quiet and I got the rest I've been needing.

Saturday I got to wake up late and my boyfriend and  I decided to have a mini BBQ. Just the two of us with my family. Although we planned on having the BBQ ready by 3:30PM by the time we were done food shipping and putting the new mini grill together it was already 5:30PM.

The menu for the BBQ were suppose to be hot dogs, hamburgers, sausage with peppers, and grilled eggplant with of course potato and macaroni salads. Once we were done with the burgers and hot dogs we were done for the night. So the sausage and peppers will be for our next BBQ unless we get it started earlier in the day. 

For dessert I put green and red grapes and bananas on a skewer. After that I drizzled chocolate syrup on them. After that you put it in the fridge till when you're ready to eat them. 

It was such a refreshing snack. Last night was a really beautiful night. The air was cool and not muggy how it was during the day. It was definitely a good day for a BBQ. 

Then comes Sunday. I woke up this morning and I thought to myself the weekend goes by so fast. Then it's back to the same routine. I just hope summer doesn't go by too fast so I can actually enjoy it. 

Today for lunch I went to a Korean BBQ restaurant that's actually open 24 hours. The place is called Chung Kiwa Restaurant located at 40-07 74th Street Jackson Heights and the food is amazing. I've been going there since I was a kid and the staff has always been so nice and friendly. I would go into details about the food, but the restaurant deserves a blog of it's own. I went out for lunch because my mom's intern is leaving to start off her next journey. I wish her luck and many success. 

After lunch I went home and relaxed before I had to cook for the week. I've been cooking every Sunday for the work week for 3 weeks now and eating healthier does make a difference. Now all I have to do is get back on my work out routine and soon I'll be where I want to be. 

So overall that was my weekend in a nutshell. Can't wait for what next weekend is going to bring.