Nautical Themed Breakfast

Smacked it out of the park this morning deep sea style. Red snapper cake - just snapper a few bread crumbs salt, pepper, cumin, not much else. I usually do these with a bunch of finely chopped onion and red and yellow pepper and all kinds of crap, but today I kept it simple. To complete the nautical theme I paired the fish cake with a dollop of Sponge Bob macaroni and cheese. And I finished the whole thing off with an olive salad (three olives. $18.99 at my restaurant)

I sauced the snapper up good with a jalapeno ranch sauce that I invented when I accidentally knocked some El Pato into a bowl of ranch dressing that Jess was planning to dip carrots into.

Some guys like a challenge. Me, I just want a good breakfast.

Morir Soñando

This modified shopping cart is tricked out for one purpose Morir Soñando. If you live, love and learn in the Heights, then you are as familiar with these as you are with white tees. I can only handle about one a year, but I see homeboys drink them like water, and you almost never see a cart empty like this, maybe this is the dude who sucks at making them or uses poison oranges or something.

If you've never had one, a Morir Soñando is basically fresh squeezed orange juice and evaporated milk. Seriously. The literal translation is,"to die dreaming," and it's not far off. The experience is basically like drinking a cream-sickle, but like, the orgasm version of drinking a cream-sickle.

Here's a recipe I straight jacked from Aunt Clara in case you want to try making your own, but I really, really recommend you squeeze your juice fresh. Also, be careful, this is definitely a, "no swimming for at least twenty minutes after" type treat.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups orange juice
• 1/2 cup of sugar
• 4 cups of evaporated milk
• 2 1/2 cup of ice cubes

Preparation:

1. Mix sugar and milk and stir until all the sugar has dissolved. Add the ice to the milk and stir. Slowly pour the orange juice in the milk stirring constantly. Serve immediately.

Mulatto Thyme Oil --Totally Burned by My Own Hubris

Lila trims out only the choicest Thyme for our oil.

We finished off a small bottle of balsamic vinegar last night. It was nuts. When the dust cleared we decided to use the bottle to make another oil. Lila was in charge, and she decided to go with some of those dried mulatto peppers I mentioned last week and some fresh thyme we picked up around the corner.

I cut up the dried mulattos for her, but other than that she did it all, and she did it well. All I had to do was heat it up in the pan and we would be home free, but I think I thought because I have this blog or something I can just heat oil as long as I want and as hot as I want, and I found out that I was wrong. Dead wrong. I think I left this on the stove for close to twenty minutes, and the water came pretty darn close to a boil once or twice.

The photo here is fuzzy, but you still get an idea of how cloudy my oil turned. It still tastes great sure, but I can't serve it to anyone, not all cloudy like that. I'd be laughed out of Washington Heights!

The combo of dried peppers and thyme though was amazing. The aroma was incredibly rich and a little earthy. If you cant find dried mulattos, I think dried anchos will give you something pretty close. I think I'll use my muddy looking oil tonight for red snapper tacos.

Mapu. *Juan Mapu*

So, yeah. That's the Heights. Lila May was was hitting old school poses with Fab5 the other day, and here she is yesterday getting frosty with Juan Mapu of ManzanaPecosa and *Juan Mapu* fame - not to mention all those GlideDance Parties.

And somehow we still manage to keep it real up here.

Weird

Just realized I was reading that (looking for tips on how to politely deal with an occasionally difficult mother-in-law) while watching that.

Weirdness.

Freeman Feeling Beautiful

How is that Freeman Feeling Beautiful Facial Clay Mask Avocado and Oatmeal? You ask.

Love it. Love the new easy squeeze tube. We have family mask night pretty regularly. Lila's face gets dirty a lot. She's a kid, and me well, you know how it is.

So, we put on masks and tell each other scary stories while it hardens, it's fun, and this particular mask honestly leaves the gigantic, disgusting pores on my face feeling clean as puddles in a field after a fresh Spring rain. Which is kind of clean I guess. Better than they were anyway.

Freeman Feeling Beautiful Facial Clay Mask Avocado and Oatmeal! Check it out!

This is Lila May's Personal Playlist!

Along the Broad Way

Lila wears a modified PLACE hoody and signature Mets cap.

I hooked this hoody up pretty sweet with a patch I ripped off of an ice-cold pair of fake True Religion jeans I picked up off a dude around 125th and Lex. Sweet neighborhood.

The jeans are sweet too, but, who in the hell would think that sewing that GD patch onto the right thigh would somehow make them seem more authentic?

Fortunately it just about vomits class when sewn on Lila's joint.

Lila May's friend Jose joined us for the stroll.

Saw some slammin' dragon kicks out side of El Mundo between 157 and 158. They also had a pretty comprehensive collection of pirate themed Bras as well.

We walked past a huge crew filming a scene from the new Angelina Joli film Salt. I guess they're blowing all of the windows out of a building around 157 and Riverside tonight. I also heard she just bought a place right around the corner.

If we walk back over I'll try to get some pictures

Bio/Photo Contest Winner

Could you have better character attributes?

Check out the dulcet jammers her band unleashes too.

Snack

Snack

Laurie Green Opera singer. I enjoyed these during my morning ablutions, and may enjoy them again during my midday ablutions.

Radiolab Radio show. I enjoyed this (totally PG) story about sperm, especially the part about the dude getting some to his microscope to checkout within, "six beats of the pulse" in 1667.

Insectavora

Just found this in my phone. It's Insectavora, I think at Niagra's anniversary a week or so ago.

She was super cool about listening to me ramble on about how she's one of my daughter's idols.

Lila loves the Coney Island Freak Show. She's been going since she was a baby, and everybody there has been cool to her at one time or another.Here Jess and Lila May are three or four years ago with this nice dude. Man, I hope they don't screw Coney up.

ThruYOU

Feel like I'd be remiss if I didn't throw up a link to this.

If you haven't seen/heard it, check it out. I was impressed.
What you think?

Thanks to Josh Musick for the tip.

Josh Musick think he raw

Recent Acquisitions: Series of books that aims to teach kids the harsh realities of life.

Butt-ero??!!

This is Lila's favorite sculpture. I think she likes it because of the huge butt. See this and another gigantic Fernando Botero sculpture with its butt hanging in the breeze at Columbus Circle.
Here the Colombian born artist brings his butt-out aesthetic into a much more serious arena with this piece from his 2008 Abu Ghraib series.

When questioned about painting obese figures Botero is said to have responded, "An artist is attracted to certain kinds of form without knowing why. You adopt a position intuitively; only later do you attempt to rationalize or even justify it." I feel this same position can easily be adopted when it comes to an artists choice to cover or expose an exaggerated human ass.

There are many who consider Fernando Botero something of a cultural anomaly in that he seems to be the only Colombian in the annals of history to be interested in, or in drawing attention to the butt area.

And just to keep it all real and balanced,
here's a picture of Colombian cycling sensation Santigo Botero getting kissed by a couple of cycling enthusiasts.

I'm at the SoHo Playhouse Tonight

I suppose I should mention that I'll be reading a piece at HR Britton's Tammany Moday tonight.

HR Britton is sweet like a plum. His facial expressions hit you the way an intense odor might and sort of force an immediate reaction. It's a good thing.

I'll be blowing it up with:
Carlo D'Amore
Marlene Nichols
Rajeev Varma
Jennifer Glick
and :
Chris Lowe will be providing some sort of soundtrack for the evening.

It's free so, so come have a drink, and enjoy!

Monday March 9th, 8pm * The Huron Club at The SoHo Playhouse

15 Vandam St Between Varick St & 6th
E or C to Spring St or 1 to Houston and walk 3 blocks south

Hot Rosemary Oil

Yesterday I dropped a piece with the unshakable, unbreakable title, "Egg on a Bed of Cubed Pork and Asparagus." Ouch.

This morning I got a note from writer, performer, producer and Harlem character of note Greg Walloch asking about the hot rosemary oil I mention.

So, basically Greg Walloch reads my blog. I'm as happy as the drunkest girl at the dance!

I think there are a few ways to infuse oils with different flavors, but what I always do is take an old bottle and clean it out real clean like. I usually try to find a cool looking bottle and remove the labels and stuff so it looks pretty when I'm done, because I like to look at pretty things.

I use a cheap olive oil usually or a canola. I think I may have even mixed the two once because I ran out of olive oil or something like that.

Just fill the bottle up, and drop in whatever you want, and then stick the bottle in a pan of water, I usually use something deep enough that about half of the bottle is submerged, and simmer the whole thing for about eight or ten minutes with the bottle uncorked and voila.

You should be able to smell the combined aroma of whatever you added coming off the warm oil.

If you boil the water, I think it can make the oil cloudy, so don't do that. I try to simmer it just below a boil.

I've had awesome luck with lemon, grapefruit, basil, rosemary, chilies and peppercorns.

The specific hot rosemary oil Lila may and I made had fresh rosemary, a bit of lemon peel and some dried chilies. It's good with about anything, but I dig it the most with pork.

Scarface

I assume I don't need to say this to a reader with your class, but just in case... Don't hate.

This bad boy was double parked in front of my daughter's old preschool when I walked by this morning.

Yeah, those are stills from the guy's favorite scenes in Scarface along the sides.

I'm thinking about hooking a Toyota Camry up like this, but with stills from Miller's Crossing.

Snack

Ben Underwood - Just wow.

Jessica Alba - Just figured out why they use her for those skin tone commercials.

Egg on a bed of cubed pork and asparagus

Sauteed the asparagus in a little hot rosemary oil that Lila May and I made a few weeks ago, about a tablespoon of Kosciusko spicy brown mustard, some coarsely ground salt and pepper and a splash of vinegar. I diced up a few boneless loin chops into one inch cubes and hit them with some of the salt and pepper and a little cumin then tossed them in on top of the asparagus. I slapped a poached egg on top and finished it all off with a little Crema Mexicana and some of that El Pato Jalapeno.

Served up with a tumbler full of last nights Bushmills that all of the ice had melted into and a couple of thin slices of green apple.

Munchin.