Foodie Chickie

It was a good but busy weekend. Friday night Niel went to hang out with his brother and Kelvin who was in town. Niel was feeling a little blah so I suggested he go out for a bit. I saw an old episode of Ellen where Hazel Smith was the guest chef. She is a hoot!! I wish I could find more info on her. All I could find is Hazel Smith is a popular chef from Tennessee. I was also watching the news. I am really concerned about Missouri is trying to pass a law making Christianity their state religion. Now I am Christian myself though probably not the kind they accept though.; but I don't believe Christianity is the only way to heaven. Why ostracize yourself from other religions and cultures who live in your state and do not believe in Christianity? Don't even get me started on South Dakota. I am scared American rights are being taken away slowly. Then Saturday I made crepes for breakfast then Niel and I went to the MOMA to see the Munch exhibit. We really liked his work. I thought Munch's style was only how he painted The Scream. Not not at all. The exhibit showed all this variety in his art. I liked woodcut Anxiety, and an oil painting Blue Kiss(which reminded me of Klimt. Another favorite artist). Munch seemed to be influenced by other artists. He also did his own version of Starry Night. We agreed that much of his work seemed so sad. He had a difficult life. Munch's mother and a sister died young. Plus he was in love with a married woman. And then he became blind in one eye. But he kept painting though. After we finished looked at his work we looked around the gift shop and then went to find some lunch. We chose a restaurant near where we parked the car. We drove into the city to try out our Easy Pass. It works great. But we won't be using it for city driving. We just wanted to test it out. Anyway while we were walking to the museum I noticed a noodle shop called Mee. Their specialty is you guessed it noodles! You can have them on a sizzling platter with sauce and pork dumplings like Niel did or in a soup with seafood dumplings like I did. They also have Americanized Chinese food too such as ribs, general Tsao's chicken, wantons, etc. We also ordered appetizers: scallion pancakes and fried shrimp balls. It was all so tasty. We then tried to go to the new Trader Joe's downtown but there was a line to get in to it. We couldn't believe it. A line for a supermarket? So we just headed back home. We were going to watch our newest Netflix film but Niel took a nap so I decided to do a bit of housework. In the evening we went to visit with my brother and his girlfriend. We played Trivial pursuit and with their new kitty. They adopted a new kitten that day. She is adorable. All black. They haven't settled on a name yet. Their first cat Merrill is taking sometime warming up to the kitten. Merrill is ginormous. I wish we took pictures. The kitten was running around and crawling all over everyone. I wish I could have taken her home. I don't think my allergy shots are working though because I was itching like mad and had a runny nose which triggered my asthma. My chest was very tight. For dinner they ordered Chinese food and it was so good. I didn't mind eating it twice in one day. We brought over a pineapple upside down cake. I wish my local Chinese takeout place had Lo Mein like theirs. Their noodles were thinner, yellow and so spicy. Plus they also sell pizza rolls!! I haven't had those since elementary school. Sunday my mother had a gathering to commemorate my grandmother. First at the cemetery and then at my parents where got to hang out with my brother again. It is Armenian tradition to do this gathering after 40 days. My mother made soooooo much food. It was tasty. She made dumpling soup, two different types of bean salad, roast chicken(more on that later), the best brown rice, fish, potato salad, the best egg salad, Perrier, wine, soda, coffee pita bread, lavash bread, olives, feta cheese, flan, Baklava, and cookies. A cousin who came from Boston told a story of how my grandmother helped her make a crank call when she was in high school. My grandma called her great-niece's rival and cranked her. We picked up the three roast chickens from this supermarket that we had never been before. It is in a nice neighborhood but the supermarket was a bit hmmm run down? That should have been the first clue. The guests liked the chicken though. Niel and I thought it was pretty terrible. My dad agreed. We came home and watched the Simpsons and the Sopranos. Which by the way! What the heck?!! I was looking forward to the Surreal Life and the second season of the Hogans but decided I am not going to end up watching it. This morning I came into work and got some bad news. Niel's grandfather is not doing well. He now has Pneumonia because the nursing home was careless and should have got him out of bed after the hospital released him. It does not look good at all. It has not been an easy time for Niel and his family either these past months.

Song Stuck In My Head: "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree" by KT Tunstall

Craving: Longer Weekends!