Baking Fail.

So I know everyone is up to date with Hurricane Irene so I won't bore you... to sum it up:

Dear Irene,
Thanks for crashing parties, selling out non-perishable items in C town/Gristedes/Fairway, flooding homes, breaking down trees, cutting power, contaminating water and shutting down mass transit in New York. 
No wonder in your wake people were partying like it's 1999. No thanks for stopping by...
You get no love, Dani

So, due to the fact I was in NJ this weekend teaching my boyfriend to play charades because there was no power, I have little to report. I do, however, have a few words on the art of baking. Now, I signed up for the dip contest (bring in a favorite dip) and I spent the whole day looking up recipes, getting psyched up - when I realized, I have NEVER made a dip. So the contest is tomorrow and I just finished my dip and it looks like this:

For dramatic effect, I've decided to use my crap camera on my bberry - because it won't matter anyway, it looks like this in real life. I'm pretty sure the idea is genius and if you were blind folded this might be a treat but a big part of dessert is presentation and I can take the criticism: this doesn't look good. So here is the recipe I'm hoping one of my baking followers can send in something better so I can brush up on my skills.

Bottomless Apple Dip:
Concept - apple pie filling, you dip with graham crackers!
Serve warm.

I think this recipe should be personalized with however you best create apple pie filling (not getting my semi-homemade secret!), bake it, then choose a topping to your discretion like whipped cream and dip away. I can't give away any secret ingredients to this dip, but for this recipe as you can see I've added burnt apple slices to the top.
Moral of this story - I can't bake or create dips. Luckily, someone told me today FAIL is really just an uplifting acronym for: First Attempt In Learning...

Recipes welcome!

Rom-Coms and Puppies!

I haven't done a book review in AGES, but I have finished reading several books that can be classified in the lipstick genre - you know, rom-coms in print? The genre that classifies books in the women can never leave home without: lipstick, cell phone, rose colored glasses and a rom-com.
So, while I'm sure my fav authors like Giffin, Davis and Weisberger are coming up with the next best seller in this category I decided to branch out and read a pet-centric, rom-com. Allie Larkin's novel called Stay was the story about a women who drunkenly purchases a Slovakian bred- six month old German Shepard. The novel ebb and flows through the heroine's processing of her late mother's passing, getting over her long time love who recently married her best friend, and maintaining a relationship with her new dog's veterinarian. At first the tangle of relationships seemed daunting and I feared that one relationship would become overshadowed in the book versus another, I was pleasantly surprised when I felt equally enamored in all.
Now, there was one piece of this novel that was slightly unfortunate: the heroine. I learned by a helpful tweet from Ms. Terry McMillan that heroines are suppose to be completely lovable and flawed, yet that flaw must be redeemable. It's kind of like the whole idea of falling in love, you love someone for everything about them - including their flaws. However, I couldn't get over that the author painted this picture of a really unfortunate looking woman, yet everyone was falling head over heels for her - even her vet, who I pictured looking like Ryan Gosling. I don't think her flaw should be her looks, that's just vain - her alcoholism could be one, but I think that trophy goes to Chelsea Handler.
However, the test of a good romantic comedy book for me is when your love for the book turns to sadness and you hate that the book ended and you want to hear about the relationship for 100 more pages; read about their first fight and see what their first child will look like! With that said,  I was sad when this book ended I was even hoping that the dog would meet another dog and have puppies, but that's my romantic side - always looking for the happy ending. Oh and this book made me want to have a pet - or at least babysit my friend's dog.
Until next time my dear readers - hope you pick up this one!

One is silver and the other gold?

Does anyone else remember that girl scout song:

Make new friends, but keep the old,
One is silver and the other's gold,
A circle's round and has no end that's how long I want to be your friend.

Anyone? Well, when I was in Troop 1046 with my Dad as the troop leader, we sang this song over and over. With a simple solution for friendship, what happened to this mantra?
Fast forward from elementary school to high school, when every third person made fun of me for one reason or another and there's my Dad telling me "Dani, you'll only really have two good friends, everyone else can fall by the wayside" (My Dad's two friends are: Dr. Lee, my dentist and hmmm not sure I ever knew the second one). With a segmented high school with the popular and the cool groups, thinking you'll live your life with only two friends and not 10 was devastating.
Circa 2011 and almost two decades after learning this sing-song and the true two rule, friendship is replaced with networking and filtering your true thoughts for the sake of professionalism. I mean really, for same sex relationships what do you say: "ok nice meeting you, are you my friend now?" Don't even think about boy/girl friendships, one of you probably has different intentions and if you don't then someone will probably foster them. 
It's like learning to make friends all over again, this time without the luxury of competitive cookie selling.

Throw back - Senior Year Cedar Point

Don't get me wrong some things Stay True, I still have my two, and they are still gold.

Abajo? Or Going Up?

I live in Washington Heights, which means I daily regret learning French throughout my academic years. I have a good friend that consistently translates for me; reading signs posted in my building, helping me tell my hairdresser to hurry because I have another appointment -- the usual interactions. Although he never forgets to mention that I need to learn Spanish and that I can't keep just nodding in agreement when people speak to me that I might unknowingly sign myself up for modern-day slavery. And then I rationalize - I imagine it's like a foreigner getting dropped off in the middle of Harlem and trying to understand what people are saying: "Yo, 'ey cuz.. whatido" or "wheredeydodat at"... they don't really need to know what they are saying to move along in their plans - and they don't think twice about it. Why should I?

But this is the Heights, there's so much going on around you, you WANT to know what's going on. Ironically, I've never seen the musical "The Heights", but I recently attended an event for the New York Beacon (a Harlem paper I occasionally freelance for) and they were honoring a Dance Company, where the performance featured the 2008 Broadway cast from The Heights. They performed: $96,000, which to anyone that has not see the play, this is a story of what each of the residents from the Heights would do if they won $96,000 from the lottery. It was a great number and it accurately described the neighborhood I live in, believing $96,000 could get them into a higher echelon, some place they only imagine on TV or in the movies but definitely outside of the hood -- no spoiler alert here, go see the play and then take a trip to Washington Heights and report back. You'll see.

 While, I've adapted survival techniques for living in my Dominican saturated neighborhood and learning that some of the events that happen are typical and some just hood-rich, I just watch and listen, or politely answer caliente to just about any question I'm asked in passing (my best guess is they are talking about the summer heat wave).

I've learned this neighborhood is an acquired taste -- you go to sleep to merengue music (or are woken up by it) and walk outside to short Dominican women selling mangoes in plastic bags, it has personality and the rent is cheap - so I'll stay, save up and I'll learn a few more words in Spanish - tal vez...