Best Day...EVER!

Today is a month since the first day of Chinese New Year and the first chance that the family was able to finally get together to celebrate. Kathy & Tony have been away in Florida and then there was the blizzard weekend and then the Oscars weekend that it got pushed to March. And since March is both Nikki and my birthday month, we decided to just do it all in one shot.

Nikki wanted to “surprise” me by getting me doughnuts at The Doughnut Plant located on Grand street - LES. Since I am not exactly a huge fan of doughnuts, I wasn’t very excited but I know Nikki has raved about these “little bit of heaven” as she calls it and I was willing to try it. Well…as I bit into my first coconut cream flavored doughnut…OH-MY-GOD….yeah…calling out a little bit of heaven! WOW! It doesn’t taste like a regular doughnut…it is simply…amazing!!


My Doughnut Birthday Cake

My gift to Nikki was a Louis Vuitton mini address book. As I said to her…this was to start off her collection. This item was actually mine but I already have one and I supposed, have been saving it for this particular occasion…Nikki’s 25th birthday! It is now a collector’s item since LV doesn’t produce this item any longer.


Nikki's First LV

After the gift exchange and the doughnut tasting…Kathy made an announcement. Nikki, Kris, Miranda, Evelyn and I were now at a “party” that Kathy was hosting…right then and there. It was a “Coffee and Cheese” party. Two of Kathy’s favorite things…NOT! Maxwell House Coffee and Velveeta cheese to be exact. She passed out $1 off coupons for the cheese, coupons for free coffee and spatulas for...ahem…cutting the cheese. LOL Let’s just say that this “party” reference never got old…we teased Kathy all day long!


Kathy and her party favors

Dinner was a 9 course Chinese banquet . We had…an appetizer platter of crispy salted fried tiny fish…cuttlefish & duck’s tongue among other things. The duck’s tongue did lead Evelyn to comment to Mark that he had just entered the Amazing Race! We also had Winter Melon soup , breaded shrimp with mayo, broccoli and walnuts, peppered short ribs, braised eggplant, garlicky young Chinese cabbage shoots, bird’s nest of shrimp and veggies, a veggie mix stir-fry and crispy skin chicken.


The cousins at the restaurant

We went home to have the yummy Boston Cream Torte cake that I got for Nikki’s birthday. Nikki used the “cheese spatula” to cut the cake. My mom originally thought it was a shoe horn. It did make for a lot of laughs!! So thanks - Kathy!!



Make a wish!!



Nikki cutting her cake using the famous spatula

So - Happy Birthday, Nikki (on St. Paddy‘s day)!!


Some of my most favorite people in the world!

We ended up having a "SUNNY" day despite the torrential rains! :-)