This Weekend

The ultimate  Naija combo

 Roast chicken stuffed with orange + celery + onions + garlic + bay leaves = yumville

Peruvian Style Black Beans + Brown Rice

Fried Rice + Plantain (plantain photo not included)

Happy New year + Going Dutch

Happy new year to you and yours. I wish you the best this year has to offer, and as we (RCCG people in the US) believe, this year will be our year of signs and wonders.

 Christmas and New Year festivities moved along nicely. It felt good to stay home and relax with family.  With the New Year upon us, a lot of friends have started sending out birthday invitations.

  It is always an honor to be invited for a celebration – be it a birthday, proposal, wedding, anniversary, shower… you get my drift.  The one thing that bothers me is when the inviter/celebrant expects the invitees/guests to pay for their dinner.   It is even worse when it is not spelt out in the invitation. In such cases after dinner, when the bill comes, the guests are left bewildered. Some end up embarrassed because they attended with a gift for the celebrant, cashless, and/or without their credit cards.

The act of going Dutch to mark your celebration is tasteless. Would you invite friends to your “house party” and ask them to pay $1 for a scoop of rice?  Or pay a $5 gate fee for access to food and drinks?  Better still would you make your friends donate to fund your “bash”?  That is what you are doing when you “organize dinner” at a restaurant and have your friends buy their dinner and contribute towards yours!

I understand it’s your birthday, you want to mark it spending time with your friends, but unfortunately you cannot afford to buy them all an expensive dinner.   Consider:

1. A movie in your house where you serve unlimited store-bought chips, salsa, popcorn, water and cupcakes.
2. Inviting few of your friends to an inexpensive restaurant that you can afford e.g. the $13 all-you-can-eat buffets.
3. Catered dinner in a reserved room at a restaurant - You can get a really good deal this way.
4. Store-bought Dessert, Tea and Games in your house.
5. The typical Naija “get-together”  in your Mum’s basement with Jollof rice, dodo, meat, soda, water, puff-puff and lots of laughter.

I once shared this concern with friend of mine who went to high school in the US. She responded saying that this method of going Dutch was the “American Way” and that I will become desensitized to it after a while.  11yrs + in the US, it still bothers me, and the perpetrators come across as cheap in my books.

A group of friends coming together to “treat/celebrate” their celebrant friend is a different case altogether.  I have no problem with that. Infact I engage in it often.  A group of friends hanging out and going dutch is bonding. It is acceptable. Everyone should do that.   But the celebrant sending an invitation and expecting guests to sponsor the “bash” is unacceptable in my opinion!

 
How do you feel about this? Please share.

I can't get enough of this song

Thankful

Frequently, I take so many things for granted. The gift of waking up, the gift of a job, the gift of a working relationship, and so many other things. These past couple days, I have been reflecting on how blessed and fortunate I am. Today I want to share some of those things with you.

I am thankful for:

1.     Salvation and the gift of knowing God

2.     Grace and Mercy that are responsible for where and who I am today

3.     Life

4.     Good health

5.     My marriage that is getting better each day

6.     My spouse - who now seems to be more interested in the marriage, and goes out of his way to do special things for me

7.     My parents

8.     My siblings

9.     The gift of loving and being loved

10.  My job

11.  For a beautiful and comfortable home

12.  The ability to enjoy and appreciate food without restriction

13.  The gift of protection

14.  Good friends

15.  My 10 followers

a.     Destiny who makes it a point of duty to comment always

b.    Eya, whose unfortunate high heel incident makes me smile everytime i remember it! (Sorry Eya)

c.     Knot Chocolate

d.    Sugarspring

e.     DobbysSignature

f.     Steve

g.    UVG

h.     Daliboom

i.      Highlyfavored

j.      DaughterOfherKing

16.  The internet

17.  The good car that takes me to and from work every day

18.  Peace and happiness

Are there some things you think of that make you whisper “Thank you Lord”? Please share.

Sandy and Friends

Flooded basement, Sandy screaming angrily and threatening to destroy everything in sight,  Emergency trip to Home Depot to get a wet/dry vac, Fruitless effort  to get basement help....

All i can do now is watch MZFM movies on youtube, and shop Online. 

I am thankful that: 

1. The damage is not as bad as it could have been
2. We still have power
3. The roof is still intact and i have a place to sleep tonight.

How are you coping? I hope a lot better than me. Please stay safe.

Nail Polish + Egusi Soup

I am in this rather interesting nail polish phase. Blame Destiny! I do not consider myself a fashionista, but I can be stylish sometimes. These days I visit Marshalls with high expectations of finding steals and deals on polishes. I recently discovered Essie and boy do I love the colors!

 Essie

OPI

 Nicole by OPI

 Revlon

 Essie - This greyish-brownish - almost-like-clay-soil is my fav so far!!!

 Essie

 Nicole by OPI

 Essie


 This weekend I made Egusi soup with spinach and bitter-leaf. Have you tried that combination? I enjoyed it, and will continue making my Egusi that way. The only problem with this batch was that I mistakenly used too much oil. Next time I will use less oil.   Just in case you are wondering, I do not use palm-oil. The palm-oil here tastes very funny and foreign to me. I use lots of red bell peppers for color and canola or peanut or vegetable oil.

 

I just completed “Gone for Good” by Harlan Coben.

 

Next in line is the shades of gray trilogy, and “Gone Girl” by Gillian Flynn. What are you reading?

Happy Labor Day + Italian Leather Bags + What i have been up to = Picture Overload!!

Happy September and Happy Labor day in advance!!! I have missed you, and thank you for visiting. So i have been up to so much. First off was our first year wedding anniversary which i will blog about in detail later. Hubby and i attended the artscape festival in Baltimore couple weeks ago, and saw many interesting things. Below are some pictures.

 Monster story acted on stage. So entertaining!

 Man walking and jumping on glass.

 I think it was $1 for two jumps

 This sculpture could open and close its eyes. The eyes where made of mirrors so you could see your reflection. Creepy!

So many people watching a live performance.

 With this bicycle smoothie maker, the cycler had to pedal to blend the smoothie

 All kinds of jamajanticks called "art"

 Chair and container for tips for performers

 Performers

My girl Havilah just started her business, she has shared some pictures of her goods.  Call her to place an order directly, or visit her Ebay store.

What are you doing this labor day?