Christmas in Connecticut

My blog-silence over the weekend was due to the fact that, after working for two weeks without a day off, AJ took a few days off so we could spend a long weekend in Connecticut with our families. After a yummy dinner at Boloco, we hopped on Amtrak and got to Stamford around 10. AJ's dad picked us up with Christmas music on the radio and took us to his house where we slept and caught up with AJ's family.

The next morning, I ran some errands with my mom and had lunch with her before we picked up AJ again and headed to Kiwanis Park in New Canaan for our tree! This has been our tradition ever since we moved to CT. Everyone at Kiwanis is a volunteer and the money you spend on the trees all goes to donation. The trees there are all perfect and we usually end up buying the first one we see. This time, we got one that's about 6 feet tall and very full! The volunteers strapped it to the top of the car and we headed to my grandmother's house nearby to pick her up so she could spend the night at our house.

Once we headed home, we realized that the tree was probably not going to make it home so AJ opened the sunroof, grabbed the tree by the trunk, and held onto it that way for the rest of our drive home. It also started hailing at that point so we all got a bit pelted with ice but it's all in the name of a good tree!

We spent the rest of the day decorating the tree and my mom's house while watching Elf. My sister came home from Manhattan, too, to help decorate.

I'm really glad that we were able to go home to pick a tree and help my mom set it up. It's one of my favorite things to do and AJ and I have been doing it every Christmas since we met. I'm glad we could keep it up! I know my mom appreciated the help, too, and it wouldn't have felt like Christmas without picking out a real tree and stringing it with lights!

We had so much fun being home with our families and tried to fit in as much fun time with them as possible. Thankfully, AJ was able to workout his schedule so that we can be home for Christmas, too! We'll head home late on the 23rd, spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in Connecticut and head back first thing on the 26th. I know we're lucky that even though we live in a different state than our families, we're still relatively close to them and it's an easy train ride to get home. But we are both so close to our parents and siblings that we feel we can never see them enough! We're very lucky to be able to go home when we can and we are especially blessed to be able to spend this holiday with them.

I hope all of you have great plans for this Christmas!

A Bit on Peruvian Food

AJ is Peruvian and it was not until he introduced me to the cuisine of his fine country that I realized just how delicious Peruvian food is. I grew up in Minnesota so I was never introduced to exotic cuisines. Italian food was the usual in our house because we are Italian. Now, I can't get enough Peruvian food and I love eating at AJ's when his parents cook. When we first started dating, I was obsessed with the rice his mother makes. It's just regular white rice, but she uses the perfect amount of oil, salt, and garlic. I think she thought I was a little odd because for a while, all I wanted was rice!

So, AJ also introduced me to what is now one of my favorite restaurants, Fiesta Limeña, a Peruvian place near his house. The food is consistently delicious, the portions are almost too generous, and it's a nice, simple place that is no fuss and so easy to go to. A few years ago we were going too often and AJ had to impose a once-a-month rule on how often we could frequent Fiesta!

The food is the real deal, Peruvian food and I always have AJ order for me since the staff speaks Spanish. We always get anticuchos for our appetizer (beef hearts) and we either order a chaufa or lomo saltado for our entrees. Sometimes we'll get this drink called chicha morada that is made from purple corn!

There are three different Fiesta restaurants in Fairfield County, and I bought us a Groupon to one in Stamford. We went the other night and were so disappointed by the terrible service and waist staff that the moment we sat down, it was clear we will never again stray from our Fiesta restaurant.

But just to give you an idea of how delicious Peruvian food is and how big the servings are, here's a photo from our dinner the other night:

Huge, right?! AJ got the chaufa de mariscos, it's the Peruvian version of fried rice made with seafood. You can also order it with just shrimp, chicken, or beef. 

I got a dish I had never tried before called tallarines verdes because AJ's sister gets it all the time and loves it. It's the Peruvian version of pasta with pesto sauce but you can taste there's a difference between their pesto and Italian pesto. It was so tasty! And it also came with a huge portion of pepper steak which I had to share with AJ. I didn't finish all of my pasta either so I left it in the fridge at AJ's house—hopefully his sister will find it and eat it!

And because I can't resist, this is AJ's 'don't take a photo of me' face. Dinner was a disaster but the food was perfect and that is what matters the most. Also, we were both able to laugh off the ridiculousness of the experience and have fun anyway and I'm so glad we could do that. 

Plus! We also ended up ordering dessert which we never do at our Fiesta. We got a big slice of flan and an alfajor, which I still can't say correctly. 

Because Peruvian food is so delicious and there are so many different types of dishes—all of which I have loved so far—I'm sure I'll be posting about it many more times to share all of the interesting, yummy foods from AJ's home country!