Sometimes, Friday just turns into Saturday and you have an epic blog post on your hands.

I had very well-intentioned plans to check out a karate class in East Harlem after work last Friday. But when the buzz started to spread around that former Yankees centerfielder Bernie Williams would be a guest guitarist at Camaradas, some people (I’m not naming names or anything) decided Bernie would be a better use of my Friday evening. Ummm, neither Erik nor Jose (nor the mofongo de camarones) had anything to do with this decision:



Did someone say mofongo de camarones? Karate dreams all but forgotten, I definitely was not complaining when this steaming mound of mashed fried green plantain and shrimp landed in front of me:



Nor was I complaining when the empanadas de pollo arrived:



I didn’t even complain when the music started:



And Bernie Williams did, in fact, make his appearance:



I also did not complain when Jose and Erik got into a heated discussion about obscure old music that went completely over my head; instead I ordered a pint of sangria with extra fruit:



I continued to not complain when the bartender noticed I had eaten all my fruit and offered to refill the fruit and, in the process, refilled my pint of sangria for free. Just like last time, Best Service Ever.

I did not complain when a fellow Sarita dragged me onto the dance floor and valiantly but unsuccessfully tried to teach me salsa, nor did I complain when Erik dragged me onto the dance floor and led me and my wine-soaked-apple-filled belly on a spinning spree. And I definitely did not complain when the bartenders gave us access to their staff meal of peppery buttered fettuccine:



(I totally forgot about that part until this picture!! I just got so excited about that fettuccine all over again!)

Friday became Saturday, and I was given a morning off from preparing my own breakfast. Instead, I was presented with one of the most delicious bowls of oatmeal I have ever experienced:



Instant oats with honey, cinnamon, and whole milk. How is something so simple so delicious??

Back at my apartment, I found a package to beat all packages:



My good buddy Coco, who just came back from an awe-inspiring trip to Argentina, knew about my love for the South American sandwich cookies called alfajores … and sent me a care package full of several varieties along with a bunch of other Argentinian goodies:



I also swung by Kate’s on Saturday morning to collect my share of the CSA: spaghetti squash, cabbage, eggplant, mammoth peaches, peppers, giant radishes, green beans, frying peppers, salad greens, edamame, and pears:



After a perfect (and unpictured) picnic lunch of cream of broccoli soup and a beet wrap (with goat cheese and walnuts!) from Naidre’s, I threw together a light dinner of roasted eggplant (balsamic, evoo, sea salt, coriander) with Wildwood raspberry chipotle hummus:



I thought the hummus was good, but the raspberry flavor made it taste a little too much like frosting for the eggplant, so I swapped it out for some salsa.



I also roasted the radishes the same way because I thought they were parsnips. I realized my mistake when I tasted them, but the roasting plan still worked well. I was so surprised by the radish flavor when I bit in that I could not steady the camera with my shaking hands:



Later in the day on Saturday, I found myself in 200 Fifth (yet another very atypical spot for me) watching the Minnesota Twins win a surprisingly exciting baseball game. Olivia, I thought of you the whole time!



200 Fifth is right here in the Slope, but I’ve never been because I generally have no need to watch sports on TV. If I did watch sports, however, I would be at this place all the time. The setup is brilliant! The restaurant-bar is equipped with some sort of fancy satellite arrangement so that it can retrieve pretty much any game in the universe as long as it is being televised somewhere, even if you need to see a baseball came from an obscure midwestern town that is only on that town’s local access channel 😛 There are two or three TVs hanging at every booth so that each group can watch whatever game is necessary. In the end, we found out the Twins game was actually being televised on regular Fox and we could have watched from my apartment, but that was fine. I’m glad I got to experience the genius of 200 Fifth. And celery sticks dipped in blue cheese:



Plus one of my new goodies for dessert:



Mmmm, crunchy cookie layered with dulce de leche and covered in chocolate:



Definitely still not complaining.

Later in the night, I met Kate and Gina at the theater to see The Informant. The movie was ok, I think — I slept through the first hour of it and spent a good part of the second hour very confused as a result. We hit up The Chocolate Room after the show, and that woke me up much more effectively than the movie had!



While we perused the menu, we enjoyed our complementary spoonfuls of intense chocolate sorbet:



And the decor (of course):



The three of us split the hot fudge sundae with fresh mint chocolate chunk ice cream:



The Chocolate Room makes their mint chip ice cream with actual fresh mint leaves. It tasted like my mom’s garden — I loved it!

We also split the ice cream sandwich special: chocolate cookies with burnt orange ice cream in the middle:



Yummmmmmmmmmmm!

It was a brilliantly busy 24 hours … and then I remembered that the fall semester had begun and I had work to do. So hard to switch back into serious student mode! I need to put my hibernation hat back on stat, ugh. I love fall weather, but this season definitely represents the end of my two and a half carefree paper-free weeks. Homework anyone?

How do you feel about the start of fall?