The American Dream

Since I was a little boy living in the Dominican Republic I always heard people talking about the "American Dream" to me that meant to come to the United States and basically work for years and years until you had enough money to buy property back in my country and rent it so you could live out of it, that was basically it.

Now that I've been living here for quite a while (about 8 months now) I can say that it's true but it's not only that, living the American Dream means not giving up on your dreams and reach that point of your life when you feel like you have accomplished all those goals you set to yourself a while ago, all that while living in the United States and taking advantage of everything this country has to offer.

When I was little I never thought I would be living in New York, have a job and actually have all this opportunities, I'm no near to where I wanna be in life but this is just the start, I have plans for my life and I want to achieve my goals without losing who I am and my essence, having my own company, having a family, living without money problems are just a few of those goals.

I'm a true believer of the phrases "follow your dreams" and "be yourself", I know it sounds cheesy but I've seen too many Disney movies and they have taught me to fight for my dreams and never give up on them, even if you don't know who do you wanna be or what do you want for your future is always good to set goals, whether they are long term or to be achieved in a short period of time.

New Year's Resolutions: Expectations vs. Reality

Happy holidays and a late happy new year. I hope each and one of you had an amazing time with your loved ones. You know that at this time of the year most of the people make "New Year's Resolutions" and I'm not going to lie, I was one of those people until I finally gave up and realized that just because is a new year doesn't necessarily mean that is a new me and that's why I decided to write a post about it where I show you the  New Year's Resolutions: Expectations vs. Reality.

Resolution #1: Lose weight

Expectation: This is one of the most popular if not the most popular of all, at some point of our lives we decided to lose weight but it's not Monday or it's December 29th so we wait for that special day, we get pumped up to start going to the gym, create a Pinterest board about healthy foods and another one about fitness stuff.

Reality: it's January 10th and the gym is packed so you decide to not go that day, suddenly you forgot you had a membership until they charged you the next month, that Pinterest account you had, you don't even remember the password.

Resolution #2: Get a better Job/Education

Expectation: This is the year where you're gonna get that promotion and you wanna start studying again, that 5 year school break is finally over and you're ready for college, on the other side you know in your heart that you're going to get that job.

Reality: You get stuck on your work and you can't stand your coworkers plus the pay is awful, you try to look for another job but can't find anything, is like all the job positions were taken in one day, that school that you applied didn't accept you and now is too late to apply for fall, well 2016 it's on its way right?

Resolution #3: Keep your blog updated

Expectation: This is one of the resolutions that I struggled the most, even though I wouldn't called it a resolution (because I set this goal all year long) but for the purpose of this post let's leave it at that. You make a list of posts that you're going to write, you get super excited because this is the year when your blog is gonna get discovered and you're gonna make tons of money out of it.

Reality: You sit on your computer for hours trying to think on what to write, while you do that someone messages you on Facebook and you HAVE to reply to them. When you finally start to type on your blank page you get a call from that friend that you haven't talk to in a long time so you leave the writing process for another time, next day you sit again and actually write a good paragraph only to realize that what you wrote doesn't make any sense and you give up your dreams on becoming a famous blogger.

The moral of the story is not to make New Year's Resolutions but life goals, and don't wait until the next year, start TODAY, those resolutions will not the accomplished by their own.

Exploring New York City #1

Caffe Bene

I've been living in New York City for the past 7 months and I really enjoy what the city has to offer, yesterday I took a vacation from my vacation (I can't wait to go back to work) and decided to explore the city. Me and one of my coworkers went to a little café called "Caffe Bene" located between 36th ST and 7th Ave. I was introduced to it by my coworker who insisted on going there to "get inspiration" to write on her blogs (which she didn't do).

We ordered a red velvet slice of cake which was good, I've never tried red velvet before. and for my first impression I must say it was good, not over the top I wanna eat this every single day of my life good but it was good.

By the time we were finished it was still early and the city was still awake (I mean, it never went to sleep) so we decided to walk around the city until we find something to do.

After a while we went to Macy's to check out some of the decorations that our company did and some others that the store did.

This is one of the decorations that drawn my attention, the craftsmanship that was put up is amazing, from the branches to the rotating ornament, I really loved it.

We ended up going to the movies since there was nothing else on our minds plus we get discount tickets through our job, long story short, we bought 2 3D movie tickets to the Penguins movie for $8 each. I didn't take any pictures after that but I'm going to put some of the ones that I took with my new camera which I didn't tell you, I got the Nikon D3200 bundle (the body, 2 lenses and I camera bag) on cyber monday  for $600 taxes included.

I'm planning on making more of the "Exploring New York City" series on my blog so stay tuned for that.

Is it too early for Christmas?

Tree at Atlas Mall, Queens, NY

Hi everyone, I think I don't even deserve to write again, I mean what started as a "regular" blog ended up in two weeks without posting anything. I do have a good excuse... Work, work and more work, I've been so busy at work that I haven't had time to even go shopping (which is clearly the most important thing and the only thing that you should do when you have some time off).

But now that we're talking about my job (whether you like it or not) it actually have to do something about Christmas, I work as a seasonal decorator for a Christmas decorating company where we make the magic as they say, and every time I'm working where there's people walking around one or two comes with the typical "Christmas already?" in which I nicely reply "It's never too early for Christmas" that I then added "...for some people" since I remember that not everyone celebrates Christmas.

So basically I wanted to know if some of you start decorating early or leave everything for the last minute?

Tree at Yale, CT

Cooking: Stuffed Mushrooms (Recipe Test)

Mushrooms are one of those vegetables that when I eat them I feel like I'm doing something good for my self plus I feel like I'm eating something fancy and expensive (which is not at all fancy and expensive). I've been following cooking shows on YouTube for quite a long time now and one of those channels is the Laura In The Kitchen show, I really like her cooking and how welcoming she is. I wanted to try one of her recipes and why not start with a super simple recipe?

This is pretty easy to follow, watch the video below so you can make it yourself.

I started with making the bread crumbs which is pretty easy to make, I used whole wheat bread instead of white bread (because that's what we had) and when I mixed the stuffing it tasted amazing.I put it on the oven and it looked just like the video.

 I took them to work the next day with brown rice that my aunt made and to be honest I wasn't impressed, I mean the recipe worked fine I just don't like mushrooms I guess, since I left too much of the meat I tasted a lot of it and it wasn't pleasant for me, if you like mushrooms this is perfect for you and even if I didn't succeed (or did I?) I recommend you to try it.

This was the final result after I put them in the oven, the recipe says to cook them for 20 minutes but after 10 minutes mine were done (in my opinion) so I took them out.

If you try the stuffed mushrooms please let me know how were they. I hope you enjoy this post and don't forget to keep reading the other ones, have a nice one.

My thoughts on going to the gym

So today I started going to the gym, something that I've been thinking about for a long time now. Not only because of the "appearance" factor but also the health benefits.

I used to think that gyms were scary places where you can hear the grunts of those who want to get noticed, as it turned out I didn't hear that, I guess that's because I had my headphones on and because the weights were downstairs, anyways, the point is that I actually enjoy it, is gonna take some time to get used to the exercises that's part of it.

There's no much to say on this post, those are my thoughts on going to the gym for the first time, if you want to start exercising  just do it instead of starting tomorrow or next Monday do it TODAY.

That's gonna be it for now, hope you had an amazing day.

Cooking: Easy Breakfast Wraps

As usual I'm the one in charge of cooking breakfast during the weekends, I don't mind since I'm really into cooking and being in the kitchen, months ago, my cousin (the one that I'm living with now) introduced me to easy breakfast wraps which is basically a quesadilla style with eggs and cheese. I really liked it the first time she made it but after that I've been in charge of making them.

I started with her base (eggs, cheese, ham and something Vienna sausages) and started adding my own ingredients, here's how I make them, feel free to replace any ingredient to whatever you like.

Ingredients:

• 4 Eggs
• 2 Hot Dogs 
• 1/2 Onion chopped
• 1 handful of Spinach
• Cheese 
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Large tortillas

First you want to start chopping your onion, sausages and spinach, heat up a pan on medium heat, add oil and throw on the onions and the sausages. I like to add the spinach (or any other green) towards the end. The picture below show you how it should look like.

Add your eggs and scramble them with the rest of the ingredients, after that heat up a clean pan and put on your burrito tortilla, we use the whole wheat kind, of course you can use any kind, I like to spray some cooking spray, let it cook for about 30 seconds and flip it, put cheese on the tortillas and start adding your egg mixture, put another layer of cheese and close it, let it cook for like 30 seconds more and flip it. It's really easy to make and you can add whatever you want, I make it different every time.

I would appreciate if you leave me a comment letting me know what do you think about this recipe and if you made it. 

Have a nice one.