Category Archives: Lifestyle

Lifestyle, Shopping Madness

For The Record….Or In The Bag – Either Works :)

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Record Factory Bag that is. I was recently browsing through some old collections of stuff and found some old magazines, LP’s and of course those wonderful 45’s that so many of us had in our possession as vinyl people back in the day. So anyway, a good handful of the 45’s were in this little bag and I snapped a photo of it to remind us of a time so long ago.

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Since many of the PiercingKen blog readers are not from this exact region let me explain a little bit about the historical significance of this find. Way back in the day when you could still find pre-recorded albums on cassette and 8-track tape, the LP ruled the roost. They lived in bins that spanned large floor spaces and new releases were up on the wall. The 45’s were in a bin behind the register and this was the bag you left the store with at the establishment known as Record Factory. Going to this place on 86th off 4th Avenue in Bay Ridge was always something you did with your friends and you almost always left with something. Over the years I can easily say that I dropped hundreds and hundreds of dollars in this place. I smiled a little bit thinking about those treks to the store with my band buddies as we looked for the latest Hard Rock and Metal release.

Eventually the tapes went away, then the albums to make room for CD’s. Finally the store went away as well and in its place stands a cell phone outlet for one of the big providers. Close by the Record Factory was another haunt called The Little Record Store which was also loved since it always had Metal imports to browse. That’s gone too. If you wondered, there are now no less than eleven cell phone stores between 4th Avenue and Fort Hamilton Parkway on 86th Street. Some of them majors and others these little fly by the minute joints. The times they are indeed a changing.

Features, Food and Drink

Getting My Food On @ Villa Verde Restaurant

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A couple of days ago I posted a blog with some quick photos of a scenic view I had while on a family gathering. We had all convened at a Spanish/Portuguese restaurant called Villa Verde and it is located in Wayne, NJ. Anyways, I am one who sometimes considers himself a foodie and while not someone with a upper echelon palate I like what I like, and Spanish cuisine is one of them.

After seeing how the Foodspotting website worked with its members taking pics of food and sharing it with the member community, I figured I would practice for my own submissions by taking photos of the fine far being offered up here at Villa Verde. Starting us off here is a plate of mussels. They were very tasty but my only problem with mussels is how the actual mussel is so very small. You end up eating a bunch of them if your really hungry I will say that much.

Next on the table were some amazing chorizos and I did a number on these since I don’t get to eat them all that often.

Some stuffed mushrooms. I liked but did not love these. I am still kind of amazed at how I even eat mushrooms now considering for many years I avoided them like the plague. Not sure why but I do use them a lot nowadays. Hmm, that makes me think that a nice chorizo and portabello mushroom dish might be nice to make. If I do it, I will post the recipe here in my cooking with Ken section.

Here is a pretty standard but still tasty fried calamari. Don’t get me wrong as they did a fine job of it but I have been spoiled to this kind of cuisine ever since I went to my now favorite Vietnamese restaurant Nha Trang and sampled their crispy squid in garlic. OK, I am hungry just writing that down.

The baked clams were a popular hit at the table and as you see I could not even get my photo fast enough without someone snaring one of the plates occupants. They did a nice job on the clams for sure.

I saw these shrimp listed as “Riojasm Shrimp” and I am sorry that I do not know what that means. I guess its the way they prepare them. As a shrimp lover there are really no ways you can offer me shrimp and not have it appease my appetite. Suffice it to say there was a lot of seafood going on at the place. Never a bad thing unless you are allergic to the stuff. Oh in this shot you can see the bread as well, and I believe they made this in house. I love bread. LOVE it.

This was a simple plate of yellow rice. It was nice to have this on the table as well. I usually order this kind of rice with black beans when I order Mexican food but this was not a Mexican restaurant of course.

One of the folks at my table had ordered salmon as their entree so I snapped a photo of this for you to see. As you might notice it comes with a veggie medley and some in house prepared potato chips. I’ve seen this at a few places of late and I enjoy it if they do it properly.

I ordered the Filet Mignon simply because it was Filet Mignon. I’m not going to pass that up. It was good.

Cake. What else should I say?

More Cake 🙂

This is flan. That’s a tasty caramel custard for dessert.

Check them out if you are ever in Wayne, NJ or close enough to visit them. I liked it enough and should I be in the region you know I will be heading there for sure to enjoy more tasty goodness. If you want to check out my Foodspotting please click HERE or read some Yelps click HERE.

Official Website: http://www.vilaverderestaurant.com/main.html

Lifestyle, Tourism

Manipulating A View For You……

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I was doing some family stuff not too long ago and right across the street from the restaurant where we had all gathered was this river inlet kind of setting. For some reason the view I had of this waterway just prompted me to take out the trusty Canon snappy camera and grab it for posterity. Sometimes I do that and end up wondering how to use the photo going forward. It’s a nice shot isn’t it? Kind of a calm serene setting. It was quiet today and you would not know from standing there on its bank that it was right next to a very active roadway.

On the way home I looked at the photo again and played with it without color in my mind. Once I was back at the computer I did this with the software and felt that the image now appeared to be something we might find on the cover of an Opeth album. It had that certain “Bleak”ness to it (pardon the pun and use of one of their songs names, but I could not resist). Do you agree that this could be this kind of bands album visual? I like to think that you are nodding your head right now. If not, I shall not hold it against you.

Oddly enough when I took this same image and turned it negative it took on an even more ominous aspect. Now it looked like something from an old Traditional Black Metal release of some kind. Sinister, foreboding, dangerous. Questionable about where it leads and what awaits you when you get to the end. I think that you get the picture. Anyways. It’s so fascinating what simple manipulation of an image can bring to mind.

That’s all I have for you my friends, I just wanted to get this out of my brain and onto a post for you to absorb. As always there is more to come.

Features, Food and Drink

Foodtastic: The Ungrilled Cheesy Sandwich

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I’ve been meaning to post this simple little recipe for a quick comfort grilled cheese sandwich which in all honesty is not grilled at all and more melted to achieve its effect. I started making them like this to avoid the extra intake of excess butter or cooking oils. That’s no good for you if overdone after all. Sharing this one with you was based on one of my friends posting on her Facebook how much she loved grilled cheese sandwiches so now the rest of you readers benefit. Let’s begin.

We are starting with a couple of pieces of white bread but these days I have opted to use something a little healthier like a whole wheat or seven grain bread. It surely adds to the taste and if you want to be brave go with pumpernickel.

Bread Is The Beginning

Once toasted we move over to the toaster oven. I hope you have one of these as otherwise the rest of the recipes steps are kind of useless to you. You CAN use a microwave but that is just not the same in my humble opinion. Of course you can try and let us know how you made out with the comments section. We’ll leave the kitchen light on for you.

Toast The Bread

For this recipe I decided to use some spicy brown mustard. I like a little kick to my food and you can also use a good hot sauce (not the pepper water that is often sold as the stuff) for a different vibe to the fun. Since I had the Gulden’s stuff in the house I went that route.

Add Spicy Brown Mustard

Lay a few slices of American cheese on each slice of bread. I went with two for each side as that was going to be more than enough. My goal is to eat and not overdo it and we still had some ingredients to go.

Layer The Sliced Cheese

As I assembled my working area I noticed I still had some mozzarella cheese and I wanted to put it to good use. I sliced it up nice and thin and applied to the top of the slices of American cheese.

I Added Some Mozzarrella

Now we’ll put the tray back into the toaster over and click the toast button which should run for about a minute on a standard device. You need to stick around for this since its a very quick process and you don’t want to burn your sandwich. Once melted it looks like this if you didn’t over melt and its quite visually appealing. We’re almost done.

Cheese Is Meltified

I mentioned loving some spice so I took some whole pepperoncini and sliced them into halves. For this particular sandwich I only used one larger pepperoncini as it was more than sufficient. If they were smaller you could surely use a couple of them or even try out some Jalapeno peppers. Mind you that I have NOT yet tried those on this but it would probably work out fine.

Add The Peppers

Take the whole thing and put them together and press lightly so these two sides of cheese meet and connect. We’re still working with some hot stuff so that should happen with no incident. Doesn’t look too bad in the end right? I know that I was happy with it.

Combine The Sides

Now it’s time to eat and you can serve this with a sour pickle and some chips or perhaps pretzels. Total preparation time is less than ten minutes if you need an exact count and that is great. It’s also easy to clean up after this one.

 

Ingredients Used:
Sliced Bread
Sliced Cheese
Sliced Mozzarella
Slicked Pepperoncini
Spicy Mustard

Holiday Hijinx, Lifestyle

Happy Thanksgiving 2011 Everyone!!!

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Hey it’s Thanksgiving once again isn’t it? Well so it is and in that I would like to wish you and your families a very Happy Thanksgiving. This is a very big and very family oriented holiday here in the USA and while I realize that we have a lot of global readers on the blog, I ask that you folks indulge me for a second here. This year has been a tricky one for a lot of people and with that in mind its best to remember the good things and good people in one’s day and be thankful for them. Do you have some decent health, a handful of trustworthy people around you and interesting ways to spend your time? If so you have a serious bounty to be thankful for. Could you use a little more money? Well, who couldn’t and as the economy has show us that kind of thing comes and goes more often than we’d like. Perhaps you’ve experienced some kind of loss this year and while that saddens me too, its best to remember the good times and be thankful for the time you had spent with that person. Remember we all leave eventually and some just sooner than we would like. We’ve not a set amount of time on this plane that’s for sure. Try to make the best of what we do have and make your life one that positively impacts the life of someone else. You can do this with kind words, gestures and even support. Positive energy is strong medicine in an uncertain world.

Oh so I snapped some images of Thanksgiving related stuff that I happened upon and wanted to share it with you all before you get a move on into your day. Check out these couple of turkeys (horrible I know, but this is what you get from me).



I like the comfortable look on this little Pumpkin Man. He doesn’t seem to have a care in the world and all is solid with him. A nice place to be every once in awhile don’t you think?



Next we see one of the protester’s from “Occupy Thanksgiving” whose position is more of an Anti-Pumpkin one. Sadly I don’t think he has a leg or drumstick to stand on (queue snare drum).



A festive napkin for sure but not the kind of plate I like to see on Thanksgiving. Empty that is. My hope is that everyone gets their fill today.



Here is a slightly different take on a stuffed turkey. My grandmother actually made this many years ago and since I’ve always loved it, I decided to share a visual with you all.



Next up, the only way that I like to be given the bird.  Let the feasting begin…..

I’ll close out by saying thank you to all those who have made my day a little bit better. Thanks to the parents for the constant support and thanks to my friends for being around for fun times and adventuring.  Thank you Heavy Metal music as you drive my passions.  Thanks also to anyone who reads and enjoys the websites that I have brought out to you, I really appreciate that stuff and promise to do more.

Take care of yourselves and treat each other good a little more than you might usually.