Para mi sobrina Lilia

Wow, what a day! It seems that everyone at home and in the studio has caught the latest bug. With all the coughing and sneezing it's amazing that any work got done! Mario took a field trip today with me to the city. I love hanging out with little man. On the train ride into the city, we played Wheel of Fortune on our iPhones. It always amazes me how this person next to me, who I used to feed and clean, is now outsmarting me on one of the games I grew up watching on T.V.

We stopped by a local market after we got off the train in the West Village and ordered our bacon, egg and cheese on a roll with hot sauce, then headed into the studio. Mojo set up the spare station with Netflix and he was good to go!

At around noon we headed out to Eataly to get the ingredients for tonight's meal. We took some great videos of break dancers at Union Square and also of an African drummer players at 14th Street (we will try to upload it tomorrow). I love traveling the subways in the city, like Forrest Gump's mom said "...you never know what you're gonna get inside". I grew with anticipation as we arrived at Eatlay. What would Mario's reaction be? Did I oversell it? Would it be too much and let him down?

He put on a great face and said he loved it, but it was the middle of the day, on a holiday weekend, and I think the combination of him still feeling under the weather, the new environment and the somewhat organized chaos of Eatlay was too much for him to handle. He was ready to leave after our first go around, and to be honest with you, I can't blame him. Although Eatlay is very charming it just seems so chaotic and overwhelming at times.

As the day progressed Mario started to quickly fade, by 4:30 he was running a slight fever. Luckily for us, Angela got off on time and was able to come down and pick us up. We had purchased most of the ingredients at Eatlay and only had a handful of items left on our list. We picked those up at the local Stop 'N' Shop and headed home.

When we arrived we were greeted by two packages addressed to Mario and I. One each from my parents and Angela's parents. Christmas in February? Mario rushed to open the packages, the drag of Eataly and hanging with dad at work was quickly melting off.

Mario quickly grabbed our camera to document our bounty. We received a new Cuisinart blender and an assortment of Mario Batali utensils! Thank you guy's, great minds must think alike! My energy quickly escalated and I rushed to the task at hand. Chopping and dicing the vegetables and calamari.

This was probably the quickest meal we have prepared. The aroma of the white wine, tomato sauce and vegetables was heaven. I added the calamari and razor clams, let them cook and we were ready to serve.

I loved it, Mario and Angela liked it, and Mariesa hated it. All I could do was shake my head and question their loyalty to our Captain. Mutiny? Et tu Brutus? Action must be taken... prepare the plank! How could they not love it! This lead us to a serious discussion on how our croc rating system works. You will notice to the top right of your screen our agreed upon rating system. We all agreed that we would give each meal our croc rating and average the total. To my dismay, below you will see this evenings rating.

On a happier note, as we started our meal we got the news that a new addition to our family was born. Mario and I would like to welcome to the world our beautiful baby niece and cousin Lilia Marie Matthews! We would also like to congratulate my sister Christina and her husband Brock. We wish you and your new family all the best! We love you and wish we were there with you!

Ciao,
Your Tio (Spanish for uncle) Mario and your Primo (Spanish for cousin) Mario!