Festivus for the rest of us

Thanksgiving has to be one of my favorite holidays. This is was my first in Chicago and away from my family, but I was determined to make it a memorable one.

In an attempt to make Chi-town Thanksgiving feel like a Quinones Thanksgiving I decided to make a pernil (pork shoulder). This is no easy task! For starters, where was I going to get one? Not in the middle of downtown Chicago. I made the treck out to Humboldt Park, Chicago's Puerto Rican neighborhood, on the way there I called the family cooks (grandma and mi papi) and asked the daunting question: how do you cook a 10lb slab of meat? They both gave me the same answer, SAZON, and not the Goya kind.

After five plus hours in the oven, out came this wonderful juicy, crispy pernil -- sorry, the recipe will remain a QQ secret. Along with the pernil, we had Puerto Rican pastelon, stuffed sausage balls with gravy, sweet potatoes, scalloped potatoes, biscuits, and the main bird, Turkey. For dessert I made a creamy coconut flan and crunchy oatmeal cookies. Needless to say, everyone was stuffed.

This Thanksgiving I was grateful for family and friends but also grateful to know that I can recreate the feeling of home in one bite.

Hope everyone had a joyous Thanksgiving!

Qurious Quinones

It’s been about two months since my last posting – basically an eternity in the blogosphere! A million apologies to all my readers, there’s been a TON going on – but there is no excuse. From now on, I promise you will NEVER wait this long for a post again.

So what have I been up to? Everything from crazy dance nights, fashion shows, trips to Miami and chill out movie premiers have gone down in the past two months. What can I say, life is crazy when you’re Qurious Q.

Here is a quick recap of my escapades in the great city of Chicago and beyond!!!

Amigos Invisibles - Logan Square, Sept. 18th
One of my favorite bands, Amigos Invisibles, was in Chicago and put on an amazing show! Yes, they are my invisible friends from Venezuela and they can be yours too! Los Amigos are rumba, sweat and sparks of sexual energy beaming out of the lead singer. Needless to say, I was a spinning like a dreidel all night!

Mentiras




Mexico vs. Colombia
In late September, I was in Dallas, TX for a Mexican National Team match against Colombia. My client sponsors the Mexican team, so I was there to activate the event. Lucky for me, it was easy to root for the winning team, COLOMBIA! Colombia wasn’t the only victor of the night; I won a bet down to the score. Victory is sweet…thanks for dinner ;)

Seriously, Soccer will be the sport of 2010…So get on the soccer bus!! Plus the players are super cute. Check me out with Memo Ochoa, goal keeper for the Mexican National Team.



Chromeo - Congress Theater, Oct. 30th
It was Halloween eve and the freaks do come out at night, even when it’s super cold. At one point I was dancing next to Oscar the Grouch. I don’t know what happened but the next morning I had a tiny black and blue on my eyelid. I had such a great time at this show.
Chromeo played all the favorite tracks and there was fancy footwork on the dance floor! The costumes were awesome!



Basement Jaxx - Congress Theater, Nov. 6th
I love Basement Jaxx since my college radio days and it was amazing to hear them spin. Even though they didn’t play many of the favorites, they did play a couple of tracks from the new album, which I love (of course)!
Here’s a home made recipe for a hangover: Booty bumping tracks, Tequila shots and a dash of beers. I did my research, and it’s a killa hangover.