Cooking takes a holiday

At La Pola in West New York.

We've taken a vacation from cooking most of our meals at home.

It began last Thursday, when we battled traffic to buy our Cuban roast pork feast at La Pola Restaurant, a Cuban-sandwich shop in West New York, that we served on Christmas Day. The next night, our usual one dinner out, we had soft-tofu and spring-chicken stews at the Soft Tofu Restaurant in Palisades Park. Sunday night, we ate leftovers from Christmas.

Tuesday night, we treated my niece, her boyfriend and her children to a multicourse Chinese feast at Lotus Cafe in Hackensack, before their return to California the next day. That night, we finished the Lotus Cafe leftovers. Wednesday afternoon, four of us shared a large cold antipasto and a large pepperoni/anchovy pizza -- well-done -- at Brooklyn's in Hackensack, a satisfying cheese-filled meal with a single glass of wine for me. Tonight, we were planning to drive to Paterson for Middle Eastern food if the snow doesn't detour us to a restaurant closer to home.

Last New Year's Eve, the weather kept us in and we prepared curry chicken and lamb chops, and drank wine before watching the ball drop on TV.