COUSINS NIGHT I have cousins that are in the tristate area, so sometimes we’ll meet up and we’ll have cousins night. We’re all female cousins — our male cousins are far away — and I’m the oldest. It’s like they all come to their big sister’s house because I have the furniture, the good food and the big TV. And Toni will totally let us take over the living room. She’ll feed us — she’ll make homemade chicken fingers and chili — and we’ll have drinks — the cousins will bring the alcohol — and we just laugh and talk. They know I want to be on TV, so they’ve been coming over and doing my makeup and skin care. One of my cousins works for Bustle, so she’ll tell me the latest skin care routine. They just keep me young, really, and in the know. Toni will go in the bedroom and watch sports while we do all that.

FAMILY DINNER As a kid, we always had Sunday dinner. But now, me, my wife, my aunt, who is like a second mother, and her son are the only ones still in Brooklyn. So we still have them, but now we have them at Patsy’s. I’m Italian and Haitian, and my zia is from Italy, and she really loves it because they know her there; it’s like a family establishment. And on Sunday nights they have live music, so it all just works out. It’s my Saturday night, because I don’t work Mondays, so we go, we walk in and everybody’s like “Oh, Teresa!” to my aunt. There’s kisses, we sit down, and it’s very much a time to eat long and slow and much. I get the spaghetti carbonara almost every time and tiramisù for dessert.