his and hers

There has been a lot of FUN in my life lately. So it’ll take awhile to catch up. Let’s celebrate this day-after-Saint-Patrick’s-Day with a tribute to… Saint Valentine!

Because to rid myself from the commercialism of Valentine’s Day (psych, or cause I’m too lazy to post lately), I’m posting about it more than a month after the fact! I love my Valentine every day!

Romance ahead:

Steve and I had admired Russia House from the street while strolling around Dupont on past occasions. It’s a cute old brownstone, with Christmas lights (extra points).

Inside continues on that general motif, with a fireplace! Fake. But nice. I would’ve been able to use the warmth (this was back in February, when it was occasionally cold, as opposed to March, when I get sunburned! Madness!)

I didn’t know all that much about Russian food, minus what I’d gleaned from reading Please to the Table, a pleasantly dense cookbook if there ever was one.

What I do know is that they know their bread, particularly of the dense and dark variety. That pumpernickel was laced with dried fruit and walnuts and was YUMMY!

 

We decided the funnest way to order was to share a bunch of little things. Because certain people (named me) cannot make up their mind to save their life.

Apps:

I suggested the salad with beets and goat cheese, cause I can’t not order goat cheese, duh. It was pepped up with shredded carrots and though heavily dressed, pleasantly vinegary.

Steve suggested the elk (!) sausage, served with cherry mostarda and on a bed of (holy butter) kabocha squash. Fascinating flavor! Steve lovvvvvvvvved this.

 

More sharesies: vareniki, cheese-stuffed dumplings. With cauliflower and, I recall, mentions of persimmon somethingorother and truffle oil.

SO GOOD. Delicious textures and flavors, and drennnnnnnnnched in butter. Every element in this contributed to its sweet, earthy, and rich flavors; but it didn’t get overwhelmingly heavy. Everything was bright and vibrant! I loved this.

 

We also split blini, with caviar  (ooh la la) cause that seems like a super Russian thing, no?

 

The blini were stuffed with delightfully rich sour cream that made the pop-in-your-mouth brightness of the caviar shine.

And the homemade pickles! Cucumbers, yes, but also pearl onions and celery (!) So delightful.

After dinner it just felt so fun and exciting to be in DC on a Monday night (we only live a few miles out but it just is… difficult to get there, with traffic and Metro $$$ and parking and so on and so on and so on) and we just didn’t want to leave.

So I suggested a stroll through Dupont to perhaps find a place to grab a drink.

And then Darlington House looked so stinkin’ cute I knew we had to go in.

They have a really pretty, really serene (at least on a weeknight!) bar. They are also to be commended for having EXCELLENT bar food.

The most unusual looking/tasting excellent green olives…

… and tremendously addictive homemade potato chips.

Blue Moon for him, house Chianti for her. Both excellent.

Will return, Darlington House. You are darling.

Love is… putting up with my cat when you are trying to study.

(She is super, mega in love with Steve.)

I put up with her crap, too. I love her.

 

Love is squeezing in a romantic random Thursday lunch together between classes (me) and Americorps tasks (him).

We used to get to do these pretty much every Thursday last year when we were both in Americorps (after, when I’d return to work all giggly, my fellow Corps members would mock me mercilessly). Lunches between tedious work are great. Like here. And here. 

Hers:

 

My latest round of veggie burgers (the baby one for me, the mac daddy one for him)

My veggie burgers are him-inspired though, because:

Returning from our wunnerful President’s day weekend beach trip, Steve decided oh, an hour and a half after his large breakfast that he was still hungry. Very very hungry.

So we pulled over to Burger King where he bought two (?!) veggie burgers. Massive and mayo-drenched, natch.

He offered me a bite, and having never had a veggie burger at Burger King and mildly curious (call it research for if I’m ever stranded in a [food] desert), I accpted.

And it wasn’t half bad! Because it was just one of those yummy Morningstar Farms veggie burgers. So THEN I decided that they were overpriced and I’d design my own recipe.

Voila:

Morningstar Burgers

¾ c. lentils, cooked in 1 ½ c. water
2 tsp. canola oil
¼ c. chopped onion
1 clove garlic
2 c. frozen mixed veggies, thawed
½ c. oats
½ c. breadcrumbs
½ tsp. chili powder
¼ tsp. paprika
½ tsp. oregano
2 T fresh parsley
¼ tsp. red pepper flakes
½ tsp. dried sage

Lovely.

Lunch also included the last of my mega-vat of applesauce, which will definitely be its own post:

And I also brought salad, because I am the salad maker in the relationship. It contained pears and goat cheese, along with arugula, mm.

 

But, to Steve’s credit, he is embracing the vegetables like never before.

He said, “Before you, I didn’t know how easy it was to roast vegetables. When you took vegetables, and drizzled them with olive oil, and roasted them… it was so good! I did not know!”

Such adorable earnestness.

And the student has surpassed the teacher, cause this was guh-reat.

 

Indoor picnic. Lovely.

Finally, love is someone who lets you use their phone and then sends you the pictures when you go, “Agh! I just made a perfect omelet and forgot my camera!”

Obviously, these things must be documented.

 

I try to return the kindness; Steve had a powerful craving for cheese grits for brunch but we were also nearing hangry-ness, and Oriental Supermarket, the bodega walking distance from his apartment, only had Hispanic corn products (I. Love. Steve’s. Neighborhood.)

So some masa harina, some queso fresco, and a few other improvisations (including what ended up being a LOTTT of black pepper, which fortunately both of us like) and it was “grits”! Ish. Word to the wise: if you plan on doing this, expect a small burn on your inner arm.

It’s okay. Beautiful brunch, excellent company.

 

pies of all kinds

I have been neglecting any NUMBER of topics in this blog, but let’s pick the most recent one, eh?

That, of course, being a super great holiday- PI DAY! 3.14! Yesterday. Oops.

I didn’t eat any pie yesterday because I forgot it was Pi day until after I’d already eaten everything I wanted to for the day.

Fortunately, I have a lovely pie experience to share from last Friday, my only proper day off (due to still having work all the other days) in my community college spring break.It was a thoroughly great day off with a thoroughly great pie experience.

May I present: dangerously delicious pies.

Literally… that’s the name… on H Street, offspring of the same-named place in Baltimore, Dangerously Delicious Pies!

I love DDP because… They have an adorable series of chalkboards (I know Ms. Smart Kitchen is with me!) touting their flavors of the day in savory, quiche, and sweet…

… And pies under the counter in a charmingly old-fashioned display at which you can ogle.

The vibe is casual, pretty, and ever so slightly glamorous with chandeliers. And cool work by local artists! (And they get good business, we just had deigned to eat lunch at 3:30 in the afternoon on a Friday, on which these establishments understandably are not especially crowded).

Any place that offers Cokes in glass bottles AND offers Diet AND has a bottle opener hanging off the cooler so you can do it yourself earns my love.

The hot sauce bar earned Steve’s.

 

And guys… EVERYTHING IS IN A PIE! When you have been walking around for miles and miles and miles and you are vair hungry, it is pretty amazing to know that anything you eat is going to have its deliciousness enhanced by being encased… in a pie!

Thus, meet the vegan chili… IN A PIE.

This was so. stinkin’. good.

 

First I thought it was just a bowl of vegan chili. No. Then I thought it’d have some kind of unconventional cornbread-type pie crust.

No.

This was baked in a flakylicious legit pie crust! (Impressive accomplishment for something vegan. I hope it didn’t contain trans fat but decided ignorance was bliss in this case).

And the chili! Hefty chunks of chickpeas, perfectly cooked veggies, and chewy rice, seasoned with a wonderful blend of almost Indian-reminiscent spices.

And the salad on the side, a delightful and healthy surprise, had super classy greens and a great balsamic vinaigrette.

Steve’s (first) quiche contained spinach and an awesomely huge amount of goat cheese. He had a crab-and-cheddar-quiche chaser. Oh and then had a footlong at Subway. The boy can EAT!

I thoroughly recommend Dangerously Delicious Pies. We did not have any of the dozen or so (!) sweet pies offered that day but man oh man will we be back. (With, er, perhaps, my real camera! I’ve been forgetting it for everything lately. Thanks to Steve for being nice and having a good phone!)

And then, go figure, the President had dinner at H Street later that night. He just follows me everywhere.

So more on the subject of pies, another much beloved kind of pie, of course, is the PIZZA pie!

You know what is fun? Gathering people together for a make your own pizza evening.

You just lay out the toppings, conventional and non (tomato sauce, bbq sauce, caramelized onions, tomatoes, olives, sausage, mushrooms, cheese assortment)…

… admire your loved one’s spinning abilities (apparently my boyfriend and best friend color coordinate their outfits before hanging out together… I love it!)

And top the pies to your tastes!

Pizza can be a totally healthful food. In the true tradition, according to the people I know who’ve eaten the traditional style in Italy, pizza is just leftover bread dough tugged out topped with a light smattering of toppings. In that spirit, I took my (healthful whole wheat- recipe from Healthy Cooking For Two or Just You) dough and spread it with lotsa tomato, lotsa mushrooms, and flavorful sprinklings of cheese and caramelized onion.

Plus crushed red pepper flakes, duh.

 

Set my oven to the HOTTEST it’d go and baked it til it looked… done.

Then moved it to the seating area of my kitchen with totally different colored lighting, heh!

My crust was on the doughy side. It was grand. And caramelized onions are awesome on pizza, as they are everywhere.

Lydia had a similar combo with the addition of tomato sauce and olives, and a classy rectangular shape. She focused a great deal on crust formation. Vair impressive.

   

While we each took up an oven rack with our pies, I meanwhile threw together an Italianish salad with farmer’s market greens, artichoke hearts, tomatoes, and a balsamic reduction vinaigrette.

A thoroughly classy dinner, with pizza cut in a casual manner.

But wait.

Lydia and I had each taken an oven rack, so Steve waited patiently and went last.

In a preview of what was to come, Steve buttered his baking sheet. A lot.

Then SHELLACKED his crust in toppings and cheesy cheese cheese.

It took longer to bake due to general massiveness and, as Steve put it, he liked his pizza pretty much burned.

It was GORGEOUS. And DELICIOUS.

 

The evening concluded with (Lydia’s brilliant idea) dipping pizza crusts in balsamic reduction.

May I recommend having a make-your-own-pizza get together? The host or hostess makes little to no effort, everyone gets exactly what they want and nothing they don’t, dietary restrictions can be accomodated, everyone gets to be creative and get physical with their dough… and at the end there is pizza. And pizza is great.

Happy pi(e) day one and all. Hopefully a real post soon?

highs and lows and hunger in America

I am on my Spring Break. I am also on my couch. God bless Spring Break. (I do still have to go to work. But then I get to go home after.)

Last week’s highs:

At church yesterday, I held a baby. A cute, warm, good smelling baby. As I sang in the choir. Then she fell asleep in my arms. So. awesome.

On gorgeous sunny Saturday, Steve and I parked at Gravelly Point and strolled all over DC. We walked back to Virginia over Memorial Bridge (the bridge directly next to the Lincoln… Memorial, thus the name) and I discovered an astonishingly gorgeous stretch of grass, trees, and blooming daffodils between lanes of traffic. We walked in the balmy weather as the sun set. It was the best.

In my chem class, the professor couldn’t get the overhead projector to work. He gave it a look and kind of wiggled his fingers. I said to my friend, “He looks like he’s doing a Jedi mind trick”. My friend, not missing a beat, wiggled his fingers and went, “Those aren’t the chemical equations you’re looking for.” Humor in chem class is very very necessary.

Last week’s lows:

Getting talked down to. In work and academic situations. Even if I were stupid, would you increase my productivity or learning by treating me like a stupid person?

Enough about that.

Here’s something AWESOME that I got to do through work:

 

There is something called the Hunger Free Communities Network that does… many awesome things.

Including assembling us in the hunger-fighting business do to some learnin’ from each other. Working in rural areas, working in urban areas, working with specific populations, utilizing specific federal programs, coordinating with other nonprofits, collecting good data, etc. etc.

It was at a lovely downtown hotel in a room filled with super cool people.

And there was a BREAKFAST BUFFET, oh joy!

A scrambled egg, cheerios and flavored yogurt parfait (I used to snarf those down in college… I miss flavored yogurt… it’s just too Frankenfoody and unethically sourced for me to eat now; sad), and enough EXPENSIVE BERRIES TO FILL UP MY BELLY! I love love love buffets. I never eat enough berries to leave me truly happy. I love berries. I should really grow them.

We had a nice introductory session, where various current and former politicians reminded us (this is a direct quote): “Most members of Congress are caring human beings”.

Hahahahaha.

And then it was breakout session time. I went to one that discussed data (because I am a thrill a minute) but it really WAS thrilling because it ended up starring my new HERO. Mariana Chilton. Director of Center for Hunger Free Communities.

Awesome things Center for Hunger Free Communities does:

-Pushes for food insecurity screenings in hospitals.

In a nutshell, this captures the most vulnerable people when they’re in a crisis situation: in a hospital, either because they lack health insurance, because they or their child has had a medical emergency. Perhaps they deal with issues of domestic violence (the incidence of which increases in households that are food insecure). The idea is that these people, in crisis, are asked by the doctor/nurse/health professional who admits them, whether or not they are in a state of food insecurity (a lot of the time, proxy measures are used: for example, you might ask, “Did you have to choose between buying food and paying rent this month? Or between buying food and paying for medicine?”) Last year, I thought all the time how our kids were definitely in need (they were low-income to qualify for our program, and they received food bank meals every day after school, AND they took home food for the weekend), but that in some ways they were the lucky ones, whose parents were on top of it enough to put them in an afterschool enrichment program. When you’re screening in a hospital, you’re catching the most vulnerable people you might not catch anywhere else. If you’re interested, you can read more about it here: Children's Healthwatch

- Documents hunger from the perspective of actual hungry people

Rather than a bunch of people like me who have (blessedly) never faced food insecurity, why not hear about it from the people who have? See the real environment and real challenges. Here: Witnesses to Hunger

-Combines nutrition and public health research

As someone who’s obsessed with both (and hopes, maybe, someday, to have my name followed with RD/MPH), I was hugely inspired by Mariana Chilton’s research. The latest of their organization’s impressive reports demonstrates (I’m talking to you, Newt Gingrich) that feeding the hungry, along with being the morally right thing to do, also reduces health care costs. You can read it here: The SNAP vaccine

(FYI, this jargon is really familiar to me, working at a food bank, but SNAP stands for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, previously known as food stamps. In general, if any of these subjects interest you, please get in touch! They’re what I deal with at work every day and what I’m passionate about. Drop me a line at lelelurvesplants@gmail.com)

On a less deep note, I was super excited for lunch. My supervisor, Amy, had gone the previous year and spoke highly of the food.

I was immediately excited to see iced tea at every seat. I love free iced tea so much.

 

They made a big hoopla of asking who was vegetarian/kosher/gluten free and put stickers on our name tags… and then it was a buffet?

Silly.

Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed my mound of Caesar salad, roll, assorted roasted veggies (Amy and I spent an amusing amount of time speculating which veggies), potatoes, a giant vegan butternut squash ravioli with eggplant tomato sauce…

… and there were mini Crumbs cupcakes! Hugely exciting.

But then I hadn’t had a chocolate one.. and they were so small… and also so good.

The nonprofit world is so female. (Single dudes,, you are really missing out on an opportunity. Start volunteering!). We spent a long period of time at lunch chatting about cupcakes. And having to go to the bathroom a lot. And weddings. In retrospect, it was kind of embarrassing.

Breakout session #2 was a bit less awesome, just because getting food to kids in after school programs (what I do, under a federal program called CACFP) is a bit complicated. Do you send prepackaged meals? Do you do a vendor? Etc. etc. etc.

The day concluded with a candlelit, atmospheric gathering that involved chocolate fondue (!)

 

Random roast turkey (?)

 

Passed appetizers (this was a fried artichoke that was surprisingly just okay)

 

And an open bar!

While a speaker discussed a conference I lack the funds to attend, I tried my first Cosmopolitan. I did not like it, and was glad it was free.