festivities!

There has been so much fun and joy and Christmas awesomeness in my past few weeks!

It began with gingerbread.

Someone in Superman pajamas making gingerbread.

 

We went to see Steve’s cousin Mickie  (Mickey? I can’t spell anyone’s name in this family, I’ve realized, as I’ve started writing this) and her kids Alison (Allison?) and Connor (Conor?). Baby Emily, the only one with a simply spelled name, is not pictured :)

The kids are SO MUCH FUN. Alison is 6 and Connor is… 3? 4? Not only are they adorable and well behaved, their family spent the past few years in England so they have ACCENTS!

Anyway, Mickie has been very very hospitable to Steve and I since she moved here, so I wanted to reciprocate. So I brought a big box of gingerbread men and frosting and red hots to beautify them. The kiddos jumped in!

I adore both of them- Alison is pretty much exactly like I was as a child- very into dressing up and performing. And she’s so smart! Alison is older and has her fine motor skills down a little more. Conor is young and excitable and yells everything. I think their personalities are represented nicely in their respective cookies.

Ended up with several beautiful plates. Each kiddo got one, and then the grownups ate the rest!

    

Steve and I decided to get a real Christmas tree for his apartment this year. He’d had an artificial tree in previous years (that as I recall he found in the hallway… or anyway, acquired it in a freegan way), but during his move, he ended up leaving a lot- a LOT- of stuff behind in his old cockroach infested apartment. It was better that way. But slightly tricky in that he didn’t have a couch for awhile… or a table.

Anyway, real trees were a good deal and smelled awesome and the profits from them were going to charity, so it was great.

AND because that tree sale was in Steve’s old neighborhood, we went to one of our favorite old haunts- Cafe Sazon! How I miss you, Cafe Sazon.

Got our old favorites- a cheese empanada for Steve (or Esteban, given the primary language spoken at Cafe Sazon) and an api morado, the most wonderful sweet, fruity, filling, festive purple corn drink for me.

 

They always go all out for the holidays (Halloween is hilarious) and assembled a gigantic animatronic village in their front window display. Complete with an animatronic village Ferris wheel. Loved it loved it!

 

The tree was beautiful and shapely. In lieu of having a dedicated tree skirt, we put it on Steve’s Sweden blanket.

 

We picked up a coupla ornaments at Goodwill- I opted for this angel/alien/moth…

… but I then had a LOT of fun making ornaments!

  

My favorites were these guys- made from toilet paper rolls!

The two projects we used were on Pinterest, which I just joined and I feel ambivalent about. One because it’s so cliche being a girl on Pinterest. Two because the second I joined the spam coming to my inbox multiplied EXPONENTIALLY. However, you may follow me if you like, at leleinthesky.

More holiday festivities. This past Saturday night found us at our friend Erica’s house. She and her husband Chris hosted a Christmas Vacation themed party. I wish I could’ve come up with some costume (why, why do I not own a blue leisure suit to play Uncle Eddie?!) but it was fun even without.

Best of all, Erica and Chris live in a REALLY fancy building, so we took a few minutes sitting by the fireplace in the lobby on our way out :)

And we had gotten all of the leftover cherry tomatoes from the party (!) because Erica and Chris both don’t like tomatoes (?!).

So Rudolph poses it was.

And so we reach Tuesday night, when Steve and I co-hosted a Chrismukkah party!

Surprise surprise, pretzels happened (actually, there was a special request from my girl Maya, the girl who doesn’t update her blog anymore so I won’t link!).

There is a charming difference between girl pretzels (rolled by myself/my mother/my sister) and boy pretzels (lovingly assembled by Steve with just a brief tutorial as I ran back and forth doing a billion other things).

The pepper-Parmesan variation, which I think is the MOST delicious! Told you I’d get a picture in daylight.

 

Public service announcement this holiday season: KNIFE SAFETY. GUYS. Whilst making one of my slightly older batches of pretzels into pretzel chips for dippers, my knife took a detour through the pretzel into my thumb. My nail bore the brunt of it but it still entailed applying pressure and holding my hand over my head for probably fifteen minutes, bleeding all over Steve’s apartment, frantically hunting the manly apartment and not finding any bandaids, putting together a Hail Mary bandage out of a paper towel with my apron string tied around it.

And then I had to get a nice holiday tetanus shot, so in addition to a sore thumb, I now have a sore arm.

Steve was super great and cleaned the ENTIRE APARTMENT. You know, I trashed it cooking, sprinkled it with my own blood, and then conveniently left for an hour and a half to go to the doctor (and, uh, buy Bandaids). Steve, you are really really great.

Steve’s other major project was cookin’ up a batch of GLUGG! Otherwise known as mulled wine.

Wine goes into a big pot with orange peel, cinnamon sticks, raisins, and almonds.

But the highlight, of course, is the sugar-brandy flambé that goes atop. Lotsa sugar! Lotsa brandy!

Pyro boy enjoyed watching the flames grow larger and larger.

So I had a little epiphany pre-party that was like, “I try to be a healthy eater most of the time and then any consideration of the nutrients or lack thereof in my food completely disappears when I have a party. Why do that?! I know healthy food can also be delicious. I am going to try to cultivate some balance at this party.”

And I think it was overall a smashing success.

I decided that I wanted a red and green color scheme for Christmas.

So there were red and green dips- my all time love muhammara and hummus given extra pep and deliciousness with roasted garlic and fresh basil.

There was a red and green apple pear salsa with cinnamon chips (regretfully a bit of a yawn).

And there were adorable red and green cheesy zucchini bites, selected based on the adorability of the recipe.

Cut zucchini into little hollowed out vessels, like so.

 

Fill with bleu cheese.

  

Annnnnnd just because cheese is a good idea during the holiday season- or always- add a little more, in the form of Parmesan livened up with herbs and pepper.

 

RED TOMATO HATS! Steve and I said that at the same time whilst making these.

  

And, you guessed it, a little more cheese for good luck. Missed the picture of the final product, as I was running around and ordered Steve to keep them from burning (no easy task given his oven). They were cute. More cute than delicious, but this time of year it’s fun to make cute stuff.

Now for the –ukkah portion of the Chrismukkah theme: LATKES!

I had been craving latkes when we first planned the party, which is partly how we opted for the theme. However, as the party grew closer I realized I’d never made latkes before and it all sounded a bit INVOLVED.

Fortunately, as I drove my sister home from the airport, she went, “… Yeah, I’m invited to Hannukah tonight at Jamie’s…” and we promptly rerouted the car and I went with her.

Hannukah was great fun and it also involved a LATKE TUTORIAL. These latkes are from an actual Jew, unlike me :) They are also very delicious and idiot proof.

The recipe:

1 large Russet potato (or 2 small)
1 small onion (or 1/2 a medium, 1/4 a large)
1 egg
Enough flour to give it an applesauce consistency

Blend ingredients in a food processor or blender. Fry in oil.

That’s IT. And it’s SO GOOD!

  

I spent a lot of the night running around (Steve’s apartment is nice but it’s basically humanly impossible to find his building, so I tend to just walk people in), and I was also gabbing with people I don’t get to see very much (my cousin and her boyfriend, my friend from chemistry class, a high school friend I hadn’t seen in a few years!), so there are few pictures.

But this one conveys the general splendor. Red and green, eh?!

 

In the dessert department (rear right), there were peanut butter kisses, a pumpkin pie my friend Lorraine was kind enough to bring, and rutabega carrot bread (which I need to post about- it’s a revelation!).

The funny thing, however, is that my main dessert project did not get served. This is funny for a number of reasons.

First, the party initially was also going to be hosted by Steve’s roommate Dan. I asked Dan his favorite kind of pie, and he said pumpkin. Then Dan bailed on the party (work commitment? Social anxiety? Who knows) and the pie was still on the menu. That’s okay.

Then I put together this beeyootiful crust for the pie. A personal recipe I made by compiling ideas from some of my favorite blogs- ground up pecans, oats, butter, sugar… everything nice!

 

Well, I put it in the oven and there was a RING OF FIRE around the edge. Ash. I screamed and cursed and kicked Steve’s oven (sorry, Steve).

Fine. I made more crust (by which I mean, threw random amounts of pecans, oats, butter, and sugar into the food processor and hoped for the best) and did a patch job around the outside.

The filling looked fabulous (I added coconut milk for fun and excitement purposes). There was WAY too much, but that was okay as I put the excess into mugs and made microwave pumpkin pudding pie for Steve and I as a midafternoon snack to keep up cooking energy.

I baked it. The crust burnt again, despite being tented.

And then IT DIDN’T EVEN GET SERVED. Oh, irony. The things I stress about.

Anyway, it’s beautiful… and it’s in my fridge.

 

The pie is lovely- though a little schizophrenic. The crust is this granola-y crumbly cookie-y thing and the filling tastes like a sweet version of Thai curry. An odd couple. Though we haven’t exactly been having to choke it down- both elements are yummy yummy.

Being an entire pie, a posting was in order.

happy places

Yesterday I had my first encounter with mal de mer. I went sailing (!) with my aunt and uncle and that will deservedly be its own post cause omg so pretty and fun.

However. Though the boat was cozy and any slight seasickness I felt when actually on the water was mitigated with crystallized ginger and Diet Coke, fast forward to later in the evening; dinnertime. The setting: Steve’s apartment, typically a happy place for me.

I sat down to a wonderful dinner made with Steve of stuffed poblano peppers, his thick and hearty homemade butternut soup, and pico de gallo…

 

[it featured the best stuffed pepper filling in the world, of which Steve requested an encore because it was so good last time. Chayote squash, mushrooms, rice, and QUESO!]

 

However.

The poblanos, like all the effing poblanos I have consumed this year in what I can only assume is some sort of fiery-poblano epidemic, was on first bite just a little elevated on the spice front; a notch up from what is supposed to be a mildly-flavored pepper. A few more bites, however, and it HURT. My lips HURT, my stomach HURT; I had to stop.

And then, suddenly, and I don’t know if it was the spice attack, a delayed reaction from the rocking waves earlier in the afternoon, an adverse response to the speed walk/jog I’d taken after returning from the boat, a sudden onset food poisoning situation…

I was a WRECCCCCCCCCCCK.

Totally totally DIZZY. Lightheaded, nauseous, dazed, headachey mess. Just… don’t want to talk, don’t want to eat, don’t want to do anything except LIE DOWN and nurse a glass of ginger ale.

Totally, totally useless wreck.

And this is where that great boyfriend of mine comes in: he proceeds to tuck me in, run (literally) to CVS to buy me TWO LITERS of ginger ale:

And proceeds to take excellent care of me, treat me so nicely, abandon his plans for the evening (well, postponed- pumpkin carving is HAPPENING). And then it ended up being a wonderful cozy idle night sort of just… appreciating each other (<< cheeseball). I’m getting sappy cause on November 6th it’ll be a year together ofish, so that is AWESOME :D

Just… I am not that good at letting people take care of me. And letting him take care of me was pretty great. Thanks, Stove! (<< if any of you saw Bridesmaids, that is now my sister’s exclusive name for my boyfriend. I think it’s great :D)

After departing from sleep in a rather reluctant, slow, and gradual way that didn’t really happen until 10:30, I was delighted to be feeling good enough to take a walk from Steve’s to a major happy place for me lately: Cafe Sazon!

I’ve posted about that heavenly place before, but though I’ve been drinking this stuff like it’s my job, I haven’t had a camera handy til today.

Ladies. And gentlemen.

Api morado.

According to literally seconds of research, the Internet informs me that api morado is a corn-based beverage, common in Bolivia and other places near the heights of the Andes where a warm and comforting morning pre-work drink is advantageous. It’s made of purple corn and cooked with sugar, cinnamon and…? Some kind of fruit that makes it taste like apple cider. Steve’s friend Jeff compared it to “drinking applesauce”, which is not that far off. But warm and delicious :D

I. love. it.

Also had some cafe, cause I was feeling better but by no means awake.

 

I actually had sort of planned on letting the thick and hearty api morado tide me over til I got home and cooked myself something, but Steve was doing no such thing.

Pastries. Boom.

First was a phyllo-reminiscent stacked concoction with a sort of unbelievably rich buttercream filling.

  

The other, which we’ve been lucky enough to have before, was a dazzlingly great cheese empanada. (They’d just pulled it out of the oven). I don’t know what they do to make that unbelievably delicious crust, but it makes me glad to be alive.

Obviously, I had a few bites :D Oh and of his second one too.

And then they put up on the specials sign “Sopa de mani” (peanut soup) and I was just SO EXCITED. I had heard about sopa de mani from all the Hispanic kids in our afterschool program last year and cmon, fellow nut lovers; how can you not be excited?

So we ordered one to split.

Which is good, since they sent us a BUCKET!

Massive, garnished with fresh parsley and FRENCH FRIES!

 

Okay, let’s start with the fact that this soup had everything. Huge slab of beef (which Steve ate and said tasted like prime rib), penne pasta and carrots…

… MASSIVE SLABS of potato.

But the taste was just unbelievable. Un. believable. To describe the flavor of the broth in terms of ingredients would be a challenge for me (though I’m surely going to be researching how to make this for myself), but describing it in terms of flavor? COMFORT. PURE, RICH, CARBY, FATTY, COMFORT.

I felt so unbelievably nourished by this soup. It is so wholesome and hearty and… nourishing. You just feel well for having eaten it.

And though it was in no danger of being bland, dang it was good with the hot sauce.

Obviously, we hated it.

 

Also fun about Cafe Sazon- it was all set for Halloween and Dia de los muertos. There were special order pastries for dia de los muertos- could we call that a corpse cookie?

And the whole cafe was amusingly/alarmingly decorated.

Another happy place- The National Arboretum.

It’s the craziest thing- you drive through Northeast DC (whose drivers I want to give credit: all DC drivers are aggressive lunatics but the drivers in Northeast you literally think are going to kill you, and then continue driving. Insanely.), and then you pass by a gate (well, you get lost a few times and then pass by a gate), and step inside into this unbelievably gorgeously put together garden.

 

Fun fact: those columns were initially part of the Capitol. When they expanded the Capitol (apparently they expanded the Capitol…?) they relocated these guys to the middle of a hill, basically, which I thought made for the coolest landscape.

There’s a series of gardens, actually.

My nose immediately drew us to the herb and vegetable garden, which featured these adorable mini peppers.

 

Steve wanted to check out the bonsais, some of which were over a century old.

And we hit up the adorable children’s garden, where people were harvesting veggies. Steve and I both obviously had to hug a tree when it was so encouraged.

  

A delightful interlude. Locals, check it out!

Being in Northeast DC, we then decided to go to H Street. H Street has become painfully cool lately. I totally get why! It’s got all these cool new restaurants/venues, but it still retains a neighborhood feel (not being particularly Metro accessible helps). It’s definitely got a more diverse feel than many of the other hipster areas of DC.

We saw a deck at the Liberty Tree, so obviously we had to sit on it. Great, chill vibe.

And it was five o’clock… in Jamaica. So we got some drinks!

Steve got a pumpkin ale, which he thoroughly enjoyed.

 

And I got an end of summer cocktail special of the grapetini, which featured their own infused citrus and ginger vodka, pressed concord grapes, prosecco, and lemon juice.

I was SO EXCITED about this drink… like, can you read that description again? Ginger? Concord grapes? Prosecco? But I’d call it good, not great.

Steve also ordered a salad (I’m so suspicious when the man eater does things like this and suspect they are for my benefit). It featured spinach, pecans, grilled butternut squash (!) and fig vinaigrette (!!!). Again, though, sounded dazzling on paper and was just for some reason less exciting in reality.

 

Still, it’s hard to go wrong hanging out outside in a cool neighborhood. Ingesting vodka… which for me, always leads to ridiculously clingy behavior. Oh, alcohol.

Then we went home and Steve made me awesome fajitas. They featured rice ‘n beans, a delicious variety of vegetables and aji amarillo, absurdly delicious hot pepper sauce left behind by Steve’s old Peruvian roommate, David. I have to go to Peru and just eat aji amarillo tasting things all day.

Wanting to be productive and contribute to the meal, I used some kale I’d brought over earlier in the week and taught Steve about roasting beets (key) and then combining them with goat cheese (SUPER key!)

  

He decided Malbec was important (which picture is better? Blurred label but focused wine or plain ol’ bottle?)

Either way, great glass o’ wine. Man, I just never go wrong with Malbec.

And we sat down to a scrumptious dinner. Steve makes the BEST fajitas.

 

I declined to make his decision to combine EVERYTHING on one tortilla, however. It seemed… gross.

 

He didn’t seem too keen to repeat it either :D

So today I feel perhaps a little light headed, perhaps a little out of whack… but I mostly feel happy. It’s good to let people take care of us, and it’s mighty good to have a happy place. Or person!