out with the fella

Had such a fun day Saturday!

I saw that the Swedish Embassy was having a Christmas bazaar, and since anything Sweden related is basically my boyfriend’s favorite thing ever in the whole world (he took Swedish in college… he loves their environmental laws… he’s convinced he was switched in the hospital at birth and is actually Swedish royalty- seriously!), I went for a hot embassy date. At one point I texted my sister telling her where we were and how ecstatic Steve was and she texted me back, “Leave and see how long it takes him to notice. My guess is six hours”.

Then since it was nice out, we went for a lonnnng strollsie.

Hello White House! 1600 Pennsylvania was decked out for the season/AIDS with a red ribbon. And there was a big stand being erected even as this photo was taken- we were thinking the tree lighting ceremony was imminent.

There’s always a crowd there. Protesters, too! First amendment, yessirree.

 

As I said to Steve- it is SO FUN living somewhere you can just stroll to the White House when you feel like it. I forget about these things!

Next we went wayyy up Connecticut Avenue to end up at… Zoo Lights! Every year the Smithsonian National Zoo does a big pre-Christmas light display. We meant to go last year but got there too late (I think the crowd changes later in the day… this year when we went around 6 it was all kids but last year as we watched the last people coming out at 9 they looked older… methinks it’s a big venue for making out!)

Very difficult to get a good picture. I did have no choice but to get the poor guy in a panda costume (!) in a Santa hat (!!) dancing (!!!) in a giant snow globe (!!!!!).

 

Go figure, the children loved him.

Elephant!

Funny how real that looks in the picture! No elephants were harmed in the making of this blog post.

Not pictured was a petting zoo with some amusingly bored farm animals and a GINGERBREAD HOUSE COMPETITION! Ooodles of fun.

Originally the plan was to Metro back to Foggy Bottom, go back to our car in Georgetown, drive through Arlington to the Trader Joe’s in Clarendon, then get back to Steve’s place and cook… but it was like 8, Trader Joe’s closes at 9, and Steve was already starving. And I was wearing inappropriate footwear and needed a rest.

And then we peeked through a restaurant window and saw this charming place.

And Cafe La Ruche it was.

When I’ve spent time in Europe (yknow… twice… well and in fourth grade but that doesn’t apply to this fact), I admired that you could get wines by the carafe or half carafe.

You can economize by getting a slightly larger quantity(rather than buying two individual glasses) but don’t have to get a whole bottle, the wine’s already been sitting out which makes red wine tastier, and for two people it’s a perfect glass-and-a-half. (Though of course, if one of those people is a lightweight like me, you’d think it was like four glasses a person).

Steve and I both opted for the special.

It arrived with first a Caesar salad. The dressing was definitely fresh made and delicious. It was actually a little too decadent for me to finish (ugh, I am saying this about SALAD, how obnoxious :D) so I passed the rest off to Steve, who was busy inhaling it (Steve REALLY enjoyed this dinner).

 

Annnnd the special of the vegetarian lasagna, in adorable individual dishes (I love food served in individual tureens and things. So cute!)

So vegetarian lasagna did not actually mean the presence of a great quantity of vegetables, but rather noodles drenched in the most heavenly cream sauce, scant little hints of carrot and broccoli, super sweet marinara, and the most heavenly crispy cheese atop (Gruyere?).

I ate wayyy more than I thought- perhaps 2/3 to 3/4 of this? It was marvy. And the rest, of course, went to cute Steve, who was swearing up and down to our waiter that he was half Italian and had never tasted anything like this.

 

Gossip at the next table over revealed that the restaurant was well known for their desserts, and it was one of those this-is-so-fun-I-just-don’t-want-to-leave-yet nights, so we opted to share a dessert. I told Steve to order whatever he wanted. He opted for the mousse au chocolat. Tasty!

 

Steve took me out for yet another fun night out (kind of a two year anniversary- YAAAAAY!- celebration).  He snagged a Groupon to Rabbit, a restaurant in Clarendon. I’m always skeptical of restaurants that say we emphasize local/organic food or we obtain local/organic food whenever possible because it’s just TOTALLY MEANINGLESS. I mean, Wendy’s could say that.

However, the food was good :) And hopefully at least some of it was local/organic.

Love that the food was good but the ambiance was casual. Witness barstools and buckets of cutlery, as well as a counter where you picked food up (and got to watch the action!)

The place actually produced a Steve-sized salad! Even my fastest-metabolism-on-Earth boy was satisfied! (Well, til like an hour later when he got a slice of pizza. But only one slice!)

And because the Groupon said any entree, I got the most expensive thing on the menu :D That’d be the seared tuna. Which came with a (slightly bland) green salad and mashed potatoes.

The tuna was good! Love a good rare tuna. The plate was larrrrge so Steve got some bonus food too!

 

Annnnd then the Groupon included cupcakes! After not at all lengthy deliberation, because these were both totally obvious choices, we opted for the pumpkin with cream cheese frosting and the chocolate with peanut butter frosting.

Look at the cute puff pastry pumpkin on top!

 

We went halfsies on both. Both were pretty good, but the pumpkin definitely outshone the chocolate- the spices in there were so good! It was also very very very moist- like, they had not skimped on the butter/oil! That is of course why it was so delicious!

And because my dessert stomach struck again, and we had a gap before Skyfall began (I enjoyed. Even the stupid gila monster part). So froyo happened. I know.

 

Anyone else been on any fun holiday season outings lately? Share!

And, do you have a dessert stomach?

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.

wuv and mawwiage

So the reason we were in Philly the other day (along with getting to hang out with Steve’s sister and enjoy the general deliciousness of that city) was that we were actually on our way to south Jersey, to witness the wedding of one of my favorite people in the world, Eireni.

She’s popped up all over my blog, from back at school when we’d go to BU pub together or collaborate on delicious dinners (I never did get that couscous recipe), and we’ve had fun catching up together over Ethiopian when she’s come to visit in DC.

Anyway, I finally made it to her turf to celebrate a super huge day in her life.

Gosh, this friend wedding thing. Yes, weddings are fun (I mean hello, open bar and friends reuniting and crazy dancing and cake), but it is really kind of mind-boggling when you think about it. You are witnessing two people swear to love each other for the rest of their lives, helping to bless the life ahead of them, being there as the people they love.

It was such, such, SUCH a beautiful wedding.

I’m Orthodox Christian, as are the bride and groom, and the service is full of symbolism; every gesture is meaningful, every prayer connects you to the people who’ve been having basically the same service since the beginning of Christianity. The two of them, too, are actually converts and as a result have grown really close to the priest at their home church (and the one from where we went in Boston, who came down to New Jersey for their wedding), and they all said beautiful things that sort of made me nearly teary. And Steve was there and it was rawther lovely, watching the service, holding his hand, whispering translations of the Greek which I was highly impressed that I remembered.

I could gush on and on about it but, yknow, you weren’t there.

Moving on, the first thing I saw in the fellowship hall (along with adorable graduation pictures) was placecards attached to FERRERO ROCHER CHOCOLATES! Woohoo! I ate my chocolate before dinner. It felt right.

Shortly thereafter, we introduced ourselves to the bar. They did signature cocktails (LOVE this idea), which included an Atlantic City Boardwalk lemonade (with fresh Jersey blueberries and booze), a Boston Tea drink (with booze), and what I selected, the SCRUMPTIOUS champagne mojito.

It was kind of a hot day and it was mad refreshing and wow I really threw that thing back.

We had a nice long cocktail hour (for the remainder of which I stuck to water :D) and I had a great time catching up with people from college (some of whom I’d only met once or twice at the time but ended up really enjoying chatting with). It’s kind of interesting to see what people end up doing when the economy is nutso like this, particularly do-gooder types who befriended bride and groom in their respective sociology and international relations departments.

Lotsa goodies!

Helped myself to a bruschetta, a wee pumpernickel slice with dip, and grapes (more grapes. I have no constraint around grapes.)

And then passed appetizers… someone went by with a tray of pigs in a blanket and I just… could not imagine not eating one. It was a powerful, powerful, urge. Also ate a massive, messy stuffed mushroom.

We then headed inside the hall where everything was so… awesome. Every detail was perfect and beautiful. Loved the napkins…

The table names after special places in their lives (and it was especially cool for me to be at the Bay State Road table since that’s the street we all lived in in college)

Mason jar centerpieces with candles and beautiful flowers

The favor (which I guess you were supposed to take home but I ate before 7) were traditional for Greek weddings: Jordan almonds!

Beautiful menu in the blue and yellow color scheme that filled the room

Yum yum yum!

Began the evening with a simple salad

Then there was a buffet (LOVE that. And Steve REALLY loved that. Our portions differed, as you would imagine). Some salmon, pasta, ratatouille, potatoes, and a roll. The pasta was GREAT!

Then for the dancing. Ohhhhhh the dancing. The bride and groom broke it down to Stand by Me (what a wonderful choice; so cute and non-cheesy. It’s been stuck in my head ever since :D It was playing on the radio as they drove to Boston the day they ended up getting engaged)

Bride and dad rocked out to reggae

Everyone got down to the DJ (who was hilariously inept at pronouncing the last names of the wedding parties but did some sick mashups involving everyone from Michael Jackson to Britney to The Temptations)

There was also GREEK DANCING! THE BEST! Some people knew it, some people like me sorta knew it (I did it for our church festival when I was 7?), and some people didn’t know it at all and still had an awesome time.

All in all, we probably danced from about 6:30 (when dinner wrapped up) til 11 (when the reception ended). With boundless displays of energy from everyone involved.

In particular Eireni! In a wedding dress, after all the crazy preparation and I’m sure frenzied morning leading up to the wedding, she did not seem to sit down once. And lady, you better hook me up with whoever did your hair. Cause guys, it was PERFECT. From 3 in the afternoon til 11 at night, with frenzied dancing and July weather, it was PERFECT.

Thank goodness, to sustain us through all the merrymaking, there was a tower of cupcakes.

Apparently this had been a slight bone of contention between the bride and her mother, since Eireni wanted only cupcakes but her mom thought that a proper wedding should have a proper wedding cake. So they compromised by having a groom’s cake… which had a Batman figurine on top :D

(he was also wearing Batman cufflinks :D)

But let’s get back to that tower of cupcakes…

This baby had vanilla-vanilla, chocolate-chocolate, chocolate chip with chocolate buttercream, and lemon with vanilla buttercream. Wowsa!

And then came the most brilliant wedding idea ever: a COOKIE BAR!

Eireni had the idea to bring together their ethnic heritages (along with those of their friends/families) with a bar of cookies around the world, made with love. She made (Swedish) brown sugar cookies, her fiance husband (eesh!) made (German) rum cookies. Ohhhhhhhhhhhh the rum cookies.

It was a beautiful, delicious idea, complemented with fresh fruit. And coffee. And Bailey’s for the coffee! :D

So she told me about it and I said, “I will make baklava!” But of course! I am Greek, she is an honorary Greek, and my family makes the best baklava ever. (And thanks to that horribly-photographed but delicious-recipe-containing tutorial, you can too!)

So it was kind of late at night (yes, I could’ve come home at a reasonable hour, but I was hanging out with my cute boyfriend, who was also making cookies, so there was even CUTER cookie dough. And by cuter I mean deliiiiiicious).

I did all my prep stuff; clarified my butter (a culinary tip! If you have to clarify butter in a hurry, simply leave it in the microwave for too long! The milk solids butter over, leaving beautiful clarified butter fatness), blanched my almonds, dried my almonds, food-processor-chopped my nuts. I’d made the sugar-honey-lemon-spice syrup earlier that morning. I ran to the store for butter on my way home.

Then it came time for putting the baklava together. It’s like a lasagna; you do your noodle layer (or phyllo dough), then your filling (the nuts). Everything was going great! Layer of phyllo, brush with butter, next layer, more brushing, my first layer of filling.

So I finished my first package of phyllo (left over from a project in the summer), and opened up my “new” one. “New” meaning never opened.

Um. Well. Apparently not so NEW, since phyllo should not be BLUE (<<< Dr. Seuss!)

This, my friends, is what they call EPIC FAIL. What to do what to do?!

Well, in past years I would have called my grandmother. But since she is no longer with us, I called my cousin Rachel. She is both a pastry chef and an exceedingly calm person. I said I had a cooking emergency (to which she responded, “Oh no”), and went through my predicament: whole lotta filling, only a bit of phyllo. There was no way I could get more, since the only store that sells fresh phyllo had closed hours earlier and the other ones only sell frozen (which, fyi, should NEVER EVER be bought since it totally ruins the dough).

So, Rachel calmly said, “Roll it.” Returning to the lasagna analogy, it basically means turning lasagna into manicotti: lie down the phyllo dough in a sheet, put down a strip of filling and roll it up.

It worked!

But it made WAY less than it should have.

What to do?

I though of my great aunt Rose (this was turning into quite a family affair!), who makes kourabiedes, Greek sugar cookies, with a spiced and sweet walnut filling not dissimilar to baklava. She makes them into a cute crescent shape.

Well, I knew how to make kourabiede dough. I had sweet-spiced walnuts! I’d just wing it on the shapes!

Well as it turns out, I had melted most of my butter to make baklava so I only had enough to make a half batch of kourabiedes. Still, the dough was gorgey. Two sticks is still plenty of butter ;D

Then I had to work out a methodology to fill them. It got a little complicated… but here’s what I did.

Take a blob of dough.

Roll it into a sphere, then whack my hands together to make a nice flat surface.

Keeping the dough circle on my hand, slap my hand against the baklava filling to adhere it to the dough.

Fold the dough together… we’ll call them “tacos”, rather than “crescents”. Still, they were yummy.

So I’ll give myself an A for good intentions (I love you Eireni!), a B for results (there were so few; but people seemed to like them) and an F for preparation and execution. Life goes on.

With the four hours of dancing and all, I made many visits to the dessert table that are in no way represented by this plate.

And the man and I split a fantastic cupcake.

Many years, Eireni and Vasili! Thank you for an unforgettable day!