memorial day weekend

Yay, non creative name for this post.  probably cause I haven't done much.  Ordered pizza on Wednesday and ate the leftovers 'til today, so there were no awesome food pictures to post. Well, other than the delicious banana bread pudding I had Friday at lunch that was covered in chocolate.  Soooo delicious.  It came in giant portions, this is roughly one third of the original.  To go box?  Why yes, yes I would like to take the awesomeness with me.

So, now that I am done with the pizza, and am no longer hanging out at my cousins, eating whatever they cook for me (thank you Hugh and Laura), I figured I should go to the grocery store and cook to make you all jealous.  Dinner is a buffalo chicken dip (those of you at purdue know it as the awesome stuff sammy makes).  And dessert is raspberry truffles I am in the middle of making.  I really wanted truffles filled with a raspberry ganache, but didn't want to pay for them, since godiva is expensive.  Thus I am trying to make my own.

Plus I had to make something awesome to break in the apron my sister got me for my birthday.  (Baking is science for hungry people)!  Mmm, delicious filling.  I got to lick the pot while it froze so I could roll it into balls for the truffle centers.

I did play with the chicken dip recipe a little, didn't feel like combing the grocery store for pepper sauce (I am assuming the recipe means hot sauce) and then staring at all the choices... So instead I am putting in red pepper flakes.  I never did like spicy things anyways.  Still looks delicious.  :)

Finally finished.  My hands got completely coated in chocolate from having to roll them into balls, but it was worth it, as they are fairly delicious.  Nice and dark.  Next time I may get a hold of some raspberry liquor and try adding that to the recipe.  Or maybe making a syrup to drizzle over the top...

Oh, and the large slab of chocolate is the leftovers from the chocolate coating mixed with more raspberry preserves (what I used for part of the ganache for the center).  I figured I might as well use the extras for a raspberry chocolate bar.

Anyways, it appears my next project is making a ginger infused simple syrup so I can make my own ginger ale.  Blame Ganna, she suggested it to me.  Which brings me to my new idea.  If you have suggestions, let me know. I am happy to experiment.  Plus for my college friends if I experiment this summer when I have time it can be perfected for when I see you next.

downtown

So I actually did lots today, as it was the first non rainy day since I showed up here.  I woke up late (almost 11) but was in downtown DC by 1 o'clock.  Took the metro in and decided to start with the botanical gardens, but stopped for pictures of a fountain on the way.

 I started with the botanical gardens.  :)  The fish were pretty.

There were lots of pictures, so I will only post a select few here.

Apparently I liked pictures of birds today.  This one got really close to me.

Ok, so more flower pictures, this time from inside the greenhouse.  They had lots of orchids.  I was jealous.

This plant wins for being the one with the weirdest flowers I saw all day.

Here is the best part though, I was looking up, and thinking how awesome it would be to be at the top of the greenhouse...

And then I found the stairs up, and proceeded to take these pictures.  I like seeing the top of a 30 ft palm tree at eye level.

There were more gardens, but I will just post that on fb.  You guys probably don't want 8 million pictures of flowers.  I know Eric is only reading for the food.  So after spending a good two hours in gardens, I found a shady spot on the mall and had lunch.  Then went to my favorite museum, The Freer Gallery.  It has a bunch of Asian antiques.  My second favorite part of this museum is the scrolls and the screens in the Japanese area.  I couldn't get a good picture of the screens, but there were some good ones of the scrolls.

So I tried to find my favorite part and came across this sign.

So I only got one room with ceramics, and there was very little celadon.  :(  I guess I will just have to go back several times this summer to see if they are done renovating where they keep all the celadon.  

So, since my favorite part was closed, I only spent an hour in the museum.  That's ok, the last stop for the day was the place I never got to last summer.  Eastern Market, a fairly large market, that on weekends has an outdoor area, as well as the indoor part.

They close off the street and everything.  Inside first.  The bakery was one of the first things I saw.  And although I think the one at West Side Market in Cleveland is better, this one looked delicious.  

And then I found the fresh fish.  lots of them.  Note the eels down at the end.  I thought about buying one, and then realized I have no idea what to do with an eel. And have no idea if I like them.

The outside part led me to finding a donut seller.  Three dollars for 6 mini-donuts on a stick. I almost had to.  It seemed like a requirement for Eric.

 Here is the rest of what I bought.  There was a purveyor of pasta inside, so I bought the lobster and crawfish pasta, as well as the spinach, Gorgonzola and pine nut pasta.  I made the lobster ones for dinner.  They were delicious.  The clear bag of things are cranberry scones from the bakery, and the thing on the white bag is a russian tea cake.  I was hoping it was something delicious and new, and it turned out to be a mexican wedding cake.  Why are they the same?!  Oh well, still delicious.

wanderings

Yay it's friday! cue music.  you may all kill me if you have "Friday" stuck in your head now.  :)  After work today I discovered that water exists somewhere besides in the air here in Maryland.  Course its not too bad out yet, I think the highest humidity I have seen is 62%.

Raspberries!  If I am lucky I can pick some later.

So the awesome part is this is all between neighborhoods of houses. You would never know by seeing the stream run through everything.

I took lots of pictures of the stream, its kind of awesome.

 
 Oh, and a tree I wanted to climb.  It was above the stream.

Oh, and there is a pond.  But there were no ducks.  :(

Oh, planes, nevermind I am in civilization.  Also, had to think whether that should be plains or planes... clearly I need to get my brain reset or something.

Oh, and the mandatory food post:

This is betty crocker's version of beef teriyaki, margaret, just ignore this, I am sure that it is in no way authentic.  I just like the way it tastes.  Also, there should theoretically be another new post tomorrow, I am going into DC, I want to visit the museums, and there is an outdoor market I want to check out.

deliciousness

so today was cook from Bon Apetit night!  I picked up the magazine at borders to see if I actually wanted it.  The cover was this:

And upon reading the recipe I decided I really really wanted to try it.  I even did it the right way.  See, all the pretty, fresh ingredients.  ('Cept for the tomatoes, recipe called for canned and I didn't feel like boiling and skinning them on my own)  I almost didn't buy the block of Parmesan, but decided it would be a crime to use the pre-grated stuff on this, since I already had bought sprigs of basil.

So I got home at 5:20, and had started by 5:30.  But didn't get dinner til 7:15.  Mainly cause I don't remember where everything is in the kitchen.  (5 minutes to find a cutting board that was on the counter)  But my favorite delay was this:

Can openers.  Lots of them.  They are in order from left to right for when I found them.  The first one I am only guessing is a can opener.  Still not positive.  The middle one looks mostly like a can opener.  But I could not for the life of me figure out how to work it.  >.<  The last one is normal though.  So it worked out eventually.

 The final result was worth it.  Fresh basil makes it taste so much better.  :)  now I just need my ice cream machine to make gelato for a truly italian evening.   (I am done making eric drool now)  I would have more, but I am not going into DC this weekend as it's supposed to thunderstorm all weekend.  And DC isn't that much fun in lots of rain.  Specially since I was going to go to a market that is mostly outdoors.  :(  Oh well, better luck next week.

first few days

Made it successfully to DC (obviously).  Am kind of halfway unpacked... though I should iron my shirts for work. In case you actually care I am still working on CRISM stuff this summer.  Basically creating a reference library of IR spectra for various minerals on Mars so that way scientists have something to compare theirs to.  Thankfully I don't have to create the website.



Don't really know why I am posting right now anyways. Other than to torment eric.  >:)

Made fried chicken for dinner, and took the long way home from work to stop by the awesome bakery called Bonaparte Breads.  So delicious.  Or dericious as Eric might say.  The first thing is a palmier, it was good, but I can make better.  Though I dont normally make them the size of my hand.

And this piece of deliciousness is a chocolate almond croissant.  And they are kind of like a slice of heaven.  Theoretically it will be breakfast tomorrow, but I am having trouble not eating it now.  The problem with eating it now is that the bakery doesn't open before work tomorrow.  (also they are hiring, I was really tempted to see if I could get a second job this summer)

I think thats it.  The food photos are up, which was what was important.

weekend home

Starting this blog thing, we shall see how long I keep it.  Got to spend today unpacking and repacking.  Which would have been less annoying but my cat wouldn't leave me alone.  Every time I sat he jumped on me and demanded that I pet him.  But now he is shipped off to mom's and I am all packed up.  Went to Thyme (the restaurant I used to work at) for dessert and drinks.  No photo of the molten chocolate cake, I have had it too many times to remember it might be special for someone, however, I did get a photo of the drink:

Pomegranate martinis are pretty good.  Though I am beginning to realize most places pour drinks that are much stronger than anything I would ever pour for myself.  I also recently found out my camera has a panoramic setting, so you guys get a photo of my living room.

Oh, and cause I like photos of flowers, you can also see my yard.  You can tell I am further north, the bradford pear tree is still in bloom.

And my cherry tree was blooming in time for me to see.

I also got to see the remains of my strawberry bed.  Dad tore it apart and is restarting it.  Theoretically he is going to weed it this time around.

Also for some reason I thought Margaret would like the picture of the birch tree, so here it is.  I promise the bark is supposed to be peeling like that Margaret, the tree is alive and quite healthy.

Its fun to see the twin cars in the driveway.  Guess which one is actually mine!

Well this is a start, specially considering I didn't do much today other than hang out at home.