Pictures, not words

Lately I'm enjoying Instagram so much more than Twitter. I think it's because my head hurts from being overworked, and all the words of Twitter flying by at a rapid pace only ramp up my crowded brain. Looking at pictures, though, makes my head feel clearer, calmer. And so while I've been a terrible blogger, my phone is bursting with images that hint at just what I've been up to the last couple of weeks.

Not pictured: working. Working working working.

But fun things I've been doing, and photographing, include admiring the colors of my neighborhood.

 Being blessed with gorgeous wedding invitations.

Turning a head of cauliflower into a dessert-like substance.

Eating lots of oysters (which happen to go really well with martinis).

Replacing a toilet (surprisingly easy, it turns out).

 And working... again.

But then, finally, it was time to jet off to Austin. Oh how I needed this trip.

I spent the first day with my dear Kate, introducing new Bebe L to the wonders of Austin patio lounging.

T arrived and by the miracle of all miracles, we did not call into work. We did a lot of this instead.

We ate ourselves silly at Salt Lick for the rehearsal dinner. We also spent a lot of time looking up at the sky, marveling at all the stars. It's sad how long it had been since I'd done nothing but look up at the sky. Feeling small under all those stars is an amazing feeling.

The next day, it was time for the wedding. And oh, this wedding. One of T's best friends from Dallas married a woman who is his match in every way. It was stunning, and so full of joy.

We arrived back in DC late Sunday night, and the first thing I saw was the bounty of pink blossoms, bright even against the night sky. Our cherry blossoms had opened over the weekend. The next morning I took the same shot, in awe of these pretties right outside the door. 

Spring has sprung. And now I'll be taking pictures of flowers every day to document it.

A new leaf

Lately I can't bring myself to open up Blogger. I've had a handful of recipe posts lined up (in my head at least... but pictures already taken and recipes already written out), and I can't bring myself to post them. Maybe it's the weather here... cherry blossoms are open, dogs and kids are out to play, the neighborhood is opening up to say hello more each day. I love my neighborhood walks, and couldn't be more excited to have more sun soon to fit them in. Daylight Savings or bust.

Pretty in Pink, last weekend

I'm ready for the weather to change, ready for new blossoms and ready for... newness. And while I doubt this spring will turn out exactly as we hoped it would, it's easier for me to feel upbeat when there's such beauty everywhere. I'm thankful for the big fun we've been having as the season turns, with friends who make my sides hurt from laughing so hard. I'm thankful for the three weddings we're attending this spring - in Austin, here in DC, and in New Orleans - and all the hope those events engender. I'm thankful for a yard that gets my landscaping wheels turning in this great weather, despite my decision-making paralysis about layout and fencing and plantings. But mostly, it's the walks that settle my brain down that I'm so thankful for... and the guy who's often with me for them. 

Lincoln Park at dusk

I want to go and play outside with the ferocity of the birds outside my window. There are literally two dozen of them in a single tree right now, flitting around and celebrating the moment. These budget spreadsheets I'm working on seem especially cruel by comparison. Isn't it terrible that adults don't get Spring Break, too? This is why smart people get married in the spring, I think... providing Spring Break for their loved ones. In that light, then, my Spring Break is two weeks from now, in Austin. Just in time.

Friday I'm in Love

I'm so ready to sleep in and relax with friends this weekend... how about you? Here are three little gems from my week.

Hank for Senate

Meet Hank, a cat running for Senate in Virginia. Do you notice that he looks shockingly like our cat Switters? Poor Switters is pretty pissed. He was convinced he had the right mix of dashing good looks and humble roots that would help launch him into office, and then Hank went and stole his thunder, before DC even had its own Senate seat. Switters is licking his wounds in the windowsill right now. It isn't pretty.

The Women of 'Community'

I'm giddy that 'Community' is coming back to NBC mid-month. The 'Community' fan base is a rabid one, and we are proud. This Daily Beast interview with the women of 'Community' shows exactly why our show is better than your show. I raise my glass to women written as whole characters, to blowing apart stereotypes, and to the magic that can happen when women write for other women. Well done, team... well done.

Hometown Kitchen

This is me, glowing with hometown pride, pointing you to a fantastic article written about the family of one of my favorite high school pals. The reporter joins Saleem's family for dinner, where the Rs have been churning out innovative fusion cooking since way before it was cool. Read about family rice wars and get hungry, then go dive into Saleem's creative work, which consistently makes me feel close to him even though our days of daily conversation and high school hijinks are no more. Big props to Saleem for being vanity-aged in this piece, by the way - is it really that easy to shave a couple of years off that number? Note to self.

Have a happy weekend, everyone!

February, in pictures

I ended February on a blur of a work trip featuring lots of work and little sleep, and now it's March. I suppose that's how time slips away from us, isn't it? At any rate, I'm back in DC looking out my office window at early cherry blossoms, and wishing my knee was 100% again so that I could walk around in this gorgeous weather. (So much nicer out than the monsoon I drove through back to DC last night.)

Despite time rushing by much too quickly, I do have one great visual reminder of the month, courtesy of Instagram and the February Photo a Day Challenge. I had so much fun responding to the daily prompts with pictures that I'm doing the March Photo a Day Challenge, too.

Not on Instagram? No worries. You can find me online here, where you can also see the pictures in full size and view their captions (i.e., figure out how I justified a random shot as "sun" on a day that was as rainy as yesterday).

Come play along! (And I know, I know, Instagram really needs to develop a Droid App already.)

PS: I always have my Instagram feed running on the blog, too, down on the left sidebar.

Friday I'm in Love

Yesterday I fell flat on my face while walking. I was crossing a park to meet T at our neighborhood Metro station, and a slightly uneven brick hit my foot in just the right way, and... splat. Kind thanks to the homeless men who hurriedly rushed to my assistance. Oh my. So today, my knee is the size of a softball and the opposite foot is unable to bear weight. I'm feeling pretty graceful heading into the weekend... how about you?

SIGH.

Let's hurry up and make it 5 p.m., okay? Here are three things that made me smile this week (I've missed you, Friday I'm in Love!):

The Partisans: Birth Control Hearings (Redux)

This is the best response I can possibly imagine to the brain-exploding lunacy that is a bunch of men on Capitol Hill talking about birth control. Thank you, Andy Cobb and Second City, thank you...

U.S. Interstates as a Subway Map

Subway art will always be my favorite, but I'll give a nod here to the Interstate System as well... even if its existence is responsible for the sprawling of America. (getting off my soapbox now...)

Friends with Kids

You know those movie previews you see and in the first five seconds it's completely obvious that you will watch said movie and love it, due mostly to the fact that you love everyone* on screen? This movie is that [latest] movie for me. 

Have a great (and graceful) weekend, folks!

*Megan Fox excluded (obvs)

Girl power

I might as well be carrying around one of these this week. It's a girl power kind of time for me.

Last weekend was one of my favorite weekends of the year: folk art and prom dresses. How in the world do these two things combine, you're asking?

First up: the annual Folk Art Show at Fearrington Village. I love this show. I love the art and the energy, how down-home it feels, while still being (for me, on a budget!) absolutely aspirational. I had a blast at the Collectors' Preview with my mom and my sister.

Another reason I love the Fearrington Folk Art Show is watching my mom work the room - painting, pottery, textiles, she does it all. She's been collecting Danny Doughty's work for years, and picked up these gorgeous geese this year to add to her collection.

On Saturday, my favorite girl gang - my three cousins! - arrived to shop for their prom dresses. Two prom attendees, with older college student sis acting as shopping consultant, plus me, my mom, and sis = too much fun for one 12-hour shopping day! We were successful, by the way - both girls ended up in amazing dresses that suited them perfectly - and were perfectly different. I've said it before and I'll say it again: my cousins give me hope for the universe. I love these girls like mad.

As if this wasn't enough, I had a very special lunch date on Sunday with my oldest pal in the world, Allie, and her brand new baby girl! Baby L was born in December and I can't wait to watch her grow up to be as amazing as her mom is.

Just two days later, my dear friend Kate had her baby girl, too. I get to meet this new Baby L in Austin next month, and I'm counting down the days to see those cheeks in person!

Okay, okay, I still like boys... but for a few more days, I'm just going to soak in all this girly goodness. Can you blame me?

Red chile and chocolate... need I say more?

I've said it before: I'm not a baker. I'm imprecise and I improv flavors. I don't level off measurements a knife. Sometimes I don't even measure. Baking has always seemed too scientific for me. I don't understand chemistry. Or physics. Or... space. But I can, it turns out, bake a flourless chocolate cake.

Is this a good time to also issue a reminder that I don't have a big sweet tooth? It's true, and probably why I've gotten away with not being interested in baking for so long. Thank goodness T is the same way. We like to drink our desserts around here.

On the rare occasions that I do order dessert, they're almost always in the earthy/spicy/fruity category, save for one lone chocolate entry: flourless chocolate cake. Maybe because it goes so well with red wine? Hmmm.

In keeping with our vow to make something new every Valentine's Day (nope, yesterday's simple goat cheese sauce doesn't count), I decided to go crazy and get out the springform pan. Insanity! I found a dead-simple recipe for a flourless chocolate cake from Gourmet, and then decided to add one little "me" twist: some red chile from Chimayo. Now we're talking. Now this is feeling like my kind of dessert. And guess what? It was delicious with a glass of port.

Red Chile Chocolate Flourless Cake

Adapted from Gourmet

I love spice, and easily could have added twice as much red chile to this cake and been happy. If you do that, I'd suggest adding some sugar to your whipped cream for serving. For this version, I didn't add any sugar to my whipped cream, and enjoyed the way it helped cut the richness of the cake.

Ingredients

•  Two 8 oz bittersweet chocolate bars, chopped
• Two sticks unsalted butter, chopped
• 1.5 cups sugar
• 6 eggs
• 1 tablespoon red chile powder (I used hot Chimayo red, but use your favorite... chipotle, Ancho, whatever you like)
• 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

Directions

• Preheat the oven to 350. Butter a large springform pan (or use butter spray). Line the bottom of the pan with a wax paper cutout, and spray that with butter spray, too.
• In a double-boiler or modified double-boiler (I just use a metal bowl over a saucepan), add the chopped-up bittersweet chocolate and butter. Stir until melted and remove from heat.
• Add sugar and whisk it in. (At this stage, transfer to your mixer if you like, or continue to do it by hand.)
• Crack the eggs one at a time and whisk each in separately, until they're all incorporated.
• Sift in the unsweetened cocoa powder and the red chile. Whisk until just combined.
• Pour into the pan and cook for 45-50 minutes. (I'd start checking it at 35 minutes - my oven runs a little cool.) 
• After the cake cools to your liking, serve with whatever strikes your fancy. I used fresh-whipped cream (only vanilla added, no sugar - see note above). Berries would also be delicious. Enjoy!

I heart ravioli.

You probably thought I made our Valentine's Day heart-shaped lobster ravioli from scratch, didn't you?

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha....... One day I will do that. But this not day.

However, the ravioli does represent why I love my neighborhood so much. Our work schedules didn't allow for a labor-intensive dinner on Tuesday night, so I walked over to Eastern Market to visit the fresh pasta counter, source of many quick and delicious weeknight meals at our place. I knew going in that I was interested in their lobster ravioli, which is typically square with orange stripes. But look! The pasta gods got cheeky! Big pink puffy hearts! Okay then.

Next I had to consider what type of sauce to make. I considered a brown butter, a lemon butter, but it finally hit me... it's Valentine's Day. Be decadent. (That's right: in this scenario, brown butter isn't decadent enough. Go with it) I happened to have lots of leftover goat cheese in the fridge from our party Saturday, and so a dream was born. A deliciously rich dream. One that made me oh so happy.

Here's the (easy!) sauce I made with ingredients I had on hand, which I might add was also delicious as a dipping sauce for steak that night. I reheated the sauce last night and it wasn't quite as good, so I'd just make what you need for dinner that night and enjoy it fresh. You could probably cut this in half if you're just cooking for two, depending on how you're using the sauce.

Goat Cheese Cream Sauce

An accompaniment for lobster ravioli, steak, and more

Ingredients

• One extra-large shallot (or three small shallots)
• Two tablespoons butter
• 1/3 cup white wine
• Dash of dried thyme (or better yet, fresh thyme if you have it)
• Dash of white pepper
• Dash of salt
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 3/4 of a small log of goat cheese (use the rest for your salad!)
• Dash of smoked salt if you have it (if not, just another dash of salt to taste at the end)

Directions

• Saute the shallots in butter until soft, being careful not to burn them, 3-4 minutes
• Add white wine and simmer until the mixture is reduced by 2/3
• Add a dash of dried thyme, white pepper, and salt
• Add 1 cup of heavy cream and stir in the goat cheese
• Reduce the sauce by half again
• Sprinkle in some smoked salt to taste

Meal of Love II

Remember last year when we made Valentine's Dinner at home together? Remember me talking about how much I hate going out to eat on V-Day, and how much more romantic it is to stay in? Remember our curried mussels and the first date that never was? Remember the pact we made to cook together every Valentine's Day, to make something new to us?

Here's last night's menu. Recipes to come the rest of the week!

We had so much fun last night.

How did you celebrate?

All you need is love

I've always liked Valentine's Day. Not because of romantic relationships, but because of the sentiment. Love, laughter, smiles, warmth... these are good things. There should be more of these things in the world. And so however you choose to honor love, laughter, smiles, and warmth... just do it. Do it today. Do it every day. Honor love in all your relationships.

Honor it in your friendships.

Honor it in your family.

And yes, honor it in your romances.

Sarcasm can only take us so far, after all. It feels so much better to smile than to roll your eyes, don't you think?