Happy Birthday, Eric!

Sunday, we went to brunch at the Gaylord National Convention Center at the National Harbor. (no, nothing to do with Gaylord Focker). We were celebrating Eric's 29th birthday! Happy Birthday to my friend who calls me "the meanest nice person he knows." I think that's a compliment, right?

Eric is a great friend because he has done such things for/with me such as enduring me taking pictures of Secret Service bunnies at the White House, kidnapping my friend at the Republican National Convention, lifting my couch with one hand with his super-human-retard strength, babysitting Brokaw (that only happened once, as it usually does with anyone who babysits B-dawg) and picking Michael up from the airport (as in picking him up in giving us a ride and as in literally picking him up and putting him in the car... I'm telling you, super-human-retard-strength comes in handy!)

Thank you, Frugal Girl 911

So, this is the story of how The Frugal Girl saved me from being a major food waster last week.
It was Thursday... I realized I had some mold growing in my shredded mozzarella and some Pizza sauce in the fridge that needed to be eaten, stat.
I thought I would make Thin Crust Pizza again, because I made it about a month ago and it was delicous, see?The only problem? The recipe calls for the pizza dough to be made ahead and refrigerated, which is usually great, but under my circumstances, not so much. So, Frugal Girl to the rescue! I e-mailed her asking if there was any way I could make the dough and bake it right away. Thankfully, she was Johnny-on-the-spot in getting back to me, told me to add more yeast and let it set for about an hour, and then I was on my merry way.It was perfect! (Please forgive me for not taking a picture of the final product... we ate it so fast, I forgot!) And, the best part... it led to only one thing being photographed for Food Waste Friday, the old and moldy cheese.
Thank you, Frugal Girl 911!!

Pasta From ITALY!

My super awesome co-worker, David Brody, was kind enough to bring me back some Penne Pasta from Italy! I tossed it up with some chicken, asparagus, heavy whipping cream and two tablespoons of pre-made Pesto and... ta-da! You have to do this one. So easy and so tasty!

I Haven't Posted About Cooking in a While

... so, here you go. I'm about to load the interwebs up with pictures of food, ha! This is a meal we had last Monday? I think...

The recipes I used were from my three favorites! They were all SO. GOOD. Check 'em out:

Black Bean & Avocado burritos, recipe by Rachael Ray.

Southwestern Fruit Salad, recipe by Wegmans.

And finally... Paula Deen's Peanut Butter Parfaits. These were so huge we split them, twice. And, I put the leftover peanut butter/cream cheese mixture on a bagel... wow.

Cheers!

Family Visit Alert!

We absolutely love it when people come to visit DC! But, it's even better when it's family, and they stay with us!

Okay, I'm going to be honest here. I come off as a great hostess. But the truth is, I can't stand to have people's stuff all over the place in my house. I'm a little bit.. how you say... anal? Oh well. It's not that you're not welcome, it's just that we're living in an apartment right now and the whole air mattress thing gets old, you know? Thank God we have two full bathrooms!

I digress.... the great thing about my sister coming to visit is she has this same problem, so she understands when she leaves a glass on the table and it instantly disappears into the dishwasher... what happened and why. And I love her for that!

Tracy and Brayden came up for a quick visit, just one day, during Brayden's Spring Break from school. Brayden is 8 years old, he's really into history and money! Kids are so funny with their random interests, aren't they?

We took T & B all over DC. We went on a tour of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing to see how our nation's money is made. We went in the White House (just for a tour of the Press Briefing Room where I work, to do the full on tour would have taken more planning). We ate lunch, bought some random stuff from street vendors and went to see the War stuff in the Museum of American History. By the end of the day, Brayden's little 8 year old legs were SPENT, he had a WASHINGTON DC backpack full of stuff and we were all falling asleep on the Metro.

It was GOOD TIMES. Love family visits. Love spending a little bit of time with my nephews before they grow up, which, by the way, happens when you blink!

Tracy & Brayden outside the West Wing.

My Beautiful sister!!

Michael & Brayden in the Press Briefing Room. M had been there before, so he's like an old pro.

Brayden in my seat in the Briefing Room. As you can see, he's pretty much as tall as me.

Of course they signed the infamous White House Pool Wall!

Watching these two together melted my heart! M was like a teacher leading B on his own custom field trip or something. So. Cute.

Yay. Shout out to Tracy & Brayden for coming to visit! Y'all come back now, you hear?

Hot dog!

Sitting outside studying with the dogs soaking up some sun.

Food Waste Friday

These grapes couldn't be eaten fast enough! They got tossed. I guess that's not too bad. There is some homemade bread on the counter I just remembered... Guess we better wolf the rest of it down tonight or we're going to have to take another food waste picture.

Update: We did not manage to wolf that bread down, so it was also, sadly, tossed in the trash can.

Oh, and by the way, this is my attempt to cut down on our food waste, inspired by The Frugal Girl.

Birthday Boy (soon)

Somebody has a birthday around the corner...

I heart Goodwill

When I was a kid, I spent a lot of time with my Granny Nora in different thrift stores. The skill of finding good stuff grew and grew and to this day, I really, really enjoy weeding through discount stores like TJ Maxx and Ross and scavenging through thrift stores. I just don't always have the time I'd like to do it!

Recently, though, I've had a few chances to go to a local Goodwill store to drop some of our unwanted junk off and take a look inside. I've been quite lucky lately! Check out some of my finds:


This is the best one! A table that we'll be using as a desk. It's like brand new! For $35.00. I almost had to fight off a Chinese lady for this one, but fortunately another skill I learned from my Granny Nora is how to protect your thrift store purchase from other suitors, so alas, it's in our living room.
I scored a brand new, in the package from Target, chocolate brown bedskirt, for $2.00. It's actually king size and our bed's a queen, but a little fold over job under the mattress and no one will ever know! It's remarkable the difference this has made in pulling our bedroom together and making it look more "finished." For 7 months you could see the box spring and it made me nuts pretty much on a daily basis.

I also picked up this wine rack at Goodwill for $2.00. It's fake leather, and also brown, which apparently we're obsessed with.

Striking gold in the thrift store brings such joy! I love showing off my prizes. It's like a sport!

Imperfection

For Easter, I baked a carrot cake in a bundt pan. Hadn't done that before. Here was our conversation.

Mike: Oh, you're using a bundt pan.

Me: Yeah, I've never done it before. Did you ever watch your mom bake a cake in a bundt pan?
Mike: Oh yeah.

Me: Did you ever notice if she let it cool before she dumped the cake out, or if she took it out right away?

Mike: I don't know. I think you should let it cool.

Impatient me: dumps out cake.

Mike: makes compassionate face, half smiling

Me: I hope I have enough icing to cover this up.

All was well, in the end. Love it when I can cover up my mistakes that easily! :)