March 20, 2013

Today, on this overcast and somewhat chilly first day of Spring, I miss our Bali "friends" and sunset coffee + tea service on the beach, and being so utterly messed up from the time change that we woke up early enough to catch the sun rise over the island on several occasions.

I miss all of that, but in the best way :) 

See those little things that look like... garbage piles, for lack of better words? Every morning the Balinese people set out these canang sari as an offering to the gods and spirits - it's really interesting seeing the variety of items placed in these. Almost all contain lit incense and some type of food item. Some we saw had money and one even had a full pack of cigarettes inside.

But until our next big adventure [and there happens to be at least a big - not Bali big, but definitely someplace warm that requires a passport big, adventure on the horizon!] I'm happy to have lazy days like this - with a sleeping hound on the floor next to me and a potato, bacon, pork belly gratin in the oven - to fill the time. 

That ear tip! Those tiny teeth! Did you know I pretty much am the walking dead? Because I die every time I look at that kid.

This gratin, you guys -- I ate the tiniest portion and I think I already gained 10lbs. So.good.

Last Week/Spring Break

*In the vein of my last post, here's another one basically copied/pasted from my handwritten journal. It's going to be too long to be of much interest to anyone, but.... the memories!!! If you don't type it, it didn't happen... or something like that ;)


March 14, 2013

I've been on Spring Break this past week and it's been pretty wonderful! Not as productive on the catching-up-and-getting-ahead-with-school-work-front as I would have liked, but it's been really nice having time to bake and nap during the day and being able to pick up some extra hours at work too!

Recap:
Wed. March 6 - I made some wicked-delicious Chocolate Chip Brioche Pretzels (Smitten Kitchen's recipe - the recipe was kind of jacked and nearly wrecked my stand mixer, but the finished product was worth it. [*when I made them again this Sunday I used a barely-tweeked version of SK's recipe but followed another brioche dough's method. Will post soon!]

Thurs. March 7 - Devon left on another quick work trip for 2 nights. Fell asleep watching TV with Owen. We party hard. 

Fri. March 8 - Met up with Maggie, Hannah, Chelsea, and Jonda for girls night. We first went to Bar X [I had a 1920's Manhattan and an Old Pal - enjoyed the former, a nice switch from my usual Old Fashioned. The latter was a bit too... soapy? I bit too something for my liking.] Bar X has ruined me for cocktails forever. Was really run. Ran into Mike, from Cathedral who works there occasionally and talked shop for a minute. Super excited to get my next tattoo. Also ran into Jordan, one of Chantel's friends, and Shadna(sp?)/Michael who I knew from my blue-haired chest piercing vegan coffee shop days and who knows Jenn, Alex, and Steve from Pottery Barn. That was a blast from the past.
     Next we visited The Tavernacle - which was awful and very loud, but fun with the girls. Sometimes I wonder if dueling piano players ever feel like their life is Groundhog's Day - A never-ending repeat of LMFAO's Sexy and I Know It, Billy Joel, and drunken Bachelorettes. Jonda was able to trap Chelsea on stage for Beyonce's All the Single Ladies/Put a Ring On It. 
     Once we all started to split up I played a round of Fortune Street with Time and Maggie. It was a really fun night. Often with those two, we're around so many other peiple that it's hard to have a really good talk with either of them - not that they're not great listeners or conersationalists, it was just nice having time with just them. I actually really felt like I got to bond with all the girls that night. It's pretty rad finally being at a point in life surrounded by so many awesome ladies. 

Sat. March 9 - This morning I picked Devon up from the airport at about 10. We had big plans to have a nice breakfast or lunch... We headed to Em's - near the Capitol Building since neither of us had been before. They weren't open yet so we took a really nice walk around the neighborhood - that condo we nearly closed on, Nate and Hollie's - it was the first barely warm enough to go without a coat kind of day, so that was great, but when we got back to Em's they still weren't open - turns out we missed that little notice about opening at 5pm Saturdays. Next we headed to Eva's Bakery/Boulangerie, but it was super packed and we were both tired, hungry grumps, so we grabbed a breakfast burrito from Albertos for Devon, went home, and grumpy-napped until Devon had to go to work. 
     Later, I took Owen for a jog at Liberty Park and Devon surprised us + brought coffee. It was super sweet of him. I think we both felt bad about how the morning had gone. Then we went home, got gussied up, and went for a quick dinner date at Flatbread before meeting up with some friends at Dick and Dixie's - which has such a weird layout - It's hard to find a place to stand without feeling like you're blocking half the place, before heading over to Thao and the Get Down Stay Down at Urban. 
     We ended up leaving Urban not long after the opening band played - we were both too tired to enjoy it and it was just too loud and crowded to have a good time. [Hello, I'm Caroline - your 24 year old grandmother.] 

Sun. March 10 - Sunday was a lazy one. Devon hung out with Cardy and I didn't do much of anything until it was dinner time. I made a much overdue run to Whole Foods - God, I love that place, and made such a killer dinner: Ricotta-stuffed Manicotti w/Fried Polenta topped with Goat Cheese, Caramelized Onion, and a Honey Drizzle, + Endive Salad. It was my first time making ricotta and pasta from scratch and now I don't think I'll ever go back.

Thurs. March 14 - After I took Littledude to school I walked his dog for an hour and was free at 9:30 in the morning! It was SUCH a gorgeous and great day.  went to the gym, had a bubble bath, fixed my hair and felt like a super fox, made my next tattoo appointment at Cathedral and dropped by Caffe D'Bolla, AND got to go on a date with my handsome husband! Best day ever material. While at D'Bolla I piced up a bag of the best damn coffee I've ever had in my life [Buenevista Bolivia] and found out Devon would be off work early. I had big plans to bust out some much-belated wedding thank-you's while there... but I felt like I was keeping the owner there late, so I headed out and took Owen for a Liberty Park lap before Devon took me out to Finca. It was my third visit there and his first - so unbelievably good. He ordered the PX Milk Punch [didn't love it] and I had the Clover Club [best cocktail I've had outside of Bar X!] We shared the lamb belly, flatbread, croquetas, and, of course, the brussels sprouts with house-cured bacon and sherry cream. So tasty. Such a great date.


Fri. March 15 - That was quite a lot to catch up on! Like I've written - I've been on Spring Break this week and haven't done anything too exciting. I made some graham crackers from scratch the other day, picked up an extra shift with Littledude, and got a surprise check in the mail from Tricare from when they screwed me over last Spring and that's about it! Pheeew! That was an awful lot of words - Someone sign me up for a carpal tunnel PT session! Well, that's what I've been up to for the past... feels like ever. Thanks for humoring my desire to backtrack so far!

 

The requisite Bar X shot

1920's Manhattan

before we turned on each other like the hungry vultures we were.....

coffee surprises are some of the best kinds of surprises

Owen is more interested in squirrels than triple americanos

bitches be joggin

Liberty BARK

Clover Club

Grilled Apples and Lamb Belly on some sort of delicious puree

flatbread

unbaked grahams

Sometimes delicious things look like slop... but that's okay.

It's over! And it literally nearly took my entire 4 hour break to get that all in! ...plus a little pinterest/facebook/twitter/email/etc. How's that for a productive use of time?

-xo

Our Weekend: March 16-17

**This was initially written in my journal, but I wanted to have most entries like this consolidated on here. Hence the dates not quite matching up and it being even more rambly than my usual posts.


 This weekend was another fun one. I always feel like we're not all that busy or we don't do too much outside of the orderinary - but maybe it's more that we're just really good at condensing all our fun into little 2-day bursts. 

Saturday morning I had planned to stop by the Winter Pop Up Market and hit a Step and Strength class at the gym [when did waking up early to go to the gym become so laughable?!]  As I was lazing around I received an email from my mom that my dad had had a little health scare - I'd go into more detail, but I'm sure he wouldn't want me, as he puts it, 'telling his business,' so I'll just leave it at that. She assured me he was fine overall but encouraged me to come up and visit. I was overdue for a hangout at my folks' anyway so I drove up there with Owen for a bit. We didn't do much, but it's always nice to see them and Owen has the best time playing with Woody and Lucy. 

Once I left my folks, I took Owen home and got ready for the free Alkaline Trio show at In the Venue. After an insanely long wait at the bar and an insanely bad opening band I was able to find/meet up with my new-ish internet-turned-IRL-friend, Chelsea, her fiancee, and her friend Katherine. It was a really fun time, but considering all my favorite of their songs are over a decade old by now and a third of the crowd probably wasn't even alive when the band got together... well, I sort of felt old as hell... but at least I wasn't clinging to 2003 half as hard as some of the people I'd eavesdropped on. 

After that show, Devon picked me up and we headed to Urban Lounge for our friends' band King Niko's CD release show. It was really great fun. I felt like we knew half the people there and almost all my favorite people were in attendance. It was impossibly loud - I have got to start bringing ear plugs with me - so I wish I would have been able to talk to people more, but it was just the best time! I had a few drinks, but it was really great seeing Devon have such a great time given how hard and how much he's had to work lately.

I'm really excited our friend Nate is going to be King Niko's new drummer.  Their bass player, Tim, and his girlfriend Maggie are two of our closest friends and were both in our wedding party, and their guitarist, Ben and his wife Hollie, who was also one of my bridesmaids, are great friends as well... so anytime we hang out with that crowd it always feels like those friends-turned-adopted-family times. Nate's wife Hollie [two Hollie's, both super sweet babes - what are the odds] always looks amazing, but she was just stunning Saturday night. Such a great lady. 

After the show a bunch of us headed to Betos on 4th [now Mezquite?] for post-fun burritos and wandered home around 3am. 

Sunday we kept it pretty mellow - Devon had to go into work for a while and I stayed pretty lazy until it was time to go grocery shopping + make food for Cardy and Jenn's annual St. Patrick's Day Dinner. I made the Chocolate Brioche Pretzels I'd made a few weeks ago, but incorporated a little oatmeal stout into them this time. They turned out really well, even though the stout flavor wasn't very noticeable. 

Dinner was great as usual - I love Jenn's corned beef and cabbage feasts. She also made bangers and colcannon with Irish soda bread. Alex, and later Steve came too, brought some delicious chocolate chip cookies and pretzels with mustard dip. Once Alex and Steve headed out we kicked out an episode of The Walking Dead, went home, and that was our weekend! 

Oh, to be young again.... no thank you!

Chocolate Brioche Dough!

Chocolate Brioche Barely Stout Pretzels! Not quite as cute the second time around, but considering I shaved an hour and a half off the time, I'll take it!

Very proud of my pretzels and horseradish. Devon's eyes are probably still sore from how hard he must have rolled them there.

Check out the sweet gift sweet Jenn brought back from her trip to Boston last week!

Adorable little St. Patrick's Zo

Irish Zoda Bread anyone? lolololol. I love her.

 Once again, I'm realizing I need more phone pictures of friends and fun times than food.... Oops!