Recipe Round-Up (April-June?)

Since whenever the last time I did this...

New recipes we made and liked enough to make again, in no particular order:

Lemon Chicken Soup
Egg Lemon Soup
Herbed Summer Squash Pasta
Yogurt Marinated Chicken Kebabs with Aleppo Pepper
Italian Sausage Burgers with Garlicky Spinach (I might make this again this weekend- to approximate an bbq meal)
Roasted Red Pepper Panzanella (More for a dinner party side or appetizer, not for a meal)
Turkey and Zucchini Burgers
Thai Red Curry Pork
Pasta with Chorizo and Chickpeas (we make this all the time now)
Almond Apricot Chicken with Mint Pesto
Mushroom Ragout with Pasta (Jason did not like this, even though he made it)
Peppery Pasta with Arugula and Shrimp
Skillet Bruschetta with Beans and Greens
Spiced Lamb Patties with Nutty Garlic Sauce:

Jason whipped this up on a weeknight-fancy!

I'm sure there are more! But they are casualties of memory and spotty posting.

A Nice Story

Before I forget.

Two weekends ago, my mom flew into DC and we drove up to New York for a family reunion. We took the scenic route through Pennsylvania, both to avoid tolls and because we like to eat in Pennsylvania.  On the way up, we stopped at a place we'd been to before and loved, Alvaro's, an Italian bakery in Harrisburg. Later, as we drove past Allentown, my my told us how my great uncle on my dad's side had moved there from Long Island in 1940 to open a cheesesteak shop.  She hadn't been in touch with any of the Allentown cousins in at least 25 years. This was mildly interesting information, since we like cheesesteaks.

On the way back from the reunion the next day, about 20 miles before Allentown, we decided we were hungry. (Alvaro's is closed on Sundays, sadly.) My mom vaguely recalled the name of the cheesesteak place, so we yelped it to see if it still existed, and pointed our GPS in that direction. It was a spur of the moment, casual decision, but once we were headed there, I was a sort of nervous. It seemed like it had the potential to be awkward.

It turned out to be cash-only, dashing my plan to use my credit card as a subtle way to reveal my unusual last name. We went in and ordered from someone who definitely did not look related to us, had delicious food, and read the articles posted on the wall to make sure this was the right place and was still owned by the same family. Once we were done, we noticed another staff person and asked him if he was one of the owners and he was- the original owner's oldest son. I think that makes him my dad's first cousin. So, my mom told him who we were and...it was really nice. He was happy we were there, he wished we had said something earlier, and told me I had been to the restaurant when I was three. He and my mom talked about family members for a while until he had to attend to other customers.  We left feeling happy and satisfied with how the whole spur-of-the-moment situation played out.

Before we got back to the DC area, we decided to give Pennsylvania one last opportunity to serve us delicious food, and got ice cream at Handel's in York. It was excellent, but such large portions that we had to cancel one of our three orders. We explained that in DC, at these prices, you usually get one or two micro scoops, so we weren't expecting five generous scoops of ice cream-each. We like Pennsylvania.

Just because:

Sal enjoys the towels fresh from the dryer

A List

Things I am looking forward to about moving:

• Space! Space for having friends over and for hosting overnight guests
• Getting to do whatever I want with painting, fences, doors, etc.- not that we plan on making any major changes to the house
• So. Many. Bathrooms.
• A pantry
• My own washer and dryer
• Sitting on the swing on the porch
• Being able to grill
• Learning about outdoorsy things like rain barrels, composting, mulch
• Having an herb garden, and possibly more once I get the hang of it
• Being near Rock Creek Park again
• Feeling invested in a neighborhood, trying to make friends with neighbors, expecting to be there for a while
• Becoming involved in local politics, although I hear that will change after my first ANC meeting
• Exploring new neighborhoods like Takoma Park, but also getting to know some of DC's less precious areas like Kennedy St and upper Georgia Ave

Things I will miss:

• Capitol Hill in general- the grand old rowhouses, the brick sidewalks, the dogs and babies everywhere
• But Eastern Market and Lincoln Park specifically
• Being so close to work and being able to walk home most days
• Being walking distance to the H St. corridor and Navy Yard
• Proximity to four metro lines, and not ever relying on the red line to get to work
• Being able to clean the entire apartment in less than half an hour
• Keeping possessions pared down and being motivated to de-clutter to be comfortable in a small space
• The building's rooftop view of the Capitol 
• Rose's Luxury
• Not ever worrying about repairs or appliances beyond calling the management company to complain
• Not ever worrying about damage from weather events

Homeowners

House: 
It's official! We are homeowners! Well, I guess we are technically landlords now since the sellers are still living there for a little bit longer. But we did get a key! But we can't use it yet. The closing itself was...extremely stressful followed by fun and celebratory.

For the past month, the closing had been scheduled for Tuesday morning. Last Friday afternoon, our lender realized that a form we had signed had a wrong number on it, and it's a law that buyers need three full business days to change their minds after receiving any new information. So, the closing had to be moved to Wednesday (in Bethesda! ugh), which is...not a big deal, but sort of is, scheduling wise, when you need to get eight working adults to be somewhere for a few hours in the middle of the day. First it was Wednesday afternoon, then it was first thing in the morning, 8 am. We made it work, and I was even happy about it, because I could go to my work picnic on Tuesday. Then, Monday night, somehow, we were told we would have the closing Tuesday morning after all, at the original Capitol Hill office location. So, Tuesday morning, 15 minutes before the closing (the office was a 10 minute walk for us) our realtor calls us and tells us the location has changed to 14th St. and to please get in an Uber right away. We made it, only five minutes late, and everything was fine from that point on. We signed lots of things, had snacks, joked and laughed a lot (agreeing to exchange hundreds of thousands of dollars is so funny!) and took pictures. The settlement company gave us a bottle of champagne, our realtor gave us a bottle of champagne, and our realtor and lender took us out to lunch and ordered another bottle of champagne. It was all very festive and convivial. I haven't felt any buyer's remorse, but check back in a month when I get my first mortgage bill and realize utilities are not included.

More house posts coming: the actual process of finding and getting the house, as well as what I am looking forward to and not, about the move

Cooking:

As planned, I made the lemon chicken soup, and the herbed summer squash pasta. Both were delicious. The pasta was especially delicious because I used cream instead of milk for the sauce, and was pretty heavy handed with the salt shaker. It also served the wonderful purpose of using up all of the leftover herbs I had bought to make the zucchini burgers and chicken soup.

Would probably look better in a baking pan, but I didn't want to dirty another dish.

Last night we had a celebratory dinner at Rose's Luxury, since it's our favorite place in the neighborhood (well, in DC in general, but it's nice that it's in the neighborhood) and once we have to pay the mortgage, we won't have any money left for fancy dinners out.

Celebratory ice cream arrangement. Avocado-white chocolate, burnt cinnamon, coffee and coconut.
I love this tray.

Other:
Facebook is so annoying. Yay for gay marriage, but most (heterosexual!) people on my feed are using this as an opportunity to be even more smug than usual about their wonderful marriages. Surely, it is your our own pure-hearted love for your husband or wife that swayed the Supreme Court.

But maybe I am just a cranky person.

Settlement

Today's the day! If all goes well, we will be homeowners in a few hours. (The closing got moved back to today, after being moved to tomorrow afternoon, and then tomorrow morning. Because I am not having enough of a heart attack as-is.) Apparently the buyer's remorse is supposed to hit you hard at closing. We shall see. I would like a break from the the bouts of generalized anxiety.

Other updates:

I don't remember DC ever being this intensely hot + thunderstorm-y before, especially this early in the summer. Today is supposed to be 99 degrees, with a heat index of 104. I still went for a short run last night. Whenever I've spent more than 20 minutes outside this past week, I've had to come home and lay down for a couple of hours to recover. And whenever I work a 9 hour day, go for a run, and cook dinner, I get into bed around 9:45, planning to read for an hour, and am asleep within 15 minutes, often under a pile of newspapers.

Last night I made turkey and zucchini burgers from the Jerusalem cookbook (I don't own it, I just googled the recipe.)

I really liked this recipe. The burgers are more zucchini than turkey which makes them very moist, and the herbs give them an unusual flavor, especially the mint. We got the mint at Eastern Market and it was so strong it was clearing my sinuses while I chopped it. And the yogurt sauce has a ton of sumac (thanks, Rita!) which makes it really delicious. It's almost better without the pita since all the flavors come through better, but I can't have dinner without carbs.  Tonight I'm planning to make another version of the lemon soup with chicken, with the stock I made this weekend.  And I think I'll make this summer squash pasta with the leftover zucchini.

Hopefully more updates to come on the joys of homeownership, and not on the horrors of doing a walk-through and discovering standing water from all the recent storms in your new basement.

June is the new January

Or something like that.

For the past couple of months, I've felt like I'm waiting for some major event or other to finish before I resume my normal day to day, which is not how I want to live. I also changed my schedule to work 9 hour days so that I have one day a pay period off, which makes for very long days. But, there's always going to be something going on. So, I'm re-committing to my resolutions: blogging, exercising, and trying new recipes. Today, even though it's over 100 degrees out, I just came back from a two mile jog (baby steps) and have some chicken stock simmering for later in the week.

I was reminded of how useful blogs can be when I had to document every city I went to in Spain and Europe while I was living in Madrid (including when I was there and for how long) and the only way I was able to put together even a partially accurate list was because of the blog I kept while there. Even though the posting was even spottier than here, life documentation is so useful! Also, since I haven't had the brain space to menu plan over the past few weeks, it's been really useful to look at the month in review posts on this blog for quick recipe ideas. (We haven't given up cooking, just trying to make only new recipes.) So, I want to keep documenting them, because I've already forgotten all the things I've made and liked in the past few weeks.

The big thing that's happened since my last post is that we went under contract for a house. I'll post more about that if and when it becomes final, since it still feels premature. The closing has already been re-scheduled because of some documentation problem, and even though it's only happening a day later, it caused me an enormous amount of anxiety, as have most aspects of this process. Even though there's a lot of work involved in getting to settlement, it's less work than going to see houses every other day- that was getting to be kind of awful. The sellers are staying in the house for a bit after the closing, so we're not planning to move for another month or so. Lots more on this to come- hopefully soon!

Italy: A List

We're back! Well, we got back on Sunday, but jet lag is, like, lame.

The food and wine, in general, were my favorite part. We did a fair amount of research and basically always had a specific place in mind for lunch, dinner, and the daily gelato. We had excellent food! Because Italy is so touristy, I would say that that more relaxing, walk around until you find a place that looks tasty plan, is not a good idea, unfortunately. (Not that I really ever do that in the US if I can help it.)

Six Highlights

1. Going to the top of the bell tower in Siena + the bus ride itself from Rome to Siena. Tuscany is so, so beautiful, especially in the Spring, and both of these gave us amazing views.

2. Getting to and eating at La Bottega del 30 in Tuscany, about 25 miles from Siena. We had a terrifying taxi ride over with Fabio, who drove in the pedestrian city of Siena like it was a video game, and then sped down the narrow country roads while passing cars on the shoulders and around blind bends. Thankfully, when we finally got there, the restaurant handed me a prosecco aperitvo and that calmed my nerves and made the experience seem charmingly Italian. We did the chef's tasting menu, and sat there for almost three hours with our endless courses and bottle of wine. The chef came out multiple times to tell us about what she was making. And then we got to hang out with her cat in the vineyard outside as we waited for Fabio to come pick us up.

3. Going to a tiny deli in Siena, run by Antonio, the Ron Swanson of Tuscany. Antonio had a curled mustache and made us giant roast pork and pecorino sandwiches. He told us that good pizza in Italy was made exclusively in Naples, that we were wasting our time with touristy activities in Siena, and was generally horrified that we didn't know the specific vineyards our wine had come from over the past couple of days. He tried to rectify this by opening up bottles from his shelf and making us taste them. Apparently saying "Chianti Classico Riserva from a local Tuscan vineyard" is providing no information to an Italian who knows his wines.

4. The 1.5 hour coastal hike from Corniglia, where we stayed in the Cinque Terre, to Vernazza. It's mesmerizing to walk from one cliffside town to another, through the mountains and along the ocean. We walked from Vernazza to Monterosso as well, but on a mountain trail instead of a coastal trail, and that was not a highlight. (Although in retrospect, this six hour hike was not a lowlight either, although I thought I was going to cry at the time.)

5. People-watching with my ice cream cone, in a small plaza outside of a trendy gelateria in the Monti neighborhood in Rome. Italian bambinos are so adorable. And I don't know how Italians manage to wear pants, boots, long sleeves and sleek sweaters when it's 75 degrees out and not melt into sweaty messes. Amazing.

6. Our night out in the Pigneto neighborhood, a sort of eastern suburb that we stayed in on the second leg of our trip, which was blessedly off the map and un-touristy, but filled with really fun bars and delicious restaurants. We walked around eating and drinking for about five hours without even realizing it.

Three Lowlights

1. The Vatican. Easily the worst sightseeing experience of my life. The crowds, panhandlers, and heat at most of Rome's major sights were unpleasant, but I have never wanted to cross something off my "to-see" list and get the heck out more than when I was in the suffocating forced march through the Vatican Museum to the Sistine Chapel.

2. Eating in the Cinque Terre. Our research failed us here. These five tiny towns are just so touristy, they are basically resorts. There was no off the beaten path that we could find, and the tourists were so...awful. Like, yelling recommendations to each other on where to eat based on whether the staff had good English. One night I think I had the dreaded frozen and microwaved pasta. I mean, we didn't starve or anything, and actually had rather excellent breakfasts at the cafe owned by the woman whose apartment we rented, but eating mediocre pasta in Italy makes me so sad.

3. The huge fire in the Rome airport, the day before Eddie was supposed to fly in from Paris to hang out with me. They canceled his flight! Luckily, our international flight the next day was not affected, although the inefficiency of the Rome airport could be a separate item on this list, if I were feeling in the mood to criticize...

Overall, a very good trip! It made me miss Spain a lot, especially Madrid. (Pigneto reminded me a lot of Madrid.) I think even the major sights in Spain are less popular than minor sights in Italy, and being able to communicate freely with locals when I travel is important to me.  Too bad I am not going back any time soon, since we spent all of our money!