How quickly I am reduced to eating frozen meals

I went from Sunday eating at feast at Poste and now it is Tuesday and I am eating random things I dig out of the freezer.  

I went from succulent spit roasted goat and cheesy polenta to Amy's frozen Indian Meals and Green Giant steam in the bag corn.

From a crowded table with family and friends to sitting around in my pajamas being a typical couch potato.

And who doesn't love the extravagance found in a gorgeous restaurant with a meal you will talk about for days.  Yet I am completely satisfied in this moment of comfortable laziness.

Thank you Poste for a beautiful and amazing meal.  And thank you Amy's frozen meals for making a delicious Indian meal that made me so happy tonight.

Pictures from last Sunday's Goat Roast!

Once upon a time there was a pumpkin.....

A pumpkin that was small, round, and ready to show off her stuff.  But alas she was always passed over for her other fall friends, butternut and spaghetti squash.  Not only that, she found to her dismay that people only seemed to want to bring home large pumpkins to carve faces in and keep outside their homes.  Didn't they realize that I am edible as well?, she wondered.  Till one day a young beautiful girl* who wanted to bring new adventures to her kitchen decided to give her a chance.

So off they went together.  But what to do?  Pumpkin pie, bread, muffins?  No, said the young beautiful girl, pumpkin doesn't just have to be sweet.  She reminisced of some of her favorite dishes she had in Australia where pumpkin was used in savory chicken curry pies, ravioli, and salads.  It was not something she had seen before as all of her previous experiences had been in pie form (granted it's her favorite pie to have), but she wanted to make something for an entree rather than dessert.  So off came the little pumpkin's top, and her seeds as well, and after a rub down of olive oil and Moroccan spice mix into the toaster oven she went.

20 minutes later she was done and ready to see how the young, beautiful, aspiring cook** would dress her for tonight's event.  With her Moroccan spice mix in mind she added couscous, dried cranberries, and shrimp.  The effect was a gorgeous and tasty*** marriage of sweet and savory.

The little pumpkin was happy to have achieved more than just becoming a Fall decoration piece and the girl thought that Fall is going to be a fun season to experiment.****

(*author may take liberties in describing herself. You don't like that, well too bad!)

(**cook is a definite exaggeration on the author's part, but you should give her an "A" for effort!)

(***author admits that pumpkin needed a bit more salt, but was otherwise perfectly cooked and quite good.)

(****author did not major in creative writing and realizes that her attempt to write in story format is sub par at best.)

Dinner Parties and Brunch

This weekend I showed off my mad hostessing skills.  That's right...I have skills!  Mostly I just wanted to try out some recipes and needed people to be fatties with me.  Selfish, but also delicious.  So I think it is really a win-win situation.  Unfortunately I did not take any pics from Friday's get together which included such fun as carne asade (pre-marinated and packaged from the great Trader Joe's.  Or Trader Jose!)  I then made cilantro lime rice, spiced black beans, and corn pudding.  I know that corn pudding does not exactly go with the theme, but I had a ton of corn left over from last weekend's labor day festivities and wanted a recipe that would be fun and use up all of it.  Oh man people, was that corn pudding delicious.  Sweet and light with a bit of sinful cream to keep you coming back from more.  It will definitely be on the roster for Thanksgiving this year.

I did take pics of my amazing pizza I made on Saturday though!

As it was college football night, Go Trojans!  Fight On!, I wanted to make something fun and easy.  I know that pizza purists will send a hex on me, but I did not make my own dough.  I do not have the cajones yet to take on the task of making my own dough, but who really cares when the end result is the same.  Sausage, peppers, tomatoes, onion, cheese = savory, meaty goodness.  The pizza stone was a good investment and I cannot wait to try out some new crazy toppings.  As Fall is rolling in I feel that some pumpkin may take a run on the pizza with some goat cheese and basil.  I love that pizza has no limits and you can have an array of toppings as long as you have some imagination.  If you have any other crazy pizza ideas, shoot them my way.

Sunday I had a lovely brunch date with two of my girlfriends at Bistro Bis.  The bartender saw three girls who were ready for a Sunday Funday and decided to concoct us all kinds of different bubbly drinks.  And who was I to argue with him.  I just kept gulping them down with a huge buzzed smile on my face.  

The food was delicious as well. The tarte flambe was a bacon and onion tart that was salty and sweet and the duck hash was a rich duck confit with a red wine poached egg on top, which was decadent.   I wish I had better adjectives to use today but as we continued to drink most of the afternoon my vocabulary has been reduced to that of a child.  Actually my whole being is currently reduced to a child as I am currently craving a PB&J, and who am I to argue with that. So for now I will leave you to salivate over my photos and I will now go make a sandwich.  Have a wonderful week! 

Labor Day Weekend was a clusterf*** of activities!

Hello to my few, but devoted readers! I hope that everyone had a wonderful extended weekend and that the burden of returning to the weekly grind has not launched you into thoughts of throwing yourself off the nearest high rise. In DC this is actually more difficult to achieve as our buildings cannot block monuments and important buildings, but I'm sure the more creative people could figure something out.

Anyhoo, my weekend was fabulous and thank you for asking. I actually achieved a few things which is always exciting and makes me feel like maybe I contribute more to the human race besides carbon emissions. Here is a synopsis of my absolutuely fabulous life that you should be super jealous of! j/k

Saturday: Labor Day BBQ

Let me begin by saying that I did not sleep in on this past grogeous Saturday. As fall has already begun to encroach on us the last thing I wanted to do was stay in bed. I must be up and about so I can take advantage of every last minute of sunlight and warmth. Plus I had plans. Big plans. So I was up at 7 am and off to the supermarket to buy my weekly groceries and the ingredients for the best baked beans ever. Ummm...okay that is a bit if a lie. My dad makes some of the best baked beans you will ever taste. They are too die for and my mouth waters thinking about them. Still this recipe that I used from The Pioneer Woman c/o Pamanderson are a close second. Here is the first reason you know it will be good: Bacon. Sorry to offend all the vegetarians out there but bacon makes everything better. Sometimes I cannot believe that I did not eat bacon, red meat, or any type of pork products for 12 years. It was not for political reasons, but rather health reasons that I began my meaty hiatus. And once I cut out the meat it was just as easy to keep going with it. 12 years later I decided that the bacon smelled to good to be passed up and with that I was back in love with meat of all kinds. As simple as that. No epiphany of any kind just a craving that could no longer be ignored and with these beans you will not be able to ignore it either.

The second reason that this recipe is awesome is that it is super easy to make. There is no bean soaking (3 can of pork and beans), no complicated sauce (BBQ sauce, vinegar, brown sugar, and dijon that's it!), and you just simmer and bake and than you will have achieved........

My god that is beautiful! And it was an absolute hit at the BBQ, as you can tell, and tasted even better the next day after the beans had a chance to marinate in their love sauce over night. Here is a link to the recipe: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/08/the-best-baked-beans-ever/

Sunday: A bike ride sounds like a good idea!

Another beautiful day and what did I decide to do with it? Well I threw on some of those padded bike shorts and rode my bike from Captiol Hill to Dupont to Georgetown to the Mall and back to Capitol Hill. Why did I decide to put myself threw a grueling bike ride of hills, honking cabs, and tourists you may ask. Simply said: Jetties. And yes it is safe for you to assume that Jetties is a food spot that I had to check out after hearing about it from a friend. Don't judge me!

After making it up a long and steep hill on Reservoir Road in Georgetown (and this is after riding for a good hour non-stop) I turned to my left and saw it. Jetties was like my desert mirage as I stood there sweating through my diaper bike shorts, except this was not some sick mind game; it was real and so needed after the work out I had given myself. Jetties is a simple, no fuss place with picnic tables in the grass and sandwiches and salads that are simple yet quirky. And these are solid sandwiches with everything made onsite. You eat one and you are set. Unless you are me and have a bottomless pit for a stomach. But man oh man was that sandwich divine.

What you see above is the Sconset which is hummus, muenster cheese, sprouts, tomatoes, carrots, cucumbers and avocado spread on multi-grain bread. Can you say delicious? I am so going back to try out something else, but will probably not involve the bike next time. :)

Monday: Damn you rain!

I guess Mother Nature decided that the last weekend of summer was too good to be true, and decided to throw a stick in the spokes. Rain and clouds shrouded DC in a bit of gloom which kept most Washingtonians at home for the better part of the day. I include myself in this group. My day was spent doing laundry, cleaning my kitchen, and reading My Life in France by Julia Child (awesome, by the way). My one accomplishment of the day was roasting my first butternut squash.

Hooray! Olive oil, salt and pepper was all that I added to this squshy beauty before throwing it in the oven for 40 min. I then used part of it in a salad of spinach, cranberries, goat cheese, and a red wine vinaigrette. I know....I'm good! Today I included some squash in my cous cous salad, and tomorrow I will finish the last of it though I'm not sure what I will do with it. I could always just keep it simple and not do anything to it, but will see. All I know is I see a lot of adventures with squash and pumpkin as Fall approaches. Good thing I like them so much!

This Friday I am hopefully having people over for dinner so I will be sure to give you the low down on the corn pudding I plan to try to make with my gargantuan bag of left over corn from our Labor Day BBQ. Until then, have a wonderful week.