sandwich heay-weight champion of the world

Last month my oldest sister, Amy, called me to ask if I was interested in watching her four kids while she took a much needed vacation to Hawaii. Without much thought, I jumped at the opportunity for a free trip to California, and so it was that Bria and I ended up on a plane two weeks ago. I braved the four days with five kids like a champ, and then had seven extra days to play with my sister and her kids, and my brother and his kids. Plus I have a little crush on the Bay Area-- it's great to have family there so I can visit often. And remember what I wrote in my last post? About how Bria was whiny and grumpy because she didn't have her older cousins to play with? The same is true again. Seriously. I think I bore her to tears/grump/sass.
And of course, I had some amazing food in Cali. Seriously-- the two best sandwiches of my life. While I was eating both sandwiches, I remembered the last time I gave that title to a sandwich. I have no qualms in renouncing my former claim and bestowing the title on these new beauties. They were basically the same: turkey, cheese, sprouts, lettuce, tomato, avocado, (bacon on one), and mayo with a little mustard mixed in. I know this just sounds like your average deli sandwich, but they were so not your average deli sandwich. All I can say is, if you ever find yourself in Palo Alto, please order a sandwich at JJ&F and at Village Cheese House. (On Dutch Crunch bread, which I had never heard of, but is positively divine.)

And lastly, Amy and I went for sushi at Fuki Sushi in Palo Alto. Really classic, conservative sushi, but such high quality. While I tend to favor more experimental rolls, this was some of the best sushi I've ever had. We got five huge rolls (plus vegetable tempura) and stuffed ourselves silly. I paused briefly to make Amy take a grainy iphone picture before we cleaned that platter down to the very last grain of rice. Yum yum yum.
Ok, sometimes I wonder what the point is of my chronicling places I dine and random things I eat. I realized shortly after I started this blog that I am not a recipe creator. I love to cook and eat, but this isn't a recipe food blog. It's more like an I-can't-stand-not-sharing-my-joy-over a-good-meal blog. And I think it might start morphing into more. Anyway. That's all.

I've Won Them Over With Sugar

Last week we trekked out to Ashburn to watch Marc and Jenn's kids while they took David out to BYU. Yes, we have a nephew who is 18. Isn't that weird? I'm closer in age to David than I am to five of Sam's six siblings. In fact, Sam's oldest brother is closer in age to my parents than he is to me. So, I'm kind of a baby. Anyway, we've watched Marc and Jenn's kids several times, and I kind of love it because they're like dream children. They are helpful and kind, and they always play with Bria so it makes my job super easy.
We didn't do a whole lot because it's the tail end of summer, they were headed to the beach the next week, and it's kind of hard to find things to entertain three kids ages 7 to 15. We kind of just hung around doing nothing (and Amanda roped me into watching Real Housewives of New Jersey and DC) until the last day when we decided to make cupcakes.
I really wanted to take them to Georgetown Cupcake, but Ashburn is like five years away from DC, so it wasn't the best idea to haul the little kids (Bria and Colin) to Georgetown just for a cupcake.
Another benefit of watching Marc and Jenn's kids is they marvel at all the things I make from scratch. I was craving a quality cake and frosting, so we went with Ina's recipe, and it was scrumptious. Also? From-scratch cake batter is soooo worth the risk of salmonella. Seriously.

And then it was back to our regular routine this week. I did, like, 12 loads of laundry at Marc and Jenn's house (which saved me $36 from our coin-op machines in our building), and it's been a little sad to see how fast those empty baskets filled up this week. Plus Bria's been super bored (and therefore whiny) because I'm just not as entertaining as Colin, Myles, and Amanda. I think this means Bria needs some older siblings, which I'm pretty sure isn't possible at this point. Oh well, looks like she's still stuck with just me.

in which we finally go to good stuff

Sam and I celebrated our FIFTH anniversary yesterday. And we really actually celebrated it, which was a fun comparison to last year when we were on opposite sides of the country. I dropped Bria off at a friend's house and drove in to the city to meet Sam. We finally tried out Good Stuff Eatery, which has been on my list since before we moved.

I opted for the Vegetarians Are People Too 'Shroom Burger
And Sam went with the Prez Obama Burger

And we shared a strawberry shake.

Can I just say how proud I am of myself for ordering a portobello burger? I usually have a frantic fear of mushrooms, but I really didn't want to order a beef burger. Plus, this mushroom patty is stuffed with hot, melty, gooey cheese and then breaded in panko bread crumbs. Oh my. It was good stuff, if you will. (ha.) I feel an intense need to go back and try some more of that good stuff-- namely the cookies and cream milk shake and some of the wedge salads. Yum!

dog days of summer

I've been in a culinary rut lately. Anyone else? I'm sick of being too hot to turn on the oven. I'm longing for the fall and winter when I can eat soup and hot bread all day every day.
I've decided that summer here in VA is worse than winter. At least when you're cold you can just bundle up before sprinting to the car. In the heat of summer, you are dripping with sweat by the time you make it to the sidewalk. Bria and I are a little stir crazy. I think I need to just embrace the humidity (which means my FRIZZY, CRAZY hair) and go do some fun things. (It's even cooled down considerably, and I am still complaining.)

October sounds so wonderful right now . . .

(p.s. I'm having some weird blogger issues, so, if something ended up weird, forgive me. I hate when that happens. )

Bria is excited to share the news:

(Don't ask me how she got that knife in her hand.)

Sam got a new job! We went out to celebrate a couple weeks ago when we got the news. And Bria was hammin' it up all night. She even attacked me a couple times because she was just too happy to contain herself:
Sam's started working yesterday at a production company based in Bethesda working as a junior editor on the show American Loggers, which airs on the Discovery Channel.
Three cheers for Sam! We're so excited about this new step.

Fojol at Farragut

Spontaneity always saves the day, so last week, when I was on my way to Costco and Sam texted me asking us to meet him for lunch, I jumped at the opportunity for a fun outing. We parked at Costco and ran to catch the around-the-corner metro (a perk of frequenting the Pentagon City Costco). The Fojol brothers were at Farragut Square that day, just a couple blocks from Sam's work, so we had ourselves a little Indian lunch.

I love this food truck craze. I love that the Fojol brothers lay out fancy blankets for their eaters. And the food was oh so tasty. I'm a sucker for butter chicken, and it was good. I kind of want to go there every day.

That's their fancy truck which was blasting some fancy tunes. Perfect for getting Bria to dance.
The butter chicken proved to be "too sicy" for Bria, so it was with a heavy heart we trudged across the street to buy her a sandwich from Subway (of which she ate, like, four bites). It always kills me to shell out so much cash for kids meals which Bria rarely eats. I think I need to be better prepared with homemade sandwiches and snacks when we go out to eat. Another thing I should be better prepared for? Diaper situations. The funny part was that I was going to Costco to buy diapers in the first place. Let's just say small packs of diapers at CVS are expensive, they don't always have the right size, and there isn't really a bathroom with a diaper changing station around Farragut Square. Luckily nice shady trees provide ample diaper changing space. Wow. That is an awesome way to end a post about lunch. Cheers!

In A Pickle

The other day, I made some pickles.

I'm actually not that much of a pickle person. I'm fond of sweet gherkins, and I hate dill pickles. The ones I made are bread and butter chip, which are sweet, but have a tangy bite, thanks to the turmeric, mustard seed, and celery seed. I used this recipe that came through my google reader last month.
I kind of wish I had cut them into little circles, rather than spears, because that would have helped my one qualm: the skin was a little too thick and substantial for the small amount of inner-pickle. Had I cut them into circles, as suggested by the recipe, it would have left much more inner crunch to stand up to the tough outer skin. Oh well. Next time.

They are so beautiful in my fridge. But since I'm more of a gherkin gal and Sam is much more of a dill fanatic, I wonder if we will eat them all. If you live near me and want a jar, just holler. Or comment. Whatever.