Sunday, July 12, 2009

Sunday evening in Old Town

Hello again!

After doing some electrical work at Jamie's mom's house (well, Jamie did the wiring-related things. I just screwed on the plates), we headed to Old Town for a delicious dinner at Ichiban Sushi House. We've eaten here once before and it's fast, delicious sushi. I failed to get pictures because I felt like the sushi chef was going to give us weird looks :\

The menu was a little overwhelming - a lot of different special rolls with descriptions. I didn't remember it being this intense! We finally decided on a couple of appetizers and rolls to share.

We split some
edamame and shumai before our sushi came out and then it was time to feast! We ordered some white tuna and unagi nigiri, a Spider Roll (fried softshell crab, avocado, cucumber, mango and crab stick), an American Dream Roll (fried spicy tuna, avocado, scallions and mango), a Salmon Avocado Roll and a Rainbow Roll (tuna, whitefish, salmon and avocado over a California Roll). Can you figure out who picked the fried rolls??

The Spider Roll and American Dream Roll ended up being pretty tasty. They both came with this sauce that was a little sweet and spicy (I guess it's a mango sauce?). We picked just the right amount of food for the three of us and headed out in search of dessert. Where did we end up? Pop's Old Fashioned Ice Cream Company where Jamie got a scoop each of
Vanilla and Banana and I got a cake cone of Black Raspberry. YUM!
Cones in hand, we strolled down King Street to the water and enjoyed the gorgeous summer evening before heading back to the car. Old Town is great for a summer evening stroll...great smells wafting from the restaurants, tons of cute stores for window shopping, folks playing music on the street.

On the way home, I remembered one of Julia's recent posts where she photographed her
running scenery. Totally jealous of her ocean views! I tried to snag a few shots from the car, but Jamie drives too fast ;p Here are a couple I took, plus some from my nerdy photo archive.
Memorial Bridge (we usually run over it and sometimes along the path we're driving on)

Rock Creek Park - Jamie drives fast so that's why these pictures aren't so great...but you can get the gist of things.
WWII Memorial - I've been running past this a lot lately. It's definitely nice to look at, but not fun on a Saturday morning when it's full of tour groups.

Not exactly expansive coastal vistas, but hey, it's Washington, DC...
I get to run where the president lives ;)

Since this is going to be a busy busy week, I made a pasta bake thingy for an easy weeknight reheat. It freezes great and is super easy to make.

Cheesy Baked Pasta
1 lb whole wheat penne, cooked
1 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 small green pepper, diced
1/4 c grape tomatoes, quartered
1/2 c cremini mushrooms, diced
1 lb hot turkey italian sausage, casings removed
1.5 jars pasta sauce (any variety)
1 c reduced fat shredded mozzerella cheese
3 tbsp shredded parmesan cheese
fresh basil, torn

Heat olive oil in a large pot and saute onions and garlic until softened. Add sausage, breaking up with the back of a spoon and cook until no longer pink. Add peppers, tomatoes and mushrooms, saute for 3-4 minutes.
Add pasta sauce and lower heat to medium low. Simmer for at least 30 minutes.
Add pasta, 1/2 c mozzerella and 2 tbsp parmesan to the sauce. Stir to coat and transfer to a 9x13 inch baking dish. Sprinkle with remaining cheeses and scatter torn basil leaves on top.
Cover with foil and bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes. Remove foil and cook for an additional 5-10 minutes.

I'll post the final photos tomorrow after it gets baked :)

On a totally random note, a friend of mine from HS just celebrated her 1 year wedding anniversary. She's not big into cooking, but she shot me an email with the meal she cooked! Totally proud of her :) She did a Grilled Pork Chop with Nectarine Salsa,
Asparagus and Roasted Potatoes
I'm totally sold on nectarine salsa :)

7 comments:

Mia {runs and rests} said...

Beautiful running scenery!
Might try your cheesy pasta. Have to use up the basil before they go bad.

Anonymous said...

I'm definitely going to have to try that pasta. I still have lasagna in the freezer from 3 weeks ago!

There's a Japanese place called Ichiban near me too! I wonder if it is the same place!

B.o.B. said...

running in D.C. looks awesome actually. i can't wait for MCM!

Karena said...

Mia - the best part about the pasta dish is you can pretty much throw in whatever you want :) I scattered the basil on top b/c I forgot to mix it in with everything else hehe.

RR - as I was looking up the website, a few others came up...so if you check it out, let me know!

B.o.B - Agh! Almost forgot you were running MCM! I'm planning on doing some training runs on some of the 'tougher' parts of the course (Haines Point, 14th St Bridge) - I'll be sure to post about those...never hurts to know the little details before the race!

Julia said...

Hi! Thanks for stopping by my blog and thanks for the shoutout! Where you run is awesome! I actually really like the blurry pics from the car; it seems so action-packed :)
Nectarine salsa.... now THAT sounds awesome!
Mmmm sushi....:)

Quinn said...

We DO get to run in a place where the President lives and that's one of the reasons I love to run right past the White House. Although, coastal would be more fun :)

MarathonVal said...

That blackberry ice cream sounds soooo good that I am 99% sure I am going to go make some of Gena's banana "soft serve" but with some blackberries right now. Darn you for making me get up off my comfy coutch ;)