A week of good weather, great friends and tons of boxes

Hey all, I'm closing up shop here in DC and preparing for my big move on Monday. Eeek!

I think all the frantic packing/organizing has distracted me from the fact that I'm leaving a ton of good friends behind in a city I've grown to enjoy. It didn't hit me until my parents and I were driving around the city and passed a bunch of places I used to live. All of a sudden I got a case of the warm and fuzzy memories and got a little sad about leaving.

I may have been raised in New Jersey, but DC is my home.

I "grew up" here during college and DC has been home for a really long time. I've seen restaurants and bars come and go and there are tons of places/areas in DC that just ooze memories...

Yeah, I think I'm sad to leave.

Did I mention I started an "Adios DC" playlist? O yeah, as if sifting through stuff in the apartment wasn't enough, I've made a soundtrack to pack to - songs that bring back memories over the past few years. HA.

Saturday night was my going away hurrah and we started things off right at the Big Hunt in Dupont.

Elementary school friend came all the way down from Baltimore and another friend even bussed down from New York. They started the evening with me at exactly 8pm and by 8:15, I had a Black Velvet (I'm sure I've mentioned how I always order this at the Hunt) and Chicken Tenders in front of me as the three of us caught up a bit. Couldn't have asked for a better start to the evening!

Awhile later, everyone else trickled in and the next thing you know we've got a big long table of fun friends! Now, I don't know about you, but apparently I have a few different circles of friends...and not all of them have met. Thankfully my friends are awesome and can get along wonderfully with others :)

So it only seemed appropriate that I start my last week in DC on a frantic note....cramming in as much as possible. I think I should stop doing that. I slipped out of a meeting on Monday so I could rush off to meet some old coworkers at our standby sushi spot, Kaz Sushi Bistro. I haven't been to Kaz in awhile, plus I wanted to enjoy one last workday lunch with them :)

Met up with Quinn and another friend of ours and we chatted over some delicious sushi:

I tried to toss it up a bit from my regular order and went with a Spicy Scallop Roll, White Tuna Toro with Scallions and an order of Salmon Nigiri. Just the right amount of food. The thing I love about Kaz's sushi, aside from the quality, is that the ratio of fish to rice is perfect. I hate when I go to sushi restaurants and they overload on rice or have ginormous rolls. Totally unnecessary.

Monday didn't stop there. After working both jobs, I managed to find some time to meet up with a friend for a long overdue catch up session at Sign of the Whale. My friends and I used to frequently visit the Whale in college and immediately following college for happy hours. If I remember correctly, nachos at the Whale = awesome.

Since we were pretty low key (and the bar was empty at 8:30 on a Monday), I grabbed a drink and a salad that was just ok. We weren't that excited about the menu, but the Cobb Salad seemed like an ok choice at the time. I was that annoying person that requested it without a lot of items and dressing on the side and then ended up eating around the other stuff. I hate when people do that. Sorry, not my favorite meal.

Tuesday brought Lost and Sloppy Joes (or as friends were calling them, Sloppy Karenas) at a friend's in Woodley Park. Ahh memories while walking through my old neighborhood! The weather was perfect for eating outside and the Sloppy Joes rivaled my mom's....definitely need the recipe!

Friend also busted out some homemade popsicles. Of course I sampled one of each - Lemonade with Strawberries and a plain Blood Orange.

I want a popsicle maker/kit/doohicky thing.

I ended up leaving my camera there so that's where the food photos stop for the week. I picked my camera up later on and found this gem:

Wednesday was a day full of packing and waiting for the parents to come down. I shipped my first batch of boxes to California (pretty sure the Cleveland Park post office hates me now) and celebrated with a night of wings and beer at Nanny O'Brien's with running store coworkers. Have I already mentioned the Wednesday 25 cent wing deal?? It's effing glorious and worth checking out. I used to be sold on the wings at the Hunt, but these are much meatier and they have a bunch of different flavors! Lots of delicious food and maybe a few shots were consumed. I'll definitely miss everyone and I think this is where the sadness about leaving kicked in. *BIG SIGH*

After Wednesday night's antics I managed to pop out of bed at 9am for a day of packing and trips to my storage unit. I think this is the most strength training I've ever done hahaha. My dad and I knocked out a ton of boxes and furniture so I was able to cancel my Saturday Uhaul. Yay saving $20.

Yeesh. This is one mammoth post. I should get crack-a-lackin on some packing! I'm hoping to squeeze one more post in before I leave on Monday! Hope everyone is having a good weekend!

Vacation has officially started!

Well the do nothing/no agenda portion :)

After a mighty productive morning (which included blogging!) I ran out to meet with an old coworker in the Mission for drinks. I totally showed public transportation who's boss! I must say, the buses here are AWESOME compared to DC - they actually take you places!

I planned to meet Friend at the Make Out Room not long after hitting 'post' on my blog. Eek! It looked far! Thanks to the genius 511.org, I was able to time and plan my trip (also better and more accurate than WMATA's trip planner) accordingly :)

So the Make Out Room - at first sight I thought 'Whaat? Friend wants to go here?!'

However, when I walked closer and popped my head in, I heard some fun 80s/early 90s music and all was well again. Rail drinks and beers are a mere $3!

We caught up over a couple drinks and then moved onto Medjool around the corner. Medjool was definitely snazzier than the Make Out Room, but not crowded at all.

We settled at a corner loungy table and enjoyed some delicious sangria and a plate of hummus, babagnoush, and tabbouleh. Great snacks to go with the sangria and a caipirinha that somehow ended up in front of me later in the evening (a little reminder of how I love cachaça). It was really great catching up and relaxing over drinks - perfect way to start vacation.

Made my way back to Selin's and vowed to have a sleep-in day today. Um, that doesn't work out too well when you're still a little jet lagged. Ha. I lingered for a bit and then began my day of exploring a couple neighborhoods.

I started off with some Guava Pandas for breakfast:

Yes, not quite the breakfast of champions, but they were yummy. I grabbed this bag yesterday since I needed cash for the bus. They were a little pricey, but I thought they were delicious. Not too sweet, plus I love all things gummy :)

I snacked on the pandas while hoofing up some pretty massive hills and caught some phenomenal views:

Pretty sweet, ya? GORGEOUS weather! Eventually, I came across this:

Stairs built into a hill. Pretty sure that means it's really steep. The views were worth the huffing and puffing:

I wandered into a few shops along the way before hopping on a bus to Saigon Sandwich! I've been looking forward to this for quite some time. Remember my first visit in November? Obsessed!

This time I went with the Special Combination (Roast Pork, Steamed Pork, Pate) and a Chicken Bun for good measure. I walked a bit after leaving so I could grab a bus to explore another area and find a place to eat my glorious Banh Mi. SO proud of myself for mastering the buses :)

I walked along Polk Street and stumbled on a cute store called Cheese Plus. They had a bunch of different cheeses (duh) and some interesting condiments. I walked out with a couple items, including a refreshing bevy:

Have you tried GuS Sodas? If you haven't, I recommend you do. I think they're awesome. The first one I had was Cranberry Lime and it tasted almost exactly like the mix I do at home (lime bubbly water and a splash of cranberry juice)...not too sweet and tons of bubbles! The Valencia Orange one reminded me of a less sweet version of Orangina.

At some point, I got really hungry and decided to bust into my chicken bun from Saigon Sandwich. No picture, because I was walking while eating. That was challenging enough. Plus, it wasn't very good. It was cold and not as flavorful as I wanted it to be. Plus, there were a couple unexpected items in it - a hard boiled egg and a piece of chinese sausage. MEH? I mean, it wasn't an accident. They were strategically placed in the middle of the bun. Not exactly my type of filling. I'm not a chinese sausage fan and the combination of that and the egg pretty much spoiled my snack. Fail.

Eventually I got closer to Selin's and decided to hang out in a nearby park since it was so nice out. I sat and figured it was about time I got comfortable with my banh mi :)

Hello! I love you! That little white bit on the left side is the steamed pork. I wasn't really sure what to expect when I saw steamed pork listed, but I soon realized it's sort of like deli meat. You know how deli turkey or chicken comes in a big ball and is usually pumped up with water? That's what the pork looked like.

The pate was a great little addition to the sandwich - just a slight liver taste...nothing too in your face.

I also now know what was missing from that banh mi I had in Columbia Heights. FLAVOR! ha. Saigon Sandwich's mayo is legit. it has all the flavor in it. The sweet, and savory flavor of the mayo sauce plus the pate. flavorful roast pork, and crisp veggies make it so great.

More to come...caipirinhas and fish tacos for dinner!

Easy Peasy Cheesy

You know how sometimes homemade mac n cheese lacks that creaminess that say, boxed mac n cheese has? Or it just gets funky and oily/break apart-y? I've always been a little annoyed with that. Texture is a big thing for me. After my beautiful béchamel last weekend, I was determined to master some mac n cheese.

I've only made homemade mac n cheese once before (thanks, Martha), but it just wasn't the creamy mac I was craving. I decided to make a basic cheese sauce and blend that with the concepts I got from Martha's recipe. I had my fingers AND toes crossed since I only had enough ingredients to cover one attempt. Yeeh.

Y'all know I'm really into variety so instead of making one big 13x9 tray of one flavor, I decided to make two 8x8 squares - one plain and one random flavor. What was that random flavor? Chipotle Mac. Yep. I thought the smokey, oniony flavor of the adobo sauce chipotles swim in would be a great addition to mac n cheese!

I snagged these cheeses at the Giant yesterday:

Normally I'd be a little snobbier about my cheese selections (Boar's Head deli meat is legit; cheese wedges a little questionable), but considering all the Metro and grocery store chaos these past few days, I'm going to take what I can get.

I also grabbed some 2% and whole milk

I really don't like whole milk (I think it's waaaay too rich), but for melting purposes fat free doesn't fly…it's full fat or nothing at all. Plus, this is my welcome back to running/getting some speed dish :)

I used the medium shred side of my box grater for all the cheeses and I ended up with a bunch extra - just something to keep in mind.

Check out the experiments!

Cheesy Mac

5 c medium pasta shells, cooked

6 tbsp butter

6 tbsp flour

1 1/4 c whole milk

1 1/4 c 2% milk

1/4 tsp ground mustard

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 c gruyere, shredded

1 c white cheddar, shredded

1 c extra sharp cheddar, shredded

3 tbsp panko

Combine milk, mustard, pepper, nutmeg and salt in a small saucepan and keep warm over medium low heat.

Heat butter in a pot over medium low heat. Slowly whisk in flour. Once flour is incorporated, slowly pour in warm milk, whisking constantly to avoid lumps. Remove from heat and stir in cheeses.

Coat pasta with sauce and pour into an 8x8 baking dish. Sprinkle with panko, cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes at 375. Remove foil and bake for another 5-10 minutes or until top starts to brown.

Chipotle Mac

5 c medium pasta shells, cooked

6 tbsp butter

6 tbsp flour

1 1/4 c whole milk

1 1/4 c 2% milk

3 tbsp adobo sauce

1 bay leaf

1/2 c gruyere, shredded

1 c white cheddar, shredded

1 c extra sharp cheddar, shredded

3 tbsp panko

Combine milk, adobo sauce and bay leaf in a small saucepan and keep warm over medium low heat.

Heat butter in a pot over medium low heat. Slowly whisk in flour. Once flour is incorporated, slowly pour in warm milk, whisking constantly to avoid lumps. Remove from heat and stir in cheeses.

Coat pasta with sauce and pour into an 8x8 baking dish. Sprinkle with panko, cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes at 375. Remove foil and bake for another 5-10 minutes or until top starts to brown.

I seriously IM'd every mac n cheese lover/food nerd/cheese lover I knew after I took the first bite. PERFECT TEXTURE! Win!! The chipotle mac was PHENOMENAL. It was definitely my favorite of the two. I was a little concerned because the sauce was a little thicker than the regular mac when I stirred it up. In the end, it ended up being the better textured dish. Maybe it was the extra oil in the adobo sauce? I don't know, but it was freaking amazing.

The adobo sauce gave just the right amount of smokey flavor and gave just the slightest kick in the back of my throat with each bite. Absolutely perfect in my book.

To add some color and because I thought a vegetable of some sort was necessary today, I mixed in some peas. I like peas with my mac. I also like my mac doused in hot sauce...but not my chipotle mac :) How do you mac?

One bad thing about this delicious experience - no one to share it with :( I'm definitely freezing a serving of each for Jamie (FYI, my freezer is now overflowing with samples for him to try), but um, there's a lot left:

That's just the chipotle mac...double that and that's what I've got sitting in my kitchen. I'm definitely my mother's daughter...always cooking for a non-existent army!