Still there??

Just checking.

I've been sick and busy this past week so kitchen experiments have been super lame. Plus, I seem to have developed an obsession with Yelp. Yes, I'm late to that party, but whatever. Most of my restaurant reviews will be placed there, so be sure to check it out! Let's do a little photo dump catch up, shall we?

Last Friday (yeesh) I met up with friends for dinner at Epic Roasthouse to experience the 3B special (burger, brownie, beer). Remember my first visit? Well, this time I actually tried the other 2bs ;) Burger was ok, potato wedges were fab, brownie was insanely sweet, beer was delicious (went with the Speakeasy Prohibition Ale). Overall, good deal for $20, but not my favorite burger. Just saying.

Oh, did I mention I had a 10 miler on deck the next morning? HA! I had everything prepped and ready to go but woke up with a crazy headache and sore throat. WTF? I decided to push my run back to Sunday and ran some errands/cleaned instead. Hey, gotta be productive!

Also found some time to hang out on my rooftop with a friend that was in town from DC before making dinner. Please forgive me for this terrible dinner creation.

So awhile ago (pre-blog), I made Ellie Krieger's Macaroni and Four Cheeses. It was a veg out weekend and I watched her make it...seemed like a good idea. I love squash, I love mac n cheese. She said it could totally pass for mac n cheese. LIES. Jamie can confirm that. I think I made him eat the rest of the leftovers :\

Don't get me wrong, it's not inedible. It just isn't mac n cheese. It was squashy (I love squash), weird textured (not at all creamy), and pretty bland once you got past the squash taste. So naturally, I made it again on Saturday. Why? I like a good challenge. Plus, I had a little too much fun in the frozen veggie section at Safeway.

Spicy Squashy Mac

1/2 lb trottole, cooked to package instructions

1 15-oz package, frozen pureed winter squash, defrosted

1 tbsp butter

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp chili garlic paste

1/2 c 2% Monterey Jack cheese, shredded

1/3 c parmesan cheese, shredded

1 tsp chili powder

1 tsp garlic powder

2 tbsp heavy cream

Sriracha sauce

Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add squash, chili garlic paste, chili powder and garlic powder. Stir and cook for 2 minutes. Lower heat and stir in cheeses, salt and cream. Cook for 3 minutes, stirring often. Stir in pasta to coat and pour into a baking dish. Drizzle with some sriracha sauce and bake for 20 minutes at 375 degrees.

I did a bunch of modifications/omissions and it was still squashy in my opinion. Texture was improved, but just barely. Okay, it wasn't terrible, but let's just say I wasn't excited for lunches this week. At least I'm being honest and not trying to call it mac n cheese!!

Dinner fueled my Sunday morning 10 mile run/walk but o my, was it a disaster. I started out running, but was just so burnt out. Switched to a run/walk after about 4 miles and felt good about my decision. Almost called it quits around mile 7, but kept chugging along. Not sure that was a good idea since I was obviously getting sick. Did I mention it was cold and misty out? D'oh!

I redeemed myself this week by a) taking a sick day and b) making a tasty sick day sammich. Once I started feeling a little better, I moseyed over to the kitchen and whipped up some Mustard & Tarragon Tuna Salad

Nummy.

Mustard & Tarragon Tuna Salad

2 cans chunk light tuna, drained

1.5 tbsp whole grain mustard

1 tbsp light mayo

1/4 c dried cranberries, soaked in warm water and drained

1/4 tsp tarragon

1 small shallot, minced

pinch salt

pepper

Combine all ingredients in a bowl, refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Simple and delicious! I toasted some bread before topping it with the tuna salad, avocado and some ridiculously sweet grape tomatoes from the farmers market. YUM! Do you ever get cravings for tuna or chicken salad sammiches?? I do and I have no idea why.

The rest of my week was filled with leftovers and lentils...nothing too exciting. To spice things up a bit, I went to Japantown after work yesterday for a really late lunch/wandering. Stopped into the Najiya Market for some futomaki and wandered into the Peace Plaza for some, uh...peace. Found a bench to sit on and enjoyed my sushi and the afternoon weather. Snapped a few pics with the trusty iPhone (Hipstamatic app=fun) and called it a day.

How was your Friday?

The hills are alive with the sound of Japantown

I know that title makes no sense, but it's just one of those looney weeks. Let me start with yesterday...

Apparently my desk likes to eat keys. That's what I realized when I got to my door. Ooops. Luckily someone within walking distance has a spare set and I just so happened to have friend's spare keys in my purse. Go figure. Crisis averted!

Since I wasn't getting a run in, I figured I'd walk home instead of taking the bus...even though I know there are several mountains between my house and friend's house. I took a little detour thinking I was being slick and avoiding my 3 inclines (you like how I've just claimed them?). Nono. I ended up with this in front of me

and this to the left of me

UHHH. I probably would have turned around if I was running, but since I wasn't, I opted for the stairs. They just seemed a little friendlier...you know, for a mid-hill rest. haha.

I originally planned on a hot date with the DMV today so I could 'officially' become a California resident, but I missed the whole 'you need to bring your social security card with you' thing. For real? O well. Looks like I have a project for next Friday.

Instead of wasting away indoors, I opted to take a leisurely walk to Japantown. I had heard about Japantown from a couple bloggers, friends and tour books and had to see it for myself.

Equipped with an apple for snacking, I strolled down Union Street and popped into a couple of the shops I've run and ridden by so many times before. I also made an extended pitstop at the Lululemon :[ What? I needed a new warm running top! Lucky for me they had one on sale :)

I walked out with the Half Moon Jacket in all black (thought I'd post the lighter color so you could see the deets) and it's SUPER comfy and I hope it will be a good alternate to my favorite PRR pullover so I'm not all stankalicious on runs. A little nervous about the whole hood thing, but I'm sure it'll be fine. I'm sure I'll love having it after a run. Brrr.

I also tried on a couple of capris for fun. I looooved the way the Run:Zoom Crop fit

Unfortunately they didn't have my size in all black, so I took it as a sign we weren't meant to be. I even checked online...double sign. I was a little concerned about the puffiness/extra material in the thigh area, but when I put them on, they fit PERFECTLY. Genius. Waistband didn't pinch and the rear...not too shabby ;p I tried the purple ones on and thought they were really cute, but I knew I wouldn't wear them as much as a black pair. You should check them out!

I hung a left onto Fillmore from Union and woah. Howdy hills. Sorry to be such a baby about these hills. It's not like I didn't know they existed, but I'm from the land of the fairly flat. I'm never prepared for a random mountain when I turn a corner! One of these days I will learn. I will learn what's flat and what's not and how to get around the mountains...I promise :)

My walk down Fillmore didn't involve much shopping/browsing since there were a lot of cafes, furniture and fancy shops (no, I don't really rock the fancy designer-y shops). I did stop to take a photo of a fun restaurant

I stopped for a long time until I could get it right too haha. I don't know what I like so much about this...I think it's the colors and the rough, yet clean look? Mreh? That shadow is a building so I wonder if I could get a better shot earlier in the day. Yes, mega nerd alert!!

Eventually I found myself in Japantown *aaaaaahhhh!*

It was a little cloudy out so I wasn't exactly in a photo snapping mood, plus I was on a mission to find the Nijiya Market. I loved the Japanese market in Bethesda so I knew I had to find a replacement out here. What better place to look than Japantown. Duh!

I wandered into the Nihonmachi Shopping Center from Post Street and was a little overwhelmed by all the shops, cafes and o yeah, the giant Sanrio store. No joke. I mean, it IS Japantown...

I couldn't find the Nijiya Market and was starting to get really frustrated. I walked all around and even followed the mall map! I was about to give up when I saw this little nugget:

Ichiban Kan...Different Things. Dude, the sign just said Different Things. You know I had to walk in.

Apparently it's like a dollar store of Japanese goodies? I immediately headed to the wall of snackies, sauces and condiments just in case this whole mission to the market failed. I quickly browsed the other aisles and found some fun kitchen gadgets, ceramics and toiletries. SO random! I only walked out with a couple items :)

I wandered back into the mall to see if I missed a giant market sign and eventually came to this lovely corridor

It was between the mall and the Hotel Kabuki and I loved the colors and the lighting! I just had to take a picture. Have you noticed a little more zing in my photos lately? Well, aside from the iPhone photos. We've got Jamie to thank for that since he equipped me with a new camera upon his return :) Photos are now brought to you by this little guy:

Hooray! I'd love more than anything to transition into the world of SLR cameras, but I don't think I'm quite ready for the financial or physical responsibility. One day...one day. In the meantime, this puppy has a ton of great functions for me to play with. Hopefully I'll get some good shots this weekend - cross your fingers for sun!

I eventually found the Nijiya Market and it was totally worth getting lost and frustrated. OMG. I walked in and had no idea what to do with myself! They had a pretty large refrigerated section of pre-made foods (side dishes, seaweed salad, bento boxes, rice bowls, sushi, dumplings, you name it!), a massive drink section (alcoholic and non), and decent sized meat and produce sections. Holy potatoes. I need to go back. Again, I was good and only bought what I knew I needed in the short term. *sigh* Don't you worry, I'm dragging Jamie there over Labor Day weekend. I'm sure we'll get into some trouble.

Want to see what I came home with?

Plus my Soba Bento dinner and some seaweed salad for tomorrow

All for the low price of $21 (that's from both markets)! Not bad! The shirataki noodles alone were much cheaper at the Japanese market than at Real Foods and I was so happy to see the brand of sesame oil I'm used to using (yeah, I'm picky about that). The green lunch bag (that definitely says 'lunchtime will make everyone happy') was $1.50 and is a great size for sammiches and snacks or a medium sized tupperware. Plus it's cute :)

My bento wasn't terrible. The inarizushi and futomaki were good (I think it's pretty hard to mess those up unless the rice is bad), but the soba was a little mooshy for my taste. Also, the checkout lady asked if I wanted chopsticks and I said yes. No chopsticks in the bag. Soba noodles are so not the same with a fork. Nope :(

So yeah, that was my day of wandering! I'm off to guzzle some water and sleep so I'm ready for my quickie 7 miler with the running group tomorrow morning. Will report back soon! Nitey :)

There goes that idea...

Yeah, um so much for posting during the week and catching up on my overflowing Google Reader! As usual, I've got quite a massive and random post for you guys. Hopefully these will disappear once I get settled in my new home!

Let's see...I left you with Lost and mattress shopping. Exciting stuff. Tuesday night's run was super quick. Instead of the usual out and back route by the water, our run took us through the Presidio for a not so flat, not so hilly change of pace. My tummy got a bit grumpy with me so instead of pushing it up the Fort Mason hill for the last mile, I cut my run short to a mere 3 miles. Eh, sometimes it happens. Of course the bathrooms were locked by the time we got back. D'oh!

I wasn't about to miss the weekly group dinner, so I hoofed it over to Let's Be Frank on Steiner for some hot dogs. I like a good hot dog every now and then...I've become pretty picky lately, though. Rumor has it these were pretty legit dogs, plus I think there was a 20% off special? Who knows.

Just a couple storefronts down from Askew Grill, Let's Be Frank is an itty bitty, brightly colored shop that has a very distinct and delicious hot smell just wafting from it. YUM. I was concerned that we wouldn't fit (seating is limited to a couple tables outside and some bench seating inside - did I mention it was a little misty out?) I was torn between the "Hot" Dog (spicy family-farmed pork sausage) and the "Not" Dog (vegetarian Italian-style sausage) since someone mentioned the veggie dogs were pretty good. I ended up going with my gut and getting the "Hot" Dog...with Devil Sauce.

I need a jar of Devil Sauce in my life. So I expected a spicy relish of some sort, maybe a chunky sauce reminiscent of chili? Not at all. This sauce is AMAZING. It wasn't painfully spicy (especially on my spicy dawg) and there was a surprising curry-ish flavor. Or at least that's what I thought it tasted like. Can't wait to grab a bottle to experiment with!

Wednesday night was a huge night for me since I picked up my apartment keys!! YAY! I wandered around the new neighborhood for a bit until Selin met me for dinner and we decided sushi was a must. Where did we go? Sushi Groove. We drove on Hyde Street and saw a ton of cute bistro-y places and I thought the street was cute in general. Apparently Sushi Groove has legit sushi, so naturally that's where we ended up.

We split a few fun rolls:

Mermaid's Tail (spicy scallops wrapped with crispy shrimp tempura inside and avocado, cucumber aioli and wasabi infused tobiko), Gilligan (spicy tuna and cucumber inside, layers of bonito outside and finished with ginger, scallions and ponzu), Kamikaze Roll (salmon, avocado, scallions and tobiko), and a Wayne's World Roll (yellowtail, salmon, spicy sauce and cucumber rolled inside out with tobiko and scallions). Also added to the list were a couple pieces of the Tuna Caliente Nigiri (tuna diced with ginger, garlic, tobiko, jalapeno and soy).

Everything was fantastic...except for the Gilligan and I think it's because I expected bonito flakes. I've never had bonito before and it's a very fishy tasting fish. Kinda up there with mackerel. It wasn't terrible, just really not my thing. The Tuna Caliente was super caliente! I loved the flavors going on in it and I thought it would be great as a maki roll!

We didn't get out of dinner until about 10 (they were super slammed and gave us some edamame for free as we waited - yay!) and then we trekked over to the apartment so Selin could check out the new digs (slash advise on layout). Tastebuds satisfied and belly full, we headed back home and I passed the f out. SO exhausted.

I passed on my Thursday run (tsk, tsk!) to be productive and head to Bed Bath & Beyond for a few essentials and seal the deal on my mattress. WOO! I thought it was worthy of an excused absence, don't you? For dinner, I got a little experimental since I had lentils and tofu leftover from previous meals. I present to you Spiced Lentils with Tofu!

Not exactly the most photogenic dish, but it was pretty tasty in my opinion. A good effort considering what I had to work with!

Spiced Lentils with Tofu

1/2 package cooked lentils

1/2 block high protein tofu, diced

1/4 onion thinly sliced

1 tbsp garam masala

1/3 c spinach

1/3 c chicken broth

1 tbsp olive oil

1/2 tsp salt

1 tbsp sriracha sauce

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp grated ginger

Heat olive oil in a pan over medium high heat. Add tofu and brown for about 5 minutes. Add onion and cook until onion starts to turn translucent. Add garam masala, salt, garlic powder and sriracha. Cook for 2 minutes. Add chicken broth and lentils and cook for another 4-5 minutes before stirring in spinach and ginger. Cook for another 3-5 minutes and serve.

This made just enough for dinner and lunch the next day. Again, I wish I had some other spices to play with, but not bad for what I used!

Friday night's pre-long run meal was...wait for it...

PUPUSAS! Of course. This time they were from the original La Santaneca and they were GLORIOUS. Made my evening!

I popped out of bed around 7am this morning to do an early run with a friend from the running group. We both needed to be places late this morning so we agreed to meet up at 8 to knock out our 7 mile route. SO great to chat while running again! We knocked out a super easy 7 miles in 1:15 with a hill and no tourists (thank god). It felt so good to get everything done before 9:30 :)

I was starving by the time I got back and it was a good thing since we had plans for bottomless sangria brunch at Don Pisto's! When we got there everyone was already set up with some chips and guac and 2 generous pitchers of sangria. Delicious and somewhat fizzy sangria. It went down very nicely :\

To fill my empty belly, I had some Huevos Rancheros

Not too large or too small a portion, I polished this puppy off in no time. Doused in some hot sauce, those eggs and cheese and beans and mmmmmm. Hit the spot. Did I mention the perfectly sunny side up egg and bits of avocado?? YUM. I kinda wish there was a 3rd one instead of potatoes on the side...is that so wrong? haha.

I had to skip out of brunch early since my mattress arrived early. So much for delivering within a set window. Jeebus. For some reason I'm hungry again. Surprise. Welcome back, bottomless pit summer. I'll probably post more this weekend. Lots of fun stuff going on! How are you guys celebrating the long weekend?? Hope you're eating well!

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!

Safety first!

So after sitting at my desk for a good 5 minutes staring into space thinking about what I should have for lunch, I finally settled on either sushi and a summer roll from The Daily Market or salad from Organic to Go - yah, I know two TOTALLY different ends of the spectrum. They were located close enough to each other so I could easily make a gametime decision at a crosswalk!

The light changed in Organic to Go's favor, so salad it was! I started getting really excited about dumping a bunch of salad toppings into my to-go box when I looked up to see that IT WAS NO LONGER THERE! Big sad face! The sign was still up but the doors and windows were all blacked out. No salad for me :( Since I was already on that side of the street, I walked on over to Wasabi to pick up some sushi. A few words on Wasabi - not my favorite, but when I'm lazy or already nearby it I'll pick up some 'safe' rolls. Safe rolls for me usually meet this criteria 1) cooked seafood like eel, shrimp or crab 2) California rolls in any shape or form 3) all veggie rolls. Why do I have safe rolls and when do I get them?

Raw fish is not something to mess with. Every now and then I find myself seriously craving sushi, but I'm not into getting sick. What's a girl to do?! Enter, safe rolls. I generally get these at 'grab n go' lunch spots or if I'm at a Whole Foods when the craving hits. I tend to do this more at Wasabi since they have their grab n go stuff wrapped up like this:

Um, I like being able to see/inspect the contents of my roll before purchasing! I mean I want to know I've got a gorgeous, rich green slice of avocado in my roll. I may also want to know that the ratio of eel to cucumber is ok. Call me a control freak, but it's important to me!

Anyway, I walked out with a Spicy California roll and an Eel Avocado Cucumber roll. My spicy california roll only had the spicy sauce on the first piece (no joke, I examined) and the eel roll was just ok. I kinda wish I just crossed the street to Daily Market :(

What I really should have done was bring in tasty leftovers from last night's dinner! Have I mentioned that I have a hard time making small batches of food? I worried that 1 cup of Arborio rice wouldn't be enough to balance out the goodies (aka onions, mushrooms and artichokes) in the risotto so I decided to add a 1/2 cup of rice. Um, huge vat o risotto!

Mushroom & Artichoke Risotto

1 medium onion, chopped

1 1/2 c white mushrooms, chopped

1 can artichoke hearts, quartered

1 1/2 c Arborio rice

4 c chicken stock, heated

1 1/2 tbsp white wine

2 tbsp butter

1 tbsp fresh rosemary

1 tsp fresh thyme

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1/4 c parmesan cheese

Heat butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Saute onions until they are translucent and add mushrooms. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Add herbs, salt and pepper and cook for 2 minutes. Add white wine and cook for an additional 2 minutes.

Stir in rice for a minute before adding 1 cup of stock. Bring to a boil, stir and reduce heat to medium low. Stir constantly and when all the liquid has been absorbed, slowly add the remaining stock, 3/4 cup to 1 cup at a time. About halfway through the cooking, stir in the artichoke hearts and continue cooking and stirring.

Once risotto is cooked, stir in parmesan cheese and salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately.

I served it with some sole I picked up at Whole Foods. It looked like a fun new fish to try, so I did some research and found that almost every sole recipe involved a roll of some sort. I like to roll things.

Asparagus Sole Roll

2 sole fillets

1 tbsp lemon zest

6 spears asparagus, trimmed

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

sprinkle garlic powder

handful capers

1 tbsp butter

2 tbsp white wine

1 tbsp lemon juice

toothpicks

Rinse fish and pat dry. Sprinkle garlic powder, salt and pepper on each fillet. Place a bunch of 3 asparagus spears crosswise on each fillet and top with some capers and lemon zest. Roll fillet up and secure with two toothpicks.

Heat butter in a skillet over medium high heat. Place rolls in pan and cook for 3 minutes. Add wine, lemon juice and some capers to the pan, flip fish rolls and cover loosely with a small lid or foil. Cook for 2 minutes and serve.