After nearly four years, it’s now time for me to leave DC Metblogs. But you can still catch my musings about life in the capital at We <3 DC. Check it out- we’re really proud of it. Many thanks to John Athayde for the kickass design, and to Paulo for implementing it for us.
We’re still squishing a few bugs here and there, so come kick the tires with us!
It’s our 80s prom picture! Notice that neither of us felt the need to go all 80s for it… I swear, some of the things those people had in their closets were positively terrifying.
Our 2 year wedding anniversary was yesterday, and we celebrated in fine style.
Because we are both big dorks who love gadgets, we ended up exchanging anniversary gifts a week early, so excited were we about what we had found for one another. I gave Tom a Chumby which can probably best be described as an alarm clock with WiFi that understands your email, your social networking sites, your weather, your streaming internet radio, etc. It’s a pretty neat little gadget, though it seems to have a little trouble with the local NPR station’s stream. Tom gave me a Flip Video, which I used to record our farm adventures, but which will also be good for recording comedy for personal review purposes.
On Tuesday, I had my rings cleaned. Which is in one way very utilitarian- gemstone jewelry benefits from periodic professional cleaning, and my engagement ring is probably the single most valuable thing I own. But it also seems to me that having my rings all shiny and sparkly like the days they were given to me is a nice little celebration all on its own.
Yesterday was kind of hectic- I was busy at work and had to enforce the “It’s my anniversary, I am leaving at the stroke of 5, no I will not stay late for your last-minute project, and no I will not be available to help you from home” speech, but my coworkers were cooperative and I got home at a reasonable time. Tom, on the other hand, was on the phone fighting with one of his clients’ software vendors and not getting any satisfaction. He just barely managed to get off the phone in time to make our dinner reservation. In an amusing bit of serendipity, it happened to be the same client whose mail server died the day after our wedding, costing us the first day of our honeymoon.
But we made it to dinner right on time, and had a fantastic meal at Ray’s the Steaks. I could expand upon this experience, but you know the story already- the best steak in town, a very nice bottle of wine with which to toast each other, and we were too full for dessert.
From there, we went to catch a showing of Kung Fu Panda. Now, I have been itching to see this movie since the first posters started appearing for it in theaters months ago. Tom was skeptical. “But baby,” I’d say, “Jack Black! Kung Fu! Panda! What’s not to love?” Finally I assured him that he did not have to come see it with me. And then the trailer came out, and it was hilarious. Encouraged by the trailer, but still with low expectations, Tom suggested that we see it on our anniversary. I encouraged him to pick something he was less ambivalent about, but he assured me that a comedy would be just the thing.
People, see this movie. I was expecting a slapstick Jack Black comedy with some kung fu elements thrown in, but the truth is, they made a kung fu movie that just happens to be animated. The fight sequences were imaginative, Jack Black got to be Jack Black without distracting from the film, the voice casting was great… we enjoyed it front to back and had a great time.
CSA Week 1
Originally uploaded by tiffany bridge
We got our first week of vegetables from the farm this week. We’re pretty excited about it, partially because we’re working hard to increase the amount of cooking we’re doing, and the quality of the ingredients we’re doing it with. So we’ve been going to the farmer’s market each week, and in addition to our usual vegetables and fruit, we’ve been getting bison meat and milk, and when our friends Don and Susan started getting more eggs than they could eat from their egg share, we discovered how much better fresh eggs from the farm are. (That was seriously the best omelette I’ve ever made.)
So yesterday, Tom I met up with Lisa and visited the farmer’s market, where we got tomatoes, mozzarella, some milk and cream, and raspberries. After catching some breakfast at Four Courts, we stashed our perishables at Lisa’s place and headed out to the farm to pick up our share.
We’re splitting a full share with Lisa this year, and the share comes with a u-pick allowance, so we got to get on the hay wagon and ride out the strawberry fields and pick 6 pints beyond the couple of pints that come with the share.
From there, we had a quick ice cream break, and then headed to Wegman’s to get some extra ingredients to go with everything. And this morning, Lisa picked up the cow share she’s splitting with John, but since he’s out of town this week, we liberated his raw milk and cream, and had Lisa pick us up some farm eggs.
So last night we made stamp pot, which is basically mashed potatoes with kale and sausage. We had never had kale before, but found that we really liked it in the potatoes, and have found plenty of recipes for it in our various cookbooks. We’ve got raspberry ice cream made with raw cream, farmer’s market milk, farm eggs, and farmer’s market raspberries in the freezer right now.
I’ve also got to say… writing a check for a few hundred dollars sucked in January, but with the way grocery prices are going, I’m really pleased to have 20 weeks of pre-paid groceries coming to us. We probably could eat a full share’s worth of vegetables if we were home more, but that’s a whole lot of kale every week until it goes out of season, so half is just enough.
