An act of kindness...

My friend, Andy, made dinner for me and a couple of friends last night.  It was delicious!  :)

It was also the first time that I can honestly remember someone of the opposite sex making dinner for me!

He made this yummy Ziti - which I had never had before.  I was in charge of dessert and therefore threw together Nutella Strawberry Shortcake.  It was actually pretty good and the perfect light dessert to that amazing dinner!  I am hoping that if I keep telling Andy just how much I loved his cooking that he will offer again in the future!  After all these years, I now understand why men love having a wife that will cook them dinner!!!  I wanted to put my feet up and yell for Andy to bring me a Diet Coke from the fridge.  Ha! 

I will admit that I had a hard time just turning the kitchen over to him or letting him chop up the onion his own way (I may or may not have pulled out my chopper and showed him an easier way).  I attempted to play the piano and then the guitar because I was hovering - no cook likes that!  But my playing was terrible because I was too distracted by what was going on in the kitchen...  Well that and because I am not very good at either the piano or guitar and I felt bad for his ears!  :)

So, Andy, thanks!  It was really nice to have someone else be in charge of making dinner!

Random Note:  I will be in Jamaica in six days!

Craving's happen!

Day 23 - Something you crave for a lot.

Those that know me, know that there is one thing I am ALWAYS in the mood for - STEAK!

I love it!! I can't have it as often as I would like, but I love every morsel of that medium cooked delicious piece of meat! I may not remember lines in a movie, but I will remember if they served a delicious looking steak (i.e. Captain America).

I recently went and grabbed a steak with a friend to celebrate an "A" on his recent paper and work going well for me. We went to Outback Steakhouse, it was his first time - my 999th. :)

The food wasn't as good as I had hoped - don't get me wrong the steak was alright just not what I was craving... Looks like a trip to Bobby Van's Steakhouse is in order! Anyone care to join me!?

And to all of those that feel you have to put something on your steak - meaning a sauce of ANY kind - that just means you haven't had a steak that has been cooked right. And if you have to put ketchup on your steak, make sure I am not around, that is just WRONG!

If it makes you happy!

Day 21 - Picture of something that makes you happy!

I love to COOK!

Cooking has become something of a passion of mine! I love to browse (yes, browse) through cookbooks, recipes online, daydream, anything that has to do with cooking.

I can't wait for the day that I have awesome kitchen tools to cook and present an amazing meal with. Right now, my selection is limited and my most prized cooking tools are a ceramic knife and the Pampered Chef chopper. But I am dreaming of the day when I can just call up people and have them over with matching dishes and adorable center piece and the most amazing meal they have ever tasted.

I have a friend whose husband went to cooking school and will be showing me in the next few weeks how to cook a red snapper. SO EXCITED!!!

This has been a new favorite of mine in recent years because I had amazing people to show me that good food can be made at home! I also learned that it was okay to have a failed dinner or two because someone still ate it! Ha ha ha! ;)

So, I am going to strengthen my cooking skills and really test out new waters in the coming months! Wish me luck!

DC Restaurant Week

I can’t think of a more exciting week! I had a ton of fun trying a few different restaurants and getting to see a little bit of the finer side of DC.

Started the week of right with a night at the Melting Pot, which is a fondue place. I LOVED the dessert! It was called the Flaming Turtle – I think they could have just lit plain chocolate on fire and I would have loved it just the same! I actually drove downtown for this and was super nervous (I had to parallel park) but it turned out nicely! Guess it was a good thing our reservation was for 9:30 and not any earlier because I don’t know if I could have handle more traffic! Needless to say, I wasn’t the driver the next day!

Friday, I went to Shawarma Spot, which is a little place that served up some yummy hummus and a chicken pita sandwich, which I can’t remember what it was called. We topped lunch off with a little bit of pistachio baklava. It was sooo good! What was wonderful about this spot for lunch were the adorable little stores that are surrounding the place. There was an old bookstore, a palm reading place, an African store, other restaurants – it was just quaint and adorable! Definitely going back to check out the other stores!

Saturday was a FULL day of food!

Started off at noon at McCormick & Schmidt’s and had a wonderful appetizer of duck pizza and calamari. The duck was fantastic! Main course was a perfectly cooked Salmon with potatoes and veggies, but it had this berry sauce that was delicious! Dessert was a wonderful crème brule and upside down apple pie with cinnamon ice cream. I loved that my friend was willing to share everything so we both had a chance to try things out. I was sad because my phone pretty much died and I didn’t get any awesome pictures of the food, so I am including pictures that my friend took.

After lunch we had a few hours to kill before dinner (thank heavens!!) and so we went to the portrait gallery and then walked over to the White House. It was such a beautiful day and I loved just being able to relax and enjoy the weather. I loved to see all the various people sitting in the park and walking around with their kids, it was such a perfect way to spend part of the day!

Dinner approached at the perfect time! I was VERY excited to go to this restaurant called Bobby Van’s Steakhouse. I am a steak girl all-the-way!!! For starters we had this delicious tomato gazpacho (which I am pretty sure I can make), and then came the filet mignon. I died!!!! It melted in my mouth, it was cooked to perfection and was just the right size. My friend ordered the NY Strip because bigger is better (as our waiter pointed out.. he he he...) and let me try a couple of bites. It was FANTASTIC! I had been craving a steak like this for a very long time!!! I was in HEAVEN!!!! We finished dinner with a delicious chocolate cake drizzled with chocolate syrup. Perfect!

I can’t think of a better way to spend the week then trying out all the different restaurants that are here in DC – the variety is never ending!!!
And I have to give a shout out to my friend that endured hours and hours of talking with only me! That is a hard job for some… I tend to go on and on (long-winded shoulda been my middle name). But the company is what made this week the best I have had in a long time – so thank you!!