Halloween Treats

Halloween will be here soon. Not only am I excited about Halloween but Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert have decided to host a rally and march in DC that weekend which is going to be tons of fun. And when that weekend couldn't get more awesome, it did when Rachel decided to come visit! Me, Rachel, and my roommate Moriah got Star Trek costumes to wear that weekend, which will be cute. My friends in DC also have other friends coming in that weekend so it's going to be a crazy few days. I'm looking forward to it!

Even though I don't have anything to cook for this Halloween, I thought I would share two things I've made for parties near Halloween in the past for anyone still trying to figure out fun dinner items!

These cake pops are adapted from Bakerella. I'm not going to post the recipe so hop on over to her fantastic website for it, but these are super easy and fun to make. I didn't have lollipop sticks so I used popsicle sticks and while not as good looking, they did the job. There are so many different things you can do with these but I, obviously, made vampires. I think this was actually for a Twilight part, haha.

 

Another Halloween party that I went to had asked me to bring a salad. I searched and search for some type of salad that I could make Halloweeny. I finally found this idea for eyeball caprese salad and they turned out great! I don't have a link because I don't remember where I found the idea - but they are made with a basil leaf, tomato slice, sliced mozzarella cheese balls (the kind you can get at an olive bar at the grocery store), and topped with two kinds of olives to make the eyeballs. I used a straw to poke holes in the halved green olives and in the black olives. I took the inner part of the hole out of the black olive and placed it into the hole I made in the green olives. I topped them with olive oil and pepper. I was quite happy with how cute these little guys were :)

Pecan Caramel Pumpkin Cheesecake

This cheesecake has gotten the best reception of anything I have taken to work thus far. I made it for a friend at work's baby shower because he loves pumpkin. I had never made this recipe before and it turned out amazing. This is definitely a keeper and I'll be making it again. It would be a great alternative to pumpkin pie during the holidays. I really feel like the homemade caramel makes the cheesecake but you could certainly use store bought.

 

Butterscotch Cookies

I did a lot of cooking while I was home in September and these cookies were one of the things I made. I'm hesitant to post them here because I wasn't a giant fan of them but everyone else who tried them liked them so maybe it was just me. This recipe calls for browned butter, which I had never done before, so I may not have done it right. I also usually prefer soft or chewy cookies and these were very crunchy, which may have had something to do with it. I love butterscotch so I'm going to have to give these another try soon but let me know what you think if you end up making them!

Auburn and Football

My two weeks in Auburn were all too brief. I had so many things to do and people to see to fit into that relatively short period of time. It was so nice to be home, in a familiar environment. It was the little things that I enjoyed the most. The things that I really didn't even realized that I missed - the smell of my house, driving around at night by myself with the windows down and the music up, Auburn's campus, the feel of college football in the air, making a royal mess in the kitchen cooking, being lazy on the couch with Toby and Andrew watching TV. Right now Auburn is still my home. In a way, Auburn will always be my home - the same way Dothan will always be my home. But it makes me a little sad to come to the realization that Auburn will not be my home for much longer. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, it's just change and change can be a little sad sometimes.

I ran a lot of errands while I was home (one of which was picking up my graduate school diploma!), packed winter clothes to bring back to D.C. with me, saw lots of friends and got to celebrate two birthdays, ate out at all the Auburn restaurants that I love (including Amsterdam's and MK's), cooked more than we could eat, and had lunch with some of my former professors. It was so nice to see them but it also made the fact that it was fall and I wasn't in school sink in more.

I also spent two days in Abbeville and in Dothan seeing my family. My Nana and aunts are all such good cooks and they cooked all my favorite foods. My dad and I went to see a movie and generally just hung out, since I had spent time with my mom at the beach. I miss all of them very much and it was great to see everyone.

The last weekend I was in Auburn, I was able to go to the Auburn v. Clemson game. It was crazy! And hot. Andrew's brother Chris came to Auburn to go to the game with us. I also found out last minute that Mr. Steve and Mrs. Ginny were coming for the game, so I was really happy to see them and tailgate with them.

 Hannah, Mr. Steve, and Mrs. Ginny tailgating at the Auburn v. Clemson game

As usual for sitting in the student section, we got to the stadium about 2 hours before the game started so we could get a decent seat. I typically don't enjoy sitting in the student section because of many reasons - you have to get there so early, it's hot and crowded and loud, you don't get the sit down (unless it's a TV time out, half time, or someone is hurt). But there is a certain energy in the student section that you don't get from sitting anywhere else in the stadium that is a lot of fun. Especially during the second half of this game when Auburn actually showed up to play football. We won by a field goal in overtime so it was pretty insane and I'm so glad that I went.

Hannah & Andrew at the Auburn v. Clemson Game

Rolling Toomer's Corner - An Auburn Football Tradition

Panama City Beach, FL

My trip to Panama City Beach, Florida for Labor Day was wonderful. I flew into the brand new Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport bright and early on Thursday morning, September 2nd. The flight was quick and uneventful, the only interesting thing being halfway through the flight when the pilot came on the intercom and told everyone to look out the left windows of the plane. Out over the ocean, you could see the white line of Hurricane Earl, which was pretty cool.

My mom picked me up at the airport in Panama City since Andrew needed to stay in Auburn for his classes. It was really good to see her, especially since I had not seen her since May and her birthday was that previous Sunday. We grabbed lunch at a place I had never eaten before called J. Michael's Restaurant which is sort of catty corner from Capt. Anderson's. It was good, solid beach food but not necessarily somewhere I would put on my must eat list. 

We did a little shopping after lunch, walked out to the beach for a few minutes, and went to Capt. Anderson's for dinner to celebrate my mom's birthday. Capt. Anderson's is my favorite restaurant. Ever. And it's also one of my mom's favorites. As usual, we both got grilled grouper and as usual, it was amazing. So amazing, in fact, that I forgot to take a picture of it until I was halfway through eating it. We also had mozzarella sticks, salads, rice rolls, and cheesecake which was all fantastic as well.

The next day, we slept in a bit and got biscuits and sausage gravy at Thomas Donuts which is a great little donut shop on Front Beach Road. Once we got out and about, we drove around, did a little shopping, and generally enjoyed being at the beach (especially with my mom's dark blue convertible bug!) For lunch we went to place my mom had been a long time ago and I had never been - Hunt's Oyster Bar & Seafood Restaurant in downtown Panama City (no relation to Hunt's in Dothan.) Before I had tried Hunt's in Panama City, Shuckums on Front Beach Road in Panama City had my favorite baked oyster (I don't like raw oysters). Now Hunt's has won this title for me. They had such an amazing flavor and were baked, as most places do, with garlic and Parmesan cheese and butter. We also had fried shrimp, which were fantastic. Don't let the hole in the wall appearance fool you - Hunt's has gained a place on my must eat list for Panama City.

My mom left to drive back to Dothan and Andrew left Auburn to drive to Panama City Friday afternoon. I had a few hours to myself so I spent them on the beach with a good book, of course. Andrew got there with Toby a little after dark. I was SO happy to see both of them! It had been since June 1st since I had seen Toby and since mid July since I had seen Andrew. We spent the next day being lazy, driving around, walking the beach, and watching football.

On Sunday, we went to St. Andrew's State Park. I had not been to St. Andrew's since I was very little and was looking forward to seeing it. There is a neat little bay area that is almost completely surrounded by rock where you can snorkel and see lots of different fish. We also spent time on the regular beach part where the water was crystal clear and extremely warm. We will have to start going to St. Andrew's more often when we're at the beach.

After spending the day at St. Andrew's State Park, we ate at a place Andrew had eaten at when he was in Panama City with his class over the summer - Captain's Table. Located almost next door to Hunt's, Captain's Table is another slightly hole in the wall looking place with amazing seafood. Andrew and I both had grilled fish (though I can't remember exactly which kinds), along with salads and key lime pie. Very good food and another addition to my must eat list.

The next day we were planning to leave later in the evening so we got up early and took Toby to the new dog beach across the street from Pier Park. Andrew and I learned last time that we came to the beach with Toby that he absolutely loved it, which was surprising to both of us. Even the water didn't seem to both him too much (though he certainly wasn't getting his feet wet on purpose). We walked up and down the beach with him a good bit, which he loved.

The entire time we were at the beach, there were people riding up and down the sand in golf carts - looking for and cleaning up tar balls we assumed. They seemed to be doing a great job because the one time we saw tar balls, they were completely gone the next day. It would take a lot for the oil to keep me out of the water or off the beaches. I love the Gulf beaches and they will always be my vacation spot of choice.

HOME

So tomorrow I will be getting on an airplane and flying HOME! I'm so excited. I'll be leaving bright and early tomorrow morning for the Baltimore Airport (thanks to a friend from work who is driving me out there) to get on my flight that leaves at 8:35am EST and arrives in Panama City Beach, Florida at 9:45am CST. I am so excited I can hardly stand it. Not only am I going home, not only am I going to be able to see Andrew and my family and friends and Toby, not only am I going to be able to eat good southern food until I can't move, but I'm flying into the BEACH. Andrew and I will be spending Labor Day weekend at the beach before heading back to Auburn on Monday evening. At some point, I will be spending some time in Dothan and Abbeville (likely Sept 12th-14th). I've been feeling a little homesick lately so I'm insanely excited.

Very soon, I will be doing this. I. Can't. Wait.

German Chocolate Cake

I don't have my limited decorating tools here in DC, but it won't stop me from attempting to make a pretty cake! A friend a work's birthday was last week and his favorite cake is German Chocolate Cake. I had never make a German Chocolate Cake (and actually never even tasted one!) but I'm always up for trying to make a new type of cake. It turned out pretty good and would definitely make it again. I'm discovering that almost any cake recipe that calls for buttermilk is going to be a winner.

A little trick I've learned is to make the actual cake portion a day early. Not only does this give you a little breathing room when putting everything together, it also makes working with the cake a lot easier. Cold or frozen cake just behaves so much better and is a lot easier to decorate than warm or even room temperature cake. I don't know about you, but I rarely seem to give myself enough time when making a cake to get everything done just how I want it and the decorating and assembly is always the step that suffers. Breaking the process up into two portions allows you to focus your efforts appropriately.

Just let the cakes cool down to room temperature and wrap well in plastic wrap and pop in the fridge for a few days. If you need to keep them for more than a few days, put them in the freezer (and if you really want to be sure they are well wrapped, put them in those giant freezer bags).

Oh - and isn't this cake stand just gorgeous?? But seriously, $65? No thanks. But this one, at $20, is just as cute and comes in multiple colors! Oh goodness, once I have a stable house/apartment again, I'm going to be spending so much money on kitchen stuff. And I should really look into taking a class or two on cake decorating because I'm really starting to enjoy it. I'm sure DC has tons.

I hate the fact that this picture turned out so yellow. Darn fluorescent lights.

Buttermilk Biscuits

I've mentioned these biscuits before so I figured it was time I posted the recipe. Homemade biscuits are pure heaven. I don't know how else to describe them. They are comfort food to the extreme. You can do so much with them - covered them with strawberries and cream, fill them with ham and cheese, smother them with gravy, or just eat them butter and jelly. Biscuits make my heart sing.

I found this recipe from Alton Brown about a year ago and I've been using it ever since to make biscuits. As Alton is from Georgia, I knew these would be pretty good. However, I need to get my Nana's recipe because I bet it's even better than this one. This recipe uses half butter and half shortening for the fat. I remember watching Alton Brown make biscuits on his show Good Eats on Food Network once and he said this is because butter gives them a better flavor but shortening gives them a better texture. So half and half is the best of both worlds.

Give them a try! You won't be disappointed. The work is totally worth it.

Georgetown - Pizzaria Paradiso and Georgetown Cupcakes

Moriah, Josh and I decided to wander down to Georgetown for dinner tonight.  I had only been to Georgetown once before and it was very briefly just to stop by the Apple store so I wanted to go again.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with DC (which is likely most of the people reading this), Georgetown is a very nice, wealthy area located in northwest DC on the Potomac River waterfront.  It contains lots of high end, boutiquey stores, tiny restaurants, and hip bars.  

We ate dinner at Pizzaria Paradiso, a local pizza restaurant with two locations - one in Georgetown and one in Dupont Circle.  We had all heard good things about it so we were looking forward to trying it out.  They don't take reservations so we had to wait about 45 minutes to sit down, which actually wasn't a big deal on a Saturday night in DC - in Georgetown no less.  They brought a complimentary assortment of olives to the table when we sat down but as none of us liked olives, we didn't try them.  We ordered the garlic bread as an appetizer, which was significantly different than your traditional garlic bread.  It was toasted bread, served with whole roasted elephant garlic.  It was very interesting but I'm not sure it would be something I would order again.  For dinner, I ordered the Bosco pizza - which was mozzarella cheese with tomato, mushroom, spinach, and red onion but I subbed the spinach out for sausage (because I love sausage on pizzas).  Josh got the Genovese pizza - which was pesto, potato, and Parmesan.  Moriah got the Paradiso pizza - with soy Mozzarella.  Again all the pizzas were good but they didn't blow us out of the water.  I think the pizza at Matchbox in Chinatown was much better.

Before we ate dinner, we walked across the street to take a look at Georgetown Cupcakes.  They are part of a new TV show on TLC called DC Cupcakes and had a line out the door to prove it.  Someone walking around said the line was about 45 minutes.  We really wanted to give them a try, but we had dinner soon and didn't have time to wait.  We finished dinner about 15 minutes before they closed so we ran across the street to get in line.  We ended up waiting about 30 minutes to get inside, which wasn't a big deal because it was really nice weather outside and we made friends with our line mates.  I was fully ready to complain about how people only bought their cupcakes because they had a TV show and not because they had good cupcakes but boy was I wrong.  We ordered 2 red velvet, 1 mint oreo and creme, 1 birthday cake, 1 caramel, and 1 ginger peach.  They were amazing.  I think my favorite was the red velvet.  The cream cheese icing was sweet but not too thick or heavy.  I would really like to go back to try the key lime, strawberry, and lemon berry cupcakes, which they didn't have tonight.  They were $2.75 a piece, $15 for a half dozen, and $30 for a dozen which - yes, is expensive for cupcakes - but they were a good treat and I thought worth the price.

Me in front of the trays of different cupcakes

The half dozen we got - Mint Oreo & Creme, 2 Red Velvet, Birthday Cake, Caramel, and Ginger Peach

BBQ Chicken

Right before I left for DC, Andrew and I visited some friends in Huntsville for the weekend which happened to be Memorial Day weekend.  We all wanted to grill out for Memorial Day but the weather ended up not cooperating so we had to resort to indoor BBQ.  This is my easy way to do BBQ chicken in the oven.  You don't get all of the smoky charcoal flavor that outdoor grilling gives, but you do end up with some pretty darn good BBQ chicken.  This is also a relatively cheap main dish to serve a large number of people as party size packages of chicken drumsticks or wings, whatever your preference is, are usually $5-10.  There really isn't much of a recipe for this but I'll cover the basic steps below.

Lasagna

Lasagna is one of those things that everyone seems to like and everyone has their favorite way to put it together.  There are so many options for what you can put into a lasagna - different types of sauce, hamburger, sausage,  veggies, ricotta cheese, cottage cheese - the list is endless.  This is my mom's recipe and therefore my favorite.  My sauce is a little sweet (and it's also basically the same sauce that I used to make spaghetti) and I prefer ricotta cheese rather than cottage cheese but it's a recipe that I think most anyone would like.  This recipe is very versatile so feel free to add whatever you like.  I've added onion and mushrooms to the sauce in the past, which works well.  You could also sub half the hamburger for sausage, which I think would be amazing.

Easiest French Bread Ever

I love making bread.  It sounds dumb, but I find it very therapeutic.  A lot of people find it a little intimidating, what with all the yeast and rising times and working with dough and whatnot.  I promise, it's not hard!  Especially this recipe.  It doesn't have insanely long rising times (like a lot of bread recipes do) and it's pretty easy to work with.  And nothing is better than the smell of freshly baked bread.

I'm really not sure how I ended up with the shape loaf that's shown in these pictures.  It was the first loaf I made using this recipe and all subsequent loaves have turned out much fatter (like the pictures on Fake Ginger's site - and by the way, I love Amanda's site.  Such great recipes!  Definitely take a look!)  Maybe I didn't let it rise enough?  Who knows.  I'll have to try and replicate it sometime because it's prettier (but the other way gives you more bread!)

The original recipe makes 2 very large loaves of bread so I've scaled it down to 1 loaf here.  Much easier to manage!

I did not get a picture of this (or any loaf from this recipe) before it was cut into.  Impatient boys.

4th of July

Being in Washington, D.C. for the 4th of July was something I had been looking forward to immensely.  I went over to a friend's apartment and we cooking hamburgers and hotdogs before venturing out into the heat.  We took the bus to the Capital Mall between the Capital and Washington Monuments and walked around a bit before the fireworks begin.  We tried to go to the National Archives because there was supposed to be a big Happy Birthday America party but it was over and everything was closed by the time we got there.

So we stopped to dip our feet in the fountain at the Navy Monument.  I apologize for the crappy quality of some of these pictures.  For some reason I took them with my iPhone even though I had my real camera in my purse.  Go figure.

Eli, Moriah, and Josh at the Navy Monument

 Me at the Navy Monument

We headed towards the lawn of the mall when it got closer to fireworks time and managed to find a spot among the throng of people that were there.  Seriously, way more people than I thought!  We brought blankets and ate popsicles while we waited for  it to get dark.

National Lawn with the Capital in the background.

 Actually not sure what this building is, but it was pretty and right next to us!

Once it got dark the fireworks started!  They didn't last as long as I would have liked but they were still beautiful, especially with the Washington Monument.  Though we quickly realized why the spot that we chose was empty.  We had to deal with the giant (thankfully OFF) spotlight that obscured our view.  Regardless, we still had a great time!

Fireworks!

Moriah and I waiting for the metro to go home after fireworks and dinner.

Petsitting & Chicken Spaghetti

I pet-sat two dogs - Cindy the papillion and Cyrus the bichon frise - for someone at work a few weekends ago.  I love animals and miss Toby so being able to spend sometime around other little dogs was great.  They were both very sweet and very well behaved.  Cindy reminded me a lot of Rachel's dog Pacey and Cyrus reminded me of my mom's dog Barkley (when he's being sweet).

                                     

 

Another plus to petsitting was being able to do a little bit of cooking in her kitchen, yay!  I miss cooking (and baking).  A lot.  Not having all my kitchen tools limited what I was able to cook so I decided on something that was easy, required few ingredients, and would reheat well.  Chicken spaghetti!  I love chicken spaghetti.  It's something that my mom made often growing up so it's really comfort food for me.  Most people aren't really sure what I'm talking about when I say chicken spaghetti but once I describe what is in it, it sounds more familiar.  It's noodles and chicken and cheese.  Who could not like that :)

 

Yes, that is a biscuit in the background.  A home made biscuit.  It wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be with few tools and I promise to post the recipe later!

Election Assistance Commission

I am interning this summer with the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (www.eac.gov) which is a federal commission that was created by the 2002 Help America Vote Act.  Being a relatively new organization, they have more flexibility and less bureaucracy than some of the more established federal entities which allows for a lot more creativity and fresh ideas.

I have been working with the communications department since I started three weeks ago.  I may end up floating around to different departments or I may stay in communications, I'm not sure yet.  However, I really love working in this department.  I've always had a latent interest in communications and public relations.  I even went and spoke to a public relations adviser at one point at Auburn with thoughts of changing my major.  In almost every organization I was ever involved in, I took on the role of PR person.  I would make phone call and put up fliers for theatre shows.  I would organize information for students in the most accessibly way possible as a GTA.  I would make sure everyone knew where to go for summer camps.  It's just the role that I naturally gravitated towards.  Now that I'm looking towards an actual job, it's definitely something that I could see myself doing.

Most of my tasks thus far at the EAC have centered on our new website.  We launched a brand new website about a week after I arrived so I've been working to get all the information transferred from the old website to the new website.  I actually have a little experience working with websites.  I worked on both Senator Little's website and the election administration program in Auburn with different types of software.  The two programs I've used in the past were Dreamweaver and a local, website based program, neither of which I liked very much.  The web based program was extremely limiting with very little functionality and Dreamweaver, while very thorough, was complicated and I never could get any training with it.  We use another web based program to manage the EAC's website and it's much better than what I've worked on in the past but isn't without its flaws.  We do occasionally fight.  I've also gone through a few sections of the website and suggested changes to make things more usable for the average person who probably doesn't have a background in elections.  I have a few long term tasks that I'm working as well such as researching web governance policies and gathering information on all past EAC policies and procedures.

Working for a federal commission in a large city is quite different than anywhere I've worked before.  We have lots of keys - building/office keys (which really aren't keys at all, more like tiny skinny credit cards), desk keys, bathroom keys.  Lots of passwords for different things (that must be changed often and you can't use old passwords either!).  I have my own little cubical complete with computer and telephone.  The building that our office is in is beautiful.  The lobby is mostly green, white, and purple marble.  There is a large fountain in the lobby and most of the offices have windows that look out on the lobby.

Office lobby

One of the things I've had to get used to was the common usage of acronyms that I wasn't terribly familiar with.  I have a background in election so I was good with some of the basics (HAVA - Help American Vote Act, FEC - Federal Election Commission, NVRA - National Voter Registration Act) but I've learned several more (including non-election acronyms) such as FOIA - Freedom of Information Act, MOE - maintenance of effort, TGDC - Technical Guidelines Development Committee, UOCAVA - Uniformed and Overseas Citizen Voting Act, etc.

So far, I really like working at the EAC.  Like I've said before, everyone is really nice and helpful and indulge my constant barrage of questions.  I can't believe I'm already creeping up on halfway done!  Even thought D.C. is so very different than what I'm used to, it's a great city.  Though the heat has certainly reminded me of home!  This city can rival some of Alabama's worst days with the heat and humidity.  Yuck!  I miss everyone at home a lot but I'm enjoying my time here. 

Sausage Breakfast Rolls

These sausage rolls are one of the things I can eat until I'm sick, which is a very bad thing considering how super easy they are to make.  I'm not much of a breakfast eater and certainly not much of a breakfast maker.  Usually Andrew is the one to make breakfast.  However, these sausage rolls are easy enough for me to want to make in the morning.  I got the recipe from Andrew's sister-in-law Laura (hiiiii!) who fed them to us when we visited a year or so ago.  Mine aren't nearly as pretty as hers (Laura - what's wrong?  Do I fill them up too much?  Do you buy large crescent rolls and I've just been in the dark all this time using original size?) because as you can see I often have to use the edges to hold in the filling.  Do not be deceived by the amount that this recipe makes.  If you are cooking for more than 2 people (and if any of them are boys), you'll be fine.  If you really are just cooking for 2, you can half the recipe.  The filling stays good in the fridge for about a week.

 

By the way.  Yoohoo!  Down here.  Someone told me the other day that they thought my posts were really short and cut off.  Yeah.  You have to click this little 'read more' link to get to the rest of the longer recipe posts.  I just didn't want to clutter things up!  So click!

Strawberry Cheesecake

I love cheesecake.  It's one of those decadent treats that you only make on a special occasion.  Or should only make on a special occasion.  Our special occasion was we had strawberries that needed to be used.  When I asked Andrew what I should make with the strawberries, he chose strawberry cheesecake.  So cheesecake it was.  I don't need much convincing to make cheesecake!  This recipe from bakerella was pretty good taste wise.  I thought the consistency was just a tiny bit grainy but I didn't let it sit overnight in the refrigerator like you're supposed to, so I'm sure that had something to do with it.

You can top it with this strawberry sauce (which, by the way, was amazing), chocolate sauce, caramel (oooh my that would be good..), whipped cream, or pretty much anything you like.  bakerella made some amazing white chocolate decorations for the top of hers that I would like to try at some point.

 

The White House and American History Museum

Jessica (my friend from the MPA program at Auburn) and I had an 11:30 tour of the White House last Saturday morning.  You can hardly bring anything into the White House - no cameras, no purses, no bags of any sort.  We had a little trouble finding where we were supposed to meet for the tour but we finally got there and found that there was a huuuge line that we had to wait through to go through security.  Thank goodness just about everyone in the line was slated for the 11:30 tour.  And it was hot.  By the time we made it through the line, we were both about to die.  We met two different secret service guys from Alabama and all the secret service members that we met along the way were all very nice and informative.  It was a self guided tour but there were secret service members stationed in each room that could answer questions.  We toured the basement and the first floor of the White House (the 2nd and 3rd floors are reserved for the president).

We saw several different presidential portraits, very ornately decorated rooms (which all seemed huge on the inside) before we ended the tour walking out the front doors of the White House.  Once we were outside looking back on the White House, it really seemed very small.  Not nearly as big as it always seems in pictures and on TV!  We happen to meet some people from Alabama walking out who had mutual friends with Jessica.  Small world!

Jessica and I stopped for a quick lunch before heading to the American History Smithsonian museum.  There are so many Smithsonian museums (and they are so huge!) that we weren't going to try to do more than one at a time.  I'm glad we picked the one we did to start with.  We saw lots of exhibits including Julia Child's kitchen, Dorothy's shoes, Kermit the frog, Fonzie's jacket, lots of first lady gowns, presidential memorabilia, and my favorite - the original 1813 American Flag.  Very successful trip.

Picture Note - while I'm in D.C., I'm sure I'm going to be taking a lot of pictures that I want to share with you guys so I think I'm going to start uploading things to Flickr so I can use slide shows here rather than posting individual pictures.  Hopefully this will work better but let me know what you think!

DC - One Week In!

So I have successfully survived one week in Washington, D.C.!  I feel like using a list so here we go...

1.  Metro - I was pretty nervous about figuring out how to use the metro since I have never lived anywhere with public transportation before.  Before I got here, a good friend of mine who had been in D.C. last summer gave me her metro card (called a SmarTrip card) so I was able to start off by just adding money to this card. I found out later that each of these cards are individually registered so I ended up getting a second one so I could get it registered in my name.  So now I have two.  Anyway.  To get into the metro stop, you touch your card to the little pad, the light turns green, and the doors open.  To get out of a metro stop, you do the same thing.

I downloaded the 99 cent Metro app for my iPhone (which has been amazingly helpful) and managed to figure out the trains pretty easily.  Each train is colored by line and named for the final stop on that route (you can take a look at the metro map here).  For example,  to go to work I get on at the Union Station stop and take the red line Shady Grove and get off at the Metro Center stop.  Coming home, I get on at the Metro Center stop and take the red line Glenmont.  Fairly straight forward.  But noo, they do manage to throw a wrench in the plan!  Sometimes you'll see trains labeled with names other than their final destination on the map, such as red line Silver Springs.  I finally had to ask a very nice stranger about this one, who explained to me that during rush hours, they set a few trains to end earlier on track to increase the number of trains stopping in the more congested spots.  Makes sense.

The metro isn't perfect - it can occasionally be hot, smell odd, and be absolutely packed but it is really a lot better than I was anticipating.  I have only gotten on the train going the wrong direction once!  It's quite convenient but the money you spend on it eats away at your balance more quickly than you think it will.

2.  Escalators - thank goodness I was warned about this one before hand.  Stand on the right.  Walk on the left.  This is a cardinal rule.  You will be yelled at if you don't follow it. Edit - And about 60% of the time, the escalators will be broken and they turn into stairs. Like this morning.

3.  Plastic bags - everywhere you go whether it be grocery store, restaurant (to go food), any store, you will be specifically asked if you want a bag and usually charged 5 cents if you say yes.  While I think this is a fantastic idea to cut down on America's usage of plastic bags, it isn't something that has caught on yet in the south so it was a bit surprising.  I purchased 2 Target canvas bags and my mom sent me a nice canvas bag as well.  All very helpful.

4.  Target - speaking of Target, we actually have one!  I was a little surprised (no WalMart though).  But here, Target is the cheap option.  Ya know back home, you go to Target expecting to spend a little extra money?  Nope, not here.  You go to Target to get daily items more cheaply than at the corner market.  I wish it were a little closer to where I am (though it's still only a metro ride away).

5.  Expense - everything is expensive.  Let me say it again.  Everything is expensive!  Whew.  Yes, I knew to expect this but jeeze.  You are severely pushing it to get a meal (even a cheap quick lunch) under $10.

6.  Walking and walking distance - I have walked more here in one week than I have any other time in my life.  And being in D.C. has drastically changed my definition of 'walking distance'.  Back home, we drove down the road and across the street to go to the store.  Walk?  Why?? I walk half a mile every morning from my dorm to my metro stop and then .3 miles from the metro stop to work.  I repeat this each afternoon so I end up walking at least 1.6 miles everyday.  On top of that I often go by the store or try to explore a new area each day so I'm sure I end up walking at least 2 miles a day.  This is drastically different than at home where I have never been much of a walker, runner, or exerciser.  And I actually don't hate it.  It isn't bad at all (except on afternoons where D.C. tries to compete with Alabama for heat and humidity levels which it is quite successful at!)

7.  Work - so far, I adore it.  I really enjoy where I'm working and the people I'm working with.   People have been extremely nice and welcoming.  I plan to post a more work detailed post later once I get a little more into it.

8.  Things I'm missing most - Andrew, Toby and my friends (of course) but more specifically being able to hop in the car at a moments notice, privacy (I'm staying basically in a womens dorm), good internet (the internet here is quite sub par),  being close to the beach (especially before the oil hits!), and cooking!  Eating out or in the dorm kitchen (where I'm staying provides 2 meals a day included in the rent) every meal is really starting to weigh on me even after one week.  I want to be able to cook something quick and fresh for myself and it be what I want rather than what the kitchen is serving or restaurant options that I can find (that are also expensive).  I really miss cooking.

I have a lot more to say but I think eight is a good start.  So far, I really like D.C.  It's an interesting, vibrant city full of so much history and especially history that is very relevant to my educational studies.  My next post will be about my trip to the White House and the National Museum of American History this past Saturday :)

I love and miss everyone! <3

Arrival in Washington, D.C.

This will be a very quick post, but I wanted to say that I've arrived safely in Washington, D.C. for my internship with the U.S. Election Assistance Commission!  I had a direct Delta flight from Atlanta to Ronald-Reagan National Airport.  The flight was surprisingly short (the stewardesses didn't even get to serve drinks due to a little mid-flight turbulance) and the landing was beautiful.  We got a very nice view of the Capitol and a few of the monuments as well as the Potomac River. A good friend and his wife picked me up from the airport, took me to dinner, and got me to Thompson-Markward Hall where I'm staying.  I've pretty much completely unpacked and plan to spend tomorrow picking up a few other necessities and figuring out how to maneuver the Metro system before I start work Monday morning.

Obviously, the food posts will be fewer and farther between this summer as I do not have access to a kitchen but I have several posts saved up to fill in some of the gaps.  I'm planning to blog about my internship either here or on a separate blog.  If I decide to use a seperate blog, I'll certainly cross post over here.  I miss everyone already but I'm excited to be here!  Everyone has been very nice thus far and I think this is going to be a good experience.  Until next time :)

 Thompson Markward Hall - My new home away from home (for at least 3 months)

Best Birthday Cake!

My dad's birthday was May 7th and, since I've gotten a few good cake decorating tools lately, I decided to try my hand (again) at baking a pretty cake!  This is really my second attempt.  I made this for Andrew's mom's birthday a few months ago but used a chocolate technique rather than piping.  As usual, I didn't given myself enough time to work on it so I had to rush through the last few steps.  I'm not posting a picture of the cake after I wrote on it because it was pretty much awful.  I used writing chocolate that was too runny and too warm and it just melted together.  I've had a lot of trouble with writing chocolate lately (I can never get the proper combination of chocolate and oil) so I think I'm going to write with icing next time.

With this cake, I meant to do the base color blue and the decorations white but I added the food coloring before I pulled out any icing because I just plain forgot.  So I ended up with two different shades of blue which actually turned out better than I thought it would.  My mom bought me a little turn table which is amazingly helpful for decorating as I can just turn the cake rather than trying to contort myself around it.  I very nearly messed up the piping by sticking the piping bag in the fridge while I was putting the base icing on.  Bad idea.  This icing is mostly butter and it turned rock solid.  I had to work the bad with my hands for quite awhile to warm it back up but the entire time I used it I just running into hard spots which messed up my piping.

Graduation and Wonton Soup

The past two weeks have been extremely busy here in Auburn.  Most of you who read this blog know this, but I'm graduating with my Master in Public Administration degree this Friday and I'll be heading to Washington, D.C. in June for an internship.  I work two jobs in Auburn in addition to being a full time student, so there has been quite of bit of work to wrap up in the last few weeks before I graduate and leave town.  


This wonton soup was a little different than wonton soup I have had in the past.  I think I would probably call this dumpling soup rather than wonton soup.  Regardless of what you think it should be called, it was delicious.  Assembling the dumplings was a little time consuming, but I had some fantastic help from a dear friend.  We did about 1/4 veggie dumplings and 3/4 meat dumplings and just folded them differently.  All in all, this is a meal that I can definitely see myself making again.

Key Lime Pound Cake

I love pound cake.  I love everything about it.  So, I'm always game to try different types of pound cake.  I've had the idea of a key lime pound cake stuck in my head for a few weeks so I went to the internet in pursuit of a proper recipe.  The internet never lets you down, right??  Wrong!  I only found 2 lime pound cake recipes and I really wasn't comfortable with either of them.  However, in my search through some of my current food blogger reads I stumbled upon a new site - Smitten Kitchen - and pretty much fell in love.  I spent several good hours that day reading back through Deb's posts and, with the help of some email correspondence, finally settled on a recipe for Lemon Pound Cake with the substitution of key limes for lemons.

The final product turned out impossibly delicate and quite tart but still very good.  While I don't think it quite beats my aunt's recipe for Cream Cheese Pound Cake (which will make an appearance here in the near future, I'm sure), it's certainly a light, summery option worthy of a special occasion.

Pizza!

Finally! I can put the pizza dough and pizza sauce recipes that I've posted together into their final product - pizza!  There are a few necessary tools to making a good pizza at home.  You could use neither of them and bake the pizza on a round pizza baking sheet, but you will not get as good a crust.  If you like to make pizza at home, I would definitely suggest investing in these two items - a baking stone (or equivalent) and a pizza peel.

1.  Baking stones are expensive but they really make a difference when making a pizza.  However, there is a way around this!  You can usually purchase unglazed ceramic flooring tiles at stores like Lowe's or Home Depot.  They work just like baking stones and are much less expensive.  I'm talking about $2 per tile versus $40-60 per stone.  The tile will be more prone to break than a baking stone since they are thinner but you can buy a couple at a time (and I've been using mine for about 4 months and it's still going strong).  You may need to get the tile trimmed if it doesn't fit in your oven (I think we had to get ours trimmed about 3-4 inches on one side), but Lowe's or Home Depot will usually do it for you for free.

2.  Pizza peels are imperative for transferring your pizza onto the scalding hot baking stone in your oven.   Don't try to do it any other way.  I'm warning you - I've been there, done that.  Made a beautiful pizza and then couldn't get it off the counter and into the oven!  Absolutely could not do it.  I had to throw the whole thing away and go out for pizza.  It was a disaster.  This catastrophe was also helped by the fact that I did not flour my counter top enough.  But!  Get a pizza peel.  They are relatively cheap on Amazon (this is the one I have - $17).  You'll thank me.

Pizza Sauce

I've used Prego spaghetti sauce as pizza sauce for a long time and I had not given much thought to making my own sauce until I stumbled upon a very easy looking recipe for pizza sauce.  After giving it a shot, I think it's definitely worth it to make your own sauce.  It wasn't very difficult but it did take a little time because you need to cook out as much water as possible so it doesn't make your pizza soggy.  I think my tastes are changing because previously I didn't like anything spicy but lately I've been able to tolerate it more and even like it in some cases, like this pizza.  The recipe that I used was a little on the spicy side but it was still really, really good.  This recipe made a lot of sauce and I've put the leftovers into a cleaned out glass jar in the fridge.  I would think it would keep a week or two and if you make pizza as much as we like to around here, it works out great.  However, I'm sure it would also be good as a dipping sauce or tossed with some pasta.

Bird Days of Spring

Andrew and I worked outside around the house this weekend because it was just so darn nice (and by Andrew and I worked, I mean Andrew worked and I sat in the shade, kept him company, and sneezed).  He planted several flowers that we bought at the Horticulture plant sale and found places for a few hanging baskets.

Dusty Miller along the front and edges, Petunias right behind them, a row of bulbs planted that have yet to come up next, and Marigolds along the back with red Geraniums in the handing basket.  I think I'm in love with the Dusty Miller - it's really neat looking!

Pizza Dough

One of Andrew's favorite things is pizza, but I'm really not a huge fan of delivery pizza or frozen pizza so we decided to try our hand at making it.  We started off making pizza with store bought dough, Prego spaghetti sauce, shredded mozzarella cheese, and whatever toppings we felt like - usually pepperoni or sausage and mushrooms.  And it was pretty good, much better than delivery in my opinion.  Then I started getting into baking bread and decided to give homemade crust a go.  There was no turning back.  It was leaps and bounds better than store bought.  Then I decided to try real mozzarella rather than pre-shredded* and I mean the stuff in a log in the specialty cheese section of the grocery store.  Ooooh man it was good.  And do not make the mistake of buying the generic, store brand whole mozzarella because it isn't really any better than preshredded (it's very grainy).  Get name brand cheese.  It's more expensive than generic or pre-shredded cheese of course, but the price is worth it.  Recently, I've also tried my hand at making pizza sauce which I'll discuss later.  As you can see, pizza making in our house has been through quite an evolution.  It's definitely one of those things that I always feel like I can improve on and I rarely make it the exact same way twice.

There are several recipes involved with making pizza so I think I'll do them one at a time instead of overwhelming one post with three different recipes.   But if anyone is particularly antsy to try their hand at making homemade pizza, email me :)  

Homemade Crescent Rolls

This week has been better on the cooking more, eating out less front - which is a good thing!  However, I haven't made anything terribly interesting.  I made some French bread that I wanted to use for this blog, but it didn't hold it's shape and while it tastes pretty darn good, it's flat and mopey and ugly.  So I'm going to hold off on that recipe until I bake a loaf that looks right!  Right now, I have a very tantalizing carton of strawberries sitting in my fridge that's destine for something sweet towards the end of the week or this weekend - possibly strawberry cake or strawberry cheesecake.

School is trucking along.  I turned in several papers in the past week that were weighing pretty heavily on me.  At this point, I have a 5-7 page paper for Election Law that I'm either going to do on Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission or People v. Ohrenstein, which is due at the end of the semester.  I have a 5 page midterm for Organizational Theory that I'll get April 26th and will have a week to work on.  I have a research project for Election Administration that I have to finish up the last leg on and then combine nicely into a notebook to turn in.  And that's it for graduate school.  For school.  Forever (at least until I decide it's time to get my Ph.D. - which will be awhile!).  I'm excited to be so close to done, but there are still several puzzle pieces that need to fall into place for me to graduate and get to this internship.

These crescent rolls were surprisingly easy to make.  Seriously.  You make the dough, roll the dough out like a pizza, use a pizza cutter to cut it into 'slices', and then roll up the slices like you do crescent rolls from a can. As you can see, my crescent rolls are quite fat so I will try to roll them out thinner next time I make this.  While they look and taste very similar to store bought, the texture is very different.  Store bought are flaky while these are soft, like a dinner roll.  But still fantastic with butter and jelly.  These bad boys have a rising time of about an hour, which is pretty good for a yeast bread.  They could easily be made on a week night if you started early enough.

 

(taken with my iPhone)

School, Pollen, and SnoBiz

Not too much cooking going on this week for many reasons - school work has been attempting to swallow me whole, Andrew's been out of town and cooking for one is No. Fun., and myriad other little problems have been popping up out of no where.  The great pollen inundation of the spring has begun, coating everything in a fine (and sometimes not so fine) layer of yellow.  Washing your car or anything else is of no use as the pollen will start recollecting as soon as you're done.  Note the greenish/yellow tint to the outdoor table in the picture below.  All this has resulted in many people's allergies going haywire, including my own. 

However, I did treat myself to my personal "Official Start to Summer" a.k.a. SnoBiz (yes, I can say it's the start of summer if it's 89 degrees).  I have a seriously unhealthy obsession with this wonderful combination of finely shaved ice and sugary syrup.  I'm not a huge ice cream person, but I will pretty much always take this stuff.  And about 90% of the time I will order Tiger's Blood which, if you've never heard of it (shame on you!), is a combination of strawberry and coconut or piña colada.  I wish the shaved ice had stayed as vibrantly colored as when I purchased it, but I had to wait until I got home to take the picture.

Vegan Zucchini Bread

I enjoy cooking for my friends and, as I'm mentioned before, I have a very good friend who is vegan.  So from time to time, you will see a few vegan recipes pop up around here.  My feelings on being vegetarian or vegan are mixed.  I certainly understand doing it for health reasons (for example, another very good friend of mine who is vegan does so because of severe lactose intolerance and food allergies).  I also understand the desire to eat healthy and more natural but I feel that this can be done without such radical steps as to completely cut large food groups out of your diet.  Just about any diet or lifestyle change can work for you, as long as you watch your portions and make smart choices - but certainly to each his own.  Plus, I just really like food :)  Regardless of my personal opinion, vegetarians and vegans do lend an interesting challenge to cooking and baking!

Best Big, Fat, Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

I ran across this recipe on Fake Ginger's blog and couldn't resist.  Now I have an amazing oatmeal chocolate chip cookie recipe from my friend H's mother that I'm sure I will share on here sometime, but it never hurts to try something new!  Plus, upon querying Andrew as to what he would prefer - oatmeal chocolate chip, chocolate chip, or snickerdoodle - he chose chocolate chip.  

This recipe was amazingly quick and easy to throw together.  I'm an instant fan of any baking recipe that called for melted butter rather than room temperature butter because I rarely have time to let butter soften properly (and I've yet to find a method that softens it better than just leaving it on the counter for a few hours).  The original recipe called for huge cookies - I'm not kidding!  It used a 1/4 cup measurer to scoop the dough onto the cookie sheet!  While that may be fun for kids, I thought this size was a bit more manageable.

I made these cookies to go with Andrew to a soccer tournament he was refereeing this past weekend - for him and to hand out to the other referees there.  The result?  I'm apparently making them for the next tournament too.

Asian Noodle Soup

I love soup.  I especially love soup that's quick and easy, which you don't see too often.  I also adore Asian food but I find that what I can make at home never measures up to what you get at a decent Chinese restaurant but that is not the case with this soup.  The flavors that the spices lend to the chicken broth really make the dish.  Try them all the first time you make this - I promise you won't be disappointed.  I don't really like star anise or too much ginger but they really work together well here.  Obviously, you can substitute the vegetables to suit your preference and just swapping the chicken broth for vegetable broth makes this dish vegetarian and vegan!

Pizza Bites

Tonight I made pizza bites via Carole's recipe at My Kitchen Escapades.  You'll notice that the pictures look a little better than those of the birthday cake.  This is because I was able to find the charger and cable for my Pentax point and shoot!  And, to my amazement, it even has a food setting!  I'm still no photographer and never will be, but at least it's a good step up from using my iPhone.  From now on, all pictures will be from my Pentax unless otherwise noted.