Joe's Birthday Party

I love to read food blogs, so when Joe told me that he and his good friend Andy planned to host a joint birthday party, I finally had an opportunity to make all the fun party food that would be strange for me to cook for myself.

Like chocolate-covered potato chips.  I found the recipe from the very fun blog Spoon Fork Bacon.  Just what America needs right?  Greasy salty chips covered in sugar.  Eh, it's a party, I say.

I hand-dipped every single potato chip from a family size bag of Wavy Lays into a vat of milk chocolate.  "These are bespoke potato chips," Joe said. It took a very long time.  Once I started, I couldn't stop, and covered every available flat surface with potato chips on wax paper.

The ones photographed on Spoon Fork Bacon are eerily perfect.  My chips were lumpier because I had a hard time getting the perfect amount of chocolate on each chip.  But dang, they tasted good anyway.  If there is ever a situation to use the word "dang," I think it should be when describing chocolate-covered potato chips.

Behind the potato chips, you'll see dulce de leche sandwich cookies via Joy the Baker, who is the cutest person ever, at least judging from her blog.  I love her, and the rest of the recipes I cooked are from her website.  This party was brought to you by Joy the Baker.

These cookies might not look like much, but they are the best I've ever made.  I've made three batches this year, by popular request.  It's easy too.  A can of dulce de leche serves as the filling, with some sea salt sprinkled on top.  I'm very into the salty/sweet combination.

I also made baked brie lollipops. Joy's baked brie look prettier than mine, but I was just happy they didn't explode in the oven, as some commenters mentioned.  I was using Joe's oven, so no skin off my nose if they did.  Haha.  No that was easy too.  I convinced Prudence to come to the party by saying that I would serve "fancy Hot Pockets on a stick."  I think that would be my food truck concept as well.

Alex made a sign advertising my mixology skills.  Not sure why "special" is in quotes.  Is he humoring me?  I made another Joy the Baker recipe, rosemary lime cocktails.  These are so good.  I have a heavy hand with the vodka too.  Prudence said that I would be distracted, talking to someone, meanwhile the vodka bottle is going "glug, glug, glug."

Someone bought in mini-pies from the new Pie Sisters in Georgetown.  Georgetown Cupcake, will this put a crack in your empire?

The birthday boys blow out the candles.   [Not pictured, the awesome friends who made the trek in the cold to help us celebrate].

I wore my party dress meant for a six-year-old for this special occasion.  The print has little horseys, bunnies and teddy bears on it.

I don't wear this dress very often.  I tried to wear it to the office, but I felt like the bunnies might make it less than professional.  I still love it though, it's from a stall at an amazing flea market in London.   So I've only worn it a handful of times, and one time I was wearing it, waiting for the bus and a girl walks by wearing the exact same dress I was wearing.  What?  I'd expect that for a F21 sweater, but what a coincidence.

Happy birthday, Joe!  So looking forward to spending your 31st year together!

Cape Weather

I checked the weather this morning and saw it was going to be 50 degrees.  That is the tipping point for when wearing my cape makes sense.  Warmth is not its greatest feature.

I bought my cape two years ago, and now I see quite a few girls wearing capes.  It's no biggie these days.  Well, at least to me.  Maybe not for others.  I generally get my own seat on the bus when I take the cape out for a spin.

During my halfday today, I went to the library to pick up my books on hold.  (An aside: the DC public library system's website is amazing.  Couldn't be easier.  Just type in the name of the book you want and they'll deliver it to your nearest library and you can run in and pick it up. If you don't have a library card, you are missing out!  It's a shame I waited so long to do this).

The librarian who checked out my books said "Nice cape."

"Thanks!" I said, a bit too eagerly.  Then I thought I should go ahead and say what everyone was thinking.  "It's a bit eccentric."

"But it's perfect cape weather," she said.

That's what I've been saying!  Finally, someone gets it.

Brunch at Mandu

Sorry for neglecting the blog. Seems the busier I am doing fun things that would be interesting to write about, the less time I have to write about them.  I also signed up for the alternative work week schedule at work, in which you work 9 hours Monday through Thursday, then get half-day Fridays.  Seemed awesome, right?  I thought it would give me more time to write and blog and run errands and do the things I like to do.  But so far I've only been able to actually leave at noon once.  That one time was glorious, though.

Does anyone else work alternative work schedules?  Have you had better luck at sticking to your schedule without seeming like you are a slacker?

Anyway, hope you are all ready for the weekend.  Here's my foodie recommendation for your Saturday or Sunday...

Like any good city dweller, I love brunch.  But it can be such an over-priced yuppie endeavor, can't it?  When I read about the brunch plate at Mandu, a Korean restaurant on K Street at City Vista, and I thought it would be fun to try a departure from the usual waffles, eggs benedict, what have you.

$12 gets you Mandu's set brunch plate: gimbap, a Korean omelet, chive pancakes,  Korean-style hash browns and marinated meat or veggies and tofu.

That's a lot of food.  Plus it comes with dessert.  All this, and gelato too?

Tunes Tuesday: "Up, Up, Up," Givers (Body Language Remix)

This song is a blast of sunshine, and makes sense for day that hardly resembles January.  I've really been digging BBC DJ Annie Mac's Soundcloud, and you can download the remixes for free!

NYC New Year 2012

I need to post these photos from my NYC NYE trip before January slips away.

I totally jinxed myself - the day before the trip, I told my mom: "I have never had any problems with the bus to NY.  Never ever!  It's never broken down."

Cut to Joe and I standing in the cold at some gas station off the New Jersey Turnpike, as passengers loiter around us and the bus driver negotiates for someone else to bring a different bus to pick us up...

So the trip started inauspiciously.  But we got there eventually, that's the important part.

A castle on the Upper East Side! OK, not really a castle, but still cool.

Where were you when you found out Katy Perry's marriage was kaput? This made me really sad for some reason. Why couldn't those crazy kids make it work?  I want Katy to be happy and continue churning out guilty pleasure pop chart toppers.

Also, I love to ask Joe questions like this: where were you when you found out Michael Jackson died? Where were you when you found out John F. Kennedy Jr. died? Where were you when you found out Gary Coleman died?*

He just rolls his eyes and tries to change the subject.

Here I am with my bestie Debie on NYE. So fun! I wore my black sequin shorts. Every so often, like for New Year's Eve or Lady Gaga concerts, they make their way out of the back of my dresser.

We went to the Guggenheim and saw the Cattelan exhibit.  The sheer scale of it was incredible.  As you walked up the ramp, you could see everything in greater detail.   Highly recommend!

My complaint, though, is that they created an incredible iPad app, but you had to pay $4 for it.   Why couldn't our free audioguide have more information?  Or could they put more text on the wall?  I understand that might ruin the aesthetics, but I wanted to know more about all of the art and and the meaning behind it.  I felt like I was missing out. We already paid $18+ to get in!

I spotted a celebrity at the Guggenheim while we were there - Mena Suvari!  I did my research to verify: Twitter confirms she was in NYC and she had a pretty distinctive neck tattoo.  My mom said it was like bird watching, you look for noticeable features, or in the case of celebrities, distinctive tattoos.

On New Year's Day, we ate a leisurely brunch at the upstairs restaurant at Eataly.

Love this silver pig!

My wonderful friend Amy at the High Line.  Amy, thanks so much for letting us stay with you!  She is the best hostess.  And her cat is a cutie.

How pretty is that?

Now for the "NY is expensive / NYC Screws Over Tourists" section of the blog post.

Joe drinks orange juice from a glass that looks like it belongs at a doll's tea party.

We wanted to go to a Jewish deli, but the line stretched around the block for Carnegie Deli.  We went next door to Stage Deli where they scoop up the Carnegie Deli stragglers.  Take a close look at that menu.  Why is the turkey sandwich $15.95???

OK, that's a lot of turkey, but still!

Our NYC friends grin even though we are taking photographic evidence of their presence in a tourist trap where most New Yorkers would never think of darkening the door. Not pictured: Joe's friend Dave, who said, "No photos, please."

I love our New York friends who always show us a wonderful time whenever we visit! I'm so lucky to have such great friends.

Tunes Tuesday, "Simple Song," The Shins

Simple Song by The Shins

Maybe the cool thing is to not like The Shins anymore.  Did Zach Braff ruin it for us?

Pshaw, I say.  Play this song and it's like no time has passed, in the best way possible. James Mercer's voice is the perfect vehicle for the kind of wistful lyrics I remember from The Shins.  This song brings it all back, with lyrics like: "Remember walking a mile to your house/ Aglow in the dark/ I made a fumbling play for your heart/ And the act struck a spark."  Just plain pretty, and that's what I love about this band.