Pumpkin!

Every Fall, I invariably gain a few pounds. The reason? PUMPKIN. I'm obsessed with almost all things pumpkin (except pumpkin soup - not a soup fan in general, only when I'm sick) and I take advantage of every opportunity to bake with pumpkin. And every trip to Wegmans demands the purchasing and eating in the parking lot a pumpkin doughnut with maple frosting.



A few years ago, when Sunny, Rebecca and I were roommates at Tech, I found a pumpkin cookie recipe that has became my go-to fall cookie. We would eat them by the bag full - right out of the freezer. And they are super easy to make:

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup veg. oil
1 egg
1 cup pumpkin
1 teas milk
1 teas vanilla
2 cups flour
2 teas baking powder
1 teas baking soda
1/2 teas salt
1 1/2 teas cinnamon
(for spicy cookies add: 1 teas ginger, nutmeg, and cloves)

1/2 bag of mini chocolate chips (thank you Tammi for this correction! How could I forget the chocolate?!?!)

Grease pan, 375 for 10 minutes

After Josh and I got married and Danielle and I had some awesome baking adventures together, I confessed my secret desire to make a pumpkin roll - but I was too afraid to try. Bravely one Sunday we tried - and succeed in making a pumpkin roll. Last year I lost count of how many pumpkin rolls I made.  And they are so easy - check out the recipe here. Naturally, I double the cinnamon, and add ginger and nutmeg.

Just last week I discovered Pumpkin roll pancakes. Since I don't want to lose much of the weight loss progress I've made, I haven't made the cream cheese spread that goes with these babies. But they are delicious all on their own (extra spices, of course). It makes a huge stack of 15 or so, and since Josh won't eat them, I heat up 2 or 3 for breakfast each morning. I ate the last of my first batch this morning, when I thought I had to go into work (then found out I got to stay at home! Yippee!) and then tonight, I made another batch for dinner. We are in the middle of Frankenstorm, don't judge :)

And finally, a recipe I'm dying to try is pumpkin whoopie pies!! Doesn't that sound amazing? I'll let you know how it goes - or let me know your favorite pumpkin recipe!

Adventures in Cake Decorating

I've never been very skilled at making pretty cakes - or pretty desserts. I leave that to my sister, the master fondant cake decorator. But I do take pride in how amazing they taste. Until recently - I've worked hard to make they look pretty as well as taste yummy. Thankfully I have coworkers who let me practice on them.

This is a chocolate bunt cake I made for my souther coworker. It was AMAZING tasting, and I love the look it has with the powdered sugar and raspberries. I made 4 of these in a week. So delish.



This is my old standby Hershey's perfectly chocolate cake (back of the box!) with an oreo whipped cream filling. This is a little lopsided, but not as bad as they sometimes are. Baby steps.



And this might be the prettiest  cake I've ever made. Its the perfectly chocolate cake, with the chocolate fudge frosting in the middle, and butter cream outside. I tried my hand at some flowers, and some of them turned out!



I really love baking, and I'm glad I have an outlet for it. I take one of these to work and its GONE. I made Josh a chocolate cake for his birthday, but since its just the 2 of us, not much progress has been made. Cake, anyone?

Epic cooking disaster

Tonight I had an epic cooking disaster. Which happen frequently, but was made worse by the fact I was cooking for someone else - someone who just had a baby and was mostly likely sleep deprived. I actually had 2 meals to make (for 2 new babies!), but only one was a disaster. Tonight I made:

• pumpkin roll


• pumpkin cookies


• mac and cheese


• honey mustard chicken


• rice


• sweet and sour chicken


• green beans with pine nuts

The sweet and sour chicken was done first, and since there was extra, I served up plates for Josh and I. Yuck. We could barely eat it. In doubling the batch, something went terribly wrong. And the rice was soupy and gross. About half the time my rice turns out badly, but this time was worse than usual.

As I stood in the kitchen, surveying the catastrophic mess that I had created, about to cry, wondering what to do about ruined dinner and how I had nothing to feed my friends, I get a text from another angle friend - with the offer of a Georgetown cupcake - delivered. I have the best friends. While I don't have dinner for my friend tomorrow, the cupcake and visit made me  feel better - maybe I'll try again tomorrow.

Debates

I hate debates. And debating. Which might surprise some of those who know me since I have an opinion about EVERYTHING and I'm not afraid to share it. But the thing about debates is that they are not about sharing information or even about sharing opinions - its about showing the other person or side how wrong they are. Its often rude, and doesn't help solve problems, which we have in abundance, unfortunately. I've avoided the presidential and vice-presidental debates because I didn't think I would learn anything that I didn't already know. The comments on Facebook during and after don't help either. And heaven help you if you accidentally start a debate on your wall (I'm looking at you, R :)), as you will have more opinions that you wanted, useless information, and name calling.

It might be trite to say, but why can't we all just get along? Why can't we communicate politely? Why is it so hard to try and imagine where someone else is coming from, or to try and see something from another point of view? Thats what debating should be - an opportunity to discuss differences in a civil manner, attempt to find common ground, and to come up with a solution.

Happy First International Day of the Girl Child

Today is the first International Day of the Girl Child - a day designated by the United Nations last year. We need this day to recognize girl's rights. Why?  Because sadly:

• There are 67 million children that are not in school. More than half of these children are girls.


• In developing countries, most girls never receive a check-up or see a doctor.


• Almost 50 percent of all sexual assaults are against girls 15 or younger.


• In many developing countries, a girl may have to marry young and take care of her older husband and her own children. (girlup.org)

We need an International Day of the Girl Child because today, Malala Yousafzai, a young Pakistani activist who refused to stop going to school despite intimidation from the Taliban, campainged for the right of girls to get an education, and blogged for the BBC, was shot in the head on her way to school. She was shot in the head for going to school, for demanding access to education, for being brave.

Founder Farmers

Thursday during Trixie's visit, our friend Melissa came to visit from NYC! We all lived in Syracuse at the same time, so it was a Syracuse reunion day!! It had been too long. After Picking Melissa up at Union Station, we headed to Founding Farmers. We got caught in the rain, and only Trixie had an umbrella, which she graciously shared, but its almost impossible to share umbrellas effectively - so apologies for my frightful hair :)



We had a lot of trouble deciding what to get. So we ordered a lot of food. Trixie got some super yummy flat bread - with figs! I have recently become obsessed with figs!



Melissa got shrimp and grits. The portions were huge!



I got fried chicken and waffle with mac and cheese. My eyes were so much bigger than my stomach!



We also ordered an insane amount of appetizers - first time trying pickled veggies - so good. Melissa pickles her own veggies - she is hard core. Do you see the deviled eggs in the background? Heaven.



And my favorite - fried green tomatoes. They were amazing.



Oh, we also got crab cakes. We went a little overboard, but it was so worth it.



After eating ourselves silly, we headed to the Mall. As you can see, it was still pretty cloudy and overcast out.



We then spent some time in the American History Museum. Stumbled on some old school Muppets. We also saw the American Flag sewn by Betsy Ross. It was powerful! First, it was enormous! Then to imagine the scene (start singing the star spangled banner in your head), gave me shivers.



We had a really fun time! We spent the afternoon perusing used bookstores, soaking our feet in the pool and talking bout life, followed by Ethiopian for dinner (post coming) and Fashion's Night Out. It was so awesome of Melissa to come visit for the day - I think we should do it again soon :) K, ladies?

 

Is it better?

I've been pondering the following life problem:

Is it better to have a friend who keeps most things about her life a secret (meaning you find out about things second hand or you have to ask lots of questions) or one that shares all but in a manner that is bordering on gloating?

I'm terrible at secrets, especially my own but I am wiling to share to things about myself freely and hopefully not in a gloating manner. But maybe I do?

You tell me. Which is worse?

Happy Columbus Day?

I hold a grudge against Columbus Day. On one hand, it gives me a day off, on the other hand, it celebrates a fictions version of history. Columbus did not "discover" America, as we are taught in school, nor were his intentions as pure as we are led to believe. The history around Columbus completely ignores the histories of the other groups that were already living in America, ignores the"reign of terror" this discovery  ushered in, dismisses the genocide by foreign disease that began, and completely ignores the fact that Columbus sent the first slaves across the Atlantic - the beginnings of a tragic transatlantic slave trade that would continue for some time. By idolizing Columbus, we celebrate the domination of others.

Why does this matter? It matters because history matters. It matters because the words we use have power. It matters because the process of concealing or changing history has far reaching implications. The propaganda disseminated about Columbus is used to make us feel good about the history of our continent. So we walk around proud but arrogant about the truth. And when our version of truth is challenged, we react and dismiss.  This is a common tool in our political process today - neither side tells the truth, and both sides twist history to support their version of events. Take the wistful longing for the past were our morals and values were less challenged and God was more present in dialog. I don't know of a time when that fully existed, but I think they are most likely referring to a time when marital rape was an incomprehensible idea, schools were segregated, Russia had nuclear weapons pointed at us and vice versa. This time was not perfect - nor is today. But changing the facts to promote an agenda or ideology isn't the way to make change. So lets be honest about Columbus, the First Thanksgiving, Santa Claus, the beginning of the Iraq war, and in our political discourse.

Hello? Is it me you're looking for?

(yes, I know this is the lyrics to the song, "Hello" by Lionel Richie but I couldn't help myself.)

My apologies for being MIA. Jes has been busy with work and me, well I don't really have a great excuse. I've been in a rut since DC. Going through some personal shtuff.

I have been writing this post in my head for a while now. Mostly the title. Lionel Richie has been singing in my head.

Here are some teasers of things I've been working on in my head:
- Fall TV
- Music
- My new obsessions and dislikes

Hope all is well with you, dear reader. I'll be back soon.

DC Cupcake WARS!

While Trixie was visiting, one thing we knew we wanted to do was eat a lot of cupcakes. And I'm happy to say we accomplished this goal! We started Thursday, while our friend Melissa was visiting from NYC. We had a huge lunch at Founding Farmers (Oh MY!) which is a post for another time and has some great pics (hint: Trixie :) After lunch, we went to see if we could see the Julia Child's exhibit at the Smithsonian.  Sadly, it was closed and you could only look in.

We then decided to head back to the Dupont Circle area where Trixie was staying. Yelp informed us there were some cupcake shops close by. Unfortunately  the first one we tried to go to wasn't there anymore. Then we got distracted by a used bookstore. Eventually, we ended up at Hello Cupcake. These cupcakes were super yummy, but I think my favorite part was the pink chandelier.



Friday, we met up with one of Trixie's friends from Texas that had recently moved to the DC area. We ate at this organic place that, while good, wasn't very filling. After lunch, we wanted to go the the Holocaust Museum, but made a slight detour on the way when we stopped at Zara, and got Trixie's kids some of the cutest clothes I've ever seen! After shopping, and going way out of our way and walking a ton (don't listen to metro security about directions, we were lead so far off the path!) we spent a few hours at the Holocaust Museum. If you've never been, you need to go. Its heartbreaking, tragic, but so very important. We spent some time in the propaganda exhibit they currently have, and it was a little spooky - some of the methods used by the Nazis are methods currently being used in our political dialogue today.

We left the Holocaust Museum sad and super hungry - the perfect time for Georgetown cupcakes! I now know why Georgetown cupcakes always has a line out the door - they are so yummy! The red velvet is the best I've ever had. I also got a chocolate lava cupcake. Right after this photo was taken, I ran my gross sweaty arm through the fudge on top of my cupcake. I was so disappointed - and so tempted to lick it off....



Sprinkles and Georgetown cupcakes are on the same side of the street a few blocks from each other. So naturally, on our way back to the metro we had to stop at Sprinkles to do a comparison. Our comparison wasn't really fair though: after a not too filling lunch, tons of walking in 90 degree heat, 2 cupcakes at Georgetown cupcakes, we felt a bit sick after eating Sprinkles cupcakes. We also didn't do a side by side comparison - to be really objective, we should have done a red velvet at Sprinkles too. Don't get me wrong, they are also amazing, but I was in total sugar overload with a side of heat exhaustion :) But, I am literally having dreams about the red velvet from Georgetown Cupcakes so I'm declaring them the winner! Who wants to go to Georgetown with me? I really need a  few more cupcakes :)



Even though we felt sick by the end of the day, it was wonderful spending so much time with Trixie. I'm so lucky that we can pick up right were we leave off, years later. But I really hope I don't have to wait years to see your face again!