holiday

Memorial Day Weekend...thai lettuce wraps, raw oysters with peppar vodka, and shared hamburgers. Tonight, we'll have falafel-coated shrimp. 

Happy Holiday!

Keep sweeping, Martha

Watched Star Trek and Gone Baby Gone.

the marriage agreement

In this house, we have an equal division of domestic labor; in part, because Mr. Beeton enjoys cooking just as much (if not more) than me. Last night, he came home from campus with a bag of mussels and three potatoes. I was a little skeptical at first... I'd never tried making french fries at home. But he did good, using a fry-cutter that my sister had bought him a while back. We had a nice, Belgium-themed meal - mussels and pommes de terres frites!

Keep sweeping, Martha

cake love

Yesterday was my 35th birthday! Hard to believe... especially since I still feel - in most social situations - like I'm in my early twenties (if not teens). 

Mr. Beeton and I had a terrific birthday weekend. It started on Friday with dinner at the Greek Festival at the Saint Sophia Greek Orthodox Church on Massachusetts Avenue. Delicious gyros and baklava. Mr. Beeton and The Chemist even managed to sneak away to put a candle on the baklava. A rousing chorus of "Happy Birthday" followed, and I made the first of three birthday wishes.

Saturday, we headed to Tysons for a free birthday entree at Gordon Biersch. I was hoping to spend some money on self-selected birthday gifts but came home empty handed. Mr. Beeton, however, had one more birthday gift to obtain, and he found what he was looking for. He also carried the gift around, tauntingly, for the entire evening... I wouldn't find out what exactly he purchased until Sunday night - the night of my actual birthday, May 17th.

Mr. Beeton had planned a birthday dinner at an undisclosed location for the day of. I had guessed we were going to Founding Farmers since I've become more than a little obsessed with Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. Mr. Beeton likes to tease me about it, so I figured he'd opt for this restaurant. Instead, he chose Sei - which Washington Post writer Tom Sietsema reviewed this past April:

"Unlike a lot of places, Sei rewards those who bite at the invitation. It won't be cheap, but a drink from the bar of this bold Asian statement in Penn Quarter demonstrates how far Washington has come from the days of chocolate martinis and cosmopolitans. The cocktails here taste as if they were whipped up in the kitchen, with the flavors of the food in mind. Fresh and spiriting, the libations also perfectly capture the mood and style of Sei (pronounced 'say'), a sibling to nearby Oya." - http://www.washingtonpost.com/gog/restaurants/sei,1155087.html 

The ambiance was fantastic, and the place was nearly empty - probably because it was a Sunday night. Mr. Beeton and I absolutely love sushi, and we had the most delicious meal. Here's what we ordered for those who are interested:

• To start, Asian Pear Sangria for me and a Liquid Wasabi for Mr. Beeton (he also had a Silver Samurai later in honor of a particularly funny encounter with shochu we had had as graduate students in Delaware).
  
• We then had wasabi guacamole for an appetizer with wonton chips.
  
• We gorged ourselves on sushi, ordering a spicy tuna roll, a crispy shrimp roll, a toro aburi nigiri, a hamachi olive nigiri, a drunken shrimp nigiri, two orders of salmon sashimi, and an order of tuna sashimi.
  
• And, I almost forgot - Miso Orange Bread Pudding for desert, with a candle.

But the icing on the actual cake was the cake. Turns out Mr. Beeton went to Cake Love when we were at Tysons. That's what he was carrying around all night... a chocolate cake with lime frosting - my favorite! In fact, it's almost lunch... I think I'll cut myself another piece.

Keep sweeping, Martha

Finished reading Precious by Sandra Novack. Watched Celebrity.

crunchy like...

I'm celebrating almost, almost being done with the semester with a cleaning spree and some granola. I've finished up with nearly all of my grades (hooray!), and I realized that I needed some time away from the computer, attacking the dust monsters for both my own sanity and the sake of my home. At the end of the day, the kitchen looks fabulous; the laundry is done; and I've got some homemade granola in the oven.

The granola that I'm making is a variation on a recipe that I found at 101 Cookbooks - a favorite food blog of mine. Originally, I had intended to make the recipe posted on Angel Food: Cooking Cheap Without Sacrifice. The blogger is a former Hound; we both graduated from Moravian College and ran in the same literary circles. She found me on Facebook (or I found her... I don't remember which), and we reconnected. I have to say that reading her status updates are sometimes the highlight of my day. She's funny and smart, and I've been wondering why we weren't better friends in undergrad. Her recipe is fantastic, too. I can tell by reading it. But, it requires a bit too much work for this hour. It's late, and I'm tired. So, I pared down the 101 Cookbooks recipe instead.

Here's what I did... 

• I took rolled oats, almonds, and sesame seeds, and I mixed them all together in a big white bowl that was my Nana's. 
  
• Then, I took about a third of a cup of honey, and I mixed it with 2 1/1 tablespoons of vegetable oil. I heated it up in the Le Creuset cookware that my mother-in-law gave to us by way of her neighbor who needed to update her cookware to match her new kitchen color scheme. Lucky us.
  
• I mixed this honey mixture with the dry mixture. I put it in a baking dish, set the oven to 300 degrees, and am stirring occasionally.
  
• My plan now - once it's all cooked - is to combine the heated mixture with some golden raisins and some very tart dried cranberries from Whole Foods.
  

I'm hoping that this recipe turns out better than the last one that I tried from the same site. The Cakes of the Mondays was not successful the first or second time that I attempted it. The granola, however, seems more difficult to mess up... hopefully.

Keep sweeping, Martha

Watched Made of Honor.

 

may madness

May, so far, has been madness. Stacks of papers, sick dogs, rain, disappearing students who have magically reappeared, rain, last minute birthday parties which conflict with previous plans, more rain, and just general, all-around grumpiness.

In fact, things have been so bad that I resorted to making crumble last night - a dish reserved only for the special-est of occasions. To be exact, we had quite a delicious dinner - cider-glazed salmon, asparagus with ginger, and apple, strawberry, blueberry, and raspberry crumble. I think we hoped all the good cheer would bring the sun out. The salmon came from Molly Wizenberg's book A Homemade Life, which, if I haven't already raved about, I should. The crumble is a variation on a Martha Stewart recipe - though not a very creative variation. Her Apple-Blueberry Crisp calls for apples and blueberries; I used the four fruits listed above, topping it off with the crumble. Martha calls for 1 cup flour, 1/2 sugar, and 1 stick of butter to make the crumble, and it does the trick everytime. And the asparagus with ginger. You'll have to ask Mr. Beeton for the recipe for that one. But I suspect he stole it from Alice Waters.

And speaking of Mr. Beeton, it's his birthday today! We're headed to 1789 tonight to celebrate.

Keep sweeping, Martha

dust monsters

Ever heard of dust bunnies? Well, we've got dust monsters. They are huge, and they are growing under every piece of furniture in our apartment - the telephone table, the record player, the tea cart. It's disgusting. I want to get rid of them... I honestly do, but I don't have the time. I'm working my way through a stack of papers. And, when I'm done, that's when I'll go head-to-head with the dusty monsters.

Keep sweeping, Martha

Watched I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry.

delicious

Let me confess. This weekend did not start out so well. It's the end of the semester, so I've got research projects to grade and source packets to sift through. Plus, I allowed myself to be convinced by a colleague that allowing students to do an optional rewrite of one of their earlier papers was a good idea. "Hardly anyone ever takes me up on it," she claimed. "But it's a great way to help students feel as though they have some control over their final grade." 

I had 22 students take me up on the offer. So... 41 research projects + 22 rewrites + 41 final papers = unhappy Mrs. Beeton.

There were some tears on Saturday morning. But, the sunshine melted them away as well as a stern scolding from Mr. Beeton. ("If you spent half as much time working as you do crying and complaining about work, then, maybe then, you'd make some progress." He's right.) So, I sorted through the source packets of one class and then allowed myself a long walk in the sunshine.

Mr. Beeton and I headed to Georgetown. We had some errands to run, and I wanted to show him the famed line at Georgetown Cupcake. They didn't disappoint. The line was almost around the block, filled with Georgetown students and young tourists who all seemed to think MTV's next reality show was being filmed in the District. After stops at H&M for a quick return, Kiehl's, and Aveda, we decided to stop in at Christ Opportunity shop on Wisconsin and then over to Dolcezza for ice cream. It tastes as good as the photograph on the homepage and was declared, "The best date place in D.C." by a Park Slope-dwelling buddy of ours from graduate school. We each got two flavors and shared.

Then, we decided that, since the weather was so nice (and there really isn't anything quite like that first, true Spring day) that we would plant some herbs out back and grill. Mr. Beeton decided on tandoori chicken with tabouleh salad. I decided on lemonade mojitos. When we returned to our apartment, we dug in the dirt, planting cilantro and a boysenberry bush (we already have mint), grilled up our chicken, and relaxed in the hammock. Our lemonade mojitos even gave us enough energy to head down Wisconsin with our friend, The Chemist. It was a perfect night to sit out at Breadsoda and enjoy sherbet.

Summer's just around the corner, my friends.

Keep sweeping, Martha

Lemonade Mojitos

• Crush some fresh mint in the bottom of a pint glass. 
  
• Cut a lime in quarters. 
  
• Squeeze the juice of two lime quarters in the glass. Throw in the lime quarters for good measure.
  
• Add ice. 
  
• Fill the pint class a quarter of the way full with Captain Morgan's spiced rum.
  
• Fill the rest of the glass with lemonade. 
  

Tandoori Chicken Kebabs (Skewers Optional)

Compliments of the special grilling issues of Everyday Foods (July/August 2004)

Note: Mr. Beeton can recall several other tandoori chicken recipes which he has tried. He claims this one is the best.

• Martha Stewart says, "In a blender, puree 2 tablespoons of lime juice, 4 cloves of garlic, 1 piece of ginger, and 2 jalapeno chiles. Add 1 cup of plain yogurt, and blend until smooth."
  
• We say, "Pour your puree in a glass pan. Dunk your chicken pieces in and refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Grill and enjoy.