things to do: george bellows exhibit

I got sucked into the George Bellows exhibit at the National Gallery of Art. There's something about these paintings that makes you want to stand there and just look at them.

Bellows painted several scenes of boxers in the ring that caught my eye, like this one from 1909. It's called Both Members of This Club. The fight is bloody and primal, and the smirking men in the crowd clearly are entertained by that. (Click the picture to enlarge it.)

National Gallery of Art

And this gritty painting is titled The Lone Tenement, which Bellows painted in New York City, also in 1909. The surrounding buildings had been razed as part of a bridge construction project, except for this one holdout tenement.

National Gallery of Art

Bellows made these paintings almost 100 years ago, and he died in 1925, but the themes remain relevant. The first one makes me think about how we're entertained by others' pain -- like reality TV and even football players who develop dementia from concussions. And the second one shows urban displacement in the name of progress.

The exhibition runs through Oct. 8 at the National Gallery of Art's west building. It'll be in New York in the winter and London through the spring.

entertaining: berries and brunch

The beauty of Sunday's brunch was its simplicity. Granola with Greek yogurt and fresh blueberries and strawberries. Hard boiled eggs. Raspberry lemonade. Tony and I woke up Sunday morning, put everything in serving bowls, and, voila, instant brunch with Camille and Matt. 

The raspberry lemonade was the only homemade part of the brunch. It's pink, which is fun. And it's a nice summer drink, a good combo of sweet and tart. 

Raspberry Lemonade

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup water
• 6 ounces raspberries
• 8 lemons
• 4 cups water

Combine sugar and 1 cup water in a saucepan, and heat on low until sugar dissolves, making a simple syrup. Cool. 

Puree raspberries in a food processor. Strain the berries to separate out the seeds. Discard the seeds. 

Juice the lemons.

Combine simple syrup, raspberry puree, and lemon juice in a large pitcher. Add 4 cups water. Chill and serve over ice. 

life: postcard in the mail

I got a postcard in the mail yesterday from Lily. And it made my day. Postcards are the best, man. 

Getting a postcard is such a huge compliment. If you think about it, your friend's on vacation, somewhere new and fun and exciting, and they find a postcard rack, and they think of you. And they take the time to let you know they're thinking of you, even when they're in the midst of this new and fun and exciting adventure. 

Lily and I met when we both lived in Arizona. And now we live on the exact opposite sides of the country: D.C. and San Diego. But we have one of those friendships where you know you're going to be friends until you're old ladies, even if you only see each other once a year. 

Now let's talk about how awesome this postcard is. Lily picked it up in Denver. This is Yves Saint Laurent's dog.  

She says she thinks the pup would get along with Victor, our cat. And I agree, mostly because Victor also is white with black spots, and I am a fan of when your dog and cat match. When Tony and I were in discussions about possibly maybe getting a dog, I asked him how important it was to him, on a scale of 1 to 10, that the dog and cat match. He said zero. We'll have to agree to disagree on that.

recipe: brigadeiros

I impressed myself with these little chocolate candies. They definitely taste amazing, but they also look so darn good. It's not very often that what I make looks just as good as the picture in the cookbook.

Brigadeiros are a Brazilian chocolate candy, named after a World War II brigadier who popularized the bite-sized treats, and now they're served at birthday parties.  

It was too hot to turn on the oven in our house last week, and the recipe, which I adapted from America's Test Kitchen, cooks on the stovetop, so I gave it a try. 

Brigadeiros

• 14-ounce can of sweetened condensed milk
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• sprinkles (about 2 ounces) 

In a saucepan, mix the three ingredients. Cook on low heat, stirring frequently with a spatula, for 20-25 minutes. 

Cool chocolate in a greased 8-by-8 dish in the refrigerator for at least a half hour. 

Roll the chocolate into balls, using about 1 tablespoon of chocolate per ball. 

Pour sprinkles into a small bowl. Roll each ball into the sprinkles to coat completely. Makes 32 candies. Store in the refrigerator.

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This batch of brigadeiros turned out to be a threefer. I put out part of the batch when Ben and Mandy came over for cocktails Friday. I put some more out for brunch Sunday for Camille and Matt. And the rest I packaged up to bring to Scott and Michele when we met their new baby, who is absolutely adorable. Don't you agree? Introducing ... Baby O!  

recipe: taco tuesday

Tony and I chowed down last night on tacos. We had some less-than-impressive Mexican food Saturday evening, so it was nice to have some satisfying tacos. Plus, they only take a few minutes to put together on nights we work late.  

Tacos are kind of like salads in our house. I throw salads together with whatever's growing in the garden, was on sale at the grocery store, or happens to be open in the fridge. Same with tacos. Here's the particular mix of ingredients Tony wanted on his tacos last night:

Tony's Tuesday Tacos

• 6-inch tortillas (3 per person) 
• Refried beans (half a can per person) 
• Chopped onion
• Pickled jalapenos 
• Tomato salsa
• Cheddar cheese
• Fresh cilantro

Other possible ingredients: sour cream, Tabasco, fresh chopped peppers, fresh chopped tomato, green chiles, black beans.

Heat the tortillas in a large frying pan over medium heat for a few minutes or in the microwave for 30 seconds.

Heat the refried beans on the stove.

Fill tortillas with beans. Add the veggies, salsa, cheese, and cilantro.

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From the archives: 

recipe: arugula pesto

dining out: el centro

I loved the cool vibe in El Centro, where Tony and I met up Saturday evening with Mike, Jen, Jamie and Jamie's lady friend, Kristen. And I liked that the waiters mash the guacamole right at the table.

The guacamole itself was probably the best part of the meal.

I ordered the veggie tacos, which were made with cactus, and the food was fine, but I think I'm a wee bit snobby about Mexican food, having lived in Arizona for three years and eaten Mexican food as God intended. For the rest of my life, I think I'll always be a little disappointed whenever I eat Mexican food on the East Coast. Tony agreed, so maybe he's become a Mexican food snob, too.

The weather was beautiful again Saturday evening, so we all made our way back to Jamie's apartment and had some cocktails on the roof. About two hours into the evening, Mike and Jen let it drop into the conversation that they GOT ENGAGED last week when they were on vacation. Hugs and toasts all around!

<3

From the archives: 

dining out: matchbox

the garden: harvest update

The veggies are finally here! Cherry tomatoes. Early Girl tomato. Cucumber. Hot banana pepper. All in my belly. Now we can say summer officially has arrived.

Let's talk cherry tomatoes. Of everything I've eaten out of my garden so far this year, the cherry tomatoes have been the best tasting, hands down. It's like all of the flavor of a big tomato got concentrated into a bite-sized tomato. Next year I've got to figure out how to get, like, 10 cherry tomato plants into my backyard.

But that's not to say the Early Girl tomato wasn't good because it was very good. The main appeal of the Early Girl is that it's the first tomato of the season.

I also picked my first cucumber this week, and it just happens to be my very favorite vegetable. I don't think we could ever have too many cucumbers in the fridge.

And we had our first hot banana pepper, which arrived June 23, ahead of schedule. The label said to expect maturity 75 days after planting, which would've put us at July 12. Bonus!

entertaining: rickeys on the patio

Ben and Mandy, college pals who live in D.C. now, came over Friday evening for cocktails on the patio as a belated birthday celebration for Ben. I was expecting we'd have to move the party indoors because several things were working against us: (1) the heat (2) the rain and (3) the mosquitos. Turns out, the temperature dropped to the 70s, the rain left as quickly as it arrived, and we successfully repelled the mosquitos.

Ben's a gin guy, so we had a bottle of Tanqueray on hand and mixed up some gin rickeys, which were the perfect citrus-y drink for a summer evening. As I was reading about gin rickeys last week, I learned they're actually a take on the less-well-known Joe Rickey, a bourbon drink that seems to have been created here in Washington. And since Mandy is a bourbon girl, we had rickeys all around. 

Gin Rickey / Joe Rickey

• 2 ounces gin for a gin rickey OR 2 ournces of bourbon for a Joe Rickey
• Juice of 1/2 lime
• Club soda (or tonic water) 
• Ice

Fill glass with ice. Add gin and lime. Fill with club soda or tonic to taste. Garnish with a lime.

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We drank our cocktails out of these fun striped glasses, which I picked up earlier this month at a flea market. The colors made it easy to keep track of whose drink was whose. 

To snack on, I put out a plate of veggies with hummus and ranch dip on a cool lunchtray I bought at a sweet little vintage shop in Phoenix earlier this year.

And anyone who lives in D.C. knows that mosquitos can ruin a night on the patio. They love this city's humid climate, and this is supposed to be particularly bad year for mosquitos. The good news is that I came inside Friday night with exactly two bites. Not perfect, but it wasn't the bloodbath I'd expected.

I took several repellant techniques, throwing everything I had at the buggers and seeing what stuck. I'm not sure whether my success can be attributed to one particular technique or some combination of them. I set out a citronella candle, of course, and I also put seven votive candle holders around the table, hoping the extra smoke may be unattractive to the mosquitos. And apparently the little guys hate the smell of several plants. I have garlic and rosemary growing in our backyard, and I also put a marigold on the table and surrounded ourselves with four big basil plants. On a whim, I also crushed up some basil leaves and rubbed them on my arms and Tony's arms. I'm not sure if that was the action of a crazy woman or whether it's a legitimate mosquito-repelling technique, but, hey, I'm going to try anything.

Despite the two bites, I'm counting Friday as a win for me.

Jessi: 1. Mosquitoes: 0. 

the garden: happy sunflower monday

My first sunflower, which I planted from seed in April, has bloomed! It's going to be a good week.

the garden: the calm before the storm

Radishes. Lettuce. Herbs. Strawberries. Yeah, yeah, that's all been nice. But I'm ready for some substantial VEGETABLES from my garden. I was scoping things out last night, and I think this 100-degree weather has been good to my plants. It looks like it's only a matter of days now before we really start getting the summer harvest. 

My backyard is tiny. We'll call it "cozy." Which means I have to be creative about growing big vegetables that tend to spread, like cucumbers. I planted the cukes in pots, and they're growing up trellises. And it's working wonderfully. I'm about to pick the first one. 

And I have one cherry tomato that's about to turn. 

Oh, and I'm so close to picking these hot banana peppers.

Stay tuned in the next few days because it looks like I'll have some harvesting updates on my adventures in urban gardening.

recipe: cherry chocolate cake

I was skeptical of this recipe at first. It calls for a box of cake mix. I don't do cake mix. I can't even remember the last time I had a box of cake mix in my pantry. I'm a measuring-spoons-and-mixing-bowl girl. 

But now I'm a believer. This cake is the exception to my rule. My mom made this cake last weekend, and it was just the right amount of moist with a nice cherry flavor.  

Cherry Chocolate Cake

• 1 box devil's food cake mix
• 1 can cherry pie filling
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup chocolate chips

Mix all ingredients together. Pour in a greased 9-by-13 pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 35 minutes. When cool, dust with powdered sugar. 

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The other lovely thing about this cake is that my mom served it on these quite beautiful mismatched, pink rose plates. Perfect for eating cake on the deck on a summer night.

She started collecting these dishes a few years ago to use at my bridal shower. She picked them up here and there at flea markets and thrift stores, and now she has a service for 30. Dinner plates, lunch plates, dessert plates, bowls, cups, saucers, salt and pepper shakers, serving dishes. I asked her how much she spent, and she said she paid around 50 cents each. It's a funky, inexpensive set of china.

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From the archives:  

recipe: strawberry muffins

the garden: inspiration from mom

If I have a green thumb, my mom's gotta have, like, green fingers, hands, and forearms. Her yard looks like the grounds of a museum. The most amazing things she has going on this year are her geraniums. Some she planted from seed, others she grew from cuttings of plants, and still others she saved from last year by keeping them dormant over the winter.  

I am in love with this deco-looking planter that she has in her backyard. I tried to convince her to let me take it home when Tony and I were in Ohio last weekend, but, alas, apparently she's also in love with it. I will have to admire it from afar. 

And how cute is this Shawnee bird planter? She has it in her kitchen window. She wouldn't let me take this back with me either. 

Mom also has a little bit of D.C. in her backyard, which is super sweet. Earlier this year, we were at Community Forklift in PG County, which I describe as a a thrift store for home improvement supplies, and she picked out this old porch post and hauled it back to Ohio. She got my dad to cut off the rotting wood, paint it, and build the birdhouses. Rowhouse birdhouses. An homage to her kid's home. Super sweet.  

And she had her eye on this lovely concrete planter from Frager's on the Hill, so my dad bought it for her for Mother's Day:

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recipe: roasted asparagus

I love seeing my parents any time of year, but I particularly love seeing them in late spring because they always share their homegrown asparagus. Luckily for me, Tony and I were in Ohio last weekend for a wedding that just happened to fall during the asparagus harvest, and my dad sent me home with enough spears to keep us fed for a week. My friend Jamie once described my dad's asparagus as the best he's ever eaten, so now my dad, who apparently responds well to flattery, makes sure to pack a separate bag of asparagus for Jamie.

The weather was pretty cool Monday evening, so I decided to turn on the oven and roast the asparagus. Here's Monday's dinner of roasted asparagus with pierogies and black-eyed peas: 

Roasted Asparagus

• Asparagus
• Olive oil
• Salt and pepper

Lay asparagus in a single layer on a baking sheet or baking dish, drizzle with olive oil, and season with salt and pepper. 

Bake at 400 degrees for 25 minutes until the spears are crisp. 

the garden: strawberries

My first strawberries have arrived! I'm growing just one plant in a pot, which is giving me enough berries to snack on here and there. 

And unfortunately, I think my homegrown strawberries have ruined grocery-store strawberries for me. Seriously, these berries work taste buds I didn't even know I had. 

I bought the plant in May at Home Depot in Northeast. The plants looked like they'd been neglected, so they were on sale for $1.49. I rooted around for the healthiest one I could find with flower buds, and when I got it home, I pruned off the dead leaves, fed it a little Miracle-Gro, set it in the sun, and it perked right back up. 

It's been an easy plant to grow, and here's a planting tip I picked up from my dad: When you put the plant in the ground, bury only the roots, leaving the crown to sit on top of the soil: 

Mine is an everbearing plant, so I'll be getting berries until winter. And strawberries are perennials, so I'm expecting fruit again next year.

I think my biggest challenge with this plant is going to be Woman vs. Nature: getting to the fruit before the birds and critters can find it. 

recipe: scrambled eggs

I scored some farm eggs at the farmers' market yesterday afternoon, and I decided that was the perfect reason to have breakfast for dinner. These eggs are from Haskins Family Farm in Middletown, Va., which is west of Washington. The lady who sold me the eggs said they were all laid in the past three days. In addition to be quite tasty, they come in various sizes and colors (including blue!) -- how fun is that.

Tony grew up with chickens, and he just informed me that in the late 1990s he earned first place in the Lorain County Fair for chicken showmanship. He said these eggs took him back to the days when he'd start his mornings checking the nesting boxes for eggs.

I learned to make scrambled eggs from Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. This quite possibly is the easiest recipe in this cookbook. And these are, hands down, the best scrambled eggs I've ever had. (Sorry, Mom!) Julia figured out the precise amount of liquid you must add to scrambled eggs to make them fluffy.

Scrambled Eggs 

Beat the eggs in a bowl with 1/2 teaspoon water or milk per egg. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Smear the bottom of a nonstick frying pan with butter or margarine, and heat to medium-low. Pour in the eggs, and stir constantly with a rubber spatula until the eggs set.

dining out: pitango

As the sun was setting Saturday, Tony and I stopped by Pitango at Eastern Market for some gelato before holing ourselves up in the house for the night and watching some movies.

I give Albert Nobbs a B. What a peculiar, sad little man.  

I give 50/50 a B+. Seth Rogan, without you I would not have enjoyed this movie so much.

I give Pitango an A.

Tony's cone, on the left, is hazelnut, which he cleverly described as "yummy." And that delightful cone of chocolate noir on the right is mine. Half of Pitango's menu is dairy-free, including the chocolate noir, which makes this lactose-intolerant blogger super happy.

Pitango's location on the Hill is across from the Eastern Market metro stop at Pennsylvania Avenue and Seventh Street Southeast. Servings are about $5 each.

recipe: pancakes

My husband ate homemade pancakes for breakfast this morning. Am I an awesome wife or what?

No, I didn't wake up at 6 a.m. and get out the mixing bowls. I actually made the pancakes Sunday morning and froze the leftovers, so Tony will be eating well all week.

These are America's Test Kitchen pancakes. This is the first blog post in which I will extol the virtues of an ATK recipe, but it surely will not be the last. This cooking empire will take a recipe, deconstruct it, experiment with ingredients and cooking methods, conduct taste tests, and put together a whole new recipe. I consistently have success with ATK recipes. The downside is that some recipes are complicated, time-consuming, and call for ingredients you may not have in your pantry. Afterall, the recipes generally are written to produce perfect results, not easy ones.

ATK, which also produces Cook's Country, has TV shows on PBS, a monthly magazine, several cookbooks, and a comprehensive website. The pancakes recipe came out of this cookbook, an Easter present from my ma (who has become a huge ATK fan herself after I turned her on to it):

Pancakes

• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 2 cups milk
• 2 cups unbleached flour
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• oil for the pan

Whisk lemon juice and milk together.

In a separate bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

Whisk egg and butter into the milk.

Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients. Don't overmix. A few lumps will remain.

Heat a nonstick pan over medium heat for 3 minutes. Coat the pan with oil. Use 1/4 cup batter for each pancake. Cook for a couple of minutes, flip, and cook for another couple of minutes. Re-coat the pan with oil for the next batch.

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What could possibly make these pancakes any better? Pure maple syrup. In a jar in the shape of a maple leaf. Yum.

The batch made 16 pancakes. After we ate breakfast Sunday morning, I let the extra pancakes cool completely before I put them in the freezer. Tony reheated them in the microwave, and he reports that to reheat two pancakes, microwave on high for 60 seconds, flipping once during heating.

things to do: artomatic

Tony and I headed over to Crystal City after work Friday to check out the Artomatic art festival. The artists took over a vacant 11-store office building and set up hundreds of small galleries for a month-long exhibition. It's running through June 23, and it's free.

It's an unjuried show, so the quality of the art is ... disparate. 

There are too many really odd, often gratuitous paintings of naked women to count.

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

And then there's this:

But a few pieces caught my eye. Here's a lovely tintype of a horse by a Laurel, Md., photographer:

And I enjoyed some of the installations. In one that was particularly remarkable, we walked into a camera obscura, which is a room that is completely dark except for a small hole to let light in. Whatever is outside the hole is projected onto the opposite wall, upside down. So in this room, there was a view of National airport runway, and I saw a plane take off upside down.  

Live bands were playing as we perused the art, which was a nice touch. And we also caught a series of stand-up comedians, most of whom were genuinely funny, although I felt pretty bad for them because there weren't more than 10 people in the audience. 

And this is the place where you can see the entrants of the Washington Post's Peeps Contest! How clever is this one:

Tony and I only made it through three floors because there's just too much to see. It's worth the trek out to Crystal City to see, and I'd recommend Metroing out one evening to peruse a floor or two. 

tourism: dressing right

It's pretty cool that I live in a city where people choose to come on their vacations. The tourists tend to get on the nerves of locals, and I have to admit that I, too, at times have been annoyed when the Metro escalators get clogged with tourists who stand on the left side. (Stand on the right ... walk on the left ... thank you.)

But, overall, I like that tourists come here, and I happily oblige when asked to take group shots at the monuments.

Yesterday morning I was walking around the Capitol, and one group of school kids on a class trip caught my eye. The boys were wearing khakis and button downs, and the girls were in summer dresses. And I have to hand it to their teacher or whoever coaxed those kids into their Sunday best. When you're visiting Congress or the White House or the Supreme Court, dressing up shows you have respect for the institution. And you'll command the respect of all those grumpy locals if you leave the white tennis shoes and baseball caps at the hotel.

recipe: strawberry muffins

A perfect storm brought strawberry muffins into my house last night. First, they're practically giving strawberries away at the grocery store this time of year, so I'm stocked up. Second, I had an opened carton of sour cream that needed to be used. Third, the weather was rainy and cool yesterday, so I could turn on the oven without heating up the house.

They turned out to be just lovely. They're quite tasty, and they're pink, thanks to pureed strawberries and food coloring.

Strawberry Muffins

• 1 stick of butter
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup sour cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• red food coloring
• 1/2 cup strawberries, pureed in food processor 
• 1 cup strawberries, chopped
• 2 1/4 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda

With a mixer, cream the butter and sugar. Add the eggs, sour cream, vanilla, 10 drops of red food coloring, and pureed strawberries.

In a separate bowl, mix the flour, salt, and baking soda. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Stir in the chopped strawberries.

Line muffin tins. Fill the cups 3/4 full. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes or until a toothpick has only a few crumbs on it.

This should make 12 muffins, but I had a little bit of batter left over, so I was able to get four bonus muffins out of this batch.

things to do: nats game

It's Two Dollar Tuesday! Tony and Mike are over at the Nats stadium tonight, taking advantage of the $2 tickets. If you watch the Nationals ticket page, every now and then they offer tickets with the special price. And the seats aren't so bad -- the boys sent me this dispatch of their view:

I, meanwhile, am spending the evening curled up on the couch watching the ABC special on the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. And I find myself wondering: Is the Queen enjoying this will.i.am performance? And what could possibly be in her purse?

decor: vintage postcards

Tony doesn't usually take the lead on home decor projects, but he got the ball rolling on this one. We framed vintage postcards from the cities we've lived in and hung them at the entry to our house: 

Tony picked up the first three postcards at an antique store in Ohio: his hometown, my hometown, and where we went to college. I liked the postcards, but we didn't have a plan for them at the time. We kept our eyes open and eventually found postcards at antique stores for the other three cities we've lived in: Augusta, Ga., Phoenix, and Washington.

It's a good reminder of where we're from. Plus, they're pretty darn cool. The Washington postcard may be my favorite:

I picked up the frame a couple of years ago on clearance at Michael's, and I bought the glass this weekend at the Lowe's in New Carrollton for about $6. As a side note, I found out the Home Depot in Northeast that I usually go to doesn't cut glass for you, but the Lowe's will do it.