things to do: eden center

Last Sunday, Mike and Jen needed to stock their pantry with some Asian foods, so we all trekked out to do some shopping at Eden Center near Seven Corners, which has dozens of Asian grocery stores, restaurants and shops -- all in a compact shopping plaza. This place is incredible and overwhelming at the same time, especially because we happened to arrive during the Chinese New Year celebration.

We picked up some pantry goods like rice noodles at the main grocery store. Tony bought some boiled peanuts at another store. We watched the New Year's dances in the parking lot - and then tried to avoid the firecrackers and their plumes of smoke.

And then we stopped for lunch. Choosing a restaurant in Eden Center is particularly overwhelming. There are so many - how do you pick? We ended up going with Rice Paper, a Vietnamese restaurant, which was full of customers, so we figured that was a good sign that the food was good. And it definitely was.

I ordered a fried tofu and vegetable dish, which had a wonderful flavor.

Everyone else ordered pho, and they all said it was delicious.

We tried to leave after lunch, but the parking lot was a nightmare with the New Year's festivities. Mike's car was blocked in the spot by THREE other cars. So we crossed a couple of pretty busy streets on foot (Seven Corners is not pedestrian friendly) to kill some time at Home Depot, where we picked up some things for the house, including insulation pads for outlets. (More on that later.) And by the time we were done at Home Depot, the parking lot had cleared out and we were able to make our way back to the city.

So if you're in the mood for some good Vietnamese food and Asian grocery shopping and you find yourselves near Seven Corners and you are in the mood to brave crazy traffic -- check out Eden Center.

recipe: gingerbread cake

Sunday afternoon, Mike, Jen and Jamie came over for an early Christmas brunch. For the past few years, we've gotten together before Christmas to celebrate the holiday and trade gifts, and I really look forward to it.

And this year we got some live music, provided by the guitar-wielding Jamie.

And here I put this blog post on pause to talk to you about that mirror above my couch.

Since Tony and I moved into our house, I've been stumped about what to hang over the couch. For a long time, the wall was empty. Then I painted a huge painting of birds on a wire, but I got tired of it. Then I put together a gallery wall, but it was too chaotic for me. And then I found this antique mirror at an antique mall in Ohio this fall for $22! (The same store where I scored my fancy elephant.) It was painted pink to be shabby chic, so I just needed a jar of gold paint. (I used the same paint for my gold eagle over the mantel.) The mirror is heavy, so I bought mirror-hanging hardware from Home Depot with a self-drilling screw to ensure the bracket doesn't pull away from the drywall. And the verdict is: I love my mirror. It's just the right size for the wall space, and it gives the room another dimension and really does make it feel bigger.

Oh, and here is a random mirror-cleaning tip from my mom. You've seen old mirrors with black smudges on them. Apparently that's from moisture getting behind the frame. So when you clean your mirrors, squirt the Windex directly onto your rag and not onto the mirror, so extra moisture doesn't get back there. The More You Know.

Anyway, back to gingerbread cake. I served gingerbread cake for dessert Sunday. If you're still undecided about a dessert to serve for Christmas, let me suggest gingerbread cake with whipped cream. It's seasonally appropriate and delicious. It tastes like Christmas.

Behold, this beautiful cake (with the aftermath of wrapping paper in the background).

The nice folks of America's Test Kitchen did it again. The ingredients seem weird (stout beer, pepper), but it all works together.

Gingerbread Cake

Via America's Test Kitchen

• 3/4 cup stout beer
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 2/3 cup molasses
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 2 tablespoons ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 2 eggs
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon fresh ginger, grated
• whipped cream for serving

In a small saucepan, bring stout to a boil. (Beer from your home state is optional.)

Remove from heat and stir in baking soda. When foaming subsides, stir in molasses, brown sugar and sugar.

In a stand mixer bowl, combine flour, ground ginger, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and pepper.

Transfer stout mixture to a large bowl. Whisk in eggs, oil and fresh ginger.

Whisk wet mixture into flour mixture in thirds, mixing until completely smooth after each addition.

Grease and flour a pan. The recipe calls for an 8-inch square pan. I didn't have that, so I used a 9-inch round pan, which I figured had the same area as the square pan. (Area of square pan: 8 x 8 = 64. Area of round pan: 3.14 x 4.5 x 4.5 = 63.6. Thank you, Math.)

Transfer batter to prepared pan. Tap against the counter a few times.

Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. (Original recipe said 35 to 45 minutes.) Don't open the oven door during baking. Cake will be done when toothpick comes out clean.

Serve with whipped cream.

reading list: the sun also rises

A few years ago, I launched a Personal Betterment Initiative in which I decided to read classic novels that I've just never got around to reading. I wanted to become a better-read person. And I started with The Catcher in the Rye because I somehow earned a high school diploma and two college degrees without ever reading it.

Some of the books I've read over the past few years have really stuck with me. Like The Grapes of Wrath. After I read it, I was afraid that it had ruined all novels for me. I couldn't read another book for six months because I was convinced that no novel could ever match its power. Others, eh. Like Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger. Too many ... words ... that were uninteresting.

I've just finished reading The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway. I should acknowledge that I became smitten with the Hemingway character in the film Midnight in Paris, which is why a Hemingway book got moved to the top of my reading list.

But ... I didn't love it. I realize this may not be a popular statement. When I told Jamie and Mike that I wasn't getting into the book, they looked as if I just told them I didn't like their haircuts. But the plot really didn't keep my attention, I despised all of the characters, and I found none of the themes to be relatable. Yet I keep thinking about the book, even after finishing it, so something about it is speaking to some part of me.

The novel is about a group of friends who live a fancy life in Paris in the 1920s, then spend some time fishing in Spain, and then party at the fiestas and bullfights in Pamplona. Actually, I think "friends" is too nice of a word because the characters don't seem to actually like one other. The main character, Jake, was injured during World War I and became impotent, which is why he can't be with the woman he's in love with, Brett. But it seems as if Brett has sex with all of the other male characters in their circle, which makes all of their relationships really complicated and uncomfortable. And the characters spend most of their time drinking to excess and traveling around Europe in buses and trains.

And that all does sound fairly interesting, but I just couldn't get into it. These characters are at a point in their lives where they have not found their true love, their happily ever after. They wander around Europe and drink too much, and none of that seems redeeming. They are insufferable. I feel sad for them. It seems as if Hemingway was drawing from his own experiences when he wrote the book, and that just made me kind of sad for Hemingway.

All this to say: Maybe this book would have appealed to me at a different point in my life. The life experiences you bring to a book color your interpretations of it. Perhaps the relationship themes would've appealed to the 18-year-old Jessi. Or the expat wanderings would've appealed to the 24-year-old Jessi. But 29-year-old Jessi...? As I type this, I'm laying next to my sleeping husband, the man I've been with for almost 10 (!) years. I'm inside the house we bought together, the place where we put down roots. And I'm giving myself 15 more minutes to finish this blog post because I have to get up for work in the morning like a responsible adult. And life is good. I wouldn't trade wanderlust for what I've got for anything. So maybe that's why I keep thinking about the book: It's made me pause to be thankful for what I've got.

wedding: mike & jen snapshots

A few years ago, after a friend of mine got married, she told me that she missed the wedding planning and that she wanted to go back and plan it all again. To which I wanted to say: Um, are you crazy, girl?? As much as I loved our wedding day, I'm so happy it was a one-time deal. 

But I love being a wedding guest. I love showing up for weddings, having a few cocktails, enjoying the decor, eating the cake. And having planned a wedding once myself, I really do appreciate how much effort brides and grooms put into their wedding days, especially the decor details.

On Saturday, Tony and I hopped on the bus and spent the evening at Mike and Jen's house celebrating their wedding. The actual ceremony was last month in Dolly Sods, W.V. They got married in a very small ceremony with their siblings as witnesses. They followed it up a couple of weeks later with a reception for the rest of their family back home and now a second reception for their friends in D.C.

One of the decor details that I loved: Jen set mason jars around the house, some with candles in them and some with these bright sunflower arrangements. 

I told you earlier in the summer about the guestbook family tree that Jen and I made for their family reception. (Which I have seen finished, by the way, and it looks fabulous with the fingerprints. I'll post pics once it's framed.) For the D.C. reception, Mike and Jen came up with an equally fabulous, nontraditional guestbook idea: We each filled out personalized Mad Libs about their marriage. 

Closeup shot of the Mad Libs cards:

Another great DIY project: Mike and Jen bought cabinet doors for $1 each at Community Forklift. They painted the frame to match the sunflower yellow theme and used chalkboard paint for the face of the cabinet. Then they wrote the food and drink menus on the signs. Here's the food menu, featuring dinner that was catered by Carmine's in Penn Quarter.  

Here's another nice touch I liked from the wedding: puzzle piece cake toppers. It's a fitting choice because Mike and Jen do puzzles together. (Get it ... FITTING.)

And while I'm posting detail shots from Saturday night, I have to show you a photo of a great flamingo bracelet I wore to the wedding. Tony and I were wandering around our neighborhood Saturday morning and stopped at a garage sale, where I picked this up for $3. I actually bought it to give to my mom because she has a thing for flamingos. But I had to give it a test run first. Pretty, isn't it?

And here's the necklace I wore for the evening, which actually is another garage sale find in D.C. I got this one in the spring for only a dollar (!).

life: 'stock the bar' shower

Here's a fabulous idea for a wedding shower. You can tuck it into the recesses of your memory and pull out if you ever find yourself hosting a shower. A Stock the Bar Shower. No sheet sets or mixing bowls at this party. Everyone brings a bottle of liquor as a gift to help the betrothed stock their bar. 

And that's exactly how Tony and I spent Saturday night, celebrating the upcoming nuptials of Mike and Jen, whose wedding is next month.

Isn't that a great idea for a shower theme? Especially if you're throwing a shower for your friends, want to host a co-ed affair, and want to steer clear of a traditional shower.

Drink up indeed! 

project: wedding guestbook

Jen came up with a cute idea for a non-traditional wedding guestbook -- a guest tree, if you will. It's poster of tree trunk and branches, and guests will use green and yellow ink pads to fill in the leaves with their fingerprints. 

So the two of us settled in for some DIY time Sunday afternoon to work on the poster. (Meanwhile, Tony and Mike decided they didn't have much to contribute to the project, so they split and spent the afternoon at Trusty's on Pennsylvania Avenue in Southeast.)  

Mike and Jen got the art board at Michaels for about $6, and we used acrylic paints, which dry fast. I made one practice tree and then painted the real thing freehand with the smallest brush I have. 

And here's the finished project, just waiting for the fingerprints! 

They plan to buy a 16-by-20 frame and matting and hang the tree in their house. I think it's a sweet symbol of them combining two families with their marriage. Looking forward to seeing the finished project!

dining out: the wine kitchen

On Saturday, the guys embarked on a camping trip for Mike's bachelor party. They stayed in a primitive cabin somewhere near Middletown, Md., along the Appalachian Trail, and they met three solo hikers who were making the great trek from Georgia to Maine. The whole thing sounded very manly. No indoor bathroom. No electricity. Campfire. Whiskey. Humidity. And Tony said there were wolf spiders.

The women, meanwhile, embarked on a classy day of pampering for Jen's bachelorette festivities. First stop: pedicures. I somehow got to be 29 years old without ever having had a pedicure. And while it was happening, all I could think about was the poor woman who was going to town down there. This is so weird, lady. So, so weird. But on the bright side, my feet are looking fabulous.

Next stop: shopping. We made our way west and had some retail success at the Leesburg outlets. I came home with two Banana Republic blouses ($12 each!), Nine West sandals, an Old Navy dress, and an OshKosh outfit for Baby O.

And then: dinner and wine. Jen had scoped out a wine bar and restaurant called the Wine Kitchen. It's a few miles from the outlets in historic downtown Leesburg, which is all kinds of cute.

The restaurant is small, and I felt as if I could have been eating in someone's home. The waiter was really talking up the local food on the menu. By all accounts, the wine and the food were terrific.

I especially enjoyed my herbed Parisian gnocchi, which is like Italian gnocchi, but it's made with flour instead of potatoes. I may have to dig up a recipe for this dish and try it at home sometime.

dining out: district of pi

When the St. Louis pizza operation Pi opened its first shop in D.C. last year, my St. Louis friend Jennifer said I must try it. So when Tony and I sat down with Mike and Jen for my birthday dinner Saturday, I told everyone I was ready to be impressed and for this to become my new favorite pizza place in D.C. It didn't quite go as well as I'd hoped, although the food itself was good.

My biggest complaint is that it was uncomfortably warm in the front room, where we were seated. It was downright unpleasant. And I don't generally mind noisy restaurants, but this place was SO LOUD that we could hardly hear the waitress. Also, when the waitress went to box up the leftovers, she apparently had to throw two pieces away because she dropped them on the floor, and of course accidents happen, but then she gave us the check and charged us for the pizza she dropped. So ... it was kind of awkward, exasperated by the aforementioned sound issues ... but she ended up bringing a new check and only charging us for half of that pizza.

The food itself was quite tasty, though. I worked at a pizza place in high school, and we served deep dish pizzas with the sauce on top. Since then, I've been a big fan of sauce-on-top pizzas, but you hardly ever see that on menus, so I was happy that's how District of Pi serves its deep dish pies.

Pi also serves more traditional, thin-crust pizzas. I didn't have any, but Tony gave it an 8.5 out of 10.

So, we had good food -- but a less-than-good restaurant experience. Maybe I'll give District of Pi another shot someday, after enough time has passed and I've forgotten how unpleasant it is to eat hot pizza in an 84-degree restaurant.

the cat: cat grass

Tony came home with a cat in the fall of 2004. I was still in college and Tony, who was still my boyfriend then, was working at his first job. A coworker of his was giving away free kittens, and Tony decided he just needed to have a cat, sight unseen. Long hair or short hair, the coworker asked. Tony went with long. To this day, my vacuum and I curse that decision. 

The kitten rode on Tony's lap on the way home that night. I saw him and, without really giving it much thought, said we should name him Victor. He looks like a Victor. Tony hated it. But Mike and Pete, our roommates, seconded the name, and Tony got out-voted on his own cat's name. 

That night, Tony put Victor in the upstairs hallway, shut the bedroom doors, and blocked off the steps, so the kitten couldn't get into any trouble while we were sleeping. But the poor thing was scared and kept crying when it was time to go to bed, so Tony slept the whole night on the floor in the hall with Victor. The two of them have been best buds ever since. 

Now, it's been eight years, and Victor and I get along, but we've never developed a bond anywhere close to what he and Tony have. Seriously, how can I possibly compete with the guy who slept on the floor in the hallway? But I do try to win Victor over in little ways. Like planting cat grass. 

Cats like to have green in their diet, but it's hard for an indoor cat like Victor to get it. So I plant cat grass, which is actually oat seed, for him in a little pot. 

I leave the little pot  on the back patio. When I water my garden, I let Victor come out with me, and he makes a beeline to the cat grass. I keep it outside because he somehow makes a gigantic mess with it. And he also manages to make that pretty little pot look like a complete wreck:

I have two pots growing at a time. I put the first one on the ground, fully grown, for him to eat. That's when I plant seeds in the second pot on the picnic table, where Victor can't get it. By the time the second pot sprouts, the first post is totally destroyed. And it goes on and on. 

<3

From the archives: 

the garden: bird feeder

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

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?

weekend escape: scotland, maryland

Washington's traffic is never particularly easy to drive in, but sometimes it's almost unbearable to be in the car around here. Rush hour. Holiday weekends. Any time it rains. 

So the prospect of a Memorial Day getaway to Scotland, Md., became even more attractive once we figured out we wouldn't need to cross the dreaded Bay Bridge to get there. 

Scotland. I'd never heard of it either. But it turns out that it makes a fantastic little middle-of-nowhere weekend trip from D.C. Here's where it is on a map:

It's truly in the middle of nowhere, right on the Chesapeake Bay. My friends and I rented a three-bedroom, beachfront house on this prehistoric-looking dirt road:

Don't get me wrong. I love the city and all the perks of living in it, but sometimes I need to refresh myself with a weekend on a beach that looks like this:

Can this place get any better? Oh, yes, it can: It's only two hours from D.C. 

Tony and I made the trek with college pals Jamie and Mike along with Mike's girlfriend, Jen. Mike found our house on vrbo.com, a website where homeowners list their vacation rentals. I adore this website. When I travel now, I almost exclusively stay in houses like these rather than hotels. Being in a house makes vacation more comfortable, plus we can cook in the kitchen. Plus it's not a hotel. 

We got to talking to the folks who own the neighboring houses. It sounds like most of them live in D.C. or Annapolis and come down on weekends. Which got me daydreaming about buying a beach house of my own ... how much exactly is flood insurance? Snap out of it, Jessi -- one house is plenty! 

It's become something of a tradition for my friends and me to make a weekend trip to mark 30th birthdays -- first Philadelphia for Jamie's big day, then Canaan Valley, W.V., for my husband's. And that's what we were doing in Scotland: Jen's 30th.  

And any successful roadtrip to a new place always involves a side adventure. This time, we stopped at a flea market in Charlotte Hall, Md., which at first looked like a bust: bootleg DVDs, offbrand batteries, kitchen sponges. But then we happened upon several women selling vintage furniture and knickknacks that made me wish we'd made the trip in a U-Haul instead of a Chevy Malibu. I didn't leave with the cedar chest and dresser I had my eye on, but I did grab this beautiful brass lamp with a striking green glass shade. 

And it works! It's also a good fit with the green and plum colors of my bedroom.