recipe: tony mcmuffin

Tony and I grew up an hour and 10 minutes from each other in Ohio, and in a lot of ways, we had very similar upbringings. Especially when it comes to food - our moms made a lot of the same dinners for us.  Everything from roast beef to spaghetti. So it's always funny to me when we discover some cuisine differences from our childhoods. Like the other week, we had cottage cheese in the fridge, and Tony suggested we eat cottage cheese and noodles for dinner, which was a favorite of his growing up. Um, ew - no way. And he was equally repulsed when I was dipping Fritos in the cottage cheese, a tasty combination I picked up as a child from my dad.

But Tony is always very, very impressed when I microwave an egg for a breakfast sandwich. My mom made these all the time growing up, so they never struck me as particularly special, but Tony had never had one. When I make them, I get compliments that include the phrase "best wife ever." The last time I made the sandwiches, Tony requested mustard on his, so I'm naming this sandwich the "Tony McMuffin."

Tony McMuffin

• 2 eggs
• 1 English muffin
• Butter
• 1 slice American cheese
• Mustard

Grease the bottom and about 2 inches up the sides of an oversized coffee mug with butter or margarine. Crack 2 eggs into the mug. Stir with a fork to break the yolks.

Cover mug with a napkin, which will prevent a mess in your microwave if the egg pops. Microwave for 45 seconds. Use a fork to flip the egg. Re-cover mug with napkin. Microwave for 45 seconds more. (Check that the egg is no longer runny; microwave cooking times vary.)

Meanwhile, toast and butter an English muffin.

Assemble the sandwich with a slice of cheese and squirt of mustard.

Note: If you want to use just one egg, reduce cooking time to 30 seconds per side.

recipe: tony's dump cake

There is precisely one dessert recipe that Tony knows how to make. And for years now, whenever he's called upon to bring a dessert to a dinner party or potluck, he turns to his trusty dump cake. Easy and tasty. So last Friday, when our neighbor invited Tony over for a man night with a group of guys (complete with steaks and whiskey), Tony volunteered to bring the dessert.

This recipe is simple. There are four ingredients, all of which can be kept in the pantry and fridge or freezer, ready for last-minute dump cake emergencies. Crushed pineapple. Cherry pie filling. Yellow cake mix. Butter. And as the name implies, you just dump it all into a pan and bake it.

(I should note that we only had pineapple chunks at our house, so Tony used a potato masher to break the chunks up. It's easiest just to buy the right stuff, though.)

Tony's Dump Cake

• 1 can crushed pineapple with juice
• 1 can cherry pie filling
• 1 box yellow cake mix
• 2 sticks butter

In a 9-by-13-inch baking dish, pour crushed pineapple. Spread cherry pie filling on top. Spread yellow cake mix over the fruit. Top with pats of butter.

Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

recipe: grilled mac and cheese with french fried onions

When my parents gave Tony and me our grill for Christmas, they mentioned that you can grill pretty much anything that you can bake in the oven. That could come in handy when it's 95 degrees this summer, and turning on the oven isn't an option. Just imagine -- chocolate chip cookies and enchiladas in July! Or apple pie and homemade pizza in August!

The weather hasn't been hot enough here yet to necessitate major grilling experiments, although Tony and I have had started dabbling with different recipes. We've made grilled pizza a few times, but I think I'm still searching for the best grilled pizza recipe. And over the weekend, we tried grilled mac and cheese, which turned out to be fantastic. This recipe is ready for prime time.

The recipe is going to look verrrrry familiar if you remember the baked macaroni and cheese recipe I posted last fall. One key difference: Tony requested I put French's French fried onions on his. He says it took the dish to a whole new level.

Also, you can see that we grilled the mac and cheese in two separate pans. I've been pretty sensitive to dairy lately, so I couldn't use real cheese in mine. So instead of using one 9-inch square casserole dish, we used two 8-by-4-inch loaf pans. I put real cheese in Tony's pan and Daiya soy "cheese" in mine.

That said, I'll give you the recipe assuming you're using just one baking dish, using real cheese in the whole thing and spreading onions over the entire casserole.

Macaroni and Cheese

Adapted from James Beard's American Cookery

• 2 cups macaroni (or medium shells)
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 1 1/2 cups milk (or soy milk)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 splashes of Tabasco
• 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
• 1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese (or mozzarella, which is what we had in the fridge)
• generous amount of breadcrumbs
• four handfuls French fried onions

Butter a 2-quart baking dish. (We used disposable foil dishes for easy cleanup.)

Boil noodles for the minimum cooking time. My box called for 10-12 minutes, and I boiled for 10 minutes. Drain.

For the white sauce, melt butter in a saucepan. Add flour and cook for a few minutes. Meanwhile, in a separate saucepan, heat milk to the boiling point. Add milk to the butter-flour mixture. Add salt and Tabasco. Sauce will start to thicken. Cook on medium-low, stirring constantly, for 5 minutes.

In the prepared baking dish, add half of the macaroni, spread half of the white sauce, and add half of the cheese. Then add the rest of the macaroni, the rest of the white sauce, and then the rest of the cheese. Top with a generous amount of breadcrumbs. You can make your own breadcrumbs, but I used store-bought Italian-seasoned crumbs. Crush four handfuls of French fried onions in your hands and spread over top of casserole.

Pre-heat grill to 350-400 degrees (medium-low). Grill for 25 minutes or until breadcrumbs are crispy brown.

the garden: flowers blooming

So it appears we got exactly two days of spring. It's been cold and wintery for months, and then we had a beautiful spring weekend, but this work week has been hot! And the forecast for today ... 94?!

Jessi is not so pleased with Mother Nature. But Jessi's flowers? They're loving it.

Last fall, I planted some pansies in the front yard. In our climate, they're supposed to be beautiful during the fall, die back a bit in the winter, then bounce back to life with the warm spring temps. And they've done just that in the past few days.

In the tree lawn in front of our house, this was my plan:

• Crocus would come up first. (Check. They were here by mid-February.)
• Daffodils would come up next. (Well ... they came up. But I messed them up somehow because no flowers came out of the greenery. I'll have to ask my mom what I can feed them in the fall to give them some extra energy over the winter.)
• Then tulips would come up. (And they're here! The warm weather has prodded them along nicely. Those flowers should bloom any day now. And my medicated foot powder technique appears to have successfully warded off squirrel enemies.)
• And finally, five giant hostas would emerge from the ground, covering all of the decaying bulb leaves and filling up the garden bed with beautiful greenery all summer and fall. (All five hostas, which my parents divided from their own plants, are coming up, doing just fine, and seem to be loving the warm weather, too.)

Here's a shot from yesterday evening that shows an about-to-bloom tulip in the foreground with a hosta sprouting behind it. And lots of daffodil and crocus greenery all around.

The only other flower I have at my house so far is this sweet alyssum, which I bought over Easter weekend at Frager's. It smells awesome. I put it in a big pot by the front door, so hopefully it'll grow to fill the pot and smell great every time we walk past it. Here's a picture of the alyssum, which includes a bonus cameo of Francois, who came over to visit last night while Tony and I were working in the front yard:

Actually, Tony was doing the work, and I was taking photos. He sprinked some Holly-tone plant food around the evergreen plans in the front yard. I don't know what, exactly, Holly-tone is or does. I just know that my dad delivered a bag of it to us last fall with instructions to feed the evergreen plants twice a year. Yes, sir.

And I've been seeing all of these beautiful photos from the Tidal Basin of all the cherry blossoms. Seems our tree is a little cherry tree is a liiiiitle slow in blooming this year.

My herbs also have made a big resurgence in the past week or so.

Thyme and tarragon with my celery in the middle:

More tarragon and oregano with some strawberries in the background.

I thought the chives were dead all winter, but they're baaack!

I also have a great big rosemary plant, but that didn't die back at all during the winter.

And now that the garden bed is in the backyard, I've finally been able to plant my cool-season crops. Last night I spied some turnips, radishes, spinach, romaine and arugula coming up! Hopefully the hot weather backs off a bit, so the cool-season crops survive for at least a little while! And tonight I looked at the notes I made to myself when I planted my garden last spring and realized that I already had my tomatoes and peppers in the ground by mid-April ... so I gotta get on that. Maybe this weekend?

dining out: batter bowl bakery

How about that weekend weather! Our neighbor told me that Sunday's gorgeous weather was only about 5 degrees above average, but it's been so unseasonably cold lately that it felt like a much larger reprieve.

Saturday, Tony and I took advantage of the nice weather to clean up the yard. And on Sunday, we met up with Ben for lunch at Batter Bowl Bakery on H Street. We followed that up with a game of bocce at Valerie's apartment with Ben. (Guys won.) And then Tony and I took advantage of the extra daylight to do some more yard work at home. (We're getting the backyard ready to put in a raised vegetable garden! We ... er, Tony, has started on the demo.)

Batter Bowl Bakery is at 4th Street and H Street Northeast. It's right next to Ethiopic, the Ethiopian restaurant, and in fact, the two restaurants are sister companies. Batter Bowl Bakery is a relatively new restaurant, and it's been on my list of places to try.

The bakery is beautiful inside, albeit a little crowded when the rush comes. And the food is great, which is really the most important part.

I originally had my heart set on a parfait with granola, fruit and SOY YOGURT. I feel like if a restaurant puts soy yogurt on its menu, I should order it regardless of the time of day, just to reward the restaurant for offering a dairy-free option. But alas, the bakery ran out of soy yogurt. So I opted for an open-faced sandwich of hummus, garbonzos, avocado and tomatoes. The flavors were wonderful. My only suggestion is that the bakery, being a bakery and all, serve the sandwiches on thicker, sturdier bread.

Tony also ordered an open-faced sandwich. His was tuna, and he loved it.

I ordered the fresh-squeezed orange juice, which was lovely. I'm not a coffee drinker, and Tony only drinks coffee occasionally at work. He really liked his iced coffee at the restaurant, though. "I forgot what good coffee tastes like."

Batter Bowl Bakery is a great neighborhood spot and a great addition to the area. We'll be back.

dining out: dc-3

When my parents came to visit earlier this month, they got in around dinnertime Friday. They'd been in the car for six hours, so we decided to get dinner somewhere quick and casual. I suggested DC-3, the hot dog place on Barracks Row, and they loved it.

The restaurant's name and decor are based on 1940s commercial air travel. Airplanes made traveling across the country easier, and the restaurant links all of those cities via their hot dogs. Like a New York coney dog or a Cincinnati chili dog.

Tony, always the adventurous eater, ordered the bulgogi and kimchi dog. Couldn't stop raving about it, particularly the buttered roll.

And the man ordered fried pickles. He and my dad devoured them.

This place is vegetarian-friendly. I ordered a veggie dog with veggie chili. (And a random pickle just because.) Really happy with it. I've had the falafel dog on a previous trip - also tasty.

We were there right before Lent started, so my dad ordered a Mardi Gras-themed dog.

And my mom went with the Cincinnati coney dog, easy on the onions.

DC-3 is a crowd pleaser, and a good dining option if you're looking for food quickly.

home improvement: drafty outlets

When my parents were in D.C. earlier this month to help put up crown molding, my dad mentioned that he felt a draft from our outlets and that we might want to insulate them. It had not occurred to me that (a) outlets can be drafty or that (b) they can be insulated. But now I know.

So the next time Tony and I were at Home Depot, we picked up a couple of packages of these outlet sealers. We used one piece for each light switch and outlet on the front and back walls of the house. (Rowhouse living perk - no need to insulate on the sides of the house because they're up against the neighbors' houses.)

The process started with removing the outlet covers.

Here's one of our drafty outlets:

The material on the insulation is perforated, so you just have to poke through the shapes to fit the light switch or outlet.

Like so:

Here's Tony placing the foam over the outlet.

And that's about it. Screw the outlet cover back on. The capital investment for this project was about $4 for two packages of insulation, so hopefully we recoup that cash in the form of lower utility bills over time. No more drafty outlets.

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.

home improvement: crown molding

It was a big home improvement weekend in our house, guys. Crown molding went up downstairs!

The project is 90 percent finished -- all we need to do is paint it. But I couldn't wait to write about this project.

I knew that the house would look better with crown molding, but I didn't realize how much better until it was on the walls. The room looks tied together and finished, and I love it so, so much.

My dad has put up crown molding in pretty much every room in his house, so he's an expert, and he said he'd come down to help with the project. The thing about putting up crown molding is that the molding and supplies aren't that expensive -- we paid less than $100 for all of the materials -- but the labor can be the expensive part. So we're lucky to have an expert in the family who was willing to help us out.

When Tony and I were in Ohio for Christmas, I went to the local hardware store with my dad, and I picked out the molding I wanted. Our ceilings are 9 feet downstairs, so I wanted large molding. I went with the 5 1/4-inch size. I decided against solid wood and went with MDF particleboard. MDF is straighter than solid wood and easier to work with. You need solid wood for baseboards and other trim that could get banged up, but nothing is going to damage molding on the ceiling.

Here's a shot from Saturday morning, as the pieces started to go up!

Tony and my dad used a nail gun with an air compressor to attach the molding. A row of nails in the drywall and a row of nails in the ceiling.

(Victor, by the way, was not impressed with the presence of the air compressor. It would rev up randomly and loudly, which means Victor spent much of Saturday under our bed. Here he is on Sunday afternoon, still looking unimpressed with the whole project, haha.)

(And here he is sitting on the spiral staircase, keeping an eye on Tony as he does some finishing touches - wiping down the spackling. The cat loves this staircase, by the way. He gets a birdseye view of the entire house. Also, when he's laying on the steps, he refuses to move out of the way for a person walking up the steps. It's kind of funny.)

Anyway, enough about the cat. Here's a picture of Tony being manly with the compound miter saw.

Here's an in-progress shot. You can see the slight variances in the ceiling height. Ceilings in houses (especially old houses) aren't exactly even. See the shadow between the molding and the ceiling where the molding doesn't quite reach the ceiling?

At this point, my mom and I left to go shopping. Because putting up crown molding is really a two-man job, and there were two extra people in the small space.

So I'm not sure what Tony and my dad did over the next few hours, but this is what our patio table looked like when my mom and I came back Saturday afternoon:

And this is how the inside of the house was looking:

Here's a before photo:

The gap between the ceiling and the molding disappeared. My dad used a tube of caulking to fill in those gaps.

And Tony filled all of the nail holes with lightweight spackling.

Here's a before shot of part of the room:

And some after pictures:

Before:

After:

And as a bonus, there was just enough molding left over to put it up in the half bath downstairs. So now the entire first floor is done. Which leaves us with just two bedrooms, the full bath and the upstairs hallway that are un-crown molded. Maybe down the line.

Oh and here's what one of the walls in the bathroom looks like right now. Someone is planning a makeover! I'm leaning toward the grays ... but that's a project for another day.