Florida in Fruit, Nuts, and Animals

I took time off from my DC two job life to go to Florida and visit my grandfather last week.

We saw turtles.

There were fresh bananas from the tree in his backyard.

It's strawberry season in Florida. Who knew?

Alexis, Rob's dog (who looks a lot like my childhood dog.)

I ate a lot of different types of oranges. And sodium free bread.

I'm getting back into the swing of things, more posts soon (as I am working less now with the economic downturn).

Happy Eating!

-Robin-

PS Who spends $800 on food in a month? Answer in the next post. (Note: it's not me!)

Ladies' Night Dinner

On the rare night I have off from the hotel, my coworkers from the Institute and I like to grab dinner and have a ladies' night. Dinner 10 out of 10 times is at Pizza Paradiso.

Paradiso has two locations: there's one in Georgetown (which Ashley and I have had date night at is larger but in some ways more intimate - meaning more of date place- and has a much larger beer menu) and there's one in Dupont, which is small and has a neighborhood feel and always has a wait.

We frequent the Dupont one for convenience sake: its near the red line and its not far from the office. Last night was such an occasion: Megan, Ashley, Brittany (Ashley's sister), and I met for a mid-weekend catch up, complaining about life, and some really good pizza.

All my dinner companions got some variation of the Margherita pizza. Ashley and Brittany split a large and got onions on it. Megan got an individual Margherita. And I, per usual, got the individual Bosco (mushrooms, spinach, onions) with soy mozzarella (now, do you see why I like this place?).

I should mention that we started with the Bruschetta - which was marinated white beans and halved cherry tomatoes on homemade bread. It was delicious, don't get me wrong, but if you're expecting some sort of tomato/basil combo this isn't the bruschetta for you. Brittany, an avid bean hater (which I no understand), took one look at it and refrained. It WAS really good - just not the traditional Italian-American bruschetta I'm used to.

I should mention that the pizza is cooked in a wood-burning stone oven. Yeah. It's that kind of pizza. It's hot and fast and has that traditional-cooking-method smokey taste. It's some of the best quality pizza you can get in DC.

So that was last night. Today is a typical overcast mid-January Sunday. I've been taking down holiday decorations (Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas- no joke) from around the apartment in the hopes of cleaning everything up before Amanda gets home next weekend from Idaho.

I'll probably be doing some cooking later, so expect a post or two about what I'm eating this week before I leave for Florida.

Happy Eating!

-Robin-

Asylum Brunch - Biker Bar and Vegan (!)

My coworker Ashley and I got to meet Kevin (also coworker/ vegetarian cook extraordinaire) 's new boyfriend Tim today over brunch.

I was late (s-l-o-w metro) but we had brunch around 1:30 pm in Adam's Morgan at Asylum. Asylum is a biker bar/ hipster hang out by night and a brunch place by weekend day. They have a whole vegan menu (in addition to a regular menu, I should mention).

http://www.asylumdc.com/newHome.htm

I didn't get any photos but we had mimosas and (vegan) bloody mary's (I think the BMs were better ... but I really like them/ normally can't have them because they're not Robin-friendly).

Ashley got the blueberry pancakes (which were vegan and great, not sure they were AS great as Kiva Han, but I'm super duper biased). Kevin got the vegan burrito wrap, which was delicious (I should note I sampled off both their plates ... to the point of being obnoxious). Tim got an eggy-something, which I didn't try but he seemed to like.

I ordered the hot wings: great texture, not hot. Spak Brothers in Pittsburgh is still my hold out for best faux wings. I also got the vegan BLT because I've been moaning for one since last week. It was really good. Lots of vegan mayo and a pickle.

We had a great time, lots of fun chatter. We really like Tim (and we LOVE Kevin). After brunch we wandered to Sticky Fingers, where I got a peanut butter fudge cupcake and a peppermint brownie (the brownie is in my purse for tomorrow, I'm not that much of a fat kid). We also hung out in the gentrification of Columbia Heights, scoping out the Target.

A pretty great Sunday, I highly recommend Asylum. I think I'll be there again ... soon.

Happy Eating!

-Robin-

Ethnically Promiscuous Dinner

I think I've mentioned before that I LOVE it when people cook for me. This past Saturday night, my friend Andy had my roommate Amanda and me over for dinner at his new apartment. When I called him from the grocery store to ask if he needed us to bring anything, he told me that he was all set: we were going to have an ethnically promiscuous dinner.


The dinner started with some delicious Syrian lentil soup (which I really liked, despite Andy thinking it was too lemon-y.)

The cook! Andy in the kitchen. (Hope the Army guys don't see this picture...)

The main course, a Thai style peanut noodle dish, with yellow and red bell peppers (really really yummy).

Chocolate cake for dessert! This is apparently one of Andy's standard cake recipes (it's so simple that you mix all the ingredients in the dish you bake it in - no need to dirty a mixing bowl). It also just happens to be vegan, which is really exciting. I had two servings.

Me, on my first helping of cake. (And pretty delicious red wine, I might add!)

Here's hoping there's a good friend in your life who cooks you dinner like Andy. Not to mention great conversations about social issues and politics until 1:30 am. : )

Happy Eating!

-Robin-