Birthday Weekend

For my 30th birthday, the hubby went all out. What a guy I have! He took me to the Gibson for drinks on Saturday night. We had two cocktails each with truffled nuts and marinated olives. I can't remember the name of my first drink, but it involved gin, champagne, raspberry syrup, and three types of bitters. For the second one, I went off-menu. I asked for rye and the Italian artichoke liqueur Cynar, but I left the quantities up to the bartender. She combined them with a bit of honey and added a salted rim. Awesome! I mean, she made the drink, but I came up with the main ingredients so I'm giving myself the credit for this one.

We followed drinks with the five-course tasting menu at Palena. It was fantastic. He'd even arranged for a candle to be in the first dessert course. How lovely! We'll definitely return.

Then, yesterday, on my actual birthday, I had breakfast in bed followed by a surprise Skype session with my fam, arranged by the hubby. They sang me "Happy Birthday" and I blew out the candles on the giant cupcake the hub had procured. Seriously, WHAT A GUY! We spent the rest of the day watching TV and hanging out. It was way too hot to do anything outside. (And it's not even August yet - yikes.) Anyway, after a day of leisure, we decided to do our red sauce and Godfather tradition - the best way to end any day in my opinion.

Or so I thought. He handed me an envelope last night. Inside my birthday card was a certificate to attend a class at the Culinary Institute of America. I nearly fainted. I CAN'T WAIT!!!! Will keep you posted as it gets closer to the fall date. OMG!!!!!!!!

On an unrelated note, I made bacon and jalapeno cornbread tonight with a gigantic pot of chili. Good eatin'.

Wine glasses at Palena

The makings of a good cocktail

Port Peachy

Sundry Updates 2

• The garden's doing great. More tomatoes. A handful of peppers. Arugula. Lots of herbs. And while there haven't been any cukes yet, there's lots of flowers ready to turn.
• This weekend we hit up three DC hot spots - all with outdoor seating. And since it was so nice (meaning hot but not swamp-like as usual), we basked in the sun at each spot. First, we had barbecue and German beer at Standard then a drink at American Ice Co. then another drink a Local 16 after a long walk from U Street to Adams Morgan.
• I've been experimenting with white port in cocktails. I made one with white port, St. Germain liqueur, lime, and tonic. Next I'm going to try one with white port and muddled peaches. Sounds good, huh?

Food Supply Infographic

This National Geographic infographic displays the disturbing reduction in produce variety over the past 80 years.

Miami, Ocean City, And The World Wide Web

We took a couple spontaneous weekend beach trips recently: first to Miami then to Ocean City, Maryland. Two words: seafood galore. Plus we visited the home of Dogfish Head beer and a saltwater taffy mecca.

Also, as usual I've been collecting food- and drink-related websites. More like hoarding them really. It's time to share:

Amishland Heirloom Seeds

Fedco - Co-op Seeds

Real Time Farms

Eat Local First

Post Prohibition

Foodspotting

NYPL, The Menu Collection Research Guide

The Cookbook Blog

GOOD Borborygmi

GOOD Food

Grown in the City

Vegetable Garden Planner

Stuff Parisians Like

Food Curated

Food in Literature and the Arts