Yet another reason to love DC...

THE FOOD!!

This week is restaurant week in DC. Meaning places that usually cost about $35 bucks for just the main course, have an Appetizer, Main Course and DESSERT (!!!) for $35.05 plus tax (off their special menu).  SCORE

So yesterday, a 6 of us from my new bookclub decided to try Siroc .  It was WONDERFUL!!
Here's the special menu for the week....and I put in bold my choices.   I am getting hungry just thinking about it!
Dinner
Choice of:
House-made Pork, Black Pepper and Parmesan Cheese Sausages, served with Cauliflower Puree and Truffle Sauce
or
Endive and Cress Salad with Avocado, Crispy Bacon and Candied Pecans dressed with a Vanilla Vinaigrette
or
Organic Tomato and Mozzarella Salad, served with Deviled Egg and a Roasted Garlic and Basil Vinaigrette
or
Pan Roasted Scallops, served with Braised Black Lentils, Tomato Sauce and Roasted Artichokes

Choice of:

Cappelacci filled with Lobster and Roasted Corn with a Sweet Pepper Buerre Blanc and Baby Cilantro
or
Hand-made Potato Gnocchi, tossed in Sage Butter, topped with Beef Bolognese and Fontina Cheese
or
Sautéed Filet of Wild Rockfish with Roasted Fennel, Tomato Filets, Fingerling Potatoes and Rosemary Oil
or
Seared Salmon Steak served over Sautéed Broccolini with Pancetta and Cipollini Onions with a Roasted Garlic and Orange Sauce
or
Free Range Veal Cheeks braised in Red Wine, served on Parmesan Polenta with Roasted Carrots and Pearl Onions
or
Caramelized Duck Breast served with a Turnip and Taleggio Cheese Torte, Roasted Figs and a Star Anise Sauce

Choice of:
Tirami Su Wrapped in Chocolate topped with Cocoa and Fresh Berries
or
Almond Cake on Cinnamon Zabaglione Sauce with Blueberry Topping
or
Local Apple Tart with Caramel Sauce and Hazelnut Gelato

It's not you...it's me

It's been weeks since I last blogged.  Lots of major stuff has been going on and I have a TON of stuff to catch up on/blogs to read. 

Birthday

My birthday went off without a hitch this year (ok...well a couple days before I had a little sob fest, but nothing like last year!!) We treated it like a normal day and had a fabulous dinner at The Chart House in Old Town.

This was my gift from Geoff

The Colette Bed by Crate and Barrel

Savannah

The next week we drove back to Savannah and our wonderful friends threw us a BBQ and we had a game night.  We also had out of town guests that weekend, so definitley a full weekend for us.  I have to give a shout out to my WONDERFUL and SWEET friend Kristy for her awesome "remember Savannah" gifts.

For someone to remember my love of all things honey and all natural soap and candle for my freakish allergies:)

Speaking of allergies...

Remember those really bad allergies I had to the mold in Savannah?  Well looks like the mold followed me to Alexandria.  The basement of the house we are leasing to purchase is bad....and getting worse.  Which means I am back on the steriods that make me feel like crap.

Needless to say, all the work we did on this house will be in vain.  Thousands of dollars and hours of home improvement down the drain.  I can't stay here.  It would cost to much to redo the entire basement and clean this place up.  So we are out of contract on the house, and trying to get out of our lease.  Funny thing is, the minute I get out of the house, I feel better.  In Savannah it was the opposite, it was the outdoors that killed me!

Please cross your fingers we can break this lease. 

Mold I "grew" from the home testing kit.  I'm no scientist...but that's soooo not good!

House Hunting Again

So I blew it on chosing this house.  Lost tons of money. Geoff and I talked and we are getting something much smaller and in Old Town (town home). The place we are looking at is a lot cheaper than this place (but compared to the rest of the country, still a ridiculous price for the square footage.)  Great school district.  Great location.  Will need to build an addition.  Has no parking but a deep lot (in Old town that's VERY rare).  We can get awaywith 1 car here :)

Built in 1820 (yup, you heard me right).  NO MOLD.  Totally dry and finished basement.

This isn't a forever house, but a house that is ok for a few years.  Totally different from any place we ever saw ourselves in. 

Younger neighboorhood (all our neighboors here are in thier 40's-50's, the house 1/2 block down is owned by the former head of Capital One...talk about us not "fitting in"). 

Must learn to roll with the punches.

My best birthday gift

5 years ago today I got  Mr. "Cupcake"  aka Jake as my first birthday gift from Geoff.  Little did we know how much joy this scraggly, doped up (we got him just after his surgery), smelly (they never gave him a bath, and we had to wait 2 weeks to give him one!) one year old pup (the vets guessed his age) would give us!

In 5 years Jake has moved with us 4 times (2 times was across the country).  Lived in 4 different states (he's very pleased to be back living in his home state of Virginia).


Every year since we've had him...he gets his own special cake and new toys for his "birthday" aka the day we got him!

Normally my dog is never on the counter, but Charlotte would no let him partake on the kitchen floor.  Even up there he felt a little bit of panic and put it all in his mouth.  You'd think we never fed him! 

Couldn't forget about Charlotte

Jake and his new toys...poor guy only got 2 seconds with them before Charlotte stole them.

That's one good looking 6 (we think?) year old pup!