It's all pizza from here!

or Terry and Anna come to dinner.
(also I really like curious titles)

Check it out, I'm writing a prompt and timely post. Isn't that strange? I had a very nice evening because Terry and Anna came over to my apartment for dinner. For those of you who aren't Halfwayites, they are friends from Halfway who are here in DC for a few short days to see some of the numerous sites and cool museums. Fortunately though I managed to spend not one, but two evenings with them. Saturday evening we me for dinner over by Union Station and attempted to find Linda's favorite brewhouse, Capital City Brewing. Unfortunately unbeknownst to us they had moved to a new address on New York Avenue and we didn't find them. So we went to Finnegan's Irish Pub instead because it was there (it was fine but nothing remarkable on the restaurant scene).

But we had a nice visit and I had the bright idea that they should come over for dinner at my place. We decided that Monday night made the most sense so I got all inspired about what to cook and went shopping on Sunday. And actually I had Brent and Andrew, two other PSU alums who are currently working in DC, over for homemade pizza Sunday night. So I'm been having very social dinners lately. I rather like having people over, because you know I cook better (or at least more to my own personal taste) than nearly all restaurants and when I'm the chef then it is done right.

So to get back to my non-linear tale, I made pizza Sunday for the guys and I had way too much toppings and ingredients for 3 people so I had leftover dough and toppings. I had already bought some fish (a 1.3 pound haddock filet to be precise) for Monday though. This led to me editing my menu a bit and I skipped the roasted sweet potatoes that I originally thought of. So ultimately the Monday menu was:

• Corn and tomato pizza (farmers market sweet corn and tomatoes)
• Broccoli salad with bacon
• Haddock poached in tomatoes and white wine (a Yellowtail Riesling to be precise) 
• And the last of the farmers market peaches and chocolate chip oatmeal cookies for dessert

It was definitely all quite yummy. And it was made right so I like it better than a restaurant. And, since I am not used to estimating portions for only 3 people, I have enough leftovers to feed on for the rest of the week. Which finally brings us to the title of this post--I have a lot of leftover pizza. I really think happiness is homemade pizza so this is a very good thing.

Monday night dinner with Terry and Anna

Another reason to tell you about dinner, beyond the fact that it was fun, is to encourage you (yes you, reading this right now) to come visit me too. I'll cook you dinner as well. I even have a purple futon so you can even sleep here.

Here's the poached fish recipe because it was really good and I think it would work well with all sorts of fish. As stated, I used haddock though because it was on sale. It was good, white and flaky in a cod-type way. It's not a very precise recipe. (adapted from More Best Recipes from the editors of Cook's Illustrated, fish braising page 343)

Braised White Fish (Fish Margherita)
Slice some onion, a half is fine if that's what you have. Start sauteing it in 2 or 3 tablespoons of olive oil on medium in a 2" deep pan with a tight fitting lid, but don't put the lit on yet. Thinly slice 2 or 3 cloves of garlic and add the slices to the onions. Dice some red bell pepper, 1/3 cup maybe, and add to the onions and garlic. Saute a bit more on medium. Put the lid on if they need help cooking. They should brown a bit but not a whole lot. Add 1 can (15 ounces) of diced tomatoes (I like petite dice because they are a bit smaller) and their juice. Add 1/2 cup or so of white wine--the Riesling was good. Add a bit of sugar and balsamic vinegar to taste (1 or 2 teaspoons of each). Salt and pepper to taste. Simmer for a while to combine flavors but it doesn't have to cook terribly long. Meanwhile rinse off your fish filet and slice it into 3" chunks (or whatever size makes sense). I left the skin on the haddock and it was fine; actually I think it may have improved the flavor. Nestle the chunks of fish down in the sauce and spoon tomatoes over the top. It should be simmering but not cooking too hard. Add more white wine if you need liquid. Put on the lid and cook at a gentle simmer. When the fish is half to 2/3s done (depending how thick it is), turn the flame off and let it keep cooking through residual heat with the lid on. This way it will cook through without drying out. It will probably take 10-15 minutes in all. The fish should be opaque through and flake gently. Taste for seasonings. Top with a couple of handfuls of thinly sliced fresh basil. Serve with bread or something to mop up the yummy sauce. Mmmm.

I'm afraid I didn't take a picture of it before we started eating. But it was red and white and green with the basil on top. So maybe you could call it Fish Margherita? I just made that name up and I'm going to claim it.

In other news, I need to read the information about making Thrift Savings Plan investment decisions. But I wrote this post for you instead so I guess I'll do that tomorrow.

Goodnight all.
With love from DC,
-Sarah

Oops I missed the groundhog

That was the other neat thing we saw on the bike ride Sunday. This unfamiliar rodent that was pretty big but not a badger, too fuzzy to be a beaver, and otherwise unfamiliar to a couple of Westerners ran under the fence next too us. We debated but weren't sure what it was. However with further research I think it was probably a groundhog, otherwise known, according to Wikipedia, as a woodchuck. It was certainly a big brown rodent.

Here's a picture of someone else's groundhog, assuming I can successfully link to the picture.

The picture comes from wikimedia commons, thanks to them!

-Sarah

A paycheck is certainly news!

I got my first paycheck today. Ok, I electronically received my first paycheck today. It actually doesn't seem nearly as exciting to log in to your online bank account and see the line item "Fed Payroll something-or-other" as it would be to take an actual paper check down to the bank and cash it. But on the other hand the electronic deposit comes a lot faster, and I didn't have to do anything in order to get the money in my account.

I'm still waiting for them to process all of the employee benefits (like health insurance) so I don't think all of the deductions are correct yet. However my pay grade and salary look right so that is a very promising start. TSP was only 3% rather than the 5% I wanted so I changed that through the online interface. (I also got the Employee Personal Page login today.) The rest I will have to wait and see. For those who don't know, the Thrift Savings Plan is the Fed equivalent of private 401(k) retirement savings programs.

In other news, I had a good trip to Chicago last week. Most of you probably don't know that I arrived at HUD and immediately had to arrange federal travel to fly to Chicago the week of September 12 for a program office-wide training event. It was a little bit hairy getting all of the paperwork and my travel credit card and all processed on time. However it all worked out with only a little bit of correction after the fact so I did pretty well. The training session was very good. The biggest benefit was meeting all of the other new employees that have been hired by the Section 232 component of the Office of Healthcare Programs over the last year. We compared new employee notes quite a bit. For some perspective, the number of applications they receive under 232 has gone from about 200 per year four years ago to almost 800 a year today. Apparently it's been a huge workload increase and they really need more people although they've done a great job improving the process and are up to [I ought to have this in my head, but I'm going to get the number wrong!] 600+ applications processed this year.

If you are lucky I will get a couple of Chicago pictures posted in the next couple of days...including a shot of the big shiny "bean" that is such an iconic tourist picture. I didn't photograph the new Marilyn Monroe statue since I'm not very well practiced at carrying my camera around. Here's a link to a Huffington Post blog with pictures if you want. Curiously the statue will only be up for about a year. I wonder why.

Kevin and I went for a great bike ride yesterday afternoon. Sorry no pictures though. We rode across the river and down the Mt. Vernon Trail to downtown Alexandria. Then back over the Potomac on another bridge and up through the new National Harbor development, Oxon Hill Farm, and some rather hilly parts of Anacostia. It was a radically varied range of city environments. Old Town Alexandria is very quaint with brick architecture (Federal style maybe?). The Woodrow Wilson Bridge was long and steep. It reminded me of cousin Gary talking about riding over the bridge in Florida in order to train for hills. National Harbor is very spanking new and still in development with the roads that lead to empty fields with "future site of..." signs. They were building fancy bike paths but didn't yet have many users down there.

Oxon Hill Farm is apparently a National Park Service site. It had classic farm buildings and lots of nice woodlands. We saw a bunch of silly little Eastern whitetail deer down at the bottom of the hill. I didn't spot any antlers. I think they seemed darker and smaller than our whitetails, but I didn't get that close of a look at them is it is hard to be sure. Nice woods and fields and it was a great temperature for a bike ride so this part of the trip was really nice.

Getting back through Anacostia was a bit more interesting. We ran into a couple of places with nowhere to ride safely since the road was fast with no shoulder so we had to hike our bikes along the barrow ditch a bit. But we got through eventually and rode up MLK Avenue. Clearly not a great part of town, but it looks like redevelopment and gentrification is even going on there. I didn't feel unsafe, but I won't be biking back there either. If nothing else it was just too hard to find a direct way though without any bike lanes. I guess if I want to go back to Oxon, I'll either take Metro or go around through Alexandria. I might be able to bike there from the Southern Avenue station.

This Thursday there is a bike party down in Yards Park, which is on the river near the Nationals baseball stadium. It's sponsored by Capital Bikeshare in honor of their one-year anniversary. I'm certainly planning to go so maybe I can get some more bike maps and learn new routes there.

That's all for now. It's late here and time for bed!

Love to you all.
-Sarah

I think I have to dress like a mortgage banker!

Which you must admit is very strange for me. But the reality is that the clients of my office are most immediately the banks seeking to buy mortgage insurance on their hospital and nursing home lending. And they are mortgage bankers. So following the principle that you need to dress like your clients, I really should be dressing like the bankers at least for meetings.

Alas, I need to go clothes shopping this weekend. My goal is to find acceptable pieces that are machine washable. Really, is machine washable too much to ask? It would be nice if I didn't have to iron too but that might be hoping for too much.

In other news, I think I had a reasonably productive week at work. A lot of that was starting paperwork and getting signed up for various things, but those need to get done too. I even took on the travel scheduling system because they are sending me to a new employee and lender training in Chicago the week of September 12. So I had to try to expedite that as much as possible. Hopefully my fed travel credit card will come in next Tuesday.

Today I'm meeting Kevin (a nice guy who is also new to the area and very usefully has a pickup) to pick up some chairs I found on Freecycle and a Craigslist shelf. I'm getting the apartment reasonably furnished with a fairly eclectic collection. As Irene (a neighbor down the hall) says, "Late garage sale, early basement." It works though. I'll have to keep watching to find a futon for guests though. I have hopes of finding one through Freecycle if I'm patient.

Interesting (to me at least) is this post on Ezra Klein's Washington Post blog. It's not new to those of us who are familiar with the issues, but it's a concise presentation of the long term federal health care spending problem. Of course the farther in the future you get the less useful predictions are. Really what these charts say to me is that something will change, I just don't know what.

-Sarah