A ridiculously warm winter solstice

It may be the shortest day of the year but a warm front moved in to the District. We were up to 21 C (or 70 F) and I was stripping down to my T-shirt while biking and walking around. I met Tanya and walked around the holiday market and the Mall. We thought about a museum but it was too nice to go inside. Here's some pictures for you all.

After that I hit up Union Market and Eastern Market and delivered some Christmas cookies to friends. Of course I made Candy Cane Cookies and Sour Cream Twists!

The scaffolding is coming down on the Washington Monument.

It's shadow is way bigger than mine!

Here's a panorama from the north side of the Monument. The White House is behind the trees in the middle of the picture and one of the cranes building the National Museum of African American History is on the right.

It was a gorgeous and sunny day!

Proof that I was down to my T-shirt! And note that it is the Planet Money T-shirt. 

This is the Christmas tree in the park south of the White House. I think it is called the National tree while the one by the Capitol is the People's tree. But I'm not sure! There are 50 small trees for the states too. You can see a couple in the foreground.

The view down Pennsylvania Avenue.

I do like the Old Post Office Pavilion!

Research on paperwhites, or how to grow shorter flowers

Do you like to force bulbs like paperwhites? I certainly enjoy the flowers but get frustrated by floppy plants and tipped over pots. The Flower Bulb Research Program at Cornell University is coming to our rescue!

What to do
We suggest planting your paperwhite bulbs in stones, gravel, marbles, glass beads, etc. as
usual. Add water as you normally would, then wait about 1 week until roots are growing,
and the shoot is green and growing about 1-2” above the top of the bulb. At this point,
pour off the water and replace it with a solution of 4 to 6% alcohol, made from just about
any “hard” liquor. You can do the calculations to figure the dilution, but, as an example,
to get a 5% solution from a 40% distilled spirit (e.g., gin, vodka, whiskey, rum, tequila),
you add 1 part of the booze to 7 parts of water. This is an 8-fold dilution yielding 5%
alcohol.

Then you just grow the plant as normal while watering with the alcohol solution. (click the link above for complete instructions and explanation) This is really clever. I may have to try forcing bulbs again.

Thanksgiving Pictures

Theresa and Hugh O'Byrne and their four cats hosted Nicole and me at their home in Trenton, New Jersey, for Thanksgiving. (Theresa is a former classmate of Nicole's.) I had a really great time. Thank you again Hugh and Theresa!

A cat and a fireplace

Pirate wants to know when he can start on that bird!

Theresa had a great idea when I was trying to figure out where to brine the turkey. A clean vegetable drawer in the spare refrigerator in the basement was just the right size for our 11 pound bird and it was easy to keep it cold!

Of course the task of the day on Thursday was cooking. Here's some of the results. Fortunately Ceil and Jim, Nicole's parents, joined us for the feast too or we would have had to call on the cats to help!

The Bird

The accompaniments 

The table with Theresa's lovely china (a gift from parents/grandparents with the completion of her dissertation)

Ready to eat.

I had to eat the pie before taking a picture of it.

Theresa, Nicole, Hugh

Theresa, Nicole, Sarah (taking turns to take the photo)

It's winter. I don't have any snow, but I do have glowing boats.

I think I only take pictures on the sunny days so you may get a mistaken impression. It's been cold lately and despite the weather threats last week we didn't really have snow stick in the District. Here's a mix of photos from the last couple of weeks.

Winter from my window on December 8.

Saturday (12/7) was sunny. The scaffolding is coming down on the Washington Monument.

Cranes are building the National Museum of African American History.

A nice colorful protest on the Mall. Their sign said Human Rights for Vietnam so I assume the person on the loudspeaker was talking in Vietnamese since it certainly wasn't English.

I watched the parade of boats with Tad and Colleen. This gives you a sense of it but of course the pictures aren't great.

Rockin' Santas.

A blue shark.

And Hanukkah was represented too. 

The boats were tied up at the waterfront docks later. Much easier to photograph!

T-Rex, with the reindeer boat (it has antlers and a red nose) behind her and Rockin' Santas in back.

Jerusalem artichokes (shampoo bottle for scale).

Today I'm making soup with some of the Jerusalem artichokes (also called sunchokes). I found a roasted sunchoke soup recipe on Not Eating Out in New York and it's ready to puree now. Actually I did a lot of cooking today, there is a pot of tomato soup simmering too, and a small batch of enchiladas filled with beans and roasted Hubbard squash. The Hubbard is not nearly as sweet as the kabocha/buttercup types so I'll try and use it for cooking.

I also made an extremely yellow loaf of bread--it has 1 cup of butternut squash puree and only 1/4 cup of water. The yellowness was fun, but it was somewhat fragile as bread. It never got crusty and had a fine, soft crumb. Just applesauce on top could make a piece disintegrate if it wasn't toasted pretty well. It did stay moist nicely.

Yeasted Squash Bread

Combine and let proof:

1/4 c water
1 t yeast
2 t sugar

Add:

1 c squash puree
3/4 t salt
1/4 t olive oil
1 c white whole wheat flour
1.5 c bread flour

Mix, knead, let rise 1-2 hours. Punch down. Makes one loaf. Rise 30 minutes. Bake 350 degrees, 40 minutes.

Eat a piece while it is still warm.

Happy Birthday Elizabeth!

You threw a fun party, thanks for inviting me. Here's a couple of pictures for folks back in Oregon. (that I copied from you!)

Chefs Sarah and Lissa are working in the kitchen, heating up the tamales. 

Check out my new Planet Money t-shirt! You can read the whole story at www.npr.org/shirt

Elizabeth is the birthday girl. I manage to coordinate in the pink shirt though.

Ann and Elizabeth and cupcakes

Gluten-free Sticky Buns for Thanksgiving

'Cause we had to eat breakfast after all! Don't worry, we ate Thanksgiving dinner too.

I was impressed. Theresa's recipe was really good even though not quite the same as wheat-flour-based rolls.

I don't think I sufficiently warned Theresa that will you, nill you I am going to take over your kitchen if I'm there for Thanksgiving! And a lovely kitchen it was too. Theresa and Hugh recently bought an impeccably restored hundred-year-old house along the river in Trenton, NJ. They invited Nicole and I to stay for the holiday and we had a great time. Jim and Ceil (Nicole's parents) drove over from Pennsylvania for turkey dinner too.

We went to the sculpture garden for Black Friday

Of course we would not want to actually buy anything on Black Friday. Ugh. So we had a nice time walking around Grounds for Sculpture this great sculpture park in Central New Jersey. It has hundreds of sculptures hidden in nooks and crannies around the place many of them not at all obvious so you really have to look. It was cold but nice and sunny so a good time to be out in preparation for our second assault on the turkey. 

Here's a couple of the pieces I particularly liked: 

Seward Johnson recreates famous painting as complete scenes, http://www.groundsforsculpture.org/Artist/J-Seward-Johnson

And Dana Stewart had a ring of excellent alien beasts, http://www.groundsforsculpture.org/Artwork/Alien-Beast

Hugh's favorite is Pegasus, http://www.groundsforsculpture.org/Artwork/Pegasus-and-Bellerophon

And oh yeah, there are lots of peacocks running around. A very successful venture for Theresa, Hugh, Nicole, and Sarah.

I'll just use EVOO* from now on

*extra-virgin olive oil (I think the acronym tends to be used more for health benefits than culinary references. [not that I'm all that convinced about the health benefits, it's just easier to have only one kind of oil around])

Karl convinced me that olive oil makes a very tasty better butter (recipe: blend 1/2 cup very soft butter with 1/3 cup olive oil until totally smooth, pour into dish and refrigerate until set. Use like butter but keep it in the 'fridge.) I tried making chocolate crazy cake with it and that worked fine and now thanks to a snooty oil and balsamic vinegar magazine (how did I get on their list, anyway?) here's a recipe for olive oil brownies. Of course I had to try that! I think I underbaked them a bit but they still taste like brownies. I'll just have to try again. Here's the recipe so I have it handy. Hmm, I wonder what olive oil blondies would be like? Maybe I'll try that too. And of course it works just fine in standard bread recipes.

Olive Oil Brownies

Printed in Lucero magazine, adapted from Adventures of an Italian Food Lover by Faith Heller Willinger

4 oz. chopped bittersweet chocolate (at least 70% cocoa) [or use part baking chocolate and part whatever chocolate you have handy]
1/3 cup olive oil [really I never use anything but extra virgin, the cheap stuff though for this recipe]
1/2 c flour
1/4 t salt
2 large eggs
3/4 c sugar
1 t vanilla
2/3 c toasted nuts, chopped, optional [I didn't use any but filberts or almonds would be good]

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 8" square pan.
Melt chocolate and blend with olive oil, let cool. Beat salt, sugar, vanilla, and eggs until very thick and pale yellow. Add chocolate mix to eggs blend. Fold in flour and nuts. Pour into pan. [don't forget to lick your spatula!]
Bake 22-26 minutes until toothpick comes out mostly clean.

Verdict: nicely chocolaty, a hit of olive oil sometimes but I kind of like that. Check with the toothpick so you don't underbake, but if you do the set up just fine in the refrigerator. Next time I will try adding two tablespoons of water, I think that might make them even more classic brownie texture.

Pomegranate and pear salad...who needs anything else?

I made a giant beautiful salad for dinner tonight and then followed it with a piece of chocolate cake from the freezer. Here's a picture of the salad.

Ingredients:

Lettuce (pretty mixed lettuce from the farmer's market)
Diced orange
Diced Asian pear
Pomegranate seeds
Toasted pecans
Fresh goat chèvre

Toss with dressing before adding cheese and nuts.

Bill Munro's Honey Mustard Dressing

This originally had actual measurements but I've forgotten them and it doesn't seem to matter anyway.

Some good mustard (like Dijon or Gulden's)
More honey (twice as much as the mustard?)
Some rice vinegar (less than the honey)

Put it all in a bottle and shake it up. It will keep just fine in the fridge.

I haven't seen one of these in a while

It's a double-yoked egg. Isn't it cute? I haven't found a double-yoker for a long time so took it's photograph. It came from the J & L Green Farm in Edinburg, Virginia. The Aya Community Market sells their eggs on Saturday mornings in my neighborhood.

I made this Brussels sprout salad from Cook's Country today, except I used pecans and Parmesan cheese and a Pink Lady apple because that's what I had. It was very good, maybe a little denser and more savory than cabbage coleslaw. I'll post the recipe here too.

Autumn Brussels Spout Salad with Apple, Nuts, and Cheese

Adapted from Cook's County October/November 2013. See the post for preparation pictures. 

Slice sprouts super-thin, it's a good idea to cut each sprout in half before slicing so it doesn't roll around. Grate the cheese coarsely.

Mix dressing and refrigerate until ready:

3 T lemon juice
2 T Dijon mustard
1 small shallot, finely minced
1 small clove garlic, finely minced
6 T olive oil

For salad:

2 pounds Brussels sprouts, thinly sliced
4 ounces coarsely shredded strong cheese (I used Parmesan, original recipe calls for sharp cheddar)
1 tart apple, cut into 1 cm pieces, leave peel on (Pink Lady or Granny Smith are good varieties)
1/2 cup chopped toasted nuts (pecan, hazelnuts)

Mix the shredded sprouts with the dressing and let stand at least 30 minutes. Just before serving add the apple, cheese, and nuts. Toss to combine. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Eat.

Goatburger!

Here's a few older pictures that I meant to post during the shutdown but didn't. This one's for Erin:

Mmmm. Goatburger with homemade bun, farmers market tomatoes, homemade pickles, and butter lettuce.

 The ground goat meat came from Painted Hill Farm. They did add quite a bit of fat but that made it really good! It had better be for $12/lb. I don't buy meat much so when I do I want it to be worthwhile. Her goats are Boer/Nubian/Cashmere crosses. The Boer for size, the Nubian for nice udders, and the Cashmere for good warm coats so they stay happy through the Pennsylvania winters.

Here's the goat lady.

Actually this one's for Erin too. Cello players at the Bloomingdale Farmers' market on Sunday.

Shutdown protesters on October 10. They are just south of the Capitol.

My new apartment, version 1

It's version 1 because this is very much the "piles of stuff" edition.

New living room. What's missing? A bed! That's right, I now have an entirely separate bedroom.

The old place looks kind of lonely though. 

Goodbye treehouse balcony. You were a great place to sit and read.

The gorgeous sunset last week. This is from the old place but the new one has almost the same view.

Don't worry, my new apartment has a balcony too. It's doesn't have as many tree branches right outside (more open air vibe than treehouse) but it's got plenty of space for the lounge chair and a great view.

PS. What am I supposed to call a co-op unit in a multistory building? House doesn't work because I think of that as a single-family house with it's own roof. Home is fine but not very informative. It's not technically a condo because the co-op is a different ownership form, but I think people are familiar with condo for a walls-in type of ownership. Anyway I bought a co-op unit in the highrise building at River Park and now I'm going to live here.

I'm a homeowner!

I closed on the new place this afternoon. Will try to post pictures soon...

Scenes from the Shutdown

I biked around the Mall this afternoon and here's some of what I saw.

The Museum of the American Indian is closed.

Some TV news show was filming on the lawn east of the Capitol.

The Supreme Court facade is almost done getting fixed.

The Navy Memorial fountain is turned off.

But the DC taxation sign never quits.

The White House Visitor Center has been closed for a while for renovation, but it is also closed for the shutdown, in case you were wondering. 

This is how you close a monument when you are short of fencing I guess. That's the First Division Monument southwest of the White House.

Tourists as usual north of the White House.

Some Capitol protesters.

And one by the White House.

The Washington Monument was already closed for repairs.

They were serious about closing off the World War II Memorial.

Yup. Closed.

The Vietnam Memorial is open (good thing because there was a whole veteran's tour group in yellow shirts).

But you can only visit Lincoln from a distance.

It was a really beautiful afternoon. Here's some scenes from the middle of the Arlington Memorial Bridge. Arlington Cemetery is open but the parts operated by the Park Service are closed. 

Looking east toward Lincoln.

North up the Potomac River. The Kennedy Center is in the middle right, the National Cathedral on the skyline.

Rosslyn to the northwest in Virginia.