A Total Non Sequitur

Did you know that the baby-faced star of Tron: Legacy is also the rugged young man who set my heart a-flutter in Country Strong (yeah, that's right, I saw it. You wanna mess?)?? I'm still kinda in shock. Like, this guy:

Baby-faced, right?

Is also this guy:

Rugged, no?

Looking at the two pictures I still have a hard time seeing it. Behold the power of facial hair!

PS Perhaps we shouldn't discuss how disturbing it is that I found his red-necked, country singer character so attractive. I mean really, that much plaid is always a bad idea. 

The Weekend. No, not this weekend, last weekend.

I'm being inspired by certain other bloggers (ahem, Miss Lost-In-Wonderland) and comments on my own blog (ahem, M.) that I need to share my life more. It's true. Out of excitement for this upcoming weekend, allow me to share my epically awesome last weekend:

Friday: Work.Blegh. It came, it went. Post-work was an extra special ice skating outing to the sculpture garden with many choir friends and a couple other awesome friends.

Watching the boy try not to fall over while on the ice = hilarious.

Literally skating backwards in circles around him = super mean, but also hilarious. This is an accurate portrayal of how I look ice skating, by the by.

Here's a bit of information you may not have known - ice skating for two hours makes you hungry! Like, really hungry! We grabbed a bite to eat at this bar where you can pour your own beer from the tap. Being almost at the point of collapsing I bounced early and went home to my mercifully clean house (sooo worth staying up Thursday night to get it that way!) and dropped into my [heated!] bed to sleep the week off.

Saturday: I woke up feeling limber and stretchy, and really excited for a morning yoga class. I went to Yoga District up on Rhode Island and First for the first time with R, at her suggestion (and frequent nudging). It was really nice! First of all, they squeezed a lot of us in the room, and second, they only charge $10 for an hour and fifteen minute class. The instructor kind of looked like Barney Stinson in the episode where he tries to steal Ted's girl (you know, that episode). He was actually very soothing. My biceps were positively shaking afterward from all the vinyasa repetitions, and it was awesome. R and I went to Big Bear Cafe after class for brunch (does anyone else expect this when they go there?). SO tasty. They were out of bagels, and at first I was like, what the what!? but I ordered my lox and cream cheese on whole grain toast and it was SO good that next time I'm just ordering that. Also, not enough cafes serve their tea in a giant teapot. I liked that I didn't run out of tea in five minutes at Big Bear.

Bears. The gay kind. 

Saturday, continued: After a quick trip to Columbia Heights to go to Marshall's (sweet sweet Marshall's, how I love thee), I ran my butt home to change for Saturday part II: Roller Derby. You guys, I freaking love roller derby. I've been going since October and I'm pretty much obsessed. This time around I think I got more than 15 people to join me for the brawl. Scare Force One, you kick ass each and every time. Small Fry, Lenore Gore, I want your moves on the track. Martha Squashington, I want your name. I don't think it's too late to become a DC rollergirl, do you?
Oh, and PS, remember the halftime show? These kids were jumping rope in a troupe like nobody's business! It was flippin' fantastic.

Marion Barrycuda being badass (picture via dcist)

Saturday night was a basic Wellesley gathering, lots of girls, a couple guys, plenty of fancy booze and eats. The yearbook came out - 'nuff said. 

Sunday: I had to wake up at 7 am to meet D. and M. for a hike in Shenandoah. Ever hear of Old Rag? It's a hike that winds through the woods and up the side of a mountain for a few miles, then over a couple miles of rocky ridge at the top (requiring some rock scramble action) and back down again. It was fantastic, especially the rock scramble bit.

Slip canyon. Thankfully I didn't have to saw off my own arm to get out.

I made it a condition of our hike that I get Cracker Barrel on the way home (haha, take that A. with your post-hiking Denny's!). Buttermilk fried chicken is a big win, btw. And biscuits, macaroni and cheese, fried okra, raspberry sweet tea and cornbread. I definitely did not have a hot fudge sundae for dessert either. It was delicious. 

Monday: Sleep. Food. Sleep. Choir. Sleep.

On the schedule for this weekend: Baking brownies, choir concert, baking brownies, hopefully yoga again!, showing family around town, choir concert part the second, dinner with family, choir after-party, brunch with family, movies, rest, movies, food. Sleep. Sleeeeeeeeeep. Sleep. 

Yogurt cake!

Another Joy the Baker recipe - thank you Joy! I especially love how many savory recipes she's been writing up as of late.

The reason I wanted to bake (well, ok, other than that I always want to bake) was the horrible mood I found myself in most of Wednesday and Thursday. You know that bratty, petulant feeling you get? And then, recognizing that you have no reason and no right to be so agitated, you just get angrier, consumed with guilt and bitterness that just grow on each other like a virus in a putrid petri dish? No? Well anyway, it was a bad mood. Cake makes me feel better, 100 % of the time. I particularly liked how I had to handle the ingredients - zesting a grapefruit, rubbing the zest into a bowl of sugar, stirring it all together with a spatula. It could be that I'm the worst case of reverse-feminine mystique in the history of ever - longing to get out of the office so I can just get back in the kitchen and do what I'm good at. And if the review of this cake around the office are any indication, I'm decently good at baking.

Yeesh, I should work on my baking documentation skills - this does not look so good!

Grapefruit Yogurt Cake (via Joy the Baker)

2 cups flour

1 Tablespoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

3/4 cup sugar

1 cup yogurt

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup grapefruit juice

zest of one grapefruit 

vanilla extract

3 Tablespoons powdered sugar

First, preheat your oven to 350 degrees and butter and flour a 9- or 10-inch cake pan. 

Zest one grapefruit and collect the zest in a large mixing bowl bowl. Add the sugar and pinch the zest into it until it is thoroughly incorporated and fragrant. Juice the grapefruit until you have 1/2 cup of grapefruit juice. Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together in a medium bowl. In another medium bowl mix together the yogurt, vegetable oil, vanilla extract and one tablespoon of the grapefruit juice. 

Crack the eggs into the large mixing bowl with the zesty sugar and mix the two on high until it is pale and creamy. Add the yogurt/veggie oil mixture and mix thoroughly. Add the flour mixture and mix on medium until just combined. Pour into the cake pan and smooth the top with the spatula. Place in the oven to bake for about 30-40 minutes (35 was good for mine, 33 would have been perfect). When the top is golden and cake pulls away from the sides of the pan it's done. Let the cake cool for 10 minutes in the pan, then remove and cool on a rack.

The glaze:

Mix the remaining grapefruit juice and 3 Tablespoons of powdered sugar in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil while stirring, then turn the stove down until the liquid is simmering, still stirring, for ten minutes. Puncture the top of the cake in several places (I used a thin paring knife, a skewer would work as well) and pour the glaze over the top of the cake. Joy recommended using a pastry brush to spread the glaze and I agree - I also used it to spread the glaze on the sides of the cake, which looked really pretty. 

The last step is to serve it to your coworkers with a big smile and a "Happy Friday!" I promise it'll erase that angry-shrew feeling you've had the whole rest of the week. 

French Sister Soup

The winter of 2011 is all about soup for me - all I think about, all I eat, all I want with a slice of crusty bread or a grilled cheese sandwich. It started with my sister who has been making "french soup" for the past few years. It's a Sunday night soup, it's a soup for when you're tired or you've been eating too much or you're feeling homesick. It's also really easy :)


Ingredients:
1 onion
2 leeks
3 carrots
2 potatoes

Chop the onion and add it to the soup pot with a little olive oil or butter (My sister says butter is better but it's up to you). Heat them on low - you don't want to caramelize or brown them, you just want to cook them until they're fragrant and translucent. Add the chopped leeks (slice them in half length-wise then chop them into roughly the same size pieces as the onion). Cook the leeks as you did the onions, on low heat until they are fragrant and translucent. If this is unclear, think of it this way: when the onions no longer smell like they could make you cry, they're probably good).

After the leeks are cooked add the peeled and chopped carrots and the chopped potatoes - side note: if you want to blend this soup (and you can, although I prefer to leave it chunky) you should peel the potatoes. Let them sit with the leeks and onions for a moment, then cover the whole mess with a. water, b. chicken broth or c. some combination of the two, based on your personal preferences. Let it cook, hot but not boiling, for about a half an hour, or until the potatoes are soft. Eat with a grilled cheese sandwich. Yum!