new to me
February 18th, 2007 @ 9:55 pm | dc, food | Post a CommentMany of you probably read the lovely Isabel’s other blog, New to Us, where she chronicles new things she is trying in the new year. This weekend I tried a few new things of my own, and another new thing was, uhhhhh, forced upon me. More on that part later.
Did I mention my in-laws were here this weekend? On Friday night we dined at a nice neighborhood French restaurant where I ordered a beet salad to start. Beets seem to evoke hatred from most people and deep love from the rest, and I had to figure out how I felt about this vegetable that my bridesmaid’s dresses were named after. Verdict: Yum! (At least as long as they are paired with goat cheese.)
Saturday night we ventured across town to a popular Belgian restaurant. Instead of playing it safe and ordering steak or chicken, I chose a heaping bowl of mussels in a curry broth. Normally I’m not a seafood lover, but again I was really happy. Bring on the bivalves!
My next new venture was making a layered birthday cake. I totally cheated and made the cake from a box (I blame time constraints!) and the lovely Lauren gave me a recipe for homemade icing that did not disappoint. The frosting (sugar, butter, vanilla, milk) gave the cake a homemade feel without taking a whole afternoon to bake. The hardest part was eating the cake with intimate knowledge of just how unhealthy the frosting is. No longer can I claim ignorance about the fat content of cake!
The final New to Me item from the weekend was not so pretty. After Sunday brunch downtown, the family and I witnessed an old man, pants down, going #2 on the side of a building. It was wretchedly gross and horribly sad all at once. All I’m saying is that if you work anywhere on the perimeter of McPherson Square in downtown DC, please do not ever touch or lean on the side of your office building, okay?
Now that I’ve sufficiently lost my appetite, I’m ready to begin a week of gastro-detox after consuming far too many calories in the past 48 hours. Anyone else do anything New to You this weekend?
Good for you for trying new things! A lot of people stick to what is familiar…and it’s especially nice since you ended up liking everything.
Both sad and gross, yes, about witnessing the public #2. I’m sure I would have been pretty horrified, too.
written by Zandria
February 18th, 2007 @ 10:37 pm
Hrmm… How about driving into the scary, scary city with my girlfriends; that sure was new! Oh, and I’m meeting my first blog-friend this weekend.
written by alyndabear
February 19th, 2007 @ 1:39 am
Mmm, your new food experiences sound really exciting. I am a recovered picky eater and my husband and I are trying to try different ethnicities of food. I’m not even going to mention the public #@, it’s just gross. Let’s keep talking about goat cheese! Yum!
written by Bunny
February 19th, 2007 @ 8:29 am
I’m going to ignore the gagging reflex that is overtaking my mouth at the moment and just say - I had mussels over the weekend, too!
But, I am anti-beet currently. I only ever had those vinegar-y ones out of cans. Shudder.
written by RA
February 19th, 2007 @ 9:39 am
You mean not all cake comes from a box? =)
I love to try new things too. Good for you! Except beets = ew. More for you, I guess.
written by -R-
February 19th, 2007 @ 10:58 am
Oooh- I really like both the new things you tried. Now you can try Beet Soup… just dont eat it after mouth surgery as I did.
written by alexa
February 19th, 2007 @ 4:17 pm
I LOVE THIS.
Cake, yummy. Human poop, NOT SO YUMMY!
When I first moved to Seattle I saw a homeless guy pooping. The best part? His friend was standing next to him holding the toilet paper out for him. What a friend.
(When I screamed that I was actually seeing the poop exit his butt, Ken turned to me and said “welcome to the city, baby!” Welcome, indeed.)
written by Isabel
February 19th, 2007 @ 5:33 pm
My friend also saw that last one, on New York Avenue on the way home from work … YIKES!
written by Erika
February 20th, 2007 @ 12:24 pm
Yay! I am glad you are a beet lover! I ate to the point of gorging myself all weekend, too, so here’s to scaling back this week!!
written by Laurel
February 20th, 2007 @ 12:25 pm
The cake looks great!! Is that a star on top made of chocolate???? Genius.
written by Lauren
February 20th, 2007 @ 2:08 pm
Umm. The cake sounds delicious, but the man pooping? not so much.
I like trying new things and I try to remind myself to do it every once in a while to keep life interesting. I’m glad that you’ve discovered some great things along the way.
written by Sijbrich
February 22nd, 2007 @ 8:42 am
[…] The worst part about it is that (I realized a few minutes later) we were headed to the same place (a restaurant) about half a block away, and during our meal I could see this animal man out of the corner of my eye. It honestly takes a lot to gross me out (hello homeless man pooping on the side of a building downtown) but this was really, really disgusting. […]
written by love is blonde » elephants and pumpkins, sort of
September 30th, 2007 @ 9:58 pm