Friday: A day of meetings

Headed to the Hyatt Capitol Hill at 7:00 for 8:00 meetings. We were lucky with the nice weather, we have been there before when it was freezing cold, not pleasant to get around in.

We had a long lunch break where there weren’t any meetings that were key for me to attend, so I headed for the American Indian Museum for lunch. They have a very interesting cafeteria called Mitsitam with Native American foods from the different areas of the United States. I had a tapas selection of shrim ceviche (there was crab or lobster in there too), plus salmon croquettes, and some sort of crab cake. Remember the other night I said I was disappointed with the fried dough seafood (shrimp beignets?), this was a trend that continued. The croquettes and crab cakes essentially tasted exactly the same. The ceviche, however, was AMAZING, one of the best things I have eaten so far this year. Had a couple of different kinds of peppers, including jalapenos, very very very good.
Also had the smoked trout chowder, which was delicious and quite spicy. That was also very good. Should have just had the soup and a big plate of the ceviche.

(Photo of the National Gallery in 1941, this one shows how big it is, in current pictures the trees obscure a lot. Photo from http://www.nga.gov.)

Then I walked to the National Gallery of Art, which I had stopped at the other day when I was lost and looking for the American Art Gallery/Portrait Gallery.

This place is huge, so I really just tried to hit the highlights. They have paintings dating back to the 14th century. The galleries are like a maze, some have two doors, some have four doors, some have one door, you can start to feel a little trapped.

Painting that made me the happiest: Still Life with Fruit, Fish, and a Nest, by Abraham Mignon c. 1675, because I mis-read it the first time and thought it said Still Life with Fruit, Fish and a Newt, and I was pretty excited about the amphibian content. Unfortunately, the painting does not have an actual newt. It does, however, have a lizard. Dead.The lizard is right in front of the cantelope, if you are looking for it.

I saw many, many paintings that I jotted down for ideas and inspiration and just general beauty.  I am thinking of doing a sort of still life for my next color theory class project, maybe, perhaps a Still Life with Newt.

After too little time in the West Building, I went to the East Building, where they have modern art, including several Calder mobiles (I learned about Calder when we were living in Michigan), and Wayne Thiebaud’s painting “Cakes” which I love of course because I love cakes.

And now I am a little obsessed with him and all of his food paintings.

I made my way back to meetings for the rest of the day, and that evening we ate at the DC Chophouse. Now, I suppose you should order steak when you go to such a place, but I have a freezer full of beef at home courtesy of my Dad, so I tend not to order as much beef when I travel. After being carded (!) and talked out of the lamb chops by the waiter, I had the fish of the day, which was OK, but not fabulous. The French Onion soup was very good, though.

This was a remarkably uneventful trip (for me). None of the usual excitement of almost missing my flight, losing my keys, phone, purse, etc. It was snowing Tuesday morning when I had to meet my mailing guy and drop off some postcards with him, which didn’t bode well for the plane leaving on time, and it didn’t, but we didn’t have anywhere we needed to be that night.The incoming flight was late and the plane had to be de-iced as we left, but like I said, no rush to get there.

Our meeting is in DC, but my boss owns a timeshare in Alexandria, VA, so we stay out there and take the Metro into DC.

Sorry, no food pictures, my board members think I am quite weird already.

The first night we walked 12 blocks (good warm up for the next few days and all of the walking we would do on Capitol Hill) to The Warehouse, which is kind of spendy but a really good place to eat. I had the she crab soup, raw oysters, and crab/shrimp beignets. The soup was good and the oysters were excellent, the beignets were extremely MEH, which I should have taken as a warning for all cakey/croquetty things to come that week. Coconut rum cake for dessert, which was also good, but didn’t knock my socks off.

We had our first day of Hill visits the next day, visiting five Congressional offices. They all went well. Ate lunch at Bullfeathers near the Hill, had a seared tuna sandwhich which was just OK. The corn chowder was good but he snatched it away when I still had 3 bites left, which didn’t make me very happy.

We tried a place we hadn’t eaten before in Alexandria for dinner, Geranio Italian. It was good, probably the best meal we had (in my opinion) all week. I had the Five Onion Soup with Gorgonzola Crostini, was was not at all like French Onion soup, this was a light colored broth with all kinds of onion slices, and the crouton with cheese was quite small, really a garnish. There were a lot of green onions and leeks, I think. I quite liked it, it was different. I had the lobster risotto, which came with 1/2 of a 1 lb lobster, and they removed the meat for you, so no shell. Although 1/2 of the meat from a 1 lb lobster isn’t really very much, it was about just right for a serving size, and the risotto was excellent. Three of us had that, all of us gave it thumbs up. I had the creme brulee for dessert, it was good, kind of hard to ruin creme brulee, but I have been places where they did it.

2nd day of Hill visits went fine, although I left my phone in one of the offices and had to return and retrieve it. Weather was nice, sometimes we are tramping around back there when it is freezing cold. We ate at La Loma (no website that I could find), which is close to the Senate side of the Hill, and is one of our traditional places to eat when we are there. I had the ceviche and tortilla soup. The ceviche was not a huge serving size, but after the usual chips and dip, it was just right. We were done by 3:00 so I took off and tried to go to the Smithsonian American Art Museum and Portrait gallery. After some confusion over where it was, I walked the three blocks off the mall to its location. My prime reason for going there was to visit the Art-O-Mat and get some $5 art. I had also promised one of my board members who is an artist I would get her some.

The Art-o-Mat is addictive. Inserting your money and receiving a block with a painting on it or a small box with a surprise in it is delightful. (Pictures tomorrow.) I looked around the museum a little bit, enough to know I wanted to come back here and look around some more, and then headed to Alexandria. Everyone else had gone their separate ways to receptions/dinners etc., and I just went to Pines of Florence back in Alexandria and had pasta fagioli soup and manicotti, because I knew I would have leftover manicotti that I could have for breakfast the next morning. I was already tired of the Dunkin’ Donuts across the street. (to be continued)

I am just warning you now that next week while I am on travel you are going to get warmed over San Francisco trip report as blog postings. This is a BIG LONG trip and I am pretty sure I won’t have the mental faculties to be posting. I am not sure I have the mental faculties to be posting right now for that matter, but I am. I get to be home for four glorious days before I am on the road again, did I say how keen I was on the month of January?

So for today, some more quilt history, this time with the quilts for grownups.

The color on this photo is a little wonky, the blues and yellows aren’t usually quite this wild. This was a quilt for my brother and sister in law for their 5th anniversary (Ken’s brother) – people were getting 5th anniversary quilts until they all started having kids and then I made quilts for the kids, and that slowed me down on the anniversary quilts.

This shows the fabrics a little better, as well as a mysterious shadow. This pattern is called Yellow Brick Road.

Garden twist quilt for another sister and brother in law (Ken’s youngest sister.) This one is called Garden Twist. Now that I look at it I may have done something funky with that pattern, it looks a little odd. I may have transposed some of those triangles. At least I was consistent.

The colors are funny in the picture again, the background is actually a mottled black.

This one is a little better.

This quilt (finally, digital pictures) was made for Ken’s youngest brother and his wife as a wedding quilt. He is an astrophysisist, hence the “stars and galaxies” theme.

Now, of course there was a wedding quilt for the couple I made the 5 year anniversary quilt for, and a wedding quilt for MY brother and his wife, but I haven’t found those pre-digital pictures yet. And the wedding quilt for my brother and his wife is a whole story in itself, titled something like “How NOT to make a quilt,” so it will get a post all its own when I find those pictures.

And now I am going to hang out and enjoy being HOME!

Happy Birthday to my Mom! If she hadn’t been born, I wouldn’t have either, so it is a good day. Give her a call if you know her.

Another indicator that I am a FINE person to travel with: I made sure to tell my dining companions all about the cases of Legionnaire’s disease that people had caught from a water wall in a hospital in Wisconsin. While, of course, we were eating lunch in the atrium with a water wall. I am delightful company. And some of them didn’t know what Legionnaire’s disease was, doesn’t everyone enjoy reading about disasters?

I really don’t watch that much TV. I generally don’t have time, and if I do sit down to watch TV, I am usually knitting so I have something to do with my hands. My mother was a firm believer in having something to do with your hands. (I spent a lot of time as a kid churning butter and reading a book at the same time. Let me tell you, that is doing one too many things at once, and spilled cream is no fun to clean up.) Sometimes I wish there was better stuff on TV some nights because then I would get more knitting done.

I could always watch the Lord of the Rings movies over and over while listening to the cast/directors/designers commentaries, but the other interested party in the house objects to that, and he usually caves when I object to his watching endless Seinfeld re-runs, so we do compromise on that.

When I do watch TV, I default to the Food Channel, preferably Diners, Drive Ins and Dives. I can watch that show regardless or how many times I have seen the episode before. My fantasy for when I win the lottery is that we will travel around and visit all of those restaurants. After we go travel the entirety of the old Route 66 and stay at a motel where the rooms are shaped like tee pees. I have simple needs.

I do not like reality shows on the Food Channel or any channel because they are all about personal drama and really I have had enough of that in my own life, I don’t need any more annoying real people on TV. Well, Iron Chef might be considered reality TV but it is still about the cooking. I watched a few episodes of Chopped but then got irritated with it and quit. Too contrived.

I also like zombies (or enjoy reading books about them, watching movies about them, etc., I do not know if I like zombies personally because I haven’t had the opportunity to meet one. Yet.) but I quickly got fed up with the show Walking Dead because there was too much interpersonal drama. Hello, you are having sex in the woods while the zombies are taking over? You should be out looting grocery stores for canned goods! Finding guns and ammo! Looking for a cave to move into!

I will watch America’s Funniest Home Videos at about any opportunity, because it is on some channel, somewhere, at any given time, and it usually has some entertaining video with cats in it at least once per half hour. Plus, it doesn’t really have a plot you have to pay attention to. I will turn the channel on anything involving snot, barf, or anything going up the nose that does not belong in the nose, which includes almost everything.

Ken and I can both agree on Storage Wars, because the amount of personal drama is outweighed by the inherent human desire to go through other people’s stuff. I think that is why that show is so popular, we all want to rummage through someone else’s stuff with no recriminations. Most of us are pretty snoopy at heart. (You ALL want to ask me to come over now, I just know it. I do manage to restrain these impulses in my daily life. Mostly.) That is why I like going to auctions,  estate sales, and antique stores, it is a type of voyeurism. (Lord knows what kind of google searches “voyeurism” is going to lead here.)

Speaking of google searches, I was going through my pictures last night looking for something to post and I noted that I had named one of the pancake machine pictures “Miracle Pancake” – I am just WAITING for the miracle pancake search. But that sounds like something only I would search for, so maybe not.

I guess this is on my mind tonight because I am still on travel and I was questing for something to write about (so there is a daily story for my faithful readers, all 8 of you : )) and what I really want to do is take a bath and then go watch TV in bed. We do not have a TV in the bedroom at home, and so the ultimate indulgence for me when I am on travel is to watch TV in bed instead of read. And to especially watch sciencey/National Geographic programs that Ken would argue with me about watching if he was with me. I AM really interested in learning about the history of the dodo bird whereas he is not.

And so, adieu, I am off to bed, to see what is on Nat’l Geographic tonight.

Sign that I am getting to know myself better after all these years: I used the new bottle of shoe polish over the sink where it could easily be cleaned up. I was correct to use this precaution.

I am on the road for business travel again, this time to Dallas. I can’t complain too much, because I do have a job, while many people do not, and I only travel 30-35 nights a year, and many people travel way more than that, including my boss. But still, travel is just fraught with so many possibilities for hilarity, because there are so many possible variables.

I was kind of sad starting out this trip because my board member who was supposed to come with me had a sick daughter and couldn’t make it. She and I have had some fun traveling together. I guess we either had compatible senses of humor, or she puts up with mine. So that was a downer, but no big deal, I usually travel with a group but I am fine travelling on my own.

Of course I had a meeting early in the morning, and there were several fires I was trying to put out or get started, and so I was on the computer/Blackberry all through lunch and then as I waited for my flight. And waited, and waited, the board said “delayed” but I was pretty sure there was no weather anywhere near my destination causing delays.

The gate I was waiting at was not in the COOL concourse that has tall tables near the gates where you can sit and plug in your computer and use the wireless, so I was sitting in one of the rows of FABULOUS airport seats that are all bolted together. And these were mostly bolted together, and not too firmly to the floor, because fellow passengers kept throwing themselves into them as hard as they could and I would nearly be catapulted out. And then one gentleman sat next to me and jiggled his leg for about 20 minutes. And then the next guy sat for a while, and then TOOK OFF HIS SHOES and lay on the floor and put his stocking feet up on the chair. Several people nearly stepped on his head. I did get some enjoyment from one of the resident birds (yes, inside the terminal) which buzzed one of the throw-yourself-in-the-seats guys and made him freak out a bit.

The guy on the floor also felt the need to do some personal re-arrangement if you know what I mean. Who needs entertainment at the airport, I had enough going on right around me from my fellow passengers.

So finally they get the previous flight boarded, and then they announce that the gate for our flight has changed (probably because there is still a flight there for Spokane blocking the gate) and of course it isn’t right next door, it is pretty darn close to as far away as you can be and still be in the same terminal.

In the midst of all of this I somehow lost my boarding pass.

Fortunately, they don’t make a big deal out of this, they just print you a new one. I probably accidentally pulled the old one out of my pocket one of the times I checked obsessively to see if it was still there.

By the time I got to the new gate and got a new boarding pass it was about time to board. The gate agent was actually pretty funny, he got in the intercom and said, after about 10 people stood in line to ask him, “Yes, tis is the gate for Dallas. If you are standing in line to ask me if this is the gate for Dallas, please go sit down, I need to get you boarded.” The announcement board behind him said “Dallas” but you know, we all pretty much turn into cattle/sheep when we travel and you take us away from our familiar routines.

And of course the airplane is jam packed full, including someone in my board member’s seat. But that is no surprise. I did get some knitting done. Oh, I also got stopped at security because I had a pair of scissors in my knitting bag that I had forgotten about – I had ransacked the house this .a.m. looking for my tiny folding pair of scissors, found them, and brought them, but I also had another much larger pair along. They weren’t large enough to get confiscated but the TSA did go through that bag and scrutinize and measure them. Will have to remember to put them in checked luggage on the way home.

This was one of those business trips that turns enjoyable though, because my cousin Michael picked me up at the airport and brought me to his and his wife’s home and we had a lovely meal, and told MANY family stories. He didn’t live close when I was a child, so it is even more fun getting to know him as an adult. And because he knows about my cupcake fascination from Facebook, #1 his daughter whipped up cupcakes for dessert, and #2 he pointed out a cupcake store very close to the hotel. GOOD TO KNOW!

Totally unrelated but I better write it down before I forget: One of my favorite things is when my mom tells me how much I am like my Grandma Rose. (I was almost named Rose, after her.) I never met her. But apparently she was a character and perhaps “a bit loud.” Worthy traits to live up to, I think.

And I’ll leave you with this picture of me in my “Wonder Woman Costume” – self designed, self selected. I think I may have said before, most of my costumes took place entirely in my head. And they still do. I wish I still had this, I am feeling quite Wonder-Womanish.

How about some knitting content? It has been a while. I have the next pair of socks started:

They are not really this red, they are brownish. This is the “Elongated Rib” pattern from Sensational Knitted Socks.

And now for some mittens. Not a recent project, but one of my favorites.

I am quite fond of the Selbuvotter mitten patterns.

This was the first pair I knit. I took a class at Knit Knack, my local yarn store.They were too small for me and so my sister-in-law April got them.

This was the second pair I knit. These are Mine.

These are the third pair, they were for my friend Cyndi

If you want to know details about what yarn and what number pattern, comment and I will email you my Ravelry “handle.” If you don’t know what Ravelry is, it is a website where knitters hang out together and plot to take over the world.

And, what I learned in my quick design class on last Saturday:

My next quilt is going to have tentacles.

Another design from class. This one is so boring compared to the one with tentacles.

And I am off on another work trip. One night gone, two nights home, one night gone, I am not sure which direction I am going.

Thought I would finally get around to saying something about our Christmas presents! I got some handmade things this year, and I always love that!

Ken got me the All-Butter, Cream-Filled, Sugar-Packed Baking Book, Little Old Lady Recipes, and a very cool necklace. Little Old Lady Recipes has recipes but also pictures and hilarious quotes, my mom and I had fun reading that. For example: “If someone asks you if you need any help, take off your apron, hand it to them, and go in the living room and have a drink.”

I haven’t looked through the other cookbook in detail yet.

This is my tentacle necklace, which I loved, and which has already bit the dust. You can’t really see in the picture, but the glass tentacle is tied on with cord. Let’s just say that cord doesn’t stay tied onto glass real well, and the tentacle hit the floor in Safeway the 2nd time I wore it. It was my favorite present and now I am sad….I think I am going to write to the maker and suggest there could be a better way to hook the tentacles on.

My parents got us a Best Buy gift card (new DVD player? since ours like to play some DVDs but not others) and a new Hamilton Beach Slow Cooker. This one has a metal insert so you can take it out and sear meat on the stove top if you want. Tried it out yesterday but I had to leave for a work trip so I don’t know how the roast turned out, will have to hear from Ken.

My friend Cyndi made me this beautiful Christmas table-topper. She also gave me a crown jewelry holder (she knows I have a thing for crowns) and a lava lamp night light (she knows I have a thing for lava lamps…), you can see those in the first picture. Have I mentioned how much I like handmade gifts?

My Aunt Connie made me this orange and blue woven table topper (she had no idea it was Broncos colors, she just knew I liked bright things) and a bookmark for winning a contest on her blog, and my Uncle Norman made me this wonderful cherrywood hand-carved spoon. Aunt Connie and Uncle Norman do a lot of re-enacting and education for kids and adults about the frontier/pioneer living and handicrafts. They are both very talented, as you can see.

Here is a close up of the weaving on the bookmark, how intricate!

Ken’s folks gave us cash, which is always appreciated, and went toward our new bedding ensemble. Ken really didn’t rake it in as far as amount of gifts, I got him an Otterbox for his phone and I am still trying to find him a scarf he will like. Hopefully will find him some make-up gifts in January. He really wants a fancy new camera, maybe when we win the lottery…..:  ).

Are you ready for some more recipes? So far I have only published the successful ones. Well, the “Halloween Fire Chicken” doesn’t count. But that was more of a method problem than a recipe problem. Except maybe the recipe should say “don’t leave the hot grease alone for a second!” When I have some disasters, I will let you know. They happen on a regular basis. Recipe disasters, not kitchen disasters. Well, actually, both, I guess.

I LOVE the old church cookbooks I get at auctions and yard sales that have notations next to the recipes. “Not good” in some grandmotherly hand. “Better with pineapple.” So I have started making sure to write notes on mine, including the dates that I make them, so then I can tell when we haven’t had something for a long time.

So the new motto for the National Pork Checkoff is “Pork, Be Inspired,” and let me tell you, pork inspires me. BACON really inspires me. But pork loin, pork chops, pork shoulder, they all inspire me too.

Rubbed and Grilled Pork Loin

Recipe Here

Please note the very nice table topper, you will get to see the whole thing when I do an entry about my Christmas presents.

I did not make any changes to it, so I don’t feel right writing the recipe out here, like I made it up. I will say that this works with one of the small pork loins too, except that you end up with a lot of rub left over and you don’t cook it for so long. I did it on our gas grill, and its idea of LOW is not very low, so when I browned the one side for 10 minutes it got a little crispy, but that was the fatty side, so I just scraped some of it off. There is a kitchen technique it is important to learn from your mother – scraping off the burned stuff. My total cooking time was MAYBE 70 minutes for 4 pound loin.

AND I cooked it to the new temperature rules, which specify a 145° internal temperature and resting for 3 minutes. My cooking of meat has improved noticeably since I acquired a good meat thermometer. (PS, those thermometers that have a long cord that goes inside the oven with a probe and keep the temp on roasts, etc? You can’t use those on the grill. In the directions, it says “do not expose to flame.” You should also read the directions. I have still not learned this after mumble mumble mumble years.) (There, that was a disaster. I destroyed kitchen equipment. A rather NEW piece of kitchen equipment, grrrrrr.)

Anyway, the first time I made this, I used a small pork loin, and second and third times, I used about a 4-pound one. (If I have made a recipe 4 times, that means it is good, AND Ken likes it.) I wrote a note on the recipe “large better” but I think that just means more appropriate for the amount of rub. And it lasted longer. I froze about half of it.

Savory Rice
(this recipe is from a cookbook “The Illustrated Encyclopedia of American Cooking” by Editors of Favorite Recipes Press) acquired during a very brief stint of my employment with a company that sold books door to door. “Sales” – not really high on my skills or enjoyment list.

1 med. onion, chopped (chopped up really fine if you have a picky husband)
1 med. green pepper, chopped (leave out if you have a picky husband)
1/2 cup margarine (ha ha ha, I use butter)
1 c. rice
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can beef broth

Saute onion and pepper in butter; stir in all remaining ingredients and 1 soup can water. Pour into casserole (I used an 8 by 8 cake pan.) Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour. (I am at high altitude and I had to bake a little longer.) Let stand for several minutes before serving. Yield: 8 servings.

I LOVED this, Ken says it was OK. He disapproves of the minute mushrooms in the cream of mushroom soup.

If you aren’t looking for recipes that include cream of mushroom soup, you are reading the wrong blog. Just wait until I post my “Beanie Weenie Cup” recipe, that is Haute Cuisine there.

Mandatory cat pictures:

Even then, he had big paws.

MaryAnne as a kitten:

And her little stubby bulldog legs.

They were having a big fight outside the bathroom door this morning as I was getting ready for work. I kept hearing something thumping against the door, it sounded like someone was trying to get in. No, it was just them wrestling.

The first person to point out the mistake in the quilt (which I didn’t even notice until someone pointed it out at class Tuesday.) wins a pair of Glenderella trademark crocheted heavy duty indestructable handmade potholders. I would make it part of the design, but it might interfere with the design when I make the quilt a little bigger. Maybe some of you noticed it already and were too polite to point it out? :  ) This is something that anyone can notice, not just a quilter.

It is so refreshing to go to a class and talk about art and color – I encourage anyone who is a crafter or artist in any sense to take a class and learn something different. It is really helpful to use a different part of your brain. I always feel rejuvenated after class. I feel the same way after Knit Knight. Sometimes doing an artistic activity WITH other people is very different than doing it alone. The interaction informs your choices differently.