Two Years Down...Two Hundred To Go!

A few weeks ago, my husband and I celebrated our two-year wedding anniversary! It's hard to believe how quickly two years has flown by. On our actual anniversary, we celebrated by having crab cakes, baked scallops, and sautéed green beans. Remember those gigantic green beans from a few weeks ago? Yup, we ate those! For dessert, we shared a slice of Banana Cream Pie from Dangerously Delicious Pies (side note: I am working on replicating their Baltimore Bomb Pie - which actually is the bomb! Stay tuned for a post!)

The following weekend, we took a brief trip to Philadelphia, where we celebrated our anniversary by dining at Morimoto - the Iron Chef's restaurant. We went all out and did the omakase menu, which is an eight-course tasting menu of all of the most popular and more unique items. Some of our favorites included the tuna carpaccio, the lobster, and the waygu beef. With the exception of the lobster, everything we ate was either raw or rare. This was a really delicious way to celebrate our marriage - we left feeling full but not bursting at the seams.

Dessert at Morimoto

We also did touristy things, including the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, eating cheesesteaks, and climbing up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Liberty Bell

The coolest thing we saw was the Magic Gardens, an outdoor sculpture/mosaic garden that was started in 1994. Isaiah Zagar, a local artist, transformed his side yard (and the surrounding buildings) into a labyrinth with every inch covered in eclectic murals made of tile, mirror, glass bottles, and other trash. It was really impressive to see, and it's hard to imagine how long it took him to make such an amazing and unique outdoor art installation. 

Overall, we had a great time in Philadelphia! We did a lot of walking and a lot of eating. Most importantly, we celebrated our love - and that's the best way to celebrate an anniversary.

Of Mice and Muggles

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardy

This past week, my husband and I went on vacation with my parents to Orlando, Florida. Ever since the rumors started about The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios, my parents have said they'd take me as soon as it opened. Well, it took about 3 years, but we all finally were able to coordinate our schedules and plan a trip! We spent two days at Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure and two days at Epcot and Hollywood Studios at Disney World.

I was a little nervous to go on vacation with my parents, considering the last time we traveled together I was still in high school. However, our trip was really great! Highlights included:

• drinking Butterbeer in Hogsmeade (yum!)
• getting soaked on all the water rides at Universal - Jurassic Park, Dudley Do-Right's Ripsaw Falls, & Popeye and Bluto's Bilge-Rat Barges
• all-you-can-eat German buffet at the Biergarten in Epcot
• meeting Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, & Goofy
• my two favorite rides: Tower of Terror and Rockin' Roller Coaster!

The best part of the trip was when we went on Living with the Land in Epcot, a boat ride through the greenhouses in Disney World where not only some of the produce that is served in the restaurants is grown but also where agricultural research is conducted. This was one of our first rides that day, and we had already had a game plan as to what rides to wait for vs. what rides to Fast Pass, all based on the assumption we'd have no hiccups in our day. Fast Passes are a basically special tickets that allow you to skip the lines to the most popular rides by assigning you a one hour window for you to ride. They are free and every Disney guest is able to obtain them, but you can only get another Fast Pass once your ride time has passed.

As our boat approached the end of the ride, all of the boats lost power. We were stuck in the greenhouse for close to a half hour, waiting for power to be restored. Of all the rides in Disney World, this is probably the best one to get stuck on - after all, you are surrounded by lots of food! We were finally rescued by some lovely college intern who was doing botany research at Disney for the summer, and all the passengers on the boat were escorted onto dry land through the greenhouse. The best part: as compensation, Disney staff members gave us Fast Passes that were good on a number of rides in Epcot to be used at any point in the next 3 days. Somehow, my mom, dad, and husband snagged 13(!!!!), so needless to say, we did not wait for any other rides the rest of the day.

The view once we got off our broken down boat

Disney World and Universal Studios are a lot of fun, but also very tiring! On our last day, we just sat by the pool and relaxed and read. A much needed vacation from vacation.

Tomatoes and I - a change of heart?

I feel very lucky to say that I found some of the best friends in the world at the age of 5. Who knew a five-year old was capable of making such important and lifelong decisions? As it turns out, I picked a pretty awesome group of my girls in elementary school, and we have remained friends ever since. No matter how long it has been since we've last seen each other (or really, since I've seen them since I live so far away), it always feels like no time has passed. That's a really great feeling :)

Last weekend, my childhood friends and I rented a home on Long Island.  It was such a perfect mini-vacation. We stayed in Mattituck, which was an adorable, sleepy, little town (it was the off-season...)  on the North Fork of Long Island. It was great to spend 3 days with some of my most favorite people in the world! I hardly get to see these ladies as much as I would like, and considering how busy everyone is with jobs/graduate school/medical school/life, it is very surprising that we were all free this same weekend. We spent the weekend laughing, reminiscing, EATING, drinking wine, bike riding, watching movies, and just having a great time. When and where will our next weekend getaway be?!

Our first stop in Mattituck was to secure provisions = food and wine. We stopped at The Village Cheese Shop (www.thevillagecheeseshop.com/), where we bought bread, jam, loads of cheese, veggie pate (think baby food in a log that tastes DELICIOUS!), and olives and TOMATOES.

I hate tomatoes. Well...only raw tomatoes. I love ketchup, pasta sauce, sun-dried tomatoes, salsa (even the fresh kind..weird, I know), bruschetta, tomato jam, tomato soup, and pretty much anything else that is made with tomatoes. Friends have force fed me tomatoes during study abroad in Italy, claiming that Italian tomatoes were so tasty and there was no way I couldn't like them. When I hastily spit them out, we reached the conclusion that if I didn't like those tomatoes, I would never like them. While I still would never eat a raw tomato...the roasted tomatoes with herbs and olive oil from The Village Cheese Shop have brought me one step closer to loving tomatoes. So, ever since I came back from Long Island, I have been craving these delicious morsels of tomato-y goodness! And thus, my inspiration for this next recipe:

Oven-Roasted Tomatoes with Herbs

(adapted from www.davidlebovitz.com/2012/05/oven-roasted-tomatoes-tomato-recipe)

Ingredients:

• 2 Tbl olive oil
• 1 clove garlic, sliced thin
• 1 lb tomatoes
• dried herbs (I used rosemary)
• salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 325ºF (165ºC.)
2. Pour the olive oil into a shallow baking dish or pan and add the garlic, dried herbs, salt, and pepper.
3. Cut the tomatoes in half horizontally, then use a sharp knife to remove the stems, if you wish. Toss the tomatoes with the oil and seasonings, then lay them cut side down in the dish.
4. Bake for two hours, or until the tomatoes are completely softened and wilted, and start to wrinkle. Depending on the tomatoes, they may take longer to cook.

I served the tomatoes with a baguette and goat cheese. The leftover olive oil and tomatoes (if there are any after this weekend) will be added to pasta. YUM. 

And so begins my love of tomatoes.

California Roadtrip!

Big Sur

For the past 2 weeks, my husband and I took a trip to California and drove from San Francisco to Los Angeles, down the Pacific Coast Highway/Cabrillo Highway/US 1. We stopped in Oakland, Monterey, Carmel, San Simeon, and Santa Barbara along the way. We visited several wineries, ate great food, hiked, and relaxed. It was an AMAZING trip - I can see why my parents moved to California when they first got married...but I'm not quite sure why they came back east. The Pacific coastline is beautiful - cliffs, rocky beaches, plants, and lots of animals that we only get to see in aquariums around here (elephant seal?!). Here's a few pictures from our trip:

The Painted Ladies aka the "Full House" houses

Hollywood sign

Fishy graffiti