Annapolis, Delaware, Historic Triangle, Monticello and DC

Spring break was a blast and this is the first time I've had a moment to sit down and reflect on all that the places we visited and the things Geromino and I did. 

Sleepless in Annapolis

You know that disorienting feeling you get when you take a red eye flight and then your in a different country with different people and you can't check in to your inn yet because it's only 9am and check in time is 3pm and your not hungry and you'd just like to take a nap, but your in a new place, with a new time zone, so you have to walk around and it's like your living in the walking dead? Well that was the first day on our trip.  

Walking around sunny Annapolis Saturday April 16, 2016 was like walking around an all day fancy dress party. The reason being the annual St. John's College vs. the Naval Academy croquet match. You heard me right CROQUET! (Click this link to see buzzfeeds 2014 coverage)  We didn't know what was going on, I thought to myself "Does everyone in Annapolis dress up and walk around like they're in a movie ALL THE TIME?" Thank God that wasn't the case, because I did not pack anything fancy,  it's nice to know that people have places to wear pork pie hats and Lily Pulitzer dresses. I will always have fond memories of all the drunk college kids in fancy dress not knowing who won the match because they didn't quite make it there. And BTW it was the Johnny's (St. John's)who beat the Midshipmen. 

At this time I would also like to point out that we as residents of the inglorious State of Washington, we are not allowed to enter the navy military academy because our drivers license and Nexuss passes are not proper id. :(   Check the website before you go kids:  http://www.usna.edu/Visit/index.php

Checking in and taking a nap was also a highlight our place the Chez Amis Bed and Breakfast was a corner very cute building that felt very "New World 1700's", our room the "Treaty of Paris" was sumptuous. Large bed. Large sitting area. Walking distance to EVERYTHING Annapolis. We had incredible breakfasts, the place felt historic and homey at the same time. Here's a few pictures.

Elly @ Chez Amis setting up breakfast. Yummiest crab strata I have ever put in my mouth. 

Here's the facade on the side of the building this was our window

Geromino and the resident hound, Maggie.

Sunflowers in our breakfast nook.

Second day in Annapolis has us driving into the "tough" streets of Baltimore to Fort McHenry National Monument the forest service is having it's national centennial celebration and admission was free! Score. The place is amazing the set up and parklike atmosphere is a treat a big plus was the day was gorgeous. Here is our pic with the star spangled banner and one little movie of the harbor.

Oh my! I've taken all this room up and have only covered 24 hours. Well, I would like to end part one of this post by mentioning all the yummy places we ate in the Annapolis.

In first place

The Point- the crab cakes and the fried pickles words cannot describe the deliciousness 

2nd place

Harry Browne's- this Annapolitan Flatbread 

with Crabmeat, Spinach, Caramelized Onions,Bacon, White Crab Sauce and Mozzarella Cheese was very good. And later on we went for drinks at the bar. Will revisit someday.

3rd Place

1747 Pub- Crab Dip $12 Local Brews $5 sitting around with uppity college kids in their croquet best, priceless.

4th Place 

The Fox's Den  Just had drinks didn't eat there but the menu looks okay. Everything in the place is American made. Whiskey, Whiskey OOOH LA LA

5th Place

Red Red Wine Bar- AGED GOUDA and Champagne flights, how can you go wrong.

Honorable Mention is:

Mill's Fine Wine and Spirits no food, just goodies to drink.

V @the V for V

It's the Year of the Monkey. Can you spot her?

Vegas, Venetian, Valentine’s Day

I’m always surprised by the spectacle of it all. The weddings, the fashion, the girls who know how to walk around on stilettos, the food, the crazies, the big spenders, the naked it just gets bigger and bigger every year.

We arrived at 10pm on a Friday night after a two hour hell flight.  Flew Alaska, nothing interesting happened on the flight, but my seat was next to two adolescent MEXICAN soccer tournament boys who didn’t know I spoke Spanish, I don’t think either had ever been on a plane, and they kept taking pictures (with flash) of everything.

When we landed we got a crazy cab driver that honked and screamed at a drunk driver that nearly ran us off the road.

Checking in at the Venetian we got to the desk and James Blond, the former pit boss told us a great story about a tuxedo top…pant less dude trying to put down some bets.

Got to our room which was near the end of longest hallway I have EVER been down. Checked for bedbugs, put away our stuff and headed down for a drink.

Went to the Yardbird (more on that later) had a mediocre bartender serve Geromino up a beer and I asked for a cheap whiskey he gave me Glenfiditch $14. He ignored us after we ordered. Never offered us a menu and was weak with the upsell, I think we might of looked homeless after our travels but I think he was in a bad mood at closing time or we were overfriendly and high on being in Vegas, baby.    Went upstairs washed my faced and passed out.

I loved my room at the Venetian, except for some small details. It does not have a coffee maker, no water kettle and no fridge, some of the lights don’t always work and they don’t have AMC (for the Walking Dead mid-season premiere). It’s a long way from the lobby to the room, the nearest coffee is super crowded from 8-1030am. So if I want coffee I have to walk half a mile to the ESPRESSAMENTE ILLY in the mall. I <3 Italian coffee. The cappuccino is amazing.

Next morning, gambled a little, went shopping a little and then had lunch at Grimaldi’s. They have a chemist that does an analysis of the water in New York City and they copy that and only use ingredients they would use in New York to make a really good crust.  We shared a salad and a small.  The pizza had the just right amounts of cheese, chewiness and sauce.

This is the small.

Dig the wine bottles turned into lights.

After lunch we lounged at the pool for 3 hours with some East Coasties. The only thing I'm going to comment on is that WE from northern, wet cold climates are easy to spot, trying to get a tan in 73 degree weather, with our fluorescent flesh causing temporary blindness.

This picture was earlier in the day and yes the sun did shine at the pool later. The temperature in the water was not 78-80deg as promised.

Had the groupon for:

$19 for Two 44-Ounce Margaritas in Souvenir Cups at Tacos N' Ritas ($56 Value) 

Is not worth it, there is NO BOOZE in them what-so-ever. But the huge glass is fun to parade about @ the pool.

After a little more gambling, we set off for an amazing dinner at SushiSamba if you check out the menu its a combo Japanese, Brazilian and a little Peruvian mixed in to make this an exciting and delicious experience. Had a delicious 7 piece Nigiri Platter and the Neo Tokyo (spicy tuna) Roll, Filet Mignon Robata and Vegetable Tempura all downed with a little white wine. This place is fun, fresh, and fabulous, couldn't leave without doing this dessert:

a banana split with coconut flan, dulce de leche ice cream, fruit, caramelized bananas, all with whiskey whipped cream.

The wagu beef rock roasting thing looks really interesting, however, I think it's not fun to cook your own steak at the table, especially at $32 an ounce, someone should do it for you.

Maybe this guy:

He stood and cooked on his hot rock for his family. It felt very Flintstone. My camera is perfectly fine. Just this guy's rock is really smoking.

After dinner, went on our first UBER ride...EVER! to the Fremont Street Experience. If you haven't ever done Uber, you should, it is so easy, and you don't have to worry about tips and sobriety and such. Do it! You won't regret it.

Walked our favorite street to ogle and made our way to our favorite pub in Vegas. Banger Brewing had a couple of yummy triples and Geromino swears he saw some Demon on Fremont St. Walked up and down the street a few times, listened to the bands, saw the look-a-likes, saw strippers, saw said strippers get fondled, you know the usual, we headed back to the Banger for seconds.

  

Took an Uber (2nd time to ride Uber ever) back to the Venetian,  and won money after this. I just can't remember much else. I like how my pictures get blurrier as the night progresses ;)

Next day we got our s**t together around the time we booked a ride on a Hummer to go shooting at Battlefield Vegas so we hurried to the Palazzo where he said he would be... 20 minutes later we are still waiting. But then this family of Brits wanders out of the Palazzo, and magically our HUMMER appears  and off we all go to bust some caps. Here we all are riding on the Strip.

We shot our guns and headed back to the Venetian. 

NOW I can tell you about the Yardbird. Geromino and I figured out it was a chicken biscuits Southern place and you could actually hear our mouths water. I am of the mind that if we see it we should eat it. We shared 3 different orders of biscuits and they where all AMAZING!

The chicken, the brisket, the ham. 

I also had the best-est OLD FASHIONED of my life.

The box next to the drink is a little Valentine's present of two biscuits that we had for lunch back in Seattle. I loved this place. Check out the website menu. When Geromino and I come back, this is a definite revisit. 

After lunch, I was on a little best bourbon brunch high and we went to a little shopping spree, I purchased a bottle of souvenir bourbon to mark the occasion. It was a little store in the Venetian mall called VOM FASS. This store was exclusively created for me, it has yummy vinegar, oil and alcohol from around the world. I could of stayed in here and sampled something from every country. 

Around this time i started to notice something odd about the day, I had forgotten that it was Valentine's Day, but the brides reminded me. I must of seen 150 ladies in all shapes and sizes dressed as brides.  The one in all pink was my absolute favorite. After walking the strip, and not buying a cupcake from the cupcake atm

I lost all my money I had won, and then some! So to console myself we went off to dinner at the Bouchon. It was not the highlight of my Valentine's Day I'm sorry to say that the beer and charcuterie and bignets where the best part. The two hour wait for food, the mussels, and being bumped in the back by a waiter every 5 minutes where the worst. I expected excellence and got mediocrity. I do not recommend this place. After dinner, in a funk, and nothing to console me, i gambled more and lost more. So I think my weekend overall was incredible. Next time a later flight home (8am)!

Pride + Prejudice + Zombies, Superbowl Beef Fondue, and Weekend Drinking

Friday night I got home 2 hours after I started my commute. Needless to say I needed a drink. Then I remembered my awesome Christmas Pressie from Armando's Christmas Party and of course I always have juice for my SodaStream so I had a gin and tonic and my 15 minute meal of Mrs. T perogies and sauteed cabbage. That's how my weekend started. I want to add that I normally don't have a hangover with gin, but this one gave me one. I wonder why the call it "Counter". Is it because it's supposed to sit on the counter, or because it's made in Seattle and it's counter culture (hipstery)?

Saturday afternoon I came home late from having breakfast with the Boy (our 24.99 year old son). Geromino had already made dinner ( a lovely jamie-oliver/squashed-cherry-tomato-and-smashed-olive-bruscetta) I was not quite ready to settle down for the evening and was hankering a brew. We went to the new pub not to far from our home. The Beardslee Public House. We both had very delicious very different Belgium Trippels. It was happy hour and the drinks where only $4. Which for an upscale pub (John Howie steak) in our area is unheard of.. Our tab was less than $15 and we got to enjoy a new place, and I can honestly say that my beer was better than Geromino's.

Sunday was Super Bowl Sunday. I am sad, but not as sad as last year. We couldn't decide what to do about dinner so we had beef fondue. In a future post I will show you how to make this awsome, yet easy "fancy" dinner.  And of course it's not the superbowl without PICO DE GALLO.

Before the Superbowl we went to see Pride, Prejudice and Zombies. I thought it was smart, and funny and an exciting period piece. I highly recommend it. 

I got so excited about this movie that I went and found me some makeup that was inspired/promo by it.  It looks like alot of fun. I ordered it this weekend and it should be here this week. So go see the movie and buy the makeup pallette.This blog contains the swatches.

Geromino's Parker Staffing Services Party at the Hot Stove Society

My dear Geromino works at Parker Staffing Services and they had a "kick off 2016" party at Tom Douglas' Hot Stove Society cooking school. It was a complete blast! This is by far the coolest thing I've done all year. To begin we had wonderful gift bags in each; opening them we revealed a cool mug with our names and a picture of ourselves. It's a mug mug. I'll post a picture of it another time. Also included in the gift bag was a cookbook. Since Geromino loves me he gave me his copy of "Tom Douglas' Seattle Kitchen" and I had "Tom's Big Dinners". I can see why my husband loves working at Parker, everyone from the president seem very sweet and very supportive. The cocktails where flowing and this party's getting started!

Here's the president of the company, Debbie giving props to her peeps for a job well done. Everyone was cheering and from the get go I knew I was in for a wild time. We where divided into six teams of six or seven people and each stood at a separate work stations. We all had tasks to complete as we are about to embark on a cooking school, culinary party. But to start we had lovely little plates, with veggies and dip, potato croquet, and something?? on a polenta disk, all with champagne.

The Menu is Our team is working on the Maloreddus which is an ancient style gnocchi pasta made with semolina and saffron.

 I think my team had the most work we had to hand roll, on a gnocchi paddle, THOUSANDS of little pasta pellets, the other teams could pause, look around at everything going on, but OUR team had to work non stop for 2 hours on this task. My thumb is still sore from using the paddle. I did learn alot about pasta.

 Here's a picture of my lovely Geromino.

 A selfie with our work aprons and a bunch of champagne on.

 Gnocchi about to get boiled.

 Finished product with Rosemary Cream Sauce. It was easily the best dish of the whole dinner.

 Endive and Baby Spinach Salad with Candied Walnuts and Blue Cheese

 Whole Roasted Wild Samon and Shitake Relish (Red Onion)

 Roasted Broccoli with Lemon

 Mushroom Crusted New York Strip Loin.

 Salsa Verde that went on the Salmon

Here's the dish my delish Geromino was working on the Apple Galette with Vanilla Whipped Cream.

It was such an easy recipe for the dough that we made it at home the next day but I used pears and lingonberries.

What an excellent dinner with a group of swell peeps. I learned alot of cooking techniques and I learned about my husband's job. I wouldn't mind repeating this adventure.

HERE IS THE LINK TO HOT STOVE SOCIETY

THIS IS PARKER STAFFING SERVICES FACEBOOK PAGE