It's Extremely Upsetting When...

I go to a restaurant and they've changed their menu!!! OMG! I want to punch a billy goat in the face. So Justyn and I went to Acre 121 in Columbia Heights this past Saturday, we went in like March and I had the best chicken and waffles I'd ever tasted in my life. The chicken was seasoned with various herbs, perfectly crunchy, and the waffle was a BACON waffle which came with a side of collard greens and a maple syrup that made you wanna pour it on Jesus's feet and wipe with your hair. I mean, THE BEST chicken and waffles I've had in my life. Not to mention we purchased a Gilt deal which made our 2 entrees with bottomless (pineapple, orange, grapefruit, cranberry) mimosas a mere $35 pre-paid, so the experience was just awesome. Brunch ends there at 3pm, so just like last time we went at 1pm (with another Gilt voucher), you know to ensure maximum alcohol intake. I look at the menu, as I had all week long (salivating) and it reflects my fear, the changed menu online was correct. wails The nerve, my chicken and waffles no longer came with greens, nor did it have bacon in it. It did however come with 2 pieces of chicken, but I was just so hurt, disappointed, dissatisfied, and any other "dis" word you can think of. I asked the waitress "what happened to the bacon in the waffle? No more greens?" and she looked me straight in the eye and said "yea, the greens only come with the dinner chicken & waffles now", me with puppy dog sad eyes looks back and says "but I got em last time...see what you can do" LAWD HAVE MERCY! She aint do nothing to hook a sister up. I was hurt. Le sigh They no longer even had the shrimp and grits, which Justyn didn't like anyway, but I mean dang! what if he did?!?! My word! The waitress said in the past 3 months she's been working there, they've changed the menu three times. Now I'm no restaurateur, but from what I've seen on Food Network about restaurants that's not a good look. There's a such thing as a seasonal menu, but that raises a red flag to me. Or maybe I'm just so pissed off I can't think straight.
Don't believe me, look at the difference...




I mean look at this drab sh*t! LOL! Only thing that stayed the same were the doggone plates. LOL! UGH! Granted, I touched the food before I could take a pic, this isn't how it was presented, but you get my dismay.



Now THIS is how it should have been. This was back in March. pours out mimosa for my memories

Justyn's shrimp & grits from March. I enjoyed them, the grits were nice and creamy, but it didn't look filling, which is likely why he needed some of my food that day.



Croissant French Toast that came with a side of bacon.

Now I'm not saying I won't go back for this awesome boozy brunch, cuz that's def not the case, especially since I have another Gilt voucher, but next time I will be broadening my horizons with the fried chicken & egg biscuit, bacon with a side of sweet potato fries.

Speaking of change, after our brunch we roamed around the city, went to Penn Social, played a couple games of Connect Four (say hello to the champion) and Fooseball (he got me on that. Ego.), then we dropped in Shake Shack. He never had it and he wanted fries, so you know me I'm pretty easily persuaded when it comes to food.

Cheese fries.

You see they no longer serve crinkle cut fries right?! Okay, now this is one change I am actually pleased about. As a fry connoisseur such as myself, I like that these fries are slim and slender because with each bite I get the perfect amount of salt, instead of mash of potato mixed in with the cheese. Slim fries always pick up the salt better. Also when I stab the fries with my fork I can pick up more than a few fries and get the perfect balance of the salt and cheese all at once.

Now for what I made, I had this realization that basically anything that would taste good in a grilled cheese will also taste good in a quesadilla. Hence the creation below...



Whole wheat torilla with walnut pesto (I made), spinach, tuna, and mixed cheeses. It was quite tasty. Some sauteed onions even would have been good on it, but I didn't have a yellow onion in the house at the time.

So while trolling scrolling through IG, I came across someone's hood mama who made sloppy joes. What made her hood you ask? She was twerkin on IG...she's 40...her son recorded her doin said twerkin...HOOD! Now anyways, I can't say I've had a sloppy joe other than when I was little and didn't know what taste buds were, but I decided to give it a whirl. I used ground chicken, tomato sauce, a little BBQ sauce, Worcestershire sauce and Yum Yum sauce (the sauce you get from the hibachi place, I found it in Walmart), and sauteed yellow onions with greens peppers. I fried up a couple baby potatoes and sprinkled them with salt and pepper and had my honey mustard dipping sauce on the side. It is quite tasty if I do say so myself. I was pleased :)
 

I Should Love Myself More

WOMANIST

I should love myself more. This may be entirely too deep for the intro, but it's my truth. I can not deny my truth, because it's my subjective truth which I'm attempting to change into an objective reality. As a kid, I struggled with weight, I was "normal" sized in elementary school, but by the time middle school hit I became disproportionate, oddly tall, chubby cheeks, thick legs, and budding breasts. By the beginning of high school, I began to see what I should look like, comparing myself to other females and noting what I lacked. I remember going shopping with my mom one day when velour track suits were hot and trying to find one. Every single one I tried on made me look even bigger, I cried. 10th grade, I stopped eating lunch at school, I would bring a small pack of crackers, fruit snacks, and a bottled water. That would be all I ate for the day, then go to track practice. I remember giving up a lot of food at that time, it's when I stopped eating beef and drinking soda. I remember dropping weight so drastically my dad one day weighed me and said that if I didn't get to a certain number "I don't care if you have to eat Twinkies, you're going to gain weight". 

Today, my self image is something I continue to struggle with. I've stared myself down in a mirror picking out every error in my body. I've wondered why I didn't look more racially ambiguous, with lighter eyes, and a pointier nose, wished I was half Korean, and so on and so forth.

 

This continues to be a struggle, so much so that I began writing this post a few months ago, but wasn't sure if I wanted to spill my guts. I decided to write it because at my first Secret Dinner event, Whit and I sat next to a group of guys and I was asked when I began to love food so much. I didn't know how to answer without getting too deep and I told them that. They still wanted to know. I quickly shared "I was young and chubby when I was little, I had a complex. So now when I eat, I enjoy my food because there once was a time when I didn't". I continue to struggle with this idea that I should "lose a few pounds" and "I've been working out for 10 years, it's a shame I don't have defined abs yet," but I've become okay with the fact that I enjoy food more than I would enjoy abs. I continue to have this evil thought of "I know I shouldn't be eating these french fries, I'm going to be fat" and it's absolutely ridiculous, but that voice has always been in my head. Believe me, I don't need anyone saying "you're just fine, you don't need to lose any weight" because it's absolutely annoying and deep down inside I know that. But it's like telling an overweight person they need to lose weight for health reasons, they know, so just leave them be. You know?

 

 

DOMESTICATED

I've been thinking lately about some of the irrational thoughts I have, besides the aforementioned, I cook on the weekends for the work week so I don't have to cook Monday-Friday. What's been happening recently is I'll get off work Friday, work out (maybe), wash my hair, then go to the grocery store late that night. I like going late because no one is in there and I can have peace and quiet. There have been times when I'll feel myself becoming a little anxious because I haven't had time to grocery shop and I panic over what I'm going to eat for that upcoming week. It's a combo of "I need to know what good food I'm going to eat" and also "How am I going to eat healthy if I haven't had time to cook my meals".
So anyways, now to the fun stuff: Friday night I had a Secret Dinner event, Saturday evening Justyn and I went to Drink the District, then Sunday we binge watched Orange is the New Black and completed the season. Let's begin with the dinner event. It was held at the Maurice Electric Supply Company at 500 New York Ave NE. I believe I've mentioned this before, but the dinners are never in a restaurant, always some funky place like last time's art gallery. I was a little upset when I got there because the menu was different than what I initially paid for. Seeing as how the dinner was $75, I want exactly what I paid for, with no substitutions unless it's for seafood or some rare exotic meat like ostrich.

 

 

First Course: Green apple & Scallop crudo. I wasn't a fan. It had no texture except for something that tasted like raddish which I wasn't feeling. The scallops were cut so thin it melted in my mouth, which I wasn't happy about. Only thing I like to melt is a warm Krispy Kreme doughnut when I eat it.

Each course was paired with a beer. I don't like beer AT ALL, but I made a point to at least taste each of them to see if there was any change. There wasn't.

Second Course: Smoked watermelon soup. This is the pork belly for the soup. The soup is below. They put it in cute little mason jars, then we poured it over the pork belly. I'm telling you, you wouldn't even guess it was watermelon, the smokiness took over. It was very flavorful and the pork belly was cooked perfectly. If you've never had pork belly, you can order it at any Korean BBQ place.

Watermelon soup for course 2.

Third Course: Seared Asparagus. This was tasty as well. I was upset because we were supposed to have duck breasts for one of the courses. They changed the menu when they added a chef apparently. I wasn't pleased.

This lamb was heavenly. It's on the menu below which was supposed to be the original menu. My only complaint was, there was a bit of fat on the meat that I believe could have been cut off although if cut prior to cooking, it would have made the meat dry. There were brussel sprouts under the lamb that were good too.

Original menu. The lamb portion is what I had.

Fifth course: Tres leches. This was my first time having this traditinally Latino dessert. The cake was extremely moist and I just can't complain about a dessert with fruit in it, especially since I'm not a chocolate kind of girl.

Another angle of the tres leches.

One of the chefs and myself.

Some of the beer. I actually passed all my beer over to Whitney since I didn't like it.


After dinner, Whit and I walked out, heard some artist (I believe Freddie or something) Whit was familiar with and walked into a Gay pride event. It resembled a rave that you'd see on TV. There were lots of costumes, men walking around in undies, booties out, just everything. LOL! Everyone was drunk,  but it looked like a good time. We only stayed for about 30 minutes. I love things like that and I love the randomness to the end of our night, especially since we got in free.

 

Saturday, Justyn and I went to Drink the District. It was similar to Taste of DC (slightly), but Taste of DC was better because it was a larger venue, Drink the District was only about 2 blocks and the wine was under tents, but it wasn't categorized like Taste of DC. At Taste of DC, the wine was organized from dry to sweet to dessert. Instead at Drink the District, you just had to go to the tent and taste it to see what you were getting. Lucky for me, I know which wines I dislike and like, so I could turn down the ones I knew I wasn't a fan of.

 

One of my favorite's from Drink the District. They had a really tasty peach flvaor as well. It reminded me of Welch's but do you see that it's 12%?!?! My word! I've never had a wine that I liked (that was sweet) with that high of a percentage. I'll be ordering some from their site.

These perverse signs were at every table. LOL!

One of the food trucks Rio Churrasco. They made the fish tacos below.

The chipotle sauce on these fish tacos were so good. I mean like so good I'm going on the truck's website and contacting them about what brand it was so I can order some.

This burrito was from the Rito Loco food truck. It was the Mojito Rito burrito with pulled chicken, cheeses, and citrus flavor. No rice, bens, or lettuce like Chipotle. The salsa verde was good, but the red salsa was better, they ran out unfortunately, so I was unable to indulge in that one.

On the train headed home from the festivities. He's clearly my Ride or Die. He typically (95% of the time) answers yes when I say I wanna get into some food activity especially when there's drinks involved. LOL!

 



Emote & Food. Not Emotional Eating.

WOMANIST

One day while facilitating the afternoon group with my guys at work I was speaking about expressing emotions. The overall theme with them and most men is to "stuff" their emotions, repress, ignore, and shut down. Stonewalling at it's finest. I often tell them at times it's best to stew in those ugly, negative emotions that cause pain because once we process and make sense of it, we lead emotionally healthy lives. I then began to think of an analogy while a client was speaking about how he ignores his overwhelming emotions and I said...

I don't know if it's just me, but I think about food...maybe it's because I'm greedy.

Sometimes you just have to sit in that pit of emotions.

Some of the best products come about from having to sit in something.

It's like ribs, you poke holes in the meat, then let it marinade overnight, then throw them on the grill and they're the best ribs ever.

Like slow cooking food in the crockpot, it's some of the best and most tender food.

That's exactly how emotion's are, I'll leave you with a quote from a book I'm reading  and a quote from somewhere else that I can not recall, "intense emotions have a dissolving effect which can incapacitate the synthesizing function of the mind" and "express your emotions and you control them, repress your emotions and they control you". 

DOMESTICATED

So one day after work, I walk in the door and kick off my shoes before stepping on the carpet as I usually do. I walk to the kitchen to begin unpacking the Tubberware from my lunch bag, turn to the right and glance at the microwave. Through the glass I see a white paper bag with a smiley face on it. I'm thinking "WTF! Who been in here?!" extremely suspicious. So I open the microwave, grab the bag slowly and proceeded to open it cautiously and inside was this...

I knew who the culprit was...JUSTYN! LOL! I was fat happy kid and it was delicious. I warmed it up as I do all my pastry treats. It had a little too much icing on it for me, but the savory sweet combo of the bacon and maple was delicious. You can see how thick the icing is in the pic. I've never really been big on icing, I typically scrape it off of cakes and cupcakes. I enjoy a thin layer of icing like the ones on Krispy Kreme doughnuts or like the lemon icing on a poundcake. 

Food is love and I can't give everyone my love.

So...I really have to stop letting picky people try my food. I am incredibly sensitive about the food I prepare, especially when it's something I believe I've done a really good job at. Not to mention, I believe it's rude to act repulsed by the food someone makes. One time I made pico de gallo and my friend who doesn't like tomatoes insisted on eating my damn pico. I said "don't eat it if you don't like tomatoes, I don't have time for your pickiness" and what does she do, goes and grabs a chip and eats some of my pico. Don't you know I wanted to punch her in the face when she ran to the trash can like my ish was disgusting. So last night I made vegan whole wheat waffles to go with the leftover fried chicken I made Sunday. I was super excited, like SUPER EXCITED because these waffles still tasted like..waffles! All I did was replace the 1 egg that was needed with natural apple sauce and I used almond milk instead of cow's milk. It was totally an accident that they ended up vegan, I mainly wanted to substitute the eggs in the waffles so as to not add cholesterol and I had almond milk in my fridge so there it was. I didn't add sugar to the waffles as the recipe called for, but I added cinnamon. Rule of thumb when replacing eggs, 1 egg=1/4 cup of apple sauce=half a banana. Next time I may try the banana just to try it out, but my bananas weren't brown enough for me. So anyways, Justyn and I had chicken and waffles on Monday along with some leftover baked veggie egg rolls I made Sunday as well. He tore it up! I didn't tell him they were vegan until after he took a bite and told me what he thought of em. So I decide "hey lemme take this small waffle to work and share with my coworker" who is trying to eat healthier. Mind you, she eats awfully, like most Americans (as if I'm not American, but whatevs). So I offer her my vegan waffle, she says "let me try this without the syrup" rips a piece of the waffle, chews, frowns her face, and slide the plate back over to me. Of course, my feelings are hurt, especially when another coworker who eats even worse than her says "you're eating that cardboard!" and falls out laughing. I warm up my waffle, go to my office and chow down on the waffle I set aside for myself and what she didn't want. Was I pissed? Yes. Anger is a secondary emotion, so my primary emotion was hurt and maybe embarrassment. I'm pretty sensitive about my food because I only cook/offer food to people I care about, so when they're not pleased well you know...The lesson I learned was, never offer healthy food to people who add salt to pizza. I enjoy trying to offer healthy alternatives for usually fatty foods to people, but everyone isn't going to be as open. So I will no longer offer my healthy foods to people and that's just that. Will I still cook for our work potlucks, sure. I'll just make sure there's plenty of lard and grease for them ;) Now I see why chefs become so rude to the judges on Chopped when they dislike their food. It's like disrespecting their baby. TUH!









"Secret Eating Society"

DOMESTICATED

Forgive me because this post may end up being a little longer than normal. I have tons I've been needing to post, but just haven't worked up the energy to do so. (Truthfully meaning, last Saturday I took a day and sat on the couch and caught up on my DVR/On Demand for the entire day. Along with catching up on a few Zzzzs.) First, cookies and happy hour. I baked snickerdoodles for the first time because I had a MEAN craving for some, but my cookies HAVE to be soft, so I wasn't going to risk some store bought cookies. I therefore, went on an internet hunt for a recipe and made my own :) They were amazing, soft, and thick. I took some to work and shared with a coworker and she said they were some of the best snickerdoodles she had ever eaten. CHA-CHING! LOL! In the process of searching for a recipe, every recipe include cream of tartar which I don't own, so I did research on what the purpose of that ingredient is in baking, then called my stepmom who's a baker and she said I would be okay without it...The results...

Next up, Justyn and I went to Cheesecake Factory for happy hour one Friday, of course I went solely for the food. I ordered the only thing I ever order from there: buffalo chicken blasts, Justyn had the southwest egg rolls, and we shared postickers. Those were the best potstickers I've ever eaten, mainly because of the sauce they were in. My word! Their happy hour consists of $5 appetizers and $5 drinks to I believe. 

So as you can tell by the title, Whit and I finally got to go to our first "Secret Eating Society" dinner a few weeks ago. It was on a Thursday at an art gallery in DC at 8:30 pm, so I hurried home from work, worked out, then drove out there for an amazing time. It felt like the elite of the elite coming together for a fine dining experience. We told our names to the guy at the door, then walked in to the 7:30 dinner crew on the left eating and drinking, appearing to have a really good time.

The menu.

My extremely detailed review. On the other side was the ratings they wanted us to. I failed to mention that it was open bar and there were drink pairings with 3 of our courses.

First course: Ahi Poke.

Second Course: Hawaii Dreams of Spam.

The Art Gallery. This pic doesn't do it any justice, but I was focused on my food.

The pseudo innocent pose. LOL! She was late and had me looking lonely.

Third Course: Kona Luau, Chicken & The Sea

Fourth Course: Kona Luau, Coffee buried pork. The pork is inside the banana leaf.

Fifth Course: Many Mahalos, Pina Colada bread pudding. I'm not a bread pudding kind of girl, but this was amazing. 

The fifth course is pictured twice, because I ate mine and what Whit couldn't finish. LOL!

Killing my second helping of bread pudding. The frozen banana cream on top reminded me of P.F. Chang's coconut ice cream and banana wontons with fruit. Go ahead on down there and try that dessert, you know you want to. You won't regret it.

I had been on a hunt since Jamie told me she got her mason jars from the dollar store; I went to 2 different dollar stores and couldn't find them, so I gave up and went to where I knew they were: Target. I bought a pack of 12 and then right above them were these cute lids and straws. Meaning, I have to have another function at my house and make tasty teas or lemonades :) I bought the jars so I could make my green smoothies before the work week. For the past few weeks I had been blending my drinks daily before work, totally annoying, so now I can make my smoothies along with my meal prep and store them in the freezer until I need them. It's kind of cool how they're all different shades of green.

Mother's day I went to my grandma's in Richmond and got some fresh herbs out of her garden. I got rosemary, sage, mint, and basil. So I baked a chicken for my work week, stuffed it with sweet yellow onion and put some on top, ripped up some rosemary and sage, then sprinkled those 2 herbs on top. Next, I added a little salt, lots of lemon pepper, and a montreal chicken seasoning I have. Baked it at 350 for about an hour....

AND WA-LAH! The chicken is organic too, I got a pack of 2 from WalMart for $14. I was pissed because I let the other one go bad, Justyn and I were going to split it in half and toss it on the grill. I just literally licked my lips thinking of how good that chicken would have been. I had it in the fridge for too long, forgetting organic foods go bad quicker. 

Last night, my line sisters and I had a sleepover. Much needed catch up/girl time. We had a masseuse come over,  each of us got a 30-40 minute massage, then we went to a Chinese food buffet. You know one of those Teppanyaki buffets. But LISTEN HELEN, LISTEN! It was only $12! I was SHOCKED. YOU HEAR ME, SHOCKED! I stuffed my face to the worse degree. 

This was my second plate, it wasn't as good as the first, but it was okay because I was truthfully still stuffed from my first plate. LOL! I had something they called "grilled chicken" and I couldn't get enough of it. They even had yeast rolls like in Golden Corral. Apparently, I need to venture out to Laurel, MD more often.

Enlightenment: I haven't spent as much time with my friends as I should have the past few years, I got caught up in my relationship, like most people do in new relationships, and began to neglect my friendships. On top of that, being in graduate school, commuting, and etc. I never felt like going anywhere honestly because I was too tired. When you get texts from your friends that say "I'm so glad we've been able to hang out more lately," you know you've been slacking in the friend department. Plus, I don't want to be that girl who's only obsessed with her boyfriend and has no life outside of him. I'm glad I was able to get to this point before it became destructive, it's always good to have a level of introspection that allows you to check yourself. 

Random: I've been wanting to share a few things that have been working for my skin that are straight out of the kitchen. Organic apple cider vinegar has been working on my skin as a toner for acne. It has to be organic because of the mother in the cider. Secondly, raw organic coconut oil has been working for eczema relief on my back. It's also good for wrinkles, so I've been using it just about all over.

Enjoy.

Breakfast at Tiffany's.

DOMESTICATED

I've been living at my current apartment since May and I've never hosted anything until this past month. One, money was tight and two, I always want my decor to be right for the event. If I have people over to eat, it's going to be a nice event, that's just the way I operate. So I had 3 friends over on a Saturday for "Breakfast at Tiffany's" a brunch event, meaning I cleaned my entire apartment from top to bottom the night before, because that's just the type of girl I am. I created my menu well in advance and also sent out invites (text message. LOL!) about 1.5 months in advance. I'm a planner, I operate in the future because it helps calm my nerves. The beginning of course was food, followed by nail painting since I have about 40 different quality polishes.

Menu:

Breads: Whole wheat brown sugar/cinnamon pancakes and blueberry french toast

Meats: Sausage and cheese balls and salmon cakes

Sides: fruit bowl: strawberries, grapes, and mangoes; fried eggs with optional sauteed onions and mushrooms; and a cranberry compote to add on top of the pancakes

Drinks: Cucumber water and orange juice mimosas

Flowers, Justyn had sent to me.

Blueberry french toast, WW Brown Sugar/Cinnamon Pancakes, Sausage and cheese balls, and sauteed onions and mushrooms

Cucumber water, mimosas, and fruit bowl

My plate.

Table Setting.

Fruit bowl and salmon cakes.

Recipes:

Pancakes- I use the King Arthur recipe, I knew to use King Arthur because my stepmom is a baker and she swears by King Arthur flour, so I knew their recipe would be the bomb even though I used store brand WW flour.

French Toast- There's no real recipe I follow for the french toast mixture, it's simply eggs, milk, brown sugar, and cinnamon, some people use vanilla I don't-simply because I don't keep vanilla in my kitchen. The bread I used is the most amazing sweetened bread that could ever hit your lips... I also added this maple butter on top of the breads after they cooked that I got from Whole Foods...muy delicioso





Dip this baby in the french toast batter and LAWD!

Meats- The sausage and cheese ball recipe is stolen straight from the Bisquick box, it's on the side of the box. I don't follow the recipe anymore but it's mild breakfast sausage meat, shredded cheddar cheese, and the Bisquick mix... http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/sausage-balls-recipe.html Whenever in doubt about a recipe I use www.allrecipes.com or anything from foodnetwork.com they will never fail you, but always read the reviews from AllRecipes.com because people who have tried the recipes will make suggestions for changes to make.
Salmon cakes, well my mom makes those so I asked her what ingredients she uses and she told me and that's what I did...canned salmon, pull out the bones as much as possible, I used Phillip's seafood seasoning, black pepper, mayo, and a little italian bread crumbs and I believe that was it.