Farmers market, Crafts, Tea. Me, me, me.

Today I did stuff in cool parts of the city! And I took pictures! Crappy camera phone pictures, but still. It's been a long time since I put up pictures.

I only have one day off this weekend, so I wanted it to be a good one. Don't cry for me though. I'm only taking one day off because I leave for Las Vegas at the end of this week and I couldn't take more than 40hrs off in a row.

So the day began with a trip on the train. Choo! Choo! Ok, not that kind of train. More like a subway. So....Whoosh! Whoosh! I got off at Dupont Circle at about noon and caught the last hour of the Farmers Market. I was very excited because I'd never been there before. I was pleased to find LOTs of vendors and many with grass fed meat and chickens and eggs and milk in addition to produce. Pears are in season, by the way. This market often has special events and this week was Free Giant Paella Day! I don't think that's the official name, but it's as good as any. Three chefs from Jaleo were there to make free paella for everyone in a giant pan.
See? Giant Paella pan. And you can also see that there was none left when I got there. The last little plate went to the woman next to me. But that's OK, she was probably waiting and I had JUST gotten there. Plus, it looked kinda wet. I dont like wet paella. But I love sour grapes. haha.

Since I was going to be out and about I could only buy things that would survive a day in my canvas bag. Unfortunately, that meant no meat or milk. Fortunately that DID mean croissants and mushrooms! And since it was near the end of the selling day, I got the 2 croissants for the price of 1. That makes up for spending waaaay too much on porcini mushroom, right? That's ok, the porcinis were deeeelicious. When I got home, I sauteed them in some olive oil, garlic, and thyme and had them with bread, havarti cheese, and asparagus. There was more, but I ate some. Hm, I suppose I could have had them with croissants, but those were long gone.

After the Farmers Market, I walked to the big event of the day, Crafty Bastards in Adams Morgan. About 100 vendors selling handmade goods. It was like Etsy come to life. It was craft pleasure overload. It was awesome. The weather, not so much. It rained a bit on and off and it was hot. I did meet up briefly with my coworker who told me about the event. It was a really big event and there were tons of people so it's amazing that I did see her. There were lots of tshirts and plush toys and knit goods and jewelry. I got some great stuff, but since some are gifts, I can't post those. One booth caught my eye because she had a framed drawing of Sophia of the Golden Girls saying "picture it: sicilly..." Unfortunately, that drawing was out of my price range. Fortunately she also had this hilarious shirt:I present to you, Presidential Facial Hair Hall of Fame. The shirts she had were imperfect and were marked down from $18 to $10. Hilarious $10 tshirt? Of course I'll buy it! But I'm gonna have to get my tshirt paints to fix the pic on the back to properly say"honorable mention". Gotta respect the mutton chops.

I loved the Crafty Bastards show. There was stuff handmade and local. There was music and food. There were free tote bags. There was a lot. I was tired. And thirsty.

What to do, what to do? Ohhhh for the love of god, what?

Well, Whiny McWhinypants, I went to Teaism. It's a tea house that I've been wanting to go to for a long time. I think Rachel Ray went to it for $40 a day. I'm just sayin...

The branch of Teaism I visited was in Dupont Circle. They have tea (duh), tea accessories, sweets, and hot food and cold food. It's a tiny place and it was very busy. But I did manage to find a seat right next to a window. I had iced morrocan mint green tea and the handroll bento. The mint tea (not shown, you know what tea looks like) was not super minty but very refreshing on this hot and humid day. The handroll bento had tea cured salmon with miso mayo, tangy pickled cabbage, brown rice with sesame seeds and more sheets of nori than I knew what to do with. Custom maki or tiny asian burritos! I really can't go wrong with rice and smoked salmon. It was yummy. I also had a toffee/granola/chocolate chip cookie. It was good, but it would have been better if I couldn't hear the guy two seats away telling his life story. I hope he was being interviewed and not on a date, because there would not be a second date in my opinon. Anyway, I look forward to going back and trying more of their menu, including the Jasmine creme brulee and the veggie bento (tofu and roasted veggies, yum).

Infact, I really look forward to going to Dupont Circle and Adams Morgan again and again. On my way to all those things today, I passed so many interesting looking restaurants and shops. So, next time you're in town, let's go there.

These are a few of my favorite things (right now)

1) Ominivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan
2) Making my Bucket List
3) Homemade fast food style chicken nuggets that don't taste like styrofoam (hint: stick the chicken in a food processor and season to your heart's content)

What the hell is this post about?

What the hell? No post at all for August?

Yeah, August was boring.

I did remember my facebook password and had to respond to like 27 invites from people I know or knew. The whole facebook thing was entertaining for a week. Then it got boring. Maybe because I'm boring? Perhaps.

But you know what is exciting? Bean burgers. Yeahhh. A good bean burger. There are a lot of awful bean burgers out there that shouldn't even be an option during a cookout. But here's the secret: worchestershire sauce. Burgery deliciousness, I tell you whut. Vegan? No, but nobody said I was vegan or even vegetarian. I'm just eating more plants. And you should too. I don't have a recipe for you because I just throw stuff into a bowl, mush it up, and fry it in a pan. Just be careful no to throw too hapazardly because you'll end up with a tablespoon of cayenne in your two cups of beans and that's a spicy meatball. Er, beanball.

In general, details are inversely proportional to importance

I just got back from Yogaville. Here are some of the highlights:

1) I meditated for the first time in an interfaith temple

2) I learned the basics of the Integral Yoga style of yoga

3) The vegetarian fare was really good and a lot of the food is grown on the property. I bought their cookbook. (Of course I bought a cookbook).
Typical breakfast was oatmeal, stewed prunes, yogurt (whole, fat free, soy), granola, corn flakes, puffed rice cereal, rice cakes, rice milk, soy milk, orange juice, apple juice, grapefruit, apples, bananas. A salad bar was always available at lunch and dinner.
Hot lunch and dinner included such things as spaghetti, marinara sauce, breaded cauliflower, steamed kale, curried cauliflower, beans in tomato sauce, lentil or chickpea dal, split pea soup, rice (wild, brown, saffron, and white), aloo chat (spicy chick peas and potatoes), spelt bread, cabbage with coconut, and tofu - plain, curry roasted, soy sauced and seasoned.
Dessert was usually a fruit salad and fresh fruit was always available during all meals.
The condiment table was a bit of a mystery. Somebody needs a label maker. There were a number of things in syrup containers that had no label :( But there was garlic flavored olive oil that I kept wishing was honey. There was something that looked and tasted like thinned out peanut butter but I'm guessing was roasted tahini. Still good on a piece of bread. Then there was some sort of powder that I wasn't brave enough to taste. Maybe it was nutritional yeast. Apparently it tastes like cheese. Grated parmesan for vegans I suppose.

4) Speaking of food, on the way there, we stopped at Whole Foods in Fair Lakes, Va and saw this guy -
He was taping for his show Emeril Green which is on the new Planet Green network. Apparently he's there a lot. It's a really nice Whole Foods, so I don't blame him. He walked behind me while I was looking at a magazine at one of the registers. When I looked to see why there were camera men rushing by, I stared at Mr. BAM! himself with my mouth agape and I'm pretty sure he looked at me like I was strange. (When I stared at Pierce Brosnan outside the National Gallery of Art, he gave me a debonair nod of the head. In the battle of celebrities that I stare at, James Bond wins.)

5) Speaking of celebrities, when we were at the temple gift shop at Yogaville, this guy was at the information center across the walkway - "Do you know who that man holding the baby is?" asked the cashier at the gift shop. "That's Leiv Scheiber, an actor. His mom lives here at Yogaville. I knew him in New York when he was a kid, a kid with a broken leg." I didn't actually see him, just a man with a baby from 20 feet away. And nobody could tell me what movie/tv show he was in. Or that that kid's mom is Naomi Watts or if Naomi Watts was also there. If only Yogaville had more CSI fans or people who even remember he was Cotton in Scream or nerds who knew he's gonna be Sabertooth in the next X-men movie. Too much to ask from yogis at an ashram?

My latest favorite blog exerpt

From Little Yellow Different:

Pork, I have learned, is the sacred food of the Catholic people. And since pork is fucking delicious, I am okay with this.