Prom Night

Sarah & Paul were kind enough to invite me along to "Prom Night" last night at the Army-Navy Club in DC. They are members, and from time to time they have put together excellent nights out for cocktails and dinner. Paul's brother Philip and his wife Sarah were there, along with their friends Matt & Gillian. It was an excellent group.

I had only been to the downstairs club before, so this was my first time in the main dining room. Jacket and tie required sort of situation, so the gentlemen were suitably attired, the ladies in very fashionable dresses, jewelry, and well-coiffed. This is where the "prom night" nickname comes from - I gather most of us do not dress up for dinner on many occasions nowadays.

While it was a "dressy" night, it was not overly formal or stuffy. It was pretty fantastic- mostly because these are just fun people. In that setting, particularly Gillian and Philip's wife Sarah AKA "Sarah the Great." Gillian makes me think of Dorothy Parker, and Sarah is so completely without pretense you can't help but be charmed. She turned up the car radio when "The Humpty Dance" came on - that's my kind of people.

As for the club itself, I always get a kick out of it. Good food, and just a cool setting - lots of the historical arcana that I enjoy. The dining room was full of pleasant older couples - think grandparents - but they didn't seem to mind our... let's call it youthful vigor. So start to finish it was an outstanding evening.

Baconator

I went to the Curious Grape wine shop last night with Jane & Ian, Sarah & Paul, Zina and one of her friends. The owner was doing a mini-symposium, free lessons on some of the basics of wine. I'm still not much of a wine drinker, but it was interesting. Never hurts to learn. And they did food pairings with the wine to bring out flavors. Most were cheeses, but there was one particularly notable food pairing: Mo's Bacon Bar. It's a pretty decent chocolate bar, with bits of applewood-smoked bacon inside. Not for everyone, and I certainly wouldn't want to eat a whole bar of it by itself. But it is at least as good as chocolate-coated pretzels and potato chips.

Afterwards, we went next door to Ping for chinese. I wasn't especially hungry, so I just got a small plate of pork-filled steamed buns. I often order these at chinese restaurants, always hoping that they will be like the dim sum that was next door to Ryan & Bethany in Boston. That place had the best cream buns... Not the case this time. They were different, but still quite good. The pork wasn't sealed up inside, rather the steamed bun was wrapped around it so it was like a chinese mini-taco. With a slice of cucumber inside - surprisingly tasty.

The televisions over the bar were showing the Nationals and Orioles games, so I got a little distracted. And then I may have geeked out all over the group by getting into sabremetrics and explaining the quick-and-dirty formula for Expected Runs. I may have also ranted about the moral degeneracy of interleague games. I sometimes forget that maybe not everyone shares my particularly geeky interest in the game.

Vile Weed!

It's been quite some time since I've done any real cooking. Since well before the holidays, even, I've been making very simple stuff. Pasta with store sauce, quickie grilled chicken. And those were the fancy meals. There have been many servings of buttered noodles and grille cheese.

So this was an itch I've been meaning to scratch. Luckily Zina, Sarah & Paul, and Jane were able to come over tonight for dinner and give it a sense of occasion. This did require some adaptation on my part; I had to add some vegetarian options, and even made a bowl of foul broccoli. But it all worked out pretty well; I went so far as to get wine, which I almost never drink myself (though it was left untouched this time).

It was a surprisingly easy meal to make. The entree was Monster Pork Chops, accompanied by Coconut Rice, Fettuccine with Brussels Sprouts and Pine Nuts, apple apricot sauce from Trader Joe's, and the aforementioned vile weed. Dessert was Gingersnap crumble ice-cream tart, with reinforcements from various other cookies. It seemed like the entire meal was well-received. But I especially enjoyed the evening for the company; it's been a while since I've had people over, and it was a welcome change. It helps that this was an especially fun group of people to bring together - very similar senses of humor, and all quite clever.

On a more professional note, I've started looking for symposia and calls for papers that I could submit my (still hypothetical) paper to. One good candidate came up in the latest Naval Engineers Journal: the West Coast Combats Systems Symposium. I checked the Call for Papers, and it says abstracts are due on February 31st. I assume that means they must be in their offices by a quarter past Never on the Eleventeenth of the next Triple Leap Year.

A Touch of Class

Last night was the company's Washington Area Holiday Party. In the 5+ years I've been working, I had never been any of the various extracurricular events. But this year my friends talked me into going. And I'm glad they did.

It was held out in Tyson's Corner, at one of the hotels that has a nice ballroom. There was nothing particularly unusual: open bar and hors d'oeuvres before dinner, plenty of mingling and the like. A pretty decent dinner (steak, sweet potatoes, etc), door prizes, a band all the way from Syracuse (ooooh, love that Syracuse Sound!). But the most enjoyable aspect was enjoying myself with my friends. And I actually got to wear my tuxedo - hard to find opportunities to wear that without looking crazy. One does not bother with a self-tied bow tie when going for groceries.

I spent most of the evening with Sarah & Paul and Jason & Dawn. I had only met Dawn a few times before. But she is a blast. Not to be too pointed, but she is especially fun once she's been drinking. After they shut down the bars, she and Sarah made it their personal crusade to somehow finagle more drinks from the bartenders. Needless to say, they were both very successful.

Thinking back, though, I wish I had taken advantage of the cheap room rate to stay there for the night. It was freezing rain all the way home, and I was dead-dog tired. I had myself a little navigational adventure coming through Seven Corners. I'll have to remember that next year.

It is worth mentioning that I never need to see any of the company middle-management types on stage, drunkenly dancing with the band, wearing what can only be described as a disco-ball helmet. Never again.

FÜD

It had been a while since I made "real" food. I almost never fix anything interesting for myself - I stick to a rotating roster of staples that are pretty good, but uninteresting. It takes guests to rouse me to actual cooking.

But I've had a hankering, and while my friends don't come over often, I always enjoy it. So I invited Steph & Aaron and Sarah & Paul over for dinner last night. Most of the meal was stuff I had done before, though I did try an experimental salad. It was a vaguely asian or vietnamese meal, though not intensely so.

Usually when I prepare a big meal, I get a little overwhelmed. But I planned this time, and the cooking went very smoothly. I was actually able to sit and visit with my friends before dinner, rather than run back and forth trying to get everything ready. And I think everyone liked the grub, too.

Best of all, everyone laughed a lot. Often when I have people over, I feel vaguely stiff and almost formal. But it was very relaxed. Steph, Aaron, and Sarah spent most of the first half hour trying to decide which single women on their crew team to set me up with. "So-and-so is nice, but she's 325 and built like a brick shithouse, she'd probably break Dan in half. Dan, how do you feel about the phrase 'hurts so good?'" That did a lot to create an informal atmosphere.

Cucumber, Tomato, and Pineapple Salad with Asian Dressing
Vietnamese Style Grilled Steak with Noodles
Chocolate-Caramel Tartlets

First Person Singular

Steph and Aaron wanted to try their recipes for their upcoming rehearsal dinner, and invited Sarah & Paul, Dave, and me over to be their test panel. They made steak and chicken fajitas with red rice, accompanied by Steph's very potent sangria. It was all excellent, but I dug deep and nitpicked so I could give them "constructive feedback." I would have gone back for third, fourth, and fifth helpings if I had the room, though.

It was an interesting evening as well, for a few reasons. Since Steph & Sarah both row, and Aaron is their coach, the conversation naturally turned to crew quite a bit. Which was fun, but left Dave, Paul and I with less to contribute to the conversation. The crew discussions were interwoven with wedding talk, since Steph & Aaron are very busy preparing for theirs. Sarah & Paul had some excellent stories from their wedding (including lingerie, friendly advice at the Post Office, and arrests for public drunkeness), and Dave shared some thoughts from his and Sadie's. I had nothing at all to say at this point, so I just listened - some very funny stuff. So it was a good time, even if I didn't bring much to the table.

The End of (Snow) Days

So D.C. is once again in the grip of a killer storm that brought about 2" of snow and sleet overnight. Work is an absolute tomb, all the schools are closed, and the Federales are opening two hours late. It's not exclusively because no one here knows how to drive in snow. In their defense, I just now saw my first city plow clearing and salting. The roads are not at all good. I think I was spoiled in Vermont, where even my small town owned multiple plow trucks and a Cat with a huge snowblower attachment to do the sidewalks. I guess the cities here have made the smart choice, though. Spending the money to provide a similar level of snow-clearing capacity would be an irresponsible waste of funds. Plus: Snow Day! Always fun.

I could not wait any longer, so last night I made two batches of green apple curry and prepared to eat the custard cake Mom ordered for me last week. I made one regular batch of curry, and one vegetarian, and invited whoever felt like having a free dinner over to chow down. Steph & Aaron were able to make it for dinner, and Jane joined us for dessert. It's a good thing I made two batches - we made very short work of almost all of it. I was surprised how hungry we all were. Just enough leftovers for a lunch or two.

The custard cake was fantastic, too. After consultation with an expert (Jane), I went with vanilla cake, chocolate custard with chocolate chunks, topped with caramel. I had been picturing a vanilla cake with chocolate custard in place of icing filling. NOT SO. It was mostly custard, with thin layers of cake at the top, middle, and bottom. Plenty of caramel topping, and a kind of white icing shell. It was delicious. A cross-section is shown at right - just enough to deliver a promised slice to Sarah, and some to go with my lunch today. Nothing goes so well with a Snow Day as frozen custard cake.

In more momentous news, Ryan &Magda are the proud parents of a new baby girl, Sophia Magdalena. Ryan likes it when you call him Big Poppa. AND Mere & Matt found out they are expecting a girl in June. Apparently the name "Morac" is being debated. Not as good as "Scorpiona," but not bad.

Susan's Green Apple Curry

Ingredients:

2 tbsp. butter
1 1/2 cup peeled & chopped Granny Smith apple
1 clove minced garlic
2 tbsp. flour
2-3 tsp. curry powder
1 tsp. salt (optional)
2 cups milk
2 cups cooked & cubed chicken (or tofu)
Onion powder (to taste)

Instructions:

Melt butter - sauté apples, onion powder, and garlic. Stir in flour, curry powder, and salt (if desired). Blend in milk with wire whisk and stir until thick. Add more flour to thicken if necessary. Add chicken. Serve over rice. Garnish with crumbled bacon, coconut, raisins, cashews or peanuts, dried cranberries, etc.

Barfolomew

I was having such a nice weekend. On Friday night, Tyson came to visit, after finishing up his training at Yorktown. We went to Annapolis and visited the Oberlanders. Melissa made a really delicious dinner, and Kirk and Tyson got to catch up on 4 1/2 years of sea stories. Good times. On Saturday, I finally got the HD digital video recorder from Comcast, so I can watch the HD and record the HD channels. They seem to have accidentally turned on the premium HD channels as well, so the first thing I watched was The Empire Strikes Back. It's rough seeing Han get frozen in carbonite, but the asteroid chase in the Falcon makes it all worthwhile. Hmmmm, it seems I geeked out all over my keyboard there... sorry.

Steph & Aaron stopped by on Sunday morning so Steph could borrow my oven to bake a chocolate cake. The plan was I would come over after I finished my chores, and we would play Halo 2, watch a movie, eat, watch the Superbowl, etc. However, while I was doing my laundry, I started to feel awful. Weak, nauseous. But I rallied, because I really wanted some of that cake, and to have some fun.

And I did have fun, but I had to excuse myself a few times when I thought I was going to be sick. The pulled pork, the cake, everything was great. I just couldn't work up any appetite, which made me feel worse, since Steph & Aaron put so much effort into putting out a great spread. I felt ok while I was distracted by the game, or while we watched The Guardian (hoorah Coast Guard). But once I got home after the game, I barely got any sleep for the sickness.

I'm not looking for sympathy - everybody gets sick from time to time - but I wonder if maybe I was selfish. By going over for dinner, I'm worried I infected Steph & Aaron. So a word to the wise should be sufficient: if you get sick, quarantine yourself. Try not making your friends sick, too.

You're So Vain

My rig for the Second Annual Fancy Dress Party at John and Jodi's. New vest, and the purple bow tie from Ryan & Bethany's wedding. Tying it took me 20 minutes. But damn I make it look good.

Also, go see Pete's work at The Diaper Muse.

Under the Black Flag

Last week, Sarah made me extremely jealous at work when she announced that she would be starting a new project. Doing analyzes of pirate attacks. Honestly, I would plunder and kill for this job (like a pirate, one might say). But now, everything is fine. I was lucky enough to get some great birthday presents, which included pirate bath sailboat, and the Jolly Roger shower curtain seen on the left. Sure, it might be like showering in a Hefty Bag; I don't care. It is awesome.

I also got a book (Collected Writings of Thoreau), a new PSP game (Twisted Metal) and bunch of t-shirts. One of the shirts deserves further explanation. Ryan likes to doff his pants around the house; this has been going on for years. I have a "Pro-Pants Policy" in effect. He has countered with an "Anti-Pants Agenda." So now, thanks to Ryan and Bethany, we have shirts to clarify the situation.

I also took a quick photo of the kick-ass insulated blackout blinds Mom made for Christmas. The windows in my bedroom are not well insulated, lights often wake me up or keep me awake at night, and the room could use some color. So Mom took the situation in hand, and consulted her Art History texts to find examples of one my favorite artists, Piet Mondrian. Resulting in a colorful and classy addition to my decor.

I don't have any pictures to share, but I went out to Taqueria Poblano for a birthday dinner yesterday with Steph & Aaron, Jane & Ian, and Dave & Sadie. It was a great time. We had a long wait at the bar while a big enough table opened up, but that just gave us a chance to catch up. Dinner was great, as always. Then we went to St. Elmo's down the street for cake and coffee. I had a piece of Triple Chocolate cake - I highly recommend it.

There was live music, a band made of teachers called Jumping for Strangers. Pretty good. While we were eating, Steph went up to talk to the band, but I didn't pay much mind. Then, as we were leaving, the band said "Wait! Is the birthday guy leaving?" Then they played Happy Birthday to me, with scattered participation from the crowd. It was fun.

Olives

I made homemade pizza for the first time last night. Well, partially homemade. I've never made my own dough before, and it turned out pretty well, I think. Thanks to Sarah for the recipe.

Jane & Ian, Steph & Aaron, and Sarah were all able to come over for dinner; Paul wasn't able to make it, unfortunately, since he is on travel. Everyone said they liked the pizza, and I think they all had a good time. I don't think I'm a particularly good host, though - I always feel like I'm trying too hard, instead of just relaxing. Forcing it, for lack of a better term. And I'm never quite convinced that my guests are enjoying themselves as much as I hoped. But I'm glad they all came by. Maybe my next focus in Dan's Personal Growth Program will be to have people over more often. That, or learning to like cheese. Either would be good.

In other news, my covetous ways continue. I forgot to mention the other day that I also am thinking about buying an external hard drive and a kayak. Maybe the smart move would be to buy lotto tickets, and hope they pay off so I can buy all this other crap.