We Missed the Cherry Blossoms!

On my blogging, um, hiatus (we'll call it that instead of a batch of extreme laziness), cherry blossom season happened. Cherry blossom season is nothing short of magical. If you have never seen our National Monuments sprouting from the thousands of blossoms of pale, pale pink, you have never seen beauty. I loved it so much last year that this year I actually took a vacation day so I could start taking photos at sunrise and walk the whole Mall. It is my favorite thing about living in D.C.

Get ready for a photo heavy post!

 

This should show you how dumb the National Parks Service is. Right before prime tourist season, they begin work reinforcing the Monument, visible from basically every spot in D.C. Hence, all my shots are in silhouette.

Look at just how thin the blossom leaves are - they are so incredibly delicate!  The wind blows, and petals dance in the air on the way to the ground.

The blossoms grow in clumps and feel so soft they could melt away in your hand,

I loved how still the Tidal Basin was all morning, before the paddle boaters are out.

 

By the time I made it around the Basin, the sun had fully risen.

Good-bye Summer, Hello Monday!

This weekend was a perfect farewell to summer if there ever was one. Yet it is still so hard to wake up Monday morning and leave the slow, ambling ease of hot, humid D.C. summer days behind. Uggghhhhhh…

Can’t I just go back to bed?

The weather was beautiful all weekend – no humidity and in the 70s! If this is September, sign me up. I’ll let go of summer if my hair can remain straight and smooth after I flat iron it! Since it was so nice, we took a bike ride. We headed down the Mt. Vernon trail and I should have taken pictures of the harbor. #BloggerFail It was beautiful and green in that lush, Virginia way.  Sure, we were both a touch saddle sore afterward, but the view across the water and the beautiful marshes more than made up for it.

Layne and Emma having a blast at King's Dominion.

We also headed down to King’s Dominion this weekend for Layne’s Employee Appreciation Day. I love roller coasters, so I was all in on this plan. We had Amy, Andrew, and Emma tag along and it was SO. MUCH. FUN! I wasn’t sure how to do an amusement park with a baby, but with the parent swap system and the world’s most even keel infant, it was a breeze! The only downside was waking up the next morning and realizing that at the old age of 23, I’m just not as young as I used to be. My body can’t be rattled around that much without being a little achy afterward!

So even though we’re a little worse for the wear as we begin our week, we must press on. The Redskins play tonight and I am slowly relenting and letting my excitement for the autumn season mount. Football season has begun!

Adventures in Scone Making

The other day Layne was trying to watch the first BYU football game of the season and I was desperately trying to get him to change the channel. I am not typically the kind of wife that won't watch sports with her husband, but it's not cold enough for football yet! I'm just not ready to give in to fall. In any case, I quickly lost the battle, and decided to pick up one of our cookbooks. I went with "Taste" by Neiman Marcus, marking recipes as I flipped through. Fortunately, there was a lightning delay at the game and before long we were back into the Breaking Bad marathon that has been rocking our Labor Day weekend. But not before I caught the cooking bug.

Layne and I really do love cooking, but the layout of our apartment along with the amazingly antiquated and insufficient swamp cooler system has left the kitchen absolutely broiling all summer. It has been a while since we've been in there in any official capacity. But flipping through "Taste" reinvigorated me. And while, yes, I did have to stop several times to go stand in front of the cool air in the living room, I think the final product was well worth it!

I am the baker and Layne is the chef, so I decided my first adventure would be to bake something. I've been wanting to try making scones for a while now, and thought now was as good a time as any! I found this recipe by Tyler Florence for blueberry scones with a lemon glaze.

Here are my thoughts on making this recipe. After cutting in the cold butter, it wasn't quite as crumbled as I expected. I had thought to see the peas you usually get when making a dough. It probably would have been ok to add more butter actually, because they came out flaky (which I like in a scone), but maybe just a tad dry (though the glaze helped a lot with that).

 

The recipe cautions against over mixing, and I was instantly certain that I would be guilty of that and the scones would be ruined and we would be having cold cereal in no time. I mixed til my dough was just barely holding together, which made the cutting and transferring to the cookie sheet far more difficult than it needed to be. Don't be afraid to have your dough hold! 

Here's the dough, laid out and cut and you can see how lose it was. I had to keep pressing the blueberries back in to their doughy confines, as they rolled their escape. After popping the cut scones into the oven, it was on to the glaze!

The glaze came together very quickly. Lemon is one of my favorite flavors, so I've pulled together a list of quick tips for how to get the most from your citrus. 

After cooling the scones for a few minutes, I brushed the glaze on and enjoyed! They're very filling, but I still ate two in the first 10 minutes because they were SO GOOD. Eat warm to enjoy most. Happy Eating!

TV Time

Ok. So by "exciting things," I really did mean exciting things. I just can't tell you about them yet. It's all very hush hush, secret type, you know? For now. But I'll let you know ASAP. Sorry to keep you on the edge of your seat!

Instead, let's talk about one of my favorite subjects: TV. I watch a crap load of TV, guys. No joke - it's an addiction problem. When you watch the amount of TV that I do, you definitely cover the bases. I watch all the shows that everyone watches: Modern Family, How I Met Your Mother, blah, blah, blah. But I also find I watch a number of shows that the rest of the world is overlooking. I'm talking true gems like BBQ Pitmasters with Myron Mixon ,the winningest (or sexiest, as we always say) man in BBQ. Or Top Shot, which just wrapped it's All Star season and has trick shots that will blow your mind. How about The Hero, hosted by none other than Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, which really speaks for itself?

All fantastic options. So the next time you're channel surfing and you see one of these shows, don't be shy. They'll convert you in no time.

Here's a Top Shot clip (they don't usually have this old guy narrating) on a few of the trick shots they do. Seriously, mind blowing precision guys. Mind. Blowing.

I Didn't Forget...

I didn't forget that I'm supposed to be back to blogging. I've just been INSANELY busy and INSANELY tired. We flew out to Utah for Jen's wedding (yay for the Free's!) and while there I got a cold. And I, for one, am completely sold on the theory of this Wall Street Journal article. I felt like death. It's been almost two weeks and I'd say I'm at maybe 80% now, but still super sleepy.

I'll leave you with this picture series of the beautiful bride and her handsome groom, and note that I'll be back much sooner next time! Exciting things are afoot for the Fletcher's.

Day Trip to Philly

We were tossing around ideas of what to do this past weekend when Layne suggested maybe going up to see his best friend, Thorn, and his wife, JoAnna, in Philadelphia. They've been living there a few months, but we hadn't gone up for a visit yet. So, we decided to make it a day trip. Sadly, JoAnna had her nursing school finals the next week so she studied most of the day, but she joined us for all the eating bits. You know, the important stuff. 

We started out the day at this amazing breakfast place, Green Eggs Cafe. Holy. Crap. Everything we ate was amazing! I got Peanut Butter French Toast, Layne got the Chicken and Waffles Benedict (that's right. Fried chicken. Waffles. Benedict.) And Thorn and JoAnna split the Kitchen Sink, this massive scrambler with biscuits and gravy. Everything we got was a definite winner; I'm not sure you could make a bad choice in this restaurant. Except for maybe the Tofu Scrambler because - just - why?

After that, we found a place to park our car for the day (quite the feat in Philly as it turns out, the city of two hour parking spots). We then walked about a mile and said good-bye to JoAnna at their amazing apartment - Layne and I were incredibly jealous of the sheer space and the A/C. Their place is right next to Independence Hall, and we had 1 o'clock tickets.

Independence Hall was really cool. The park ranger was a total jerk, but all of the volunteers that gave the tour were actually quite nice. You could tell they really cared about the history they were sharing with you. The building was done in the Georgian style, which I completely loved. All of the drapery and tablecloths were a really pretty green color, which I learned was the political color of America before red, white, and blue. On the way out, the woodwork was a GORGEOUS light blue color. I will have this color in my house someday; it was so calming yet playful.

Then we went across the street to the Liberty Bell. It wasn't as cool to me as Independence Hall, but there you go. When in Philly, right?

After that, we did a walking tour of the city. And I mean, the whole city. We walked from Independence Hall to Reading Terminal Market. We were still painfully full from overeating at breakfast, but it smelled amazing.

Then we walked to the LOVE park. I told Layne we had to pose for a picture, but I also made sure to get a picture of the boys together. It's the city of brotherly love after all. #bromance

Then we walked... walked... walked... down to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, aka the Rocky Steps. There's a pretty statue nearby with a series of steps and we stopped to rest and chat for a bit. At this point, I had grown tired so there were no more pictures. A true shame, because the building was incredibly beautiful. It has all of these amazing details and colors and the way it rises up from the steps is majestic. Seriously, we saw about 5 weddings here all getting their pictures taken because it is probably the most beautiful spot in the whole of Philadelphia.

So then we walked all the way back up to JoAnna and Thorn's apartment. In total, it was over 4 miles, closer to 5. But sometimes walking really is the best way to see a city. After hanging out and talking for a bit, we walked to Thorn and JoAnna's car (another half mile away) and went to Tony Luke's for some authentic Philly cheesesteaks. The area of town may have been a little sketch (or a lot) but the cheesesteaks were GOOD. We also got the pork with broccoli rabe and some really good little mozz triangles. I was impressed with the quality for such a shabby little stand under a highway overpass, and even Thorn and JoAnna, resident experts, told us it was better than Gino's and Pat's.

Right before we left, we hit Max Brenner for some dessert. We had had some of this hot chocolate before in Vegas and Layne and I have been talking about it for years. So, he had to get the hot chocolate and so did JoAnna and Thorn, but I went big and ordered the s'mores kit which we then all shared. Really, really, really delicious. All of it. Especially the chocolate parts.

All in all, I would recommend Philly for a day or maybe even a weekend trip. But we will definitely be back, if just for Thorn and JoAnna.

PS - Sorry for such a long post!

Party Time

My Fridays are typically about as cool as this song.

On Fridays, I get off early and Layne sometimes works from home. Today was one of those days, so Layne came and picked me up so we could grab lunch. We hit up Bobby's Burger Palace (crunchify that thing) and got it to go. Layne and I are some of the biggest homebodies you ever will meet, so if take out is an option it is most likely the option we'll take. The sooner we can get back to that TV, the better!

Since then, I've read til my iPad died, painted my nails (end result - I think there may have been an earthquake of some sort earlier this afternoon...), took a little nap-ski, and even went on a run. That's right - a whole .77 miles! #KillingIt There may have been an odd Wipeout episode mixed in with a whole slew of Tia & Tamara (highly would not recommend that show - truly, truly terrible).

I think I'm off to take a shower now. With D.C. humidity, .77 miles may as well be a half marathon. Hope you all have a great weekend!

PS - Yeah... Tia & Tamara is still on. And I am somehow still watching. Shoot me.