outta mind outta site

Wherein Catherine Goes to Asia to Rediscover her Roots, Maybe, But Mostly to Eat Copious Amounts of Dim Sum

I'm part Asian. It's silly but it's true, and I like to joke about it. It's a very SMALL part of me -- 1/8th to be precise -- but I like to hold on to it as a self-identifier because otherwise, I'm just your pretty basic, very average, very American-looking blond tallish girl raised in the suburbs from a long line of straight-up English ancestors. But! I have a great-great-grandfather named Luk Wing Hoy who came from South China to San Francisco, who had a son who ended up in Wyoming, who had a daughter who married a Belgian and then went into the Foreign Service, who had a daughter who eventually had me. 

So it is pretty far-fetched, but it did feel a little bit like a potential exploration of my roots when I bought tickets to a trip to Hong Kong last winter. That's pretty facetious, actually -- I have no idea where Luk came from, not because that information is not easily available but because I'm a lazy jerk -- and I was really going to Hong Kong because I have a good, old friend who lives there. But, hey! 1/8th Asian girl was finally making it to Asia. 

Anyways, it wasn't a trip of self-exploration and fostering deep connections to the continent, or anything. Mostly, it was about gorging myself on Asian food. Which was awesome.

Here's what happened. 

Life goal achieved: Visiting Glacier National Park in Montana

Two years later, I finally did it. And it was nothing short of stunning. The tally:

-4 days of backcountry camping and hiking in the eastern side of Glacier National Park
-30 miles hiked
-3 lakes swam in
-10 big-horned sheep horning in on our hiking trail
-1 giant bull moose who blocked my access out of the pit toilet
-3 very happy friends, who have a new annual tradition of gathering and camping in some beautiful wilderness in the United States (we're thinking Utah next year - any tips?)

(Susan, myself and Parker atop the summit at Redgap Pass)

I'm pretty sure this trip is the embodiment of "a picture's worth a thousand words," so I'll let my Flickr set do the talking. You can also see Susan's exquisite photos here.

 

(for those curious, we used a guiding service, GlacierGuides.com, and flew in and out of Kalispell and also stayed in the Glacier Guides Lodge on the nights bookending the trip. All 3 of us would heartily recommend all of the Glacier Guides services. I'm definitely happy to answer any further questions, just post a comment below!)

Weekend Report: Wild Times in Ocean City

What happens when you gather a bunch of women in their late 20s and early 30s, load them up with 18 bottles of rosé, cram them together in a run-down beach condo called Parrot Bay, and let things loose? Well, you'd have our wacky, wonderful bachelorette weekend in Ocean City.

You see, this past weekend was the bachelorette celebration for Kate, and instead of the classiness that was her shower, we went pretty much down the opposite road for her bachelorette (as it should be!). Ocean City, with its plethora of 20-something, hollering bros, its sleazy neon boardwalk, its ability to airbrush anything, anywhere, on any item of clothing that you wanted, was our destination. We left Friday afternoon and drove the few hours along the way, stopping for some key thrifting moments. Like the one where we picked up this dress for $2.50 and made Kate wear it for 24 hours:

We blew up penis balloons and took over the condo balcony, where we got hollered at by the bros vacationing upstairs ("My my, you are all so gorgeous and glamorous!" [Amina gamely chats with one guy for a while who eventually goes in for a hug. Amina: "How many kinds of cologne are you wearing?" Bro: "Uh, two or three."]

Other than that, the weekend pretty much consisted of sitting on the beach, drinking things out of solo cups, eating delicious home-cooked meals (when we weren't eating at Hooters), and buying neon items:

Oh yeah, and then we went to Seacrets. This Yelp review best sums that place up:

There isn't  much you can say about Seacrets that hasn't already been said about the U.S. involvement in Iraq--we went to a sandy place, under false pretenses, and when it's over, you can't remember how you got there in the first place, or for that matter, how you got back home. Wait, whose bed is this anyway? And who is this guy? And who is this other guy and why is he holding a video camera? Oh boy.

Like Iraq, Seacrets does not have nuclear weapons. However, if you do manage to venture inside, you should prepare yourself for atrocities not seen this side of Saddam-era Tikrit. You will see things at Seacrets that you have never seen before--men and women, huddled together and clinging to each other for dear life. Their clothing is in tatters and in many cases, they wear scarcely anything at all.

We promised that what happened at Seacrets, stayed at Seacrets, so I won't say much other than I drank a pina colada with an extra beaker of rum in it. Shrug. When in Ocean City...

As always, you can see my Instagram photos here.

A little bit of this, a little bit of that

(written this AM, posted much later!)

Hello, world! Writing this from Big Bear Cafe, which has changed radically since I used to live in the neighborhood back in 2008 and hang out here every single night. For one, they now apparently turn off the wifi on parts of the weekends. Boo. For two, I used to drink here for free, and illegally. Now I pay, but it's legal, so trade-off? For three, I used to wait 10 minutes for my yogurt and granola; now I wait 15. I kid. But they really have done great things with the place, and the food is amazing, and the community is great, so I can't complain. Too much. Except about the wifi. 

What else to write about? It feels a bit premature to write a Weekend Report, since I have this plan-free Sunday in front of me -- such a luxury -- and who knows what magic could await. Like, more coffee. Maybe a trip to Eastern Market to find some more decor for my apartment (it's still in need of some wall art). Maybe THE CROSSWORD. Await the scintillating post later this evening or tomorrow. 

In other news, it won't surprise you to hear I've been running a lot. The Pacers running coach set up a brutally hilly 14 mile run yesterday AM, which really fatigued me. Have you ever run up Mass Ave, then to 34th/Reno? It goes a bit like this: /\/\/\/\/\ ow. I'm on a rest day today (thank god) but the rest of my week looked like this:

Monday: Easy 3 miles (oops, skipped this, due to being in NYC for work and unable to wake up early enough to run and get to my 8am conference)

Tuesday: 6-7 hilly miles, done in Central Park. Good lord. If I had a place like this to run in DC, I think I'd be running twice a day:

Wednesday: Rest

Thursday: 6 miles, 2 of them at marathon pace (8 - 8:10 minutes per mile)

Friday: Easy 4 miles

Saturday: 14

Then Saturday night, because I'm insane, I signed up for and ran the Crystal City Twilight 5k. It was a cool night, the course was flat and fast, and there was beer at the end. What not to like? I ended up running it in just over 23:00 minutes, which was good enough for 11th in my age group (out of 350 ladies or so). One day, an elusive age group win in a race will be mine… (life goal). 

Week total: ~34 miles

So I'm ready to enjoy a respite today. 

In addition to running in Central Park and thoroughly enjoying it, I think I've developed a beyond-serious crush on New York City. What a surprise. I mean obviously, it's an amazing city. But it used to sincerely terrify me. Every time I went up there, I was overwhelmed, overstimulated, and constantly lost. But in the past few years I've gone up more and more and started to develop a feeling of comfort, and, more importantly, a feeling of mastery over the subway. (It helps that smartphones and trip planning apps have come on the scene so I can figure out how to get from spot to spot via the subway or walking really easily.)

Sunday night, I got in and met up for a drink & dinner with Zach, who happened to be in the city (we're friendly, it's nice). We were stuck in midtown so hit up a couple of places there, including a beer at The Cannibal and a glass of wine at the Ace's John Dory Oyster Bar (we'd hoped to get food there, but, uh, it was super expensive). We eventually ended up getting Korean BBQ at Miss Korea. Very tasty. 

Monday, I worked worked worked. My conference was located at NYU, so I ate the conference take-out lunch in Washington Square, which looked like this:

 

That evening, I headed to Park Slope to visit with Fletcher and Lauren and their adorable newborn, Felix. Then I strolled over to Taro Sushi with Claire & Blair & Natania, and then we got tasty Thai ice cream at a place nearby called Sky Ice. Amazing. I had ginger honey & black sesame seaweed. 

Tuesday, it was work work work. The conference was over in mid-afternoon, so I stopped at Think Coffee near NYU to do some more work and drink some, well, coffee. Then there was the closing reception for the conference, and eventually I made my way across the Brooklyn Bridge (I walked it, I do this nearly every time I'm in NYC and never get tired of it), then went to Franny's in Park Slope for dinner, which was a glass of wine and pizza. The pizza was great, the wine was tasty, can't complain (except I did a bit on Twitter, saying I thought Menomale in DC was better than Franny's, but what do I know).

Afterwards I went to meet my Twitter buddy James and his friends at Bar Sepia for a few drinks, and finally, it was near 1 AM, an insanely late weeknight for me, so back to Times Square to my hotel. 

Anyways, there's a random mishmash of my latest running and NYC adventures. I'm off to finish my iced coffee and yes, maybe even do the crossword on this lazy Sunday. Enjoy yours!

I have an Instagram problem...

And being in New York City for work is only making it worse.

The conference I'm at, Greater & Greener, is taking place at NYU's campus, and so I'm spending a bit of time hanging out in beautiful Washington Square.

I'm getting to visit some friends, like Fletcher, Lauren, and baby Felix:

I'm gorging on Asian food. Sunday night it was copious amounts of Korean barbeque; last night it was sushi in Park Slope:

I'm stooping with old friends in Brooklyn (Natania and Claire pictured here)

*wavy lines to this flashback photo of the three of us when we lived in Italy. This was taken during the trip where we went biking through Tuscany, but ended up on a highway in a storm, where we lost Natania when she took a wrong turn in the rolling hills.

Rad hat, Catherine.

The only semi-affordable hotel on short notice was in Times Square, but it's not so bad sometimes.

I've always said I could never live in New York, but I've been visiting here more and more over the years, and I just don't know about that anymore. It's a pretty darn magical place.

(PS: this conference is pretty cool. Basically it's about how we can get people to realize the importance of parks and urban greenspaces, for reasons of economic vitality and health as well. Between this and my love for all things public health, I've started vaguely browsing master's programs that do a dual degree in public health and urban planning. Though the last thing I need is to accumulate any student debt for a second masters...)

Sitting on the dock of the bay

...is pretty much what I did for the past 5 days. Amanda's dad's family owns a cute little bungalow in the even cuter little town of Stone Harbor, New Jersey, and we went up the morning of July 4 to swim, eat crabs, drink copious amounts of Bud Lite, and generally take it easy. It worked -- I'm very relaxed. And very tan. Kind of scary tan, actually. Don't run away if you see me. It's a real glowy orange shade, I swear.

Some vacation photos:

The view from the dock.

Sunset view from the dock.

This is our beach version of happy hour.

Blue dress, blue bike, and Amanda's blue-shuttered bungalow.

My tasty friend.

Lives were risked to give you this photo of us biking.

Charlottesville in Instagram

Truly, Charlottesville is a magical town. I think I'd say that even if I hadn't spent 4 idyllic college years there. Every time I go back for a weekend, I feel happy, invigorated, rested, inspired. Something about the rolling hills of central Virginia really pull you in. (Or maybe it's all the delicious wine, beer and food you can get down there, too.)

My entire family (plus my brother's fiancee) recently spent a weekend in Charlottesville for my mom's birthday and we had a lovely time. If you don't follow me on Instagram, here are some snapshots I took. I think you'll agree, Charlottesville is an eminently Instagrammable place.

Carter Mountain Orchard

Downtown Mall

The view from Carter Mountain

A cute bluegrass band (from Canada!) playing at new-to-me spot, the Whiskey Jar.

The stunning view from King Family Vineyards.

and me, Instagramming the crap out of the Rotunda.

Some Photos from Montreal

Zach and I went to Montreal recently. It was lovely! Here are some photos.

Montreal has a beautiful "mountain" (aka really big hill) and park (designed by Olmested) right downtown. We looooved it. Tons of running and hiking paths and a stunning view from top. We went there two mornings in a row with cups of coffee just to walk around.

Famous bagel from one of the famous bagel places, St. Viateur. We also tried Fairmount Bagels; both were excellent. The bread/pastries anywhere we went all over the city was excellent, in fact.

This is really foul looking but it's the famous smoked meat sandwich from a deli called Schwartz's.

Montreal had approximately 50 billion bikeshare stations, all of which had approximately 200 bike docks. It was amazing. You never had to worry if you were near a bikeshare station (you were) or if you would have space to drop off your bike when done.

I don't have a photo to mark our meal, but Le Comptoir was our favorite place that we ate.

An all-around lovely city, and only a 90-minute flight from DC! Would recommend.

Oh, the places I've been

Well, by the places I've been, I really mean recent trips to New York and Charlottesville. Some highlights:

Charlottesville: This was a Memorial Day weekend trip, and it was a ton of fun. I'm gratified to see that Charlottesville is just as awesome for a 30-something as it was for a 20-something college student (WAHOOWA). We did the following...

-Drove into Charlottesville around noon on a Saturday; enjoyed sandwiches and beers at Michael's Bistro on the Corner. Enjoyed the splendor that is UVa grounds. I gave an awkward tour of the Rotunda (I used to be a tour guide there my last two years of school; turns out I don't remember much.)

-Walked around the Main Street Market, and then went to the Downtown Mall for more wandering. Afternoon drinks outdoors at Miller's.

-Dinner at Mas. I've been hearing about this restaurant, which opened after I graduated, for years. We had to wait an hour to get seats just at the bar, but I found it totally worth it. Good god, this was a delicious meal.

-Sunday breakfast at the Bluegrass Grill. My breakfast burrito was sublime.

-More coffee at Mudhouse.

-Off we went to Monticello! Except... 400,000 people had the same idea. So we scooted out of the parking lot and the masses and stopped off at perennial favorite Carter Mountain Orchard for some views and some apple cider.

-We spent the rest of the day wine-tasting and beer-tasting. While Virginia wine may not be #1 in the world, the wineries certainly are gorgeous. We visited King Family, Veritas, and Blue Mountain Brewery.

-Dinner at Local, a restaurant that focus on, er, local food. This wasn't quite s good as Mas, but still enjoyable.

-Jello shots and beer pong on Rugby Road. (JUST KIDDING!)

-Monday, we stopped for breakfast bagels at Bodo's, then drove into the Shenandoah on Skyline Drive. We took a quick hike at one of the stopping points and ate our bagels above a pretty little waterfall.

-On the way out of town, we stopped at Barboursville Winery. Again, the wine could have been tastier, but the views were pretty spectacular.

-We took the long way back, driving alone Route 20 instead of 29. Recommend for bucolic views and winding curves and views of rolling farm hills.

Next up (probably like 3 months from now, at the rate I've got going): A weekend in NYC

Things I Am Doing

You know what I miss most about this space? Writing about  my cooking. Guys, I am now a cooking fiend. I mean, I'm no Julia Child, but the past 1.5 years or so of just trying -- anything -- in the kitchen has rewarded me in myriad ways. I'm far more confident in my cooking. I make shit up, which is something I never dared do before. I tackle roasts, homemade pasta, sauces of all sorts. Like I said, nobody's going to pin a #1 Gourmet pin on my lapel, but I like it. I'm cooking lots. I should be posting the results here, because they're pretty good, and I'd like to access them later, but I'm a bit lazy in the posting lately, if you hadn't noticed. Reminder to self: Don't ever doubt Marcella Hazan, especially not her bolognese recipe with fresh tagliatelle. What. Up.

• What else? Well, I've finally tackled an item on my 30 while 3...1 list that had been important to me: I'm volunteering. I tutor at a local elementary school literacy and math program. And though my 8-year-old tutee has made it pretty clear he thinks I'm a mean and relentless hard-ass, it's very rewarding and he's improving. I think.

• Oh yeah. We went to Italy. It was, you know, whatever, pretty fine and stuff:

• A dear friend who I've known since I was 12 had her baby, and I saw him for the first time this weekend. She's the first "old" friend of mine to reproduce. Newborns are cute and resemble giant burritos when swaddled. They cry a lot, but nobody seems to mind due to aforementioned cuteness... except maybe the parents who haven't achieved REM cycle sleep in 4 weeks.

• A few trips are in the planning for this summer - Charlottesville, Michigan and Wyoming. The latter two are for giganto family reunions. I'll finally be able to meet all 16 of Z's aunts and uncles... no joke. As for Wyoming (August), I'd love to tack on a few days there after we spend a family reunion weekend in Laramie, but am not quite sure what to do that's within a half a day driving distance (Yellowstone, regrettably, is not). Any ideas, Wyomingites?

• I've become disturbingly obsessed with higher-end make up and beauty products. Guys, this is not a habit you want to get into. Kiehl's products make me happy, and make my wallet empty. Trips to Sephora produce full lashes and rosy cheeks, but disappearing bank statements. Stick to CVS. (Oh, especially stick to those Sally Hansen sticker manicure things - they're definitely one drugstore thing that is super rad, I can attest. And vinegar on your hair still works wonders.)

I think that's it for now. Spring in DC is really quite lovely, and it's been a wonderful and happy season so far. So glad to be out of the winter doldrums and on the way to...hellish humidity? Ah well. As long as there's sunshine involved, I'll take it.

Catherine Learns to Cook: Recipe #27: Pork Ragu with Homemade Pasta

Wondering what this is? As part of a list of 30 goals I want to accomplish while I'm 30, I promised that I would cook one recipe a week. You can see the list of recipes so far here.

Woo! I'm cooking again! Sunday, blessed Sunday. This past Sunday I had literally nothing to do except a quick brunch with my family. This meant two things: I could BUY ALL THE THINGS at the Bloomingdale Farmers Market, and I had several hours of uninterrupted time to cook to my heart's content. So I chose a rather involved recipe: This Macheesmo recipe for pork ragu. Not content with cooking something that took 6 hours, I decided to make homemade tagliatelle to accompany it. (Here's my original post on making fresh pasta; the recipe and method are the same as I used there.)

The result? 

It was mindblowingly good. And really, though the recipe DOES take several hours, it's mostly unattended simmering, so it's pretty easy. One thing of note: my ragu took far less time than Macheesmo's to finish simmering. So just keep a close eye on it, and look out for when the liquid has finish mostly reducing. But otherwise: perfection. Kriston and Lana came over to try it out and we couldn't stop stuffing our faces. Recommended!

>> See all Catherine Learns to Cook posts

Cynthia and Andy Got Married!

I have a group of dear friends that I made when I lived abroad in Italy from 2002-2003. Though we're all over the place, we still keep in touch, and now we're starting to get married. Robin and Phil kicked off the trend in August 2009 in Jackson Hole; Cynthia and Andy followed up a year later in Lake Placid, NY; and it looks like I'll be keeping the tradition going in 2011. But I'll save that for another post. Below, revel in the photos of beautiful Lake Placid (seriously, what a stunning part of the country), and photos of the happy couple indulging in some of the best soft serve ice cream I've ever tasted.

Catherine Learns to Cook: Recipe #26: Lamb Kebabs with Mint Cilantro Pesto

Wondering what this is? As part of a list of 30 goals I want to accomplish while I'm 30, I promised that I would cook one recipe a week. You can see the list of recipes so far here.

Short version: These were quite good, but as I did them on a grill pan, instead of a real grill, they were blastedly hard to actually properly grill all the way through. I cooked the meat properly, but the veggies never got quite nicely grilled. Would recommend, but only over an open flame. Recipe here.

>> See all Catherine Learns to Cook posts 

Orange Polenta Cake with Vanilla-Scented Blackberry Plum Compote

It's been a while since I baked anything, what with all this ever-loving never-ending cooking I'm doing in the kitchen these days. But I knew I was going to be able to go to the Bloomingdale Farmers Market this morning for the first time in ages and ages, and I knew peaches and blackberries and plums and a million other amazing fruits were going to be calling my name, and I was determined to bake something delicious out of them.

I hit it on the nose with this cake. It's incredibly easy and a wonderful way to incorporate fresh fruit into a dessert. It's nice and spongy, with just a hint of orange, and the blackberries and plums are so, so magnificent. The recipe says to serve it with buttermilk ice cream, but the thought of making homemade ice cream in addition to everything else I cooked today was just exhausting, so I served it with a simple whipped cream. 

Catherine Learns to Cook: Recipe #25: Pancetta-Wrapped Peaches with Basil

Wondering what this is? As part of a list of 30 goals I want to accomplish while I'm 30, I promised that I would cook one recipe a week. You can see the list of recipes so far here.

Hey, guess what? I didn't use a recipe for this! I read it in some magazine but then lost the recipe so decided to just forge ahead on my own! Sure, it has all of three ingredients, but that's progress, right? 

Basically you take some amazing peaches from Reid's Orchard at the Bloomingdale Farmers Market, put a little salt and pepper on them, layer a basil leaf on top, wrap in pancetta, and cook in some olive oil for a few minutes on each side.

As you can see the first attempt did not go so swimmingly: 

Don't get me wrong; they still tasted great. It was just messy. But once I realized I just need to cut the peach wedges in half, all was PEACHY! HAHA! Ahem.

>> See all Catherine Learns to Cook posts 

Catherine Learns to Cook: Recipe #24: Fried Chicken and Corn+Zucchini+Cilantro Salad

Wondering what this is? As part of a list of 30 goals I want to accomplish while I'm 30, I promised that I would cook one recipe a week. You can see the list of recipes so far here.

Another week, another attempt to make one of my boyfriend-in-absentia's favorite foods. I tell myself I'm trying to get a handle on these recipes so I can have them perfected by the time he gets back from his EPIC WORK TRIP, and he gets excited by that fact, but probably the truth is that I'm so lazy I'll only ever make all of these once. Plus, frying stuff is splatter-y. Burning terror droplets of oil splatter-y.

Regardless! I figured that fried chicken was a good thing to try out, never having made it before. And it seemed slightly intimidating, and I'm trying to get over Fear of Intimidating Recipes. It's a chronic condition, you know.

Luckily, everything was simplified by this easy-peasy recipe over at the Bitten Word. The basics: If you can, take your pieces of chicken and soak them in saltwater overnight (we're talking like a half a cup to 4 quarts of salt. Go crazy). I only had 2-3 hours, so that's what I did. 

Then have a bowl filled with milk, and one filled with flour/salt/pepper (and probably anything else you'd like to throw in there for flavor). Dip chicken in milk, dredge in flour. Repeat.

The recipe calls for a chicken cut up into 8 pieces, but I used drumsticks because, well, I was in Whole Foods, and I just try to get in and out of that place as quickly as possible, and well, all these drumsticks bundled up looked like a whole chicken I KNOW I'M AN IDIOT OKAY also I can't read.

The Bitten Word recipe doesn't say this, but elsewhere on the internet I read that you should let the chicken rest after it's dredged so the coating has time to set. That's what those drumsticks up there are doing, about 15-30 minutes.

Then pour about an inch of vegetable oil in your cast iron skillet. Heat it up, medium high. Place the chicken bits in there (do it in batches so there's plenty of space for all the pieces and they're not crammed in there). Fry 7-8 minutes on one side; flip and do the same on the other side. Use tongs. Dodge splatter-y oil bullets. Then put on a wire rack over a baking sheet to cool/rest/drip off extra grease.

The end result?

Tastiness. For good measure, I also made this zucchini and corn salad, also from the Bitten Word. Super easy and very of the season.

This all resulted in four very happy lady guests, who were over to help me declutter my apartment (another 30 while 30 goal). But that's another post for another time...

Weekend in West Virginia

Dear old Andrew turned 30 this past weekend, so he gathered a lovely group of people out at the Seneca Shadows campground in West Virginia for some camping, some bonfires, some rock climbing (for some) and a little bit of bourbon (and bacon wrapped hot dogs) for all. 

Even though it poured most of Saturday, it was wonderful. Before the rain, we got in some time at the creek and some naps in a field. I even read Oprah Magazine. (It's good, am I right?) I was particularly proud of myself because I pitched and de-pitched my tent all by myself. I mean, I did accomplish that goal previously, but that was in my living room, with Zach monitoring. This time, it was just me, six stakes, an unwieldy rainfly, and pure willpower.

Anyways, turns out West Virginia is real nice, and the people are even nicer. I also had a fantastic solo 7am morning hike (forest magic means no hangover Sunday morning) where I saw bunnies, a box turtle, and FOUND $10!(!(!(!11!!! NATURE RULES! Then the hiking trail wound up in the tiny little village area and I bought coffee and hung out with coffee shop puppies. 

A lot of folks stayed to do something terrible-looking called the Via Ferrata. You may not find it terrible-looking; you may even think it appears "fun" or "awesome." You are crazy. Look at this shit. However, I left Sunday early afternoon after two cans of Coors Light and then stopped for McDonald's on the way home. That's real living.

A few photos, unceremoniously and without permission stolen from Lana. (Sorry Lana! I'll take 'em down if you want.)

Catherine Learns to Cook: Recipe #23: Lamb Burgers Stuffed with Mint and Feta + Grilled Tomatoes

Wondering what this is? As part of a list of 30 goals I want to accomplish while I'm 30, I promised that I would cook one recipe a week. You can see the list of recipes so far here.

A few weeks ago after a long Saturday training run, we were sitting around zonked watching food shows and infomercials. (Seriously, you would not believe the crap we zone out to after being exhausted by these runs. One day, we watched the entirety of the Brady Bunch Movie [although, that is pretty funny, all said and done...] and the other day an entire informercial about ZUMBA! ZUMBA ZUMBA ZUMBA! Has anybody else seen this REVOLUTIONARY DANCING WORKOUT?). One episode that came on was Martha Stewart's Everyday Food, and it was all devoted to grilling -- but indoors, using a grill pan.

A grill pan?! As somebody who's never owned her own grill, and probably never will, and is entirely too lazy to do that whole...thing...with the coals and the fire and whatnot, this appealed to me enormously. So I went out and bought a $20 grill pan at Macy's. And tonight I tested it out with these lamb burgers and grilled tomatoes. The result?

All very tasty. Now, I really do think the tomatoes would have been better if grilled on a proper grill, but I was nevertheless happy with the result. And the burgers were divine. How could they not be? They were stuffed with cheese.

>> See all Catherine Learns to Cook posts 

Catherine Learns to Cook: Recipe #22: Shredded Pork Shoulder

Wondering what this is? As part of a list of 30 goals I want to accomplish while I'm 30, I promised that I would cook one recipe a week. You can see the list of recipes so far here.

One of my favorite things to eat in this city is the pork shoulder on a garlic trencher at Bar Pilar. Every time Zach and I go there we order it without fail (usually whatever variation of mushrooms they have, too) and every time, without doubt, it makes our eyes roll back in our heads, it's so good.

Zach left today for a 1-2 month stint for work out in California, and I figured since I'm going to have a lot of time coming up, I should try to perfect the elusive Bar Pilar pork shoulder. I started out with this Kitchn recipe, and holy moly. It was no Bar Pilar version (the flavoring was totally different, which I knew going in) but it ruled my world anyways. Photos and directions below.

I suppose I could have plated this a bit better.

Weekend Report: Art, crabs, and a lot of naked Tilda Swinton

I haven't done a weekend report in forever! And my weekends have been quite full and fun. I've just been utterly lazy. But I had a particularly good weekend this past one, so why not share? AND TALK ABOUT SO MUCH NAKED TILDA SWINTON? 

Friday night: Charles took me to the orchestra! We swung by his parents' place in Arlington and had a beer with his wonderful mom, whom I hadn't seen in forever. Then we grabbed a tasty Salvadorian dinner at La Union up the street, and then it was off to Wolf Trap for orchestral/operatic renditions of music inspired by Romeo & Juliet. It was lovely and we were in literally the very first row of the pit. I have never been covered by so much opera singer spit ever in my life.