[Sunday Cooking. Or, My Arteries Cried.]

She's at it again!

Sorry I'm getting all Julie and Julia on you, but actually I'm kinda not because I told you last time this was going to become a more regular thang...

This Sunday's breakfast was a Spanish Tortilla (or torta), which is pretty similar to an omelette, but often served as a dinner dish. I wasn't sure Chad could handle eggs for dinner, so I made it for breakfast instead, and modified it so that it was more potatoe-y, less vegetable-y. I may have accidentally skipped a step, resulting in a slightly *ahem* well done exterior...but it was basically still delicious, so we survived.

Dinner, like every other Chad/Milan activity, was just going to be the two of us. Simple dinner of fettuccine Alfredo and grilled asparagus with hollandaise sauce. In a panic-inducing (but ultimately happy) turn of events, Chad's kitchen was a madhouse at dinner time, with roommate Ben making his own dinner on the counter with his girlfriend, and roommate Tanner and friend Meredith beginning to cook their dinner as well. I openly admitted that I was terrified of cooking in front of other girls--my trusty kitchen assistant Chad is even more clueless in the kitchen than I am, so I'm rarely embarrassed when I don't know how to do something, like saute vegetables--but other girls?? Yikes! I was completely overwhelmed with all the people and cooking going on--as a new cooker, I typically require absolute peace and quiet in the kitchen--but eventually the kitchen calmed down, and I was left with just Tanner and Meredith (obviously Chad was nowhere in sight). My arteries cried when I poured the heavy cream into my pasta, mixed in a whole cup of cheese, and melted an entire cube of butter into four egg yolks for the hollandaise sauce... When it became clear that Tanner and Meredith's meal was somewhat doomed, we pooled resources and they tossed their breaded chicken into my pasta. I was really self conscious of the fact that I was suddenly cooking for five people (the four of us plus Chad's cousin). I've never cooked for any one other than Chad, and he's an easy audience because whatever the outcome of my cooking attempts, he'll tell me it's amazing, and I'll believe him because I want to. In the end everything turned out okay. Doubting Tanner enjoyed the suspect combination of hollandaise sauce and asparagus, and picky Chad loved that I made something creamy and artery clogging for once. Meredith, despite being four years my junior, was obviously a million times more comfortable in the kitchen, and her help with the asparagus was much appreciated (and needed).

Lessons learned:

1. Don't forget that you're boiling something, because it will boil down to nothing and leave a nasty stain on the pot. Amateur mistake.

2. If boys are going to sit back and let you cook the meals, they need to be Pavlov-ed into automatically doing the dishes.

3. Hollandaise sauce is not that hard to make, even for a novice like me.

4. Read all the directions on the recipe. So you don't miss a crucial step and burn the tortilla. Oh.

Most importantly...

5. Don't inhale vinegar steam. Seriously. WORST. EXPERIENCE. EVER.

Okay. That's all. On to the next meal...

[Jessie and the Toy Boys Concert.]

You now how people will say, "Have your people call my people, and we'll set something up"? And how it's a joke, since we're all young and none of us actually have "people" yet? Well, for the first time, a friend *my age* said that to me, and it wasn't a joke. On Friday night, I hung out with Jessie, who was in town with the Femme Fatale tour (Britney Spears, Nicki Minaj, and Jessie and the Toy Boys) for the weekend. Sweet thing that she is, of course she gave me and Chad tickets for her show on Sunday night. We wanted to make sure to see her after she performed that night, so I texted her the day of her show to figure out how to make that happen. Her response? To get in touch with her tour manager, who would work out all the details for us! I loved it!! (Similarly mind boggling and entertaining: buying a concert tee with my friend's face on it.)



I'd seen Jessie perform on TV, and I've obviously loved her music over the years (always given to me in the form of burned demo CDs, with her name and a heart scribbled on in sharpie), but it was a COMPLETELY different experience seeing her perform in a huge, packed arena as an opening act for Britney Spears. The music was fabulous, her dance moves were killer (seriously - about 1000 times better than Nicki Minaj AND Britney - this girl can move!), but what was truly special about the experience was the knowledge that I was watching a friend's dreams come true for them, right before my very eyes (and thousands of others). I may or may not have teared up (but I tear up about something about once a day, so maybe that's not that noteworthy).









It's been so amazing to witness the transformation of a friend who literally started out with just a dream and has made it come true through an inspiring combination of hard work, personality, and faith. I can't wait to see the next step! Congrats, Jessie, and thanks again for Sunday night!

[On the water in Idaho.]

For Chad's family reunion last week we stayed at a beautiful house right on the lake in Island Park, Idaho, so much of the week was spent boating, tubing, and wake boarding. I hadn't wake boarded since my first time, when I was sixteen (and it involved me getting dragged along the side of an irrigation canal -- highly unpleasant), so I had a lot of wipeouts and drank a lot of lake on this trip. Particularly unfortunate since I LOATHE getting wet -- I prefer dry land, thank you very much -- but after four or five tries I managed to get up and stay up. Meanwhile, Chad dominated on the tube -- I didn't know one could excel at tubing, but apparently there are flips to be flipped and rolls to be rolled. Who knew?

At one point our boat ran out of gas, and we were stranded in the middle of the lake with about a million babies on board. Though Chad and his brother valiantly attempted to row us to shore (using waterskis as paddles), we eventually had to get towed back to land. I was bordering on the verge of a meltdown the entire time, but luckily these two adorable twinsies kept me distracted the whole time with their iPhones. Or maybe it was the other way around, but either way, crisis averted.

Please note that twinsie Thompson (above left) is making the same face as Uncle Chad (below). Must be a Hill men thing...boys will be boys...

[Yellowstone.]

Last week, while in Idaho for Chad's family reunion, we went on a day trip to Yellowstone. I was really glad for the opportunity to check Yellowstone off my life list, particularly Old Faithful, but Chad was somewhat more infatuated with the hot springs than I was. What can I say? I'm a city girl. Nature makes me sneeze, and I feel claustrophobic in the outdoors. I most enjoyed the time we spent driving through the park, rather than walking, but even I couldn't deny the beauty of the largely untouched landscape. I was hoping slash terrified that we'd see a bear, but we only encountered overgrown Bambi-like beasts (Chad says they're "elk"). Observe:

One of about 5,000 pictures I took of Old Faithful, for no particular reason as it turn out that pictures of water shooting up from the ground all look the same:

Apparently these hot springs can be like 100 feet deep and over 100 degrees in temperature, even the ones that are only a foot or two wide. Very colorful and pretty for such hostile little buggers.

Lovers:

[Domestic revolution.]

So I don't cook. It's not that I can't cook, but that I won't. Why cook, when restaurants do it for you, and little men on bikes bring it to you? Most learn to cook in college out of necessity, but I learned to survive on takeout. (...also out of necessity. Have you SEEN Columbia dorm kitchens? I obviously haven't, but I hear they're gross.) My diet at school largely consisted of Indian, Sushi, Chinese, Mexican, and Korean, with some white people food thrown in every now and then for diversity. My meals in DC have been somewhat less varied (mostly because I live in awful suburbia, not actual DC), but just as outsourced.

For a variety of reasons, I've recently resolved to start cooking more. Partially because it seems like everyone I know here cooks a lot and cooks well, and I hate when people do things better than I do. Also, I need a hobby other than watching TV and kissing my boyfriend. Mostly, though, Chad and I are trying to be a little more grown up about our habits--we basically don't exist apart outside of work, which means that every meal is eaten and purchased together, and that can be a little excessive, even for us.

So last weekend my mom received the call from me that I can only assume she'd been waiting to get her whole life, the call in which I demanded she teach me how to make a roast immediately. Chad laughed at me as I slowly repeated her directions to myself while writing them: "pour...oil...in...pan." Can't afford to make any mistakes on that step, people. With the help of sous chef Chad (seriously the best sous chef ever--shucks corn and peels potatoes like a pro, plus he tells me I'm pretty all the time, so I like him extra), I made my first grown up meal ever, and it was LEGIT if I do say so myself. Pot roast, a vegetable salad with roasted corn and red bell peppers plus sauteed green and yellow squash, and mashed potatoes, Grandma Rodriguez style. Obviously, documented my triumph for posterity's sake (slash for Mom). If you know me...you know that this is kind of revolutionary for me.

P.S. At one point I had four pans on the stove and one in the oven, all on different timers. Felt like a really big deal. Also felt like an octopus.

P.P.S. If I continue this trend (highly unlikely, but let's be optimistic), prepare for more posts like this. Contain your excitement, please.

[Independence Day.]

This is how we spent our Fourth of July, melting at Chad's Little League tournament. Mostly melting from the heat (high 80s + 45% humidity), but also melting at how CUTE "Coach Chad" was with his little players.

Meanwhile, super fans Kelsey and I alternated between cheering, giggling, whining, dozing, and eating. And you KNOW I waved that American flag the entire game.

::::

[This is where she gets mushy.]

This holiday was a particularly special day for me and Chad, because we met on the Fourth of July last year. We consider it an anniversary of sorts, because even though we didn't start dating "officially" until late October, we were inseparable from that day forward. If you had told me on July 4, 2010 that the random boy who kissed me within five seconds of being introduced on the steps of the Jefferson Memorial {true story} would soon become the most important person in my life, I would have called you crazy. And yet, here we are a year later, best friends and loves, completely wrapped up in our own little world together. I could go on and on, but I'll spare you (for now...), and simply say: I love him.

[Told you.]

[Philly cheesesteaks at Jim's.]

On Saturday, after an unplanned mini-road trip to Delaware, Kelsey {Chad's sister} and I convinced Chad to drive us an extra forty minutes to Philadelphia so that we could have Philly cheesesteaks from Jim's for dinner. I've been a fan of Jim's since high school, and after five years on the East Coast, including one in which I basically lived in Philly part-time and ate cheesesteaks with some, um, regularity, I can honestly say that Jim's NEVER disappoints. Order a cheesesteak with American cheese and peppers, and you'll be a happy camper!

[dreaming of decorative arts at the getty...]

Just some more pictures from my LA trip last month...

If I could narrow my dream home down to one decorating style, I'd probably end up with a glitzy, 17th - 18th c. Versailles-wannabe. I could happily live out the rest of my life camped out in the J. Paul Getty Museum's European decorative arts galleries, where I wandered for almost an hour while Kelly wandered around the gardens like the flower child she is.

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Oh, and here we are.