Little Italian Grandmas don't get Enough Credit

Over the weekend I took a pasta-making class at Hill's Kitchen on Capitol Hill and gained new found respect for little old Italian women slaving away in their kitchens for the perfect pasta dish.

For a food that only has three ingredients (flour, eggs and salt), pasta is a fickle food. Not only do you need the perfect flour-to-egg ration (too little flour, you end up with goopy pasta and too much flour, you end up with a solid brick of dough) but you need a lot of patience.

You have to hand-crank every single strand of pasta, which equated to almost two hours of work to get a nice bowlful.

Call me special or "differently-abled," but I had a lot of trouble with the finished product. Even after coating the pasta in cornmeal to keep the strands from sticking, by the time I was ready to cook the noodles they were congealed together in a pattern that looked like the folds of a brain.

I had to rip up the brain into little clumps to drop them into the boiling water, so ultimately it looked like I was boiling a pot of brains.

Thank goodness I had just the right amount of Prego to make the slippery mass taste delish!

So I guess the moral of the story is, if you want some delicious homemade pasta, go find the nearest old Italian woman, or at least avoid me!

Her milkshake brings all the boys to the yard...

Remember the mini-milkshakes I told you about earlier?

Homegirl does NOT mess around when it comes to entertaining.

Charm & Salt is the next Martha Stewart

Last night Charm & Salt (not to be confused with Charm "and" Salt, a much less refined brand name) hosted a straight-out-of-a-catalog party in her Arlington apartment.

A group of our friends (including Steak and Legs) gathered for a night of overindulgence complete with a blind wine taste test and a vigorous chili cook off.

There are so many great pictures from the night, but one that illustrates how over-the-top cute Jenna is illustrates her adult version of a goody bag:

Not content with just serving mini-chocolate chip milkshakes, Jenna made three kinds of cookies, and had people pack their own take-home bags. See that macaroon? It tastes exactly as good as it looks. Or, even better. Perfectly moist and chewy, and this is coming from a guy who "hates" coconut.

More pictures to share later, enjoying a last day of freedom before the weekday grind begins!

Betrayed by snow

Even as a middle-twenty-something, snow days are pure magic. Work gets canceled, and you get to spend all day luxuriating in the fact that you're not under fluorescent lighting from 9-5.

However, Mother Nature got pretty snotty this week when she decided to crap rain, sleet and snow all over the area.

She turned what should've been a winter wonderland into the next sequel of Final Destination.

Not only was work not canceled, but the heavy snow decided to take out every tree and power line in Arlington. The elderly fear the lack of heating, but for me, the lack of INTERNET was crippling.

How was I to check opm.gov/status compulsively all night? Or access my gmail at 2:30am on a whim? In the end, I was glad to go in to work, even risking life and limb on the roads, so I could link in to the rest of the world.

I probably need an internet intervention. 

I didn't win the chili cook off

Today we held the 2nd annual chili cook off at work. Last year it was a chili cook off AND "baby parade" but we cut all non-essential activities this year to focus on the headliner: amazing homemade chili.


I was pitted against four of my colleagues to see who would reign supreme in the most comforting of comfort foods.

 Can you guess which crock pot is mine? Look closely.

Yep, I brought the one kitted out in original 70s brown and toupe, with a mismatched casserole lid. But that's OK, because chili never looks pretty, right?

Or am I doing it all wrong?



Anyways, the office converged for a lively debate on a number of pressing issues:

• beans or no beans?
• ground beef or steak?
• vegetarian chili? (THAT was a short debate...)
• Spicy or savory?

I used the respected Carlson family recipe, which is full of cumin and garlic and beans and corn and meat, plus a top secret ingredient that you'll never guess.



It is basically a "kitchen sink" recipe, where you can load up anything from your pantry or freezer, whip up the magic seasoning blend and, voila!

Sadly, I only came in second place. Out of five.

I have 364 days to figure out exactly what ingredients will secure a first place win for me. Jack Daniels? More peppers? Bueller?

Waterfront Rosslyn

Thanks to the height restriction on construction in the District, as soon as you cross into Virginia, developers push towers together, fashioning them as a sort of mid-Atlantic Manhattan.

(A new tower has begun construction, which developers are likening to the Empire State Building.)



Rosslyn is great and all, but let me tell you: it is no Manhattan. The several blocks of office buildings are home to government contractors who breathe life into the area from 9-5 on weekdays, but visit Rosslyn in any outlying time and you'll find a ghost town.

Entertainment is few and far between, with only a couple meh bars, and restaurant options are geared towards lunch. (And STILL no Pot Belly's. A PB could really turn around my opinion of Rosslyn.)

Silhouetted Monument

Another late afternoon going through the District on the way back to the office. For some reason, I can't seem to pass the Washington Monument without snapping a few pictures of it.

The obelisk looks pretty forbidding when it is backlit in the late afternoon.

I particularly like the clear streetlight at the bottom of this picture.

And can I just say, Praise the LORD that we have a three day weekend. Never before was a day off from work SO welcome.

Threatening officemate

And just when I think I can't take another day of work, where there are so many moving parts and new developments, it is Friday!

This guy was hanging out in an otherwise beautifully appointed office downtown. Even though the eagle is a national symbol, this sculpture emotes raw anger and intimidation. The demonic ruby eyes don't help much, do they?

Golden Hour

Golden hour is the time right before sunset, or right after sunrise, when the ambient light is rich and warm and golden. It is the ideal time to take pictures outside, but I never seem to find myself outside (or even conscious) during the appropriate time.

Nonetheless, golden hour last evening, looking at the monuments:

I love how perfectly the columns lined up so you can see Jefferson and straight through.

But I've got a secret. Which I'm going to leave in the comments...

Casa Carlson

Last year we had snowpocalypse, and this year it looks like all we're gonna get is some light dusting every few weeks. Knock on wood.
 

Casa Carlson got just over an inch last night.

Getting off work for a week last year was pretty amazing and mind-numbing at once, but I don't know if I could handle it again this winter. Partly because I'd like to think I'm more mature and don't want to shirk work responsibilities, but mostly because PSF Schumacher isn't here to share in slothful 36-hour TV marathons.

Travel Resolutions

After looking back at my travel in 2010, I was pretty horrified by how little I'd managed to escape the confines of Northern Virginia. Sure I'd been to NYC a handful of times, plus jaunts to Savannah and Connecticut. The gem of 2010 was a work trip to London.

But that simply won't cut it this year. In order to avoid closing the year with such scant travel experiences, I've made New Year travel resolutions to take the following trips:

Charleston

Chicago
Austin
Savannah
Spain
France
Argentina

So far I have the vacation scheduled for Austin (and hopefully Savannah) plus Argentina looming at the end of the year. So now I just need to figure out how to squeeze in the rest of my travel, along with a couple weekends in New York.

Lighting Workshop by Douglas Sonders

I had the good fortune of attending Doug Sonders' lighting workshop this past weekend in Alexandria. It had everything you would expect from a successful commercial and celebrity photographer. Upon entering the studio, electronica was blaring from the speakers, the audience was fitted in skinny jeans and converse and gorgeous models were scowling in the corner.

In addition to the technique and equipment that contribute to spot-on photo shoots, Sonders also covered the hustle and self-motivation that are essential to earning good wages as a photographer.

Sonders shows off a ring flash, a toy that I badly want, but which he cautions against overusing.

A four-light setup, waiting for models.

Sonders directing a model - almost every single shot he captured was polished and perfect.

For someone at my level, I got so much more out of this workshop than from the Washington Photo Safari. This assumed a much higher level of competency, and most everyone in the audience was an aspiring or semi-professional photographer.

An apology to friends and family

If you've gone out to dinner/lunch/coffee with me over the last 9 months, chances are you've been looking across the table at something like this:

Yes food photography. Somewhat uncomfortable in a nice restaurant, documenting how nicely everything is presented. I realize how tool-ish I may look whipping out my camera.

That being said, get used to it! (Looking at you, Bonnie!) The camera is here to stay! Please return to your regularly scheduled Sunday programming!

The Carlsons discover anti-gravity

Over the winter break, the Carlson family finally solved that pesky problem of gravity thanks to a little help from the wondrous Fushigi Ball.

Behold, the Fushigi Ball:

Just your typical-As Seen on TV plastic orb, right?

Oh no my friend, prepare to be amazed:

The included DVD has minutes upon minutes of instruction that unravel the laws of physics to defy gravity.

Amaze your friends and loved ones with this amazing show of dominance over physical reality.

Or if your gimmicky toy doesn't work, just use a fast shutter speed when you take pictures. :-)

Odds and Ends

Just a brief HAPPY FRIDAY to everyone out there! And a few odds and ends that didn't make the chopping block over the last couple weeks:

Now THIS is the bokeh I'm talkin' about! Why didn't I get a single good holiday bokeh shot until after Christmas!?!

The 'rentals. Caught very briefly not working with Haiti (Mom) or Boy Scouts (Dad).

Arlington Cemetery memorial statue. Was intrigued by this memorial; she (he?) is provocatively showing some leg. Plus, reminds me of Savannah's Bonaventure Cemetery.

Known But to God

The highlight of last weekend's poor-man's photo walk was without question the Tomb of the Unknowns, and its ceremonial guard.
 

The tomb guards serve 24 hours a day, seven days a week, including inclement weather, and have held non-stop watch since 1937!

My answer to the Washington Photo Safari

So after feeling a little short-changed from my official photo safari, I was inspired to do my own photo-walk. I got together with a photography enthusiast friend for a photo tour of Arlington Cemetery.

Total cost: $1.60 metro fare.

Both of us were pretty happy to do the walk: it forced us to get out there with our cameras and explore, and having someone to go with really commits you to taking it seriously. I'm all for doing these impromptu photo walks in the future!

A different perspective on the Washington Monument, framed by Dogwood (?) branches. 

Kennedy's eternal flame

Washington Photo Safari

During the winter break, I splurged and took a Washington Photo Safari, which, despite the Groupon, was almost $50 for a half-day.

Last winter I took a one-on-one with David Luria, the Washington Photo Safari instructor, and he gave me lots of useful information about using my camera (then a Nikon D70). Becoming proficient in my work camera is what inspired me to make the plunge and buy my own DSLR.

I was excited to return for a formal Photo Safari, to flex my photography know-how.

Sadly it was basically a clone of my original session with Luria, so I didn't get much out of the class. He re-enacted his routine to the T, even using the same jokes!

I got a couple of cool pictures through the class, and had a couple of "aha!" moments where I was reminded of something helpful.

But was it worth the $50? Probably not for me. If you have just gotten a DSLR camera and want to be able to use it to its full value, then great. If you already know the basics (don't shoot using Automatic!) then you might be better off creating your own photo tour.