Berrylicious!

I've been picking black raspberries from the yard already. I think it must be the earliest I've ever picked berries in my life. And they say climate change is a myth...

In any case, they are delicious. I haven't had a chance to cook with them yet but I've been enjoying them with vanilla yogurt and in cereal. Anybody have some good recipe suggestions? Baking some type of pie is probably in order.

Our neighbor/friend graduated with her PhD last weekend and I made her a red velvet cake decorated with berries from the yard. It was a big hit!

Egg muffins!

Source: Uploaded by user via Lissa on Pinterest

I'm a big fan of breakfast. I think the first dish I ever cooked by myself was scrambled eggs. I'm always looking for delicious new ways to prepare eggs and so I was excited about a new recipe I found recently for egg muffins. This weekend I tried it out. I made two different kinds: one with green & red peppers, onions and pepper jack cheese and the other with arugula, grape tomatoes, onions and Parmesan. Mmm... This recipe is definitely a keeper!

Beer is for birthdays

For Troy's birthday this year I treated him to a five-course meal complete with beer pairings at our favorite brewery. It was a decadent and delicious treat and an interesting experience since we sat with a table full of strangers.

Unfortunately, I was too busy eating and drinking (and making small talk with our neighbors) to take many photos. But I did manage to capture the start and finish of the meal.

Borscht!

I love learning to cook different types of cuisine. I have had friends from Mexico and Japan give me lessons on how to cook traditional, comforting foods from their homelands. While living in Belgium I learned to make some Flemish specialties. I also hold some Finnish and Slovenian recipes dear (since that's my heritage).

Gathering around food is such a universal tradition. It's interesting to me to see and participate in making food from different countries. I feel like it gives me a window into different cultures.

For years Troy and I have been talking about having a borscht-making party with our Russian friend Yuri. Finally we made it happen!

Yuri shared a very traditional, Ukrainian borscht recipe with us.

Lots of slicing and dicing was involved.

 The soup included beets, but they were one of many ingredients.

It was a tasty but VERY filling soup. It was definitely unlike any "borscht" I have ever tasted in the U.S. Luckily we invited some folks over to share the meal. We still had leftovers for a couple of days afterwards, which was nice because the flavor of the soup got even better the day after.

16 years

A lot has been going on in the last month. When I picked Troy up from the airport after his tour, we enjoyed some time in DC. To celebrate our 16-year anniversary, we ate out a lovely restaurant called Cedar. It was quite a treat. He had the "Herb Crusted Pork Tenderloin with goat cheese grits, applewood bacon and roasted cherries" and I had the "Grilled Local Rockfish with mixed spring vegetables and Frantoia extra virgin olive oil." Yum. Makes me hungry just thinking about it!

Since the weather was too nice to be inside at a museum, we ventured to the national arboretum. The azaleas were blooming and the bonsai garden was incredible!

Koi look funny when they are eating

Japanese White Pine in training since 1625!

Nice view from the azalea trail at the arboretum

Most of you already know that I'm a big planner. Mostly I plan because I need something to look forward to. It's too easy to get caught up in the daily grind and the busy-ness of everyday life otherwise.

Leading up to the tour, we had a very stressful couple of months. I planned this trip, as well as an overnight to Richmond to see one of our favorite bands, Iron & Wine, in order to have a light at the end of the tunnel, so to speak. It worked pretty well.

Now I'm thinking forward to my birthday in July. I always tend to make a plan for birthdays too, to avoid being disappointed by having nothing special to do on the big day. It'll be impossible to top last year's birthday, which we spent in Paris, but a plan involving good food, drinks and scenery is usually a successful one. Maybe we'll head to the mountains this year...