Pass the Manet

Hi friends! This cheesy bud is reporting to you from Washington D.C.! I love everything about this place and have become a touring maniac. My feet are sore like an eagle, but I just can't get enough... of everything! The food here has left me with one conclusion. Seattle has better :) Don't get me wrong, it's all been very good, but it does seem as though you really have to search for it. What D.C. lacks in food, it makes up for it with mind blowing historical artifacts and landmarks. As I've asked people where all the good places are to eat, I normally get a long pause and then the subject is changed to museums. A couple of people have mentioned Ben's Chili Bowl, which is where I'm hopefully going tonight... at 10:30, which is I heard the time to go. Wish me luck... please.
Historical knowledge has been feeding my intellectual hunger and every day has left me feeling so full I could patriotically puke. My favorite has been the National Gallery of Art where I went from having never actually been to a museum to seeing some of the most historical art pieces of all time. My favorite piece though I include below. It's The Archangel Gabriel by Pisan painted in the 1300's. I lack the intellectual jargon to say why it's my favorite, but it is. I turned the corner and there it was... I couldn't stop staring.

So just a glimpse into what I've seen so far. More to come from this slightly cultured bud.

Buying in Bulk

I am a buy-in-bulk kind of gal. As a holder of a Costco card, I regularly buy a year's supply of a particular item even if it will only save me a mere dollar. And that way, it saves me on frequent trips to buy bath soap or paper goods. I smiled when I realized that Costco is based out of Washington; it clicked when I thought of the Kirkland-brand products that I grew up with, undoubtedly named after the city of Kirkland, Washington.

You can imagine my delight when I recently discovered Cash & Carry.

Jess and I have been purchasing items in preparation for Lunar New Year. Jess' job was to buy 40 white onions for the bulgogi and I was assigned a purchase of 150 plastic cups for boba milk tea. A friend suggested that I visit Cash & Carry to find a large amount of cups. I hadn't been introduced to a Cash & Carry until the past couple years when I moved to Seattle; it's a warehouse style store that has lots of restaurant supply stuff like take-out containers, napkins, vats of ketchup and mayonaise, etc. There, I purchased 150 cups and 200 corresponding lids for about $20. I'd say it was a purty good deal.

Misleadingly, at Cash & Carry, customers don't need to pay in only cash -- Jess and I both assumed this would have to be the case. At checkout, I saw a display that said the store accepted various types of credit cards. Of course, I didn't test this boundary as I came prepared with cash. Maybe we will never know for sure.

On the other hand, Jess went the local, small business owner route for her onions. She hit up a small grocery store in our neighborhood, Lenny's Produce. Lenny doesn't appear to package his goods in a traditional sense. Jess tells me that upon asking for 40 white onions, she was given a huge box of onions -- we opened the box when she came home and it was filled with approximately 50 some onions of varying sizes, colors, and quality. It was so interesting.

Bulk buying appears to take many forms and qualities. I know for sure that I'll be back at Costco before long to stock up on some household stuff. Cash & Carry has possibilities. I am extremely curious to shop at Lenny's with the full understanding that I will get a unique, non-uniform product. So much shopping, pricing, and eating lies ahead!

Pun Wars

It began in the first days of living in the same house with Jess. Either she or I would start with a cheesy pun and we would begin bantering back and forth, punning on the same topic.

For example, fruit:
"You're a basket case."
"It stems from having you around so much."
"Be pre-peared to clean out the fridge."
"These things don't happen organically."
"I hope all of our conversations are this fruitful."
(This is a real excerpt from our text messages.)

And as a result, this is how I got the nickname "Grapechel." :)

We've gone through topics like the ocean, dogs, horses, eggs, cheese, and countless others that I can't even remember. It was from these wars that I realized (1) we are both very competitive and (2) we are both very witty.

1) We are both very competitive.
Pun wars would start late at night, right as we both were preparing for bed. Neither of us was willing to let the other have the last word, so we would stay up past our self-imposed curfew. After we managed to extricate ourselves and shut our respective doors, we would still be yelling puns through the paper-thin wall we share. The other would yell in response that she couldn't hear what was said. We would then move to texting each other from our respective rooms.

2) We are both very witty.
This is self-evident.

We are indeed a pair of cheesy buds.

Breakfast Cups

Today's Special: Breakfast Cups
1 package of chicken sausage
1 pepper
1 zucchini
1 carton of egg whites

Preheat the oven to 350. Sautee the chicken sausage on medium high heat. Put to the side. Cut up the zucchini and peppers and sprinkle into a greased muffin tin. Add equal amounts of sausage in each cup. Bake at 350 for 23-25 minutes. Most important: Once they are out of the oven, take them out of the cups and place on a cooling rack.

I just threw mine into a ziploc bag and then voila! Breakfast for the week under 200 calories for 2 cups. They are delicious, but please forgive me. I am still very new to foblogging and forgot to take step by step pictures like any good pioneer would do. So I only have a picture of the final product which I even admit... doesn't capture its true... essence. But here you go... I hope you enjoy them as much as I do :)

Seattle SuperSonics

When it comes to sports teams, Seattleites tend to favor soccer, baseball, and I guess football (now that Pete Carroll has made something of the Seahawks). I quickly learned that bringing up the NBA topic in Seattle ends up in bitter tirades about the Oklahoma City debacle (Seattle's NBA team was sold off to Oklahoma). This is unfortunate because basketball is my favorite sport to watch!

The latest news is that Seattle is going to purchase the Sacramento Kings and hold it out as the new local Sonics basketball team. While I am thrilled that our city is going to be an NBA city again, part of me wonders how this will go; is this a case of "If at first you don't succeed..." or will it be "Fool me twice, shame on me"? Note the ironic history.

On a side note, many familiar faces from my hometown (Los Angeles) are turning up in Seattle.

• Steve Sarkisian: once a coach at USC, now head coach at UW
• Pete Carroll: former head coach at USC, now the Seahawks coach
• Phil Jackson: former LA Laker coach, Seattle newssources say he is a possibility for the open position as Sonics coach

I suppose everyone heard that I'm headquartered here?

Cheesy Buds... Literally

Eloquently put, Rachel. Since PBS has yet to take notice of my culinary qualifications, I shall share my first recipe that both Rachel and I have made separately with smashing success, and wouldn't you know it, they are literally cheesy buds. I present to you: Parmesan Crusted Potato Skins.

Ingredients

• 6 small potatoes, scrubbed and cut in half
• 1/4 cup butter
• grated parmesan cheese
• garlic powder
• other seasonings (to personal preference)

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Melt butter and pour into a 9x13 inch pan and spread evenly across the bottom. Generously sprinkle parmesan cheese and lightly sprinkle other seasonings all over the butter. Place potato halves face down on the butter and seasonings. Place in preheated oven and bake for 40 to 45 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan. Serve on a plate with a side of sour cream for dipping.

 

Why Cheesy Buds?

"Cheesy Buds" was to be the name of Jess and my hypothetical television show. The idea was to have a cooking show where Jess (the more advanced cook) would make PBS-worthy dishes, and I would be the ignoramus ooh-ing and aah-ing in the background (and I would of course devour everything).

To create our show's name, we each thought of our favorite food. Cheese is my favorite thing. Potatoes are Jess' go-to staple. We combined to call our united product "Cheesy Buds." The name is particularly appropriate as we tend to enjoy one-upping each other in often cheesy jokes and puns.