Freaky Friday

That is our cat Maddie. I will admit that she is peering over a now-deceased computer. But it is Friday and I can't be all taking new pictures and stuff. After all, the sun is out.

It's a little odd that the sun is out because 15 minutes ago there was torrential rain. Now it's bright and light. Go figure. Work has been on the agenda for much of the week, that and take out. Thus, I have not provided a whole lot of blogging awesomeness. But there's hope for the weekend.

We are staying in the city this weekend and I have some great expectations. I would like to:

• sleep an inordinate amount and at inappropriate times
  
• get the hunks of fur under Lexi's chin under control
  
• take out the takeout box that has been in the fridge since Monday
• oh, and get my Mafia Wars energy timing out better

They're pretty lofty goals, but I think with the right help they might be doable.

Brilliant Lemon Pie

As I've fretted so many times before, Jac is an app man and I am a dessert girl. This has the unfortunate effect of meaning we usually don't get dessert. Our outing to Carlyle in Shirlington was a total WIN for Team Elle Kasey!

Shirlington is a seriously hot dining spot. It's two rows of dining plus a new annex of dining and shops. It's outdoors and has ample patio seating that lures people on the most vaguely favorable evenings. We dared try Carlyle, easily the granddaddy of Shirlington dining on a busy weekend night. To our surprise they seated us right away. The place was packed but it was a tasty dinner. When a lemon meringue pie passed by I pulled out one of my dessert chits and invited Jac to sit back and enjoy a coffee. The brilliant thing about the pie was the meringue was described as "marshmallow meringue" and it was much sweeter, fluffier and substantial than meringue is. I know I'm going to have to figure out how to make topping goodness.

Return to Ruby Tuesday

More than a year ago we stumbled into a Ruby Tuesday and ran into a woman who'd been my manager when I waitressed at school more than a decade ago. She told me that big changes were coming to Ruby's they wanted to shake off the Applebee's vibe and move more toward upscale dining. 

Sometime ago I heard about Ruby's PR uh stunts promoting the launch of their updated brand and menu. They had announced they were going to blow up a Ruby Tuesday and rebuild from the ground up or some other metaphor. But it turned out they actually blew up like an old Bo Jangles fast food place instead of a Ruby Tuesday - but no matter because they were NEW and IMPROVED. But we didn't happen into Ruby's for many many months. I'd been turned off first by a switch to Hunts ketchup and then to the ketchup rationing, and an encounter with something the manager might have called FreshPrep or pre-prep (read pre-cooked and we put it in the microwave) bacon. 

But this week I needed new tires and Ruby Tuesday was impossibly close to the tire shop so we went in for an early dinner. 

We went in and found a pleasantly updated Ruby Tuesday. Things were fresh and mellow. It was a more grown up Ruby's. I got salad from the bar, as I'd done on breaks during so many shifts working at other Ruby Tuesday locations, and started to think things had taken a step in the right direction.

I guess they have but I can say I was grossed out by the burger sliders. I'm not such a fan of beef in the first place, but they had put a heap of random seasoning into the little bites and it made them both too dubious for me to eat and too pathetically trying too hard to be chic.

When we have to get tires again I'll stick to salad and a Ruby Relaxer because they do make a mean Ruby Relaxer.

Stepping Out: Jackson 20

I was asked to pick a luncheon spot for a business meeting and Jackson 20 in Old Town Alexandria came to mind. The menu had looked delish online. I arrived early and the place was half-full with business-types. I opted for the tea and was surprised and delighted by a Moroccan mint style iced tea. They had changed the menu so the one on the website wasn't quite up to date. I had kind of psyched myself up for the pappa al pomodoro (tomato soup with bread) but since they didn't have that I resorted to the multi-cheese panko and sundried tomato penne pasta which was heavenly and rich. My companions had the po' boy and fish. The waitress didn't know what remoulade was which didn't go far with my guest from Louisiana, but we were all pleased with our meals. I brought easily 2/3rds of my dish home and have been reheating it to my delight ever since.

Jackson 20

480 King Street

Alexandria, Va 22314

Moronblogging: Family Style

I have been doing a little experiment. I have been doing what a lady friend my insurance pays to listen to me calls "positive self-talk" when I go out in public and face humanity. I'd explained to her that sometimes people in public are so freakin' crazy that I want to either flog them with a really great floggable object I can't think of right now, or blog about them in spectacular fashion exposing them to global humiliation on order of the South Korean "Dog Poop Girl". Unfortunately, chronicling all of those people is like counting to one of those numbers people always tell you would take 187 years just to count out loud.

So now I think nice things when I go places. It is a forcefield of goodness against a world of wackiness. It is my happy bubble. We went to the "Fresh Mex" restaurant at the mall today and were seated in a booth. A short time later we saw the McCrazytown Family headed our way and my happy bubble shuddered. 

She wouldn't take the table nearby, not with two kids and a stroller. She wanted the booth behind us. She didn't want a booster seat because her daughter would crawl out of it. She put the girl in a high chair. This left the stroller floating between tables, a formidable obstacle for the waiters who had to pass through every few minutes.

Things started getting really crazy when she ordered grilled fish tacos. By this time we knew they were keepers and our ears were tuned for loony. 

CrazyMom: I will have the grilled fish tacos.

FreshMex Server: Okay, they are made with salmon.

CrazyMom: Salmon. Oh. I don't really like salmon. I guess then I'll just have the...

Wait, you love you some fish tacos but of all the fish they could have chosen salmon (a wildly popular bland fish when I was waitressing), SALMON is offensive to you. Okay, well I hate seafood altogether so I'm not going to be judgy. 

CrazyMom: ... but not with the beans. I can't have any beans.

What? I'm sorry, WTF? Do you know that you are in the Fresh Mex restaurant in the mall? You can't have BEANS? Is there a bean allergy I am unaware of? Do you have a wild colon? If so is the Fresh Mex restaurant really your best mall dining option? And then, do you have to, you know do this...

CrazyMom: Yes, and (the daughter) will have the... but no beans, she doesn't like beans.

Oh Lord above. But the best part - no it's all the best part actually - was when her husband asked what refried beans and black beans were.

And then she and the daughter reviewed the foods she likes: french fries and cheese and bread and spaghettios. I'm all for carbs, but let's get Emily to eat a few other things since she's speaking in full sentences. 

I thought Mr. McCrazytown Family was from the general Former Soviet Union region. Jac was pretty sure she called him Raoul and he was speaking with a broken Spanish accent (but then hello, whatever part of the Spanish-speaking world you're from you should totally know what beans are dude). We were sort of relieved to learn this as we listened to her manifold issues because we surmised he's not getting 60-70% of what she's saying which is just about what he would need to have a sustainable level of sanity.

And then, in the Mexican (sorry lots of air quotes around that since it's the Mall Fresh Mex place) restaurant she says:

Mrs. McCrazytown Family: I hope they don't have Swine Flu here.

FTW!!

Thank goodness the other kid was on the boob having a non-bean lunch the whole meal or he probably would have had something crazy to cry.

And, now we will resume our positive self-talk and re-enter the happy bubble.

Brie, Onion and Apple Panini

Founding Farmers, one of our favorite restaurants, has a killer flatbread made with onion jam, brie, and sliced apples. I decided to make it at home today since it is ghastly outside and the thought of leaving the house, even for this amazing sandwich is not up for discussion.

I sliced the onions thinly, and added them to a pan with olive oil and butter. I covered the pan and let it simmer on low heat for 30-40 minutes, stirring occasionally. Then I added raw sugar and salt, covered it and cooked the onions a little longer. Finally, I turned up the heat and stirred them while they turned deep gold.

Then I covered sliced bread with apples (again thinly sliced) which blocked any holes in the bread. I removed the onions from the pan and placed the bread with toppings in the pan. I added the onions and grilled each side of the bread until golden using a touch of the cooking liquid from the onions. I'm having potato chips with my panini and it's the perfect antidote to this rainy, gnarly day.

Come Again Another Day

It has been raining here for what seems like forever. Maybe we had a sunny day sometime back in February, but it feels like an eternity. There's plenty going on Chez Magniferous to keep us occupied. We have a sudden, unannounced and somewhat unnatural fanaticism for hockey -- specifically for the Stanley Cup hopes of the 2008-2009 Washington Capitals. It is far safer for me to refer to this new found passion in unambiguous language so that I do not sound too much like a total noob or tool.

They hockey time is eating into the cooking and crafting time. Well, sort of. I've been working on genealogy and having fun finding pictures of family as-yet unseen. I bumped into a cousin on the Internet and she has great things to share. I am struggling to figure out the best way to share and encapsulate the nuggets of family knowledge. I want to put them on the web but restrict access. I want it to be very simple to search, sort, organize and add to the collection. RIght now I'm using Google Sites. I don't know if that's where I'll end up.

Last night I decided to see what all the fuss is over Mafia Wars on Facebook. Now I am counting the minutes until I can go back and see if I've amassed enough energy to do a job big enough to get me to the next level. I still don't quite know what I'm doing but it's a wonderful timesuck.

I'm thinking it's time to plan a trip, but that could also be the effects of too many missed weekends at the river.