Food for brains

Well gee. I'm 24 now. I'm here, as I likely was a year ago, sitting crosslegged on my gray felt couch, wearing my slightly bent and crooked kate spade librarian glasses, hair pulled back in the most unflattering of ways into a messy bun on the very top of my head (pebbles and bam bam style). My cat is flipping out because she needs attention, dashing back and forth from the front and back of the house (I say house because it's a nicer word than condo). Neil Young is whining about old men and the night is sparkly. Steve is out at practice with Miss A's band so I have a nice quiet night to myself. We had a rather nice meal at Annapurna for dinner, I had a bit of food envy because Steve is more adventurous than I and went for a delicious Nepalese dish while I stood by my regular old order of mutter paneer. His was delightfully tasty and filled with cauliflower, tomatoes, peas, and tons of spices. Mine was a bit bland.

I did a bit of planning for the trip, I'm excited to eat Indonesian food and dutch pancakes while in Amsterdam and giant plates of seafood served with a whole lemon in Dubrovnik.

My birthday was quite lovely, I threw a rather large barbecue at Steve's parents' house on the water. I was really happy to see so many of my friends in one place and was shocked at the turn out. With my paper crown and plenty o red wine I was truly the bday queen. The next day Steve surprised me with dinner reservations at Olivar, which is a delightful little restaurant on Roy in Capitol Hill across the street from the Harvard Exit theater. We had a starter of watermelon salad with a soft cow cheese, hot peppers, cucumber, and pumpkin seeds, this was a really great and very simple dish that was crisp, cool, and spicy that I may try to re-create for myself in the future. The second dish of scallops, corn salsa, and romesco sauce was equally great. Unfortunately the meal ended on a bit of a lame note with giant dry meatballs in an oddly sweet tomato jam and gnocchi that led me to believe someone had pushed the 'mute' button on my taste buds. The service, however, was superb and we were really pleased to find that most of their bottles of wine were under $30. It was a lovely warm summer night to stumble home down the hill together, drunk off an entire bottle of a spanish red wine.

23, you were alright. I stayed in one place and did the same thing for an entire year, which is a bit momentous. Still love my crayon colored capitol hill nest, still love my super geeky desk job.

I leave for Europe Tuesday! Woooooooooooooooooooo!