Composing a great meal of good food

One of my favorite summer diversions has become composing delicious, usually cool, more-veg-than-not,  meals made with local summer bounty.  All the better if it is inspired by and can evoke a place, time, and mood.  Someplace we'd rather be...anywhere, but here.

Here are some recent menus for Summer 2011:

Ciao Italia:  Tonight's dinner included roasted red peppers; farm tomatoes & garden basil; fresh buffalo mozzarella; sliced pepperoni; white bean salad with garden sage; spinach wilted in olive oil, garlic and a squeeze of lemon; crusty bread; and a bottle of wine.  Later, we enjoyed homemade cherry-vanilla ice pops.  Yummy, cool, and so easy!

Simplemente Mexico:  Last week, I used up a host of leftovers and re-created them into something totally new and easy.  I sprinkled a mild, white mexican cheese on corn tortillas and broiled them to just enough to crisp the tortilla and melt the cheese; a light pico de gallo sauce on the side; and served with a black bean, fresh corn kernel, avocado, cilantro salad with a squeeze of lime.  Cold beer made it lively.

Grilling in Greece:  One recent warm night, I grilled some lamb rubbed with garlic and rosemary, and served it with homemade cucumber tsatsiki, crumbled feta, olives, and flat bread.  The charred lamb was such a lovely accompaniment to the simple sides.

One Night in Nice:  Dear Daughter will tell just about anyone her favorite food is a Nicoise salad - much to my chagrin - it sounds so precocious!  What she really means is she loves La Nouvelle Observatrice's composed Nicoise with lightly steamed green beans, fresh garden tomatoes, boiled eggs, some briny olives, boiled new potatoes tossed with olive oil and chives, and tuna (if it's in a tin, I use the Italian brand packed in oil, and mix in some fresh parsley).  I usually whip up a lemon-dijon vinaigrette, and drizzle it over the colorful platters.

Crunchy-punchy Caesar:  This one is an American classic - originating, they say, from the Brown Derby in Hollywood, also ubiquitous at steakhouse menus - actually pretty ubiquitous on any American menu!  I do love the effect of the crisp cool hearts of romaine on a summer day.  The weekend's stale bread makes the homemade crusty croutons.  The aged parmesan reggiano is nutty, and procured during a weekend outing at Eastern Market.  I make my vinaigrette with extra punch - lots of lemon, lots of garlic, lots of dijon (extra forte).  Grilling even just one or two chicken breasts gives us enough protein for a few people - more people than breasts can - for once - work out here.

More Inspiration than Perspiration:  Salmon burgers have become a regular go-to meal around here.  Being pressed for time, a little lazy, and taking more credit for the inspiration to eat fresh and healthy, than the actually making of it, I buy pre-made salmon patties at the fish store or Whole Foods Market, grill them up, and serve on whole wheat burger buns, with a spoonful of 1000 Island dressing, some romaine (See Caesar - regularly in my fridge in the summer months), and a slice or two of tomato (see other recipes - perfect in July and August)

Late July Harvest Show-off:  Pasta primavera was featured recently on this blog.  A quick sautee of  summer squash, sweet onion, corn, tomato and basil - no need to be saucy about it.  I serve it over a small portion of pasta - the pasta-veg/sauce ratio is no more than 1-to-1.  Aged parmesan is grated over our bright yellow-red-green dishes right at the table.  Yum.

Don't forget the power of good, cold craft beer, chilled white (or even pink) wine, bubbly seltzer (add a dash of cranberry juice or a flavored syrup for fanciness), lemonade (with or without pureed raspberries), and homemade ice cream (just 20 minutes, plus freezetime in the ice cream maker) to get credit for being a domestic goddess.  Nigella, my luscious, eat your heart out!

Pasta Primavera

Summer Vegetables: zucchini, tomatoes, corn, basil over rotini, sprinkled with parmesan

Sauvignon Blanc

Weekend

Summertime, and the living is easy.

I'm not sure if it's because of the season.  Or because things at work are at a slower pace.   Or because even though my new boss is super-charging our workload and raising the bar big-time, I feel motivated at work and able to define my life and my schedule (which in June meant, I took every Friday off, and today meant that I worked from home in the morning, ducked out for G's performance, and then headed to the office at 1:30, but proceed to work 'til 7pm...on a Friday,...in the summer).  But at any rate, I'm feeling pretty chillax.  And I'm looking forward to a weekend that is mixed with lazing about, doing chores, and being lightly social - or "social-lite."

Tonight was "Book" Club - hardly about books, and hardly a club - but a bunch of irreverent urban moms who like to host good friends, cook great food, eat it well, accompanied by choice beer and wine, and proceed to talk and laugh until midnight or so.  Our bike commutes converge as the blocks get closer in, so one biker, turned to two at my place, where we caught up with two others a few blocks away, and half a block from our host's house found the other three biker contingent coming from the north end of our neighborhood.  I'll spare you the (delicious) menu (there are so many damn food blogs out there these days) and the topics of conversation (to protect the innocent, and because you had to be there), and skip to the end, when my ride home with two others took us the long way to better revel in the cool (in  DC July!) air, the clear black sky, the round bright silver moon,  and the car-free city streets.

Tomorrow's chores include a grocery shop, picking up my computer back-up drive, a trip to the library for returns and pick-up of the books I've reserved online.  It also involves some cooking - a Mexican bean salad and some homemade ice cream (can't decide how I'll top last week's ginger peach, but I'm leaning toward strawberry almond or cinnamon blueberry).  I'll swim in the newly-discovered 50m (Olympic-sized) DC pool that feels simply tremendous in the glorious sun and blue sky and experienced by my working, churning body.  There's a plan with G - perhaps some recreational swimming, and a night in with gameboards (she's learned Sorry!) or cards (Skip-bo, by the makers of Uno).

Sunday will find us at church, followed by brunch with friends...and then we must encamp somewhere for the Women's World Cup (USA!), before heading home at the very last minute for visiting with G's godmoms and kids.

It may very well turn into the Perfect Weekend.

La Nouvelle Observatrice

New York City Food Tour

Mmmmmmm...just back from a delicious four-day trip to New York.  All fun, no work!  Here's a meal-by meal account...

Balthazar - First stop after the train, a quick lunch in SoHo.  This spot is known for the rich and gorgeous, and this Sunday was no exception.  Instead of the sit-down, expensive, tres chic brunch, we opted for the take-away counter - a gorgeous patisserie - where a jambon-fromage sandwich on a crusty baguette and a fresh mint-lemonade on the bench outside while people-watching was simply low-key perfect.

Motorino - Later in the Deep East Village, we had to try to best pizza in New York (at least according to the New York Times).  OMG.  Heaven.  The fennel salad was impeccable. The well-balanced mix of fennel, orange, olives, capers, and parmesan had a lovely fresh, salty, minty, citrus-y pop - perfect for a summer evening.  The Margherita pizza (the true test of the best) met expectations - yeasty crust with just enough black char and a creamy fresh buffalo mozz was delish (though I found the tomato sauce a bit soupy).  A simple glass of Nero d'Avola- my summer favorite in Italian wine was a perfect complement.

Shake Shack - New Yorkers line up for this local chain serving burgers and shakes (now also in Dupont Circle, DC).  I haven't tried either - but I did did a kick out of those stylish hipsters lining up fro them in the summer twilight of Madison Square Park.  We hit the B-line (no hot food, no shakes) where with no line, no waiting, I soon had a sweet corn ice cream cone in my hand.  Another park bench served as a perch for fabulous people-watching and eavesdropping.

Tom's Restaurant - In the morning, it was off to Morningside Heights, my old stomping ground at Columbia, for a little walkabout.  First stop, Tom's - the 24-hour diner institution of Seinfeld and Suzanne Vega fame - for a greasy spoon breakfast.  Sadly, a bit of a disappointment.  The place has been refurbished, and lost it's dive-y charm.  The egg and ham sandwich on an English muffin was lackluster, and the coffee was weak.  I think coffee expectations have changed over the years from Folgers to Brooklyn Roasters...and Tom's is still with the former.

Petrie Cafe at the Metropolitan Museum - The gorgeous summer afternoon hopping between art museums and Central Park beckoned us to the Petrie Cafe at the Met.  The setting was perfect - cooled from the mid-day scorcher, but the wide windows to the courtyard presented the tall green shade trees and the Central Park scenery as if we were immersed in it all.  Here, desperate for vegetables, I had an early summer bounty salad of asparagus, peas and fava beans, and four glasses of NYC tap water.

Eataly - A surprising number of our first choice bistros were closed for the July 4th holiday, but we finally found one good option open.  The Italian food emporium is a huge warehouse of Italian groceries and food purveyors - shelves of pastas, aisles of olive oils, butcher, dairy shop, cheese, incredible espresso, a gelato store...and five sit-down restaurants, each with a specialty - fish, meat, vegetarian, pizza and pasta.  We opted for the pasta - actually the pasta opted us, as all the others were fully booked. A simple antipasti dish - pickled cremini, roasted beets (with crumbled pistachios - yum), shaved asparagus with pecorino, and olives - started us off.  Then, we enjoyed two simple pasta dishes - an earthy, rich ravioli stuffed with prosciutto and gran padano in a brown-butter sage sauce and a lighter, fresher cavatelli with cherry tomatoes and arugula.  All al dente... A good bottle of Italian red - what was it again? - completed the meal and the day.

Bagels - Poppy seed with cream cheese and a coffee from the corner take-out.  It was excellent - and so great to be amidst all the New Yorkers getting the same order as they headed to work.

PJ Clarke's (not worth the link) - Not surprisingly a food disappointment, but we weren't there for the meal, we were there for the New York Harbor view in the Financial District. Some sailboats heading out and Lady Liberty standing watch were five-star all the way!  My Maine lobster roll was bursting with sweet meat...but the iced tea was weak, the coleslaw bland, and the service abhorrent.

Paradou - After a walk on the High Line - my new favorite place in New York, though my recent discovery of Madison Square Park with the luminescent sculpture of a girls' face (Echo, Jaume Plensa) is a close second - we ate dinner in this little bistro in the Meatpacking District,  We ordered our most decadent meal of the trip, and it was hit and miss.  An insanely rich, curated foie gras was incredible - served with macadamia nuts drenched in Lillet! -  started the meal.  This was the highlight of the meal.  A medium rare steak was well cooked, but a poor cut- chewy and fatty.  However, its accompaniment of potato gratin -  finely slivered potatoes, layered with a nutty cheese and a dash of allspice - was heavenly.  The tiny pile of greens on the plate added lightness, but its lackluster flavor was not worth the effort.  A nice bottle of Cote du Rhone kept it all very French in the elegant courtyard garden.  While the overall experience was quite pleasant and warm, the meal itself was merely fair and tepid. Next time, I think I'll go back to exploring the West Village.

Bon appétit!

New York for Marriage Equality

A Marriage Equality vote is going to the State Senate soon - likely next week - as they try to catch up with DC's enlightened ways.  It's close, but it looks like it's just one vote away from passing, and that Senator remains undecided.  And in getting to that threshold, recently, Republican State Senator, Roy McDonald crossed party lines to state he planned to vote for it.   He was quoted as saying:

"You get to the point where you evolve in your life where everything isn't black and white, good and bad, and you try to do the right thing.

"You might not like that. You might be very cynical about that. Well, f**k it, I don't care what you think. I'm trying to do the right thing."  

Way to go, Mc Donald.  Here's to evolving.  Her's to not seeing life in black and white.  Here's to doing the right thing.  And while, I'm at it, here's to TMZ.com, the celebrity gossip site for covering it and standing on the side of love.

Sweet Mango Armpit

Fragrance in body products have always annoyed and amused me.  While I don't always get unscented products, I do seek out the lightest, most natural fragrance for my hair, body, and laundry.  Recently, it seems like the scenting has gotten out of control - "Cherry Mischief" Clear Gel Deodorant by Secret (wow! - that's practically a porn flick) or "Va Va Vanilla" also by Secret. I really don't want my armpit smelling like a bakery.  It seems rather ridiculous.  But while I steer clear of such frou-frou scenting, at least they make some scent sense.

This morning, however, I was shaving in the shower with Skintimate Extra Moisturizing Shave Gel for Sensitive Skin.  I must have bought it on sale - it would not usually jump into my shopping cart from the shelf.  The lather was bright pink, and smelled sickly sweet like strawberry-mango cotton candy.  I looked down at the label to figure out what on earth I had purchased....

"Cashmere Rain" it said on the label.  What?!?!  Is that like a damp sweater or a muggy summer rainstorm?  Is it soft fuzzy raindrops?  Or wet velvet?  At any rate, it's the dumbest marketing I've ever seen in my entire life.  I can't believe no one caught that in the focus group.   Jeesh.

Radio City Music Hall, New York

Cool! Life's lessons in data form

Yet another amazing interactive data graphic at the NYTimes.  This one is a measure of the frequency of key words within this season's commencement speeches.  I am, as usual, particularly enamored with the data presentation.  The list of colleges and universities (organized by private, public, and military) with the commencement speaker name, affiliation, and link to speech on YouTube runs along the left column.  Key word (and by extension themes) run across the top.  And the circle size represents frequency of word use. So much information, so clearly presented at once; it can be looked at as a whole ("world" ran across nearly every speech), or disassembled in its parts (Sheryl Sandberg, COO Facebook sure said "Facebook" a lot, but it was a popular refrain across the board).

The themes tell us something about our times - "world," "economy," "Facebook/Twitter" - but also reflect the grandiose and seemingly limitless horizon that "commencement" provides -"change," "service/responsibility," "joy/happiness,"  and "love/passion."

I think I would enjoy Jonathan Franzen's address about the importance of going beyond "Liking" a la Facebook, but to take a boldder, braver, more purposeful step of "loving" and embracing.  And I find it interesting that Bill Clinton, the world's statesman, told NYU's graduates, "You should strive to find happiness every day and not believe that it comes at the end of the journey." - a lesson he surely learned on a visit with the Dalai Lama.

And back to Sheryl Sandberg - a woman who has made more money than God paving our new roads of human interaction through social networks and digital media.  She wisely told the group of undergraduates at Barnard College, a women's college in New York City:

Women almost never make one decision to leave the work force. It doesn’t happen that way. They make small little decisions along the way that eventually lead them there. Maybe it’s the last year of med school when they say, “I’ll take a slightly less interesting specialty because I’m going to want more balance one day.” Maybe it’s the fifth year in a law firm when they say, “I’m not even sure I should go for partner, because I know I’m going to want kids eventually.” These women don’t even have relationships, and already they’re finding balance, balance for responsibilities they don’t yet have. And from that moment, they start quietly leaning back.

So, my heartfelt message to all of you is, and start thinking about this now, do not leave before you leave. Do not lean back; lean in. Put your foot on that gas pedal and keep it there until the day you have to make a decision, and then make a decision. That’s the only way, when that day comes, you’ll even have a decision to make.

Wise words, indeed! 

Take this evilsayers...

Here's one of those feel-good stories when all that evil hate is deflected to good. Lisa Lampanelli * told the nasty homophobic Westboro Baptist Church that for every one of their protesters at her KS show she would donate $1000 to a gay charity.

Now, Gay Men's Health Crisis (NY) is $50k richer.


* Who is she? Not sure, but she must be famous-ish because I found this story on the celebrity gossip blog TMZ.com, that I indulge in on a regular basis despite having no idea who they are talking about.

The struggle

I'm struggling these days, weeks, months to keep my perspective.  For whatever reasons, it feels like the wind in my sails has died, and I am dealing with all sorts of self-doubt, second guessing, and a massive crisis of confidence.  I'm not sure exactly where I left my mojo, or who took it from me.  But I do know that I was in a much better place 6 months ago.  I know I am the same person, living the same beautiful life, in the same enviable circumstance.  I'm not ungrateful, far from it, in fact.  And yet, I can't seem to shake the feeling that I am less.  Sometimes it feels like loss.  Sometimes it feels like disappointment.  Sometimes it's a feeling of being overwhelmed by my current circumstances, while underwhelmed by the alternative.   My inner peace suffers discontent.  My creative spark is gone; and my energy is zapped; my optimism is crowded out by resignation; my passion, by apathy.

There are many things that lead me to believe that this is a temporary condition.  I have my faith that this, too, shall pass.  I'm aware that in some ways my time feels so dreadfully slow and stagnant, but so much happens over the course of a day, a week, a month, a year that I both don't see the progress, or recognize the inflection points until they become retrospective.  I know that a good swim can clear my head in 20 minutes (though these 20 minutes are few and farther between these days.  I know that my church can fill my soul with exuberant  joy, profound peace, and deep aches simultaneously in the best of all possible ways.  I know the best thing for me would be to let go, and let it be.  That my self-loving voice will serve me better than my self-critical one, but that ironically, that self-love must includes self-acceptance that embraces that inner critic.  I know that happiness is a practice.

But for now, all that shit is not kicking in and here I am...struggling...  

Old Boyfriend Tour

Yesterday morning, I had to drive from someplace to somewhere on I-495 - the 10-lane ring road that surrounds Washington, DC and connects its first-tier suburbs. As I whizzed passed the exits - Takoma Park...Silver Spring...Kensington...Bethesda - at nearly 80 mph, I thought of the once-boyfriend who lived there.  Our good times and our endings flashed through my mind; some sour feelings, but mostly warm ones washed over me.

And then a nerdy, bad pun entered my head, and the Old Boyfriend Tour screeched to a halt with a groan..."Notches in my Beltway"

OBL - Metrics

Osama bin Laden was killed this week by US forces.  I have many thoughts about this and other things - some blog posts rattling around my head that may never find this outlet because I'm busy and living life fully!  But I did appreciate this interactive, graphic, polling tool from the NYTimes that plots both significance of his death in the war on terror and emotional response response of the event.  Neither scientific, nor representative - it does allow for some additional insight of the pulse of readers.

Cool tool!

This is so AWESOME, it's SICK!

When I found this data graph for DC's awesome Capital BikeShare, I became nearly giddy.  I've been playing with it for the last hour or so, and I'm like a kid in a candy store.  My heart is aflutter - for real! All my favorite things!  I love metrics.  I love cities.  I love interactive real time data.  I love bikes, and more so bike shares.  I love CaBi. so proud to be one of the founding members (as one of the first 2,000 members with a free t-shirt and commemorative keyfob....(geekster grin: Geek + Hipster = Geekster!)).  I love public transport, and more so if it's extra-green and innovative public transport.

Here's the link again...now let's play!  So much data depicted on first click.  First, the overall view of the CaBi program is the homescreen.  Larger circles denote larger stations with more bike docks.  The color of the circles show how full/empty the docks are - blue is emptier, deep red is an completley full station.  The graph is realtime, and the lower right hand corner gives usage stats.  Right now, pretty late on a Thursday evening, use is a low, sleepy 3%.  The max simultaneous usage for today was 173 bikes, in use, or a respectable 20% of all available bikes in use (more about this later).  That lower right hand info box has some pretty cool extra features.  You can show or hide a ticker which tells you bikes going in and out of station realtime.  It also shows usage and distribution imbalance datagraphs for the day.  Around 5pm, today the fewest bikes were in docks - or conversely, the most were in use.

Even more fun...there is an animation button where we can see those station circles go from blue to red and back again in a neato timelapse run.  See how, people head downtown, and then back to residential districts over the course of a day.  Sounds like a commuter city, until you realize this is by bikes, not crawling on the Beltway!  Mixed-use zones - shopping/residential/business like Dupont Circle and Capitol Hill get used all day.

Then, there's a little thrill ride here...Click on a station, and see it's dock stats for the last 24-hour period - the peaks and valleys of rush hour, the sharp zig-zags of frequent use.  For example, 16th and U has a precipitous drop from totally full to totally empty during the morning rush hour, as this high-density, young, urban hipster neighborhood heads out to work, presumably downhill towards downtown.  The Union Station dock does the same, with an opposite effect - all the bikes are taken from this busy transit hub around 6pm and dispersed to other docks within the nearby residential neighborhood.  One of my local stations at 14th and D Streets SE gets decent use throughout the day, but by 9pm, it's docks are full.  This matches my recent experience, when one evening, I grabbed a CaBi bike from the pool toward home, and found no docks at this station.  I had to ride a few blocks farther, though not too much off my path, to return my bike to a different station.  And Eastern Market (8th and Penn SE) and Dupont Circle stations get a fair amount of usage throughout the day.

And that awesome little addictive live data set led me to the supra-awesome blog Suprageography: I see data, I make maps that covers bikeshare data stats for several urban bikeshare programs around the world.  WOW!  I totally [HEART] that Oliver guy!  He recently posted about a big day for bikesharing - Easter Sunday - where he notes there was HUGE usage in DC (in the #1 ranking), Miami, and London - all soaring above 35% simultaneous bikes in use.  In DC 37% of our 872 bikes were in use at about 4 in the afternoon (I'm reasonably sure I had a bike out about that time).  He notes that usage rates above 30% stress the system, and it is difficult to find a bike in many places.  His table shows that not only is DC an amazing bikesharing city, but we have a relatively large program with our almost 900 books, especially with the relative size of our population compared to some of the other bikesharing cities - like London and Mexico City.  And, as he kindly points out so I don't have to be all puffy about it, America is beating Europe!


Yay, CaBi!  Yay DC!  I could eat this stuff all day.  

You know it's a bad date when...

...when he keeps twisting your words to prove his belief that women are bitches
...when you begin to wish you followed him to the bar to order the drinks, in case he slipped in a "roofie"
...when you realize that it is time to clearly, definitively, and immediately extract yourself, and are scheming how to do so without pissing him off
...when you begin to go over the information you shared to figure out if it is enough for him to find you at work or home
...when you look over your shoulder constantly all the way to the metro to make sure he's not following you
...when you leave a voicemail and email yourself with the details of what you know about him, where you met, and what you experienced to help out the investigation just in case you end up dead somewhere
...when you get home you double lock the door, and set the alarm

Yikes, that was freaky!

Sunday Morning

Pancakes 

-with real Vermont maple syrup

Canadian Bacon

Fruits Exotiques

- pineapple, banana, kiwi with honey lime dressing

Juice 
& fresh-brewed French Roast coffee

The Red and the Black (The blog post in which La Nouvelle Observatrice lets on to the whole wide world just how soccer-ignorant she is)

Ok, maybe soccer-ignorant isn't the word, but soccer-shallow (sadly) for sure. Tonight I went with M to the DC United vs LA Galaxy match over at RFK Stadium. The stadium is just a few minutes walk from my house, about 5 blocks, and yet in my eight years living here, I've never, ever been to a game. Tonight, I finally made it, and I'm sure it will not be another 8 before the next time. We had a blast. Still, my commentary is limited. Here are some of my observations:

RFK is a dump. Seriously, it is a shabby, dilapidated building, with weird stains and strange molds hanging from the structure. There is broken concrete and open, messy wiring. Seats are not well-marked. No one gives a damn. Maybe one day, they'll get a dedicated soccer stadium - too bad the whole country is broke.

The vending in our section sucked. No real fridges, just coolers full of ice and blue Gatorade with the labels slipping off.  It was cash-only, which always pisses me off. M and I got beer - lukewarm and pissy.

The hooligans...er...supporters' clubs... are pretty cool.  Barra Brava is hardcore. Their huge red and black flags, chants and drums are larger than life, and thumpin'. That, my dears, is fandom. They roar and jump and their whole section bounces. The whole stadium vibrates, in fact. A little scary. Is this place structurally sound? Anyway, they're fun to watch, but I'm too old for that.

The regular old fans are an interesting mix. The suburban families, the college (once-college) players, the Euro-urban sports fan elite, the entire Central American population of the greater DC Metro area. The guys in our section were pretty much from the latter group. If I heard "mierda...puta" one more time...

David Beckham (LA Galaxy), like me, is also getting old, but he was there and he played well. At one point there was a big smash-up where two players seemed to smack right into each others' faces. I remember thinking 'Ouch!'.... That, and that would never happen to Beckham. He's a good, hard player and all, but can't really afford to mess up his handsome, chiseled face. Landon Donavan (also LA Galaxy) didn't play. Apparently, he's busy, tired and his knee hurts, and he didn't travel out with the team. I don't recall the name of a single DCUnited player.

Oh yes, I do...Charlie Davies, who scored DCUnited's only goal with a penalty kick which tied the game's final score  of 1-1. That was good. M told me he was in some horrific car accident sometime last year, and is just playing again now.

I bought a DC United fan scarf. It's red and black with DC United and  Addidas logos knitted in.  It's reversible - black side with red or red side with black. I've always wanted one of those scarves.

Really, I should do this sports reporting more often...

A blogging tear

I seem to be on a blogging tear here...:-)  Did you notice? ;-)

I'm just so happy to have a normal weekend.  Five of the last six weekends have been taken up by travel for work and for play - to Philadelphia, Guatemala, Disney World, Philadelphia (2), and Portland.  I forget what kind of toll that takes, until I'm finally sitting down again on a lazy Saturday at home.  Laundry, blogging, cleaning, cooking, a walk and cultural fair with Dear Daughter, seeing friends, and a swim.  And my mind is quiet and happy, my thoughts take a leisurely stroll around my head.  Time to relax, time to reflect.  And a little blogging.  Oh, little blog, how I've missed you.  xo.

Portland, Oregon

During my recent business trip to Portland, Oregon, I especially loved my visit to the Mercy Corps offices. These new digs for the $200m international development and relief non-profit are just incredible. The LEED Platinum design is so inspiring. I especially loved this central staircase in the middle of the building. A central lightwell fills the space fills the atrium and surrounding offices with natural sunlight. And it's inviting views, central mid-air bridge, and easy access invite one to choose the stairs (A small elevator was tucked away in a corner). It's frame was a brushed steel, warmed by reclaimed wooden planks. Just gorgeous.  

Fruit Bat, H St. NE

Outside the window, one Wednesday evening in the spring

W