Feeling a little whipped today! Didn’t get home from culinary school until 11 last night and I had to be up at 6 this morning so I can work early and leave early for Fit Bloggin. I still haven’t packed(!) so I have to do that during lunch. So looking forward to our 6:30 AM 5K tomorrow (NOT).

Anyway, enough complaining from me. There are worse things than being busy with fun activities.

Speaking of, sauces were FUN!!

We learned:

• Béchamel into a cheese sauce, into macaroni and cheese;
• Velouté with white fish;
• Duck l’orange
• Espagnole with steak, alongside
• Hollandaise made into béarnaise;
• Tomato, combined with pesto and served with pasta; and
• Apple tart with caramel sauce and crème anglaise

That was one yum night! Here are some of our tastes from our chef’s demonstration:

The mac and cheese was to. die. for. probably one of my favorite things to come out of class, ever.

This was also fabulous – I love the idea of pesto and tomato combined to make one exceptionally flavorful sauce. VERY garlicky though!!

The espagnole was incredible. But I didn’t enjoy the béarnaise so much – so buttery. Hollandaise is just something I don’t think I get!

When it came time to choose what to make ourselves, my team and I opted for the Apple Tart with caramel and creme anglaise which was fun because it was so different to the savory foods we usually do. I did the creme anglaise which is basically English custard.  We have custard lots at my parents’ house so now I know how to make a delicious one from scratch for everyone . The trick is a whole vanilla bean split and orange zest, left in the pot as the sauce is being prepared. It comes out so full of flavor!

Here’s our little tart before getting cut and sauced:

And served:

That’s one beautiful dessert! Delicious.

So that’s sauces! It was certainly one of my very favorite classes to date.

And now it’s just a few more hours until I’ll be in Baltimore for Fit Bloggin. I’m really excited to see what the weekend has in store - and I’ll be sure to update as soon as possible on the happenings!

- Beth

Last night’s St. Paddy’s Day celebration was WILD. Okay, not really .

We tried to go to an Irish pub but (surprise!) there was a huge line-up to get in. Instead we ended up at Capitol City Brewing Company which did the job I suppose, as far as beer and bar food go.

My friends and I tried a new place near our office for lunch today, Funxion, which emphasizes the ever-so-trendy all natural ingredient list. Oh, and alcohol. How’s that for a winning combo!? The inside was so hip.

To eat, I had a Smoked Chicken Sandwich - Smoked PHA-Free Chicken Breast, Mustard, Provolone, Hoodia Tahini Spread, Served with Arugula, Tomato and Onion on Sprouted Bread.

The little fruit salad that came with it was dreamy! Pineapple, grapes and mint. Mint in a fruit salad is the ultimate.

My sandwich was good…but a bit dry. The bread was toasted and it seemed the chicken had been too. A bit stringy unfortunately. My friends both ordered pizzas and they were given rave reviews, so perhaps I just didn’t go the right direction.

All in all a good meal in a fun location. I’d go back and try again for sure.

Tonight is culinary school! That came QUICK this week. Sauces is the topic so get ready for a very saucy post tomorrow .

- Beth

Great News: Louisa got the job and is moving to DC!!!!! She will be working for the Washington Humane Society. If anyone know animals it’s my little sis and I am SO proud of her. This is pretty much her dream come true since she was a little girl!

Anyway, back to my much less exciting life . Last night was my second to last food writing class – I can’t believe how quickly time has gone. As much as I have enjoyed it I have to say I am a little bit looking forward to the end.. a full-time job, plus culinary school, plus that class and I am getting BURNT out. I’m sure it will all be worth it in the end so I’m just going to keep chugging along!

Our final assignment is to write a feature piece…basically an in-depth story that has been developed out of a newsworthy event. My idea is to use Fit Bloggin as the “newsworthy” event and perhaps the rapid rise of interest in healthy foodie blogs among females as the feature topic. How does that sound?

Before class, I spent time on laundry and making supper. This little creation was delish!

Lobster ravioli with the best sauce creation to come out of my kitchen in a while. A tbsp. of my lovely Italian olive oil with minced garlic, 2 big handfuls of spinach, s & p and a tbsp. of dried cranberries, plus parmesan cheese.

I totally considered blending some spinach into my oats this morning in honor of St. Paddy’s Day. But the blender was dirty and the whole idea of hand washing it just seemed like too much this AM . Oh well – this bowl was totally delicious on its own!

The usual 1/3 cup oats/milk/water mix with cinnamon, vanilla and chia seeds, topped with coconut, blackberries, chocolate chips and almond butter. In the greenest bowl I could find…which was pretty much blue . At least I’m not Irish!!

So although I did claim that I was too old to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day this year I have obviously changed my mind since there is something else to celebrate tonight too! I will however try to avoid a green beer hangover because I’m DEFINITELY too old for that .

- Beth

According to my view at the moment, we’ve finally kicked the rain (yay!) although yesterday that was not the case.

I had going for a walk on my mind all day but by the time I was off work there was quite a sprinkle outside. Lucky for me I got a lovely new raincoat for Christmas so a little rain was not going ruin my plans. I walked my usual hour route in Rock Creek Park and arrived home HUNGRY for dinner!

Luckily, this came together nice and quick.

A TJ’s marinated tuna steak with steamed lentils, and some chopped carrots and cuke with olive hummus. I bought SO MUCH produce this week, I’m not sure what I was thinking. I have no clue how I’m suppossed to eat it all while it’s still fresh so expect to be seeing a lot of fruit- and veg-heavy meals in the next few posts. I guess there are worse things, right? .

I’ve been dreaming of breakfast since last night!

3 seed toast with a warm mashed banana, cinnamon and Justin’s Maple Almond Butter. Melty and delicious…one of my faves.

Work today, Food Writing Class tonight. Hopefully Louisa and I will be out celebrating some good news in between then!

- Beth

Hello! Welcome to Monday.

Today is exciting because my little sis is coming back to DC for a working interview! The job is with her dream organization, which I won’t mention until we know if she gets it or not…but I am so hoping for good things for her. She has been graduated from college since last spring but the job market, as we all know, is TOUGH. Especially in Cleveland where she has been living at home and working in retail. So hopefully this works out and she can come enjoy the fun in DC .

Wish her luck!

This morning’s breakfast was a Trader Joe’s carrot ginger muffin and some grapes. Quick, which was a good thing since I slept half and hour longer than I meant to.  Springing forward is so lame.

4 more days til Fit Bloggin and I’m getting so excited!! I finally got my act together and decided to get a room/roommate Friday night since trying to commute in at the crack of dawn (would it even be dawn yet??) on Saturday sounded not so fun. I’ll be rooming with Lauren of Merry Mishaps so I’m excited to meet a new blog friend!

I’ll see you Tuesday .

- Beth

Good evening!

Hope everyone has had lovely weekends. Aside from the dreary rain, I’d say mine’s been pretty wonderful.

Just got back from a delicious dinner with my new friend Joelle. Since Joelle’s new to DC, I got to pick the place again. Although I did consider going somewhere new, I was also very tempted to show her my very favorite place – Potenza. I feel that no one should live in this city without having experienced it’s goodness . And so that’s what I settled on!

I’ve been to Potenza 4 times now. Although I am sure everything is great there, I have a very hard time passing up the gnocchi as I think it is the best gnocchi ever. I’ve ordered it 3/4 times thus far!

Spinach gnocchi in gorgonzola cream sauce with toasted walnuts. The most perfect pillowy pasta in the universe .

I also had a nice glass of Chianti.

For dessert, Joelle and I split the tiramisu.

Joelle is Italian and said this is the best tiramisu she’s ever had! I think that’s a pretty good stamp of approval .

In other news, if anyone is getting rid of or knows someone who is getting rid of their ticket to Fit Bloggin please let me know! Joelle and I were talking about it tonight and she’d like to go too.

Later alligators!

- Beth

Haaaappy Saturday! And what a happy one it’s been.

Today my friends and I ventured out to Chrysalis Winery in celebration of my friend Diana’s birthday. We were a bit bummed that it was rainy today but really, with good food, wine and friends…who cares?

We started with a tasting.

We knew we liked these wines because the vineyard participates in the Vintage VA Wine Fest which we went to last June. I remember it being a suuuuper hot day and the chilled patio red tasted dreamy! Today in the cold I could enjoy the room temp reds a bit better.

After our tasting we bought a bottle of rose and set up a lovely little picnic lunch in the wine shop.

Here’s my plate which featured Dean and Deluca bread, sweet and sour mustard with pretzels, goat and bleu cheeses with pear jelly, salami, grapes and blackberries. Pluuuus one extra piece of bread that snuck on my plate post pic .

After lunch came the REAL birthday fun.

Georgetown cupcakes!

I love Georgetown Cupcakes and I totally agree with people who are willing to wait in line an hour plus to get some. They are the perfect size, the perfect sweetness, just perfect.

We split them up so we could taste a few of the lovely varieties. I tried the cookies n’ cream, chocolate ganache and red velvet.

And then a half a taste of the salted caramel. That one WON hands down!

Gahhh, what a gorgeous, gorgeous way to spend a day. I think I could do that every Saturday and never tire of it!

See you Sunday.

- Beth

Hi! Check out THIS lovely Friday breakfast.

Maple apple cinnamon oatmeal with greek yogurt and almond butter. YUM. Although I have to wake up a bit early to make a breakfast like this, I feel like it’s well worth the time and effort. There is no better way to start a day than with a delicious nutritious meal, prepared in the early quiet of our kitchen .

It got me thinking - if you are a home chef and/or healthy eater when and how did this interest develop for you?

For me, I think the foundation was set by my parents who are very healthy eaters themselves. Growing up, we ate home-cooked family meals most every night.

My little sister and I played together all of the time back then and I can remember all of our play food which we kept in a big blue bucket. We liked to play “restaurant” some afternoons and would invite my parents into our room so we could then ”cook” for them.

So not only were my parents an inspiration, toys were too.

Toys these days are so much cooler than what we had back then, right?? Just check out the fun play kitchens on this kids furniture store, AllChildrensFurniture.com. We certainly could have used one of those little beauties in our restaurant game!

 How about you? What inspired your interest in healthy cooking and eating? Please do share .

 Happy Friday!

- Beth

Last night’s class was eggcellent! (groan)

We made:

• Creme Brulee
• Eggs Benedict
• Scrambled Eggs
• Omelettes
• Deviled eggs

Here are a few tastes from demonstration:

I got three whole bites of that beauty. My dad is not really a dessert guy, but this is the one dessert he does like to make (I think he likes the blow torch) so I had it frequently when at home. It was interesting to try a different take on it. This had a much thicker layer of burnt sugar on top. I like my Dad’s, I like this one… let’s be honest, I just lurve creme brulee .

The CREAMIEST scrambled eggs I have ever eaten. What was in them? Egg, salt and pepper. The trick is all in the cooking method. Cooked in a bowl over a pot of simmering water, stirred with a spatula…low, gentle and slow. It takes a while but the result was melt-in-my-mouth good!

(Sorry for the leftover yolk on the plate btw, it was from the Benedict.)

Deviled egg.

What my group and I wanted to then attempt in the kitchen was the Eggs Benedict. For one, I have never poached an egg without the help of an egg poacher. Also, Hollandaise – made the correct, patient way – is a little b*tch! Too hot, too cold, too thick or too thin and it’s no good. It needs a lot of TLC and I wanted to try to make it while we had a chef’s help nearby.

Our first attempt = total failure. What a bummer! We had it looking good and left it over low heat while we finished up the other components. When we came back it was a lump of yuck. We tried saving it but next thing you know there was just too much of everything in there and our lovely sauce was no longer .

We had to dump it out, and try again. The next time was much better!

I am not an eggs benedict fanatic like some brunchers I know but this was about as good as it’s going to get for me I think! Looks beautiful and tasted like eggy, buttery goodness. Thank you France.

So that was class. I’ll be back later today with another topic so stay tuned!

- Beth

Morning!

So happy it’s Thursday already. Of course with culinary school Thursday is my favorite day of the week, plus it means the weekend is right around the corner! And it’s going to be a fun one .

Yesterday I worked early/left early because of having plans, but they fell through. It worked out totally okay though because it meant that for once I could attend my beloved Body Combat which I usually miss out on during the week due to still being at the office. It was – as always - a fun and fabulous session but WOW was I starving by the time I got home! The temptation was to be eat the quickest thing I could find, but that’s not very blogworthy, now is it??

Instead I made this:

Roasted asparagus and butternut squash mixed with quinoa and a blend of shrimp/calamari/scallops. I also added a tbsp. of fig balsamic vinegar and 1/2 tsp. of truffle oil. This was well worth the wait .

I also prepared some overnight oats last night in preparation for my early start this morning. This is only my third time with overnight oats because the last two times I didn’t really enjoy them. However, they always look so good on other blogs, plus I like how they can be made in advance so there’s little prep/clean-up time when in a hurry. I’ve been determined to find a combination that works and this morning I finally did it!

These were sooo yummy. Last night I combined 1/3 cup oats/greek yogurt/soy milk, cinnamon, vanilla and a tbsp. of chia seeds. The seeds really went to work because when I pulled this bowl out this morning it was SOLID! I stirred in a container of pear sauce (instead of my usual banana) and some almond butter, then topped with cinnamon. I think the pear sauce is what did it! It really hydrated the bowl and added a lovely natural sweetness. Overnight oats and I can finally be friends .

Tonight’s culinary school is all about the incredible edible egg. Should be a fun one! Back with the details tomorrow.

- Beth