Founding Farmers

Last Thurs I went into DC with a group from work to Founding Farmers. Its an organic, green-centered, all about sustainablity restaurant. I meant to tell you about it earlier, but got all excited about Sound of Music. Thursday we were still in the week of non-stop rain, and it actually got bad enough that they were announcing evacuations over the radio. As we drove through the mixing bowl, the water was draining off the overpasses looked like waterfalls. It was crazy. For appetizer, I got the grilled flat bread. It was grilled ciabata with marscapone cream, prosciuotto, and figs. It was amazing. It also came in three slices, and I told myself to only eat one and leave room for the rest of the meal, but after I tried it, it was pretty much gone. For my main course I got chicken and waffles, which I had heard about and have been wanting to try for ages. I got two pieces of Pan Fried Southern style chicken, with gravy, and two quarters of Belgian waffle with syrup. It came with Mac-n-cheese, and I picked the double whipped red potatoes for my second side. It was amazing. I tried a bit of everything, and knew I'd have to pick what to eat there and what to take home, cause I was pretty full from the appetizer. I went with the waffles, because I knew they wouldn't keep, and the potatoes, because they were some of the best mashed potatoes I have ever eaten. They were smooth, with pieces of the skin, and you could tell they had been whipped with melted butter. Hmmmmmm. For dessert I got red velvet cake, which was four layers high and served in a wedge so large, it took me three days to eat through it. I tried some of the cake, and then ate the vanilla ice cream that came with it (made fresh every day) My friends made fun of me for not being able to eat the cake, but by then I was so full it hurt.

How do you solve a problem like Maria?

Last night I went with a couple of friends to Wolftrap for the Sound of Music Sing A Long. It was awesome. Loads of people were in costume; there were all kinds of Marias, items from "My Favorite Things" song (There was a row of people in front of us who were all wearing brightly colored wool mittens, and whenever that line came up, they'd raise their hands in the mittens, whoop and dance) and an entire contingent of people in drapery-based play clothes. There were also quite a few nuns, which was really impressive given that it's still in the 80s and humid. They had a costume contest before the movie started, and my favorites were a trio of kids who were "Tea, with bread and jam" the eldest being Tea (dressed all in white, with tea bags stuck all over her), holding the hands of her little siblings, one dressed all in brown and the other all in red. My other favorite was a lady who came dressed as the third place folk singer, and was constantly bowing to the audience, she was hilarious. We also got a bag of props, most of which were kind of silly, but there was a cool invite to the ball, and a string popper. You were supposed to pull your popper when the Captain and Maria kissed, making "The loudest popping kiss ever at Wolftrap" but some people popped theirs at various other times, to great comedic effect. It was a lot of fun, and seeing the Sound of Music on a huge screen was amazing. When the songs started, there were 5,000 people singing along. It was like being part of a huge wave of sound and joy.