Taste of Dupont Circle 2008

Tuesday night the Hitzigs had a great time eating in Dupont Circle. Every year, the Historic Main Streets Society puts on a fundraiser called Taste of Dupont Circle, where chefs from 12 of the neighborhood's restaurants compete for the title of Dupont Circle Chef of the Year.

Orlando won the competition in 2006 and 2007 (butter poached scallop with coral lobster sauce). Here's a picture of him winning the first year.



This year, he offered leg of lamb with English peas and minted jus, and we were hoping for a "three-peat". Here's how the voting works: Every guest at the event is given a poker chip that they use to cast their vote for Chef of the Year by dropping their chip into the bucket on the table of their favorite.

Myney, Anastasia and I arrived about 6:45 to begin tasting the offerings. I realized too late that I'd forgotten my camera, so I was only able to get a couple of quick pictures with the Iphone, and they didn't really turn out well. Hopefully the professional photographer who was there will have some good shots.

On to the food. Anastasia's favorite came from Al Tiramisu: baked ziti with lots of cheese (good thing she didn't get a vote). My favorite was Orlando's leg of lamb, Myney really like Orlando's lamb and the scallop offered by Pesce. Also on offer were a scallop with lentils and oxtail by Urbana, an open faced steak sandwich from Ruth's Chris, sausage with polenta from Darlington House and a Morrocan dish of phyllo dough filled with spiced beef and vermicelli on a bed of tomato sauce.

In the end, it was Pesce's chef who took home top honors. Orlando came in third, but even so, we all had a very good time and I'm already looking forward to next year's event.

Hail to the Redskins

We've had a hard time trying to get together with the Curtis family lately. We're all very busy, and we usually have to plan weeks in advance to get together with them. We actually had planned to get together in November, but yesterday, when I called to confirm that we were still on for that date, we figured out that it was possible for them to come by today, as long as we did it in the afternoon. So, we had an impromptu party for the Redskins game today. The Curtis kids were all kitted out in their Redskins gear.



We got some chips and ordered two pizzas during the game, and we were shocked to see the two large pizzas disappear completely in a matter of minutes. Thes 4 little ones can chow down!



It was a very nice day, made better by the fact that the Redskins won. Some how, we're actually doing pretty well this season. The boys were very excited that we won and we all sang the Redskins fight song.



The dogs always love it when the Curtis boys come over. Basil becomes especially rambunctious with the boys, who like chasing him and being chased by him. What this means is that they're going to sleep well tonight.

Surprising Abby

A couple of weeks ago, Nathalie and Ann and I decided that we wanted to throw a party for Abby's birthday. We decided that we needed to make it a surprise party and since Abby wasn't planning to do anything special for her birthday, we figured we'd really be able to shock her. We kept the guest list relatively small, and invited only women. We tried to make sure that the girls who came would keep the party going.

Food for the party included:

• Arugula, Walnuts and Dried Cranberries Salad
• Crudites with Spinach Dip
• Charcuterie, Cheese and Crackers
• Curried Chicken & Walnut Triangles
• Beef Skewers with Soy Ginger Dipping Sauce
• Smoked Salmon with Lemon and Capers
• Cosmos, wine and champagne to drink.

At work on Friday, we almost gave away the secret, but managed to keep Abby in the dark. Ann and Nathalie came home with me and we got started straight away in setting up the party. Anastasia was beautifully behaved and Myney helped out by keeping her occupied while we worked in the kitchen. Our guests began arriving about 7:30 and we were completely set up by 8:00.



We made personalized confetti using a bunch of really cute pictures of Abby. Combining that with some regular colored confetti helped to finish the look.



We hung out in the dining room while we waited for Abby to arrive. When she did, we managed to get a picture of the shock on her face.



Once she realized what was happening (and finished the phone call with her mom), she helped herself to a cosmo and got down to learning how we'd managed to pull this off and wander through the house to see what we'd put together for her.



We all settled in for an evening of chatting and a few games of Catchphrase. Julie told us about her meeting with the dating counselor, I shared the story of how Orlando and I met, and Abby shared the story of the Baby Mama Drama.

Orlando got home just before midnight, and the first few guests started to leave about then. We said good night to Julie and Nancy, and the rest of us managed to hang out for another couple hours. When we finally said good night, I sent Orlando upstairs while I got a little bit of cleaning done before going to be. All in all, a very fun night.

Our Morning Visitor

Yesterday morning, we had a little visitor:



Predictably, the raccoon made the dogs go crazy. They barked and barked and tried desperately to get at this critter. They failed, of course, and we just had to listen to them barking for the whole morning.

Eventually, he left, but the dogs weren't ready to give up on him for a while. Eventually, they settled down and by the time I left for work, it seemed like they wouldn't bother the neighbors all day long.

Reading is Fundamental

Annie really likes books. She's always been fascinated with them, and for the most part, they are her favorite toy. After dinner, she can pick what we do until it's time for bed. Sometimes, she wants to ride her tricycle outside, other times she wants to color on her chalk board, but most often, we'll look at several picture books and talk about what she sees on the pages.



At bedtime, she is allowed to pick a book from the selection on her bed, which is a fairly substantial selection. These are all stories, I have a strict rule against picture books for bedtime.



So every night, after she's gotten her PJ's on, she picks a book and we lay down in her bed to read her story. When the story is finished, she takes the book from me and lays with her head on the pillow and the book cradled in her arms. I give her a kiss goodnight, and leave the lights on when I walk out of the room. Then the fun begins.



Annie will sit up and read herself the same story that I just finished reading her. Sometimes, she stops after rereading the first story, and lays down to go to sleep. Most often, though, she finishes that story and picks up a second book, then a third. Occasionally, this will go on for more than an hour, and it almost always ends with her falling asleep with a pile of books surrounding her.



As she gets older, I'm curious about how her love of books will evolve. I'm guessing I'll have to set a lights out time for her at some point. In the mean time, we're just going to enjoy reading Walter the Farting Dog and The Cat in The Hat over and over and over again.

Painting At Home

Yesterday we played with Lily, and got to see how crafts can be fun inside. I really think that Annie believes that crafts can only happen at daycare. I felt a little guilty about not letting her do crafty type things at home, so today, after a long day of cleaning the house, Annie painted a very pretty picture for us.



Mommy learned her lesson for at least a little while after the mess that was made from painting. I know that it's washable, but goodness, the thought of cleaning the room for the third time in a day is just too much to bear. So, the painting ended shortly after this:

Football with friends

Saturday morning there was a Maryland game, so we got everything together for the tailgate. We did a fairly low-key tailgate, but enjoyed the game ... which Maryland won, and then headed home. After the football game, Anastasia was still really excited to play football, so we went down the street to her friend Lily' house to see if she wanted to play football. Lily, like her parents, is a good football fan, so of course she was excited to toss the ball with her friend.





After a few tosses of the pigskin, we went inside to play with stickers and playdoh ... two toys Anastasia won't experience inside at home.