Chocolate and Conversation

Fun Times

These are some of the stuff our family did this summer (2011). They are just your normal family activities, BUT. to a mother, the moment that counts are the moments when your kids are happy.

The combination of Kirin and Sage in our household can be lethal, what makes it worse, is neither of them would budge. So when I caught them like this, you better believe I am going to freeze the moment.

Kirin taught Sage how to play chess. Sage dressed like Christmas morning, of course.

Cunningham Falls

Baltimore Aquarium

This street performer asked for an volunteer from the audience, Sage shot up her hand. Here she is as the center of the attention!!

Her awesome ribbon twirling.

Everyone applaud for her excellent performance.

Outside the aquarium.

One of my favorite buildings by the harbor.

Doesn't it look like they are dancing?

Upside down jellies. (They look like they might make a good salad, with the right seasoning. In fact, I really had jellyfish salad growing up, they are delicious!)

One fin (or flipper) turtle.

The Perfect Day

If you know Andrew for longer than 10 minutes, you will soon discover that he is a man who doesn't need to speak much to prove himself. If you know him longer than say, 3 years, you will find out that when he does speak at length, it always means that he has done extensive research on the subject, which makes him well-versed, and the topic which he speaks on is likely to be the most unusual sort, like: fish oil, mono-unsaturated fat, tomatoes, garlic, and most recently, sustainable fishing, in particularly: sardines. (He does bring up non-food related subjects, but my simple mind doesn't retain that information for longer than the time it takes to enter my ears... a bit sad, really.)

One of the results of our discussion of this topic of fish was our discovery of a hidden gem, right here in our beloved capitol city of the US. An outdoor fish market!

I felt like I had come home to my childhood - any market that comes with those distinct sights and smells makes me feel completely at ease. I enjoyed being reminded at times that not all things should be bought from Safeway.

There were all sorts of seafood, more than you can imagine, sold straight from the fishermen. I am talking about REAL FISH too, with heads, scales, gills intact, and eyes staring right back at you . Most of them not gutted or scaled.

I walked around with glee, admiring the fish, many of which I couldn't name. And my children walked from stall to stall, pointing at random weird sea creatures, and occasionally pinching their noses.

In the end, I settled on a big red snapper, a few croakers which were new to me, and some smelts (oh, if you never had them, you are missing out on their goodness). I also bought Pompano which I also had never tried before.

The vendors don't clean fish for you, but there was an establishment close by that charge by the pound to scale and gut the fish. I imagine they de-head and fillet them for you as well. I was too cheap to pay for that and opted to clean the fish at home. It turned out to be not as bad as I remembered. The key is to keep it contained!

After cleaning off the red snapper, I scored the meat on both sides and put sliced lemon and ginger inside the scored flesh, as well as inside the cleaned and emptied gills. We baked the fish with head and tail on. The result: Success!

The croakers and the smelts I deep fried. The croakers I didn't fall in love with, but the smelts were as amazing as I remember my mama made them. Oh, and I made these for breakfast, served with a mounting plate of rice!! ha ha!

Sadly, I forgot to take pictures of the fish I mentioned above, but all of them turned out so beautiful. The Pompano was the only fish I remembered to take a picture of before we devoured it to the bone. Here is what the pompano looked like pan seared.

If you haven't tried pompano, you must. It is SO buttery, and tender, with a mild but delicious flavor. The plus side is that the scale on this fish so fine, so you can cook it and eat it too.

Another thing we saw at the fish market - these Maryland blue crabs! There are just barrels and barrels of them, and being steamed all day long.

We ended up buying some blue crabs, but sometimes I am not sure if it's worth all the work. I think actual crabbing is more fun than eating crabs.

(Our kids were tired of waiting on us to finished the crabs, so they climbed the trees instead)

Can you imagine any more of a perfect day for me than this: Eating Good Food all day?

We did remembered to educate our children in between meals by filling their impressionable minds with tours of the Smithsonian museums, which also helped to walk off the extra calories we consumed.

We checked out the animals, the Hope diamond, and other glistening stones at the Natural History Museum. We also spotted this, the very costume worn by Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter.

We walked around the sculpture garden, and of course, visited the National Archives to see the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the Declaration of Independence, and we admired the grand Capitol building.

(The building in the picture is the National Archive - home to the Declaration of Independence, to name a few)

To top everything off, I knew more good food was yet to come since we had plans to eat at a place in DC for dinner. I can not tell you the joy it brings me to anticipate the deliciousness that was surely going to end up in my mouth. There are only a few things in life that can top that feeling. VERY, very few. In fact, I can't think of any right now.

For dinner, we stopped by and ate at a place called Oohh's & Aahh's where Guy Feri on Food Network ate on an episode of his show Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives. Everything we ordered was tasty, but the most incredible item of the dinner was the shrimp and grits, loaded completely with butter and cream. So you get the idea - HOLY YUM!

Sometimes I am envious of the job of the food critics who get to eat at all these great restaurants and their job is write about their dining experiences; these people get to eat the tastiest food, and get paid to say what's great and not great about what they ate. Sometimes I wonder also if they aren't a bit snobbish to critique something someone else obviously does better than them. I wonder at times if too much good food might actually be bad for building one's character, for example, it appear that my kids have much more elevated taste buds than other kids, which I feel isn't so good for them, after all, life isn't about pursuing that perfect morsel. Though...I must say, it is truly one of my biggest weaknesses. (sigh)

First Day of School, 2011

Today, Aug 29th 2011 marked the first day of Aspen's middle school year. Look at that winning smile!

Today also marked the day of Sage's first kindergarten year.

Big brother and little sister walking to the bus stop. I am getting softer by the age, Sage's princess backpack is the first ever in the our household...Jade and Aspen never got one - they lived a more deprived childhood.

Looking for bugs

Examining their find

Kirin found his priced creature!!

Boarding the bus.

I was very proud of Kirin for looking out for his little sister. Good Job Son!

Today also marked the first day of Andrew's absence from our house for the next 2 months. And this morning, Sage requested to teach family home evening lesson tonight, which will be her first. ...I think I should go with the flow by serving an all- you- can- eat Nutella for dinner, just to add to the first of many things we are doing today.