So much to DOOOO!  This is going to have to be a quick one.  Our day started and ended in airports – starting with Charlotte for a 6am flight to DC!  We were up at 3am and feeling a little groggy  – good thing I was able to sleep from the minute I sat down in the plain. 

Once we got to the city, we headed to our hotel to drop our bags off, and then set out to explore all day long.  We stopped in Caribou Coffee for breakfast and to check in with email, work, etc…

Has anyone else tried Caribou’s oatmeal?  The oats themselves were actually really good (I got the 9 grain), but they added a weird jelly-type topping that kind of freaked me out.  I was expecting either dried fruit or fresh fruit, but not jellied fruit!

Bald is beautiful.  :)

After walking around the North Arlington area for a while, we were starving for lunch, so we stopped into Whole Foods to take advantage of their awesome salad bar. 

I love Whole Foods!  (Sorry Earth Fare)

Fueled on food, we set off and did a TON of walking.  We walked aaaaall over the North Arlington area looking for places to rent, and ultimately decided that it was too hard to do on foot.  We’re planning to head back up there today in a car to be more efficient.  We walked at least ten miles in Arlington along, and my feet were killing me!

Favorite thing about potentially living in a big city – public transportation! 

We definitely got our money’s worth for our Metro one-day pass!

Mid-day we headed down to Alexandria for a house showing appointment.  We were starving again from all the walking we were doing, so I ran into a nearby Trader Joe’s and picked up a hummus wrap for us to share.  Also needed a giant coffee, since the early morning was starting to catch up with me. 

Perfect mid-day snack for refueling – yum!

Old Town Alexandria was adooooooooorable!  We saw a really cute place that was literally STEPS away from this beautiful park on the water. 

Such cute houses and a really nice area.

Unfortunately, the place we saw backed up to a kind of sketch neighborhood, and was waaaaay too far away from the Metro to be realistically walkable, so I think we’ve ruled it out.  But I can’t wait to come back to Old Town to go out to eat and shop!

The King Street area reminds me of New Orleans – love it! 

Tragedy of the day – within just a few hours of starting our walking tour of the city, the strap on my new Anthropologie purse BROKE!  So I spent most of the day carrying my big heavy purse around by hand – NOT fun.  Definitely marching into Anthro when I get home to demand a replacement. 

Instead of freaking out about it though, I rallied and replaced it with a $2.99 Trader Joe’s tote.  Make it work, right?

After house showing #2 (not good), we met my friend Blake for dinner at the Busboys and Poets up at U Street.  I got a delicious avocado panini…

And a big pile of the most delicious sweet potato fries I’ve ever tasted.

Love having friends in this city already!!

At 11pm, our day ended back at the airport, where we picked up my little sister Sarah – flying in for the weekend to keep me sane and help us find a home!  While we waited, I couldn’t resist the lure of a Dunkin Donut donut hole.  I figured with all my walking, I had earned it.  :)

Now the three of us are off on another long day of exploring.  No luck on finding a place just yet.  :(  We just need ONE good option though, so I’m trying to remind myself of that.  Ten million thanks to the reader who sent me to Padmapper – what a life saver!!

And we’re off…!

This weekend is the big “find a place to live in DC” weekend, but there was one thing standing between me and my house hunting – cooking dinner at the farm for the owner and her family.  Based on what we had in the pantry, I decided to do a new version of one of my own old recipes – sweet potato and carrot curried lentils. 

Just to shake things up, I also added some kohlrabi since we have an abundance in the refrigerator…

I worked in an office setting for 6 years before I went back to school, and I own more khaki pants and cardigans that I know what to do with.  Now that I’ve made the jump, I’m going to always strive to find work opportunities where American Apparel v-necks and Nike shorts are the standard uniform.  :)

The curried lentils turned out fabulous with the addition of the kohlrabi, and I served it next to some seasoned brown rice. 

Because this recipe made a huge batch, I packed up a tub to take home with me so that I wouldn’t have to make a separate dinner for us – score!

I was feeling stressed and nervous about the weekend, so before I left I stopped by the horse stables for a little animal therapy. 

These guys always make me feel so peaceful and relaxed.  Such big and beautiful creatures.  Wish I knew how to ride them!

 

After work, I met Casey at our favorite coffee shop to work on online house hunting for a bit.  The combination of an empty stomach, too much coffee, and house hunting anxiety left me a little jittery and unfocused.  Casey asked me to come into the bathroom and help him trim up his neck hair – something I do ALL the time. 

But I was rushed and not paying enough attention, and as I took the razor to the back of his head, I cut it up a little higher than I intended.  I didn’t think it looked bad, but he was NOT happy, and immediately took the razor to his entire head…

 

I felt SO bad.  He says he doesn’t care, but just last week he told me he was going to grow his hair out a bit.  Guess he’ll need to start over on that one. :(  It definitely made me realize that I need to take a breath and RELAX. 

My poor bald husband.  :(  I still think he looks great, but I feel really really bad about it.

After the razor incident, it was time to take a step back and regroup.  Sounds like the perfect time for DINNER!  Soooo glad I had brought home leftover lentils and didn’t have to cook.

I think curry might be my favorite spice. 

Brown rice + coconut oil = perfection. 

Looks a little goopy, but tastes wonderful and spicy. 

Since we were going out of town, on the side I made a salad of every fresh fruit and vegetable left in the house…

Apples, oranges, strawberries, cucumber, and tomatoes – do not be afraid to combine fruit and vegetables!

All tossed in a delicious ume plum vinaigrette – yum!

We packed and headed to bed early, and the alarm went off at THREE o’clock this morning.  9am and I’m already sitting in a coffee shop in Arlington, Virginia!  Better get going – houses to see and miles to walk.  See you tonight!

At our last staff lunch, I made some healthy versions of southern classics, including the popular dish – Fried Green Tomatoes.  My healthified baked version was such a hit that I was asked to make it again, this time for our CSA customers.  And you guys were so intrigued that I promised to make it again and show you the step by step guide to delicious Un-Fried Green Tomatoes.  Here goes!

Like any good farm cook, I started out in the field…

We have buckets and buckets of ripe and ready tomatoes all over the farm (heaven!), but for this recipe I needed the green ones.

This internship has been such a fun experience for me.  There is truly nothing more fun than pulling your food straight out of the ground and onto your cutting board.

With my tomatoes in tow, I headed back to the kitchen and got to work slicing…

Because I was making samples for all the CSA members, and I knew how good the recipes was, I needed to make a LOT of tomatoes!

Next up – the breading.  For the tomato breading, you need to use equal parts flour and corn meal.  Because I had so many tomatoes, I used 3/4 cup whole wheat flour…

And 3/4 cup white corn meal. 

Mixed them together with a teaspoon each of sugar, salt, and black pepper. 

Before I got started on the breading, I preheated the oven to 400 degrees and stuck my baking sheets inside to get hot and toasty.  Hot pans are key to good, crisp tomatoes!  Since my pans were busy heating up, I laid a few paper towels out on the counter to be a temporary landing zone for breaded tomatoes.

And then I got to work!  Here’s the point where you jump in and help me – take each green tomato slice…

And dunk it in a small dish of milk, making sure to coat both sides.

Then drop the tomato into your breading mixture…

And press it down firmly to make sure you get a good coating on each side.

Flip over and press down on each side – you want the entire tomato to be covered in the flour mixture, with as little green showing as possible,

By the end, you will have Super Mario Brother hands.  Do not be alarmed.

As you bread each tomato, lay them out gently on a paper towel.  Do NOT stack them!  Stacking breaded food = bad.

Once everything is breaded, carefully take your sheet pan out of the oven and spray it generously with olive oil spray.  Then lay out the tomatoes evenly…

And give the tops of the tomatoes another quick shot of olive oil spray.  Slide them back into the oven to bake for 40 minutes – flipping them over after 20. 

While the tomatoes are baking, it’s time to make the sauce.  Ohhhh yes the SAUCE!  This stuff is seriously amazing.  I can eat it up by itself with nothing more than a spoon.  Start with some chopped onion, white or red.

And toss it them into a sauté pan to brown and soften.

Chop up a boatload of mushrooms (that’s a technical term)…

And toss them into the onions after about 5 minutes have elapsed.

Stir the onions and mushrooms together for a few more minutes, until both are wilted and browned.

While you wait, chop up some tomatoes.

And then toss them on top of your onion and mushroom mixture. 

The tomatoes will give off a LOT of water, so the key to this sauce is to let it simmer long enough to cook out the extra liquid and let the flavors concentrate.  Let.it.cook.  Stir occasionally.

Okay 20 minutes have passed – time to flip the tomatoes!  You should see that they are much crispier now than they were when they first entered the oven. 

Using tongs, carefully flip each one and put your pan back in the oven to bake for an additional 20 minutes.

Check your sauce – it should have a nice rolling simmer going.  See the bubbles? 

Finally – after both sides of the tomatoes have had long enough to cook, they are ready to come out of the oven. 

They should be crispy and crunchy on the outside, and soft and sweet on the inside.  Yum.

The sauce should be done by now too – season to taste with salt and pepper, and spoon into a serving dish.

This sauce is aaaaaaaamazing.  I want to make vats of it and can it so that I can eat it on things all year long.  The secret to good sauce is simply letting it cook long enough. 

These tomatoes are perfect as a meal or an appetizer, because they are so simple and easy to eat!

Just pick it up with your fingers…

Get a good dunk into the sauce…

And take a bite!  Check out that gooey green middle.  Pure tomato heaven.

This is one of those recipes that sounds really complicated, but when you actually break down the steps and look at them, it is super simple.  Bread, bake, chop, simmer.  That’s all there is to it!

Enjoy! :)