Saturday is Food Day!

Yummy health brunch :)

Scrambled eggs with snow peas and sauteed onions
Heart healthy Quaker oatmeal
Fruit salad w/strawberries, apples, and blueberries
Skim milk




Followed by...cupcake time!

Vanilla cupcakes...







...with chocolate ganache and sugar frosted fruit








yummy :D




We don't have a muffin pan in our condo kitchen, so I used foil baking cups instead. They didn't hold their shape perfectly after I filled them with batter, but it was good enough. We also ran out of granulated sugar, which was a bigger problem, so I had to grind up a bunch of sugar cubes to substitute. Again, not a perfect solution, but it worked out well in the end, especially for sugar frosting the fruit. And it saved me another trip to Giant!
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Vanilla Cupcakes with Chocolate Ganache and Fruit
(from Joyofbaking.com and Cupcakes)
12 cupcakes

Vanilla cupcakes:
1/2 c. unsalted butter, soften
2/3 c. granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
Zest of 1 lemon (optional)
1 1/2 c. all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 c. milk
Chocolate ganache:
8 oz. semisweet chocolate chips
1 c. heavy cream
Sugar-frosted fruit:
1 c. fruit (I used blueberries and raspberries, feel free to use whatever you prefer and as much or as little fruit as you like)
1/2 c. granulated sugar
1 egg white

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly butter 12-cup muffin pan or line with paper liners (you can also use self-standing foil cups or paper baking cups on a baking sheet).
Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well. Beat in vanilla extract and optional lemon zest.
In another bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.
Mix half of this flour mixture into butter and sugar mixture, then mix in milk, and finally mix in the rest of the flour mixture.
Evenly fill muffin cups with batter and bake for 18-20 minutes or until nicely browned and a toothpick inserted into a cupcake comes out clean. Remove from oven and cool for 10 minutes.
To prepare ganache, bring a cup of water to a boil in a saucepan. In a mixing bowl that can rest on top of the saucepan, add the chocolate chips and cream. Stir constantly until chocolate is melted completely and the ganache is smooth and consistent. Remove from saucepan and cool for 5 minutes. Carefully spoon ganache on top of cupcakes.
To sugar-frost fruit, lightly brush fruit with egg white, then roll in sugar. Let dry on parchment paper, then use to decorate cupcakes.
Serve while cupcakes are still warm or after refrigerating.

DC--Sequoia is pretty.

Sequoia is a well-known DC restaurant (American menu, large drink selection) with a reputation for beautiful views of the Potomac and pretty good, but not amazing, food. After eating there this weekend, I think that's a pretty accurate representation of the place.

Grant (ever-loyal bf and bff) and I trekked from Foggy Bottom to Sequoia in the monstrous DC heat for Sunday brunch because I really wanted to go while he was visiting. I even made him dress up for the "business casual" dress code, which he was not happy about, but based on the good things I had heard about the restaurant, I figured the inconvenience would be worth it.

We got a little lost along the way and showed up half an hour after our reservation time, but it wasn't a problem at all, and we were seated immediately on the upper level (as I had requested), near the bar, overlooking the river and fountain area outside. Most people are seated on the larger lower level, so let them know when you make a reservation where you want to sit to make sure you end up where you want (you can make online reservations from their website, which is nice). It really is a great view, and I enjoyed just watching people boat on the river and walk around outside. The restaurant itself was pretty cool looking too. The lower level is really spacious, filled with round tables, and the upper level has a big bar and a few smaller tables. The high ceilings and windows made it feel very open and sunny, a happy atmosphere. I think you can also eat on the patio outside, but that option is probably best saved for cooler days :)


I felt bad making Grant dress up when there were people eating in t-shirts and flip flops, but a lot of people were dressed like us, and there were even some men in full suits. I would always rather be overdressed than under, but at Sequoia, the dress code didn't seem like a big deal, although I imagine more people would dress up for dinner compared to brunch or lunch.

As our server (also the bartender, with really interesting/cool facial hair :D) pointed out, brunch is only served on Sundays, so I decided to take advantage of that, as did Grant, even though he apparently doesn't like brunch (who doesn't like brunch?). He had a crabmeat omelette, and I had a smoked salmon platter with bagel (although I distinctly remember ordering scrambled eggs with salmon...some sort of mix up, but I had been debating between the two anyway and really didn't care). As expected, it was all yummy but nothing super impressive, and for the price ($15 avg brunch entrees--reasonable for DC), a pretty good deal, especially since I was able to take advantage of an an offer I found earlier on Entertainment online for a free entree. Service was fine, too--the server was nice and helpful, took a little longer to get to us when more people showed up at the bar but did a good job covering the whole upper level by himself.

The atmosphere of a restaurant can add or take away a lot from a dining experience, so I really appreciated the ambience and fantastic view that Sequoia offers. We arrived sweaty, hungry, tired, and a little irritated, but left full and happy--I don't know if he's lying to make me happy or not, but even Grant agreed it was worth the trouble of dressing up, enduring the heat, and getting lost :)