A Day in the Life | Dim Sum and a Cupcake

Hello! This past Sunday my family met up with two of Dad’s friends from high school and their families for Dim Sum in Chinatown. Dim Sum is, according Merriam-Webster, traditional Chinese meal made up of small dishes. We went to the Empire Garden on Washington St., which used to be a theatre and is now a beautiful restaurant.

Our family has been to this restaurant for Dim Sum a number of times and it is always delicious. The wait staff pushes carts around with tons of small dishes, you pick what you want from said cart, and then your card is stamped with what dishes you picked. When your stomach is bursting at the seams and you admit defeat, then you bring your card to the front desk and pay.

I really enjoy eating Dim Sum in Chinatown because you know that the food will be authentic. When Americans usually think of Chinese food, they think of orange chicken, lo mein, and sweet and sour chicken. But at the Empire Garden, there were mostly wontons and dumplings. We also had noodles, vegetables and tea. Without further ado, here are the pictures of Dim Sum.

After eating enough food to last us until dinnertime, we headed out into Boston to walk it off. We went to the Boston Gardens to go on a swan boat. The last time I had done this, it was freezing and I couldn’t wait to get off. This time, however, it was warm and comfortable. I took lots of photos of the ducks, swans and water. I love taking photos of water because it is always different and, as Pocahontas says “You never step in the same river twice.”

We walked up and down Newbury Street, strolling in and out of cute boutiques and lamenting over the fact the all of Juicy Couture’s US stores are closed. Or at least Mom and I were. Before going back to the car, we stopped for some cupcakes at Georgetown Cupcakes. As if you couldn’t guess, I LOVE cupcakes! If I could eat them everyday, then I would. I got the Mocha Fudge cupcake and Em got the chocolate cupcake. Both were really yummy.

It was a delicious ending to an overall delicious day! Thanks for reading!

Lobster Roll Recipe

I’m going to do something different today. Instead of a post about my day, I’m going to do a recipe post. Dad is the one that cooks the most at home and has instilled the love of cooking in me. I collect cookbooks, watch Food Network, and pour over cooking videos online (Sorted food is the best). Since we are in Massachusetts, I had to make lobster rolls for our picnic last Friday night. As a disclaimer, this recipe is not exact in any way and just depends on what you like in your lobster rolls. This makes about three sandwiches.

Since the kitchen in the apartment is not that big, we did not want to attempt to cook three lobsters. We took the easy route and bought three whole cooked lobsters from Stop & Shop. Dad broke them down, as I am bad at that and then I made the filling.

First I washed and chopped three or four stalks of celery. I personally like a lot of crunch in these types of salads, so I tend to add a bit more than one stalk per sandwich. I then took a few sprigs of tarragon, took the leaves off and roughly chopped those leaves.

Next I mixed the lobster, celery and tarragon together in a medium sized bowl.

Once that was mixed, I squirted some mayo over the top and then stir it in. I just put enough to bind the salad together because I’ve had lobster rolls in the past that are sopping with the amount of mayo and it overpowers the taste of the lobster. What’s the point of the lobster roll if you can’t taste the lobster?

And voilà! It is finished. Now of course you can add other ingredients like onions, green onions, chives or anything else. Above all, however, you don’t want to overpower the lobster. We ate the lobster salad on an untraditional roll, whole-wheat pita bread. I know, I know, it should be on hot dog roll. But we wanted to try something different.

At the picnic we also had a watermelon-feta-mint salad (which I could do a post on), a store-bought pasta salad, olives, popcorn and macarons from Trader Joe’s for dessert.

It was a lot of fun and we played Apples to Apples, played on the playground and enjoyed the food. We hope to do another picnic later this week. What is your favorite thing to eat at picnics?

Thanks for reading!

Washington, D.C. Day Five | Museum and Flying Home

For our last day in Washington, D.C. we decided to go to the Museum of American History before heading to the airport for our flight. We took the metro from Dupont Circle to Metro Center on the Red Line, and then Metro Center to Smithsonian on the Orange Line. We got there early (all Smithsonian museums open at 10:00 am) and we weren’t allowed to wait inside, so we tried to find some shade close to the doors.

When we did get in, we went straight to the Star Spangled Banner that Emma really wanted to see. It is beautiful and it is astounding to see something so iconic. Then we saw an exhibit about a house. The Smithsonian took a house from Ipswich, MA and transplanted into the museum. The exhibit told the history of the house from the perspective of five families that lived there from the 1760s to the 1940s. I’ll link to the exhibit HERE. One of the docents was telling us that no one really notices the exhibit because it is tucked away behind construction. But if you are there, you should go because it is very interesting.

The most exciting thing that we saw at the museum was the First Lady dresses. I have seen this exhibit before, but it is always amazing. I love reading about the backgrounds of the dresses and looking at the individual styles of the First Ladies. In the center of the room was Michelle Obama’s red Jason Wu gown from the second inauguration. Usually they have her white one from the first inauguration because, fun fact, the First Lady’s second inauguration dress is traditionally kept in the President’s Library. The Smithsonian has it on lend for about a year and then the white Jason Wu dress will be back. While I like the white gown better, I still think that Michelle Obama can pull off most things.

After we had lunch at the museum cafeteria (I had a chicken Caesar salad wrap) and then walked back to the metro station.

We got back to the hotel and packed our bags in a cab to go to the airport. While I like D.C., I don’t know it yet. I’m excited to explore it this fall!

Thanks for reading!

Washington, D.C. Day Three and Four | College and Georgetown

Bienvenue! On Monday and Tuesday I had college orientation. We listened to presentations about living in dorms, the community, getting involved, and meeting fellow students. It was a long two days, but a lot of fun. I am excited, but nervous, about the upcoming year. I’m scared that I won’t be able to make friends quickly, I’m afraid that I’ll get really homesick, I’m afraid that the classes will be too hard and I’m afraid that I won’t have any “alone time.” But I’m also excited for the new experiences, decorating my dorm, meeting new people, learning new things and starting my adult life. I don’t know what I want to major in, but I’m thinking something to do with media and maybe French. This semester I’ll be taking general education courses in writing, business, justice, literature and media. It’ll be an exciting semester and I hope that I’m still writing this in six months when my first semester at college is over.

After coming back to the hotel after the second day of orientation, I planned on napping for ten minutes. As you could expect, that ten minutes turned into forty minutes. Since I had done that, we had to rush to get ready for dinner. We went into Georgetown to find a restaurant that wasn’t too fancy or expensive. We ended up going to J. Paul’s where we were able to watch Russia-South Korea match from our table. They served us pretzels straight away (YES!) and then we ordered our entrées. I got the seafood pasta with scallops, shrimp and clams, and Emma got the BBQ Ribs. Again, I did not think that she would finish it but she got close.

Yes, a ten-year-old girl ate most of this! 

After dinner we wandered around the town before we got a little something-something for dessert. Emma got frozen yogurt from Pinkberry, and Dad and I got cookies from Dean & Deluca. I got a raspberry window and hazelnut sandwich. Dad got a football cookie in honor of the World Cup (which we are watching right now as I type).

  

One last post about D.C. will be uploaded tomorrow, and I haven’t planned what I want to post afterwards. Anyone have any ideas? Anyways, thanks for reading about fears and hopes for college. Until tomorrow . . .