What Became of Our Veggies

We thoroughly enjoyed the veggie delivery Groupon we recently redeemed.

What did we do with all the veggies, you ask?

Here it is... a veggie montage:

Green beans (with bacon!)

Sweet potato fries

Spaghetti squash with roasted tomatoes and mushrooms

Eggplant parmesan (mentioned in a previous post)

We also had some delicious grapes, bananas, and oranges.  I think our favorite part was the roasted crimini mushrooms with olive oil and sage - they had a great flavor and texture!

Cousins Reunited

After growing up on opposite sides of the country, I've recently been reunited with my cousin Lauren who also lives in the DC area.

Our first photo together since...

... this photo in 1992.  Lauren is in the green shirt
and I'm in the orange shirt.
Tom Selleck (aka my Uncle Greg) is in the red shirt.

We met up with Lauren and her family to tour Mount Vernon today.  It was a beautiful day and the girls were so much fun to play with.

J + A with Lauren's girls.

"Cousin J" with Zoe in the distillery.

"Cousin J" showing Claire the gristmill.

The girls outside the distillery - they're so cute!

This was my third visit to Mount Vernon (J's second visit), and we continue to learn new things each time.  It's such a beautiful place with so much history and so many neat things to see.  We might go back later in the fall once more trees start changing color, and a Christmas visit is also on the horizon.

Fall Foliage

Crisp mornings, football, pumpkins,...

... leaves changing color...

... it's FALL!

Animal Explosion

I had a fabulous day at the National Zoo yesterday.  Great company, beautiful weather, active animals, and small crowds combined perfectly.

Here are my favorite animal photos of the day:

Eggplant Parmesan

One of the veggies we received in our recent delivery was eggplant.  I've never cooked with eggplant before, but I love eating eggplant parmesan at restaurants.

I found an eggplant parmesan recipe online that turned out really good.  It wasn't hard to make, just a little time consuming - it was basically like making lasagna with eggplant instead of noodles.

Breaded eggplant slices after initial baking.

Assembled dish going into the oven.

The finished dish after baking.

The plated dish!

This recipe is worth a try if you love eggplant or have some delivered to your door and don't know what to do with it!

Pops Visits DC

Last week, my dad came to DC for a conference.  Once the conference ended, he was able to spend a couple of days with us before he flew home.

We spent one day at Mount Vernon...

Making friends with Washy.

In Martha's garden.

And the other day at the National Air and Space Museum...

Airline version of the plane he flew in Vietnam.

In front of a cool wall mural.

He picked the right day to fly back to Florida since it got COLD here over the weekend.  Yesterday's high was 52 and today's is expected to be 56.  However, highs should warm up into the 70s later this week.  I'm not ready for the cold yet!