But I can report that Beer No. 7, a Saison Dupont clone, and Beer No. 8, a near-repeat of the blond ale, are fermenting as I type.

The Reflecting Pool is currently empty and under construction, but the fountains at the World War II Memorial look great.

I did a little more D.C. tourism in the past month when a friend visited. I made my first trip to Theodore Roosevelt Island and the memorial there.

We also saw some of the monuments after dark again.

And while checking out the National Gallery of Art’s Sculpture Garden, we discovered the duck ramp (note the label on the ramp).

While on my own earlier in May, I spied the National Cathedral on my way to dinner.

I don't have many photos of the couple, so this will have to do.

Their baby, Eric, was the ring bearer. He was dressed in a suit with a tux bib!

Emily is a huge fan of Jane Austen. This period-style bride and groom cutout that a friend made for the wedding was based on clothing from Austen's period.

The four of us all worked together when we lived near each other in Silver Spring.

]]> http://sarabondioli.com/blog/2012/05/22/emily-and-joe-get-hitched/feed/ 0 http://sarabondioli.com/blog/2012/05/20/no-proposals-but-these-cookies-were-tasty/ http://sarabondioli.com/blog/2012/05/20/no-proposals-but-these-cookies-were-tasty/#comments Mon, 21 May 2012 01:56:01 +0000 Sara http://sarabondioli.com/blog/?p=824 Proposals? Nope, I’m nowhere close. But this cookie recipe included promises of proposals, so I was prepared for anything. (Note: I brought them to work, so I wasn’t expecting or hoping for a proposal.)

I made Bakergirl’s “I Want to Marry You” cookies this week, and I’ll admit, I scooped out quite a bit of dough to eat myself before I even baked them. The one-pot recipe makes it easy (with less cleanup), too.

I do think the white chocolate was a little much, so when I make them again, I will either do half as much white chocolate, or substitute the white chocolate chips with more semi-sweet chips or even some dark chips. (I’m a much bigger fan of dark chocolate.) I thought the cinnamon might bother me, but it melded nicely.

The cooler after I dumped the other beers.

I’m covered in beer, but lucky.

I just had my first bottle bomb of homebrew. The good news is, Harris Teeter foam coolers are a great item to contain exploding bottles of beer. I didn’t even know it had happened until I opened the cooler to transfer a couple of bottles to the fridge. The explosion must have occurred while I was out today or sometime recently because I never heard it and I had been checking on the bottles intermittently. I noticed the other day that some of the bottle caps were slightly expanded. But that happened to a few of my bottles in past batches, and they turned out fine, so I didn’t think much of it.

When I opened the cooler today, the shrapnel in the top and sides of the cooler made the situation obvious. When I (begrudgingly) opened the other bottles to dump them out, I coated myself and my kitchen in kolsch. They were all over-carbonated. (I did taste some of the remainders from the bottles I dumped, and I think this beer has potential otherwise, though.)

I’m definitely buying another cooler for bottle-conditioning, though. I’ve heard horror stories of bottle bombs spreading glass all the way across someone’s apartment, so I consider myself VERY lucky!

We had coupons for a wine tasting with cheese plates and sangria at a tiny startup winery outside Delaplane, Va. And Capitol Vineyards was great! All eight of us sat around a table outside with grapes growing around us and tasted wine and chatted. We were there much longer than I anticipated, but we had a great time.

We had seen signs for many other vineyards on the way, so we picked one and stopped at Three Fox Vineyards. Here we had what I consider a more traditional tasting of going through the wines (and less chatting among ourselves). It was a beautiful vineyard with lots of great space for picnics and would be a wonderful place to spend a Saturday and drink some wine.

Before heading home, we stopped for some food at Hunter’s Head Tavern in Upperville, Va. We had some delicious food and sat on the beautiful patio. By the end of the day, I was quite sunburned.

After baking the brownie in the pie, you flip it over and coat it in ganache.

This upside-down triple chocolate brownie pie turned out excellent, and it was pretty easy to make! I failed to take a photo of the finished product, though. (You take the above brownie baked into Oreo crust, flip it over and coat it with chocolate ganache.

This would also be easy to adapt by adding some fruit flavors or, as I hope to do next, ice cream! My plan is to use half the brownie mix, then fill in the top of the pie with ice cream before flipping it and adding the ganache. Yum!!!

My first live game of the season was versus the Astros. By the time we got in and to our seats, it was the bottom of the first inning, and the Nats were losing 4-0.

How many Washington Nationals baseball games have I been to so far this season? Three, and I already have tickets for two more games (one is this Friday against the Orioles). While I’ve always enjoyed baseball, I’ve been especially drawn to the ballpark this summer. It’s just a great place to spend an evening. (And spend a lot of money, unfortunately.)

You won't find a gigantic container of Old Bay seasoning on the condiment stand at just any ballpark!

On the bright side, the Nationals have some great deals. I went to games where tickets were $2 each (select sections, of course) and have gotten other deals on food and drink with a ticket purchase. But since the team has a hard time selling out Nationals Park, these deals exist. (If anyone ever told me I could get into Busch Stadium for $2, I’d probably just laugh at them.) Of course, the Bud Light is still $8.

Now that the Nats are doing pretty well with Stephen Strasburg and Bryce Harper, I would think these deals might fade away. (I paid $2 for the game that ended up being Harper’s home debut at Nationals Park.) But the Nats still seem to be having some trouble getting fans  — or anyone to fill the stands. I blame it on the transient nature of D.C. and the fact that everyone already has an allegiance to their hometown team.

Speaking of that, I’m claiming the Nats as my second baseball team. I even bought a shirt last week, so I will be fully outfitted for my next game. However, I will be wearing my Cardinals jersey when St. Louis is in town. For sure.

The second game I went to was against the Diamondbacks. It was phenom Bryce Harper's first game at Nats Park. Despite that, the Nats lost. (But I'd like to note that the Nats did win the third game I saw — versus the Phillies.)

Apple cup pies in cupcake wrappers.

To celebrate a pie-loving co-worker’s birthday in April, Katie and I made mini pies for work.

My contributions were these cute apple cup pies and some cinnamon bun pie pockets.

The apple pies were completely adorable. I had trouble getting the tops to attach well to the bottoms on a few, but otherwise, they were pretty easy.

I assembled the cinnamon bun pie pockets the night before, then baked them in the morning and added the drizzle once I got to work.

Cinnamon bun pie pockets are drizzled with glaze.

The day after the beautiful weather of my cruise, I had a ticket to a beer tasting and food truck festival. Sounds great, right? I was hoping it would be another gorgeous day. Instead, it rained ALL day. But the event was on, rain or shine, and my friends and I had already purchased our tickets. (They gave out free ponchos at least!) Was it a bit miserable? Yes. I made the mistake of not wearing rainboots, so my feet were soaked from the moment I got there. (Puddles quickly formed throughout the event area, so there was no way to avoid the water.)

However, once we were committed to the rain, we just went for it and had a good time. I stayed the entire four hours, tasted a lot of good beers and ate some delicious food. I came home soaking wet, and it took my shoes a few days to dry out.

One outcome of the day: I decided I want to brew a white IPA (inspired by Saranac’s version).