I am excited about:

- belated National Pancake Day dinner tomorrow!
- Black Sheep and Blue Goat on Friday! Oh, it is ON.
- Now Sleepyhead in one week! 
- Poliça in twenty-four days!
- La & Tony's wedding in thirty-one days! 
- Madonnarama in April!
- M. Ward in May! 

Music and food! Music and food!
Oh, and a wedding but you know what they will have?
Music and food!

faces in the dreams, voices in the storm

M. Ward. May. YES.

Spiritia Animalia at El Gato Negro

Spirit Animal at Black Cat. My first show in the backstage! As usual, the beards, the flannel, and the dancing were on point. It was super hot in there. Beards and flannel insulate. 

Justin

California burger with sprouts and avocado at Commissary. The DC version of 1 Girl 5 Gays were at a nearby table. The couple on our right ordered the pepper jack mac & cheese. I was going to order that! The couple on our left was on the most awkward date ever. They declined the dessert menu, probably wanted to put the date out of its misery. Justin ordered fried brussel sprouts with horseradish aioli. I like all of those things.  

Mustache man.  The area smelled of urine and we chalked it up to city life until we realized we were standing next to two port-a-potties, womp womp. 

Tonight: Shark Week and Spirit Animal

Black Cat. 9/10ish. $8.
Paul Michel is moving to Brooklyn! Come out and say goodbye!
Either way, you should be there because I'll be there.

Cinnamon Toast Crunch cupcakes and the French Sweeney Todd

Cinnamon cake:
3 eggs
1/3 cup oil
¾ cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¾ cup sour cream
Vanilla Cake Mix (YCoC says not white cake mix but that made no sense to me since the vanilla cake mix IS the white cake mix.)
1 ½ teaspoon cinnamon

Cinnamon Toast Crunch Buttercream:
8 oz cream cheese, softened
½ cup butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups powdered sugar
2/3 cup Cinnamon Toast Crunch powder

- Preheat oven to 350 degrees in your friend's mom's wonderfully well-stocked kitchen with the crackerjack convection ovens. 

- In a large bowl (that took me three trips around the kitchen opening all the cabinet doors to find), combine the eggs, buttermilk, oil, and vanilla. Mix in sour cream. 

- Add cake mix and cinnamon and mix until smooth. Batter will be very thick and will smell of French toast. Resist the urge to eat raw cake batter (OR eat a tiny bit of cake batter). 

- Bake cupcakes for 15-18 minutes. Remove cupcakes from tin and let cool on cooling racks. 

- Buttercream: beat cream cheese and butter until fluffy. Add vanilla then powdered sugar in batches (I can not stress this "in batches" part enough unless you want a confectioner's sugar cloud in your kitchen. It wasn't even my kitchen so I was doubly careful). Adjust consistency with milk. Mix in crushed cereal. 

- Frost cupcakes and top with Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Try to watch Apocalypse Now (no longer on Netflix's instant view!) and watch most of Delicatessen instead. Suspenders, short shorts, and musical bed springs, how awesome. Cuddle with Teddy the Yorkie (who did not warm up to me until I had been there for at least two hours). 

(recipe adapted from Your Cup of Cake)

Christopher David Ryan

I'm digging this guy's design and print work.
Oh look,  he designed a spread about baking. Be still my heart!

Oh, Sofia.

[via text]
Sofia: Cookies, coffee, and Coltrane. Obviously I thought of you.
me: [emoticon of a heart]
Sofia: [emoticon of a dog]

This kind of day

- mango/blood orange/mint salad. In a jar.
- discussing utopia, eutopia, and dystopia outdoors in the sunlight.
- garden consortium meetings on green picnic tables.
- bare legs in February. Kind of wrong but I appreciate nonetheless.

It's important to teach them while they're young.

L.E.X.I.E. and The Knocks

a. my reaction.
b. I kind of just revealed her plot to steal this lamp but no worries, Lex - I will totally be your lookout.
c. I see what you did there with the title, vina.

Tuesday morning

sounds like: Future People, that scene in Huis Clos when they start to hate each other, and Spirit Animal's Crocodile Skins (Black Cat on Monday. Do eet.). 

tastes like: Avocado and a poached egg over toasted English muffin with fresh oregano and thyme, coffee, and vanilla yogurt. 

feels like: Damn it's starting to feel like winter (but only at night), hey today is Mardi Gras, that groove your body falls into after listening to a song for upwards of fifteen minutes, and "hey, you're dressed for the gym. How about you get off the internets and go to the gym?"

smells like: fresh pineapple and that antibacterial spray they have at the gym for the mats. 

photo via My Polaroid Blog

Rita and Laura

Have yourself an embarrassing little moment.

me:  Today my iPod was on shuffle and I found myself singing Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas at a stop light and some older gent was giving me the "wtf" look. 
Meekus: HAHAHAHHAHAHHAHA

Bon Iver at AIR Studios (4AD/Jagjaguwar Session)

Justin Vernon, you have no rights.

Hey Beyoncé, Nicki Minaj, and Gaga - what's up with the alter egos? You DO realize that that's not new or hip, right?

Prince/Camille

Garth Brooks/Chris Gaines

Joni Mitchell/Art Nouveau

David Bowie/Thin White Duke

Hank Williams/Luke the Drifter

Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana

I’m fairly sure you get no cred if Miley Cyrus did it before you.

me: do you need me to bring anything? sweets? :)
Yathrib: lol no more sweets, although...I am giving up sweets for Lent.
me: oh no. That's hardcore.
Yathrib: I know! This is going to be harder than Ramadan!

Lay your cards out

Poliça will be performing at Red Palace on March 23rd.
You should be there because I will be there.
(the song is also addicting if you recall)

womp womp (for so many reasons)

Straight curlin'

Ginnie: Trying to curl my hair using a straightener hehe
me: Ginnie, what the hell.

ima read

Slightly creepy (ok, more than slightly) but this is the type of song I'm going to play before I throw down in the Greaser/Soc rumble.

warning: NSFW/language

so much love for my friends!

Rachel, thank you for the oh-so adorable Valentine's Day card! "it's Valentine's, not vagina day"
Justin, thanks for the frozen yogurt fun and for wearing a tie for vain vina purposes. You da best!

So sappy that my breakfast is all Valentine's Day tricked out.

Valentine's Day 2012

Sohe: how do u plan on spending ur vday?

me: ummm, I might give myself a facial. Maybe a cute breakfast. Go on a walk with Libby. French lit class at 1. I have a meeting at 4. Frozen yogurt with Justin. Do some design work. Maybe go home and watch romantic comedies and read French existentialism about the bleakness of life. 

Sohe: LOL. Those are such cute things. 

Libby: Valentine's is actually my favorite holiday. It's just about being nice to people and chocolate. I'm down with that. 

But if we had it my way, I'd serve you flame-broiled love this Valentine's Day.

“Nothing to get hung about. Strawberry Fields forever.”

The Beatles

Five minute French toast
sliced strawberries (that I let macerate overnight in raw sugar and lemon zest)
1 egg, beaten with a splash of milk, a dash of cayenne pepper, and cinnamon
1 slice of whole wheat bread
Greek yogurt

- Let bread soak in egg mixture for a minute or so. Scramble a couple of eggs for your sister.
- Cook over medium high heat until golden on each side. Decide between tea or coffee.
- Top with strawberries and Greek yogurt.
- Eat French toast while listening to The Beatles and cruising Tumblr.

Ginnie: We should live together so you can make breakfast every morning...especially since you wake up early puahaha.

It is on this blog.

I always enjoy perusing trending/search keywords on Lemonade Lists. 

Jolene

Newdorf: I bought two cds, like actual discs with cases.
me: They still make those?

Love Come Down and Forget Me Nots

Dance party/silkscreen prep with Stephanie! We danced to EDMX's roller rink boogaloo mix, mourned the loss of Whitney Houston, tested different hues of ink on cream paper, and cruised Tumblr for all the good tunes. The evening ended with Zooey Deschanel on SNL, chocolate raspberry cake, and snow on the ground. Magical. 

Design humor humors me.

via xkcd

I wanna dance with somebody

Bye, Whitney. You were crazy but we loved you.

Matchbox, SAAM, gimlets, and dessert trios.

 

 

This night.

There's this one word, it's called comfort

Oh no, Groupon. I think a little bit less of you now.

Justin Vernon and The Roots?!

Thanks, Steph!

i like-like you

I'm like-liking these letterpress cards from Farewell Paperie.

so super bowl sunday

 

 

 

My last name doesn't actually have that many na's. 

"draw me like one of your French girls"

 

 

Cheesy corn dip (adapted from Notions & Notations of a Novice Cook)

three cans of corn, drained

about a cup of sour cream

1 green bell pepper, 1 red bell pepper, diced

half a red onion, diced

s&p

cayenne

about a cup or two shredded pepper jack cheese

1 jalapeno, seeded and diced

2 Tbsp. butter

- preheat oven to 375. 

- melt 1 Tbsp. butter over medium heat and sauté corn until golden, set aside. Rummage through your friend's bachelor pad kitchen for a sharp knife. Give up and use the dull knife. 

- sauté onion, bell pepper, and jalapeno until translucent. Add corn, sour cream, a good amount of cheese, s&p/cayenne to taste. Try not to make disparaging remarks over the unrefrigerated marinara sauce. Fail horribly. 

- transfer to oven-safe vessel, top with remaining cheese and bake until gooey. Serve with garlic-rubbed toasted baguette slices.

- Eat all the delicious things while you "watch" the Super Bowl. Translation: eat all the delicious things while you ask annoying questions about the game of football (What IS a blitz? Is it like a blintz?), play with all the adorable children, and watch someone have an allergic reaction and refuse to make a big deal about turning beet red while his throat closes up.  

- Spend a few hours in a Centreville dive bar, watch all the local drunkards, and accidentally make googly eyes a few times.