Pizza Night- Paniagua Style

Pizza night is a favorite of ours. There is nothing like homemade pizza on the couch with a glass of wine.

One of the things that I miss the most about my pre-celiac days is the ability to go out and grab a pizza (late night, and during the day). Pity me no more. Not only are there tons of restaurants with delicious GF crusts, thanks to Bob's Red Mill GF Pizza mix, I can whip up a pizza in no time. One mix actually yields two pizzas, so you can pop one of them in the freezer. Saturday night, I defrosted a dough mix in the microwave, let it rise and played my own version of chopped and assembled a delicious veggie pizza with leftover veggies from the week ( I usually grocery shop on Sunday's with the rest of the world).

Paniagua's Personal Pan Pizza 1-7-12:
I normally make my own sauce (usually meat) from scratch. This time, I used a jar of Rao's Arrabbiata Sauce. Although Rao's is more expensive then your standard jarred sauces, it is well worth it.
-roasted garlic in the oven w. some kosher salt and olive oil
- caramelized one onion
- 1.5 green peppers
- thinly sliced up some portabella mushrooms
- sliced olives
- dollops of part-skim ricotta
- fresh Basil
- Good Mozzarella- This is Key.  You can get the fresh balls in the food store, believe me it is worth the extra money than the shredded bags. You can get really great prices of mozz at Costco!
- Freshly grated Pecorino Romano

Assembly: Follow the instructions on Bob's packaging to make the dough. Once the dough is partially cooked, layer your toppings: First the sauce and spread around with the back of a spoon, small dollops of ricotta, then put the thinly slice fresh mozzarella down. Then you can sprinkle the veggies throughout. Rip up some fresh basil and sprinkle some freshly grated pecorino roman  (or parmesan) on top.

Annapolis

On Saturday we had errands to run over in Annapolis. We stopped by Rental to Remember and visited with Roberto & Chrissy. Then we went  to my bosses' beautiful house in Sherwood Forest, which he is graciously letting my family use for the wedding weekend. We also went all around downtown Annapolis looking for rehearsal dinner venues.

We ate lunch outside at Harry Browne's right on state circle, the weather was gorgeous there was some rouge on my cheeks post lunch!

Did you know:  The Maryland State House (pictured above behind Luis) is the oldest state capitol still in continuous legislative use and is the only state house to have ever served as the nation's capitol. The Continental Congress met in the Old Senate Chamber from November 26, 1783, to August 13, 1784. During that time, George Washington came before Congress to resign his commission as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army and the Treaty of Paris was ratified, marking the official end of the Revolutionary War.

Then we shared a mint chocolate chip ice cream down by Ego Alley.

Luis loves ducks. He was like a kid laughing and smiling as they caught bread right in their beaks from the actual children who were feeding the ducks. Note to self: next time bring Luis some bread to Annapolis

Man & Wife

Date night- H Street Style

Luis and I try to save "Date nights" for special occasions. Well you know what? This past Friday it was time for a night out on the town to relax and treat ourselves. Our original (and cheaper) plan of sharing a pot of mussels was squashed when we went to Granville Moores and they told us that there was a 2.5 hour wait! The bad news: I was craving mussels. The good news: our house is right in the heart of H street, and long waits mean popularity and further development, which is great for our property value.




We started off the night at Fruit Bat. I had a "groupon" ( I call all deal sites groupons). So while we had to wait over an hour for our table at Smith Commons, we popped across the street for a few cocktails. I had two ginger Caiprowska. They were delicious, just the perfect amount of sweetness, and went down a little too easy.  Luis had some Jamison on the rocks. It seems as though the H Street restaurants are pretty tolerant with you leaving while you are waiting for your table, because they ask you for your cell phone numbers instead of those restaurant pagers. Normally, I would stay for drinks at Smith Commons, because they are devine, but we had this voucher that was expiring shortly, so we checked out Fruit Bat and I am glad that we did.

  

Photo Credit: We love DC

For dinner, I had the Chesapeake Rock fish served with a Crab Risotto. The dish was flawless. It was the perfect portion of fish with crispy skin, rich crab risotto and some burst of flavor with the orange chutney. I was in heaven. Luis had the braised short ribs, which were very tender and accompanied by a pickled relish. He had the green beans as well, which I couldn't taste as they contained soy sauce. For desert with split a flourless chocolate cake with jalapeno ice cream. It was the perfect balance and reminded me of dark chocolate bars with chili flakes in them.

After the crazy week we had between work and wedding planning, it was really nice to have a good meal and spend some qt together.

Happy Birthday Gus!

This past week, a very special friend of mine had his 4th birthday. You all know him well, Mr. Goose!

Shoutout to Sir Mickey, who is a lively young pup who turned 15 this week.

1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and get them sit ups right and

Tuck your tummy tight and do your crunches like this.......
That's right folks... Kanye's (or my boot camp instructor Corey's) workout plan. I am starting off the New Year- and the wedding countdown 115 days!- on the right foot. I have started doing boot camp again. I signed up for 3 days a week (6-7 pm) and hope to sneak in some cardio as well. My strategy is to start off slow, and work up to the bride psycho diet/gym routine. Don't get me wrong, I have that dream bride body in my mind, but I also want to enjoy the wedding planning and time with my fiance (that word is so pretentious), so I am trying to find a balance. Let me tell you... the holiday's aka binge fest 2011 have come, lingered on my thighs and now its time for them to move on. I have boot camp tonight and I am looking forward to it as my performance the at the first two sessions this week, has been less than stellar. The only way to get any better is to keep at it!

Luis took this amazing shot when we were in Bolivia. Although I look relaxed and pensive, I should have been thinking about kicking my butt into gear and running up that Volcano!

Happy Friday

We've got the whole world...

In Our Hands.. I am feeling guilty this morning....Last night as we played "let's rethink our original honeymoon", we were literally considering the entire world. Our dream was to Safari in Kenya and then enjoy the beach in Zanzibar, but with the rainy season falling in late April, early May we cannot take the chance of spending all the time and money to be cooped up inside. Not only are we fortunate enough to be able to realistically pick anywhere that we want to go, as we looked at websites " best places in the world, top honeymoon destinations, NY Times places to see this year, etc" we realized that we have already been to so many of these dream destinations. We are so fortunate for the opportunities laid before us, and I am so excited for our honeymoon and life together. I just cannot help but to feel a twinge of guilt, that not everyone is in our shoes. Yes, we will be repaying our honeymoon for who knows how long, but there are people who cannot afford their rent, or even a sandwich. We are truly blessed and this should serve as a reminder.

NYE - Long Hair Don't Care

I have to admit, I am anti big holiday's out at the bars. Nothing gives me more anxiety than an  paying money to be in an overcrowded bar with poor service and no way home. This Year NYE was a little different...

Ashley, Merideth and Gus came over to our house for a sleepover. Thank goodness Gus came along to provide some male companionship for big Lu. Chrissy & Roberto came over after they had dinner in the neighborhood to bid farewell to 2011 and toast 2012. IT was the perfect blend of amazing food, wine, and company in the comfort of our own home.

See, he thinks we are crazy

We consumed an absurd amount of food:

• Ashley & Mer brought over a ridiculous amount of appetizers: seriously any type of cheese that you could buy at TJ's and WF = crackers (of course some gluten free ones for me), spicy jams, chips, artichoke dip
• I made some spicy sausage balls, that went excellent with the jams- DUNK
• For dinner- We roasted a leg of lamb that we had marinated for over a day, mushroom risotto, and roasted asparagus
• Desert was the crown jewel and my new go to- Flourless Chocolate & Cream Cheese Cake! It was delicious and I will definitely be making it again.

Long Hair, Don't Care.

Thank you for my jammies Ashley!