What's on the menu?

It was a big week in the kitchen for Ben and even bigger week for Kelly at the kitchen table! Ben spent time early this week making homemade thick crust pizza dough. While he spent time in the kitchen, Kelly tended to the dogs, cleaning and the internet.

(Dexter has been baaad lately and needed some extra attention)

After an hour or so, Ben brought out a plate of homemade pretzels for a surprise evening snack.  Kelly's strong, sometimes overwhelming, passion for good soft pretzels inspired Ben to create his own version. They turned out fabulous and will be a staple on the Hovland menu. Minus the loads of butter, the pretzels tasted just like Auntie Anne's pretzels.

 (These pretzels made us thirsty)

The other creation, pizza dough, had to refrigerate overnight and Tuesday we enjoyed Chicago style deep dish bbq chicken pizza.

In other food news, we met for lunch on Thursday a Loeb's deli, which turned out to be a great recommendation.  We had been burned by advice from so-called 'friends,' so we were hapy this one panned out.  Kelly had the "wall street" which was pastrami and corned beef with a wonderful sauce and coleslaw on top of the sandwich. Ben had the "Walter special" which was pastrami on pumpernickel. They were mouthwatering  and delicious. Outside of Katz's Deli in NYC, it was two of the better sandwiches we have had. Any deli that uses coleslaw as a prominent topping on the sandwich goes right to the top of our list!

After work on Friday, we met up with coworkers for a happy hour at Banana Cafe and piano bar. Along with their strong margaritas, they had a fantastic piano player. He took requests and even played Harvest Moon (per Kelly's request), which for those of you who came to our wedding know, was our wedding song.

Kelly's parents flew in on Friday night and we picked them up at union station around 9pm and headed to the apartment. We chatted for a bit and then got to bed. On Saturday, we headed out early for breakfast at Ted's Bulletin, which had been on our list for quite a while.

One of their specialties is homemade pop tarts. Along with our breakfast, mom ordered a few pop tarts to try. Our favorite was the peanut butter with bacon pop tart! It sounded horrible, but ended up being the best part of our entire meal. In fact, mom wanted to go back on several occasions for more pop tarts.

(Honestly, when is adding bacon not a good idea?)

After breakfast, we venture out of DC to Mt. Vernon, George Washington's home, for a little sightseeing.

(After the Jeff City house sells, maybe we'll put an offer in on this.)

 It was a very impressive piece of land, perfectly placed on the Potomac river. 

Like many tourist attractions, it had been completely commercialized, including George Washington water bottles for purchase.  The mansion was very interesting, but it was the overall magnitude of the grounds that was the most impressive.

(I can not tell a lie... these cherries will be amazing in a pop tart with bacon)

From Mt. Vernon, we headed over to Old Town Alexandria to walk around historic King Street. It was amusing, but overall unremarkable.

(We thought Alexandria might be a decent place to get a beverage.)

Once we were back in the district, we drove past the "Occupy DC" protesters and swung by Kelly's future office building downtown. We decided to follow another recommendation and have lunch at Taylor Gourmet on H street before heading over to the MLK memorial.

After walking around the tidal basin, we headed home for the evening.  At the apartment, we watched the Oregon vs Stanford football game and had a cupcake taste test challenge. While we were out, we stopped by Sweet Lobby, a cupcake joint near Kelly's office.  Kelly's mom picked out 6 different cupcakes that we split up and each tasted and scored. The unanimous winner was the butterscotch, followed by the Boston cream, black forest, peanut butter, chocolate crunch, chocolate & vanilla and finally, the red velvet came in last. While all the cupcakes were fabulous, the butterscotch was by far the most impressive entry and had a filling in the middle that was out of this world. 

Sunday started off on the right foot. Ben made biscuits and gravy for breakfast. We headed over to Eastern Market to peruse the vendor booths and pick up some treats from the bakery. 

Next was our flag football game, which ended in heartbreak, but was still fun to have Kelly's parents there to watch. After the game, we stopped for a quick bite to eat and then headed home. Ben made another batch of homemade pretzels, which were a big hit, and we enjoyed a few more treats that Kelly's mom had picked up from the bakery. Kelly took her parents to their train at 3:30am and they were back in St. Louis by 7:45am.  It was a short visit, but fun.  It was great to have family in town, but made the weekend fly by.  On Monday, it was back to work.