Diner-en-Blanc 2: Electric Bugaloo. Some things are worth the effort.

food, bubbles, friends. check check check.

The excitement that ran high this weekend is finally slowed enough to wrap my head around. Slowly, the apartment is getting put back together after the frenzy of activity had bits and pieces strewn from one end to the other. Dresses and pants washed and put away. Champagne flutes stored for the next special occasion. They never mention whether Cinderella had a giant pumpkin guts and mouse-horse mess to clean up when she returned from the ball, but I feel her pain.

The Dinner in White returned to Cincinnati for a second year. This time around we were much better prepared. Combining efforts in a group of six helped make for a more streamlined, less harried process. Best of all, the friends we gathered were genuinely excited about the event, and put time, money and effort into preparation. Liz and Kelly sewed chair covers. Dana created exquisite table arrangements. Ali came from Indianapolis. Keith splurged on champagne. We had a pre-planning meeting, divvying up tasks and food preparation and discussing hairstyles. I haven't put this much work into an evening since Duct Tape Prom back in 2004.

Our hard work paid off. Despite the annoyance of walking our stuff PAST the event location to get to the meeting spot (and then turning around and going right back), once the table was set up and the first bottle of bubbly popped, I couldn't imagine a more magical night. Balloons and jazz music floated gently through the trees, and as the sun went down, candles and twinkly lights lit the scene.

For Keith to spend his last evening in Cincinnati in Washington Park - the crown jewel of the neighborhood we both love so much (and have spent years living, working, and playing in) with good food, friends, and dancing was a pretty great send-off. At the end of the night we all felt really lucky to have been able to partake of it.

Freakin tart. You are So FRANCH!

Obviously I had to make a pie for this enchanting evening. I picked the fussiest, French-est one on the list - Raspberry Hazlenut Tart. It required French butter (did you know that's a thing? apparently it has a higher melting point), hazelnut flour, yet another Loose Bottomed Tart Pan (thanks to my friend Margaret now I have one of my own!) and two days of preparation. I was nervous I was going to mess it up - or drop it en route to the picnic - but neither happened.

This pie is seriously ridiculous. If you don't wish to try it out, readers, I don't blame you. First you make the pâte sablée  then refrigerate for at least 24 hours. Everything must be sifted, and measured out with a digital scale. Using special butter, making a hazelnut cream, pre-baking the shell, even down to finding fresh raspberries in September - who would bother with such an undertaking? Is it worth it?

And maybe, this is the question that everyone is ultimately asking of Diner-en-Blanc. It is easy to stand back and ridicule. To scoff at the pretentiousness of those with the ability, means and desire to pay for the privilege to drag their own stuff to the middle of a park. There are many examples of people spending money on something that seems ridiculous. Skiing, manicures, and football games, to name a few. 

Gatsby-style. With dirty feet.

Should I feel bad about spending my time and money in this way? I wish some of the proceeds for DeB went to charity, but after chatting with a friend who helped put it on, I know that no one is making a profit on it. It's really expensive to rent facilities, purchase insurance and security, lights, sparklers, and more. I budgeted in a big way for the night - borrowed and combined costs where I could, found my dress at a thrift store, made things by hand. I wonder if it's as much of a "show off your wedding china" society-type event in other countries. We Americans tend to make things more complicated than necessary.

Color me naiive, but maybe the goal of this event was simply to create a magical evening. That's what it was for me and mine. Lifted up on good music, bubbles, and the exhilaration of a shared experience with people I love, the night is one of my favorites in recent memory.

It's obviously not for everyone - but that's how it works sometimes. Not every event, new bar, restaurant, or the like is going to appeal to every person - but it's important for the vitality of a city to have a healthy mix of all things. I don't spend a lot of time at Mixx or Toby Keith's I Love This Bar and Grill - but I am glad they exist, if for no other reason than to bring people in. Maybe we can all take a page from Sly and the Family Stone - different strokes for different folks.

Check out more pictures!

Raspberry Hazelnut Tart - from this recipe

Takes about 1 hour 15 minutes, plus 24 to 48 hours’ chilling. (It took me longer than this, but I am no French pastry master.)

This is what you need:

FOR THE PÂTE SABLÉE:

• 290 grams all-purpose flour (about 2 1/3 cups), plus more for dusting
• 35 grams hazelnut flour (about 1/3 rounded cup)
• 110 grams confectioners’ sugar (about 1 cup)
• 175 grams French-style 82 percent fat butter, such as Plugrà (6 ounces), plus more for greasing pan, at room temperature (I found 7 oz of Presidente at Dean's Imports)
• 3 grams fine sea salt (about rounded 1/2 teaspoon)
• 3 grams vanilla extract (about 1/2 teaspoon)
• 80 grams egg yolk (about 5 yolks)

FOR THE TART:

• 30 grams whole hazelnuts, toasted and skinned (about 1/4 cup)
• 70 grams hazelnut flour (about 3/4 cup) (couldn't find hazelnut, had to sub chestnut)
• 70 grams confectioners’ sugar (about 3/4 cup)
• 2 grams cornstarch (about 3/4 teaspoon)
• 2 grams cake flour (about 1 teaspoon)
• 70 grams French-style 82 percent fat butter, such as Plugrà (2 1/2 ounces), at room temperature
• Pinch of sea salt
• 2 grams vanilla extract or paste (about 1/2 teaspoon)
• 1 egg, beaten
• 12 grams dark rum (about 1 tablespoon), optional
• 150 grams good quality raspberry jam (about 1/2 cup)
• 250 grams raspberries (9 ounces or about 2 cups)
• Powdered sugar, for dusting

This is what you do with it: 

• Make the pâte sablée: Sift flour, 35 grams hazelnut flour and 110 grams confectioners’ sugar into separate bowls. Place 175 grams butter, 3 grams salt and sifted all-purpose flour in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on low speed until flour and butter just come together. Add sifted hazelnut flour and confectioners’ sugar and mix on low until ingredients are just incorporated. Add vanilla extract and egg yolks and mix on medium just until ingredients come together. Scrape dough out of bowl and press into a 1/2-inch-thick rectangular block. Wrap airtight in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.
• Unwrap dough and cut into two equal pieces. Wrap one piece and refrigerate or freeze for use in another tart.
• Butter a 9-inch metal tart pan with a removable bottom very lightly and evenly. (If you can see the butter you have used too much.) Place parchment paper or a Silpat on a work surface and dust lightly with flour. Tap on the dough with a rolling pin to make it pliable. Roll dough out gently to about 1/4-inch thickness, frequently rotating it a quarter turn clockwise. Work quickly so dough doesn’t warm up and become sticky.
• Cut a circle that is 1 1/2 inches larger in diameter than tart pan. (An easy way to do this is to use a larger pan or ring as a guide; set it on top of the dough and cut around it.) Very lightly dust dough with flour; use a pastry brush to remove any excess flour. Wrap dough loosely around rolling pin to lift it up from work surface, then immediately unroll it onto tart pan. Gently guide dough down the sides of the pan, making sure that dough leaves no gap between the bottom edge of the sides of the pan and the bottom. Using a paring knife, trim away excess dough hanging over edges. Refrigerate tart shell, uncovered, for at least 1 hour and preferably overnight.
• Assemble the tart: Heat oven to 325 degrees. Place hazelnuts on a sheet pan lined with parchment and roast for 15 minutes. Remove from oven, cool for 15 minutes and place in a bag. Seal bag and gently roll over nuts with a rolling pin, just to crush them into halves. Set aside.
• Sift together 70 grams hazelnut flour, 70 grams confectioners’ sugar, the cornstarch and the cake flour.
• Place 70 grams butter, pinch of salt and the vanilla in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and mix at medium speed for 1 minute. Turn off machine, scrape down sides of bowl and add hazelnut flour mixture. Mix at medium speed for 1 minute. Gradually add egg and mix at medium speed until incorporated, no more than 2 minutes. Add rum, if using, and mix until incorporated.
• Remove tart shell from refrigerator. With a fork, poke holes in the dough, 1 inch apart. Spoon or pipe hazelnut cream into bottom of shell. Using a small offset spatula, spread in a smooth, even layer.
• Bake tart for 40 minutes, until cream and crust are golden brown and the tip of a paring knife comes out clean when inserted. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack for 30 minutes.
• Remove tart from the ring and, with a small offset spatula, spread raspberry jam over surface in an even layer. (If jam is too stiff to spread easily, place it in a small saucepan and warm it slightly first on top of the stove.) Arrange fresh raspberries on jam. Just before serving, distribute roasted hazelnuts among the raspberries and dust with powdered sugar. The tart is best when eaten the day it is made, but can be refrigerated for a day.

Of Desserts and Disaster Movies

*jaws theme here*

pie for everyone at Rhinehaus!

 Last week we discovered the comically bad made-for-TV movie Sharknado returned to the small screen. There was only one option for Thursday Pie, and it was bloody delicious. Perhaps you've heard of Sharknado? A freak storm sweeps over LA, and a few brave souls (and their myriad of weapons) are the only ones who can save the city from being destroyed by thousands of flying sharks. Sounds bad? It was terrible.

Some movies are so corny and ridiculous they must be celebrated. Sharknado falls into this category. The Sour Cherry Pie was a perfect fit, and was a great use for the GIANT jar of sour cherries purchased at the Meditteranean store at Findlay Market. It was also an actual pie - with a double crust and everything. Slowly but surely my pie-making skills are improving.

I gave myself enough time to let the dough chill - Liz and I went to go give blood (only appropriate - and it's really easy at Hoxworth!) before putting it all together. I briefly considered making little sharks and people out of the crust, but the final result made great use of the negative space. A quick and easy hour in the oven, and it was time to head to the bar for our own personal feeding frenzy.

My buddy Jack owns the local hipster sports bar, and Sharknado viewing fell after a 1pm Reds game and a slow soccer day. As I don't have cable, watching in public was our only option (and a fun one at that!) We ordered pizzas, let the pie cool, and turned on the closed captioning to better experience the terrible dialogue in the bar.

There's only one way to successfully get through a bad movie, and that is with a drinking game. We would NEVER drink to excess, but with some local brews and reasons to watch this silly movie, by the time it was over the entire bar was getting into the spirit of the game and shouting out whenever there was a newscast, someone got killed (not by a shark), or Tara Reid was being belligerent (which happened more often than you'd think.)

The pie was good. Really, really good. The crust held the filling well, it wasn't mushy or spilling juicy cherries everywhere, and it served a good thirteen or so of us. The sour cherries were just tart enough. This was maybe the best pie yet.

If the movie ever comes back to TV, gather some friends, pie, and brews - you'll be in for a really fun night.

Special Sharknado Shot and Official Rules

Sharknado Drinking Rules (for those responsible and of legal age):

Yell loudly and take a sip every time...

• The camera angle is from the Shark's Point of View
• There is a news broadcast
• Someone is killed mid-sentence
• There is stock footage
• There is terrible CGI
• Someone is killed, not by a shark
• A shark is killed with something that's not normally a weapon
• There is a bad pun
• Tara Reid is belligerent

Take the Sharknado Shot in memory of the Rather Young and Fit Elders in the Nursing Home who get Sharks Rained Upon Them (spoiler, sorry...)

• Blue Curacao
• Sour Mix
• Absolut Citron
• Grenadine Floater

Sharknado Sour Cherry Pie - adapted from this recipe

takes 1 hour 45 minutes, plus chill time for dough

serves 10-12

This is what you need:

•  1 3/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour, more for rolling out dough
• 3/8 teaspoon kosher salt
• 15 tablespoons unsalted butter, chilled and cut into pieces
• 1 cup sugar
• 5 tablespoons tapioca starch
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 pounds sour cherries (about 6 cups), rinsed and pitted - one 54 oz jar works nicely. Drain most of the juice. 
• 1 tablespoon brandy
• 3 tablespoons heavy cream
• Demerara sugar, for sprinkling.

This is what you do with it:

•  To make dough: in bowl of a food processor pulse together flour and salt just to combine. Add butter and pulse until chickpea-size pieces form. Add 3 to 6 tablespoons ice water, 1 tablespoon at a time, and pulse until mixture just comes together. Separate dough into 2 disks, one using 2/3 dough, the other using the remaining. Wrap disks in plastic and refrigerate at least 1 hour (and up to 3 days) before rolling out and baking.
• Heat oven to 425 degrees. Place larger dough disk on a lightly floured surface and roll into a 12-inch circle, about 3/8-inch thick. Transfer to a 9-inch pie plate (sprayed with non-stick cooking spray). Line dough with foil and weigh it down with pie weights. Bake until crust is light golden brown, about 30 minutes.
• While pie crust is baking, prepare filling. Place cherries in a bowl and add sugar and tapioca starch - more tapioca = firmer filling. Drizzle in brandy and toss gently to combine.
• When pie crust is ready, transfer it to a wire rack to cool slightly and reduce heat to 375 degrees. Remove foil and weights. Scrape cherry filling into pie crust.
• Place smaller disk of dough on a lightly floured surface and roll it 3/8-inch thick. Use a round cookie cutter (or several round cookie cutters of different sizes) to cut out circles of dough. Arrange circles on top of cherry filling in a pattern of your choice. like, say, the mouth of a shark.
• Brush top crust with cream and sprinkle generously with Demerara sugar. Bake until crust is dark golden brown and filling begins to bubble, 50 minutes to 1 hour. Transfer pie to a wire rack to cool for at least 2 hours, allowing filling to set before serving. Goes well with disaster movies.          

Plum's the Word

friends are cute.

It's Friday, and I'm struggling for clever post titles. Blame the sunshine and absolutely gorgeous weather we've been graced with this week. Work and screens keep me inside - I've tried to go outside and play as much as I can, but it gets harder as we get older. Ya know?

Got the pie back on track with a Thursday baking. This will shock no one, but I didn't read the recipe thoroughly beforehand and did not allow the dough to chill for two-plus hours. Ain't nobody got time for that! The bigger mistake made was loosely squishing the dough between a Sil-Pat mat instead of wrapping it in plastic, and it dried out a little. A lot. I broke a sweat rolling out the dough. Also, I took my food processor blade in to get sharpened, so I made the dough by hand with a pastry cutter and it worked just fine.

I upped the recipe to 1.5 times because I wasn't sure how many people would come partake with me. I'm glad I did - I had a little filling leftover, but lots of room to make sure the crostata wrapped up prettily. It took a little bit of searching to find lemon thyme, but I highly recommend it - the flavor with the plums was really tasty.

I've been heading to Findlay Market for their Findlay After 4 events- as an exercise to convince vendors to stay open later, the Market is attempting to drive more traffic for their shops. Take some time on your Thursday (between 4 -6pm) and come down and shop! So far I've bought pie ingredients at Daisy Mae's Market, Dean's Mediterranean Imports, Madison's, Saigon Market, and Colonel De's Spices. I'm pretty sure the local ingredients and small business purchases make the pies taste even better.

Liz and I snagged our pie, some snacks and blankets, and met friends up in Mount Adams for an impromptu picnic and a screening of Singin' in the Rain in the Seasongood Pavilion. It's been really rewarding to share my treats with different groups of people- and saves me from eating entire pies alone (though, let's be real... it was all gone before bedtime. Just that good.)

Tips:
Crostatas are peasant pies - perfect circles are not the aim of the game. Roll your dough in (mostly) a circle, and pile the fruit filling in the middle, leaving plenty of room to fold the crust over. I pressed down the fruit and dough after it was all folded up to spread it out, and it worked beautifully. Don't be afraid of the thyme!

Rustic Plum Crostata With Lemon Thyme, adapted from this recipe
serves 8-10
takes about an hour, hour an a half to put together, plus two hours for chill time, unless you're me.

Here's what you need:

• 1 cup (130 grams) all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup (40 grams) whole-wheat flour
• 1/2 cup (100 grams) plus 1 tablespoon (15 grams) sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon (2 grams) plus a pinch fine sea salt
• 1 large egg
• Heavy cream
• 6 tablespoons (85 grams) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
• 3 cups sliced and pitted ripe red and black plums (about 1 1/2 pounds before pitting)
• 1 1/2 tablespoons (22 grams) cornstarch
• 2 tsp dried lemon thyme, or a small bunch of leaves if you can find it. In which case, lucky you because I looked everywhere!

Here's what you do with it:

• In a food processor fitted with a steel blade, pulse together the flours, 1 tablespoon sugar and 1/2 teaspoon salt until blended. In a measuring cup, lightly beat the egg, and add just enough cream to get to 1/3 cup. Lightly whisk the egg and cream together.
  
• Add the butter to the flour mixture and pulse to break up the butter. Do not over-process; you need lima-bean-size chunks of butter. Drizzle the egg mixture over the dough and pulse until it just starts to come together but is still mostly large crumbs.
  
• Put the dough on the counter and knead to make one uniform piece. Flatten into a disk, wrap in plastic and chill for 2 hours or up to 3 days. (I chilled mine for about 30 minutes while I made the filling and it was fine. Be sure to wrap it, though!)
• Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Roll the dough out to a 12-inch round (it can be ragged). Transfer to a rimmed baking sheet and chill while preparing the filling.
  |
• Toss together the plums, all but a tablespoon of the remaining sugar, a pinch of salt and the cornstarch. Pile fruit on the dough circle, leaving a 1 1/2-inch border. Gently fold the pastry over the fruit, pleating to hold it in (sloppy is fine). Sprinkle remaining sugar on top, with the thyme.
  
• Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, until the crust is golden and the fruit is tender. Cool for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack. Remove the thyme branches (some leaves will cling; you want this). Serve warm or at room temperature.

This is why we go to work every day.

I'm baaaack! Phew! 9 days jam packed with adventures in transportation, language, maps, and eating lots of great food.  While we were eating our first meal abroad, soaking in the sights and sounds over a glass of wine, my friend Katie looked around and said, "so. This is why we go to work every day." I couldn't agree more. Rack up that vacation time, pinch your pennies, and get the heck out of Dodge, friends. Travel is exhilarating. I take a great deal of satisfaction from figuring a city out- learning how to navigate around, finding the best places to eat, shop, do things, and having spontaneous experiences along the way. This trip encompassed all that and more. I was a little tweaky about the entire experience, but only because I was so excited to be out of the country, exploring, on vacation.

I wanted to do it all!!
News flash: not possible. ESPECIALLY in Paris. We spent four days in Paris and I could go back three more times and not have a repeat experience. Not knowing much French was also frustrating - but now I'm pretty good at asking for the check!

For your reading pleasure: a short collections of tips, tricks, experiences and oddities that comprised my trip abroad - if you're wanting to travel to Europe, maybe this will inspire you!

***

* Pack light. Lay out all the things you'd like to take with you... then remove half of it. I did this and STILL could have left things at home. Streets in Europe are windy and cobblestoned, and if you're staying at a more reasonably priced hostel or hotel, you might have to walk a ways from the train station - which makes lugging a huge suitcase a pain... plus you look lame. I packed all my clothes into a Jansport rolling backpack, and brought a day bag with LOTS of pockets. It sounds lame, but the rolling backpack is great - you can pull it in airports and swing it on your back for the cobblestones. Also, it fits in the carryon section of the plane. Don't be scared - just bring a little container of laundry detergent and you can wash clothes if you need to. 

For 10 days, I took 5 pairs of underwear, 3 bras, 3 short sleeved shirts (rolled up), 2 sundresses (rolled up) 4 pairs of tights/leggins (rolled up), one pair of black ankle pants, 3 tunics, and 2 long sleeved shirts. Throw in a few accessories, 2 pairs of shoes and as long as your colors coordinate, you can mix and match for tons of different outfits. And if you're a dude... well, you're only packing 3 outfits anyway. Easy peasy. 

* Print things out. I had printed Google maps directions from each main train station to each hostel - transit directions with walking. This was super helpful and made transitioning from city to city easier.

* Smart phones are awesome. I used the MyMaps, SpeakEasy French, and Spotted by Locals apps while we were abroad, and Dana used MyTrip. The Maps app was able to pick up our location, which helped when we biked ourselves all the way over to the far eastern suburbs of Amsterdam by accident. And unless you're a really, REALLY big camera buff, leave the DSLR at home. The iPhone 4S camera worked well for my needs. It was much easier to retrieve for a quick picture, and wasn't nearly as heavy.

* Do your research - but be flexible.  I was SO excited about this trip, I did tons of research to prepare. I scoured HostelWorld for the best hotel/apartment deals (and we got to stay at some sweet places, including a boat hotel! Yep, a private boat.) I made a Pinterest board. I downloaded the Spotted by Locals guides for each city. I made lists and read books. Ultimately, though, there was so much to do in each city, it eventually bogged me down. I knew I wouldn't be able to experience everything (even though I tried convincing myself I could), and ended up getting a little pouty when I had to compromise or realized the truth. Once I let go of my expectations and enjoyed the present, I had a lot more fun.

* Take the trains! Using the public transportation in a new city can be intimidating, but it doesn't have to be. It saves a lot of walking in bigger cities and is a fun experience in and of itself. Paris' metro has a 3 day card you can buy with unlimited rides in the city. Paris has a metro (subway) and the RER - commuter rail lines. Also, pull the latch up to open the doors if they don't open automatically.

Brussels has trams and a small Metro line. The trains don't run at night, only the trams do. This means some of the trams (above ground) don't run during the day. We didn't figure this out for a good half an hour and were waiting like dummies for a tram that never came.

Amsterdam has above ground trams. They're very efficient and run every few minutes. At night only the door near the front of the tram opens. Again, we learned this the hard way.

* Brussels is totally underrated. We loved Brussels. It's not a place I would spend an entire week, but it is an extremely manageable city for a few days' visit. It's easy to navigate and fairly small. The locals are nice and will speak whatever language necessary to communicate - I'm pretty sure I haggled with a guy over some trinkets in a mixture of Spanish, French, and English. The architecture is BEAUTIFUL, there is a lot of history, and the food is yummy! Waffles, beer, fries... we even had some really excellent Indian food. I'd recommend Brussels (with a day trip to Brugge) for people who feel super overwhelmed in a huge city or are new to traveling.

Sketchbook/journal!

* Sketching is fun! The last time I traveled to Europe was for an architecture study abroad program, and we sketched all sorts of landmarks during our travels across Scandinavia. Visually analyzing a space is helpful to understand it more completely... but you don't have to be an architecture student to keep a sketchbook/journal. I did at least one half-hour sketch a day - usually while we were eating or resting in a park or someplace pretty - and recorded our adventures every day. It's a tangible memory that I can look back on later. 

The biggest thing I realized on my journey across the ocean? I am capable. The pancake picture was taken at my "lowest" point on the trip - I had gotten seperated from Isaac in Amsterdam in the pouring rain without an umbrella or a way to directly contact him. It was a potentially scary sort of situation, but then I realized: I knew where I was and where I was going (we were headed back to a deli to buy some Curiousity Cola); I had money and a tram card; I knew how to get back and into the hotel; and I was certain Isaac would wait for me and we'd figure it out. So instead of freaking out, I celebrated - enjoying the quiet of the city in the rain. I bought myself a little pannekoek (like a crepe or blini) and recognized the moment.

If I can figure things out in a foreign city on my own, the challenges waiting for me back in Cincinnati are a piece of cake.

Check out the rest of the trip!

Leaving and it feels so good.

If you've paid the slightest bit of attention to me this week you already know. I'm getting ready to go on a trip! Isaac and our friends Katie and Dana and myself are all gearing up to spend the next 10 days in Paris, Brussels, and Amsterdam. I've struggled a little bit with not wanting to gush and tell the whole world - that can get annoying. But for me, this isn't just some vacation.

This trip represents so much more. The last time I was out of the country was 2008. The last time I took a trip longer than 4 days was in 2010. This is my first vacation as an Adult with an A. I'm in a secure enough place financially, emotionally, and with my job that I've saved up enough cash and vacation days to go somewhere new with people I love.

I've been packed since Tuesday. I've researched everything from hostels and trains to bike rentals and places to eat cheap, local food. I've been practicing my French (my roomie wrote me out a cheat sheet, and there are some apps that are helpful.) The only thing left to do is leave.

Maybe it's humblebragging. Maybe it's annoying. But honestly? I don't care. I've worked my butt off for the last 2 years to get to this moment. I hope ya'all can celebrate this with me.

Au revoir!

Dee Cee Weekend!

I love and miss my DAAP friends - even the ones that live less than 10 minutes away! With everyone so busy in the Real World with Big Girl Jobs, sometimes you just have to stop and take time out to smell the cherry blossoms.

My girl Sarah (the one who lives 10 minutes away) and I drove out to visit Corrie in Washington DC, where she's working at an awesome design firm and living the dream!

Check it out!

 

this is Cincinnati.

this is Frederick, Maryland. They look very similar.

 awesome beer bottle cuff links at Eastern Market.

ladyfriends looking all beautiful and urban.

 great ad by Zipcar - when are you coming to Cincinnati?!

 we stopped to smell the cherry blossoms.

 and had fun photoshoots in the park (what?! we're designers!)

 and ate awesome local food.

It was a really fun weekend. I love and miss my friends!

Diary of a DAAP Kid: What is this thing you call... Homecoming?

photo credit University of Cincinnati 

I have been in college for five years, and I have never once attended Homecoming festivities of any capacity, at any college. I vaguely remember something about a football game back in high school, but even then, as an aspiring little hipster, I couldn't be bothered with such mainstream trifles as football.

(I didn't bring my camera, so this crappy phone shot is the only one I got of tailgating festivities. )

However, it's my fifth year at DAAP and I realized that I would forever regret not living out my college experience to the fullest, even if it meant braving the cold, crowds and traffic patterns to truly live out all that is Homecoming. Slacker that I am, I didn't get out to the Homecoming parade in time - I was getting ready to tailgate! I knew it would be a perfect opportunity to use the Front Yard, and to my delight my small group of friends and I were not alone in utilizing the green space between McMillan and Calhoun. We fired up the grill down the way from different tents that had sprung up, as well as a fairly large pee-wee football game dominating the majority of the space. All the while people were cutting cross the grass to get closer to campus and the stadium from their parking spots.

Then of course there was the Game. And what a game it was! I've actually started to get involved with football, learning more about the game and cheering on my teams. UC has obviously been a fun team to watch this year, though I enjoy watching professional football more. I discovered I am MUCH too easily distracted to really appreciate a live game. I kept missing important plays because there were too many interesting people to watch, or the cheerleaders were leading us in cheers (ohhhhhh.... ohhhhhh.... ohhhhh! *clap clap clap clap* UC!), or I wanted to talk to my friends, or there was a balloon in the sky, or... yeah. You get the idea.

So now I feel a little more like a "regular" college kid now. And (don't tell the hipsters)... it was actually pretty fun.

the Bearcat band!

my crazy DAAP friends and I at the game! (note the architecture grad student wearing the pullover and button down shirt... totally appropriate for a football game. Hey... we're in DAAP.)