Don'tcha "GNO" cchi....

Edwin and I accomplished something great today. We got the foam in my latte to be in the shape of a heart!!!!!!! Just kidding, that happened on accident. We made gnocchi, which is a potato dumpling from Italy. As Edwin mentioned in his post earlier today, we had amazing gnocchi last weekend in D.C. and decided to try our own. Instead of writing out the whole recipe, we made a photo montage of the steps we took. This was quite the elaborate process and probably took us 3 hours from start to clean up. Clean-up involved picking up an entire tray of uncooked gnocchi from the floor after I knocked it off the counter. We are pretty impressed with our results.

We started our day with nourishment. Edwin bought a griddle yesterday, and it has significantly improved our quality of life/breakfast. AMAZING! Previously we made pancakes in a saute pan, one at a time. Needless to say, the first pancake was cold by the time we finished making the last one. Not ideal.

We started the gnocchi making process by putting 4 boiled potatoes through a potato ricer. Yesterday we had no idea what a potato ricer was. Today we are the proud owners of one ($8 at Bed Bath & Beyond). Edwin made the connection that this may be how to make hashbrowns- so that may be our next adventure!

After adding beaten eggs and flour to our potato mixture, we kneaded the dough and rolled it into ropes/snakes. (A new haircut is not necessary to make good gnocchi, although it can't hurt)

After making the snakes out of dough, we cut the gnocchi into small pieces and gave them texture by indenting our thumb in one side while imprinting it with a fork on the other. We had 3 trays of this stuff!

Time to cook the little buggers! We put 20 at a time into a pot of boiling water. They rose to the top when done, after about 2 minutes.

After cooking the gnocchi, we added them to a skillet with cremini and portabello mushrooms. The last step was combining the gnocchi and mushrooms with the delicious cream sauce Edwin made. The cream sauce was made with a base of heavy cream (this recipe did NOT come from Cooking Light!!) and vegetable broth. He added 4 oz. gorgonzola cheese to the cream base and a touch of cayenne pepper.

The results were delicious!!! We would like to try this again sometime soon. We also were happy with the realization that this is a very cheap dish to make. All you need for the gnocchi are a few potatoes, flour and egg. There are all kinds of sauces you can add to the gnocchi, so we have a world of possibilities ahead of us!!!

We really enjoyed ourselves and think the Italians are onto something with these putsy dishes (risotto, gnocchi...). Making great food with someone you love on a Sunday afternoon is pretty awesome!!!

P.S. Here are the links to the recipes/tips we used!

http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/how-to-make-gnocchi-like-an-italian-grandmother-recipe.html

http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/gnocchi-with-mushrooms-and-gorgonzola-sauce

The REAL reason we went to D.C.

As you all may know from our last post, Chelsea and I were in Washington D.C. last weekend for the Teach for America 20th anniversary summit. As you also may know, we both really enjoy food, which was the biggest selling point when deciding whether or not to attend the summit... that and our school/TFA paid for it!! Our culinary adventures began in Indianapolis and their International airport.

We ate some really good burgers and I bought Chel and I some assorted chocolates from a chocolate shop nearby. The Indianapolis airport is really nice and the Delta terminal has good burgers. Our plane arrived at Reagan National at 2:00 p.m. We took a cab to our hotel, The Henley Park Hotel. The hotel was "very old, but charming", said Chelsea Barnes when asked for her comments about the hotel. We put our bags down, checked into the TFA Summit (the convention center was 3 minutes away from our hotel!!!) and went off to Matchbox D.C. You may remember Matchbox D.C. from our post about D.C. this summer. They have great pizza and luckily for us it was about 4 pm and we didn't have to wait in line. After dinner, we went back to the hotel and then to our evening sessions at the summit.

IDEA, the school we work for, provided us with money to attend the summit on one condition... that we help them recruit other teachers. We were expected to collect 15 contacts by the end of the summit (Chelsea collected 2, I collected 1). We also had to assist them in their booth at the job fair on Saturday that they had going on. Luckily, it was only for 30 minutes and we did an excellent job on selling IDEA.

Lunch on Saturday was supposed to include Chelsea, Miles, and myself. Miles bailed on us because "he forgot", so it was Chelsea and I. I was a terrible boyfriend on Saturday and miscalculated the distance between the convention center and Big Ben's Chili Bowl, D.C.'s number 1 place for Chili, http://www.benschilibowl.com/ordereze/default.aspx. It took us 20 minutes to get there, it was windy, and Chelsea was hungry. We finally arrived at Big Ben's... only to find out it is "cash only". (Chelsea would like to add that her dad's old adage about cash being a necessity when traveling was proved true on many occasions throughout the weekend. We have (again) learned our lesson.) Luckily, they have a restaurant next door named "Ben's Next Door", http://www.bensnextdoor.com/ordereze, (it's owned by the same people!) Ben's Next door had great wings! Chelsea ordered a delicious breakfast with a lot of bacon and I ordered Chicken and Waffles, a southern delicacy that I've never had in Texas.

We walked back happily to the convention center and missed our afternoon sessions (darn!). I was able to meet with the principal from the KIPP Colorado Schools and got some good news and bad news. The bad news was that the Data position was already taken. The good news is that he was looking for 5th grade math teachers and would like me to teach a model lesson to some of KIPP's students. I am still debating on whether or not to teach next year, but it's nice to know that there are options. I also applied to a position at CSU working with low-income high school students, advising them and their families on the college admissions process. Both jobs would interest me very much.

Saturday night we were both entertained and inspired by the closing session of the TFA summit. That night, Chelsea's cough (probably because of the windy walk to Ben's) was a little bad so we stayed in. We were supposed to go to a party hosted by IDEA but we opted for staying in and ordering room service burgers... best decision ever! We also watched "The Notebook". Side Note: We wanted to go to another Pizza place named, "We, The Pizza". It's owned and operated by Spike Mendelsohn, a Top Chef contestant. Long story short, Erin was at We the Pizza Saturday night AND SAW MICHELLE OBAMA!!!

Sunday we met up with Erin for Brunch at Ted's Bulletin. Its decor and theme is from the 30's and 40's, complete with a soda jerk. The menu is amazing. We waited for 2 hours and Chelsea was fading on us. Her antibiotics make her even more delightful to be around when she is on an empty stomach (Chelsea asked me to write this line in). Luckily, the hostess was nice enough to ask us if we were ok and I said "My girlfriend is sick, I think she's throwing up in the bathroom. She's really hungry. Could you help us get something small?" She got us a homemade pop tart that held Chel over (and she did not throw up- but learned her lesson about taking meds on an empty stomach). She ate a sloppy joe that was great. Erin had a chicken salad sandwich and I had a burrito.

Sunday night we celebrated Valentine's Day and Acqua Al 2. It was an Italian restaurant close to the Capitol in the Eastern Market neighborhood. Delicious is an understatement for their food. Our appetizer was Gnocchi with Gorgonzola Cream Sauce. We liked it so much that we are making it tonight!! For our entree we had filet mignon. Chelsea's was over a salad, mine was covered in blueberry sauce. For dessert we had a delicious cheese cake.

Our journey ended Monday. We were back in the RGV. Luckily, our students tested so Chel and I taught for only 2 days. My students did ok, they took an official State Assessment from 2009 to see how they would fare if they took their state test today. They did pretty well. (Side note from Chelsea- they did very well.)

We hope you enjoyed our post. We bought a griddle!! We will post about our breakfast today and the Gnocchi, hopefully later on tonight. We love you all!

TFA Summit

This past weekend Edwin and I went to good-ol' Washington D.C. for TFA's 20th Anniversary Summit. Knowing Edwin and me, we were most excited about the chance to eat great food, be in a city, and see friends (Erin)! The Summit was great too, though. Edwin chatted with some potential employers in Denver, I went to an informational panel on college access, and we saw some sweet famous people (Edwin was in a session with Malcolm Gladwell and Gloria Steinum). Here are some photos!!! I'm going to recruit Edwin to post about our culinary experiences in D.C.- we went to a mouth-watering Italian restaurant to celebrate Valentine's Day and it has inspired us to try making gnocchi this weekend. Stay tuned!!

We were excited to be there. Actually, at this moment we were waiting for John Legend to perform. Pretty pumped.

Arne Duncan, U.S. Secretary of Education, thinks TFA (and therefore Edwin and I) is great.

OOOO John Legend!!! He is a TFA Board Member (not to mention Grammy award winning performer). He sang 3 songs while backed up by a KIPP Middle School orchestra from NYC. It was pretty stellar. I'm sure it was the highlight of those kids' lives!!!

These kids were unflappable- not star struck or anything, just kept on playin.

B-ROCK made an appearance! Via pre-recorded message.

30 Degrees!!! Brace Yourselves!!!!

Temperatures have dropped to 30 degrees here in the Valley. People are FREAKING out. Donna ISD (a large school district here) closed school EARLY yesterday and is OFF today because it is 30 degrees. No, I am not kidding. I am trying to reserve judgement, but it is difficult. Attendance at our school is expected to be VERY low today- Edwin told them yesterday they would get hot chocolate for showing up. Just to highlight the contrast between normal weather here and the current temps- here is a frozen tree outside the Spanish classroom. The sprinkler stayed on, and it froze. Where am I.

Babies!!!

This weekend I went to a baby shower for one of the 5th grade teachers. It was a lot of fun- here are some highlights!

Tasting baby food- (from left, our early childhood strategist Paula, reading specialist Alma and math specialist Erika)

Smelling melted chocolate in diapers- Andrea I remembered this game from you!

From left clockwise: Marisa (3rd grade), Debi (4th grade), Hannah (4th grade), Me, Emilie (5th grade), Front row: Vanessa (5th grade/mama to be), Emily (4th grade)

Trying to draw a baby on the plate without looking. (Marisa and our Vice Prinicpal Adriana)

Good times :)

Eating our way through Austin!

Hello fellow readers! It has been a very long time since my last blog post. I will admit that I have not kept up with my duties as co-blogger, but am making an effort to make more posts! We will start with this past weekend. After a long week of testing (we had 3, 8-hour testing days at school!) we left Thursday evening to the Northern Lands of Texas, a.k.a. Austin. Mary and Greg flew into Austin on Thursday and we had planned to spend a long weekend together. At first we did not know it, but it soon become clear to us that would eat our way through Austin. Mary and Greg began at the Green Mesquite, a barbecue place recommended by their shuttle driver on Barton Springs Rd. Both agreed that the food there was very delicious AND their driver gave them a lot of cool facts about Austin, although he considers "foreigners" anybody from New York or Los Angeles...a true Texan!

After 5 hours of driving on a dark and barren road, Chelsea and I were desperate for signs of civilization and a good night's rest. We finally arrived in Austin at the Holiday Inn Town Lake right in front of Lady Bird Lake, a beautiful lake filled with rowers, runners, dog walkers, and outdoor enthusiasts. In the morning we ate great breakfast tacos at Austin Java and then made our way to the Capitol Building, being that we are HUGE fans of governor Perry (that is a joke). Really though, we were fascinated by the Capitol building and some of the history of Texas, for instance, did you know that the Official State Dance is the Square Dance? The official State small mammal is the armadillo. We had a good time, but alas it was time for another meal. We visited Whole Foods where we sampled great bread and had some good soup and salad. We could've spent all day at Whole Foods!

After Whole Foods 2 awesome things happened. #1 we were about to walk into the movie theater to watch "The King's Speech" (Barnes and Ochoa gave it 8 thumbs up!), #2 CHELSEA GOT A CALL FROM COLORADO STATE ASKING HER TO INTERVIEW!!!! The movie was great and Chelsea's news was even greater. After the movie we went to celebrate at Chuy's (pronounced "Chewies"). We had good mexican food and a great time. Being the party animals that we are, we then drove down 6th street with our windows rolled down and briefly caught some live music. We ended the night with a game of 500.

Saturday we ate at Kerbey Lane Cafe, an Austin staple with great breakfast items. After Kerbey Lane we went to a Farmer's Market where we had a chocolate Beignet and later to the famous Texas Hotel, The Driskill, where Lyndon B. Johnson met his wife Lady Bird Johnson. At the hotel we got a very delicious chocolate croissant which we ate in the parking lot of the LBJ Presidential Library. At the Library we spent a couple of hours perusing the life and presidency of LBJ. After the Library we headed to SoCo (South Congress) for some street food!!! We tasted food in a cone! It was like a wrap with pulled pork, honey mustard and purple cabbage! It was very delicious. We also tasted some crepes and then headed back for a little rest.

Saturday night we had a very nice dinner at South Congress Cafe. The name does it no justice, as the food at this place is not typical of ordinary cafes. Chelsea had Sweet Potato Gnocchi, Mary ate a wonderful Angel Hair with Salsa Fresca pasta, Greg had a delicious 5-spice pork loin and I ate jalapeno-venison meatloaf. Afterwards we took a small stroll and headed back to play another game of 500.

The following day we had a southern brunch at Stubb's. Stubb's is a great barbecue place and music venue in Austin. They sell their barbecue sauce nationwide and have some really good brisket. We attended their weekly Sunday Gospel Brunch. The Gospel band was a mix of Gospel and Blues which was a nice complement to our delicious brunch. We had an assortment of food that included spinach enchiladas, brisket, migas (Chel's favorite), bacon, pancakes, cheesy grits, and prickly pear cactus. It was a perfect end to a wonderful weekend. We were both very happy and grateful to be in Austin with Mary and Greg. We laughed almost as much as we ate.

From here on we have several things to look forward to. In early February we will be in D.C. for the TFA 20 year summit. Chelsea will interview with Colorado State University for graduate school in late February, and 2 weeks afterwards we will be in Costa Rica where Brady says he wants to see monkeys and practice his spanish... I hear he's related to an awesome Spanish teacher. We promise to blog about food soon!! Don't worry though, just because we haven't blogged about food does not mean we have stopped eating good food!

P.S. I have attached photos of my nephew Jafet (pronounced Hafet or JJ as I like to call him). He's cute as a button and likes to dance.

Tis (Was) the Season

Happy Thanksgiving! Merry Christmas! Happy New Year!

It appears we have not blogged about these major holidays. Alas. It is Chedwo's New Years Resolution to blog more often. Hold us to it, dear readers.

We had a wonderful 2-week vacation, and are now eagerly counting down until our next vacation day (9 days). Big news in the lives of Chedwo:

1. We booked a trip to Costa Rica!! We are going over our Spring Break in March to a fabulous little town called Puerto Viejo, on the Caribbean coast. It will be Chedwo's first international outing. We are super pumped!

2. Chelsea has submitted 3 out of 4 grad school applications. Ever the procrastinator, I have waited until the last week to finish the last one. Old habits die hard. Should hear back from Colorado as to whether or not they want to interview me by the end of January.

3. Edwin remained INJURY FREE during his trip to the Great North. SUCCESS!

4. We adore our nephews!!!! (This isn't really news, just wanted to stress the point.) Edwin has promised to put up some pics of his adorable nephew Jafet- and here are some shots of Brady Blue Eyes Barnes! Turns out the only pictures I took over vacation were of Brady. Hmm... anyone else have that problem?

Have a great week and Go Packers!!! P.S. We made 2 great dishes this weekend- 3 bean vegetarian chili and Beef Tangine. Recipes to follow... no guarantee when hahah