The RoundUp: December 2021
December was a bit of a wash, filled with coming home from CA and getting COVID (mild cases) over the holidays.
Favorite Foodie Things:
We started off December still in Northern CA (until December 8th) and one of our last meals before my sister went back to LA was take out from Sushi 69 in San Anselmo and it was quite the spread!
While stuck at home with COVID, I did what any Jewish woman would do, made matzo ball soup and cholent. I sort of winged it with the chicken soup but for the cholent, followed Jake Cohen’s Short Rib Cholent recipe and it was delicious and super easy to make.
I think I have written about Reveler’s Hour’s wine shop but I serious cannot sing its praises enough. They have such a fun selection of wine at a variety of prices and all the staff there are just the best.
We celebrated our good friend’s 29th birthday at Reveler’s Hour and had the best meal ever. The food was great, the wine was incredible and the service was absolutely unbeatable.
I splurged and treated myself to a Staub Enameled Cast Iron Cocette from Food 52’s online shop and I cannot stop using it. It was on sale for $99 so the offer was way too good to pass up.
We were able to celebrate New Years Eve with our friends and the spread did not disappoint. We had a ton of fancy snacks- fondue with all the fixings (including chorizo and kielbasa from Red Apron Butchery), shrimp cocktail and oysters from DC Fishwife, salmon and white fish crostinis, a French onion tart, a spread of Marky’s caviar and some chocolate pot de crème.
As an engagement gift, we received an Oster Glass Electric Kettle and I never knew a hot water kettle could bring me so much joy.
Other Things That Made Me Happy:
My company had an in-person holiday party at Nationals Park which was the first time my entire office had been all together since March 2020 and it was really great to see everyone. You can always count on my company to have a fun photo booth!
I read and LOVED the book, The Bohemians by Jasmin Darznik and could not get enough of it. The author, Jasmin, is from the Bay Area and the story is about San Francisco in the 1920’s and the life of Dorothea Lange. It was really cool to read about my home city back then and how different/the same the city is.
December 31st we were able to final get together with our dearest friends after 10 days of COVID and a LOT of TV at home. It was so great to be able to celebrate all six of us together and celebrate the incoming of 2022.
During our at-home-quarantine, we watched a stupid amount of TV. We watched all the Harry Potter Movies (my first time watching) and the two Fantastic Beast movies, I watched the last season of Insecure (which is just pure TV genius), all of season 2 of Emily in Paris (which makes me want to drop everything and move to Paris), and started (or re-started, for me) Downton Abbey.
What’s Up with Len?
Quick 2021 Recap… In the spirit of wrapping up the year, I wanted to run through a few things I am grateful for:
2021 started off in Upstate NY with our friends in a cabin and it was just the best time. It was one of the first trips (besides seeing our family) that we planned and we really needed it for our mental health/ something to look forward to.
Work-wise, I was able to hire to associates to my team, took on another MBA school to manage and got a major promotion that I worked super hard for. At work, we were also able to ease into working back in the office at our own time.
I feel like we went through a huge DC slump in the fact that we were ready to leave and get out of here BUT a few of our good friends moved back to DC and it has been really great. We are also meeting new people and it is starting to feel like the place we want to be again.
We hit our one-year-until-we-get-married mark which feels like a huge milestone when you have a two-year engagement. I also got my wedding dress which is a huge weight off my shoulder, as it was not something I was looking forward to.
I read a ton (for me) which was great and I want to continue reaching for books instead of my remote.
I started meal-planning in 2021, and by that, I mean, planning the meals for each day and shopping accordingly. I have a lot of cookbooks and this was my way to not only reduce my food waste and buy things I wouldn’t end up using, and also a way to actually get out of my comfort zone and cook new recipes from the books that take up my shelves.