Where did April Go?

I cannot quite believe it is May starting today yesterday a week ago.  I started writing this post on May 1, because I wanted to start something new this month – or rather I meant to on the last day of April, but close enough – part of why I like to journal and blog is that I like the idea of having a retrospective of what I do and cook and enjoy in my life outside of my job, seeing as my job is 1. not bloggable material and 2. takes up a large amount of time, all of which is generally accounted for with billing records (read: it is very easy for me to look at my time entries to see what I have done in a given month).   

There is no easy reference tool to capture my life outside of work, and I want to change that. Sure, journaling and blogging means that some months I have a better retrospective than others to look back to, but overall, not enough for my liking.  So I decided to start a monthly recap but, unlike the lists and goals posts I wrote a few times last year, this is more about memories than goals.  Who knows, maybe eventually this will become a weekly series here?

Actually, that is so getting ahead of myself considering that I am at week overdue in this post. At any rate, here was my April 2011.

Fun, Family & Friends

My husband’s birthday was in early April- it was stormy and cold and, well, April-ish, but we did have a fun lunch at Mitsitam (review from another visit here), spent the whole day together, toasted his birthday with his (regular) and hers (gluten-free, vegan from Red Velvet) cupcakes, and went out to dinner at Estadio. A quick note on Estadio – there is a gluten-free menu, but two dishes on it turned out to have gluten when I inquired. Also two of the gluten-free vegan dishes I ordered arrived covered in cheese, as though I had ordered their vegetarian counterparts. Bottom line – they still need some work with the gluten-free vegan thing. 
It was a lovely day, despite the ugly weather and problematic Estadio menu (bonus: I did not get glutened) and I even got a nap in that day. I also wore bright pink to make up for the ugly weather (I am studying the menu at Estadio there):

A couple of days later, I also visited my parents in Switzerland.  While I am kicking myself for not having made it to la Fete de La Tulipe, I did enjoy lots of time with my parents, meeting another blogger,Jenn of Jenn Cuisine (who has stunning tulip pictures, incidentally, which set off the kicking myself).

It was a very restorative vacation.  I spent time with my parents, met up with Jenn,I made a fun chocolate fruit tart and a delicious new chocolate drink.   Oh, and I slept.a.lot.  And stared at Lake Geneva. It was fantastic.

I got back to Washington, DC refreshed.  In the second half of the month, work was busy, but I saw the tail-end of the Smithsonian’s Orchid exhibit and had a fun double date with my husband and our friends Christina and Mark.  We went to Rasika, which was completely gluten-free-friendly and had numerous vegan dishes.  A return trip is in order.

And at the end of the month, I also had lunch with the witty and wonderful Katie of Quick Cook Rice. 

Mind/Body

The first two weeks of the month I did not once go to the gym or yoga – or do anything on my own other than walk – I was ok with that approach for my time in Switzerland, but that was only a week of those two weeks, while the other week was consumed by work, and this was on the heels of a sedentary month of March, also known as the month where I took 3 days off from work, total, in the entire month.  They were for the joyous occasions of a friend’s bridal shower and wedding festivities, but March was a month where my approach to catching up on yoga and working out on the weekends was not an option since I was working all.the.time.
I decided to take a new approach to the remaining two weeks of April, including something I rarely do, i.e. work out or practice yoga in the early morning.  I would say, it has been so far, so good.  Well, except for the green juice stains on my yoga mat. Oh well.

Cooking & Food

In April, based on a quick lunchbox survey, I was particularly obsessed with these recipes from other bloggers:

• Vanilla-Spinach Parfait
• A no-oil version of Mama Peas’ Mmmm sauce
• Carrot Pulp Bread (made with duck eggs and coconut oil instead of chicken eggs and butter) – I loved this, but need to find a way to veganize it as that was too many eggs for me
• Pumpkin Cranberry Muffin from Simply . . . Gluten-free Desserts, which I reviewed here
• Pumpkin Chia Pudding
• Raw Vegan Walnut Cheddar Cheese
• Miso Tahini dressing (which I discovered when adopting Delectably Free)

Of the recipes I created, I think my favorite was the Almond Mocha Chia Pudding, but the chocolate tart and the brown rice risotto are strong contenders.

I also bought this pan, or really, two pans – I had been eyeing it/them since last year, but this ode to said pot from early March is what pushed me over the edge.


It took me 6 weeks to actually make the purchase, but I love it. See, it does this too:

I heart it.

I also heart-ed April – the good bits at least. Fortunately, there were many of those.

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