“What did I tell ya? There's the whole world at your feet. And who gets to see it but the birds, the stars and the chimney sweeps.”-Burt

I finally moved into my new office (ok, I have been here for a few months). I am still in Georgetown and I am still in the same complex as my old space but I am now on the fourth floor. I am happy to be away from the rats in the ceiling (so smelly), the mosquitoes (so itchy) and the poisonous snake (so scary). However, I do miss my friends and I miss being in the hustle and bustle. Working in HR can be very isolating and I enjoyed the comradery.

So, now that I am on the 4^th floor. I have a huge window where I can benefit from the sunshine, observe the airplanes on their way to and from Reagan National Airport, listen and watch the military helicopters fly up and down the Potomac River and just enjoy my view. I tell people that it is my Mary Poppins’ view- a view of rooftops. Now, all I need a chimney sweep and some chalk.

Mac Daddy

I have a terrific boss. No really, I do. He is funny, smart and a great manager. I love how he solves problems and this is important to me because my job is to solve the Human Resource problems. He is a great support and gives great advice.

This summer he asked me to help him coordinate a series of dinners at his home. He wanted to invite every employee over to his house for a cook-out. He said that he would do the cooking and he wanted the evenings to be casual and a way for employees to get to know him and each other in a fun atmosphere. So, I planned, coordinated and even helped cook. The evenings were fun events and because I am in charge of the HR Department, I was lucky enough to attend every single one. We had the same menu every dinner and the food was delicious every time.

So, I thought I would share my boss’ and my boss’ wife’s delicious cook-out recipes. My boss became so “famous” around the office for his Macaroni & Cheese that for a thank you gift we bought him and his wife aprons that said, “Mac Daddy and Mrs. Mac Daddy” and once you have tried the recipe, I think you will agree. It is awesome!

Four-Cheese Macaroni and Cheese

This recipe was first published in Saveur-Issue #129

kosher salt to taste

8 oz. hollow pasta, preferably

elbow macaroni or shells

3 slices crustless white bread

6 tbsp. unsalted butter

1/2 tsp. paprika

3 sprigs fresh thyme

2 shallots, minced

1 bay leaf

1/4 cup flour

1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper

3 cups milk

10 oz. grated sharp white cheddar

(about 4 cups)

10 oz. grated Gruyère (about 4 cups)

6 oz. Velveeta, cut into 1/2" cubes

(about 1 1/4 cups)

1 oz. blue cheese, crumbled (about 1/4 cup)

Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

*The Boss also adds a can of chopped tomatoes without the juice.

1. Heat oven to 375°. Bring a 4-qt. saucepan of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook, stirring occasionally, until cooked halfway through, about 3 minutes for elbow macaroni. Drain pasta; set pasta aside. Tear bread into small pieces and transfer to the bowl of a food processor. Process until finely ground; set aside. Return pan to medium heat and melt 3 tbsp. butter. Add bread crumbs and stir to combine. Transfer bread crumb mixture to a plate and set aside.

2. Wipe out pan and set over medium heat. Melt the remaining butter and add the paprika, thyme, shallots, and bay leaf; cook, stirring often, until shallots are soft, about 5 minutes. Add flour and cayenne and stir until mixture thickens, 1 minute. Whisk in milk and cook, continuing to whisk often, until sauce has thickened and coats the back of a spoon, about 10 minutes. Discard thyme and bay leaf and remove pan from heat.

3. Stir in cheddar, half the Gruyère, the Velveeta, and the blue cheese; continue stirring until smooth. Stir in pasta and season sauce with salt and pepper. Transfer mixture to an 8" x 8" baking dish. Sprinkle remaining Gruyère over top of pasta and then top with bread crumbs.

4. Transfer baking dish to an aluminum foil--–lined baking sheet and bake until macaroni and cheese is golden brown and bubbly, 30 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes before serving.

SERVES 6 – 8

Broccoli Salad Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 head broccoli (cut into small pieces)
  
• 6 to 8 slices cooked bacon, crumbled (Boss' wife uses bacon bits real bacon)
• 1/2 cup chopped red onion
• 1/2 cup raisins, optional
• 8 ounces sharp Cheddar, cut into very small chunks
• 1 cup mayonnaise
• 2 tablespoons white vinegar
• 1/4 cup sugar

Directions

Trim off the large leaves from the broccoli stem. Remove the tough stalk at the end and wash broccoli head thoroughly. Cut the head into flowerets and the stem into bite-size pieces. Place in a large bowl. Add the crumbled bacon, onion, raisins if using, and cheese. In a small bowl, combine the remaining ingredients to make the dressing, stirring well. Add dressing to broccoli mixture and toss gently.

Rosa Mexicano Guacamole Recipe

1 tbsp white onion

cilantro

jalapeno

3 hass avocado

3 tbps diced tomato

2 tbs chopped cilantro

Tortilla chips

Directions:

1. Grind 1 tbsp. finely chopped white onion, 1 firmly packed tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro, 2 tsp. finely chopped jalapeño, and 1 tsp. salt together in a molcajete until all the ingredients are well ground. (Alternatively, use a fork to mash the ingredients to a paste in a wide bowl.)

2. Cut 3 medium-ripe hass avocados (about 8 ounces each) in half. Twist the halves to separate them and remove the pit with the tip of the knife. Place an avocado half, cut side up, in your palm and make 3 or 4 evenly spaced lengthwise cuts through its flesh down to the skin, without cutting through the skin. Make 4 crosswise cuts in the same fashion.

3. Scoop the diced avocado flesh into the molcajete. Repeat with remaining avocado halves. Gently fold the avocado into the chile–onion paste, keeping the avocado pieces fairly intact.

4. Add 3 tbsp. diced tomato, 2 firmly packed tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro, and 1 tbsp. finely chopped white onion.

5. Fold together all the ingredients. Taste and add salt, if necessary.

6. Serve immediately, directly from the molcajete (or bowl), with tortilla chips.

Makes 4 servings.

Bon Appetit!

Employee Referral Program or a.k.a A Win-Win Situation

At work we have an employee referral program. Here is how the program works: if you refer an applicant and the company hires the applicant, you receive $250-500 (depending on the grade level of the employee) when the applicant/ now new employee reaches their 90-day anniversary and $250-500 (again, depending on the grade level of the employee) when the new employee reaches their 6-month anniversary. It is a pretty good deal. Refer good employees like yourself to work for a great company and receive a little extra spending money for yourself. I think this is a win-win situation.

Over my eleven years of recruiting and working for different companies, my best hires have been (for the most part) the hires that were referred by current employees. I think this process works for because when your employees are happy at work, they want other people to be happy with them and they refer their friends. It also works because employees are not going to refer just anyone. They are going to be careful who they refer because they think that the applicant/employee’s performance is in a part, a reflection on them.

So, my question is, if an employee referral program works so well for filling my open positions at work, why can’t it work for my love life? Ok, stay with me for a moment, take this example, if my friends, family members, co-workers happened to keep my singleness in the back of their minds, then they might know or meet someone that could be a referral/match for me. I am not saying this is about blind dates. This isn’t just a date where your friend happens to know someone single and they know you are single so therefore, they think you the two of you must be a match. (Because as we know, being single is not enough to have in common to keep a relationship going). In fact, this is about knowing two people who you think might a) have fun together b) be a resource for each other so they can each meet other singles c) be a match for a more permanent long-term relationship (marriage). Someone might say to themselves, “My single, unattached male friend likes x, y and z and I think his likes and his personality might work with my single, unattached female friend’s likes and personality.” Voila- we have a potential match!

I know this sound easier than it is and I know that this process isn’t a guarantee but we should try it. We should actually try it for all singles we know. You never know when, where or how you could make a match. Dating referrals can be successful. They say, “Every member a missionary”, why not also, “Every member a matchmaker”? It’s not a bad idea. You might not get any referral money but you will be the hero in some couple’s fairy tale story when someone asks them the question, “So, how did you two meet?” and that really should be quite satisfying. Like I said it is a win-win situation so get out there and make some matches!!

There’s a snake in my basement and in my office….

Seriously, I don’t even know where to begin. You know in the Indiana Jones’ movies where Harrison Ford says, “I HATE SNAKES!” Well, I have always agreed with Mr. Indiana Jones that snakes were bad but I didn’t HATE snakes. Well, at least I didn’t think I hated snakes. I really could not hate snakes because I really only had experiences with snakes behind glass walls and well, I was safe and they seemed well, harmless.

My first snake-not-behind-glass experience happened when I was about 6 years old. I was hiking with my family up Mill Creek Canyon when on the way down the trail; there was a rattlesnake, coiled, rattling right in the middle of our trail and it just happened to be at the spot where one side of the trail was the mountain and the other side of the trail was a cliff. My dad bravely stood facing the snake and put each child behind him towards the cliff and moved us to safety. I vaguely remember the event but to be honest, I probably remember the story more than the event.

My second experience happened when I was 21 years old, I was running with my friend Catherine on Antelope Island and we saw a snake in the middle of the trail. We looked at it and jumped over it and kept on running. So, as you can see, not a lot of experience. So, why do you think that I have had not one but two run-ins with snakes in a matter of months?

My first run-in happened this past summer. I was packing to go to Ohio for my brother Dan’s graduation. I had bought Dan a graduation gift four years earlier and I needed to get it out of the basement. The night before I left, I decided that because Dan, Ellen & kiddies were moving, I would just mail the gift. I thought it was a good plan and I went to bed. The next morning I woke up and I could not get the stupid gift out of my mind so I ran downstairs to grab the gift (remember, it is in the basement). As I descended down the basement stairs, I suddenly stopped. It took my mind a few seconds to comprehend what I was looking at. My mind said, “That looks like a snake” and then the other part of my brain said, “Snakes are not suppose to be in your basement.” However, quickly the first part of my brain took over and I realized that yes it was a snake and yes it was in my basement. So, I first went to get Dan’s present and then I started looking for a way to kill the snake. I did not have a shovel (and I really didn’t want to have to smash a snake). I thought about poisoning the snake but I didn’t think Windex would work fast enough.

(Sorry the picture is out of focus, I think I was shaking)

So, I ran back up the stairs and called my next door neighbor- no answer. So, I called my home teacher and to my relief, he answered. After he stopped laughing, he told me that he would come over and take care of my snake. I couldn’t do anything but run to the top floor of the house and wait. When Cameron came over, I told him that I wanted him to kill the snake because then it would be dead and there would be no chance of the snake coming back. Cameron convinced me that the snake was not poisonous and that I should let it live and so I reluctantly agreed. Cameron took his lacrosse sticks and scooped the snake into a brown paper grocery bag and then he took the snake into my neighbor’s yard. To this day, I have no idea of how the snake ended up in my basement.

About a month and half later, I was at work when I walked through our workroom (which is a wide open space) to get to my file room. When I walked back into the workroom I had one of the moments that I experience in my basement. My brain saw a black snake but my brain also said that snakes did not exist in office buildings in Georgetown. My niece, Caitlin just happened to be working with me that day and so I said, “Caitlin, GO GET MIKE!” (Mike is my boss and I had just seen him). Caitlin said, “Oh, Aunt Chris, it’s just a snake.” and she proceeds to walk over to the snake in her high heels and bends down to pick-up the snake. So, I say again, “Caitlin, DON”T TOUCH THE SNAKE! GO GET MIKE.” Again, Caitlin basically acts like I am over reacting and gets closer to the snake. At this point, I had made enough commotion that a few of my co-workers showed up and then yelled at Caitlin (who was about to pick-up the snake) that the snake was poisonous and that she should not touch it. Caitlin backed off and one of my co-worker’s grabbed a box and with the help of another box coaxed the snake in the box. He decided that he was going to take the snake back to the canal (my building sits on the C&O Canal in Georgetown) and on his way out of the door the snake “jumped” out of the box. Well, he made enough commotion that some workman came over and they asked if my co-worker wanted them to kill the poisonous snake. My co-worker allowed them to “stun” the snake and it was dumped into the canal. After things calmed down a bit and we did some internet research, it was decided that it was a baby poisonous snake. Maybe a rattlesnake, maybe something else but it was a baby and it was poisonous.

Every day after the snake day, I would look under my desk, around corners, in empty rooms for more snakes. I was sure if there was one baby snake then there was a mommy, a daddy and some sibling snakes. One day, I arrived at work and looked under my desk, no snake. A while later, I came back from a meeting and when I got back to my desk, I slowly looked under my desk and I saw a snake. I jumped and ran and yelled, “Snake, snake!!” Then I realized that my co-worker, Jon was laughing hysterically. He told me that the snake under my desk was a fake, a very realistic looking fake, that he had purchase over the weekend for my benefit. I didn’t think it was funny (at the time), my heart was pounding, my face looked like a purple grape and I kept saying, “I hate you, I hate you, I hate you. (Quite loudly) You are so not getting paid (I run payroll, my only threat)…..” You get the picture. Not one of my finest moments. Not to mention that we had just hired two new employees that just happened to be taking their tour of the office when I started yelling. Jon just kept laughing and laughing. Finally, my red face died down and my heart calmed down and I could pick up the fake snake.

(It looks more real from far away)

(Close-up, it looks really fake!)

So, what is the moral of these snake stories? Well, first snakes are better behind glass at zoos. Second, know your home teacher and make sure he is good at lacrosse and isn’t scared of snakes. Third, don’t try and pick up snakes-they could be poisonous (sounds like dating advice, ha ha). Fourth, learn to smile when a practical joke is played on you. Fifth, Indiana Jones was right. I HATE SNAKES!

Taste of Bethesda

Every year the restaurants in Bethesda, Maryland get together and hold a huge street fair called the Taste of Bethesda. This year it was on October 4th. You buy tickets and then walk around to the different restaurant's booths and sample their goods. The food is excellent and it is just fun to go and walk around. My friends were volunteering for our bank selling tickets so I thought I would go down and eat some food and visit them. It ended up that they were so busy that they could not take a break with me but I had fun by myself.

Here are a few pictures from the Taste of Bethesda.

My tickets.

Argentina BBQ.

The crowds.

A ginormous paella from Jaleo. So cool.

I Heart D.C. #1

One of the many casualties of my company's merger is that I am losing my beautiful, big office that overlooks K Street and Farragut Park. Even though I commute a total of two hours a day, I am going to miss working in D.C. So, as I start to pack boxes, I thought I would record some of my favorite things about working in D.C. (There is no particular order)

Teaism

About once a week I crave a Chicken Bento Box from Teaism. My co-workers are sick and tired of me constantly suggesting Teaism for lunch. However, I can usually convince them to go every two to three weeks. Besides the food, I love walking to Teaism because on my way I get to see the White House and the Washington Monument.


Below is the bento box. In the top left-hand corner, they serve a cucumber/ginger salad, next to that is the panko breaded chicken, next to that is brown rice with a sesame and seaweed mixture on top (the lady put a little too much on), then in the bottom left is a side of baked sweet potatoes. It is delicious and the combination of each dish works perfectly together. Oh, and on special occasions, they have the best salted chocolate oat cookies. YUMMY!