Happy 1st Birthday, Thing 1 and 2. Sorry that we couldn’t be there, but we’ll see you soon. My, what a difference a year makes.

Ingredients

• 1 lb. Watermelon, Cubed
• 1 lb. Cherry Tomatoes, Halved
• Cilantro, Chopped, To Taste
• 4 Tbsp. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Kosher Salt, To Taste

Instruction

Simply toss first four ingredients in a large bowl, dust with kosher salt, and serve. Serves 6-8.

Notes

For me, any recipe with cilantro brings about thoughts of summer, and warm weather, and a light, fresh feeling that can only truly be appreciated during a certain time of the year. I think a bunch of cilantro should be an item on the weekly shopping list every week from Easter until Labor Day, and that’s greatly reflected in the meal’s that I make and serve throughout the spring and summer. The Girl doesn’t share my enthusiasm for cilantro, but she does tolerate it in occasional dishes, of which this is one. We first had this combination of flavors at a Spanish tapas restaurant named Jaleo, which is one of our favorite restaurants. The recipe originally involved peeled, steamed tomatoes, and a cilantro paste, and had the tomato and watermelon on wooden skewers, and we loved it. We decided to recreate it at home, and we made this already simple recipe even easier by losing the skewers, using uncooked cherry tomatoes, and a handful of chopped cilantro. The result is a salad that goes with a complex entree such as roasted chicken or pork just as well as it goes with a chicken salad sandwich.

I have, in the past, written about trying to find my voice. Personally, I believe I have only recently been able to partially accomplish that, at least in the context of this site. In the beginning, I feel as if I was simply trying too hard to make the site popular, and trying to make it look cool, and be stylish, and have hundreds of thousands of visitors. It’s not about that anymore, not for me, and I’m glad for that, but in the mean time, I’m finally beginning to write about things in my life that are more relevant to me, and the life that I live.

This blog has seen me through those changes, every step of the way, and you can see the changes in me reflected in the writing of my posts, as well as the categories, and general attitude of the site. Sports have taken a backseat as something that I post about. While they’re still important to me, they’re something that I watch, not something that I do. New categories have been created, to write about The Girl, or Work, or our Travels. The ‘Moments’ category sprouted up, inspired by another site, and meant to convey what makes mine and The Girls relationship uniquely ours. Articles in the category of Life have taken on a greater importance to the site.

With that said, I hadn’t ever written at all about food until the previous post, but it’s an important part of our lives, The Girl and I. We enjoy going out to a multitude of ‘favorite’ restaurants. Martin’s Tavern in Georgetown for brunch, or Jaleo for tapas, or Old Ebbit Grill for the Trout Parmesan, and an experience that’s the essence of DC. But we also like to bring the tastes that we find into our own kitchen, cooking for ourselves and our friends, and families, and for whatever reason, we haven’t really shared that.

Until now. In the future I’ll be sharing some of the recipes that we’ve found, or created, or copied that we like the best, and that have become staples in our cooking. Some are complex, most though, are quite simple.  I do this now, to continue what I spoke about above; to share those things that are important to me with those that want to know more about me. There’s also the hope that, like with a blog in general, we can take a snapshot of a moment in time in our lives. And inevitably, I hope that others can get some joy out of those tastes that have brought us, and our friends, together.

The Girl is gone this weekend, having traveled to the West Coast for a weekend work trip. Usually, when The Girl goes out of town, I spend a lot of time cooped up in the house. We are homebodies together, when I’m alone I’m even more of one. And this weekend has had its share of that, for sure. But yesterday I left work early, bought a new phone, rented some movies, and went out to dinner with friends before retreating to the comfort of home, and I’d also gotten it into my head that I wanted to treat myself to a really nice dinner tonight (Saturday), as well.

Both The Girl and I can be real food snobs sometimes, and for me, tonight was no exception. Dean & Deluca is a really trendy, really high quality, really very expensive grocery store in Georgetown. I made the trip in to the city tonight in early evening to do some shopping for dinner, and breakfast and lunch tomorrow, which included some bleu cheese burgers, topped with prosciutto and pears, and some tomato, basil, and mozarrella and orzo pasta for dinner, while I watched basketball. Tomorrow, it’s fresh fruit and the remainder of the prosciutto for breakfast, and another burger for lunch (I told you I was a food snob).

The question is, when The Girl returns, will she be A) upset at me for spending so much money on so little food, or B) upset that I did so when she was out of town, or C) simply upset that I even thought about going to Georgetown without her? Guess we’ll find out tomorrow.

Last week, I set out to write about how easy it’s been to quit smoking, and how easy a time both myself and The Girl have seemed to have of it.  I took a couple of days, like I always do, to turn the post over in my head a little bit, and to get my thoughts on the subject collected. And then I took a couple more days, like I always do, putting it off, because I didn’t have time to write.

 And then a funny thing happened. After having to stay past midnight at my office, and spending the night critically thinking much later than I’m normally used to, and filling my body with fatty foods, and sugary soda, I had a huge craving for a cigarette on my ride home. It was gone as quickly as it came, and of course I was fine, but it served as a reminder to me that for some people, and The Girl and I are included in this list, the battle with smoking is never really over.

 My last scheduled day of using the patch is Sunday, and after that she and I are on our own. For that reason, even though our fight with this will continue on, this will probably be my last post on the subject. Ironically, my one disappointment in writing this series of posts is that I haven’t had more of a difficult time. Aside from my first post on the topic, there hasn’t been anything of note to discuss. As appreciative as I am of the comments of support from friends and family, I really hoped to have more insight to share into the matter, with the hopes that someone else trying to quit smoking may be able to glean some bit of helpful advice from my experiences.

I suppose though, that such a catch-22 is inherent in the entire process. Someone who has just quit smoking for the first time probably doesn’t have enough insight into what made their effort successful, so as to help others, and someone who has quit smoking multiple times probably isn’t giving out the best advice. With that said, I consider this topic having run it’s course, for now.

 On to bigger and better things.