patio picnic

On Tuesday, I went to the ballet with a few friends. As you'd expect, food and drinks are ridiculously overpriced in places like the Kennedy Center, and so while we've subjected ourselves to the price gouging before, we decided this time, we'd have a picnic in which be brought our own food. 

We weren't entirely sure of the Kennedy Center's policy on such things (we knew you couldn't take anything in to the theaters, but the lobby?), but decided to risk it. It just so happened that Tuesday and Wednesday of this week boasted temperatures in the high 60s, so we ended up enjoying our picnic on the patio and didn't need to worry at all about getting nabbed with mini bottles of champagne inside the lobby.

It was such a perfect day to sit on the expansive stone patio overlooking the Potomac, watching the last touches of pink fade from the sky. Once it got dark, you could see all the lights from the surrounding neighborhoods, and stare at the innumerable flights floating in to National airport. Although we're wearing our coats in this picture, it was actually beyond balmy by January standards. I love it.

 

I had a really busy few days, so I didn't manage to bring anything too creative to eat or drink. Instead I just picked up a pre-made noodle concoction from TJ's, and a few mini bottles of champagne and some OJ from a store near my building. I had every intention of a homemade touch coming in the form of these peanut butter nutella cookies, but they were a bit of a flop.

When I first found the recipe and read through the comments, I was aware of the potentially dry dough situation, but wasn't prepared for what I ended up with. My dough was a crumbly mess, even after the prescribed 15 minutes in the fridge. I tried my best to form the dough in to balls and press them on the parchment paper as suggested, but that's pretty much how the cookies remained. They never flattened out, and the resulting cookie was just...odd.

My friends ate a few and claimed they were tasty, but I was underwhelmed. Adding insult to injury, I also set off the smoke detector in my apartment for the second time in as many weeks, which is a horrifyingly harsh experience. I think the issue is the parchment paper, which I also used when I made the ginger spice molasses cookies and set of the smoke alarm. But really how do you get around that? Guess I need to add silpat mats to my birthday wish list...