Memorial Day Eats

When you get a big girl job that takes up your life 8+ hours a day for 5 days a week, with all those Christmas and Spring and Summer breaks taken away, you really appreciate the 3-day weekends when they come. I had been visiting Kevin several weeks in a row for various things -- an interview, Kevin's birthday, Kevin's USC graduation, helping him move -- so I made him promise to visit me for the long weekend.

The weather was finally nice (oh right it is almost June!), though we didn't make that much use of it -- the pool would have been great, but every family of 3 with a screeching toddler beat us to the punch. I didn't even want to think about the traffic over 17, either. We did go to the Tech Museum in downtown San Jose to use the Groupons I got several weeks back for the admission + IMAX for $5 (half off). We ended up parking far away (pretty much where I parked when I went to high school!) because there was an anime convention in downtown SJ as well and all the garages were full; so we did have a nice walk in the sun afterall. The Tech really is looking worse for wear these days. Hubble on IMAX Dome was worth the $5, though.

Of course, Kevin loves visiting me because it means I cook for him. Saturday I made Asparagus Risotto (recipe coming soon):


Sunday I took him to IKEA to browse the showroom for furniture to fill his empty studio. Mostly he wanted to pick out what he wanted, since his tiny coupe wouldn't be able to haul any of it back with him (another U-Haul rental is in his future), though he did get a new laundry hamper and two bar stools. I got replacement bulbs (finally) for my desk lamp; it lit my studies for 4 years before finally burning out the morning of my last final at USC, and I've been meaning to get a new bulb in the year since. That night (after a long nap -- walking around IKEA is tiring business!) we faced the usual, "what do you want to do tonight?"/"I dunno, what do you wanna do?" conversation. I brought up pool, since we hadn't played in a while and he had been teaching me some strategy. He thought it would be nice to make some food together. Somehow, he decided on hamburgers. So I browsed around foodgawker for a fun salad recipe to adapt and accompany our meal, and we made a grocery list.

Kevin thinks I give him the crappy jobs because I always make him cut the veggies (namely, the onions, though he always wears my swim goggles to save his eyes anyway), but I make everything delicious anyway so I don't think he minds too much. In the end, we had delicious cheeseburgers topped with caramelized mushrooms and onions, along with a tangy orzo salad (recipes coming soon) for a late dinner and an easy Memorial Day lunch:

~*~