Arizona Trip

Well, Sarah's off on another business trip, so I am home alone this week. I figured I would put up a few pictures of my trip from Arizona a few weeks ago. I was able to head home to see my oldest nephew Holden's baptism. It took him five tries, but it was probably for the best.


Plus, it was fun to see the rest of the fam. I had a great time.

Farewell, Jack!

It is with a heavy heart that I have accepted the fact that 24 is no more. By far my favorite show of the last few years, I was able to sit through the recycled plotlines each year (why is there always a mole in CTU?) just to catch those fleeting glimpses of Jack kicking butt and killing dudes with a flare gun. For my own personal sendoff to Jack, here's a list of some of the best Bauer quotes from all eight seasons.

8. Jack: That's the problem with people like you, George. You want results, but you never want to get your hands dirty. I'd start rolling up your sleeves. (pause) I'm gonna need a hacksaw.

7. Nina: He's gonna put a bullet in my head before I can say "hello", then he's going to turn the gun on himself.
Jack: We'll make sure he doesn't turn the gun on himself.

6. Jack: You have no idea how far I'm willing to go to acquire your cooperation.

5. Jack: Let's get something straight, kid. The only reason you're still conscious is because I don't want to carry you. Now get in the van.

4. Jack: You're gonna tell me what I want to know, it's just a question of how much you want it to hurt.

3. Jack: You make one sound and I will rip your tongue out. Are we clear? Gray... people in this country are dying, and I need some answers. Are you gonna give 'em to me or am I gonna have to start hurting you?
Graem: Actually, you're hurting me now.
Jack: Trust me, I'm not.

2. Jack: (just before killing Fayed) Say hello to your brother.

1. Jack: (while strangling Tony) Tell me where the device is, or so help me I will kill you, and you will stay dead this time.

Parental Visit!

This last week Sarah and I were lucky enough to have my parents come to DC for a visit. We had a great time taking them all over town to see a bunch of the sites that they missed last year. We went to the Capitol Building, Monticello, the Marjorie Mayweather Post House, the Museum of Natural History, the Holocaust Museum, and more. This picture was taken by our tour guide inside the Capitol.


We also ate at plenty of tasty places, including 2 Amy's, Ray's Hell-Burgers, Good Stuff Eatery, etc. Here's one of my folks at the Natural History Museum. They're the couple on the right of the picture.


Overall, I think my parents had a great trip, as long as I was able to set them down in the shade every few minutes with a big Coke in their hands. Also, after their visit, I was able to fly home with them to see my oldest nephew's baptism. I'll try to put up some pictures from that later this week!

Conquering the Macaron!

Hey folks! Sorry for the lack of posts lately, but school has been hectic. In fact, today is my last day of class as a second-year law student! I still have finals next week, but then I'll be free for the summer. I have an internship lined up with a judge in the DC Superior Court, so that should be interesting.

But enough about me. This post is about singing my wife's praises as a first-class baker. She's tackled some pretty ambitious baking projects in the past, but a few weeks ago she was determined to make a French macaron, which is no simple task.


For my exposition on the differences between French macarons and American macaroons, you can see the post below. A French macaron is essentially a meringue cookie, and is quite fussy (like most French food). Here's a picture of a pistachio-flavored macaron that we had in New York, which was amazing. And so the quest began.


Here are the macarons that Sarah made. The entire process consisted of a number of ridiculous tasks, including but not limited to: grinding toasted almonds to dust, "aging" six egg whites by leaving them out on the counter for two days, buying a "silpat" mat so that the cookies could be pulled off the cookie sheet, making sure that the temperature of the oven never varied more than five degrees from the desired temperature, and so on.

However, I'm happy to say Sarah pretty much dominated in macaron-baking, and the end product was pretty awesome. Rock on.

Cherry Blossom Festival

This last weekend Sarah and I decided it was finally time to go out and see the National Zoo. It was still a little chilly here in DC, but fortunately all of the animals were laying out in the sun to stay warm, so we could see them.


Apparently the pandas at the National Zoo are notoriously difficult to photograph, since they are always hiding. In fact, the Zoo even has a contest to see who can get the best picture. Sarah thinks I should submit this one of a sulky panda to the contest.


The otters seemed to be having the best time soaking up some sun on the rocks. They all just sat in a pile on the rocks, occasionally rolling on to their backs to warm up their bellies. Ironically, this is how I spend most of my Saturdays as well.


Last Saturday was also the kick-off of the National Cherry Blossom festival, which celebrates the blooming of the 3000+ cherry blossom trees around DC that were given as a gift by the city of Tokyo in 1912. This year it also coincided with the Kite Festival, where people come fly their kites on the National Mall.


Plus, no Peterson outing would be complete without some cupcakes to finish it off. We stopped by "Hello Cupcake" in Dupont Circle on our way into town to pick up some snacks for the afternoon. I wanted to give mine to one of those sunbathing otters; it would have made his day.

Eating Our Way Through The Big Apple

Given the sheer number of pictures of food that are on this blog, I assure you that Sarah and I do not each weigh 300 pounds. Although it is true that we love to cook at home and pig out on vacation, we try to be reasonably healthy the rest of the time. That being said, here are some pictures of our recent trip to New York, and all of the stuff we ate while we were there.

Promptly upon getting off the bus in NYC, our first stop was the Shake Shack, which may be one of the greatest burger places ever (it at least rivals In-n-Out for me, which is really saying something). If you're ever in the neighborhood, be sure to get the black-and-white shake. It rocks.


We spent a few hours trying to walk off the burgers, primarily so that we would have a reason to go to Levain Bakery later on. This bakery was founded by two ladies who regularly train for triathlons, and wanted a gigantic cookie to eat after they finished their races. They are famous for their chocolate chip walnut cookies (on an unrelated note, I think Sarah has a future as a hand model).


Don't worry, we did some cultural stuff to try and fill the hours between meals. We saw "West Side Story" on Broadway, visited a few museums and historic districts of Manhattan, and went to a rock concert at Madison Square Garden (the real reason for our trip to New York). Here's a shot of Sarah at the Museum of Natural History.


Here's me in front of a Triceratops. I waited until the sun went down, but it didn't come to life. I feel like Ben Stiller lied to me.


Our last snack before getting back on the bus to head home was a pistachio macaroon from Bouchon Bakery in Columbus Square. Unlike the American coconut-flavored version, European macaroons are more like an Oreo cookie, and quite tasty. Aside from that, we also managed to fit in Venezuelan arepas, bagels from our favorite deli, and ribs from Brooklyn's famous Dinosaur BBQ. Yay food!

Cafe Rio Night

Sorry about the lack of posting lately. School has been crazy busy, and I haven't had a lot of free time. However, Sarah and I have done some pretty cool stuff in the past few weeks, so I'll try to put up some more pictures in a few days (especially of our trip to New York). Over Spring Break, we decided to have a Cafe Rio night. For those of you who haven't spent any time in Utah or Arizona, Cafe Rio is an amazing Mexican food place that my wife craves pretty much all the time. So if your in the mood, just ask me for the recipes. All you need to do is go to the store and buy all this crap (oh, and set aside about 12 hours to make it all).


I think the real key was to making our own pork barbacoa (the secret ingredient is Coke) and our own tortillas. They aren't nearly as hard to make as you would think, but it can be pretty difficult to find the necessary lard. When I asked for it at the grocery store, the manager told me that lard was "out of vogue."


I had the pork burrito complete with all the trimmings, and it actually came out pretty spot on. And of course we had to serve them in the aluminum trays to complete the Cafe Rio experience.


Sarah had the pork salad, and she told me I did a pretty good job with the tomatillo dressing, which basically makes or breaks the salad. So overall, it was a pretty amazing dinner, and we had plenty of leftovers.