Celebration!

I guess I've been a bit out of touch the past week or so... both with the blog and with food in general. Work has been stressful and I'm definately an emotional eater - work stress leads to a dramatic increase in food intake (whereas emotional stress completely obliterates any sense of appetite). So, lately I've been eating anything (and everything) set in front of me - regardless of its blog-worthiness. Rediscovering self control and discretion will be an accomplishment both for my waistline and my half of this blog.
However, there have been rays of light shining through the abyss of lab drudgery... last weekend one of my closest CA friends got married in Charlottesville, VA. The ceremony was beautiful and the food was exquisite. I didn't want to be obnoxious and take pictures of the amazing buffet, which featured grilled asparagus with garlic aioli, roasted new potatoes with rosemary and garlic, grilled flank steak and chicken with a out of this world fruit compote. What I did do was get a picture of the bride and groom cutting the cake. This was the best wedding cake I've ever had. I'm not the biggest fan of sweets in general (although cake is usually an exception) and wedding cakes, in particular, tend to overwhelm me with loads of buttercream frosting and layers of rich chocolate (blasphemous though it is, chocolate gives me a headache). This cake was perfect. Light white cake with a whipped cream frosting and, rather than gooey jam between the layers there were actually freshly sliced strawberries. It was an excellent finish to a perfect day.


There were lots of things to celebrate in the past week. In addition to the wedding, two fellow graduate students defended their dissertations last week, dreaming the impossible (seemingly so, for me) dream and making it happen. Congratulations Raul and Kristin! Again, much celebrating was done with more cake and even more champagne.

It was so neat to be able to take a break from work drudgery and celebrate these occasions with friends and family. Besides an excuse to eat and drink excessively (not that I'm downplaying that at all) it is incredibly special and inspiring to see people I care about succeed and achieve what they want out of life. Congratulations to all of you! Now, back to work and back to a little more discretion at the dinner table, hmm? lissa
P.S. Speaking of celebratory foods - I took this picture in between rain showers the other day at work - not quite ready to be on the Thanksgiving table yet, I'll look for him again in November