a house full of fun

last week we had a house full of fun!

dianna's mommy, becky, was in town to play a concert (besides saving children in india from leprosy and rearing 9 kids of her own, she is a concert violinist. who are these people? and why in the world do they hang out with me?) in order to keep up the facade of being cool enough to have these people as my friends, i planned to wow her with avocado and seared tuna salad. i think it worked. she called later in the weekend because we had forgotten to send her the recipe and she had promised the same kapow! effect for her husband... so here you go:

seared tuna salad kapow!

• 1 tuna steak per person being served (make sure it is sushi grade...i get mine at costco and it is much better than the stuff at the fish market -- go figure.)
• 1 hass avocado per person being served.
• 1/2 red onion -- cut into paper thin slices
  
• roasted sesame seeds ( i just buy raw ones and roast them in a frying pan)
  

cut up the avocado into bite size chunks
sear tuna on a hot frying pan. i season it with montreal seasoning. cut into bite size chunks.

the dressing is why this recipe is so kapow! (it is modified from a recipe from ina garten)

• zest of 2 limes
• juice from 3 limes
• 1 teaspoon of wasabi powder
• 2 teaspoons of soy sauce
• 3 T of crystal hot sauce or some kind of hot sauce like that
• 1/3 C olive oil
• salt to taste
  

wisk it all together in a bowl.

toss avocados in the dressing. serve tuna, avocados, and red onions on plates. sprinkle with roasted sesame seeds and drizzle with more dressing if desired.

then on saturday amy and josh (and jonah and ellie) came down to dc
(from william and mary)
we didn't get to hang out all that much, but we did
go to the air and space museum (WAY TOO CROWDED)
then walked over to the botanical gardens.
it was super fun. and perfect because of josh's new found love of orchids
he has been toying with the idea of joining the american orchid society
i think this pushed him over the edge
(plus the fact that he gets a student discount and a free orchid)

i didn't write down the names, but they were AMAZING

jonah loved them more than his fake smile lets on

these aren't orchids, but they are cool

ellie taking the stairs like a champ

i got home from the orchids and the greers to this:

only part of lindsay's family
from right to left
david, who while sitting next to me asked me what i looked like
issac, who discovered that we had a wardrobe and also
quoted the prologue of romeo and juliet to us (he is 7)
sarah, who is "really good at finding secret passage ways"
and benjamin, who says a couple of unrecognizable words, but thankfully
doesn't cry at night
rachel who is 11 is much to mature for this kind of tomfoolery.
in fact, because she will be 12 this year
and is basically an adult, she nearly earned the
right to sit at the grown up table
she made a strong argument. in the end,
we all just sat together.

david is also a ladies man
and had it bad for dianna

he loved the reciprocated love
he asked for her to come over every day he was here

and do they ever LOVE aunt lindsay (as she is known)
aunt lindsay spent the weekend making delicious meals for the house of 9
benjamin looks like he should be lindsay's son (sarah kinda looks
like lindsay's daughter too)
families and genes are really weird

i have no photos of marnie or dan ( mom and dad), which is a real bummer.
but needless to say, we had a blast with these critters running around our house
and it was sad to see them go.
but strangely a lot less energetic and kinda quieter. ;)