Day 164/365 - Steppin' Out

The Carlyle Club in Alexandria, Virginia is a jazz (mostly big band and swing) bar and restaurant modeled on the dinner clubs of the 1930s and 1940s. It's also a great night out and so that's where I went tonight to catch the performance by Doc Scantlin and His Imperial Palms Orchestra. The IPO is a modern big band playing music from the 1920s through the 1940s fronted by bandleader, vocalist, and connoisseur of bad jokes Doc Scantln.

The band also features the vocal stylings of the Girlfriends and the bubbly and irrepressible Chou Chou, a self-described blonde floozy chanteuse-y. The Girlfriends provide both backing and lead vocals, individually and in collective harmony a la the Andrews Sisters. Chou Chou, who looks like a buxom Gwen Stefani and sounds like Betty Boop and Marilyn Monroe (woof!), always steals the show and vamps the crowd, both in delightful fashion.

I'd been to the Carlyle Club once before, also to catch Doc and the IPO. That time I had dinner and sat at one of the tables near the stage. The food was fairly good as I recall. Tonight, however, I opted for a seat at the bar and had the chance to mingle a bit with some of the members of the band before the show and during the break as we got caught up with the NCAA tournament action on the flat screen.

Doc's band and the Carlyle Club itself are both well worth checking out. They typically play the Club about once a month and their set runs approximately two hours and involves lots of laughs, good music, good times, and opportunities for dancing (by persons other than me).

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 66/365 - Dinner at My Place

I invited my friends Desiree, Adriana, and Chris over to my place for dinner tonight, which meant I had to cook. I decided to go with a comfort food kind of menu, so I made meatloaf, mac and cheese, peas with mushrooms, tomato and herb bread, and chocolate cheesecake.

I was in the kitchen pretty much non-stop from 1:30 to 7:30. I'm not a very fast chef. The only dish I hadn't made before was the mac and cheese. It's made with penne and gruyere and turned out really good. I love this meatloaf recipe. It's not dry, crusty, and dense like my mom's meatloaf (sorry Ma). It's very light, moist, and flavorful. Even my brother, who hates meatloaf, loves it when I make this.

Everyone seemed to enjoy the meal. After we'd stuffed ourselves, I made a batch of chocolate martinis and we watched 'Wall-E" on DVD. If you haven't seen it yet, it's a great movie and it goes well with both chocolate martinis and chocolate cheesecake. But then again, what doesn't?

(Taken with my Nikon D80)