That's The Best You Can Do??

That's the man, Kevin Durant.

Last night, I attended my second Wizards game of the season.  I mainly choose games for the opposing team  (sorry, Wizards).  The Magic game back in October was close (Magic won), but the Thunder blew them out last night.  This was fine, because I was there to watch Kevin Durant.  (I know, this is weird.  I mean, I wouldn't say I have a *thing* for Durant, but there's definitely something alluring about the passion he plays with and just how astoundingly awesome he is without being a complete a-hole.  See: Kobe, LeBron, Carmelo. I can't explain it.  I am unexplainably drawn to KD despite the fact that he's a foot taller than me and probably weighs 20 lbs less. And he's not really cute.  Like I said, it's weird.)

Besides a few Magic games when I was younger (strangely enough, I actually went on a few dates with Matty Goukas's son in high school...I remember him being, uh, boring- but the seats were good), I don't think I've been to any other professional basketball games.  Thus, I'm not sure if the fill-in entertainment is the same at other arenas.  However, at the Verizon Center, I've seen some pretty ridiculous stuff.  At the Magic game, we saw an Asian woman on 6 foot (10 foot?) stilts tossing plates and catching them on a stick on her head.  Thrilling? Maybe. Anxiety-inducing? Definitely.  Last night, it was an acrobatic dunk show.  Much more relaxing.

During time outs though, the Wizards really amp it up.  You see, the Wiz want you to bond with their players.  They facilitate this by asking all the starters (and sometimes the Wizards Girls- or whatever they're called) a question and showing the responses on the jumbotron.  Last night's question was: What's the worst date you've ever been on? (I know!  It's like they knew I would be in attendance!)  The Wizards' Girl (who somehow still seemed surprised by the question despite being prepped in advance) answered a date where the guy took her to Chuck E. Cheese.  Please!  Call me when he takes you to Hooters and then proceeds to tell you your boobs are "just as good as any of the waitresses" there.  Skee-ball and giant rats will sound dreamy after that.  (For the record, I didn't know where Hooters' Guy was taking me.  He just asked if I wanted to grab some "really delicious wings and beer" after work.  On the upside, I did learn that even mid-town Manhattan has a Hooters. And I'm pretty sure Chuck E. Cheese doesn't have alcohol, so there's another plus.)

John Wall, always two steps away from lacking a pulse.

John Wall (who barely seems to maintain consciousness in every interview) responded with a story about a movie date where he thought the girl was going to pay, so he didn't bring any money.  She didn't either, so they had to turn around and go home.  He's only, what?  19? So, I guess I'll grant him a pass.  But, if you want to talk bad dates and who's paying, check this out, John.  Continuing the movie theme, another Wizards player went to a flick with a girl who had bad breath.  (I mean, who are we kidding here??  These are NBA players.  I'm gonna guess most of their "dates" are not suitable for a kid-friendly audience.  The bigger question is: are they running out of get-to-know-you questions in the Wizards office or what?!?)  Finally, Nick Young had a nice little deadpan delivery of a blind date with a woman who he guesstimated to be "40 or 45" when she showed up and reminded him of "having dinner with his mom or something".  (He's 25.  I looked it up.)

The best part of the whole presentation was that about a minute into it, Kevin Durant walked away from the Thunder huddle, so he could stand mid-court and watch it on the jumbotron.

Bad dating- it's a universal theme, people.  Everybody relates.  Even KD.

RECIPE
You know what else is universal?  Love of crumb cake.  Who doesn't see those little golden nuggets and want to dab their finger across the plate to grab every last one?!

I started into the recipes in Market Vegetarian by Ross Dobson today.  One problem I have already is the teeny, tiny print in the book.  I did a lot of squinting trying to figure out if the text read 1/4 or 1/2 in spots.  This frustrates me.  And when I get cranky in the kitchen, bad things happen.  Every single recipe does get a photo, so that's nice. (And the photos are HUGE.  Go figure. Maybe this is one of those recipe books you're just supposed to look at and not actually use to cook?  We will see.)

PEAR GINGER CRUMB CAKE
Adapted from Market Vegetarian
Makes one 9-inch cake

Ingredients
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
2 eggs, room temp
1 cup flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 firm pears, peeled, cored and cut into thin slices (half moons are fine, too)
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

For crumbs:
1/2 cup flour
1 teaspoon ground ginger (my ginger is never fresh enough...it looses potency quickly...so I went with 1 teaspoon of zested/grated and peeled *fresh* ginger and about 1/2 teaspoon of the dry, ground stuff)
3 tablespoons brown sugar
3 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cubed (whenever I see that a recipe calls for "cold" butter, I freak out a little...anything resembling a pastry dough puts fear in me; but don't worry, you won't mess this recipe up)

Directions

For crumbs:
1.  Combine flour and ginger with your fingers (particularly if you are using fresh ginger, this will release the essence into the flour a little).  Add butter and press into the flour with your fingertips.  Add brown sugar and continue to rub with your fingertips until butter breaks up a little and the mixture starts to resemble wet beach sand.
2.  Refrigerate until needed.

For cake:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease a 9-inch springform or cake pan and line the bottom with parchment paper.  Grease the parchment paper.
2.  Beat the butter and sugar in an electric mixer until creamy.  Add eggs, one at a time.
3.  Add in the flour and baking powder and mix until just combined.  Finish by hand with a spatula.
4.  Spread mixture into cake pan.  (You will need to use the spatula to spread it.  It will be very thick.)
5. Toss the sliced pears in a bowl with the lemon juice.  Then, layer them gently on top of the cake batter.
6.  Sprinkle crumb mixture over the top evenly.
7.  Bake for 40-45 minutes or until top is golden brown.

(The recipe says it can be served with heavy cream??  Maybe they mean whipped cream?  I don't know. But, do it if you want. Let me know how that goes.)

Share a bad date story with me!