Spice shop in Georgetown, holiday season coming to a close

/

My parents headed home earlier today, and after the boys' naps, we went to Georgetown with my sister and Michele (pron: Mee-kell-ay in Italian) for cupcakes and coffee at Baked & Wired (I opted for a piece of cinnamon-cardamom coffee cake which was awesome and which I will try to replicate) and a little walking around on what was a gorgeous but windy and chilly afternoon. At one point, Jack's cowboy hat flew off, and he screamed, "I want to shoot the wind for blowing my hat." He is my dramatic son if you haven't already discerned this. While wandering, I saw a spice shop someone mentioned to me a few months ago and headed in to check it out. It wasn't amazing, but there was a little bit of everything, including filé for gumbo. I got a small pouch of a white-tea/berry blend, some green rice the boys insisted upon but which does look extremely cool, and three flavored sugars: lemon, lime and ginger. Fun! If you're local and interested, it's The Spice and Tea Exchange of Georgetown at 1069 Wisconsin Ave. I made some fresh ricotta this morning but otherwise have just been getting the house back in order. T and I had a wonderful time hosting everyone but are 100% pooped today. It did not help that the boys woke up at 5:30am. I'm not sure there's much in my future as far as cooking this evening -presently I am prostrate on the couch thanking the heavens that T is doing bath time- but hope tomorrow to have time to start perusing my new cookbooks in a serious manner and get back to shopping and creating regularly. I'm off now to scour today's Dining section and enjoy the quiet that comes when 7 people suddenly depart and the children's voices are muted by the filling tub upstairs.