dracisk

1 hour ago, MarkS said:

Fractured Prune works at the beach where folks are willing to wait for a doughnut.  But that was a fail a Dupont Circle where people go nut at Starbucks waiting 5 minutes. 

So true. Also, when I'm in Ocean City I'm on vacation, and even though I'm spending a lot of time in a bathing suit, I'm more willing to wolf down a couple of hot, fresh donuts than when I'm slogging along in my regular life.

Eleven years after the last post in this thread, is dry lambrusco any easier to find? I'd like to pair some this weekend with some cheese I received from my gift subscription to Murray's (per Murray's suggestion). I see references above to the Italian Store and Trader Joe's, neither of which is an option for me since I live in Maryland and am not looking to drive all over creation. Would any old liquor store likely have it? What about a Montgomery County liquor store? There's a Total Wine in Laurel that appears to have it from looking at the Total Wine website, but even that would be pretty far out of my way.

Thanks in advance for any tips!

(I'm just remembering that the first time I ever had lambrusco was at 2 Amy's 9 years ago. Until that day I'd never heard of red wine WITH BUBBLES.)

3 hours ago, Sundae in the Park said:

we're taking that as a big win

That's a big win for sure!

We had chicken cacciatore and pasta last night and tonight. Last night the 4-(almost 5-)year-old gave us a big fight but ultimately ate quite a bit. There's nothing about this she doesn't like (OK, maybe the green peppers -- she always picks those out) -- chicken, tomato sauce, mushrooms (which she likes), pasta, and all the Parmesan her little heart could desire. Now that she's on a major burrito kick she demands a burrito every night, even if we're having something else she likes. My husband and I have to stick to our guns to get her to eat anything other than a burrito. Tonight when she got home from preschool instead of shrieking "I WANT A BURRITO!" when we told her what we were having, she said, "I like chicken and pasta!" (not that I think we won't be having any more fights about burritos).

I was thinking of having something at my house for some friends (I'm only in the vague thoughts stage right now), so I'm sure we'll be operating on different scales, but I'll definitely be watching this topic with great interest nonetheless.

38 minutes ago, ktmoomau said:

I am hosting a wine and cheese tasting by the Cheese Monster

Oh my goodness! I've been thinking about doing this! I'm VERY interested to know about your planning and how your gathering goes. (Can I come? Just kidding.)

2 hours ago, DaRiv18 said:

the late-but-great Fractured Prune

Fractured Prune isn't completely dead, though they no longer have any DC locations. It looks like the closest may be in Crofton, Frederick, and Leesburg. They still have a bunch of locations in Ocean City.

The rou jia mo and the Shaanxi Style Homemade Noodle are my go-to orders here. I just ate in on December 30th and everything was delicious.

Since I don't know a ton about wine, my purchases are usually shots in the dark at the lower end of the price range. I quite enjoyed the Kirkland New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc last summer, especially at $7 a bottle. Having now been on booze runs to the DC Costco a bunch of times (I also live in Maryland 😭), my only words of wisdom are that the stock seems to rotate quite a bit, at least for the cheaper stuff. (I don't usually even look at the more expensive stuff. 😂)

I got obsessed with eggnog in the holiday season, but I wasn't going to make it to the DC Costco soon enough to indulge my obsession, so I bought a 750 ml bottle of Captain Morgan spiced rum at a random liquor store in Howard County for $18. Then I made it to Costco just before New Year's and bought a 1.75 liter bottle of Kirkland spiced rum for like $16. A Costco employee overheard my husband say it's probably Captain Morgan, and he said it's Cruzan. I have no idea which one is supposed to be "better," but I figure for mixing and at that price the Kirkland one will be fine. (I ended up eggnogging myself out with the Captain Morgan so haven't tried the Kirkland stuff yet.)

28 minutes ago, NolaCaine said:

Our find this weekend was College Park Maryland's airport museum. Two small kids play areas inside. WASP and African American exhibits and old plane and plane parts. 

We've been to the College Park Aviation Museum a couple of times. My daughter's pre-school does field trips there as well. It's cheap and great! Like @NolaCaine said, theres a kids' play area. Kids can also climb into a couple of old planes. The College Park Airport, which per Wikipedia is the world's oldest continuously operated airport, is right outside the huge back windows, and you can sometimes see small planes taking off and landing. We've combined trips to the museum with lunch at Yia Yia's Kitchen in nearby Beltsville.

I made these brown sugar cinnamon scones today. I don't bake much and had never made scones before and they turned out pretty well! I made two batches and for the second batch I didn't have enough white flour, so I substituted wheat flour (I read that I should use 3/4 of the amount of white flour the recipe calls for). Those scones are more crumbly but still tasty. Friends are hosting us for breakfast in the morning, I wanted to bring something, and I had heavy cream to use up, so...

I went to Lisbon over MLK weekend 10 (!) years ago and it was lovely. Not too crowded or hot. We also took a short train ride to Sintra. Not sure about direct flights, though (we connected at CDG).

On 5/7/2018 at 2:20 PM, dracisk said:

We're not going until January, but since I'm thinking about it now I figured I'd ask if anyone has any updated tips on food or anything else. Or, if anyone could report back on a trip between now and then that would be great as well. I'll be traveling with my (non-foodie) husband and 4-year-old (who will be almost 5 by the time this trip rolls around!). We're staying in Sandyport, which is about 15 minutes from downtown Nassau.

Basically we chose the Bahamas and Nassau because it's not too far from home and we could use all of my husband's expiring airline miles (and only have to buy minimal additional miles). I have very little Caribbean experience, having only been to Puerto Rico a couple of years ago. I don't have high hopes for food but figured I may as well ask if anyone knows of anything good, specifically anything it would be worth going to downtown Nassau for.

I saw the recommendations above for Cafe Matisse. I wouldn't be too interested in Italian food unless we get sick of the local cuisine, which I suspect is a distinct possibility. (We'll be there for 4 full days.) I also figure if we get sick of the beach and check out Ardastra Gardens we could check out Twin Brothers at the Fish Fry/Arawak Cay. I'm intrigued by Athena Cafe and Bar if anyone knows anything about it (although I just looked at their website and see that they're only open for breakfast and lunch). I see there's a location of the Poop Deck, which @Ericandblueboymentioned above, near our hotel (along with a few other restaurants, which I suspect we'll mostly stick to out of convenience, but in case we get motivated to venture away from our hotel I figured I'd ask for advice!).

I'm pretty happy to be staying away from downtown Nassau and the whole Paradise Island scene. Should we expect that the staff at our hotel will generally know the cruise ship schedule so we can plan any trips we take downtown accordingly (i.e., when there aren't any cruise ships in port, if there's ever a such a time)?

Thanks in advance for any information!!

On 5/19/2018 at 5:57 PM, dracisk said:

Has anyone been to Sapodilla in Nassau? It's between the airport and Sandyport. Friends just ate there in April and they raved about it, but I don't trust their raves. :-) I'm wondering if it's worth the expense.

We leave 2 weeks from tomorrow, so if anyone has any updated information I'd love to know it!

12 hours ago, RJS said:

I will never use a plastic bottle of water or a straw again. —It’s at least a start and so simple

My elderly father-in-law visits us often and likes to drink with a straw, so when our box of plastic straws ran out I bought a set of metal straws on Amazon. They've worked out quite well!

I've bought them at Wegmans before. I bought them in Anne Arundel County, not in Arlington, but may be worth a call!

(Actually, I just realized there may not be a Wegmans very close to you, so not sure how useful this is.)

A banana and an apple last night for the 4-year-old. Sigh. She's all over the place with dinner. Sometimes she'll eat what we're eating and sometimes not. There are a few dinners she's almost guaranteed to eat, but most of our dinners are crap shoots. She'd eaten last night's dinner (Ground Turkey with Potatoes and Peas) in the past without resistance. Not so much last night.

23 minutes ago, smithhemb said:

I don’t think I have favorite films.  I rarely rewatch films

I used to consider myself a cinephile before having a kid (now I rarely get to the theater and can't often stay awake to watch an entire film at home), but I'm the same way.

I rarely see any film more than once, even ones I really enjoy ... with the exception of The Breakfast Club. Like DaveO with The Big Chill, The Breakfast Club is totally of my time. (I was in junior high when it came out.) My husband even thinks I look a little like Ally Sheedy (but, as I always like to point out, not her character in The Breakfast Club). I can recite a lot of the lines, and if I happen to catch it on TV I'll probably watch at least some of it.

Some films I've only seen once that really enthralled me and I'd like to watch again:

In the Mood for Love

Dog Day Afternoon

Requiem for a Dream

I never knew that the Blairs of Blair House were the same family as everything named Blair in Silver Spring.

25 minutes ago, Rieux said:

It’s awesome. And crowded. Make a reservation for dinner somewhere (Woodberry Kitchen?) for after. It will take you about an hour to see the street. 

Thanks! I was thinking about an hour, which is a good amount of time for us. We were thinking to get there around 5pm -- does that seem wise? Any parking tips? There are some pointers on the event's website.

I think we're going to do Miracle on 34th Street in Hampden, Baltimore on Saturday as long as the weather is OK. (It's supposed to be much milder but possibly rainy!) My 4-year-old loves houses with holiday lights. We've never been so would appreciate tips from anyone who has!

I've eaten this (though not in awhile). Anyone else? @Bob Wells?

There's a very similar thread, Eating on I-95 between DC and Jacksonville, FL. Perhaps the two should be merged?

The third season of Serial is pretty good. It's about the criminal justice system in one courthouse in Cleveland. I love criminal law (if not for that whole litigation thing I might be a criminal lawyer), so I find it especially interesting.

1 minute ago, DonRocks said:

This is what I was afraid of - if I saw "Animal House" now, I'd hate it; when it came out, I saw it about five times.

My husband loves both "Animal House" and "The Blues Brothers." He's probably seen each movie a thousand times, starting from a young age. I saw both for the first time in my late 30s or early 40s. I really didn't understand the appeal of "Animal House," but I thought "The Blues Brothers" was pretty good. The Cab Calloway scene is awesome.

Spaghetti with meat sauce and Parmesan cheese. Mounds and mounds of Parmesan cheese.