Anna Blume

Out in Rockville, I ended up buying hoards of frozen food for someone who doesn't cook. Pouches of organic brown rice sold next to mixes of barley, brown and black rices and rices with all sorts of flavorings and vegetables. Meatballs. Slices of grilled chicken. Eggplant cutlets and panner saag for vegetarian days. Polenta mixed with spinach and carrots (looks like carrot bits in picture, though ingredients imply there's just juice). Garlic naan. Haricot verts. A recent New Yorker called this "lonely food", but I ended up having fun and could certainly see the appeal. As much as I love farmers markets and cooking with fresh, precious things, I am tempted to try out some of the options myself. Store is clever in making prepared foods seem attractive in ways that frozen depts. in other supermarkets never seem to be.

His name is Tom and he's had a hand in Maryland legislation for eggs, so very knowledgeable. White hair. Smokes despite doctors' orders. Business name: Waterview. There's a Daffy Duck doll on top of his table, yes, at the north end of Dupont Circle, on 20th Street, north of Q St. Neighbors include Endless Summer, Compost Cab, Red Apron, Quaker Valley.

Great topic! I've always been privileged to live within short walking distance of several options, but soon I will find myself in the middle of a food desert. Well, I should qualify that: there are several grim-looking markets next to liquor stores. I'll have more to say once settled.

Yes, that's right. The subtitle of this thread will actually be relevant again very soon! FYI: Do sign up for newsletters or visit the website some time in the months ahead for updates. For example, Soupergirl will be bringing her line of vegan, locafare to market to go with your pastrami sandwiches and if The Hersch won't share his home-made pickles, you can pick up some from a professional, inspected kitchen. Bison's back after a year's absence, this time from Gunpowder. Pasture-grazed animals, dead, in the guise of organic meat and newsworthy, organic birds when the time comes to go with the organic botanicals of one of this region's hippest young farming couples, Shawna and Atilla. Also new to a market street where a charter school will soon replace the old extension of UDC's nursing school: the Matching Dollars Program (for recipients of EBT/SNAP benefits, WIC and SNPFM vouchers) and tokens you can purchase with debit and credit cards.

So, it was a very long day and with no time for dinner, I ended up at the restaurant last night around 9. The sign said "Open," so I entered. No one there except the entire staff seated in a booth in the back. A real shame and I wish there were some way to remedy that. I ordered the soo doo boo or however you spell it, the seafood version, though I regret that decision and wish I had done combo or beef. This is, in part, due to personal taste and ignorance: I didn't realize an egg would be broken into the dish and I still haven't quite gotten over that awful seafood quiche decades ago that swore me off the combination. Too bad I feel that way because the silky, creamy texture of the tofu and that of hot-potted egg, just beginning to form curds, suit one another in a yang-yang sort of way. I had to smile in re-reading Dean's original post because there were a few pieces of flavorless, marine-raised rubber and perhaps because of the hour, the empty house and the fact that I was ordering only one thing, the shrimp could have been cooked through and not simply curled (translucent vs. opaque). Another quibble: it wasn't particularly spicy, though a language barrier may be to blame. When warned it was spicy, I said I liked spicy and ended up having to clarify, not extra-spicy as my waitress wrote down. The cooks might have dimmed heat as a result. Who knows? I appreciate very much the patient lesson in how to eat the dish and really liked the seaweed, one of the many little dishes spread around my hot pot; an icy-cold rice drink came with my bill. The tofu, also, was vastly superior to what one buys at supermarkets and now I want to take advantage of my final days out here in Rockville and investigate better sources for this particular ingredient. I wonder about the huge Korean Market, for example, that I passed in Veirs Mill Road on the way out here. Final thought, though I am not sure it belongs here: Why does Rockville have so many really cool places like this, yet is so damn ugly? If you're into antiques, you drive up pretty, winding stretches of New England in late September, gawk at the colors of the leaves, stop hither and yon and wallow in preciousness. But just as the car made fast food the junk that it is, it also created a sore-eyed hideousness out of architecture and wasteful use of space that destroys the human spirit and turns what ought to make the heart soar into tawdry vapidocity. The joy of exploring this part of Maryland and finding new foods to consume need not be qualified by its location.

If so inclined again, here's the skinny on hake at Monterey Bay Seafood Watch; Whole Foods is not as scrupulous about sustainability issues as one might think. MBSW must have a phone app by now.

The non-profit organization seeks market masters for farmers markets at Foggy Bottom (Wed), Penn Quarter (Thurs), By The White House (Thurs) and Bethesda (Sat) for the 2012-2013 season. Deadline: March 15. I am just about to attempt posting the job description as an attachment: Market Master Job Posting 2012.pdf

This place sounds great! The website is totally unhelpful, though. Cute graphics on Home page, but no address, no hours listed, directions....

I had to render my own leaf lard from kidney fat that a customer special ordered from Eco-Friendly, but never bothered to pick up. Quite good, but honestly, any lard from a farmer whose pork you buy would be worth using for pies, especially since you've never tried it before. The topic's been covered before at Donrockwell.com, so check the exhaustive Shopping and Cooking index Leleboo compiled. Good prices at North Mountain Pastures and Cedarbrook. More costly given meager amount, but perfect for a curious newbie, you could try the organic lard from Evensong Farm, too. FYI, when Many Rocks Farms recovers from kidding season and returns to its markets, Jeannie now raises mulefoot pigs, aka lard pigs, though I haven't seen her sell lard, yet.

Has anyone been lately? I am in limbo for about a week or so in this neighborhood and walked by, curious, this morning. My experience with Korean food is limited to what was cheap in Ann Arbor long ago: bibimbap, mainly. (I thought I saw a thread on Dining in Twinbrook a little while ago, but this is what came up in a basic search, first.)

While I am not able to join in, I just wanted to thank you, darkstar, for giving Trey Massey his props. Back in the day when he served as a personal chef, I became one of his biggest fans. While a rather unassuming kind of guy, his intelligence and commitment to what he does both come through in buckets in front of an audience. He's a truly gifted teacher and this should be a great evening!

I just wish Sunkist's growers would get out of the Delicious apple mindset and start growing different varieties! Tarroco is ten times sweeter and prettier than Moro.

Pasticcio di maccheroni con la ricotta Spinaci Fragole biologiche da Plant City, Florida Main course based on a discombobulated recipe in Molto Italiano (Mario Batali). Cedarbrook's ham steak, cubed, and browned cooks first with mirepoix (subbed fennel for celery), then red wine, then tomato sauce before being mixed with pasta, ricotta (Keswick) and other grated cheeses. Baked till bits and pieces on top turn gold.

...or as an inexpensive substitute for kombu which comes $6.49 a pack nearby. Feeling like miso soup w soba and tofu, something I make too infrequently to justify a new package of seaweed from Maine, I decided I could add some of AC's snacks to dried fish flakes and go from there. (Sort of like using catsup to make a ragu, I suspect.) At any rate, your post got me curious, so I opened the pack up and have to say they are fabulous folded over a couple of thin slices of avocado moistened with Meyer lemon juice.

I met the two owners this weekend who look forward to opening either March 1 or the first week in March (ambiguity my own, not theirs).

I have never been a CSA member, so weigh the value of the following, biased response accordingly: PVF has a really positive, august reputation in this agricultural region. Its farm managers, Casey and Stacey, are a young, enthusiastic team who worked together most recently at Farm at Sunnyside where they helped move the organic farm in new directions under the exemplary leadership of a terrific farmer who started her career at New Morning Farm, a founding member of the Tuscarora Organic Growers Cooperative. Potomac Vegetable Farms has ties with Next Step Produce, too. You'll have to check their website to see if it's still the case, but Heinz Thomet (NSP) used to contribute to PVF's CSA during the height of the growing season. If you don't have the time to shop regularly at a farmers market and like to plan your meals around fresh produce that is selected for you, I recommend joining.

Pumpkin bread made with this recipe for the first time which I highly recommend!! I substituted butter for the oil and golden raisins for 1/3 of the nuts which I always store toasted. Light brown sugar, Meyer lemon zest vs. the extract and some bits of candied ginger, but not too much to compete w other flavors. Not at all too sweet. Perfectly splendid without cream cheese.

Thanks, ge, for responding. I recall some scientific explanation as to why one must use a mixture of the two leaveners w buttermilk.

Baking 911 question: Why doesn't this recipe include baking powder? Usually, whenever I cook with buttermilk, the recipe requires a mixture of baking soda and baking powder. I'll follow the directions since none of the comments complain about leavening, and I know bp contains soda, but I'm curious. (I am substituting butter for the oil, though.)

More freezer-emptying to make a mixed stock of chicken (roasted carcasses and fresh, skinless thighs) and veal bones (leftover from osso buco, mostly, but three small, uncooked ones got roasted). It's something done to make brodo, so I figured why not? Also a chance to get rid of fresh and frozen leek greens. Once you get over the fact that the flavor isn't that clean, bright taste of a rich chicken stock, it's quite nice for a change and it really adds something to: Leek and potato soup made with about a quart of the stock. Kept some of the skins on. Added 3/4 cup diced, oven-roasted yellow plum tomatoes. Only partially puréed to retain bits and pieces, pouring in about 1/2 cup light cream at end. Good, but wish I had left the cream out altogether since I am losing my taste for rich, creamy soups....or it could be the rustic/rich thing was more Good Twin/Bad Twin than Ying and Yang.

^Went to elementary school in New Haven with one of the two owners who remembers what I brought in my lunchbox!! *********** Read about cocktail grapefruit recently in LA Times and saw them on sale at TJ's for 99 cents. They're very in-season, so thought I'd give it a go and now am writing a caveat emptor. Delightfully juicy, sweet, but barely any flavor discernible to this non-super-taster. One of the hybrid's parents is a mediocre variety of grapefruit which may be the problem. Very subtle orange-like taste without a hint of grapefruit.

From what I understand, this event has been rescheduled for some time in March. I'm still curious to know when Story's store on GA is opening. Updates from the Prince of Petworth?

Not into football. Freezer clearing, instead: Last of November's fresh shelling bean gratin thawed and fried in butter till dry with crumbs golden and crisp Bed: young spinach that Miles of Next Step Produce declared "sweet as candy" and arugula tossed in homemade mustard dressing using lime, Meyer lemon and Champaign vinegar. Blood orange (from California, but good; Trader Joe's) Last square of whole wheat banana cake w dark chocolate and cocoa nibs

^The issue addressed by goodeats: How to make a really good, chewy chocolate chip cookie. Cf. Post 401 by yfunk3 above. Personally, I am a big fan of Alice Medrich's crisp cookie w bits of chocolate, recipe published in Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunch whose title promises much to meet your preferences vs. mine. I have yet to try David Leite's, but as published in the NYT, the recipe won awards. One way to develop flavor is to let the dough age in fridge overnight before baking which might be what DL recommends.

Eating as it cools: banana cake/bread w cocoa nibs and chunks of chocolate, recipe adapted from David Lebovitz. Combo whole wheat and whole wheat pastry flour worked just fine. A Meyer lemon glaze would be nice, but plain's good, too.