KeithA

Chicken soup with egg noodles and a few dilly beans.

Last night leftover salad with some added veg- chopped bell peppers, red onion, cucumber, black beans, hardboiled egg, steamed cauliflower, tahini sauce, and leftover salsa on a bed of greens.

Last night was make your own taco night/use up leftovers/clear the fridge. Warmed up a variety of corn and flour tortillas we had along with a choice of toppings: plain or spiced grilled chicken, chopped red onion, chopped parsley, seasoned spaghetti squash (from Smitten Kitchen Cookbook's squash taco recipe which is easy and good), canned black beans, crumbly goat cheese, steamed cauliflower, and boiled green beans. I also made a salsa with the same attitude - grilled an assortment of CSA fresh chillies and a large peach half and after seeding the chillies threw all of that along with a chopped ripe tomato, lime juice and salt and pepper in the mini food processor. I didn't know exactly what the chilies were or how spicy they would be but the peach and lime juice mellowed them nicely to a medium spice.

We had baked salmon with cumin/paprika spice, mashed potatoes with some sauteed onions, and green beans. Not too bad for simple dinner cooked up during virtual back to school night - especially because I had to make an almost second complete meal for picky bland eaters (i.e. my kids) of pasta with butter and salt (for kids who hate potatoes) and chicken nuggets.

Sadly tonight's dinner is only Angelico pizza - plain cheese for kids and pesto with onions for adults. Too busy to cook tonight.

Usually every summer we go to Ocean City, MD and make regular trips to Dumser's Dairyland. Having a variety of flavors was my consolation for missing those trips this year due to Covid. Also on a lighter note - who doesn't like choices and more ice cream 😀

Last night dinner was reheated left over rice and noodles with sauteed tilapia with mideast spice blend for adults and fish sticks for kids along with plain steamed broccoli florets. Too add a punch of flavor (something I always want but my bland eaters don't always agree with) I stir-fried green pepper, scallion, and chopped kale with garlic, ginger, and soy. Dessert was a mix of ice creams - turkey hill vanilla, Ben & Jerry's various chocolate flavors, and homemade blackberry chocolate chip.

I totally get this feeling. That is why I am constantly re-reviewing my cookbooks or checking out new ones from friends or the library and trying out new dishes. I love online recipes but unless I already have something in mind (like a specific ingredient or type of dish), I find it tough to get new inspiration - but actual cookbooks you flip through them and see an interesting recipe and then kind of tuck in away in your brain and come back to it. I did this last night when I cooked Stuffed Delicata Squash from the Shuk cookbook. I had flipped through it awhile ago and then when I got some delicata squash in my CSA, I scoured my cookbooks to find the one which I recalled had a special recipe for this specific type of smaller thin skinned squash. Once I found it in the Shuk cookbook, I got the rest of the ingredients and over the weekend made it as a special - different dish. I cooked it per the recipe with two changes - we had some non-beef eaters over and so I swapped in ground turkey - and I only had 2 squash from the CSA (recipe calls for 3) so I used the rest of the meat filling with a big red bell pepper. It turned out great with different spiced meat flavor. I served it with rice pilaf (using Shuk recipe but wasn't that different from standard rice) which I added some pine nuts, sumac, and chopped parsley. To round out the mideast menu, I grilled some chicken with olive oil/zaatar basting along with our friend fresh garden salad. My wife made a great blackberry, peach cobbler for dessert.

Got 2 nice big eggplants in the CSA this week, so Sunday and Monday lunch was Sabich - great Iraqi israeli sandwich of fried/baked eggplant, hardboiled eggs, chopped Israeli salad, zhug, amba, and tahini sauces with some extra leftover pickled chile garlic relish. Lots of recipes out there but really great details in the Solomonov Israeli Soul cookbook (great one for so many home-made vs. restaurant recipes (I love the Zahav cookbook too but it is more fussy). Today was eggplant with anchovies and oregano from the Ottolenghi Simple cookbook. First time making this dish and it was a hit. Very simple to bake the eggplant on high heat for 35 minutes then make an anchovy garlic and oil dressing to spoon over and a bunch of fresh chopped herbs. I didn't have the called for parsley so just extra fresh oregano - very nice.

Bouranee Kadu - afghan "pumpkin" with garlic yogurt sauce. CSA sent me a biggish kabocha squash and I remembered how much I liked this dish when I had it years ago at Afghan Grill in Woodley Park. I googled and found 2 slightly different recipes. Turned out rather good - lightly fried the squash, then added spices and tomatos to make a curry like sauce...finally stirred up some salted plain yogurt with minced garlic and drizzled the garlic sauce on top and sprinkled with chopped mint. I kind of picked and chose between the 2 recipes I found and failed to follow one of my cardinal cooking rules - always pick the one with onions. It would have been better with less water in the sauce and some sauteed onions.

That is a great idea. I'll have to try that next. Just filled up my freezer with more blackberry stracciatella.

I just put up around 10 jars of peach jam and around 20 jars of blackberry jam using fruit I pre-ordered from Kuhn's Orchard that I picked up on Saturday at the Cleveland Park Farmer's Market. Happily they all seemed to turn out well even if 2 lids didn't seal right the first round in the water bath, but second time was the charm. I used the Pomona's Pectin which is great in that you get a quick set and don't need a ton of sugar in your jams. They are still plenty sweet I did a cup of sugar for each 4 cups of mashed peaches and did 1.5 cups of sugar for each 4 cups of mashed blackberries. It was kind of a pain getting extra lids and additional jars this year. Apparently there is a run on canning supplies as people are coming up with new ways of coping with the pandemic/enforced staycations. I had to order my Ball regular lids 2 weeks in advance and got the last two trays of 4 oz jelly jars on the shelf at Tenleytown Ace. Some of the local Ace's still have some - but much less than the usual abundance normally available.

You also can't go wrong with Ina recipes. Martha Stewart are hit or miss in my experience

Anything from a thanksgiving menu should help you narrow down choices for those herbs - bread stuffing would be good and easy. It is not only for 1 time a year 🙂

Over the weekend, I finally got around to making Pickle Brine Bread from the Gefilte Manifesto cookbook. It is a great cookbook that seeks to focus on making things from scratch with a focus on modern twists on Eastern European Jewish cooking. Since the cookbook has a bunch of pickle recipes, they include this bread recipe to help you use up leftover pickle brine. It turned out great - a half regular/half whole wheat slightly dense sandwich like bread with a mild pickle smell and in my case slight spiciness because I only had spicy pickle brine to use. It actually calls for 2 cups of fermented brine but I didn't realize I had so little left and so I used 1 1/2 cups mixed with 1/2 cup of water. It is mellowed by the addition of honey. It was great with just butter or good for some open face sandwiches. To go with the Ashkenazi theme I did one with smoked gouda and caraway kraut (also from the cookbook) with a bit of pickled ramps and the other was dill pickled herring with some carrot-horseradish relish (also from same cookbook and wonderful). It made two loaves and my neighbors also liked the second loaf I gave them. They also have good recipes for leftover pickle brine salad dressings - I often just add a splash of vinegar pickle brine instead of regular vinegar for salads.

Care to share the recipe? I have lots of both and this sounds like a good match.

Since my last post in this forum 6 years ago, I have made ALOT of pickles. Currently, I am fermenting 4 different flavors of cucumbers and working on 2 batches of sauerkraut. I still like my base spice blend for cukes of 2-3 smashed cloves of garlic, eyeball about a tablespoon or so of mustard seeds and same of coriander seeds, and a good pinch of black peppercorns. That is pretty good on its own but I also add fresh dill and dill seeds or sometimes fennel seeds are nice too. If I want them spicy I had 1-2 dried chili de arbol. I've also had success with adding fresh thyme and rosemary. I usually ferment these using basic salt water fermentation in wide mouth, quart ball jars with cheap but great fermenting airlocks that regulate the airflow so you don't have to worry ($20 or less for several on amazon). I then leave them out on my counter for about 2 weeks to get a nice full sour and then they keep in the fridge for a year or so. Easiest and most delicious way to have cucumber pickles. For the sauerkraut, this is my first time as I got a huge cabbage in my CSA so figured I'd take the plunge. Both are fermenting nicely after about 2 1/2 weeks - I think they are almost done as the shredded cabbage is becoming more translucent. I made one batch with a bunch of using a traditional German recipe where I added a caraway seeds since I didn't have juniper berries at the time. (Now I do - thank you Spice House). The other batch is kind of like Kimchi - I found this spicy turkish pickle recipe in my pickling bible - the Joy of Pickling by Linda Ziedrich - HIGHLY RECOMMEND for its many great tips, troubleshooting, and many many recipes for all kinds of pickles (fresh, vinegar, fermented, soy, miso, etc,) with lots of different types of food. This turkish sauerkraut had a pretty cooked brine and lots of chili flakes added. So far it tastes great. My one quibble with the Joy of Pickling is that you need to adjust the scale a bunch for the recipe as the author designs some of them for large gallon crocks. I haven't done crocks yet because instead of having 1 huge batch of the same pickle, I like a bunch of varieties - hence my use of quart jars or pint jars. Other of my favorite pickles are David Lebovitz's quick vinegar pickled radishes. These are so easy and so delicious. If you seek any small radishes at the farmer's market or even regular store buy a pint and make these today. They are ready the next day and everyone loves them. I've used the same brine on shredded purple cabbage too which is also good. I also like most, but not all the recipes from this preserving book - Put 'Em Up by Sherri Brooks Vinton. If I remember correctly this is where i got a great recipe for pickled beets in vinegar with cloves. I also pickled some rhubarb. Can you tell I joined a CSA this year? 😉 It gets rather stinky but who doesn't love Vietnamese pickled daikon radish and carrots - there a lot of online recipes and super easy to make. Great for adding to salads or making homemade bahn mi. Since you need to slice the veggies thin, it takes a bit longer in prep but worth the effort. I have also tried and failed at making miso pickles and never really like my soy pickles but I think that is just personal taste. I also tried making cukes with prepared horseradish but the results weren't great. Anyone else have good recipes to share?

Dean, how essential is the Bragg's vinegar? I have all of the other ingredients and lots of types of vinegar but not Bragg's. Also have you tried making this with only fermented pickle brine in a double quantity instead of sauerkraut juice? I ask as I have lots of pickle brine but only so much sauerkraut (just started making it for first time recently). Thanks.

I didn't realize this place had no topic on DR so adding it. I posted some of this in the Bagels topic but expanding the post the cover more of their offerings: Baked by Yael across the from zoo has been such a refreshing treat during the pandemic. As everything shut down and we didn't want to go inside any place, Yael Krigman, owner of Baked by Yael, has done a great job of setting up curbside pickup and deliveries for what I now think are my favorite bagels in the city. In the past few years, she has perfected her bagels so they are just the right size (think fit in your hand) with nice chew outside, and soft inside with good size hole. They are not overly puffy like a lot of places like Bethesda Bagels. Also, they are often warm and fresh still when you pick them up any time in the morning. Varieties are more limited - plain, everything, sesame, salt, and onion, but really great bagels. You can also get a few different cream cheeses, Ivy city lox or whitefish salad (the whitefish salad is really good), and sometimes salmon salad. Also makes my favorite challah (you can get a weekly subscription). So while my kids like the cake pops which I find a bit silly and kitschy, this bakery has great savory goodies too. Other treats we like are the cookie bars - really good cross between blondies and chocolate chip cookies, and good black and white cookies too. The raspberry bar is also tasty. They also have a bunch of gluten free options, and the whole store is nut-free. They are also kosher-certified. Starting this weekend, they've introduced Duffins - think doughnut/muffin. The idea is a muffin top and donut bottom - it is really like a more cake-like donut. We tried 4 types today - all the same base but with different coatings - chocolate frosting, glazed, maple glazed, and cinnamon sugar. The chocolate is very good - same frosting as the good B&W cookies, cinnamon sugar was also good. The glazed were also good but not as well-liked. I think the maple needs to amp up the maple flavor more. They also make plain. Try for yourself and share. Lastly, Yael and her staff are super kind. The Zoo being closed for so long hurt the business, but they adapted well.

Baked by Yael across the from zoo has been such a refreshing treat during the pandemic. As everything shut down and we didn't want to go inside any place, Yael Krigman, owner of Baked by Yael, has done a great job of setting up curbside pickup and deliveries for what I now think are my favorite bagels in the city. In the past few years, she has perfected her bagels so they are just the right size (think fit in your hand) with nice chew outside, and soft inside with good size hole. They are not overly puffy like a lot of places like Bethesda Bagels. Also, they are often warm and fresh still when you pick them up any time in the morning. Varieties are more limited - plain, everything, sesame, salt, and onion, but really great bagels. You can also get a few different cream cheeses, Ivy city lox or whitefish salad (the whitefish salad is really good), and sometimes salmon salad. Also makes my favorite challah (you can get a weekly subscription). So while my kids like the cake pops which I find a bit silly and kitschy, this bakery has great savory goodies too. Lastly, Yael and her staff are super kind. The Zoo being closed for so long hurt the business, but they adapted well.

What can I say, lots of us in CP like to procreate - when I was pushing strollers back in the day it wasn't exactly ...

Not sure what will happen in the long run, but this is also become a big help to the restaurants there as Al Volo (good pasta and other Italian) now has outdoor dining, and Bindaas and Sababa has outdoor dining too. They both setup nice tables in the service lane that are appropriately distanced and one or both have a tent or umbrellas (can't recall) for shade. Medium Rare always had outdoor seating but now has a tent up for shade too. Tino's Pizza (which is rather good) has expanded its outdoor seating including setting up some outdoor movie nights on the weekends on a small screen under the Uptown outdoor awning/marquee. Most of the rest of the restaurants in CP are churning along but hurting like the rest of the industry. We are still supporting through regular pizza and Italian delights from Vace, Tino's Pizza, Dolan (still love the noodles), Siam House (solid thai), etc. We did recently lose Coppi's (sad to see a business close after 6 years, but the food was drek IMHO so no big loss for me) and Firehook. Firehook leaving is very sad because it was there for over 2 decdades churned out great cookies, cakes, cinnamon rolls, fudgy brownies, etc. and we'll miss the lovely Roma patio in the back.

Just finished making blackberry stracciatella ice cream using B&J's recipe for blueberry (with adjustments for sugar). This has been one of our go-to favorites for years as we usually pick a mass quantity of blackberries for jam each summer and use a pint for ice cream. After I macerate the blackberries with sugar and a bit of lemon juice, I usually mash them, pour the liquid into the sweet cream #1 base and then later add the solids when pouring into the machine. It comes out great with a mostly uniform purple color and light creamy blackberry flavor with a few chunks of berry bites. Once the churn has started to set, I add dark chocolate shavings or small chunks. This time, after macerating I blitzed it with an immersion blender and pour the whole thing for churning and melted semi-sweet chocolate chips and drizzled in for stracciatela. I think it'll be pretty similar to the past but we really liked the stracciatella mix of mini and bigger thin chunks so went this way. It is freezing now, can't wait for a scoop soon.

Tried a new chocolate recipe and really like how it turned out. It is a no egg, Philadelphia-style ice cream. You simmer the cream, small amount of cocoa powder, and sugar and whisk to blend. Then, you melt in chocolate chunks/chips - I used a combo of 1/4 bittersweet to 3/4 semi-sweet chips because that is what I had and I was finding using too high cacao to be too bitter for our taste. Then you whisk in the milk. I then cooled it and put in the fridge to chill. I was a little worried when I took it out to churn and it had more of a chocolate pudding consistency, but I mixed it a little and then added to the ice cream maker. I continued to worry as it was still rather soupy after my usual 20-25 minute churn, but I let it continue to churn and after 30-35 minutes it turned into a dense soft serve. After it hardened in the freezer overnight, it was pronounced delicious by the family. A sweet, but not too sweet and not too dark chocolate with a dense, creamy texture. Hopefully my kid will like it even more when it gets added to her brownie ice cream cake that the little chocoholic requested. This chocoholic is looking forward to it.

Like others here, lunch is often leftovers - either as is or combined to make something slightly different. Today I took the extra plain lahgman noodles we got with last night's dinner from Dolan Ughyur, stir-fried them with the bit of leftover garlic string beans, added some sauteed scallions, then mixed in some leftover homemade dumpling soy-based sauce along with some crushed chili peppers from leftover chili oil, finally a nice squirt of srirahcha. Turned out very tasty - helps when you have great noodles.