Pete

2006 Dunkin Donuts, Freshly Brewed. Vienna, Virginia. 20 ounces. Only 12 cups made. Excellent, with hints of hazelnut and splenda.

When my wife and I got married 2 1/2 years ago, we used Cakes by Wanda. Our wedding cake was delicious and inexpensive and Wanda was terrific to work with. We have used her for various cakes since then. A link to her website is below: Wanda's Cakes

Mrs. Pete and I will be dining at Charlie Palmer's on Valentine's Day as well. I love the fact that their entire menu will be available.

This post is long overdue. The Tasting Room at Restaurant Eve is such a wonderful experience. I only wish my wallet would allow me to return more often. The Friday before New Year’s Eve my wife took me to the Tasting Room for my birthday. I would hardly consider myself a “regular” there. Nevertheless, it is always nice to walk into a restaurant and be greeted by people who remember you from prior visits. My wife and I were originally planning to order the 5 course tasting menu, as we have previously ordered the 9 course menu and discovered that it is a massive amount of food. I glanced over at the 9-course menu and started reading each of the courses: oysters, lobster, gnocchi, tuna, sweetbreads, venison, cheese, spice cake, chocolate “brownie”. Each course sounded better than the previous, so I loosened my belt a couple of notches and we ordered the 9-course menu. I also got the wine pairings. Todd came by shortly afterwards and told us that chef Cathal was going to play with our menu a bit. Basically, one of us would get a course as written on the menu, while the other would get the main ingredient per the menu, but with a different preparation. We said that was fine, to which Todd replied, “Good. Not that you have a choice.” This bit of culinary whimsy certainly kept Todd on his toes, as he had to anticipate the preparation, pick the appropriate wine, and guess which preparation would be given to my wife or me. Other than occasionally having to switch the wine glasses put in front of us, Todd did an extraordinary job of keeping up with Cathal. In addition, the rest of the staff did not miss a beat in describing the off-menu preparations. This also made for great anticipation. Even the table next to us couldn't wait to see what kind of preparations were coming our way. I wish that I could give more detail about the different preparations, but many glasses of wine have cluttered my memory. All I know is that that fabulous food and great service will keep us coming back to Restaurant Eve.

We are considering re-doing our kitchen with some IKEA kitchen cabinets. Does anybody have any experience with them, both good and bad? We would be going through the Potomac Mills location. Any recommendations for installers?

My wife made them for the first time over the holidays, and all I can say is...WOW! They were a big hit on their own; however, she also dipped some in chocolate and rolled them in graham cracker crumbs for bite-sized "smores" that were terrific.

If you are a AAA member, stop by the customer service desk at Leesburg Outlets and get a disount booklet which includes a 15% discount off all items (including sale items) at the Le Creuset Outlet.

Please report back, as I will be in the tasting room tomorrow night!

The places below are about 10 minutes by cab from the Airport: -Willard's Real Pit Barbeque (over by the Dulles Expo Center) -Mikaku Sushi Taro (Herndon) -SBC Cafe (Herndon) -Clyde's (Reston)

Tom Power told me back in May that he gets them from New Jersey and he assured me that they do not come from the Hudson River.

Bellissimo is a tale of 2 restaurants based on my two experiences there. The first time I ate there, about a year and half ago, the food and service were terrific. I remember that I had a half-order of gnocchi as an appetizer a hearty veal ossso bucco as my entrée. Both were delicious. The wait staff was extremely friendly, and the owner/general manager made us feel like we were guests in his home. We never felt rushed and, as far as I know, we were never under a time limit. Four months later, my wife and I returned to celebrate a special occassion, and had a completely different experience than our first visit. Both the food and the service were disappointing. I attempted to order a half-portion of pasta as my appetizer, to which I was told that they do not do half-portions. When I told the waiter that we have previously ordered half-orders of pasta, we were again told “we do not do half-portions”. The restaurant was practically empty, and our waiter had at most two other tables. Nevertheless, he seemed to be MIA most of the evening, but was extremely prompt with the bill. The owner/general manager was sitting at a table right near us watching the dining room, yet did not move as we were clearly trying to find our waiter on several occassions. The food was not nearly as good as the previous visit, highlighted by gnocchi with the texture of chewing gum and vegetables cooked beyond recognition. The entire meal was a huge disappointment, which is a shame because we live 10 minutes from Bellissimo and had high hopes that it would be our “go-to” place.

Welcome Darth Tater. I saw your picture on the web recently. Darth Tater We now return to our regularly scheduled programming.

Artie's in Fairfax is not too far (5-10 minute drive from the Patriot Center). It is part of the Great American Restaurant's franchise. See Sweetwater Tavern discussion here: Sweetwater Tavern About 5 minutes from the Patriot Center in Fairfax is Buffalo Wing University (yes, that is the name) for the obvious.

I have this vision of Les Halles selling Swisher Sweets for $20 and throwing in a Steak Frites for free.

Thanksgiving leftovers left us with tons of turkey stock that we bagged and tagged in the freezer. Leftover turkey meat was reincarnated as turkey enchiladas, turkey salad, and a darn tasty asian noodle soup.

This reminds me of a recent experience at a restaurant in Harrisburg, PA that bills itself as a steakhouse. When we were presented our menus, the waitress said "we are offering the hereford strip steak tonight, which is my personal favorite". A few minutes later when one of our dining companions had a question about the hereford steak, our waitress replied "I've never had it. I'm a vegetarian". WTF?

Besides the Harry & David's of the world, who else does gift baskets? I'm looking for a local place (as opposed to mail order) that I can get a basket with a good mix of fruit, cheese, sweets and other goodies.

This posting is long overdue, but I do want to sing the praises again (not that it needs it) for Corduroy. Another great meal was had the day after Thanksgiving. However, permit me to rant for a minute. I feel sorry for Tom Power. His food deserves to be showcased on a nicer stage than the Sheraton Four Points. I wonder how many of the hotel guests realize how special the restaurant in their hotel is and, as others have hypothesized, I wonder if being in a restaurant limits the flexibility in changing the menu. Not that I mind, since I am still working me way through most of it. At one point during our meal, I heard someone at the table next to us ask if the restaurant served hot dogs (the youngest child at the table could not have been younger than 10 years old). Shortly thereafter, I overheard someone else order the lamb sirloin "extra well-done" (whatever that means). The jeans (and the $5 Washington DC t-shirt that one of the children was wearing) left no doubt that they were hotel guests. I felt like smashing a plate over the father's head and yelling "You idiot! Don't you know how lucky you are?" However, since my mother taught me good manners at an early age, and since she was at the table with me, I kept my plate firmly on the table. Thanks for letting me get that out of my system . Anyway, as we were not in too much of a drinking mood, my wife and I each ordered a glass of wine. One touch that I like about Corduroy's wine service is that, even if you only order wine by the glass, they bring out the bottle and give you a taste before pouring the full glass. I wish more places treated "by the glass" wine service like Corduroy. If my memory is correct, I had a wonderful Cote Du Rhone. For appetizers, I started with the Mozzarella Porcupine, which was a beautiful combination of smooth mozzarella and crunch "porcupine" topping. My entrée consisted of the lamb with goat cheese raviolini, which was as wonderful as others have described. My wife had the scallops with the chardonnay sauce, and the two bites that I was allowed to have were wonderful. My mother's salmon must have been terrific, since she cleaned her plate, which is something she rarely does. It was nice to get a chance to talk with Rissa, who made all of us feel welcome (by the way, I think she is getting tired of the "I'm only planning on bringing 1 bottle of wine" jokes ). She brought us the wonderful Kit Kat bars, which was the perfect ending to our meal. Thanks again to Rissa and Chef Tom for a wonderful meal.

They were out of the frozen ones yesterday as well.

I hope you pre-ordered your turkey. They ran out of birds yesterday at 4pm except for those who pre-ordered (they were also out of fresh green beans). There were several people visibly upset that there were no more turkeys when we picked up ours. I wonder how much I could have re-sold my turkey for?

I would like to think that my cooking has progressed beyond the "beginner" stage. Nevertheless, this is a fantastic book that I reference quite a bit. Several years ago when my culinary skills consisted of Kraft Mac & Cheese and Hungry Man dinners, I ordered a paperback cookbook set I saw in a magazine that included 3 cookbooks and a "handsome display holder" all for $5 (the display holder was made of paper and was torn apart when my books arrived). The cookbooks were from Pillsbury, Better Homes and Garden, and Fannie Farmer. I don't know if I have ever looked at the Pillsbury or BH&G books, but I rely on the Fannie Farmer cookbook quite a bit for both recipes and techniques.

I got an e-mail from Clyde's stating that all of their locations are open for Thanksgiving and will have a special menu available. See link below: Clyde's Thanksgiving Info

I'm assuming that the results will be audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

This will be our first year hosting not one, but two Thanksgiving (Thursday and Saturday). We ordered 2 turkeys from Wegman's last night and will be doing a taste test. One of the birds is the free-range, organic, hormone-free, pampered, free-roaming fancy-pants turkeys. The other is one of their standard fresh (not frozen) birds.

Tripewriter is spot-on with his assessment. That Langoustine Cassoulet was one of the best dishes that I have eaten this year. I used many pieces of bread to clean out the rest of the bowl. The miso (and yuzu) marinade on the sable was a beautiful balance of sweet/savory. Thanks again to Chef Krinn and the gang for the flawless food and service. My wife and I had a wonderful time, and enjoyed the company as much as the food. If someone was smart enough (unlike me) to write down the wines that were served, could they post them here? edited for stupidity