Pete

I am having a hard time navigating through Pickyourown.org and thus, I am appealing to this kind community for help, due to my laziness, admittedly. My friend and I want to take our little ones berry-picking this weekend and I was wondering which one was your favorite and why? Also, I worded it to be general, as if you like a particular farm for another type of picking- or farm-activity, please state so too. Thanks!

We like Great Country Farms out in Bluemont, VA. Why do we like it? Well, it is free (since we are CSA members). This is their last week for Strawberry picking, but we went 2 weeks ago and the strawberries were wonderful. They have many child-friendly activities such as a hayride, a small farm/zoo, playground, and a jumping pillow (similar to a moonbounce).

Any recent reports?

Either the star of Ratatouille should avoid Inox or the Washington Post Editors took the day off.

A warm dome of pineapple mouse atop a delicate pistachio cake has everyone fighting for the last bite.

Zora, why haven't you reported back on the new Fleur de sel caramel? Saw pints recently in grocery stores.

Picked up a pint of this at the Harris Teeter in Tyson's Corner on Saturday. REALLY Good stuff.

Bump.

Does anybody know where I can purchase shemurah flour? Northern Virginia-area preferred, but not mandatory. I am attempting to make my own matzoh this year.

Like jpschust, I have a Weber Performer charcoal grill and it will take an awful lot to get me to go back to a gas grill. The Performer is available at Strosniders Hardware (there's one in downtown Silver Spring) for $299. The convenience of the propane starter is nice....BUT....my starter gave out within a year. On top of that, I found that the small baskets that Weber provides don't really have enough capacity for me. So I went to a standard chimney starter. No propane needed whatsoever and I think it lights the charcoal just as quickly (if not quicker).

Is everybody still happy with their Weber Performer grills? I have been looking at it the past few weeks and am close to making the purchase. It is big/tall enough to do a beer-can chicken? Also, does anybody have a rotisserie accessory for the Performer? I have seen this one online but was wondering if there was anything around that is a little more "economical".

No word on the price point. They are leaning towards American, pub-esque food but are willing to look at other options. Places that are smoke free in advance of the ban (which doesn't go in to effect until December I think) is a plus.

If they are willing to do Italian, we had our rehearsal dinner 6 years ago at Trattoria da Franco. We had a private room upstairs with no additional room charge, and the food was good. It is also less than half a mile from Hotel Monaco and was relatively inexpensive.

I don't use soap. Once I am done cooking with the cast-iron skillet I add some hot water to it (while it is still warm). After the skillet cools I use hot water and one of these stainless scrubbing pads to clean out any remaining mess. The scrubbing pads are available in most supermarkets. They work great and don't damage the cast-iron.

Paula and I were there right before Valentine's Day (return visit for her, first visit for me), and, as others have said, the space is beautiful. The bread is terrific, as one would expect. In particular, the whole wheat bread was the best bread of the night, and, without a doubt, the best whole wheat bread I have ever had. For appetizers Paula had the Sweetbreads, which were fantastic. I had the Black Cod which had a nice flavor, while the horseradish foam was mild enough to compliment the cod. However, the portion size (even for an appetizer) was really small. Entrees consisted of the pan-seared duck breast for Paula, which was delicious and a generous portion. I had the duo of pork belly and tenderloin. The tenderloin was perfectly cooked and the pork belly was good, if a bit small. Thanks to Rissa for giving us a terrific tour of the space. I'm looking forward to returning.

a little birdy says cheese is on the way soon....

I heard the same thing, as my 2 comments to Rissa when we left were 1) need a cheese course, and 2) need to make the coffee stronger. Both of these are easily fixable.

Bookcloseouts.com is having a Buy One, Get One Free cookbook promotion through 18 February. The selection of books available for free is somewhat limited, but there are a few of interest. Details here.

In their "Scratch & Dent" section they have Michel Richard's Happy in the Kitchen for $7.27!

Seared scallops with salsify (the 3rd baseman that screwed Madonna?) - my wife happily ate the whole plate

Hope those scallops aren't injected with anabolic steroids!

Congratulations, Rissa.

Wow!!! That is awesome! Congrats, Rissa!

Any update?

Pete, Did you happen to have coffee at Restaurant Eve? How was it? Restaurant Eve is one of the few fine restaurants with specialty coffee/espresso service in the Metropolitan area. I have an interest in promoting high quality coffee service at restaurants (because it is the right thing to do). I'm compiling a public Google map of restaurants featuring such. I'd like to incorporate reviews and comments on the posts, but haven't figured out a simple and clear format for that.

http://tinyurl.com/CoffeeCulinaria-US-Canada

If you didn't try their coffee perhaps someone else on this thread did?

Thanks!

I have always enjoyed Restaurant Eve's coffee, and we did have it on Saturday night. I believe they get their coffee from Caffe Pronto.

It had been almost 2 years since we had been to the Tasting Room at Restaurant Eve, primarily due to pregnancy (my wife's, not mine), the birth of our daughter, as well as the cost of diapers, daycare, babysitters, and formula (for daughter, not me). Saturday night my wife took me to the tasting room to celebrate my birthday. We opted for the the 7 course Degustation menu. Both my wife and I got the same courses. Next time we will specify that we would each like different courses. The online menu is very close to the menu from Saturday night. Wine pairings were very good as usual.

Highlights:

-Duck Foie Gras paired with a Vouvrey wine. We are not huge Foie fans, but this was good, and the wine was absolutely perfect with this dish. Probably the best pairing of the night. Normally Sauternes is paired with Foie but I like this better because the wine wasn't as sweet as a Sauternes but had the right acidity to counteract the richness of the Foie.

-House-made Chestnut Tortellini - Eve always does pasta well.

-Filet of Barracuda (in the online menu replace "Cod Cheeks" with Barracuda) - cooked perfectly, the fish was coated in a very light fish & chips type batter.

-We had both the Sweetbreads and the Partridge. Unlike what "youngfood" experienced, ours were cooked perfectly.

-Cheeses and dessert were terrific. In particular, the Honey Cake with Dulce de Leche was outrageously good.

Worth Losing a Limb For:

-Celery Sorbet palate cleanser

-Broth amuse, which was described as "broth with pesto and ham". I wish I could have gotten a container of this to-go. Best soup I have had by anyone not named Tom Power.

Honestly, we did not have a single dud/disappointing course. Service was generally terrific. I had asked shortly into the meal if they could write down the wines that we had/will be having. They were more than happy to oblige. They were nice enough to re-print the menu with both the food and the wine. Unfortunately this took a really long time because of printer problems (I would have been fine if they wrote them on the back of a cocktail napkin) and we probably spent an extra 30 minutes waiting for both the menu and our bill. The next day we noticed that on the re-print of the menu that many of the wines written down were wrong and that a couple of the courses were also incorrect. They were doing us a favor by printing this up for us, so I can't really complain too much; however, I had to come up with something negative in here so I don't sound like a shill, right?

Can't wait to go back in July for our anniversary.

Heading to the Tasting Room at Restaurant Eve on Saturday night for the first time in WAY too long. Any recent reports?

Didn't Kramer already come up with this idea?

The one that everyone we spoke to raved about and recommended was Great Harvest, but we have found the bread to be on the raw side with no crust at all. Every time I go by the place is packed with customers and I think that maybe this time it will be good...

This seems to be the deal with Great Harvest. I really want to like them. Unfortunately, their breads have no crust to them. All of their breads have a soft "crust" which makes the exterior indistinguishable from the inside of the bread, kind of like eating Wonder Bread. We used to like their scones; however, they seem to have changed their recipe a few years ago and now they taste like raw flour and cream cheese. It is a shame, as the people are friendly and we have one less than 5 minutes from our house.

A Bratwurst Sandwich with sauerkraut and mustard was the perfect compliment to the Artisan Confections Open House. While it took a ridiculously long time to get our sandwich (the place was packed!), it was worth the wait. We also got the last german pretzel that they had lying around, and it tasted like...the last german pretzel that they had lying around.

That was fun and tasty, and I am now officially a "Card-Carrying Chocoholic". All of the new flavors are terrific, particularly the cinnamon marshmallow and the lavender-fig. Our 14 month-old daughter was on chocolate overload, since she polished off 2 small pieces of brownie plus half a piece of the vanilla bean chocolate. She has good taste.

It was nice to see so many Rockwellers there.

I can't wait for this place to open. Since I live and work 5 minutes away, it might be easier for me to just have my mail forwarded to the restaurant.

Looks like Paula, myself, and our little one might be able to make it. We will bring a case of water and, of course, some wine.

Epoisses - anything else is just not stinky enough.

I don't know much about Port, other than I am starting to enjoy it. I would like to buy a few bottles to have for "everyday" drinking. Does anybody have any recommendations for inexpensive Port? What do you enjoy?