PollyG

We continue to use the at-the-time revolutionary Haggadah published by the Central Conference of American Rabbis in the 70's. (https://www.amazon.com/Passover-Haggadah-New-Union-Haggadah/dp/B000WG2H8A/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1522935306&sr=8-5&keywords=haggadah+central+conference) It has gone through multiple revisions, ridding itself of more and more sexist language with each edition. I'm not sure exactly how long the service is, but it is beautifully timed so that my garlic crusted leg of lamb is finished about the time we serve the matzoh ball soup. Our non-Jewish friends find it easy to follow. Of particular relevance is a list of modern plagues which precedes the traditional 10 plagues. The section reads: Each drop of wine we pour is hope and prayer that people will cast out the plagues that threaten everyone everywhere they are found, beginning in our own hearts: The making of war, the teaching of hate and violence, despoliation of the earth, perversion of justice and government, fomenting of vice and crime, neglect of human needs, oppression of nations and peoples, corruption of culture, subjugation of science, learning and human discourse, the erosion of freedoms. Of course, the 11th plague is the horrible desserts of Passover, so to bring us back onto a food topic: The chocolate chip cookie recipe on Trader Joe's almond flour bag makes a pretty decent cookie. It isn't pretty, but taste-wise it beats the pants off most other Passover cookies, including commercial ones. The Queen Mother's Cake (Maida Heatter's meticulously detailed recipe) is made kosher for Passover by a substitution of matzo meal for breadcrumbs. They are just used to dust the springform pan for this almond-chocolate torte, so they have very little impact on flavor. This is the "I can't believe it's pesadik" cake I used to bring into my heavily Jewish workplace. The almond-walnut cookies by Joan Nathan that the NYTimes featured this year were definitely Not Worth The Effort. We found a use for sweet kosher wine! I poached pears in it with cinnamon and orange juice, then reduced 5 cups of liquid into about half a cup to make a syrup to pour over the pears.

Thanks. Our WF in Reston was a bust, but the Dulles Wegmans had nice horseradish.

NoVA members--have you found decent horseradish root this year? My local (Herndon/Sterling area) Giant and Asian market had sad horseradish that was either entirely desiccated or both limp and moldy. MoM's and TJ's didn't have it at all. 4 grocery stores in 1 day is enough for me so if you've seen nice horseradish, please speak up!

Look at the Swissgear line. I have a Thinkpad that measures 14.8 x 9.8x 1.1 inches. It's a beast of a machine but the way I work requires the biggest screen I can get so I can have multiple documents displaying side by side but still readable. It fits in my Swissgear and I once managed to shove 2 of them in there. In addition, the Swissgear line offers TSA-friendly bags that can be zipped open to go through security without removing the laptop. There are zipped side pouches that can stow an umbrella and water bottle. The downside? A huge number of road warriors have them, so you will almost certainly want to customize the outside of yours with a distinctive tag so you can grab it quickly from the lineup of them at the back of the room when you attend a meeting. Mine sports a Yoda lego mini-fig. Locally, Microcenter has a huge selection of computer bags if you want to inspect them in person.

Depending upon the crowd: Erotic Baker Cookbook I just checked my bookshelf and I still have the copy I bought on remainder in graduate school. It is available for loan.

For those seeking visually attractive fermentation jars, check your local Home Goods. Post X-mas, the one in Ashburn had Mortier Pilon kits at less than half retail price. These are attractive glass jars with a ceramic weight and plastic surroundings, including an air lock. The glass is not thermal shock proof so you don't want to use boiling water to sanitize. Currently working on a batch of pickled daikon after my napa kimchi worked out well. I have developed a crustacean allergy so making my own kimchi is now the safest way for me to be sure my kimchi is free of the tasty salted shrimp that are in so many commercial versions.

We swear by it too. When your hands are in the dough, you notice the difference. KA has a beautiful silky feel.

For warm weather events, my HOA in the Herndon area has a large field with a paved sports court that we use for our various social events, but no water, power, or potties. Port-o-potties can be rented. The upside is that it is private property which means that alcohol is NOT a problem. I can provide a reasonable amount of water for handwashing, etc. One of the neighbors who borders the field might well let us run a power line in exchange for delicious food. Does anyone else have an HOA that might have better facilities available?

I should have posted this long before. Given the current political climate, I know there are people who are no longer comfortable at their family gatherings. Might people with extra space/food be interested in getting matched up with members with similar political and food leanings? Some of the most stress free holiday meals I've attended were potlucks with friends. We can probably squeeze 2 in for Thanksgiving, but since we're Jewish, we're happy to host for an alternative Xmas day dinner if people are interested. Ours is a non-smoking, meat-eating cat-free home, with extremely liberal politics. We don't care what your religion is as long as you're tolerant, love good food, and don't reek of perfume or patchouli (makes me sneeze like crazy). All normal food allergens are present. I have a crustacean allergy but people can bring food with them, just label it please. Standard poodles present, dog hair tumbleweeds are not. We will try really hard to work with your pronouns; our chowpup is transgender (and how'd he get to be 18 already?).

Staff at Rays has never been less than gracious to my son, and he was about that age when we first started going there.

ATL I suggest that you avoid Mustard Seed BBQ at Terminal D in the Atlanta Airport. As a final insult to my travel day (the flight was delayed by over 4 hours, followed by opening the door at 1:45 am to a hotel room that had clearly NOT been made up after the prior tenant), I enjoyed a violent case of food poisoning for the first day of a 4 day, 2 city trip this week. Was it the pulled pork or the potato salad? I have a pretty robust immune system but whichever it was, it was too damned much.

Thanks, Don. I really wanted more insomnia. I ran into a reference about Hawaiians roasting and eating the big cane spiders. That one's also a big no thanks.

In the event that you choose to make your own (I'm a fan of Maida's version of Craig Clairborne's), and it calls for lemon zest: After zesting the lemon, which I do using the Cuisinart (the whole lemon goes into the feeder tube with ZERO pressure where it bounces around on the grater blade, doing a pretty thorough job in seconds), switch to the regular blade, add the sugar for the recipe, and give it a few more seconds until the lemon rind is as fine as you want it. I stumbled into this when I felt the lemon rind was not as finely grated as I wanted and was trying to figure out how to chop it more in the Cuisinart without turning it into mush. This method infuses your sugar with lemon oil. Combined with an extended beating of the cream cheese with a good stand mixer, you have the base for a darned good cheesecake.

Free evening parking was such an obvious solution. The RTC restaurants have a fairly captive audience at lunch but paid parking makes them a less attractive option for dinner.

There is now a decent pho, bahn mi and boba tea shop in Sterling adjacent to the NOVA campus. TeaBreak is at 46850 S Cottage Rd #100, Sterling, VA 20164. The K-mart plaza (soon to be K-martless) in Herndon hosts Charcoal Kabob, and there are several Indian restaurants in the area, most of which offer buffets at lunch time. The exception is in the K-mart plaza itself, where an order-at-the counter Indian place (I think it is Indian Baker, used to be Hot Breads) has a good selection of dosa. The Herndon area has a number of good Thai restaurants. While there are others, I am fond of Thai by Thai and Thai Luong. Thai by Thai is order at the counter and has a "not-so-secret" Thai menu with the more exciting dishes, while Thai Luong is a much fancier venue with an addictive the basil duck.

I have one of those as well. I think it was my 40th birthday present to myself. It is starting to yellow with age but continues to work the few times a year we call upon it.

I'm surprised that would happen at Whole Foods, but I would NOT be surprised if it happened at an Asian market. I see hanger steak in HMart's cases all the time, as fairly thin slices, done across the full, unseparated hangar steak. Different cultural preferences, I know. Still, it makes me sad because I am very fond of hangers and I can't quite see enjoying having to slice the separating tissue out of every individual piece while eating.

I have been finding my whole hanger steaks at the Fresh World on Elden Street in Herndon. They're sold in vac pacs. In general, I'm not thrilled with this store; aisles are narrow and packed high, so it has this sort of closed in, foreboding feel to it. But they have a HUGE meat selection. They are also a good source for beef bones; unlike a lot of places they do not mix the bone types up which is nice if you are seeking a specific bone type for your stock. The effort involved in splitting the two sides from the bit of connective tissue is minor and at $4.99/lb, yes, I'll make the effort.

Don't read the reviews for those with a mouth full of liquid. I sent 5lb of an off-brand (same results if eaten in quantity) when the occupiers of the Malheur wildlife refuge asked for snacks. Following the arrests, I contacted the local food bank to warn them to beware of any sugar free items that might be donated by that group. That was an interesting exchange, but the food bank rep was gracious about it.

Sumos were $2 each at H-Mart in Annandale last weekend, whether in pre-wrapped pairs or by the case. They're nice but I'm not sure I like them all that much more than the Darling clementines. Does anyone in this area stock the tiny Ojai Valley mandarins? The fruit basket at my offices in California had them 2 weeks ago, but it is considered poor office etiquette to bring them home with you. I make an exception at our Tyson's office, where the weekly fruit delivery from California usually includes at least one fruit that is patently unfit for office consumption such as a mango or pomegranate.

They really need to switch to free parking after 5 pm--this is how they avoid killing the tenants with parking fees and keep people in restaurants.

It's a bit late for me to be chiming in, but if you are going to plant garlic chives, please be aware that they are insanely invasive. I'm sure that next Spring I'll be posting my usual offer on the Cooking forum to come out to the Herndon area and take whatever you want of mine. My herb garden is in the front yard (Southern exposure) and the garlic chives are everywhere.

Congratulations on your pregnancy, not so much on the gestational diabetes. Various cucumber salads are low carb, fast to make, and delicious. The garlicy "smashed" version that The New York Times published in 2015 really is pretty good, though you might want to reduce the salt. Are you able to have avocados? Back in the good old days before I was allergic to shrimp, a whole avocado stuffed with small shrimp or langostinos with a bit of tarragon mayo made for a nice lunch.

We had lunch at a packed Bob's on Monday, January 2. Our new menu discovery is the pickled wood ear mushrooms. They are tossed in a coating of garlic, ginger, sesame oil, salt, vinegar, and I suspect some rice wine. They're addictive. We briefly thought that some of them would come home with us to become a breakfast over a bowl of rice, but that sure didn't happen.

I love the motor on the Cuisinart, but I despise the bowls. The lids utilize a flexible plastic part to depress the safety mechanism and it gets brittle and snaps with age. Mine snapped during Thanksgiving food prep, just before the recall on the main chopper blade came out. We had an older bowl/lid assembly in the basement which managed to get us through the holidays but I can see that it is going to die Real Soon Now--it has a repair that was made years ago that is unlikely to last. The cost of the top and bottom bowl assembly (there are problems with the bottom too) is nearly the cost of a full new equivalent to my DC-8. While I have a ton of blades, I'm beginning to have real questions about why I keep buying a product that has so many design problems. Is anyone using an under $200 model of food processor that they adore? Ease of cleaning (top rack dishwasher is preferred) and robust design is what I am seeking. I need a grater that works well on cheese and a dough blade. The Cuisinart rocks at "forking" butter into flour.