Pat

The milk bread here (which is set in stacks near the kitchen when they've gotten a delivery in) is wonderful. They clearly use quite a lot of this. It's used not just for the toasts but for sandwiches and croutons in the bright and delicious bread salad. The fries, which come with black pepper aioli and ketchup, are excellent, if you are a fry aficionado.

This is a quirky concept but a reliable restaurant with excellent service.

I hemmed and hawed for too long and then couldn't get a reservation for Meaza at a time that would work for us and our guests, so we ended up at Ethiopic, which had been my first thought. So I looped around and ended up back where I started. I hadn't been there since a couple years before the pandemic, but the food and service were just as good as they'd been in the past.

We paid extra to get the fully teff injera, which is always so good. The server wanted to double check that we didn't have any gluten issues when I was willing to pay extra to get the teff. I thought that was good looking out. She also made a point when bringing the bill of saying that a 20% tip had already been added so we didn't need to tip, which we appreciated. We also left her an extra cash tip.

In addition to the 7 item vegetarian platter we got an order of butcha, the chickpea salad of theirs I absolutely love, and a beef tibs and a lamb tibs. We ended up with leftovers, which we brought home. I turned the little bit of remaining food on the big platter and the berbere and juice-soaked injera under it into a migas kind of thing with a bunch of scrambled eggs. (There is an Ethiopian name for the dish that the ripped injera goes into, but I forget what it is.)

Anyway, Ethiopic is still quite good. I do eventually want to get to Meaza and Chercher, though. It's been way too long since I've gotten Ethiopian food. Our friends live in New Zealand, where there is one Ethiopian restaurant in the entire country and not near them, so this was their very specific request.

12 hours ago, Bart said:

Closing May 12.  https://www.washingtonpost.com/food/2024/05/01/marcels-restaurant-closing-wiedmaier/

I never made it there and was considering trying to go when I saw this article.  Then I saw the two previous posts.  I think I'll stick with Kinship.

 

 

I've only been there once and had a very good meal, but that was a long time ago. This was the favorite restaurant of a good friend of mine who died many years ago now. She lived in Foggy Bottom and went there often. I always associate this restaurant with her. 😔

We had this one skillet chicken and rice last night, along with sourdough bread and a small salad. I didn't eat much since I had lunch out, but this came out well. I used jasmine rice because it was the most accessible white rice in my collection of airtight containers. I liked the combination of orzo and rice. It gave this a pilaf kind of feel.

I met some visiting friends for lunch at the Ballston location today. They were woefully understaffed, which we were told about upon arriving. They did their best. The food was perfectly fine, even better than I expected given understaffing. We had a beet salad, a mushroom rigatoni, and a shrimp roll (mine). I would go back if I were out in that area again, but I don't really have reason to be there.

I bought a small pork loin roast on sale at Whole Foods and cooked it in the air fryer last night. It came out really well. Before cooking, I seasoned it with rubbed sage, dried thyme, onion and garlic powders, a little turmeric, and salt and pepper.

We had this with more green beans and leftover mashed potatoes with morels, plus a salad. The salad was baby greens, carrots, hard-boiled egg, Campari tomatoes, and radishes with vinaigrette.

I've got a baseball game and other stuff on Sunday, but I could be interested in a dinner if there is a subsequent one.

I bought some morels at the H Street market today. Very extravagant purchase but worth it. I sauteed them in butter with fresh thyme, salt and pepper and then mixed them in with some very buttery and creamy mashed yukon gold potatoes. We also had green beans and roasted chicken leg quarters. There was a salad of mixed greens, radishes, cucumber, hard-boiled egg, and grape tomatoes, with the last of the avocado and feta salsa we'd been having with salmon.

Is Chercher still a good bet? Looking for a place in DC or Arlington for a meal next week. I see they have locations in both.

And how is Ethiopic these days?

All suggestions welcome.

Last night I made what was supposed to be salmon bowls over rice but did it instead as a 1 1/3 lb. fillet cooked with the same sauce and accompanied on a plate by asparagus with ramp persillade, and TJ's Thai wheat noodles dressed with a sesame soy condiment that came from a Foxtrot* takeout. It came out quite well. My husband especially liked the avocado and feta salsa that went with the salmon.

*They shut their entire business operation (35 locations)  down suddenly yesterday after I'd already been in the store, so I won't be getting that again. RIP Foxtrot. My condolences to their screwed over employees.

It was packed when I was there this morning. The shelves and cases are emptying quickly. I heard one woman say she's coming back every day until they close.  If there is something you really want, get there ASAP.

SIgh. That space was Marvelous Market, then Silver Spork.  This was a somewhat different type of place, and I really liked their coffee.

On 4/20/2024 at 1:04 PM, DonRocks said:

Do tell!

They're not made the way they used to be so it's probably moot. Looking at the website, they have whipped cream on top now and actual ice cream. I'm not sure how much dairy they included before (vs. soy or something) but they used to be great for coating a sore throat.

Another Tuesday, another cheese pizza from della barba, with pepperoni, Parmesan, and hot pepper flakes added at home during reheating. I also braised some green curly kale and grape tomatoes in chicken broth, with hot Calabrian chilies and honey.

Chicken tetrazzini and marinated grape tomatoes were the menu last night. I needed to pull together something fairly quick after getting back from the Nats game, and this fit the bill.

I remember getting strawberry milkshakes at the Norwich (UK) McDonald's when I had strep throat ca 1983. I knew they were good for sore throats and I was far away from home with a brutal sore throat. It's the only time I've been to a McD's overseas.

Last night I made an old stand-by, chili beans and mac casserole. It's from the 9x13 cookbook*, all recipes made in that size pan. In an effort not to make way too much food, lately I've been ending up not making enough to have leftovers around for my husband's lunch, etc. This makes a bountiful amount of food.

We had it with a salad of escarole, tomatoes, and lettuce with ranch dressing.

*The book is a fairly small paperback and the binding is barely holding on after all these years. I've always found it good to use for pot lucks, etc. These are the ingredients. Technique is pretty straightforward. Bake at 350 for 1 hour, though I did it at a higher temperature for a somewhat shorter time yesterday. It has to cook long enough for the macaroni to cook in the liquid.

2        tablespoons          vegetable oil

2                             onions -- chopped

1 1/2    pounds               lean ground beef -- or turkey

1        tablespoon           chili powder -- or to taste

1 1/2    cups                 sharp cheddar cheese -- grated

2        28 oz. cans          kidney beans -- undrained

1        28 oz. can           crushed tomatoes

1 1/2    cups                 olives -- pitted

3/4      cup                  elbow macaroni -- uncooked

1/2      cup                  sharp cheddar cheese -- grated

7 minutes ago, Katya4me said:

an unusually beige meal

We have those too sometimes. That's when I realize why restaurants add that curly parsley garnish to plates (or used to; it seems not to be so common any more). I try to find any reasonable green herb to mince and sprinkle over the plate. If I have any, sometimes I'll halve a cherry tomato or two to set alongside the beige food.

Last night was actually rather beige, come to think of it . I fried up some mushroom and sauerkraut pierogies I'd bought at Stachowski's a couple months ago and had stashed in the freezer. We had them with caramelized onions and sauteed enoki and sliced button mushrooms. This used a lot of butter all around. I balanced things somewhat with braised rainbow chard and green curly kale to accompany.

Will have to try that ⬆️ salad. I've got some leftover rotisserie chicken in the freezer. It reminds me a bit of the chicken ranch pasta salad with avocado and bacon I made from her site recently, and rotisserie chicken worked great.

Speaking of her site, we had salmon with creamed spinach and mashed potatoes last night. I combined 2 recipes from Half-Baked Harvest, as she tends to reissue variations on the same essential recipe over time. I included both the cream cheese and pepper flakes from this one and the thyme, dill, green onions, salsa verde, and sun-dried tomatoes from this, so it was spicy. I used heavy cream, lemon juice and zest as well. The last bit of the cream went into the mashed potatoes as did some excess dill and green onion tops. It looked beautiful plated.

Last night was patty melts, french fries, and salad. I bought ground beef on sale that was 80/20. I usually go somewhat lower fat, so the patties were a bit greasy. I should stick to using that for cooking up ground beef for something where it gets well -drained and use the better stuff for burgers.

So sorry to read this. I always learned from his posts.

A while back I had bought a small boneless leg of lamb at TJ's that I intended for Easter. I was eyeing a recipe from a Greek cookbook* I've had for years and don't think I've ever cooked from. When I went to get started, I realized that the 2 hours I'd set aside were not going to be anywhere near enough time given how slowly the prep would go.

Instead, for Easter we had this chicken pasta salad, which was excellent and made a ton of food for leftovers.

A couple of days later, I set aside lots of time to make the lamb recipe (Roast Lamb from Rhodes), and...we still ate dinner late 🙃. The recipe struck me as a cross between dolma and kleftiko, as the lamb is first wrapped in lettuce leaves and then in parchment or foil parcels. Thin slices of tomato and onion go on top of the lamb before wrapping.

The recipe called for either romaine or red leaf lettuce. I had both and used most of two heads of lettuce. (Each bundle uses 4 or 5 leaves.) Having made dolma and stuffed cabbage in the past, I should have thought to cut the out the thickest part of the stems of the leaves. It was hard to roll the lettuce bundles with those intact. Otherwise this came out well, time issues notwithstanding. After an hour roasting, the foil is cut open and feta is crumbled over the lamb inside for the remaining oven time. We had these with asparagus and garlic naan.

There were quite a few leftover, so last night I reheated them in a Staub cocotte. I put a layer of drained and rinsed Great Northern beans on the bottom and nestled in the lamb bundles. I halved several cocktail tomatoes and scattered over the top.  Then I poured over some canned tomato juice and white wine over it all and heated until everything was nice and warm and the tomatoes were breaking down. This was a great use of the extras and I think we liked it even more than the original. We served this straight from the pot at the table, accompanied by more garlic naan and a salad. For the salad: The remaining romaine and red lettuces, cucumber, radishes, and tomatoes, with crumbled feta and marcona almonds to top. The dressing was the last of the ranch made for the chicken pasta salad. (I only used about 2/3 of the dressing on the pasta salad.)

*The cookbook is Regional Greek Cooking by Dean and Catherine Karayanis.

Last night was fish-centered. I made small pumpernickel canapes topped with cream cheese, smoked salmon, red onion and dill.  I forgot capers. We also had a baked halibut fillet with lemon and tarragon and a mix of buttered peas and carrots with dill.

The plates were very bright-looking.

I haven't been cooking much either. Last night I had a chicken recipe in mind. I knew my package was less than the amount but was going to scale down the recipe. When I opened the package, I found 3 skinless boneless breasts all of completely different sizes and thicknesses. That wasn't going to work for the recipe, so I sliced the chicken into strips of as close to the same size as I could and dredged in a mixture of seasoned flour and a little cornstarch. Then I cooked them in batches in the air fryer.

I simmered asparagus (which was to be part of the sheet pan recipe) until crisp-tender and put that on a sheet pan next to the cooked chicken strips. I seasoned the asparagus with salt and pepper and drizzled with a little evoo and balsamic vinegar. I topped the chicken with some pizza sauce that was in the fridge and then with some fresh basil leaves, shredded mozzarella and a few discs of fresh mozzarella. The pan went under the broiler while I cooked angel hair pasta I had hanging around in a tall jar, a mix of regular and whole wheat. For serving I tossed the pasta with some torn fresh basil, the very last of the sauce, and grated Parmesan. I also put some grated Parmesan over top of the chicken to serve.

Good meal but it took a while longer than I had allocated for the original recipe.

Saturday night was a salmon fillet I marinated in sesame soy dressing and baked. We had that with white rice and sauteed then braised curly kale.

I had made some spicy baked sweet potato wedges for one of the meals I don't seem to have written about. We had them leftover last night, along with rotisserie chicken and smoked salmon dill crostini. The base of each crostini was a thin layer of whipped cream cheese. There was a sauce for the potatoes, a crema with lime juice, and I drizzled a little of that on top of each crostini before serving. We also had some marinated gigande beans alongside the crostini. This was a simple, mostly no-cook meal.

I originally had different plans for the ground turkey I had in the refrigerator, but I mixed up its use by date with the sausage (ugh, but that pasta with sausage was good!). I discovered* this mid-day yesterday and decided it must be cooked immediately. Didn't even wait until dinner time.

Once it was browned and broken into small bits, I added a can of tomato sauce, about another can of water, some minced dehydrated onion, chopped celery, and Cajun seasoning (some Penzey's, which was old, and some other, newer from WF). Carrots didn't occur to me or I could have had the trinity. I also added a can of Ro-Tel and a can of drained, rinsed small red beans. At some point I added some torn fresh basil as well. I simmered this for a while and then put it in the fridge until dinner time. It made a nice stewy soup (I guess Rachael Ray calls that a stoup.)

We had this with a NY style thin crust pizza from della barba. They've been running $2 off specials on Tuesdays. I've been ordering the plain cheese and then adding toppings at home before putting it in a warm oven to be ready for dinner. Usually I do just pepperoni, but yesterday I sauteed the last of the enoki mushrooms I had and topped the pizza with them, some pre-shredded mozzarella, and whole fresh basil leaves. (I can't recall what recipe I bought the mozzarella for, but I only needed 3/4 of the bag, and one of the problems with pre-shredded cheese is it goes bad fairly quickly. The last 1/4 of that bag seems to be lasting forever.)

Anyway, the turkey was salvaged and dinner saved.

*I try to keep a current list of fresh provisions I have on hand, so things don't go bad before I remember them. When I was putting something else into the meat drawer, I looked at the turkey date and went, "Huh? The 10th?" Then I checked my list and, indeed, had transposed the dates for the hot Italian sausage and the ground turkey in my mind. I need to remember to look at the list more frequently😞.