Pat

Chicken enchiladas Refried black beans Corn and radish salad

Oh, I love that popcorn. It's great with excessive amounts of coarse sea salt and butter . (I pop it with corn oil.)

In addition to Madison, I like Didi Emmons' book Vegetarian Planet. There's a recipe in there I particularly enjoy for baked rigatoni with broccoli and gorgonzola. You can do a limited "search in the book" at Amazon to get a sense of the book.

ground beef tacos on soft white corn tortillas topped with chopped tomatoes, shredded lettuce, shredded cheddar, sliced green olives stuffed with jalapenos, and sour cream

Someone was asking elsewhere about how long homemade balsamic vinaigrette would keep and intended to leave it out on the kitchen counter. I've always thought it should be refrigerated, especially if there is garlic in it. Is that correct? And how long should it be kept in the refrigerator? (I thought a couple of weeks.)

Cheeseburgers (provolone) with fried onions and mushrooms on mini baguettes

I don't think they're very similar. I wouldn't have used it as an example. Having under- (or non-) utilized employees on the payroll would be awfully different in the two cases. It also sounded as though (from what was posted in the thread from which this was spun off) the restaurant in question had employees leave right before or at the time of opening, leaving the kitchen short staffed. Restaurants tend to have fairly high turnover of employees, so waiting to get everything just right doesn't guarantee anything, if you're going to have people walk at the last minute.

Maybe it's just me, but I'd hold a law firm to far stricter standards than a bar/restaurant. If my burger takes longer than I expect and comes without the salad I ordered, that's far less problematic than a law firm sending me documents that are incorrect.

Ruhlman's talking about chef cookbooks. I don't really expect Thomas Keller to write a 5 ingredients in 40 minutes or less cookbook.

I think I prefer that chef/restaurant cookbooks be written in a way that I will learn the proper way to make the restaurant dishes, even if I only make one component of a dish because I can't commit myself to the whole thing. I find it far more frustrating to get a restaurant cookbook and have it dumbed down. For Valentine's Day, I made recipes from both the Fonda San Miguel Cookbook (which had been dumbed down for the home cook) and The Mansion on Turtle Creek Cookbook (which hadn't). An awful lot more time, sweat, and tears went into making the Mansion recipes, but they came out well, and I felt a sense of accomplishment. I liked the meal I had at Fonda San Miguel, but their cookbook is exasperating. It's too simplified. I don't need their cookbook to make these things. Whatever might be unique and special is gone. On top of that, some of the time/temperatures are even wrong. The artwork in the book is beautiful, though.

Chicken sandwiches (lettuce, tomato, sliced hard boiled eggs) on mini baguettes Buttermilk fennel potato salad

It closed for renovations early this year and, from what I hear, it's reopening with a new name and new owner at some unspecified future date. (I'm told it will be a New York style pub, but I don't know quite what that means .)

Popcorn with butter, coarse sea salt, garlic powder, and grated Parmigiano

Leftover cubed ham went into the last batch of macaroni and cheese I made, along with the cavatappi, and it was the best macaroni and cheese I'd made in a while. I used to put ham in more years ago, and I had forgotten how good it is. I believe I also used some bread crumbs last time around. .

I also generally use cheddar and make a casserole type of mac and cheese. That's what I do when all I want is macaroni and cheese with dinner. Other times, I'll make particular recipes that call for other types of cheeses. I like some of these more than others but have discovered over the years that I don't like very strong cheese or too many cheeses in my mac and cheese. The plainer it is, the more satisfying I tend to find it.I usually use elbows or sometimes small shell pasta in mine. Lately I've discovered that cavatappi (the double elbows) are fabulous for the casserole-style macaroni and cheese. Occasionally I put bread crumbs on top, but I don't really care for that so much as a plain crusty cheese top.

Had a pleasant early dinner at Montmarte tonight, and the no alcohol on the patio before 6 PM rule still applies. It really filled up outside after that. Country pate and rillettes with cornichons and cherry tomatoes to start. A house salad and a Belgian endive salad with walnuts and blue cheese. Duck leg confit with tarbais beans. Hanger steak with red potatoes, snow peas, caramelized shallots and red wine sauce. I've liked the endive salad more in the past, but it was still fine. The rillettes were slightly dry, but I like the combination of them on the board with the country pate, instead of having to choose between them.

Tom's chatter referred to it both as a blog and a board. Some people don't seem to make too much distinction between a multi-person blog and a message board.

Grabbed dinner at the bar tonight and had a most satisfying meal with great service. I got the salad special, which was greens with grilled radicchio, baby artichokes, balsamic vinagrette and crushed pistachios over the top. Excellent salad. It featured a tad too much salt for my taste, but I loved it. The grilled flavor of the radicchio came through nicely and just really made the salad. The other dish I got was the ravioli of the day: stuffed with artichoke, in garlic butter with parsley and Parmigiano. Fabulous ravioli. The olive oil and bread were better this time than last I commented, and I'd already had a couple of pieces of bread dipped in olive oil before I realized I needed to dip bread in the garlic butter too. Oh, I am so stuffed . Had a glass of Trebbiano to drink--actually, their glass and a half (8 oz.). With tax, before tip, the meal was $40. This is more than I like to spend on an impromptu night out, but I don't eat here much, and it was definitely worth it.

I know who you're talking about, but this was a different woman. Despite the shortages and expired foods, the quality of service in that Safeway improved a number of years ago--rather suddenly, too. It may have even been a decade ago. I think they changed management then. Prior to that, the service was not only indifferent but could be downright surly. Now the employees are generally pretty helpful and pleasant. That doesn't do much to compensate for things like milk being out of stock or there being shelves of expired food. I point out expired food all too often in that store.

Homemade white corn tortilla chips with homemade salsa and guacamole; sour cream Leftover chili cornbread casserole

I needed to get a number of specific products--mostly canned--for a camping trip. Safeway (14th and D, SE), surprisingly, had more than I thought they would have. I had weighed whether to stop there or to walk the extra blocks to Harris Teeter. When I got to the checkout, I realized that the can of mushrooms I picked up had an expiration date of Nov 2007. The cashier was wonderful about letting me go back to get another can. ALL of the canned mushrooms I checked (both pieces and whole) had a Nov. 2007 date. The cashier said that she would have someone pull them. She was a great cashier. I'm sure the people behind me in line didn't like me very much, though. If I'm eating expired foods, they're coming from my own pantry . Oh, but, no...it gets better. This discussion reminds the woman in front of me of the milk she bought that was bad and turned out to be past its expiration date when she bought it. She still had 1 gallon of unopened expired milk at home, and the cashier (who was really a pro at customer service) encouraged her to bring it back, even without a receipt. I found a nice can of sliced mushrooms (exp date in 2010) at Paik Produce in Eastern Market. She also had a small bottle of soy sauce--the smallest I'd been able to find. She was out of the canned evaporated milk I needed but had condensed. Oh, well. Two out of three.

Fennel potato salad with buttermilk dressing leftover from last night

Buttermilk potato salad with fennel Chili cornbread casserole

Tunnicliffs a lot lately: steak and cheese (smaller than it used to be and I think it used to have more stuff on it, but filling and good enough); with fries super grilled cheese (on rye--I always order it on rye when I remember); with fries mushroom-pepperoni-olive pizza (probably the best pizza I've ever had there--thin, crispy, and excellent) two brunch sandwiches: the breakfast club (my favorite on their brunch menu and one of the cheapest items--omelette style eggs, bacon, cheese, tomato, and lettuce on brioche* bun) with fried red potatoes that were just right the breakfast burger--bacon cheeseburger with fried egg (first I'd had it and I loved it, though several dollars more expensive than the breakfast club. It comes with fries and they were good with the egg yolk.) *I should probably say brioche-style or something like that. It's got butter or equivalent brushed on the top, but I don't actually know what the bread is for this.

Dan wins first prize in the Science Fair . Very creative project.