Pat

I'll move if asked so that seats can be reconfigured--or offer to do it if I notice a problem. In this case it sounds like there was only one seat but two people looking to sit, so one seat wouldn't have fixed the problem. Maybe the wine drinker realized that and that's why she didn't make a move to offer the seat. I guess one of the couple could sit and one could stand, but if I saw they were getting menus, I'd assume they're sitting somewhere else nearby (a bar table, say).

I thought that was odd, too, but they called it "classic," in the context of saying there are both old and new places mixed together in the area. It seemed like they just wanted to fit it in somehow, but it doesn't fit with all the other places mentioned in the article.

I never ate tater tots as a kid. They were one of the foods, like Kraft mac and cheese, that I tried as an adult, since I figured I'd missed out on something by never eating them as a kid.My husband never ate them when he was young either. After I made them a few times, he issued the same veto over them as he did over the Kraft mac and cheese .

I'm looking for a place to eat before a show at the Rock and Roll Hotel next week. Suggestions? Despite our reasonable proximity to H Street, we have not yet been there, nor to the Argonaut, or any of the other new nightspots that have opened . The Argonaut struck me as the best spot to try. The other option I'd thought of is Granville Moore's. (I wasn't sure which thread to put this in. I don't see a general H Street/Atlas District thread.) The Rock and Roll Hotel also has food, but the menu won't be substantial enough for my husband. Bonus question: This will be election night. Are any of these places likely to be packed on election night?

He's boycotting the market until the city reopens 7th street to traffic. Whether he'll come back in the spring or not, I don't know. I can't remember what his sign said about that before he left. He's definitely not coming back during the winter months if the street stays closed. That part I remember.I miss buying his produce but personally, I much prefer having that block closed to traffic. I know it's a sensitive subject and many people feel the other way, but I thought it was dangerous the way it was.

I've gone to the Calomiris's stand pretty regularly for years, but recently I've been happier with some of the produce at Paik. Instead of going to Paik if I can't find what I want elsewhere, I sometimes go there first. It's good to know about the curry leaves.I know they (Paik) were in the South Hall at the time of the fire, but had they taken over another produce stand fairly recently before that? I can't recall what it was called, but I thought the ownership or management had changed--a couple of years ago, maybe.

I do a fair amount with leftovers. Even if just one component of a meal is already made, it helps a lot. Last night we had all leftovers: potato skins, pigs in blankets, spare ribs, and chicken. It's actually unusual for us to have a meal that's all leftovers, but I was running late. Tonight I'm making some kind of green salad, hamburgers on biscuit buns, and bulgur with mushrooms (a Martha Stewart recipe I make periodically). The soaking of the bulgur accounts for most of the time devoted to that part of the meal. I'll start the bulgur first and then make the salad. I'll cut the mushrooms and shallots to go in the bulgur dish while I'm making the salad. The biscuit dough is leftover from the batch I made for pigs in blankets. That requires rolling out, cutting, and baking. The burgers will cook while the biscuits bake. I'm also planning to make a quick batch of guacamole, as the avocados I have are already overly-ripe and won't last another day. Some of that may go on the burgers or we'll have it with chips before the meal. It should take just over an hour to have everything done and on the table.

Timed for halftime: loaded potato skins pigs in blankets Cuban-style black beans spare ribs (dry rub, then bbq sauce; long low oven) Everything was great. I used the yeast angel biscuit dough linked elsewhere to make the blankets for the dogs. It worked very well.

I started making the corn souffle recipe from the Fannie Farmer Cookbook when I was a teenager. It's my favorite souffle recipe. I even bought a souffle dish to have the proper equipment to make it. That has to be the oldest piece of my own cooking-related equipment I have. I believe it was one of the first purchases I made with my Strawbridge and Clothier charge card. OK, that's lots of extraneous information, but my first efforts at souffle were successful with that recipe, which gave my cooking confidence an early boost.

I've only made it a few times, but I recall that what I served with it seemed to make the difference. I think I may have liked it served with spinach and garlic, but I don't seem to have notes on that. I keep notes rather erratically on the recipes I make, which can be frustrating when I can't quite recall something on my own.

Really good, fresh bagels I'll eat without toasting. Most times I eat them toasted .

leftover twice-baked mashed potatoes

As I recall, they have some cutesy name for them. I try not to think of them as bagels. If I'm starving in the morning, they fill a need for something starchy and toasted, but that's about it.

Deviled chicken drumsticks* Lima beans with butter Twice baked potatoes *I couldn't find the recipe I'd used for this in the past, so I concocted my own deviling mixture, rolled the chicken in that and then in bread crumbs. The crumb mixture was part baguette and part buttermilk biscuits. It worked really well. There was no trouble keeping the crumbs on the chicken through the cooking time either, which is something I sometimes have a problem with. Since I hate throwing things out if I don't have to, I had in the freezer what seemed like an endless supply of biscuits that hadn't risen enough when baked but tasted okay. I'd kept them to thaw for a last minute bread item to go with soups or whatnot. They worked really well as bread crumbs, after being whirred up in the food processor with a chunk of baguette.

I had the feeling that Guinness must have been doing a promotional campaign a while back, because several times when I ordered a light draught beer, I encountered a bartender/server telling me that Guinness had about the same number of calories and that it was low in carbs. There seemed to be talking points that had been established on the subject . I recall one gentleman in particular who did not take a polite no for an answer and repeatedly insisted that I would rather have Guinness than Miller Lite. I like pilsners. I may sometimes drink other beers, but I prefer pilsners (whether they are merely light or "lite" beers. If I'm not concerned about money I'll order Stella Artois or Urquell, but more often I go with the cheap "lite" draught.) I tend to drink light beer because I don't like the strong flavor of darker beers. Sometimes I will drink darker beers--and I have, on occasion, drunk Guinness and found it acceptable--but they are not what I generally choose to drink. It is really irritating to be told that you would rather have something else than what you ordered .

I have done that and liked it. I was just looking at the recipe again recently because someone elsewhere was looking for pork loin recipes. It reminded me that I hadn't made it in a long time.

Those do look like the same thing. Different sources have somewhat different information. I have The Complete Meat Cookbook (Aidells and Kelly), which is pretty useful, but I still feel like there's a lot I don't understand.

I've used leg of lamb to make stew. I wouldn't pay a premium price for it, but if you're getting it inexpensively, why not? I sometimes make lamb stew out of leftover roast leg of lamb, as well.

There are stovetop smokers. I think Zora has mentioned having one (?). There is a thread or portion thereof somewhere dealing with stovetop smokers.I don't make any kind of ribs that often, but I have made beef ribs basically the way I make baby back pork or spareribs. I use a dry rub and long low heat in the oven, and then add a sauce of some kind near the end. Short ribs are kind of squared off. The ones I use most often are the English style. Sometimes they're cut into smaller pieces for sale rather than left whole. There's also a kind cut lengthwise, but you can see where each square is on the slab. These are what I think of as short ribs for braising or these. These are the ones cut the other way. ETA: That last url has links for photos of short ribs from the chuck and plate portions of the anatomy.

A brick with scrapple at Market Lunch. I think the simultaneous political discussion my friend and I were having gave me indigestion, though . I also had a cup of coffee that seemed supercharged with caffeine. Or maybe that effect was a consequence of the discussion too. I'm swearing off discussing politics first thing in the morning, and in crowded public places .

Bittman's Asparagus Risotto, topped with fried eggs leftover arugula salad

I'm not sure what you mean by regular beef ribs. Short ribs are a particular cut--and they can be cut a couple of different ways. I think they're usually chuck, but I'm not too expert on meat cuts. Braising is generally the most popular way of cooking them, but I've seen recipes for marinating and grilling them.

This was quite a tasty meal, though the descriptions make it sound a bit cluttered. Saying salad, pork and rice, and bread would be a lot more succinct . Salad of baby arugula, grape tomatoes, cucumber, red and yellow bell pepper strips, extra-sharp cheddar, croutons; balsamic vinaigrette Braised [leftover] cubed pork shoulder with red onions, garlic, red and yellow bell pepper, pickapeppa and soy sauces; served over whole grain rice blend* cooked in anise-scented mushroom broth, mixed with sliced mushrooms; all topped with toasted sliced almonds Marvelous Market rustic boule with soy spread *Rice Select Royal Grain: brown and red rice, barley, and rye berries, with additional red rice remaining from another container.

I looked the recipe up and bookmarked it. Thanks for the idea.

Spaghetti with lime and rocket. I first got this from a mailing list I'm on back in 2000. I think about making it more often than I do. It seems harder to make in theory than when I actually go ahead and prepare it. Searching around reveals a copy of the recipe here, at the bottom of page 1/top of page 2.