Pat

Trying this again, for a meetup at the picnic tables at Shelter, in The Roost food hall (1401 Pennsylvania Ave., SE. Opposite Potomac Avenue metro.) If you want to go and there are days of the week and dates that absolutely do not work for you, note here. Super Bowl Sunday, on 2/11, is not in consideration. Likewise, if you will be more than a party of 3, note that here. We can try another meetup, in the Spring, at Josephine in Old Town, part of the same restaurant group.

I haven't exactly been on top of this 🥺. I spoke to a manager at Shelter yesterday, and it turns out you can reserve those picnic tables. I had not inquired before and didn't realize it was a possibility. I had thought it was all first come first served. The length of notice to reserve depends on the size of the party. I figure we'll be 8 to 12. (?) Instead of hemming and hawing further, I'm going to add a poll to see what days and times work for people to go there. If we can get that to work, we'll do Old Town next time. That duo covers a fair amount of the geographic area. Will get the poll up within 24 hours.

Last night was more bread and salad, plus Sheet Pan Chili Ginger Orange Chicken and Broccoli over white rice. The chicken came out really well. I know this blogger/influencer has come under criticism at times for cultural appropriation, but if you just want to make something with good flavors that's not especially authentic, her recipes tend to work pretty well. It works for me because this kind of fusion is what I tend to do myself. I find she kind of over-relies on certain ingredients, but I do that too, so...

Last night was chicken thighs baked over a layer of pomegranate seeds and brushed with commercial bbq sauce partway through cooking, after fat from the skin had rendered for a while. The seeds made a nice tart syrupy sauce on the bottom to go with the sweet sauce on top. I got the idea of roasting meat over pom seeds from a friend and it's a great tip. We also had buttered green beans and leftover cheesy noodles from some iteration of the chicken noodle casserole that made a ton of food.

I was reading through an article recently from The Philadelphia Inquirer about the food columnists' 25 favorite soups in Philly. They didn't come with numerical rankings, but the first one on the list was Uzbek lagman at Uzbekistan Restaurant. It looked and sounded delicious. From there I went down a rabbit hole looking up lagman recipes and then made the soup last night. (Note: I did not make the noodles by hand ) I drew mostly on this recipe but also on this one (gift link) and a few others. I made about half of the Cooking Channel recipe, using a pound and a half each of beef and lamb, and water instead of stock. The meat itself generated plenty of its own flavorful broth. I did not grind the star anise but put a few star anise in to be fished out later. Kind of like leaving in bay leaves. Got to remember to check for them. I used the remainder of an open box of linguine (1/2 lb.+) for the noodles. It took a long time to make but was great for a cold night and will be cozy for the snowy day today. It made a lot. I plan to make freezer space to freeze some. We had it with striata baguette and a baby arugula salad.

We are eating a lot of pasta lately. Last night was cheese tortellini in a Parmesan cream sauce with peas and prosciutto, accompanied by an iceberg and gem lettuce salad.

Last night was a macaroni casserole. Just your basic one, with ground beef, onion, garlic, tomatoes, tomato sauce, elbow macaroni, and topped with grated colby jack cheese. Served with an iceberg salad and toasted baguette slices.

Last night we had leftover salmon and quinoa plus roasted purple broccoli (evoo, nutritional yeast). We also had smoked trout crostini with sour cream and chives. I had saved the recipe a long time ago. It's no longer on the original website but I did find the ingredients list on pinterest. Brush baguette slices with oil and bake in the oven to make crostini. Break up some smoked trout over each piece. Mix sour cream with lemon juice, s + p, and chopped chives. Dollop over the fish. I add extra chives on top.

Last night was another salad, leftover lentil soup, and cheeseburgers on whole wheat buns (Muenster because it was the only kind I had pre-sliced and was feeling lazy).

Pizza usually holds up. Most soups. Other things vary a lot. I'd rather do carryout than delivery in many cases because I at least know roughly how long the food will be in transit and can plan for that. And I have control over the actual food. One pandemic era scene I will not forgot (and I don't think I've gotten delivery since, but I wasn't getting much anyway, except groceries) was a weekday afternoon at The Roost. I had stopped in the restroom and there were two women in there, one of whom was kind of babbling, like maybe she was high on something. She had an older woman with her. They were fussing around with something but I didn't see quite what. I ran into them again outside, as the younger woman was doing something with a food container she was carrying and had set down. The other woman was advising her on how to rearrange the food inside so no one would know what was missing. Yeah. I'll edit this to make it sort of consistent with what Don asks in the subject. I live within reasonable walking distance of at least 4 places I can get pizza, which is my most frequent carryout. I'm talking within a mile-ish. Those 4 would be Slice Joint, Paccis, Della Barba, and Tunnicliffs. (There's also the pinsa place on 7th, which I have still not tried; not talking about chains, including Spike's WTP.) My favorite by far is Slice Joint, but it is expensive. I tend to get the largest pizza, though. I often get just cheese or maybe one topping, and we're looking at $30 for a pizza. It's worth it, but it's the longest walk and I don't do it real often. Their service is spectacular. That's a damn lot of money for a pizza. Della Barba's pizzas are much smaller. Service can be weird. Depending on the type of pizza and maybe an extra topping or two, we're looking mid-20s and up. It's convenient, if they're actually open. I've only gotten one pizza at Pacci's. It's neopolitan style but was way too wet even for that. Service was, eh. I want to support them more than I am. I recall that being medium sized and low-20s. Tunnicliffs pizza is good bar pizza. It's 4th of 4 here. I will get mushroom and pepperoni or just margherita. It comes in under $20. (Their breakfast pizza is quite good, but I don't order that to take out.) What I realize writing this is that Paccis is the loser, not because of anything bad about them but because of the combination of factors that come into play. They're not the cheapest and not the best, and their direct competition (Della Barba) has multiple styles of pizza.

Yesterday seemed very much like a soup day, so I made a coconut curry red lentil stew. I simplified it even further by throwing the ginger (which was only sort of peeled) and garlic into the food processor after roughly processing the other veggies and then cooking them all together from the beginning. I used avocado oil for that and a splash of shoyu at the end with the lime rather rather than fish sauce. I tinkered with the liquids a little bit, using the last part of a previously opened can of coconut milk + a new one; a quart of vegetable stock + the remainder of an opened can of low-sodium chicken broth; most of a 24 oz. jar of passata (could not find any crushed tomatoes in the pantry, but I swear I have some!); and a little plain water near the end to thin out the texture just a bit. It was getting a little thick even for stew. This was excellent and perfect for a blustery rainy day. The rest of the meal was leftover salad and toasts made from the last of the striata.

Last night was chicken piccata over spaghetti, striata baguette, and a big salad.

I ate at Famous Luigi's once, with a friend and a bunch of her friends from GW. It seemed like the kind of place you just had to go to.

Sietsema recommends Unconventional Diner a whole lot.

Well, it's a new year, so maybe we could try again. I hope you're feeling better! I'm probably not the best person to plan something but we could do Alexandria and we could do Capitol Hill. If we can get 5 or 6, let's do it.

Last night I made steak and cheese sandwiches on striata baguette pieces. I should have just had us split one, because each of us only ate half. They should reheat well enough wrapped in foil, though. A couple days before, I had come across a couple frozen delmonico steaks I bought in the early months of the pandemic via South Mountain Creamery delivery and decided to put them in the refrigerator to thaw. When I buy steaks or chops from them, they tend to be very thin. I always forget this. I find it hard to cook these when they're so thin and get them to turn out right. These were a scant 1/2" thick, so I thought they'd be good in sandwiches. I cooked them sous vide, rested briefly, and then seared in a cast iron skillet. I composed the sandwiches with steak, sliced room temperature camembert, caramelized red onions, and sauteed cremini mushrooms. I added a little sriracha mayo to mine. I wished I had thought to get peppers, but, oh well. I set them back in the skillet briefly in a very hot oven to get the cheese meltier. The oven was hot from heating tater tots (topped with shredded Mexican cheese blend from an open bag I need to finish). There was also a salad of baby spinach, chopped endive spears, cremini mushrooms, radishes, and some crumbled feta. That's 3-for-3 on the cheese. Maybe I should be scaling the cheese back a bit

Last night I cooked the last of the black-eyed peas I had soaked* and added them to a skillet in which I had sauteed garlic and thinly sliced cabbage, seasoned with yellow mustard seeds, kosher salt, and pepper. I heated it all together for a while with a couple teaspoons of TJ's spicy honey sauce. The hot honey seemed like a good counterpoint to the cabbage, which isn't my husband's favorite flavor. We had this with pita from Yellow and salad. The base was a bagged organic herb salad from TJ's, with added tomato, cucumber, avocado, radishes, and hard boiled eggs. *The peas I used were from Rancho Gordo, which often don't even need soaking, but these had somehow been kicking around in the bean supply tub for almost 4 years. Since I'd soaked a whole pound, I used them for three different dishes. The first two were the Samuelsson recipe and an old black-eyed pea dip from Bon Appetit that doesn't appear to be anywhere online. Reader submission, maybe? We had it with tortilla chips and random leftovers Tuesday night. Can post if anyone wants it.

Last night was pan-seared and roasted pork tenderloin; sauteed kale; leftover rice; and, Marcus Samuelsson's black-eyed pea recipe from The Soul of a New Cuisine. I love the recipe and often make it for New Year's. It's a delicious and bright spicy African-inspired stew. In his headnotes for the recipe he refers to West Africa and specifically Ghana, but his further description makes this sound more like an "inspired by" than a specific dish from a specific place. When I showed the recipe to a friend whose mother's family originated in East Africa, in Tanzania, she said that her mother makes a recipe very similar to this. This is from his website and is a variation on the recipe in the book, only slightly different.

Last night was a grazing dinner: assorted breads, crackers, nuts, and olives; cheese sticks; camembert; prosciutto; tuna pâté; shrimp and cocktail sauce; and the last of the kielbasa with mustard. I came across the pate in one of my old recipe files and remembered it as being wonderful. It is. It includes butter to keep it from getting too dry, and I know I don't use the whole amount, but I couldn't remember how much I typically use. I added about 4 Tbsp., and I think I'd go lighter even than that next time. It is rich, delicious, and wonderful for a celebration. The recipe is originally from Fine Cooking #42. The publication seems no longer to exist, but there is this archive of the issue online. These are the ingredients: 6 large sprigs fresh rosemary 2 tsp. olive oil 8 oz. very fresh tuna 6 oz. (12 Tbs.) unsalted butter, at room temperature 2 Tbs. fresh lemon juice Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper Crostini or crackers, for serving. Heat the rosemary in the oil until fragrant, then lay the tuna on top of the rosemary and cook about 5 minutes, until still pink. Let the tuna cool some. Discard rosemary. The cooled tuna goes in a food processor with the butter, lemon, salt, and pepper. Pack into a ramekin and refrigerate until set. We still have plenty left to have with a meal today. I think I may add some capers and/or cornichons.

I had no idea what to make for dinner last night. I looked at ingredients I had that needed using and decided on a beet salad, smashed yukon gold potatoes with sour cream and dill, and turkey kielbasa. For the salad I roasted 3 golden beets, a poblano, and 2 jalapenos. I peeled the peppers, chopped the flesh, and mixed with a little chopped cilantro and scallion. This didn't yield a lot of pepper, but what there was, was fairly hot. I then made a quick bit of vinaigrette with evoo, white wine vinegar, s + p, and a few squeezes of lime juice. I sliced the beets and plated them, topped each plate with a bit of the pepper mixture, and drizzled on vinaigrette. I crumbled some feta on top, scattered chopped avocado and cilantro around the plate and squeezed on a little more lime. It was a bit of an odd salad but pretty good. It went well with kielbasa and potatoes.

Last night was leftovers combined with the contents of a Spicy Mushroom Miso Bowl from Foxtrot. I sauteed the last of the cremini mushrooms I had on hand and added the last of the roasted carrots and squash to the skillet, plus some previously cooked Asian pear slices. In a separate pan, I cooked up thin slices of a leftover cooked pork chop and added the contents of the miso bowl to cook everything through. I didn't mix the two groupings together exactly, just plated them side by side, topped with miscellaneous fresh green herbs I had on hand (mostly parsley). I've been buying a fair amount of Foxtrot's prepared foods in the last few months. They're usually pretty good quality, if a bit on the spendy side.

Christmas Dinner: Porterhouse Steak Creamed Spinach and Wild Rice Casserole Buttered Green Beans Where's Linus Rose 2021 The casserole was something originally intended for Sunday, but I didn't really have the energy. It's not especially complex, but it has a bunch of steps and ingredients to prep. It also required making the wild rice, since I had none pre-cooked. Yesterday I mustered the energy for the casserole and then realized I couldn't both make that in the oven and reverse sear a steak; completely different oven temperatures. So I sous vided the beef in my InstantPot before searing. I don't like the sous vide function on the IP as much as the stand alone (but hugely bulky) sous vide machine I have stored away. It worked out all right, though. My husband really loved the casserole. I don't know how much we even have leftover. He ate at least three servings .

That's an enticing menu. The cheddar shortbread jumps out at me. Maybe for New Year's. Last night I made nothing I had first planned. Instead I made the David Tanis romanesco recipe again, and this time I used truffle burrata instead of plain fresh mozzarella. It generated a little extra liquid that way. Eventually I'll use the cheese he calls for! We had this with more scalded rye bread and the pork chops with apple butter I keep making. This time I used Asian pear instead of apples with the pork. This variation also worked well. Tonight's dinner will involve beef. The rest TBD.

Of late, I keep making elaborate meal plans and then don't follow through; however, I actually made two of the three items I had scheduled for last night when I started drawing up holiday menus a couple months ago. The fish and rice were the planned ones: Scalded Rye Bread (Atwater's) and butter Baked Fish With Pomegranate Sauce Saffron Rice and Golden Raisin Pilaf Steamed Purple Broccoli The fish was from a recipe Joan Nathan adapted for the NYT. Gift link. I used cod, which was half the price of halibut. It worked fine. There's a lot left. I probably should have halved the recipe, which occurred to me after I bought 2 lbs. of fish 🙃. The rice I served with it is from the Mayo Clinic - Williams Sonoma Cookbook. I used chicken broth instead of vegetable. Someone put the recipe up online here. I used to make a fair amount from that cookbook years ago. I should leaf through it again for inspiration. The recipes are generally pretty solid, IIRC. Tonight might include one item I originally planned. We'll see. It's that or zero...

Went to Han Palace on Barracks Row for lunch today. The Soup Dumplings were excellent. I had a little bit of the 1/4 Roasted Duck my friend ordered from the Hong Kong Style portion of the menu and a couple of her Pork Dumplings. So very good. She also had some Shrimp Dumplings, which were her least favorite. I didn't try any, but it sounded like the filling was more of a paste than having the discrete pieces of shrimp she prefers. All of the dumplings were from the Dim Sum section of the regular menu. She loves dim sum and knows more about Chinese food than I do, and she also thought the Soup Dumplings were the best thing we had. I also ordered the Spicy & Sour Cucumber, which I loved. I wanted a vegetable 🤷‍♀️. This dish was great on its own but also for cutting through the fat of other items. I could not stop eating these. Those soup dumplings🥰...