Pat

I saw and passed on some pre-bagged meyer lemons at the Harris Teeter at Pentagon Row today: $3.99 for 1 lb (4 lemons). They didn't look as good as the Whole Foods ones and were more than 2X the price.

I took that to be a joke (especially, with the words in caps), possibly in reference to people complaining about the way ingredients are described (or not) on the menu. (And the iceberg salad at Central isn't a wedge; it's chopped. It's like a cross between between a steakhouse iceberg salad and the kind of Belgian endive salad served at French and Belgian restaurants. I loved it.)

Is this one of those just say no to drugs things? When I was able to get at the menus, some of the food offerings look quite good. Mostly I felt like I was playing a video game I didn't quite understand. I did actually persist long enough to get at the menus, though, and I'm not even planning to eat there. If they can keep people's attention that long, they've succeeded in a way.

Maybe this isn't what you mean, but I'd say my grandmother. She's the one I got the love of being in the kitchen from. She made delicious food--nothing exceptional but it tasted great. She enjoyed the process of making and serving food, and I enjoyed being there to help her. She died when I was about 10. Her baked goods never came out quite right but always tasted wonderful. I thought of this today when my husband told me about the comment one of his co-workers gave when he took the last of the eclairs into work. She said the eclair was really good even though the shape was "disturbing." (While cleaning out my kitchen some time back, I got rid of the cheap pastry bag I never used. Now I need a pastry bag and don't have one. So I piped the pastry for the eclairs by cutting the corner off a ziplock bag--it worked fine but uniform shaping was difficult. I think the disturbing eclair may have been the one with a tail . ) My grandmother baked tasty cakes, but they always came out kind of sideways and not quite even. And I loved staying at her house and making pancakes in the morning, since they all came out in these funny shapes (kind of like when people make Mickey Mouse shaped pancakes, except she wasn't trying to.) And she'd always forget the rolls and remember them halfway through dinner. ETA: I think one of the biggest gifts I got from being around her in the kitchen was the realization that foods didn't have to come out perfectly to taste great and nourish people. So many people I know are intimidated by cooking. My grandmother made me unselfconscious about putting food on the table.

What's their delivery area? I had a CSA last year but ended up driving to the farm because of the delivery range. I really enjoyed doing it, but that drive was insane . I don't know what I was thinking.

That was where I got mine last week, and it worked out to about 40 cents per lemon. Given that regular lemons can be 2 or 3 for a dollar, I thought that was a pretty good price. I needed more meyer lemons to get the right amount of juice for my lemon curd than I would have with regular lemons, though.

Roughly, when is the happy hour time vs. the dinner time? My husband might be up for doing the dinner. I'd be interested in showing up during HH and waiting for him .

I think the first person I heard of buying booze in a drugstore was in Indiana, and it made sense to me, given that alcohol is drug, I'm guessing it's more likely that the reason is that the drug store is a convenience store. I've bought some of the wines/vinters/brands on the list and found them ok--Chateau Ste. Michelle is the only one I can recall well enough to say that I found it satisfactory. I've bought some of their white wine(s). I have determined over time that I don't like any Kendall Jackson. I'm not so fond of Columbia Crest either. I've found some Bogle that I thought was okay for cooking. The Cavit pinot grigio I keep on hand for cooking.

Thanks. I'll keep my eyes open for the peppers.

I've made two meyer lemon recipes from Chez Panisse Cafe Cookbook in the past few days. The results of both were excellent. I wrote about the Meyer lemon relish here. Yesterday I made Meyer lemon eclairs, filled with lemon curd and whipped cream. The pate a choux came out wonderfully, and the lemon curd was delicious. My shaping was a bit irregular, so they looked more like cream puffs than eclairs, but the texture and flavor were just right. The pastries came out so light and airy, I couldn't believe I was the one who made them . These results were encouraging, after an earlier attempt from this book had been not so successful.

No-Knead Bread and butter Roast Lamb with White Beans Asparagus Bundles with Proscuitto and Portobello Jack Cheese Meyer Lemon Eclairs

I've wondered for some time why more people don't seem to post about going to the restaurant, except the price differential probably ensures that people head more often to the cafe. I have not been to the cafe but we had a wonderful anniversary dinner a few years ago in the restaurant. It's too long ago to remember what we ordered, though I do recall they brought us complimentary glasses of champagne to start, in honor of the occasion. The service was quite attentive, even to the point of our waiter offering to rearrange the seating cushions, as the bolster along the back hit short little me in such an awkward spot that I kept sliding down. And I also recall my husband wearing a tie for the occasion, a rare occurence . I've wanted to get there again, but the cost of the back room really does make it a special occasion meal. Maybe we'll go back for our anniversary this year.

I made the meyer lemon relish from Chez Panisse Cafe Cookbook last night. It was excellent served with spiced shrimp and pan-seared scallops. Macerate finely diced shallot in tablespoon (regular) lemon juice or white wine vinegar and pinch salt (about 15 minutes). Sliver a meyer lemon: cut into 8 wedges, then in half lengthwise again (discarding seeds and core), and then slice into thin slivers crosswise. Add lemon to shallots, plus 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil, 2 Tbsp. chopped parsley, 1 Tbsp. chopped chives (or chervil). Salt and pepper.

I think that's lot 8, but I can't swear to it.

cell phones? I live near the stadium, so I can bring anything last minute anyone may need. (I guess that's anything I can carry in a backpack, since I wouldn't be driving.)

You did . Good luck with whatever you do next.

Yesterday, I made a small batch of doro wat and served it with the last of the lamb and the vegetables. I added more collards to the yegomen kitfo and we had more of that. Still a few pieces of injera left.

It sounds like he wanted to like it more than he did.

Wow, I remember Avignon Freres, from before I lived in DC when but used to spend time here. I remember helping a friend apartment/cat sit near there...cat sitting in a high-rise apartment building for two cats in heat. I remember it well.On the Whole Foods issue, I used to like their oatmeal topped sandwich bread but found that it (and the other sandwich breads) started to fall apart when I tried to make a sandwich. I'm not sure what changed, but it just became complete mush. For a while, I had liked it and it was firm enough to work fine, then it just fell apart...literally.

I'm still working on getting various odds and ends cleaned out of the refrigerator so it can be scrubbed down more easily. We started last night with tortilla chips and homemade guacamole. The main course was a layered choucroute garnie-type dish: sliced onions sweated in some olive oil in the bottom of a dutch oven sauerkraut seasoned with celery seed and black pepper hot Italian sausages and andouille sausages sliced green peppers on the top white wine and chicken broth poured over and brought to a simmer Baked until the sausages were cooked to temperature. I forgot the potatoes I was going to put in. I'll add them when I serve it as leftovers...if I remember

I asked this question on the other thread, but when did the restaurant open?

When did Kolumbia open? The first post here about it was just over a year ago. Was that rant right after it opened? I'm having trouble imagining that place being fairly empty on Valentine's Day.Having posted in plenty of places where people post under their "name," and it's a made up name, I'm wary about this whole discussion of anonymous or not. Giving a name is kind of an honor system. That's the reason this site requires some information from people when they register.

The US importer identified itself and said that none of the gluten went to companies manufacturing human food. What's odd about that is that at least least some of the gluten went to Del Monte, which makes a lot of human food . I guess I'm missing something here. http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-0...htm?POE=NEWISVA

Firehook makes some of the WF bread.

I don't really read Bon Appetit as such. Mostly, I scan through for the recipes. I also usually can find a few useful recipes in most issues of BA. Saveur is one that I actually read through. I don't subscribe anymore, though.