Pat

I bought injera and a bunch of meat, lentils, and veggies. I'm planning an Ethiopian meal for Valentine's Day. Fortunately, those weren't the foods in greatest demand, though the shelves were seeming pretty bare.

I've seen several episodes of Throwdown. Flay actually "won" on one of them. I think the concept of the show is pretty stupid, but when I have the tv on to have the tv on, I've watched it.

I've enjoyed a number of her recipes from the 30 Minutes show, but off the top of my head, I can only think of an orzo primavera. I've made that quite a few times. A lot of the recipes look like they would be good, but she has a tendency sometimes to get carried away and put in too many ingredients. One show I can remember cringing at was one with a baseball theme where she tried to put a bunch of baseball-themed foods together in one dish. It sounded disgusting. Sometimes the recipes seem too cluttered, even though the individual ingredients are fine. There was a show that aired recently that was for people exhausted coming home at night, and it was supposed to be a breakfast sandwich for dinner. In addition to the chicken cutlets with smoked paprika and smoked gouda, she did scrambled eggs with something in them, and rounded out the sandwich with watercress. I love watercress, but how many people keep that around? There was too much to the sandwich. She also made quick fried potatoes, doing something I sometimes do: precooking the potatoes most of the way through in the microwave. That's a great technique for people to know. The show to me really seems like cooking with your mom/aunt/older sister, who is trying to teach you how to make your way around the kitchen. She often gives alternatives for ingredients she suggests and seems to be trying to get people to think about how to put foods together. She encourages people to keep certain foods on hand (a pantry!) so they can put together quick meals. She's got the garbage bowl idea, which is good, but I don't do it. It certainly makes things seem more organized for people who don't cook, though. She also says to use a big cutting board so you don't have to dirty a lot of bowls for the items you've already cut. I'd venture to guess that the recipes I find find too cluttered are just like what I would have if I started spelling out everything I do to make an improvised meal. I know how to throw things together from what I've got. She's trying to systematize that, and sometimes it doesn't work. If she only had the 30 Minute show, I wouldn't have much objection to her.

Whole Foods popcorn. The whole bag is only 700 calories

2003 Domaine Guy Mousset Cotes-Du-Rhone

I'm still having randomly odd problems but nothing major. Sometimes I have to log in even though I'm already logged in, and I've also been having the issue where messages I've already read come up as new.

It's quite far afield from where you'll be, but one place that comes to mind is Montmarte, on Capitol Hill.

That show is my favorite on Food TV. I also like Tyler Florence, both Food 911 and Tyler's Ultimate. Rounding out my top 3 (or is that 4?), Giada DeLaurentis, Everyday Italian.

There were too many things on the menu I wanted to try to hit them all last night, but I did my best. I loved the beet salad and ended up--despite my efforts to restrain myself--sopping up the extra horseradish cream dressing with slices of baguette (that's just like adding croutons, um, was my rationale ). I couldn't decide between the stir-fried shrimp and the oysters so ordered both and split the oysters with my husband, who doesn't like shrimp. The wild rice corncake that came with the shrimp was a wonderful surprise. I'd like to try that just on its own. The sauce for the dish was perfectly not-too-sweet. I dunked a couple of the oysters in the remaining sauce that came with the shrimp and those flavors worked pretty well together. The chipotle dipping sauce was a perfect match for the oysters, though. The oysters managed to be crispy and fluffy at the same time. I finished with the three cheese risotto and wish I had been less full so I could savor it more. It's such perfect comfort food for a freezing night. The cheeses complemented each other well, and the texture was just right. My husband had planned to split it but was full after his Bibb salad and roasted half chicken and frites. I've got plans for the leftover risotto today My husband loved the chicken, proof that the simplest seeming dishes can be the best. I could tell just from looking at the chicken that it was moist and delicious. I only got one bite , but that did confirm my prediction. The garlic frites that came with it were salty rather than garlicky, but oh were they good. Our waiter was excellent, and service all around was quite good. Best wishes to Chef Wabeck in whatever he does next.

I usually make a Pasta Di Carnivale, from Mimmetta Lomonte's Classic Sicilian Cooking, at this time of year. It's a baked rigatoni with a long simmered pork tomato sauce, crushed almonds, cinnamon, black pepper, and Pecorino.

Call ASAP for a reservation. Mr. Landrum posted this in another thread:http://www.donrockwell.com/index.php?s=&am...ost&p=69161

I just finished the last bit of steak from Vidalia, over some curried rice. Exactly what I needed.

Spicy English parsnip soup Lamb curry with white rice

I cannot remember the circumstances or why I tried making ricotta, but I attempted it a few years ago and the results weren't bad.This is an example of the technique: http://italianfood.about.com/library/rec/blr0949.htm I believe that the less processed the milk is the better, but I just used whole milk from the grocery store.

I never followed up, but I thought the pudding was quite good. It tasted like the chocolate part of mocha to me (if that makes any sense). It seemed like it might be great with a tiny bit of coffee added, so I put a small amount of kahlua in the last couple of servings, and it was fabulous. (That's not too useful for your cravings now, I'm sure, but just the plain is good too.)

Bread and Chocolate on Capitol Hill. I don't know that I go there enough to use the term "frequent," but it's convenient and I like several of the items on the menu. The sit-down service did improve from abysmal to less than abysmal a while back, but I still usually anticipate having to shrug off service problems if I want to eat there. I just accept it as part of the experience of going there. Service is slightly better getting takeout coffee or baked goods from the counter.

I had an enjoyable lunch at Johnny's today. It's taken me quite a while to get there . I like what they've done with the space. Many, many moons ago, La Colline is where my husband and I had our rehearsal dinner. It's hard to believe it's the same place. I enjoyed my half oyster po boy but wish I had reread this thread before I went, since tabasco sauce would have been a perfect addition to the sandwich. That's one big sandwich, quite a bit of bread to consume in one sitting. I asked for fries with it and was quite pleased. They were just the way I like them: thin, crispy, and just the slightest bit greasy. My friend had fried oysters and the barbecued shrimp with grits. I got one of the shrimp--quite tasty but not too drippy/buttery.

I've really got to start paying better attention to what I order when I go out, or take notes . We went to Vidalia last night with an old friend of my husband and her son. The service was quite good and our server was patient about our camping and schmoozing after the meal. (He hadn't seen this friend in several years.) The food was wonderful, and I was so excited about the pork and beans being back on the menu that I didn't pay close attention to the other descriptions . (The pork and beans, for the record, was sublime.) We got one market salad, two chicken noodle soups (which my husband said was not as good as the pork and beans he grabbed from me--it looked good to me, though), and the pork and beans. For mains, one person got fish (flounder, I believe) that she quite enjoyed, and the rest of us got the beef dish that I can't remember the cut of or anything . It was done at least 2 ways, as there was a phyllo round that had oxtail and something else in it. There were also greens with it that I liked. The steak was tender and cooked nicely medium rare. I got a side of wild mushrooms and grits, which I totally loved, and my husband got the truffled mac and cheese, which he polished off in short order. We were too full for dessert, but the out-of-town visitors got the apple-onion tatin and pecan pie, both of which went over well. The only service issue was that the side dishes were put on the wrong (opposite) sides of the table. When I touched the dish the mac and cheese came in to pick it up and hand it to my husband, it was so hot my fingers got burned. Ouch. Not a huge issue, but I kept compulsively holding my thumb against the water glass to try to counteract the burn, which I'm sure seemed weird to anyone who was watchiing. Dishes are hot when they come from the kitchen. Yes Oh, and I loved the bread, especially the bread that has onions on top.

They have had canning jars at the SFW at Potomac Yards in the past, but I don't know if that's a seasonal product for them or not.Oops. I'm not doing so well on reading comprehension these days. I didn't notice the "carless."

I made this lamb shank recipe recently and thought it was quite good. I used orange zest instead of lemon and made a few other small changes. http://www.recipezaar.com/77878

Oh, wow, this brings back memories. Back in the mid-80s, Letterman had a gag where he would just call someone out of the phone book. For days (maybe weeks), he regularly called this man named Arnie Barnes who worked at Omaha Steaks. That's the only reason I know the company . I guess Dave has moved on to another company.

Last night: Belgian endive salad with toasted walnuts and Roquefort (mine) and feta (husband's); ranch dressing Brisket with root vegetables Tonight: Watercress-leek soup Spinach and sun-dried tomato strata Butterflied rolled leg of leg lamb stuffed with olives, pine nuts, feta, and arugula

I find that Open Table works pretty well for standard reservations, but getting into any kind of complicated situation (e.g., we don't know if it's a party of 3 or 4), it makes more sense to talk to a person. Certain (higher-end) restaurants also seem to block times out to accomodate people who contact them directly. I've encountered a couple of instances of there not being tables available on a day we really wanted a reservation at a particular place, and I've been able to get a table for a time not available on OT by calling the restaurant.On the other hand, someone I know in California was unable to get through on the phone to The French Laundry after trying for months and finally got his reservation through Open Table. (This was a number of years ago.)

There are menus up (don't know how current they are), but they are not linked to the main page.http://bebotrattoria.com/menus/dinner.php http://bebotrattoria.com/menus/lunch.php http://bebotrattoria.com/menus/dessert.php

Congratulations if you got something to go through as a PM that's 19,000+ characters long.