Pat

The cranberry bread recipe I posted here is a Thanksgiving staple.

Utz pretzel stix in the country store container. Just a bit too salty but satisfying.

Last I heard was next Monday, but things have been running a bit behind.

This isn't a family heirloom, but I've been making it for many years, and it always seems to be expected in the Thanksgiving--New Year's time frame. I got it quite a few years ago from a package of cranberries, and Ocean Spray doesn't have it on their web site. I thought I had posted it somewhere but couldn't dig it up when I looked. I was getting rather nervous about finding it again. I thought I'd lost my copy of the recipe but just located it (fortunately), so here it is. It's a pretty standard recipe, but I rely on it because it always comes out just right. I generally use walnuts, and when I'm feeling lazy, I'll omit or reduce the amount of orange peel Cranberry Fruit-Nut Bread from Ocean Spray fresh cranberries package, n.d. (makes 1 loaf) 1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries, coarsely chopped ½ cup chopped nuts 1 Tbsp. grated orange peel 2 cups all-purpose flour 1 cup sugar 1 ½ tsp. baking powder 1 tsp. salt ½ tsp. baking soda 2 Tbsp. shortening ¾ cup orange juice 1 egg, well-beaten Preheat oven to 350˚F. Generously grease and lightly flour a 9”x5”x3” loaf pan. Prepare cranberries, nuts, and orange peel. Set aside. In a bowl, mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and soda. Cut in shortening. Stir in orange juice, egg, and orange peel, mixing just to moisten. Fold in cranberries and nuts. Spoon into prepared pan. Bake 60 minutes or until wooden pick in center comes out clean. Cool on a rack 15 minutes. Remove from pan; cool completely. Wrap and store overnight

Last night was salad of arugula, radishes, avocado, and truffle cheese with strawberry-balsamic vinaigrette pan fried pork chops butternut squash-potato gnocchi with fried sage butter I loved the gnocchi, though there was flour all over the kitchen when I was done . My husband thought they were too heavy, but that's probably because I made them too big. It was getting late and I wanted them done. I think they'd make great dumplings in chicken broth. I also ate some for breakfast this morning

Remember candy and bubblegum cigarettes?

I went trick or treating in suburban Pennsylvania in the 60s-early 70s, and we knew most of the people whose houses we went to. I'd go out with a group of neighborhood kids, and it would take the whole night to cover maybe 4 suburban streets, in large part because the adults would want us to come inside so they could admire our costumes. A couple of my friends' families staged haunted houses some years. There was one elderly lady who lived near the end of our street who did a big spread every Halloween, with apple cider and all kinds of homemade cookies and cupcakes and other kinds of food. This was when I was very young so memories are a bit fuzzy. It was like going to somebody's grandmother's house. She had her dining room table all set with an assortment of foods. Mrs. McClellan was her name. It was really nice of her, but I don't know how much we appreciated it. We should probably have appreciated it more, because it was the end of an era for that kind of thing, before parents worried so much about neighbors poisoning their children. As thoughtful as she was, it was kind of a drag for the kids, because it slowed you down on getting to as many houses as possible for candy .

I wouldn't go to Afterwards expecting great service, and the whole piece seems like an overly broad generalization to me. The only other one of the places mentioned that I have experience with is Firefly, and I've never had bad, or even subpar, service there.I've never waited tables, but there's something about [paraphrase] <<I tip 25% if the service is to my liking and otherwise I leave coins and a grumpy note>> that sets off my radar.

I have the problem with "View new posts" not working sometimes too. It hasn't happened really recently, but I've had clusters of times when it hasn't worked at all. (I'm using Firefox on a mac.)

Tonight, if my energy levels stay up, will be James Beard's Coq au Riesling and a salad of arugula, radishes, avocado, and strawberry-balsamic vinagrette.

The Capitol Lounge used to have a cigar bar downstairs, but I haven't ventured past the main floor since they reopened, so I don't know if its still there. (I'm not sure what your criteria are for "good.")

Tonight is kale soup with country ham and cannellini beans, plus an antipasto plate of cheeses, olives, peppers, and proscuitto di parma with flatbread. The other course is cauliflower with proscuitto and toasted walnuts in a balsamic-walnut oil vinagrette.

I just finished reading Mimi Sheraton's Eating My Words, and she says definitively that the food improves when a critic is recognized (and goes into an explanation of it).

Hee. Next Friday sounds good. Let's keep on top of that.

I'm going to be out of town the rest of the week until then but am thinking this sounds good for Friday. I'd love to check this place out. I cant guarantee what Friday will be like, though. We're a maybe, if anyone's counting

Although it's the opposite of your scenario, while we were there, we thought, "Oh, we could hit a movie afterwards." When we left we discovered that the movie we wanted to see was an hour and a half later and abandoned the idea. We could have planned better before hand, but getting the reservation was hard enough. The theatre could certainly be a help to the restaurant in terms of numbers, though I'll leave the numbers to someone else.

We finally got there last night and had a wonderful meal. It was hard to restrain myself, since there were so many different things I wanted to try. My husband and I split the eggs, sausage biscuits, and mac and cheese. He got the carrot soup, Caesar salad and filet mignon diablo. I got the Waldorf salad with fennel and cowboy ribeye diablo with horseradish sauce. I knew getting the cowboy was going to be way too much food but, as I've never managed to finish any steak at Ray's in Arlington, I just figured I'd go for it, knowing I'd be taking some home anyway. It did not disappoint, and neither did the 3 star leftovers The sausage biscuits are all everyone has said and then some . The complimentary salad is a very nice touch and was small enough to be manageable with all of the other food. While I love Waldorf salad and like fennel, I'm not sure how I feel about fennel in Waldorf salad. I like the concept, but I'm not sure it's to my taste. My husband cleaned his plate(s). I think I liked the carrot soup, which I got a bit of, more than he did, but he quite enjoyed his meal. I'm ordering that soup next time. I really wanted to try the cheesecake with brandied cherries but was just too full. (Our waiter, who was excellent, made an entertaining effort at offering dessert anyway ) I brought home a nice piece of cowboy steak and two biscuits, which I had held back to eat with the steak but was too full to eat when the time came. Unfortunately, I didn't pay close attention to the reheating instructions, as I usually slice the cold leftover steak over salad rather than reheating and overcooking. This morning, though, I had an urge for steak and eggs, and there was enough steak for my husband and me to each have a nice piece. I left it out at room temperature for a while, then reheated slowly over low heat in a cast iron skillet. It didn't get any farther than medium from the original medium rare, so I considered that a success. The eggs were scrambled and served over the two remaining sausage biscuits, split. The biscuits reheated very nicely over low heat in a cast iron skillet. Those biscuits...wow. The steak bone is being simmered for stock

I've been getting that mozzarella as well. It's a great deal. I've been temporarily doing most of my Costco shopping out in Leesburg--just because I've been out there regularly--and have found some really nice cheeses. I'm still making my way through a hunk of Dubliner the size of a small country. I haven't been to the Pentagon City location in the last month or so but have seen the good selection there too.

Walked by Meyhane a little while ago. They seemed to have gone on a summer vacation and never come back. Now there are signs in the windows saying that Locanda Cucina Meditalia will be opening in the space Fall 2006.

Most of our family recipes weren't written down. I wish I had written some of them down, but I always thought I would remember how they were made. One thing I really regret was throwing away my mother's recipe for beef vegetable soup when I was a vegetarian. I threw away a lot of recipes because I was sure, at 20ish, I would never eat meat again . Stupid kids. I can do a fair approximation of it remembering how she (and my grandmother) made it, but I really wish I hadn't thrown the recipe away . This is one family recipe I do have. I make them almost every year, unless I'm really swamped and don't bake cookies at all. As I recall, the recipe originally dated to a sister-in-law of my grandmother's and may be Pennsylvania Dutch. These are the cookies my grandmother, then my aunt, then I would make every year for Christmas - well, actually, from Thanksgiving through New Years. For some of the Christmas batches I decorate them with red and green sugar crystals instead of the sugar-cinnamon-nut. They are a lot of work but are just wonderful. I remember my aunt one year complaining that she had spent almost a whole day making these and then the entire batch was gone by the time whatever football game people were watching was over (The recipe makes a *lot* of cookies. I've never counted.) Sand Tarts 1 cup butter 1 1/2 cups sugar 3 eggs 1 tablespoon water 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 4 cups flour, sifted Combine all ingredients and work into a dough. Roll thin and cut with cookie cutters. Brush with egg white, sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon; press nut in center. Bake in preheated 375° oven for 8-10 minutes.

I was just by the market and saw that Union Meat had cryovac flank steak for $7.89. Canales had some nice looking flank steak for $8.99.

I've stopped salting eggplant and have not had any problems with bitterness.Last night was short ribs braised in pinot noir with porcini and button mushrooms rice green beans Tonight was baked chicken legs roasted fingerling potatoes baked apple slices (w/cinnamon, sugar, flour, golden raisins, pistachios, honey, and butter) I'm not real fond of sweet stuff, but those baked apples were great.

I only have one file that's remotely organized, and it's a red expandable file folder of recipes I have printed out which are my husband's favorite recipes. I have a several page listing, in alphabetical order, clipped to the front, of all the recipes inside. I do not have the best track record for putting recipes back when I take them out, though. I'm rather disorganized otherwise, and whether it's shameful to admit or not, I post recipes I don't want to lose to usenet, this and another message board, and/or to a mailing list I've been on for almost a decade, so i can search and find them again when all else fails. Either they're in archives or someone else has saved them.

Bis has a wonderful breakfast, though it's not cheap.

Scott, are you the person who brought those bbg sauces set out near the pigs? That mustard sauce was out of this world. If that was yours, could you post the recipe? (If it wasn't yours, could the appropriate person post the recipe?) Thanks.