Pat

I periodically stop in here for coffee or iced tea when I'm passing through the area. I'm glad to see this thread bumped up.

A friend and I had a meal here earlier in the month. The calamari was as good as I remember it. I love the marinara and aioli they offer with it. (What I had before on the takeout order was definitely not the aioli.) We split a Caesar salad, which she loved but I found a bit goopy. That may have been a function of their splitting the order between two plates, though. I might have ended up with too much of the dressing. (I appreciate their willingness to split the order, even if I sound whiny.) For an entree, I had what I was craving: the spaghetti and meatballs, which took me back to semi-regular Friday night dinners at a local red sauce place when I was a kid. I thought the meatballs were excellent. Presumably they are the same as if one orders just meatballs and sauce, so that means I enjoyed them even more than last time. Friend had linguine with white clam sauce, which she found too heavy on the lemon. It looked gorgeous. We had a half bottle of wine, which they don't list on the online menu. (I conveniently threw out the receipt shortly before deciding to write this up 😖.) The server (who was excellent, by the way) described it as an Italian equivalent of sauvignon blanc. We liked it, whatever it was. I also had a glass of limoncello after the meal and we split an order of cannoli. I wish reservations here weren't so hard to come by, but it's worth it.

I had bought skinless boneless chicken breasts when they were on sale. I always think I will find something to do with them, but I hate the process of pounding them down, which many recipes call for. So I buy them with the highest hopes, and then it's their expiration date and 🤷‍♀️. When I got these, I had imagined a chicken florentine type dish but then yesterday didn't have the energy to go through a whole process. So, I more or less followed this Bittman recipe [NYT gift link] (which is basically a template), since it didn't call for pounding or butterflying the chicken. I didn't have a pound of spinach, so I used the 5 oz. [?] clamshell of baby spinach I had and half a bag of baby arugula. This was still well less than a pound, but it was adequate. I also frizzled some prosciutto in the pan when the chicken was about done browning, having bought a small pack of it [on sale because all of the salamis were on sale at WF, and why this counted as salami, I dunno...] because one chicken florentine recipe I'd been looking at called for it. I subbed dry vermouth for the wine and mixed sour cream and ricotta for the creamy element. The chicken turned out delicious and really moist. We had this with sourdough bread from Christophe and a big salad.

My birthday dinner at Paraiso yesterday fired on all cylinders. The meal was good. The service was good. The environment was pleasant. Given current pricing generally, it was not insanely expensive, especially for a special meal. It came in just below $150 before tax and tip. We started with margaritas and the tortilla chips and trio of salsas, which is a go-to most times I'm there. My husband had a carnitas roll, which is an interesting fusion item and substantial. I liked the piece I had. There were a few rolls on the specials menu. I believe the others were all fish. I enjoyed my house salad and he loved his avocado salad ["Half avocado stuffed with roasted corn and gratinated cheese, crispy carnitas, cherry tomato, red pickled daikon, red onion, feta cheese"] and chicken tortilla soup. I got the enchiladas verdes entree and could not quite finish it. Often, he will finish the rest of my leftover meal, but he was pretty full with what he'd already had. They brought out a decent-sized piece of tres leches cake in honor of the occasion. It was excellent, very light, and perfect since we didn't have much room left. I noticed that on the receipt, they note the charge for the cake and then credit it back as "celebration." I like this place. They hit all the right notes.

Maybe we should compile a list of what to make when it's too hot to cook. A fruit and cheese or charcuterie plate works great for that, but sometimes I want something more like a meal, so that shrimp remoulade over salad sounds like a great idea. I've been buying shrimp already cooked most of the time I have it lately. My husband isn't that fond of shrimp, so it's extra work to cook, devein, etc., just to make something for me.

I bought a thick bone-in rib eye pork chop from Canales at Eastern Market and made a variation of the apple butter pork chop, this time with shiitake mushrooms instead of apples. It came out well. Alongside we had sourdough bread from Christophe and wheat berries with leeks and poached eggs. I originally was going to make the leeks and wheat berries with the salmon to try to recreate a dish I used to love at Montmartre (RIP). I've made it before but can't find any notes on what I did, and it's been a long time since I had the actual dish. I looked around for wheat berry recipes with leeks for ideas and saw this one, which I used for guidance. I abandoned the wheat berry/salmon combo when the salmon, beans, and cauliflower all really needed to be used ASAP the other night and so made the wheat berries, leeks, and eggs to go with the pork chop and mushrooms instead. Since there was pork in the meal too, it probably didn't also need the eggs, but I poached them perfectly 😎. (I didn't take one of my glorious photos, however.) That wheat berry dish would be excellent at brunch with a crisp green salad. I will definitely be making it again.

We had broiled salmon last night, wild sockeye from Costco. I also made one of my favorite cauliflower dishes: Mustard-Parmesan Whole Roasted Cauliflower, a recipe from Food Network. The cauliflower came from Deep Roots Farm, was huge, organic, and very expensive. I didn't want to let it sit in the refrigerator too long. Speaking of which, I roasted some carrots alongside that I found in the fridge, from the farmers market quite some months ago. For a "green" vegetable, we had purple string beans from Quaker Valley Orchards, with basil and toasted sliced almonds. They look just like very thin green beans when cooked. This is my husband's plate, which looked a lot better than this photo. If I were a food blogger, I'd have deleted this one. (He pointed out it would have looked good on a solid color plate. It surely would have looked better on our pale green milk glass plates.)

Last night I made a Smitten Kitchen recipe for zucchini spaghetti. It turned out very well. It was included in an email newsletter about her 10 favorite summer dinners. We had it with sourdough toast and a mixed greens salad with tomato and avocado and an avocado oil, lemon, & white balsamic vinaigrette.

I had most of a jar of pizza sauce left after making the French bread pizza sandwich and also some premade TJ's dough, and I used them to make something I've never made before: Hawaiian pizza. It (or my version of it) came out pretty well. I always answer those questions about opinions on Hawaiian pizza with some variation on, "Haven't tried it, seems weird, but it's probably decent." Now I've tried it, it was kind of weird, and it was better than decent. I used deli ham rolled up for the ham part and chunks of pineapple. I didn't have quite enough chunks for full coverage, and instead of cutting a ring into chunks, I put that in the center of the pie (which was free form round, done on a sheet pan). I added pepperoni around the edges. I still had some sauce left and made an eggplant stack with the sauce, some pepperoni, and mozzarella on top. Also had a salad.

Made this beef, broccoli, and pineapple dish for dinner last night. The beef, pineapple (pre-cut), and chili sauce were on sale at WF, which worked out well, and I'd had crystallized ginger in my pantry waiting to be used for literal years. The broccoli was aging in the refrigerator (again, me with the broccoli I buy with the best intentions). Like many of her recipes, it has a lot more steps than it seems to need. (The herb salad didn't really seem necessary, and I only made a fraction of it.) It was also poorly edited (e.g., a reference to an ingredient not in the recipe; I subbed 1 Tbsp. rice wine vinegar for the missing pickled ginger juice.) I didn't break up the ground beef all the way, so it was more marble-sized chunks. My husband liked the meal, but I just thought it was all right. I made rice pilaf (with noodles) instead of plain rice. I'd streamline this if I made it again.

Last night: More of the goat cheese dip and veggies (it made a lot of dip, and I didn't even make a full recipe!); leftover apple butter sage pork chops with apples; and corn muffins with pork bits. This started with 2 very large pork chops, and there was still a little bit of pork on the mostly eaten pork chop, along the bone, so I cut it off and diced it. I pressed the bits into the tops of the muffins before they went into the oven. So, pork two ways for dinner.

Blueberry, watermelon, and feta salad Roasted chicken thighs and potatoes Green beans almondine

I had bought a baguette at Wine & Butter for the pasta and salad meal on Saturday, and there was a fairly big piece of it left. Knowing it wouldn't keep long, especially in this hot, humid weather. I decided to make a quick French bread pizza with it, using the remainder of the Caprese salad (minus the couple slices of leftover beef). Since it was to be a quick and easy meal, I wasn't making sauce for this, so I braved the line at TJ's to pick up a jar of pizza sauce, having used up what was in the pantry. All of the stars seemed to be aligned. Pizza sauce went on the bread, which had been sliced lengthwise and folded open. I layered on the tomatoes and mozzarella, interspersed with the basil and some pepperoni slices I found, and then I sprinkled grated Parmesan and hot pepper flakes over the top. It looked and smelled gorgeous when it came out of the oven. When I went to transfer it to a serving plate, it flopped over and reassembled itself into...a sandwich. I wasn't going to fight its inherent nature, so I cut the sandwich in half and we had Caprese subs (or grinders, as I recall the term from my Philly area childhood). Accompanying this was a crudites and dip platter. The Herbed Goat Cheese Dip was from the Post [gift link]. It was pretty easy to make. I only had 5 oz. of goat cheese but it still required the full amount of milk and a little more. OTOH, everything fit in my mini-prep that way. I was not precise about amounts on the herbs. Good recipe, but the one thing this dip screamed out for--SCREAMED--was garlic. Roasted would be mellower, but since this is a quick recipe, I'd probably just throw some chopped cloves into the blender/processor with the cheese and milk. If I had extra roasted garlic on hand, however... The crudites were celery sticks, baby carrots (the actual kind, not the processed carrot pieces), breakfast radishes, and cucumber spears. The carrots and radishes were from the H30 vendor outside at Eastern Market. His produce is excellent (and that's a subscript 3; can't remember how to make them). Tying the entire meal together: Kirkland crinkle cut kettle potato chips with Himalayan pink salt. They were a side with the grinder and excellent for dipping as well.

Last night was a steak Caprese salad (leftover sliced London broil over top) and another round of the Rose's Luxury strawberry pasta. I made a double batch this time, with linguine for the pasta. This was a little more summery than the previous night's menu.

We had the Apple Butter and Sage Pork Chops again last night. These are soooo good. More of a fall dish than a summer one, but spectacular nonetheless. To accompany were boiled new red potatoes with sour cream and dill and sauteed multicolored snap peas. The snap peas probably don't require a recipe, but somehow following an Ina recipe makes things better. The apples and apple butter for the pork came from Quaker Valley Orchards at H Street market. They're also at Dupont, Foggy Bottom, and some other local markets. Their fruits are really great. I have gotten the most amazing peaches from them this year. The red potatoes were also from them, IIRC. Snap peas from Deep Roots Farm at H Street.

Last night I assembled a bunch of things that needed to be used and made a chicken mushroom casserole with bowtie pasta. I stretched a white sauce with a bit of leftover tomato sauce in the refrigerator, and used the last of some Parmesan and Pecorino cheeses. Some of that Pecorino also went into a simple salad I made for myself with baby arugula and sherry vinegar. My husband finished the last of the watermelon salad.

Last night I made a London Broil with a top round steak that was on sale at Whole Foods. I did it the James Beard way (though he calls for flank steak): rub both sides with kosher salt, black pepper, and sprinkle with some Tabasco. Preheat the broiler with the rack 2 inches below the heating element. Put the meat on a greased broiling pan and broil 3 - 4 minutes per side. Let rest. Slice thinly on the diagonal, against the grain. (I used a rack over a sheet pan.) We had this with sourdough rye toast, roasted broccoli, and salad. I roasted the broccoli and took it out to heat the broiler, and then put it back in to stay warm after I'd turned the oven off and the steak was resting. I'd had other plans for the broccoli, but it was a bit too aged, so I roasted large pieces of it with avocado oil, salt, pepper, date syrup (to cut through any bitterness from the aging), and nutritional yeast. Salad was frisee, radishes, tomato, and feta.

I agree on getting to Beuchert's, but I must speak up in defense of Zaytinya . I've had a couple good meals there in the past 6 months. The menu is not as large as it used to be, but I still find it worth a visit. Depending on the logistics of your various day appointments, you might want to try reserving for lunch there instead of dinner. I'm pretty sure the menu is the same, since I've done one of each meal in that 6 months. If you can't get into Albi but can swing by/through Georgetown, you could stop for a quick daytime bite at Yellow on Wisconsin Avenue. It started as an Albi pop-up cafe next door to the restaurant and has relocated across town.

Made these Gingery Meatballs in Tomato Sauce last night. Easy and excellent. (They did take more than 30 minutes for me to make, though. More like 50.) I used turkey that was half dark and half white meat. We had them over couscous. We had these with this cucumber and watermelon salad with feta dressing. Pretty good, but I made a half recipe of the main parts and didn't scale back the dressing amounts enough.

We had chili dogs and salad last night. Salad was basically the same as the previous night. The beef hotdogs came in a South Mountain Creamery order. Apparently they're making their own hotdogs now. They're pretty good. The hotdog buns were WF whole wheat. Those are decent and stay fresh a fairly long time. I made a much larger and more complex batch of chili than necessary for the dogs, because I figured that way we have chili to eat on its own (and I have plenty of cooked Rancho Gordo marrow beans that I'll throw in for at least one meal.) I combined a pound of organic ground pork from Whole Foods (the du Breton brand vacuum packs they carry) and 3/4 pound of ground sirloin from Union Meats. There wasn't a huge amount of excess fat when I got the meats mostly cooked, but I removed some. When the meat was largely broken up and browned I began adding onions and peppers. I used half of 1 large yellow onion and 2 minced Fresno chilies and 1 jalapeno (removing most ribs and seeds but not all). Dried seasonings were regular 365 chili powder, Penzey's cumin, smoked paprika, and oregano, McCormick allspice, Morton's kosher salt, and freshly ground TJ black pepper. Wet ingredients: about half a 15 oz. can of Kirkland tomato sauce and a 14.5 oz. can of their diced tomatoes, a couple tablespoons of French's yellow mustard, and about half a 12 oz. can of DC Brau Pils. I was going to add a little beef broth but didn't want to open a quart box just to use a small amount. There was plenty of liquid to cook down as it was. Once it cooked down, it was delicious, spicy enough but not overpowering. I ladled a heaping amount of chili over each of the heated split hotdogs in their buns and served with additional chopped onion and shredded cheddar (from a huge block of Kirkland orange cheddar) at the table.

Last night covered soup, salad, and bread in various ways. Soup was made to salvage a bunch of not-quite-forgotten-about asparagus languishing in the refrigerator. One of the very pencil thin pieces had to be tossed, but the rest was all usable in some form; a few tips had kind of disintegrated. I made a basic soup base with olive oil and mirepoix plus garlic, salt, and pepper; added some bouquet garni to bloom (old but still packing an impressive amount of flavor, though I used more than I would have if it were fresher); and, then a little flour. After that cooked a minute or so, I added a quart of chicken broth, a cup at a time. I cut a couple peeled small red potatoes in quarters and tossed them in to simmer. After a while, I added the asparagus stalks, cut in 1-inch or so pieces. (Originally I reserved the best of the tips for serving but ultimately added them to the soup near the end of the cooking time instead.) When the potatoes and asparagus were cooked through, I buzzed the whole thing with an immersion blender, stirred in some heavy cream, and then put it on a very low simmer. Cream of asparagus and potato soup was a success! Salad was red leaf and frisee, bacon, cucumber, radishes, and tomato. We also had the last few slices of a big cheese pizza from Slice Joint. I topped them with a little grated Parmesan and some red pepper flakes and heated quickly under the broiler along with some toasty things. Toasty things were an experiment that succeeded: Slices of baguette from Wine & Butter, spread with cream cheese; with a middle layer of smoked trout; topped with leftover corn casserole; and, sprinkled with grated Parmesan.

Last night was salmon ceviche with chips, toasted sourdough, corn casserole, and Matzo ball soup from Buffalo & Bergen. The casserole was a Patti LaBelle recipe from LaBelle Cuisine. Tonight is the last of the ceviche + chips and nachos topped with the last of the chicken shawarma; and kale and marrow beans.

We got their Moe's Pie Detroit Style pizza over the weekend (plus more of the awesome deviled eggs), and the pizza was good but just too gloppy and sloppy. Side Door Pizza, which is also stand alone, is the pizza wing of the restaurant, and I'd never ordered the pizza before. I believe the only other place I've had Detroit style before is Della Barba, and they are rather parsimonious with toppings. That's good in the sense their pizzas are not gloppy. Their Detroit style is definitely correct in its construction but you don't end up bathing in it. Different strokes for different folks, I guess.

What a great recipe. I had saved it in my NYT recipe box but hadn't gotten to making it until I saw this post, so thank you. Very simple to make (hardest part: mincing 6 cloves of garlic) and delicious. I marinated the chicken before leaving for the Nats game yesterday and cooked it when I got back. I found it was fine after the 40 minutes in the hot oven and didn't put it under the broiler. I was a bit worn out and just heated Tater Tots for a side, which worked great because it was the same temperature and just a little shorter time. I used the awesome pita from Yellow, however. It was more convenient when they were in Navy Yard, but I get myself to Georgetown to buy it now. (They're supposed to be opening a location this summer at Union Market.) NB: Even though I greased the pan, there was still some sticking that took a bit of effort to clean off. I never remember to use these links they've started providing behind the paywall, but here's one for the shawarma.

Whole Foods has bone-in ribeye steak on sale this week. Bone-in ribeye is my absolute favorite cut of meat. I did a reverse sear on it and it came out fantastic. We had it with leftover salad, bicolor corn on the cob, multicolored baby potatoes with lime and aji amarillo sauce, and fresh peas from Deep Roots Farm. A big midweek meal but worth the effort.