Pat

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.

Last night was pulled pork sandwiches with pickles and cole slaw; leftover curried cauliflower; leftover broccoli + nutritional yeast, and a green salad. Tonight is leftover sausages, peppers, and onions; leftover cauliflower; leftover potato and egg salad; and a green salad.

Salad (red and green leaf lettuces, frisee, radishes, cucumber) Hot Italian sausages, onions, and peppers Corn on the cob with cilantro lime butter Potato and egg salad

Pasta two ways tonight: Creamy Gnocchi Chicken Soup (don't think it really needed the sun-dried tomatoes but, overall, it was very good) and Rose's Strawberry Pasta (second recipe in this Post article). I used fresh linguine instead of spaghetti. I think the Rose's recipe came out well. It's been so long since I've had it, it's hard to compare to my memory. What this had and I do remember is a mild, distinctive but not out-of-place, strawberry flavor. The recipe is not clear about what size can of tomatoes to use. It seemed like 14 oz. would be better than 28 oz., in order to be proportionate with the strawberries. I think one or two more tomatoes might have been optimal, but a 28 oz. can would have been too much. Good meal. We also had striata baguette from Radici.

It should work fine. I served the last bit of that spaghetti today for lunch as part of a cold salad plate (also, strawberry tabbouleh and green salad), and it worked well. It tastes mostly like basil pesto, so anything where that would fit should be good. Let us know how it goes. I really thought shrimp were good with it. Dinner was hamburgers on whole wheat buns with green leaf lettuce, tomato slices, and pickles; leftover rice pilaf; and, buttered wax beans.

Thanks! It's rustic looking for sure. I'd have liked a less pale crust, but it still tasted OK. Last night was a keeper recipe for avocado pasta from Taste of Home, a site I keep remembering and forgetting about. I used a mini prep to make the sauce and used most of the 1/2 cup of reserved pasta water. We had some shrimp from a shrimp cocktail platter from Costco and I served them alongside to go on top of the pasta. (My husband is not a big shrimp fan but had one.) Shrimp is very good addition to this, but it's also excellent plain. We also had leftover salad and sourdough bread with evoo.

Thanks for the tip! I guess because of the holiday weekend, they were pretty well sold out of hotdog buns. All that I could find was brioche and I didn't feel like trying other stores. I considered baguettes. Potato rolls next time. Last night was salad and pizza. Butter lettuce, Campari tomatoes, radishes, quartered artichoke hearts, and cucumber. I used to make pizza with my own dough a fair amount (and even had a favorite half whole wheat one), and I just don't do it anymore. For this, I used TJs plain fresh dough, with TJs jarred pizza sauce, sauteed sliced button mushrooms and mini bell peppers, the last few braised onions from the brats, pepperoni, and fresh basil, on a sheet pan. It came out pretty well. The onions added a little sogginess, even though I discarded excess liquid. I used cheese from TJs as well: shredded and grated Parmesan and some of their Quattro Formaggi (more Parmesan, Asiago, provolone, and fontina. I have a photo but have wasted an enormous amount of time trying to get it inserted here, so I give up... Edit: I think I finally got it.

Not outside but I used a grill pan inside yesterday to finish some beer brats* (marinated about 6 hours, then added to the brazier with sliced onions that had been braising in the rest of the spiced marinade). They were served on brioche hot dog buns with the onions. Things got a little soggy, so a harder roll might have worked better, but they were delicious. Sides were a recipe I found online for roasted cauliflower and white beans, plus leftover mac and cheese that I topped with excess of the panko topping for the cauliflower. I didn't measure the ingredients too carefully and my orange cauliflower was pretty small, so I opted for splitting the topping over two dishes. I don't usually put bread crumb topping on mac and cheese, but was a good variation when reheating yet more of something that created a lot of leftovers. *pork bratwursts and buns from Whole Foods; cauliflower from H Street market

Dinner last night was baked chicken drumsticks, rice pilaf, and a vegetable melange somewhere between a stir-fry and a saute. (I used jasmine for the white rice.) The base was a premade mirepoix I got at TJs when I needed a little celery for chicken salad and that was the only form of celery they had. Now I've got to use the rest. Also: snow peas and asparagus from the H Street farmers market, shiitakes from Agora Farms outside at Eastern Market, and bean sprouts from Paik Produce inside. Seasonings were hot pepper sesame oil, toasted sesame oil, light Tamari, onion powder, and black pepper. We also had sourdough bread from Christophe in Georgetown. Friday night was pita turkey sandwiches (fresh pita from Yellow in Georgetown; caramelized onion hummus from Little Sesame downtown; butter lettuce from Costco; and Campari tomatoes, sliced pepper jack and oven roasted deli turkey from WF). We had boiled and buttered new white potatoes from the H Street farmers market alongside, and rhubarb and strawberry pie (both fruits from H Street) for dessert. (Sourcing listed as a brain exercise as much as anything. Somehow that helps me keep better track of what I've got on hand and have used.)

Beef two nights in a row. We don't eat much beef any more, but my meal planning has been a little scattered again and it didn't occur to me in advance. Monday night was a small grass-fed strip steak from the discount meat bin at Safeway. It had a sell-by date of that day, and I was looking for something simple and quick for a night I'd be getting home late. Set it to marinate at room temperature for a brief while with a little Worcestershire, soy sauce, garlic & onion powder, and black pepper, just enough for some seasoning and a little tenderizing, if necessary (didn't know what I was getting with a $2.22 steak from the discount bin.) It came out really well. We had it with a quick salad I threw together; farmers market asparagus (just simmered until tender, served completely unadorned); and, fries. (I had stopped and gotten fries for something quick to eat, ate some, and brought the rest home for dinner.) Last night was skirt steak tacos, more of the salad, and macaroni and cheese. P.S. The garlic worked fine in the soup. Even at 3/4 scale, this makes a LOT of soup.

Last night was Cubanos made with striata baguette and air fryer broccolini for a side dish. The "roasted" pork tenderloin for this was also done in the air fryer. Deli ham from Whole Foods. Swiss from TJ. Pickles from a vendor at the H Street Market. Tonight we will have more of the sandwiches (I made a whole loaf's worth) and Ina Garten's Lentil Sausage Soup from Barefoot in Paris. Instead of leeks (I hate cleaning them), I used fresh garlic from the H Street farmers market. Mini story: As I was walking home with them last week, a woman walking her dog saw them sticking out of the bag and said, "Oh, you bought leeks." I explained that they were similar looking fresh garlic and had the lightbulb idea to use them to make this soup. I love the soup. I hate the veggie prep. It makes an enormous amount and my kielbasa is only 12 oz. instead of 16, so I'm making roughly 3/4 of a recipe. The French green lentils are from Rancho Gordo. We will find out if the garlic works in place of the leeks. I'm thinking an extra garlic heavy soup should work well with kielbasa.

It's kind of like a tasting menu but it's not. That makes it a little puzzling. The short rib dish seemed like something from Pineapple and Pearls. Excellent but different, given the menu construction. Very rarely have I left there without carrying food home. We ate every last bit, except for maybe some of the pesto and other sauces that clung to the serving vessels. We had an enjoyable enough time, but it was pricey (which, of course, we knew going in).

Our meal was good and the flavors and composition fairly typical of Rose's (and the other restaurants in the group), but the feeling of the experience and hospitality were different to me than pre-pandemic. (I was last in there in the summer of 2019.) They use plain white plates and servingware now. I'm not sure when that changed, but I missed the old mismatched Grandma's china plates and serving pieces with the retro patterns and designs. Maybe it changed a long time ago and I forgot, but that difference struck me for some reason. Relying on memory again, but the chef's counter appears to have been moved farther back from the kitchen, or the space was reconfigured somehow. I can't put my finger on what changed, but I've sat at that counter numerous times, and it seemed cozier than it looks now, closer to where they're working. (We sat in the dining room but near there.) The amount of food was...just barely enough. This is the current menu. The two largest courses of five were the mainstay pork and lychee salad--which is served as two moderate portions in separate white bowls--and the dessert, a baklava sundae. The other three portions were tasting menu-sized, beautifully presented, but skimpy for sharing between two people. The lychee salad is listed near the beginning of the menu but was double-sized. Even one bowl of that was larger than some other courses, so I'm not really sure the guidance on sizes from the menu construction is too helpful. The other item from the early/smaller part of the menu that we ordered was caramelized cauliflower, which seemed more charred than caramelized, but it was fine. The miso-glazed short rib (listed as the second largest course on the menu) would have been at home served in the kitchen of a miniature doll house. The beef (I'm assuming probably sous vide) was falling apart tender and luscious. It was plated on a very thin potato puree, with what seemed like mini baby bok choy on top. (I couldn't understand the explanation of what the greenery was.) There was an almond-sized dollop of wasabi on the side of the plate for the potatoes. I got that all to myself, and it was fabulous mixed with the potatoes. Great dish, just tiny. (It's listed as an homage to other chefs, so maybe that's part of what I'm missing.) That was the last savory course and first course where they changed out our plates and silverware. It was odd to be sitting with dirty plates and have to keep serving each new course onto them. There was also a scarcity of serving utensils. The Colonne Pompeii (columns of pasta with hazelnut pesto) was my favorite dish and I would have liked more of it. There were IIRC four columns of pasta and excess pesto that would have been good to utilize on something else, like maybe bread. Second favorite was the baklava ice cream part of the dessert. The only weakness in the sundae was a honey drizzled in that was too floral (?) for me and lent a jarring note. The ice cream (there may have been 4 scoops) was delicious. The bread course was two nice biscuits (which I think might have had some cornmeal but I didn't get a chance to ask) to go with fried chicken butter. I think I've had that butter before and it's OK. (My husband hated it.) I get that the chicken is a concept thing to go with the biscuits, but IMO it's not the most successful concept, This was included, but bread always was. I also missed the extra food they'd bring out, gratis, beyond what you ordered. I did notice some other tables got some food gifts, though. One of our neighbors asked about ordering extra food and was told it could be done a la carte. I was $8 off (low) in my estimate of the cost, since the 2 beers were only a total of $12. So, that part was a bargain! Dining out is more expensive now, but the jump here was just a lot. As Don mentioned, above, times have changed and they've changed their business model. I'm glad I got to enjoy fairly affordable meals here for so long, just for the extra cost of waiting in line. Coincidentally, in looking through some old posts on the thread, I noticed this comment from me on 9/20/18, which speaks to that point, and it stands. They've evolved their business model which, given the current state of things, means they're still in business and filling the restaurant. I couldn't have gone there and written this if they hadn't. Link to the post because I messed up doing the quote