Pat

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

Last night I made a small boneless leg of lamb in the Instant Pot. I didn't add much in the way of vegetables but did toss in some onion -- fresh and dehydrated -- carrots, and mini bell peppers with the chicken broth. We ate the vegetables and some of the sauce, but I'm thinking the remainder of that liquid will be good served with the leftover lamb over polenta. I also made a baked spinach and cheese souffle-ish casserole. We had leftover salad and a striata baguette from Radici.

I knew I'd be getting back late in the afternoon so I pre-made dinner early (except for salad I threw together right before eating) and reheated in the microwave. The protein was convection baked chicken thighs with lemon juice, Penzey's Northwoods seasoning, a little extra kosher salt, black pepper, and onion and garlic powders. Once they were done and removed from the sheet pan, I added parboiled new potatoes and some butter to the chicken fat on the pan, sprinkled with salt and pepper, and tossed everything together. I pulled the edges of the foil on the pan up to make something of a packet and stuck the potatoes back in the oven. After they were mostly cooked, I opened this back up so they browned on the cut edges. (The tiniest were left whole and the others had been halved at the boiling step.) At the same time as this last step, I put stuffed tomatoes in to bake as well. (My husband had bought 4 lbs. of tomatoes on the vine at Costco a while ago, which I was sure I would use before they over-ripened, but, no...I still had about 10 left, and they needed to be used somehow.) I trimmed bad parts (fortunately, mostly all near the top), cut off the tops and scooped out some of the insides--especially seeds. I filled these with a mixture of rye bread crumbs I had made a few weeks ago, crumbled feta, grated Parmesan, and chopped fresh dill. I managed to make just about the right amount to stuff the tomatoes, slightly mounded on the top. I drizzled with a little olive oil before they went into the oven and a little more when I checked on them when the potatoes were done. These came out especially well. The salad was really simple: chopped romaine, chopped tomato salvaged from the couple too damaged to bake whole, pitted black olives, and thinly sliced Jarlsberg cheese. The dressing was the last of the mustard-based vinaigrette I'd made for a Nicoise salad.

I've been here a couple of times recently. The cheese fries are too gloppy and have both ranch and ketchup piped on 😦. That's been the only fail I've encountered, but cheese fries can never really be a fail. Their deviled eggs are awesome. Must order. Best I can recall having in a restaurant. They are set on top of pickled jalapenos, which strikes me more as a presentation thing than anything else but works. The confit wings (we got Buffalo) are excellent, but the blue cheese dressing for them has gorgonzola and was practically indistinguishable from the ranch. The Nicoise tuna lettuce wraps were good as nicoise salad and as a gluten free option (they have quite a few GF items flagged on the menu) but really are better eaten as salad than a wrap. Kind of a mess otherwise. The tuna for those is listed as sushi grade and there are a number of sushi items listed on the brunch menu. Still very pleasant, friendly service. Good neighborhood restaurant.

This popped up right after I was at Due South Dockside for a bit between Nats games yesterday, so it prompts me to write something. I love the view from this spot. That element makes it an absolute gem, but it's most visible from the Riverwalk so many people don't seem to know it exists. Coming from Due South it's not even that easy to find. I had a friend meeting me get lost one time. It is literally dockside. You walk up to a counter to order. No cash. In the past, this probably would be a separate topic, but I don't know it's necessary now (?). It is close but geographically separate from the restaurant.* The Dockside menu appears to be a subset of the main Due South menu, with some additions (or the online Due South menu is out-of-date). The only food I've had here was not very good, but it was a long time ago and I don't even recall what it was. The menu they have looks more promising now, but I find it most pleasant as a place to sip a beer and watch the boats and the river on a sunny afternoon. It regularly has signage indicating it's going to be closed for special events, so people who know, know. *An employee once explained to me how this spot came into being, and it had something to do with whatever contract they signed when they agreed to open the restaurant years ago. They were entitled to a spot down by the water, like a certain square footage of space they could utilize for whatever they wanted, so they built a dockside bar.

We're planning to dine at Rose's next week for the first time in years. It used to seem pretty affordable for the experience back in ye olde a la carte days but with "choose your own adventure" I'm pre-calculating that this is probably going to cost about $275* for a weeknight dinner for two and... 😲. Clearly I have not been dining out much lately. Has anyone been to the restaurant recently? Thoughts on the current in-person experience? It's odd to see such a long gap between posts for Rose's, that's for sure. *I'm calculating this with a 20% or so tip but not a service charge because I've been unable to figure out whether they add a service charge beyond the prix fixe price. There's nothing on their website or Resy addressing this that I can find. I could contact the restaurant, I suppose, instead of speculating online , or just roll with the adventure. The $95pp price tag is for a combined 4 savory dishes of varying size and 1 shared dessert. It also includes bread, though, which is a huge plus. I love their bread. We're not doing a wine pairing, and the $20 I included for beverages (at most two glasses of wine) may be too low.

Soup, salad, and sandwiches last night. We finished the last of the turkey meatball soup. The salad was chopped romaine, tomatoes, avocado, kalamata olives, and feta, topped with poached salmon and dill. Sandwiches were ham, turkey, and cheese on whole wheat, accompanied by Utz potato chips. There was salad left over. This was a lot of food .