Pat

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 .

Last night was excellent whole wheat bread from Radici, salad (red leaf and romaine with radishes, nicoise olives, cold roasted cauliflower, Campari tomatoes, avocado, and feta; mustard - white wine vinaigrette) and pasta. I made the pasta to utilize a bunch of ingredients that needed to be used. I sliced and sauteed 8 oz. of button mushrooms (which were in remarkably good condition after being in the refrigerator for a couple of weeks), and then added in some chopped fresh tomatoes -- a combination of Campari and hothouse vine-ripe -- dehydrated onions, Penzey's pasta sprinkle, kosher salt, black pepper, and crushed red pepper flakes. After the tomatoes had broken down and it was making a sauce, I poured in and cooked down some white wine and then added the last half of an open jar of Rao's Arrabbiata sauce, plus a little water to rinse out the jar. At this point, I added the chopped meat from 4 leftover baked chicken thighs and let the whole thing simmer while I boiled half a box of Pipe Rigate pasta. I mixed the drained, cooked pasta in with the sauce for a couple of minutes and then served with grated Parmesan. It all worked out well, and I even got the ratio of pasta to sauce about right!

I made nicoise salad again last night, this time with fresh tuna. I don't know why I'm on this kick, but the salad does make a nice centerpiece to a meal. We had it with soup. The soup recipe I got from a friend years ago. His MIL is from Saigon and owned a Vietnamese restaurant in Houston. "Sick Soup" was a popular request from patrons during cold and flu season. I remembered this when I had a cold last weekend and was prepared to make the soup but wasn't quite up to prepping all the ginger (a major component). It's not complicated at all beyond the ginger. I'm basically over the cold now (the first I've had in a very long time), so I made the soup last night. Still great for clearing out the sinuses. Palm-sized piece of ginger, peeled and cut into matchsticks, brought to a boil in 6 - 8 cups of chicken broth. Add bite-sized beef or turkey meatballs (from 1 lb. or so or raw meat) that have been seasoned with dehydrated onions, paprika, ground red pepper, black pepper, crushed red pepper, and chili powder (or some combination thereof). Boil until the meatballs rise to the top. Serve the soup over rice with sriracha.

Last night I made an improvised chicken cacciatore from convection-baked chicken thighs, leftover spaghetti, and Rao's Arriabbiata sauce, with some grated Parmesan. We had this with broccoli (boiled about 3 minutes) and a salad of romaine, radicchio, radishes, red onion, tomatoes, and croutons made from leftover garlic butter bread. Instead of steaming, I've moved towards throwing broccoli in boiling salted water for a couple minutes, until just after it turns bright green, and then I drain it and it cooks a little more from residual heat. TL;DR warning here... I thought about this when I was going through a really old cookbook that belonged to my mother and I referred to as a kid when I started out cooking. It's the source of my peanut butter cookie recipe! It's the 21st edition of Magic Chef Cooking from the American Stove Company (orig. 1949). This copy dates to the late 50s or very early 60s because the appliance company my parents got it from (based on a stamp on the title page) has its address listed with a 4-digit town code that pre-dates the era of the zip code (which started July 1, 1963). Given the name of the company and my vague memories, they were probably relatives, so maybe my parents didn't have to pay the $2 for the book. Anyhow, this cookbook recommends cooking broccoli in well-salted water for 20-25 minutes. Now I understand why we never ate broccoli when I was growing up. Yecchhh. When I picked the book up for the first time in a long while recently, I decided to made the Sausage and Spaghetti recipe. In large part I did this because I had bought a pound of hot Italian link sausages when I saw them at Safeway. And I had bought them because they were Lancaster Brand (which used to be the house meat brand of Acme, which is now part of Albertson's/Safeway/whatever grocery monolith). Since I bought them out of nostalgia, it seemed perfect to have seen this recipe right after I purchased them. (Thinking back, there was also an Acme across the street from where this appliance store would have been, though I don't know if they were open at the same time.) The recipe calls for browning sausages, boiling spaghetti, mixing the pasta with strained tomatoes, and putting the sausages on top of the spaghetti to finish cooking as a casserole. I had an extra half pound of cooked ground beef I added to the tomato mixture, for which I used canned tomato sauce and a few chopped fresh tomatoes. I added some grated Parmesan in there somewhere. It came out quite well. The Lancaster Brand sausages were really good. I'd bought them over the national brand that was on sale for a reduced price that cost the same. I used the last of this leftover spaghetti (no more sausages but there was still a little ground beef mixed in) to make last night's cacciatore. And that's a wrap.

Porterhouse steaks Citrus-glazed turnips [NYT gift link] Buttered spinach I took the advice of one of the commenters on the turnips recipe and did them at 425 instead of 375, and I'd stick with that. I loved them, though my husband didn't as much. He's not fond of bitter vegetables, but I thought these glazed and caramelized nicely and had a sweetness from that. I had bought citrus to juice but just wanted to get dinner on the table, so I used what we had in the refrigerator. Similarly, I abandoned creamed spinach in favor of buttered.

Yesterday I made nicoise salad, which we had with a baguette (the Italian version) from Radici and artichoke jalapeno dip/spread from TJ. Because that's not fusion-y enough, we also had some sushi/rolls from Yes . The night before I made another green chile enchilada bake, which we had with a big romaine salad.

Last night was this salad plus chicken andouille sausages on whole wheat hot dog buns. Tonight is more of the salad, roasted sesame asparagus and tofu, and broiled lamb loin chops.

Friday night salad and sandwiches: Tortellini salad and grilled ham and Jarlsberg on sourdough for my husband, with grilled mortadella and Jarlsberg for me. The tortellini for the salad was spinach and cheese(s) from TJ. I didn't have much of a plan, but it worked. The base dressing was some bottled vinaigrette. I added the last of a jar of Calabrian chiles--bits and pieces and some oil--chopped roasted Anaheim pepper, slivered red onion, sliced black olives, chopped tomatoes, chunks of chicken andouille sausage, basil, shredded Parmesan and cubed Monterey Jack cheeses.

Last night was leftover chicken thighs, broccoli, cole slaw, and mini quesadillas (made on 6" flour tortillas from TJ).

i made some quick curry from the last of the lamb, with Anaheim peppers and onions. Served over couscous, along with braised kale and tomatoes. There was also leftover salad and sourdough rye bread.

Last night was a big salad, sourdough rye from Atwater, (convection) baked chicken thighs, and roasted asparagus. I topped the chicken with lemon juice, butter and a mix of Penzey's Northwoods and Northwoods Fire seasoning (the only difference is the amounts and types of chile powder). I seasoned the asparagus with sesame oil, soy sauce, and sesame seeds. I also made some croutons of a sort to have with the chicken. There was half a pita from Yellow in foil in the fridge that had been there too long. I tore it into small chunks and, once I had removed the chicken from the sheet pan, I tossed the bread pieces into the rendered fat and stuck the pan back in the oven until I had nice croutons. Everything came out especially well.

Update: My husband met me at the game last night and brought in 2 pizza slice boxes from Whole Foods and a bottle of water. He had no trouble at all.

Kind of a weird meal last night, but it was good. We had an appetizer and then pasta. I was going to wrap halibut cubes in bacon but had bought mortadella on impulse at Eastern Market, so I wrapped each first in a strip of mortadella, then in bacon. The bacon had previously been cooked but was still flexible. (I don't go all the way to crispy when I pre-cook bacon.) I had baked the fish cubes with some lemon, olive oil, and sprigs of thyme until they were just cooked, let them cool a bit, and then did the wrapping. I put them back into the oven for a few minutes, until the bacon was rendering its remaining fat. For the rest, I boiled some fusilli to round out what was left of a box of ziti and served that with a sauce made from leftover ground pork enchilada filling and the remainder of a jar of Rao's marinara. Anyway, weird but good.