zoramargolis

My husband also greatly appreciated the kudo-- he'd almost always rather eat at home than go out. It is a mixed blessing to cook well. I occasionally do like to be served good food and have someone else do the prep and cleanup, but since we both hate spending money for ordinary fare, and we can't afford most of the really good places on other than very special occasions, we rarely eat in restaurants.

I was at the store and saw it there. I bought a bottle of that and also a bottle of the 2001 Capcanes Vall del Calas, which was rated 93 points by Parker in WA issue #159. Paul's price for that wine was $16.99. I haven't had the Mas Donis yet, but I did open the Vall del Calas. The first night, I decanted it and after 30 minutes the tannins were still too grippy to enjoy the wine with dinner, so I poured it back in the bottle and re-corked it and opened something else. Twenty-four hours later, I poured myself a glass of the Vall del Calas and it was gorgeous. Parker is so right on about this wine.

Paul's is selling it for $9.99.

It won't ever be as good as if you had baked it enough at first, but your instinct is a good one. I'd go a little bit higher, say 300 or 325. Cover the top with foil, shiny side up, to keep the top from getting over-browned. Check the inside of the cake with a toothpick or thin bamboo skewer periodically to make sure the inside of the cake is done--gummy batter will cling to the toothpick if it is underdone. Only a few, dry crumbs will cling to the toothpick if it is ready. Now the challenge is to make sure it doesn't get too dried out!

No such luck. Just a really stupid cashier who was told to check id's to make sure wine and beer purchasers were over 21, so she asked to see everyone's driver's license.

Sorry--I should have specified Pentagon City. It's the only Costco I know in the area.

The '02 Morambro Creek Shiraz was even better than the '03-- the '02 was the case you and I split, Joe. I just saw the '02 on the shelf at Magruder's in Chevy Chase yesterday. I still have a couple of bottles and I am well-stocked with other Oz Shiraz at the moment, or I would have bought more. It was apparently on sale for $17.99 last week. It has gone back to the "regular price" of $21.99, but I'll bet, if you speak to the manager and ask nicely, they'll sell it at the sale price. More refined than the jammy style of Marquis Phillips or Shotfire Ridge--the nose is guaranteed to make you swoon. Wonderful wine.

Two weeks ago, I got carded when buying a bottle of wine at the Whole Foods in Vienna, at 55+ with a full head of grey hair.

Many years ago, I got a "flame-colored" Descoware dutch oven, which was a then-popular, less expensive enameled cast iron alternative to Le Creuset. Within five years, the enamel inside had started to chip. I have had a Le Creuset pot that I have used regularly since 1975, without a chip in it. That's right: thirty years! The Descoware, which is still made, was plenty heavy, too.

I am going to jump in and comment on your request, because I made a Kabocha squash soup that was a big hit when I served it to guests last week. When you say "bland" I am assuming that you mean "without character" rather than "not spicy enough." To me, the goal with a roasted winter squash soup is seeking depth of flavor, rather than pizzaz. If the latter is what you want, don't bother roasting the squash, just cook it in the stock--then add ginger or curry or cumin and chile, or cinnamon, which will become the dominant flavor. However, if depth of flavor is what you are after, roasting the squash evaporates some of the water in it, instensifies the flavor and caramelizes some of the natural sugar in the squash. The key to any good soup is good stock. Using homemade chicken stock (or flavorful vegetable stock) is crucial. If you have to use canned stock, enhance it by simmering it for fifteen or twenty minutes with additional aromatics, like onion, celery, parsley, fresh thyme and bay leaf, and some white wine or dry vermouth, then strain it before using it for the soup. I wanted some extra, elusive sweetness and complexity to my soup, so I peeled and cut up a quince and sauteed it in butter with onion and the white part of a leek, then added several cups of homemade chicken stock and some white wine, and let it cook until everything was tender. The roasted squash and the quince-onion-broth was pureed in the blender together with a half-carton of creme fraiche (heavy cream would work, too) and then the pureed soup was simmered for about a half hour or so, stirred occasionally, salt and white pepper added to taste. At the very end, I added some grated lemon zest and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice. An apple or a pear could stand in for the quince. I sprinkled a tiny bit of finely chopped parsley and tarragon in the center of each bowl as I served it. People were energetically scraping every last drop out of their bowls, and one of my friends was hungrily eyeing the dish of his six year-old daughter, who was dawdling. When he had finished his soup, he negotiated with her and got her to eat "four more spoonfuls" and then grabbed her bowl as soon as she had complied, so that he could finish her soup. No one identified the quince--the soup wasn't noticeably sweet, it was just really rich and delicious.

Well, I bought two pounds, and just cooked one of them. They were in very good shape, quite clean, with just the odd pine needle and bit of dirt to clean off. I sauteed them in butter with some chopped shallot. When they had cooked down quite a bit, I sprinkled on a bit of Shake and Blend flour and a half cup of heavy cream, some salt and white pepper and some chopped parsley. Served over polenta. Very tasty.

Marked "Product of Canada". 16 ounces for $7.99. In the refrigerated produce room. They have to be farmed-- very little of the fruity aroma of wild chanterelles. I haven't tasted them yet. But, STILL...

Eastern Market. I think it is Union Meats that has them.

Michael brought me that venison tenderloin yesterday--I have it on very good authority that it was NOT from the yearling buck that was caught in the Ralph Lauren store in Georgetown this week. I made a cooked wine marinade with juniper berries and gave the meat a soak in it for few hours. We started with duck leg confit (domestic duck, this time), roasted fennel and fig compote. The venison was pan-seared and finished in the oven, and served medium rare with a bordelaise sauce, polenta, roasted cipolini onions, braised kale and a saute of fresh chanterelles, porcini and crimini mushrooms. The meat was beautifully tender and delicately game-y. Really delicious. Pecorino sheepmilk and Mahon cow's milk cheeses with homemade membrillo. Rustic winter pear tart, made with an orange-ginger pate brisee recipe from Sherry Yard's baking book. We drank Ropiteau pinot noir with the duck confit and Alterra Sonoma cabernet with the venison. Both were adequate, but nothing to shout about. This was a great meal that deserved better wine. Boo hoo.

Kudos! Great job. Obviously a labor of much love. Thanks for doing that for everyone.

I found fresh-picked green olives at Grand Mart last Friday. The only other olives I've cured have been ripe and black, so I can't be certain how these will turn out. But I scored them and buried them in layers of kosher salt in a large jar. The other way to cure olives is to brine them, and I think that's the usual way that green olives are cured, but I didn't have the inclination to do the necessary research, and salting them was easier to do. I was talking to the owner of Cornucopia about it--he is Egyptian, I think. A really nice guy, who loves to talk food. Anyway, he told me that after the salt cure is complete, I should briefly cook them and then pack them in olive oil with garlic, herbs and lemon peel. I had never heard that bit about the partial cooking, so I am going to try that. I just made my third batch of fresh chevre, using some goat's milk I got at a farm stand north of Poolesville. Cool place--they had dozens of different winter squashes and pumpkins, and I got a Blue Hubbard, which is a squash I used to love when I lived in Vermont. They also had Trickling Springs butter, which is so good. Of course, now I can't recall the name of the place or exactly where it was-- we came upon it on a drive up to Harper's Ferry, along smaller back roads. I've got my first batch of membrillo drying in the convection oven--it's almost ready to go. I promised Katie, the cheese lady at Arrowine that I would bring her some to taste. Maybe she'll give me some good Spanish sheepmilk cheese in exchange.

There' a guy at the Friendship Heights Sur la Table who sharpens knives--I don't know his name, but he's an older, somewhat portly fellow who looks like he knows his way around a meat case and a kitchen. Occasionally, they do special promotions where they sharpen knives for free there.

My neighbor Michael, the hunter's friend, brought me a wild Canada goose breast on Thursday. I briefly cured it overnight in an herbed brine, and served it to Michael and his mother and daughter and my family on Friday night. We started with a Kabocha squash and quince soup, made with duck stock and finished with creme fraiche. I pan seared the goose breast and roasted it in a hot oven until medium rare. The meat was juicy, very dark and dense, with a deep, gamy taste. The texture reminded me of ostrich. I served it with choucroute-style oven braised homemade sauerkraut, with onion sauteed in duckfat, white wine, juniper berries, fresh thyme and bayleaf. And new potatoes. And sauteed wild oyster mushrooms that I found in Battery Kemble Park. We drank a dry Austrian Muscadeller with the soup and 1999 Guigal Chateauneuf du Pape with the goose. The CNDP was decanted for almost an hour, which gave the tannins a chance to relax and it was an excellent complement to the meat. Salad and gorgonzola dolce followed the goose. Dessert was a plum and fig upside down cake. We had some R.L. Buller Fine Muscat with the cake. Michael promised to bring me some fresh venison later this week. Born to eat wild!

We just devoured the most delicious chicken I have ever made/eaten in my life. And that is a LOT of chickens! It was a very small bird from Polyface at the Dupont Market. I brined it for a few hours in an herbed brine made with thyme, tarragon, lavender, bay leaf and aromatic veg. This evening I decided to make a stir fry for Veggie-Teen, and the chicken-for-dinner plan took an Asian turn. In the Vita-Mix blender, I made a sauce with tamari-rice vinegar-mirin-ginger-onion-lime juice and peel-plum sauce-Chinese barbaque sauce-roasted sesame oil-Sriracha hot sauce. This became a basting sauce for the chicken and the liquid for the stir fry of red bell pepper, shiitake mushrooms, soy nuggets, green beans, scallions and cauliflower. I split the brined chicken and grilled it for twenty-five minutes over Cowboy hardwood charcoal, turning and mopping frequently with the basting sauce. We-ell, my dears, the baby bird came directly off the grill onto our plates. The skin was crispy with areas of char, savory from the salty-sweet-sour-spicy sauce and smoky from the grill. The meat was meltingly juicy and tender, and redolent of herbs and salt all the way to the bone. The stir-fry was good, too. But oh, baby--that chicken was unbelievable! Veggie-teen ate in front of the tv so she could watch CSI. Good thing, because I was moaning in a very un-motherly way while I ate that chicken.

I finally made it to the new Great Wall Supermarket on Gallows Road in Merrifield, about a quarter mile from Han ah Reum. They aren't yet completely up and running--according to big signs on the walls, they are planning to have sushi, a liquor department and prepared Chinese food, but these departments are not happening yet. The store is brand new, and is quite a bit cleaner than the funky HAR, In general I would say that probably due to fewer customers and consequently less turnover, the produce wasn't quite as fresh-looking as HAR's--especially the greens. They had several unusual fruits I'd never seen for sale fresh before: mangosteen, rambutan, jujubee, and a couple I can't remember the names of that I'd never heard of before. There were at least a dozen different varieties of pears. I was looking for quinces, but they didn't have any. I did get some nice Muscat grapes and very inexpensive prune plums. There were many different live and lively fish in their tanks--over at HAR, there were several dead Tilapia in the tank. At Great Wall, the clams are kept in water, and looked quite appetizing. They had a nice variety of fish filets and steaks, as well as whole fish-- though not the many different varieties that HAR has. They had lots of fresh, whole ducks in the meat case. Of course, the ducks with heads were labeled "ducks without heads" and the ducks without heads were labeled "with". The "packed on" date was October 30, (today is October 17), so no one with much of a command of English is keeping an eye on things. They had something I've never seen before: ground pork fat, sold like hamburger, by the pound. Presumably for making sausage. But I bought 2 1/2 pounds and rendered it in a baking pan in the oven, and made some lard, and ended up with a separate tub of crumbly cracklings. The packaged and canned goods seem similar to HAR--but everything looks very fresh and new. Prices are similar. Lots of room in the parking lot.

In a situation like that, I'd drink beer.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/20...se_noodles.html Check out the related stories, while you're at it.

One of the venders at the Dupont Circle Farmers' Market was selling pawpaws last Sunday. It was the guy near Mass Ave. who sells blueberry scones every week, and has lots of preserves for sale. I didn't ask about the price--my family doesn't like pawpaws--but I rarely buy anything from him because I find his prices too high. I used to buy eggs from him when he was bringing blue Aracuna eggs, but he doesn't bring them anymore. The pawpaw season is very short, but last week was the first time he had them, so they may well be back this coming weekend.

This book (*Julie and Julia*) was reviewed positively in the WashPost today (Wednesday Oct. 12).

I've done a fair amount of canning and preserve making--compared to that, sauerkraut and pickles (kosher-style, that is) are simple and downright primitive. Sauerkraut is just cabbage and salt in a crock. For kosher pickles, sterilize some quart-size Ball jars, put a tablespoon of kosher or pickling salt, a few peeled, sliced garlic cloves, some (optional) pickling spice mix (dill seed, allspice berries, black peppercorns, coriander seeds, mustard seed, dried red pepper) in the bottom of the jar. Pack whole clean pickling cukes in the jar as tightly as you can cram them in, add some fresh dill weed to the top of the jar and fill the jar with filtered water, leaving about 1" of head space. Put the lids and rings on--tighten at first, and shake the jar to distribute and dissolve the salt, then untighten the lids and leave them on very loosely, this is important, because the byproduct of the fermentation that you want to happen is co2 that needs to be able to escape. If the lid is on too tight, the jar could explode. Put the jars in a dark, fairly cool place on layers of newspaper to absorb any overflow of brine from the jars. Fermentation starts with bubbling in a few days, then subsides after a few more. The brine will look kind of cloudy and when the bubbling has completely stopped, tighten the lids down and store in the refrigerator. They can be water-bath processed at that point, but if you can keep the jars refrigerated, they will last for months and the pickles will stay crisper. They start out their life, post-fermentation, as "half-sours" (malassol) and proceed to full-sour in time. In the event that for whatever reason, the fermentation turns to spoilage (bacterial contamination, too-warm temperature) you will know it by the smell. And the pickles are slimy. My mother used to make kosher-style dill pickles every year and I've done it lots of times. I've also made sweet "bread and butter" pickles for my Pennsylvania Dutch husband. They are a major chore, by comparison--slicing and blanching the cukes, making the syrup, sterilizing and water-bath processing the jars. I'm not convinced it's worth the trouble to make sweet pickles, but wait'll you try your homemade kosher pickles--they leave the ones at the deli in the dust!