V.H.

How about a kebab meal? You could do an assortment of meat and veggie skewers with various dipping sauces. You could provide a combination of safe choices with some more interesting ones. For dessert you could do fruit skewers or cake skewers.

Was it labeled black cod or did you know it by sight? I love black cod but have never seen in it the stores in the area. I might just have to drive out for some, at those prices.

Just came back from a trip to San Juan Islands where people catch and can their own tuna (glass jars w/olive oil). This in addition to catching, smoking, and vacuum packing salmon for later. It was awesome.

I got over it and ate the prosciutto. The waiter example doesn't bother me, because they would only touch my plate when serving me. I've certainly eaten samples at stores and farmers markets that have surely been touched by other hands. I eat stuff that my three year old drops on the floor. I realized that it was the young man's attempt to hide what he was doing that bothered me the most.

I just bought some Proscitto San Danielle. I'm fairly certain that the young man who was slicing it for me snitched at least two slices of it while he was slicing it. I'm kind of grossed out, mainly because he sort of tried to slyly do it and only really succeeded in looking like he might be spitting into his hand from my angle. My husband thinks I'm being picky. I didn't report it to anyone at the store because I didn't want to embarass the kid but I certainly won't order sliced deli meat from him again.

They still carry that Italian style tuna in olive oil. Oh, and 20)72% dark chocolate Pound plus bar for $3.99 It's not great eating but great for baking

My mini-review of some chocolates I purchased from Artisan Confections: -85% cocoa truffles-very smooth and chocolatey, not too sweet and not at all bitter or harsh -ginger & rum-very mild ginger flavor, good amount of rum flavor, at least for someone like me who prefers the flavor without the harsh taste of the liquor -pecan marzipan-not a fan of these, the filling was a bit sweet for my taste -chocolate covered caramels-awesome, I love sea salt caramels in all forms -Gua-something-my husband ate all of these up before I returned from my business trip. He thought they were good. -peanut butter and jelly-the pate de fruit had a great consistency that kept the filling from oozing when you bit into it. I liked this one much more than I expected to and would definitely buy them again The chocolate enrobing machine is tres cool.

I ended up going with a simple cream cheese frosting. One stick of butter, one package of cream cheese, beaten with enough powdered sugar to have a nice consistency. We colored the frosting a lovely pink with some gel color and topped with rainbow colored sprinkles. The frosting held up fine sitting at room temp for a half day at daycare. Oh, and it was also delicious!

In a pinch at my mom's house I've used a Whole Foods paper bag under a mound of hardwood charcoal. It was slow to start, but did eventually produce a perfectly lit pile of charcoal. As for cooking outside, we've been doing sweet potato packets recently. Scrub sweet potatoes well and then slice into 1/4 inch rounds. Spread about 2-3 layers thick in a foil pouch with a pat of butter and some cinnamon. Crimp the packet closed, grill for about 20 minutes, flipping once.

Are those monkeys made of orange skins?

Kotobuki over on MacArthur will do party platters, I believe. You could probably order a tremendously filling amount of good sushi for $10 a head, $15-20 would get you a feast.

I started a post earlier about my displeasure with their kids menu but thought it too off-topic. Now that others are discussing, I will weigh in with my unsolicited advice. I'm totally disappointed by the $6 chicken nuggets/strips or burger option. For a restaurant whose entrees average around $14 for real food, they could do some really great kids options. I'm thinking a mini skewer of grilled meat, very lightly seasoned and served with a serving of rice and a small bread. What kid doesn't love rice and bread? You use that to bridge the gap to the grilled meat, which most kids are familiar with anyways, it's the blend of spices that may be foreign. My nearly 3 year old will eat just about any ethnic cuisine if it's presented to her in a familiar way (i.e. introducing sauces on the side, explain that kafta is just a long meatball) and she's in a setting where everyone else is doing it too. I think Bamian's missing out on a great opportunity to get the next generation hooked on Afghan food.

I'm in search of a vanilla frosting recipe that will be room temperature stable. I have to send cupcakes to school for my daughter's birthday and the ingredients on the pre-made frostings give me the the heebie jeebies. We normally do ganache or buttercreams at home but I don't think they would hold up too great at school. ETA: How would a cream cheese/powdered sugar frosting hold up for 6 hours? Would I need to worry about giving a bunch of 3 year olds food poisoning?

Tomato update: I'm now the proud owner of a food mill, a case of quart jars, and a big simmering pot of tomato sauce.

They are phenomal plain. I've been cutting them up and doing Quality Assurance on each tomato. I'll definitely have to set aside some of them for gazpacho and salads.

Do I need to run my tomatoes through a food mill to remove the skins and seeds? Or, can I get away with a quick boiling water bath to remove the skins and squeezing out the seeds by hand? The instructions I've googled online say to use a sieve or a food mill but I wasn't sure how critical the food mill is. I just weighed the box of tomatoes. 34.6 pounds.

The Falls Church farmer's market at huge boxes of tomatoes today marked "Canners" and selling for $10. I bought one and am now the proud owner of about 20-30 pounds of tomatoes. Ummm... what's the best way to process for canning? I've canned jams and such but never tomato sauce.

Also can be found on Saturday mornings at Courthouse. These are great tasting chickens, even the white meat has a very chickeny flavor and the whole texture is different, denser somehow. I've rubbed with a spice paste, spatchcocked and grilled with great results. These are smaller birds that what you would find at a supermarket so the cooking times are conveniently shorter.

I have found that the Polyface chicken products taste best to me but that I can't tell much of a difference between Bell and Evans and supermarket meats. I tend to season my meat or use it in dishes where the taste difference is probably masked. I also haven't bought supermarket meats in a long time so my memory is also probably getting fuzzy. I've gotten the halal lamb at the Lebanese Butcher and have always been extremely happy with the quality and taste. I like it better than what WF normally has available for lamb. I sent a friend there to try the kafta, he wanted to buy 10 pounds and they insisted on making him a fresh batch from scratch. He was super impressed, more so when he grilled the kafta. The pork from Cibola farms is very tasty. I find that the pork flavor is more pronounced than the stuff I get at WF. The buffalo fennel sausage is outstanding, and lean without being too dry, thanks to the addition of some pork. I find that the prices for the locally raised stuff tends to be just a little higher than what I buy at WF which of course is generally a lot higher than grocery stores. The Lebanese Butchershop prices are very reasonable, maybe even a little less than grocery store prices. Cibola Farms price list Smith Meadows price list We've been trying to eat more local meat this year and have found that our overall grocery bill hasn't changed too much since I've been tending to use smaller quantities of higher quality meat.

Perhaps it was a gloriously brilliant ploy by the Lee Hwy Business League. You con loads of people who think they want Wendy's into driving down a most delicious two mile stretch of Lee Hwy. Instead of the Triple Mushroom Cheddar Jack Spicy Crispy Homestyle Chicken Sandwich, they get a schwarma sandwich and some chocolate croissants. Or perhaps a tasty bratwurst sandwich if it's a Saturday afternoon and they're grilling out in front of Heidelberg.

I buy my flat irons at the WF in Clarendon and have generally been happy with them. Yesterday I bought two and when I took them out today, saw that one had a wide swath of silver skin running through it. I started to trim it off but realized that I'd be cutting off about 15-20% of the steak to get at it. I took it back to WF where they trimmed it off and gave me an additional flat iron for my trouble. The question I have is whether it's reasonable for me to expect that this connective tissue be largely trimmed off of flat irons I buy. I would say that out of the last 7 I've purchased, one had a small strip of connective tissue that I just trimmed off at home, one had a lot that I brought back, and the other 5 were fine. I just want to make sure that I'm not doing the equivalent of buying a shoulder roast and bringing it back because I want all the fat pockets cut out.

At Faccia Luna this evening, there were flyers posted that said they had lost the lease on their parking lot as of June 1 and that Federal Parking had taken it over as a paid lot. Faccia Luna diners will receive $2 off their parking costs and folks getting takeout should be able to get free parking. They recommend that orders be called in ahead of time because the amount of time allowed to get in and out for the free parking is very limited.

Just came back from a short business trip to San Diego and tried a place in Del Mar called the Blackhorse Grille. Website The menu is divided into small plates and entrees; we chose to stick with the small plates because they looked really interesting and were offered at half price during happy hour (4-6). We ended up ordering: Grilled Sea Scallops, Ahi Poke, Smoked Trout Dip, Dungeness Crab Lettuce Cups, Thai Eggplant, and Tempura Green Beans. The scallops were huge, cooked to a nice medium rare and came three to an order on little mounds of potatoes mashed with a little corn and green onion. My coworker said she doesn't normally like scallops but really enjoyed these. The Ahi was great, about 1/3" cubes of beautifully ruby red fish mixed with just enough seasoning to give it a kick but not intimidate those who don't care for overly spicy food. The smoked trout dip and the dungeness crab cups remind you that this is California, meaning that there is mostly seafood and very little in the way of mayonnaise or other creamy binder in these two dishes. The trout dip was presented as three grilled crostini spread with a generous helping of smokey fish. The crab cups were so fresh tasting with really complementary lime and citrus flavors. Of the two veggie dishes, we enjoyed the Thai eggplant more. The dish was cubes of eggplant and tofu sauteed with peppers in an intense ka prow type sauce. My one complaint with this dish was that the fried tofu cubes tasted almost a little freezer burned to me. My comparison is the fried, freshly made tofu at the shop in Eden Center so perhaps it's not a fair comparison. The tempura green beans were good, but they seemed heavy in comparison to the other dishes we tried. The biggest downside of this restaurant is getting to it from San Diego. We left from our offices in Mission Valley and what should have been a 20 minute drive was about 40-45 minutes at about 5pm. The food is worth the drive and I would definitely come back. I normally travel here by myself and the bar looked like it might be a fun place to eat alone. We left the restaurant at about 7:45, just in time to drive over to Solana Beach and catch the sunset.

I get mine at the Clarendon WF, regularly $5.99 a pound.

Since you're home already this suggestion is not particularly helpful but the Korean beef short rib marinade galbi that you can buy at Asian grocery stores is really good on flat irons. We marinate for a 30 minutes up to a few hours and then throw them on the grill and cook rare. They are really great cuts of meat, very juicy and very beefy in flavor. You do need to be sure to cut against the grain for serving.