mktye

This is really good advice. In my experience, guests who do not take subtle hints tend not to be offended at blunt requests to leave. A "Well, it's been a fun evening, but we are exhausted and need to get to bed" given with a smile will usually do the trick. The only exception I've found to this was rwtye's immediate boss at our last duty station. He was a Colonel, out-ranked everyone at dinner and took full advantage of that (which is actually very rare, typically, the more senior the military, the more thoughtful and polite). Earlier in the evening, when I asked him and another guest to please come to the dining room and sit down because dinner was on the table, he told me that he was still talking and would come in whenever he wanted. Then he stayed late (past 0130) and held the whole dinner party hostage. I suspect that if we'd asked him to leave, we would have gotten the same response as when I asked him to the dinner table. We never invited him over again.

Those dates and locations can be found on their website (and are also listed at the bottom of the Shopping Guide ).

This article from the San Francisco Chronicle has some recipes at the end that might be along the lines of what you are seeking.

As part of this challenge, I've been making recipes from Modern Greek by Andy Harris. I cannot remember why, where or when I bought this cookbook, but I had never cooked from it before this last week. The first recipe I made was "Roast Lamb with Lemon Potatoes". (For those who have recently been reading the Komi thread, the recipe says you can also use "Katsikaki" ) Quartered potatoes and garlic cloves cooked with the lamb with lemon juice, olive oil and oregano drizzled over all. Easy, but the time given for baking was about an hour too long and would have totally killed the lamb. I pulled the lamb after ~1.5 hours and roasted the potatoes another half hour or so. I was worried the potatoes might be too lemony, but they and the lamb were both delicious. The only changes I'd make next time would be to coarsely chop the garlic cloves so they'd be more dispersed among the potatoes and to cook it all in a slightly larger pan (I used a 9"x13" pan) so the potatoes would brown a bit more. However, I don't think anything is "modern" about this recipe and it is pretty much identical to ones found in nearly every Greek cookbook I own. Next up was a recipe for "Revithokeftedes" aka chickpea fritters. Instead of used dried chickpeas and cooking them, I cheated and used canned chickpeas. The fritters were good, but not fantastic, perhaps due to using the canned chickpeas. Definitely needed something along the lines of tzatziki to accompany them. The directions for this recipe were quite vague regarding the size of the fritters, but then specified a rather exact cooking time (but no temperature for the oil). Not the end of the world, but it was a definite balancing act getting the fritters to lose all of the raw flour taste and harshness of the minced onion while not burning the outside -- thinness of the fritters and careful watching near the end of cooking was the key. Since none of the sides in the book really appealed to me, I decided to make two desserts (and does this really surprise anyone? ). The first was "Melitinia", sweet cheese pastries. Basically little ricotta tarts. Bad recipe. Bad. Bad. Bad. Although I ignored the directions as written and mixed the flour and olive oil together first before adding any liquid in hopes of reducing gluten formation as much as possible, the resulting crusts were still pretty darn tough. But the worst was that the filling made over twice the amount needed for the amount of crust (one of my pet peeves) and was far too sweet. Next time, I'd halve the filling amount overall and halve the amount of sugar used in that. And what happened to the leftover filling? I poured it into ramekins, put them in the oven to bake and proceeded to leave them there for three hours! Good thing I went back downstairs for a glass of water before I went to bed. I just made the second dessert this afternoon. "Melomakarona" which are described as honeyed biscuits. For those who have been fortunate enough to have some of Ferhat's hurma, these are very similar. Interestingly, the recipe note states that these cookies are also called "Phoenikia" because they are Phoenician in origin. Well, I'll stick with my other (Turkish) recipe for these cookies (or try to sweet talk Ferhat into making more since I still can't quite duplicate his ). Like all the other recipes I tried in this cookbook, the directions were vague and the proportions of ingredients off. Bottom line: While this cookbook has gorgeous pictures and some interesting recipes, be prepared to do a lot of thinking for yourself and tweaking to produce good results. There are a few more recipes I would like to try from this book, but I will definitely be cross-checking them against similar recipes and using my instincts and experience rather than trusting the recipes as written.

I am very much with you on this one, Bilrus. I tend to eat very little meat and, when I do, I prefer it to be muscle tissue. Organ meats way too quickly bring to mind my biology/biochem classes. In my book, scallops are the perfect protein -- no bones, fat, skin, veins or connective tissues. I am also not big on eggs, but with a pretty good reason... I cannot properly digest egg yolks unless they are well cooked. So I tend to identify eggs with stomach pain. And orange juice and apple juice both fall into that had it/got sick category that so many here appear to have experienced. Just smelling apple juice still makes me gag, although I can eat apples. I deal with the smell of oranges okay, but don't like to ingest them in any way and I'm not a fan of anything orange-flavored. Lastly, chocolate. I'll eat it, but I would pick nearly any other sweet over it. Growing up, my oldest sister was allergic to chocolate (but loves it), so we never even had it in the house.

They also have the new "Degustiazone" option which, to my understanding, includes wine-paring and the sampling of pretty much everything the chef is turning out that night. I did not get the wine-pairing the night we were there, but two of my dining companions did and were quite pleased with the wines Derek picked for them.

Squash-stuffed pasta.

Not sophisticated, just overly fussy. Especially when it comes to one of my favorite desserts. Let me know if you need a partner in your new business venture!

Not a dumb question at all, I also came up with nothing on a google search performed before for we went last Friday. But, yes, it is goat. And it was fantastic. The other favored main at our table of four was the venison. Of the pastas, the gorgonzola raviolini was a clear favorite (if, like us, you like gorgonzola) with the agnolotti, goat ragu pappardelle & the kabocha koumbya all very good, just lacking the consensus of "favorite" that was bestowed upon the raviolini. By the time dessert came around, we were getting a bit fuzzy and without an online menu to jog my memory the following descriptions are vague at best... I liked the crepes (?) filled with mascarpone (?) the most. However, if I recall corrrectly, everyone else at the table preferred the turnip cake (at least, I think it was turnip! ). Oh, and, of course, the donuts were heavenly. Perhaps my fellow diners can chime in and help me out since my recollection of that dinner is now just a big, satisfying, blur of delciousness.

I'm going to have to disagree with you on this one, AB, since I am a bit mistrusting of such hard and fast labels. While almond flour is usually defined as being made from blanched almonds, there are instances of both it and almond meal being composed of blanched or unblanched almonds and sometimes even toasted almonds. I have bags of all three types in my freezer, all marked "almond flour" and I would be hesitant to purchase any flour/meal unless I could see for myself its color and consistency. My opinion on which version is preferable is dependent on what you plan to do with your ground nuts. I find that skin-on ground almonds can add a desirable flavor component to some baked goods. For example, I usually make baklava with a mixture of ground walnuts and ground whole almonds because I think it makes it a bit lighter overall. And I like how the tannins from the nuts play off the cloying sweetness of the honey and add an overall complexity to the pastry. For an extreme of using almond skins to achieve a certain flavor profile, I once made a cake that the recipe (looked for it, but could not locate it) called for a specific proportion of blanched almonds to whole almonds with skins. They were then ground together before proceding with the recipe (which I seem to recall also included chocolate). So, while I would not use non-blanched almond meal/flour to make things like traditional macarons or a delicate sponge, in my kitchen, it still has its of uses. And Ms. Nadya... what are your plans for the nuts?

Please put me down for two for the China Star & Thai Square dinners.

We are also most definitely interested. And, if car-pooling proves more feasible, can take an additional 5 to 6 people (depending on how cozy they want to be) in our vehicle.

Since it deserves a thread of its own, the Local vs. Organic discussion has been moved here.

The discount did apply to some non-food items I purchased this morning. My suspicion is that alcohol and possibly medicines (maybe just prescription?) are the exceptions.

The Safeway near Quaker/Braddock/King in Alexandria appears to be giving those who use their Safeway card 15% off all "eligible purchases" between now and the end of April. Why? "As a thank-you to our customers." What constitutes "eligible purchases", who is eligible for this benefit and if this is happening at all stores, is not exactly clear, but it might be worth looking into. Especially if you want to stock up on King Arthur bread flour!

So many responses come to mind, but the most appropriate is Trader Joe's. The last time I was in the Bailey's Crossroads TJ's the ground almonds were with the baking goods rather than the intact nuts.

Hinata thread.

Uh-oh... back to the "to brine or not to brine" argument. I wonder if it will make the gravy too salty?

I prefer the Hamwinkies a la "The Soup".

I keep forgetting to post this... while at La Cuisine in Old Town a couple of weeks ago, I ran across a package of these: Click. (Be sure to check out the related meat products at this site!)

Have you looked at Johnny's Selected Seeds? Click.

And is it out yet?

I know that at least the Baileys Crossroads TJ's carries it (and Garelick half-and-half). It is good cream worth seeking out. Just be sure to check the use-by date and store it in the back of the fridge where it is coldest -- it won't hold like the ultrapasteurized cream.

Something I like about TJ's -- they area the only place I've found around Alexandria that carries heavy cream that is just that, heavy cream. 100% cream. Nothing added. No mono- and di-glycerides. No caregeenan. And, as an added bonus, it's not ultrapastuerized. (The brand is Garelick Farms and, oddly, they only list their ultrapastuerized, alduterated heavy cream on their website. )

Information about the calotte butchering class at RTC has been moved here.