Anna Phor

On a summer afternoon, I'm very fond of a vodka, lime and bitters--widely drunk in Australia, but I have to order by giving the recipe here in the U.S. Lemonade glass with a shot of vodka, a slosh of Rose's lime juice, topped up with either sparkling water (my preference) or more traditionally sprite/7-up, plus a very healthy shake of bitters. And extra bitters, please.

I have two quarts of strawberries giving up their juice on my stove right now. I did an earlier batch of jam this summer, but it was very watery -- as others have theorized, perhaps due to the very rainy spring we've had this year. My first batch I also got fancy with the measuring, measuring the berries (by volume) by the amount of water that they displaced. I don't think my Joy recipe needs that much precision. Presumably that also upped the berries:sugar ratio. My coworker tells me that I can save my runny jam by adding a smidge of cornstarch to the finished produce. Any thoughts from folks here on that? (I've been saving it by putting it on pancakes, which has also worked very well.)

It's not necessarily a unitasker. I lived for three months on a small isolated Pacific island rock with a "kitchen" that consisted of a single ring burner, a rice cooker, a sink, and a bar fridge. You can make pasta or noodles or potatoes in a rice cooker; you can also steam veggies.

I did a batch of jam from some eastern shore berries that I picked up about three weeks ago, and it was very runny, too. Same recipe as last years' jam, and it set up a treat. So there might be something to that theory.

Why does AB's stovetop recipe use a mixing bowl and foil? I pop mine on the stovetop in a saucepan with a tight fitting lid.

How do you know he doesn't?

Mitsitam cafe at the National Museum of the American Indian was serving fiddlehead salad a couple of springs ago--I haven't been there in a while, so I don't know if they are currently on the menu.

Indeed they jest. I know. I tried. 45 minutes later (with 2 cell phones), and the egg wasn't even warmish.

What is a ramp and what should I do with it?

Word. And me, I require a certain amount of vegetable matter for survival. At RFK, if you wanted a vegetable, it was either a sausage with peppers & onions, or something with a side of slaw from red hot & blue. If I'm eating there three nights out of some weeks, I can now get a salad.

Mr M & I went to Smith Island a couple years back for a long weekend vacation & had Smith Island cake at the little diner next to the pier. Me, I'm not a huge fan of yellow cake (my favorite cakes are the more European heavy crumb style), but it's not bad.

My food choices, too, were entirely based on length of line. Had a grilled chicken sandwich, which was very dry, but probably less bad for me than a hot dog. I thought the onion- and relish-vending machines were a grand idea, even though all of them were out of onions. They are small stainless steel cylinders on the condiment stations. One turns a handle, and relish or onions are dispensed. At the bottom of the seventh, I went to stand in line at Nat's Dogs for a hot chocolate. There were maybe six or seventh people ahead of me in line. I waited. And waited. And waited. And then I was second in line and it was the bottom of the eighth and the Nats were up 2-1 and I abandoned ship to go watch the game from the concourse. After the Braves tied it up, I was able to sneak back into the now-empty line between innings and grab a couple of hot chocolates, which were horrid. Really horrid. Swiss Miss and hot water horrid. The Gifford's next door didn't have HC on their menu, but I'll have to look more carefully next time. Also, we bought in-park peanuts (which at RFK we'd always get from the street vendors). Dunno if peanuts are fresher at the beginning of the season or what, but they were very good -- much roastier than the ones we'd get at RFK.

Eep! I suspect the former - I don't think she would have had gin back then.

Stopped in here early yesterday evening for a pre-movie* meal. It's the first time I've been, and I'll certainly be going back. We were seated in the upstairs dining room, and because we ate at 6, there was only one other table occupied when we got there. Started out with the Byzantine cocktail, which was a very spring-like mix of gin, pineapple, tonic and basil; mr m. had a big cold glass of sapphire which may have had vermouth mentioned somewhere in its presence. We split the yellowfin crudo. One fish, three preparations: in this case, a mint/nutmeg (neat, fun, the nutmeg brings out the meatiness of the fish); one with some sort of emulsion & toasted capers (eh. The toasted capers were cute in theory, didn't knock my socks off, also I forgot what I was eating & thought they were salty walnuts); and a ginger/scallion, which made us both hanker after the kind of poke we used to eat once a week in Honolulu. I had the bluefish entree, served with a parsnip/potato cake & a walnut pesto. Excellent. Mr. M. had the rockfish with cornbread & little toasty bacon bits sprinkled on the skin. Superb. Bread basket was good, too; a very cheesy fluffy muffin-like affair, pepper biscuits, and whole-wheat baguette-ish slices. About this point, the sun was setting, and the upstairs room took on a faint orange glow from the streetlight directly outside. There's a giant picture of a sunset to the left of the bar, too -- it's a neat perceptual effect, & I kept looking out the window for an *actual* sunset. We were heading to a movie, and debating whether to get dessert (well, mr. m was debating -- I was just waiting for him to come to the proper conclusion by himself). If you leave this restaurant without ordering dessert, you have done yourself a grave disservice. Heather Chittum deserves the keys to the city. I had the Lingonberry Linzertorte with Taleggio ice cream. Divine. Exquisite. And really, really smart. The torte is a chewy nutty short pastry tart, inside of which is a fabulously sticky but not too sweet berry jam. It's plated with a port wine reduction and the taleggio ice cream. The ice cream is funky and tangy -- reminded me a lot of crema mexicana** , with a blue note. The whole dish is really a dessert take on a cheese/fruit/port course. Mr M had the banana cream pie, which comes with a malted chocolate/caramel sauce. Also excellent. ================================================================================ *The Bank Job. Think "The Italian Job", sans Michael Caine & the minis, but with the addition of some MI6 intrigue. Fun. **Which I'm apt to eat straight from the jar, with a sprinkle of sugar & some blueberries & chocolate chips.

Anyone know where I can get some good chipotle powder? Either in (metro accessible) DC, or a good supplier online?

Neighbor's Consejo website. They are also taking cash donations & you can donate online.

There are a few things that I'm not *allowed* to cook (most of them are fishy things), but the smell doesn't bother *me*. The worst worst worst "cooking" smell I've ever been responsible for was the time I tried to cure home-grown tobacco leaves in the oven. Because "ashtray"? Not a fun smell to have permeating the kitchen.

If you really want to see the difference between market eggs and Safeway's, make pancakes. The market eggs make the lightest, fluffiest most tender pancakes ...

Stopped in for a pre-movie early dinner on Friday night. It's a sweet space -- we ate on the second floor, which is basically a long narrow room, but it's broken up with high booths and it feels more like a series of small rooms. Nice big windows, too -- I bet it's a really pretty room on a sunny day. I had meatloaf with mac + cheese and greens and "tomato gravy". Meatloaf was very good; moist and tasty. The gravy was really a tomato sauce (is that what tomato gravy is? I've never had it before, but it wasn't what I expected) & the sides were pretty decent. Spouse Phor had a salad with tuna and a honey-ginger dressing, which was very sickly sweet. It was on the specials menu, & I don't think it's part of their regular rotation. For dessert I ordered "Oreo pie"; actually, not pie at all, but ice-cream on a cookie base. And french press coffee, which was a very nice touch. All in all, not bad, great value for money, and a nice addition to the neighborhood.

cooked quinoa + grated potato = quinoa potato pancake. Takes about 20 minutes per side in a cast-iron skillet. Goes with huevos rancheros. Or chili. Concept inspired by a diner by a park on NY's lower east side. Wish I could remember the name of the place.

Just wanted to say I've been using Peapod for six or seven years now, and I've always been happy with their service. I've only had one occasion (out of what must now be several hundred deliveries) where the order wasn't right, and it was fixed right away. They don't have everything, but they do bring the heavy things right to your apartment. Which is great for my weekly seltzer habit.

I do wild rice in the crock pot. 3:1 water to rice, simmer very very low. You can let it go a long time (maybe about 8 hours??) without it getting mushy. I wouldn't do this with actual rice, though.

As an *actual* native Scot, I personally wouldn't touch the stuff with a bargepole, but I assume you know to serve it with tatties (potatoes) and neeps (mashed turnips -- actually, I think rutabagas), right? And usually a trifle.

Next Step Farm was absent when we got to the market around 12 today -- anyone know if they are done for the season, or did they just pack up early?

My go to recipes are chilli and oatmeal. For oatmeal, I do one part oats to three parts milk, plus a generous spoonful of wheatgerm (which completely disappears, but imparts a reasonable ampunt of nutrition. Plus salt. Bring to a simmer, set at about 225 for 8-10 hours. Although the appliance I have is more like this than what folks usually call a crockpot. I can set the temp exactly -- another advantage; the whole dealie goes right in the dishwasher.