pax

The Common Market in Frederick has a nice selection of butters.

I keep reaching out and picking up the Vermont Butter Company butter and then putting it back down, amazed that a by-product like butter can be so much more dear than the end product..how much cheap beef could you buy for a pound of that stuff? Given that they both require a huge amount of production? It just amazes me. I really am going to have to try it soon.

I keep two different butter crocks going, one sweet, and one salted, and use them depending on what I'm buttering. Really good sweet butter can be sublime.

Annie's mini-chocolate chip Bunny Cookies in half and half.

I love the "health food" cereal whose box just says, "Ginger Raspberry", only I can't remember who makes it. It's corn flakes with spicy granola bites.

No.

Was it the shoes that threw you, Don?

Listen, the Food Network is baby steps for a guy like Batali. All I want to say is "Good luck, Mr Batali, hope I get to see you cooking up a storm somewhere else, very soon. You're bigger and better than FN, despite your shoes. Seriously, no loss for you...moving up!"

Heh, have you been to Luray? The best you could hope for is that your flea bag no-tel has a microwave.

I got taken to the one in Fairfax a couple of weeks ago and I'd hit a Silver Diner or a jeez, ANY diner before going back there. The "famous" potatoes were cold, my crepes were served with absolutely nothing on them and cold, bacon was inediblely chewy. And jeez it was COLD in there.

All in all, I'd give it a big fat boo-hiss.

Well I stumbled upon an interesting little place last night. Bistot Lafayette has a piano bar advertised on it's web site, and I will out myself as a total middle aged dork, I loved the one on the last cruise we did, so I was kind of hoping to find something similar. We didn't actually eat, as we got there a bit late, but we had a very nice cheese plate and some coffee drinks, as it was damp and chilly out. At first glance I thoght the coffee drinks were going to be typical overpriced brown swill but they were actually very good and I'd do them again. In fact, I plan to lure my husband down there soon, to go to dinner in the restaurant on the ground level, it smelled delectable in there, and the attention paid to a simple cheese plate was very nice which I hope bodes well of the rest of the food.

The piano bar was a very convivial group of enthusiasts who are apparently regulars, and they each have their own "set pieces" which they like to showcase. Some of them do duets and arrangements which have obviously undergone much rehersal and time. I happen to know the second part to A Chorus Line's "One"...(see, I told you I'm SuperDork!) and I was immediately feted and made much of by the group, who encouraged us (my friend and I, he is a fabulous tenor who would NOT get up and sing... ) to come back. I will warn you that it was still the 1940's in these peoples' musical little hearts. I would have been happier with something more along my own generation and there was some brief hope when a brash young thing strutted in and did a passible Andrew Lloyd Webber, totally upsetting the de-lovely apple cart, but it was dashed when he left.

I love German potato salad. Yum yum yum. And I have taters. And pancetta. And PMS. Oh baby.

Really, is there a bad version of a potato salad? *rubs my tummy*

[highly partisan yet absolutely accurate political satire deleted before hitting "Add Reply" button]

Nevermind... I'll get back to admiring my shiny flag lapel pin.

Well heck, I'd probably have appreciated it.

The McCain campaign put out a presser that said some poor schlub was asked to make a list of recipes for the McCain Family Kitchen...apparently they were lifted verbatim off TFN site and the schlub has been let go from his job.

HA...one of the recipes was apparently Rachel Ray's... ...they didn't even steal GOOD recipes...

Does he still have the pearl wearing Dalmations? I've not been in a long time.

I used to live down there, (I'm up in Loudoun now) and I really miss Little Washington. As much as sometime I resented having to spend twenty minutes getting through the one stop sign in front of the Inn because I forgot it was was a weekend, I deeply appreciated looking at the astounding gardens and beautiful restorations. I really really loved when my friends, most of whom do have bath tubs, (but not all of them, so I can really see him asking this question! ) got some kind of supplier relationship going with them. I loved having a relationship with a very very very very very junior minion who made me amazing bites of desserts. I loved the theater of the big window into the kitchen which, I admit, voyeur that I am, I sometimes lingered on dog walking duty. I loved looking at the gorgeous gorgeous ceiling in there that made friend Sam handcrafted. Well played, well played indeed.

PS. Need any lamb down there, Mr O'Connell? I have two bathtubs and a crick.

I wish I'd checked backed in here before I took my kids to lunch at Isabella's today, y'all are right on about that goat cheese fritter, it was terrible. The grilled calamari was chewy. The asparagus fries were great, salmon with spicy cider sauce an jamon was a hit as was the pork loin and the stuffed dates wrapped in bacon. The albondigas were ho hum. There were 8 of us and we all ordered at least two tapas and a few people ordered mains. I wanted to try a bit of everything but that's a lot of "just one bites".

The desserts..the brownie with hazlenut ice cream was a dissapointment. The brownie was hard as a rock and dry. The ice cream was nice. It was chocolate, so my kids plowed through it. I loved the bread pudding. I've made better flan. I wanted to try the sangria cheesecake but no one else was interested so I left it for another time.

The service was terrible. The guy spent a lot of time stalking back and forth but I never actually saw him DO anything but stand behind the bar making himself a very long and complicated drink. We had to wait for everything, and even though I went in there hoping for a long leisurely sangri-sprinkled tasting session, the waiter still needs to show up periodically, which he did not. Several of our tapas plates didn't come out at all, and since we were pretty full, I was just going to ask them to take them off the bill. We sat for a LONG time waiting for the guy to check on us, (like, ask us if we wanted dessert or the check, or whatever) and it took me finally shooting a pointed look at the bartender, who snagged the waiter and sent him over. We explained that two of our tapas hadn't come, and could we just remove them from the bill, and could we get some dessert menus? The waiter got all snippy about it and said they were already made, and I said, we were really ready to order dessert, and he said, "No, it's already made" and stomped off. So we ate the damned things and THEN ordered dessert, but the waiter love magic was all gone. Not a huge deal, but please, grumpy ass waiter dude, be grumpy on your own time, okay? I am an ex-wait person and let me tell you, I tip out the ass. But not to you, my friend. I actually tipped the food runner seperately so *he* wouldn't suffer for your bullshit.

So there you go. My not ready for prime time review of Isabella's. Cute spot, hit or miss on the food, grumpy ass waiter.

I made it once from some recipe I got on some B&B site or something. I was unimpressed. Essentially, I poured regular old yellow cake batter into 8" pans, but only about a quarter inch at a time, so what I ended up with were more pancakey layers than cake layers. Glued it all together with some really average frosting and the recipe went straight in the bin. I'm willing to believe it was my recipe, so don't all y'all Marylanders be shy if you think you can improve my luck.

When in extremis, waltz into a nice hotel like you own the place, march directly to the restaurant, which is usually clearly signed, and voila....a reasonably clean bathroom.

Thanks for the heads up.

After reading this thread I've decided I need to add a caulk gun to my kitchen equipment. Now I'll just have to think of some good uses for it.

I use them instead of pastry bags. I freaking hate pastry bags.

You cretins go ahead and tout your guilty pleasures / secret shames at Taco Bell; mine can be found at Qdoba: A Vegetarian Burrito with cilantro-lime rice, black beans, fresh guacamole, cheese, light sour cream, and double hot sauce. This is so much better than the nasty, wilted, crumpled, sodium-ridden, fat-laden rat bait from Taco Bell that I can't believe that thread is still being perpetuated. Qdoba is to Taco Bell what Five Guys is to McDonald's - it's better on every single level except price and hours. Of the five fast-food burritos I've had in the past year or so (others were Baja Fresh, California Tortilla, Burrito Brothers, and Taqueria Poblano), I enjoyed this one the most by far. It may be guilt, but it's sustainable guilt.

Easy there, killer! Get back to me when you're suffering from PMS in East Bumbleville, VA. Take pity.

Charlottesville

Hey! I'm headed down through C'ville very soon, can't wait to stop in at Humble Pie, thanks for the tip. : )

The Mexican pizza is my secret pms shame. Of course, I will deny it if I ever meet any of y'all face to face. Does anyone remember the Santa Fe gordita? I loved those things when I was pregnant. I still crave them occasionally.

I always wondered how loopy wine tasters get.

Love, The Fat Girl

What's the occasion? The latest craze in kid's parties is letting them decorate their own desserts, like icing cookies or cupcakes. Kids don't really care how it tastes, as long as it's not too foreign, they eat with their eyes.

You could bake them pumpkin cookies or muffins, with enough self applied sprinkles over the top, they'd gobble them.

I did baked beans in the crock pot yesterday that were the best I've ever made. My family is gobbling them.

Onions sauteing in butter.

Apple pie with a lot of cinnamon.

Roasting meat with rosemary.

Curries. I loath the smell of curry in the house.