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I use Dorie's recipe, and have had great luck with it. I do so love them. Le Diplomate and Central happy hours are among my favorites, because gougers are on the menus.

We had takeout from here today. Gougere. Foie Gras parfait. He had trout. I had chicken milanese. We had potato puree. We split Creme Brûlée and Pots de Creme. So good. It's been a while since I had more than the basic happy hour stuff there. It was nice.

Me again. Last week was my birthday. Usually for our birthdays, we go somewhere fun and eat well, sometimes here. Sometimes New Orleans, or Paris, or... Didn't happen this year. My baby brother came down. Long planned, lots of planning to avoid getting folks sick. The rise in cases made us worry, but it was nice weather, so we had an evening outside with friends around the fire pit on my actual birthday, and the next day, the stupid rain came, but it was still warm. So we managed to keep all the windows open the entire time he was here, so that was good. And we ate chili at the fire pit, and french onion soup out of the freezer. But that is not birthday dinner, even though a friend brought birthday cupcakes to the firepit. So tonight, the boy insisted on buying me a nice dinner. We're not dining inside, and it's too cold to eat outside, IMO. So we thought about Corduroy. Sold out by the time we thought about it. Same for Kinship. We thought about Unconventional Diner and about Le Diplomate. Flipped a coin. Le Dip for dinner tonight, UD sometime soon. So I have to go write this up in the Le Dip thread, but I also have to say, ohmigawd, I am going to HAVE to make gougers for Thanksgiving. It will only be the 2 of us, but I need to eat a LOT more of these.

Last night was freezer night. Corn pasta. And of course, salad. Tonight was creative night. We got 2 produce boxes (1 veg, 1 fruit) from South Mountain this week. I do not love greens, and there was chard. And neither of us had ever had persimmon before. But we did some searching, and found this recipe, and had part of a pork loin in the freezer. Damn, this was good.Also, salad. And rolls. (Why can't I shrink this picture?)

Pizza! Frozen garlic scape pesto from this spring, mushrooms (grilled yesterday), Red bell pepper (also grilled yesterday), fresh mozzarella. Also, salad.

Grill night! Chicken thighs marinated in Nando's peri peri sauce, medium. Salad. Dinner rolls (a new item) from Ravenhook. Potatoes, carrots, yellow summer squash. Cookies (snickerdoodles, ginger cookies, chocolate chip cookies) and brown sugar vanilla ice cream for dessert. Early dinner, in order to avoid the rain/wind.

That is it exactly. THANK YOU!

OK, this doesn't really have to do with Chef Geoff's except for its location. We were trying to remember the name of the place that was in its New Mexico Ave location before Chef Geoff's opened there. Can anyone help? Thanks!

I did, for exactly that reason. I don't know that I needed to. Seemed non-essential. Ah, running behind again. So, Sunday was grill day again - the boy was soooo happy. Pork chops with onions. (It wanted vidalias. I got cippolinos at the market and those were great.) Salad, carrots, potatoes, zucchini, rosemary bread. More nutmeg cake. Monday was an artichoke for me, and a squash pasta thing for him. We got a squash in a produce box order from south mountain. I don't eat squash, so he had to come up with something he wanted to eat for dinner, and then for a lot of lunches. Oh, also salad and rosemary bread. And nutmeg cake. Tuesday we had folks over to sit around the fire pit. My brother was here, so 5 of us in the backyard. Chili. Cupcakes that one of the friends brought. And marshmallows. And other s'more stuff too. (Although my brother and I call them smashes, but that's what our grandfather called them.) We were going to do that on Wednesday afternoon, but with the rain coming, that didn't seem like a good idea. Wednesday was french onion soup out of the freezer, and salad, not out of the freezer, and leftover cupcakes. (It was going to be cauliflower soup, but the brother didn't want that. Apparently he doesn't like cauliflower?) (side note - so glad it was so warm. We were able to keep the windows open while he was here. He left this AM.) So the cauliflower soup was tonight. Along with salad, and grilled cheese on rosemary bread. Mine had just cheese, he added pork roll to his.

We don't have a Costco membership. Wegs is a 2-3 times a year expedition for us. I am pretty sure Harris Teeter has Gruyere, as does Fresh Fields. Giant, I don't think so. Giant is where I shop most often.

We used comte in place of gruyere (for $ reasons - Wegs had some affordable comte) Also, I made a bit more sauce, since I like my mac and cheese quite saucy. For years I thought I hated mac and cheese because it was too dry. Oh, and we made a half batch. Two of us had dinner, and he has had 3 lunches out of it, with one left for tomorrow. I told my mom about it. I think this will be their project meal next week.

I fell behind again. Oops. We made a Wegmans expedition this weekend. I love Wegs. One of the things I miss from Western NY. So, I had all kinds of good ingredients. Also went to Mediterranean Bakery. More ingredients, and COOKIES! (I really need the recipe for the fruit roll cookies.) Sunday was not a nice day for grilling, so no grill night this week. Instead, French Onion mac and cheese. It was quite nice. Also, salad. Sadly, we forgot to get a baguette on Saturday at the market. So Sunday AM I called Le Caprice. They had one! (They run out so quickly, and these days, they are only making one batch a day.) So we asked them to save it and ran over. Had to drive. We wanted a nice walk over there, but the rain began as we walked out the door. Stupid rain. Cookies and ice cream for dessert. Monday was london broil marinated in a balsamic vinaigrette, cooked in the grill pan. It was good, but a bit tough. I'm not sure why - I am not great with steaks. (I miss Elliot and Nick.) Salad. Bread. (Leftover baguette) Broccoli. Cauliflower. Little fried potatoes. Cookies and ice cream for dessert. Tuesday was spaghetti and buratta. I had some leftover broccoli, so I added that too. Very tasty. Also, salad. And garlic bread.(Leftover baguette) Cookies and ice cream for dessert. Wednesday was cheese night. I mentioned we went to Wegs, right? So, couldn't resist the cheese. So, cheese, some leftover prosciutto, salad, apples, and beer jelly. Baguette from Le Caprice again. Stopped on my way to work, got a baguette JUST as they came out of the oven. Heroically resisted eating it ALL DAY. Ran out of cookies! So I made nutmeg feather cake, and had it with ice cream for dessert. (Not quite the same recipe, but close. I use all butter, no frosting.) Tonight is leftover night. Repeat of Tuesday's dinner. Was supposed to be "eat down the freezer" night. Too many leftovers for that. Oh well.

They do have to start flat. Once they are solid, I put them on end in a line. I have a bottom freezer fridge with drawers.

Ah. I pack it in quart size freezer zippy bags, and often do not take them out until the night we are going to eat it.

I shall miss this place, both the food and the bar staff. Stupid pandemic.

MacArthur? They have a LOT of unusual items and can get even more.

One of the reasons that my freezer is always a bit too full is that when I make soup, I make extra and freeze it. I also realized that I never used the canned soup, despite liking soup. So, leftover homemade it is now. Soup freezes well.

Ah, my dad, who lives in western NY, will grill all winter long. He also has a gas grill. We have charcoal.

I fell behind! Sunday was grill night. He's trying SO hard to grill for as long as possible. Beer can chicken, carrots, mushrooms. And of course, salad. Also grilled a red pepper for me to peel to have later in the week in the noodle thing. It was very nice. Finished the dutch apple pie and the buttermilk vanilla ice cream. Then taquitos. I love taquitos. Leftover chicken is so nice! Guacamole is my favorite. And of course, salad. Then I took a strata out of the freezer. That was nice. And of course, salad. Last night was my experimental noodles and veg. I forgot to put leftover chicken in. Ooops. And of course, salad. I used the peanut sauce from above. It was nice. Although I was out of hoisin, so I used bean paste. Still tasted good! Tonight was cream of broccoli soup out of the freezer. And of course, salad. Oh, and the bread of the week was the harvest grain bread from Ravenhook. Butter from South Mountain. The bread that we did not finish has now become dried cubes for stuffing for the Thanksgiving chicken. Dessert of the week, after Sunday, was assorted ice cream from South Mountain (This week was their ice cream delivery week) and very good very dark chocolate cookies. Ooh patty melts. So good.

There is also a kitfo sandwich at Buna Coffeehouse (4400 Georgia Ave NW). My husband enjoys it. I prefer the vegetable rolls, but like the sandwich too.

How was the peanut sauce? I am planning a noodle, veg, and maybe some leftover chicken dish and want to use peanut sauce. I like LOTS of peanut sauce. I think most sesame/peanut noodle dishes are under sauced. And I am looking for a new sauce recipe.

Yesterday was grill night. Pork chops, brussels sprouts, carrots, summer squash all grilled. Salad and angel biscuits. And buttermilk ice cream and blueberry thing (yes, the recipe says blackberries, but I was out) for dessert. It makes him sooooo happy to be able to grill. Tonight I am trying to use up some of the pork roast from last week by making it into a shepherd's pie kind of thing. Blanched some broccoli, sautéed some fennel, mixed them into the leftover pork apple onion thing. Topped with mashed potatoes. We will see how it comes out. It's getting hot now. Also salad, and leftover angel biscuits. That sounds interesting - we made a related skillet version not that long ago, because I am not really keen on kale, and had some from a farm box, and I am trying to learn to like it. So I am trying recipes that use kale with things I already know that I like. It was good in the lasagna discussed above, with all the mushrooms. The other half went into this dish, and was also good. And yes, in my house, sausage is presumed to be hot italian unless otherwise specified. (that's his influence. Me, I would grab kielbasa or linguica first. Or brats, although not in this application.) When you add those recipes to the list of soups I enjoy kale in, I think I am learning to like it. Maybe I should try the version you linked to. Arugula is another one of those things that I like in some things, and should expand my palate.

Were it not for Jacques, I would be the only one able to make edible food here. When we got married, the husband could make meatloaf, hot dogs, and something he called "casserole." "Casserole" is pasta, generally elbow macaroni, with spaghetti sauce and mozzarella, baked. Of those things, hot dogs are the only ones I enjoy, and you can only eat so many of those. But then he watched Jacques on PBS. And then he wanted to make an olive stuffed leg of lamb. (I hate olives and do not much like lamb. Thank god for friends who are willing to eat experimental cooking!) So he made a stuffed leg of lamb. Then he started watching Julia Child. Then.... and he has become quite a good cook. Can't really bake though, except for bread. He's pretty good at that. (Got interested in that after the first time we went to Paris. Came back wanting Paris bread, and spent a lot of time with Julia's bread recipes.) Lately, I have been doing most of the cooking, except for grill night, because I am pretty seriously underemployed, so I have time. He is not underemployed. Still, I remain grateful for Jacques, because it made him able to cook, and a little more adventurous when it came to what he would eat. (He grew up in a place/family where anything other than post war "American" and Italian was "weird." Now he will eat almost anything - certainly a lot more than I will!)

Dried mushrooms are amazing. I first used them not that long ago in this mushroom bread pudding recipe and now I am hooked. (And while trying to plan Christmas presents this year, we decided that my sister in law, who cooks a lot and loves mushrooms, is getting a box of assorted dried mushrooms. Ordered them and picked them up at the farm market. Now just need to wrap them and get them to her by December.)

It's Sunday. But it's raining. So no grill night. Instead, pork loin in the crock pot with apples and rosemary. It was tasty, but too dry. Harvest grain bread from Ravenhook. CORN ON THE COB! (Pleitez, at the Petworth Farm Market, had a small little last batch of corn that they had harvested this week.) Salad. Later, cherry cheesecake brownies. (Hey, I had to use up the leftover cherry pie filling I made last weekend somehow!) Last night was delicious takeout from Purple Patch. Mezcalero takeout the night before.