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Monday was salad, followed by sheet pan sausage and pineapple. Very tasty. Tuesday was salad, followed by French Onion Soup. So good. I love French Onion Soup. More fernet ice cream and chocolate angel food cake. Tonight was salad, followed by cauliflower mac and cheese. Also very tasty. This goes into the rotation. Soon, the end of the fernet ice cream and chocolate angel food cake.

That would be odd. I know it was something else before, but nobody here can remember what it was.

Yeah, I don't think it would be too hard to duplicate. I would have to eat it again to try and identify what might be in it. A reason to return! What did the ice cream taste like? Mastic ice cream tastes rather piney. We first tried it in Athens, and the Greeks kept telling us it was an acquired taste. I seem to remember that at one point they had cardamom ice cream with the chocolate cake?

Had lunch/brunch here on Sunday with a friend who is leaving town soon. So we were being indulgent. He was drinking the Aslin lager, while we both had glasses of sparkling wine. They are using QR menus - and you can only bring up one at a time from the QR code. Finally I loaded the restaurant web site and was able to load the different menus in different tabs. Boy, was that annoying. Service was good. Server was clearly inexperienced, but also friendly, helpful, and responsive. As to the food, which was all very good (Guess I can't speak to the one I didn't eat, but the guys both loved it.): (I wish they still had the carrot fritters!) (Also, I do not love lamb. Our friend does. I was shocked at how much I enjoyed the Hunkar Begendi.) Brunch fries - which are regular Zaytinya fries with an egg yolk added to the dipping yogurt. Dolmades - grape leaves with rice, tomato, fennel, pine nuts, sultanas, served with labneh Cauliflower Tiganites- tahini, preserved lemon, pine nuts, capers, golden spice vinaigrette Imam Bayildi - eggplant, onions and tomato slowly cooked in olive oil with aromatic spices and garnished with pine nuts Hunkar Begendi - traditional Turkish braised lamb shank, eggplant kefalograviera cheese purée Lamb Baharat - spiced rubbed lamb leg kebab, tabbouleh, charred tomatoes, tahini sauce (I didn't eat this. Don't love lamb, DON'T LIKE AT ALL tabbouleh. Or tomatoes.) Beef Soutzoukakia - cumin spiced meatballs in tomato sauce scented with cinnamon, feta, caper Dessert - we split 2 desserts 3 ways. I may have eaten a bit more than my share: Turkish Coffee Chocolate Cake - molten center Valrhona chocolate cake, roasted pistachio, mastic ice cream, chocolate pearls (I cannot resist mastica flavored desserts) Chocolate Rose - rose ice cream, chocolate custard, spiced berry purée

Saturday we had folks over for dinner and games. So, apps were an odd assortment of snacks - again, that H Mart run! Then salad, twice baked potatoes, glazed carrots (With bourbon barrel aged maple syrup), and mahogany short ribs. All delicious, but the short ribs took an hour longer than intended. Next time I will make them the day before and reheat. For dessert, fernet ice cream with candied sour cherries and chocolate angel food cake. (If you make a lot of ice cream, you eventually need to use up a LOT of egg whites.) All went over very well.

It's Thursday. The housecleaners were here today. We don't want to mess up the stove so quickly. So, salad. And another of the treats from the H Mart expedition - frozen buns. The label says "Xi'an FamousZhu's Recipe Pork Buns." They were good. Quite good. We ate them with some dumpling sauce, also from the H Mart expedition. He also had some Zhong Sauce that I gave him for Christmas with the buns - it was too spicy for me, but he LOVED it. So, they were good, easy, and did not make a mess. The boy's only comment was that he wished there was a little more filling, but I find that always a thing with steamed buns, so it did not surprise me.

Perhaps dinner company with a sundae bar for dessert?

Kinship on Sunday night for the boy's birthday. Dinner at the bar - went early to make sure we got seats. And it was, as ever, delicious. And the service, also as ever, perfect. So we started with cocktails - El Guion for me, Wilderness Trail for him. (He admits that while it sounded delicious, the decision between several equally appealing cocktails was made by the fact that is was "served in a Nick and Nora glass." Our favorite characters!) For apps we split duck foie gras (with crispy scrapple! and bacon vinaigrette!) Then mains - we resisted the chicken this time! So I had shoat with globe artichoke and potato gratin, wilted greens and pork jus. He had Rockfish with melted savoy cabbage, garlic chives and red wine sauce. Both delicious. We also asked if it was possible to get parker house rolls. It was! The wine, on the advice of the sommelier, was a 2019 Chateau La Nerthe Chateauneuf-du-Pape. Tasty. I love sommeliers. For dessert, he had ruby red grapefruit, described as "greek yogurt panna cotta, avocado cream, tarragon granité and ruby red grapefruit sorbet," while I had Oaxacan hot chocolate, which came with vanilla crema, lime gel, crystallized chocolate and mamey ice cream. Both exceptional. I do so LOVE it when a restaurant has good desserts. It's an afterthought too many places. We drank tokaji with those. We are always so happy when we get to eat at Kinship.

Food this week has been a mixed bag of easy and actual cooking. Monday we had chicken with corn. Last bag of grilled and stored corn out of the freezer and into something tasty! Also, salad. We will do this again when we have corn again. Last night was pizza. Schedule got insane, so rather than making dough, I grabbed a boboli and topped it with mozzarella, provolone, mushrooms, and caramelized onions. Also, salad. Came out quite tasty. Always get the thin crust boboli. Was a good way to clean out the ends of stuff like cheese and caramelized onions. Tonight will be a stir fry with chicken, broccoli, mushrooms, scallions. On rice noodles with hoisin-teriyaki sauce and chopped peanuts. Also, salad. And after tonight I will be out of South Mountain ice cream! Sad.

Took a walk through the Kogod Courtyard today while visiting the American Art museum to see the Venetian Glass exhibit. Currently, as the Botanical Gardens is closed, they have partnered with the SAAM for "Orchids: Hidden Stories of Groundbreaking Women." It is beautiful, and worth checking out. Runs through the end of April, and is really cool, both for the information and for the orchids themselves. The courtyard looks amazing with all the orchids there!

Made an expedition here today to see "New Glass Now." I love glass art. The Corning Museum was a frequent family destination when I was a child, as my grandparents lived in Elmira, very close to Corning. A childhood friend worked for Corning for several years when we were in our 20s, and I was jealous. Not a place I wanted to live, but they made the coolest things! Anyhow, the exhibit only runs to early March, so run, do not walk, to see this if you like glass. The pieces are lovely and it is very well curated. (In general, I really enjoy the Renwick. I love useable art, and they do have the best things.)

Tried to go here tonight. There were some new beers we wanted to try, and of the breweries around, they have the most edible food. Also, walkable to Moorenko's for dessert! But again, the downstairs was closed (and NOT noted on their website or social media.). And the upstairs was full. So no space for us! Outside seats were available, but have you looked at the weather today? I noted later when looking at their website that they now take reservations - so next time, that is what we will do! And then, we went to Quarry House, so we still had beer and frankly, the food was probably better.

4 of us attempted to go to Denizens tonight, but was very full. I admit, when they offered outside seats, we all rolled our eyes and said, "No thanks!" Just a bit too frigid for that! Looked at each other and said, "Plan B!" immediately followed by, "What IS plan b?" D says, "Quarry House!" And so it was. Burgers, beer, whiskey for the whiskey girl. And it was good. They were busy, but not slammed. And they got rather slammed as we were leaving. We tried the onion rings for the first time. And we all prefer thin onion rings with batter, and these look a little thick. But no, they were very good. And we will eat those again. And again. The batter was excellent, the onions were cooked all the way through. D wants them to do fish and chips with this batter. The dip was also good.

Pool and beer tonight before heading to Ayesha's for dinner. Busier than I have seen it in a long time! Glad to see folks in here because I really want them to continue to do well.

4 of us for dinner tonight at Ayesha's. Not as good as usual. However, it was obvious that they are short staffed both in the front and back of the house. Hummus, lebneh - both good. Meat rolls - next time we go back to the cheese rolls. They were pretty eh. For mains, the boy had mixed grill, and was pleased. The rest of us had things involving half chickens, and they were just too dry. The dessert were nice - 2 of us had dessert. Bird nest and namoura. The others didn't want more food, and had sambuca. Someone poured those very heavy! The decision was that until this is over and they are staffed back up, it will be mezze night when we go there. Also dessert.

That sounds really good. THANK YOU for sharing!

Thanks Don - I think you are right. If the $30 menu does not come back, I will be sad, but I will understand it. However, we are all barflies, and even if ordering off the regular menu, would always prefer to sit at the bar. And I am happy to hear that they are getting more folks in. I want them to make all the money so that they can stay open!

Does anyone know if they are doing the bar menu again? Website does not say and I have not had a chance to call during reasonable hours yet.

We made an expedition to H Mart last Sunday. So, tonight was salad, followed by chicken shumai. It was good. Then, South Mountain ice cream. Easy dinner tonight!

Salad, followed by "Middle Eastern Saucy Chicken." I will not make this again. The chicken got a bit dry - that may have been me - and the sauce was just a touch too vinegary. Also the last of the duchess potatoes from the freezer. (I note, I am rarely happy with recipes that use boneless skinless breasts. I should learn.) Later, the end of the Valentine cookies with some South Mountain ice cream.

Thanks! I admit, I am still baffled by the instructions to roll it. Also, the cut the dough in half part. Guess the next step is to make it.

That's probably fancier than g-gramma's was, but I wonder if that is the technique. After rolling it, maybe put in a larger pan and put fruit on it. Also, clearly her dough was sweeter and less buttery. May be worth an experiment. THANK YOU! That was my thought - cinnamon bread. But sweet. And that's not kuchen! I wonder if it is missing a fruit step. I also wonder what size pan it should have.

Salad, followed by frito pie tonight. The chili is turkey chili - found the last bag of turkey in the freezer. It was good.

Hello bakers! I have a baking mystery. Let me explain: I have a recipe for something called kuchen. I have never eaten kuchen made from this recipe. Why? Because half the recipe is missing! I am trying to figure out what the rest might be, or find a similar recipe that I could experiment with. I will gladly accept any ideas! I think the recipe was written down as someone, probably either my mother or aunt, followed my great-grandmother around the kitchen. She wasn’t really a recipe cook (neither was their other grandmother, so they did the same thing to her), but mom and auntie are, so this is how they got their grandmothers’ recipes. I’m very grateful, otherwise I wouldn’t have any of my Christmas cookie recipes. It's odd though - I recognize both mom's and auntie's writing, and this doesn't look like either of them wrote it. It does have g-gramma's full name on it though. So I am pretty sure it was her recipe. Maybe my great aunt wrote it down. Who knows. Anyhow, my aunt was sorting out stuff and sent me a copy of this recipe. It’s handwritten, and I have typed it up exactly as written. I’ve asked her for the second page, but she cannot find it, and doesn’t remember what happens after the last step on this page. (she doesn’t really cook a lot) I showed the recipe to my mother, and she doesn’t recognize it at all. She remembers her grandmother’s kuchen as being flat with fruit on top. Great-Grandma died in 1960, and this was probably written down a number of years before that. She was born in Germany, brought to the US very young, spent many years in Buffalo, then a number of years living with her daughter (my great aunt) in China and in Oregon. This recipe is probably from either her mother (so, German), or from the Buffalo years. (So, still German, really.) Kuchen 2 teas yeast, heaping full 1 cup water ½ cup, more or less, sugar 2 eggs 1 cup water or milk 2 heaping tablespoons shortning scant teaspoon salt vanilla, almond, lemon rind, your choice flour 1) Soften yeast in a little lukewarm water with teaspoon sugar in a cup 2) Mix shortning, sugar, add eggs, one at a time. Beat well. Add salt + flavoring. 3) The above has been mixed in a large bowl, add 2 cups of flour, 1 cup water or scalded and cooled milk and the ¼ cup yeast mixture, rinse the cup with a bit of water + add. Stir well, add more flour until a ball of dough is pliable. 4) Cover. Let rise until double. With fork or knife lift and press down, let rise again until it has risen a few inches (about 1 hour) then cut dough in half, roll out to ½ inch and spread with mixture of sugar, butter, cinnamon. Little flour over the slightly sheet of dough. Also, you may spread beaten egg on the dough. 5) Roll and close ends. Lift in pan, let rise.

Tonight was salad, followed by Rosemary-Paprika Chicken and Fries. Very tasty. Later, mini chocolate cupcakes, with some candid cherries stirred in, and on top. Looking forward to that!