lperry

There's limoncello in the freezer, an entire cabinet full of other liqueurs, preserves, chutneys, pickles and syrups (chestnut/pear/vanilla being my favorite right now), preserved Meyer lemons in the fridge, a gallon jar of dried fruit macerating in rum for next year's cakes (this year's cake is nearly gone), and books on winemaking that were bought with the intention of opening them once I got settled somewhere for a while. So now that I am, I think pineapple wine will be the next project. It's so much more fun to make things that are complicated than to buy them, and they always taste so much better. The last candied ginger I made was from a recipe by andiesenji on eGullet, and it was fantastic. I just bought some the other day and now wish I had taken the time to make more.

I had my birthday dinner last year at Eve in the dining room. The food was exceptional and the service was excellent. Plus, they give you a little birthday take-away bag with scone mix and high-fat butter for breakfast the next morning. So one more vote for Restaurant Eve.

If you can wait for it to open, the vendor on the left at the end of the parking lot at the Annandale Farmer's Market (Thursday mornings) has arugula that is really good. I have a friend that makes the trip every week that it is in season just to buy arugula.

We've been trying to walk off the Christmas holidays, so last night we hoofed the mile and a half to Fireflies. We both ordered the veggie burger with mushrooms and swiss, and they were great. Cooked on a very hot grill so the outside was crunchy and a homemade bun. The fries were excellent - crispy, hot, and nicely salted, and Mr. lperry enjoyed his bourbon drink. I ordered a mojito and was disappointed. It was very bitter and the mint hung in gelatinous clumps. I think it may have been frozen instead of fresh, or it had been shaken beyond recognition, and the drink had an overpowering vegetal bitterness. I won't order it again. I also ordered the fruit instead of the fries and got apples in a spiced cranberry sauce. The sauce was really good, but the apples were no longer crisp, as if they had been sitting a while. The service was excellent. So it was a bit of a mixed bag, but we will probably go back.

An impromptu white grapefruit and pomegranate "salad."

Staying in with a couple of bottles of Barboursville Brut and a pomegranate for good luck. I'll decide on the rest of the meal by what looks freshest at the store later today.

The scent of seduction with a hint of flame-broiled meat.

If it helps, I've been using the KA white whole wheat flour in all my baking subbing out half of the usual white flour. It even worked in biscuits (half and half with White Lily) with no discernible difference in texture. So 1/8 of a cup will cause no problem at all. I'll be surprised if you can even tell a difference.

Exactly my point. So who's eating this stuff? It tastes bad enough that certainly people should notice, right? Maybe people don't bake at home anymore? When I learned to bake bread, Mom showed me how to knock on the bottom of the loaf of bread to listen for the hollow sound (especially useful if you are baking whole wheat and can't tell brownish from browner), and then later on I saw Julia Child explaining that you can test it with an instant thermometer, although I can't remember what the internal temp of a fully baked loaf is. I bake the same breads so much that I know when they are finished.

A Reverb Crash, winner of the Tiki Central drink contest. I used red grapefruit so dialed back the passionfruit syrup, and I also put Angostura bitters in one and not the other, but we couldn't tell a difference. Maybe two dashes was too little for such a large drink. At any rate, it is just delicious and I am considering filing it away as a summer brunch drink.

We have a previous engagement.

That's exactly how I feel. They are so friendly, helpful, and convenient, that I just think what a shame it is that they aren't better. If cookies are the worst offender, it could explain why I've missed out on the problem baked goods in the past. I usually bake a batch every week so we have fresh around for snacking. Apart from those I mentioned, I can't remember the last time I bought a cookie. I hate wasting food - it bothers me on some very basic level - and we ended up throwing those out.

The one that everyone we spoke to raved about and recommended was Great Harvest, but we have found the bread to be on the raw side with no crust at all. Every time I go by the place is packed with customers and I think that maybe this time it will be good...

Maybe I've just been lucky. I like to bake and tend to buy bread only in the summer when I don't care to heat up the house with the oven, and I've always had good luck. Even the bread from Costco is baked through with a good crust. But at our local "specialty" bakery, it's raw. Last year we went in to a little local bakery because we heard how wonderful the challah was. I looked at the pale loaves and tried a piece from the sample tray. Everyone else was eating it and raving about it, and I was whispering, "it's raw" to my friend. Is it that people don't bake anymore so they don't know what it's supposed to taste like?

Three recent experiences with three different vendors have me wondering what's going on with local bakers. We bought some bread at a bakery that was highly recommended by neighbors, and when I tasted the bread, it was still a bit raw. I always allow a place to have an off day, so I tried two more times with the same results. Each of the different breads was undercooked and took a bit of time in the oven to finish. Next, we went to a farmer's market and were greeted by a woman selling her "gourmet" cookies. She talked them up so highly that we purchased a couple of bags, but when we tried them on the way home, they were raw. I've eaten enough raw cookie dough in my time to know what it tastes like, and this was undercooked. Strike three was a baguette that I picked up at a grocery store two nights ago. It took an extra fifteen minutes in the oven to get cooked through. Sometimes I don't mind if the bread is a bit undercooked because I want to crisp it up in the oven, and some products are sold for that purpose. And I also should say that there are lots of places out there who do a beautiful job, although unfortunately, they aren't located as conveniently as those that are currently annoying me. For me, the whole point of purchasing a baked item is NOT to have to use the oven. If I wanted to do that, I would make something from scratch and bake it. Is anyone else noticing this trend?

An Exotic Passion. It's a little sweet, but I like the flavor, so I'll probably add a bit more lime next time.

I think the Whole Foods one is their store brand 365, or something like that. I like this one too. And thanks for the recipe - I'll give it a try.

I don't really have much else in San Juan proper. We had lunch one day in Manati (about 40 miles west of San Juan) at a little locally-owned place called the Ferrocarril. It's authentic with lots of character. I've only been one other time to a restaurant where you find a space at any of several large tables and choose from three or four menu options that disappear off the board as they run out of what was prepared that particular day. In San Juan, we stayed at a bed and breakfast, so we didn't go out for that meal except the last day at España, but this was heading out to the airport and someone local was driving us so I can't give good directions. This place makes the grilled breakfast sandwiches with the typical bread and also has (I'm told) very good coffee. It was absolutely packed with locals at 9 AM. Also, El Meson, the little place next to the Wendy's on the square on San Francisco street - the one with the fountain - has grilled sandwiches and great fresh juice (I like the parcha) if you need a snack. A couple of food-related places that we did not get a chance to see were the Bacardi distillery (take the ferry from Pier 2 and then a cab), and the Don Q tasting room across from Pier 2 in San Juan proper. I'm going to try to do those on the next trip, although for serious rum tasting, Caña is the place to go.

We are back from San Juan and have a couple of recommendations for both food and drink. For Puerto Rican specialties like arroz con pollo and tostones rellenos served with fresh salsa and homemade aioli, go to Café el Punto on Fortaleza Street in Old San Juan. We noticed it in passing, and because it is on Fortaleza where the cruise ship crowds go for a few hours every day, we thought it would be both inauthentic and overpriced. We were surprised by recommendations from our Puerto Rican hosts to be sure to stop in, and we enjoyed our meal here very much. We also enjoyed Caña, a rum bar in the Hotel el Convento on Cristo Street, also in Old San Juan. The drinks are fantastic and made with local, fresh ingredients, and the bar food was so good we wished we had not already eaten that day. We had bolitos de yuca, crispy little croquettes of cassava with a chipotle aioli, sweet corn fritters that were served with another great sauce that I have forgotten, and a wonderful spinach salad with local dried fruit and a balsamic dressing that I wish I could replicate at home. For drinks, try the caña mojito. It's served with the local mint - yerba buena - and a stick of fresh cane. They also have samplers of sipping rums so you can sample most of what PR has to offer. Caña also looked too touristy to be good, but, again, we trusted a recommendation and had a very nice time.

**Update** I'm two months in now, and I just tasted the infusion. The nose is fruity/medicinal - like a cross between Dimetapp and Robitussin. Or at least those were the childhood memories that got dragged into the forefront of my consciousness as soon as I smelled it. It tastes intensely plummy and sweet, although it still has that edge to it that homemade liqueurs have until you age them a bit. I will say that if I didn't know I had started with gin, I would never guess now that was what I used. I have left the plums in the jar due to information gleaned from further research indicating that you can get a bit of almond flavor from the pits if you don't take them out. Two months to go...

The same trip that will keep us from the picnic will have us away for this one. Have fun and see you at the next one!

A Tiki Torch with Cruzan Estate light and Appleton Estate Reserve. (Scroll down).

I use the one in the Joy of Cooking. It comes out perfectly every time with whatever fillings I use.

I'll try both the cold water method and baking, although the baking may wait for cooler weather. I've got a couple of bags of Torino organic linguine and elbows to try as well.

I looked around the site to see if anyone had discussed whole grain pastas before, and I found a few links in the dinner thread where it seems that most people were less than thrilled with their results. I've been trying to incorporate more whole grains into meals, and Mark Bittman did a piece in the Times a while back about increasing the veggies and decreasing the pasta when you cook. So last week I made asparagus and mushrooms with penne using Barilla whole grain. The vegetable to pasta ratio was maybe three to one, and my dining companion, who can recognize whole wheat pasta at twenty paces with his eyes closed, didn't even notice. A second dish was julienned summer squash and linguine with pesto, and I had about twice as much squash as pasta. This was really nice - I got the idea from the Chez Panisse Vegetable cookbook and will be making it again. If you've got pesto in the fridge and a Japanese mandoline, it's a fifteen minute meal. Returning to the Barilla, upon a second look at the box, I did see that this product is only about half whole grain, and maybe that's the difference? I've used some 100% whole wheat pasta from Harris Teeter that was just not good - the texture was almost mealy. But I also I wonder if I might have overcooked it. So is anyone else trying these pastas? Have you found one that you really like? Or maybe there's a secret cooking method? I'm not expecting it to taste exactly like the uber-refined version, and I tend to amp up my sauces to compensate for the nutty taste, but I would like something that is better than most of what I've tried.