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Ilaine

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Everything posted by Ilaine

  1. I have to say that bone in lamb neck did not impress me in the last iteration of lamb stew we made. OTOH, the liquid we used was beef bone broth, so any additional oomph from bone and marrow, if any, was hard to perceive.
  2. Winter picnic? Dame Edna, you are having your little joke? Sure, let's start thinking about a spring picnic. Just the thought of spring right now makes me happy. If we plan far enough out in advance, people can add it to their calendars. Nothing can be done about soccer practices, etc., but other discretionary schedule conflicts can be avoided, if desired. It's probably too soon to put up a vote but suggestions welcomed. As before, I will be happy to make the reservation.
  3. I have a client who works in the floral department at the Pan Am Safeway. I know not to try to call her anywhere near Valentine's Day, also Mother's day.
  4. I am not up for cooking for Chinese New Year this year. Reading old posts, I marvel at my ambition and energy and wonder if I will ever get it back. That said, husband did put up the decorations, and I am wondering if any of you know which restaurants will have special menus this season, and when?
  5. You want one that is flexible enough to bend, with a surface slick enough that ice won't stick, as you know. I suggest searching Amazon, filtering by highest rating, and reading the one star reviews. Best for things everybody uses, mass market, not for high end items like chefs knives. That's what I always wind up doing. You can't fool all the people all of the time. We do have Amazon Prime. Use it enough to more than pay for itself. We have some silicone ones that are pretty good.
  6. I love my automatic ice maker in the freezer.
  7. Don, more like bemusing. I saw the movie a long time ago, when I was a teenager. Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor fighting and brawling reminded me of my parents, except that my parents were not charming or witty when they fought. Also bemused by the low number of downloads for Virginia Woolf's book. About a tenth of the downloads for, say, Jane Austen. What books do professors of literature and/or feminist theory require college kids to read these days? In my time, Virginia Woolf was on every reading list, and on every bookcase. Has she really gone out of style? Hersch, just reserved the two Flann O'Brien books at FCPL, on your recommendation. I may be out of the boot on Monday but I still look for things to read.
  8. Don, yeah, yeah, "who's afraid" etc. if she were a bird, she'd be an egret. If she were a flower, she'd be a crinum. Tall, gawky, solitary, fair. I have no idea whether she was these things in real life, except gawky and fair. But, what a voice. And what an eye.
  9. Rediscovering Virginia Woolf. I had forgotten how much I like her. Reading The Voyage Out for the first time. Available on Project Gutenberg. Not everything is. Wonder why?
  10. Well, it's time for me to bite the bullet and Do This Thing. I've been thinking about it for years and I am stumped. Too many questions, too many choices. Decided it's crazy to change the basic layout, we're ok with the layout, just need a better cooktop, counters, lighting. But I kinda wish the window over the sink was bigger. Cabinets are still pretty much OK, although they are decidedly mid-grade. Some of them might need refinishing. The idea of putting them into a landfill seems bad for the environment. OTOH, I hate the wasted space of blind corners. I hate, hate, hate the wall tiles. BUT, do I really need to rip out the drywall to get rid of them? In that case, the cabinets need to come off, and if they are taken off, will they survive? Is the HVAC vent that circles the ceiling for real or for show? Can it be removed or moved to allow for taller upper cabinets or storage space above the cabinets? Kitchen is U-shaped with a peninsula on one side. Could we put in an island? Do we want to put in an island? Are islands a better solution for a galley kitchen than a U-shaped kitchen? Can I put a double wall oven next to the refrigerator? There would be no landing area, so probably not a good idea? No doubt I could find an expert to answer these questions, but I have no idea who.
  11. When it comes to Peter Chang, my observations over the many years he's been on the scene is that when he starts a restaurant, he's partnering with an owner/investor/manager who cares more about the bottom line than he does. He's not really a business man, he's an artist. So, when he is in the kitchen, he's more generous, as well as more skillful. And when he's not, the people in the kitchen are simply not as skillful nor as generous. I've posted many times about how many of the excellent dishes at the original China Star were made by his wife, and apparently never to be savored again, alas. The dipping sauce for the steamed eggplant was superlative. I've tried many times to duplicate it without success. She also had a very light hand with wonton wrappers. Her wontons were gossamer. I wish she'd come back.
  12. I I I am excited. Yes, it's only celestial when Peter Is In The House, helas. And I doubt they will ever recapture the magic of the early days of China Star. I think maybe because Mrs. Chang is no longer in the picture, working her magic, and they've learned the hard way that they can't afford to sell celestial food to the everyday masses. Even the fancy Chinese New Year event at a DC venue last year, can't remember the place, disappointed. But it's still solid Szechuan food, and still welcome. Seriously honestly who is better for this, here?
  13. It can create strange hassles. As a lawyer who files bankruptcy cases, there is one zip code near Fredericksburg where I might need to file in Alexandria Federal Court, a 15 mile trip, or Richmond, a hundred mile trip, depending on how it breaks. Some lawyers pick the jurisdiction more convenient for them, but not yours truly. When filing homestead deeds, it matters very much that you pick the right county/city. Pick wrong, and your exemptions are worthless. So beyond showing off, it can matter. That said, I sometimes tell people I live in Burke. I live a block away from Burke, and "Fairfax" covers a lot of territory. All the way from Centreville to "Alexandria" to Lorton, almost.
  14. "Alexandria" is a euphemism for Kingstowne. I'd really call it Springfield, but that doesn't sound as impressive as Alexandria. At any rate, I work in Springfield, so it will be convenient for me to pop in on my lunch break. Fifteen minutes to get there, half an hour to shop, fifteen minutes back, done. Will definitely be going there more often than the one west of Fairfax City.
  15. Hunter, never been to the Great Wall in Rockville but your description is the same for the one on Gallows Road in Merrifield. I love the food, it's plentiful, cheap, and lots of variety. To the left of the steam tables is a bakery, including dim sum. To the right are roasted meats, duck, pig and chicken. After you select your meat, big men with big arms holding big cleavers chop it up on big chopping blocks and pack it in aluminum containers. You can also order individual items in bulk from the steam tables, rather than just the styrofoam clamshell with rice, three items and soup. Use your hands and point, they pick it up quick. A lot of Hispanic manual laborers get their lunch there. I always get mine to go and eat back at the office.
  16. Their selection is amazing! I like to just wander around, amazed at all the different things. If it's from Germany, they have it. Including stuff you probably don't want, like fermented cod liver in a can. I bought a can just to try it but couldn't eat it, it was way too intense. I was thinking to myself, "if it went bad, how would you know?"
  17. Still recuperating. 8 weeks non-weightbearing in a wheelchair, 6 weeks in a weight bearing cast, 6 weeks in a removable boot, four of which have been endured and two more to go. I read a LOT of stuff. Only going to mention stuff I liked. Read all the Bruno books Zora recommended and another non-Bruno book by the same author. There sure are a lof of murderers and terrorists in that small town in Perigord. The non-Bruno book may have been the best, about the caves full of prehistoric art. Read the Lathe of Heaven, nice, read it before. Pretty much everything by Neil Gaiman, except the illustrated ones. Can't help it, they look like comic books to me. Read a bunch of Michael Connelly books, he's the one who wrote The Lincoln Lawyer. He does courtroom stuff well. Flash Boys, by Michael Lewis, about high speed trading. Murder at the Margin and a couple of other thrillers by M. Jevons, pseudonym for an economics professor at UVA. Murders solved by the application of economic principles. I am an economcs buff so I ate those up. Murder at the Margin I bought in the fiction section at National Gallery. Whoever is their buyer has interesting taste, I usually find something good there. The other two I rented on Amazon and read on my iPad. iPad seeing most of the action. I already knew about Project Gutenberg but discovered Open Culture, lots of stuff which is still in copyright in the US is out of copyright overseas. Read The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope. Still working on War and Peace and Anna Karenina. I keep getting the characters mixed up, they all have at least three names. Formal name, first name, nickname, title if they have one. The Peripheral by William Gibson. What if you could travel back and forth in time by profecting your consciousness into a robot? Gibson has an uncanny way of predicting the future but this one I doubt. We still don't have jacking into the net, as in Neuromancer, still my favorite. But we do have 3-D printers and computer created individual bespoke clothing. Right now reading The Great Depression, A Diary, taken from an actual diary written during the events by Benjamin Roth, a lawyer in Youngstown, Ohio. A Field Guide to Getting Lost and A Paradise Built in Hell by Rebecca Solnit. I expect to read more by this author. She is perceptive, and percieves even tragedy in a positive light, and describes reality in a sympathetic manner. That's all I can think of right now. I could list the TV shows and the streaming video but this post is already long.
  18. Glad to know there is a good butcher at Lets Meat. Last time I was there, the "butcher" didn't know the flat cut from the point cut on a brisket.
  19. While travelling, I find I have excellent luck using the Yelp app on my iPad and the search term "farm to table" to find places I will probably like. The kind of place where the menu will tell you which farm each food comes from. While my husband drives, I can read the online menus and soon figure out which ones are sincere and which ones are posers. Scored another winner last night, Knox Market in Knoxville. Will post review later. You can winnow through reviews using the Big Five personality traits. The most useful are neuroticism, agreeableness, and openness, but neuroticism is really key. First question, are the reviews generally favorable? If so, the following applies to the negative reviews. If a reviewer harps on cleanliness, they are probably neurotic. If they harp on treatment by the staff, both neurotic and short on agreeableness. Or too young or too badly dressed to be taken seriously. If they complain about the prices, probably short on money and out of their comfort zone. If the reviews are generally unfavorable, forget about it.
  20. Escarole is a thing of beauty, but why do I only find pre-washed escarole at Wegman's? It's not a hard thing to clean but it's a hard thing to store until you're ready to cook it. The heads are so voluminous, yet delicate. Escolar, I have heard of but know nothing about. Zora, why do you not want to eat much of it? I suppose I could just google it. Edit: on second thought, Zora, you don't have to tell me. This link is graphic enough.
  21. C'mon, Don. Wikipedia. I'd post the link myself, but using iPad. Failing Wikipedia, JFGI. Google it. Between Google and Wikipedia, you, yourself, will become omniscient. And well educated, until the information falls out of your ears as through a sieve, but that's ok because googly googly go the fingers again.
  22. Following up. Oysters were delivered at 4 pm. Shipping label said I had ordinary express, not super duper, which I paid for. Be that as it may, contents were cold and fresh, in a styrofoam box, with blue ice which was still frozen. Prepped it all the next day, New Years Eve. Mussels according to an Epicurious recipe, cook the mussels plain, nothing added, in a heavy Dutch oven until they open. Use the rendered liquid in a garlic butter sauce. I don't much care for mussels, but these were the best I've had. Mussel lovers loved them. Extraordinarily fresh. Body builder son opened all the oysters for us old fogies, and, more importantly, his lady love. Served with lots of lemon and mignonette, very fresh and tasty. I thought most were a little skimpy, perhaps a bit dehydrated in transit, but a venture a couple of days later to Rappahannock River Oysters in Union Market produced a similar ratio of skimpy ones, so I doubt it's the shipping, maybe the age or time of year. I would rate American Mussel five stars but for the downgrade in the shipping. All shellfish arrived in a mesh bag clearly labeled by variety. Every one was still alive and fresh. Excellent value for money. My husbands favorites, Raspberry Points, were, indeed the best, and all were consumed gratefully.
  23. Rieux, just in the nick of time! Husband just started two slow cookers of bone broth, one beef (marrow bones, short ribs, onion, carrot, celery, parsley), one chicken/pork (chicken bones, chicken feet, top half of pig leg sans foot - basically, the forearm, same vegetables). Upon reading the article, requested that he add garlic and bay leaf, plus dried porcini and portobellos to the beef. Wish we had used lemon juice rather than some other acidulating agent rather than Apple cider vinegar, as the vinegar is my least favorite part of the recipe. BTW, iPad insists in capitalizing Apple. I tried five times to type it lower case and it obstinantly refuses. Grrr. I find some soy sauce, or, even better, miso, is the best post cooking, pre serving flavor enhancer. Wonder how kombu would do, but no idea what simmering kombu overnight would do. On that note, sprinkle with chopped green onion, or, rather, the whie and light green bits of green onion. Most recipes for bone broth result in something earnest and bland, reminding me of the long haired, makeup free, coarse brown fabric clad maidens and matrons I knew in the 1970's. No reason it could not be both delicious and healthful.
  24. I am biting my nails with anxiety right now, worrying that my critters are suffocating. I paid for the super duper expedited shipping, supposed to be here by 10 am or so. It's after 2 pm, my husband seems to call me every hour. He's home waiting for the shipment. The Fedex tracking number says they are on the truck. So far, the only thing that's arrived is the nightgown my son bought me for Christmas.
  25. Ordered the Atlantic oyster sampler from American Mussel, located in Rhode Island, which should include a dozen Raspberry Points. Also ordered three pounds of mussels. They said I had to order today to get it by New Year's Eve, in case it was delayed. Having never had a Fedex Overnight Express delayed, I actually expect the shipment tomorrow. Now, inquiring minds want to know, how to store the shipment? Just put the box, contents and all, in the fridge? Based on shipping cost, it appears that Marx Foods and Farm-2-market must ship from the West Coast, which means that Atlantic coast oysters are shipped to Seattle, then shipped to Washington DC, which does not seem ideal for something as perishable as oysters. Edit: Farm-2-market finally responded to my request, stating that East coast oysters are shipped from an Eastern location. I see that Marx Foods also has an Eastern location. But their shipping prices seem high. Seems like they are charging the rate to ship from the West coast. I will edit to comment on the shipment later, when received and consumed.
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