ktmoomau

Don, I think this is a fantastic idea, and think turning what you love to do into a business is brave and noteworthy, and like Ilaine, I can't wait to support it. If you do end up in a nursing home, at least we can use the community room for DR.com events, and your visitors will be the best cooks in the area! So you should still eat well

Woohooo!! Good luck with everything these last couple months. This will be a really welcomed addition to the neighborhood.

Just for future reference as there were no responses thought I would post: Friends parents who cook all the time and do some catering just got one installed a couple months ago and they absolutely love it. I think they have the GE one. I have no idea how it wears, in time, but I can say that she cooks all the time and is quite happy with it. I was amazed how fast it would boil water. I would eat much more pasta if I had one.

I kind of feel like Top Chef and Richard Blais don't work well together. Maybe it is just the sheer strength and persistence needed as it has to be just exhausting, or being away from your family, I know my husband grounds and relaxes me, I couldn't do what I do as well as I do withouth him. But you can tell the competition is wearing on him and weighing him down with pressure. I wish he could just relax because honestly I think he is probably the most capable chef there and I like that he is so willing to teach others and share, I think he normally seems like a really good guy, but he is getting more and more harsh the tougher the competition gets, and just can't relax and put on a game face like Mike. But I want him to win because I really really want a Blais restaurant. I would love to go to that. I mean we know there is going to be a Mike restaurant (and that seemed to be happening before the end of this show in reality time world), so I want the Blais restaurant.

Fyi- you probably already know this, but macarons use almond flour. If you have any extras you can always let me know! I cook; therefore I bake less well If only I could convince my Hubby to spend more time baking, he is actually very good at it because unlike me he is much more scientific and actually strictly follows recipes.

Good luck with everything. The traveling stuff isn't as bad as you think it will be at first, the most annoying part about eating out starts being that I get sick of certain things quicker because I tend to eat more of some things now than I used to. Some places like Liberty Tavern if I bring a gf crust will make me a pizza on it (you have to be careful about cross contamination though). And more and more restaurants are getting savy about everything (of course I am intolerant not celiac which is slightly different). I just went to Chicago and ate at a ton of different places who could accommodate me. I find the worst is actually family occasions I don't cook for and holiday parties, work lunches and conferences. Advance research and notification to restaurants has really been key for me. My Mother just can't get her head around what is gluten and what isn't, my MIL is like on the gluten free bandwagon and is great about it. My Aunt is getting better about it. The worst part of traveling is airports and trying to find decent food there, if you can pack a sandwich or a lunch for the flight that is the best. But I wanted to say some things that have helped me through the transition: popcorn has been a good replacement for a lot of snacky items and nuts if he can eat nuts. GFBisquick obviously, Ancient Harvest GF pasta, Schar ciabatta rolls. And chocolate and gf ice cream to sub in when I can't eat cookies or other things, although if you are a baker you can probably make things that are quite tasty. Also to keep from getting frustrated I try not to beat myself up about splurging on other things from time to time like chips or something because sometimes I get cravings for things I just can't have and sometimes eating something a little bit bad for me that I wouldn't otherwise eat helps. Everyone at my office gets cake on their birthday, obviously it's things like that which are sometimes difficult, but for my birthday they got me gf cupcakes from Buzz. I have to say sometimes it is kind of nice to be able to say no to things I generally wouldn't eat anyway and just say politely thanks so much for the offer, but I can't have wheat and that (whatever) look very good though. I am the first person in my immediate family to have a major food sensitivity so they just are getting used to it. Sometimes I get really frustrated though and then Hubby takes me out for gf pizza or something to make me feel a bit better. But I have a cousin who has been celiac since it wasn't accommodated at all, and she has had wonderful advice for me. But it definitely changes your life and patterns, but my husband has been really supportive and kind of a watch dog to keep me on the straight and narrow and that has been the most helpful, he also has been very empathetic when I get frustrated because he understands what a big change it was for me. Having someone who changes their patterns and understands is the most helpful thing. When his mother made me gf lasagna last time I was down there it was not just tasty to have it, but really nice gesture of support. And comfort food, a lot of it tends to be made with gluten, but remaking it without has been very helpful for me: rice casseroles, meatballs, meatloaf, biscuits, dumplings that kind of thing is what I tend to miss the most. Bette Hagman has a cookbook the Gourmet Gluten Free Comfort Foods or something like that she has other gf cookbooks, but that one I especially like, you might check those out. Really good. I might be sensitive to lactose too, I am working with a dietician and am going off of lactose for a two week period coming up here (we are trying a couple other things here first, then that, then some more tests). At least knowing what makes me sick has been really comforting to help me control my body instead of being at its mercy.

Wow... I don't even know where to start. Landed in Chicago, met up with my Hubby. We were staying at the Sofitel at the Water Tower, which I absolutely loved- nice service, amenities, location. We went to Moto that night as Hubby really wanted very modern molecular gastronomy. I will write more later. All in all it was good, and Hubby really liked it. I thought it was interesting, some dishes were better than others, but it was fun. Friday we ate an early lunch at Grahamwich, Graham Elliot's sandwich shop. This was really, really good. I had the jarbrito tacos which were good, I also had a bite of my Hubby's Reuben, which was really good, juicy and just succulent. We also got the short rib sandwich and I ate all the guts out of my half. That was fantastic, the pickled onions, chip pieces, short rib and sauce were so rich and crispy and tart all together. That was a great sandwich. It was very hipster in terms of scene, but I liked it. That night we had our obligatory Rick Bayless at Frontera Grill. I started with Duck flautos in a tomatillo sauce. This was just fantastic. Slightly spicy, crisp outer shell, rich meat, but the tomatillo sauce with toasted herbs and spices was just amazing. I am sure it is in his cookbook and would be worth it if you had some time to make it. It was an excellent dish. Hubby had a chorizo tamales which was good, but it had so much sauce, meat, greans and etc you couldn't really taste the tamales, so while it was good my starter was better. For entrees he had an entree with chicken, rice and spinach which had a light sauce that I want to say was tomato based. His entree was really good, I liked it a lot. The spinach was fantastic and the sauce was light but flavorful. I had chicken enchiladas in mole poblano. It was very rich and sweet, but nicely balanced with black beans. The meat and tortillas were very good, the mole was very complex, but good. It isn't something I could eat often, I couldn't finish it just so rich, but it was very good. We were too stuffed for dessert. I also had a very good blood orange margarita. The service wasn't stellar. We waited a long time for drinks, silverware, our order to get taken we ordered second drinks, but finished our entrees before they came so the waiter asked if we still wanted them and we declined. I understand it is exceedingly busy there all the time, but at the same time, it is always like that so I expect them to be able to better deal with the madness. Saturday was St. Patty's madness. We ate breakfast at Cafe Grand Deluxe, which I believe is owned by Cheesecake Factory brand. Places were so crowded at this point we just wanted some food and they could get us in fairly quickly. I had an egg white omlette and it was fine. the river was green, people were crazy. That night we went to the lounge at Sixteen at the Trump Tower for cocktails and a snack. The view from there is really beautiful, the cocktails were really well done, I had a ginger cocktail, I think with Vodka, but it was very well blended with a nice mixture of flavors. My friend Megan had a whiskey, maple syrup and bacon cocktail with some other things to balance out the sweet and that was really good. Hubby had the least appealing, I can't even really remember what it was, he didn't get a second of it, he had something else. But sitting there drinking cocktails, watching the skyline light up, and catching the fireworks was a great evening. If you want the iconic cocktail with nice view this is the place. We ate samosas and beef satay both of which were really tasty. That night we ate dinner/more snacks at Bin36. This place had a fantastic wine list, a very good selection of wine flights, a huge selection of cheese and was a great place to hang. We all got different flights, I had the Habla Espanol which had wines from the new world and old, they were all very good. We had a lavender and coffee encrusted cheese, mortadella, salami platter which was very good. Hubby had a cheddar flight which was awesome. Then I had a beet and crab salad, which had a touch too many beets and not enough other components to balance them out. But was pretty good. My friend had sausage, polenta and an egg which was like having really good breakfast for dinner. Hubby had fondue with soft pretzels and apples which was good. We mainly just wanted snacks and hangover food to suck up all the liquor from the day. We then drank at some different bars that night. Next day we tried to go to Yolk which was packed, so trying to hit up some museums quickly we just ended up at Potbelly. Later that day we went to Marshall Fields/Macy's which was a ton of fun. I wish their cafes had been open that day. We got lots of chocolate from the candy department. They had an amazing selection. That store is just nuts! We ended up grabbing a quick dinner before heading to the airport at Flacos Tacos which was surprisingly good, the chicken tamale was incredible and the tacos were really good. In retrospect we could have eaten somewhere nicer, but we didn't know how long it would take us to get to the airport, through security and all that jazz, but it ended up being a breeze. We had a great trip, next time I have a whole other list of things I want to do...

Hmm, I wonder where Dan's wedding ring has been taken then! I thought I saw it when I went by to screwtop last week, but must have been mistaken. And I too think that flatbread is not pizza, if you say flatbread I want it almost manila envelope thin, it should be able to slide underneath a door. Willow has a flatbread, pizza is pizza. Sorry this is all horribly off topic. On topic, I was more on the concept purist camp myself.

SeanMike, Thanks for putting the word out, I always like this weekend.

Dan, Next time you are in Arlington maybe make a stop at Lyon Hall, it is french/german, but they make their breads in house, cure their own meats, make their own sausages and etc. They have a lot of things you are looking for. It may not be extremely neighborhoody, but to us folks that call the area home, it Liberty Tavern and a couple other places are our neighborhood spots and we tend to find them neighborhoody. I am looking forward to the warmer weather as they have fantastic outdoor seating.

I like Mexican better, but didn't specify as I am open to both, since we have so little real Mexican food in this area. I can always make a side with a little flavor or some meat to compensate.

They also had a nice write up in Southern Living.

You know there is a space with a pizza oven already in it right in Clarendon, might not be from Italy, but it does have a DR.com member's wedding ring in it. Just sayin...

No offense to the people taking over, who I am sure are competent, but: one less reason for me to fall off the gluten free wagon....

Ok, so I am going to wax poetic about GF bisquick here for a moment. Growing up my Mother from time to time would make chicken and dumplings and I love well made chicken and dumplings. So I was very excited to see the Betty Crocker recipe for gf chicken and dumplings at bisquick.com. I didn't make it quite like the recipe, used my own stock, fresh veggies, turkey picked from the bones instead of chicken. But the making of the dumplings themselves were super easy and very tasty. They even warmed up well the next day without tasting all gluten leftovers weird. I am very excited. I know for many bisquick just doesn't taste as good as other things, but I have now had their pancakes, waffles and dumplings. It is a nice way to have some comfort things in a quick and easy way. And I have found them all to taste very authentic to the real deal. I have also found that people getting used to having to cook differently for me have found it very convenient to be able to use something rather familiar, with rather familiar results. Anyway if you haven't mastered gluten free baking with other flours and things, I highly recommend gf bisquick as a nice easy stepping stone.

This sounds like quite a typical experience at that store.

Was at the Ballston location: Their gluten free crust has gotten better! It now has little holes in it that I think perhaps help it be crispier and not as dense. I had the grilled pizza and it was just awesome. Their San Marzano sauce is really good, just fresh and tasty. Meats were all very good, I really liked this pizza. I sent their bartenders into a tizzy when I asked if they could make a Ramos Gin Fizz, but I had one recently and really wanted another, bless their hearts, I should have just asked for a gin and tonic. But I got a gin daquiri (not frozen) that was acceptable, but that took a while. Note- if you want a cocktail probably best to keep it simple or mainstream. Hubby had a beer that was fermented with wine that I actually liked, will have to remember that.

Had a nice lunch at Liberty on Sunday. The place was packed- I didn't expect that, but good for them. I had a lobster roll without the roll, a side of tavern salad and fries. I was happy that they were very accommodating about changing the dish around for me. I didn't catch my bartender/servers name but she was really nice, when she saw my plate come out with no fries which I had mentioned she came over immediately and asked me if I wanted the side of fries and got them to me. She was very prompt despite them being quite busy. Their lobster roll is the lobster salad variety, I really like it, but I am not from a lobster roll area, so I am perhaps not as picky, but I thought there was a good amount of meat with good flavor. I really like their fries. They are boardwalk style, and some aren't as crisp as others, but I really like their flavor and texture. Just something about them makes them really good. Not as good as Central (although theirs were too salty last time), but being a MDer I really like boardwalk fries done well from time to time. Anyway it was a good place to hang with my ipad and eat so that I didn't have to cook while Hubby is out.

I was at the bar last week and had a cocktail with Maker's Mark, Calvados, Passionfruit and Cointreau? Looking at the ingredient list I thought it would be a little questionable, but in fact it was really nicely balanced and quite tasty. I also talked with some very interesting persons at the bar who thought I was actually funny and who were a joy to drink with. I can't think of much more that could have made it a more enjoyable place to sit for a drink or two after a long week. Go Steve!

Mmmm, Mmmmmm, mmmmm! A big thank you to Val for providing terrific service for a very tasty lickety split last week. The polenta and meatballs were just so good. They held together despite intense tenderness. If not for being in polite company I may have licked the bowl. I really appreciate all the simple touches here, sugar in a sugar bowl, appropriate glassware, tremendous service, good iced tea, just all the little things that come together.

YES! I am so excited. Now onto this subject of brunch...

Ok going to Chicago not this weekend, but next. Reservations at Moto- Hubby wants molecular gastronomy- is this the best we can get into? Bin 36 for a casual night for a friend- good choice, don't want something too expensive, but want it nice and fun. Frontera Grill- will have to be a walk in, I guess. Will bring our ipods/pads. Also am thinking about making reservations at Graham Elliot? Is there a better place for the money I can get into? Am giving Hubby suggestions he is at a conference there all week, I come in next Thursday for the long weekend: Purple Pig, Blackbird, etc.

My Hubby and my table mate had the chocolate caramel cake and finished every single bite, well he did give me a bite of the ice cream that came with it and that was really good, I could have eaten just a little bowl of that.

That sounds sooo good. And really good blueberries are months away, but now I am salivating, and only have odd stuff here at work- will be eating crappy applesauce instead.

Thanks for the Chow thread, Veronica's Bakery is on my way home depending on which way I drive, so I will try that. I have been hoarding the ration from my Mother as they are some darn good tamales.