ktmoomau

Hey Thistle/ Linda, Congrats on the pups! I am not sure where you are, but PetMac in Arlington is awesome about researching foods and updating you about your food, for instance they alerted us that a bunch of brands such as EVO just got bought by Iams and they have 6 months before they have to reflect any changes on the label, but they are keeping an eye on it. They also have samples of many foods. They also have cool agility classes and other classes, their website is a great resource. We have a very picky eater, so we had to go with what he liked, he just wouldn't eat some food . He likes EVO. I get the red meat blend because chicken/turkey gives him gas, so you might watch for that. But as he is a tiny fluff ball I don't know that we would have the same priorities as you. He is so small and eats so little a bag of food lasts forever so the price isn't too bad. I am sure with bigger dogs it gets much more costly. Also Wylie Wagg has a frequent buyer food program. I highly highly recommend the Kong, I have two and I freeze some peanut butter and treats in it to keep Max busy during the day. A lot of people say not to get puppies rawhides, but those and flossies are a nice relief when your dog is chewing on everything else, it didn't seem to hurt him at all. We also got one of those soft clear plastic toys and put it in the freezer so it felt soothing to the gums. Luckily Max stayed away from most things shoes, etc, although he did chew through a mac computer charger wire. Oh and we found while he was teething he had awful breath, so we got this water additive that cleaned plaque and gave him better breath, it worked well. Our dog loves the water too which is surprising, he tries to leap into fountains, rivers, lakes, etc. Oh and Max & Ruffy's treats are made in Arlington and make good training treats, Max loves the pizza flavor. The Shirlington and Glen Carlyn parks are great for socialization if you are in that area.

Matt and I celebrate our first date (Jan) and our wedding anniversary (May). Although this year other events kind of overshadowed our first celebration. We like the timing of the January celebration and it is right by his birthday too, so we normally go on a trip or something. Mid May always seems to be a hectic time work wise for us so it is just easier to celebrate in January when we really need a break to some warm weather too, May this year was dinner out at I forget where, not anything fancy as I recall.

Also want to add my thanks to everyone who organized this event and everyone at Orso. The roasted vegetables were fantastic, the lamb kebab had nice spice. I loved the potato croquettes. My Giamette pizza was a meat lovers delight, but that mushroom pizza looked awesome. The cannoli was light and the filling lucious. We went home with boxes of food and good memories. And thank you everyone for the excellent company my husband and I had a delightful time! And a thanks you to Don once again for the wine. Leleebo and any others that couldn't make it, you were missed and we were sending you all our good vibes. This was a truly special evening.

On this note, but very different. I had a really bad experience at a relatively new place, twice in a row. On the second time I had my dog with me and there wasn't a good opportunity to speak with a manager. So I sent them an email addressing what happened and my concerns. Never heard back. Which is odd, since they have a contact us email on their website and they seem to be pretty active online. At this point it is so far gone in time I don't want to call. I don't expect anything from the restaurant, a sorry would have been nice, but whatever, I just wanted them to fix some mistakes. Should you generally assume emails won't get answered and call? Because if you email you can be more detailed than a voicemail, and I hate playing phone tag, but if they don't respond then the action that happened can be a ways back in time.

So I want to recreate a family recipe (for the picnic, but need to test beforehand) to be GF, 1 c. fruit, 1 c. sugar, 1 c. flour, 1c. milk (I think),1 egg, 1 tsp. vanilla mixed together and baked. It becomes sort of a cross between cobbler and cake. Can I substitute any alternative flour or is there a specific one for this need? I don't use self-rising or anything fancy, just normal flour. There might be baking soda in it though.

Also interested. I will be bringing a few real gems

Goodeats, Are you picking up Fuzzy510?

I think I was in second grade when I told my Mother I wasn't eating hot lunch ever again. This was back when the teacher's aids at lunch had a lot of power and said we had to try a bite of everything on our plate before we could go (that would never happen now). I wouldn't eat a prune. I told the teacher I would spit it up. We stood off for 30 minutes. As my Mother was on the board, and Aunt was director of secondary ed at this point I think she thought I was just being stubborn because I could. Finally after 45 minutes I ate it and as expected threw it up. I looked at her and said, "I told you so, now poor Mr. Bob is going to have to clean up this mess, don't you feel silly," and walked out. My Mother, although she loved my defiance, (and although she thought my sentence was hilarious though she wouldn't admit it to me until years later) as she was on a big crusade to change school lunch, would not pack my lunch and told me I would have to do it myself. She also wouldn't buy me any processed crap. So I threw together lots of interesting lunches running for the bus. I remember being envied by others for having leftover spaghetti and meatballs or making a veal parmigiana sub from leftovers or other things leftover from dinner. Of course I ate it cold often, but because of my elite status as daughter and niece of bosses, often a teacher would warm it up for me in their lounge. That has all changed now too. Mom was very good about making sure I had lunch boxes, thermoses and ice packs to keep things sufficiently cold or hot though if it left the house that way. But my two favorite lunches were salami, pepperoni or some roasted chicken with cheese, crackers, grapes and apples. And PB &J on pepperidge farm cinnamon swirl bread, which my Mother's friend made her and I would trade for. That bread made all the difference. My Amish nanny would also send me home with all sorts of canned goods and frozen goods so I would defrost or open and put in tupperware and take so I often had canned peaches, applesauce and all sorts of other canned delights. But I didn't care what the white bread faction liked, I sat with foodies who shared our food and loved different stuff. We were also the same small group of kids that weren't horrified at the veal farm. In law school I had to pack my lunch again, and I would pack many of those same things. I agree to be careful about the microwave, many people had frozen entrees in law school that took 7 minutes to warm up and they really caused the line to move slowly. I still had the same favorite lunches in law school, except sometimes my husband would pack my lunch. This was especially cute as his Mother IS June Cleaver so it gave me a glimpse of his childhood. He would have to use the big lunch box he packed so much. I would get: sandwich, yogurt, apple, chips or crackers, piece of chocolate, cookies or pudding, drink and sometimes for good measure he would also throw in a granola bar. It was at least twice what I normally ate. But it was so cute in how organized and perfect it was. It was like the Mom packed lunch I never had. He would put in a note in it telling me he loved me or was proud of me. I sometimes wish he would pack me a lunch now, even though we have lunch stuff at my office.

Good luck to her, keep us posted on how she does!

Wow, this is really strict. You are going to have to be extremely creative if your kid is under three. Or send them awful lunches.

We have a small portable weber grill, if someone would like to use it please PM me and I will bring it. I don't have any charcoal so you would have to bring your preferred. At this point I know I will be bringing a dessert, either a flourless chocolate cake, or I am going to see if I can adapt a family pie (well really it is more like a cobbler, but they call it family pie) recipe to be gluten free and there is the possibility that if Hello Cupcake gluten free cupcakes are really good I might just go for that instead. I might also bring something else, and will bring some wine. I am crossing my fingers that the lovely people at Dolcezza come again, and Mr. Burrell too!

Stopped by today because I was working from home. Got a buckwheat savory market crepe. Yes they have buckwheat crepes and they are tasty, and you can get any toppings on a buckwheat crepe! A little thicker than I imagine their regular crepe would be, but also needed to hold all the toppings of this bad boy. It was moist, and not as sour as some buckwheats can be. The crepe was filled with ratatouille, bacon, spinach, cheese and something else maybe corn? It was a great combination of flavors. The bacon had really good flavor, the ratatouille was not mushy at all as you might expect from a food cart, instead it had discernible pieces with nice texture and flavor. I really liked the baked tomato bits. I think the cheese was gruyere, but I couldn't see it only tasted it. But it all melded together really well. I highly recommend this place. Service was very nice and it was fairly quick. For me it was extremely filling. They are starting breakfast after labor day. And they also have coffees and iced coffees and a selection of beverages. I thought I also saw yogurt and granola.

This is great news, especially since I am in Arlington courts more and more and can always use a short coffee diversion afterwards.

Well done squirrel is pretty tough to gnaw on. Especially as there isn't much meat to begin with. I agree that unless you are the squeamish type that you could keep it. I might scrub it real good then blaze it with nothing but maybe some oil or something to help get it seasoned again. But then again until I had a dog it grossed me out to think that my in laws let the dog lick out of the same bowl they eat out of. Now I just don't think about it... lalalalalalalala. So I think it is you comfort level, that health-wise you could get it back to safe very quickly.

Hubby and I decided to go out Friday night to run an errand to William and Sonoma in Clarendon and eat out, with Max. I wanted to go to 3 Bar and Grill and he happily obliged. I was a little worried that since it was so nice out Friday and the patio was busy we wouldn't be able to get a seat. Matt went in to see if it was ok to have Max and put our name on the list, but they had an open table and sat us right away. No problems whatsoever with Max. In fact they pet him and gave him water. But he is very good and will just sit and lay under our table (amazing for a 8 month old puppy) happy as a clam to be out with Mom and Dad, although he did get up when some girls wanted to pet him and when Matt fed him some duck (lucky dog) and a fry. I got a glass of wine and Hubby a beer. We didn't realize it was RW so I guess we were really lucky to get a spot. I ordered the blue cheese chips and duck lettuce wraps. Hubby had the duck sandwich. The blue cheese chips are awesome and gluttonous. I couldn't finish even half of them, I wrote about them on the nacho thread because they really satisfy that craving well. Homemade chips with blue cheese and house cured thick bacon. The duck lettuce wraps are essentially the duck with bbq sauce on the side from the sandwich and some slaw. This was a great way to have the duck in a gluten free way (although the sauce may have worchestershire sauce or other gluten I am not sure) and I highly recommend it! Anyway they were so accommodating and it was really a nice, relaxing evening for us.

Eeeuuuwwwllll... well that secures a trip to Hello Cupcake here soon.

No but will go next time I am in need. Was between Falls Church and Trysons running errands and just decided to stop at that Whole Foods just to see what they had and get some staples. Thanks for the cracker recommendation! I read up-thread that it had the best variety for that sort of thing. We normally shop at Wegman's but we have had so much going on we really haven't done too much major grocery shopping since my doctors visit. I think now we will be altering many of our grocery habits. My husband is a little silly about grocery shopping. He used to think some grocery stores were too frou frou for him, he is a coke and Hellman's sort of guy, bless his heart. We both agreed on Wegman's because it had normal and specialized things at good prices. But now that I need more specialized products he is actually coming to appreciate stores like Whole Foods and MOM. He used to get mad because you couldn't get a normal anything at Whole Foods, but he actually really likes their diet soda with stevia and is coming to like more and more things there. He really loves their key lime mini bundt cakes, so while I was trying to find the best gluten free whatever he is over in the bakery licking his chops getting bundt cake and pretzel rolls. Funny how those things work

I went to 3 Bar and Grill the other night, and while they don't have nachos, they do have potato chips with blue cheese and bacon that really hit the same note as nachos and were really good. Homemade potato chips, good blue cheese and big chunks of house smoked bacon. It really hit all the right nacho notes. Still need to try the above suggestions, have been busy and traveling all over the place so I haven't been around a lot.

Thanks for all the help. I luckily am not in the health situation that many people here are, and after eating some glutten free products and trying to figure out what is safe on food labels or in restaurants it is really tough. I really feel for the people who can't have any traces of glutten. It is almost as hard to try to shop for food as to find a restaurant as so many products have small traces of wheat. For me I have had a lot of issues for years that have been diagnosed as IBS, and we have been trying to limit certain foods to see what helps. I also have family history of major stomach problems (gal bladder problems, appendix, diverticulitus, stomach cancer, thyroid problems) so I get monitored pretty closely. I have had to reduce my intake of: red meat (my number one love in life after growing up on a beef farm), spicy foods (my number two love in life), glutten is a new thing, all the tests failed, but they think it will help to reduce it (but I need a lot of fiber) and alcohol. I normally try to eat really well for lunch and dinners at home so I can generally eat what I want within reason when I go out to dinner. The biggest sources of glutten for me are pizza, pasta, sandwich bread at lunch, cereal and snacks like crackers and chips. I was going to post my thoughts on some of the things I have tried so far and what I thought of them in this thread in the coming weeks so it is here for people. first trip was to Route 7 Whole Foods by Tysons. The store didn't have a huge glutten free section, but it wasn't bad. The Fairfax store is probably better as it is much bigger. Udi's sandwich bread is pretty close to normal sandwich bread, thanks all for that recommendation. I need to get in touch with Restaurant Eve and see if I can get some bread for them. Blue Diamond Rice and Almond crackers, sea salt variety were ok, but I think I would try another flavor next time. Glutino- Glutten Free Organic Bars actually were a good substitute for a normal granola bar, I really liked the taste of these. Ohh! And at 3 Bar and Grill in Clarendon they have duck lettuce wraps that have the really good duck they use in the BBQ sandwich. I am not sure about the BBQ sauce (served on the side) it may have worchestershire or some sort of glutten I didn't ask. It also had a slaw and cucumbers. It was really good.

Had brunch at Eventide yesterday and it was great, well really I want to say amazing, for a brunch. I think I have been going through a hard to please or looking for different stage that ended right here. I knew it was good when we sat down and I couldn't decide what to order, really I couldn't. Also had iced tea, which is good iced tea. Hubby had the aperol spritzer which I stole lots of sips of because it was very refreshing. So I went with the first thing on my list of things I wanted to try the corned beef hash. The corned pork belly was tender and had a really nice flavor to it. The poached eggs were soft in the center (I know, I know big egg recall you are supposed to get them all well done, but I didn't even think about it till after I ate it and was fine) and very good. The Hollandaise wasn't too overpowering. Potatoes had a nice crisp and there were all around good flavors. Very satisfying. But even though mine was really good, I ordered wrong because Hubby's Beef sandwich was amazing. I only had a bite, but the bread was incredible, crunchy, soft and tender. The beef was great, tender and soft, still rare and really flavorful, the condiments set it off perfectly. This is a must order dish. Didn't have room for anything else. Brunch here is really a step above most brunches. Really good ingredients and more care paid to brunch then at most places. I would put this and Tallulah at the top of brunch lists for this area.

So besides a picnic have we ever had this amount of us in one place before?

After watching DC Cupcake, I agree on the mismanagement, or lack of people who genuinely work hard.

I can also take two people from the metro (maybe 3, will have to check how many seatbelts the backseat has), please let me know if you will need it, can do pick up on Orange Line at Ballston or East Falls Church.

Tables like this make me want to hand them both business cards and see who calls first...

Actually I thought it hadn't been updated in a while last time I was there and then looked down through threads, but I see there has been some recent additions from threads I know I started, so 100yregg is definitely working hard, I thought I had wrote about more places in Annapolis, the number of topics just looks really low. Maybe I haven't and should start the engine back up. Poor 100yregg, this is probably a thankless job as I don't think many people seem to use this board. I feel like the only person who posts about Annapolis besides Cantler's. This really perplexes me as there are so many people on Chowhound who want Annapolis advice and post about Annapolis and Baltimore. I wish they would wander over.