weezy

Society Fair DR demo dinner - braised pork shoulder on garlic escarole and grits Fishinnard's biryani at the DR spring picnic Antonio Burrell's fried chicken from the fall picnic

I got the same thing -- but waitman got my vote!

I m on the site at least daily, sometimes more often, popping in to catch up on a topic between projects at work. As far as recruitment, I try by linking to specific posts or topics to folks who express curiosity or an interest in whatever that may be. I think coming here and reading is the best hook to get folks to sign up for themselves. I wonder if new members wonder if their comments/reviews on established restaurants are worth posting? I try to at least briefly remark on any non-fast-food place that I've been to even if it is extensively reviewed by the DR community, because I think consistency and continuity of a restaurant's efforts should also be noted. As for conversation, nothing brings in comments on a message board than a crisis of a poster or an argument between posters....or a give-away of some kind. Maybe we can create a "Celebrity Chef Death Match" online battle....?

simple straightforward ;lovely Christmas dinner of prime rib, roasted asparagus, mashed potatoes, and asiago & rosemary rolls, and inspired by the recent chat with Gerry Dawes, a Rioja to go with which was a great foil for the richness of the beef, with cookies afterwards.

Don't know about the counters, but put very slightly dampened crumpled newspaper in the meat drawer. as it dries, it helps pull odors out -- at least, that works for Tupperware, so I think it will work on your meat drawer. If you can pull the whole drawer out of the fridge, then you could also try running it thru the dishwasher.

http://brdairy.com/ These folks set up at the Falls Church Farmers Market on Saturdays. They always have fresh mozz, so if you call ahead, maybe they can bring some curds for you to the market this weekend.

Josie had a point at first -- no need for Stephan to be shouting across the room to keep his fight with John going when everyone knew the score while drowning out a different & new conversation going on beside him. However, after the point was made, they both started acting badly. But I think this will end soon enough because Josie's cooking isn't putting her at the top.

The accounting firm that works closely with the law firm I work for sends us an assortment of these wonderful chocolates every year for the holidays. This year my favorite has been the lavender caramel..... of the ones I've been able to try. I think there are 2 pieces left (maybe), and the box arrived on Monday.

How about Grilled Carrots Quixotically prepared hot on outside, frozen in center Carrots with live octopus

Lentils and mushrooms topped with a poached egg, parsley, and good balsamic.

I tried the dark chocolate 3x ginger cookies and didn't like them. I don't think even very good dark chocolate is a good pairing with the intense ginger of those cookies. Now, the sea salt dark choc cashew brittle is to die for!

I have a friend in Manhattan who loves getting a big tin of Old Bay seasoning from me. She can only get the little tins at a premium price.

Last night I made some oatmeal raisin pecan cookies using a new for me recipe out of the Cook's Illustrated "500 Best Recipes" cookbook. Solid winner all the way. A large, tall, bumpy, chewy cookie with a crisp bottom with a pronounced oat flavor. Very easy to whip up and the dough can be easily rolled up into balls and frozen for later baking.

My sister had matinee tickets to the Cauldron playhouse in the building next door today, so we went to Orso for lunch. We started by splitting an order of arancini (which she has never had before, but I had raved about) and it was great, stuffed with butternut squash, Vidalia onion jam and a cheese that I don't remember, on a celery root puree (if I'm remembering correctly), a couple of bites each of homey luxury. She's not as into food as me, but I noticed she scraped the plate clean. They've got a fabulous lunch special -- 2-topping pizza with mozzarella and a fountain drink for $8. She got pesto, mushrooms and roasted peppers, while I went old school and did marinara, sausage and onions. The pizzas were at the usual high standards, good leopard spotted tender chewy yeasty crust with high quality ingredients served lava hot from the oven. The sausage was nicely spicy, the marinara well balanced in flavor. My sister's was good, too, with the pesto actually fairly mild in basil flavor (this is a plus to me, as often I find pestos too licorice-y tasting from all the basil in them). The service was friendly and well-timed and made sure we were taken care of without being intrusive. On the way out the door I saw Will and waved and he came over and we had a nice chat. He was in the middle of trying his hand at making fudge for the first time. I hope it turns out for him!

My sister got a job up here in September and moved in with me. I'm the cook, she's the clean-up person. I love cooking but I never cared for the cleanup work -- now I've got someone to do it, but it hasn't changed my habit of using only 1-2 pots, a cutting board and a good knife to take care of all the cooking. She's happy about it, too.

I've been watching this season and it's nice to see them actually cooking instead of focusing on how weird the challenges can be. Mixed feelings about Carla being gone -- very irritating personality in the kitchen, but it seems that most of the time, she had a very good palate. Her criticisms of the food aligned with what the judges said about the same dishes when they were giving their critiques. She definitely screwed up on the squab, though.

Bon chance!!!

If we're going for the young'uns, there's always Little Debbie

How about the Contadina hot tomato? http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2011/310/d/a/lady_contadina_by_erosmyth-d4fdanp.jpg

Your dessert sounds delicious. My group solved the "too stuffed for dessert" problem by pie & coffee when everyone first arrives, and about 2 hours later having T-giving dinner after the bird comes out of the oven.

I have avoided it in part b/c of the name -- not that it makes me think of tasting ass, but more that my ass is plenty damn big enough and that name reminds me that it's going to contribute to my already sizeabel badonka-donk.

Holy shite! I bought one big bag of candy and we have only gone halfway through it. About 20-ish kids in all.

Just the juices from cooking the rest of the ingredients was enough to plump them up. And they were in pretty good shape to begin with - they weren't hard leathery nuggets when I started.

Ouch! I hope you feel better soon.

Lost power for only 2.5 hours last night -- immediately after finishing cooking dinner, so very good timing there. Still slept in the den in case of falling timber but no issues there. However, when rolling up my bedroll, I threw my back out. This confirms what I've always suspected: Hurricanes = bothersome Housework = dangerous