cheezepowder

Thanks - which Chipotle location(s) have you ordered them at?

I'm interested in the Chipotle quesadilla too but kinda feel like I'd be faced with confused looks if I tried to order one. But if someone tries to order one, let us know!

Thanks for posting that article (sniff sniff). It was so touching. That reminds me that I was going to post this - she's holding a demonstration dessert baking class with TasteDC on April 18, from 7-10pm for $65. Menu includes almond flavored madeleines, financiers, champagne chocolate brownies, amor and the samurai, and gateau amer d'amour. Details here.

The Washingtonian website has a little teaser for today: "Join Todd for his chat at 11 am to find out which high-profile NYC chef is coming to the DC area."

I have a similar issue with the "real" price for products at grocery stores that have those customer cards you swipe at the register. "Regular" price is x, but with the customer card (where they can track your spending), the "special" price is y? As annoying as that is, it's been more annoying the few times when I couldn't find my customer card or didn't have it because it wasn't a store I normally shop at, so I paid the full price and felt stupid for having done so.

While you're there, you should get a liege waffle (gaufres de liege) freshly made from a street vendor/fast food window. They're oval, dense, sweet, and dotted with chunks of sugar (some carmelized from the iron). That's one of the first things I'm getting if I ever go back to Brussels.

I saw a jar today at the Balducci's on Old Georgetown Road in Bethesda. I don't know the price. They were near the peppadew peppers and chopped hot peppers for sandwiches in the aisle across from the canned tomatoes. Maybe you could call the Balducci's in Alexandria to see if they also have them, if you haven't already.

I've also heard about the Harris Teeter on Route 1. A Harris Teeter on Route 1 and S. Glebe would be pretty close to the one at Pentagon Row. Plus there's a Harris Teeter coming to Shirlington.

I still haven't made it there for any RW but Butterfield 9 is extending again, this time to Jan. 21. See their website for menus.

I had 2 cups of egg whites leftover from holiday baking that I froze. I used them up today by making a double recipe of financiers from Nick Malgieri's Perfect Cakes. The book has a few financier recipes, and this is the first one I've tried. I liked them. This particular recipe also called for a chocolate glaze, but I substituted an orange glaze. I think I like them plain better though.

Just reading this old thread and wondering if anyone else made mozzarella? How'd it go?

Xochitl10, very interesting about the differences in the lemon bar recipes in The New Best Recipe and The Best Recipe. Mktye, thanks for the warning on the liquid lemon bars. The Williams Sonoma lemon bar recipe which has the same technique as The Best Recipe calls for cooking the lemon filling for about 30 minutes (til springy), instead of 20. I wonder if that's why. For anyone testing lemon bar recipes , here's a rundown of the Williams Sonoma lemon bar recipe: Crust 1 cup flour 1/4 cup powdered sugar 1/4 teas salt 1 teas lemon zest 1/2 cup cold unsalted butter, cut in small pieces Filling 3 tablespoons flour 1/2 cup lemon juice 3 eggs 1 cup sugar 1 tablespoon lemon zest pinch of salt Line a 13 3/4 by 4 1/4 inch oblong tart pan or 8 inch square baking pan with parchment paper (W.S. says greased aluminum foil). It helps to have the paper going up the sides of the pan so you can use the paper to lift the entire bar up out of the pan when cool. Process dry crust ingredients with butter just until it turns into crumbs and press into pan (I used my mixer but W.S. says use food processor). Bake at 350 for 25 minutes. Make filling - mix flour and juice, then mix in the rest of ingredients. When crust is ready, pour filling into the hot crust, reduce oven to 325 and bake for 30 minutes. Cool before slicing. Has anyone tried using a lemon bar recipe but substituting orange, lime or grapefruit juice?

No problem, I included links to each of the recipes above including the oatmeal banana bread. I edited my post to make it more obvious that it wasn't just underlining. As I mentioned and just to warn you, it's not oatmealy enough for what I'd call an "oatmeal" bread. The Best Recipe lemon bar recipe sounds different in technique as well as ingredients from The New Best Recipe. Like the Williams Sonoma recipe, the Best Recipe calls for mixing the lemon filling ingredients together and pouring it into the warm prebaked crust. No separate cooking/straining of the lemon curd. I happen to have The Best Recipe nearby (but not the Williams Sonoma book) so here's a rundown of The Best Recipe lemon bar recipe: Crust 1 3/4 cups flour 2/3 cup confectioners sugar 1/4 cup cornstarch 3/4 teas salt 12 tbls softened unsalted butter, cut into 1 inch pieces Lemon layer: 4 eggs 1 1/3 cups sugar 3 tbls flour 2 teas zest 2/3 cup juice 1/3 cup whole milk 1/8 teas salt Line a 13x9 baking dish with parchment paper. Preheat oven to 350. Mix dry crust ingredients in a food processor and process in the butter til coarse crumbs. Press into pan, refrigerate for 30 minutes, then bake for 20 minutes. In the meantime, mix eggs, sugar, flour, then add lemon zest, juice, milk and salt. Reduce oven to 325 and pour filling into the warm crust and bake for about 20 minutes. The Williams Sonoma recipe was similar except no cornstarch, no milk, different proportions/smaller amount of ingredients to make enough for an 8x8 pan, and no refrigerating the crust for 30 minutes. But same technique including reducing the oven temperature. Plus, I don't quite understand The Best Recipe versus The New Best Recipe.

The frozen mushroom turnovers are also good.

We went to Tallula for Valentine's Day and went back on New Year's Eve (besides other times of the year). Cheerful, great service, and I really enjoyed my sweet potato pierogies and bacon crusted venison chop.

I just made lemon bars for the first time using a recipe from the Williams Sonoma Cookies cookbook. They turned out well with a good lemon flavor, although the lemon layer looked thinner than other lemon bars I've seen. But a thicker lemon layer might be too much. I have "The Best Recipe" but not "The New Best Recipe" so I don't know if the recipe you used was similar, but I see in "The Best Recipe" that they include milk in the lemon topping. I was wondering how that would turn out. I might try that one next. I also had tons of bananas (clearance rack at Giant, 10 cents a pound for a bag). I normally use a James Beard recipe for banana bread, but I thought I'd experiment. I made three loaves of banana bread using the following recipes: 1) Cooks Illustrated from The Best Recipe, recipe also available here (which uses yogurt). Firm, dense loaf. I don't know if it has anything to do with the recipe, but this loaf cracked randomly along the top while the Martha Stewart loaf cracked almost in a straight line down the middle. This was good, but I liked the Martha Stewart one better. 2) Martha Stewart recipe (click here) (which uses sour cream). A softer crumb and moister than the Cooks Illustrated recipe. It also rose a little higher. This was my favorite of the three. 3) Oatmeal banana bread recipe (click here) (I used butter instead of shortening). There wasn't much oatmeal so when eating a slice, you'd just chew on a piece of oatmeal here or there. This loaf rose the least. It was ok, but I'd add more oatmeal and modify it if I made it again. There's another banana bread recipe in the Beard on Bread book I have that calls for honey for half the sugar, so I'll try that next time. I also made banana cupcakes using the recipe I think was mentioned here (which also uses sour cream), and recipe is also here. I'm now banana-ed out!

I think fusian cuisine is interesting too. For more Chinese fusian in the area (sorry to digress from the original topic) -- Tyler Cowen's site describes Kam Po in Falls Church has having Peruvian Chinese cuisine. Menu here from menupages. I haven't tried it yet. Korean-Chinese restaurants are common in the Korean community. I went to a one in Annandale some years ago for cha chang mein - the noodles with black bean meat sauce. I don't remember the name of it, but it's in the same shopping center with Il Mee and Shilla bakery.

Saravana Palace in Fairfax has Indian-style Chinese. Website with menu here, Donrockwell thread here.

Does that mean Yenching Palace is now closed?

The list is up now. Also Open Table has its list up.

Yes, the cookies I made using the Rose Levy Bernabaum gingerbread people recipe were chewy. I rolled them on the thicker side of 1/4 to 1/3 inch and underbaked them a bit (the tops of the cookies were dry but they were still soft when I took them out of the oven). I let them cool on the silpat on the cookie sheet and moved them when they'd cooled and firmed up a little. Even after they're cool, they were kind of fragile. I didn't decorate mine because it was just a test batch, but I can see having to be careful when picking them up because if you pick them up by an arm, it might break off, so that's the only caveat. It's possible that if I'd baked them a little longer, they would have still been chewy but sturdier.

I like kimchee sandwiches with buttered white toast and kimchee and also spaghetti sandwiches. Plus my mom used to fry either hot dog slices or bologna quarters in soy sauce and sugar for us to eat with our rice. I'll still make that sometimes when I'm feeling nostalgic. Same here!

The Going Out Gurus blog lists some restaurants that will be participating this time including 1789 and Farrah Olivia.

Fogo only had the restaurant week special at lunch last time. I don't know what their normal lunch price is.