Xochitl10

I just put a batch of banana-plum (CSA plums, not from the orchard. The boy ate 95% of this year's harvest.) fruit leather in the dehydrator to set up. This is my second batch of fruit leather, the first being Nanking cherry from the orchard. I think it's my new favorite easy way to process the harvest.

This year, we got a bunch of Rainier cherries (eaten), apricots (eaten and processed into jam and mostarda), peaches (eaten), pears (eaten, baked into muffins, made into brandy, and used with figs in mostarda), and the Nanking cherries (fruit leather and jam). It was a good year. ❤️

The last two pears from this year's harvest. They're so freaking good, and the crop was way less buggy than two years ago. I hope that means the organic orcharding strategies are working. 

Leftover mac 'n cheese with sausage, spinach, and mushrooms, plus most of an orange that his dad bought him because it was the least objectionable thing he grabbed at the store.

Homemade gyoza (Japanese potstickers), rice, and grapes. Goat loves him some Japanese food.

Potato and leek soup with rosemary/olive oil bread. He didn't want to try the soup at first, but after he did, he was cramming leeks into his mouth.

I had cocktails and snacks in the bar back in April. The roasted carrots with goat cheese were delicious, but I don't remember much about my cocktail. It wasn't terrible. And the bathrooms are *amazing.*

2 hours ago, Rovers2000 said:

It reminds me of the buckets of UTZ cheese balls my parents used to keep in the pantry (growing up pretty close to Little Debbies / Entemanns / UTZ factories in Eastern PA as a kid led to a pretty interesting pantry).  I do have a bit of faith that this stuff is at least a tad healthier and I must admit, I have stolen a bag or two of these and "veggie" straws from my daughters stash.

I love veggie straws more than I should. I was always excited when someone brought them to concert rehearsal -- or now, when we go over to Goat's friend's house and they have them.

Goat participated in our chutney tasting the other night. My mother-in-law and I had each made chutney using apples out of our orchard. He preferred my caramelized onion, ginger, and curry version to her sweeter -- think bread-and-butter pickles -- relish-like one. He was especially happy if we kept the sharp cheddar and French bread accompaniments coming.

"Beanie-weenie" using Hebrew National hot dogs and black beans, along with cumin, oregano, and a smidge of red chile, and cornbread. Goat ate a ton of the beanie-weenie (he loves black beans, so I wasn't surprised) but was skeptical of the cornbread at first. He finally ate it after breaking it up with his spoon.

Goat is cutting a bunch of teeth right now, so his appetite isn't always the best. But even if he doesn't want to eat his meals, he'll gladly eat his weight in grapes.

We all had burritos filled with a mix of beef, whole pinto beans, and zucchini. Azami and I had ours with green chile sauce from our favorite restaurant in my hometown; Goat has a rather limited stomach for super-spicy foods, so he skipped the chile. Goat is a much bigger fan of veggies than meat, so he primarily ate the zucchini, beans, tortillas, and cheese.

13 hours ago, guanabana said:

Momo's beers (all cans/bottles):

Ginga Kogen Wild Yeast

 Ginga Kogen!😍 Brewed in Iwate, where I used to live. I don't think I've seen it on a menu in the US before.

I made applesauce spice cake using this Saveur recipe. I used slightly sweetened homemade cinnamon applesauce. It's delicious, and really dense.

This week's projects involved turning a boatload of organic Gala apples from the orchard into dehydrated slices, applesauce, maple bourbon apple butter, and salted caramel apple butter. Some of the applesauce will likely go into a cake or muffins tomorrow. I just got an apple corer -- so much faster than quartering and cutting the core out! -- so dehydrated rings will be coming soon. Chutney will likely also be forthcoming because I'm not sure how much more apple butter I want to make.

On 8/28/2018 at 8:09 AM, NolaCaine said:

Their favorite request is "cold plate" which is basically anything in the fridge, cut up and on a plate...cold. It was my husband's thing as a kid and not a bad tradition, I must say.

I love this. "Cold plate" sounds awesome. I'll have to remember it.

I also have a fruit eater. He loves the organic Gala apples out of our orchard and strawberries most, but will also scarf down grapes, peaches, and bananas.

We nicknamed our little one "Goat" early on because he sounded like one when he complained ("Maaaa! Maaaa!"). Goat is now a fitting name for him as at 13 months, he eats pretty much everything, and he generally wants to eat what we're eating. Last night we had vegetarian burritos -- beans, broccoli, carrots, and onions, plus green chile for me and Azami -- which he scarfed up.

Unlike last year, we did not have bumper crops of apricots, Nanking cherries, plums, and pears. The apple trees, however, are going off. We had a full tree of sweet cherries, but the birds picked that thing clean while I was in Vegas for the Stanley Cup Final. I'd rather have the Cup.

We are already awash in slightly premature windfall apples. So far, I've made a batch each of bourbon apple butter, dehydrated slices, and applesauce. I've also got a gallon jar of apples fermenting on the back patio.

Azami and I left the kid with his grandmother and hit two of Burque's premier rooftop bars to celebrate our 21st wedding anniversary. We started with a couple of classic cocktails ($11 each) -- pisco sour and Sazerac -- and an olive and cheese plate at the Hotel Parq Central's Apothecary Lounge. The cocktails were right on -- perfectly balanced and classic. The olive and cheese plate was generously laden with plain roasted almonds, mixed olives, water crackers, and cubes of Manchego. Nothing special, but a nice set of nibbles to go with our drinks and glorious sunset.

We moved on to LVL 5 at the Hotel Chaco, Albuquerque's new fancy hotel near Old Town. Azami skipped a second tipple, while I had local Gruet Brut Rose -- a delightful, slightly sweet, nicely fruity glass of bubbles. Dinner was a special tagliatelle with shrimp and sweet corn in a green chile asiago cream sauce for Azami and a vegan cannelloni for me -- chickpeas and tofu rolled in thinly sliced zucchini, topped with roasted tomatoes and kale and served over quinoa. Azami enjoyed his pasta, which had "the kind of heat you can't stop eating." My cannelloni was fantastic. I wouldn't have guessed the filling was vegan if I didn't know it was, it was that creamy and ricottalike. I just finished the leftovers for lunch and wish I had more.

Any more recent intel on Boise? I'm going for work at the end of July.

On 5/15/2017 at 8:50 AM, Dr. Delicious said:

I just had two of the worst chicken enchiladas ever at El Centro. They came out in under 3 minutes, and it showed. Tasteless, soggy, and showing absolutely no care or thought. Avoid!

DCA

Ugh. I wished I'd scanned this thread before I ate there on Wednesday. Chicken tinga tacos were tasty enough, but ruined by waterlogged lettuce and tomato. And the "mojito" was horrible. It was basically rum and flat soda with some perfunctory mint leaves floating at the top. Really made me wish I hadn't missed my flight and could've eaten somewhere respectable at DFW per the original plan. 😒

I did, however, have a decent dinner at Shoyu in the G Concourse at MSP on my way to DC. Fried gyoza were served in the right amount of (IMO) properly balanced rice vinegar/soy sauce/hot chili oil dipping sauce. The kitsune udon was perfect for someone coming off a bout of the stomach flu, but the soup itself definitely could've used more flavor.

I've spent last night and today talking with American baggage staff in ABQ and DFW trying to get my bag here from DCA. They've been delightful, helpful, and professional -- definitely different from my other recent experiences dealing with American. Baggage at DFW just called to confirm that they have my bag and will be putting it on the next flight to ABQ. So it's great to have something nice to say about American personnel for once, but now I'd like to know why my bag didn't make it onto the plane at National to begin with. . .

On 6/5/2018 at 10:23 AM, MarkS said:

Loudest game I have ever been to.  Not one empty seat and everyone was into the game. Cross one off my bucket list and real glad we went.  Probably will go to the viewing party on Thursday night as the atmosphere is wild.

Most places enjoyed a good uptick in food sales.  We went to Oyamel before the game and had a great dinner.  Oyamel was jamming though and while the food was good the bartenders just could not keep up.  I would have had a few beer but not after my first took 20 minutes to arrive,

We want the CUP.

Finals games are something special. I'm (sorta) bummed that mine was in Vegas for Game 1, rather than DC, but now that I live in Albuquerque, Vegas is more convenient. It was absolutely insane and a fantastic game, disappointment in the loss aside.

There are some Caps fans in Burque planning a watch party, but I will be home watching on my sofa with my 11-month-old and an Ivy City/Tito's Vesper. That's what I drank for Game 6 of the ECF, and look how that turned out!

My sibling and I will be at Game One! He'll be on the wrong side -- he lives in Vegas, so you know where his loyalties lie -- but I will be rocking the red somewhere in the nosebleeds of T-Mobile Arena. Go Caps!

Thanks to everyone who responded. We went to Dino's Grotto, and it was perfect. We weren't able to get the communal table, but they did hold the six-top in the window for us. Happy hour paninis -- meatball and mushroom -- were particularly outstanding.

On 1/16/2018 at 7:39 AM, Ferris Bueller said:

Thomas Sweet was a treat, but last two times we ventured there the atmosphere was different.  It appears the location (speculation) may have been sold or changed management - the service and selection altered.  The product was fine, but portions seemed smaller.  Not sure if anyone else has been recently or has any input.

I walked up there with some colleagues and our interns 2-3 years ago (summer 2015, I think). We thought the ice cream was delicious -- my coffee Oreo was so good I want to go back now that I'm thinking about it -- and our servings were plenty large.

I'm planning happy hour on a Wednesday evening in early April for my office's current and previous classes of law fellows. We've previously done these at La Tasca, Oyamel, Cactus Cantina, and Paradiso in Georgetown. I usually try to choose somewhere close to the Metro anyway, but now my boss has said "somewhere ten people can easily talk, i.e. not a table in the middle of the bar," which says to me not my favorite long table with lime-foam mojito at Oyamel. I'd rather not do La Tasca, and was thinking about either Dino's Grotto or Bluejacket. Would either of those work on the conversation front (I've been to Bluejacket once and suspect that it might not), or do people have other suggestions?

Broiled cod over sauteed organic rainbow chard with garlic and tossed with spaghetti
A can of Union Wine Company "Underwood" pinot gris. I live large when Azami and the baby are away. :-P