ktmoomau

Last night was a kale salad with tahini dressing, topped with chopped smoked pork.

Going to look down through all these food recs, I think I am going to NOLA with a girlfriend as a bday thing.  There look to be all sorts of good hotels with decent prices (Yeah, yeah everyone else is heading to cooler temp destinations, but we figured we could sweat in humidity in DC or sweat while in humidity in NOLA, so we will take our battery powered misters and rock out....)  I haven't been in years.  Anyone stay at the Lowes there and have an opinion?

2 minutes ago, zgast said:

Is it wrong that this makes me think that the next party is guaranteed to be dessert heavy with few carbs and cheese?

Hahahahaha, I don't know that other people cared very much of that lack, to be honest.  And a lot of older guys just brought something easy for them- so I think cheese and grapes, pizza etc can be expected again.  But I will likely go veggie- which likely will be appreciated by a few people, but they will really appreciate it.

So I braided a mixed AP and light wheat flour loaf.  I thought it turned out fairly pretty, except I did an olive oil wash, and I think an egg wash would have made it more shiny.  I served it with garlic boursin cheese topped with a spicy tomato sauce with olives, red pepper.  It was delicious.  BUT the party was pretty carb/cheese heavy and there was little dessert.  So I think next time baked good that is sweet, or something vegetable focused.  But more than half of my loaf got eaten, and a lot of the dip, and we warmed up the leftover the next day for lunch, so win-win.

Saturday Hubby smoked a pork butt that I rubbed with Corky's bbq seasoning and some Italian sausages.  Friends brought fruit salad and cole slaws.  I also had some cheese and meats and had made some dumplings.  We ended up with a lot of food, so Sunday was leftovers.  

Is there a way to just see Tock events?  I know Reverie is having one, but I haven't figured out any way to sort and just see events in DC instead of reservations on a given night?  (The Reverie one is on their page if you click in.)

Hahahhaha, yes, my Mom is ordered to make the same thing at all our family reunions.  I made homemade dumplings the other year, and they wanted us to make them again, but instead we did butter chicken and naan, they were ok with that too.  So I don't actually follow the make this again rule. I will make fairly time consuming things for our family reunion because a bunch of us cook together the day before at the hall, so it is fun, I will make layer cakes and etc.  

The grilled shrimp I brought to the picnic were super easy and really good, that is a great thought.

I guess, I just want something that is tasty enough we get invited to other neighborhood private events, hahahha!  So many good ideas above!!!! It makes me want another picnic so I can eat all your good food!  A cheesecake is a good idea, Hubby loves a bundt cake though, so if we end up with leftover it will be gone.  And the goat cheese log sounds great too- I have an unopened boursin that Hubby got as a three pack at costco that could get topped with spicy tomato sauce and eaten with homemade ciabatta... 

I just tried the sweet chili doritos- oh man, those are good.  I almost wish I hadn't tasted them, I don't need that kind of lust in my life right now.

Last night was use up little bits of things that need to be used night.  So I made a tomato sauce with garlic, a bit of sausage and sliced bacon, crushed tomatoes, leftover roasted onion and squash, kale, fresh basil, oregano and parsley.  We had this two ways- I stuffed the sauce into bell pepper halves, topped with cheese and put them in the oven for me.  For Hubby I made cavatelli pasta for this to go on top of.

You know those times when you are invited to a party and you just feel like showing off just a little... not a lot, not like this took REAL effort, but just a little, like an oh I just whipped this up.

What do you make?

(I am going to a neighborhood block party Friday, and it will be the first one we have ever gone to in our new neighborhood, and I feel the need to just be a bit... extra.  Not over the top, just a resounding, yeah I can cook kind of dish.  I am trying to decide- do I make some homemade bread and then a simple spread for it, do I make a dip (I really like this roasted fennel and white bean dip), deviled eggs with parm and capers, do I make a bundt cake...)

Last night was a quesadilla with sauteed onions, peppers, chicken and squash, as Hubby wasn't home till late so I was cooking for one.  

On 5/24/2019 at 7:04 PM, Ericandblueboy said:

Does anyone still visit Chowhound?  I hope they fired the person who killed off Chowhound.

I go on maybe once every couple months.  Mainly to see what Steve is up to, and what little small haunts he has tried out.  It still accepts my really old log on credentials.  I find all the new formats just more and more off-putting.  It was such an amazing site back in the day.

Was in Chestertown this weekend- they have a ton of Memorial Weekend activities- http://www.chestertownteaparty.org/ it was pretty crowded, so we watched the tea party from the boat.  We then went to Betterton and ate at Barbara's on the Bay for dinner to avoid the Chestertown crowds.  We all had crabcakes for dinner, and shared appetizers of Sassafras Shrimp (shrimp with a leek and celery sauce that was thickened with something, and I would guess thyme and sherry) and scotch eggs.  The shrimp were really good.  I would like this as an entree to be honest, I would have eaten the sauce with a spoon.  The scotch eggs were hardboiled inside, not runny, but not a bad snack.  The crabcakes were good- a nice mix of crab and binder that was handmade- and came with orzo and spinach.  I just got the one crabcake and with the other stuff we had that was plenty. This place doesn't have a huge menu, but I thought what we had was pretty good for the area.

The next day we anchored at Conquest Beach and had sandwiches on the boat for lunch, and hot dogs/burgers grilled out on our friends boat for dinner. They got the meat at a butcher in Sudlersville- http://sudlersvillemeats.com/ and they were really good.  Sudlersville is not far off the main road to Chestertown from 301.  

Monday we went to Rock Hall and had drinks, mussels and shrimp at Waterman's. The food was good for outdoor seating, chill, kind of beach/bay food.  We thought about getting crabs, but theirs weren't coming in until 1:30pm and we figured right now they would still be pretty small. 

There are about three new restaurants that are open/opening in Chestertown right now, but I haven't tried any yet.

I believe this is now- Fish Town and Veggie Heaven.  

Was up very quickly for a retirement party but went to the new BAR IN OAKLAND, MD!!!!  Sipside.  Craziness, it was very neat on the inside with warm woods, music posters and cool decor.  They have a few spirits, cocktails, wine and beer.  No bargains, and the wine list is well- they have wine and it's a bar that is open- what more do you want.  They had music playing while we were there and the music was good.  No real food served, but they provide bar snacks. It was a happening place when I was up on Friday, and it was nice to see some people out in Oakland in the evening.

I also had lunch at the Casselman Cafe in Deep Creek.  I just got the salad bar, which is very fresh and soup.  I went for the ham and bean as I thought the crab was bland last time.  Mom got the crab, this time the crab was great, the ham and bean was bland.  They had homemade rolls on the salad bar, which was nice.  This isn't like a Wegman's variety salad bar, but I think it is a pretty decent selection, and it's one of the few places in GC to just get a salad that isn't just iceberg with tomato and cheese.  I was going to get a sandwich- why we went here- but then I changed my mind.  

Last night was kale and leaf lettuce salad, with homemade tahini dressing, cherry tomatoes, roasted red peppers, and leftover ribs and chicken from dinner.  Oh and a few pickled okra.

Whenever we go to HHI in two days, Fayetteville is normally my leave in the evening after normal rush hour, and it is as far as I can get before I am too tired to keep driving stop.  If you are leaving in the evening you could stop in Richmond for ZZQ and then keep driving until you hit a good place to stop.  I've also stopped in Rocky Mount.  I think the Rocky Mount hotels are a little nicer.  But where I stay totally depends on if we have the pup with us and the fact that on day two I just get tired of being in the car.

I need to post pictures... so in the back patio the leaf lettuce I planted as seedlings is ready for us to eat salad for days at this point.  The kale get a little less sunlight and is just taking a little longer, but is getting there.  The spinach came up from seed, but I think the warm weather doomed it from being very robust (and I didn't plant a ton) so I will retry in the fall.  My herbs have been loving the weather, I could supply the whole neighborhood with parsley, I am using a ton of fresh herbs just to keep them pruned back. I finally found  lemongrass plant this past weekend that wasn't one small sad stem of grass.  I am not sure why that was such a challenge, but someone else told me they were having trouble with that too.

On the top balcony, my bell peppers already have small and medium peppers on them, it's nice to not have to worry about pests as much up there.  Both tomatillo plants have flowers and are pretty large, I am now pulling off suckers.  I have four tomato plants (sungolds, black cherry, and two other heritage varieties from Mount Vernon that I need to look at the tags) that are all growing fairly well.  I have caged everything but this week I likely need to find a pair of ripped nylons in the back of my drawer to tie them up a bit.  I don't really get pollinators up there, it is really windy, so that is my main concern at this point, I will do some self-pollination this week with a little paintbrush, I just don't trust the wind to completely take care of it.  Oh and I have a zucchini that is doing it's thing. I just planted some bush beans from seed, and I need to do the okra, but I need one last bag of soil for that planter... 

I also am annoyed with myself for not spray painting all my cages to go with my balcony decor, but they are in and I am not doing it now.  Oh well, next year.

Oh and Hubby installed a great little irrigation system for me on both levels that is controlled by the iphone and doesn't water when it is scheduled to rain, that has been a huge help so I can go away and not worry.  It was from Amazon and very cheap.  I should get the details, I highly recommend it for people doing container gardens that are not too far from a hose connection. 

The only downside is it came apart on top of my Hungarian wax pepper pot and flooded it for a few days before I saw it- so that plant needs a little love and a lot less water for a few days.  I am still investigating getting a dwarf lemon tree, I just haven't wanted to order one off the internet, and I really wanted a jalapeno, but I don't have a lot more space in the "gardening section" of the balcony.   I couldn't make the Greenspring Garden show last weekend, I had to go to Garrett County.  It's one of my favorites, so a little sad I missed it. 

I am getting ready to start volunteering at the Mount Vernon horticulture dept, so that should be fun, and I should learn a lot.  

BTW: For anyone interested, tonight is the information session for the fall Master Gardener classes for Alexandria/Arlington.  https://mgnv.org/  I don't think I can do it this year, but it has been on my list of things I would like to do.

Pat- I made your pasta.  I really liked it warm, and then cold as a pasta salad.  We had leftover bbq chicken and veggies, so it was easy to throw some fixins on top if you like.

We went to the downtown location of Succotash with some friends and their family from China.  I wanted a place that was really nice looking on the inside and this did the trick.  We were a party of 7, so we "had" to do the family meal.  To be honest, with our large group and some being from out of the country it was a good way for us all to try things, and similar to the banquet style dinners they treated us to in China.  We asked to have a leisurely pacing and they did a great job with that.  The guys got a couple bourbon flights, and us ladies had bottles of Barboursville wine.  The appetizers were: cornbread with sorghum butter and seasonal jam.  The seasonal jam was great.  I thought the sorghum was hard to taste.  Deviled eggs- these were good, just done in the traditional style- no thrills, but good.  Our guests were very amused with these.  Smoked wings- these were huge and exceptionally good, I would go back and sit at the bar and get a Belle's punch and eat chicken wings.  Fried green tomato salad was good.  For the mains, everyone loved the ribs- these were a big hit.  Dirty rice was also a huge hit, there version is very risotto like, but I think everyone was just interested in how it was made. The chicken and waffles were fine, by we all could have done with a little more spice and sweet combo.  The fried catfish was also very good- I don't really love catfish and this was light, crispy and a good way to eat catfish and not have it be too gamy in flavor.  To me the best dish of the night was likely the kimchi collards (I think he makes this on an episode of Mind of a Chef, I will copy this).  Then there was a plate of cookies and pecan pie bits for dessert, which was fine, as we weren't really dessert focused.  To me none of these dishes were the best representation of that food that I have ever had (not the best cornbread, chicken and waffles, etc), but it was a really fun meal, great to take guests, and it met all our requirements- good bar, nice interior, good food, good service.  None of it was bad, and if you didn't grow up eating tons of Southern food, I think you would likely find more of these dishes very good.   

We went to Corduroy for our ten year anniversary and had a really nice meal.  We had a booth which was nice for a nice conversation.  The service could have been a tiny bit more polished- I feel like there was maybe a lot of somewhat young staff, maybe that was just me.  We were seated and just waited a long time for anyone to give us menus or greet us.  No explanation of the tasting menu (so we decided just to order off menu/specials).  I heard the specials at another table and things were presented with a little bit more option than at ours (I didn't know you could get one soft-shell as an app or two as a dinner).  We were given the wine list, but never any offer to help us select something (we ended up being fine, just for a nice occasion it can be nice to get some suggestions).  The table around us had some papers with them and they left and one was left on the floor all evening, and maybe no one else noticed it?  I just thought there were some small attention to detail items that if I were the FOH manager, I would work on.

The food was great.  I had the kale caesar which was very good, and then the soft shell crabs for dinner.  I have been craving some really good soft shells and this hit the spot.  I got the chocolate flourless cake for dessert and hubby got the strawberry tart.  He had the lobster carpaccio- which I think he was neither here nor there about, and the seared tuna dish and just loved it, he thought the flavors in the sauce just really made the dish spectacular.  All in all it was a really nice meal and a nice evening, my small quibbles about some initial service issues aside.  

Thanks Eric, will do!  

Hitmitsu?

I swear I made a previous thread for Catch on the Ave, but I can't find it.  We have gone twice now- once with BIL and SIL, and once with my Mom.  I can't remember what we all had the first time we went, but we liked it enough to go back!  I remember they had good cocktails.  On the last visit, Hubby had fish tacos.  They had soft shells, and I asked if I could have them on a sandwich.  They had run a special earlier that week with a pimento cheese/ softshell sandwich, so I go that.  This would have been better with less pimento cheese, to be honest, I love soft shells and should have protested more and seen if I could have just gotten a more plain sandwich.  I expect this sandwich was because a lot of people find soft shells a little more creepy than I do.  It was fine, it was just perhaps a little over-decadent and you lost the crab flavor.  Mom had the lobster salad which she said was really good.  This is a nice little neighborhood spot with above average food for Del Ray.  We like the ability to get something a little fancier or a little more causal for dinner, and they have a nice beverage list, and you can generally get in.

3 minutes ago, silentbob said:

This seems as good of a place to post as any...

AMEX is buying Resy

That is good, hopefully that means I can use the Amex Plat concierge to get into more places.  I guess that means the Cap One tables will likely go away...