ktmoomau

Sorry, I normally avoid that part of town, so not sure.  Do you need to stay really close? Could you hop on 395?

Cheetos- it's been a long week, don't judge.

Sunday night was spaghetti squash with chicken adobo, roasted tomatoes and cheese, baked together.

Last night was steak fajitas- the flank steak was a costco purchase, and it was a bit fattier than I expected, but good.  We had them somewhat "redneck" style with queso that I wanted to use instead of normal cheese.

16 hours ago, curiouskitkatt said:

I had no idea this spot was based in Annapolis. There is an outpost at Belvedere Square in Baltimore. There are so many spots at the Square, I just overlooked Mason’s. Ill need to check it out on my next visit. 

I didn't either, I don't recall ever hearing about it in Annapolis, although I think it's been there since 2014 I guess? 

We had a really great meal at Hazel Saturday night, even without Rob in the kitchen.  I have to say the food was really good, but service was just amazing.  We sat outside, as we hadn't hit the super chilly weather quite yet on Saturday and the nearby fires added some heat.  The patio is just so pretty, it feels very Poste circa 2006- aka just somewhere cool you want to be.  We had a view into the kitchen (I had never been here before) that was just cool.  Me and the bestie were dressed pretty nice as this was dinner pre-ten year law school reunion and we were out to have a good time.  Our server did not disappoint, she was cool and fun, and just all over a great time.  We got some free champagne, she brought the wine out to the patio for me to try a sip of before pouring a whole glass.  We had fun.  We ordered chicken wings, which were sticky and messy and delicious, they were huge- those were like sumo chickens.  The blistered peppers, which were also a good portion, not to hot, but with a nice flavor.  We also had the shrimp- which isn't a huge portion, but I really liked the flavor and beet crisp, the harissa was not too hot, but just really flavorful, short-rib was to me a bit off in texture- not by a lot and not quite sure how they do it or exactly what I would do different, in flavor combos it was spot on (but a touch of harissa from the shrimp and well, just good too), this was kind of my friends dish so I only had so many bites, but I liked them.  Last the cauliflower- there were so many spices and elements in this dish, I can't even explain it, but I thought it was delicious and outshined for me the two meat entrees.  I love when a place does that.  We left not too full, but not hungry either, so perfect amount of food (although I would have probably looked at dessert, but bestie is on keto).  We both agreed we felt the dishes were elevated above something we could make at home, and she is a really good cook, and the service just made us feel special.    

A floral shop (if they don't dye them?) but they are likely pricey.  You could buy a plant at TJs and then clip off the flowers?

I got delivery the other night just to try it out- I just got chicken tikka and naan.  Simple, but fine, not at all bad or inedible, so not sure if something has changed, seems like it was changing hands before.  I liked that I got a little aloo gobi with it.  I thought the naan had very nice texture.  It wasn't a steal, but I didn't think it was overly expensive either- not huge portions, but not a huge price-tag either, and the naan you got two per order.  I got it because it was close the the house and came quickly.

I think Penzey's is running a pretty good deal if you need a spice right now... 4/S salt, italian herb and southwest spice free if you go to a store (and ma ) and 1/2 cup jar up to $10.49 in value for free in stores.  You can get it online, but there will be shipping, but they dropped the minimum shipping charge to $25.  You need the email or coupon, but can sign up here:  http://spices.penzeys.com/coupon.html?mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiTTJNd09ETXlZV1k0TmpZeCIsInQiOiI0eVpYXC94TzdhXC85clBIVkZyQUVldWhiSmljRzFOSmcybFhkcWlQbXBpZ01WeG9wZjR1UnJEbU82Wk95U3kyNWVFY0VKbjc3QjZ6VVJBQ082ZFBZbHg3RTRUcUJ1dmVaZlNVUEJCOFRqaytXRFVxWExVdkdvNFwvaFNNNHZ4Rm5RSCJ9

Anyway, I think I may stop by on my way out...

2 hours ago, pras said:

Even in NYC its hard to find a good bialy.

So what is the right texture?  I have never had one, but I would try baking some to taste it- it is a bagel that isn't boiled- it doesn't have malt or sugar, and has a little less flour, so I would think it would be somewhat dense and glutenous, but not quite as much as a bagel, it is supposed to be flatter, but a lot of pictures look like it still raises like a bagel?  It would be a little crispier, as well, without the boiling?    

I think the problem likely is that they don't sell a lot of them, so they aren't being baked from fresh as often?  It seems like the main complaints above is being hard or dense... which may just be that they are a day old or being re-heated?  Looking at how you make them, it doesn't seem to be terribly complicated, so I am surprised no one could find a good one- unless NY City water or something makes a big difference in the dough taste.

13 hours ago, kieplangdu said:

How is living wage possible when most of the review is all about "getting money's worth.", "cheap eats," etc? Look at most of the review on yelp, google, etc and over 90% of them is all about eating cheap.

Maybe there are some other industries that need living wages too... 

Well I thinned the tomato soup a bit with some milk and water and it was better, but still not my favorite.  But I made a gouda and country ham grilled cheese to go with it, and that made it much better.  The salty and gooey worked well with my soup, which wasn't bland, but wasn't exciting.

Last night I made tomato soup- but I didn't really love it.  I need a recipe that doesn't use cream- it can use milk as I can sub LF milk, so if anyone has a good tomato soup recipe they like, I am all eyes!  We had it with ham biscuits, the ham was a little thick, I should have baked it crisper.  Oh well, lessons learned.

Garrett County

Was up for the weekend, mainly ate at the house, but...

Sloppy Dawgs has opened in Oakland, I haven't tried it yet.  Wendy's Town Restaurant has turned into The Diner, haven't tried it yet.  Another couple places are scheduled to open.

We ate at Ace's- they do traditional turkey dinners all over on Autumn Glory weekend, so that is what I got.  The mashed potatoes, root vegetables, stuffing and cornbread were all very good.  The turkey itself could have been better, it seemed to be sort of shredded into large chunks- and some were a bit dry.

We also went to Mountain State Brewpub and got three medium pizzas and a large house salad- the salad was huge, the pizzas were also larger than I expected- we got a pesto and proscuitto, fire on the mountain and margherita- all of which were good.  They warned our friend not to order tap water here, and offered bottled, but she insisted, it wasn't a good thing to insist on, get beer or bottled water.

4 minutes ago, dracisk said:

How did you find out? Did you eventually get through by phone to your local store? Or it sounds like maybe your husband did some in person scouting?

I just made my husband go- we needed the pretzels, bottled water and diet coke to take to my Mom's this weekend, and he works nearby, so- I figured if they didn't have it, I already did a web search and new Total Wine had it and figured I could hit them up on the way out of town if need be.

Last night was hummus topped with olive tapenade, sausage, pepper, onion, roasted tomato and toasted pine nuts.  Eaten with pita.

So they did have it, but as a note, it was the same by the bottle price at Total Wine.  Also, online it said they had frozen soft pretzels, they did not today, or my husband couldn't find them- he did find non-frozen soft pretzel bites, which will do in a pinch.  

I am sure I have been since my last post!  I do appreciate the food and bar here, always has been solid for a meal.  The cauliflower sounds good, might have to stop in sometime I am over that way.

2 hours ago, Andy Hayler said:

Cheers. To be honest I am not really qualified to answer this. I have a WSET advanced qualification in wine so am comfortable to talk about wine lists and wine pairing, but I don't know a great deal about cocktails I'm afraid. The other beverage that is interesting to pair with food is Japanese sake, which I am still learning about.  I'll leave the cocktails to others that are more knowledgeable about them.

Thanks so much for sharing some time with us- I think this is the first time someone on this site said they weren't qualified to answer a question- hahahha.

I drove by Liberty Center (II???) on my way home from picking something up on Nextdoor and thought to myself, that with Taylor closing so quickly and likely screwing them on rent, and the other retail tenants being 3 Isabella joints, they must be praying those checks cash or that bankruptcy payment plan includes good terms for them.

Had district dumplings the other day- mix and match bulgogi, curry, kale, edamame and pork and something.  We also did the soup dumplings and split them.  I thought the soup dumpling wrappers were a bit thick, especially on top, so you ended up with some spurters, Bob's is definitely better, but much further away than where we live.  I thought the other dumplings had great flavors, but the wrappers were kind of a hot mess and kept falling apart.  So tasty, but could use a little work.  I might try to copy some of the fillings though, I thought they were all really tasty.  Will be interesting to compare to the dumpling place in Pendleton Carryout.

Last night was beef vegetable lentil soup with cheddar cheese and water crackers.

4 hours ago, dracisk said:

IAll that is to say that even if you found out your local Costco had that wine at some point, they may or may not have it in the future. And I'm not sure of the best way to find out short of calling your local store, which I assume you already tried.

Yes, I tried, but they haven't been answering the phone (there isn't a good dept to call, so I called the membership department, who I thought would answer the phone because- money- also online chat will not connect- womp, womp.

2 hours ago, dcandohio said:

The cucumber is disgusting. Grapefruit is nice. 

Now I feel the need to try this... I have liked all their other flavors and even I think cucumber would be a bit much.

I not only made homemade tortillas this weekend, I made homemade tamales too!!!!  Woot, woot!  Chicken adobo mainly from the side of the masa mix, but with a few tweaks/additions of some garlic, cumin, dried onion flake and dried scallion to the adobo mix.  I am very excited about this.  

These pics are both supposed to be the same size... sigh.