ktmoomau

I made baked beans again, but I think I overcooked them, they weren't as good as the last batch.  But I couldn't find the time I used last time.

This weekend, we mainly made stuff for my birthday pool party- baked beans, hot dogs on the grill, french onion dip.  The rest of the time we ate leftovers.

Went for my birthday dinner and really enjoyed the experience.  I started with the calamari, which to me was cooked perfectly, the shaved brussel sprouts with it were tender and gave a nice texture balance and the sauce was very good.  I had the rabbit papparadelle, which was just in every way delicious.  I love the big floppy noodles, it was rich, but not over the top.  The summer gallette (I forget their name for this) was exceptionally fresh in terms of the fruit taste- peaches and blueberries were just so ripe.  I thought the dishes were simple, but extremely well executed.  Portions of the appetizer I thought were normal one person appetizer size, pastas I thought were appetizer or small entree size, and dessert I polished off without any help.  The three courses together for me were just enough, although I could have shared one more dish with Hubby and been ok too.  The rib dish from the entrees was big and you could share it (saw it on another table).  The prices I thought were reasonable and I liked the decor.  We had a very professional server who was just lovely.  Hubby had the square spaghetti and the carpaccio and gelato and really liked all his dishes too.  All in all very good meal.  I would like to go back and try more items off the menu.

Baking a second batch of sixlet cookies because Hubby liked the first batch so much.

I am also eating through some garlic knots I made.

On 8/1/2018 at 8:09 AM, MarkS said:

At least the tortillas are fresh.  Those tortilla machines may well outlast us.

I am picturing a Wall-E type earth where a deserted Uncle Julio's buried mostly by trash is just still spitting out tortillas.  (I realize the dough has to be placed on the thingy, but I just like the picture of this)

I don't particularly like &pizza, but I have eaten it a couple times because it has been in convenient locations when I was drunk or needed food.  I like how easy it is to customize, the dough just isn't great.

While I agree that currently cashless payments tend to be discriminatory currently.  I also having recently seen how WeChat in China works, would tend to think that this is changing.  I didn't see a single person in China- whether it be a villager selling sugar cane in a tiny remote village on the border of Myanmar, or a taxi driver in Chengdu, or a random person/street vendor anywhere in between that didn't take WeChat.  It does raise scary privacy concerns, but I would say that day and age is soon upon us. Of course, they still took cash in most places, but not all, some vendors only took WeChat, I had to get friends to make payments for me and pay them. 

Last night was garlic knots, rice, seasoned black beans, chicken thighs seasoned with cajun seasoning and some parsley and garlic leftover from brushing the garlic knots and a pan of roasted zucchini, squash, onion and bell peppers.

1 hour ago, DanielK said:

BTW - whoever picked the spot - it was fabulous. Very close to the Beltway; easy for MD, DC, and VA attendees. Large covered pavilion, tons of parking, 3 large grills, and even a stone fireplace if we do spring/fall picnics and weather is cool.

Yes, Hubby and I both really liked the location and thought that particular picnic pavilion was a really nice one.

I still haven't been to Q yet, but my brother ordered delivery for us from there the other night.  Bless his heart- he was like, "we need to stick with things that are like 2 peppers or less, even two peppers is spicy."  I didn't laugh in his face.  But after being to China and eating the amount of spicy food I have eaten, 2 peppers didn't even register as spicy to me.  Hubby said one of the dishes was spicy, I can't even tell you which, I didn't think so.  My digestive system apparently registered some spice later in the evening.  Anyway, my brother might not be a great candidate for traveling to Chengdu anytime soon.  We got the dry fried eggplant, pork belly app, pepper and garlic shrimp, bamboo flounder fish, stir fried veggies and a chicken dish that tasted very american chinese to me- maybe orange chicken.  My favorite dishes were the eggplant- which I really liked and could easily eat a whole serving of by myself because it had a really nice non-greasy and firm texture with eggplant taste to it, the fish was really good even on delivery, which surprised me, I like the texture.  The shrimp was I thought a tasty more pedestrian dish, a good compromise dish.  Anyway, the delivery menu was somewhat limited, I wouldn't mind going to the restaurant and trying a few different things.  

Hubby and I have ended up Uncle Julio's a couple times now in the last month during packing marathons when we don't look great, are hungry and don't want to go far.  Why Uncle Julio's in particular is what Hubby has wanted, who knows, but it is what it is.  I have noticed that the dessert chocolate pinata is super popular with kiddo birthdays, that was a great marketing decision.  I have also seen it come out for a bachlorette and etc.  Genius marketing.  The chicken fajitas haven't changed.  I also have gotten the platter with all chicken stuff (coronada?) the chicken taco isn't bad, and neither are the chicken enchiladas.  Not stellar, but not bad.  Their tamales are sometimes more dry than other times, not my favorite item, but I end up eating it.  

On 7/24/2018 at 12:39 PM, NolaCaine said:

"I"m out of reactions today"

Think about how profound that statement could be. I"ve had some days at work where I've run out of reactions. In fact, last Thursday was one of them. I was so....confounded by a couple of academics, that I was out of reactions. 

I made lavender lemon scones from a mix in the cupboard, I think they needed to bake a bit longer, they were baked through, but a little softer than what I think I prefer, I brought them into the office and wish we still had the toaster oven to perk them up a little.

Last night I made a ragu out of the lovely little cut up pieces of tomatoes from the picnic.  (A salsa would have been great too, or a salad, but I was totally out of pasta sauce and canned tomatoes from the weekend, and Hubby wanted spaghetti and meatballs with the few meatballs we had left.)  It was one of the best pasta sauces I have ever made, I think the variety of tomatoes gave it a great taste, I didn't have to do hardly anything to it, a little salt, pepper, garlic, oregano, olive oil.  We also had leftover ciabatta.

I don't normally listen to podcasts, but am interested in Racist Sandwich after hearing about it.

To each his own- in 2009 before we were obsessed with sourcing even Wapo admits that sometimes non-local MD blue crabcakes can be delicious. 

On 7/28/2018 at 9:57 AM, pras said:

Earlier this month I installed a Nest.  You need a hardwired doorbell to install.  The hardest part of the installation was figuring out which circuit the doorbell was connected to.  Once you figure that out, there is a guided setup which asks you how the wires are connected in your chime.  Then it tells you exactly which wires to hook to which on the adapter they give you.  Next you install the doorbell button at the door, then turn on.  I was done in less than 30 minutes.  The picture quality is really amazing.  It will also connect to a google home, but it rings on the house bell also.  One neat feature is that it will learn the people that come to your house often and begin identifying them by name.  I live in a three story townhouse, you enter on the ground floor, but the main living space is one level up.  So, for us, we can know who is at the door without having to run downstairs.  You can also talk through the setup to tell someone you are on your way to the door.  I was spying on my wife and daughter the other day when they were waiting for the carpool to camp.  I startled them when I told my wife to sit up straight!  The nest setup also is always recording, but there is a small fee to be able to access the recordings.  30 days is free, not sure if I will pay for a subscription.  It's also nice to know when a package is delivered.  It is pretty worthwhile for my setup.

As an inside condo set-up, we have a dropcam connected to our nest, it tells you when someone enters the home.  BUT it also will send you a message when the fire alarm goes off and asks if you want to open the dropcam to see what is going on.  I didn't know about this feature until I was away one time and Hubby attempted to warm up a frozen skillet meal.  He doesn't understand that there is a range of temperatures that one might need on a cooktop- that it isn't just high and off.  I messaged him and told him I would just throw that dinner away and order something.  I don't think he was as amused as I was.  But we really love our nest fire detectors, so this is good to know.

16 minutes ago, Tweaked said:

The cookbook I was using called the dish "Baked Risotto"  It ends up being like a creamy pilaf.  Regardless, delicious and easy meal. While the rice is baking in the oven you have time to cook off the toppings.  Topped with mushrooms, goat cheese, toasted pecans, herbs and a poached egg. 

What cookbook is this from?  It looks delicious.

I have eaten here a couple times, once for dinner and once to grab lunch.  We liked the rolls, bahn mi, and I had a couple good noodle dishes for dinner- stir fried egg noodles, a bun dish.  Happy to have this place in the neighborhood.  I haven't really gotten anything not fairly pedestrian, and I knew they would likely have good bahn mi and rolls because I like them at their other space.

5 minutes ago, Al Dente said:

Now I have about 40 chicken wings to eat.

Best problem ever, darn it, now I am totally craving chicken wings.

On 7/27/2018 at 4:12 PM, DIShGo said:

Did you open them and eat the frosting first, or dip them in your milk whole? The originals were my favorite growing up.

Dip them in the milk whole, but I don't think double stuffed were around when I was little.  I actually had a little juice glass/shot glass at my Aunt's house that I used just for milk to dip cookies in, I think she still has it.  It had a paddlewheel boat on it, I assume they got in NOLA. As far as sweets go, we didn't get a lot of non-homemade items- Oreo and plain vanilla ice cream with hershey's syrup were probably the most frequent store bought desserts we got.

10 minutes ago, weezy said:

And the tomatoes!   Oh my goodness, so much goodness!  Unfortunately, I lost track of what I was tasting but there wasn't a clunker in the bunch.

Oh yes, the little yellow ones- golden peach?  Those were great.  I also liked the Japanese sounding yellow variety.  And the chocolate ones were a favorite too.  I didn't realize how much I love yellow tomatoes, but those were all my favorites.

This weekend was a big packing weekend (yes, we still have a month to go- but this coming weekend is my birthday, then I am going to the beach for a long week, so we likely won't pack for the next 3 weekends) so we mostly ate leftovers- we ordered some butter chicken to go with the bits of Indian food leftover.

Last night was leftover ciabatta bread I made for the picnic, with melon and prosciutto for me.  Hubby snacked on pretzels, peanut butter and a pear.

Thanks for the report, this place always intrigues me.

Well I am hoping to have a couple new members for us, although a couple of my guests caught that summer cold that is going around and couldn't attend, which is a shame, I think they would love the group- NEXT TIME!  It was so nice to see some of you all in person.  Thank you all for just delicious food.  The takoyaki were great!!!!  I loved the ribs!  @weezy your crumble cake I might need the recipe for, and your thighs were delightful.  The thai salad with the cashews, cornmeal cookies, ceviche- man there was just so much good food, thank you all!  Whoever brought the cheese- that cheese was phenomenal!!!  Thanks for sharing.

Your company was excellent.  And I really liked the site, I thought that was a really nice picnic pavilion and in a rather central location that was easy to get to!

I agree about Zach Galifianakis in general.  But on CCGC, it was ok, there have been a lot of REALLY good CCGC though, IMHO, I like the ones where people are more real with their true personality and it isn't an act, like Ellen DeGeneres.  The Between Two Ferns though was great.