Eating My Way Through Washington

This weekend I ventured to Washington D.C. to visit my good friend Lauren, a fellow foodie with whom I've been dining for many years now. Among our shared loves are Asian food and Jewish delis. I knew she would take me to some great places.

We started out at Bangkok Joe's in Georgetown. The space is very hip but comfortable, and people seemed to enjoy the bar area too. They're known for their dumpling bar, so we ordered chicken potstickers and pork and crab shu mai. The potstickers were really crispy and the filling actually had flavor, unlike a lot of dumplings you find these days. The pork and crab shu mai

In the morning we hit Luna Grill and Diner in DuPont Circle for brunch. It's a tiny place where you're elbow to elbow with your neighbor. They have a fairly standard menu of breakfast dishes. Lauren had a really yummy-looking bagel and egg sandwich, while I had a huge bowl of very crunch granola with vanilla yogurt and fruit, plus a side of very tasty sausage. It set us up well for a day of shopping!

For dinner, we went to Lauriol Plaza, an absolutely monstrous Mexican restaurant with 3 floors of seating. It was packed with people, and apparently averages a 1 hour wait on any given weekend. It's a fun place, and I could see why D.C.-ers enjoy it so much. Margaritas and sangria flow freely and the atmosphere is bustling. We were magically seated quickly, and ordered up a pitcher of white sangria that was so good. I ate entirely too many chips because I loved the really spicy and smokey salsa that they clearly make in-house. I ordered the enchiladas de mariscos - huge scallops and shrimp and a little cheese stuffed in rolled tortillas with a seafood sauce and avocado. I'd never really thought about seafood in enchiladas but these were so good. The sauce was a thickened seafood stock and very rich. I love Mexican food but I always appreciate a slightly different take on a standard dish.

On my final morning, we had breakfast at Kramerbooks and Afterwords Cafe, also in DuPont. It's a really neat little place - independent bookstore in the front, and cute cafe in the back. The have a great patio, which must be amazing in the summer. I was surprised at how upscale the menu was, featuring some interesting omelets and a cafe-cured salmon that I just had to try. It set me for a long day of traveling so I didn't have to look for food at the airport.

I had a wonderful time and I certainly ate well! Thanks to Lauren for showing me around town - I can't wait to come back! were a softer steamed dumpling with a thicker filling. I think they were my favorite. For entrees, Lauren and I shared Siamese pork noodles (really tender pork over the really skinny rice noodles) and a ginger beef rice bowl. The portions were huge and we enjoyed both dishes, though it was annoying when they charged us $2 to substitute a vegetable.

Perfect Night for a Chili Night

First of all, it is my great pleasure to introduce to you...my new dutch oven! She's a beauty, a 5.5 quart oval Racheal Ray dutch oven in bright orange. Now onto chili...

Yes, I know, I'm swooning over a pot.

Today is November 1st. It was also the first day of daylight savings time, and it was pitch dark in good, old northern Boston by 5:30pm. It felt like the absolutely perfect night to make this pumpkin turkey chili I've been thinking about for weeks now. Pumpkin, in chili, you ask? Yes! Pumpkin puree isn't as sweet as you think of - its not pumpkin pie filling, its real pureed pumpkin with nothing added. The pumpkin thickens the chili and adds a warmth and bit of sweetness to the smoky and spicy flavors of standard chili. In the post about this recipe on the blog Serious Eats, the writer suggested that a dash of cinnamon would be appropriate, so after I seasoned the chili per the initial recipe, I tasted it to see if the spice would add anything. I decided to try it and mixed in two good shakes of cinnamon. The cinnamon, as well as a slightly heavier hand of cayenne, added a deeper flavor at the end of the bite.

The chili is ready to eat

I served up heaping bowls with a good sprinkle of shredded cheddar cheese and a hunk of multi-grain bread (Trader Joe's Peasant Bread). I have to have something to sop up my chili. It felt like fall and football. It eats like a great traditional bowl of chili, with a wonderful underlying flavor that only enhances the dish. We scarfed it up!

Just about to eat it up!

It couldn't have been less labor-intensive, taking me probably 45 minutes in total, from chopping to serving, and 20 of that is just waiting for it to simmer. Plus you only need one pot. It's incredibly healthy - the meat is turkey, the pumpkin has a wealth of vitamins and good stuff, and there's hardly a bit of fat in the entire thing. Finally, it is cheap and big! I spent only about $10 on ingredients and had all of the spices on hand already. Ken and I had huge portions tonight, and there's at least 3 more smaller servings left. I can't wait to try it again tomorrow for lunch with a big slice of bread. I'll bet the flavors will meld even more in the fridge over night!

A One Dish Meal

Tonight I tried out a very simple and easy recipe I bookmarked off The Kitchn a few weeks ago, Chicken and Artichokes in Wine Sauce. With a last stop at the market for a lemon, it was a perfect night for a hearty but not time-consuming meal. The ingredients can be mostly found in your freezer at any time and this whips up in no time. On a slightly high heat, the artichokes brown up in just a few minutes, and don't need much tending to, so you can get the chicken cut and dredged in flour by the time they are done. Again, the chicken cooks up fast and the sauce thickens with just the bit of flour off the meat. All it is is wine and lemon (with a touch of butter I added myself).

A one-pan meal is the best.

The dish is a saute, but the artichokes really fill you up. I can imagine this would be really delicious over some orzo, as its origins are Italian. I recommend a heavy hand with pepper and definitely use a decent wine. There isn't much (or anything really) else in the sauce and you want to be sure to have good flavor. The lemon, added right at the end, provides a wonderful tart bite at the end.

The best part? It took barely 20 minutes to make. And, I can toss a bag of frozen artichokes in my freezer so I can make this almost any night. I'm also pretty sure I could use the same recipe with a different vegetable, and it would be equally good. What a great find!

Chicken and artichokes ready to eat.

Apple Crisp in Photos

Apple crisp is the perfect thing to make when you need to use up a lot of apples...and a lot of apples I have. This apple crisp off AllRecipes.com was excellent. It's not quite as gooey as some crisps can be, which I liked. It was heavy on what you really want in an apple crisp - the crisp part! The sugar-oats-flour-butter mixture gets layered on the bottom and top of the sliced apples. The only change I made was to add about a cup of water. This recipe uses virtually no liquid, just melted butter in the topping, and most of the way through cooking I thought it looked too dry. A little water was all it needed to melt together a bit. On a day where it actually snowed (yes, in October) it was the perfect end to a cold night.

Apple crisp, straight out of the oven.

Look at that crispy goodness.

It was so yummy! It didn't even need vanilla ice cream (though I would have loved to have it, there was just no way I was going out in the snow!).

It's Apple Week at The Dinner Blog

This weekend I took a wonderful apple picking trip to Red Apple Farm in northern Massachusetts. The foliage is beginning to peak and it was an amazingly beautiful trip. We piled into the car and enjoyed the drive out to the country. We arrived, parked, and made our way into the line for an open air barbeque that they do every weekend in the Fall. We had pulled pork sandwiches made with their own sauce and of course, a big cup of fresh made cider. It tasted like pure liquid apple and was so delicious!


After our hearty lunch, we got our apple picking bags and set off into the orchards. It was quite cold and very windy at first, but as the day passed, the sun appeared and warmed things up. The orchard was so beautiful and full of many kinds of apples.


I tend to like tarter apples, so I went mostly for the Macintoshes and Cortlands.


There were also red delicious - the kind of apples you give to your school teacher - and petite golden delicious, which aren't as popular but I like.


The foliage was out of this world. Some of the colors were so vivid. Mother nature at her best.


After picking more than enough apples, we headed over to the farmstand. Ken and I each bought a jug of apple cider. I got a big jar of apple butter, which I haven't eaten in years, and I can't wait to make apple butter and peanut butter sandwiches for lunch this week! And of course, I had to have some cider donuts. They were so delicious. There is something about cider that makes the donughts so moist and these were covered with cinamon and sugar. Just to die for. In the same veign, the first recipe I can't wait to make with my apples are these fabulous-looking apple cider muffins! They use cider in the batter and shredded apple in the muffins. They sound like a great breakfast.

I ended up with almost 40 apples! I am looking for ways to use them up, beyond obviously eating a lot of them plain or with a scoop of peanut butter! Sweet or savory? Ideas are welcome and I will certainly be posting up the results.


Orchard photos courtesy of Ken - thanks!

You Can Help - Teaching the Next Generations of Foodies

I wanted to post this great fundraising campaign called the Serious Eats Brown Bag Challenge. Via the website DonorsChoose.org, they are asking you to brown bag your lunch, and donate the money you save to one of these fabulous food and health education programs. You can decide which project to fund, and the money will be directly delivered to the school's hands to get what they need. Cooking teaches incredibly valuable skills and I think, helps to open the minds of young people to different things. Plus, it isn't hard to see how hard obescity hurts a child, so teaching healthy eating at a young age is imperative. We need a new generation of contestants for Top Chef!

http://www.seriouseats.com/2009/10/serious-eats-donors-choose-brown-bag-challenge.html