Malawry

Pan-fried catfish with furikake and ginger-soy beurre blanc Spicy stir-fried tat soi Brown rice

I suffered some of the worst dining and service experiences of my life at Food for Thought when they were open. I tried several times because I lived in Dupont and at the time was a vegetarian, and their menu looked like it should be good. The only edible thing on the menu was the vegetarian chili salad and eventually even that became unacceptably horrid. I was actually pleased when they closed, and now we have Bistro du Coin in their old space! I have never attempted to order the food the same people are hawking at the Black Cat, btw. And never will!

Tossed salad Ricotta and chard-filled raviolis, topped with a quenelle of tomato concasse and a little nest of julienned sauteed chard stalks Lemon tart with tayberry sauce

Fish stock is really easy to make, it's the fastest stock besides a veg stock. If I didn't have it and was disinclined to make it, I'd just use chicken stock. I usually make fish stock if I buy whole fish out of the bones, and then freeze it, but admittedly fish stock is a little bit...fishy. It's not glorious like chicken stock or sturdy like my roasted vegetable stock is.

Well, that goes without saying.

Washingtonpost.com seems to have relaunched with a new design today. Of particular note is the newly revamped Food and Dining page, which appears to combine the weekly Wednesday print edition of the Food section and the restaurant coverage appearing in Friday's Weekend section and Sunday's Magazine. I am thrilled to see this integration of cooking and dining features on the site. The previous setup, where restaurant coverage served as a channel of the Entertainment page and Food section stories appeared on a page as part of the print edition, could be confusing at times. (For example, those interested in restaurant coverage might not have known about Tom Sietsema's Weekly Dish column or the special culinary events listings that run in Food every Wednesday.) I am curious to see if the Food section is being revamped as well, or if this is only a Web-based shift. I am also curious to see if washingtonpost.com will bring back some of the Web-only coverage they have provided in the past...Kim O'Donnell's cooking chat and video series used to be regularly augmented by Alexa Beattie's capsule new-restaurant reviews. I always enjoyed Beattie's writing and would love to see more of it.

I don't like the box stuff much but I ate it sometimes in college. If milk is too rich (financially) for you you can make it with creamers from the cafeteria. Not that I know from personal experience...

Dave the Cook suggested eggs poached in a spicy sauce. I ended up with vegetarian chili on a bed of fried corn, topped with two poached eggs and a little sour cream. From now on, I do whatever Dave tells me to do for dinner.

I second Dogfish Head, which is usually about as formal as we get at the beach. I love any place that makes their own ketchup.

In a slaw. Especially tossed with sugar and salt and left to drain for an hour or so, then rinsed and tossed with rice wine vinegar and friends Fennel compote, which I devised at school once, is also excellent. Fennel-Tomato Compote Onions, very thinly sliced Olive oil Sea salt and white pepper Fennel, very thinly sliced Chicken stock Tomato concasse Bouquet Garnis Sweat down onions in plenty of olive oil. Season. When softened, add fennel. Soften fennel briefly. Add remaining ingredients and plenty of seasoning. Bring to a boil on the stove and then cover with a cartouche (parchment paper circle). Bake in a moderate oven until completely softened and melted down, about 45 minutes. Stir periodically to prevent sticking. Garnish with fennel fronds.

We made hot-smoked tuna sometimes at Ortanique, and it was delicious. Especially good turned into a smoked fish dip. I imagine trout (if you can keep from overcooking it) and bluefish would also be excellent.

Blue Moon was closed last year in the off-season, though I don't know if they will be this year. Meanwhile for diner breakfast I am fond of the Crystal Restaurant right after the turnoff for the downtown beach area. They make French toast from Texas toast which is quite tasty. I've never had a breakfast food there that I didn't like, although you should only order the fruit plate in season (I went once in the dead of winter and was served just grapefruit. Which I love, but that's not a fruit plate!). A friend of mine from school and her husband run the boisterous picnic-table-and-newspaper Mickey's Crab House in Bethany. Fun place for inexpensive family seafood. I am pretty sure they are open most, but not all, of the year. I'll be down there in December and hope you will have some good recommendations for me and my friends then. We always make one trip in the wintertime. I love Rehoboth in the winter, it's beautiful and not crowded and quiet. And you can buy winter coats cheap at the London Fog outlet.

All of the places we registered had web sites where you could access the registry, but in my family it would have been considered incredibly rude to enclose a card about registries with any invitation. We simply told our attendants and our folks where we registered, and then we put links on our wedding web site (which we did mention in the invitation, as a repository for directions to events, directory of who was who, information about menus for those who kept Kosher or were vegetarian, etc). Some people just asked us directly. The information can be easy to get for those who want it, and you don't risk offending your more traditional Aunt Sally with the cards. The people you register with will offer you the cards and make it sound like everybody mails them out. Don't believe them. It's ok in some families but definitely not ok in others. Ask a few close relatives if you think it's a good idea, and listen to them if they tell you not to send them. I'm sure they are helpful for many guests, but people are so easily offended over these things, I felt an obligation to say something. Sorry Fifi.

A big tossed salad Some tuna salad, with capers, celery and red onion Dessert: a slab of fresh-baked challah with butter and homemade apricot jam.

Keswick Creamery, who vends at both the Takoma and Dupont Circle farm markets, sell fresh lard. I bet Polyface Farm at Dupont does too, and I know the last time I hit the Arlington farm market they had a vendor with lard as well. You are inviting us all to this pig roast, right? Tell your friend I can make Serbian-style hush puppies. I'll throw some kraut and caraway seeds or something into them.

I don't think anybody has suggested a mandoline. I wish we'd registered for one back when we got married. We registered for a lot of little tools, for people who might not want to spend so much. Stuff like potato ricer, pastry blender, bench scraper, and heatproof Rubbermaid spatulas are useful and inexpensive. Of course one of my relatives put together a big box of 75% of those items as her wedding gift, which amused and thrilled us but sorta defeated some of the purpose of registering for little things. We also designated two charities, the Alternatives to Marriage Project and the Sierra Club, for those who might not want to give material gifts. A few people donated to ATMP in our honor which meant just as much to us as that beautiful knife set.

Chef John, I think you'd be safe at DIK as long as you avoided the upstairs bar. We always called 17th Street "the trough" when I lived down around there. I am hopeful that this place is good, but if not there's always Sushi Taro.

To make this seasonal, I bet you could save and render the fat from your Thanksgiving turkey and add that to the mix.

You can confit in olive oil if duck fat is just too unattainable.

I make gravlox with Costco salmon, the cheap farmed sides that are pre-skinned. No problems with it falling apart under pressure. Very tasty and inexpensive.

I am addicted to the dosais at an Indian restaurant near my home and can't wait to try making them in my own kitchen. Thanks Monica et al for a wonderful class.

I fear Laurel's crab. Tonight: Pasta e fagioli, with some vegetarian sausage thrown in. One-pot dinner!

I'm jealous, Tryska.

A bowl of creamed spinach, made according to Paula Wolfert's technique as described in this thread. (Not the butter spinach method, the creamed spinach method.) Pretty good, and I've almost gone through the big bag of spinach I bought at Costco last week because of it.

I make my salmon cakes using seared salmon. This is usually Costco salmon that I portioned and froze before defrosting, searing and breaking into small bits for cakes. They are delicious. I don't much care for croquettes made with the canned sort.