Malawry

No Zilla?? Aw man! I'll still be there. I tried to do a test batch of hush puppies last week--I'd bought some of the self-rising cornmeal from the Old Guilford Mill and wanted to make sure it worked well with my recipe before committing--and a bunch of pests flew out of the bag the second I opened it. It now resides in the landfill for the City of Takoma Park. I guess I'll be using the stuff they sell at my local supermarket instead...which works fine for the pups, but which wasn't milled down the road from Varmint's place on a water-powered stone wheel. BTW, anybody still looking for something to bring (especially somebody with a Costco membership)? I'd accept a volunteer to pick up some sort of high-smoke-point oil for frying the puppies. Pronounced "awel" with a nearly silent "e." Enough to fill Varmint's turkey fryer.

Sunday night, cooking at a friend's who had power: Seared pork loin chops on a bed of honeycrisp apples, fresh kraut, onions with a little sage from said friend's garden lacquered Chinese broccoli Roasted potaotes with crisped garlic and rosemary from same garden Last night, finally cooking at home again: mushroom-goat cheese turnovers spice-rubbed salmon a big boston lettuce salad purchased mint chip ice cream, because we have a freezer to keep it in again dammit

Trio, and F&H, never much agreed with my dive sensibilities for some reason. John, I thought you were s'posed to pick the next spot?

What? I thought you had Mondays off?

I went out to pick up breakfast and coffee earlier and Erin reports we had a "burp" while I was out. All that damn rain may cause more trees to come down. Here's hoping it doesn't happen.

At 4:30am I heard the HEPA filter in my bedroom (the only machine I forgot to turn off) kick in. Erin shouted YES! which quickly woke me up the rest of the way. We feel so luxurious, working at home where our phone and computers and internet are all back up.

Anything involving Al Dente, hookers and onion rings can't suck. Next Monday then? John W, Mark S, can you make it? Who else? Hannah?

Well, it could be worse: 1. All my frozen food is stowed at a friend's house; she only lost power for a few hours. That's about $300 worth of grace. 2. I have a gas stove, although my oven is electric. 3. I've kept milk, juice and other essentials in a cooler packed with ice successfully. 4. I have a gas water heater and we have clean water, so I can shower (yay!) and do dishes (crap!) But it's still old. There's no more romance in it. I think everything is ugly by candlelight after a few nights.

Still no power. I came with my partner to UMD today so I could get online for a little while. It's gotten really, really old.

I just knocked off the last of a pint of Double Rainbow Meyer Lemon sorbet which came from Trader Joe's. Hey, it's unlikely it would survive Isabel!

I keep alternating between wanting to do as much stuff online as possible while I can and wanting to prepare. Though at this point I've done almost all the preparations I'm willing to do, I just want to fill up the big soaking tub and that's about it. I've been trying to consume stuff that probably won't survive. I had milk in my cereal this morning and we just ate some pan-fried catfish sammiches with crudite for lunch. I decided my iced coffee could survive on the counter but the milks, juice etc. are all safely in a cooler packed with ice so I won't have to open the fridge or risk them going bad.

Thanks for the tips, Fifi. I was contemplating heading out to buy some ice. I feel pretty certain we'll lose power. We have brownouts all the damn time here. With ice, I could load milk, produce and other stuff we'd want to consume into a cooler and not have to open the fridge at all.

Look at it this way: searing off scallops means you don't have to talk to people. Though there are always people who like pressing the flesh, many of the chefs I know aren't among them. Besides which those plates look gorgeous!

I bought my water on Monday while I was picking up a few other assorted supplies, Hwilson. That may be why I was able to find it! Actually I saw somebody walking out with it as I walked in and I said to myself, "Self, you oughta get some of that." So I did. I used to keep bottled water around but my supply dried up (heh heh) mostly over the course of camping trips. Never a bad idea to replenish anyway. I had just bought canned tuna at Costco last week. I guess I have good timing with this stuff. Jon, I wonder if Varmint will have a tennis court to host a pig pickin' on after this whole thing is over.

Hey Steve, what's the chocolate you displayed on that one plate? I don't recognize its label. Thanks Vengroff for these images. I recognize a few L'academie denizens in the pictures. Some of the pics really sing with the food, like the panna cotta Chef Fabio contributed. Looks like a nice time, with some really cool food.

I swung by REI this morning to buy some more mantles for our camp lantern, and I picked up some batteries while I was there. (I had a refund from when I bought my hiking boots there last year, and I figured I may as well spend some of it on the batteries I needed anyway.) I also bought three gallons of water at Trader Joe's the other day. We have plenty of canned food. I've transferred all pricier frozen foods like shrimp to the side-by-side freezer which I will not open; I'm catering a party Saturday and all of those goods are in the chest freezer, which I will have to open if it's not cancelled. If it IS cancelled, then I guess I'm throwing a party of my own to use up all the goodies! Giant was insane today. No batteries in most of the checkout lines. A definite run on milk and bread, no Parmalat to be found. I picked up a quart of whole milk, a dozen eggs, and a bunch of fruit, but that was all for aforementioned party. It's almost as bad as when it snows!

Anybody up for a jaunt this Sunday? It's nearing the end of peak season, folks, tons of heirloom tomatoes and riches of cukes and zukes competing with the first early fall crops like butternut squash.

A puff pastry turnover stuffed with spinach, red bell pepper and feta. I meant to serve it with a small salad but the salad didn't happen. Pan-fried catfish nappeed with tomato beurre blanc Steamed asparagus Basmati rice Chewy pecan-coconut bars The tomato beurre blanc came from a classmate's final project. Her sauce was so good we all badgered her for leftovers when she made it. My sauce was similarly tasty, good enough that I dumped the leftovers on some extra rice and snarfed them in lieu of dessert. (My partner ate the bars happily, saying "These are awesome. Never make them again!")

Being a natural-born dork, I managed to leave my camera bag at Firefly when we ate there last week. So I had to go by yesterday and pick it up. Dammit, it meant I had to stick around and eat lunch while I was at it. Life really sucks sometimes. I fressed with Edemuth. We were seated at a large table in front of the big open doors (we had to wait a few minutes for this table, but it was well worth the wait). Several large trees outside felt almost like an extension of the big tree trunk decor behind the host stand. The soft breeze and the quiet nature of New Hampshire Avenue (a large urban street with ironically minimal vehicular traffic) made the window a great place to sit and while away an afternoon. I ordered the romaine salad with buttermilk dressing and a burger; Edemuth chose the fried oysters and the steak frites. I've written about the oysters and the steak frites here already, and I exercised admirable self-restraint in not filching oysters off of Edemuth's plate. My salad was terrific, buttermilky-creamy with plenty of chives and chunks of salty ham. There was a little too much dressing in the bowl, but otherwise it's a comforting riff on all-American salads with ranch dressing. The burger is blissful, served on a grilled sesame seed roll with caramelized onions and pepper-jack cheese. It's BIG and very juicy and it comes with a big cone of frites. A good deal for $11. Tricia served me my camera bag on a doily-lined plate along with my salad. And of course Chef John found a few minutes to come gossip with us as we were finishing up. Good times.

Maybe we could fix ya'll a plate, Varmint. Rachel, sounds cool. If you want to meet in DC maybe you can start a thread in the DC forum.

A certain friend (*cough* Edemuth) suggested to me verbally that we should see if anybody was interested in a dinner at Magnolia Grill the night before Varmint's pig pickin'. After much debate we decided to see if there was any widespread interest. If so I'll call the restaurant and see if they can accommodate us. MG is in Durham, NC. I haven't eaten there but anticipate some of the best cuisine available with a Southern bent.

Where in Adams-Morgan is it, exactly? I think Adams-Morgan is filling up with nice places to get a drink and a snack (but not necessarily a big dinner). I'd place Mantis and Mezze in this category.

The Sunnyside market is nice but doesn't carry nearly as much produce as I'd hoped it would. They do carry a number of local cheeses and plenty of fixings for a country picnic, plus lots of bottles and jars of schmancy condiments and snacky things. Their farm gave my class at L'academie a tour and I learned a lot about their produce from it; I don't know if they offer tours regularly but they have a hayride truck so they probably offer some sort of hayride-tour in peak seasons. Worth calling and asking.

I don't know what I'm more impressed with: your text, your oven, or your beautiful loaves. I hope to make an attempt at this sometime in the next few days. A question about measures: British cups and American cups are different, correct? Which kind of cups did you use for writing the recipes in this course?

Heather, not only do we consume Jif in this house, I dared to put our Costco-sized jar into one of the images in my vegetarian cooking class. Jif pride! I make my own jam though, so it's all good. I'm not embarrassed about anything in my kitchen. Among the more "objectionable" items: There's a bunch of Costco Boca burgers and some Morningstar Farms vegetarian sausages in the freezer. Many many big bottles of diet soda for my partner, who is on a Diet Mt Dew kick these days. Instant hot chocolate for snowy days when somebody besides me decides to make the stuff; I prefer Ibarra (we have two boxes of Ibarra). Kraft Singles for the occasional egg and cheese sammich breakfast or grilled cheese.