hillvalley

Went to litteri's this morning. Oh my god that place is increadible. Pasta I haven't seen in the US, olive oils that would take years to go through. And the Italian subs. (keep in mind the next sentence is geared toward JU and where she lives) It's not worth the trip just for the mozzarella (but is for everything else). I think Vace's and Marcella's is much better. All they had was the prepackaged kind.

I think that we pretty much do leave our money in Washington, it's just that most of us don't get to visit very often. Don't worry, the locals don't see much of it either. But anytime you need a tourguide up here let me know! I stopped by a local fish market (Right near the now at peak cherry blossoms. It was a total zoo, those damned tourist.) hoping to pick up some crawfish. The looked so sad swimming in some kind of liquid that I couldn't bring myself to get some So what is your son going to do with the riches?

Here's another classic sit-com food moment from M*A*S*H: Hawkeye in the MESS TENT--sick of liver and fish: "I've eaten a river of liver and an ocean of fish!!! I can't make love unless I'm smothered in onions! " My favorite MASH food moments: The episode where Hawkeye orders ribs from Adam's Ribs near the Dearborne station. In an episode where the whole camp is discussing what they are going to do when they get home, Col. Potter discribes taking a pot of boiling water into the corn field and cooking the corn, still on the stalk, and enjoying it right there in the field. I've always wanted to try this.

That's the philosophy we have up here as well! Washington DC, leave your money with us. I forgot to mention how f&*# cheap the seafood is. I bet you get oysters cheap too! Hey, wait a minute. Why aren't you out there taking money from people! How's the lemonade selling going?

Thanks for sharing, it was a wonderful piece. I am now craving crawfish. If only you weren't so far away Hope you did well at the sale. You've gotta love taking money from tourist.

I have a rendering pancetta fat question. If I let it render long enough, will all the fat eventually melt? I usually end up with these little nonrendered bits. They taste wonderful but...... By the way, made a wonderful roasted tomato pancetta sauce last night with a side ofsauteed spinach in rendered pancetta fat. Thanks for the ideas, keep 'em coming! Edited for clearity and spllng

Pictures! We want Pictures!

Welcome to EG Pake! Thanks for the link. We have moved on from Egypt and are wrapping up Brazil tomorrow. From there we will spend a short time in Korea and then it is off to Australia. But like most teachers I am a total packrat when it comes to lesson plans/material. I've printed out the article for future use By the way, today was the first really warm day of spring. We spent part of the afternoon having a pomegranite seed spitting contest.

I love confusing the F*&% out of them. Thanks

I have about 1/3 lb. sitting in my fridge. What should I do with it?

mmmmmmmmmm, best part of erev Rosh Hashanah

Fish heads fish heads fish heads They help create the jelly. Otherwise you end up with broth. And make sure the carp has plenty of room to swim in the bathtub

I would recommend going for brunch, but not until the summer. The gardens are beautiful when they are in full bloom. I would sit outside, ofcourse, but make a point at checking the booths inside. There are nameplates attached to some. These people drove threw snow storms to honor their reservation.

Not too far from 18th st., which is the main strip in AM, is a restaurant called Coppi's. It is on U, I think between 14th and 15th. Great woodburning pizza and pasta with a nice wine selection.

The horror! um... No. As I think about it, though, it might work ok. The sugar carmelizes and the milk solids toast. The fat component doesn't change. There might be some textural differences but it should work. I say give it a try. I agree that it is an abomination, but my coworkers are fat free crazy. I'll le tyou know how it turns out

Has anyone tried making DdL with the fat free sweetened condensed milk?

Finally made it to Full Key tonight. My friend was wrong. The Hong Kong soup was as good as it used to be, possibly better. Are the dumplings bigger than they used to be, or has it just been that long since I last had them? We also had sizzling oysters with ginger and garlic and pea leaves. I highly recommend both, although the pea leaves could have used more garlic.

JU, is it just the two of us next week? We know that John W. thinks he has a good excuse, but what about the rest of ya?

We dumped out the whole bowl (don't ask) and only found matchbooks

Great bump Kris! I have yet to meet an oshinko that I didn't like! My favorite are the flourecent yellow daikon, whole mini-carrotts and purple cucmber (I have no idea what the names are!) I often have a dinner of natto, oshinko, nori and rice. Did someone already ask what the difference between tsukemono and oshinko is?

I don't know about the rest of y'all, but I let out a most Homer-like "Woo-hoo!" when I read this. But now I'm curious as to details. Can you give a fuller description of it? Sad to say, I've never heard of such a course being offered so have no context. For me, cooking classes look like fun but not my kind, so to speak. OK. Just for you. The objective of this course is to present suggestions and solutions to challenges encountered when cooking as a person with disabilities, and cooking for persons with disabilities. Lessons will involve the issues of safety, methods, and equipment. Recipe links will accompany the lessons, as well as links to sites we have found helpful for understanding focus disabilities. We will make use of photographs for illustration; links to products available; and home solutions, that help ease the challenges concerned. Disabilities we will be targeting will include hearing impairment/deafness; mental retardation focus, which will cover in its scope other mental and physical disabilities, ie., care for persons in wheelchairs, Alzheimer's patients, people with mastication problems, grip and coordination problems; vestibular disorders, ie., balance and coordination problems, and vision impairments. We will also target some solutions and suggestions for dealing with problems encountered such as nausea; touch on some dietary restrictions such as suggestions for low sodium; low fat/cholesterol; adding good fat and nutritional elements for difficult appetites and abilities to eat, ie., color and texture issues, and problems with eating while on medication. We are looking forward to a Q&A on this course, to encourage open discussion and questions from the forum. I'll post a reminder announcement on this thread, shortly prior to the April 21st announcement on eGCI, for the course presentation on April 23. I have been monitoring the progress of the three instructors of this course as it has been coming together, and I personally believe anyone with a disability or who cares for someone with a disability will get a lot out of this Thank you for the kind words Marlene! Now that the course is coming together we are all very excited. Just to add to what lovebenton0 posted, we will offer three different persepectives on cooking with/for a disability: cooking as, cooking for, and teaching cooking to the disabled. As with other EGCI courses there will be a Q&A, so get those questions ready!

(I wrote this a few weeks ago but forgot to post it. Sorry!) Sweet success continues. At the Eastern Market last weekend I found pomegranates at one of the fruit stands. That was last Sunday. This week sucked. Between the full moon and what we thought was a major paperwork deadline (5 months of data for eight kids) the entire building was cranky. There was very little learning going on. What teaching occurred was rushed and uncreative. And spring break is a month away. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday morning I made a left onto Conn. Ave. from my driveway and remembered the pomegranate sitting in my kitchen. Turning around would add at least 15 minutes to my trip and I was already running late. After three mornings in a row I put the damn thing in front of my door as soon as I got home Wednesday. Put my keys on top, just in case. I was late to work Thursday because my keys were missing. I knew as soon as I turned in my data, I would get my mind back. Thursday was just a bad day. Deadlines were extended creating more work. Kids forgot how to count pennies. (aaarrrrrgggggg, are you kidding me? can't they forget next week?) Teachers forgot how to use computers. (If I show her how to save one more time I am going to throw her and it out the window.) Tests were not passed. The new kid finally got his first fight over with. Crankiness ruled. By 10:30 I was going around asking subs in the building to work for me on Friday. Everyone had already beaten me to it. At noon the head teacher remembered her 2:30 parent meeting. That meant she would be leaving at 2. And I had a pomegranate. I took a deep breath. I threw out a hint during lunch that I had a pomegranate in my bag. I was thinking about sharing, but I hadn't decided yet. Then I went on break. By the time I returned children were learning, stars were earned and a little happiness found its way into our dungeon. I also learned of the fight while they were at recess. Three weeks ago, the pomegranate would have been theirs. My boys don't fight. They have learned that good behavior brings surprises. Like pomegranates. And seaweed. And Nuttella. New kid hadn't figured that out yet. Who cared about a pomegranate anyway? Who knew what it was? Just more crazy stuff they make us eat. I knew what new boy didn't: that when you ate pomegranate, you got to spit out the seeds. And there were more seeds than a watermelon. There was spitting to do! Most of you may not have noticed during your watermelon seed spitting contests, but spitting is hard work. You have to breath in, not choke on a small object perfectly designed to lodge in your throat, aim, breath out quickly and land in a predetermined location. For a few of my kids, a nightmare task. Occupational and Speech therapy with spitting! Legitimate spitting! I have powerful possession of the sole timer in the classroom. That meant theoretically I controlled the length of work sessions. My co teachers figured out we were ending early after the first work session. My higher functioning kids figured it out by the end of the second session. The others figured it out when the first two started whispering. High functioning kid 1 sat down at my table and said, "Where's the pomegranate?" Everyone should get to see a kid figure out that being able to tell time is cool. Eric figured that out Thursday. The pomegranate was perfect. The juice poured out a brilliant magenta. The perfect first pomegranate color. The seeds were bursting but still firm. It only took a small bite to pop open the juice. I have one student who has gourmet lunches 3-5 days a week. Salads with grape tomatoes and squash with homemade dressing. Leftover homemade 5 pepper beef stir-fry. Papaya, mango, strawberries. Haven't seen an apple since the fall. Gourmet Guy scoffed in February when a teacher brought in apples for the kids. “These are old apples” he told the class. I would eat these lunches. Gourmet Guy knew what a pomegranate was. Since I first mentioned pomegranates a few weeks ago G.G. has declared his love. This kid loved pomegranates. The grown ups were impressed. The rest of my class knew that they could impress us too, if they liked it. Pomegranate is a real boys fruit. It is juicy and messy. You get to peel and pick. It squirts. Consumption involves spitting. It's got that sweetsour thing going on. The pomegranate was perfect. The juice poured out a brilliant magenta. The perfect first pomegranate color. The seeds were bursting but still firm. It only took a small bite to pop open the juice. Tasting the pomegranate took no convincing. They knew New Kid almost blew it. Putting up a fight would be pushing it too far. One kid refused, but he doesn't eat anything anyway. “No pomegranate. No pomegranate. No apple. No grape. No strawberry. Go away ms. hillvalley. Go away.” Another kid tried it but didn't like it. He doesn't like much either, but he'll try anything. You have to pick your battles. Everyone else immediately declared their love. Eric, who still has not recovered from the tofu, was the first to ask for seconds. I had saved half for the grownups, incase it didn't go over well. We got one small section. My students inhaled all that was put in front of them and asked for more. They tried biting it like an apple. Eating the seeds one by one. Spitting the seeds. Swallowing the seeds. Popping the seeds with your tongue. Biting down on one seed. Biting down on a lot of seeds. They tried it all, working on coordination and those oral muscles, without every knowing. All this from 'a special treat'. Now they ask “for the spitting fruit”. And dulce de leche. And sushi. Just wait ‘till they tried vegemite next!

First the McD's down the street closes, now Uno's and blockbuster? Could it really be the end of the chain gang's take over of Conn. Ave? Edited to add: Yes, CT is a chain, but a local one with still good intentions, so in my book it doesn't count!

After a few drinks with the mango vodka (my favorite) my friend and I started harassing the bartender about the same thing. And why are there only a few matchboxed in each table. I expected a lot more. Heck, I've got more in my little apartment if they need them!

The best parsnips I have ever had were at a restaurant here in DC. They were sliced lengthwise and fried in evoo. A little bit of salt, a little bit of chopped fresh parsley. yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmm