PatDC

A Greek mezze restaurant near me sends its pita out with a trio of olive oil, olives, and harissa. The harissa makes a nice spicy accompaniment.

Pots.

That's probably because sugary food doesn't go as well with beer as savory, salt- and fat-laden food. My guess, anyway .I'm making chili, chiles rellenos, pigs in blankets, and cole slaw. I have some onion soup dip for potato chips too.

Depending on how you choose your courses (and whether you include wine and/or dessert), both Cafe du Parc (at the Willard) and Central (at 11th and PA) should meet your needs. Ditto for Ten Penh (10th and PA) if you want Asian fusion.

I'll add to the chorus of Corduroys.

Well, if another storm knocks out our satellite, I won't be too miserable about not being able to see the show tonight .

I just turned on the marathon airing of all of the episodes, already in-progress. It was right near the end of the Martha episode. I was struck by who was safe from that episode. (I don't recall which number it is.) Adam was safe because of his potato cheese fries. Lisa was safe because the food editors liked her packaged food product concept (the marmalade). Aaron was safe because Martha liked him most. This is probably apropos of nothing, but it struck me for some reason. Adam made a basic comfort food dish well. Lisa knows how to conceptualize, package, and market. Aaron is likable.

This sounds like a club sandwich. Could you add a club sandwich section to your menu for the heartier eaters? Charge $1.50 more and include potato salad or whatever extra you settle on. That way, the lighter eaters would still be able to get their smaller portions.

There are videos of the contestants' appearances on the RR show on the RR website, and they are different edits than the ones used by Food TV. It provides an interesting comparison. Shane, for example, is more charming and funny in the RR version and calls his Brownie by name...twice. (One of the judge's criticisms was that he didn't know the girl's name.) NFNS on RR video links

The judges surprised me tonight. And taking them to Las Vegas seems stupid.

What on earth was she thinking banging the neck of a glass jar against the edge of a counter, right in front of a cooking surface, no less?

I was looking at the judges' blogs on the food tv site, and in Susie's video blog for week 4, she answers a viewer questions about the shoes and the blouse. She says that the high heeled shoes are dangerous and then goes on pretty much to dimiss any problem with the attire by saying that Lisa looks "hot," and she's always interested to see what Lisa will be wearing. Her conclusion on the shoes is that Lisa will have back problems later in life .

Why is that a bad thing? Martha Stewart has done sloppy joes on her show, so she must like them (or at least not think it's a bad thing to make them). ← I'm saying that based on Kelsey's reaction. Kelsey seemed horrified by what she had made when she realized who the special guest was. (I'm not sure how much of that was editing, but it sounded like she knew Martha wouldn't like it from the moment she walked in. She said something about wanting to fall through the floor.) Then Martha made the comment to the judges about how it's not the kind of food she typically eats.Personally, I like sloppy joes and thought the one purpose sauce product was a pretty good gimmick. I probably wouldn't buy it, but I think it could be marketed pretty effectively.

Jeffrey got eliminated.

I thought that was a pretty weak comment on Martha's part (didn't she look thrilled to be there) - Montreal Steak Seasoning doesn't have any beef in it. ← It may have also been that the name of the product was confusing. It seemed like a strange product to be marketing, or an overly specialized one. Calling it spice mix for nuts would have been a lot clearer. If I hadn't watched her make it, I would probably have wondered what peanut seasoning was too. Martha didn't look too happy but added some gravitas to the proceedings. Poor Kelsey, serving Sloppy Joes to Martha Stewart .

Nipa is annoying me to all end. I had to laugh last night at the karmic payback after she cleaned out the grocery shelf of all the cayenne pepper to make her special sugar-cayenne spice mix to put on peanuts. Aaron came along and really needed cayenne to make his salad dressing and there was absolutely no cayenne on the shelves. He had to settle for some kind of jalapeno preparation instead and was worried about how it would wreck his salad dressing. Then she fell flat on her face with the spice mixture, and Aaron killed with his salad dressing . The apple cider salad dressing was Martha Stewart's favorite product. (Was it Martha who pointed out that it was misleading for Nipa to have "peanut" in the name of the product when there was no peanut in it?) Despite having disliked Lisa at first, I find myself increasingly liking her. I especially liked the way she offered the lamb to Nipa the previous week so she could do her Indian thing with it.

That's Tortilla Cafe. Accomodating 75 kids at one time anywhere is going to be challenging, but splitting them up would pose its own challenges.

I have not eaten here but have wanted to, as other people have raved about it. They deliver to the zip code for your hotel:http://www.cafepizzaiolo.com/index.html Yes, that is the closest metro stop. I cannot offhand think of cheap places to eat near there for a group. There's a TGIFridays, but that's probably not what you're looking for.It's possible to walk to the Kennedy Center from there. It's not terribly far, but it would be a challenging hike for that many people. While you're hiking them around, is this too expensive? http://www.oldglorybbq.com/menu/default.aspx It's in Georgetown. I don't know where you're coming from to go to the Kennedy Center, but if Georgetown fits ahead of time, that would be one idea.

My grandmother was famous for forgetting the rolls. We'd be halfway through Sunday dinner when she remembered them. Sometimes she forgot other things, but it was usually the rolls. It was a longstanding family joke, invoked whenever anyone else in the family would make a meal and forget something .I generally don't forget major components of the meal, but in the rush of cooking several dishes at once, I'll forget to add ingredients that go in near the end.

Too bad that I read this as being written today and not yesterday . I'll leave my comments, though, in the event anyone else might have a similar question in the future.Right by your hotel, you might try My Brother's Place. It's at about 2nd and D, NW, just off Constitution, down an alley/street that doesn't look like much from the street. It's dark and divey (in a party in someone's parents' basement kind of way), and I've long been partial to it when I'm in that area. It's standard bar food but not bad for the kind of place it is. If you don't mind a bit of a walk (maybe 20 minutes or so from where you are), there are a number of bars along the strip of PA Ave., SE, east of the Capitol, that you could try. I'd imagine Capitol Lounge, Pour House, and Hawk 'n' Dove would be likely candidates to have your game on tv. Food would be a different matter. If you're in that several block strip and want to grab a nice dinner, I'd recommend Sonoma (a few doors up from Cap Lounge). They open at 5:30PM.

I love scrapple with ketchup. I don't normally put ketchup on eggs, but I don't mind it either. I quite liked that sandwich. I don't think I've had scrapple in a sandwich before. It works .The line at Market Lunch this morning is rather substantial. Looks like old times. The outside produce, etc., vendors don't seem to be getting very much business with the market open across the street. The farmers line outside the closed market was sparsely populated this morning and has been the times I've been there since the reopening.

Market Lunch opened today and I got breakfast there. Well, I got it as takeout: a scrapple-egg-and cheese sandwich that was really good. I put some ketchup on it when I got it home.The menu looks different to me, but I had pretty much given up on trying to read the old one. Usually all I got was eggs and potatoes. Oddly enough (and maybe it's just my perception), while some of the old "ambiance" was gone, I thought the food was actually better. That could just be a totally subjective bias. I'll wait to see what others say. Did they have NC BBQ on the old menu?

You're right. I guess your perpendicular is best, but there really doesn't seem to be an easy term to cover the configuration.

I would think catty-cornered would convey that information in English, or just to say on a diagonal.

I feel rather silly since I was there last night and asked what that was, and I don't recall. My best guess is sea bream, because I think that was one of the answers, and that looks like the most likely option.We had the regular tasting menu ($78), and the menu they have up on the web site right now looks like the one we had. My husband had the pappardelle with goat ragu and the bavette (which I loved the bits of I got). I had the corn ravioli with summer truffle and langoustine and then the pig confit, which came three ways. The langoustine meat was wonderfully sweet. The mezzes are an incredible start to the meal, including the hot dates stuffed with mascarpone and Greek yogurt, drizzled with a bit of olive oil and sprinkled with a pinch of sea salt. (I still haven't managed to recreate this successfully at home. I used too much salt the last time.) The small dishes go from tiny to larger bites as the course goes on. (I think we got 8 of them.) One thing that struck me was the logic behind their sequencing. We got buttered breakfast radish topped with fish roe (don't recall the type of fish), and the next mezze was hammerjack with chives and sea salt. The radish had the crunch up front (in contrast with the texture of roe) but a lasting peppery finish. When the hammerjack came out it had the complementary flavor of salt to the lingering taste of pepper, and the continuity of the seafood. The dessert I got (coconut panna cotta with apricot) was the one course where I wasn't sure how all of the pieces were supposed to fit together. Later it occurred to me that I was supposed to alternate bites of the panna cotta with the apricot (which seemed to be apricot turned into sorbet or gelato and served in the form of an apricot), which would have given a different effect. The rest of the flavors and textures in the dessert didn't really seem to fit together as smoothly as everything else had throughout the meal (my best recollection is basil and something crunchy--it was late ) My husband loved his flourless chocolate cake with olive oil gelato. ETA: Other people posted while I was writing, so it seems that item is whole roasted sea bream.