monavano

Rigatoni and meatballs. I used 80% lean ground beef, fresh bread crumbs, grated parmesan, fresh parsley, milk, water and spices. They were gently combined and first baked in a 350 degree oven, then braised in marinara on the stove top. Turned out very tender and best of all, there are lots of meatballs leftover!

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? ← I don't remember seeing that. Scrapple and ketchup, perfect.

Great summation of my feelings too. "Factor in the the copious fat and bone and the actual pork ends up costing about what you'd pay for a dry-aged strip steak and, for left-thinking skeptics like myself that draws all the questions about whether saving the world and the family farm through "ethical family farming and raising pasture-fed animals" is really just a hobby for the rich and the true believers and an excuse to feel a little smug regarding the unenlightened who -- merely because they are feeding families on limited means -- are eating those inferior and possibly immoral pork chops the Safeway sells." My freezer contains meats from Costco, Harris Teeter, Safeway and EFF etc. It is indeed a treat to eat the products we pay a premium for. I feel fortunate that I can access them at will (but not all the time).

I need to get back to Union Meats for a nice hangar, or maybe an onglet. Market Lunch looks promising. I wonder if they have any new additions to the menu.

The chef's strolling around..hmmm. Maybe to get a little note in the Dish column?? I did pick up one of the WF bags at Dupont a while ago. They were giving them out for free and I thought "Eh, what the heck". I kept it in my car until I lost it. They don't hold near enough anyway, especially during corn season No local markets for me this week. I'm vacationing in Cape May NJ and being a geek foodie, brought along a nice aged balsamico, garden basil and evoo (along with other staples) in anticipation of making a caprese salad with Jersey tomatoes. Delish and much better the field tomatoes I got last week at Del Ray. I'm not sure there is even such a variety of tomato as "Jersey", it's just what we called them growing up. Also from the roadside stand: white corn, nectarines and huge peeled pole beans.

I'm looking forward to the two of you blogging. I think we'll all get quite an education about New York, especially the area you live. Phaelon, I'm really looking forward to your Polish meal. Are there other big Polish communities outside of Buffalo? I grew up in Philly were there is one, and now no longer live there. I sometimes order pierogies from www.buffalofoods.com, because they carry Nowinski's brand.

What Malawry said . I bought it in the refrigerated section, all psyched to get it home and put it on some rye with sauerkraut, swiss and Russian dressing. Thick, chewy, fatty. Yuck. Oh, and too salty too. It does look awfully good on the billboard though. I find the hotdogs, on the other hand, are as advertised!

Great work Katie. Spritzing the oven just before baking bread, then a couple times over the next 5-7 minutes once the bread is in, is a technique I've used for bread. Works great in making a nice crust. I would think it beneficial to the pre-bake pizza dough and would be worthwile to try.

I tried this recipe yesterday and it didn't work out for me. The flavour and texture are great but they are flat as pancakes with the chocolate chips sticking out. I weighed everything so it was accurate. As I was making them I wondered if there was too much backing powder and baking soda in them. Would this make the difference? I couldn't taste them in the finished product. ← I posted my cookies upthread, and the link to the recipe. I baked the cookies in 2 sheet pan batchs. For my first batch, I lined one pan with a silpat, and the other with parchment paper (only have one silpat). I noted that the silpat cookies were spread thin and did not have the rise and texture of the cookies baked on parchment paper. I switched to parchment for both pans after that. My sense is that in my case, the silpat cookies encounters a far lower coefficient of friciton, leading the them spreading more that the cookies on paper. The parchment was able to be reused until I was done baking. Hope this helps.

Perhap you could give them a rinse and pat dry before using them in stock. When I'm in the mood, I give my chicken soup a shot of sriracha. It gives a bit of heat and different dimension to the taste.

I love the cheese too! What about shredding the cheese instead of slicing it. It might give you more control over your cheese to crust ratio. ← Great idea. I think I'll pop the mozzerella in the freezer for 10 min to firm it up to shred it. I'm going to make another pizza, probably next week (a little vacation first!), and put these suggestion to the test and report back with the results and some pics.

Half of last night's order of a large hot and sour soup. And how did I miss Prawncracker's french toast with strawberries? That looks amazing!

Definitely have a meal at the French Hound in Middleburg. It's a cozy bistro with very good food. Also get some homemade marshmallows and other yummy treats at Mello Out. Market Salamander is great. Not cheap but the food is delicious. The barbecue sandwich is a winner. If it's not too hot eat your lunch on the patio. The 1763 Inn in Upperville is supposed to be very nice but we haven't made it there yet. They specialize in German food. A few miles further west on 50 is the Ashby Inn in the little town of Paris VA. Definitely worth looking into as well. One more spot that is over near the IALW is the Thornton River Grille in Sperryville. We enjoyed a very nice lunch there last summer and plan to return this summer -- with young twins we don't get out too often Enjoy your stay in our beautiful area! ← I couldn't agree more about the bbq sandwich at Market Salamander. We went recently and I had the pulled pork sandwich and it was a keeper. I think the eat in food is quite reasonable, at least on par or slightly less than a lunch in DC. The gourmet goods are pricey, such as the oils and vinegars (spotted an asparagus vinegar which piqued my interest, but I passed when I saw the $38 price tag ). The chefs and staff were very friendly and the space inside and out is beautiful! Full report here.

Brushing with olive oil seems like a great idea. As you can see, the pizza was pretty nice, but if you look at the bottom pic, at the slice, you can see where the dough on top got a bit, well, soggy. That's the target problem for me. I *wish my oven went higher, but then again I'd probably burn down the house! This has been incredibly helpful and I'm thankful for everyone's insight.

Stick a fork in Howie. He's done. He just ran out of steam and it's understandable since he doesn't have the constitution or talent to win. I think between his checking out mentally and his awful duxelle, he knew he was toast. Eh, Mia did it last season. She absolutely melted down and offered to leave. She was emotionally spent. And Hung's quick fire plate looked like Walt Disney threw up on it! Finally, I'm glad to see the girls kicking butt! I hope to see both in the finals.

Yes, it does. Thanks for your input. I believe my oven goes up to 550 degrees so I'll crank it up next time.

20 minutes! You put Rachael Ray to shame! Looks delicious. And thanks judiu. The bright sunlight really helped to make that photo pop.

Putting the topping on the very last second is a great tip. I think I need to work a bit quicker when making pizza.

It was pretty tasty I think because I used Marcella Hazan's very simple tomato sauce recipe. Two things so far. I didn't heat the pizza stone long enough, it was only about half an hour tops. And maybe there was too much cheese (although I luv cheese!).

I made a margherita pizza the other night using dough from and Italian deli. It's very good. My problem was that the top came out a bit gummy, while the bottom was browned and fairly crisp. I used my tomato sauce sparingly and layered basil and fresh mozzerella on top. Cooked on a hot pizza stone at 450 degrees. It was tasty, but I really wanted that crust to be crisper. Do you pre-cook the crust? Any suggestions? Thanks! Before: After:

Nectarine, sour cherry and blueberry cobbler (a la mode)

I thought Molto Mario (one of my all time faves) hadn't been making new shows for a couple years now. I also wonder why he continued to do so many IC's. He certainly doesn't need the exposure. Does anyone know if they pay the chefs to appear on IC? I hope he does more cooking shows in the future.

Country Captain Chicken ( a curry) Nectarine, sour cherry and blueberry cobber

Is that ketchup on the mac and cheese? I'm a huge fan of it! I get sideways glances at times, but it doesn't deter me in the least. I love the glass fish plate too!It reminds me of my mom's glass shrimp cocktail plates. They were oval and had a little place to put the glass cup of cocktail sauce. Gawd, I loved when I saw them comming out for dinner. How fun...

Everyone's food looks amazing. Wattacetti, beautiful plating! It really inspires me to get some different serving pieces so I can plate "out of the box", if you will. Last night's dinner was Margheritta pizza. The dough came from an Italian store but the basil was from the garden and the tomato sauce was made using Marcella Hazan's method (half an onion and butter )