redglass

I got my first 12 pack of the stuff (at Target in Reston, VA) this past weekend. Put me in the "love it" column- tastes almost like the real thing! It didn't seem as fizzy as regular formula Diet Coke, though. I hope they keep the flavor. If it comes in caffeine-free, I may become a dietcokewithsplendaholic.

PLEASE do not clear my dining partner's entree while I am still eating. Don't even ask. Don't even think about it. Rude Rude Rude. 7- Waiters - Poor students I will be diplomatic in assuming that this is referring to young, inexperienced waitstaff and that not showing a prejudice against the poor or students?

I'm in VA, but I'm betting that they have their curried wheatberry salad in the deli section out in Seattle too. Yummo. I also grab the mini baguettes in the bakery- I rarely use a whole baguette before it gets stale, so the smaller size works for me. The Bell & Evans chicken they carry (on the East coast at least) is the sooo much better than your regular grocery store chicken and at about $1 more/lb, very worth it.

Haven't done happy hour there in a while, but last time I did they had all the dishes on their menu and for $2 it was pretty good, IMHO. They had the $2 cheeseburger, oyster shooters, caesar salads, etc. They keep their drink prices at their normal level- no jacking up to compensate for the lower food prices. With two $4 beers, a burger and tip, you can get out of there for under $15. Not bad for dinner in downtown DC.

BAKING THE PIES: I baked my pies at 550f (in theory at least, we need a new oven thermometer so I couldn't verify) for about 8 minutes. My crust had decent crispy chewy texture, but no real browning! I had to stop at 8 minutes because otherwise the toppings would have been overcooked. In fact on one I deliberately went longer, and the mozzarella got a nasty grainy texture I really didn't like, but even then no significant browning on the bottom of the crust. Is this that my stone is a thin pottery toy instead of real stone? Hi folks, coming into this one a bit late, but as I just made a homemade margerhita pizza myself last night... I've been on a personal pizza challenge for a while now. I don't own a pizza stone, a great oven or a kitchen aid with a dough hook and space/budget concerns will keep it that way for a while. But it hasn't stopped me on my quest! Anyway, as for the underdone crust/overdone toppings: I cook the crust by itself for a few minutes (with my 1970's oven, about 5 minutes at 475), or until the crust is firm enough to take out by itself without being floppy. I take it out remove it from the pizza pan, add the toppings and pop it back in (without the pan) directly on the oven rack and cook it until the cheese is nicely melted. For me this has yielded a crispy/chewy browned crust without burned toppings. I used deborah madison's pizza dough recipe in Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone- I found it to be easy to work with with a great taste and it baked to a wonderful golden color. I liked the results so much that I thought, "damn, too bad I don't have my camera with me. I could post this on egullet."

Is there still the Anita's in Vienna, near the Westwood Country Club?

Cream of mushroom, chicken, celery soups- as substitutions for cream sauces in casseroles, etc. are the devil. Also- applesauce as a sub for butter in baking.

I would venture a guess that people that love the Cheesecake Factory wouldn't know what the RAMMYs are. Well, at least I hope they don't.

I attempted to grow herbs from seeds last year and it was a dismal disappointment- mostly due to my non-green thumb status. So, I actually did some research this time around and can pass a few tips on: --most herbs will grow very well in pots; however, most need full sun. If you have a sunny window sill, you can grow herbs. www.burpee.com, a seed company, gives descriptions of what herbs grow best under certain conditions. --After herb-growing disaster last year, I broke down and bought plants from a nursery. I got over the guilt that they were "ready made" pretty quickly. I bought basil, rosemary and parsely. I wish I could have a complete fresh herb garden, but alas, limited sunshine and room constaints prevent that from happening. --The herbs you grow in your house will probably be in better condition than those you buy at the store b/c they've been lovingly cared for by you and only have to travel as from their pot to your plate. Just follow the growing instructions and you'll be fine. (With cilantro, my mom always picked the flowers off so it wouldn't go to seed. Although I admit I have no idea why that's bad. )

I love the little Weisswürste served at breakfast (I had them in Landshut, in Bavaria). Knödel are a great way to get your daily starch allowance. In Augsburg they make a dish that is basically fried dough- like spätzle, but larger. Forgive me, it's been 10 years since I've had them so the German name of the dish escapes me. But they sure were good The women of the families I stayed with when I was there both had a wonderful knack for making fruit desserts that weren't too sweet. Just the essence of fruit and pastry. MMMMM.. When I was in Trier I would get Doner Kebabs at least once a week from a place run by a Turkish family. Pure heaven and a nice break from all that pork- not to mention that I could make basically two meals out of it, which was very nice on a student budget. Thank you for letting me reminisce via this thread!

I second the pour yourself a glass and get cookin' as therapy. I will usually make things that require alot of prep- more elaborate stuff than a normal weeknight dinner. Favorites are homemade mac and cheese, chicken pot pie with homemade pastry, elaborate soups...basically anything that requires a good amount of chopping, steps and/or alot of fat and carbohydrates. Om.

My roommate has a habit of cooking curries at 6 am- the (often) overpowering scents from the spices can really hurt if you've got a hangover. That and he puts his greasy paws allover the spices. He has not yet learned that washing hands of raw chicken/turmeric/tomato juice BEFORE you turn on the stove/touch the white serving plates results in no trail of filth!! Don't get me started.

I'm guessing that if this is happening in NYC where consumers probably have one of the best selections of fish in the country, then the wild salmon we've all been eating is about as wild as my dog. I am glad that they did give the actual season for wild salmon (never bothered to actually find out). On that note, do other fishes have a "season"?

Sounds like a new skit for the Chappelle Show. Maybe he could do an R. Kelly song about it.

Does your wife/wife's mom/sister, etc. have problems/concerns/mania regarding with her weight? As I'm sure many women here can back me up on, one thing that I learned at an early age (from somewhere- not mom, she would take fat off my plate and eat it) was that "ladies who are cutting calories should remove all visible fat" from basically anything. Does it make huge sense if you choose an equally fatty item over the meat? Maybe not. But this could just be a reflex thing on your wife's part: fat I can see= BAD! Fat I can't see= well, maybe not so bad. I know that I wouldn't eat short ribs (the horror!) because if I'm going to eat 36g of fat worth of something, I want it to be bigger than 3 or 4 oz.

Sally Schneider's A New Way to Cook . Everytime I look in it for what to cook for dinner I realize that something as straightforward as a chicken dish requires some sort of exotic spice rub/marinade/infused oil that I'm supposed to have made 2 days ago. I just can't find a way to plan that far ahead.

Sorry, but this post seems SO written by a publicist...

Oh, boo hoo. What do you want? A call center?

Bacon burner, thank you for posting this (however long ago). I'm not a big carrot fan, but wanted to get rid of 2lbs. of carrots I had bought for another recipe. Anyway, I made this last night. This soup is PERFECT. I made it exactly as stated. YUM.

"I do not know what DC people have to gain from visiting the suburbs? Outside of visiting family, ethnic food, a few good restaurants (Ray's, Maestro) and some of the parks in the outer reaches of Fairfax and Montgomery what is there?" Seem like good enough reasons to me. Especially Ray's. I hope this thread isn't reduced to "where I live is better than where you live".

Yes, I suppose you could say that these four places are better options than Ruby Tuesday and TGI Friday's. Which do you want, though? Upscale chains? Or neighborhood places? Unfortunately, the presence of the former tends to squeeze out the latter. I'm having a hard time following why you're so "disappointed" here. Herndon and Vienna both have "old towns", - I grew up in Vienna and am not disparaging it, or Herndon- but I don't see why a restaurateur would necessarily choose them over any other suburb. Neither support the kind of foot traffic/tourism that you see in Old Town. And even if a local chef were to open a place there that was worth going to, there would be no guarantee of its success- take the now-closed St. Basil in Reston, for example. Great fried oysters, wonderful brick-oven pizzas. Place stayed empty most of the time, despite accolades from critics. I think upscale, local places in the outer suburbs are challenged in a few ways: Less population density/foot traffic to drop in on a whim, reluctance of foodies inside the beltway to go "out there", different demographics-more families with kids that will go to places they feel comfortable bringing their children to- and lastly, competition from chains.

That reminds me of a sandwich I used to make all the time in high school, stolen from my mom's gourmet magazine: an apple, bacon, bean sprouts and peanut butter sandwich. Outta this world. And guaranteed to gross out most teenagers.

I'm a lady, so I don't have as much jacket wearing experience as the men, but I think DCMark merely missed the point of the other poster's orginal question: where to get good, inventive food in a CASUAL atmosphere. We don't know if this guy hates to wear jackets, he just seems to want to not have to wear one in this particular instance. Different strokes, right? As for people being slobs all the time, that's another matter. If most people don't have to wear suits to work everyday (thank God!) or to church, why are they going to dress up to get something to eat?

Let the flogging begin...I went to Dulles Wegman's for the first time last weekend, and...what's the big deal? Ok, I'll start off with complements: I appreciated that the fish counter that specified how each fish was caught and its origin(wild, alaskan, etc). The meat department also had organic Virginia beef. Allright, so that whole area on the right when you first come in is pretty cool, I'll give you that. Would have been even better if the lines at the counters weren't 3 deep. But everything else just underwhelmed me. There was nothing there in the rest of the store worth travelling for. Produce was nice, but nothing that I can't get at Harris Teeter or the other markets close by. Ditto for ethnic foods- but I live very close to Latino/Asian neighborhoods so my stores carry a large selection of these items. The dinnerware/table linens section was novel, but if I want those things, Wegman's wouldn't be my place to buy them- seems like a section completely devoted to impulse buying. And it was just way too crowded. You'd think they were giving it away. Seemed that although this location has been open for a while, there were many "gawkers" that just kind of kept getting in the way (although I should probably put myself in that category too, to be fair). It's a nice store. But even if there was one close to me, I still would probably shop at Teeter and "El Gigante" over Wegman's unless I was looking for the organic beef or a nice piece of fish that I couldn't find elsewhere.

Ate lunch there again yesterday. The ginger chicken was much improved by the seranades of "How Deep is Your Love" and "More than a Woman". Nothing like some Saturday Night Fever to get you through hump day