In no particular order, allow me to disgorge some thoughts and links:

- Pre-made pesto from Costco is kind of my personal lazy-dinner lifesaver. Add more garlic, add some heavy cream, pour it over chicken, put in some lemon and spoon it over some fish…whatever! All is within the realm of possibility! I’M LAZY ADDICTED.

- I love bakeries and baking, and I could never do a diet that didn’t let me eat a ton of bread. Appalling idea. Take all the fun out of life along with the fat from your thighs. Near my new place, I have Buzz (which I haven’t tried yet but fully intend to), and the Shirlington outpost of CakeLove, which I visited the other day before seeing Juno. More pricey than I remembered, but if you’re in the area, grabbing a Crunchy Feet ain’t so bad as you walk. I know there’s a Great Harvest somewhere, but unfortunately haven’t had much of a chance to find it, and oh man, a Krispy Kreme naught but four miles down Route 1.

- In baking news, I have been making mad amounts of banana bread, since an entire hand doesn’t seem to get consumed before the last three or so get irrevocably brown. Not banana NUT bread, mind you – nuts feel like a dilution of the pure banana derriciousness.

Quick and dirty recipe:

- 4 redonkulously ripe bananas (what can brown do for you? ::snerk)

- 1.5 c. flour (I usually do half wheat, half white. No idea why. I think my brain thinks it’s vaguely “healthy.” No science backing that one up what-so-ever.)

- 8 tsp. butter (one stick…butterstick…PANDA!)

- 1 c. sugar

- 1 tsp. baking soda

- 1 tsp. baking power

- 2 eggs

- pinch of salt

- cinnamon to taste if so desired

Bake at 350 degrees for 55 minutes for a loaf, 10-13 minutes for mini muffins, and like…25-30 for normal human-sized muffins. Or until a toothpick, knife, letter opener, some variety of pointy thing comes out clean.

- On the DC Restaurant list, I hit TenPenh (on 10th and Pennsylvannia Ave…GET IT??? ha.) and Southside 815 in Alexandria on S. Washington Street recently. TenPenh was actually pretty good, despite the inconsistency of reviews on ChowHound. I had the Lumpia, the Beef Tenderloin, and the Saigon pumpkin bread for dessert. We can’t forget the Mangolian Mist martini, either – derricious! And during Restaurant Week, it’s a pretty decent deal at $30 for three courses.

On the other hand, I wasn’t particularly impressed by Southside 815. Solid, but not impressive. I prefer Old Hickory Grille on Route 50 by FAR for my comfortable, Southernish-cookin’ fix. On Fridays and Saturdays, Hickory’s crawfish bisque is fucking amazing. For serious. As in, I have a semi-regular appointment with this restaurant for cornbread knots and bisque. Oh man. Have I mentioned this place before?

- On the eco-fooding front, I’ve been giving serious consideration to joining a CSA (community-supported agriculture). I’m not ever going to be giving up meat, cheese, or milk, so I’ve been thinking about what I can do to make my eating habits more earth-friendly and healthy within my parameters. This is one strategy I’m considering – adding more local and seasonal:

Basically, you sign up for a share of what an area farm produces, and you can either pick it up at a drop-off point nearby, or have it delivered. Generally, the share lasts through the growing season, approximately 22 weeks from May-ish to October-ish, and you get whatever’s growing on that particular farm at that particular time. It runs around $20-30 a week for a share big enough for two people who cook at home most of the week. Sites like Future Harvest and LocalHarvest can help you find a farm. There are also meat, milk, egg, fruit, and winter veggie shares available. There are general caveats though; this isn’t really for the unadventurous eater, as there aren’t really guaranteed lists for what you’ll get every week. You have to be willing to experiment.

- And finally, a request: If you’ve had any experience with Anson Mills, TELL ME ALL ABOUT IT. I’m about to buy some, but I want more details about the baking/cooking process than the (pretty gorgeous) website supplies.

There, I’ve probably overwhelmed you with my scatterbrained-ness, so I’ll save some for next time.

When the parents come to town, my dining options improve greatly. The usual omelets and toast get replaced by Vermillion!

Mom loves Old Town Alexandria, so after much parking ado, we headed into Vermillion, a place which had been recommended to me. The downstairs is specifically a lounge, with dark crimson couches and a lovely bar. I mentally noted to come back when Alexandria institutes its smoking ban.

We were led to the upstairs restaurant and seated at a lovely table at the window. Decor note: perfectly romantic place. The ceiling was black with red drapes hanging from it, walls covered with wine, but the “art” was the coolest part. The walls were rustic brick with gold frames on it – and each of frames was lit with a spotlight so that the light itself was framed. Brilliant!

Anyway, food. Vermillion, as the swanky lounge downstairs suggested, has a stellar bar menu. Mom had a Pomolitan (cosmo with pomegranate juice) and I had an Old Town lemonade (citrus vodka, mint, lemons, soda & sugar). Both drinks were very refreshing without being too sweet. We then shared some latkes & cured salmon, which came with a spoonful of sweet homemade apple butter and some creamy horseradish sauce.

Next came a light spinach salad with some tangy goat cheese & a blood-orange vinaigrette. The goat cheese wasn’t crumbled as is normally the case with salads, but instead smeared on the side of the plate. I really enjoyed this difference in presentation – but mainly because it was high quality Pipe Dreams goat cheese, and not some boring chevre that doesn’t add much to a salad.

For my entree, I went with the rib rack of pork, which came with cider-braised kale and pear & currant strudel. I don’t think I have ever knowingly consumed kale, but there was bacon involved in its cooking, so I had to go for it, and was not disappointed. The strudel came in thin little tubes – think Pirouette cookies – that accompanied the pork. They were very good, but I would have preferred my strudel bigger and softer that the flavors could mingle with the pork a bit more.

As we decided to split a poached pear for dessert, two glasses of port appeared on the table, courtesy of the gentlemen & his wife dining adjacent to us. They had been doing a tasting menu, it seemed, and the chef came out multiple times to talk to them, and even brought them a signed menu at the end. Apparently Mom & I seemed posh enough in our culinary enjoyment and witty repartee to deserve some port at the end of the meal. We talked to the couple for awhile about the DC dining scene and port in general (Mom used to have it frequently when she lived in Chile).

After the generous couple had left, my mom turned to me and said, “That’s the first time that’s ever happened to me!” and I agreed (excepting skeezy dudes at bars, which don’t count). Anyone else ever had a fellow diner treat you to a drink or something else for pure culinary enjoyment?

Technorati Tags: DC, Food, Dining

(Or so Bob Boilen says)

Farrah Olivia, however, will.

We managed to sneak an 8:15 Restaurant Week dinner reservation at this brand new Alexandria restaurant. Farrah is a tiny place with simple decor – one wall is eggplant-colored with sage green trees painted on it, the other two walls are full-length windows which you can gaze at the loveliness of the fast food joint across the street.

I’ll start off with my few complaints- the dining tables were very small and close together. The menu for restaurant week was confusing, as a few of the items said “additional $8″, as opposed to a normal RW menu that clearly list the choices for the three courses. There was no dessert course listed on the main menu, but there was a cheese course. We had a moment of worry that cheese would be replacing dessert for RW, but thankfully dessert was included, they just brought out the menu later. Phew.

Our first surprise was the bread – one slice of raisin walnut and of sourdough for each of us. None of this “and one extra for the table” crap that you so often get, and then it comes to fisticuffs over that last piece of bread. With said bread came a palette of spread choices: pumpkin butter, refried tomato spread, black pepper honey butter, and bok choy spread. The pumpkin was like pumpkin pie filling, only fresher and not as sickeningly sweet, the refried tomato was delicious, but nothing different than a sun-dried tomato spread would be. The bok choy spread was a little chalky, but not too bad. My favorite was the honey butter though – in tasting it, you first tasted the rich creamy butter with a hint of sweetness, and then the KICK of pepper and honey hit you at the end.

The second surprise was an amuse bouche! We each got a smidgen of angel hair pasta with lobster, white truffle oil and a perfect schmear of beet juice. The truffle oil gave it that amazing umami thing that truffles do, and it was the perfect appetite-whetter for what was to come.

My starter was described as a Parmesan cream with cinnamon scent. Usually, cheese soup grosses me out a bit, but I was too intrigued to pass it up. It was absolutely life-changing. First – it was served in an elegant bowl shaped like the hurricane symbol (I do love me some swanky presentation). The soup was rich and flavorful, yet light, almost as if egg whites had been folded into it, and the cinnamon swirl did a perfect job of cutting the richness of the cheese.

For my entree, I had anise-rubbed salmon served with yucca “couscous.” As much as licorice isn’t my favorite flavor, the amount of anise on the salmon was perfect – just enough spice to liven things up, but not sickening. The fish itself was tender, not overdone, and CREAMY. According to Washingtonian, this creaminess is courtesy of the salmon being cooked in caul fat, a technique renowned for increasing the juiciness of meat. And the faux couscous was an excellent complement to the luscious salmon – crunchy because of the yucca and nicely paired with some minced tomatoes.

For dessert, I opted for the “Spice”: a wild fig & cassis cake with maple caviar. It looked a lot like tiramisu in presentation, which only increased my love for the dish. The cake was very thin, covered with at least an inch of mascarpone, and served with a teeny dish of mustard ice cream on the side. All of the flavors complemented each other wonderfully – even the mustard, which I normally dislike!

To be fair, I really love the North African/Mediterranean cooking style that Chef Morou Outtara favors. But this meal was….absolutely incredible. F’amazing, even. Sadly, Farrah Olivia is classified as a FIVE dollar sign restaurant…so I may not be back for awhile. But if any of you find a bajillion dollar bill on the street, you should go there IMMEDIATELY. If it doesn’t change your life, I’ll make you cupcakes.

Technorati Tags: Restaurant Week, Life-Changing Meals

If you’ve been living on the East coast, you’ve probably been sweating profusely or haven’t left your apartment in the past week. The only remedy for such heat, besides more cowbell, is ice cream.

I’m kind of an ice cream snob, as I used to work at Graeter’s, which has been named by USA Today and Oprah as the nation’s best ice cream. (Yeah, that’s right. And I was employee of the month – twice. Booyah.) For those non-purists that like to mix fourteen different kinds of candy into their vanilla bean…I scoff at you. Cold Stone just doesn’t cut it when compared to hand-churned ice cream with chocolate chips the size of your face. So let’s just say I have high standards when it comes to sweet things of the frozen variety, mmkay?

Tuesday, my roommate and I headed to the Dairy Godmother, a frozen custard shop in Del Ray. I had heard good things about the place from friends and food critics alike. Custard is a little bit different than ice cream – basically, it has more egg and less air. Somehow it’s healthier for you than regular ice cream too! Custard as health food – whodathunk? Flavorwise, they always have vanilla & chocolate, plus a daily flavor which changes….daily. Tuesday it was “Summer Pudding.” Also known as “We Wanted to be as Vague as Possible.” It ended up being a mildly berry-flavored custard, pink with bits of (fresh!) berries scattered throughout. I went for a Summer Pudding hot fudge sundae, with slivered almonds, whipped cream and a cherry on top. I had forgotten how good hot fudge and ice cream are. *drools thinking about it* Phew, anyway…slivered almonds are not my favorite sundae nut – I’m more of a toasted walnut girl – but they got the job done.

Katie opted for a root beer float – perhaps because I went apoplectic when I saw the cases of Sprecher root beer (and cream soda, and orange soda, and ginger ale) lined up around the store. Once upon a time, my family and I went to Madison, Wisconsin and had some Sprecher root beer. Let’s just say…my life has never been the same since ingesting that flavorful, zingy root beer. We brought two cases of it home (to Ohio) with us because it was so good. I have since hoped to find Sprecher in some of the gourmet shops I frequent, but to no avail. Until now!! YAY!!! The Dairy Godmother herself is from Wisconsin, and I’m guessing she realized that she had to spread the Sprecher glory to DC in order to produce a truly awesome root beer float. And awesome it was.

In addition, you all should check out Cookthink – thanks to metrocurean for the link – very cool foodie blog focusing on “unrefined” cooking and eating. Their manifesto makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Thanks to Flickr user mzn37 for the picture of deliciousness. Looking for food pictures is extremely hard work, as it makes you very hungry. (Look, Skip – I can use Flickr too!!)

Technorati Tags: Food, Ice Cream