We have a tradition in our house of making a huge batch of meat sauce in the fall and freezing it for use all year. The recipe is a combination of the recipes we grew up with, both of which have a tomato base. My mother’s recipe involves a combination of beef, pork, and lamb; along with garlic, bell peppers, onions, mushrooms, olives, red wine and Italian spice blend. My mother-in-law’s recipe is similar but uses only beef, no bell pepper or olives, no wine, and dried basil instead of Italian blend. I have merged these two recipes to form my own – I use a combination of beef, pork, and veal (which can be found in stores already mixed as “meatloaf mix”); yes on bell pepper and wine; no on mushrooms and black olives (Jasper doesn’t like them); and I use both dried basil and Italian seasoning blend.
My sauce is American style, tried and true, and best served on spaghetti with Parmesan. But this month when the hankering for pasta came on, I decided to try some new things and see what would happen. (more…)
I saw this recipe on the Food Network while getting my nails done and immediately wanted to make it. We didn’t have any plans for Halloween night, so I thought it would be the perfect opportunity. It turned out to be a pretty fortunate decision, because Jasper came up with the idea to invite some friends over to play a horror board game at the last minute (read 5PM Halloween night). I had already started making the chili and I knew it would be great for a crowd. Funny thing was, we hadn’t seen each other in so long that we wound up talking all night and never getting to the board game! (more…)
My friend Keerin, who is a vegan, recently sent me a list from the Washington Post of the best restaurants for vegans and vegetarians in the area. She challenged me to try them out with her, and we hope to get through the whole list at some point.
Surprisingly, my favorite pizza place was on the list – Pizzeria Paradiso! They celebrated their 20th anniversary last week and were offering special deals, including all-you-can-eat pizza and beer for $20! We hopped at the chance and met up at the Dupont Circle location. We found out that while the AYCE pizza part was true, they were only including two $6 draft beers in the deal – which is only half of their draft list, and half of those they were out of. So we only had 3 or four beers to choose from, but they were also having a happy hour with 1/2 price drafts so we were fine.
Last weekend I attended the Metro Cooking & Entertaining Show at the convention center, and I took the opportunity to try a few restaurants in the area. One of those was Kushi Izakaya and Sushi, a restaurant I have been dying to try ever since I read that the sushi was on par with Taro. Kushi is also an Izakaya, which is kind of like the Japanese version of a pub or tavern, and features a robata (wood) grill and a charcoal grill. We definitely wanted to try some of the grilled items, but decided to focus overall on the sushi so we sat at the sushi counter (versus the robata counter or a table).
This past weekend the Metro Cooking & Entertaining show was here in DC, and I was definitely not going to miss it! There were presentations and book signings by Paula Deen, Giada De Laurentiis, Guy Fieri, and Jacques Pepin. There were also events and demos by TV stars like Mike Isabella and Mary Beth Albright; local chefs (and James Beard winners) like Michel Richard (Citronelle), Scott Drewno (The Source by Wolfgang Puck), Peter Smith (PS 7’s), Bertrand Chemel (2941), Vikram Sunderam (Rasika), and Jeffrey Buben (Bistro Bis); and hundreds of vendor booths.
I tasted tons of olive oils, vinegars, dips, baked goods, pastas, and cheeses. But the real draw for me was the celebrity presentations.
Last fall, my friend Melissa brought my attention to a butternut squash galette recipe on Smitten Kitchen. I didn’t get around to making it and sorely regretted it all year. So this year I determined to make it as soon as it started to get chilly out. Boy, am I glad I did! A sweet and creamy filling wrapped up in a flaky, buttery crust – there is nothing better.
One of the many things that I love about my neighborhood favorite, Chef Geoff’s Tysons, is that the menu changes seasonally. The Fall menu that is being featured right now is pretty fantastic. Some of the standouts are:
The duck confit appetizer – a nice big piece of duck on the bone, served over spatzle in a whole grain mustard cream sauce. The meat can be a bit difficult to cut off the bone, so just pick that sucker up and gnaw on it rib style. The spatzle is perfect – light with no hint of gumminess – and the mustard sauce is nicely balanced.
The apple and butternut squash bisque – this is your classic fall soup combo, with some unique garnishes in the form of ginger crème fraiche and crispy, fried, sweet, and a little spicy lotus chips.
The duck confit pizza – with roasted pears, blue cheese, and balsamic caramelized onions. It’s a great balance of sweet and salty, and they are not fooling around with the confit – there is a TON piled on there. This is definitely a two-person pizza.
The pear and gorgonzola agnolotti – with Swiss chard, in an Amaretto butter sauce, topped with amaretti (Amaretto cookie) crumbles. I am crushing on this dish in a major way – I long for it. The agnolotti are fantastic, of course, but I want to talk about the chard – drenched in that sweet butter sauce with chunks of pear and the crunch of the amaretti cookies. Oh my goodness, I have honestly never had better tasting Swiss chard. I want to develop a recipe for this sauce just so that I can use it with chard.
There a few great looking dishes that I haven’t had the chance to try yet: a burger topped with barbequed short ribs, Havarti, and green tomato; a butternut squash risotto with Taleggio; a rabbit bolognese with black pepper pappardelle, fennel, and grana padano. I will update this post after I have eaten more of the Fall dishes!
And let’s not forget the drink menu – CG’s is always coming up with great new cocktails. The Fall standout is the Saint Rosemary Sour, combining my favorite liquors – Pisco and St. Germain – with fresh lime juice, egg white, house made citrus syrup, and rosemary tincture, and topping it off with bitters and a rosemary sprig. Absolutely fantastic.
Fall is upon us at last! This is my favorite time of the year – cool, crisp winds on cloudless days; scarves and boots; and let’s not forget the food! Fall is the time of warm-you-up stews, pumpkins and squash, tarts and pies.
I was browsing through blogs and found a series of recipes on Alexandra’s Kitchen involving homemade ricotta cheese that looked perfect for the end of summer. The recipes all looked really great but I questioned whether or not making ricotta versus buying it would make that much of a difference. I decided to go ahead and try it since it didn’t look all that difficult.
All you have to do is boil milk and cream, and add vinegar to curdle the milk.
I just created a Tumblr page for the blog – http://welldined.tumblr.com/ I’m not quite sure what it’s purpose will serve yet, but I will figure something out.
