Costco Finds

I was pushing my cart through Costco yesterday and I thought, "y'know, somebody should pay me to sample all the weird but good looking products that they have that I'm afraid to take a chance on."  The particular item in question was a dried bean mixture that came in a 12-gallon bag or somesuch.  I've been burned before, so I'm really really reluctant to try giant packages of new things without review.  So I thought I would review a couple items that were risks, because I hadn't tried them individually before and had to buy a giant package, but proved delicious.

Kirkland Organic Ancient Grains Granola - I bought this yesterday, because I look at it every time I go in, and haven't gotten it yet.  We needed cereal, so I thought I'd try it.  It's really really good.  Slightly sweet, but not too sweet, with 5g of protein, 6g of fiber, and 9g of sugar.  I eat it with:

Kirkland Greek Yogurt - I have been buying the Fage greek yogurt at Costco, but was going through it pretty quickly and it's still on the pricey side.  I was happy to see that Costco has now come out with their own branded Greek yogurt.  The Kirkland Greek Yogurt has a lot of protein, comes with two large containers for about $6, and is good - a little runny, but pretty good.

House Foods Tofu - yes, buying tofu at Costco is borderline insane until you look at the price - 3 double packs are $3.50.  The nicest thing about this is that the tofu is already sliced in half, which made it really easy to slice into strips and saute them.  Also, you can freeze tofu, so it can keep for awhile.

Madras Lentils - Mr. Barefoot takes these to work when he's running late and doesn't have a lunch.  I've only had the samples, but they are really really good.  They are on the pricey side for work meals, compared to:

Cedar Lane Organic Burritos - I love these.  These are what I take to work when I'm running late and don't have a lunch.

Kirkland Weight Loss Shakes - These are what we take for breakfast when we are running late.  I actually prefer them to the SlimFast shakes, and they are a much better deal (something like $15 for 24).

What other things do you like from Costco?  Has anybody tried that crazy dried bean mix that I was talking about?  I just forsee it being something that gathers dust as I am constantly afraid to try it or something.  Is there a website that reviews all the foods you can get at Costco and comes up with recipes?

Those elitist Barefoots

I read through this article about food and elitism, and I started wondering if I'm a food elitist.  I mean, can somebody who makes macaroni and cheese on a regular basis really be a food elitist?  I mean, okay, sometimes it's not Kraft, but nonetheless.  I am a woman of simple tastes, and if I could do it without gaining weight, I would live pretty much entirely on grilled cheese and macaroni and cheese.  Oh, and pizza.  Which I buy frozen from Costco, most of the time.  With a side of brocolli, because I have a degree in public health and parents who raised me to not get scurvy.

But I don't like champagne, or truffles.  I don't have an appreciation for really fine foods with fancy-sounding ingredients.  I like good, simple food.  I don't like having to ask, "what is xyz?" when I'm at a restaurant.  I like wine that tastes like juice, and much to Mr. Barefoot's constant annoyance, I can't kick my soda habit.

Mr. Barefoot and I try to shop locally, we buy organic when we can, and to make that financially possible, we also choose to buy in bulk (a savings which in some ways is countered by our high rent for our apartment that is large enough to keep bulk items in - room for a 25lb bag of flour is hard to find, but that bag cost the same as the 5lb bag of King Arthur.)  We have a shelf in our pantry dedicated to a rag-tag team of containers filled with cous-cous, four kinds of rice, barley, cornmeal, and anything else that comes in those iffy-looking containers.  We recently switched to dried beans, because we eat a lot of beans and the price of dried organic beans is vastly cheaper than canned conventional beans.  Dried beans hardly seem elitist to me, especially when we are buying them to save money.

I mean, maybe going to the Farmer's Market often enough to take engagement pictures there makes us elitist:

(By Prema Photographic)

I do think we do a lot of things that make us elitist.  We both own Kindles, and we read a lot of books.  We go to movies, then put our noses in the air and say the book was better.  We travel, often to places that require passports, and when we do, we go to museums or we go scuba diving.  In our house, computers outnumber people, we recently bought smartphones, and we both have post-graduate degrees.  

So yeah, we're elitist.  But not when it comes to food.  

Yoda Cookies!

In case you didn't know, Mr. Barefoot and I are pretty big Star Wars fans.  Maybe the name Darth Mixer tipped you off.  Star Wars is actually how we got together, so it holds great relationship significance for us as well.  Also, whenever it's cold out, I ask if we can watch my favorite cold weather movie, which is ESB.

So, I think, it is entirely possible that I will spend the next few months collecting all of these, whether I need them or not.

(only $40)

(yes, you could buy 4 reasonably priced aprons for this price but they are NOT AS COOL)

(Darth Mixer needs a friend!)

(What kind of mom will I be if I can't make yoda cookies for my kids?)

Tragically, the Barefoots are trying to save right now for our awesome summer trip to Wales, so I'm going to have to hold off on purchasing the entire WS Star Wars line.  But you don't have to!  Go forth and shop, my friends, and then send me pictures of your children eating yoda cookies!  

New Rule

You know how you never go to the grocery store on an empty stomach?  Never go to Costco on an empty house. 

We haven't been grocery shopping in pretty much two weeks.  It's been pretty non-stop around here, between seeing friends and family and birthday dinners and trips home and things like that.  So we finally hit that point where we had eaten all the Wasa crispbread, all the frozen pizza, all the stocked freezer lunches, the last of the bread, etc. etc. etc.  We don't really even keep snack food in the house, and we were scraping down the bottom of the barrel on everything else, so I needed to make either a Costco or grocery run tonight after I gave blood.  Costco is closer, so I headed over there. 

When you don't have food in the house, you stock up as if a nuclear holocaust is coming.  So I bought freezer meals and thirty dollars worth of cheese and 8 boxes of pasta and a ton of sauce.  In my frenzy to make sure we Had Food, I picked up frozen pizzas and protein shakes and a sixpack of Lean Cusines and a bunch of other things we only sort-of needed and still won't make a meal. 

Now I'm home and I've come to my senses, a bit. But, I'm still not sure what we'll be eating for dinner tomorrow night. 

Miscellaneous Friday

I went to a potluck tonight.  It was awesome.  I brought Cauliflower and Barley Risotto.  It was pretty good, although I think I still prefer the sweet potato barley risotto.  It took longer to cook than I thought it would, and I was panicking towards the end because I was so late - I would say it took a good 45-50 minutes to really cook properly.  I will probably work on adapting this for the crockpot, since it was pretty good.  I think I might use white wine next time.

The taco casserole from the other day actually came out great.  A tortilla was rendered unnecessary by the rice, but cheddar cheese and sour cream on top would not go amiss.

I have found the winning bread recipe.  I'll repost it shortly, but it's the American Sandwich Bread recipe from The New Best Recipe Cookbook.  Do yourself a favor and buy a copy.  It comes out dense and filling but not too chewy, and no matter how you screw it up, it's totally salvageable.  Thus ends the quest for the perfect white bread and I'll be moving onto whole wheat.

In totally other news, I just closed out our registry at the Pampered Chef, and will be getting my new pizza stones (2!) and pie pan and other stuff shortly.  The one thing we didn't upgrade at all with our registry was really our baking stuff, so I'm very excited to have the stones - I got a round one and a rectangular one, but imagine that I can make cookies and stuff on both of them.  We have a bunch of frozen pizzas in the oven that I think we'll be using in the next few weeks because I've actually started to be busy during the day - volunteer work, but good stuff and keeping me occupied.  Has anyone tried baking stuff other than pizza on stones?  Help a girl out with some tips!

I think the first thing I might try to make are these cookies, which a co-worker brought and and are amazing!  Her's didn't have the nuts or the drizzle on top, but they were still seriously seriously fantastic.  

Meat substitutes

We've picked up the Morningstar Farms meat-substitute crumbles a few times now.  They are good and add a depth to chili or meat sauce that is otherwise missing and can't really be met with veggies.  I'm not a huge advocate for using "fake meat" and I have this discussion with friends on a regular basis.  One friend argued that if he was going to make something vegetarian on the grill, he would rather put on portabella mushrooms or something that looks like a vegetable.  The problem with that is that mushrooms have no protein, and veggie burgers do.  I would also say that most veggie burgers taste nothing like meat, and they aren't trying to be something they're not.  There is something to be said for having protein and vegetables in a convenient grillable format - and for vegetarians not feeling left out at the barbecues.  

But with the veggie crumbles and the Chick'n patties that I sometimes like to eat, there is no getting around it - they are fake meat.  They are vegetables in meat clothing.  Actually, I don't know if the veggie crumbles taste anything like meat - I haven't had ground beef in 10 years.  I went vegetarian and it was no great loss because I don't like meat very much, so I don't miss it.  I don't eat crumbles because I miss meat, but because chili with ground meat substitute tastes very different from chili that is made with beans, and it's pretty good.  I like the chik'n patties because they taste different than a standard veggie burger - even if they don't taste much like chicken, they do taste like breaded deliciousness.  Variety is important, and having quick, healthy, easy to make meals is also important.  One of my usual go-tos is tacos, but I suspect that spaghetti with meat sauce and frozen vegetables will also become a go-to.  I also want to try hamburger helper with crumbles, because my college roommates used to make hamburger helper and it looks really good.  In that "a cat just vomited this up" kind of way.  

Any suggestions for things I can do with veggie crumbles?  How do you feel about fake meat?  And are those breakfast sausage patties any good?  I kind of want to try one, but I've never liked sausage.  But it's been 10 years and maybe I should give it a chance?  

Registry Reviews: Noritake Colorwave

Back in March, we went to Bed Bath and Beyond and registered for stuff.  Some of it was cooking, some was housewares, some was boring but necessary (towels.)  I really wished there was some way to find out things about the china that we registered for, and I didn't see many recommendations - most of the stuff I found was "look at how pretty and classic our Vera Wang China is".  That is not helpful.

We were very very fortunate to receive most of what we registered for, including our china.  I'm sharing it here because what we chose to do, particularly with our china, is a little unorthodox but it makes us happy, and it was very hard for me to find information on what kind of china to register for, how it fit in the cabinets, and what type of person it suited. (And a lot of people nowadays register for white china and white china is boring.)

We registered for four different colors of the Noritake Colorwave China.  It's a fairly heavy, dishwasher safe, glazed stoneware and it looks both elegant and whimsical, especially because we got the square.  We find that having different colored plates and bowls can be helpful in knowing whose dish is whose, and livens up the table.

This is our everyday-ware and our fancy-dinner ware, so we were happy to get plates that served both purposes.  As you can see, they are pretty tall (much taller than our old Corelle), but everything stacks together really well, meaning there is very little "wasted" space in our cabinet.  And we finally have enough bowls for both soup and cereal.

I actually love the mugs.  I was so against getting mugs and wanted to just register for open stock, but it cost the same to get the set with the mug and was easier for our guests.  First of all, they are actual mugs, not "teacups", there are no saucers, and they fit a reasonable amount of hot cocoa.  I find myself using these rather than our (large) collection of mugs because I like how they feel in my hand and the inside is a bit easier to clean than some of our mugs.  

The bowls are on the larger side, and they are flatter, which makes them great for things like both soup and cereal.  Our old Corelle bowls were okay for cereal, but too high for soup. Since they are large, they aren't ideal for ice cream, but we actually eat ice cream out of ramekins anyway.  For dinner, we usually use the smaller plates, which are still big enough for a reasonable one-pot type of meal, without a lot of side dishes.  If we're serving a main course and sides, we break out the big plates.  

If you are uptight and want fine china, this is not the set for you.  But if you want nice matching plates that double as fine china and everyday, this is definitely a great set to consider.  They also come in round, and you can get all of the same color if that is how you roll.   

Try.

Awhile ago, I realized I wanted to marry Mr. Barefoot.  Cuz I love him and think he's really cute and all that.

Now that we are married, I find myself struggling with the gravity of it all and what it means to be married.  Over the weekend, while "we" were cooking - by which I mean I was cooking and he was breathing down my neck and nagging me and taking up space in the kitchen, I realized something.  We will have this fight that we have semi-regularly, and we will be angry - but we will not leave.  We're both going to stay.  I'm not going to get a divorce over something as silly as how I stack the dish drainer.

So we're in it.  So then I realized that means I might as well try.  Since I'm not going anywhere, and neither is he, I might as well try to empty the draining rack and put things away before doing the next load of dishes.  (Yes, I usually just load wet dishes on top of dry dishes until something falls out and I admit defeat; or until he puts the dishes away.)  I might as well try to clean as I cook, rather than making a big giant mess.  I might as well try to use fewer pots and utensils as I cook.  I might as well try to make sure the kitchen doesn't look like a war zone when he comes home from work.  (And while we're on it, I might as well try to get a job because I suck at being a housewife.)

I promised more pictures and recipes, while I wax philosophic about marriage, so here is a recipe for homemade croutons (made with homemade bread).

You will need a loaf or so of bread, about a quarter cup of olive oil, some garlic powder, salt, italian seasonings, and an oven at 400 degrees.  

Cut the bread into cubes.  Put them in a bowl.  Mix the olive oil, garlic powder, salt, and seasonings together. Pour over cubes, then stir cubes until they are mostly well coated.  Spread on a pan (coat with foil if you really want to avoid cleanup), and then bake for 15-20 minutes at 400 degrees.  

Delicious and cheap, and an excellent use of a loaf of bread that I wasn't a huge fan of.  We probably won't buy croutons again.  

Recipe Cards

I've recently been invited to a few bridal showers.  In the envelope with the invitation came an index card for me to write down a favorite recipe and bring to the shower.

Oooooh, you're thinking.  What a nice idea.  It's really not.  Mostly because my recipes do not fit on an index card, and also I would much rather just hit print.  Being aware that most people do not archive all of their recipes on a personal cooking blog though, I will admit that many people's recipes are in a cookbook or on their own cards.  Still, wouldn't these just be easiest to make a copy of and bring with you, instead of transcribing?  So I digress, and should explain that I think that recipe cards are a poor way to store information.  They are small, and easily lit on fire. 

You know what is a great way?  The 3-ring recipe binder.  You can go fancy, or you can get a 3-ring binder and a bunch of sheet protectors.  That way, you can print, copy, or handwrite a recipe into the binder.  That way I don't have to rewrite a recipe into a teensy-tiny index card and constantly mess up, cross things out, and confuse the reader.  One shower I went to asked me to just bring a recipe on an 8.5x11 sheet of paper, and then we put them in sheet protectors at the shower.  It was very nice.  And way easier.

So if you are currently planning a shower, a recipe binder makes a great gift, and just ask the guests to bring a recipe to go in it.  Or send out a recipe card, with wide lines and a lot of room to write! (And don't write "Recipe for" at the top, because some moron will write in the bride's name and not what the actual recipe is for!  They will do this in pen, and feel like a doofus.)

Cinnamon Bun Popcorn

It occurred to me that I should really share this recipe with the world.  My college roommate taught us to make it, and it's still one of our big guilty pleasures.  It's sticky, but delicious.  It's great study food, but make sure you have a wet nap so you don't get icing on your keyboard.
You will need:

• 1 bag microwave popcorn (you can use butter flavor, unflavored/unsalted, light, etc.)  [I've never tried this with non-microwave popcorn, but I keep meaning to]
• 1 container of vanilla icing (I have also used cream cheese.  I don't recommend whipped, but the light is fine.)
• Cinnamon
• a spoon
• a non-metal, microwaveable mixing bowl [the bigger the better]
• a spatula

Procedure:

1. Pop bag of popcorn.  Do not burn!  If you burn it, trash it and start over.  
2. Pour popcorn into the mixing bowl.  
3. Add about 6 tablespoon sized dots of icing to the top of the popcorn.  
4. Put in microwave for 30 seconds, or until icing is soft/melted.  
5. Toss popcorn with icing, sprinkling with cinnamon as you go.  

Best. sleepover. food. ever.  That is all.  Eat with a side of the remaining container of icing.  

Cheating.

I want to eat all good, local ingredients. I want to make the sensible financial decisions. I want to make delcious, transcendant meals. But sometimes, you just can't.
Today I'm trying to make this using this recipe. Reader C. sent me the recipe as a possible thing to do with a pumpkin, but since I already mashed my pumpkin up, I decided to just buy butternut squash.
Have you ever tried peeling a butternut squash by the way? It's very very hard. So I totally took the easy, cheating way out. I bought 2lbs of pre-cubed butternut squash at Costco. I used about a quarter of it for this, meaning I have plenty left for Moroccan spice butternut squash and butternut squash soup.
Yeah, it's cheating and it's not local and it's probably kind of expensive (I think I see BNS for $3 at the farmer's market, but arguably, this is two squashes worth and so $6 is pretty reasonable.) But I just made risotto in 5 minutes. It probably won't taste like transcendance in a bowl, but it probably will taste pretty darn good. I'll let you know.

Roasted garlic

Last night I roasted garlic for the first time. It was amazing. And easy. And took a long time. I'm going to give instructions without breaking them up, because they are easy and I'm feeling lazy.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Take a small baking dish that is about an inch or two deep. I used a dish that is about 5 inches square and an inch and a half deep. Pour in 3/4 cup water and some vinegar (receipe recommended using white wine, I used white) - maybe a teaspoon. Take a clove of garlic, chop the top off with a really heavy knife in one fell swoop so the tips are exposed. Removed the losest layer of paper. Drizzle the top with olive oil and then cap with aluminum foil.

Bake for an hour.

There are a lot of purposes for roasted garlic. I used it for gourmet sandwiches and then I just ate it. I think I'll probably make a batch before big dinner parties and before thanksgiving, and just use it in everything.

A Barefoot Wedding?

That's right folks! The Barefoots are getting married! Eventually I will be Mrs. Barefoot. I'm excited about this prospect because I'm not changing my name IRL, but at least I can be Mrs. Barefoot here (and only have one last name...woo!)
The proposal details are simple - we went for a walk, sat on a park bench, and he asked me.
The best part is that as I was making dinner, Mr. Barefoot was telling me he wanted to go for a walk. I was chopping potatoes. They were going to take an hour to cook, but I had a mountain of homework to get done, so I didn't want to go. He talked me into it though, by acting all sad and needy, so I put the potatoes in the oven. Thirty minutes later after he asked me and we were snuggled together on Federal Hill overlooking Baltimore, I was torn between euphoria and fear that the apartment was going to burn down!
Then we headed home and had a delicious dinner of roasted potatoes, fake chicken nuggets and wings, and I think some kind of vegetable.
I will not blog about the wedding here, and am trying to come up with a name for my wedding blog. I may blog about food.
So here are the first questions for the crowd:
1) Is an all vegetarian/pescatarian wedding rude to your carnivorous guests? This will probably not be an option for us, but I like to think about it as a concept.
2) Are tacos or chinese food as catering "tacky" or "cheap"?
3) Design a dream vegetarian wedding menu. Do NOT give me "portabello mushrooms on a bed of pasta with some veggies as a side." I'm looking for substance, with a bit of flair.
4) What about burgers and fries? Tacky? Cheap?

Menu Planning

Menu planning has been going well for the Barefoots lately. Last week we stuck to the menu Mr. Barefoot planned, and so far, all two days of this week, we have stuck to the menu we planned on Monday when we got home from Chicago (and made a spinach-goat-cheese-roasted-red-pepper-sundried-tomato pizza...mmmm). Tonight was Chili and Coconut fish, plus I heated up the leftover Coconut-Sweet Potato bisque, and steamed some brocolli (during which I steamed the pan dry and scorched the bottom, but its okay.)
I guess the key to menu planning is to be realistic. When I menu plan, I try to make 5 new and different slow cooker curries or something fancy. When Mr. Barefoot menu plans, he tends to pick old favorites with a new twist. When we average one new dish a week, and four favorites, we're much more likely to get it right. Tomorrow night is dal. I had dal for the first time last Saturday for Valentine's day dinner in Chicago (Indian Garden - highly recommend.) We are turning to So You've Decided to be a Vegetarian: Now What? a classic culinary tome for those in the under-20 sect for a recipe. Stay tuned.

Nutrition

So I'm a stress eater and a stress exerciser. Usually I just channel my stress into exercise. This past semester though, that was less possible than I would have liked.
I don't diet. I'm not a fan of diets. I try not to eat crap, which went to hell during finals. So naturally, my pants do not fit. Maybe this is because they got washed on hot and went through the dryer. But one can only make excuses for so long. And I really don't want to have to buy new pants.
So how do I go back to eating "right"? And what does eating right even mean?
For me, because I'm a vegetarian, eating right is the right balance of protien/carbs/fats. Lately I've been short on protein. And on fruits and vegetables. The farmers market is now closed for three months; our local Shoppers has crappy produce; and I'm starting to get a bit tired of salmon and shrimp.
(Sidenote: trying to get my eating on track has nothing to do with a new years resolution of any kind. It has to do with wanting to feel comfortable in my own skin, and no longer getting nasty stomachaches from eating too many carbs or too much cheese; it has to do with wanting my skin to feel less dried out and for me to feel less tired all the time.)
So here are the following questions that I have to determine the answers to while I am on a quest for a healthier existance:
1) What fruits and vegetables are currently in season?
2) How do I cook fish that isn't salmon?
3) How do I fancy up frozen fruits and veggies?

Christmas Gifting

Christmas was pleasant this year, with my mother purchasing several items off my Amazon wishlist, including a Le Creuset Stoneware Casserole Dish which is a good size for 2-person mac&cheese, or for making a half batch of cresent roll wrapped brie - we'll see how the stoneware compares to pyrex, and maybe eventually look into the cast iron stuff. I also got one of each size of these and once I find my pyrex lids, I'll be in perfect make&take shape! I cannot wait for somebody to have a potluck.
I really didn't expect my mother to get me any of the pots and pans that are on my list, because I was sure my Dad would find something wrong with them or something, but Mr. Barefoot opened up this pot, and we both got super excited. It's wider than the Always Pot (3 qt) that we use, and a little shallower, and hopefully will allow us to cook two things at once. Or maybe do fewer dishes. It's anodized alumnium, which is so much better than the nonstick, and maybe once we use it, we'll find out why it was so cheap.
I would say, hands down, the most unexpected thing we received was a coffemaker from Mr. Barefoot's parents. Unexpected because we don't drink coffee, like coffee, serve coffee to others, etc. However, they do like coffee, and as part of hospitality, I suppose it would not be out of line to serve them coffee after they have driven down for 3 hours to see us. Then I came accross this article about other uses for coffee. I suppose now at least I can try the bread recipes I've always wanted to try that involve using coffee. Plus, Espresso Brownies sounds like exactly the kind of thing I could take over to Mama Awesome's for a girly movie session. And now I can serve coffee to my running buddies in the morning before races.

give life

This holiday season, if you want to make a charitable donation, save some money but give somebody another chance at life. Give somebody more time with a person they love. Save a life. The holidays are tough times for most people, especially if somebody they love is sick. The holidays are also a good time to sit around and remember those moments with lost loved ones.
In the years preceding their deaths, both of my grandfathers became sick at different times and required blood transfusions.
My father's father, who suffered from a chronic bleeding condition, required several transfusions because of it. Specifically, I remember he became fairly sick about two years before he died and required at least 4 blood transfusions (over a two day period). He made a full recovery and lived another two years at full strength. (Requiring at least one more transfusion during that time, I think specifically of platelets.) I cherish every extra moment I got with him because of those transfusions. I cherish every extra lunch, every extra phone call asking me how to use the computer, phone, tivo, every family holiday. Eventually, after living a full life to the age of 87, he passed away one morning during his nap. His 10am nap. That he was taking before he was going to go give a lecture. After he sorted his slides.
My mother's father had heart issues and metastatic prostate cancer. Around the same time my father's father got sick, my mother's father had a heart valve replacement. I am sure that the procedure required a transfusion or two, and the pig's heart valve they put in him gave me an extra two years with him, although he was never quite the same, because his mental accuity and other issues were just troublesome. He got really sick about six months before he died, and he was in between the hospital and the nursing home. About every two weeks, he would go back to the hospital for another blood transfusion. The transfusions always made him feel better, and they gave us just a little more time. I am so grateful to everybody who gave blood to give my grandfather even a few more weeks, and while to some, keeping the elderly sustained is a waste of time and resources, it gave us time to spend time with him, and it gave us time to get his affairs in order. At the end of somebody's life, time is everything.
So that is why I give blood. I give to give back, I give to give others the same chances I had, I give to give children, grandchildren, spouses another chance with somebody they love. I don't care whether the recipient is a good person, a bad person, liberal, conservative, whatever. I firmly believe that everybody deserves a second chance. I started giving blood long before I even realized what it meant, but now that I have firsthand experience with how important it is, I believe in giving even more strongly.
So this winter, give somebody else the gift of life. It is painless, and if you are afraid of the needles, just look away. It takes maybe two hours. And the juice and cookies are excellent.

Restaurant Review

The Barefoots went out last night for a finals victory dinner. We chose to go someplace near my school that I have been to before, which Mark wanted to try because it's gotten great reviews. It was a good post-finals place because sometimes the wait for a table is a long one, but we weren't pressed for time.
We picked the Brewer's Art, which is a local microbrewery and pub kind of place, except its like bar food on crack. Its delicious. Over winter break, we will be attempting to replicate the garlic and rosemary french fries that they serve. I will also buy myself a mini cast iron skillet so I can attempt my own version of their caramelized onion and chipotle mac & cheese. Last time I was there I got a veggie burger, which was also delicious. There is actually nothing on the menu that doesn't look amazing, and I think it will be one of the only places I go where I actually try multiple things because everything is so good. Mark got the shrimp & grits, which I didn't really like because the sauce wasn't my style and I don't like grits. But he enjoyed it. I think next time I'm going to make him get the Croque Monsieur so I can live vicariously through him.
The meals I'm speaking of are off their surprisingly reasonably priced bar menu. The restaurant portion is way fancier and three times the price, but if you're looking for fancy, its a good place. Otherwise, just head into the upstairs bar or the downstairs lounge. Sometimes you have to stand around and stalk people for a table. There are no waiters pushing people to clear the tables, so sometimes you need to go with dirty looks or a gentle, "when you're heading out, can you let us know so we can have your table?" Don't wear heels, because you might be standing around, especially on a Friday night or after 8pm.
If you just feel like stopping in for a drink, they have a range of their own beers, plus other local beers, and while you're there, get a plate of Garlic & Rosemary fries. I can guarantee you that it will be the best $4 you ever spend.

Aprons

I sometimes wonder if I, like all the other ironic bakers out there -and by that, I mean women who take to the kitchen and bake cupcakes fully aware that they are possibly reinforcing decades-old ideals about women in the kitchen baking cupcakes - should be wearing a kitschy retro apron.
It makes the ironic baking experience even more ironic.
Pretty much only real chefs and ironic bakers wear aprons at all. I guess some guys who barbeque have their "Kiss the Chef" aprons. My boyfriend wanted to get his sister an apron last Christmas. I told him to not be fooled by the fact that I wear an apron, as I am not indicative of the rest of the cooks and wanna-be cooks out there. I wear an apron because I'm messy. And because I'm usually too lazy to get out a dishtowel to wipe my hands, and I only have one pair of jeans.
Nonetheless, I don't have $32 to spend on a cute apron that nips in at the waist and will make me look skiny. Mine is a barbeque apron built for men, but on sale for $7 because it was bright blue with a girlie fish on the pocket. The only downside is that it doesn't have an adjustable neckstrap like my old apron. (Which I think is buried under laundry at my parents house.)
I do think sometimes about getting a new apron. But would I go with the polka dots? Or perhaps a "beyond a reasonable trout" apron for the lawyer in me? Both are ironic, but in different ways. (BRT is ironic because lawyers do not have time to cook.)

Simple Pleasures

I went to the farmer's market today. There is one in Hyattsville where I work that is open on Thursday afternoons.
I signed up for the newsletter. Because the cheerful guy telling me to sign up told me, "if you got our newsletter, you'd know that today we'd have PEACHES!" I told him I don't like peaches, but I signed up anyway. Then he said it, "we have berries." Berries...
I stopped by the vegetable stand first. I needed food for dinner. I bought green beans and redskin potatoes. Then I saw the berries. A little too expensive, but way too delicious looking to resist. I took a half pint of berries.
Then, on my way out, I stopped and bought a mini-bag of fresh donuts. If you've never seen a donut maker, they're awesome. The donut maker squeezed out four donuts into boiling oil and then they travel through and get flipped and then drain and then they fall. It's awesome. And they were delicious.
When I got home, I washed the berries. Then I ate about half of them before my better nature got to me and I decided to save some for Mark, and also to use them to top the cheesecake.
But one of the simple pleasures in life is standing barefoot in the kitchen, eating a perfect raspberry, fuzzy and totally ripe.
Often we think of food as fuel, or as the enemy. We sometimes stop thinking of it as what it is - simply delicious.