I’ve turned to the comforts of soup of late–little prep, little active cooking time, lots of leftovers. First there was a smoked fish chowder from Food & Wine. This soup got exponentially better each day, as many soups do. Boil cubed potatoes covered in milk and cream while sauteing onion, celery, leeks, and thyme for several minutes. Add a cup of white wine to the saute and cook it down, and then add 4 cups of chicken stock and simmer until the potatoes are finished cooking. Give the potatoes a once over with a hand masher and then add it to the vegetables and stock. Stir in your frozen corn and the flaked smoked whitefish (I get mine at Rodman’s). Add chopped dill and serve with hot sauce.
After reading Tim Carman’s piece in the Washington Post a few weeks back about editorial recipe testing (the importance of) and specifically that the Post uses a group of local volunteer recipe testers, I made it my mission to become one. And, wonders, now I will occasionally have the opportunity to try a recipe at home for the paper. I’m, of course, thrilled, and two weeks ago jumped at the chance to try my first one.
I come up rather short when brainstorming romantic dining spots in D.C. Little Serow has certainly joined the ranks with BlackSalt and maybe Sushi Taro or the bar at Cashion’s. Oh, too tough? It’s more about whom you are with, you might say? Yes, but it’s hard to be romantic in a place that seems to channel all its effort into being unsexy.
Your sweet tooth will steel when you see the Washington Post’s food section this week: a double header on cupcakes and a piece on pies. But really it’s your funny bone that will get a workout. In what absolutely must be the snarkiest article about the individual cake craze sweeping the nation–the one many of us hoped would be over by now–Andrea Adleman starts with expert “trendologists” and winds up on the shrink couch to answer the question “Why cupcakes?” Here are some highlights from her piece, which feels more like a Daily Show segment than a Post feature:
I think I’ve written about chili on top of salad before, but it didn’t get its own post, so it’s worth a circle back. I order this regularly at diners: side salad and a cup of chili. It’s surprisingly hard to convince people that this is a perfect match-up, so I served it for the game Sunday night, and I believe I may have made some converts.
I love the idea of the Washington Post’s lead food story this week: soup and sandwich combos around town. It’s just the town’s options I don’t like. Squash soup with a squash sandwich? Mushroom and peanut soup with a portobello, goat cheese, and roasted pepper sandwich? I wouldn’t come near that. Of course the concept is good. I’ve been enjoying a simple lentil soup from this month’s Food & Wine with marinated artichoke and muenster cheese melts all week.
