Divalicias's Profile
What to do with too dry cake?
Make it into cake pops! http://www.cakepopcrush.com/cake-pops-recipe/basic-cake-pops-recipe
Childhood favorite sandwich
BBQ Chips and mayo! That sounds yummy in a strange good way. I never thought about adding chips to a sandwich until a friend introduced me to putting potato chips on tuna salad sandwich.
Childhood favorite sandwich
We were starved yesterday and pulled into Taco Bell. Ordered the beef burrito with the spicey fritoes in them. It was only 99 cents and it was awesome. Then I saw these potato tacos and potato burritos.... I have to go back and try them -- these were under $1 also. http://www.tacobell.com/menuitem/Crispy-Potato-Soft-Taco
Thanksgiving dinner: What is your LEAST favorite menu item that you can't get rid of?
Haha! I make a pineapple casserole from a DAR cookbook that is the HIT of the Thanksgiving table. I am always asked to bring it. A little bit goes a long way -- because it's very rich. Just a small spoonful is enough for me.
Your version of the turkey sounds divine. We usually get a fresh organic bird from an Amish market. We don't brine it - but we put herbs and butter under the skin. This year we soaked a cheesecloth in butter and broth and placed that over the bird as it roasted -- kept it moist and allowed it to brown. It was yummy and the skin was still crispy.
BBQ--looking for the best
I have family living in Easton, MD. We love this BBQ place and often pick up dinner there. Ribs are great, the pulled pork is yummy and the sides are also good, but the green beans are delectable.
Another place we get good BBQ is the Amish Market -- it has limited hours -- only open until 3pm on Saturdays -- but the ribs and chicken are sooo good. Lots of other yummy foods to get at this market too -- it's a great place to pick up supplies for a Saturday picnic supper.
BBQ--looking for the best
Stubb's is from Austin,TX and I've been there. It was good BBQ. Not as good as mine, but good enough.
Thanksgiving dinner: What is your LEAST favorite menu item that you can't get rid of?
I sooo agree. My mom makes a vile giblets gravy that is yellow-greenish with floating chunks of nasty bits. She thought it was superior to brown gravy and that we should think ourselves lucky children whose mother bothered to make homemade gravy instead of canned gravy. I would have dearly loved canned gravy instead. It turned me off gravy and sauces for years and years. We have Thanksgiving at my sisters and my mom still insists on making her giblet gravy, but now we have brown gravy on the table for the less fortunate.
After school snack memories
Gjetost cheese slices with apples, bananas and milk, raisins and nuts, oranges and tea, graham crackers,kippers with mustard on saltines.
After school snack memories
We had nori for snack too! We would put rice inside it or eat it plain. Sometimes we would get kimbap or yaki mandu but these were unusually special after school snacks.
Tip jars - love 'em? Hate 'em?
Actually we do tip our children's teachers -- many of them are moonlighting nights and weekends at the local sandwich shops and carry-outs.
Tipping - How do you feel about tip jars?
There is a local ice cream place near me that has a tip jar on the counter. Ice cream scoopers work really hard and have to make everything themselves. I always put a dollar or two in the tip jar when my family visited the place -- until my friend's son got a job there and told me that the owners of the joint take the tips fro themselves! So unfair to all those kids! Now I make sure to ask how the money in the tip jar is distributed before I tip, or I try to had the tip directly to the person who waited on me.
too hot to cook
When Hurricane Isabel knocked our power out for 9 days, I learnt how to use my grill for everything, including baking. My grill has a side burner which was great for boiling water to use for making coffee in the French press. Then I figured out I could use my Pampered Chef pizza stone to bake in my grill. I put the stone on one side of the grill with the burners off (or on very low) and fired up the other side. I made biscuits and cinnamon rolls for breakfast. I made pizzas, calzones, rolls, etc. on that pizza stone. I had some frozen pies that were going to go bad, so I tried baking them on the grill and it worked!
too hot to cook
An easy micro-dinner for summer -- filets of fish and broccoli -- put on a plate in a wheel pattern, alternating the fish with the broccoli. Drizzle a little EVOO and lemon, S&P. Cover with a pyrex bowl and nuke until the broccoli is bright green and the fish is opaque. Only needs a few minutes. Here is an actual recipe that also includes an orange sauce and couscous:
http://lubbockonline.com/stories/010704/lif_010704031.shtml
too hot to cook
Use the slow-cooker for a lot of things. Being a swim mom taught me even more about the versatility of slow-cookers for great baked potatoes -- cook on high for about 2 hours. The other swim meet dish we make is BBQ Beef or BBQ Pork in the crock pot. It is not foodie version -- but a hearty and tasty nonetheless. Just plop a big hunk of meat in the slow cooker the night before the meet. Cook on low about 10 hours. I use various rubs and seasonings on the meat before cooking. By morning the meat is well cooked and can be shredded with two forks. Add your favorite BBQ sauce, and set dial the warm. Voila! Swim meet BBQ. Serve it on a bun with a side of chips and a pickle for $4.
too hot to cook
Baked potatoes in a Crock Pot is a swim meet staple around here. For swim meet use, we always wrap in foil because we're keeping them hot for the entire day, and it's just easier to serve them when they are wrapped. The kids unwrap them and fill them up with butter, cheese and sometimes chili/cheese. I have a 7-qt cooker and I can fit about 10-12 good-sized spuds in it. At the meets, we keep adding uncooked potatoes as the cooked ones are used - it only takes a couple hours on high to cook. Swim meets start early and go quite late.
Nasty Little Treats
Fried gizzards with salt and a little Tabasco. Chased with cold beer.
Cottage cheese, tuna and soy sauce -- all mixed together and eaten with saltines.
Tuna salad with big gobs of yellow mustard added and slightly stirred in, eaten on saltines.
Fried potatoes with vinegar and soy sauce.
Buttermilk with a few big grinds of black pepper before drinking.
Apple slices with salt and black pepper.
Jello toast -- Butter bread, sprinkle with any flavor Jello powder, toast under broiler. The strawberry jello powder turns bright red and tastes intensely jammy. Yum.
Bacon candy -- sprinkle bacon with brown sugar and roast in oven.
Kool-aide Pickles. -- They remind me of candied watermelon rinds: salty, vinegary, sweet and fruity.
Ramen noodle soup with hotdogs, kimchi (loads) and American cheese.
Love Campari -- with soda and a twist of lemon.
Dirty martinis with GIN and anchovy-stuffed olives and a heaping dribble of the anchovy olive juice. Drink while snacking on smoked oysters out of the can.
quirky personal home food combinations....
Oh yes! Ranch dressing is great on baked spuds. Can also mix ranch dressing mix with sour cream and use that.
We also like cottage cheese with soy sauce on top. I'm told by a friend who used to wait tables at the Columbia Studios that Moe of the Three Stooges at this for lunch nearly every day. She said he called it a "hot fudge sundae."
Childhood favorite sandwich
My mother didn't believe in American cheese, bologna or regular white bread like Wonder bread, so those were OUT. I always wondered about this combo and thought it would be yummy, but when I finally had it, didn't really like it -- too gummy and bland.
Cotto salami and dijon mustard on seeded rye bread.
Tuna Salad: tuna mixed with boiled egg, finely chopped celery, finely chopped pickle, green onions, green olives (just a few), a little bit of mayo, and a dribble of soy sauce. This would be served on lightly toasted salt rising bread or sour dough, with a slice of tomato and a wad of watercress, sometimes with a slice or two of bacon.
Deviled ham mixed with chopped boiled egg, pickle, a tiny bit of mayo, on pumpernickel.
BLTs with avocado with mayo on toasted Wheatberry bread.
Sliced warm boiled egg on toasted sourdough slathered with mayonnaise and sprinkled with Lawry's season salt.
Camping or road trip favorites -- Kraft Old English Cheese or Pineapple Cheese spread on Ritz Crackers; road tripping in France with Cantal or Emmental cheese, a slice of Saucisson with a squirt of dijon (from a tube!) on a hunk of baguette eaten on the side of the road; cold hot dogs right out of the package when stuck in a mountain snow storm without chains on the tires. (We were supposed to grill the hot dogs but we never made it to our picnic site because of the storm and we were famished!)
Pimento cheese on crackers on thin party rye.
All this FEAR is making me HUNGRY!
If you like China Buffets you should definitely check out DC's Chinatown -- or ChinaStreet. It's shrinking block of an old Chinese neighborhood with a small strip of Chinese restaurants conveniently located near the Verizon Center, and an adjacent neighborhood full of bars like Fado, which is a great Irish bar. Anyway, late at night, after the bars close at 3:00 am and you need to get your grub on -- head over to New Big Wong, 610 H Street, NW. Pick something from the "special" menu. http://www.newbigwong.com
All this FEAR is making me HUNGRY!
Teaism is lovely. Do try to go there if you get the chance. They have a lovely oolong experience. We need to take back the Tea from the Tea Party!
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Teaism
2009 R St NW, Washington, DC 20009
All this FEAR is making me HUNGRY!
I completely second this idea about getting the quintessential Chesapeake Bay seafood at the Maine Ave Fish Market. This is where you'll get to see and experience some uniquely local sights, tastes, sounds and smells. The fish are sold from family-owned floating barges in the river and staffed by people from Smith Island, which is located right in the middle of Chesapeake Bay. If you listen closely, you'll notice a unique accent that hearkens back to Elizabethan English. (Although, nowadays the selling staff is more diverse.) The Maine Ave. Market is one of the enduring old-time DC public spaces, it has been in operation for at least 70 years, probably longer. You gotta try a softshell crab, crab cakes, shrimp (so fresh and sweet), oysters and clams. You should also go for Maryland Blue Crabs steamed and spiced with Old Bay. There's a lot of picking involved, if you haven't done it before you can ask one of the sellers for help. It's nothing like the ubiquitous Alaska crab legs, which are okay, but these blue crabs are a lot more flavorful and fresh. It's easy to like all the barges, but must say that I am a bit partial to the offerings at Taylor's Seafood.
Transplant from Oregon to Woodbridge, VA
I feel your pain. I used to work for an Oregon Congressperson, took many trips out to PDX back in the 1980s and early 1990s. There is just nothing like the food in the PNW! We had a huge office celebration because the first Starbucks opened in DC. We all were happy for Starbucks -- but we also knew that the PDX coffee carts serve better brew. Speaking of brew, micro brews and even Henry's were hot commodities around the delegation. Another Oregon Congressperson kept a full sized refrigerator stocked with Henry's in his office in the Cannon Building. On balmy Friday evenings, we would climb out the window to the roof, set up beach chairs and have a little beer fest and enjoy a gorgeous view of the Capitol dome until the Capitol Police ran us off. Most times the Congressman would join us and try to talk the cops into letting us stay a while longer, but they never did. Be sure to join the Oregon State Society here in DC. They have a great dinner every year featuring Oregon foods and wines. The Klamath Tribes supply the salmon. http://www.oregonstatesociety.org
As far as food places around here, I second the recommendations posted by others and add the following thoughts:
There are some pretty decent Pho places - one of our favorites is in Ashdale Plaza off Dale City Blvd near I-95. It always seems to change owners and names, I think it's now called Pho Saigon. Even with the changes the Pho has been pretty consistent and the summer rolls are pretty decent too. Don't know about the other menu items there.
There is a really good Brazilian Churrascaria called Charbroil Grill -- definitely for meat-lovers. http://www.charbroilgrillsteakhouse.com
There are several ethnic supermarkets around as well -- Global Food off Smoketown Road is a good one. http://www.theglobalfood.com
Is it okay to plot the demise of my smooth top range?
There is no gas in my area, and for me the smooth top is infinitely better than the old electric coil stove I used to have. I could never keep the coil stove clean enough for my liking, and when things boiled over I had to contend with the drip pans and all the gunk underneath the stove top, not to mention all the stuff that stuck on the coils themselves that can't be cleaned at all. When I bought my smooth top stove I was forced to buy all new pots and pans (wasn't sad about this at all!) I gave up the copper bottomed, glass, and enamel pots that I used to use in exchange for Calphalon joy. I replaced my Williams-Sonoma cast iron grill with a Calphalon grill works which just as well -- and the old grill still works great for outdoor cooking.
The scraper thingie is just a holder for a razor blade, most of the time I just wipe down the top with a soft dishcloth. I was out of the stove cleaner once and found that plain old baking soda did a fine job cleaning the carbon build-up from spill-over. I just made a paste of baking soda and left it on while I did some other cleaning, then wiped it clean. I love the smooth top!
one hungry night in SF
You must try at least once -- delectable and cheap chicken prepared in Vietnamese style. This place is a hole in the wall -- but the food is so yummy and really cheap -- under $10 for a whole mess of chicken and side dishes. All of it very familiar for your non-adventurous friend -- but still Asian enough to be interesting for you. The owner cooks your order while you watch fro the counter. California and Polk
Cordon Bleu Vietnamese Restaurant
1574 California St
San Francisco, CA 94109
(415) 673-5637
Atlanta without attitude
I don't know about attitude -- but I have had a wonderful time at Dante's Down the Hatch Buckhead. It's all fondue, fun decor, wonderful jazz music and a waitstaff that is genuinely interested in making sure you have a lovely experience.
http://www.dantesdownthehatch.com/
Olive and Cream Cheese Sandwiches a Baltimore Only Treat?
OMG - Roast beef and c/c+o -- grilled! Yowza -- that sounds really yummy!
Olive and Cream Cheese Sandwiches a Baltimore Only Treat?
I save green olives with anchovies for dirty martinis.
When I make olive and cream cheese spread, I just recklessly chop the olives and smash them into cream cheese, which I've softened and whipped slightly. Sometimes I put the whole mess into a food processor and hit the pulse button -- the result is still as yummy. I always use pimento stuffed green olives for cream cheese.
Olive and Cream Cheese Sandwiches a Baltimore Only Treat?
Ooh! I got my first taste of pickled watermelon from a favorite aunt who offered them to me like she was offering a subversive treat. I loved it from the start.
Olive and Cream Cheese Sandwiches a Baltimore Only Treat?
I grew up in Southern California and we never had cream cheese and olive sandwiches. I once went to a friend's house in Newport Beach and her mom showed me how to make cream cheese and black olive dip, which I thought was phenomenal! It wasn't until I moved to the East Coast before I had a proper cream and green olive sandwich or rye or pumpernickel, which was even more phenomenal than the Newport Beach olive dip.
Kraft makes a pretty good pre-mixed green olive and cream cheese schmear for when I'm too lazy to make my own.
Recipes You've Never Heard of Outside Your Family
Cream cheese on canned Boston Brown Bread.
Tuna salad: Tuna expanded with chopped boiled eggs, mayo, watercress and soy sauce. Serve on toasted bread.
Jello cake: Angel food cake, torn into bits, layered in a tube pan with fruit cocktail, mini marshallows, sliced walnuts. Prepare jello and pour all over cake mixture, refrigerate until completely firm. Unmold and slice, top with whipped cream or Cool Whip.
Pineapple Cheese Casserole -- Pineapple chunks, grated sharp cheddar cheese, Ritz crackers and butter. Bake in oven until all melty, bubbly, browned and crunchy.
Dates stuffed with cream cheese and topped with walnuts.
Jello toast --- Schmear butter on bread, sprinkle Jello mix on top, broil until the Jello is melted. Like cinnamon toast -- but fruity.
Cuban chicken -- Brown chicken pieces in olive oil in dutch oven, remove and set aside. Add in onion and garlic, saute. Add in rice and saute until browned. Add in enough beer and chicken broth to cook rice. Add in green and black olives. Tuck chicken pieces back in rice, cover and cook until rice is cooked and chicken is cooked through.
Fried sliced potatoes and onions cooked until very brown then sprinkled wirh vinegar and soy sauce.
