Pastrami, Amendments, and Spatchcocks, Oh My

Is it just me, or is anyone else having trouble believing that we're barreling into the holiday season and there's only two more days til I'm bus-bound for Long Island? Perhaps it's just been the busy nature of this fall (the previously alluded to hectic time at work, Hurricane Sandy, the 2012 elections), but it just doesn't feel like it's nearly Christmastime yet. I, for one, am still writing 'October' on everything and refusing to pull out my warm jacket. It won't be winter until I say so, damnit.

As much as I try to deny it, this weekend certainly had the feel of a busy holiday season. Friday night we took it easy and decided to try out the new Jewish-deli inspired restaurant in Dupont Circle. Since Jewish deli food is hard to come by in this area (and it's one of my favorite cuisines, naturally), I'd been eagerly awaiting this place for some time now.

 The verdict?

Latkes with Apple Preserve and Creme Fraiche

As my grandmother would say, "Eh, better than a sharp stick in the eye." However, it wasn't my favorite. The cocktails, pickles and latkes we ordered were all excellent. But the pastrami sandwiches we both ordered tasted more like ham than pastrami.

Yes. You read that right. Ham.

The pastrami wannabe

Yes, I know it wasn't actually ham. And I don't keep kosher and normally enjoy ham very much. But when I order a pastrami sandwich in a Jewish deli (albeit on delicious homemade rye bread with house-crafted mustard), it's a little disconcerting to be tasting what appears to be honey-baked and spiral cut. I'll go back to try their other offerings, but I'd advise them to re-think their pastrami brine recipe.

Saturday morning I ran errands, then joined some friends for another long-anticipated event:

This government major was highly impressed. My only quibble was that I wish I had read up on the 13th Amendment and the history surrounding it before going to the movie - I learned so much that I wish I had a little knowledge base going into the theater. That being said, that's my fault and not the movie's -- The makeup, acting, directing and writing were all spot-on. I'll definitely be going to see this one again.

After the movie I roasted some chicken for our dinner and tried out a new cooking technique that has very quickly become my new favorite word: SPATCHCOCK.

Sorry, this looks kind of gross. But I wanted you to see how to do it for yourself.

SPATCHCOCKING (I can't stop!) is when you cut out the backbone of the bird you intend to roast, allowing you to flatten it out on your roasting pan and get a greater ratio of crispy skin to roasted meat. (Plus, if you're into making your own chicken stock, you can save the backbone in your freezer until you're ready to make stock.) I roasted the chicken with some baby potatoes, asparagus and mushrooms, which let the veggies cook in the chicken juices.

Finished product

I served it alongside roasted carrots and parsnips, which I'd never tried before but which were surprisingly delicious. We invited our friends over at the last minute (they live on the floor below me, which makes last-minute dinner invitations possible), and served everything with a few generous helpings of red wine.

Perhaps too generous, since I woke up Sunday reminding myself that opening a third bottle of wine is never, ever a good idea. After a revitalizing breakfast sandwich and trip to the Dupont farmer's market, I met up with some friends for a manicure and a pre-Thanksgiving spin class.

Favorite coffee mug and my very first shellac manicure

Some of you may remember that I've written about my awful habit of picking off my manicure -- The solution, I've discovered, is a shellac manicure. I've never had one before, so I'm pretty amazed with it so far. Will not chip!

What have you been up to on your final weekend before the holiday season? Are you picky about your pastrami? Have you ever gotten a shellac manicure? Are you planning on spatchcocking any birds this week? Leave a comment and let me know!

Menu Monday and Weekend Recap

 Happy Monday, everybody! This past weekend was a busy one -- unfortunately I didn't get nearly enough 'responsible' tasks done, like laundry, my homework, or my housecleaning. However I definitely got a lot of the "fun" things crossed off my to-do list, such as:

1. Make a Caramel Apple Tart

Mine did not come out nearly as beautifully as Deb's, but it was certainly tasty and I got to take my new, totally-unnecessary-purchase mandolin out for a whirl. Plus, I got to learn firsthand why pastry chefs call hot caramel "edible napalm" due to a hot pan gone awry (as documented in this tweet.)

2. Go hiking in Great Falls National Park

When its a beautiful fall day in DC, it's only natural to head out to the wilderness to enjoy the amazing weather and fall colors.

Unfortunately, everyone else in DC will have that same idea. This is the line to enter the park.

It took us over 2 hours to complete a 30 minute trip to Great Falls Park in McLean, VA. However once we FINALLY arrived we made good use of our remaining daylight hours and saw some beautiful views as a result.

We hiked the River Trail, which follows the Potomac and has some truly spectacular views of the Falls.

We stopped on the way home for some fresh cider, then settled in for some dinner and our favorite TV night - Once Upon a Time, Revenge, and Boardwalk Empire!

Dinner - Chicken Milanese with Roasted Broccoli

In food-related news, here's what I had cooking this past week:

1. *Chili Baked Potato*

This was a great way to use up leftover chili, plus stretch a meal into two! We baked the potatoes until they were crispy, then added the chili and our toppings. It doesn't seem like a lot of food but the potato will fill you up fast. Plus when you use Greek yogurt instead of sour cream and low-fat cheese, it's really not too bad for you.

2. * Sausage-Stuffed Zucchini, courtesy of SkinnyTaste*

 These turned out to be a huge hit - they were delicious, a cinch to throw together, and infinitely adaptable.

3. *Jambalaya-like concoction, adapted from Beantown Prepster*

 Please excuse the photo, because this was probably the most delicious meal of the week. I started with MVB's recipe for Spicy Skillet Rice, but when I read over the recipe I thought to myself, "This looks sort of like jambalaya." I subbed chicken stock for the water, threw in chicken andouille sausage from Trader Joes, and added a TON of hot sauce -- the result was a pretty tasty substitute for Cajun cooking!

What have you been cooking lately?

xoxo,

b

NYC Photo Bomb

While autumn in DC is indisputably the best time of year, there's something completely special about October in NY. SK and I went up to visit friends this weekend and we had the perfect blend of seeing old friends, visiting family, and being tourists.

We got in Friday night and stayed in at our friend's apartment while partaking in takeout sushi (a rare treat in DC that I love to take advantage of when in NY.) Saturday started with coffee from Marche du Sud and a quick trip to the bagel place to pick up breakfast, which we ate in a local park.

My definition of breakfast joy: Sesame flat, toasted, with veggie CC.

After breakfast we headed over to see the Intrepid. The Intrepid was a Naval Aircraft carrier that served in WWII, the Cold War, the Vietnam War, and was used as a recovery vessel for NASA Space missions. To be quite honest, I had no idea that it was docked in NY, but the boys were really enthusiastic about seeing it, so off we went.

Hard to see, but this is a Lego model of the boat (ship?) with a Lego crew member overboard.

My favorite part - at the top of the boat they had crew members who had served their tours on board who volunteered to answer vistor's questions.

After we finished up at the Intrepid, we headed uptown to visit my sister at her apartment on the Upper West Side. Since we had a dinner reservation on the East Side, we took a quick walk through Central Park.

We had an hour to kill before dinner, so we stopped into the Met to do a "Greatest Hits" tour, seeing the Egypt exhibit, the rooftop garden, the European Masters paintings, and the Greek and Roman statues.  Now, normally I would recommend at LEAST half a day in the Met, if not more. I hated to rush through any of the exhibits. BUT! We only had an hour, and I was determined for SK to see at least some of the Met. Since he loved it, I'm seeing this as a prequel to many future visits.

Are you my mummy?

Hey, lion.

View from the rooftop

Van Gogh, a personal favorite

After our whirlwind "introductory" Met visit, we headed to Flex Mussels on E 82nd. They're a seafood restaurant with over 20 preparations of steamed mussels. Since we usually stay with friends when we're in the city it's not often that we get a night where it's just the two of us, but our hosts had a family dinner to attend so we wound up with a "just us" date night.

We both started off with a "Flex-Side" cocktail - Gin, lemon, lime, and lemongrass syrup (that I will almost certainly working to recreate at home). We also shared some delish seafood:

"Burnt Fingers": Fried seafood platter

We shared the Littleneck Mussels: Bacon, Chopped Clams, Red Pepper, Bread Crumbs

Highly recommend. (That is, if you're a mussels fan. They didn't have a whole lot to offer non-seafood eaters.)

Since we did so much on Saturday, we took it easy on Sunday and shared our football spirit with the rest of Second Avenue.

I also met up with former roomie Michelle for a ladies brunch at Ze Cafe. Another great find (randomly selected through last-minute Yelping.) I had the Bruleed Oatmeal (since it's difficult for me to resist bruleed anything) and Michelle had lemon ricotta crepes. A perfect way to start a rainy Sunday.

After watching some truly disappointing football, we headed back to our friend's apartment for some pizza and an early night - we took a 7:30 AM bus back to DC yesterday morning.

What were you up to this weekend?

xoxo,

b

Roosevelt Island and the Social Safeway

On Sunday we took advantage of the unsettlingly-unseasonal weather to visit the Teddy Roosevelt Memorial, a little-known island in between DC and Virginia on the Potomac.

(Side note: Did you know that Teddy Roosevelt is a very famous NEW YORKER? With a summer home on LONG ISLAND? Obviously a fan favorite in the little b house. Also, did you know that "Teddy Bears" are, according to legend, so named because TR was once hunting and let some bear cubs go because they were too cute to kill?)


While the monument itself was pretty cool, the island overall was more woodsy than I was expecting. Given that TR was an early naturalist and conservationist, it makes a certain amount of sense. The memorial has beautiful wooded trails going around the entire length of the island, with a statue and more traditional memorial in the center.


Afterwards, we stopped at the much-fabled Social Safeway of Georgetown. For those of you not from the DC area, we nickname our Safeways: There's the Unsafe-Safeway (located in South East DC); the Soviet Safeway (so named because they NEVER have anything that you need there. Ever.); The Secret Safeway (it's actually hidden); and the Social Safeway, where the rich and powerful (or young and looking for love) meet.

The Social Safeway underwent an extensive renovation last year and re-opened in 2010 with an unbelievable amount of fanfare. (Don't believe me? Check it out.) Since we were in the neighborhood we decided to check it out.

Believe the hype, people.

In addition to a walk-in, temperature-controlled wine room (selling high-end wines), a ham bar (selling specialty imported hams), an eat-in sushi bar, and a dry cleaners, they have a produce section with foods that I have never in my life seen or heard of:

Exhibit A: A rambutan. (Here you go.)

And of course, what grocery experience would be complete without a visit to the fully-staffed nut bar?

Happy Thanksgiving everybody -- I'll be on my way to New York tomorrow!!!

xoxo,

b

Weekend Recap - Fall Fun!

Admit it - is there anything more fall-ish than apple picking at the farm?

No, I think not.

Saturday we headed out to Homestead Farms in Maryland to pick apples...and stock up on the oh-so-necessary unusual pumpkins and big gourds:

Sunday was spent using the fruits of my labors - no pun intended. If you want to make your kitchen smell heavenly (and expend very little effort for something delicious), might I suggest Slow-Cooker Apple Butter (a la Skinnytaste?)

Also, as a way to kick-off the week: I give you "Treat Yourself 2011 (The Best Day of the Year!)"

xoxo,
b