Food/Drink

Habaneros

Mom sent me a text this morning (that by itself is pretty remarkable) asking if I wanted to go to Eastern Market with her. She was looking for local figs, particularly brown turkey figs, and heard that there might be some down there. We did find a farmer’s stall that had about 2.5 pounds of them. She bought those. We were also able to buy about six pounds of black mission figs. They are sweeter but for making preserves, that isn’t really necessary. Their flavor isn’t all that different, though, so I suspect they will be quite good enough. While mom was buying her figs, I took some pictures of peppers. These are habaneros and I sort of think this might make a nice jigsaw puzzle. That’s something I’ve been meaning to do for a while.

As an acquaintance of ours once said, after biting into a pepper thinking it was a green bean, “Wow, that’s hot!”

Corned Beef King

Have you seen a pictures of people with their fathers on Instagram, Facebook, or other social media outlets? They are fairly ubiquitous. I could dig out a photo of me with my dad from back in the day. Or I could post a picture of Dorothy with her father (that’s me, of course). But instead I thought I’d show you where she took me for lunch. We see these trucks around town quite often. I’m a dedicated meatitarian, of course, so they sound pretty good to me. They are based in Olney and in addition to the trucks, they serve from a counter inside the Exxon on the corner of N. High Street and Georgia Avenue. If you like corned beef (or ham, roast beef, turkey, etc.) then you could do a lot worse than having a sandwich at Corned Beef King, either from their fixed location (as we did) or from one of their trucks. Thanks, Dorothy.

Blueberry Scones

I do most of the cooking at home and in general I do a decent job of it. At least for the most part I don’t get too many complaints. Of course if you complain about the cooking, you better be prepared to do your own after that. I don’t do a lot of baking, though. It certainly isn’t that I don’t like baked good, but I am trying to limit my carbohydrate intake a bit. Nevertheless, when Maggie made scones (English toffee yesterday and these blueberry scones today), I happily enjoyed them. This evening was a bit of a bummer on other fronts and by the time I got around to taking a picture for today, I really didn’t feel like it, but these scones were delicious and made a good subject. We had them with Devon double cream.

Bell Peppers

I did some grocery shopping this evening, picking up a few essentials as well as things I’ve been wanting. You know the drill, I’m sure. Anyway, I had my camera with me. Although I usually have my camera with me, I often don’t take it with me when I go to the grocery store (or any store, for that matter). When I’m outdoors, especially in the woods or even walking around the neighborhood, saying I’m have it to take pictures of what I find sounds perfectly reasonable. But in the store, what am I going to find? Well, I might find a bin full of wonderful, bright red, bell peppers. I don’t eat them myself. Bell peppers are one of a handful of things I’d prefer to avoid (but it’s sometimes hard). But I agree they are lovely to look at.

Sous Vide Pork Chop

For Christmas, I was given a sous vide appliance. It’s a small device with a heating element and a mechanism for circulating heated water. The device is placed on the side of a deep pot and filled to the proper depth. The desired temperature and cooking time is set and the water is heated to the requested temperature. The pork chops are placed in sealed bags and the air is suctioned out (which is where sous vide gets its name, from the French for “under vacuum”). It’s a fairly slow method of cooking but the meat retains its moisture. A quick sear after its done and its ready to eat. Pork chops with sauteed apples and green beans.

Pealed Clementine

Usually I peel a clementine by starting at one end and spiralling around until I get to the other end. That produces a nice, s-shaped piece that looks something like the integral symbol, ∫, used in calculus. This evening I tried something different. One ray of the star is longer than the others because it includes the opposite end. I suppose with a little effort I could do this so that they were all the same. Maybe next time. For now, I’ll just enjoy the fruit.

Cheese Board

I brought an assortment of cheeses to a small get together this evening. I had planned simply to put them out on a cutting board but Hope wanted to label them and had a black board and a piece of chalk. We arranged them (roughly) from mildest to stinkiest (right to left, although the Swiss should have been on the far right) and put them out with crackers and some slices of salami. Together with Theresa’s salad and a carafe of wine, it made a nice meal.

Dogfish Head 60-Minute IPA

With appologies to Martin Denny and Leon Pober (and Don Ho, I suppose). Cathy and I went out to dinner this evening with our young friend, Julia. I happened to order a beer, Dogfish Head 60-Minute IPA. With it sitting on the table in front of a small lamp, I was mesmerized by the tiny bubbles floating up through the amber liquid. This photograph doesn’t really do them justice but it’s the best of the few I took, so it will have to do. The bubbles show up here as find lines as the bubbles rise through the beer during the 1/6 second exposure (f/16).

Strip Steak

I admit to being something of a foodie, but certainly not fanatically so. I do enjoy a good steak. There were bone-in, strip steaks on sale at Safeway the other day ($6.99 per pound) and I bought a few. I know they’re better cooked on a grill over charcoal or even cooked under the broiler of my electric oven, but this evening I cooked them in a pan. Well seared and still red in the middle, they’re not at all bad prepared that way, seasoned only with salt and black pepper. Cathy isn’t a fan of even moderately rare meat, needs to have no pink left, so I cut her steak off the bone, divided it into four thinner pieces and removed most of the fat around the edges. I cooked hers the same amount of time as my much thicker steak. That way, we’re both happy.

Frozen Fish

Dorothy and I went to Latte Plaza in Aspen Hill this evening. In the two weeks since I was there last, it’s undergone a fairly significant transformation from a mostly Asian supermarket to a mostly Hispanic supermarket. There’s nothing wrong with that, unless you are looking for Asian foods. The produce, fish, and meat departments have changed less than the rest of the store and this picture of frozen, cleaned fish is emblematic of that. We also went to the Great Wall Supermarket in Rockville, which is very much a Chinese grocery and has a terrific produce department.

Sushi

Dorothy’s tastes have expanded quite a lot since she was a little girl. When she was seven we were in Italy and all she would eat was pasta with butter. If we had gone to Japan, she’s have stuck to rice. Now, she likes sushi and asked if we could go for sushi one evening while she’s home. So, we went to Niwano Hana in Rockville and had a good assortment. Cathy ordered sweet potato rolls (nearest to the camera) and Almendras rolls (shrimp tempura with almond and avocado, the four in the middle). Dorothy got Alaskan rolls (smoked salmon, cream cheese and cucumber) and Volcano roll (shrimp & crab stick tempura, avocado, cucumber, smelt-egg, ao-nori flake, spicy mayo, the mountain on the left). I had Salmango rolls (avocado, tobiko, salmon and mango) and Rainbow rolls (and assortment including tuna, white fish, salmon, yellowtail, shrimp, crab stick, cucumber), which are the two rows farthest from the camera.

Five Guys

Cathy and I went to work together today because our second car is on loan temporarily. That did complicate the evening a little because I have my men’s group on Tuesday evenings and Cathy has indoor soccer. When we have two cars, I come home, fix myself dinner, and then head back into town for the meeting. This evening Cathy dropped me off and I walked to the Plaza to pick up something to eat. I took a few pictures, mostly of the Christmas lights and then went into Five Guys to buy a burger. While I was waiting for that to be made, I took this with the camera sitting on a table. It’s a 1/2 second exposure at f/9.9.

Oliebollen

Today was the annual Christmas Bazaar at Washington Christian Academy and Cathy and I spent a good while there, mostly visiting with people we don’t see as often, now that Dorothy has graduated and been gone from the school for more than two years. Of course we enjoyed our annual oliebollen. These, if you are not familiar with this Dutch treat, are deep fat fried dough balls coated with sugar. I prefer the granulated sugar variety (pictured here) and Cathy goes for powdered sugar. They are generally available with or without raisins but the without variety had sold out by the time I bought ours. I prefer with, anyway.

Apples

Once again I don’t have a lot to say about today’s picture. The title really gives you all the information you need. These are apples. I believe these are ‘Gala’ apples, to be more specific, and I bought them at Latte Plaza for $0.69 per pound, which is about as good a price as you’re going to get apples. Recently our local Safeway has started carrying ‘Envy’ apples, which I like quite a bit but which seem to vary in price quite a bit from one visit to the next.

Pepper

This pepper has been sitting in our kitchen and started to dry out. I threw a few other away but kept this one to let it dry a little more and today I took a few pictures of it. I don’t really have a lot to say other than that. It’s red, it’s got texture, and it’s shiny. Actually, it’s not terribly dry yet and after I took the picture, I threw the pepper away. In any case, here you are. It’s enough to keep my streak alive. Only four more days until I reach 2,100.

Mothers Day Meal at Bombay Bistro

Sorry for the delay in posting this. Cathy and I took our mom’s to Bombay Bistro for Mother’s Day and had a very nice visit and, as usual there, a great meal. This is my plate, featuring (clockwise from left) Aloo Gobhi, Lamb Rogan Josh, Chicken Madras, and Chicken Tikka Makhani. In the upper right is a piece of Naan and there are two sauces in the middle. The darker one is sweet and the greet one is spicy and has cilantro. We also had some raita, a sauce made with yogurt and cucumber.

Three Dogfish Brews

I met with the guys (or “the guys”) this evening for dinner at the Dogfish Head Alehouse. Between the five of us we ordered four different beers. Ben and David had the beer on the right in this picture, which is the 90 minute IPA (if I’m remembering correctly), an Imperial India Pale Ale. The one in the middle is mine, the Indian Brown Ale. I don’t actually remember which one Juan had, on the left. I’m thinking it was Palo Santo Marron, but that may be totally wrong. Anyway, both beers and burgers were excellent.

Hospital Meal

As if being in hospital isn’t bad enough, you have to suffer with hospital food. We were at Montgomery General this evening visiting a friend who has been there since Wednesday and this is the dinner they sent him. Doesn’t it look wonderful? No? I agree, it’s pretty sad. It brings back memories of junior high and high school lunches. Bleak. As Terry was ordering it for him, Marc said, “Order whatever you want, I’m not eating it.” The cherry tomatoes don’t look too bad.

Pork Chop and Sugar Snap Peas

One of my favorite meats is a cured pork chop from the Lancaster County Dutch Market in Germantown (https://www.lcdutchmarket.com/). I love the rich, salty flavor of cured pork and they don’t dry out when cooked as plan pork chops tend to do. Of course, I brine plain pork chops so they won’t dry out, bu these don’t need that treatment. This evening I pan seared them and topped them with a smokey apricot sauce and served them with sugar snap peas. It turned out very well and was a very satisfying meal. I could have eaten two of them, but that’s another story. One was god.

Clementine

After all the pictures from the trip downtown yesterday, I have much less to show for myself today. It was a quiet day and I did a little shopping but mostly stayed around the house and had a quiet day reading. In the evening I started to peal a clementine. After pealing it, which I almost always do in this fashion, I laid the pieces out and took a few pictures. It got me wondering, because I never really thought about it before, how a clementine relates to a tangerine. Turns out that a tangerine (Citrus tangerina) is closely related to, or possibly a type of, mandarin orange (C. reticulata). The clementine (C. x clementina), on the other hand, is a hybrid between a Mediterranean C. × deliciosa and a sweet orange (C. x sinensis) which in turn are BOTH hybrids (but different hybrids) of a pomelo (C. maxima) and mandarin (C. reticulata). It’s complicated.