Four Questions

When's the next Food Lab?

We were going to do it over the holiday weekend, but illness and schedules intervened, so we're now re-scheduled for Sunday, July 31.  The re-schedule means that we might have a special guest chef join us. Who? You'll just have to wait to find out.

What will you be labbing?

Well, I don't like to give these away in advance, but I can say that it required Chef Spouse to purchase another attachment for the Kitchen Aid mixer AND we have the following accompaniments planned: home brew from Mad Kitchen Scientist, various slaws from Mama IA, and I'll be making the hot pretzels from Food Lab: Boiled Doughs again. That should give you a good clue as to what's on tap.

Are you doing a CSA again this summer?

I am, although it wasn't nearly as much of a challenge as I anticipated last year, so I've opted against blogging about it again. But rest assured I'm still getting weekly deliveries of delicious (mostly) organic produce from our friends at Shallowbrook Farm. So far, I've enjoyed summer squash and Boston bibb lettuce pretty much every week, plus red cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, sugar peas, green beans, Swiss chard, scallions, onions, red potatoes, turnips, rutabagas, beets, green peppers, corn on the cob, strawberries, and blackberries some weeks, plus this week, I got my very first peaches of the season. PEACHES!

Any other exciting food news going on?

Chef Spouse and I have been trying to get out once a week to enjoy all the new restaurants that are popping up in our newly hip neighborhood. Favorites so far include the Atlas Room and Smith Commons, joining old favorites Ethiopic, Granville Moore's, the recently renovated Argonaut, and H Street Country Club. Eat local!

Chef Spouse has perfected his chicken and andouille gumbo recipe - now we're on to experimenting with duck gumbo. Can mastering Prejean's pheasant-duck-andouille gumbo be far behind?

We've been playing around with flavored simple syrups for cocktails - so far, the ginger is the biggest hit.

The grape vines we planted a few years ago (gift from my pops) are LOADED with grapes. We'll see if any survive the annual summer bird onslaught.

Chef Spouse is also working on learning how to properly cook fish this summer. He never liked fish growing up (a real shame for a boy from Cape Cod), but he's realizing it was because it was mostly poor quality and poorly prepared. We can afford good fish, and we're both good cooks, so he's decided it's time to conquer his fear/distaste. Score! (since I love fish)

We've been continuing to enjoy the deep fryer my parents got us for Christmas last year, although we never have gotten around to trying fried Snickers bars again. But I'm kicking some beignet ass, and we continue to enjoy properly made French fries at home from time to time.

We planted a second large pot of Kentucky Colonel mint for juleps this summer, and, predictably, we're now completely overwhelmed with mint. Hmmm - speaking of flavored simple syrups.


So what's new with you?