A heavenly brunch…

That’s the best way to describe the experience last Sunday at Woodberry Kitchen… We’re fortunate to have this place close by.  Just one of the reasons is their passion for local food.

Here’s some background from their website:

…from farm to table, Woodberry Kitchen features the seasonal best from local growers and emphasizes organic meats and sustainable agriculture. Our goal is to nourish and delight our guests with cooking grounded in the traditions and ingredients of the Chesapeake region.

At first visit when it opened, it was so easy to be immediately captivated by the cozy surroundings.  I’m the type that when I go out, the atmosphere is just as important as the meal, and Woodberry finds the delicate balance beautifully and has maintained it even as the buzz increased and reservations became tough to come by.  They are dedicated to what they do and it shows through in each detail. 

This was our first shot at brunch here, so we had some decisions to make.

Half of the menu. 

The Full Monty- Bloody Mary with with shrimp, candied bacon, Natty Boh chaser

Yes! CANDIED Bacon!  Absolutely delicious. And the Natty Boh was actually a really refreshing sip to follow the bloody. 

French Toast   Housemade challah & cinnamon/honey butter

This was an app for D and I’m cool with that, I got to sneak a bite or 2 5. That butter will be recreated in my house with some Earth Balance.

Crab Benedict    Hollandaise, crab cake, potatoes, house-griddled English muffin

This was mine. I pushed the hollandaise off and let the richness of the broken yolks work their magic.  The crab cakes were phenomenal and those potatoes in the foreground? Fantastic.

I just loved the water bottles and shorty glasses left on the table.  Do you see those windows?!  The sunshine pouring in at 10:30am kept us warm and cozy after coming in from the cold morning.

Steak & Eggs   Culotte, pan-fried eggs, onions, bearnaise, skillet potatoes, trencher

This was D’s.  The steak is hiding under the egg.  This steak was so tender it melted like short ribs.  And- as with most of the offerings at WK- it’s from a local farm. 

This pic is from Bon Appetit’s website and does the space better justice than where I was seated, which named our local spot one of the Top 10 Best New Restaurants in America in 2009. Are any of the others on the list near you?

 

Some additional shots of the place.

The open kitchen and prep area. 

If you are ever in Baltimore, go here! Better yet, I’ll go with you!

Have a great weekend!

“The best espresso I’ve ever had” -D

Easy Spicy Miso Soup

It seemed like it took winter forever to get here, and now it won’t go away.  It’s a good reason to warm up with easy one pot soups, which equals less clean up, which equals more time on the couch/under covers/snuggled up. 

1. Grab the key ingredients:

2. Get your water boiling with your miso

It’s a hefty tablespoon with about 2 cups water

3. Add veg of choice

After the miso and water come to a boil, stir to break up the paste and bring to a simmer.  I added carrot (I used a peeler to make short strips so it wouldn’t take long to get tender) and some mushrooms.  If you want to add the spicy Sriracha, do it here as well.  I added about 1 tsp, but it is hot! So adjust to your liking.  If you don’t have sriracha, try red pepper flakes and rice wine vinegar.  Sriracha has a heat but also a little tanginess. 

4. Garnish and eat!

Topped with cilantro. 

These were the ingredients I had handy, but would have liked to add some scallions to the mix.  What resulted here is a savory, spicy soup that warms from the inside out. 

You could also use veggie or chicken stock if you have it handy for some more flavor.  I like how the miso and chili sauce work on their own.

What is your favorite soup?

This gal in the suset of her 20s is jumping on Tina’s Lose the Dough for the Big 3-0… if you aren’t 29, we can come up with some other sweet rhymes to fit the bill. 

New Spoon!!!

Impromptu Date Night

  

Ever have a less-than-ideal situation turn out to be something great? This happened recently when D had to meet me about 45 minutes from home because I left my keys with him earlier that day in a knight in shining armor move.  The least I could do to repay him was feed him, so we took the opportunity to try a new restaurant, which led us to Thai Pavillion in Rockville.

 

 

  

Pic was taken on the fly, but it does the place justice, much more ‘modern looking’ than any other Thai place I’ve visited before, a bit trippy for my taste, but the taste that really matters was the food, and it did not disappoint (unlike my segue).

  

 

HIS: Rice noodles in green curry sauce with chicken, basil and red peppers (above) and beef satay (below)

 

 

He, being our resident carnivore and head of the meat department, decided he was a bigger fan of the beef satay than the chicken. I loved the green curry sauce and rice noodles in the chicken dish.  The coconut flavor was subtle and it had a nice hidden spiciness that wasn’t too powerful. 

 

If you don’t have much experience with thai food, satay is a good starter dish if you are interested in expanding your food horizons.  It’s simply a dish made from small pieces of meat or fish grilled on a skewer and served with a spicy peanut sauce.     

 

I, being the head of the veggie department, went sans noodles and chose the shrimp red curry with green beans and red pepper.  This was spicy and delicious! All the green beans had a wonderful crunch and everything was so fresh.  The shrimp were tender and there was a great garlic flavor throughout. 

 

We passed on dessert and made the trip to my office to pick up my car home.  Having an hour or so to sit down and have a nice dinner out gave us a chance to break from our routines and talk to each other, which doesn’t always happen on the weekdays.  We’d definitely come back here if we ever find ourselves in the area again. 

 

Anything not go according to plan for you and turn into something really good? I doubt we would have made the plans to go out if not for our little happy accident, but it really worked out. 

 

What’s your favorite Thai dish?

Rent’s Due!

I’m a little slow in the resolution making/planning/committing, but getting there.  For some reason this year it’s felt a bit overwhelming…could be the looming 3-0, but who knows.  Finding lots of  great bloggers out  there has  been a  highlight of the second half  of  2009, so being a better, more frequent blogger is on there; and finding new fun blogs for inspiration…

Hopefully there’s a resolution grace period of 5 days like when you pay rent?

Edit: This is being published today eventhough I wrote it yesterday.  Wooops…

OK and a more punctual blogger…

I’m such a grandma with my lack of computer/wordpress savvy so each post takes me way longer than it should. 

Anyone want to take on a charity case and show me some tips? There’s something in it for ya, name your price. 

This could be us!

A big thanks to all the bloggers that share their vision, recipes, thoughts, reviews and pieces of themselves through their writing.  It’s been refreshing to see that there are open minded people looking to share ideas with others, having wellness in mind, all while being respectful of each person’s unique path to attaining it. 

To 2010

The Stuff Snowdays are Made of

This weekend was to be spent wrapping up (yes, I guess pun intended) all of my holiday shopping but rather was spent under about 22 inches of snow starting on Saturday. 

Panic? Nah. Pancakes? Yes! If you can’t beat em…

These are White Chocolate Buckwheat Pumpkin pancakes with ginger-pumpkin-maple syrup…what? Yup.  I had juiced a bunch of ginger and added a touch to my maple syrup.  Then added some of the pumpkin to thicken it up a bit.  The spicy ginger went nicely with the sweet syrup and the pumpkin flavor in the pancakes.  I’d go with regular choc chips next time.  White chocolate just has not made its way up the list.  All warmed up on the inside, D and I decided to take a trip to Federal Hill to check out the city and see who came out to play.

People brought sleds, trash can lids, air mattresses, innertubes, snowboards, you name it… Any way to get down the hill.  Some of the folks were nice enough to let D and I take a ride on their sleds.  It’s so great how friendly everyone is on days like this; out for the same reason.  To relax and just HAVE FUN!

We decided to make a pit stop on the way home at one of our favorite neighborhood bars, the Abbey.  They have a great beer list and build your own burgers of all kinds.  Next time we go for dinner I’ll put up pics, but here’s what I headed for first. 

MMM Beer...

Corsendonk Christmas Ale.  Not too heavy, not too light.  Really hit the spot.  Then, some other brave souls made the trek out to meet us.

Snowbuddies

 After a while it was time to head home and get in some pj’s to do it all again on Sunday. 

We decided to get out earlier on Sunday but had to get priorities straight.  Chili inside before chilly outside, clearly.

Left this to sit in the crockpot for about 5-6 hours on low.  Here’s the ingredient list for basic slow cooker chili

-  1 lb veal (or any ground beef of your choice)

- 1 onion, chopped

- 2 cloves garlic, minced

- 1 green bell pepper, chopped

- 2 cans red kidney beans, drained

- 1 can whole peeled tomatoes with juice

- 10-12 oz beer (I ised Dogfish Palo Santo Marron, you can use any kind of stock or broth for the liquid to flavor as you wish)

- 1 TB chili powder

- 1/2 TB dried oregano

- 1 tsp ground toasted cumin

- 1 TB dried cilantro

- S&P

- cayenne/red pepper flakes to desired heat level

Sautee onion in 1-2 TB olive oil for a minute or two and then add meat to brown.  Transfer to slow cooker, leaving as much fat behind in the pan as possible.  Add green pepper to pan with garlic (I added the cumin in with these to toast it up a bit more, also added chopped parsley because I had some to use. You can sub dried parsley if you wish) for about 3 minutes, transfer to slow cooker.  Add drained beans and add tomatoes and juice, crushing the tomatoes with your hands as you add.  Throw in dried seasonings and add liquid.  Cook on low 6-8 hours or high 3-4. Then go for a walk to take in your snow covered city.

Recognize this scenery here? It was recently featured in an impromptu snow day photo shoot by this lovely lady!

 

There’s a little American flag in the background on top of that hill across the water.  That’s where the sledding party was on Saturday

We figured since we were walking that far on our picture taking mission, we might as well stop in at the gym and be productive.  The place was deserted, it was like having a private little playground to enjoy.  Worth the stop for sure!  After the workout  playtime, we headed home.  But before we got there, we made a quick stop to catch some of the Eagles game

(photo from Magerk’s website)

Obviously since we’re in Baltimore, we’re in Ravens country, and with their game on at the same time as the Eagles, the only way to catch it is to go to an Eagles bar Convenient programming.  Usually the place is mobbed and this was no exception, but D and I lucked out and found some hidden tables in the back next to some nice folks out to enjoy the game.  After the first half (and a cheese steak for D later) we headed home to chili. 

That’s probably where a picture of it should be, but we were so ready for food (yes, a cheese steak is only a snack for D) that we just broke out the tortilla chips, topped with avocado and ate.  The malty Palo Santo tasted great with a stronger flavored meat like veal.  When I make chili with chicken or turkey I tend to use pilsners.  The first chili recipe I ever tried called for beer so I’ve used that to base all other meat/chili combos ever since. Again, convenient.  The alcohol cooks off so it only imparts the flavor of the beer in your food. 

Have you tried it? What’s your favorite winter food? Favorite winter playtime activity? Running up the hill after sledding is a serious workout! Especially in all the snowgear you layer on!

Oh PS- There was cookie making too I based the recipe off of this one, but made changes (like a gluten free baking mix instead of the buckwheat and sorgham flour it called for)

They aren’t the cookies of my childhood, but it was certainly a great experience to try baking with xanthan gum and other ingredients.  I’m also realizing I should have put a cooling rack on my list to Santa.  Parchment paper and paper shopping bags will have to do! Looks like everyone’s getting cookies for Christmas!

Hope your weekend was wonderful!!!