We were on U Street looking for someplace to eat, and we found a wine bar in one of those high-rise apartments that look like character-free symbols of gentrification. Yet wine bars are no longer a trend, and if you’re looking for them, these are the kinds of places where they shall be found. Plus,…

Steamed broccoli with vinegar and soy sauce. It’s common to hear people around my age say they never know where the time all went and you wake up one morning to realize that months or years have gone by. Everyone seems to agree with this. It’s one of those prewritten remarks you can use at…

Someone brought brownies to the office with oreos in the center and a peanut butter layer on the bottom. This was almost enough to get me through the day, and a lot tastier than the mustard greens I had for dinner, which had a burning, bitter taste. I had to mask them with honey. I…

We had pizza late at work while I tried to keep my eyes away from the TV I end up looking at all day across the hallway from my office. There is too much happening for me to think. (Photo: Istanbul, 2004.) >> June 29 << June 27

Hamburgers with mustard greens and wasabi ketchup. We tried a rosé from western Maryland which gives local wine a good name, but it had a sweet edge to it that would have been better with chicken. (Photo: National War Correspondents Memorial, Gathland State Park, Maryland.) >> June 28 << June 26

I spent part of the afternoon pitting cherries, and like trimming the azaleas, which I also did today, it’s a repetitive annual task yielding pleasant rewards over time. In June, I usually buy cherries in bulk at a farmers market and save them for the fall and winter when I’m in the mood for a…

I couldn’t quite believe it, but despite how many cookbooks I have (don’t even bother to ask), many of them with a Mediterranean bent, I don’t have a good recipe for lamb kabobs. Joy of Cooking suggests marinating them in yogurt, which worked fine except they tended to stick to the grill. We dipped them…