365 Days of Food

It is 10 or 20 degrees more than it should be outside and if it were the middle of spring it would feel pleasant, yet now the low angle of sunlight combined with the mild atmosphere and calm winds produces an ongoing sense of unease. I put ground pork on the stove and used the…

Viet brought home Popeye’s chicken and it tasted good, especially if you like eating a whole stick of butter. Actually what I’m thinking of is butter dipped in breadcrumbs, or really it’s the fried butter on a stick that you can buy at the State Fair. The Popeye’s biscuits are soft and warm enough to…

Pasta stew with chicken and tomatoes. This was a less ambitious version of a Catalan dish (fideus a la cassola) in which the noodles are cooked like a risotto with a combination of sausages, chicken pieces, tomatoes, peas, onions, and chicken broth. The full recipe would be good for waking up the senses on a…

Apple strudel. There was a recipe in Cook’s Illustrated that promised to make it easy to bake for “the rest of us,” and this was the kind of step-by-step guide I needed to overcome my unacknowledged fear of baking pastries. I was intimidated by the process of buying and handling phyllo dough, and nervous that…

In the end, the twisting and turnings of the squash plant in my garden produced one medium-sized butternut squash and a small one, enough for one meal. Next year I may decide that squash isn’t worth the investment in space, or alternatively I can make a commitment to devote much of the yard to a…

Our friend had a small party for his dog’s birthday and made Christmas cookies with sprinkles. I’m not one of those people who gets grouchy about holiday decorations going on sale in October; I’m in favor of bright colors, dancing elves, and evergreen boughs, and those who want to offer us a taste of the…

Herb butter, for a steak. I followed a simple Cook’s Illustrated recipe and mixed softened butter with parsley and chives, and when the cooking was finished, I spread the butter over the steak and let it rest under aluminum foil. The meat tasted hearty and flavorful even when it ended up a bit overcooked. (Photo:…

Chicken, braised with carrots. I used cumin and coriander to give it a basic Moroccan profile and then cooked in beef broth, which subdued much of the flavor in the end, and I used some of the last of our poblano peppers to make cornbread. (Photo: Side yard, Silver Spring, Maryland.) >> October 14 << October…

Buffalo Billiards. In my mind, along with The Big Hunt, this was the original happy hour bar in D.C. and it’s often the first place people end up when they move here, either because of its proximity to the Dupont Metro or due to its alliterative name. The giant basement room with pool tables and…

I made a version of gazpacho that uses only tomatoes and no other vegetables (and many of the tomatoes I bought are going bad quickly, so we seem to be pushing the end of the season). For this recipe, you include a high proportion of bread crumbs so it ends up very thick, adding just…

We celebrated Viet’s mom’s birthday at 2941, which looks like it’s in a suburban office park (and, in fact, is), except that once you pull into the valet parking area you’re in a landscape of fountains and high ceilings and trees that hide the rest of Northern Virginia from view. For their butternut squash ravioli…

We met friends at Dacha Beer Garden and ordered their pretzels with mustard and a Wurst in a curry sauce. Later, I couldn’t turn away from watching the debate of the century and I finished our bottle of Balvenie rum, neither of which seemed to be good choices in the end. (Photo: Afton Mountain Vineyards,…