Miscellany

Good News...The camera is working...I gave it a few days of light work to see what the results would be...all appears fine. But I think I should start saving a few extra bucks a month in a camera fund in case it starts complaining too much after the fall.

Here is the pre-baked spaghetti squash from the other night. Yum. We have one more and are going to share it with some friends some night. Can't wait.


Thursday to Sunday, we had family in town. Which means sight seeing and dinner and lunch out. We went to Jaleo and had a lovely lunch with the family and some of their friends who live locally. I enjoyed a lovely bowl of rice pudding after my meal. Just the right amount of sweet, with a light lemon flavor. Wonderful.


Friday night I made dinner at home. Here are white sweet potatoes that I made. They are virtually the same as the orange/pink sweet potatoes. I was surprised, as I was peeling the tubers, they started to discolor; like apples and avocados when exposed to air. I don't remember this happening the last time I made them. So, they were peeled, chopped and placed in a pot of water. I boiled them until tender and mashed them with a bit of butter, salt and pepper. Divine.

I also made my first roast chicken. Here's the flavoring. Garlic, Rosemary and Lemon.


Here's the bird. She was pretty good. The technique came from Martha Stewart's new book; Martha Stewart's Cooking School. A lovely book by the way. So, rinse the chicken, take out the reserved parts the manufacturer gives you, then pat the chicken dry. Rub a little butter on the skin and season with salt and pepper, inside and out. Stuff lemon, garlic and rosemary into the cavity. Roast at 450 for about and hour. Let rest for 10 minutes, carve and enjoy. I under cooked my chicken by about 5-10 minutes...my thermometer is shot...so I carved around those parts and enjoyed the rest.


I also enjoyed a glass of wine. I tasted raisins, chocolate and dried strawberries. Mmmmm.


On Saturday we had some folks over, so I made soups. It was a Souper Party. We had Butternut Squash Bisque, Corn Chowder and Chili Verde. Here's the butternut squash bisque cooking. Everyone seemed to have their own favorite soup, which is exactly what I was hoping for. The bisque was the mildest. I expected the chili verde to be super spicy, but it was my heavy had on the cayenne pepper with the chowder that made the creamiest soup the spiciest! Yeah!!!!


Here are the main ingredients for the chili verde; tomatillos, garlic and peppers. Roast them under the broiler for about 10 minutes until charred and soft. Whiz quickly in the blender, then stew for a few hours with some spices and meat.


Sunday we brought the family back to the airport, so we decided to head to Del Ray, VA for brunch and some fun shopping. We ate at Evening Star Cafe. What a sweet little place.

Evening Star Cafe
2000 Mount Vernon Avenue
Alexandria, VA 22301
703.549.5051


I had the Cinnamon Apple French Toast with sausage. The french toast was great. Eggy and dense, full of flavor and large chunks of apple. The sausage was some of the best sausage I've had at a restaurant in a long time. Very good. I'd go back!

After a few hours of shopping I wanted a snack. I was lured into a little shop for this cookie. Drool. Right? Well, the cookie was good, but the filling. Well, the filling wasn't a cream filling like I thought it was. No, it was marshmallow, which is still prohibited since last year's stomach flu the same day I made marshmallows. My stomach still churns. And the filling was very, very dense, really chewy. But the cookie was good.