A Bowl of Soup And Bones

Well, I guess any responsible journalist (which kind of excludes me) has commented on Sunday’s football game, so I’ll pretend and throw in a few lines.  The game was really decided in less time than it will take me to type about it.  When the ill advised return of the opening kickoff from deep in the end zone was followed by the football whizzing past an astonished Peyton Manning’s ear, the die was pretty much cast.  The real nail in the coffin was the second half opening kickoff resulting in the ball traversing the field into the end zone.  Whose rule is it that says nothing is ever as good or bad as it seems?  I really don’t think Denver is THAT bad, nor is Seattle THAT good (despite the testimony of the scoreboard).  To be sure, Denver got whupped, but they beat some pretty good teams along the way.  And see, by now the game was (virtually) over.  I also won’t get into the debate on what makes you a “great” quarterback.  I don’t think counting rings is the correct metric.  By that measure, Mark Rypien is a better quarterback than Dan Marino.. lets bring out the (college) round balls now..

And for something completely different, MFO and I are going up the road today to the NIH in Bethesda so she can participate in a study on Essential Tremor they are conducting. Her symptoms weren’t bad enough at the first screening, but they have decided they need a full spectrum,  so have called her back.  So into the teeth of the storm we go..  back tomorrow.  And speaking of things medical, had an interesting (and frustrating) experience yesterday.  We got a call from the local GP’s office reminding me of my check up appointment today (Tuesday) at one o’clock.  Well, I had completely neglected to get my blood work done plus today’s shenanigans occupy my brain enough, so I decided to postpone the visit for a couple of weeks.

I have mentioned this before, but our local physician’s organization employs phone people who are not of our Nationality.  Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but they do interface with people who are used to conversing in a different language.  So my experience went something like:

Hello, Dr. So and So’s office, may I help you sir?  (any attempt at phonetically duplicating the conversation is abandoned)

Yes, this is (me) and I wish to change an appointment.

And you want to schedule an appointment?

No, I have one and wish to change it.

What is your date of birth?.............. And you are Mr. William?

Yes.  I would like to change my appointment to the 19^th of February

Okay, Mr. Williams, I can schedule that for you, how about (time and place).

Uhh, okay, but just to be sure I am William !

And you wish to schedule an appointment for yourself as well as Mr. Williams?

You get the idea… after few go rounds (and I did NOT lift my voice), we did iron out that Mr. Williams and myself were one in the same person, and only needed one appointment on the 19^th of February..

And the final shot was “Is there anything else I can help you with?”

Anyway, I have found a potential restaurant in Bethesda, and will report probably Thursday.  Have to go back a bag so we can be

DFD

Local Cuisine and Bowling

Well, today IS the day, or yesterday WAS the day if you don’t see this until Monday… 

As you know, I tend to publish or talk about various meaningful articles and pieces I run across about food or bits of this and that..  Usually created by some people whom I, at least, respect.  So I guess it is only fair that I journey to the other end of the spectrum once in a while.

A local person whom I shall refer to as “Robert” is a PROLIFIC Facebook poster, and for the most part has interesting or relevant content.  Relatively few kitties and doggie pictures. So when I saw him “share” (if that is the technical term) a link to “The 9 things you must eat when you’re in Maryland”.  I thought, okay, that sounds interesting, so I clicked on over, which threw me to a page called “Thought Catalog”, and the entry by one Chelsea Fagan.  The page was festooned with ads, and links to her other postings such as “Beautiful Male Celebrities who Prove Glasses are Sexy”.. Hmm.. A food expert to be sure.

I will include a couple sentences from her introduction:

I know that I am biased, but I am also right: Maryland has the best food of any state. The diverse geography, combined with so much proximity to water, has led to an incredible culinary history, and about 17,000 ways to eat crabs.

Somehow, the term “diverse geography” seems odd to me, and yes, there it is, my favorite “B” word.  Red flags going up the flag pole.. and the flag hit the top when I saw the first one was:

All Old Bay Everything – with a small paragraph making an analogy to a “horrible drug” and addiction, was concluded with : just so good, so complex and familiar and warm and FLAWLESS. It is the One Spice To Rule Them All.

Without making this impossibly long, her complete list is:

1.     All Old Bay Everything

2.     Cream of Crab Soup

3.     (sic) Good BBQ

4.     Smith Island Cake

5.     Crab Dip

6.     Oysters

7.     Utz (picture of bag of “the Crab Chip – made with Chesapeake Bay Seasoning”

8.     Natty Boh

9.     Full – On Crabs (hard shells).

I won’t go point by point, but:

Utz – made in Pennsylvania;  Herr’s at least puts an Old Bay brand chips; 

Natty Boh – The beer is currently brewed under contract at the MillerCoors brewing facilities in Eden, NC and Albany, GA, and owned by the Pabst Brewing Company, although they claim 90% of sales are in Baltimore (where it was originally brewed).

Oysters – Admits she hates them but included because of her friends

Hard Crabs – “I didn’t move to Maryland until I was in fifth grade, so I didn’t have that crucial mallet-and-knife training that starts when you’re essentially a toddler”  Anybody knows mallets are for tourists..

I will accept the cake..

And excuse me… where are: crab cakes?  Berger Cookies?  Thrasher’s Fries?  Stuffed Ham?,  oh, did I mention that Chelsea currently lives in Brooklyn, New York..??   Enough.

It’s the Little things that get you

So after ten years (?) the fluorescent tube in our pantry burns out, or at least won’t go on anymore.  Fine.  Zip into Lowe’s pick up a new tube.  Come home, contort and get the new one installed.. click…. Nothing.  Re-install.  Nothing.  Maybe the starter?  Sigh..

Okay, it’s the Bowl

So after two weeks of endless dissection of the statement(s) from Mr. Sherman, comparing the Denver offense to the Seattle secondary, how Peyton throws “ducks”, on and on, at least it will be over today.  We are not attending any function, MFO made some bean soup, we have some lovely shrimp, a piece of Haddock, meat balls, and are inking in the “orange snack” box with some Cheeto Puffs.  We are not having wings, although that seems to be item of choice for the game.  We used to do Cajun stuff ( I guess for the spicy component).  So anyway, at least it will be over today.  I am hoping Peyton gets his second ring.

I am also hoping my little square on the (for recreational purposes only) matrix will be a winner.. and I can never watch a super bowl without remembering what good times we had at a friend’s house up the street.  They've moved on but the memories have not!!

Concert

Heard very good things about the Ganz concert last night.. was too late at the end of a long day..

Stayed home and was

DFD (and the game)

No Fluff, and unique weather...

Well, how’s your week so far?  We MIGHT see temperatures on the warm side of freezing for a little while.  Maybe until next Wednesday (imaginary "jaws" music clip here).

Last night I attended a little reception for one of the organizations I support. Since it was "tri-county" affair (meaning St. Mary’s/Calvert/Charles) it was held in Prince Frederick (PF).  The venue chosen was Stoney’s Seafood House, the one hidden in the shopping center down behind Applebees.  I had never been to this particular one before, and I believe this visit completes a sweep of those properties.  I can still honestly say that none of them have impressed me. The original Broome's Island is probably the best overall, mostly carried by the location - now that the oyster house is gone.  As far as their food goes I suppose they are okay for a waterside place, standard fare, crabs (no fluff), oysters, fish, usual selections.   And I won’t belabor you again about how I think their crab cake is highly overrated, I've done that enough.

Anyway the place in PF is tucked down amongst the mattress stores and boutiques.  As an aside (I always have an aside) they are moving across the street into the newer properties over by Nick’s.  They’ll be in the same row, down at the library end. I think it’s a good thing they are moving, the place is dark, dingy, and a weird layout in general.  There’s a “takeout” area which now seems devoted to kitchy “Stoney’s” stuff, a bar and a couple of dining areas separated by a fireplace.  Dark paneling, old tables, kind of depressing in a way.

The purpose of the reception was to honor volunteers, and so there was some short speechifying of appreciation and general camaraderie which is always fun.  And before going into the food, another (damn) aside:  Since I am involved in so many community organizations and non-profits, I get to attend a fair amount of these kinds of functions.  Usually the sponsoring organization picks up the tab, and being a charitable outfit they naturally try to do it economically (as they should).  Therefore you don’t expect really exceptional food.  I try to take that into account when wearing my hat with the feeder side forward.  Regardless, the food should be hot, presentable, and tasty.

Last night in Stoney’s Seafood House, we had zero seafood (which I guess I can understand from an economical standpoint?).  Instead, we had a buffet containing (pretty good) slaw, pulled pork (or beef; I think pork), some creamed spinach, and a tub each of chicken wings and drummies (if that is the name).  All were served in aluminum tubs over cans of Sterno.  Most of the food was lukewarm at best.  A fellow diner wondered if the chicken thingies were cooked in the same oil as the fish/crab cakes, as they did have a bit of an odd edge to them.  And a couple of the ones I had seemed almost burned in places.  If I wanted to be really snarky, I might suspect precooked, frozen, and warmed in oven..  hopefully not. 

But as I said we had a good time, we weren’t there for the food so it was a fun evening.  And as I will ALWAYS say they have great carvings…

Winter Wonders..

With the recent onslaught of temperatures expressed by a single digit, we were treated (?) today to a sight we have seen very few times during our dozen or so years of living on the Patuxent River.

Resized ice in river 29 jan 2014 T1 140130 – 5032

Ice rarely forms near us because of the open reach and the surface disturbance due to the winds.  But today we saw pretty big floes in the river

The other benefit (if you can call it that) of really cold weather is that the “creeks” freeze over, so it drives the waterfowl into more open water, like our back yard.

These ducks happen to be Scaups, (either lesser or greater, I won’t hazard a guess), and I counted somewhere around 200 in the raft. 

In a “normal” year, we see very few Scaups, so this is really unusual.  We get plenty of Ruddy Ducks, some Buffleheads, a few Goldeneyes and a scattering of Longtails, but never this many Scaups.  They are not uncommon or rare, we just don’t see them here very often.  It is really a treat to see all the waterfowl, we very much enjoy them. Our resident eagles swing by every once I a while and our feeders in the backyard are very popular.  We had some bluebirds out the other day.  Maybe, just maybe….and through it all, cold or hot, rain or shine, our dancer twirls and floats, oblivious to it all.

tonight, with a fresh bandage on my proboscis, we may venture out for dinner.  Kind of tough to be 

DFD

PS since I probably won't publish tomorrow, a note that there will be a Brian Ganz concert tomorrow (Friday) at 8pm in St. Mary's Hall.  He will be performing Chopin (no surprise there), and will be accompanied by the talented Beverly Babcock.  Free and open to everybody willing to go out.  and by golly, maybe it won't be so darn cold!!  Unique opportunity..

Flumoxxed with Fluff!!

You know, just when you think you know what you’re doing..

I am always pleased when I find that my opinions and observations are shared by people I respect in the food business.  For instance recently I got puffed up when I saw Edward Behr said in his book that cheese may be the perfect food as I have often stated.  Or those lists of ten most annoying things servers do are pretty much the same as the feeder's.  So you tend to get to thinking you know what you’re doing and are pretty smart when it comes to food. 

Well, then you get brought back to earth.

In the very last Bottom Feeder, I lit into Diane and Carolyn’s article in Cook’s Country for talking about Crab Fluff!  Fluff? I said! Humpff... And I dug the hole deeper by claiming that I have been around the coast, am a savvy diner, never heard of crab fluff, and so on.  IDIOTS!

So then I get an email from a friend who is native (I think) Baltimore and spends a lot of time there and eats out fairly often..  She very kindly and tactfully informed me that indeed Crab Fluff IS found on menus in Baltimore, along with another local dish of “fried hard shell crabs”.  I asked her for places that might have them on the menu, and for lack of knowledge suggested Phillips.  Well, lack of knowledge was correct.  Phillips for a Baltimore seafood lover Phillips is like Olive Garden is to somebody from “the Hill” in St. Louis.. Ptoooie!!!!

She supplied a list of places that she and her husband have found and like for crab cakes mostly.  One is called “Jads Caddyshack” in the Essex area of Baltimore.  Third entry on the Seafood menu is:  “Crab Fluffs - Two 6 oz. jumbo lump crab cakes double-dipped in our special beer batter and deep fried golden brown”.  On the menu for Bo Brooks Crab House on Boston Street in Baltimore are “Crab Fluffs - our famous backfin cake beer battered and deep fried” and a bit further down: “Hard Fried Crab our classic backfin crab cake stuffed inside a hard shell crab, battered and fried.”, and finally on the menu at Schultz’s, Crab Fluff (on crackers) is served as an appetizer, and stuffed fried Hard Shells are an entrée.. 

It seems that “fluff” is a deep fried crab cake.  Somehow “fluff” doesn’t seem my idea of a deep fried crab cake, but…  So it turns out I have some exploring to do, and horns to pull in.  Better be more careful in the future.  And FWIW their favorite place for crab cakes is Friendly Farm (Upperco, Maryland).  It sounds like a really neat place, and a candidate for the “just right” list.   No fluff or fried hard shells on the menu.. Road trip!!

More Farms

Clever segue, eh?  A long (long) time ago, when I was chasing flutter model construction, our major supplier was Lee Wasserman who owned an outfit near Dayton, Ohio.  Of course as a fledging engineer, I was banished, er, I mean sent there to monitor construction of various models and make sure they met specs.    I went with another legend from the past, a Joe Anglin, who taught me ever so much more than flutter models.  Anyway our routine was to get up early and go to Bob Evan’s for breakfast.  It had wonderful (handmade patty) sausage, hot eggs, real potatoes, friendly servers and a lot of “regulars”. It has remained in my memory banks as a great breakfast.  Of course in the intervening years, Bob Evans has succumbed to the siren song of lunch and dinner, an outlet on every intersection and so on.  I have not entered one in years (as part of my expanding anti-chain mentality) so it was with a little curiosity I agreed to a breakfast gathering for one of my clubs last week.

The interior is sort of clinical with no hint of place, could be in Indiana.  Mostly booths, although there were a few tables, and I was (late) and greeted at the door.  I joined my friends and asked for decaf coffee which was brought in one of those thermal pots.  We finally got around to considering food.  The menu is a rather large tri-fold glossy laminated affair, and I THINK it may cover all meals since the do breakfast all day.  Anyway a group of four of us kind of had to juggle the menus with some overlapping.  The menu offers (for breakfast) various combinations of (duhh) eggs, breakfast meats (did NOT see scrapple), hash browns (more on his later), or home fries, biscuits, toasts, etc.  I ended up getting the “wake up and shine” or whatever it is called, eggs, meats, spuds, and breads for something like eight bucks.  Over easy, bacon, hash browns, no biscuits or toast.  Our server was generally kind and was indulgent of the four of us who kind of didn’t know what we wanted.

Anyway, mine appeared exactly like this

While it isn’t awful, do you think anybody looked at it?  How critical do you want to be?  Bacon almost falling off plate, egg unceremoniously drooping, “strings”, potatoes disturbed..  Not awful but not appetizing either.  Have to admit eggs were cooked correctly with hot yolks, bacon was a bit weird texture, maybe pre-cooked, but overall not bad tastewise.

So when it came time to leave our server presented our checks, and announced that they were having a contest as to who could sell the most soup.  We could get a quart for five bucks.  I don’t know what to think about that… I don’t remember if the money went to charity or not, but it did present kind of an awkward situation.  She left the checks without any explanation of “pay me” or “pay at the desk” which seemed the obvious choice since you walk by the cash register coming in..  My bill was $10.69, so eventually I fished out three bucks, left it on the table (yes, I know too much) and took the check to the stand.  I was already almost late for meeting number two, but not yet critical.  So when I got to the cash register I handed the guy a twenty and a one (cash on hand).  He rang up the check, and said that will be $29.86 sir.   Huh!  He again stared at the check (clearly showing $10.69), stared at me, stared at his machine, and I offered maybe she somehow put all in at once.  No, sir.  More staring and punching.  Without wasting more of your time what ensued was ten minutes of a parade of the server, the straw manager, and finally the big manager, all clustered at the side computer screen..  I don’t know what happened sir, just a moment. Apparently they could find no record of my order.   Okay circuit breaker blows.. I laid 11 bucks on the counter told them they would eventually straighten it out, and with half hearted “sorry about that sir” ringing in my ears,  I left.  Don’t think I’ll be back soon.

And I know your vision is blurring at this point, a quick follow on.  MFO had a friend who had a breakfast there also lately.  Ordered his eggs over easy, and also hash browns.  His eggs arrived “like hockey pucks”, and he asked his server “did you look at these?”.  Answer:  “why would I?”.  hash browns were cold, and only cooked on one side.  Upon checking out the answer to “how was everything?” was about the potatoes.  “Our policy is to only cook the potatoes on one side, sir”.  Astonishing, I would have no response to that.  Don’t think I’ll be back soon, if ever.

Too bad Bob, I miss you.  At that time I was

DFB

Heading this way!!

 

Well, after a morning of sitting and waiting, it is finally starting to snow.  The trusty radar shows that SOMD is right on the southern edge of the stuff.  We’ll see what develops.  As you know, I sometimes lurk around Facebook, just to keep my finger on the pulse so to speak.  As an aside I see that FB may becoming passé among the millennials and teeny people on the cutting edge of social media.  They are migrating to some things I never heard of.  Anyway, there are a lot of postings resulting from the weather forecasts and predictions of inches on the ground.  It is curious to me that a lot of them are rooting for the snow, “C’mon snow, I can’t wait!” or “It’s about time we had some real snow, yay!”.  I suppose that once again I fall into the old curmudgeon category, but aside from providing some pleasant scenes, I really can’t think of much benefit to multiple inches of snow.  Driving sucks, you have to shovel or blow off your walks, it’s cold, the bird feeders freeze up, and other unpleasant side effects.

Hey you!! Get out of my yard!!

 

So what does one do while waiting for the impending storm?  Well one grabs the nearest food magazine!  What fell under my hand this morning was the newest issue of “Cooks Country”, that kind wierd publication coming from the Chris Kimball empire.  If “Art of Eating” is near one end of the spectrum, this one is almost at the other end.  It’s kind of a homey, folksy, simple, gingham apron approach to food and cooking.  Occasionally they come up with an interesting recipe, but mostly tend to go for the “cut corners” theories that you can make a quality dish without “all the fuss” or “the simple approach to….”.  For instance in this issue there is a recipe for Chicken Mulligatawny soup with the tag line:  “we set out to strip away complicated steps in this classic recipe without sacrificing, complexity of flavor”.   And while probably the article should just be “you can’t”, they go on to eliminate this and that, and ultimately use a slow cooker.  Oh well.  Besides recipes, there are always “tips” included to help the hapless home cook.  I was bemused by one called “Magic Beans” submitted by somebody from Santa Rosa, California (which may explain it), and the person said that whenever he cooked with garlic “the smell lingers on my fingers.” Of course..  His remedy for this was to get some coffee beans and rub them back and forth on his hands.  Apparently he never ran across the time honored solution to just rub your hands along the kitchen faucet (stainless) to accomplish the same thing.

Anyway, a couple of recipes tweaked my interest.  The first was for: (and I am not making this up)  “Maryland Crab Fluff”  what?  Fluff?.... FLUFF?   The author starts out stating that “crab cakes are special occasion fare for most of us”, but that many crab houses and fry shacks in Baltimore and along the Maryland coast serve a more “blue collar, and possibly even more delicious version: Crab Fluff”.  Now you and I are pretty savvy diners and those of us who live along that Maryland coast have been in a lot of crab houses and what I presume he calls “fry shacks”.  Don’t know about you, dear reader, but I have NEVER seen “crab fluff” on a menu.  And, incidentally I hope I never do..  “Fluff” at Courntney’s?   yikes.. the recipe pretty much produces what we all know as “Crab Balls”, and yes “Dave”, it does include Old Bay..One can only speculate why they didn’t use that more common term.. Surely, they must have run into it (No we didn’t, and stop calling…)

The second even more repugnant is the cover recipe for (get this): “Pepperoni Pizza Monkey Bread” and the cover photo shows what looks like a Bundt cake with a couple of pieces torn away to reveal a couple slices of pepperoni peeking out with a lava like ooze of cheese.  Dear God..

 

Okay, now it is snowing slightly and I’m hoping the snow lovers won’t be too disappointed if totals don’t exceed the five inches.  A quick closing note, I received an email this morning from somebody at an organization I work with, and I expressed surprise she was at work in the face of the impending storm.   Her reply was perfect I thought… it was to the effect that she would keep a weather eye out and if it got bad would head home and do the “snuggle thing”, which she defines as: “roast beef in the oven, a whiskey in one hand, and a book in the other”.  Who can quarrel with that?

 

A little bit tough in rough weather, but figure out what it means to you today to

DFD