Cast in Concrete....

Certainly not food related, but another of the days of our lives...

 

It was a busy time toward the end of the week and over the weekend for the flutter family.  Seems like everything happens at once.   As you may remember, way last spring, we made the decision to replace the pool deck surrounding the gray lagoon. After a summer of delays for various reasons that seemed plausible at the time, intervening jobs, vacations, a brush with Sandy, it turned out that last Thursday (15^th) was the day for the pouring of the new deck.  No matter that the next day was the Hospital Gala, in which I am involved and should have been spent setting up, but when the concrete guys are ready, you jump.

So the day dawned and we hoped to have a change in the condition we had been looking at for well over a month - plastic sheeting, reinforcing bars, blowing leaves and a pool full of water.. not real attractive.

 

And on top of it all, among the many other obsessions I have, the condition of my lawn rates high.  I’ve spent a lot of resources and time to keep it nice looking, and the thought of concrete trucks lumbering through it was horrifying to me.  Have to have it both ways, you know.  Well, the concrete folks said they “would take care of that”.  So, first thing Thursday morning, there appeared in our driveway a vehicle that could have come from outer space

 

Soon to be followed by a more familiar “cement truck”

 

After some preparations the alien vehicle started to unfold like a monstrous creature coming out of a chrysalis, and slowly began to advance over the digs...

 

 

 

 

Until eventually it crested the house, and reached the back yard and extended its proboscis down to the pool

 

All of this was done with a remote control device deftly handled by the alien vehicle's driver, whose first statement was:  "I hate to go over houses!".   Gee, thanks for that!  Once the nose and hose was in place in back, the other beast in the driveway opened it’s maw

 

And began feeding the alien machine

 

Pumps began to churn and soon enough concrete was exuded onto the pool deck!  How amazing is that?  The spewing concrete was then guided to the area where it was needed, spread out

 

And eventually hand finished (several times, actually) as it began to look like a pool deck.

Not content with just colored concrete, we wanted a slate like surface texture, and that called for a technique called “stamping”, which was achieved by taking little pads with protruding "bumps", laying them down and then doing a dance on them to impart the texture to the finished concrete.   Maybe it should more accurately be called “stomping”!

 

I was told that it took years of practice to perfect the exact pressure, location, and movement to make it work.  I didn't argue.  Finally we had the makings of our new deck!

It is still curing so the final condition won’t be obvious for a week or so…

Speaking of a week or so, Thanksgiving is right around the corner, and I realize I have not had a chance for my annual (boring) Thanksgiving Day foodie report.  By now I know your menu is set, but I’ll try to jump through my several Thanksgiving day issues of the food mags and maybe come up with some tips.. one of which will most assuredly be

DFD

 

"Local" Lore

After my "CCC" relaxed lunch on Friday, Saturday turned out to be an interesting day..   a couple of real “local” things.  I know “buy local” are the “in” buzz words right now, and there are many definitions of what that constitutes, but I think I did hit the mark…

The day began a little inauspiciously when I showed up at the ceremonies for the start of the “oyster reef” project down at St. Mary’s College near their (in)famous boat house.  The plan is to begin restoration of oyster reefs to help replenish the oysters in the area.  I showed up right on the dot of ten, and only then found out that ten was the “set up” time, not the time of the actual event. So I got a quick shot of the first piece to be deployed in St. Mary’s River, which will form the basis of an artificial reef.  I must admit I don’t know too much more about it.  Certainly more of these are needed to form any sort of meaningful housing for Oyster Spat….

 

Turned out the real event started at noon, as did the immensely popular Trinity Church Dinner so the thought of more cars vying for the few parking places down there made me decide to just head home.  Since I had new found free time, I decided to stop at our new(ish)

 

It was a good day and well attended by both suppliers and consumers.

 

Inside it was pretty well packed, with spaces divided between actual farm stands and various crafters, bakers, certainly “homemade” local stuff.  Not my cup of tea, but okay.  Our local Port of Leonardtown winery had a little stand, populated by the always gracious winemaker and wife.  There were many families, small kids everywhere, poking into this and that, neighbors chatting, and generally having a good time.  Many of our local farms had stands with greens, various vegetables, root crops, and good stuff.  It’s so pretty…

 

 

 

I was very pleased to see that a meat vendor was in attendance, in this case WAG farms (near Leonardtown).  There was a freezer cabinet with small packages of their various products (which I now wish I would have captured on…. ones and zeroes, but didn’t).  A white board listed the stuff available (note handwritten, no powerpoint here--"local")

 

Note that Scrapple is offered… can’t get any more local than that!!  I talked with the gentleman  a bit about grass feeding or grain, this and that, so I decided that I couldn’t leave without getting a sample (it’s my duty) so I chose a

 

Although goat burgers were available, I thought maybe for an initial purchase I would go with a little less adventurous choice.  So, I took it home, thawed it out, and prepared it for the grill

 

Note the nice marbling which he attributed to finishing off the feeding of the cattle with grain rather than strictly grass.  I salted it with Kosher salt for a couple of hours, applied some Penzy’s Chicago Steak Seasoning, (the Northwoods Fire is added just after cooking during the resting period.  I grilled it until the internal temp was about 130 or so – I have found with some cuts of firmer meat that the “press test” can yield inaccurate results – so while I generally go by the thumb test I also check with the thermometer.  There are a few (not so nice) stories about using just the pressure method which I won’t go into here.

Anyway, after letting it rest for a bit, we put it to the fork, and I am very happy to report that it had excellent "beefy" flavor and texture which we thoroughly enjoyed. Sorry ,LongHorny Roadhousy Outbacky, I will go back and expand my selections from a local producer.  In particular, one of the things I lament about supermarket meats is that their pork has evolved into a tasteless, fatless, protein substance with almost no flavor.  Hopefully some of the “local” varieties will prove better.  Reports to follow (maybe including goatburgers!)

As I have often said, the challenge of “buy local” is to give me a product that is better than I can get from chains or delvered by silver sided trucks from a far away food distributor.  They thrive on consistency, but generally at a consistently mediocre level.  Enough of that for now..

A quick note on…. airport food.

What did you say, Mr. Feeder?  Airport Food? Well, I get daily posts on my mobile devicefrom various sources  that cover restaurant changes, openings, and food trends, and while they are informative, I don’t like to just fire them at you..  However, I got one yesterday that did catch my eye which might be worth passing along..It was entitled: “Food Network Opens First Restaurant in  (sic) Fla. Airport”.  Goes on to say that a casual eatery called the Food Network Kitchen in Terminal 3 will “feature dishes created by the lifestyle network’ slate of celebrity chefs such as Paula Deen.”  OMG, get me to a ticket counter.  Want to try the airport version of cuisine from the high priestess of “y’all”, profanity, and plastic surgery.  Think I’ll go back to WAG.

Worth Keeping for Reference

Here’s a nice link for local farms that supply meats (and other products) for you to keep as a reference..  Look out for them.  We need them

 

 

DFD

 

 

CCC

Only readers of a certain vintage might guess that  CCC refers to the Civilian Conservation Corp, but no, you’re wrong!  In this case it stands for CoCo Cantina (okay I took a little liberty there for artistic purposes.)

I have been trying to hook up with a friend for lunch lately, and finally both our schedules meshed last Friday.  Looking for a different venue, we decided to try the new place in the old place that was Lone Star.  I have noticed in my travels up and down Three Notch Road that the place is usually pretty busy around (working people’s) lunch hour so we purposely chose to meet at 1:30 to try to avoid the crush.  It worked.  I pulled into a very empty parking lot with thoughts of “uh oh, I wonder if they stopped serving lunch already”.  No, it is continuously open from eleven o’clock.  Met my friend and in we went..

There seems to be no physical changes in the interior, a room to the left, a few tables around the bar including booths on the back wall, and that awkward (at least to me) sun room affair.   The walls have been painted in pastels, evoking maybe a more Latin atmosphere, plus there are some palm tree like wall decoration here and there, but mostly like the previous occupant.  I don’t remember Lone Star all that well, but there are now 5(!) flat screens above the "roof" of the bar, and two more below, at bar height..  I didn't check the other spaces to see if there were some in there. We were offered seating wherever we wished, since I think there was only one more table occupied and they were in the process of paying the check.  We chose a booth on the back wall across from the bar.  As I scooted into my seat I noticed the table was uncommonly high, maybe mid chest.  In my case that is probably a plus since it limits the area of clothing that I can spill food upon.  We were pretty quickly approached by a server who announced she was … "and would be our server" (kind of obvious, but okay) we were offered menus, and asked about drinks.  When asked, she reeled off several beers (starting with our old friends bud light and coors light).  I was hoping for maybe a Pacifico but it wasn’t on the list, nor do I recall a San Miguel, but I’m working from memory.  So I settled for a Negra Modelo which isn’t bad.  Off she went to get the drinks, and so we turned to the menu.

Coco Cantina doesn’t advertise themselves as a  “Mexican” restaurant, rather characterizing their fare as “Latin Inspired Cuisine”.   However, some of the usual suspects of the former show up on the menu, such as fajita’s, tacos, burritos, although there weren’t any enchiladas or tamales.  They also serve many types of burgers, such as Mexi-Cali, and Fajita.  Nachos and quesadillas show up on the starter menu.  Unlike many of our local out and out Mexican places, no chips and salsa show up on the table.  The beverages arrived, and we both chose soft tacos, pulled chicken for me and braised pork for across the table.  Had to chose sides and we both went for beans over rice.  They were eight dollars for a pair of the tacos, probably reasonable as were the other menu items (always in the eye of the beholder). 

I must admit it was very enjoyable just sitting and chatting in an almost empty restaurant, no noise for distractions (and the TV's were very low) and we had a great conversation about this and that.  I didn’t put the clock on the order, but it arrived after a few minutes of talking.  The first thing that struck me was the dish was very colorful and “fresh” looking. 

 

You know how sometimes you get your (normally searingly hot plate delivered with a mitt on the server's hand with all the ingredients running together) and the admonishment about "watch that plate..." ?   Well this looked like it was inidiviually assembled and not scooped from a pot and was fairly pleasant on the eye.   I don’t think the menu said “re-fried” beans and these were not; no soupy mess encountered so often.  They were nicely textured, probably pinto beans and a little sweet and the rice wasn’t blown out like you mostly get.  The chicken under the topping did indeed look like it was pulled and had fairly nice flavor.  From somewhere in the dish there was a fair amount of liquid so holding the soft taco in your hand was impossible, although the braised pork version was “dry” enough to eat that way.  I resorted to a fork.  There was some spice to the filling, but not dominating, which is just fine with me.

During the meal our server checked on us a couple of times, just passing by instead of a constant barrage of “how is everything”?  We lingered after finishing the food for more conversation, and declined the offered dessert.

So it was a very enjoyable lunch, and I would go back, although I would wait for the quiet time again.  At least what we had was distinguishable from the normal Mexican places, and maybe a bit better.  A more extensive exploration of the menu is probably in order before a real solid opinion is formed.  It's different enough (yes, one lunch, one time) that you might want to give it a try.

 

and given it's history, I wouldn't worry too much about being

 

DFD(or L)

Of this and that...

Just random musings on a gloomy day at the digs...

Well, thank goodness it is over for another four years!  Some will be happy, some will be disappointed, but at least we can get back to watching TV ads for soap and cars and beers and Depends, and not personal attacks about what a horrible person so and so is with an agenda specifically created to tax everybody to oblivion and lose millions of jobs.  I have to admit I was a bit surprised that the “gambling” question passed despite all the money spent against it with solid arguments like "politicians aren’t very good about keeping promises”.  Somewhere along the way it kind of struck me that the people who wanted it defeated were casting ballots that guaranteed there would be no additional funds for schools resulting from the casino, while now there is at least a chance (maybe although slim)..Rule whatever will now kick in that it won’t be as bad or as good as people said.  We'll see.

 I rather like this weather..  Darker sooner, gloomy gray skies, spits of rain, blustery winds.  Fitting for the time when nature is about to sleep for the winter..  All the colors lose their summer vibrancy and transition into muted shades of brown and beige, kind of quiet.  Red wine weather..

Have you noticed that the sign for the LongHorn Steak House is now in place?  Whatever meager restrictions that caused the big four just south of there to limit the height of their signs must run out at the property line because now the new entry has one at least 20 feet tall.  Of course tastelessness seems to be the order of their day, so I guess it fits.

Have been told that Laurel Glen Station is serving wine and beer.

I think I have received all the “Thanksgiving” editions of the foodie magazines, so will begin to assemble my annual thanksgiving report.  (oh no!  not again!).  With all our local friends out of town, and (far away) family occupied with their own plans, we have decided to spend the holiday on the Eastern Shore, in Easton.  We’ll be staying at the Bartlett Pear Inn, our favorite lodging place over there, not to mention their terrific restaurant.  The inn keepers will not be serving thanksgiving dinner so they can be home with their kids, and by golly, I give them credit for that.  They should - proper priorities.  So, we’ll be dining at the Robert Morris Inn on a recommendation from them.  Feeder report to follow.  On Friday we’ll tour the Blackwater Nature Preserve, another of our favorite activities.  It’s such a tranquil place, thousands of geese, waterfowl, and not many humans.  I am So much looking forward to that..

Oh, speaking of Thanksgiving, I have a little rant.  Why is it that this time every year we start seeing Pumpkin flavored everything!!  Soup, cheesecake, beer (!!), lattes, risotto, breads, croissants (okay, I made that up, but you get the idea).  I really don’t think the recipe for any of those start with “get a fresh pumpkin and…”.  So if it’s so damn good why don’t you see those things in March or July?  Pies?  Great.  As it should be, but c’mon already.  Hopefully it will now fade.

 

well, time to go get

DFD

 

we're having pumpkin flavored steaks..

 

 

 

Back to Basics....

Sandy has left the building, the pool deck is spruced up (they’re supposed to pour next Tuesday), so maybe we should return to the horse that brought us, namely a little buzz about local food , a couple of happy surprises, and then a curious little story regarding Julia

First some buzz…

I hear from “sources” that bids are being sought for the “new Lighthouse (restaurant)” over on the Solomons.  I think the land has been sold to new parties…  stand by.  At least it isn’t a chain!!

The “Tea Room” over in Leonardtown has once again changed hands.  I have heard that it is pretty much same format.  This is, what, the third(?) “under new management” in the past few years.  It always amazes me what motivates people to knowingly get involved with a place that has failed at least twice and think they’ll make it work.  Kind of same thing with the Willows… “going back to its roots”; “our dream has always been to open a restaurant!”; one (?) year later: shuttered.   I think the Feeder idly predicted that..

I have had reports that that little blue topped place near Baggett Park on the west side of Route 235 between Summerseat Farm and Mount Zion Church is serving “real” food.  I had always thought that it was just kind of a mom and pop 7/11, but have been told of a couple of good meals there.  One was a grilled smoked salmon.  I think it’s called Laurel Grove Station, and calls itself a locally owned family restaurant.  No idea on alcohol availability (always a feeder consideration)

Pleasant Surprises...

A bit ago, as part of a little birthday celebration for me, I had occasion to have cocktails and dinner at the Tides.  Besides the noise, the Tides has a pretty nice bar and good cocktail service.  If you catch it on a quiet night, it can be quite enjoyable.   In honor of the event, I diverted from my DMOTRWAT, and had a Dirty Gray Goose Martini, up – (sort of a traditional drink with this friend).  I like their practice of giving you a side car with the drink.  Anyway, we survived the usual happy hour din (must shout to be heard) and decided to stay for supper.  I have to admit that the last few times I have eaten there, the food has been undistinguished.  I am happy to report that all three of us liked our food very much (Hey!  This is good!).  I had a swordfish dish (lightly blackened as I recall), MFO had a scallop special, and our friend had something else.  We splurged on a nice bottle of Chalk Hill Merlot which served quite well.  We also had a surprise drop in by another friend.  Nice evening..  We’ll go back for another shot at the food to make sure it wasn’t a onetime deal or evaluation blurred by the Martini

The other very nice experience I had was my first visit to Bistro Belle Maison at (why do they always say “at”?  it’s IN!!) the Blue Heron Inn on Solomons Island.  I had heard good things about it, so finally made a reservation, and we went over for dinner (Thursday through Saturday only).  The place is primarily a B&B and not made to be a restaurant, so the tables are sort of plopped in what would ordinarily be the living room.  It’s kind of a large space and I think maybe there are eight or nine in there.  The restaurant has a “small plates” format, and the menu changes fairly often (like weekly).  The night we were there, the menu on a single sheet offered 8 items ($8 to $18).  But within the eight choices there were dishes leaning toward appetizers (Escargot stuffed mushrooms, herbed garlic butter), salad (crisp greens, avocado, radish, scallion, corn), and some are more like main courses (Seared sea scallops, with “peanut butter ‘n apples” – apple – celeriac – celery heart slaw, thai peanut sauce).  So you can fashion a traditional style meal or just pick and choose.  Portions are small enough that a single plate/bowl can give three people a couple of tastes, which makes it fun to share.  In fact, that’s kind of the idea.  The night we were there, some of the items were gone, but we were kind of late for around here (7), and it made the experience kind of interesting and relaxed as a Bistro should!..  we had an excellent server which helped.   Without all the descriptors, our party of three had the scallops, sweet potato gnocchi, a trio of local sausages, and the escargot.  We ordered all at once, so everything showed up in random order, I still have to come to grips with that.  Anyway, we were all quite satisfied with the food, and we did have room for dessert (which included a slice of “Kim’s Key Lime pie”).   They also have an interesting and affordable wine list, plus full cocktails (no, I didn’t give them the test). The chef/owner is Amanda Comer, a graduate of CIA, and kind of a food fixture around here.  They have recently installed a more commercial kitchen in the garage.   Good stuff is coming from it.  Suggest you call for booking, walk ins might be iffy..  A good and fresh option...  and it's NOT a chain!!

 

Julia..

Friday afternoon, MFO and I attended a luncheon up in Waldorf hosted by the newly formed Community Foundation of Southern Maryland (Charles and St. Mary’s).  Their purpose is to manage funds and provide grants for nonprofits.  It was held in the Jaycees facility in Waldorf.   I went to represent one agency, and MFO another so we drove separately.   Anyway, they honored some major supporters, one of which was our County’s Margaret and (late) “Doc” Jarboe.  Besides the food and proceedings, they had a little program called “Tribute Show to Julia Child”, which of course caught my eye in the advance publicity.  Turns out there is this lady, Mary Ann Jung, who goes about “impersonating” or maybe giving impressions of various historical people.  Her little brochure lists her repertoire as Good Queen Bess (Elizabeth Tudor); Rosalie of Riversdale (from an 1812 plantation); Amelia Earhart; Clara Barton; Margaret Brent; and more recently has added Julia Child to the list.  It was a bit difficult to make the connection between “Julia” and giving, but they tried hard and maybe “passion” was the best hook.  She for cooking and others for philanthropy.  The event’s program was made to look like Julia’s famous Cookbook “Mastering the art….."; and for the luncheon it was "Mastering the Art of Giving"..  At any rate, she began by swinging a (rubber?) chicken and brandishing a knife.  Ms. Jung’s Julia was several (well, lots of) pounds lighter than the original, and quite a bit shorter.  In addition her hair was sort of a rolled affair that gave the impression of a hat brim, rather than the frizz I sort of associate with Julia.  She did fairly well with the shrill high pitched voice however.

After the swinging chicken, it was mostly a compacted biography of Julia, and she dragged a couple of people from the audience for her husband Paul, and also co-authors of the cookbook.

I am not exactly sure how I felt about the whole thing (which lasted nearly an hour!).  Julia of course is an icon to those of us who value food and cooking, and is in large part the impetus for the boom in cooking, and de-mystifying French cooking.  So while Ms. Jung didn’t poke fun at her, and was not disrespectful at all, but it just kind of put me off.   Came off as kind of buffoonish or something.  I will give her credit that during a follow on Q&A period, she was pretty critical of the movie “Julie and Julia” which I still refuse to watch.

Anyway, it was an interesting time and helped a good organization.  Food was a buffet of just what you would expect at such an event.  No worse, no better, however we were both

 

DFL