A Week Without Shopping?

Not surprisingly, I subscribe to a few food-related listservs. On Wednesday, the eGullet Society sent out this message:

Dear Lisa,

It's time for another week without shopping.
Back in February, scores of eGullet Society members joined me in a no-shopping challenge. Instead of spending on groceries, we feasted on the bounty of our refrigerators, freezers and pantries. We ate very well indeed, and many of us discovered how much we waste.

Starting Monday, we're going to do another week. Remember, if you spend $100 a week on groceries, this experiment will put $100 back in your pocket quicker than you can say stimulus.

With relish,

Sounds great, right? Use up what you have, save a little money, make room for the Thanksgiving stuff, a win-win proposition. I was already mentally calculating how many quarts of soup were in my freezer when disaster struck in the form of a power outage (hurricane rains + nor'easter winds = downed power lines) that resulted in me having to toss everything in my fridge and freezer. Argh. If I pick up some pecorino tomorrow I'd probably have enough eggs, pasta, butter, and olive oil to last the week...

Weekend Brisket

After what seems like months of kitchen stasis, I cooked a brisket last night. I'm driven to post about it by the hope that the photos will make certain parties hungry enough to make this absurdly simple dish themselves.

Here's the brisket in the shredding stage:


And here's the finished product on a tasty Harris Teeter sandwich roll (you can just see the lid of my cocotte in the background):


If you've been trying to find the perfect fall comfort food that will make your house smell heavenly as it braises, look no further. I also like it because I get to dust off my cool cocotte. And just LOOK at how simple it is! Note that I usually dispense with the carrots - vegetables, bah! - and I did so this weekend.

FRIDAY NIGHT BRISKET (from the NYTimes)

Total time: 5 hours and 25 minutes, plus cooling time
Servings: 8 to 10
Note: Adapted from Joan Nathan's "Jewish Holiday Cookbook." Bottled chile sauce such as Heinz Chili Sauce is widely available.

1 (4- to 5-pound) brisket
2 (1-ounce) packets onion soup mix
1 1/2 cups chile sauce
6 cloves garlic
1 1/2 pounds carrots

1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Place the meat fat-side up in a large Dutch oven. Sprinkle the onion soup mix over the meat. Cover with the chile sauce and 2 cups of water, or more if needed to almost cover the meat. Crush the garlic cloves and add to the liquid.
2. Cover the pan and cook for 4 hours. Let the brisket cool for about 45 minutes and refrigerate overnight. Then skim the fat off the meat.
3. About 1 1/2 hours before you wish to serve the brisket, heat the oven to 350 degrees. Remove the brisket to a cutting board and slice it thinly across the grain. Trim, peel and cut the carrots into one-half-inch-by-2-inch sticks. Cook the brisket and carrots covered for 1 hour, until the brisket is heated through and the carrots are fork tender. (Alternatively, the brisket can be completed the same day: While the brisket is cooling for 45 minutes, trim, peel and cut the carrots into one-half-inch-by-2-inch sticks. Remove the brisket and slice it thinly across the grain. Skim the fat off the top of the liquid, add the sliced brisket back to the pan with the carrots, cover and bake at 350 degrees for 1 more hour, or until carrots are fork tender.) Serve on a platter.

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Each of 10 servings: 346 calories; 44 grams protein; 18 grams carbohydrates; 4 grams fiber; 9 grams fat; 3 grams saturated fat; 87 mg. cholesterol; 1,173 mg. sodium.

Sauerbraten Alert!

Stop the presses! It must be serendipity: still recovering from my sauerbraten sadness on Sunday, lo and behold I open the weekly Five Forks Cafe weekend menu email update and there, beneath the huevos rancheros and Welsh rarebit is the dinner special for Friday and Saturday: sauerbraten. Thank you, thank you! You'll find me there on Friday evening.

Weekend Eating in Norfolk

After a particularly busy week at work I decided to take last weekend off and go to Norfolk. Believe it or not, the laptop wasn't even on from noon on Saturday until mid-morning Monday.

The Boot has been on my list of restaurants to try for a couple of years, and I finally had dinner there on Saturday. The meal turned out to be worth the wait.

I started with a very nice Manhattan and the pumpkin soup for starters. The soup was flavorful and had a substantial mouthfeel without being cloying. For my main course I opted for the grilled duck - which was perfectly done, succulent inside and slightly charred on the outside - with apple fennel salad. The first bit of salad was phenomenal, full of red pepper other good things, but subsequent bites were less exciting. My palate has been a little weird due, I think, to some dental work so it could well just be me. The duck did stay delicious until it was gone... For dessert I had the crespelle, an apple and pear compote-filled crepe, with a side of luscious homemade chocolate almond ice cream. It was truly a memorable dinner and one I'd be happy to repeat any time.

Mid-day Sunday a craving for sauerbrauten and Grolsch overtook me (the cooler weather, maybe?) so I drove over to Portsmouth to my old favorite, The Bier Garden. To my shock and horror, they had run out of sauerbrauten the night before! While I realized that nothing can truly take the place of that salty sour goodness when that's what you really want, I gamely ordered a Dogfish Midas Touch which, I've found, goes with everything, a cup of goulasch, and the rouladen with a side of German potato salad. Rouladen is black forest ham, pickles, onions, and mustard rolled into a flattened beefsteak, served over spatzle and covered in gravy. The goulasch was really rich and flavorful, and eating it made me want to make a big pot at home. In retrospect, I should have gotten it as a main dish (served over spatzle). The rouladen was good but not great, and it was at a disadvantage just by not being sauerbraten, but the waiter suggested a beer on tap that went perfectly with it. A Belgian framboise for "dessert" completed my beery, meaty meal and I left full as a tick.

Sunday evening I was feeling peckish again before the 9:30 showing of (500) Days of Summer at the Naro so I drove down Colley to Fellini's. I hadn't been here in years but I was craving pizza and remembered it as a good option. Though tempted by the margherita-like Fresh Tomato pie, I went for the Bourbon Street instead, figuring I could bring half of it home for lunch on Monday. The Bourbon Street features mozarella, andouille sausage, bleu cheese, smoked tomatoes, mushrooms, green onions, and parsley. It comes topped with "secret" sour cream which I asked for on the side at the waitress's suggestion and which turned out to be just plain old sour cream. The pizza was delicious, the crust was perfectly crispy and not overwhelmed by the toppings (which were still plentiful), and it was darned yummy for lunch on Monday as well.

All in all it was a great weekend, and it was hard to get back to the grind on Monday.

Booking Through Thursday: Recent Serious

What’s the most serious book you’ve read recently?

After some debate with myself on what constitutes a serious book, I chose When I Forgot by Elina Hirvonen. This novel introduces us to a young journalist trying to get through the day in Helsinki. She sits in coffee shope, reads The Hours, sips wine, avoids the article she's supposed to be writing, while reflecting on her relationships with her family and her partner. The story is set in the shadow of 9/11 and explores the responses of several of the characters to that event.

As you can imagine, the themes are heavy but the writing is good and keeps you engaged in the narrative. I'd recommend this book with the caveat that it should be read on a sunny day.

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Dudley's Farmhouse Grille

This week Cosmo and I went all the way out to big bad Toano for lunch at Dudley's Farmhouse Grille. Our server was very friendly and attentive, but we had a mixed bag with the food.

Cosmo had the bison burger, which she deemed the best burger she's had lately. This means that it was better than the burger from last week's lunch at Opus 9, and possibly better than those at Blue Talon and Alize (not sure how recently she's had those burgers).


Apparently the fries were tasty, too. I definitely had lunch envy. My special of New England clam chowder, quiche and salad did not compare.


Although there was plenty of it, the chowder was too thick and floury. It filled me up before the rest of my meal even came out.


Both the filling and crust on the quiche lorraine had very good flavor, but the salad was way overdressed with balsamic dressing. Note to self: what were you thinking? Always ask for the dressing on the side.

While it's a long haul for lunch on a workday during the school year, I'd definitely consider coming back to Dudley's to try the bison burger. Though I do plan to eat a lot of bison during my upcoming trip to Arizona.

After lunch I headed back to campus but there were no parking places near my office. While I am definitely lazy, it was also ungodly hot. Since I knew the housekeepers would be leaving in about twenty minutes, and even though I was pretty much full from lunch, I drove over to Brewster's for some blueberry cobbler ice cream. A.ma.zing. As usual my photo doesn't do it justice. The ice cream was creamy and luscious, the blueberry swirls were sweet and, well, blueberry-y, the cobbler was more like a struedel and provided great texture. The perfect dessert for a hot July day. And when I got back to campus, there were even plenty of parking spaces in the shade!

Definitely drool-worthy!

Time Traveler's Wife Tickets

The BookLady is giving away tickets to the DC screening of The Time Traveler's Wife. Get details here and note that deadline is August 5.