Goodbye Clementine...

by Xani

Even a delinquent food blogger, like myself, knows that you can't just up and switch kitchens without blogging about it.  I've been cooking in this kitchen for almost exactly five years, most of the time this blog as been around!  And man, I have cooked some good stuff!  In fact, my entire approach to cooking and eating has drastically changed over the five years I've cooked there.  No longer cooking for just myself, keeping things a bit healthier and experimenting with baking, bread-making, canning, and other advanced techniques.

I remember when I was first moving in, looking at those curved concrete countertops and wondering if they would be functional, and being super-excited about having a dishwasher!

Little did I know what lie ahead of me in that kitchen: cooking one-handed after my motorcycle crash, having a boyfriend and a little one move in, and adding the always-begging Eddie to our pack.  The years have flown by, and the great parties, amazing meals and fun projects are just memories (forever captured in blog posts) now.  We've got just a few more days left in the house and I'm in constant "Pantry Raid" mode- cobbling together meals with whatever is in the pantry or freezer.  But, I managed a delicious Cast Iron Skillet Chicken the other night, not to mention an inspired pasta dish I named "Fettucine Rockerfeller" (because how else would you use up canned oysters??).  But as we reach the final days, I am, of course, looking forward to cooking in the next kitchen...

Which also happens to be the OLD kitchen!  Anyone remember this place...??

That's right, I'm moving back to the kitchen where I first learned to cook!  The exact spot where I developed my first "special dishes" (black beans, twice-baked potatoes) as a youngster and began my love affair with cooking.  I'm so happy and excited to (almost) be the proud owner of my childhood home.  The kitchen doesn't look quite the same as it used to, thanks to a complete renovation a couple years ago, but it's still big, has tons of counter space, with two sinks, a giant pot-rack, a sunny dining nook, and did I mention it's BIG?

Just think of what I'm going to cook up in there.  I've already got big plans for Sunday Dinners, brunches, theme parties, AND MORE!  All the more reason to stay tuned to BCD, Like our page on FB, follow us on twitter, instagram, Vine, and right here.  Hopefully lots more yummy posts coming soon...

Farewell old kitchen, and new kitchen here I come...!

X

P.S. I'll leave you with these memories of a kitchen and a home that has served me VERY well...

Little lettuces growing in my little backyard

Celebrating in style at our Mad Men party

Cooking up a storm

My house in Jack-o-lantern format...

Making popcorn with my Man...

Luckily this guy is coming with us- who else would eat all our strawberry tops!?

Spring has Sprung at B&O Brasserie!

by Xani

The long days, the warm weather, the birds chirping (and the Birds fans cheering!).... you know it's springtime in Charm City!  And with spring comes the farmers' markets, wonderful new produce, and an exciting new menu at B&O Brasserie.

I was lucky enough to be invited to a Media dinner to check out the menu and the new chef at B&O.  As a longtime fan, I knew I was in for a treat.  What I didn't know was that Chef Brad Willits had transformed the menu and was going to dazzle us with fabulous new dishes.

Chef Brad Willits showing a big fish who's boss!

RA! RA! RA!

by Xani

No, I'm not cheering for the Orioles.  Well, I am, like everyone else in Baltimore, but that's not what the title references.  Instead I'm referring to RA Sushi Bar and Restaurant, where I was invited to a Media Dinner for the opportunity to sample their new menu items.  RA changed up their menu earlier this summer to include some new, fresh items, and because EP is so busy preparing for her big move (look out Silver Spring!), I brought Dave along with me to the tasting (lucky guy).

RA, as always, has a rockin' vibe, with red globe fixtures providing mood light and pounding music (a little too loud for this old lady, but the rest of the crowd seemed to be enjoying it).  The place was pretty packed at 7pm on a Wednesday, with lots of people taking advantage of the great happy hour specials.

Dave and I were seated and were lucky enough to be taken care of by Scott, the General Manager, who was super-attentive and helpfully explained each course to us.  And there were a lot!  But first, cocktails.

Ginger Blossom

Coconut mojito

I had the Ginger Blossom (Tito's Vodka, fresh muddled strawberry, pink grapefruit, fresh lime and ginger beer), and Dave had the Coconut Mojito (light rum muddled with fresh lime, sugar, soda and fresh mint).  The Ginger Blossom was tasty but just a tad too sweet for me, but I'm a sucker for anything coconut and I thought the coconut mojito was excellent.  Dave must have liked it too; by the time I went to steal a second taste, it was gone!

Dip not pictured

The first course of food came out right away, and consisted of Edamame Dip, Bonfire Shrimp, and Garlic Edamame.  The dip, served with crispy wonton chips (who doesn't love a fried wonton??) was very creamy and had spinach in it-- sortof an Asian take on spinach and artichoke dip?  Very tasty.  The garlic edamame, which were traditional steamed edamame in the shell, followed by a saute in garlicky butter and Asian seasoning, were also good but messy to eat!  Make sure you only order these if you don't mind licking your fingers in front of your dining companions.  The bonfire shrimp were lightly breaded and fried and coated in a chili sauce that had just the right amount of heat.  I also loved the shisito pepper that came with this dish- great flavor.

Before we could say "we're losing the light!" the next course came out: a sampling of their new crispy Asian tacos.

Last picture before the sun went down

These were awesome!  First of all, I was impressed with the creativity of the taco shell itself, which is made from flash-fried rice paper.  It was so light and crispy (and not greasy at all), and a perfect vehicle for the yummy fillings.  My favorite filling was the chicken, which was a chilled shredded sake steamed chicken with asian vegetables-- the chicken was very moist with incredible flavor, plus that crispy crunch from the shell!  Delicious.  We also sampled the "RA"ckin shrimp taco (very good) and the Spicy salmon taco, which included guacamole so of course it was great!  The spicy salmon taco was the only raw fish served on the tasting menu, but Scott told us there is also a spicy tuna taco on the menu, not to mention their entire sushi menu.  So RA definitely does raw, if that's what you are into (which, of course, I am.)

OK, at this point, I admit, I was getting full (those tacos were BIG).  But, a food blogger has certain duties, so we pressed onto the next course.  Small bowls of Drunken Black Mussels were brought out, along with spoons so we could drink the broth.  The mussels were excellent but man were we happy about those spoons!  The broth was to die for.  The mussels are cooked in garlic, seasoned soy sauce, and butter.  I could have drunk a vat of the stuff. Yum!

The final plate contained samples of three new dishes: Salmon with green beans, Black Pepper Teryaki Chicken Wings, and Chili Ponzu Asian Chicken Wings.  While everything was tasty, this plate had the least "wow factor" as far as uniqueness.  That said, the salmon, served with still-crunchy green beans, was well-cooked, not dry at all, with an excellent spicy yuzu sauce.  The wings were nice and meaty and both had great flavor.  I especially liked the Black Pepper wings, which had huge black pepper flavor but weren't too spicy- magic!

Dessert- oy, I could barely eat another bite but when they brought out a teeny portion of mochi (ice cream wrapped in sweet rice cake) I couldn't resist.  A nice sweet bite to end a delicious evening.

Thanks so much to RA for the great meal-- rice paper taco shells, now why didn't I think of that??

Go O's,

X

Summer’s Bounty

by Xani

I feel terrible, you guys.  How have I not blogged all summer?  I’ve been making sooo much good stuff.  You don’t even know (of course you don’t, I haven’t been telling you!).  If you follow me on FB/Twitter/Instagram you been getting a few sneak peeks, but the truth is with summer’s bounty at my fingertips, I have been making some KICK ASS dinners, drinks, desserts-- you name it.

I figure the easiest way to share as much of this as possible is a good, old-fashioned food porn roundup.  Even when I’m not blogging regularly, I always MEAN to blog, so I’m always taking pictures, then getting too busy/lazy to post them.  But, I’ve still got them, and they’re coming at you... NOW:


Tiny carrots I grew myself! Here they are as an appetizer along with bread fried in bacon fat:

And how did I grow carrots you ask?  In my amazing Salad Table, which has also provided us with lots of radishes and bunches and bunches of delicious salad greens.  Soon, cucumbers!

Before summer got too hot we enjoyed some artichokes al fresco (with my favorite dipping sauce- just good mayo mixed with lemon juice, so yummy!)

Also during early summer I got my hands on some rhubarb and made some Rhubarb-Rosewater Syrup to make a sweet and slightly tart mocktail (just mix with sparkling water to make this refreshing pink drink)

And THEN I made these rhubarb streusel muffins that were To Die For:

coworkers raved!

Keeping things a little sweet, a little tart, BEHOLD this cool cocktail EP made for our little 4th of July get-together:

Grapefruit juice, gin, and basil-sugar.  The mason jar makes it.

As summer heats up we're getting squarely into the kind of produce that just SCREAMS summer.  Like corn:

Chilled corn soup with lime, cilantro and hot sauce

Zucchini:

Zucchini Feta Fritters

Berries:

picked them ourselves!

Some of which I turned into this fabulous Double Berry Buttermilk Bundt

I love a cake that can also be breakfast

Finally, PEACHES.  We picked over 40 pounds of white and yellow peaches (AND all the berries, at the wonderful Larriland Farms) and so far made hardly a dent in them despite making peach jalapeno jam, and peach gazpacho.  I'll make a peach pie/cobbler before I process and freeze the rest.  Here is Eddie patiently waiting for them to ripen...

So there's a little taste of BCD summer so far! I'm really going to try to post more often and in a more timely fashion. How would you all feel about quickie posts with just a picture and description? Because with all the cooking I have planned for the rest of summer (peach and otherwise), that could be a lot of posts!


Happy summer,


X

Knish Me, I'm Jewish

by EP & X

Last weekend we were invited to attend a special event all about knishes.  Yes, this is the glamorous life of food bloggers.  The event was called "Knish History 101: Life and Times of the Knish" and it was held at the Jewish Museum of Maryland as part of their "Chosen Food" exhibit.

Just passing through? A guide to Baltimore eats.

by EP & X


Just passing through Baltimore and looking for something good to eat?  Or a local looking for some new places to try? We've put together this list of great Baltimore eats, some of which you may have heard of or seen on Food Network/Cooking Channel, and some of which you may have no clue about.  That's where we come in: let us be your guide to Charm City noms!

Below is a hodge-podge list of places to check out, ranging from low-brow street food to high-end local and sustainable cuisine.  The list is by no means exclusive and we should probably plan to do a Part II for all the great places we're forgetting.  But until then, check out this list, grab a fork, and get ready to dive into Baltimore's finest eats:

The SHOW Must Go On...

by  EP

BIG NEWS!  We have been invited to participate in a live variety show called SHOW Baltimore!  The event is this Wednesday, March 7 from 7-9 at the Wind Up Space in Baltimore (North Ave area, right across the way from Joe Squared Pizza....mmm).  There is no charge to get in, but if you want to come, save your lunch money for booze - there's a bar and we encourage you to use it.

Here's the snazzy poster for the event:

And here's a blog post by one of the producers, which gives more info on the other acts: http://mobtownblues.com/2012/02/29/show-2-coming-up-on-march-7/

We are so honored and excited for the opportunity to talk a little bit about our blog (which is almost 5 YEARS old if you can believe it) and give some entertaining tips. 

There may or may not be sweet treats for audience members...I can reveal nothing.

Cheers to a great SHOW,
EP & X

A Blog-Worthy Birthday

by Xani

I'm just coming out of the haze of happiness that I lived in for the past few days while celebrating my birthday.  Now its all work deadlines, broken dishwashers, bills to pay and blogs to write.  No wait, I take that last one back.  Let me re-live the weekend by sharing with all of you!

The past few years we've headed up to NYC to celebrate my birthday.  Always a fabulous, but exhausting time.  This year, we decided to rest our old bones (?) and keep it local.  Erin hosted me at her house (complete with a real guest room and surprisingly comfortable air mattress) for the whole weekend and we lived. it. up!

It all started Friday night, when I headed to Erin's with a car full of cooking/baking supplies, doughs, plastic cutlery, way too many clothes, and this:

Eddie only stuck around for the early part of the evening-- a little later his daddy picked him up so that EP and I could get to the business of failing at macarons.  Sigh.  We had prepared ourselves for this likely outcome but it was still a bummer.  We're blaming it on our lack of a convection oven.  Despite EP's research, including getting specific guidance from Chef Briony in actual FRANCE, our little disks refused to form a foot, formed cracks, and just generally flopped.  We tossed them and drowned our sorrows in champagne and delivery from Kebab Stop (not bad stuff if you are in the Mt. Washington area).

The "before" may look promising, but the afters got thrown in the trash :(

The next day, we awoke refreshed and with one thing on our mind: shopping.  After a getting our fix, we returned to EP's house, knocked a few things off our prep list for the next morning's brunch, and then started preparing ourselves for our much awaited dinner at Wit and Wisdom, the swanky Michael Mina restaurant in the new Four Seasons Hotel downtown.  We had been looking forward to this meal for weeks.

Despite the build-up, W&W did not disappoint.  At every turn the service was better and better- valet, coat-check, bar-tenders, waiters, etc, etc.  The drinks at the bar were as creative and quaff-able as everyone has been telling me (try the Sticky Wicket!).  Once we headed to our table (with a view of the open kitchen AND the waterfront, beat that, other tables!) I was thrilled to see a birthday card waiting for me which had been signed by the whole W&W staff.  And it just got better from there!  Our waiter Paul was perfect in every way, and the only thing more perfect than him was the food.  Here it is, in all its splendor:

GUNPOWDER BISON TARTARE | 

 anson mills green farro, upland cress

Rice Porridge with duck tongues, crispy onions, egg

AMISH RABBIT BOUDIN & COUNTRY-FRIED LOIN 

Insanely Good Broccoli (not the official name)

"Scorched Wheat" fettucine with kale and perfect egg

Special Birthday dessert!

Red Velvet Goodness

Not all the dishes we ate are on the restaurants website, so I had to paraphrase a  little with the descriptions.  But even without official/accurate descriptions, how gorgeous are these plates?  And they tasted even better than they look.  The two starters were excellent- the bison tartare was perfectly executed, but the porridge was the real star, just because it was so different, and tasted SO good.  EP and I are suckers for gruel anyway, and this was like gruel to the Nth degree!  Both mains were excellent as well- the pasta was nutty and al dente, and the eggy, buttery sauce reassured you that this was NOT health food, despite the kale.  All three elements of the rabbit dish were excellent: the country-fried loin, crisp and crunchy; the confit legs, rich and melt in your mouth.  But the boudin was the overall winner-- just bursting with great flavor.  Add some broccoli served with hunks of bread that had been fried crisp in bacon fat, and you've got yourself a hell of a meal!

We finished things off with a couple of gorgeous creations by the pastry chef.  At this point I was nearing saturation of both food and alcohol, so memories are especially hazy.  We snapped one last picture and got out of there before we could eat or drink anything else.

Already thinking about tomorrow's brunch...

The next meal in the weekend's parade of food was a Ladies' Brunch Sunday morning.  We hosted six of our girlfriends and plied them with mimosas, bloody marys, and carbs.  What could be bad about that??

Menu:

• Mimosa Bar (peach puree, strawberry puree, OJ)
• Fruit Plate
• Made from Scratch Bread Basket
• Nutty Fruity Sourdough
• No-Knead Baguette
• Orange-scented Olive Oil Cornmeal Muffins
• Pomegranate-Clementine Butter
• Honey-Five Spice Butter
• Mixed Berry Cream Cheese
• Sausage Biscuit Babies
• Spinach Gruyere Strata

We fancy, huh

A spread of spreads

Call it a strata, call it a bread pudding, just don't call me late for brunch!

fruit to fill in the corners

I think these pictures tell the tale better than I can with words.  My bread-baking hobby is sliding in to the "obsession" territory, thus I insisted on making the baguette, sourdough, muffins and biscuits from scratch.  We made the sausage patties as well (and I still think wrapping them in parchment was the cutest touch!).  The strata is truly the perfect brunch dish- fully assembled the day before, it baked to perfection while our guests nibbled the other offerings.  Most importantly the brunch featured good friends, lots of laughs, and many cocktails.

Some ladies enjoying some drinks

Sisters celebrating!

 After digesting for over 24 hours, I somehow found it possible to eat again.  One final meal rounded out this fantastic weekend.  Dave offered to cook a special birthday dinner, menu of my choosing.  I went classic: raw oysters, NY strip steaks, potatoes, spinach.  Dave truly outdid himself with  the execution of this meal:

Something something about the walrus and the carpenter....

Steak by candlelight

The oysters?  Amazing.  The steak? None other than the premium dry-aged stuff from the new Harris Teeter in our 'hood. We were shocked at how flavorful they were.  The taste was very different from non-aged beef.  We both were reminded of flavors like parmesan, mushrooms, even fish.  Maybe its the umami thing all the kids are talking about.  Oh, and of course they were perfectly medium rare (thank you America's Test Kitchen reipe), and sat alongside crispy, cheesy hasselback potatoes and some damn fine creamed spinach (a favorite of mine since I was a toddler).  He really knows the way to my heart... I am a lucky lady!

Could a girl ask for a more fabulous or delicious birthday??  I think not.  Thank you to everyone who made it so special <3 <3 <3

X

I Heart Cabbage

by EP

Maybe it's my Russian roots, maybe it's a significantly delayed impact of having a Cabbage Patch Kid as a child, but I am seriously in love with cabbage these days.  It's not just for summertime treats like cole slaw over a delicious pulled pork sandwich (though that is of course a wonderful iteration).  Recently Xani and I enjoyed it raw over crispy fish tacos at Captain Larry's in Federal Hill.  I enjoy a hearty helping of New Kraut (Ba-Tampte brand) on fabulous half-smoke Polish sausages that our parents procure for us.  Seriously, these Manger's brand half-smokes are the best hot dog I've ever eaten.