Andy Nelson, We Love You

by Erin & Xani

Last week Xani and I found ourselves outside the city in Baltimore County (gasp! the horror!) and we were HUNGRY. Our first thought was to hit up our beloved Suburban House, home of some of the best latkes in Maryland and site of Xani's law school graduation lunch, but then we remembered that it recently burned down! The Jewish restaurant community took a big hit. But we hear they are rebuilding and we will be back.

Instead, we went to legendary BBQ joint, Andy Nelson's Barbeque, where Xani had been before but Erin had only heard about. We were excited, to say the least.


The restaurant is unremarkable from the outside but inside it is homey and comfortable. There are also picnic tables outside but we were in the mood for air conditioning so we stayed inside.

Now let's get down to what really matters: the food. We ordered one of their platters to share. The platter came with a half-slab of ribs, two other meats, two sides, and corn bread. For the other meats we ordered pulled pork BBQ and smokehouse beef brisket. For our sides, we went traditional and got the cole slaw and red-skin potato salad. On our ribs, the cashier asked us if we wanted the ribs "Memphis dry" (with a dry rub) or "wet" (with BBQ sauce) - we went with the dry rub.



The food was outstanding. We hesitate to say it was the best BBQ we've ever had since we've been down south and had great BBQ (e.g., when EP went down to NC for some serious Carolina-style BBQ and hushpuppies at Wilbur's BBQ), but we'll go ahead and say it was the best BBQ in Maryland.

The pulled pork was pretty vinegar-y (aka awesome) and had lots of flavor. We think it would be best on a sandwich, versus just on a plate like we had it, since it was chopped, rather than shredded.

The brisket was SO good - it was very tender and fatty and sliced really thin, almost like pit beef. They had a couple types of BBQ sauce available and they were excellent on the brisket.

The best meat, however, was the ribs. I don't know if its just that we hadn't had ribs in a long time or what, but we were DYING over them! The rub was super-flavorful, and the ribs were juicy and fatty, but amazingly not too greasy. We devoured them.





As for the sides, the potato salad was really good, very down-home. The cole slaw had a lot of flavor from the celery seeds, but it needed salt and sugar. Ah well - I guess not everything can be absolutely fabulous!

The corn bread was also very good - crunchy on the outside (and it was a pretty thin piece, so it was mostly "outside") with bits of corn running throughout the bread. I only wish we had had more than one piece.



Think we liked it?

We finished everything and to be honest, we haven't stopped thinking about that meal. We will definitely be going back in the very near future - maybe when it cools off a little so we can eat outside without sweating to death? Yeah, that sounds good.

Happy lip-smacking BBQ!

E & X

Celebrations at Brasserie Beck

by Erin



At the beginning of the summer I got together with my college friends in DC to celebrate my graduation and BFF Rachel's birthday. I got to pick the restaurant (I have such cooperative friends!) and I had one goal in mind: mussels. I was on the hunt for the best mussels in DC. After researching on Chowhound and getting the scoop from my DC peeps, we decided on Brasserie Beck, a Belgian brasserie on K Street with supposedly some of the best moules frites (mussels and fries) in the district.




Rachel and I arrived at the restaurant before the others so we had a chance to scope out the space, which was bright and airy - very tall ceilings and a cool bar, if I recall correctly (remember: I was there 3 months ago!). They have a ridiculously large selection of Belgian beers and the bartenders and waitstaff are all very knowledgeable about the beers and which beers go with which foods. I was very impressed!

The rest of our party arrived and we were seated in an area that was semi-closed off and was much quieter than the rest of the dining area - which I LOVED because everyone could hear each other! The rest of the dining area had the high ceilings I mentioned and therefore it was pretty loud and echo-y, so I was glad we were in the semi-separate room so we could all catch up more easily.

We started the evening off with - of course - champagne! What celebration is complete without a little bubbly?



Then we ordered a few starters, including a Napoleon of Vine Ripe Tomato with goat cheese and scallion balsamic dressing and a delicious crisp piece of bacon, and a dozen assorted oysters of all different shapes and sizes, with traditional accoutrements (lemon, cocktail sauce, mignonette sauce).



Napoleon of Tomato (mysteriously missing the bacon...someone must have snatched it!)





The Napoleon of Tomato was really good and I liked that they used goat cheese instead of the traditional fresh mozzarella - an interesting and yummy twist on a classic. The oysters were, of course, delicious and fresh. There were 3-4 different kinds so you could really compare and contrast the sizes and saltiness of each - awesome.

The most interesting starter was one of the specials of the day: a house-made duck sausage with dried fruit, served atop sauteed fennel (I think) with a delicious sauce - we ordered two of these for the table since almost everyone wanted to try it!



We also ordered some of their excellent frites as a starter, but our waiter forgot about them until after the first course, so to make up for it, he brought us two orders! He was so good to us :) The frites were served with a trio of mayonnaises: plain, curry, and chipotle. The fries were hot and crispy, freshly made, and so delicious. The mayonnaises were excellent as well and we could not stop eating them!



Then onto the mains: I, of course, wanted mussels. They had several preparations that day, and I chose the mussels cooked with chorizo and fennel. Others got mussels as well (a different preparation with roasted whole cherry tomatoes, basil, and rocket), and some of the others got fish dishes.



My mussels with chorizo and fennel

Everyone reported that their dishes were awesome, and I concurred! The mussels were so flavorful and very hearty with the braised fennel and spicy and fatty chorizo. The portion was HUGE and I could only eat about 1/3 of my little mussel friends - note to self: share next time! (My one criticism of the mussels was that they do a table-side, simultaneous "reveal" of the mussels where waiters remove the lid on the pan in which they are served. During this "show," some of the hot water from the lid burned my arm! Granted, I'm used to slight burns from all my cooking experiences, but it was still unpleasant and I would prefer that they just take the lid off in the kitchen...) Those of us who got the mussels got more frites with our meal, which we shared with the table - they were awesome, as discussed above.

After dinner, our waiter (who was sweet on Rachel) insisted that we get dessert and brought us his two favorite desserts, in addition to a taste of a delicious sweet Belgian beer.





Cheers to Rachel's birthday and my graduation!

The desserts were a Gateau of Chocolate and a Pear Tarte Tatin with creme fraiche ice cream - YUM. These were excellent and Rachel got a nice surprise candle to blow out! My favorite was definitely the tarte tatin - reminded me of when we made it ourselves (with apples) for Thanksgiving last year.





We had lots of Belgian beers along with our meal, and our waiter was very helpful in helping us pick appropriate ones. While I can't remember what I had (helpful, I know), I do recall them being really good and also that each beer came with a special glass - we were highly entertained by this.

I would most definitely go back to Brasserie Beck for more mussels, more beer, and more fries. I had an amazing time with my friends - we were so rowdy! - and I thank them so much for taking me out to celebrate! I can't wait to do it again soon.





Happy mussels and fries -

EP

Beer + Sausage = Independence

by Erin and Xani



For the Fourth of July this year, Xani and I wanted to have a party. While throwing around ideas one weekend at Blackacre, our parents suggested that we recreate one of their fabulous parties from when they were first married (apparently throwing great parties is genetic): Sausage and Beer party. We loved the idea immediately and started a'planning.

We decided that it'd be fun to try to make our own sausages for the party, so over the Father's Day weekend, we spent an afternoon elbow-deep in pork. Xani brought her Charcuterie book by Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn and we tried to follow its directions but we hit a few snags along the way and had to go off-script at some points.

Father-daughter sausage-making on Father's Day!

We decided to make three kinds of sausage: sweet Italian, hot Italian, and chorizo. Seasoning the meat was easy, it was all the steps afterwards that proved challenging. We used a pork shoulder (per the recipe) and Dad bought a brand new gigantic meat grinder. However, the meat had a lot of extra "stuff" other than pure meat and it got all caught up in the grinder. So, we tried chopping the meat up into smaller pieces by hand and then grinding it. Then we tried using the food processor to chop the meat before grinding it. Then we just used the food processor alone. In the end, the best texture came from the second method (food processor and then run it through the grinder).

Seasoned up and ready to go into the grinder



Dad chops the meat after we realized the grinder alone wouldn't cut it (ha, pardon the pun)

Before putting the meat into the sausage maker, we cooked little bits of each kind of meat to make sure the seasoning was right. They all tasted awesome, so we were glad for that at least. Then it was time to make the sausages. We got natural pork casings from a butcher in Federal Hill at the Cross Street Market (thanks Henry!) and soaked them for a few hours to get all the salt off of them (that's how they are preserved). Then we loaded the meat into the grinder and started making sausages! It was pretty easy at that point (HA - easy after hours of seasoning, chopping, and grinding meat). We made both links and large coils of sausage and froze them in preparation for the party a few weeks later.





Flash forward to a few days before July 4: we went to the farmer's market to buy lots of veggies and fruits for the party, and also to buy some back-up sausages from our favorite pork guy in case ours turned out to be terrible. We purchased some brats from him, in addition to some sage sausage. So, in the end, we had 5 flavors of sausage to serve. We were happy that almost everything we served at the party was local/organic - yay us!

We decided to serve the sausages in mini-form (approximately 2-3 inches) with mini-rolls, so people could try more than one flavor without having to commit (?) to eating an entire full-size sausage. To serve with the sausages, we made 3 delicious condiments from this Food & Wine article. We made Curried Apricot and Tomato Ketchup, Quick Mustard Picalilly, and Smoky Pimento Relish.



5 kinds of sausages with the accompanying chart



Condiments!

In addition to the sausages, we served a tomato, feta, and basil salad (we made up the recipe), coleslaw with cayenne and toasted caraway seeds, and horseradish potato salad.



Lovely tomatoes



Tomato, feta, & basil salad (basil from Xani's garden!)



Horseradish potato salad



Coleslaw with Cayenne and Caraway Seeds



Side dishes and accompanying signs

We also made Old Bay popcorn for people to nosh on and we cut up a watermelon (which we served outside so people could spit their seeds on the ground -- or at each other).

For dessert, we decided to make ice cream sandwiches!! We were inspired, as always, by Ina Garten and we made her Chocolate White Chocolate Chunk Cookies which she used for ice cream sandwiches. We made a few changes, however: first, neither of us is a big white chocolate fan, so we used semi-sweet chocolate chips instead; also, we wanted the cookies to be more chewy than crispy so they wouldn't fall apart when in ice cream sandwich-form (and they wouldn't stay so solid such that they would force the ice cream to escape out the sides), so we referred to Xani's favorite book, Ratio by Michael Ruhlman, who instructed us to add more butter if you want a chewier cookie. Right, that's just what an Ina Garten recipe needs, more butter. But, we followed Ruhlman's ratio and sure enough, they came out just chewy enough.



Mmmm cookies



All paired up and ready to be made into sandwiches!

Once the cookies had baked and cooled, it was time to assemble the ice cream sandwiches. Now, this is where we differ in our cooking techniques. Erin usually does not mind getting messy in the kitchen, while Xani would prefer to keep a clean work space. Making ice cream sandwiches was, well....Xani wasn't too happy, let's put it that way. We had an assembly line where Xani would put the ice cream between two cookies, and then Erin would roll the sandwiches in red and blue sprinkles and place them in the freezer. This was a melty, sticky, crushed-sprinkles-all-over-the-floor endeavor, but we made it through. And they looked (and tasted) great!



Ice cream sandwich assembly line; note that the ice cream is on a scale so we could put the same amount in each one (nerds!)

Miraculously, for the first time in all of our years of party-throwing, we were done with everything before our friends arrived! It was great. We asked all of our friends to bring their favorite beer, and we planned to give out prizes for different categories of beer, for example: beer from furthest away, beer from closest, strongest beer, "classiest" beer (ahem, Miller High Life), most unique flavor, highest alcohol content, etc. Our friends came through and we had a grand old time and lots of delicious beers!



Food, as far as the eye could see

For contest winners, we gave out foodie tattoos, which were BAD ASS! We had a great time giving them out and I kept mine on for as long as I could. Here are some foodie tattoo pics:













After lots of eating, talking, and drinking, it was time to head up to Xani's rooftop deck, where we could watch the fireworks! We brought the ice cream sandwiches (and, let's be honest, more beer) up to the roof and watched the show on a practically perfect night for it. We may or may not have chanted "USA! USA!" at some point.



It was a great party and the food was awesome (if we do say so ourselves)! The chorizo turned out the best as far as our homemade sausages went - it had the best taste and texture. The condiments were also great - the picalilly was our favorite. It had sauerkraut, mustard, and beer in it - what could be bad? The cole slaw was really tasty, and while the potato salad was good, the horseradish we had was kind of weak so it didn't have that "punch you in the sinuses" effect we were hoping for. The tomato and feta salad was absolutely delicious and fresh and was a big hit. Everyone seemed to really like the ice cream sandwiches too.

Thanks to our guests for coming and bringing delicious beer and snacks (esp. Joy who made a delicious and beautiful 4th of July dessert!), and thanks to Mom and Dad for helping us make sausages and make a huge mess in Kitchen Stadium!

Here are a few more pics from the party:















Joy's dessert - it's nice to be friends with a pastry chef ;)

Happy sausage making and eating,

EP & X