neotoma

French macarons (pistachio, ube, earl grey), bacon-gruyere pastry, almond croissant, arlet apples, bosc pears, apple schnitz, a half-gallon of whole milk, a quart of plain yogurt, cheese curds, red beets, carrots, parsnips, garlic, sticky rice (from the grain collective), einkorn chocolate chip cookie mix (also from the grain collective), 3 everything pizza handpies, 2 veggie pizza handpies, a pistachio pear ginger blondie, a bacon cheddar corn muffin, a kit kat brownie, a snickerdoodle stack, a chewy ginger stack, and an extreme chocolate chip stack.

It turns out the grain collective doesn't run their grain share in winter, but I signed up for their email list anyway. I'm certainly going to keep thinking about it.

Me (a person very obviously of European descent): I'd like the kkakdugi, please.
Mom's Kitchen proprietress (an asian grandmother type): You speak Korean!? :)
Me: Very badly.

Also, it was 22F (-5C) today, with a windchill that made it feel like 8F(-13.3C). I got home around 1pm and I may not go out again until the Monday commute to work. Even wearing my fur-lined boots only helped so much.

Using this recipe from Saveur, and substituting saskatoons for blueberries, I made saskatoon-chipotle ketchup tonight.

( Recipe under the cut )

Yield: 4 8oz jars.

I also used 2 tablespoons of hickory vinegar from Lindera Farms and added some dried chipotle to add a bit more smokeyness to the ketchup. It's noticeably sweeter than a good tomato ketchup, but has a lot of heat too.

I really wanted a salad on the way home from work, so I stopped at the local Gusto and got one.

It must be summer already, because they had the seasonal Once In a Melon salad on the menu -- watermelon, roasted beets, radish, arugula, and watermelon vinegarette dressing.

The brunch will start at 11am at my apartment. I have paper plates, but I don't have enough mugs for everyone, so bring your own if you want tea or hot chocolate.

Currently, the menu is:

• Migas mini-quiche
  
• Potato-spinach mini-quiche
  
• Bacon and lamb bacon
  
• Liege waffles
  
• Pecans -- chocolate-covered and cinnamon-roasted
  
• Mushrooms
  
• Winter fruit salad -- from pleasance
  
• Cheese -- from meri_oddities
  
• Hot chocolate
  
• Tea (various, mostly black)
  
• Shrubs -- persimmon, pawpaw, applejack
  
• Mimosas -- from ell and temve
  
• Springerle cookies
  
• Basilopita
  

Please let me know if you're coming.

Cameo apples, 2 quarts of strawberries, spanakopita, tiropita, portokalopita, pita, feta salad, baklava, pint of snap peas.

I also picked up a lime at the grocery, so I have the makings of more honey-sweetened strawberry lime thyme jam for texasgrandma who liked it enough to offer to help me buy canning jars and strawberries if I'd make more.

For my local friends, it looks like Rancho Gordo has their cassoulet beans back in stock, as well as some of the other beans and specialty items; I'd like to get an order together to save on shipping.

If you're interested, comment or email.

This weekend was kind of busy. I met fabrisse and pleasance at the Eat Local First DC street party that was at Union Market on Saturday.

It was awfully hot when I got there, so fabrisse and I went in to wait forpleasance and got French macaroons and iced tea from Pearl Fine Teas -- the ice tea was a Moroccan Mint, but I found it really bitter, almost stewed in flavor. However that might be because I grew up in the south and prefer sweet tea, and this was unsweetened. We did wander around a bit -- Salt and Sundry has a rather broad range of shrubs from Liber & Co, more than they have on their website, and some fancy syrups from another producer that I might go back and pick up, because while I have Fix the Pumps, I don't want to have to make every basic syrup in order to try the advanced recipes.

I also dropped my ulu off at DC Sharp -- they charged $16 to sharpen it, and told me to come back in 3 hrs.

The street party outside had a lot of vendors specializing in everything from kombucha, meal kits (fresh ingredients, seasonings, and the recipes, delivered to you!), white bean pies, coffee, pickles (No. 1 Sons), and a stand that was selling a very tasty lemon-rosemary shrub with half-priced refills. I picked up several cards, and will keep an eye out for the chef who made the white bean pie -- it was fantastic!

We retreated after a while to the cool of Union Market -- the building has air-conditioning -- and sat down to eat. pleasance picked up a sandwich from Red Apron Butchery, I bought two empandas from DC Empanadas, and fabrisse tried the carmelized tofu at TaKorean. The last two have food trucks, so if you're local, keep your eyes open for them -- the food was tasty and reasonably priced.

We ended the day picking up my ulu -- very very sharp now -- and stopping by Righteous Cheese, which has a wonderful selection of cheese and is just too tempting.

On Sunday, greenygal, pleasance, and I went to the National Geographic Museum to see the pirates exhibit -- it's actually about one pirate ship, the Whydah, which is the first authenticated pirate ship found in US waters. The exhibit starts with a bit of theater, as you enter into an antechamber, where a short and informative introduction plays on two screens and then goes to lightning effects and drama before the doors to the exhibit swing open to invite you inside.

Afterwards, we went to a special event at Fantom Comics, which I had to bow out of early because I was tired and my work starts quite early on weekdays. On the other hand, I have ordered Saga by Brian K Vaughan and Fiona Staples. I hope Fantom's staff with be able to rec more SF comics, since I've almost completely gone off superhero comics (and found it amusing that the staff were just as exasperated about the DCnU as the customers were).

All in all, it was a fun weekend.