the arugula files

Supermarket Peanut Butter Made to Order?

I heard a rumor that the Safeway at K and 5th has a nut butter bar where you can make nut butter according to your specifications with any type of nut you want.  Any type of nut?  Yup.  

Any Given Sunday...Plus Inglehoffer Mustard

On any given Sunday I head to the farmer's market in Dupont Circle.  Lately, though, I've been traveling for work and busy with tedious chores, plus I had a debilitating case of the flu (No, it wasn't H1N1, but thanks, EVERYONE, for asking), so it's been a few weeks since I filled my market bag.  This week, as I headed for Dupont, I practically skipped down Connecticut Ave.  It was a beautiful morning.  The air was clean, cool, crisp; just the way I love it.  The annual introduction to fall made me want to stand on the sidewalk, take a deep breath, raise my hands slowly above my head, and greedily suck it all in.  You know the move you complete at the end of an intense aerobics class with Richard Simmons?  Yes, that's the move I'm talking about.  

Joe and Julia. Plus Are you Mastering the Art of French Cooking?

Julie Child is certainly getting her due.  Her book, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, is finally topping the best seller list ⎯ 48 years after it was originally published.  My friend Joe, a master cook himself, recently became the owner of Julia's book and was nice enough to cook me a meal from her well-tested pages.  He chose "Chicken with Butter Sauce," (or something like that).  Joe described the recipe as a very detailed, intricate, all around pain in the arse.  Whatever.  It was scrumptious.  Chicken so juicy you could hydrate a dry sponge⎯with butter sauce.  So here's a question: how many of you out there own Mastering the Art of French Cooking and how many actually use it?

{p.s., I'm thinking of dressing up as Julia for Halloween.  I have a rubber turkey, a knife, and an apron.  Maybe I'll borrow Joe's copy of her book.  All I need is a wig.  Any other ideas on how to make me look like Julia? I'm concerned that no one will recognize me.  A few years ago, I went to a Halloween party as Frida Kahlo and no one knew who I was. After a few drinks, someone came up to me and said, are you that Salma Hayek character in that movie?  Um, you mean the famous Mexican painter that Salma Hayek played?  Yes.  Yes, I am.).

Food Blogger Happy Hour: October 7

Yes, the rumors are true: there's another food blogger happy hour planned. It looks like we'll be doing this on a regular basis (First Wednesdays!). The next happy hour will be October 7th at CommonWealth, "the people's pub" in Columbia Heights.   In case you missed it, the last food blogger happy hour was tons of fun.  Food bloggers mingled, talked shop, ate truffle fries, and put faces to URLs. In October, we'll drink beer, raise our glasses, be merry, and eat Scotch eggs like movie popcorn. 

Thanks to Capital Spice, Gradually Greener, Modern Domestic, We Love DC, and Beerspotter, for working out the details.  Let us know if you are coming by leaving a comment on any of our blogs.  And thanks to flickr user mccun934 for the photograph in the flyer.

{p.s., please feel free to post this flyer on your blog.}

8 Reasons to Attend the Adams Morgan Day Festival

1. Hang onto summer just a little bit longer.

Food Blogger Happy Hour: Photos

  

What a great night!  Approximately 60 bloggers (and friends of bloggers) turned out for the happy hour at Poste last night.  I finally matched blogs with faces, and met a lot of great people.  Looks like this will be a monthly get together, so stay tuned for more details.  For now, here are a few photos from the event.

Copper Pot Fig Jam: Worth Every Penny

My love for figs started with Fig Newtons.  As a child I would eat them by the dozen.  When I got a job as a "counter girl" at Barbara Ann's Bakery my tastes became slightly more sophisticated.  At the bakery, when no one was looking, I would  snack on giant fig bars, filled with sweet fig jam, engulfed by a thin, flaky crust.  I still love figs.  I'm eagerly waiting for them to show up at the Farmer's Market. It seems we are all waiting for figs to arrive. (Sounds like the start of a novel, doesn't it?).

I haven't yet seen any fresh figs, but today at the 14th and U Street Farmer's Market, I spied this White Fig and Balsamic Vinegar Jam from The Copper Pot Food Company.  It's perfect jam: light, spreadable, figgy, and the vinegar adds a bright flavor you may not find in most jams.  At $6.50 a jar, it's worth every penny; a special treat to tide me over until figs arrive in the market. 

A Baking Scale and the Science of Making Bread

A few weeks ago I did a blogger beat interview with Emily Leaman at the Washingtonian.  Being asked to do the interview was really exciting (except for having to get my photo taken).  One of the interview questions was to describe a major cooking disaster.  Only one of them?  There are so many, but one that stands out--the one that really shakes my confidence in the kitchen--is my crap attempt at baking bread.  In retrospect, I can see that I had put too much effort into thinking about how good my bread would taste, and not enough effort into paying attention to the feel of the dough, how much flour I was feeding it, and how long it was sitting on my counter, growing like a fat, bubbly belly.  It tasted like paper and felt like a rock.  A big, heavy rock.  I was heart broken.  Granted, I only tried once, but, boy, did that disappointment stick around making me feel bad.  I know, I know, baking bread takes practice.  Well...I think it takes a baking scale too.  I need to be able to measure the flour exactly.  None of this fluff and scoop.  So, before I start attempting to make bread again, I decided to buy a baking scale. 

For help selecting the perfect scale, I turned to my favorite bow-tie wearing friend, who doesn't give a damn if you don't like his editorials, because he knows you will continue to look to him for advice on the best kitchen gadgets.  Yes, Christopher Kimball, of Cook's Illustrated, recommended this scale.  So far, so good: I like the design, the blue light, and the fact that it's slim.  Let's see if it helps me master the art (and science) of baking bread.

Cava Mezze's Harissa

Mediocre restaurants used to litter the streets of Capitol Hill.  They still do, in fact.  What has changed during the past decade is the addition of neighborhood eateries that offer memorable dishes, served in pleasant surroundings.  Cava Mezze, a Greek tapas restaurant that started in Rockville, is among the newest spots on 8th Street, an area, I might note, that was once a good food desert, but now has more tasty high-end restaurants than fast food joints.

I ate at Cava Mezza a couple months ago, splitting a few small plates (saganaki, hummus, baked shrimp, and calamari) with a friend.  The dish that keeps coming back to me is one that we did not order.  Before the meal, our waiter dropped off a small plate of harissa and pita.  Zoinks!  The plate was an outstanding stand-in for typical bread and butter basket, and this particular harissa was like none I had tried before.  Cava's harissa, made from tomatoes and peppers, is mild, with a spicy bite layered with olive oil. I'm now a junkie, a harrissahead, desperately in need of treatment, who spends a lot of time thinking about how to get my next fix.  It's that good.

Amy's Roasted Vegetable Pizza - No Cheese, But Still Tastes Wicked Good.

I have a secret: most nights I don't feel like cooking.  I come home, flop on the couch, and try to work up the motivation to do something besides read food blogs, magazines, or watch 24.  As a side note: I'm not sure why Keifer Sutherland is always whispering on that show; it's really weird.  He's all TELL ME WHERE THE WMD IS OR YOU WILL BE SORRY.  Only he's not yelling; he's up in your face, but barely audible.  He clearly got an A in the whispering with intensity class at acting school.

Okay, so I have no idea why Keifer, the anti-terrorist/torturer/whisperer, is so quiet. Things I'm sure of?  Amy's roasted vegetable pizza tastes wicked good despite not having cheese.  PIZZA WITHOUT CHEESE? Sounds blasphemous doesn't it.  Apparently Amy doesn't think so.  This pizza is covered in a sweet onion sauce that is packed with flavor. So much that you don't miss the cheese.

Amy's pizzas (she has cheese pizzas as well) are available at Whole Foods.  At $7 bucks a pop, they are expensive for frozen pizza.  I usually wait until they go on sale and then buy a few.  The nights I feel tired, I pop one in the oven and in twenty minutes I'm eating a frozen dinner that's not so bad for me and watching things blow up on 24.

Amy didn't pay me for this blog post.  I didn't get any free pizza either.  I just wanted to share what I do when I'm tired and cooking just isn't an option, especially on the nights 24 is on and I can't hear what Keifer Sutherland is saying all the way from the kitchen.