KFW Is Back

Check out KFW's new digs on Tumblr and follow me. Photos, recipes, food news, cookbook reviews, food/drink app reviews, food/drink website recommendations, features like "Tonight's Dinner," travel logs, and more.

Instagram Anyone?

I guess it's pretty obvious that I haven't been too into blogging lately. I have, however, really gotten into using Instagram. Follow me at rosemccarthy. Here's some recent foodie pics:
 

Glorious In-Ground Garden

One of the most awesome things about having a house - in my book anyway - is outdoor space. I'm not talking balcony space, which - don't get me wrong - was a great feature of our last two apartments, but it's not the same as having your own land.

Yesterday we put in a 4-ft.-by-4-ft. raised bed. It's filled with seeds and seedlings of three different tomatoes, four peppers, cilantro, dill, orange mint, basil, arugula, French breakfast radishes, and lemon cucumbers. I brought rosemary, oregano, lavender, and parsley in pots from our Arlington apartment. They're thriving. Hope the in-ground garden does too. I'll post status reports.

What We've Been Up To

Cappuccino with pear and blue cheese scone at Peregrine in our new 'hood

First grilling of the season on a brand new Weber: Feb. 25

The results of the first grill: chicken, feta, and spinach sausage with potatoes and red peppers (Greek salad wasn't grilled :)

Feb. 26: ribeyes with halloumi over arugula (garlicky carrots weren't grilled either)

This Is Awesome!

Check out this visually stunning chart of cocktails.

Cool Web Discoveries

Find. Eat. Drink.
Good Food Preservation
Eat Your World
With Love, From Brooklyn (not just food)
Pantry Confidential
Rabelais

So True!

Check out this video that pokes fun at the craft cocktail movement.

Hate This With A Passion!

I mean, c'mon! Sabering a bottle of champagne with an iPad? Wtf.

Love These Too!

From Saveur's 100 list for 2011:

Zahav in our old stomping grounds

La Bernardin, in which we recently had the pleasure of partaking (Note: I love it in the video when Eric Ripert's just sitting at a table. I kinda adore him :)

Food-blogging camera lens recommendation

Love This!

Hope you love this video too. If so, consider checking out Kinfolk's e-zine.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

Changes are afoot at the KFW household. We just bought a house in Eastern Market/Capitol Hill neighborhood, which we are renovating before we move in a couple weeks. When things settle down, I'll get back to blogging. Until then, happy new year everybody!

East African Hot Sauce And Whoopie Pies

I made chicken wings with the hot sauce my sister-in-law sent. They were yummy and unlike any others we've had. The dates in the sauce give a bit of sweetness and thickness while the jalapenos and tamarind provide zing and pep. We'll use the bottle up soon, I'm sure.

We baked up white chocolate fudge with nuts and dried fruit as well as gingerbread whoopie pies to give to family over Thanksgiving.  The whoopie pies rocked my world. It seems like others had the same reaction ;).

 

What If Virginia Woolf Had Been A Food Writer?

Well, this is what she would have written.

There Are No Words...

 ...which is why I have pictures:

Lisbon

Cervejaria Ramiro

frango assado

Ginjinha shots (cherry liqueur)

Salema fishing boats

neon orange caiphirinas

When in Portugal, drink Sagres lager.

Perhaps he caught some of the ingredients in my fish stew...

afternoon snack

And now for what we did during our STUPENDOUS culinary extravaganza weekend up in New York (Hyde Park and Manhattan). Friday: Everready Diner, CIA tour, drinks at American Bounty (one of the student restaurants), dinner at Medici (another student restaurant); Saturday: "CIA Favorites" class (I'm planning to return asap to take another course; it was quite an experience), drive to NYC through fall foliage, Palace Hotel, Burp Castle, Lakeside Lounge, St. Regis King Cole Bar, Chef's Tasting Menu at La Bernardin; Sunday: Jane for brunch. Plus we got two cookbooks at the CIA: "The Professional Chef," which is the students' primary textbook, and "The CIA Cookbook." AND we received a copy of the menu at La Bernardin. The courses were so intricate, I couldn't remember everything we ate even right after we left. Now I can stare longingly at the menu and salivate, remembering how AWESOME it was. (BTW my favorite dish was "Crispy Black Bass with Pickled Cucumbers and Black Garlic-Persian Lime Sauce.")

main building

"Wearing" a toque

cafeteria

1/2 of what our class made

the other 1/2

buffet!

King Cole Bar mural by Maxfield Parrish

La Bernardin

Next up: a report on Sadia's Gourmet sauce, sent to us by my sister-in-law, direct from Minnesota. (She works for Sadia.) Think I'll try it with chicken wings.

I've had no time over the past couple months to seriously blog. There was Miami, Portugal, family and friend visits, my brother's spectacular wedding... But now I'm back in effect with several things to report and also news of exciting this to come.

First, I roasted yams in the oven a while back, scooped out the flesh, and stirred it with butter, turmeric, and fenugreek.  I call them India-Inspired Yummy Yams.

Yes, we went to Portugal again. We missed it tremendously since 2008 so we decided to return for a spontaneous long weekend. We ate amazing seafood every day but one when we had the traditional frango assado (Portuguese roast chicken with fiery piri piri sauce). Photos will come eventually. If anyone wants trip tips, let me know. I can talk endlessly about Lisbon and the southwest coast.

I had the best raw oysters - hands down - this past weekend in Rehoboth Beach, DE: Bagaduce oysters from Maine.

Tonight is Whitlow's all-you-can-eat snow crab legs as soon as the hubby gets home. I'm going to eat my weight in crab.

Coming up this weekend: road trip to NYC with my best friend and her beautiful baby to bid adieu to our college friend who's moving to Singapore. Sadness! But I see a big trip in our future...

Finally, next weekend is going to be a culinary extravaganza. We're driving up to Hyde Park on Friday for a campus tour and dinner in one of the CIA's student restaurants. Saturday's my class followed by dinner down in NYC at - wait for it, wait for it - Le Bernardin. Oh, Eric Ripert, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways: caviar, tuna, lobster, turbot, hiramasa, black bass, etc.

Tonight, Tonight

I haven't posted since mid-August. Sad. Shame on me. I'll redeem myself tonight. But, for now, check this out. I could go for one - how about you?

Please Vote For Arcadia

Per an email from Arcadia:

"Arcadia Farms, a program under the DC non-profit Arcadia Center for Sustainable Food and Agriculture, has entered to win a $65,000 grant through Nature's Path Organic 'Gardens for Good' contest.

"Three winning farms will be selected from the top ten finalists, so please vote for us on Facebook: http://goo.gl/mIoV4 ... you can vote multiple times (upwards to 30 or more) simply by clicking the 'Vote' button until it turns to 'Voted,' so please vote frequently and share with friends!

"A 'Gardens for Good' grant would allow us to:

"1) Expand our farm to grow food exclusively for the Arcadia Mobile Market, a retrofitted school bus that distributes produce to low-income, Washington DC-area residents who lack access to healthy, affordable food options. Funding will specifically help us staff and develop this farm expansion, as well as support our 'matching dollar' programs and the acceptance of federal food assistance (such at SNAP, WIC, and SFMNP), thereby increasing the purchasing power of our underserved neighbors.

"2) Expand our interactive farm field trip programming for urban youth. Arcadia’s D.C. Farm to School Network serves Washington, DC students by coordinating educational field trips to Arcadia Farm and interactive school visits by the Mobile Market. These activities help to connect D.C. schoolchildren with the food system, thereby expanding their understanding of where food comes from and healthy eating choices. Funding will specifically help us staff our educational outreach programs, and bus students to Arcadia Farm from schools who otherwise lack transportation funds.

"Our entry is listed under Benjamin Bartley, the Mobile Market Manager for Arcadia.

"Thanks for voting for a more equitable and sustainable food system in our nation’s capital! 

"Thanks!!!!

"Mo and the Arcadia Team"

Click For: Good NYT Article

Well, I don’t have a DC Beer Week report because we couldn’t make it to any of the events. Boo hoo. I, however, hit our favorite neighborhood bar, Galaxy Hut, solo to at least partake in beer drinking during its namesake week. We love this no-frills spot for its constantly rotating taps, snappy hot dogs, and piles of tater tots. I got a couple inconspicuous pics of the taps and bartender thanks to my new-ish iPhone. (I should take this opportunity to mention that the first photo looks the way it does thanks to the Hipstamatic app. Awesome, right? You’ll notice it in previous posts too.)

The peppers from the balcony garden are in full effect now. Coming in strong. And boy are they hot. Like habanero hot on the Scoville Scale. But boy are they fantastic.

I’m kinda off-kilter recently so that’s all I got going on right now. Here’s a few cool sites to check out. Next time I’ll have something more substantive to share.

FoodCorps
The Canal House
The Lexicon of Sustainability
Handwritten Recipes
Art of the Menu

P.S.

Forgot to mention that I checked out the National Archives' "What's Cooking, Uncle Sam?" exhibit on the government's effect on the American diet. Small but packed with lots of interesting and eye-opening things.