Jon's blog

Brewing Schedule

Posted Sat, 02/13/2010 - 09:44 by Jon

I'm beginning to plan out my beer brewing and bottling schedule for the year. On tap (sorry) for 2010:

Early Spring: Irish Red
Late Spring: SpingBo(c)k
Early Summer: Lemon Spice
Late Summer: West Coast Pale Ale
Early Fall: Pumpkin Lager
Late Fall: Coffee Stout
Early Winter: Cranberry (?)

Greek Week (Feb 7)

Posted Sat, 02/13/2010 - 08:34 by Jon

This past week was a greek and mediterranean foods week. We had our favorite [[Brick Chicken]], a new lamb dish based on this roasted, stuffed lamb concept, but using the leftover grape/port reduction from this recipe, which has been taking up valuable freezer space. Regardless, the lamb didn't turn out all that exciting.

Indian food week (Feb 1)

Posted Fri, 02/12/2010 - 08:43 by Jon

We have a few core Indian dishes we've learned how to make pretty well; but they're not quite enough to fill a week. Each time we settle on an Indian food week, we try a new dish, with ... well, mixed results.

The new recipe this week was Mughal style lamb (stew) on saffron rice. We substituted fresh saffron pasta from Eastern Market for the rice. It was OK, but not really a "keeper" .

Indian meal with Naan

Italian Week (Jan 24)

Posted Sun, 01/24/2010 - 03:00 by Jon

Our Arganica order for this week brought us some pizza dough and fresh roasted garlic linguini and some organic cremini mushrooms.

Our menu for the week revolved around using those ingredients - naturally a pizza (Jon usually prefers to make his own dough, but that's time consuming and very messy), a shrimp scampi with the linguini, sauteed mushrooms, and creative leftover-ing.

On Beer

Posted Sun, 01/17/2010 - 14:39 by Jon

A periodic table of beer: http://www.reddit.com/r/beer/comments/aejzk/periodic_table_of_be...

How a Beer becomes a law. Er, legal, in DC: http://www.welovedc.com/2010/01/04/where-is-your-favorite-beer:

Winter Drink Edition

Posted Fri, 12/25/2009 - 11:58 by Jon

My fall/winter pumpkin porter turned out well, and at our Xmas Eve party last night we also served Jamaican Sorrel (a hibiscus, ginger, and lemon rum punch), mulled wine, hot cider, and egg nog. The local blogs have been featuring other, more innovative winter/holiday libations available at our local bars:

http://www.thehillishome.com/2009/12/winter-libations/

http://dcist.com/2009/12/the_weekly_feed_mulling_it_over_edi.php

DC To Arlington: You can come back, but it won't make us happy.

Posted Fri, 12/25/2009 - 11:36 by Jon

It turns out the Virginia's retrocession of their original land grant to the District (now Alexandria and Arlington) may not have been constitutional. Via the DCist:

DC Blog post round-up

Posted Fri, 12/11/2009 - 10:12 by Jon

The KC Pit BBQ truck makes the proudest, biggest-belt-bulked, thereifixedit-stylin' Texan BBQ master weak in the knees, by the Washington City Paper's rundown on it's specs, including walk-ins (freezer and fridge, dry storage, plasma TVs and a "separate, customized wood-smoke pit hidden behind the massive 18-wheeler."

What Shall We Do with a Green Tomater?

Posted Sat, 12/05/2009 - 12:16 by Jon

So it's snowing here in DC. Though it seems to do this every year, it remains a surprise to DC residents ... every year, causing panic on the level I associate with Texans who deal with this whole freezing precipitation problem less reliably.

My tomato plants didn't really get the memo about summer being over, so remain(ed) laden with tons of green tomatoes (and blossoms...). I tore them up this morning as the snow was getting started and now have a rather large pile of green 'maters to deal with. I'm already ripening some in newspaper wrappings in a closed off bag.

History: Proto Eastern Market

Posted Thu, 11/19/2009 - 18:21 by Jon

http://www.thehillishome.com/2009/08/lost-capitol-hill-eastern-b...

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blockquote>With the reopening of Eastern Market, it seems only right to look at the pre-history of what is again the center of our neighborhood. Long before Cluss built his masterpiece, there was another market, one which L’Enfant had planned into his earliest drawings of Washington DC: Eastern Branch Market.

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