You can't get fresher than squash blossoms.

Garden-fresh is so nice. Whatever my mother has growing in her lovely kitchen garden, I'll turn into something. I picked these lovely little squash blossoms the other weekend.

Squash blossoms (the flowering part of a zucchini or squash vine) are a treat generally unavailable to all but home gardeners and habitués of farmers markets. They’re so extraordinarily perishable that few supermarkets bother trying to keep them in stock.

Here's what I did with them, along with the acorn squash they were growing with.


Washed and dried the blossoms. Sliced the squash into thick fries......made a batter of 1 cup flour, 1/2 cup cornstarch, and 1/2 cup beer. ...then fried everything in a half an inch of very hot vegetable oil. Get the full recipe here.

I also made a Caprese salad out of the tomatoes I picked (also from Mom's garden) and the basil (the mint you see was for a cold sauce for the lamb) from my deck. Added some bufala mozzarella from the Italian Store...

Grilled up a couple racks of lamb we had in the freezer (thawed and marinated hours earlier).

And the garden fresh summer dinner was done. Try squash blossoms whenever you can. They're tender and delicate and a nice little treat.

*UPDATE: Reader "Gay Andy" used this batter to fry tilapia in peanut oil. He said it turned out amazingly.

Happy Birthday, Mr. Presidentttt!! Free Stimulus Cake!

Today, August 4, is President Barack Obama’s birthday, and Dominos is encouraging anyone that shares the President’s birthday or any August birthday, to go into their local Washington, DC Dominos and get a *free* Chocolate Lava Crunch Cake, their newest dessert! You know you love free. Click here for participating restaurants.

Source: Associated Press

Domino’s will be celebrating August birthdays all month long. From August 3 – August 31, consumers with an August birthday can stop by their local Domino’s to receive one FREE Lava Crunch Cake on their birthday. Proof of date required, identification can include drivers license or birth certificate. Minors without driver’s license need to be accompanied by an adult.

**To make this more fun, we’re giving away a $15 Dominos gift card to the first person who can name the restaurant where we celebrated our engagement.** Email me at roganista@gmail.com

Polo And Pot Roast

We visited with our friends, Travis and Suzi (the ones who hosted a dinner in our honor before the wedding), at Twilight Polo Saturday evening. During the summer, arena polo is played every Saturday in Great Meadow. Travis and Suzi raise polo ponies and are involved in the community. There grandson, Wyatt, plays and is apparently very good given he's only 13.





This particular evening, Suzi made Wyatt's favorite meal, pot roast, for the picnic! She laid out a lovely spread that included pot roast, boiled and buttery potatoes, roasted carrots, and Cesar salad......and her friend from the garden club, brought these garden fresh tomotatoes. They are so qualitatively different from store-bought tomoatoes. Look how red and smooth they are on the inside....

There are many interesting characters in the polo community. The woman who brought those tomatoes has a farm with her husband. They supply hay to many of the horse people (apparently really good hay) as well as produce to many local chefs. Even the referees have interesting stories. Here is PJ Leaky-Chan(?), one of the refs. Involved with the horse community, he moved to the Virginia countryside almost two decades ago from Jamaica. His family owns the famous Pickapeppa hot sauce company. ...and of course, Suzi had a bottle on hand for the pot roast. It has a mild, sweet, tangy flavor. According to their website, Pickapeppa is created using a unique blend of tomatoes, onions, sugar, cane vinegar, mangoes, raisins, tamarinds, peppers and spices and aged in oak barrels for up to a year.

Also on hand was some wine. They set up a smart little bar. G and I brought over some rose Cremant (a French sparkling) and the locally grown, Linden Avenius Sauvignon blanc (good old standby - we have cases of this stuff).

A lovely night. Great for families with kids. Even good for a date. Check out Twilight Polo for more information.

Saturday Street Scenes: 10th Annual MidCity Dog Days of August

On Saturday we took in the big sidewalk sale event in our Logan Circle neighborhood. In its 10th year, Dog Days of August Sidewalk Sale celebrates DC's hottest shopping corridors: 14th and U streets. MidCity shops, galleries and restaurants took their wares to the sidewalk, featured performers welcomed shoppers to what has been hailed as one of DC's most unique and dynamic retail zones.

We even saw the cast of the Real World and their film crew.

The event reminds us of how incredibly walkable this neighborhood is, and very dog friendly as well!

We looked around a bit, saw this neat art-car...

...sat outside at Commissary and took a leisurely and delicious lunch of a BLT with a fried egg and watched the street scenes unfold. People with their dogs, lots of dogs. Sun dresses, a guy in a sarong, and slim jeans everywhere (on guys and girls)...

Commissary

is a great place to people watch. It's a fantastic neighborhood restaurant that is green-focused. The food is comfy, yet smart, and the prices really recession-friendly. It's great for a casual stop in. With its coffee lounge in the middle of the restaurant surrounded by dining tables and a great bar, you can never go wrong here. We're so fortunate to have it around the corner from us - and need to visit more often.

We got a preview of the new coffee shop, MidCity Caffe, that is to open in three weeks above Miss Pixie's. They were having a little promo of $1 coffees. And as a budding coffee enthusiast, G gives their brew a thumbs up. They use these filter thingies.

I love this city and these streets. Check out 14th and U Streets whenever you get the chance. They're colorful, arty, and authentic.

When he's away...it's snacks for dinner

I've been eating snacks (more specifically hors d'oevres) for dinner  this week - G is out of town on business.

Tonight, my salt-craving was sated with this bit of porcini pate (paste) with a sprinkle of caper salt on water crackers. We got these fun little jars of delicious from the eponymous Italian Store in Arlington a couple weekends back. That place is pretty fabulous.

After Lou, After Hours, and Late Night Eats

After we left the "Romanticism" opening, we headed over to the Hirshhorn "After Hours" event, where we met our friends, Sean and Candy.

Hosted four times a year, it's a sort of museum soiree in the courtyard area. The music was booming, the pink neon glow lent an air of clubiness, as did the pink vodka mojitos. There were several bars set up with a limited array of drinks, including beer, wine, and vodka.

Source

During the After Hours events, the museum stays open late. We caught the "Strange Bodies" exhibit, which runs through November 11th. The grouping of figurative sculpture, paintings, drawings and film is at times dark, but compelling.

Ron Mueck's "Untitled (Big Man)," 2000

Then we moved on. After grabbing drinks at 18th Street Lounge (and paying a stupid $10 cover) - we decided it was too loud and crowded to talk.

Source

Candy was tired, and I was hungry. So after we said our good-byes, G and I headed over to Kramer's Books and Afterwards (the little indie book store and cafe/diner). Emphasis on the afterwards. It's a great old standby for late night bites.

The food is not bad. But no pommes frites, which was what I was craving. And when we asked for chips, they brought us tortilla crisps. No fried potatoes in sight. I settled, however, for this yummy seared tuna with edamame and ginger salad.


We were full of drinks and hors d'oevres from earlier, along with the salad. But we would have otherwise gotten dessert. (Kramer's mixed berry pie is pretty great.)

Art Gallery Stuff: Nice Noshes and Lou Reed

Laurie and David Adamson held a private opening of Lou Reed's photographic work last night. "Romanticism" is Lou Reed's third photo collection, the subjects are various landscape and architectural motifs encountered and documented in travels through Scotland, Denmark, Spain, Rome, China and Big Sur in California. It's pretty decent stuff - we are purchasing one small piece along with the book of his work. (Check out image #21 at the Adamson Gallery.)

We enjoyed the food and drinks as much as the art. They served small hors d'oevres of seared tuna on tortilla chips, mini crabcakes, Tuscan flatbread pizza, and avocado and goat cheese crostinis. Very simple, but quite delicious. The drinks of Champagne and Mojitos were perfect for the hot weather.

Laurie Anderson - sans her signature red hair.

G and collector extraordinaire, Philip Barlow

With David Adamson and Lou Reed