Sensorium DC!

Last night I attended Sensorium DC, a ten course tasting meal – slash – variety show being presented for just two more weeks down by the Navy Yard in DC.  These ingenuitive actors and chefs came together, set up a dining tent with a on-site kitchen and have been wow-ing audiences throughout the month of April.  And they’ve extended for two more weeks, so be sure to get your tickets and go, go, go!  Sensorium.com

I will share that I had my usual breakfast of oats and almonds with yogurt and mache; a salad at Cosi with my friend Holly for lunch.  I was very ready for dinner, and the evening of eating filled me up just fine.  If you happen to be a larger than life huge man with a teeming appetite, however, you may want to have a snack before dinner.  The ten courses are each appetizer size, and I’d hate for you to be hungry and a bit whiny about it all night long.

#1:  kir royale jellybean with magic crystals.

#2:  fennel salad.

#3:  gnocchi with peas and gorgonzola cream sauce, fresh cracked black pepper.  I love me some gorgonzola.

#4:  beet gazpacho with goat cheese.  A crowd pleaser.  Converted Eric past the “I don’t like beets” thinking.  Our table mates, Erica and Ashley, liked this one too.  Somewhere around this course we had a chance to get up and meet our fellow diners – which would have been dreadful for this introvert if everyone weren’t so friendly and in such good spirits. Good food has a way of doing that.

#5:  braised rabbit with caramelized onion.

#6: fried eggplant with honey and thyme.  I’ll be making this at home sometime soon.  Honey and thyme something, anyway.  Yum.

#7:  pork belly, asparagus and sweet potato.  I was so tickled when they set this tiny table and chair in front of me that I actually cried a little.  How delightful!  I loved it.

#8:  shrimp and clam, polenta.  Remind me to put lots of parmesan and capers in my next polenta.  Dear goodness.

#9: fried artichoke with heirloom tomato and balsamic reduction.  I’d pretty much eat tin cans if they were drizzled with a balsamic reduction.  This was much better, though.

#10:  oxtail ragout, yuca.  Warm and savory.

#11:  lemon pudding pop.  Of course they had a portable liquid nitrogen freeze table side contraption.  Doesn’t everyone?  Portions of pudding frozen instantly onto sticks.  Genius.

#12:  ricotta donuts with cayenne chocolate. I ate this with my fingers, wiping up every last bit of chocolate and powdered sugar.  Would have licked the plate if I hadn’t been wearing a dress, but I felt that way about every course.

#13:  (if you count the amuse bouche, the intermezzo and this, you get 13 courses)  magic bean.  I ate the magic bean, of course I did.  Don’t want to spoil the surprise, though. You simply must go to Sensorium.  Just go, already.  I didn’t even tell you about the singing, dancing, poetry and magic going on throughout the evening.  Fun, fun, fun!

Snack:  tres leches cake.  Had to stop by Whole Foods to get Eric some food. He was still hungry. He got indian food and some mashed potatoes and my eye fell on a piece of tres leches cake, which was moist and sweet and, with a cup of deep, dark decaf, the perfect end to the evening.

wednesday sucre libre day 3

I’ll tell you right off I have no plans to go past Sucre Libre Day 4.  More to the point, I have big plans to eat some sugar Friday night.  I’m going to Sensorium, and I’m going to eat everything they serve.  Should be an amazing night, I’ll be sure to tell you all about it.  Meanwhile, I did accomplish 3 days Sucre Libre thus far, and here’s what today looked like:

Breakfast:  oats, apples, almonds, kale, ginger, cinnamon; lemon water; traditional medicinals chai.  Didn’t snap a photo.  Sat out on the porch to enjoy breakfast, was surprised to find breakfast to have the texture of wallpaper paste.  That usually doesn’t happen, but I usually use Bob’s Red Mill Thick Cut Oats, and today I used some no-brand rolled oats.  Would not have thought there would be such a difference.

Lunch:  eggsalad on sesame Ezekial toast, carrots, grapes, mache.  Hardboiled eggs from Easter. I liked it when I was a kid and the Pazs dyes would go through the cracks of the eggshell and the resultant eggsalad would be streaked with hot pink, blue and green.  That was cool.

Dinner:  catfish, mashed potatoes, cauliflower, garlicky kale.  Whole Foods buffet extraordinare.

Dessert:  vanilla island ice cream and ginger with sliced almond cookies, Numi honeybush tea.  Hoorah to CocoBliss for their agave sweetened frozen creaminess, and to Pamela‘s for her gluten free, molasses sweetened cookies.  Very tasty.

chocolate pudding: raw, vegan, sucre libre!

Here it is, the salve for these unusally hot April afternoons:  chocolate pudding that just about everyone can eat!  It’s dairy free, gluten free, sugar free, raw, vegan, cool, creamy and delicious.  Enjoy!

Chocolate Pudding

14 oz silken tofu

6 oz unsweetened chocolate, melted in microwave and cooled

2 T maple syrup

1 T vanilla extract

4 t raw cacao nibs

Combine tofu, melted chocolate, maple syrup and vanilla in a blender until smooth and creamy.  Pour pudding into four pudding cups and garnish with cacao nibs.  Refrigerate.  Eat.  Sigh with deep dark chocolate pleasure.

muggy monday

Ah, back to the work week after a nice weekend out of town.  Eric and I went up to Lancaster, PA where we saw covered bridges and cows.  It was easy and relaxing.  Had an amazing dinner at JJ Jefferies in Lancaster – I highly recommend the Mushroom Bisque and the Gorditos (pork belly on polenta with mashed sweet potato and salsa), as well as any of the salads.  Can’t get behind their steak tartare, though, it was perfectly fine raw meat but no one had taken the time to season it with garlic and parsley and capers like I’ve gotten used to over at Cafe Yves.   Spoiled, I am.

I took a little break from this blog the last few days, and may continue to do so as I’ve lost sight of what I’m doing.  I can’t remember what I was doing, I’m not sure what I’d planned to be doing, so I have to think a little.  Suggestions welcome.  There’s the photos, the descriptions of the meals, the pithy bit of wants-to-be-storytelling at the top… Suggestions welcome.

Breakfast: (yesterday) coffee cake with nuts from “On Orange”, which used to be “Wish You Were Here” in Lancaster.   It’s at 219 Orange Street, quirky and tasty.

Lunch:  (today) turkey with horseradish and avocado on whole wheat with coleslaw, grapes, blue corn chips, cornichons, carrots, ginger people lemon soother.  I am so excited Whole Foods’ olive bar is back in the cornichon business.

Dinner:  I’m actually writing this in the afternoon of the same day so I have no idea what dinner will be!  If I had to guess it will be miso soup.  My lunch was mighty filling and miso soup will be an easy way to wrap up the eating day.  Except it’s supposed to get up to the high 80s this afternoon – I might not want hot soup come dinner time!  Hmmm, maybe I’ll mastermind the chilled miso movement…

cabbage and leek griddle cakes

This recipe was inspired by Whole Foods.  Not sure why they’re not called latkes, they have all the components of latkes and I served them for Passover…  oh well, not important.  What is important is that you have some sour cream or applesauce or both to serve with these – just a dollop will do ya and it’s going to really make your tastebuds sing!  Oh, another word to the wise:  serve these as soon as possible so they’re still fresh from the pan piping hot.  They’re not bad at room temperature, but I can’t help but imagine they’d be sublime if they were hot, fresh and crispy.  And for something completely different:  how about making latkes with the Apple Beet Charoset recipe from yesterday?  Now, those and a dollop of sour cream and… wow.  Call those dinner and you’d hardly need dessert, but if you do, check out my  Berry Cobbler with Miso!

Cabbage and Leek Latkes (there, I said it)

1/2 medium cabbage, sliced fine on a mandoline

one leek, the white part, about 3″, sliced fine on a mandoline

1/8 cup  flour (AP, Whole Wheat, gluten free…)

dash sea salt and cracked black pepper

1 egg, beaten

 

Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl.

Heat a non-stick skillet over medium heat.

Place fist/spoonfuls of cabbage leek mixture in skillet, three or four at a time, like you’re making pancakes.

Allow to cook 2 minutes per side until golden brown, serve HOT with sour cream and/or applesauce.

charoset, before and after

  My new favorite side dish/condiment:  Apple Beet Charoset!  This is adapted from Whole Foods.  I made it to go with the roasted lamb chops Eric and I had last weekend for “Fake Easter/Passover”, and the next day I put it on a grilled turkey and cheddar and thought I’d died and gone to food heaven.  So you have got to try it.  Meanwhile, if anyone has a suggestion for the two remaining golden beets I have on hand, I’d love to hear them!  Although, my default Golden Beet Gazpacho is never a bad choice…

Apple Beet Charoset

1 granny smith apple, peeled and grated

1 golden beet, peeled and grated

1/2 can red beets, diced small

1/4 cup dried apricots, sliced

1/2 cup pecans, toasted and chopped

1 t cinnamon

1 t nutmeg

dash sea salt

2 T honey

1 T orange zest

juice of half an orange

Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl.  Allow to sit at least 1/2 hour before serving.  Can be stored in fridge for about a week.  Is excellent with roasted meats, or on a sandwich with turkey and cheddar.  Yum!

easter breakfast, passover dinner

As mentioned earlier this week, it is not yet Easter nor am I Jewish, but I love the celebratory foods of this Spring season.  This year I combined the best of both worlds, cherry picking my favorite bits and rolling them all into one big day.  Coloring eggs with all natural dyes, flying a kite, eating, eating, eating…  we called it “Fake Easter/Passover”, and it was delicious.

Breakfast:  lemon water; traditional medicinals chai; scrambled eggs, bacon, hot cross buns; decaf.  The hot cross buns came from Pastries by Randolph on Lorcom Lane in Arlington.  There is still time for you to get some.  They are sublime.  A touch of nutmeg, a little cardamom, enough tangy sweet candied orange peel to make your tastebuds smile… I can’t say enough about them.  It’s worth putting in an order ahead of time, but if you don’t mind standing in line and risking them running out, packed to order promises the freshest buns.

Eggs:  all colored naturally, and decorated with “tie dye” rubber bands and wax crayon.  From rear right, clockwise:  oregano, paprika, blueberries, teechino, turmeric, red beets.  The blueberry is a knock out, and the red beets did some funky red/green bloom that is just gorgeous.

Dinner:  rosemary lamb chops with apple/beet charoset; cabbage and leek griddle cakes; sparkling cider.  Happy to share the recipes if you like!  Let me know.