Too Soon?

I think that I'm jumping the gun on tomatoes this year, but I can't help myself. Look at how great these tomatoes (from Planet Produce) look with Ceriello mozzarella and basil from the backyard:

We had these for dinner last night, with just a little drizzle of balsamic. It might be early in the season, but they were fantastic.

Plus, I was inspired by this crab and avocado salad Cooper got at Mari Luna last Saturday:

Speaking of Mari Luna, has anyone had a bad meal there ever? It's fantastic and so consistent. Plus, loud enough to be totally kid-friendly.

But I digress. Tomato season might not have officially started in these parts, but it has started at my house. I just can't resist.

[Crab salad photo by Alicia Barger.]

Bone Marrow Drive at Ryan's Daughter this Sunday

Jonathan (left) and Brad post-throwdown.

Longtime readers will (maybe) remember that my very first throwdown experience was of the latke variety. Two and a half years ago, I was invited to a holiday party at the home of our friends Brad and Eileen. The highlight: a latke cookoff between Brad and his high school friend Jonathan. Jonathan won, but it was close. Much hilarity and trash talk all around.

This past March, Jonathan was diagnosed with acute leukemia. No one ever expects that kind of diagnosis, and probably least of all an active and apparently healthy 32 year old guy. Since his diagnosis, Jonathan has been in and out of Hopkins receiving treatment.

Recently, Jonathan's doctors told him that chemotherapy alone isn't enough for him to make a full and lasting recovery - he needs a bone marrow transplant. Currently, no one is a 100% match for Jonathan's bone marrow.

His family and friends have worked hard and quickly to organize bone marrow drives in a bunch of cities - Baltimore included. The Baltimore drive will take place this Sunday, July 19th, from 3 PM to 9 PM.

If you're in a position to donate, please consider coming by Ryan's Daughter. The test is simple and only takes a minute - just a cheek swab. And then you can treat yourself to a Guinness for the effort.

To read more about Jonathan and about bone marrow transplants, visit http://www.teamhaupt.org/.

Manolo the Allergic

At the insistence of Manolo the Shoeblogger, I read this Financial Times article about Manolo the Shoemaker. And look what I learned about the Maestro:

He is allergic to acetic acid, so can’t stomach wine or vinegar.

Quelle horreur! I mean that seriously. No wine or vinegar? I'm not sure what I'd do.

Ideabook Tuesday: Stockholm Style

In 2001, I spent a few sunny, gorgeous days in Stockholm. I loved every second of it. How could I not - sailboats and pretty, friendly people and H&M on every corner and, OK, bad food, but also this:

From the second I stepped off the plane and into the most perfectly designed airport restroom imaginable, until the morning I boarded a plane back to Heathrow, I was totally enchanted by the city's mix of traditional European charm and ultra-functional Scandinavian minimalism. It's great and anybody who has a chance to visit really should.

But if you can't get there, checking out the home of Benita and Martin Larsson (of the blog Chez Larsson) is the next best thing:

Houzz interview: Chez Larsson's beautiful Stockholm house

more home design ideas on houzz

Trendy Monday: What Recession?

For reasons that I will get into later, Cooper and I had brunch yesterday at the Rusty Scupper. It's an older and famous, if not quite venerable, Baltimore restaurant, though neither one of us had ever been there. I'd always thought of it as kind of a touristy place (it does have a great view) or a place that people took clients from out of town (though I never did - people in advertising consider themselves too cool for a touristy restaurant.)

It's also expensive. Brunch was a buffet and, at $37 a person, not one for the faint of wallet. When we arrived, I expected a dining room that was half-full, at best. Maybe some tourists, maybe a handful of special occasion diners.

What we saw, instead, was a packed dining room filled with a mix of people, both local and otherwise. Couples, families, groups of friends. Some dressed up, as we were (somewhat), some dressed way, way, way down. But nobody seemed to be sweating the price tag.

That makes me wonder: what, exactly, is the Rusty Scupper doing right? It's not the only brunch buffet in the city, so is it selection that keeps it busy? Location? Marketing? Some combination of all three?

All I know is that maybe some of the more struggling restaurants around town might want to check out the RS as a bit of a case study. I'm not suggesting that everybody should start serving four kinds of oysters on the half shell every Sunday, but there just might be some lessons to learn from this spot.

[Photo from the Rusty Scupper website.]

Please Say No

Does this mean that in a few weeks, the Eastern Shore's going to be full of Manhattan-ites looking for the authentic crab house experience?

(via Dara)

Artsy: The Futurists' Failure

Is it possible to write about Italy without writing about food?

Just out of college, fresh from my art history classes, I might have said yes. After all, it's not like every Italian work of art is food-centric. But after reading this Slate series by Kate Bolick, I'm not so sure.

The series starts traditionally enough, with a trip to Italy. Bolick and a small crew of intellectual/academic friends headed to Rome and Milan this past February to explore the world of the Futurists, 100 years after the publication of their not-actually-that-famous Manifesto.

But let me skip to the end. Several months after the trip, back in New York. Bolick and one of her co-travelers, artist Karen Azoulay threw a Futurist-inspired dinner party. The dinner sounds kind of insane, but totally cool in that way that theory-based dinners are cool. It's a natural product of studying the Futurists, anyway, since they're one of the few artistic movements (that I'm aware of) that published a cookbook.

The Futurists were really proto-Wylie Dufresnes, seeking to bring science into the kitchen and to change the way people think about food in general. They understood the powerful role food plays in our lives - Cookbook author and Futurist leader F.T. Marinetti wrote:

"A given taste of something can sum up an entire area of life, the history of an amorous passion or an entire voyage to the Far East."

Totally. Of course, Marinetti sought to destroy the food that would remind Italians of their heritage, just as he wanted to destroy museums and libraries and other institutions that house the past. He felt that escaping the past and forgetting it was the only way to embrace the future.

And maybe he was right, for Italy anyway. Not entirely, of course - technology hasn't completely avoided Italy. It's not like Italian teenagers aren't texting all over Rome, just like the kids in America and Sweden and Australia and everyplace else. But Italy's brand, for lack of a better term, is still rooted firmly in the past. The way, way, way past. And the food is a part of that.

In the article, it's not the dinner party scene that makes this painfully obvious - that's expected, and still feels pretty avant-garde, actually. No, it's the trip. The friends amble through Italy, dizzying themselves with technology-obsessed art and discussing the less appealing aspects of Italian Futurism (the fascism and misogyny).

And eating. They look longingly at spinach and ricotta tarts, even as they munch on pizza bianca and seek out pasta carbonara in the shadow of the Coliseum. The food they eat has been a part of Italian culture for centuries and it looks likely to stick around for centuries more.

The author is conscious of it, too, and one of her guests admits that if he was a teenager growing up among the classical ruins and Renaissance worship of Italy at the dawn of the 20th century, when the rest of the world was moving full steam ahead into the future, destroying the past might have seemed like the only way out.

To answer my initial question, no. I don't think it's possible to write about Italy without mentioning the food. Not to write well, anyway.

On the last page of the magazine, Bon Appetit runs a column called "Feedback," in which celebrities answer a handful of questions about their food preferences. They're always asked "of all the places you've traveled, where did you have the best food?" Invariably, they answer, "Italy."

It's a blessing to have that kind of reputation - to the outsider, anyway. But to a frustrated teenager yearning for something new, I can see why all that pasta, and everything it means, might feel more than a little stifling.

[Images: Graphic art by F.T. Marinetti; Cover of the Futurist Cookbook; Dynamism of a Soccer Player by Umberto Boccioni]

Entertaining Friday: French Country Dining

I have a recurring daydream. It's about a dinner party. A big one, full of interesting conversation and great, late-summer food. All the guests are seated at an impossibly long, simply dressed wooden table. They drink cocktails made with farmers' market ingredients and some of them, inexplicably, wear Gael Greene-style hats. It takes place in my backyard. There are lights in the trees and everything's green and which, in the daydream, kind of looks like this:

Everybody gushes over the simple, but delicious food that's on their plates. Which looks kind of like this:

Unfortunately, in real life, my backyard is a bumpy mess that would never stand up to a super-long table and, anyway, the late summer is usually so muggy and buggy that eating in the yard wouldn't really be practical.

But a girl can dream, right? Which is exactly what I did when I read this August F&W article about Le Pain Quotidien founder Alain Coumont and his gorgeous home in the south of France and the fabulous entertaining he does there.

I tried to quell my jealousy by reminding myself that Coumont probably works so hard during most of the year that he barely gets a chance to breathe, so really he only actually enjoys those couple of summer months that he and his wife and daughter spend at their home, which is 30 miles outside Monpelier.

Unfortunately, that didn't really work. I'm still jealous - and now actively trying to figure out how to level out my backyard so it can handle a table of this magnitude. I wonder if Cooper can build a temporary platform that we can store in the garage. It's probably time for him to start a new project anyway...

[Photos from Food & Wine, August 2009. (c) Martin Morrell]

Old School Thursday: Diet Coke! Microwaves! Refrigeration!

Today is all about technology. Well, mostly – it’s also National Sugar Cookie Day. Not technological exactly, but considering how many sugar cookies are produced each year using modern technology and manufacturing processes, it’s close enough.

First, today is Jacob Perkins’ birthday (1766). Perkins received the first US patent for a refrigerating machine. Over a hundred years later, in 1869, Henry Tibbe invented the corncob pipe, which doesn’t exactly help us eat better, but it is at least made of food and it has certainly claimed its spot in pop culture history, thanks to a certain snowman.

A few years after that, in 1872, John F. Blondel patented the first doughnut cutter. In 1887, another John – Dickenson this time – introduced paper napkins at an annual company dinner. But wait – the 19th century isn’t through with its contributions. In 1894, Percy LeBaron Spencer, patron saint of the working mother, was born. He’s the fabulous man who invented the microwave (in 1946 after, famously, he noticed that a chocolate bar in his pocket melted after being exposed to radiation).

Finally, today should probably be a national holiday because 27 years ago, Diet Coke was introduced. Diet Coke, without you, I’m not sure where I’d be right now. Probably still asleep.

In addition to all the technology and the important births, today is the anniversary of the death of US President (and fellow W&M alum) Zachary Taylor (1850), who supposedly died after eating too much strawberry ice cream on the 4th of July and developing peritonitis.

So, to celebrate? A little strawberry ice cream, a lot of Diet Coke, and maybe some doughnuts served on paper napkins and warmed in the microwave.

Artsy Wednesday: Texture Reprise

It's been a month since I first wrote about the texture-over-taste phenomenon and since then, I can't stop thinking about it. Cooper finds it fascinating, since his palate is so developed, that I can discern between different ingredients by the way they make my mouth feel. And he's not the only one. I've probably told twenty people about the article, usually in the course of explaining that while I can barely discern sweet from sour, my palate isn't totally useless.

This past weekend, though, I discovered just how lucky I am to have texture to fall back on. Sunday night, Alicia handed Cooper a banana pepper, picked fresh from her garden. He sniffed it and was blown away by the intensity of the smell. The pepper made its way around the table, with each person agreeing that it smelled great. Then it came to me.

I held it to my nose, ready for the onslaught. And...nothing. I held it closer. Still nothing. I literally had that pepper in my nose and I still couldn't smell a single thing. The next night, as I prepared to cook with the same pepper, I took a final sniff and I got a few notes of, well, fresh pepper. But that's it. No wild intensity. No wow.

A year and a half ago, when everyone and their brother - including me - was writing about supertasters, I wrote a post called "Thank God I'm Not a Supertaster" (and I meant it). Little did I know then that I am barely a taster. So am I the only non-tasting food blogger out there? I wonder.

Either way, I certainly am glad I've got texture to fall back on. Now let me get my hands on something carbonated and acidid - stat.

Ideabook Tuesday: Mailboxes

I like my mailbox, in all it's industrial, stainless steel glory, but now I'm wishing we'd been a little more creative with that part of our home design. I guess it's never too late, since mailboxes aren't usually a huge investment. But "new mailbox" is so far down my list of things to do that it's not even visible.

But still, some cool mailboxes:

Special Delivery: Cooler-than-Usual Mailboxes

more home design ideas on houzz

Happy Birthday, Alicia!

Today is Alicia's birthday - we kicked off the celebration last night by letting her cook us her famous Insider Burgers and zucchini pie. This week's a busy one, but we'll continue the celebration later in the month with crabs (and karaoke?) at Costa's. Because if one day is good, a whole month is better, right?

Happy birthday!

Trendy Monday: Old Drink, New Twist

Last week, after reading Pete Wells' drinking dictionary, I was inspired. My yard is so chock full of herbs right now, I figured, it would be nearly criminal not to do a little mixing. Inspired by Wells, I dove into the mint and made a couple of totally refreshing, summery gin juleps. (I modified the recipe a bit, adding some selzer to cut the intensity of the drink, and that was a good call.)

So that was the first old drink (the julep) made with a new twist (gin).

Over the weekend, my high school friend Caroline wrote on Facebook about a drink she'd had at a restaurant in San Francisco, where she lives - a cucumber gimlet. Intriguing, right? She described it as cucumber-infused vodka, lime and a little sugar, served in a martini glass with three slices of vodka-soaked cucumber.

Drink number two: old drink (the gimlet) plus new (cucumber).

Two's not quite a trend, of course, but it's close. Also, in this case, just because something's new doesn't make it good. Case in point: the Tanqueray and pickle juice martini (pictured) I had at Bluecoast a few weeks ago. That drink even traumatized me enough to inspire a whole Deep Glamour post.

So...possibly not yet a trend and, even if it is one, maybe a bad one.

But that julep really was good. So maybe not.

Celebrating America...with Pig

It's a good thing our friends like pork.

To continue the Summer of Swine here at the Pollards, and to celebrate freedom and liberty and all things American, Cooper dragged out the Caja China and we roasted our second pig on Saturday (story of the first pig is here).

This weekend's pig was a big guy, a 67-pounder ordered from Ridgely & Ferrens, right in Towson. Ordering the pig was easier than I'd anticipated and when I picked it up, it was defrosted and ready to marinate.

Cooper and Mike completing the final turn of the pig

This time, instead of relying on the Caja China folks for the marinade, Cooper created his own, a spicy and tart vinegar-based concoction with definite roots in North Carolina sauces. On Friday night, he injected the pig with a vat of the stuff, literally tripling the amount he used on the first pig. The result was fantastic - the meat was super juicy and infused with flavor.

Mike covering my brand new potholders with pig juice, while pretending to eat the foot

One of the cool things about the Caja China is that it can handle up to 70 pounds with no change in cooking time. So even though this pig was 18 pounds heavier than the one we cooked at the beach, they both took about four hours to cook.

Which meant more time to relax and more time to eat.

The kids' swingset and "grownups' swingset," as seen from the deck

Of course, despite everyone's best efforts, we still have a ton of pork left over - which means it's pig leftovers all week chez Pollard. Tonight: tacos. Tomorrow: who knows? Suggestions are welcome!

[Bottom two photos courtesy of Alicia.]

Entertaining Friday: Fourth of July

I love this time of year.

Some people love Thanksgiving, others are all about New Year's Eve. They're fine, the fourth of July is, hands down, my favorite holiday.

When I was a kid, we'd kick things off with Sherwood Forest's third of July fireworks, viewed from the water. On the fourth, we'd wake up early to go to the Severna Park parade - one glorious year, I was in the parade - then spend all day swimming at the Ben Oaks beach (on the right, that's Dixon, raking the beach last summer). At some point, I'm pretty sure our parents fed us something (though I can't guarantee we didn't just eat ice cream). We played games, like the three-legged race and the egg toss, with candy for prizes. And once it got dark, a few of the dads were dispatched to the skinny little strip of land between the pond and the river to shoot off illegal fireworks. It was great.

Since I don't live in Ben Oaks anymore, my new fourth of July traditions aren't exactly the same, though they do capture the same spirit. We start the day off with the Towson parade, followed by an hours and hours long cookout.

Most years, I make a flag cake (the one on the left is from last year). This year, however, I'll be flouting tradition in favor of these lemon cheesecake squares (plus brownies provided by our friend Kerry and possibly a special surprise from Alicia).

Also on the menu? Piggie, of course, along with the usual summertime suspects, like corn and tomato, basil and mozzarella salad and this pasta.

Parade in the morning and pig in the afternoon. Do days get any better than that?

Happy fourth of July, everyone!

Whither the Francophile?

It seems to be "France and its food sucks!" month (related: here and here). Interesting. Most of the food I've eaten in France has been pretty good, but I've a) only been to Paris and b) never tried traveling there, or anywhere, with kids.

Restaurant Review Reprise: Hamilton Tavern

This review originally appeared on Examiner.com back in March.

Last night Cooper and I found ourselves with an unexpected babysitter and no dinner plans - a pretty nice surprise all the way around. We weren't up for a big, fancy dinner, but we wanted to go out, so we headed over to Lauraville to Hamilton Tavern (5517 Harford Road, 410-426-1930).

I've been anxious to try Hamilton Tavern ever since it opened. Word was that it's a fun bar with interesting drinks (appropriate for a place owned by a Tom Creegan, one of the co-owners of Brewer's Art) and a brief, but excellent menu. I'd also heard that it's loud, loud, loud. So we came prepared for that.

Overall, Hamilton Tavern didn't disappoint. My first impression was that it's a very cute place - rustic decor, lots of wood, feels very pubby (in a good way). Cooper was happy to see Brewer's Art's famously potent Resurrection on tap and I was seriously impressed by the list of wines by the glass, which is short, but inexpensive and experimental. I had a couple of glasses of a $6 Malbec that was really pretty great.

The only real glitch in our whole meal came at the very beginning, when we were waiting for a table. The place was full when we arrived, but we only had to wait a minute. That was fine, and we were just going to grab a drink at the bar (we'd also run into my friend Dave as soon as we walked in), but when we tried to catch the bartender's eye, she assumed we were asking about our table, so she'd say, "It'll be just a minute" then move on to something else before we had a chance to order. Then, when we did sit, at a table in the back corner, it took a few minutes for our waiter to get there.

Little things, though, in the grand scheme of our visit. Once we sat, we had a clear view of the whole space, which really is very nice-looking. Plus, in our corner, the noise level wasn't so noticeable. We spoke to each other in totally normal tones and had no trouble hearing (this might be a bigger issue on weekend nights, when the bar is more crowded. I don't know.)

Before dinner, we ordered the fried pickles, served with a goat cheese sauce, and half a pound of steamed shrimp, which came with hush puppies and onions. The shrimp were excellent - perfectly seasoned (which is, I think, harder than it sounds). The pickles were great, too. Really hot at first, but once they cooled off a little, the tangy-fried combination was fantastic. I'm a fan of both pickles and anything fried, but these were especially good. I liked them better than the fried pickles I had at Rocket to Venus last year.

For dinner, I went with the burger, which is made with beef from local sweethearts Roseda Farms, and it did not disappoint. It was perfectly cooked and perfectly tasty (then again, how bad can a cheeseburger be?). Cooper's oyster po'boy delivered as well, though he did say he wished the sandwich was a little juicier overall. I tried an oyster and while it might have been a little more fried than we both like, it did have nice flavor. We both skipped the potato chips - I got a salad (which was fine, but I wish I'd gone the full glutton and just gotten the chips) and Cooper had the onion rings. I love onion rings, but as I said to Cooper last night, they usually all taste the same to me - like the ones you can get at Burger King. These were different, though. They were crispy and battery, of course, but the (very sweet) onion wasn't at all stringy and when we bit into one of the rings, the whole onion didn't slide out of its shell. THAT was a nice surprise.

For dessert, we split a chocolate chip and Bailey's bread pudding that was good, but maybe could've had a little more Bailey's flavor. But we were full anyway, and that's nitpicking.

Overall, it was a great meal, a cute place, and good service (we did like our waiter very much). Not terribly expensive, either - we had two drinks each, two appetizers, two entrees and one dessert and the total bill was $60 plus tip. Not so bad. More than worth it, considering the quality of the food and the really great atmosphere. I think it's the perfect restaurant for right now - fun, interesting and not too pricey.

Old School Thursday: Not So Food-Related Edition

Today is kind of a busy day in random details history, if not in food history. It is National Anisette Day – anisette is anise liqueur and, while I’ve never had it, I’d probably like it, considering my obsession with black jelly beans. So I feel somewhat sympathetic to the anisette lobby. Good for them for getting their own day.

In actually food-related news, today in 1931, Stephen Moulton Babcock developed a test to measure the fat content of milk, helping to standardize commercial milk production. Helpful, sure, but mostly interesting to me because I have a cousin named Stephen Babcock (Babcock is my mom’s maiden name). I don’t think we’re related to the agricultural chemist, but just to throw in some family trivia, this Nigerian university is named after my great-grandfather.

Back to the food-related news. A year after Babcock’s discovery, Dave Thomas, famous to all who love fast food as the founder of Wendy’s, was born.

That’s it for actually food-related stuff. But today is also a hotbed of random occurrences that inspired pop culture. In 1566, Nostradamus, who has inspired countless books and characters, died. In 1926, Emile Coue, the original Stuart Smalley (I wrote about his birth here) died. In 1947, something crashed near Roswell, New Mexico, inspiring thousands of TV shows and movies. And finally, today in 1982, a guy named Larry Walters tied 45 helium-filled weather balloons to a lawn chair and hoisted himself up 16,000 feet over Long Beach. He was fined a couple thousand dollars, and there is no word on whether he’s receiving royalties for inspiring the plot of Pixar’s Up.

At Least It's Not Dead

Cail is becoming quite the grocery store paparazzi (paparazzo?). From Facebook yesterday:

The caption? "Personally, I'd think irony would be more dry."

(As a side note, some of her friends mentioned that they really do like the Irony Pinot...)

Ideabook Tuesday: Displaying a Collection

We don't really collect much of anything, aside from Land Cruisers (stored off-site, fortunately) and wine (and no, that's not a joke - some of it we really do save). I've seen some very cool collections, though. Cooper's parents have friends who collect old binoculars and typewriters. They're lucky to have a big enough house to handle it, and the collection is really great.

A collection is only as good as its display, though. That's what inspired this:

DIY Projects: How to Display a Collection

more home design ideas on houzz

Trendy Monday: Random Observations

We spent the weekend in Richmond, mostly to go to an engagement party for Tom and Cail. Richmond, as a city, is getting some foodie love these days - often, it seems, thanks to the newish Belmont Butchery, a favorite stop of Cail's. We didn't make it there during this trip, but I hope to at some point.

I tend to think of Richmond as a lot like Baltimore. Both are very small town-y - they're the kind of city where everybody knows everybody, no matter what. Because of that similarity, I sometimes forget that Richmond is so, so southern while Baltimore is, well, Baltimore. And that bow ties, which turn heads here, are de rigeur.

But I digress. This post is really just about two quick observations I made while at the party. First, Hendricks seems to be the hot gin of choice these days and that is something I can fully support. From the first time I read a description of the drink, I knew I'd like it. I wasn't wrong. In fact, I drank a lukewarm gin and club soda, sans lime, and it still tasted great.

And second, I reaffirmed that everyone, everywhere, loves mimolette. It's a total crowd-pleaser, no matter who the crowd includes.

Gin, cheese and bow ties. They make for a nice weekend.

More Entertaining Friday: Dictionary for the Home Bartender

Not to be outdone by his former college classmate Ocean Spray Brad, Discovery Doug just sent a link to a cool NYT column.

Pete Wells, a former F&W writer and a definite M&G favorite, put together an interesting and really quite informative overview of useful tools for the summertime home bartender. After reading only a few paragraphs, I'm already in love with the idea of using agave nectar instead of simple syrup (so easy!). I also think I might steal a chili or two from our backyard plants to make an infused vodka. What else will we do with all those habaneros? And wouldn't spicy vodka make a great bloody Mary?

Five Years Ago Today

I was leaving here:

And heading here:

From two nights in Nazare (and one big Portugal win over England, watched on a big screen in the town square), to one night in a beautiful pousada in Sintra.

In Nazare, we ate tons and tons of seafood, including an amazing seafood stew in a creamy, spicy tomato broth. In Sintra, before heading to a saint's festival that showcased the cheesiest rapper and outfits and carnival prizes (giant gold pirate ship? Yes, please!) available in Portugal, we found a quiet restaurant just outside the village where I had lamb in a ridiculously rich sauce. One of my favorite things about Portugal was the mix of cuisine. While it's not exactly heaven for vegetarians, the Portuguese are experts with both the seafood and all different types of meat (especially pig).

Makes me wish it was standard procedure to take a honeymoon every year.

Entertaining Friday: Theme Cocktails

Maybe it's the sorority girl in me, but I love love love theme nights. I'll jump at any excuse to dress up and buy ridiculous accessories that, after one use, will end up in the party closet (and yes, that is how Cooper ended up with a pair of chaps a few weeks ago).

And what's a theme party without a specialty cocktail? In fact, what's any random Saturday night without a specialty cocktail? For me, this summer (so far) has been defined by the John Daly and the grapefruit crush. But we've got a lot of summer left ahead of us, a lot of drinks to try, and a lot of outfits and appetizers to pair with those drinks.

As a part of his regular effort to keep me apprised of fun events in the Boston area, our friend Ocean Spray Brad sent me this link earlier in the week, with a quick note that it made him think of "the MD crew." Boston.com asked bartenders from around the city to submit a favorite summertime cocktail. The result is a collection of ten delicious-sounding drinks, each begging for a theme night of its own.

My favorite is the cilantro gimlet from Ecco on Porter Street. It sounds like a fun, slightly upscale, alternative to a margarita - and isn't it pretty? Looks to me like a perfect match for a batch of Alicia's guac and a few of Jen's quesadillas. In other words, the perfect sitting-outside-on-a-summer-night drink.

And that's a theme night I can always get behind.

Emails from My Brother's Fiancee

Cail has been busy recently, sending me things that are totally bloggable. Last night, after a trip to Joe's Market, she sent me this photo:

She didn't buy the cheese, which was probably a good call because if it's anything like the mango and ginger stilton I got from Trader Joe's a couple of years ago, it's dry and crumbly and the flavors are totally unbalanced. But it still makes for a nice blog photo.

This morning, Cail followed up with a link to a Slate excerpt of Mike Steinberger's new book, Au Revoir to All That: Food, Wine and the End of France. I love Steinberger's wine writing for Slate and the subject of the book - how France fell off the top of the culinary mountain - is outrageously appealing to me. Can't wait to read it.

Old School Thursday: Technological Advances Edition

Today’s a day my six-year old self could surely get behind: National Strawberry Parfait Day. That was my go-to dessert order as a little kid and it still makes my mouth water.
In other news, today is all about the technology.

Today in 1630, the fork was allegedly introduced to American dining tables by Massachusetts Bay governor John Winthrop. It had been floating around Europe for years, but finally the savage colonials were able to eat with something other than a knife and their hands. Whew!

Decades later, in 1951, Pabst broke all the cultural barriers when it aired the first color beer commercial on TV. PBR-ing people for nearly 60 years. That is an accomplishment.

And finally, in 1974, the first checkout scanner was installed in a supermarket. Since that was a year before I was born, that means I never lived in a scannerless world – something I hadn’t realized, but that I am quite thankful for. I’m impatient enough when I’m behind someone who obviously doesn’t know how to use the self-scanning aisle. I can’t imagine how much yoga I’d have to do to get over old-timey cash registers in the grocery store.

Also, missed last week while we were at the beach: Robert Mondavi’s birthday (1913)! Even without knowing, I celebrated by drinking my weight in rose. French and Spanish rose (nothing from California) but still.

My New Favorite Consumer Segment: The Gastrosexual

After looking through yesterday's pig roasting pics, my friend DC Jason sent me the following email, under the subject line "coop?":

Gastrosexuals are masculine, upwardly mobile men, aged 25-44, who are passionate about cooking and the rewards that it might bring – pleasure, praise and potential seduction.

It made me laugh, obviously. I also had no choice but to download the full report, which includes gems like this:

The sensuality of food is key; the richness of the experience, but also the ability to control that richness to enhance one flavour with another - and the effect this has on others. The display of this skill brings about other benefits - the gaining of praise and the ability to impress others. The term also expresses the growing acceptance that men, cooking and masculinity are not mutually exclusive - rather they can be part of an attractive form of male identity.

Upon further reflection, this may be mostly interesting to research geeks like me. And even if the findings aren't wildly surprising to this research analyst/food blogger, great research. What a totally fun project.

Pig Roasting: A Photo Essay

Here is the tale of the pig we roasted and ate one week ago today...

Monday afternoon - Cooper goes to pick up the pig at a butcher near Chestertown (yes, almost two hours away from Bethany). It arrives in a smallish box, and wrapped in heavy plastic. We all gather for the initial unveiling:

Using a mojo marinade and the injector recommended by the La Caja China people, Cooper injected the pig for flavor (ultimately, he wasn't thrilled with the flavor and he's working on something of his own for our next pig): Tuesday, mid-day - Cooper and Bill prep the pig for roasting, flattening it out and placing it between the metal grates that come with the box, then laying it on the bottom of the box: The metal top and charcoal tray go on top of the box: After a couple of hours of cooking, during which Cooper added charcoal at 30 minute intervals, Cooper and Mike carefully lifted the top off the box and got rid of the ashes, before flipping the pig and scoring its skin, then letting it cook for another 30 minutes, skin-side down:The final roast: And finally, the pig was ready: Alicia celebrated in her Andy Nelson's sweatshirt (she won it!) while we ate, mostly with our hands:And what did the kids do during all of this? We had to keep them away from the coals, so Alicia sat them on a lawn chair with a "kiddie cocktail":

Even though Cooper wasn't thrilled with the marinade, we all agreed that the texture of the pig was amazing. Plus, the actual cooking process only takes about four hours. My childhood pig roasting memories all involve my dad getting up around 5 am to start cooking, so four hours sounds like nothing to me.

Overall, it was a fun experience. And now we have a Caja China! Which really means that we've just kicked off the Summer of the Pig chez Pollard.

Ideabook Tuesday: Pretending I'm Still at the Beach

It might have rained all last week, but that doesn't matter. I'd like to go back.

Outfitting the Rental

more home design ideas on houzz

Baltimore on Bourdain

Finally! The episode premieres Monday, July 27th at 10 p.m.

It feels like it's been forever since he was here, doesn't it?

Trendy Monday: History

Back from vacation and back to regular blogging. Promise.

Maybe it was the years spent in historic Annapolis and Colonial Williamsburg, but I'm kind of a history geek, especially when it comes to food and drink. Much to Cooper's chagrin, the walls of our basement are covered with the dorkiest kind of timeline. It details major events in political, cultural and food history from the beginning of time until about 1940 (the more recent years don't include the food part). It makes people think I'm cool. Just kidding.

Anyway, like most geeks, I get very excited when I hear about others like me. Today's Daily Candy DC email put me in an especially good mood. There's a mixologist in DC named Derek Brown who's giving seminars on "better drinking," including on the cocktails of specific eras ("How to Drink like Mad Men" sounds amazing, right?). He's inspired by history and the cultural aspects of cocktails. Me too!

On top of this, one of F&W's Best New Chefs for 2009, Natalie Pomeroy, gave historical cooking a little love in her profile, when she mentioned her love of food history and old cookbooks, and that she hosts dinners with the Oregon Historical Society.

Based on my reading, I'm not sure I'd be interested in a perfectly reconstructed historic meal - I like modern refrigeration too much for that. But the inspiration is undeniably cool, and I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks so.

Dispatches from the Beach: Photo for a Rainy Morning

Yesterday, I was tired. Today it is raining. But still we're having fun. Tuesday was all about the pig roasting (it was great) and last night we went out for crabs, after taking the kids to the Rehobeth rides for the afternoon.

I'll write in more detail about the pig roasting process next week, but in the meantime, here are a few quick pictures:

Watching Mike and Cooper move the coals to flip the pig:

Flipping the pig:

At the rides (probably the best day of Dixon and Maddy's year):

Crabs at Mickeys:

Tonight: not that much. I think Kyle's going to make some wings (he is from Buffalo, after all) and everyone's going to do some more reading. Right now, Cooper and Mary are watching Twilight - it's the third time it's been on in the past 24 hours (also, we have two copies of every one of the books in the house).

Mostly, we are going to try to keep the kids from destroying the house. And that is a very, very big job.

Dispatches from the Beach: Calm before the Storm

Yesterday started out on the cold and cloudy side, but we went to the beach yesterday, just to let the kids dig. Lucky that we did, too, because around 11:30 the sun broke through the clouds and we ended up with the most beautiful day we've had so far.

Dinner was just leftovers and pizza, but with a visit from Cooper's cousin Gilly and a final visit from Brian and Jack, it was pretty celebratory. Plus, Cooper drove almost back to Chestertown in the afternoon to pick up today's dinner: a 45 pound pig. His arrival back home was pretty exciting and the kids got a nice lesson in where their hot dogs come from. Seriously.

Photos of the pig will come tomorrow, after today's big roasting sesh, but in the meantime, here's a quick, inartful pic of Dixon that also showcases just how many dips we have on offer at any given time. Also, in the background, you can see the Colin Cowie glass drink cooler Mike ordered from HSN one night a month ago, along with five small boxes of cocktail mixes. Not very good cocktail mixes, but at least Mike gets an A for effort:
Today: beach and caja china pig roasting. Tomorrow: babysitter and crabs!

Dispatches from the Beach: It's the Wild Wild West Here

It's that time of year again - we're at the beach with Kyle and Mary and Mike and Alicia and Jen and Bill and Maddy and Will. All of us, eight adults and three kids and one dog, in Kyle's aunt's big house in Bethany, plus some guest appearances by Mary's brother and his girlfriend and our friends Brian and Amy and their son Jack.

Last year, we overdid it a little, scheduling four theme nights during our week. This year, we scaled back, partnering up for our nights. Last night was the first of our two theme nights: Wild Wild West hosted by Kyle and Mary and Mike and Alicia. (Saturday was just a standard cookout.)

As usual, we got into the costumes. It's amazing what you can find at Party City, and in my closet:
And also as usual, we had way too much food. Alicia and Mike cooked four (that's right - FOUR) London broils, plus they made a salad and mac and cheese and Alicia made Mike's mom's amazing shrimp and macaroni salad:

The most labor intensive part of the night, though, were Kyle's ribs. Slow cooked in the oven for a couple of hours, finished on the grill and slathered with BBQ sauce, they were super tender and had fantastic flavor. Also, very smoky:
End result: fantastic food but way too much of it. The leftovers could feed a small country.

Today: beach and probaby pizza (plus leftovers). Tomorrow: la caja china makes its debut. Cooper's leaving this afternoon to pick up the pig. Alicia's breaking out her Andy Nelson's sweatshirt (she won it in a drawing) in celebration.

It's a good thing we all like pork, huh?

Entertaining Friday: What Makes a Good Party

Fifties-style:



To everybody who's ever been to a party at my house, or whoever might come to one: you're welcome for not making you play games.

And with that, I'm off to the beach. Bethany-blogging to begin on Monday. Have a good weekend!

Old School Thursday: Germans and Stoves and Dogs Edition

So what will you be doing to celebrate the Feast of St. Barnabas? He’s the patron saint of farmers, so it would be fitting to visit a farmer’s market, right?

Today is also National German Chocolate Day. I believe I am no longer able to feign surprise at the randomly assigned days of recognition that pop up. Anyway, I like German chocolate cake. Good for the German cake-makers for getting themselves a day.

In other news, today in 1742, Benjamin Franklin invented a stove called, logically enough, the Franklin Stove. Intellectual property sharer that he was, he didn’t patent it, specifically so that others could copy it. A few years later, though, on today in 1793, the first American stove patent was granted, to one Robert Haeterick.

A half-century later, the Germans were busy again. In 1842, Carl Paul Gottfried Linde was born. Linde grew up to become the engineer who invented mechanical refrigeration – certainly a technological advance that’s affected all of our lives. My favorite part of this story, though, is that Linde developed the refrigeration so that beer, which requires low temperatures for brewing, could be brewed year-round. Oh, the creativity that want of a good drink will spark.

Finally, sixty years ago today, FDR served hot dogs to King George VI and Queen Elizabeth during a state visit. The visiting royals had, unsurprisingly, never had hot dogs before.

So how to celebrate? Maybe with a haute dog and a bit of the German brew? After that farmer’s market visit, of course.

Here, Piggy Piggy...

La Caja China est arrivee. Let the roasting begin.

Artsy Wednesday: It's Not the Taste, It's the Texture

The July issue of Food & Wine arrived yesterday and with it, so many really approachable recipes, it's almost like Bon Appetit! (Seriously, I prefer F&W overall, especially for the articles, but when it comes to weeknight meals, BA is way more useful.)

The issue isn't all about recipes, though, and there are a couple of great articles. A guide to post-Ramsey London, a fourth of July party with Bobby Flay in the Hamptons, and a ton of fantastic wine-related stuff. Including an article on texture.

In Emily Kaiser's article, "A Sensualist's Guide to Wine Pairings," the author admits something that holds true for me, as well: when she drinks wine, it's not really about the taste. It's the texture.

I actually hadn't ever thought about it until I looked at the article, either. But I knew I had something in common with Kaiser as soon as I read this:

"For me, it's easier to discern a wine's texture than it is to analyze its aromas or flavors. And when I pick a wine for dinner, I often seek a particular texture more than a specific taste - chewy or sharp, fizzy or smooth, or some sensation in between."

Hey, Emily! Me too!

The article goes on to include more detail about the texture of wine, and it includes some food and wine pairings built around mouthfeel. Overall, it's an exciting read for me, in that it makes me feel less like I have an insufficient palate, especially compared to Cooper's "not quite, but nearly, a supertaster" palate, and more like I just experience food and wine in a different way than some people.

Oh - and what's "artsy" about this? Well, every painting is about color, right? But it's not only about color. It's also about texture. Just like every wine is not just about flavor.

Ideabook Tuesday: Spaces that Energize

My house is hot (mostly because I don't want to break down and turn on the AC yet). It's also a mess (mostly because I have a two-year old who thinks it's funny to watch my face when he overturns huge bins full of tiny toys). And I've got a million things to do before we leave for the beach on Friday afternoon.

It's daunting and exhausting all at once. I could use some energy.

Like the kind I'd feel in these spaces:

(Side note: Apparently I really like shocking pink.)

Better than Coffee: Spaces that Energize

more home design ideas on houzz

All Top Chef

It's that time again - Top Chef season.

On Wednesday, the premiere of Top Chef Masters airs. With experienced, often famous, chefs as contestants, the show is set up a little differently than the regular seasons. Each episode features four chefs, competing against one another in a traditional Quickfire and regular challenge. The winners of each episode then compete against one another, and so on, until there's only one left. The Top Chef Master, I guess.

The show's format isn't the only thing new about this season. There's also a fabulous new blog. I might be a little biased, as I am one of the bloggers involved, but probably not. All Top Chef is the brainchild of theminx, known for both her highly comical TV commentary and for almost being my neighbor.

So if you're into Top Chef at all, make ATC a regular read. You won't regret it. I promise.

Trendy Monday: Haute Dogs

First it was the $60 Buloud burger. Was there ever any doubt that haute dogs were far behind?

If there ever was, it's all come crashing down over the past few weeks. With Chicago's Hot Doug's all over the Travel Channel, the James Beard Foundation getting in on the action, and the July issue of Bon Appetit bursting at its sausage casing seams (the "Around the World in 80 Dogs" article reads a little bit like a dog-oriented version of Forrest Gump's friend Bubba, with all its "pizzeria dogs and Syrian dogs and Thai dogs"), I feel pretty confident declaring that hot dogs are currently having their moment in the foodie sun.

Plus, over the weekend I was involved in a (joking, gross) conversation about a dirty hot dog martini (a dirty martini using leftover water from boiling hot dogs, with a cocktail weenie garnish). And everyone knows a food's not really hot until it's got its own 'tini, right?

Entertaining Friday: What I've Been Up To

Though this is, ostensibly, a food blog, it's been a while since I've written about food I've recently cooked or eaten. I have been doing a lot of cooking (and eating) lately, and much of it is in the context of entertaining. Here are some of the highlights:

Pasta salad with shrimp, artichoke hearts, basil and tomatoes. I started out with this Serious Eats recipe and kept adding stuff until I felt like stopping. It was great. Over Memorial Day, I made the same salad minus the shrimp and artichokes. It's got a lemon juice sauce, so the flavors are super bright and summery. Highly recommended:

Last Sunday, Cooper was in a cooking mood, so he decided to smoke a pork shoulder. He'd never smoked anything on the grill before, but after an hour or so with his trusty Weber's Big Book of Grilling, he headed out to the grocery store with a rub and a sauce in mind, and five or six hours later, we were enjoying a delicious pork barbecue sandwich:

Jen is busy sunning herself and drinking morning margaritas with her college friends in Florida, so Bill and Maddy and Will came over for dinner last night. It was hectic, except for the quiet 10 minutes when, as it turns out, the kids were emptying all of the baskets in Dixon's room, throwing old burp cloths on the floor. Fortunately, we consoled ourselves with crab cakes (the Annapolis Junior League cookbook recipe with slight modifications) and maybe the prettiest asparagus ever (just boiled with a little lemon juice):

And, finally, some pictures of Dixon. Just because.

Hanging out on the deck, talking on the phone:

In the side yard, "fixing" something, while we're on the front porch:

Old School Thursday: Cheeeeeese Day Edition

Today is one of those food days that’s both random and awesome. It’s Cheese Day. Not National Cheese Day or International Cheese Day or anything like that. Just Cheese Day. Which makes me think that in my house, pretty much every day is Cheese Day. But I digress.

It’s also National Frozen Yogurt Day, suggesting that maybe the fro-yo lobby got to Congress before the cheese guys got themselves out of Wisconsin and Vermont. There’s only so much room for dairy in most diets. Unfortunate, really, since I can’t think of a single bad thing to say about cheese or frozen yogurt (except maybe to complain about the lack of local TCBYs).

And here’s the real celebratory clincher: today marks the Festival of Fufluns, the Etruscan god of wine. Wine. And Fufluns. I challenge anyone to say “Fufluns” a few times without smiling. Especially if there’s wine involved.

Today is a notable date in history, too, not just as a randomly assigned “day.” Most recently, and sadly, today is the anniversary of the deaths of Vincent Sardi, Jr. (2007) of Sardi’s on Broadway and of Earle McAusland (1980), the publisher and editor of Gourmet. Both giants in the American food world in their own right.

Heading back a few more years, today in 1970 a girl named Libby Childress won the National Spelling Bee by correctly spelling the word, “croissant.” What’s most interesting to me about this is what it says about how dramatically American culture has changed over the past 40 years. I don’t want to overestimate the spelling skills of kids today, but I can’t imagine that any of today’s spelling champs don’t know how to spell croissant.

For one thing, they’re used to much, much harder words. Just last week, the new Scripps National Spelling Bee winner, Kavya Shivashankar, took the title by correctly spelling “laodicean.” A word that Microsoft Word’s spellcheck doesn’t even recognize.

Today, croissants are simply too mainstream to be unfamiliar, so they'd never make it as a spelling bee word. Over the past few decades, Americans have quickly accepted formerly exotic food items into their food repertoire. Croissants are about as exotic as salsa. That is to say, not at all exotic today, but pretty crazy a generation ago.

Finally, in completely random news, today in 1873, a guy in New York patented a method for making Vaseline. What does that have to do with food, you ask? Nothing, I think, except that the inventor’s name was Robert Chesebrough. Which might be the greatest last name ever – and so appropriate for Cheese Day.

Artsy Wednesday: Glamour Girl Art

Bear with me, while I get a little meta.

I got an email yesterday from Nouveau, which is one of my favorite stores in Baltimore. I love their collection - it's my go-to for gifts and for artwork.

The email - a press release announcing a bunch of new stuff for summer - included a mention of a new line of art, billed as "just in time for the scheduled August 2009 premiere of Season Three of the hit AMC series, 'Mad Men'" and the title of the release bills it as "Mad Men-inspired art."

And it certainly is. The collection is full of early the early '60s glamour that Mad Men so totally captures - all Joans and Bettys and Dons.

So what, then, is so meta about this? Here's the rest of the description:

Nouveau will also display one-of-a-kind, Glamour Girl-inspired art, which recreates the look and feel of the era. Produced by Artfolio, which won Best of Show at the recent Las Vegas Furniture Show, the images from the Saturday Evening Post are printed on canvas and embellished by various artists. Each piece has a certificate of authenticity and the date of the published artwork on the back. Prices range from $325 to $495.

The nod to the era feels genuine because it is genuine - this artwork was created during the era of the show.

And now, it's back in vogue, back on display, and totally saleable thanks to our current fascination with Mad Men. Which is on the air thanks to our interest in all things early '60s. So the "Mad Men-inspired art" is really the art that inspired Mad Men.

Meta, right? But even if it wasn't, the art is great. Especially since it's not just a modern artist's interpretation of the era, it is the era.

Ideabook Tuesday: Vivian of ish and chi

Maybe it's because my house is always such a wreck, thanks to Dixon, but I love looking inside houses that belong to other families with small children. Of course, when I find those pictures online, they're unlikely to include floors covered by legos. (Yesterday, I was attacked by a Taboo buzzer that Dixon hid under part of the basement carpet. That was fun.) But they are inspirational.


Like this Sydney, Australia home, which belongs to ish and chi blogger Vivian and her husband and young son (younger than Dixon, which means there's still hope that this house will end up covered in Play-Doh and walking hazards). I'm a big fan of a lot of the design I see coming out of Australia, including these rooms:

Houzz interview: Vivian’s delightful Sydney home

more home design ideas on houzz

Also, if you click over to houzz.com and comment on this ideabook by 5 pm EST on Sunday June 7th, you'll be entered to win the print in the last photo!

M&G in Baltimore Magazine

The June issue of Baltimore Magazine is on the stands now, touting (as the cover says), "101 Things to Eat, See & do Before You Die." In Baltimore, of course. Blog lovers will be especially interested in number 79. I know I was:

79. Local foodies appreciate Baltimore Snacker, a humorous, often-updated look at food and drink around the city. Also worth a mention are Mango & Ginger and Dining Dish.

I agree -and I am also a big fan of John (Baltimore Snacker) and Dara (Dining Dish). Thanks, Baltimore Mag!

Bloggers Are Cool

LoveFeast Table, which is one of my favorite local (OK, half-local) food blogs, has started doing something so cool I almost can't handle it. They call it "love bombing" and this is how they define it:

It’s the act of making, serving and sharing a meal for unsuspecting people. Especially people not in your typical circle of friends.

They actually started doing it last fall, but the linked post is to a recent expedition. The experience is amazing to read about and I bet it's even better in real life.

Trendy Monday: Breakfast for Dessert

Bacon. It's not just for floss anymore.

This James Beard Foundation article chronicles the rise in the appearance of breakfast flavors and items on dessert menus. Not terribly surprising, as the article tells it, considering the popularity of the sweet-savory combo and, well, the popularity of bacon. Considering that the savory dessert has also seen quite a bit of play in recent years, it doesn't surprise me at all to see bacon make an appearance at the close of the meal.

On top of this, if the behaviors of my Facebook friends are any indication, breakfast is still the most popular meal of the day, especially when it's served for dinner. So why not dessert? Makes perfect sense.