Navruz Celebration at Silk Road

Something cool is happening this weekend at Silk Road Bistro in Pikesville. They're celebrating Spring, in a way that's both ancient and completely new to me.

One of my favorite dinners of all of last year was at Silk Road, which is an Uzbek restaurant on Reisterstown. We dined there on a Thursday, during a belly dancing show, and from start to finish, the meal was fun, festive and so delicious.

Uzbek cuisine is interesting - the country is at the crossroads of the East and West and it shows. The food feels both Russian and Middle Eastern - even Indian, sometimes - but really, it's its own thing. The country has a unique culture that comes from its double-landlocked position on the Silk Road, the ancient East-West trade route, and that's on display in its traditional dishes.

This coming Sunday, March 20th, eating at Silk Road will be even more exciting than usual, when the restaurant hosts its annual Navruz celebration.

Navruz, which is translated as "New Day," coincides with the first day of spring (this year, March 21st). Silk Road will celebrate with a special, traditional dish, halisa, served at 8 a.m. on Sunday the 20th.

"It's a meat porridge that is cooked for twelve to fifteen hours," explains Silk Road manager Shahboz Eshpulatov. "People start coming to the restaurant around 6 p.m. on Saturday. That's when all the meat will be placed in a giant pot, approximately 100 pounds, and cooked all night until about 3 a.m."

This video shows halisa being made, at Silk Road's 2012 celebration (in their old space):


Halisa is the centerpiece, but Navruz is mostly about people getting together to carry on traditions, says Eshpulatov. "Every neighborhood and family celebrates this holiday in Uzbekistan. In order for our people not to forget their traditions and for their children to be familiar with the traditions, we make this event at the restaurant free of charge for anyone who wishes to attend."

On Sunday morning, most of the Uzbek celebrants (and chefs) will likely be men, says Eshpulatov. "Women also have a dish they prepare during Navruz celebrations," he says. "It is called sumalak. Our wives are planning to cook it sometime during the month of March."

Navruz celebrations will happen up and down the East Coast this week and people will travel from one city to another - it's a tight knit community on a national scale. On Sunday at Silk road, there will be some Uzbek-Americans from Philadelphia, New York and Florida in attendance and Monday, a small group of Uzbekis from Baltimore will head up to Philadelphia for a party there.

Here in Baltimore, the Uzbek community is small, but part of what I loved so much about eating at Silk Road is that you could feel its strength. These are people who love each other, and the traditions of their home country, so much.

When we dined at Silk Road, back in June of last year, the restaurant was packed and every table around us was filled with multi-generational families talking and laughing and drinking vodka and generally enjoying the food, the belly dancing, and each other. Their spirit was infectious.

If they approach the new spring season with anything near the zest they had for a random Thursday night in June, then 1004 Reisterstown Road is sure to be the most fun place in the Baltimore area next Sunday morning.

Recap: Mock Thanksgiving 2014

It's been nearly two weeks, so I've mostly recovered. This year, the weekend before Thanksgiving, we hosted our 12th annual Mock Thanksgiving party. It's come a long way from its humble beginnings, in the kitchen at Cooper's old house, back when we first started dating and Cooper's roommates still lived there (or in Maryland, for that matter).

The first year was filled with laughter...and a burned turkey and also a lot of Beaujolais Nouveau. So much Beaujolais.

This year, the laughter carried on but - for the first time ever - there was no turkey. The party has evolved quite a bit, from a traditional Thanksgiving dinner with just a few people, through several experimental years as the crew got larger and the food got better, to now, when it's less a dinner and more a cocktail party with some food.

These days, the planning starts at least six weeks ahead of time - and I definitely think a lot more about aesthetics and theme than I did in the early years.

This year's theme was something along the lines of "Rednecks and Boozehounds." Not in so many words - but from the deer-and-wine-themed invitations to the massive amount of apple pie moonshine we drank, the tone of the party was somewhere several notches below classy.

• Oranges and Lemons Punch (not online but it's basically a combination of barrel-aged rum, lemon juice and Jack Rudy grenadine)
• Apple Pie Moonshine
• Charred Eggplant Dip
• Butternut Squash and Tangelo Dip
• Hearts of Palm Dip
• Prosciutto and Pear Cups
• Apricot Butter and bread
• Smoked Gouda Dip (and yes, I took a lot of liberties with that recipe)
• Squash Toasts with Ricotta and Cider Vinegar
• Roasted Cauliflower and Sesame Spread
• Bagel Chips with Ricotta, Proscuitto and Chive Puree

Plus we had tiny sweet potato ham biscuits, London broil with rolls and, as ever, oysters, oysters, oysters.

I thought the best dish of the night was the squash toasts - but hardly any got eaten! Admittedly, they were not pretty. But I'll definitely make them again for dinner. As for losers...well, I wasn't in love with the roasted cauliflower dip. But it was fine.

The big lesson I learned this year was that people will always pick up a onesie hors d'oeuvres before they eat a dip. The stuff you could pick up and eat in one bite went like hotcakes (the proscuitto and pear cups and the bagel chips). The dips...well, let's just say I made a lot of all of them and even the hearts of palm dip, which is a consistent winner, didn't disappear.

Also, the punch was really very good - and so was the moonshine. I'd make either one again in a second.

This party was also a great reminder that sometimes, it really does take a village. Not only was the moonshine originally Alicia's idea, and not only did she come over on Friday to help prep, she and Mike, plus Kyle and Bill, spent a big chunk of Saturday helping me set up. Plus, all of the people who brought things were amazing (that includes my friend Melissa bringing a cheddar and apple chutney app and several people bringing awesome desserts).

Even the kids got in on the action. Dixon, Maddy and Maggie each made a sign that hung on the window during the party. Maddy's and Maggie's were adorable and sweet. Dixon's, on the other hand...his sign included such gems as "Crank Up the Beats!" and "It's Farty Time." Kid's a copywriting genius.

The party, if I do say so myself, was a blast. Funny and fun and a little bit crazy. A perfect way to kick off the holiday season.

The kids' decorations are still up - who would have the heart to take them down so soon? - but the rest of the party remnants have been tucked back in their spots, ready to be pulled out again next year.

And I, of course, already can't wait.

Want: Bulls Bay OYRO

Garden and Gun just announced the winners of their 5th annual Made in the South Awards and, as usual, I am drooling. Especially over this:

It's the Bulls Bay OYRO, a wood-fired oyster cooker designed and built by a man named Oliver Thames who lives in McClellanville, South Carolina. And it is amazing.

As soon as I saw it, I emailed my family. Oysters are, after all, the food that connects us most.

From the time we were little kids, stealing my dad's smoked oysters wrapped in bacon, my brother and sister and I have thought of oysters as the best kind of family treat.

We have them at nearly every family event (during the "R" months, even though, yes, we know that's no longer an issue). We eat them raw, grilled, roasted, plain, or topped with our special family recipe.

For my dad's 50th birthday, my mom threw him an oyster roast at their neighborhood beach. The beach has a bunch of big stone grills - they used those to cook the oysters, while we all stood around slightly shivering (it was March) and loving it.

Basically, oysters are the Waskoms favorite food. I mean, we love crabs, too, but oysters? They belong to us.

Which is why, as my sister mentioned, it is absolutely crazy that Cooper and I don't already have an oyster cooker in our backyard. It doesn't have to be the Bulls Bay cooker...though I wouldn't say no to that kind of gift. But even something more haphazard, something homemade.

I think it's the right thing for us to do.

Tradition in a Jar

Immediately upon arrival in Williamsburg,William & Mary freshman are inundated with stories of traditions and "firsts." W&M has a lot of them. We're cool like that.

Many of W&M's stories have to do with its colonial roots, but one of my favorites is a little more recent: eating bread ends and house.

House, short for house dressing, is a condiment created by The Cheese Shop, a kickass wine, cheese and sandwich shop in Colonial Williamsburg, just a few steps from campus. Students buy bags of bread ends - literally, the ends cut off bread used for sandwiches - and dip it in the dressing. It's amazing.

And it's super secret. A few years ago, I tried to make some of my own, and it was OK, but not exactly right. Fortunately for W&M alumni everywhere, The Cheese Shop just started bottling the stuff. I bought some when we stopped in Williamsburg on our way to Duck last week - and we tried it the other day.

I made sandwiches with rotisserie chicken and havarti on French bread - my exact order when I was in college.

And it was...awesome! I am thrilled - THRILLED - that I can get my hands on house anytime now. It's so delicious - and so full of great memories. Total Proust for thousands of alumni.

If you're interested in trying it, call The Cheese Shop at 757-220-0298 to order. You won't regret it!

Mock Thanksgiving Recap: A Pictorial

This past Saturday was our annual Mock Thanksgiving. It was our fifth one over about seven years - the tradition started in 2002, just as I was learning how to cook, when Cooper's mom was given a free turkey and passed it on to me.

That year, I managed to completely scorch the top of the turkey (it was too big for the oven and hit the heating element). The next year, everyone started drinking while I was cooking, and by the time dinner was on the table, things were more than a little blurry, so I don't even know how the food tasted. Needless to say, both my cooking and my, ah, time management skills have improved in the years since.

This year, the theme of the night was "trendy vs. traditional." For each type of dish, there were at least two versions: one traditionally Thanksgiving-ish and one updated.

We cooked two turkeys in the Caja China, using this brine and a lot of advice from Mike's cousin Jeff (of Elliott's Pour House fame). Jeff has a Caja China of his own - he roasts pigs outside the bar on gamedays. Last week, he cooked turkeys, so we used his recipe and, after hearing about what he had trouble with, we decided to butterfly our turkeys so they'd cook evenly. And they did:
The meat was juicy and had great flavor. I also cooked a turkey in the oven, using this Martha Stewart recipe. No photos, unfortunately, but it was also pretty and brown and delicious, thanks to all of the butter and wine involved. I combined the drippings from that turkey with some vermouth, water, and a chicken buillion cube to make a sauce (no gravy in my house, much to Cooper's dismay).

We also cooked some oysters on the Caja China, but it seems that I forgot to photograph them - which is fine, since they were only OK. I did my best to copy my mom's very unspecific Oysters Waskom recipe (it involves spinach, garlic, shallots, and Monterey jack cheese)...but mine just weren't as good as hers are. I need more practice.

Fortunately, Alicia stepped up to the hors d'oeuvres plate with her fried Thanksgiving balls - meatball-sized spheres of shredded turkey, stuffing, and mashed potatoes, all packed together, rolled in bread crumbs and fried. She paired them with two cranberry dipping sauces (one sweet, one a little spicy) and they were amazing. Little Will summed them up pretty quickly, when he ate one and asked for another "Thanksgiving doughnut":
My decorating scheme this year involved using as many vegetables I could. I stuck half-used stalks of Brussels sprouts in a tall vase with flowers, and used broccolini as a low centerpiece on the table. Here's the calm before the storm:

And here is Collin, as he made his way around the table, catching the scent of each dish (pictured: Karen C.'s traditional sweet potatoes and my yams with crispy skins and brown-butter vinaigrette):

Fortunately, my sauce and stuffing (also my mom's highly unspecific "recipe) turned out better than the oysters. Half the stuffing was plain, while the other half had oysters. It's just not Thanksgiving to me without oyster stuffing:

It's a little funny to me that no matter how hard you try to make Thanksgiving food look pretty, it always ends up in a big pile, like this (clockwise from the top: Jen's mashed potatoes, my updated green bean casserole, stuffing, turkey, Sarah's baked artichokes, yams, sauteed Brussels sprouts with bacon, sweet potatoes, and chipotle cranberry sauce right in the center):

For dessert, I had slaved away over spiced cider panna cottas, paired with ginger cookies, only to realize that I forgot, mid-recipe, that I was making double. So only half the panna cottas had the cider topping:

But that was OK. We went overboard on dessert, too, adding Alicia's apple crisp and Mary's sweet pumpkin dip:

I have so much food left over that it's not even funny (especially since it's not even actually Thanksgiving yet). It wasn't so bad yesterday, though, to have a few oysters to fry for lunch...especially since it gave Dixon the opportunity to try his very first oyster:

See it there in his mouth? Nice, huh? Unfortunately, he didn't like it all that much. But he didn't spit it out, so that's something.

It was leftovers for dinner last night and tonight I'll be using the last of the oysters in a stew. Then later this week, we start all over again!

Entertaining Friday: Back Later

Entertaining Friday is on hold for right now...because I am really having an "entertaining Friday." I've already been to Cross Street and Belvedere Markets today and right now I am simultaneously making a brine for two turkeys and making the top layer of vanilla and cider panna cotta.

Tomorrow is our annual Mock Thanksgiving, which means I'll be in the kitchen for the rest of today...and all day tomorrow. Which is exactly where I want to be.

Halloween Recap

Halloween was a multi-night event at Alicia and Mike's this year. Cooper and Dixon and I (along with Jen and Maddy and Will) invited ourselves over for some pumpkin carving and cupcake baking on Friday night, then we returned on Saturday to trick-or-treat, eat Alicia's Halloween-themed dinner, and watch Twilight. More than once.

As per usual, the Barger house decorations were over the top, and they carried through to the food, which included "slimy sloppy joes," two soups, and:

The potatoes were especially good - really nicely salty and crispy. And in real life, they did have a creepy, shrunken head look.

The kids were all over the trick-or-treating on Saturday of course, but Friday night was fun, too. Dixon and Maddy spent a couple of hours shrieking around the house, singing at the top of their lungs, and trying on Alicia's Halloween-themed accessories:

While Cooper and Mike spent their time carving pumpkins that didn't turn out at all how they were supposed to:

Especially not Cooper's (on the right).

All in all, it was a great Halloween, even if we didn't get any great pictures of our family costume (Phineas, Ferb, and Isabella).

At our house, of course, we're already planning for next year. Dixon wants to be Michelangelo from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Already. We'll see how long that lasts.

Michael Pollan on Class, Glamour, Food TV & Lots of Other Stuff

DC Jason just sent me a link to Michael Pollan's NYT manifesto that hits just about every big point that relates to Americans current relationship with food and cooking. It's a brilliant article, really, starting with Pollan's childhood memories (from Julia to Swanson and back, without missing a beat) and closing with the most simple, yet unlikely to materialize, solution to America's obesity problem.

It's long, but well worth a full read. But in the meantime, a few quotes:

Cooking for her was so much more than a means to a meal. It was a gratifying, even ennobling sort of work, engaging both the mind and the muscles. You didn’t do it to please a husband or impress guests; you did it to please yourself. No one cooking on television today gives the impression that they enjoy the actual work quite as much as Julia Child did. In this, she strikes me as a more liberated figure than many of the women who have followed her on television.

So-called fancy food has always served as a form of cultural capital, and cooking programs help you acquire it, now without so much as lifting a spatula.

Even the most ordinary dish follows a similar arc of transformation, magically becoming something greater than the sum of its parts. Every dish contains not just culinary ingredients but also the ingredients of narrative: a beginning, a middle and an end. Bring in the element of fire — cooking’s deus ex machina — and you’ve got a tasty little drama right there...

Entertaining Friday: Kelly Family Burger Throwdown

Every year for Memorial Day weekend, Mike and Alicia head up to Alicia's family's Keuka Lake house to hang out with the Kelly clan. This year, in addition to the usual sunset cruises, camper of the year trash-talking and general frivolity, the whole family did it up Bobby Flay-style, with a Friday night burger throwdown.

Everyone was invited to join and the whole group voted on which burgers tasted best. (SPOILER ALERT) Alicia won. But the contest isn't over quite yet. The Kellys asked everyone's favorite food blogger (that's me, in case you were wondering) to crown winners in two additional categories: ingredients and appearance.

The contestants:

Aunt Martha's Sa'Lotta Burger

Ground beef mixed with crumbled bleu cheese and worcheshire sauce

Topped with grilled sliced mushrooms, yellow, orange, and roasted red peppers done on the grill and topped with Meunster cheese

Aunt Kelly's Mexican Burger

Taco seasoning, corn and black beans mixed into the ground beef, topped with salsa and Mexican fancy shredded cheese

Mr. Kelly's Italian Stallion

Ground Beef mixed with grilled onion marinated in balsamic vinegar, Thyme, Oregano, Marjoram, Basil, Rosemary, and Sage

Topped with twice roasted red peppers grilled proscuito and Asiago cheese, Garlic toasted rolls

Mrs. Kelly's Hot Hawaiian (aka the Boogie Burger)

Ground beef seasoned with salt and pepper

Topped with grilled pineapple slices and sliced jalapeno peppers and topped with jalepeno jack cheese

Barger's Benedict Burger

Seasoned ground beef topped with a grilled slice of Canadian bacon, a fried egg, and Havarti cheese and hollandaise sauce on the bun

Alicia, her winning burger, The Insider, and her matching t-shirt

Unsurprisingly, a simple ingredient list wasn't enough for everyone's favorite Camper of the Year ("boys AND girls!"). She provided a full-on, menu-style description:

"The Insider: A departure from the original bacon cheeseburger.One bite into the molton, "baconny" lava and you will never be the same. The innovation of the classic toppings is what makes this burger a winner. Two very thin burger patties with sliced American cheese and crumbled bacon placed on one patty and then covered with the other and sealed tightly creates a pocket of melted cheese. The ground beef was seasoned with a variety of spices including garlic, cracked ground pepper, salt, etc. The burgers were topped with cajin seasoned and fried Vidalia onion slices."

And my verdicts? After much careful deliberation (really, I got all of these descriptions and photos days ago), the winners are...drumroll please...

Appearance: Mrs. Kelly's Hot Hawaiian

Ingredients: Barger's Benedict Burger

It was a tough call on both counts. Everyone obviously did a great job and the entries were both creative and well-executed (then again, I know the Kellys and I expected nothing less).

On appearance, it really came down to the accessories and the humor. Mrs. Kelly went the extra mile with her plating and that kind of effort deserves a win. Plus, everyone loves a hula girl.

Judging ingredients was tougher. Here, I thought in terms of creativity and how good the burger sounded. I asked myself, would I order this? For that alone, I almost chose the Sa'Lotta burger. I'd order that in a heartbeat. And I like the incorporation of different ethnic and regional flavors into the burger, as well - that's the kind of thing that often works out well for Top Chef contestants, and there's a reason why.

In the end, though, Barger and his Benedict edged out the competition because his concept takes something mainstream - the fried egg-burger combo - and builds on that in a creative way. While I'm very sure I could never actually finish a Benedict burger, I think it's really not a bad idea.

Plus, hollandaise. Man, do I love hollandaise.

You know, this is not the first throwdown I've judged. I'm beginning to feel like something of an expert. Anybody else out there in a cook-off kind of mood? I'm available for parties and awfully cheap. You can totally pay me in drinks.

Quotable Tuesday: Christmas Dinner

“In my experience, clever food is not appreciated at Christmas. It makes the little ones cry and the old ones nervous.”- Jane Grigson

While I know that British food writer Jane Grigson has it right, I sometimes think it's kind of too bad. In my mind, it would be fun to cook a crazy, fancy Christmas dinner.

Of course, then I remember that by the time Christmas rolls around, I'm a big ball of stress, thanks to all the parties and the shopping and the birthdays (mine, Cooper's, my brother's) that fall in the days right around the holiday. There are too many people to see and too many things to wrap for me to really worry about cooking some sort of fancy meal.

Speaking of which, I have done exactly zero shopping. This is the first year that Dixon's really grasped the concept of Christmas, too, so expectations are running high.

I guess it's a good thing we got our abomination of a gingerbread house out of the way last week. That's one less thing for me to worry about right now.

Carol and Crawl Recap

If you're looking for some detail about the 2nd Annual Rodgers Forge Carol and Crawl, I wrote about it on the Examiner. But for those of you who were there, here are a few of my favorite highlights include (in no particular order):

• Sarah G. and Mike's crump-off. That Sarah won. Obviously.
• All the vests on the boys.
• How pretty the snow looked on the Eiffel Tower on Missy and Seth's front porch.
• The airing of grievances and Kyle and Mary's. Also the pizza. I think it might have saved me from a much rougher day yesterday.
• Alicia's Dollar Store holiday wine labels.
• Sequins.
• The 50 chocolate covered pretzels I ate at Kerry and Larry's.
• Speaking of K&L, their Gap ad-like matching scarves - second year in a row.
• That I have a huge pile of Jen's quesadillas and some corn dip in my fridge right now. Also, the Mexican mashed potatoes were pleasantly surprising. And filling.

Overall, it was a really fun night, with just enough drama to give us something to talk about yesterday morning. Can't wait until next year!

Quotable Tuesday: Santa Claus

"Will you come visit me in Florida, Santa?" - Madison Wnek

Last night, Cooper and Jen and Bill and I took the kids to the Towson tree lighting. The ceremony itself was fun, but not all that exciting (it's great to watch the lights go on, but it really only takes a few seconds) but the real fun came a few hours after the event was over.

See, Santa and Mrs. Claus arrived at the end of the ceremony. Ever since Halloween ended, Dixon and Maddy have been talking nonstop about Santa Claus. I have heard "ask Santa for that PLEEEEAAASE?" from Dixon about fifty times a day since the end of October. Maddy even has her very own personal elf, Sugarbelle, monitoring her behavior in anticipation of Santa's arrival. They grasp the commercial nature of the season. Not surprisingly.

So we expected a lot of excitement at the first glimpse of the real Santa. Dixon and Maddy were ready and waiting, perched on Bill and Cooper's shoulders, chattering away about Santa Claus when all of a sudden, Santa's firetruck approached (lead by a holiday-themed Ben Franklin, for some reason we couldn't quite grasp). We expected screams, squeals, wiggles.

We got...nothing. Dixon and Maddy both just sat, perfectly still, staring at Santa and Mrs. Claus. It's possible that one of them managed a faint wave, but that was about it. No words and definitely no desire to give Santa a hug or to say "Merry Christmas".

Which was fine. We didn't want to push it. But as it turns out, maybe they were just hungry.

While all the less fortunate parents followed Santa into Ridgely Ferrin to chat about Christmas lists or whatever, we hightailed it over to Strapazza and found a booth (and tried to remember how people fit in that restaurant when it was just the one room - it was so small!). We ordered the kids some pizza and the grownups some wine, got some crayons from our very sweet and abused waitress, and settled in for some dinner and possibly even conversation.

Then, about an hour into dinner, it happened. Santa and Mrs. Claus rolled through the restaurant, just making the rounds, handing out a few candy canes. At this point, comfortable in their seats and fortified by pizza, Dixon and Maddy were finally ready to talk to Santa. And they certainly did. Waving hello, shouting "Merry Christmas", generally squealing "Santa! Santa!" like tweenie girls at a Jonas Brothers concert (as an aside: Jonas Brothers, least appropriate Cowboys halftime show ever?). In short, they were excited.

And Santa and Mrs. Claus, well, they delivered. Lots of "ho ho hos" and reassurances to Maddy that Santa would, in fact, find her at her grandparents' house in Florida.

Dixon's still glowing this morning.

Oh, and the food? It was good. So was the service (and believe me, I would've been dreading waiting on our table - three kids under three? No thanks.) But all of that paled into comparison to the big Santa sighting.

Dictionary Friday: Oysters

oyster
Though 18th-century satirist Jonathan Swift once wrote, "He was a bold man that first ate an oyster," this BIVALVE has been a culinary favorite for thousands of years. The hard, rough, gray shell contains a meat that can vary in color from creamy beige to pale gray, in flavor from salty to bland and in texture from tender to firm. There are both natural and cultivated oyster beds throughout the world.

In the United States, there are three primary species of oysters that are commercially harvested — Pacific (or Japanese), Eastern (or Atlantic) and the Olympia. Each species is sold under different names depending on where they're harvested. OLYMPIA OYSTERS are rarely larger than 1 1/2 inches and hail from Washington's Puget Sound. The PACIFIC OYSTER (or Japanese oyster ) is found along the Pacific seaboard and can reach up to a foot long. Considered culinarily superior to the Pacific oysters are ATLANTIC OYSTERS (or Eastern oysters ), the most well known of which is the BLUEPOINT. Others from the Atlantic seaboard — named for their place of origin — include Apalachicola, Cape Cod, Chincoteague, Indian River, Kent Island, Malpeque and Wellfleet. In Europe, the French are famous for their BELON OYSTERS (which are now also being farmed in the United States) and their green-tinged Marennes oysters; the English have their Colchester, Helford and Whitstable oysters; and the Irish have Galway oysters. Fresh oysters are available year-round.

Today's widespread refrigeration keeps them cool during hot weather, debunking the old myth of not eating them during months spelled without an "r." However, oysters are at their best — particularly for serving raw ON THE HALF SHELL — during fall and winter because they spawn during the summer months and become soft and fatty. Shipping costs generally prohibit movement of oysters far from their beds, limiting the abundant supply to local varieties.

Live oysters are best as fresh as possible and therefore should be purchased from a store with good turnover. Reject those that do not have tightly closed shells or that don't snap shut when tapped. The smaller the oyster is (for its species) the younger and more tender it will be. Fresh, SHUCKED oysters are also available and should be plump, uniform in size, have good color, smell fresh and be packaged in clear, not cloudy oyster LIQUOR.

Live oysters should be covered with a damp towel and refrigerated (larger shell down) up to 3 days. The sooner they're used the better they'll taste. Refrigerate shucked oysters in their liquor and use within 2 days. Oysters are also available canned in water or their own liquor, frozen and smoked.

Oysters in the shell can be served raw, baked, steamed, grilled or in specialty dishes such as OYSTERS ROCKEFELLER. Shucked oysters can be batter-fried, sautéed, grilled, used in soups or stews or in special preparations such as dressings, poultry stuffings or appetizers like ANGELS ON HORSEBACK. Oysters are high in calcium, niacin and iron, as well as a good source of protein. See also SHELLFISH.

© Copyright Barron's Educational Services, Inc. 1995 based on THE FOOD LOVER'S COMPANION, 2nd edition, by Sharon Tyler Herbst.

Oysters...I love them. Yesterday, sitting on my parents' back patio, I ate a dozen oysters Waskom (which might explain why I was so not hungry when dinner was served. Not that I didn't eat.)

And today, Tom and Erin and Cail and Dixon and I are going to Annapolis for some more oyster-eating.

I love holiday weekends.

Mock Thanksgiving Recap

This past Friday, we continued the venerable Pollard house tradition of celebrating made-up holidays with our fourth mostly-annual Mock Thanksgiving. A handful of our friends came over to help celebrate, and to entertain my sister and her W&L friends Libby and Peter, who came to visit from Philadelphia.

I have a detailed recap, including recipes, up on Examiner.com, but in quick summary, we ate and drank a lot. The drinking was of a slightly higher caliber than we're used to, since Alicia and Mike provided us with a couple of bottles of fancy wine to taste in between sips of Busch Light and prosecco.

Jen's mashed potatoes were another nice surprise. She made them the normal way, but added just a little Old Bay - not so much that they tasted like crab potatoes, but enough that they had a slight savory edge. I think everybody had more than one serving (which was probably a good thing, since drinking so well also meant we were drinking so much).

This was the first year we'd gone the hors d'oeuvres route, instead of having a traditional sit-down dinner. I think I like this approach better. It's a better fit for our house, and it means that everybody's up and active and (I think) having a little more fun. The cocktail party format is more conducive to a larger group, too. I think we probably had about as many people as we had last year, maybe a couple more, but it didn't feel like as much work (that might also be because last year, my house was under construction).

Overall, a good Friday night. Now, it's on to the next fake holiday!

Dictionary Friday: Mock Thanksgiving

mock thanksgiving
A holiday (made up by me) the weekend before the real Thanksgiving. Mock Thanksgiving involves inviting your friends over for a Thanksgiving meal and drinks - and that's it. It's fun because it's not stressful and it's very festive.

We're having our annual Mock Thanksgiving party tonight. It's not really a party-party - more like a small gathering - and this year instead of a sit-down meal, Jen and Alicia helped me revise all the traditional dishes into hors d'oeuvres (except for the turkey, which Cooper will fry just like last year).

Also, Erin is coming up for it and Libby (Erin's college friend who shares my obsession with the glamorous world of art) and her husband are coming down from Philadelphia. Dixon woke up early this morning because he's so excited about the party, and it's sort of infectious.

I'm dropping Dixon off to Cooper's mom in about an hour, and then I'll kick into high gear. As I wrote in today's Examiner piece, I'm already pretty awesomely organized, because that's how I am, but I do have a long list of things to cook and clean today.

And that, of course, makes today my absolute favorite kind of day. I so love a made-up holiday.

Trendy Monday: Christmas

I'm back! We had a great time in the Bahamas and I'm still feeling relaxed, in a residual sense, at least (it's kind of hard to feel totally relaxed when I've got dirty laundry in bags all over the house).

But something strange seemed to happen this past week: we changed seasons. I guess since the Bahamas don't celebrate Thanksgiving, their focus immediately shifts from Halloween to Christmas. We saw Christmas trees, tree ornaments, and oversized Seasons Greetings signs all over the place, and the cab driver who dropped us off at the airport yesterday left us with a "Merry Christmas!"

It was all a little startling, since not only were we in Thanksgiving mode when we left Maryland, but we'd just spent a few days in full-on beach mode, so it kind of felt like summer. (More to follow on that later, too - the food was pretty fantastic.) Of course, considering that Target has been covered in Christmas decorations since November 1st, maybe I shouldn't have been so surprised.

So I guess it's time to start thinking about Christmas cookies and candy and dinner.

Halloween Recap

I'm pretty sure that Friday was the best day of Dixon's life. He spent most of the day jumping up and down, talking excitedly about candy and costumes and "Mike and Lee-ha's" party (Dixon and Madison both call Alicia "Lee-ha". They can both say Alicia, but choose not to.)

Around 4:30, we got dressed so we could start making our rounds. Our outfits made Dixon so happy that I kind of think we should always dress in matching superhero gear. Here we are (and no, the reds don't match. Do you know how hard it is to find that many red things? A lot harder than you'd think.):

After a couple of family-related trick-or-treating stops, we arrived at Mike and Alicia's, where trick-or-treating was in full swing. Early on, Jen (Batgirl) and I took Dixon and Maddy (dressed as SuperGirl) to a couple of houses, then decided that they're really too young to actually trick-or-treat. They were excited, but lost interest quickly, which was fine with us.

Back at Mike and Alicia's, the party was in full swing, with kids running all over the place and a ton of food. But first, a note on the decor. Mike and Alicia are famous for being our friends with a perfect house. Two weeks after they moved in, they'd already painted from top to bottom and even the laundry room looked ready for a Conde Nast photographer. They do an amazing job with holiday decoration, too, and the season really starts with Halloween.

The front yard was full of the stuff that kids love - a skeleton, cobwebs and spiders, cute and creative carved pumpkins and (Dixon's favorite) spooky lights in the bushes. Inside, every surface was covered in crazy Halloween gear. Out back, the set was a little more grownup, but still fun - the fire pit sat on their patio under a big tree dressed with Halloween-themed paper lanterns.

As usual, just looking at Alicia's decorating exhausted me.

And, finally, the food. While Dixon dined on Old Bay popcorn and chocolate (he found a different person to open each candy bar...smart), the rest of us ate soup and meatball sandwiches and cupcakes and cheese and dips and a million other things. And candy, too, of course:

(The first three photos are courtesy of Mike. The fourth - the candy - I swiped from this blog.)

Alicia makes the soups every year. The one in the photograph is my favorite - it's a not-too-heavy cheesy vegetable - but she also makes a great corn chowder. The cupcakes were great, too - pumpkin with cream cheese frosting (and a little shot of frosting inside the cupcake itself). And the meatball subs...I'll write more on them later. They were the subject of much, much discussion, and the impetus for my quick trip to Parkville yesterday morning.

So, great food, funny costumes (including not one, but two, Juno-and-Bleeker combos - one of which involved a real pregnancy) and a crazy amount of toddler excitement.

Good Halloween, all around.

Meal Recaps: The Past Few Weeks

It's a busy week, so apparently I'm kind of ditching my daily format. So no scrambling around my magazines and books and websites for a Quotable Tuesday quote this morning. Instead, some housekeeping. I've done a lot of eating over the past few weeks and it's time to report back.

In chronological order:

The Modern: As previously mentioned, about a week and a half ago, I went to New York with Missy and Sarah and Gilly as a semi-bachelorette celebration for Missy (sans veil or candy necklaces). Friday we went shopping and on Friday night we had dinner at The Modern, the restaurant at the MOMA.

The MOMA is one of my favorite museums ever, and I'd heard great things about The Modern. It did not disappoint. The space is open and busy but cool and if we'd been eating before sunset we'd have had an amazing view of the sculpture garden, as we sat next to a wall of glass (our reservation was at 9:30 - that's what happens when you make plans the week of).

The service was impeccable - attentive but not annoying - and the food was pretty fantastic. A few highlights:

- My pre-dinner cocktail, the Modern Martini, was a combination of cilantro-infused Tanqueray and fresh lime juice. Crazy intense and certainly only for people who already love cilantro. But refreshing, too.

- Amazing gifts from the chef, including tiny blue cheese purses and smoked salmon and caviar bites, among other things. I can't say no to an amuse-gueule.

- I loved my first course, which was a surprisingly rich sweet pea soup with a parmesan tuile and barley that added interesting texture.

- So much foie gras. Sarah ordered a foie first course and I had the foie gras and squab "croustillant" as my entree. It was so delicious, so rich, so savory...and almost too much. I could barely choke it all down.

- A thousand desserts, including little cookies and candies and something off the menu itself. I was trying to find something light, so I opted for maple ice cream with apple, pear and quince marmalade. It was not so light, but it was fantastic.

- A little citrusy breakfast bread, given by the hostess as a gift upon leaving. So thoughtful, right?

So that was The Modern. The next morning, I got up early and took a train back home, then went to my parents' house for my grandmother's 90th birthday party. That was a bit of a shift in gears - if dinner Friday night was fresh and modern, dinner Saturday was as traditional a family dinner as possible. Stuffed mushroom caps and cheese and crackers, grilled tenderloin with bearnaise, Julia Child scalloped potatoes with onion confit, a baked creamy spinach concoction and yellow cake with chocolate icing for dessert. I made the potatoes and mushrooms and spinach - all successfully, fortunately. The mushrooms and potatoes I could pretty much do in my sleep, and I'd made the onion confit a couple of days ahead of time, but the spinach I sort of made up as I went along. Fortunately, it didn't turn out either dry or cold or overly soupy. Luck, mostly, I think.

Since then, I've also made this red onion soup. It's not as good as my regular onion soup, courtesy of Jacques Pepin, but it was pretty good. It needs more salt than you'd guess, though, and could probably do with an extra shot of cheese.

Over the weekend, I did some additional cooking, with a helper. But that will be another post...

Artsy Wednesday: My Fourth of July Flag Cake

Straight out of a box and so, so good. Because what's more American than Betty Crocker?

And yes, that is Dixon's dirty little finger on the strawberry. Also, yes, there are exactly 50 blueberries on the cake. My strawberries were too big to make the correct number of stripes, though. Oh, I'm sure I could've cut them down to make the cake more authentic, but, well, I was in a rush. Had a parade to get to and all.

Quotable Tuesday: Independence Day

My God! How little do my countrymen know what precious blessings they are in possession of, and which no other people on earth enjoy! ~Thomas Jefferson

While I'm guessing that Jefferson wasn't specifically referring to Americans being blessed with easy access to mild fireworks, endless parades of kids on decorated bikes and piles and piles of processed food, with 200+ years of hindsight, it's not so hard to see how those things grew out of the real "precious blessings."

Although, I would imagine that TJ, fabulously-educated scholar and epicurean that he was, wouldn't have been all that thrilled about the level of preservatives and multi-syllabic chemicals injected in most standard 4th of July foods.

Anyway. All of this is a roundabout introduction to my own fourth of July, which consisted of all the usual fare, minus the mild fireworks. In the morning, Cooper and I took Dixon to the Towson parade, where we met Jen and Bill (with Maddy and Will) for a couple of hours of trying to keep the kids in one place. The grand marshall of the parade was none other than local Food Network star Duff Goldman, so we were excited to see him. But there was no cake, which was less exciting. His float was a little barren. I realize that transportation of a huge cake along a parade route would be a huge pain but...couldn't there have been something? Anything?

Other than that, the parade was fun, though we were also disappointed in the complete lack of step shows. Two years ago, there were at least seven different step teams represented. This year, we didn't see a single one (we did leave after 2 hours, though, and who knows how much longer the parade would last). Bring back the steppers!

Post-parade, we headed back to our house, where we were joined by a bunch of other friends for a cookout. And not just any cookout - we had steakburgers.

After reading about how much we enjoyed the hanger steak at Woodberry Kitchen, the people at Roseda Beef got in touch with me to see if I'd be interested in taste-testing some of their dry-aged steakburgers. I got the email while we were at the beach and, as everybody who was there knows, I was really excited. Besides the whole local farms angle (Roseda is in Monkton)...that hanger steak was amazing.

So we were all excited to try the burgers. We rounded out the meat portion of the meal with a handful of Omaha Steaks burgers, some barbecued chicken, and a couple of sausages.

My original plan was to taste-test both types of burgers, so I'd have a point of comparison. Unfortunately, things didn't work out that way, but even just from a visual standpoint, the Roseda burgers easily beat the Omaha Steaks version. The Roseda burgers were bigger, plumper and generally prettier. Cooper did taste both and he confirmed that the differences didn't end with how they looked.

I'm sure the Omaha Steaks burgers were good, but the Roseda burgers had a really great, round beef flavor that's unusual in a burger. These aren't burgers who's flavor you want to mask with a bunch of condiments. They really are more like steak - the flavor is rich and layered, but also fairly pure. They taste like meat. (Unfortunately, they were a little overcooked...Cooper was cooking a lot of stuff at once. But the flavor still came through, which means they'd be fantastic medium rare.)

Also, the burgers came with a lot of literature, which was really helpful. Because he's a guy and he's the griller in our house, Cooper read everything cover to cover. We both like the lit.

In addition to the piles of charred meat and a gross amount of chips, salsa, cheese and hummus, we had a spinach, strawberry and goat cheese salad with honey-roasted pecans, a warm potato salad dressed with chives and a dijon vinaigrette, and a huge mass of Stouffer's mac and cheese (ostensibly for the kids, but as somebody said during the day, one of the best things about having kids is the excuse to eat lots of not-homemade macaroni and cheese). For dessert, Karen C. made chocolate chip cookies that lasted about 3 minutes and I made a straight-out-of-the-box-plus-some-fruit flag cake (that I just remembered I took a picture of...I'll post it later).

It threatened to rain on and off and the air was humid and sticky, but that didn't stop anyone from eating way too much, or stop the kids from running in circles around the backyard for 4 straight hours. Dixon has so many scabs and scrapes, I'm not sure how he can function (seriously - he's a mess but doesn't seem to mind).

It took a few days to recover, but I can safely say that I'm ready for some burgers again. Bring them on!