via Luis Gomez Photos

Edan MacQuaid is fairly quiet guy. He doesn’t have the bravado or in-your-face ego that most chefs exude upon meeting them. But once you get him talking about pizza, he starts to talk with his hands, he smiles and he gets almost… humble?

MacQuaid’s passion for pizza can be found in the details — details that have been well documented by the likes of Tim Carman and Don Rockwell. The delicate crust, the charred edges, high quality toppings and olive oil are all hallmarks of Macquaid’s work at the brick oven, and that work, as we now know, is coming to 14th Street: to 1832 to be exact, just south of Room & Board.

But DC almost lost him.

To read the rest of the story about Edan, head over to Borderstan.com! 

via Martha Stewart

This week kicked my ass. Not that things were particularly busy, or any task remarkably difficult, but it was one of those weeks where my skin was a little too thin to be dealing with some of the people that came my way. Difficult people will always be difficult, and haters are always gonna hate, so this weekend I’m focusing on rebuilding some of that skin.

via Pinterest

My to do list for the weekend includes:

1. Make these dark chocolate cookie crisps.
2. Make something with blood oranges – it’s citrus season and I want to take full advantage of it!
3. Wear leggings, fuzzy socks and lay on the couch with some bourbon. Guilt free.
4. Clean my apartment. Because I’m incapable of enjoying or doing anything unless my space is completely clean.
5. Order Valentine’s day cards/flowers/gifts for all the special ladies in my life – single or coupled, I’m taking this opportunity to remind them of how much I love them.

What are you guys cooking and doing this weekend? If you have a blood orange recipe that you love, please share in the comments! I’m on the hunt!

via Design Sponge

Let’s talk about weeknight dinners. A Monday dinner no less. Could there be a less appealing night to get in the kitchen and dirty up a ton of dishes?

Last night, after hiking up the hill to my apartment, peeling off layer after layer of cold weather gear, slipping off my boots and putting on pajamas, I plopped down on the couch and just stared at my kitchen. I was starving. I needed to eat. But all I wanted in that moment was my make-believe cabana boy (who doubles as a chef) to come cook me dinner.

Alas. My cabana boy seemed to have the night off. So I reminded myself how therapeutic cooking can be, even when your body and mind are tired, and got to it.

The brussel sprouts were two days shy of being thrown out. The orecchiette hadn’t been opened despite taking up valuable real estate in my cupboard for over a month now. The butter and the cheese, well, that was my reward to myself for getting off the couch.

I cooked in silence for once. Usually I jam some music or have MSNBC on in the background, but the sounds of the knife thunking on the cutting board, the hissss of gas when I turned on the oven and even the crinkle and tear of the parchment paper I used for roasting the sprouts was a soothing back drop. And there it was, I found my zen.

It was a nice little moment, and something I need to remind myself I can have every day if I like. I have a tendency to stop before I even start when it comes to weeknight cooking, don’t you? I have these big ideas for, let’s get real, ambitious meals, and once I get home the idea of cooking for more than 15 minutes sounds completely overwhelming. (Not to mention the dishes. Oy! The dishes!) But these meals can, and should, be simple but special in some way. So here are my weeknight cooking tips:

1. Start with a pantry staple (in this case, pasta)
2. Add an ingredient you don’t normally use (brussel sprouts)
3. Boost flavor (balsamic here, but think spices and herbs too)
4. Indulge a bit (butter and cheese)
5. BONUS TIP: add an appetizer

Regarding that last one – start keeping some good bread/crackers and cheese in your house. You’re not going to eat the whole loaf or inhale the entire wedge of cheese, but a couple slices of each with a glass of wine while you wait for dinner to finish can be really nice. I probably have more cheese in my house than I know what to do with, and am perpetually freezing my favorite loaf of bread.  These odd habits have served me well for both the average weeknight and for entertaining unexpected guests.

But let’s get to it – here’s what you’ll be making for dinner tonight!

Orecchiette with Balsamic Roasted Brussel Sprouts

1 to 2 cups of orecchiette (1 or 2 servings, respectively)

1/2 or 1 whole bag of brussel sprouts cleaned and trimmed

1/2 or 1 whole small red onion

1 to 2 tbsp olive oil

1 to 2 tbsp balsamic

Salt and Pepper

1 to 2 tbsp butter

1/4 to 1/2 cup grated parmesan

Pre-heat your oven to 350F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

While your oven heats up, clean and trim the brussel sprouts. Chop each sprout in half and place on the parchment lined baking sheet. Slice the red onion and also place on the baking sheet. When you have the desired amount of sprouts and onions, drizzle them with the olive oil and balsamic, sprinkle with salt and pepper and toss everything lightly with your hands. Pop them in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes.

While the sprouts roast, fill a pot with water, add plenty of salt and boil it for your pasta. Cook the orecchiette to your desired al dente-ness.

About the time your pasta is done cooking, your sprouts should be done too. Pull the sprouts out and let them cool while you take care of the pasta.

Drain the pasta and do not rinse it. Melt the butter in with the pasta, toss in the sprouts and onions, sprinkle the parmesan over it all and give it a good stir.

There you go! Dinner’s all done and it took less than 30 minutes! Just call me freakin’ Rachel Ray :)

I posted a link to the article on Facebook the other day with a caveat (or two): yes, I ate at all those places, yes I work out and yes I am still a healthy person. Portion control and moderation are so important, for all of us, but especially people who are immersed in the food world. There are times when it all goes out the window, right along with the treadmill, but what can you do? Sometimes it all just tastes so. Damn. Good. :) Now on to Russel’s piece:

…..

There are pros and cons to being a food writer. The pros are obvious, we eat out a lot and get to surround ourselves with talented people in the industry. The cons? We eat out a lot, perhaps not cooking as much as we’d like — and we spend more money on food than we’d care to admit. Oh, and then there’s the gym – I can’t speak for my colleagues, but I don’t hit the treadmill nearly enough.

The most common questions I’m asked is where I eat out, what are my favorite restaurants and what do I like to cook at home. Such loaded topics, all. And I’m just as curious about the answers to those questions when it comes to my fellow food writers in The District.

I introduce to you What I Ate This Week, a series providing a snapshot highlighting what a member of the CityEats team eats in a week.

We begin with Alejandra Owens, writer for CityEats, Borderstan and One Bite at a Time.

When I asked Alejandra to tell me what she ate in this particular week, I was overwhelmed by the time she spent at Eataly. Of course, she’s telling us what she ate the week she’s jaunting across the east coast (damn you, New York — we’ll soon have our comeuppance).

Check out what I ate over at The Plate! 

Your barista has a dirty little secret. (Starbucks baristas excluded.) Or at least mine did. Until he told me all about it. DC, see, has a seedy, espresso ground littered underbelly.

It’s a little like fight club. Only brighter. And not in a basement or abandoned warehouse. And there’s no… fighting. Okay, it’s not like fight club at all, but up until DC’s hipster barista contingent issued a public challenge to their counterparts in Philadelphia, the latte art fight club that is Thursday Night Throwdown had gone largely unheard of. (This month it was at Flying Fish Coffee & Tea in Mount Pleasant.)

By now we’ve all realized, DC’s coffee scene is growing up! And growing up quickly according to Jon Riethmaier, editor of DistrictBean.com. “The DC coffee scene is really solid, and there’s a lot of evidence the foundation has been set for major growth in the immediate-to-near future,” says Riethmaier. “There are shops in DC that are neighborhood institutions. These shops have elevated DC’s coffee consciousness and deserve a lot of credit. There’s also newer ventures and soon-to-be-open shops that will continue to raise the bar. The future looks bright, for sure.”

Read the more about Thursday Night Throwdown at Borderstan.com! 

Note: This post is a contribution to the first ever Naptime Chef & Small Kitchen College Slow Cooker Challenge! You can enter to win a really awesome slow cooker on either site, so go check out all the recipes, get inspired and enter! There’s also a Twitter chat Wednesday, January 18th from 12pm – 1pm ET, #slowcooker, to help you get in the mood! 

I’m gluttonous. I love dulce de leche. So much so that sometimes when I buy alfajores from my local coffee shop, I twist them open like one would normally do with an Oreo and lick it right off the cookie.

But I’m also lazy, and kind of scared of making the stuff. Traditionalists make dulce de leche from scratch by simmering milk, sugar, baking soda and vanilla. Braver folk than I simmer cans of sweetened condensed milk in water on the stove-top. And then there’s what I do.

It’s not a secret method – it’s all over the internet – but I’m willing to bet you either haven’t heard of it, or kinda discounted it. Plopping cans of sweetened condensed milk in a water filled slow cooker for 8 hours achieves the same results as stove-top boiling, without that pesky fear of exploding cans!

So there you have it. You’re gonna put two cans of sweetened condensed milk in your slow cooker – one if you’re making some lame attempt at moderation – fully submerge them in cold water, covering them by at least an inch, cover and set your slow cooker to low. I like to set this up for over night cooking because a) it’s nice to wake up to dulce and b) it’s a great excuse to force myself out of a cozy bed.

You’ll want to let the cans cool a bit before opening them. I give them about an hour – you know, while I make coffee, shower and get ready for the day. Then I open those cans up and unabashedly dip my spoon in and have a scoop.

It’s this Latina’s version of peanut butter/nutella jar bliss.

Now that you have two cans of the stuff, whatever will you do with it? 

Why, you’ll make brownies and swirl healthy dollops of the stuff all throughout it! Use this brownie recipe, but omit the cranberries (obviously)!

You’ll drizzle it all over ice cream. Dip apple slices in it! Bake it into the ultimate traditional cheesecake. Make cake! Or if you’re like me you’ll sit around like Pooh Bear with his paw in a honey jar.

No matter how you use your copious amounts of dulce, I know you’ll enjoy them.

PS – My dulce kept for a week when I stored it in an air tight container in the fridge. I’m surprised it lasted that long, what with my daily scooping and all.

How’s your 2012 shaping up so far, eaters and drinkers?

Food trucks are already off to a rough start, no thanks to a continually frustrating relationship with the DC City government. Parking tickets, ice cream truck regulations…whatever…I just want my kimchi tacos in Farragut North.

R.J. Cooper of Rogue 24 recently had his highly anticipated surgery and seems to be resting and doing well. While he’s healing and getting back into fighting form, Rogue 24 has been left in a long list of very capable hands. You can buy tickets to check out the guest chef series, Rogue Sessions, over at Gilt City DC, and then book your table at CityEats.

Just when I thought maybe DC had hit a lull in restaurant openings, a slew of new places have popped up or have announced they’ll open soon. There’s news coming from flaky-crust-wielding Pie Sisters, the Asian-inspired ShopHouse (opening a new location not far from their current one), Irish Whiskey, where you can try $177 whiskey, or maybe everyone’s favorite sandwich shop, Taylor Gourmet, where they’ll be serving breakfast at their new 14th Street location just a week after opening their doors.

Check out the rest of the week in food over at City Eats DC’s, The Plate! 

I’m no stranger to eating my feelings, and I’m starting to see a pattern. Clearly when I’m angsty, angry or feeling anything other than my usually blissful self I crave red meat.

Last week was re-entry week. The first week back at work. The first week back on a schedule, in a routine. And man did it suck. So when fellow food blogger, friend and boss lady, @floridagirlindc said to me in a dead-pan-for-fuckin’-real kinda voice, “You wanna go to Fiola?” I was like, “YES, PLEASE!”

I adore Fiola for so many reasons but really all you need to know are two names and it explains it all: Fabio Trabocchi and Jeff Faile. There. Bam! I’ve changed your world. Fabio’s food is upscale Italian at its best, and to be honest, he’s one of the few Italian-focused chefs in town that doesn’t make me regret throwin’ down my credit card for a pasta dinner. Jeff is the bar manager and cocktail extraordinaire. I met Jeff a year ago now at a food event and fell in love with his manhattans. Since then he’s become one of my favorite bartenders in town – for both what he can do with a bottle of booze and for his upbeat, friendly demeanor behind the bar.

So yeah, two girls who needed to blow off some steam found themselves at Fiola’s bar, scarfing down a BLT burger with warm crispy, salty fries. It’s such a simple thing, but honestly, there’s a lot of shit burgers in town lately and this one now tops my list as a favorite.

If you haven’t been to Fiola yet, or think it’s out of your price range, consider a lunch trip! They have fabulous specials and combos at the bar during lunch and the bar snacks at happy hour are fabulous as well. It’s a lunch or happy hour you won’t regret – in fact, take someone with you who you want to impress, because you’re going to look so, so very good.

Photo thanks to @floridagirlindc, Tammy Gordon

Happy New Year, friends! Now that we’re back in town after the holiday madness and have made it through our first week of work, I assume everyone’s ready to nosh, imbibe and start 2012 off on the right foot.

• Fortunately for us, there’s a new restaurant to try. District Kitchen opened this week in Woodley Park and Eater DC gives readers a preview of the space and menu. While it looks like they’re still working on the website, you can check them out on Facebook and Twitter.
• If you’re like me, you like to have something to look forward to. Enter (or is that re-enter?) Shaw’s Tavern. The restaurant has a new management team and they’re working on getting the much-talked-about spot back up and running sooner rather than later.
• Then there’s Yo! More Sushi! The motorized sushi joint that hails from London will set up a conveyor belt in Chinatown some time this year. Because don’t you just love grabbing your food as it rolls on by?

Read the rest of The Week In Food over at City Eats DC’s blog, The Plate! 

I’m pretty obsessed with analytics and all the fancy numbers and feedback I get from WordPress. Mostly because I love seeing what recipes or posts you guys love, but also because I just really enjoy all the numbers. It makes me positively giddy.

I took a look back at 2011 to see what posts were the biggest and baddest and here’s what we came up with:

1. The Perfect Cheesecake Crust, which goes with…
2. Goat Cheese Cheesecake
3. Crinkly Lemon Cookies
4. Mascarpone Pancakes with Blueberries and Lemon Curd
5. Cilantro Garlic Yogurt Sauce & Grilled Chicken

I’m really thrilled to see my obsession with goat cheese paid off. I’m a little embarrassed that the cookies are made with boxed cake mix, but whatever, you know, they taste so damn good. And I love that my travels to the beach and St. Louis were represented in the top five posts, too. As anyone who loves food knows, traveling and eating your way through a city can not only give you loads of inspiration but also bookmark memories through taste.

After I took a look back, I took a look forward into 2012 and thought about New Years resolutions. I set resolutions in both 2010 and 2011 and 2010 was pretty successful with 2011 being pretty disappointing. Resolutions are all in good fun, I know, but let’s get real – me not buying any new cookbooks was a really silly goal to set.

So this year I decided to go for more of a mantra/motto than a list of resolutions:

Don’t talk about it, be about it. 

What do you guys think? Basically, instead of keeping a list and not checking it all the time, if I want to pursue something, I’m just going to do it. Now. If I really want to learn something, cook something, go somewhere, meet someone, I’m just going to send the email, do the google search, print the recipe and get on it already.

What are your resolutions for the year? How do you plan to keep your resolutions?

PS – My very first blog post was Christmas Candy Cane Cookies. And they mmmmight be my favorite thing on this blog still.