Ground beef, thrown down

Bobby Flay's "Throwdown" was so inspiring (or perhaps, around 3 a.m. Saturday night, I was just so open to suggestion) that I decided to take the barbecuing out of today's BBQ and instead, serve up some sloppy joe.

Epicurious says the dish should have a "mixture of cooked ground beef, onions, green peppers and spicy tomato sauce," and Wikipedia allows for ketchup as a tomato sauce substitute. But Mr. Flay, in his battle against the owners/chefs/brothers at Schnipper's Quality Kitchen in Midtown Manhattan, got pretty creative, so I felt liberated to experiment (primarily by plagiarizing his innovations).


The ultimate recipe, after a trip to the Giant by the Columbia Heights Metro stop, turned out to involve ground beef, chili powder, sauteed garlic, ketchup, bell peppers (red, yellow and orange), a poblano pepper, chipotle chilies in adobo sauce, brown sugar and a cilantro garnish, served on sliced baguette.


Dessert: apple pie, vanilla ice cream and Fudgsicles gifted by guests in some kind of Americana state of mind.

Middle photo by Nicole Firment Robyn Mak.

Tiny hot dog buns

I have had neither the time nor disposable income to explore the D.C. restaurant scene, not even the Latin restaurants that line 14th Street by my apartment. (A few exceptions: I've grown to accept Baja Fresh as a serviceable substitute for Chipotle; I was unmoved by La Frontera Cantina, a small Mexican restaurant with pleasant outdoor seating and homemade tortilla chips on 17th Street, by Dupont Circle; I was pleased to find the biodegradable entrees and packaging at Sweet Green, on Connecticut, only slightly overpriced, the mix-your-own greens salad selling for $6; and I enjoyed the curry peanut sauce at Bua, a Thai restaurant on P Street, between 16th and 17th.)

Lately, however, I have managed some good eating, mostly thanks to visits from my wife and in-laws. Outings included a scallops feast during a Bethesda Restaurant Week trip to Grapeseed; an Ethiopian lunch on U Street, around 10th; and a banquet at Founding Fathers, on Pennsylvania Avenue by the IMF, where we ordered, as appetizers, the cornmeal battered fried green tomatoes with herb goat cheese and homemade "green goddess dressing," the homemade potato and cheddar cheese crisps with onion dip and a pimento spread, and the grilled oysters with homemade BBQ sauce (afterward, I meekly attempted to conquer the "Farmhouse Mixed Grill," made up of pork ribs, "Barackwurst" sausage and fried chicken, served alongside watermelon and coleslaw).


All delicious, but I was ready for some home, vegetarian cooking. So the next day, we stopped by Whole Foods and then Keryn whipped up a refreshing salad, with fresh mozzarella, local heirloom tomatoes and arugula.


She also boiled up some, er, I think it's called "Casarecce" (a pasta shaped like "tiny hot dog buns"), with a medley of sauteed mushrooms and Parmesan.