Rudzu Maize and other good things

I found a source for real Latvian rye bread and it isn't far from my office! Last week at Debbie's retirement party I happened to be wearing my amber necklace and struck up a conversation about it. Turns out her mother is from Latvia and she knows the local sources, including the store European Delight Deli & Bakery which is just a short walk on the other side of the Twinbrook metro station. They've got a lot of other products, especially from the Balkans, Russian, and Eastern Europe. In fact a lot of it has labels I can't even figure out!

Here's a real-from-Lativia loaf of rye bread

In other food news this was a really excellent chocolate bar I got at Cost Plus World Market a while ago. It is worth remembering for future reference.

This brings me to pictures of DC. Aniekan Udofia is my favorite mural artist working in the city and he has two pieces in Barracks Row and Eastern Market.  

"American Express" by Aniekan on 8th St SE, south of the freeway...call this Barracks Row South.

Cirque du Soleil at the Eastern Market Aquatic Center

Note the DC flag theme (3 red stars and 2 red stripes) worked into the mermaid's ribbons.

Last week Greta and Shinyoung were in town for a workshop on the data in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) and they hung out with me on Sunday. Really fun to see them! When are the rest of you going to come visit me? That's how I see new things in the city too. For example we found the gorgeous Leonardo da Vinci piece in the National Gallery of Art this time. Ginevra de' Benci is lovely and she's the only da Vinci in North America.

Greta and Shinyoung on Pennsylvania Avenue

Greta and Sarah on Pennsylvania Ave

Greta really likes her Cumberland at Taylor Gourmet

 A couple of weeks ago the serviceberry bushes (genus Amelanchier) in front of the church on 4th Street were just loaded. I picked a bunch and showed several neighbors that you can eat them too. Many years the berries get an orange fungus and aren't appetizing, but the cooler weather this spring must have protected them. I can pick them faster than huckleberries because they grow in clusters so I can grab berries by the handful.

Loaded berry bushes

Basket of berries

Service berry muffins

Finally here's proof that I've been busy lately. Four meetings that required airplane travel this spring!

Lots of name tags

Really good chewy chocolate chip cookies

I made a great chocolate chip cookie mostly from the Smitten Kitchen recipe last week and I want to write it down while I still remember what I did differently. I started with the Salted Chocolate Chunk Cookies but used white whole wheat flour and white sugar plus molasses because that's what I had on hand at 9 o'clock at night. You get 9 o'clock cookie dough cravings don't you? I think my version came out very well, with more spread and probably softer than Deb's original but that's not a bad thing either.

I tried rolling some of the balls of dough in coconut (don't bother) and filbert flour (good but still not really a value add) before baking but I think as usual the purity of chocolate chip, or in this case chunk, is still best. This is an intensely chocolate chocolate chip cookie.

These cookies really need the chopped chocolate chunks because they melt more than chocolate chips and fall into yummy chocolate layers. Furthermore this cookie is half chocolate and you need those "almost unseemly-sized puddles of melted chocolate" to hold it all together. Let it cool on the baking sheet for a long time or it will fall apart.

Really, go read Deb's recipe before you make these because I'm recording abbreviated instructions. Also the Smitten Kitchen is fun to read and everyone should do it.

Modified Chocolate Chunk Cookies

1/2 c butter (one stick)
215 g of sugary stuff, I think I used 25 g molasses, 25 g golden syrup, and 165 g of white sugar
1 egg
1 t vanilla
3/4 t baking soda
1/4+ t salt
175 g white whole wheat flour
50 g White Lily flour (or cake flour or try with all w-ww)
225 g chocolate from bars cut into 1 cm (ish) chunks

Cream butter and sugars, add egg and vanilla and beat some more. Sprinkle salt and soda over the bowl and beat to blend. Stir in flour, then chocolate chunks.

Bake right away if you want them to spread more. Refrigerate dough overnight before baking and they will spread a bit less (but be more even). Also if you keep the dough in the fridge you and eat more of it as you go. Sprinkle the cookies with a pinch of coarse salt before baking.

Oven should be 360 degrees according to Deb and Ashley Rodriguez, mine was probably closer to 375 since it doesn't stay very even. Bake 10 to 11 minutes and remove while still soft.

No pictures because I ate most of them and gave the rest away.