Just planted the season’s first herbs in the garden — and what good timing. The fresh rosemary in the chicken and fresh mint in the zucchini turned this “what’s on hand” meal into one befitting of Sunday supper.
Preheat oven to 390. Start bringing pot of water to boil for potatoes.
Slice zucchini and toss in roasting pan with olive oil, salt and pepper. Roast for 40 minutes.
While zucchini roasts and water heats, sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper, slice a small pocket in each breast in which to stuff filling (probe like you’re fileting the breast in half, but don’t go all the way through), and prepare the filling.
To make the filling:
Heat pan on high end of medium-high, coat with a very small amount of olive oil, and add onions. Saute onions until they start to soften, occasionally pouring in a few teaspoons of water and scraping the pan to deglaze.
When the onions are soft, add kale, smoked paprika and garlic. Deglaze with water two more times, stirring frequently. Deglaze a final time with vinegar and sugar, and transfer to medium-sized bowl.
Add cheese and rosemary to bowl and stir until everything is well-combined.
Stuff chicken breasts with filling.
Return pan to high end of medium-high, coat with a more liberal amount of olive oil than before and sear chicken breasts, about two minutes a side. Add broth, lower heat to low, cover and cook for 20 minutes.
While chicken cooks, slice potatoes and place into boiling water. Cook for 15 minutes, drain, smash, and add butter and spices.
Remove zucchini and toss in mint.
Plate starch and vegetable, topping potatoes with syrup and sprinkling zucchini with cheese. Plate chicken and serve.
It seems there’s artisan everything these days. So, here is a recipe for an artisan waffle taco. It’s the same premise as Taco Bell’s monstrosity, but with, you know, things like whole wheat flour, lean meat, and fresh cilantro.
Makes 3 waffle tacos:
Waffle batter for 3 waffles (I used Alton Brown’s recipe, halved)
2 tsp red onion, diced
1/2 TBS cornmeal
1/2 pound lean ground turkey
TBS chili powder
1/2 tsp oregano
Garlic clove, minced
Dash of cayenne pepper
Salt and pepper to taste
2 eggs
1.5 TBS crumbled goat cheese
1.5 TBS chopped cilantro
2 ounces maple syrup
1.5 tsp lime juice
Cooking spray
Mix the waffle batter, onions and cornmeal. Set in fridge.
Chop cilantro and mix lime juice with syrup. Set cilantro and syrup aside.
In medium-sized bowl, combine turkey, chili powder, oregano, garlic, cayenne, salt and pepper. Form into three oval-shaped patties.
Spray large skillet and cook sausage patties over medium-high heat, about 6 minutes per side, uncovered for the first sides and covered for the second sides.
While sausage patties cook, pre-heat waffle iron, beat two eggs and spray a small skillet or pot.
When the second sides of the sausage patties are halfway through cooking, spray waffle iron and put skillet over medium-high heat. Pour waffle batter onto iron and eggs into skillet .
Cook waffles and eggs for 3 minutes, folding egg in half when it solidifies, like an omelette.
For each taco, stack 1 sausage and 1/3 of egg diagonally across half of a waffle, drizzle with syrup, sprinkle with cheese and cilantro, fold and eat.
After a long run, I was craving food that would stick to my ribs. Did someone say grilled cheese and fries? Well, I did. And I made it. And I devoured it (along with a smoothie and peanut butter before and beer before, during and after #RunnerProblems).
About a TBS of butter
2 slices of bread (I used multigrain)
3 slices of provolone cheese
4 apple slices (I used pinata)
Ketchup (If you’d like to try making your own, here’s a recipe)
Preheat the oven to 425. Even before doing that, get the butter out of the fridge and sliced. Letting it warm at room temperature will make it easier to spread!
While heating a skillet over medium high, liberally spread butter on one side of each bread slice.
Place the bread in the pan butter side down. Put the cheese on one slice and apples on the other. Cook for 3-4 minutes.
Put the slices in the oven for 2 minutes to finish melting the cheese.
Squirt ketchup over both slices, stack the slices into a sandwich and cut diagonally (compared with crosswise or lengthwise, this creates a larger surface area to bite into, plus, triangles are just plain cooler than rectangles).
Rosemary garlic baked fries
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
4-5 small-medium yellow potatoes, julienned
2 long sprigs of rosemary, destemmed and chopped
3 cloves of garlic, minced
Half a lemon
Place a cookie sheet in the oven and preheat to 425.
Toss potatoes in bowl with olive oil, salt and pepper.
Heat a skillet over medium high, drizzle in a little olive oil, and swirl it around. Add the potatoes and cook, stirring frequently, until they turn golden brown. As soon as they start to turn, squirt the pan with a little more than half of the lemon half’s juice to deglaze.
Transfer potatoes back to bowl and toss with rosemary and garlic. Remove cookie sheet from oven, and spread potatoes across cookie sheet so that there is only one layer. Return the cookie sheet to the oven and bake for 16 minutes, flipping potatoes halfway through.
As soon as you remove potatoes from oven, squirt them with the rest of the lemon juice.
My favorite meals I make aren’t the complicated ones planned for days and prepped for hours because I’m celebrating something. It’s the simple ones thrown together fast because it’s 8 o’clock on a Monday and I have to eat something.
They’re not always home runs, but when they are, they can turn a dull Monday evening into something special. When they aren’t, what’s learned can be applied on a future Monday night.
In 45 minutes of cooking and prep — less than half of it active, and the timing easy to coordinate — I had a hit today starting out with just the meat and some shallots. The rest, out of necessity, used ingredients likely to be laying around the average kitchen — at least kitchens in the south, or whose cooks spent time in the south.
To be fair, it wasn’t just any meat. Over the weekend, my roommate was making a trip to Whole Foods and invited me to tag along. Mindful of blowing my Whole Paycheck — for day-to-day cooking, I generally stick to farmers markets and basic grocery stores — I limited myself to a few things that jumped out a me. A buffalo rib-eye steak was among those, in part because I had already selected some shallots, which are in a stand-by steak recipe I use.
So, I had my main dish, but, wanting nothing to do with the grocery store on the eve of an impending snowstorm, was limited to what I had in my vegetable bowl and pantry for sides.
The other week I gave in and finally got some supermarket tomatoes, and my last one was pushing even its freakish shelf-life. We can roast that. So, there’s a vegetable.
Starch? No potatoes. No rice, as hard as that is to imagine. There’s quinoa but I just had that yesterday. Bread, but I don’t want just bread. Ah, but I always have grits, which, if, you haven’t discovered, aren’t just for breakfast. Well, I always do, except right now, as tonight I had just enough for one serving, which I devoured.
While I didn’t have all of the ingredients, or, with a grumbling stomach, all of the time, I have a go-to baked grits recipe, too — the steak and tomatoes were destined for the oven anyway, so might as well have something heartier than just stove-cooked — that I modified to be quicker and, because of what I had on hand, slightly lighter.
After popping out to The Wine Source (fortunately I’m just a few blocks way) for red wine for the steak’s reduction sauce, putting it all together, here is roughly what I did:
Following directions on the canister, boil water for the grits, stir them in, and let them simmer. Making just one serving, and, with baking to crispin them up, if you’re in a hurry, feel free to leave them a little runnier than normal. I think I had mine simmer a little over 10 minutes.
While the grits are simmering, after pre-heating the oven to 380 degrees, a temperature I figured would work for everything, cut the tomato in half, slice it, cut the slices in half, dump the halves in a roasting pan and sprinkle them with olive oil, dried oregano, dried basil, salt and pepper.
When the grits are done simmering, remove them from the heat, add a splash of milk, about a quarter stick of butter, and a half teaspoon or so of pepper, then grate in a generous amount of Parmigiano-Reggiano — pretty much any hard cheese with do — and stir until everything is combined.
That’s all the active work for the tomatoes and grits. Put them in the oven and set your timer for 30 minutes. The buffalo steak, which gets seared first, goes in at the halfway point.
Chopping the shallots for the steak is probably the most involved part of this, in part because your eyes will likely need a few breaks. Before you do that, get out the buffalo steak (feel free to sub in a different meat like beef or lamb and/or cut, as long as it’s not overly thin) and grind salt and pepper onto both sides. You can also get out some dried tarragon, the only other component in the reduction sauce, and reserve a half cup of dry red wine. If you plan to drink any with dinner, put in the fridge to chill after you chop the shallots. Without further ado, now chop the shallots.
When the timer hits 20 minutes, heat a skillet on medium-high. After a minute, drizzle in some olive oil, swirl it around, let it heat a little more, and throw in the steak. Sear it about two minutes a side, transfer to a foil-covered pan, and put in the oven. While I based this on a beef recipe, if you use buffalo, be aware that buffalo is leaner than beef, so cooks faster. If you use beef or something else fattier, you’ll likely need to increase the cooking time, unless it’s thin. For medium doneness, my buffalo, which was about 1 and a half inches thick, took 13 minutes. To avoid overcooking, after 10 minutes, check it by cutting into it and eyeing the color.
After checking the meat, in the same skillet in which you seared the steak, sautee the shallots over medium heat until soft. You shouldn’t need any extra oil; if you do, just add a little. If the shallots are ready before the meat, just remove from the heat, and put it back on medium when you take the steak out.
When the steak is done, put it on a plate to rest, crank the skillet’s heat up to medium high, pour in the wine, tap in some tarragon and let it reduce, about three minutes. If you don’t have wine wine or cooking wine, balsamic vinegar and sugar is a good alternative.
At this point, even if your steak cooked quickly, the grits and tomatoes should be ready as well. Get those out of the oven, plate everything, and spoon the sauce over the steak. If the steak sauce or tomato juices seep into your grits, it’s not a bad thing.
I’ve never been big on shopping, but I enjoy holiday shopping. Perhaps it’s because the challenge of buying for others turns it into a quest, instead of just a transaction. Since moving back to Baltimore two years ago and embracing local living, I’ve enjoyed it even more. Getting lost — literally or figuratively — in a neighborhood is a welcome escape from the frenzy we’ve let this season turn into, whereas getting lost at the mall makes it seem like you’re trapped in it. And, if you’re lost about what to buy, with local merchants, you can often get help directly from the person who picked, or even who made, what’s for sale.
Any gift the recipient has to model for is difficult to make a surprise, but the delight anyone will feel upon seeing his or her face on a bobblehead should more than make up for the lack of suspense.
If you’d rather keep the surprise, or appeal to something other than vanity, the Bmore3D Store, a pop-up shop next to Sip & Bite in Canton offering 3D-printed trinkets by local artists and 3D-scanning and 3D-printing services, caters to their modernity, creativity and hometown pride (Baltimore-themed items are among the jewelry, vases, and other items for sale) as well.
While novelties like the bobbleheads may be the first to grab consumers’ attention — the shop offers personalized figurines, pencil toppers and holograms as well — the power to deploy a desktop army of plastic and ceramic mini-mes isn’t what makes 3D printing revolutionary.
That you’re not limited by the store’s inventory — staff will print items from 3D models customers made or found online, where thousands are available for free — hints at the technology’s true potential.
By enabling rapid prototyping as well as building, and by reducing waste from production errors and scrap material, digital fabrication makes development, production and distribution vastly more efficient than traditional methods. Efficiency? With hundreds of millions of children to serve, Santa’s probably already on board.
Even if it’s just a bobblehead, by giving a taste of the industrial future, espcecially for the younger ones on your list (be sure to mention the Santa thing), you’re giving more than just a present.
WHERE: 2150 Boston St.
WHEN: Open 1 p.m. to 9 p.m daily through the end of the year
WHILE YOU’RE THERE: Hopefully catch a demo, workshop, or even live music. Check the store’s calendar if you want to try to time your visit right.
Anyone who’s ever stayed at their grandparents’ house knows that the cool, if slightly quirky stuff, is in the basement. An original LITE-BRITE and homemade dinner buzzer are among the items I remember fondly. Stepping down off Harford Road into the aptly named The Gift Cellar, you’ll experience a similar sense of anticipation. Once inside, cool, quirky, and Maryland-made is what you’ll find.
If there are ladies on your list who favor funky, over fancy, jewerly, the Cellar is definitely worth a visit. While it’s a relatively small space, you’ll be surprised by all else that’s there. The shop’s more than two dozen vendors also make scarves, bath and beauty products, cards and prints, candles, pottery and sculpture, stuffed animals, T-shirts and decor.
And if you can’t find it, don’t be afraid to ask. Seeking a Bawlmer rat shirt for my uncle, I lamented that they were out of his size, and, straight out of the Smalltimore script, the local — in this case, hyperlocal — vendor behind the design just happened be in the store. He was back with the size I needed faster than I could finish a cup of coffee next door.
If you get the season’s hot toy, the replay value, in gaming parlance, isn’t likely to be very high. Just ask this mom where last year’s Furbys are now. The offerings at Canton Games, catering to children, adults and families alike, meanwhile, are designed, and tested, to last, not just to sell.
From traditional games like Rummikub, to collectible games like Magic the Gathering, to role playing games like Dungeons and Dragons, to party favorites like Cranium, if it’s a game, and you can think of it — heck, even if you can’t — Canton Games is likely to carry it. Did you know there’s an unofficial Cards Against Humanity expansion pack called Crabs Adjust Humidity?
Oh yeah, you can get comic books, graphic novels — excellent for nudging a young, reluctant reader without bumming him or her out — and action figures here, too.
The ability to earnestly say — to the help and to yourself — that you’re “just looking,” helps take the pressure out of shopping, holiday or otherwise. It’s harder to say that when you’re obviously looking for a gift, and obviously not going to be tacking on anything for yourself, like the bug-eyed husband wandering the lingerie department on Christmas Eve.
Let’s hope things don’t get that desperate for you this holiday, but, let’s face it, at least from a man’s perspective, browsing a store with wares, especially clothing, exclusively for the opposite gender, can get uncomfortable.
Sixteen Tons and Doubledutch Boutique on The Avenue help take some of the edge off by housing men’s and women’s clothing stores, respectively (Oh, could you guess from the names?), under the same roof, guys downstairs and gals upstairs.
What also helps are that both shops favor vintage-inspired looks. Sixteen Tons stocks “Classic And Contemporary Men’s Apparel & Accoutrements,” Doubledutch “Modern lines and indie designs.” With the sales staffs’ counsel — “Oh I was just looking downstairs/upstairs, but since I’m here…” — if it seems like a hit, it probably will be, and it still will be this time next year.
If you’re still unsure, or on a budget, soaps for her or shaving products for him are always a safe, and less expensive bet.
WHEN: Sixteen Tons is open noon to 5 p.m. Sunday and Monday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Doubledutch Boutique is open 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday.
WHILE YOU’RE THERE: Venture into some of the many antique shops along The Avenue. Finding a full gift can be hit or miss, but be on the lookout for fun stocking stuffers. The other year, for a few dollars, I picked up vintage postcards for members of my family whose scenes carried special meaning.
Food experiences (Fells Point, Hampden, various neighborhoods)
The shortest route to a gift recipient’s heart is through their stomach, right? Perhaps. If you want to give something especially memorable, though, you might want to enter through the brain. For that, try these high-minded food experiences.
“So, that’s how to cut an onion!” they’ll cry out, possibly in tears, after a cooking class at Pierpoint or Waterfront Kitchen. “So, that’s what kangaroo tastes like!” they’ll shout after sanpling exotic foods as a member of Corner BYOB‘s Gastronaut Society. “I never knew this neighborhood had a place like this!” they’ll exclaim after a Dishcrawl restaurant tour.
COOKING CLASSES
Many of these fill up fast, so don’t delay. Fortunately, I asked for them in time to receive two of Pierpoint’s more popular classes as gifts last year. The French cuts taught in the knife skills class and seafood safety tips from the fish cooking class are things I’ll use the rest of my life. How many gifts can you say that for?
Classes still available as of this writing included Low-Fat Cooking, International BBQ, Knife Skills, Fish Cooking, Essentials of Indian Cooking, Modern Italian, and Essentials of Gluten-Free Cooking.
Classes still available of this writing included The Art of Making Sauces; The Art of Baking Bread; Aphrodisiacs; Bacon, Sausage, and other Pork Products; Molecular Gastronomy; The Art of Making Sushi; and A Tribute to Julia Child.
It’s like a bar crawl, but a restaurant crawl. Dishcrawl‘s monthly walking tours, offered in dozens of other cities in addition to Baltimore, stop at four restaurants in one evening. At each stop, diners sample a few dishes (the last stop is always dessert), hear from an owner, manager or chef, and socialize with fellow crawlers.
If the restaurant serves it, alcohol is available for purchase, and the host will give a warning before moving to the next destination so drinkers can settle their checks. Since I and fellow attendees were wondering going in: Know that the sample plates are far from just a few nibbles. When the night was through at the crawl in Mount Vernon in August, I was filled! (If you saw my Thanksgiving plate, er, plates, that’s saying a lot.)
To purchase a Dischcrawl gift certificate — each Baltimore tour is $35 per person — call Nancy Judy Miel, the national Dishcrawl employee in charge of gift certificates, at 415-523-0477.
When going on a food exploration, as Corner BYOB calls it, it’s best not to go alone — even the bravest diner at least needs witnesses to attest, “Yes, she really ate that.” At Gastronaut Society meals, that can mean things like rattlesnake, muskrat, duck tongue, scorpion and crickets. That cousin who was looking up recipes the last time the cicadas surfaced? Yeah, this might be for him.
A $50 Gastronaut Society annual membership gets the recipient discounts — typically around 25 percent off the over $100 regular price — on three prix fixe dinners throughout the year and 10% discounts on “special adventurous fare” featured on the restaurant’s regular menu.
WHILE YOU’RE THERE: At Pierpoint, Waterfront Kitchen, or Corner BYOB, give yourself something to look forward to by making reservations for a Saturday in the spring, just because. You earned it. You were good this year, right?
Without knowing users’ intent, observers shouldn’t assume that search trends mean something is or isn’t trendy.
The Atlantic Wire and others surmised that the term “blog” might be outdated, and that “Tumblr” may be becoming the Kleenex to its tissue, now that the latter has passed the former in search term popularity. Especially since a search for “Tumblr” gets processed so fast Google doesn’t even display the time, not so fast my friend.
Since search is one of the most common ways Web users learn about unfamiliar things, one could just as easily spin the data the other way to say it reflects the generic blog’s increased popularity — or at least familiarity.
The average Web user today, I’ll hypothesize, is more likely to know what a blog is than the average Web user in Spring 2009, when “blog” peaked in the Google Trends chart that inspired the Wire’s post. While it’s long been a household term in techie spaces, “Tumblr” is still a new name for many a Internet user. Or, perhaps someone’s heard it a lot, but isn’t exactly sure what it is.
Another factor likely at play is users’ using search as a navigational tool, a habit ReadWriteWeb learned about the hard way in early 2010. Since it was the top news result, and hence atop all search results, users mistook its article that talked about logging into Facebook for the actual Facebook login page!
Mobile, with its cumbersome typing interfaces and narrow address bars, and search being baked into most address bars, further encourage users to use search as a shortcut for typing out the full URL. “Tumblr” surely benefits from these navigational applications, but “blog” — other than a caveman, maybe, who’s trying to go to just “blog”? — not so much.
Bottom line, it’s difficult to compare generic and specific search terms. The Google Trends data certainly document the rise of Tumblr, but not necessarily the fall of “blog.”
Editorial cartoonist Kevin “KAL” Kallaugher‘s work has appeared all over the world and in several different mediums, including real-time 3D. But it may never have had it not appeared on a British school’s old wallpaper first.
Or if the English were fonder of basketball. With playing and coaching in Brighton not as lucrative as in Boston…
He even worked as a maintenance man tearing wallpaper off the walls of a local school—but not before illustrating the walls with cartoons. One of the teachers saw his drawings and put him in touch with an art director who, in turn, suggested he tried pitching his work to the newspapers and magazines up and down Fleet Street.
After a successful tryout, he was hired by The Economist, where he’s entering his 35th year. Not quite “Good Will Hunting” (Kallaugher graduated from Harvard). But, how about that?
KAL, also a longtime cartoonist for my employer, The Baltimore Sun, whom he started drawing for again this year, obviously had the talent, and someone probably would have seen it sooner or later. The point is, sharing, even indirectly, made it sooner. If you don’t know where to start, start with what’s in front of you. Tack it to a wall. Put it down on paper. Or, yes, draw it on wallpaper.
Susan Cain’s widely shared TED talk challenges extroverts — and introverts themselves — about introverts’ role in modern society.
Just because I’m introverted doesn’t mean…
This blog post is an answer to a prompt from the post “Introverts unite” on the [Witty Title Here] blog.
Just because I’m introverted doesn’t mean I lack energy. I’m glad you mentioned energy, though.
Extroversion and introversion are not about being sociable or shy, about being loud or quiet, or about being aggressive or passive. They are about where one draws his or her energy.
Why people have trouble with this, I’m not sure. It’s right in the words, which is Lesson 1.
Inside energy versus outside energy
The prefix “extro,” from the Latin extra, means extroverts primarily get their energy from the outside — conversations with others; music, lights or other stimuli; bustling crowds.
The Latin prefix intro means introverts primarily get their energy from the inside — thoughts to themselves, and enough peace, quiet and space to mentally hear those thoughts.
What’s that? “But I’m an extrovert and I need downtime, too!” Of course you do. Read on to Lesson 2.
The introversion-extroversion spectrum
Notice above that I wrote “primarily.” Introversion and extroversion are not binary traits. While too much will put them to sleep (what energizes introverts drains extroverts, and vice versa), even extreme extroverts need time to themselves. Likewise, while too much will wear them out, even extreme introverts need time with others.
Introversion and extroversion merely describe which side of the spectrum you favor. If you fall toward the middle and talk a lot, you and society may have labeled you an extrovert. If you fall toward the middle, and don’t talk a lot, you and society may have labeled you an introvert. Once such tweeners, if you will, learn what extroversion and introversion really are, it’s not uncommon for them to feel they’ve been mislabeled.
Wherever you fall, channel your inner indie musician and don’t obsess over the labels. Extroversion and introversion are not about what other people think, they’re about you, and where you get your energy, and how you manage that energy to live the best life, and to help others do the same, or, in short, to keep the music metaphor going, to sing (or shout, or strum, or hum) your song.
Holiday gifts in Baltimore that are fun to give, receive and get
For decades suburbanites descended on the city to complete their holiday shopping. In Baltimore’s case, they likely took a streetcar to Howard and Lexington streets. A generation after Hutzler’s rang its last sale, the flow has reversed, with urbanites taking their own cars to malls in Towson, Hanover and Columbia. If, somewhere between parking lot section Z-89 and “Ma’am, the line starts over there,” you have a Frank Constanza moment, and think, “There’s got to a better way,” there is.
This sampling of city shopping options will lead you to distinctive (read: thoughtful) gifts that are as fun to give as they are to receive — and even fun to procure.
Per capita, it’s, admittedly, probably more packed than the mall, but it’s hard to call this juried craft show inside an old Victorian church anything but cozy. Maybe it’s the intimacy of meeting the people who made — handmade — your gifts. Maybe it’s the homeyness of sipping hot cocoa while you shop. Maybe it’s the novelty of buying stuff never seen on TV. Maybe it’s the community of being among others who appreciate such things. Whatever it is, the annual fair is a can’t miss. If you get a little too cozy, step out on 27th Street and recharge at the food trucks.
Browse a list of vendors on Charm City Craft Mafia’s site. More than 60 artists and craftspeople will be selling clothing, accessories, beauty products, housewares, cards, prints, woodworks and more. Many accept credit cards via mobile payment systems such as Square.
WHILE YOU’RE THERE: Take a coffee or hot chocolate break. As you sip, drink in the beautiful building as well. When you’re done shopping, take a food truck lunch home with you, or, if it’s nice, dine alfresco on the churchyard’s ledge.
aMuse Toys sells toys that get the young and young at heart playing with the original killer app: Our imaginations. Some are so whimsical you could say they were made by elves, and sound convincing. The 123 Baltimore counting book journeys through the city along with the numbers, visiting pink flamingos, blue crabs, and painted ladies. Non-sticky, non-gritty tactile modeling compound Bubber lets kids — and parents — just worry about creating. The Robot and Rocket Flipbook kit — well, come on, its robots and rockets and cartoons! At the shop in Southeast Baltimore’s historic Fells Point, you’ll find the types of toys worthy of Santa’s sack.
WHILE YOU’RE THERE: Warm up with holiday spirits just up Broadway at Rye, a bar specializing in craft cocktails. Then, erase these calories, at least, from your holiday surplus with a stroll to the end of Broadway Pier. Or, if it’s the weekend, swoop up Broadway and over on Fleet to peruse the wares at The Antique Man, which is closed during the week.
Packaged in brown paper bags with black and white stickers, Zeke’s’ more than 30 small-batch-roasted, bold-but-not-bombastic blends are an ode to coffee joy. Even the busiest list-making-hall-decking-cookie-baking bees will savor this time out from the tinsel. Traditional and speciality varieties, including a sustainable line, are available at Zeke’s’ shop in Hamilton, as well as several other spots around town.
WHILE YOU’RE THERE: By all means, treat yourself to a cup, then head about a mile farther up Harford Road and stroll Hamilton’s Main Street area, concentrated in the 5400 and 5500 blocks, home to cafés, pubs and art galleries.
CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) share
Photo by Steve Earley
Think of it as the jelly-of-the-month club, but fresh, non-smashed-up fruit, and vegetables. It’s the gift that keeps on giving all growing season long. A weekly share of a farmer’s harvest simplifies shopping, promotes healthy eating and encourages creativity in the kitchen. CSA members get well over a month’s worth of food starting at little over the cost of a month’s worth of Double Quarter Pounder With Cheese Extra Value Meals. Which would you rather have?
Most f
arms bundle members’ shares for them — based on what’s growing well or what they have a lot of — but some give customers the pick of their stands. Either way, recipients can expect the strawberries, corn and peaches everybody craves as well as lesser-known crops that will stretch their culinary reportoire — kholrabi, anyone?
If the price (around $300 for a half share and up to $600 for a full share) exceeds your gift-giving budget, ask the farm about gift certificates, or simply make your own. (Since many farms have buyers choose pick-up times and locations, it might be best to have the recipient buy anyway.)
WHERE: Below are three of the many regional farms with pick-up locations in Baltimore. Inquire online or find them at farmers markets. Both One Straw Farm and Real Food Farm are at the Waverly Farmers Market (Saturdays) and Calvert Farm has a stand at the downtown Baltimore Farmers Market (Sundays).
WHILE YOU’RE THERE Explore the farms websites’ and their links, or, if you’re at a market, chat with farmers themselves to learn more about local and sustainable food. Did you know many of Baltimore’s vacant lots are being reclaimed as small farms and that urban heat markedly extends the city’s growing season?
Curated as carefully as the galleries around it, the Baltimore Museum of Art’s gift shop offers an eclectic — but focused — complement of items that all do what a gift should do: Express something, and inspire the recipient to do the same. Find books, CDs, DVDs, cards, prints and posters featuring or inspired by the museum’s art as well as jewelry, clothing, creative supplies and more.
While there’s still plenty of porn and pop-ups (browsers have gotten the latter, at least, under control), needless to say, a lot has changed online in the eight years since Dave Chappelle envisioned a real-life version of Internet, starting with how we access it.
In a parallel universe where one of the Internet generation’s favorite comedians is still producing sketches, what would “If the Mobile Internet Were a Real Place” look like?
“Visit our special center on the upper level, optimized for job-seekers just like you.” Why would I walk up there? There’s a center right here.Shoot, forget this, too.
Saleswoman: Welcome! Get ready to start saving with your city’s best daily deals, exclusively for left-handers!
You: Sorry, not interested. How did you know I’m… Nah, not interested.
Saleswoman: Then why did you come to my stand?
You: I tripped. Your stand’s butting out into the walkway.
Even though we avoided some of the lewder areas Dave visited in his original sketch, the Internet is still pretty “disgusting and intolerable,” as he put it.
Poor users. At least the runaway pop-ups have run away.
Heat pan on high end of medium-high, coat with a very small amount of olive oil, and add onions. Saute onions until they start to soften, occasionally pouring in a few teaspoons of water and scraping the pan to deglaze.
Packaged in brown paper bags with black and white stickers, Zeke’s’ more than 30 small-batch-roasted, bold-but-not-bombastic blends are an ode to coffee joy. Even the busiest list-making-hall-decking-cookie-baking bees will savor this time out from the tinsel. Traditional and speciality varieties, including a sustainable line, are available at Zeke’s’ shop in Hamilton, as well as several other 
Curated as carefully as the galleries around it, the Baltimore Museum of Art’s gift shop offers an eclectic — but focused — complement of items that all do what a gift should do: Express something, and inspire the recipient to do the same. Find books, CDs, DVDs, cards, prints and posters featuring or inspired by the museum’s art as well as jewelry, clothing, creative supplies and more.
Steve Earley 
