Author Archives: Judy

About Judy

I have been cooking and eating all my life, around the country, world, and throughout history (I hold Master Cook status in the Society for Creative Anachronism). In real time, I help run the Olney Farmers and Artists Market in Olney, Maryland, arrange their weekly chef demos and blog from that website (olneyfarmersmarket.tumblr.com) on Market matters. This personal blog is for all things foodie: events, cookbooks, products, restaurants, eating.

Chocolate And Cicadas, Together At Last: Chouquette’s Very Seasonal Specialty

Starting in 2021 with our local Brood X experience, Sarah Dwyer designed a gift box including her classic bonbons, molded cicadas filled with marshmallow creme in either milk or dark chocolate, an enamel pin, sticker, and greeting card.  And! Six actual, chocolate-covered insects, each about an inch and a half long and looking just like oblong blobs. Continue reading

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Red February: Guinness For Lunar New Year, and So Much Merch

Wow.  So much going on this month, and so much of it red! Continue reading

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Three Odd Things: Holiday Edition

Just a little late for the Holiday Season, but not too late for the Post-Holiday Leftovers Season (which I hereby declare is the entire month of January), here is another edition of my continuing occasional series of things that trigger … Continue reading

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Mincemeat, Smoked Salmon and So Much Booze: The Seafarer Review

Four comrades meet for a poker party one Christmas Eve night, with a stranger invited to make up the number for five-card draw.  Continue reading

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Jingle Berry, Jingle Merry: Smirnoff Limited Edition Vodka for Holiday Cheer

‘Tis the season for all sorts of special holiday versions of old favorite brands. And so, the merry elves at Taylor Strategies have sent along a Limited Edition of Smirnoff vodka to sample. Continue reading

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Strutting and Fretting and Grilling and Eating

Since it’s a well-known fact that Shakespeare adapted the plots of existing plays for his own masterworks, no shade should be cast on Fat Ham’s playwright James Ijames for lifting the plot and major characters from Hamlet.  What he builds on this scaffolding is all his own, totally enjoyable, and even a little profound. Continue reading

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Indistinguishable From Magic: Koji Up Close

Although far less familiar in the West, koji has been the foundation of Japanese cuisine for centuries.  It’s rice (or another starch) inoculated with the fungus Aspergillus oryzae, and it’s the basic ingredient for soy sauce, sake, miso, rice vinegar and many other products.  Now koji has become the trendy plaything of chefs all over the world. Continue reading

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Holey Socks, Holy Smokes!

The success of a two-hander play depends on two things: the script and the relationship between the two players. In The Mountaintop, one sex has a slight advantage: she’s literally heavenly. Continue reading

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Think Inc. When Viewing Ink at Round House

What do you think of when you think of Rupert Murdoch?  A ruthless businessman who runs a billion-dollar world-wide publishing empire?  But did you know he acquired a rundown newspaper in 1969 and turned it into the best-selling tabloid in Britain inside of a year? Ink is that story. Continue reading

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Synergy and Serendipity at the National Book Festival

The National Book Festival attracted throngs of book-lovers to the Washington Convention Center. I was one of them. Continue reading

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