Some food-related (mostly) things we enjoyed this past week:

Last football season, we made things a little more interesting (for me) by cooking a signature dish from each city whose team took on Dan’s beloved Steelers.  Given the varied and ecletic mix of food in D.C., we had a tough time coming up with a dish when the Steelers played the Washington Redskins.  We ultimately settled on wings in “mumbo sauce,” after discovering that many take-out joints around the District offer this unusual sauce with chicken wings.  We enjoyed our homemade version very much, and were more than delighted to find it as appetizer on the menu at a fun restaurant near our hotel when we visited D.C. last weekend.

Upon the wise recommendation of a friend (thanks Chris!), we went out of our way during our D.C. trip to stop at Ben’s Chili Bowl, in the U Street area.  We were not disappointed.  Order the “half-smoke” with everything, and you will not be disappointed either.  It was probably one of the best chili dogs we’ve ever had (even considering Dan’s award-winning chili!), and it was well worth the short metro ride to check it out.

Based upon the also wise recommendation of another friend (Hi Jim!), Dan brought home a few kolaches from a Czech bakery that was on his way home from a work trip to Austin.  The sausage kolaches were amazing, and the pepperoni version was so good that we wanted to drive back for more.  But the best part was seeing the bakery open and thriving, amid the devastation from the recent explosion in the little town of West, Texas, where it is located.  Which just makes us want to go back there even more.

We joined about 40-50 other people volunteering at the North Texas Food Bank today, for yet another rewarding experience.  Today’s task was portioning fresh tomatoes into bags to go to various food pantries.  As a group, we processed 12,800 pounds tomatoes in a little over 2 hours.  Learning that a few hours of labor translates into a healthy addition to more than 10,000 meals for hungry people in our area equals a pretty darn good end to the week.  If you feel similarly inspired to help the hungry — hungry kids in particular — you can vote for the NTFB to win $45,000 for their School Pantry program.

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