Who doesn't like to host responsibility-free dinner parties at a fraction of the cost of other…read morechefs in the area? Who doesn't like to eat fresh and nutritious meals while having a candid conversation with your very own personal registered dietician about how and why food works? Luckily for anyone in or around DC, these things can be yours by way of WhyFoodWorks, LLC!!! I have had quite a few experiences with Sarah's awesome company and can't speak highly enough of it. The concept is simple: you provide the kitchen and the guests and she provides the food, utensils, optional wine pairings, and scientific expertise to cook you an amazing meal (she cleans up, too!) that is cost-effective without compromising nutritional value. There are usually about five menus she has available per month and they are always evolving. Dinner parties range from 4-8 guests and the meals can be tailored to your event. At $60 per person, with the host receiving 50% off, this makes for a fun and unique experience that is actually improving your life. I've given dinner parties as gifts and it is ALWAYS a hit. Definitely something for that friend or relative that has it all. If you're tired of eating over-sized and over-processed meals and breaking the bank to do so, check out WhyFoodWorks. It's fun, it's educational, and it's worry free. What's not to love?!

From the owner: Health is a hot topic at the office, and increasingly corporations and organizations are making a…read morebig effort to take care of their employees. Nutrition is the foundation of a healthy body, and studies show that healthy employees are more productive, miss fewer days of work, and even use less sick time to care for family members - good health is contagious! Whether you have a wellness program in place or want to provide your employees with some information in a fun, engaging way, a seminar is a great way to start the conversation about food.

Even after going here for the first time today, I still don't get the draw of this place. For…read morethose that might not know how it works, you setup a time by calling or going online and place an order for a certain number of meals, selected from the 12 available meals for the month. Then you go in and get to work preparing the meals to be put in freezer bags to take home with you. The idea sounds good but to me it's basically like paying $25/meal to go somewhere to make your own Stouffer's frozen dinner. It doesn't look fresh, it doesn't look good and it doesn't allow you flexibility in choosing ingredients, style of sauces or cuts of meats. Plus almost all ingredients are frozen! Maybe to people who don't have much free time or cooking knowledge, and would rather step meals up a notch from frozen dinners, this would be great, but I'd rather go to a grocery store, choose my own ingredients and make a fresh dish for substantially less money. I did like how friendly all employees were and that they serve complimentary scones, coffee cake, and coffee/tea. They do their best but it's just not for me.

Let's Dish is great concept for creating meals in advance in a kitchen where someone has done most…read moreof the prep and all of the cleanup for you. My family is 2 people -- both "empty-nesters" and "snow birds". We're semi-retired but still have busy days just younger couples with families. We do the 4-meal plan once a month and split them in half. The result is 8 meals for $100. Each meal easily serves the two of us with some leftover for lunch another day. That's $12.50 for dinner for a healthy, quick dinner for two. For comparison, Wegman's offers individual meals to go for $6 (12.00 for 2). Let;s Dish is much more economical than carry out. For travel, Let's Dish is perfect! We pack a cooler bag with 8-10 meals and go to Ocean City or Florida. We can cook yummy quick meals without purchasing spices, condiments and ingredients. The staff at the Timoniuim Let's Dish are very helpful. They always offer suggestions for prep and packaging. My husband and I can bang out our 8 meals in about an hour. Since we're doing the prep we can control the salt and spice content. Fresh hot scones, coffee, and tea are always available during day sessions. We enjoy them while reviewing the menus for the coming months. There is always an instore sign-up bonus so we're always getting a little goody for free. I particularly like the suggestions for sides and wine to "go with". This info is on a printed page that I can take with me (take extra copies for travel) and post on my freezer door. Let's dish does not take the place of cooking from scratch but it has a permanent place in our schedule. It's a cost-effective time-saver. And it's a lot of fun.

The produce from this place is the best. They mostly sell though CSA shares at the farmer's market…read morebut hold open houses a couple of times a year so members can explore the place and see where their food is grown. The shares include all of the staple produce you would expect but with more variety and some fun, extra crops you might not see at the supermarket. If you like to support local business and enjoy fresh veggies packed with flavor, this is the place.

My husband and I signed up for a CSA with Owl's Nest last year, and picking up our veggies became…read morethe highlight of our month. In rain or shine, the staff was incredibly friendly at every pick-up and over email. The diversity and freshness of the produce inspired us to try new recipes and even wholly new veggies! Their mission and the way they include and support their community really spoke to us. I cannot recommend them enough!

Check out The Scramble and sign up for these awesome recipes! Everything we have made we have…read moreloved. This takes the complicated out of our meal times and I really appreciate that. The website has amazing resources too. Worth it!

From the owner: We make getting dinner on the table every night easier for busy parents everywhere! Our online meal…read moreplanning service offers healthy, simple recipes that your whole family will love, an organized grocery list to make shopping easier, do ahead steps to make meal prep smoother, and options to customize so that you can tailor your weekly plan to fit any dietary needs or preferences your family might have. We also will help you to save time and money. Our members report saving an average of $75 on food costs and 5 hours on planning and prep time each week. Check out our two-week free trial to see how much less stressful and more pleasant family dinner can be!

Food is just OK. Turkey dinner reminded us of Swansons TV Dinner of the 1960s. Nothing special.read more

I used to love this place but today I received a text to order Thanksgiving dinner. It was…read moredelivered 3 weeks early!!! I called, heard the women saying they will put this on us, it's not our fault she didn't put the date in!!! What??? It's Thanksgiving dinner for crying out loud! It's expensive and this customer service sucks!

Chestnuts are quintessentially Autumn: The smoky aroma of the roasted chestnuts fills the street…read morecorners as vendors hand out bags full of those little plump shiny brown beauties. Getting the meat out of chestnuts, breaking and peeling away the hard shells and the inner skin, is actually fun - a moment filled with frustration and, much much more, delicious anticipation. Well, quintessential I said, but only so anywhere but the good old U.S.A: A blight in 1904 practically killed off the American chestnuts. Having recently tasted the fresh chestnuts of the season in a town renowned for its chestnuts in Nagano, Japan, I was set on a mission to find fresh chestnuts on this continent. What a great age we live in! A quick search on the Internet returned Delmarvelous Farms: It was about time someone started cultivating chestnuts again in the U.S.; after all, the blight had occurred 100 years ago. Always erring and risking on the side of ordering too much, I got myself a 10lb bag of their freshly picked chestnuts. Following the expert's advice, I scored an "X" on the flat side of the nuts and put them into the hot seat for some roasting. Half an hour later, voila, beautifully cracked and piping hot, the chestnuts seemed ready to be eaten. Impatience got my fingers burnt as the steam escaped from the helpfully scored "X." Undeterred in any case, I proceeded to test out Delmarvelous' claim that their chestnuts were easy to peel: They were. The bigger and deeper the score was, the bigger cracks the chestnuts made. So, score well. Tasting: Not so sweet as some Asian counterparts, these chestnuts were nonetheless very nutty and fragrant. The roasting had charred the shells slightly which made the kitchen smell like a wood cabin. These Delmarvelous chestnuts were generally more similar to the European chestnuts than the Asian: The texture was firmer than the softer and starchier Asian ones and the color of the flesh was yellow compared to light brown. One word of caution: These nuts were creepingly addictive. By the time I thought I was done with the sampling, more than half of the nuts were already gone. I see that 10lb bag was the right choice after all.

On Oct. 27, 2011, I placed a $69.00 gift order from Delmarvelous Farms. My bank account was…read moreimmediately debited. As of Dec. 3, there is no sign of the order. Attempts to contact Delmarvelous by email and telephone have been futile - no response, no explanation, no refund, no chestnuts. I have had to resort to BBB, sadly. I'd never order from them again.

We've been patronizing this place for the last three months. It is fun, and easy (at Dinner A'Fare…read moreas well as preparing the assembled meals at home.) My wife and I have really enjoyed the "no fuss, no muss" approach to having nutricious and delicious meals -- with the variety of a different menu each month. We find that the meals are very well-seasoned, and the ingredients seem to be of high quality. Now when you get steak, it is NOT filet or NY strip -- but the "quality" of the "cheap" cut is very good nonetheless. Another example -- they occasionally offer delicious crabcakes -- but they are far from 100% jumbo lump. Given their average price (for us) of about $6.50 per serving (including some sides you need to get at the supermarket to make for a complete meal), what should you expect? Oh, and I noted a comment from 2014 about portion sizes. Now, my wife and I are not big eaters but we are not "small portion" folks either. We normally get 3 portions out of each meal (explaining the $6.50/serving "all-in" average cost for us); only occasionally do we finish the whole meal at one sitting, leaving great leftovers. One example -- a recent shrimp dinner included 32 shrimp (@ roughly 30-40 per pound count). 10-11 shrimp of that size makes for a fine dinner (with the right sides). So I am guessing they have improved their portions, perhaps responding to that sort of review. The place is clean and welcoming, with a glass of wine or two offered as part of the deal to make the assembly "party" even more fun. Our monthly food budget has actually gone down. Yes, you can make very good meals more cheaply, but we far too often would look at the effort and hit a local chain eatery at $40-$50/dinner (with a drink and tips). Or, for roughly the $6.50 cost per serving, order pizza or stop for fast food. We wish we had discovered The Dinner A'Fare years ago!

I had heard from a few friends how much they loved the dinner affair. The concept is you go in for…read more45 minutes up to it 2 hours to prep meals of your choosing for busy days ahead. Most of the meals are freezer friendly and all of them are gourmet and look absolutely delicious. I was pleasantly surprised to go in and find it not only decorated so cute, but the staff were friendly and knowledgeable. I had six meals prepped in about 45 minutes - just amazing. I wanted to eat them immediately even though I was making them for a couple of busy weeks I had coming ahead. I would definitely recommend this for any busy family or even a person who doesn't have time to cook but doesn't want to make eating frozen boxed meals a habit.