Be One With the Heat

Weather was a consideration in the decision to move to Seattle. Not about the rain - I actually like rain (an attitude I'm sure will change in, oh say, February). Really, I was concerned with heat. And assured that the summers were beautiful - sunny, mild, perfect. Which was sort of true, until the heat wave hit. Hot, somewhat muggy, I spent several days a sticky mess, eventually giving up and trying to be one with the heat.

The heat wave coincided with a weekend of plans, namely the Taste of Seattle and the Phinney Ridge Neighborhood Beer Festival. Located under the shadow of the Space Needle, Taste is a collection of food representing that of the high-end gourmet for the foodies to near carnival fare. Lots of choose from. But the best part was the little alley: for $10, I was served a plate of amazing food, cooked under the guidance of Thomas Douglas, of Dahlia Lounge and Palace Kitchen fame. For those of you not from Seattle, he is one of our best known chefs. And a super cool guy, too. His efforts that day resulted in a large charitable donation.

Jamie, Jill and I feasted and enjoyed. Corn and blueberry salad. Snap pea salad with mint. Hush puppies. Crab cakes. Steak with berry sauce. Pork loin with chimichurri sauce. Garlic bread. And chocolate cherry cupcakes for dessert. The food was simply amazing. We followed the meal up with Dahlia Lounge donuts, fried puffs of goodness smothered in cinnamon sugar; I chose the vanilla mascarpone and berry compote dipping sauces.

Later that day, in keeping with "be one with the heat" mantra, we walked to El Chupacabre. The shade and margaritas certainly helped me feel better. Life got even better with a very good carne asada burrito, one of the better burritos to be had in Seattle. Life got much better at the Phinney Ridge beer festival. Despite the heat (it was held in an old school building, thus, sans modern AC), the festival was great. Small, well-organized and full of people there to taste and enjoy, rather than pick up and get drunk. I absolutely loved the Red Wolf Cherry Wheat from Harmon Brewery in Portland, and the Hale's Kolsch was quite good too.

A few days later, the heat wave has broken, and once again, Seattle is beautiful, sunny, mild. I even woke up this morning feeling cold, the first in several days.

27 Years and Counting

Supposedly, I came home from my first day of nursery school and announced, "Mom, I met my new best friend, Aimee!" Within a few years, our families had become friends, and since, we've been a part of each other's lives, through the highs and lows of life.

Aimee and her husband and two kids live in Florida. Andy, Aimee's younger brother, now lives in Portland. He trained and worked as a professional chef (a profession of great respect, in my opinion); a career change landed him a job at a cheese distributor. Not your average Kraft American singles distributor, but one with cheese with wonderful sounding names, like parmigano-reggiano, cows milk manchego, mahon, camembert, humboldt fog and countless others. Aimee with kids in tow, plus Aimee and Andy's dad and his family were in Portland at the tail end of a long road trip. A three-hour drive from Seattle to Portland and it was time for a reunion.

I have to boast - Andy is an amazing host. He kept us well lubricated and well fed. I loved "Andy's Southern Iced Tea" and am buying some pomegranate juice to add to margaritas, after watching him add homemade berry syrup to his concoctions. I was especially enchanted with the cheese plate (of which I'll post a picture, as soon as someone - Nilay? Gavin? - helps me figure out this user unfriendly program). Some runny raw cow milk, more runny goat cheese and a few firmer ones to round out the dish. He pulled out a particularly interesting fresh buffalo mozzarella, which to me, tasted of toasted almonds.

He grilled chicken and veggie skewers for dinner; the poultry was marinated in something pungent (ingredients are a mystery) and orzo salad. I supplied a New York cheesecake with strawberry compote for dessert. Plus wine, of course.

Since this blog is about food and wine, and as an extension of the wine, alcohol, it's worth noting that being around a 4-year old has it perks. Not only was Russell a super nice kid, he also proved quite capable of happily fetching me a beer. Adam, you've trained your son well :)

Kitchen Disasters

I'm never been known for my housekeeping skills, a problem somewhat exacerbated by my ability to cook with abandon, or in other words, make a huge mess. Sometimes the mess is simply that - lots of dirty dishes, a countertop and stovetop that need to be wiped off, perhaps a spill or two. Other times, the mess migrates into a full-blown kitchen disaster.

In my history of cooking, there have been a few notable kitchen disasters. Several years ago, I was outside tending to the bbq and sent Suzette and Rudy into the kitchen to take the baked beans out of the oven. Suddely, I heard a thumping sound, after which Suzette gasped loudly and Rudy said "oh no!" Turns out he lost control of the pan and baked beans ended up on my newly mopped floor. Lesson learnt: clean floors after the party, not before.

Once in the process of making a cake, the mechanism on the hand mixer that made both whisks move broke, leaving only one functioning whisk. In the middle of beating batter of egg yolks or something quite liquidy. A splatter effect resulted, with cake batter all over the kitchen and me. Another time I made a dark chocolate pie with marshmallow topping. The marshmallow somehow consumed my entire kitchen (luckily, I was in a small galley kitchen at the time and I haven't tried homemade marshmallow since).

Last night was pretty much the mother of all disasters. As I pulled a perfect pizza out of the oven, it somehow slipped out of my hands and landed face down on the floor, managing to also connect with a half open drawer. Red sauce, hot cheese and perfectly cooked veggies (included garlic scapes, yum!) had completely taken over part of my kitchen. I suspect that I'll be wiping red sauce off of my cabinets for many months. No lesson to be learned, unfortunately, unless maybe to hold onto my pizza a little better when taking it out of the oven. Carrie got a voice mail from me after: "Perfect pizza. Dropped on my floor. No choice but to still eat. Will margaritas kill any bad germs?"

Sangiovese & Other Wine News

Thanks to Carrie, I've become a big Sanigovese fan. Usually spicy and warm, and not coincidentally, the varietal goes well with all things Italian, or sort of Italian, such as pizza.

For Sunday dinner (sorry, no one was invited), I decided to make pizza. The dough was a bit difficult (it had been in the freezer, and if memory serves me correctly, had been defrosted once and thrown back in the freezer), but regardless, still produced an edible crust (i.e., better than other attempts with frozen dough, as I'm sure Carrie remembers). A thin layer of red sauce, a covering of basil leaves, topped with fresh mozzarella, tomatoes, red onions and capers. It was delicious, and even more so when accompanied with a 2000 Eagle & Rose Estate Sangiovese. Mind you, not as great as the Unti that I feel in love with at Arlequin, but still excellent in its own right.

In other news, my neighbor is a wine seller. Not just as a hobby, but as a career. That's even more impressive than my previous career. Luckily for me, she is also extremely generous with her wine. I won't go into too many details (not wanting to make anyone reading this who happens to also enjoy wine jealous, such as all of my friends), but she has some great stuff. The other night - roses, sauvignon blancs, a stray chardonnay or two and then a migration into cabs and other reds. The mind was a bit fuzzy by the time the reds arrived, so am unsure of exactly which red varietals. And, we all know that my ability to remember names is bad, even when stone sober. The important thing - I enjoyed every single sip. I suspect that I'm now even more of a lush than ever.

Not Really Disappeared

Nilay, who has faithfully hosted my site for several years, is in the middle of moving. All of his belongings are in someone's garage in some far away London suburb, including the server which hosts the blog. The server is unplugged.

But, never fear - Gavin has come to my rescue and I'm now up and running on a new server. We simply had to create some Internet magic - and here we are.

More postings coming soon...

PS - My old entries will eventually reappear.