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Bivalve Bash 2010

Monday, July 26th, 2010

If you haven’t been to the Bivalve Bash at the Taylor Shellfish Farm on Samish Bay, you’re missing out on one of the best summer parties around. We went last year, but I didn’t do a post as my camera battery died halfway through. This year we took some shellfish-loving friends and a camera with a fresh battery and had a fabulous time.

We saw the kids’ Mud Run.

We toured the Oyster Shell Sculpture Contest.

Jon entered the Oyster Shucking Contest, and placed third (and got to keep a rather nice oyster knife). And the rest of us got to eat the oysters.

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Tags: Bivalve Bash, events, oysters, shellfish, Skagit Valley

oyster anniversary

Monday, July 19th, 2010

Last Friday was our anniversary, so to celebrate we packed a few key items and headed out on Chuckanut Drive.

First we took a walk at Larabee. The weather has been gorgeous, once the morning fog burns off, and the woods were filled with dappled light.

Then we headed down to Taylor Shellfish. Usually we just come here to pick up oysters or mussels to take home, and of course for the Bivalve Bash (which happens to be next weekend!), but this was the first time we’ve taken advantage of their picnic area. We bought a bag of Kumamoto oysters, opened some wine, and settled at a table by the water and started shucking. We also brought some ham-and-butter sandwiches, made from Breadfarm baguette and Golden Glen salted butter, as well as some intensely flavored olives, and we alternated bites of these with sweet little oysters as Jon opened them.

This is a good place.

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Tags: oysters, picnics, Skagit Valley

Portland roundup (long)

Wednesday, July 14th, 2010

We got out of town last week and took the train down to Portland for a little vacation, just in time for a massive heat wave. Despite broken-down buses (one overheated and died on the Burnside Bridge – fun!), blisters, short tempers and heat exhaustion, we managed to have a great time and eat quite a lot of food. Also, it was an excellent weekend for sitting in the shade drinking beer, so we made sure to do plenty of that. We started at the Hedge House.

And we had to go to Pok Pok, of course. We have occasionally considered eating here every single night we spend in Portland. One of these trips…

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Tags: beer, cocktails, Portland, restaurants, Thai food, travel

macaroni salad, very al fresco

Friday, July 2nd, 2010

This week we did our annual car camping trip to Washington Park on Fidalgo Island. It rained. Welcome to a Pacific Northwest summer.

Fortunately the firewood we brought burned well, and we were able to successfully cook our dinner. Hebrew National hot dogs, blistered over the fire and dressed with sweet relish and very hot Dijon mustard, macaroni salad, Bonny Doon grenache, and toasted marshmallows. I tend to think that, if you don’t cook it on a stick over the fire, it’s not real camping food. Except the macaroni salad, which can be scooped directly out of its tupperware in case you don’t feel like washing extra dishes.

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Tags: camping, fire, hot dogs, noodles, pasta, rain, salad, Skagit Valley

Brown Lantern

Monday, June 28th, 2010

I’m deeply embarrassed that we’ve lived in Skagit County for thirteen years now and have never been to the Brown Lantern Ale House in downtown Anacortes. In my defense, I have to say I’d been mixing it up with the Watertown Pub, which was not thrilling the one time we went, and we’ve usually just ended up going to the Rockfish. But better late than never: we have now rectified the situation. The only question now is how soon we can get back there.

We had gone for a hike in the Anacortes Community Forestlands (a wonderful park full of trails and lakes), and had worked up a good appetite. We thought about driving around the island to try out the Shrimp Shack, but I had just read yet another rave about the Brown Lantern on Chowhound and wanted to try it while I was thinking about it. It was open, there was a free table in the window – perfect.

The Brown Lantern is an old pub – I think the sign said it was started up in the ’30s – and has a comfortably dark and rustic feel, with lots of sports stuff stapled to the ceiling. It also has one of the best stocked bars I’ve seen in this county.

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Tags: Anacortes, pubs, restaurants, Skagit Valley

night of butter

Tuesday, May 18th, 2010

The theme for Casey Schanen and Tom Saunderson’s class at Gretchen’s last week was ostensibly Seafood with Wine Pairings. If you ask me, the real theme was Butter.

This was some of our mise en place – see that pile of butter pats on the plate? We used most of that over the course of the evening.

We put together an appetizer plate for the guests so they’d have something to nibble on right away. There were fresh radishes and turnips, Nell Thorn bread and rosemary crackers, all being dunked into an amazing dip of butter whipped with green olives. Yes, it looks like guacamole – but it ain’t. Caution is advised, as this stuff is addictive.

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Tags: butter, cooking classes, fish, food & wine pairing, Gretchens, seafood

raclette

Wednesday, May 12th, 2010

Have you eaten raclette? It’s a semi-soft, slightly stinky cheese from Switzerland, and it’s fantastic melted. We’ve bought it before, usually to put on hamburgers – a use I highly recommend. However, I had never had it served in the traditional manner, melted and poured over bread and vegetables, so when John DeGloria over at Slough Food announced a Raclette Night, we were keen to go.

The premise is simple, made even simpler with these nifty raclette grills. Unlike fondue, where you melt the cheese and dip stuff in it, here you melt the cheese and pour it over other stuff. There are cute little Teflon dishes to put under the broiler, and while the cheese heats up you can toast bread, or halved potatoes, or ham, or whatever you like on the top griddle.

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Tags: cheesy goodness, Edison, Swiss food

taco crawl: Burlington

Wednesday, May 5th, 2010

Happy Cinco de Mayo! Are you having tacos tonight? If not, don’t worry – we ate some for you.

Last weekend, Jon and I went taco-hopping with the help of three intrepid friends. Piled into our minivan, we confused the hell out of the workers at three different taco trucks along Burlington Boulevard. A clown car full of gringos, weird. Eventually we ran out of known taco truck locations as well as appetite, but I think we did pretty well.

Heading over the Skagit River to Burlington, we kept our eyes peeled. There used to be a carniceria in this area, which sometimes set up a big grill out in its parking lot, but sadly it closed last year. We found no sign of tacos until we had passed the mall, but just after Office Max we saw our first target, Taco Express.

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Tags: Burlington, food carts, Mexican food, Skagit Valley, taco wagons, tacos, taquerias

return to Stumbling Goat

Monday, April 26th, 2010

The Stumbling Goat has been one of our favorite restaurants in Seattle for a while, yet oddly enough one that we don’t go to very often. We did try to visit last year, right when the place happened to be changing hands and getting renovated by the new owner, and were stymied. We finally made it there last week, stopping in before going to see Compañia Nacional de Danza at the Meany.

I was a bit worried, since I liked the restaurant so well before, but I think the changes are very positive. The heavy red curtains are gone, and the main dining room and bar area are now much lighter and airier. The food is still focused on local seasonal specialties, the service is admirable, and the drinks list is well thought out. Even though we showed up with no reservation, we were given a very nice table by the window instead of stuffed into a corner (unlike some places…).

We began, as we so often do, with cocktails. Jon tried a rum drink (he’s been spending a lot of time over at RumDood lately, doing important research) called a Kraken, and loved it. It was sweet and spicy and comforting, served simply in a tall cocktail glass with no garnish.

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Tags: Phinneywood, restaurants, Seattle

Zuni

Friday, April 16th, 2010

I’ve been wanting to visit the Zuni Cafe for years, ever since I first got my hands on Judy Rodgers’ cookbook of the same name. Her food is homey, yet elegant, and the book is a wonderful instruction manual for the slightly ambitious home cook. So imagine how pleased I was when, as we were driving through San Francisco, my brother-in-law mentioned that we would be driving right by Zuni. We decided to stop in, just on the off chance there might be a table, and there was!

Our table was right by the wood fired oven with a view into the kitchen, something I rather enjoy. I loved the big stack of firewood, the odd shapes of the tables allowing them to squeeze into strange spaces dictated by the old building’s shape, and the cool artwork. The rooms were airy and the bar looked fabulous.

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Tags: restaurants, San Francisco, travel

Food on the Brain

Is it wrong when all your conversations end up about food?