Geez. I had meant to run this post off several days ago, but first I got busy and then the phone company helpfully cut off my DSL connection at home. Thank goodness for public wifi…

Anyway. Last week we were in Seattle again and needed an early and not too involved dinner, so we decided to try out Tom Douglas’ new place in South Lake Union (well, one of them), the Brave Horse Tavern. We showed up a bit before six and the place was already packed with people who all seemed to have gotten off of work at the same time; many were still wearing their official lanyards. The music was incredibly loud, the crowd was louder, and a rowdy shuffleboard game was in progress in the corner. Long tables filled most of the space. We pushed and shoved our way into an empty spot with some difficulty and attempted to have a conversation over the uproar.

It was Fresh Hop week at the Brave Horse, and I ordered a Killer Green Fresh Hop Ale from Double Mountain. It was extraordinary – somewhat high in alcohol, although not as ferocious as some, but with a huge depth of flavor and a serious hop hit. Jon settled for his favorite Total Domination from Ninkasi. We really wanted to try some of the pub snacks (they have fried cheese curds, people!) but didn’t have time, so I settled for a basic pub burger and fries, and Jon got a steak salad.

I was impressed. The burger was very different from the Palace Kitchen version. It channelled a summer grill party, with iceberg lettuce, plenty of mayo and a barbecue-like sauce, and a soft and sweet bun that never quite disintegrated but got very close. I chose cheddar and grilled onions as my toppings, which were excellent with the sauce. Next time I might go for avocado. Or maybe the fried egg.

Then there were the fries, which were, let’s face it, perfect. Steaming hot, crisp on the outside, fluffy on the inside, and heavily studded with salt. I hate fries that aren’t salty enough – these were incredible.

The steak salad was a success, too – a large piece of perfectly cooked steak, very tender, with a pile of mixed greens, stinky blue cheese, really ripe tomatoes, paper-thin radish slices, a chunk of grilled bread, and a dressing made with A-1 sauce. Brilliant.

We are totally coming back here. I need to try those fried cheese curds. And another burger.

We had our usual end-of-summer party last weekend (god the weather was fabulous), and to my not-very-great-surprise we had tons of leftovers. The next few days, therefore, became a challenge to see how much of them the two of us could eat without getting completely sick of them. We had shrimp in tomato-chipotle sauce, grilled corn, pinto beans, grilled flank steak, raw seasoned flank steak, cornbread, raspberries, one brownie, two kinds of salsa, corn chips, enough tortillas for two more parties at least, cotija cheese, and crema mexicana. Obviously, we ate a lot of tacos for a few days.

By Monday night, though, I was feeling pretty burned out on the tacos, and we still had that whole uncooked flank steak on hand. We decided to pull out our meat grinder and run it through, then make hamburgers out of it. We did add an egg, since the flank steak made for a pretty lean burger, but it worked very well – the chile-cumin rub that had been on the steak got incorporated into the meat and tasted great. To go alongside I stripped the kernels off the remaining ears of grilled corn, then heated them gently with a few fresh tomatoes that were also left over and a bit of cilantro. With a good drizzle of crema on top and some salty cotija, this made a really nice dinner that, thrillingly, was not tacos.

Only twelve hours ago, we didn’t know this place existed.

We had decided to run down to Seattle for the afternoon and pick up some necessary framing materials. I had recently received an email from Seattle Metropolitan featuring good lunch spots, so I pulled that up to look over while we were getting our stuff together. The Inner Sanctum of the Temple of Porcine Love immediately made itself known as the place we needed to have lunch. Today.

As it turns out, this place is a recent adjunct to the quite fabulous little butcher/charcuterie shop The Swinery. It’s rather like the old Pok Pok in Portland, back when it was just a takeout stand in someone’s driveway. You order your sandwich, eat it on a bench in the narrow courtyard, and pay for it in the shop (where, if you’re like us, you will instantly succumb to the lure of gorgeous charcuterie as well). They’re doing it as a bit of a trial run, to see how it goes.

How was the food, you ask? Hmmm. Jon got the Swinery Burger with caramelized onions and Swiss cheese, cooked medium rare. I got the Carolina pulled pork sandwich, which was so rich and smoky it didn’t need sauce (except for mayo, which I can’t live without). Both were fabulous. I was especially impressed with the bun, which was soft enough to squish down over the meat but didn’t dissolve into mush, and had been nicely toasted. My only regret is that I wasn’t able to try the BLT or the tallow fries.

West Seattle isn’t on our usual route, so I’d just like to put a call out to anyone in the area – check this place out! Give them enough business to consider making it permanent. The world needs more really great burgers and pulled pork sandwiches. Not to mention duck chorizo.

This is ridiculous. Just as I was beginning to feel somewhat recovered (apart from what I consider normal – if irritating – seasonal allergies), Jon’s back went out in a spectacular manner. He’s beginning to feel functional again, but I’ve been keeping busy trying to cook interesting and comforting things that can be eaten while propped up with pillows.

I made braised lemon-olive chicken with couscous, which made a wonderful soup the next day, and baked cookies (my grandmother’s sugar pecan cookies with white chocolate added in), and made an enormous quantity of minestrone, and baked hamburger buns from scratch, which made for some truly fabulous burgers. I also ordered a pizza one night, but I rather felt like I’d earned it.

The hamburger buns were a real highlight of the week – very simple to make, and very rewarding. Soft and sweet, they still held up to sturdy burgers with all the trimmings. I cut the original recipe down by half, but I still have a nice big bag of leftover buns for future burgers. Well worth the effort.

Hamburger Buns

Adapted from Mary’s Bread Basket and Soup Kettle by Mary Gubser

Makes 8-12 buns, depending on the size you like. The dough is very similar to challah, so I’m guessing it goes stale quickly – I put all my leftovers directly into the freezer.

• 1 packet (2 1/4 tsp) dry yeast
• 1 cup warm water
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup Canola or other vegetable oil
• 2 eggs
• 4-5 cups white bread flour

Combine the yeast and warm water until yeast is dissolved. Add the salt, sugar, oil and eggs and beat together. Add the flour gradually until the dough comes together, then knead ten minutes or so, added flour as needed, until the dough is soft and smooth. Put in an oiled bowl (covered) to rise for an hour or until doubled.

Punch down the dough and wait ten minutes, then divide it into portions. Splitting it 8 ways gives pretty standard-size buns, but you can easily make them smaller. Roll the dough pieces into balls, set them on oiled baking sheets, then press down lightly to flatten them out a bit. Cover them with a towel and let rise 30-45 minutes. Preheat the oven to 375.

When the rolls have risen, you can, if you wish, brush them with an egg wash and sprinkle seeds on top. I hate seeds on my rolls, so I never do this. Put the pans into the oven and let bake 10-15 minutes, until golden brown. Let cool before using for burgers.

Do you like beer and fries? How about mussels? Or single malt Scotch? If any of the above catch your eye, Brouwer’s is the place you’ve been dreaming of.

Located in an unlikely building that looks like a cross between a castle and a warehouse (and feels that way on the inside, too), Brouwer’s is a Belgian-inspired bar and restaurant in the Center of the Universe (otherwise known as Fremont to you non-Seattleites). We’ve gone many times (as have my parents) and are constantly blown away by the length of the beer list, the quality of the fries, and the astonishing tastiness of the merguez lamb burger.

On Halloween we stopped in for lunch, and as usual the place was deserted. I assume the bar fills up at night when the hipsters come out of the woodwork, but every time we’ve ever been there for lunch it’s been echoingly empty. And nearly pitch black, except for the odd tubular skylight. We sat ourselves in a dim booth against the craggy rock wall and amused ourselves with the drinks list (it has over 60 types of Scotch, not to mention a staggering number of bottled beers). As usual, I recognized almost nothing on the beer draft list and had to ask for suggestions – I ended up with an Elliott Bay Seasonal, the Hop Von Boorian I believe. Jon got a Boundary Bay dry Irish stout, which we haven’t seen around lately and is always excellent.

As usual, one of us had to get the lamb burger. It may be the best lamb burger in the entire universe. Don’t believe me? Here’s the description: 8oz patty ground in-house with spicy Merguez seasonings, topped with julliened roasted red peppers, chipotle mayo, and fresh mozzarella. Served on a fresh baked roll. Hoo yeah.

I had mussels there for the first time on this visit (I usually get derailed by the fish and chips, which are astounding). Moules frites being a classic Belgian dish, Brouwer’s offers three different versions on their current menu. I got the “winter mussels,” which were bathed in a cream sauce full of sausage and cilantro and I’m not sure what else. It was dark in there. They were tasty. In any case, I loved the presentation of the mussels, served in a large pot with a shell discard bowl fitted into it and a plate of frites perched on top. It felt like an occasion.

The mussels themselves were as high quality as anything I’ve ever eaten – fresh, plump and perfectly cooked. One order plus a salad would be plenty for lunch for two people (assuming your companion can be talked out of the lamb burger).

And the fries? They are, truly, astonishing. Every waitress I’ve talked to at Brouwer’s admits that she has a terrible time working around those fries every single day. They are just SO GOOD. Hie thee to Brouwer’s and try some, see if you don’t agree.

This was a total afterthought kind of dinner, but so remarkably tasty that we sat and looked sadly at our empty plates after we finished. Plain pan seared hamburger patties, topped with red pepper cheese (on Jon’s) or feta (on mine), with a bit of tapenade that was left over from a Gretchen’s class, and some extraordinarily tasty oven fries. I wanted more!

There was a fantastic tasting down at our local wine shop the other night. Instead of wine, we tasted several varieties of beer from Belgium, Poland and Germany. It was great for us, because our beer drinking tends to center heavily on the Pacific Northwest and we just haven’t experimented much with Belgian ales. Too bad there weren’t more tasters in attendance, but hey – more for us.

We ended up going home with a bottle of St Bernardus Abt 12, which was my favorite from the tasting (we also really, really liked Piraat Triple IPA – yum). We took care of it immediately with the help of some remarkably successful cheeseburgers and yam fries, which turned out to be an almost perfect pairing with the beer.

We’re not sure why the burgers turned out so well, but for future reference, here’s what we did: we used a pound of ground beef from our cow, completely thawed in the fridge. Jon mixed it with salt, pepper and the last few drops of our Worcestershire sauce, and formed it into two patties about an inch thick. He seared the patties in a very hot, dry cast iron skillet, about 4 ½ minutes on each side, and very very carefully not poking at them while they cooked (it was difficult for him). I had thawed a couple Breadfarm multigrain hamburger buns, toasted them and buttered them lightly. Then we just melted some cheddar on the burgers and added Bibb lettuce, thinly sliced tomato, ketchup and mayo (I don’t care what anyone thinks, I like mayo on a burger). Nothing fancy, but oh yum.

The yam fries were just a lazy variant of these, dusted with salt and spices and roasted in a hot oven until they were creamy inside and caramelized outside. Delish.

Quinn’s, a gastropub opened by the owners of Restaurant Zoe (where we have never been), has been getting lots of good press, and I’ve been very keen to see what it’s like – I do love a good pub. After spending the morning busking at Folklife, we went hunting on Capitol Hill and, much to my astonishment, managed to find Quinn’s. As it turns out, I like it -a lot. I like the space, the decor, the vibe…and ohmigod, the food. Four of us went and had sandwiches and it was nearly a religious experience. My parents had the steak sandwich, which the waitress claimed they had pretty much “nailed.” They said it was incredible. J and I split this:

It is a wild boar sloppy joe with fried onions on it. Oh, yes. I think if I came back here I could possibly order something else, but it might be difficult.

We also got a salad with red and golden beets and ricotta salata. That was good, too.

Two days later, after picking up our CDs from the Folklife store, we ended up at Paragon. We hadn’t meant to eat there, it was sort of an accident. I had really hoped to try out How to Cook a Wolf, or possibly Betty, Moxie or Portage – all fabulous-looking newish restaurants on Queen Anne hill.

However, it was Memorial Day and every single one of them was closed. Sigh. So we went to Paragon, a very comfortable-feeling neighborhood pub,  and worked our way through a plateful of fried squid and green chiles. Thus encouraged, we then ordered the Paragon burger and a stack of baby back ribs with yam fries. Yee ha! The burger won in terms of juicy yumminess, but the ribs were one of the most architectural entrees I’ve seen. Spicy, too.

 The fries were all really, really good. I really regretted my inability to eat them all.

We had already decided to have hamburgers for dinner, one night last week. The plan was to get some sort of interesting cheese and a big salad, and some form of roasted sweet potatoes, which we love. At the last minute I remembered a post I’d seen on Smitten Kitchen a little while back, for sweet potato wedges tossed with an interesting sweet and hot spice mix. The premise was almost identical to my usual approach, which is to toss sweet potato chunks with olive oil, coarse salt, pepper and sometimes paprika or cumin. However, I adore coriander and fennel, so when I saw this recipe I was sold. I pulled up the post from work and read the recipe to J over the phone, and he got the spices ground up and the oven hot (to 425°) before I got home.

Once I was home, I cut the sweet potato (a big orange honker) into rough wedges and tossed them with olive oil and the spice mixture, spread them out on a heavy baking sheet and stuck them in the oven for 20 minutes, until crusty and slightly blackened on the bottom. I turned them and put them back for another 15-20 minutes, while J cooked the burgers. The timing all came out perfectly even.

The burgers were topped with queso iberico cheese, which had a nice firm texture and a buttery flavor with just a bit of tang. The fries were good, crisp and chewy on the outside, aromatic with a hint of heat, and plenty of caramelized bits. We added spoonfuls of Patak’s green chile relish to our plates and scooped it up with both the fries and bites of hamburger.

Spice Mix for Sweet Potato Fries

borrowed from the Smitten Kitchen

• 1 tsp coriander seeds
• 1/2 tsp fennel seeds
• 1/2 tsp dried oregano
• 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes (or more, depending on the potency of your pepper)
• 1 tsp kosher salt

Coarsely grind the seeds, oregano and red pepper together in a spice grinder. Mix with the salt.