After a long winter’s nap (otherwise known as fighting the flu and other assorted viruses for the last four to six weeks), I’m back blogging! And what a time to return. Today is Edible Joy’s 2nd birthday! AND this is my 101st post and also my first post of 2010.
Saturday afternoon programming on Seattle public radio station KUOW is pretty random, which I think is pretty wonderful. This past Saturday, I listened to stories about photographer Jini Dellaccio, the book Stitches and a man recounting life growing up with his blind father.
I also heard a story about a subject very near and dear to my heart: doughnuts. KUOW reporter Megan Sukys talked with City Arts writer Tracy Schneider about Seattle’s world of doughnuts and how their arrival in America is tied to Lent. In addition to the food history lesson (that surely Alton Brown would have enjoyed), I was introduced to a doughnut I had never known about–the Polish paczki (pronounced “poonch-key”).
Schneider described paczki as “bismarcks on steroids” and said that they had an especially rich dough with more eggs and more sugar. Sold!
The next morning, I headed out to Bakery Nouveau and the West Seattle Metropolitan Market to get some paczki. It was the kind of rainy, sleepy Sunday morning that makes Seattle feel like a small, provincial town. I loved driving down the hushed streets and running such a trivial errand.
I picked up some cream packzi at Bakery Nouveau (photo at the top of the post) and chocolate, lemon and raspberry varieties at Metropolitan Market.
The Bakery Nouveau paczki were studded with candied orange peel, which was tangy and delicious and paired well with the cream filling. And while I enjoyed the filling, I was disappointed with how thin it was. When I cut the doughnut in half, it just ran out onto the plate. It was a little like cutting into a poached egg.
The paczki from Metropolitan Market had sturdier fillings, and I liked the lemon one the best.
Paczki are only available for two weeks out of the year and will be gracing Seattle with their doughy goodness until Fat Tuesday, February 16.
And for all of you old enough to remember the reference in the title of this post…
My friend Lynn and I recently had dinner in the bar at Lola in downtown Seattle. When the bartender, Ian, asked us what we wanted to drink, Lynn said she wanted something that was like an Irish coffee but better. More like a hot chocolate.
Ian said he would make up a new drink as long as we came up with a name for it. The mixologist went to work, and the result was a warm and cozy drink that was also spicy and creamy. I liked that you could tell that it had alcohol in it, but the liquor didn’t overpower all other flavors. We christened the new concoction “Lynn’s Clove and Cocoa.” Here’s what goes into the drink:
Half an ounce of falernum, which I had never heard of, but apparently, I’ve drunk a lot of it because of my love of tiki drinks. Lola makes their own falernum for its bar. (Hence the handwritten, masking tape label on the bottle.)
Next come five dashes of chocolate bitters and then you top everything off with some steamed milk.
Ian wrote down the recipe on the back of a coaster and put it in his drink recipe file. (Who knew bartenders had such a thing? But I guess it makes sense.)
So if you happen to be at Lola on a Sunday or Monday when Ian is working, order a clove and cocoa. Tell him Lynn sent you.
For months, my friend Bev has urged me to try the twice baked almond croissant at Bakery Nouveau, but for some reason I never got around to it until I was at the bakery a few weeks ago to buy dessert for Thursday night dinner: Polish edition.
When I took a bite of the twice baked almond croissant, I instantly regretted not having one much, much sooner. (Bev, you were so right!) The croissant is crisp and flaky, but doesn’t break into a million tiny pieces when you eat it. The almond flavor rings true and is not overly sweet.
If you’re having a Christmas breakfast, I highly recommend you add some twice baked almond croissants to your menu. And if you need a last-minute gift for your favorite pastry addict, the bakery also sells twice bake almond croissant t-shirts. Bakery Nouveau is open until 6:00 p.m. December 24. Don’t make the same mistake I did–get there soon!
I’m pumped to see the new Sherlock Holmes movie with Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law and don’t need further encouragement to go to the theater to see the flick. But apparently Warner Brothers thinks that a cross-promotion with 7-Eleven taquitos will drive attendance? Only a master sleuth could solve this riddle.
The Thursday night girls had so much at the inaugural Polish holiday dinner at Lynn’s house last year, that we decided to do it once again in 2009 (and possibly make it an annual tradition). As you can see in the photo above, that means we had plenty of pierogi, kielbasa and haluski.
Lynn got herself an early Christmas present and bought some new Wusthof knives, which she used to cut the cabbage for the haluski. (Congrats, Lynn, you have real knives and now are officially an adult.)
Because we needed veggies, Tara brought some homemade pickled carrots and cauliflower.
And Mahnaz stirfried some green beans, which added lovely color to our plates.
I brought an assortment of desserts from Bakery Noveau in West Seattle: pear tarts, praline cake and chocolate cake.
Since Jill’s in-laws were in town, we thought she couldn’t make it, but she was able to stop by and pose by the Christmas tree.
Michelle brought us all slipper socks, which we all wore by the virtual fireplace as we sang along to “Last Christmas” by Wham!
I commute to work by bus, and most days it’s a pretty uneventful ride. However, this morning on the bus my cheek was feeling a bit itchy, and when I went to scratch it, my finger landed in a big blob of peanut butter. My first thought was, yuck! Then I wondered how long I had been walking around with peanut butter on my face. I mentally retraced my steps. I had an English muffin with peanut butter for breakfast, got my things together for work, headed out the door, walked to the bus stop, boarded the bus. I didn’t discover the peanut butter until about 15 minutes into the ride. That means I might have been out and about with peanut butter on my face for almost half an hour. Embarrassing!
I wish somebody on the bus would have told me about the peanut butter, but then I considered whether I would actually do that. Would you tell a stranger if he or she had embarrassing food residue on their body or in their teeth?
Since Jen didn't make it to the finale, who am I going to root for now?
The season 6 Top Chef finale is tonight, and I am really bummed that Jen isn’t in the running to win it all.
Jen wasn’t any of the female reality show archetypes: bitch, ditz or slut. She was a strong competitor but by no means perfect. In fact, I think I liked her because she showed vulenrability. Jen genuinely seemed herself on Top Chef, which is a hard feat to pull off when you’re on a reality show. I even got a little teary myself when she started crying during her exit interview. Hey, you gotta feel for a woman who drives a 2000 Chevy Cavalier.
So who is going to win it all: Kevin, Michael or Bryan? Even without Jen, it’s a strong group of chefs and any of them deserve the Top Chef title.
I wish the Voltaggio brothers had a chance to go head-to-head or maybe cook together as a team on the show. I wonder how that would go. I predict that the elder Bryan will best Michael and Kevin, but perhaps the brothers V will cancel each other out and Kevin will be victorious.
After tonight, I’ll be looking forward to Top Chef: Just Desserts. Bring on the pastry chefs!
More than 40 caroling teams including high school choirs, company teams and neighborhood groups will be performing, and the audience votes for their favorites. The top teams then compete in a sing-off for a panel of distinguished judges.
I went to Figgy Pudding for the first time last year, and I had a blast. It’s a fun and festive event with a little something for everyone.
If you love the holidays, you should definitely head downtown tonight. Pre-Figgy entertainment starts at 5:30 p.m. with cast members from the 5th Avenue Theatre’s “White Christmas,” and the caroling is from 6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. The Seattle Seahawks Blue Thunder Drum Line performs 7:15 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. And then the main stage show to determine Figgy supremacy is 7:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
I drink the occasional cup of coffee every now and again, but when I want a comforting hot drink, I go for a nice, velvety cup of hot chocolate.
Last winter I discovered a delightful variation on the theme. As part of its holiday beverages line, Starbucks offered a salted caramel hot chocolate (hereafter referred to as SCHC). It was particularly frigid winter, and the SCHC soothed my soul. I think I had at least this drink at least twice a week while it was available. I don’t eat or drink any one thing with any kind of regularity so this was a big deal.
I started seeing red Starbucks cups all around Seattle last week, which means the holiday beverages were back. On a cold and soppy night, I ducked into a Starbucks ready to warm up with a SCHC. I saw the eggnog latte, gingerbread latte, peppermint mocha on the menu, but where was my beloved SCHC?
I started to ask the barista, “Do you guys have…” And then she broke the bad news. “We’re not doing the salted caramel hot chocolate anymore.” Bless her for getting to it quickly, but damn–it still stung. First Ciclon and now the SCHC is discontinued.
The kindly barista suggested I go to the Starbucks Web site and post a request to bring back the SCHC. I went to mystarbucksidea.com and found that I’m not the only person missing this drink. There were 27 “ideas” related to bringing back the SCHC. Starbucks apparently reviewed the idea and published this response.
“Hello and thank you for your interest in the Salted Caramel Signature Hot Chocolate beverage. This beverage was quite popular last year and we understand that some of our valued customers are sad to see that it is not returning this year. If you fall into this group and are looking for a similar, yummy beverage, we’ve heard from our Baristas that adding Toffee Nut Syrup and caramel drizzle to the Signature Hot Chocolate is very close to the Salted Caramel beverage you’ve come to love. Please continue to share your feedback and passion for our many delicious beverages. Thank you!”
If the SCHC was so popular, why was it discontinued? And why did Starbucks give such a lame answer to customers’ demand for SCHC? Was it too messy to make? Took too much time? Did the company lose money on it? I don’t understand why Starbucks won’t share the real reason for not serving the SCHC anymore.
And why suggest what seems like a weak substitute for the SCHC? The majority of comments I read said that adding toffee nut syrup and caramel drizzle was NOT the same as a SCHC. I may try it since I really do miss the SCHC. Or I might try and make one myself using this recipe.
At mystarbucksidea.com, I asked Starbucks to fully explain the SCHC situation. If you love the SCHC, please vote for my submission.
I take a lot of food photos with my phone, but I never realized how many until tonight. I needed to clear space on my memory card and discovered I had 5 months of food photos stored. So I’m finally putting them on the blog where they belong.
The top photo was taken at Uwajimaya, my favorite supermarket in Seattle. I couldn’t believe the name of this beverage. Who wants to drink sweat? What’s odder is that I showed photo to my friend Sarah, and she was like, “Oh yeah, Pocari Sweat. That stuff is good.”
Another pic taken at Uwajimaya. Even Japanese oven mitts and dish towels are cute!
What, pray tell, is a “microroast?” Coffee fetishism in Seattle knows no bounds.
Part of me thinks it’s really cool that Costco sells Dick’s milkshake mix. The other part of me wonders why someone would personally ever need to make that many milkshakes.
Ezell’s fried chicken is a special treat that I allow myself to eat about once every three years. It’s always good.
This spinach pizza was a late night desperation dinner. We didn’t have any food in the house except for a Boboli pizza crust, some spinach that was two seconds away from going bad and mozzarella cheese of questionable age. It turned out to be a pretty tasty pizza! Carmelized onion can right many wrongs.
Every grill romaine lettuce for a salad? I tried it for the first time this summer, and it brought a completely different flavor to the romaine. To let that shine through, I kept the salad pretty simple. I just added some artichoke hearts, cherry tomatoes, some parmesan cheese and a squeeze of lemon.
I think the recipes for all of these dishes came from Real Simple magazine. Pesto, chickpeas and radishes was something I would have never thought to put together myself. And tossing couscous in brown butter was a revelation!
If I had to eat the beet salad at Fonte Coffee & Wine Bar every day for the rest of my life, I think I might be okay with that.
Does Whole Foods really have the best bacon in Seattle?
Geraldine’s Counter has pretty food. But on this visit, everything was woefully underseasoned. It’s amazing what salt–or lack of it–can do to a dish.
Every time I see this pinball game at Full Tilt Ice Cream in White Center, I think of Lindsay Lohan.
