Steak, Fries, and Salad

For Sunday dinner, we grilled up a couple steaks from Skagit River Ranch, baked some sweet potato fries, and had it all with a salad of mixed greens from Alm Hill Gardens, topped with Annie's Naturals Roasted Red Pepper Vinaigarette.

Late Lunch at Columbia City Ale House

Knowing that we'd be heading over to Spencer & Heath's late this afternoon, we decided to have a late lunch out today. Dan was craving fish & chips, which then got me craving fish & chips, so we headed to our nearest brew pub - since every brew pub in Seattle seems to serve great fish & chips.

Except the one we went to.



Turns out the Columbia City Ale House doesn't have fish & chips on the menu. They don't even have french fries on the menu. But they do have great food, so we stayed and ordered a couple sandwiches, and decided to make fish & chips next weekend.



Dan went for the special - a Muffaleta sandwich with loads of meat and cheese.





I opted for the Reuben, given my new found love of them - and washed it down with a Blackthorn Cider.

Agua Verde w/ Tricia

After work today, I grabbed an express bus to the U District and found myself there in less than 15 minutes... from downtown! I wish my normal commute was that short!



We met up with Tricia for a beautiful day right on the lake at Aqua Verde, sipping margaritas and noshing on chips, guacamole, and other tasty Mexican food.





I opted for the daily special - one Cotija cheese tamale and one shredded pork tamale, with green rice and beans.

Frugal Fridays: Almost Sushi

This week, I decided I'd scope out the food court at Westlake Center, assuming there MUST be a good lunch deal there for under $5. I think there was, but I made a little math error and didn't actually get it.



With the recent subtle shift in sales tax here in Washington, I've been a little worried to trust my old math of where the cutoff is for Frugal Friday before tax prices. Because of that, I tried to do the math in my head and made a little error - resulting in me buying the Spicy Tuna Rolls at Sushi Bar for $4.59 + tax. Since my previous price cutoff was $4.55, I can only blame low blood sugar on my silly math error, which caused me to pay $5.05 (plus tip) for what turned out to be a very small sushi roll that doesn't really fit the Frugal Friday criteria for price or for being a complete, filling lunch.

But rather than give you nothing this week, I thought I'd pass along my experience.

And Sushi Bar does have some cheaper vegetarian rolls that do fall under the $5 price line, so it could be an option for someone looking for a lite, vegetarian lunch - maybe on a day when you know you'll be having an early dinner.



(Frugal Fridays is a weekly series dedicated to finding Seattle lunch spots where you can walk in with a $5 bill and walk out with a fulfilling, preferably healthy, lunch. If you have suggestions of places in the Seattle area with a great lunch for under $5 after tax, post a comment - I'd love the help.)

Oven Fried Chicken

Another freezer leftover were some chicken drumsticks from God knows when. We put 'Fried Chicken' on our menu, and picked up some potatoes at Olsen Farms, and some Mizuna greens to go with it. Dan suggested we oven 'fry' the chicken, to make it a little lighter - which seemed like a good idea on a week when we're having so many rich meals.

I dried the chicken and rolled it in flour, then rolled it in some egg wash, then back in the flour to build up a nice crust. In a Pyrex baking dish, I melted a 1/4 cup of butter in the oven on 425 degrees F, then placed the chicken in the pan. I baked it for 30 minutes on the first side, then 15 more on the second.

To go with it, I made up some mashed potatoes, using the creme fraiche leftover from the Asparagus Memento Meal last weekend. And I fried some chopped white onion and garlic in bacon fat, then tossed in some kalamata olives, chopped lemon rind, and the Mizuna greens and tossed them just until they were wilted (clearly inspired by my tasty salad at La Medusa last night).

I made the fatal error of mixing the potatoes with an electric hand blender - which made them a little gummy (gluten?), but we both still really enjoyed the dinner and Dan's plate was clean before I knew it.

La Medusa

Tonight we met up with Ruth and Paul for a fancy dinner out together at La Medusa, in Columbia City. Wednesday's are Market day at the restaurant, because the Columbia City Farmers Market is just down the street, and the chef can literally walk over and pick up farm fresh produce and meats to include on the menu. For $25, they offer a 3 course Market Meal.

Both Dan & Paul went with the Market Meal, while Ruth and opted for other menu items that we all agreed were too delicious sounding to pass up - that way, we all got to taste a bit of each.



The Market Meal started with a small salad, featuring halved baby Walla Walla Sweet onions.





I went for a hot salad called 'Grandma's Greens', with wilted greens mixed with olives and nuts.






The Market Meal main course was a vegetarian pasta with Pecorino cheese shaved on top. Without a protein, it was a little sparse for a main course, but still reportedly good.





By contrast, my Duck Leg Pasta was very not sparse, with a pile of fettuccine noodles topped with olives, figs, and shredded roast duck leg.





And Ruth's Asparagus Risotto was beautiful, bright green, and very good.





For dessert, the Market Meal included a Chocolate Brioche that was unanimously a favorite.




Ruth ordered the Cannolis, given that you can't get them very many placed in Seattle.





And I went with the Tres Leches Coconut Cake. My only previous experience with Tres Leches Cake was at Senor Moose, and this was very different than that. I guess I can't say which was more 'authentic', but this didn't seem as moist or rich as the Senor Moose offering. It also didn't taste coconutty to me at all, making me wonder - in retrospect - if it wasn't the Tres Leches Coconut Cake at all, but some sort of Strawberry Shortcake, which is what it seemed to be. It was still good, but not at all what I was expecting.

Chili & Corn Bread

Since we're going on vacation soon, we thought it would be a good idea to use of what we could from the freezer. A few weeks back, we made some cocoa and chili rubbed pork chops, but ended up with tons of leftovers. We froze them up with the intent of using them in a chili someday.

Today that day came. We used a couple cans of Amy's Chili, tossed in onions and seasonings and lime juice and the pork (sliced thin) and cooked it in a big cast iron pot on the stove on low heat.

And to go with it, another freezer find: corn bread muffins we made back in November and tossed in the freezer because we had way too many. Cut in half and warmed back up at about 200 degrees in the oven, they were the perfect accompaniment to our chili. And the pork was melt-in-your-mouth good.

Burgers, Fries and Pie

In celebration of Memorial Day, Dan & I had no plans - except he suggested we should do what countless other folks around the country would be doing today: Grilling burgers and eating them with fries and some pie.



Using some great ground beef from Skagit River Ranch, and delicious pepper bacon made by our friend Gerald, we cooked up some tasty bacon burgers on the grill outside - it's first meal of the season. We also put some jalapeno cheddar and red onion on top. And while Dan was attending to the grill outside, I made up a batch of sweet potato fries.



Earlier in the day, we worked together to make a Passionfruit Pie, using a Key Lime Pie recipe as our guide.



Key Lime Pie is essentially only lime flavored thanks to a 1/2 cup of lime juice. We figured we cold swap out the lime juice for passionfruit juice, and get a similar result but with a decidedly Hawaiian twist.



What we didn't consider is that lime juice is significantly more potent than the passionfruit juice we can get here in Seattle, which is largely watered down with pear juice. The resulting pie was good, but much more of an egg custard pie than a passionfruit pie.

Raspberry/Blackberry Muffins

This week's breakfast muffins feature raspberries, plus blackberries I foraged in the neighborhood last Summer.

Memento Meal - Iron Chef Asparagus

All of us had such a great time at the inaugural Memento Meal hosted by Jason & Anna last month, that the same group quickly organized, picked a date and a plan for a second round. This time, Jacqui & Gerald hosted, and selected an Iron Chef-esque 'secret ingredient' that we would each be featuring in our dishes: Asparagus.

We all shifted one course forward, putting Dan & I first and Gerald & Jacqui last, and with the challenge of creating an asparagus dessert. But we'll get to that in a minute.



Dan & I kicked things off with a duo of appetizers and a little cocktail to go with them, titled 'The breakfast you wished you had time for'. It included a Cappuccino of Canales Produce Asparagus & Sea Breeze Farm Grass Fed Milk w/ Skagit River Ranch Bacon, a Tall Grass Bakery Crostini w/ Loki Fish Co. Salmon Lox, Sea Breeze Farm Crème Fraîche, & Canales Produce Asparagus Caviar, and a Spicy Bloody Mary w/ Pickled Alm Hill Gardens Asparagus.



Dan was challenged by our Espresso maker, which just doesn't create milk foam like the machines he used at Tully's years ago - but the cappuccino still came out as a the star of our course.



Likewise, I found myself fighting with my goal of 'caviar', as the alginate/asparagus solution that I'd prepped earlier in the day seemed to get thicker, and wouldn't consistently spherify. So after reminding myself to not attach to the idea I had in my head of what I wanted them to be, I ended up with lots of tear shaped 'caviar'.

Upon tasting the crostini, I also realized the 'caviar' gets lost in the flavor bath of lox and cream and the texture of the bread totally overpowered the delicacy of the caviar/tears.



The Bloody Mary, featuring spicy V8 juice augmented with horseradish sauce and Worcestershire sauce, and a home-pickled spicy asparagus spear was also given great compliments. We'll have to bust that out for brunches in the future.



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The second appetizer course was courtesy of Anna & Jason: Delicious inside out sushi featuring asparagus, cucumber, scallion, basil, mint, avocado, chives (some with the flowers still on), and a mayo of tarragon, basil, garlic, parsley and anchovy, and rolled in beautiful, bright orange flying fish roe. It was paired with a citrus soy dipping sauce, seaweed salad, wasabi, pickled ginger, and a glass of Sapporo.

They served it family style, which for me was dangerous - as I couldn't stop eating the amazing sushi! I was incredibly impressed by the inside-out roll technique, which I've tried and failed at in the past. And the fresh, bright flavors of the rolls were so wonderful.



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Next up was Kristin & her friend Dahlia, who presented the epitome of Springtime for the salad course. At it's center was blueberry & rice wine pickled asparagus ribbons, setting on a bed of fruit 'confetti', and topped with blanched asparagus spears. Along with it she served a rhubarb Dry Soda.



The salad had sweetness and some bite (from yellow peppers), and the soda was a wonderful pairing, as it was crisp and not overtly sweet, and really allowed the fruits and asparagus be the star of the course.



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For our first entree course, Marcy & James brought out a beautiful roll of chicken breast, stuffed with pureed asparagus, sun dried tomatoes, grilled asparagus spears, and Gruyere cheese, which we topped with an asparagus white wine gravy. And alongside it was a pickled white asparagus spear.

After two cold, bright courses, their dish took the meal back to a warm place of comfort just as the sun was setting and the temperature began to drop a bit. The roll of chicken breast was beautiful (as you can see), juicy and flavorful. The fact that they used asparagus no less than 5 ways in their dish was truly inspiring.



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David & Carolyn (but mostly Carolyn, apparently) graced us with the second entree course - hand rolled asparagus pasta in brown butter, with asparagus tips and walnuts.



The pasta included grilled asparagus, which was then pureed and mixed with lemon rind. And of course, Carolyn busted out table-side service to grate a HUGE block of Parmesan on our plates.



The pasta was so popular people were asking for seconds, and the brown butter was so precious that I was sent into the kitchen to round up the leftover baguette from our course so we could all make sure to sop up every last rich & delicious drop.



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Finishing off the meal were Gerald & Jacqui, with the self-imposed challenge of an asparagus dessert. I had lots of possibilities churning around in my head of how they might approach that challenge, but didn't even consider the (not one but) TWO preparations they created - nor did I expect they could be so incredibly good or feature asparagus so prominently and so well.



First was asparagus with orange supremes, strawberries, ginger, pepper, honey and orange juice, which was bright and sweet and so tasty. And second was an asparagus, rhubarb, and strawberry cobbler with ice cream and a glaze of reduced asparagus, rhubarb and strawberry juices. It was so good I completely devoured mine before remembering to take pictures, so I had to elbow in on Marcy's dessert to take photos before it disappeared, too.



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Given that Gerald was one of our hosts, we also got the pleasure of beginning the meal with some of his homemade pancetta, and ending it with some homemade chorizo sausage, both of which were stunning. And I think everyone went home with some of his homemade bacon.



While the night wound down, and we all sat around drinking a little more wine (or Grappa, or Scotch), Gerald lit up the chiminea and I brought out the leftover asparagus alginate mixture and the calcium chloride solution, so folks could play around a bit with molecular gastronomy. Anna, in particular, had a lot of fun creating orbs and noodles and building a tiny green sculpture on a piece of baguette, until the sun was gone and we could barely see what we were doing.



I really loved getting a second chance to get together with this group of food lovers. Every time I feel like I get to eat new and amazing things, try some new techinques, share what I've learned and learn from what others share. All the dishes were so flavorful and so good, and I think we all pushed our personal envelopes a bit to try something new. Asparagus was truly the star of the meal, but was presented and adapted in so many ways that none of us were sick of it after 6 courses.

And now that I'm reflecting on the meal as a whole, I realize there were some trends - which is surprising, given that we each only knew what the course directly following us was, and none of the others. Half the courses were Italian in nature (cappuccino of asparagus, the chicken dish, and the pasta), and half of them featured pickled asparagus in some way (spicy pickled asparagus in the Bloody Mary, rice wine pickled asparagus ribbons in the salad, and pickled white asparagus paired with the chicken - and I believe pickle juices in the gravy). So once again, continuity erupted despite the Memento method... or perhaps, as a result of the Memento method. Perhaps if we'd all know what each other were making, the dishes would become more disparate, as we intentionally avoided overlap. Instead, overlap naturally occurred in subtle ways, which turned out wonderfully.