Memento: Southern

Tonight was Memento time again - our bi-monthly supper club potluck. This was the first time hosting the group for Linda & Nancy, at their beautiful home in West Seattle. Celebrating Linda's roots, the theme (revealed at the last Memento) was 'Southern', with two mandatory, classic Southern ingredients picked at random for each course.



Linda & Nancy started us off with their plate, celebrating Black Eyed Peas & Cheddar Cheese. They did so in the form of two deviled eggs and two fritters. The first egg was a smokey pimento cheese deviled egg with chorizo, and the second was a Sriracha deviled egg with pancetta. Alongside them on the plate were two black eyed pea fritters (Johnny cakes?) with porcetta. And of course there was a big punch bowl full of delicious Southern Comfort punch that Linda whipped up soon after Dan & I arrived. Everyone agreed that Linda's deviled eggs were the best they'd had.



Next up, Carolyn & David payed homage to Tomatoes & Cornmeal. Their inspiration came from comfort food - specifically their son Logan's favorite: tomato soup and grilled cheese. A delicious tomato bisque soup with a beautiful swirl of cream shared the plate with three cornbread cubes, one with a decadent topping of melted cheddar cheese - which makes me want to top every batch of cornbread I make in the future with cheddar cheese.



Another queue I'll be taking from this Memento is a square, rather than long rectangular table arrangement. It was wonderful to be able to talk with everyone around the table, and a peak under the tablecloth revealed it was simply two folding tables side-by-side. It also would increase tablespace for dishes for events like Thanksgiving.



Our third course was created by Lizzie to feature the seasonal flavors of Sweet Potato & Pumpkin. First was a green salad with red onion and goat cheese, using roasted sweet potatoes as a perfect replacement for croutons, and a little crunch courtesy of pumpkin seeds.



Alongside the green salad was a 4 oz mason jar filled with what's known in the South as a 'congealed' salad. Not the most appetizing name, but it's essentially a gelatin salad. This one was sweet potato, with a smoother texture courtesy of the sweet potato. It was topped with whipped cream and pecans. Despite the name, it turned out to be absolutely delicious, tasting like Thanksgiving.



Dan & I supplied the fourth course, inspired by Rice & Molasses. We stole a page from Marcy & James' playbook and merged Southern Italian food (specifically Sicily) with American Southern food, creating an Arancini di Riso.



Neither of us had heard of them before they became the dish du jour on the Halloween episode of Top Chef, and Dan quickly thought of using that as our rice component, then stuffing it with molasses baked beans.

Using Food Network's recipe as a jumping off point, we made and cooled a batch of simple risotto first, then combined it with parmesan and eggs and rolled it into balls. We pushed a little bit of red kidney beans (cooked with some vegetable stock and molasses) into the center and chilled them. Ultimately, they were rolled in breadcrumbs and deep fried at 350 degrees F until golden brown.

Dan made a peach sauce with Sriracha (a happy accident that this ingredient popped up again) to top the arancini, which was very good. Spicy and sweet.



I also made an agar-agar aspic of collard greens & shiitake mushrooms with vegetable stock spiked with liquid smoke and soy sauce to take the place of pork products so commonly cooked with collards. I warmed it to 140 degrees F still in the silicon molds, submerged in our Sous Vide Supreme. Unlike gelatin, which melts when reheated, agar-agar never unsets. I unfortunately didn't get the collards completely encased, so my cubes fell apart a little, but I think still tasted good.

Dan also revived his cocktail from last year's Oscar's - a combination of ginger ale, bourbon, peach nectar, and campari.



Highlighting Peaches & Greens, Marcy & James served the penultimate course. An epic pork meatloaf topped with yummy peach chutney. It rested on a bed of collard greens. Although we repeated collards in our course (planned based on theirs), the two shared little in common. Where ours were cooked down, Marcy & James still had a crispness to them, and they didn't shy away from cooking them in some bacon.



Rounding things out, Anna & Jason put a Seattle-meets-the-South take on Buttermilk & Brown Sugar.



First came out cream and sugar, then cappuccino cups of Americano coffee. Although the South is more about tea than coffee (as Anna pointed out), going with an Americano seemed appropriately Southern, it it's own way. And Linda & Nancy had sweet tea on hand, of course.



Finally, they revealed mini bundt cakes of buttermilk pound cake filled with a cinnamon struesel - their wonderful Southern take on coffee cake - paired with roasted granny smith apples. The cake was designed to share, so everyone shuffled to sit next to their spouse, which proved very good timing.



Carolyn & David passed out the invitations to our next event, which they'll be hosting.



The invite for our February get-together, arrived in suitably Willy Wonka fashion, a la the golden ticket. The theme will simply be 'Chocolate' - which their kids ask for each time they're hosting. Dan & I should have a challenge, given we have the traditionally salad course.



The night also ended with a surprise gift for David, several months in the making. David loves skulls, doesn't drink, but adores those Crystal Skull vodka bottles. He has a small one, but Anna & Jason bought a big bottle and were gracious enough to drink it. They passed the bottle to me on Halloween, to let me get creative with it. I filled it with water and Glycerin(to make the water more viscous) and a few colors of Martha Stewart Glitterthen put it on a Multi-Color LED Light Base.

 
 

Proud, Drunk and Colorful

It's been a few years since Dan & I have done anything special to celebrate Gay Pride month, and many years since we've made it to the Pride Parade - held on the 4th Sunday in June each year here in Seattle.


I remember the first time I saw the parade was marching in it with my gay/lesbian/bi/trans youth group, with my proud parents also marching (with PFLAG).  Growing up gay can be very isolating - hiding a secret, being bullied, being afraid of what people think (and sometimes for my life) - and I remember how powerful the experience of being surrounded by THOUSANDS of other gay & gay-friendly people of all ages and backgrounds was for 17 year old me.  After my first Pride parade, I went to Lambert House - a LGBTQ teen outreach center that was throwing a dance for all us under-age gays.  It was the first time I slow danced with a boy.  The boy was from Montana and had a big scar on his cheek, and the song was "Crazy for You" by Madonna (of course).  Hearing it still sends me back to that night.





Although we still didn't make it downtown to watch the parade this year, we did get invited to a decidedly South Seattle celebration for Pride - getting together with old and new friends for brunch in Columbia City, then back to Jason & Jayson's place in the Othello neighborhood for some drinks.  The plan was to brunch at Geraldine's Counter, but they seemed flummoxed by the need for seating for 12 and said it would be a 40+ minute wait, so we took our business around the corner to Rookies, where they found a spot for us immediately.


After eating, we carpooled to The Ja(y)son's condo to hang out, have some drinks, enjoy the beautiful day on their rooftop deck, and relax.  Never one to miss an opportunity to bake, I decided to try out my new Booze Cakes
 cookbook.  There's been a bit of a trend on Pinterest of people making multi-colored cakes, and I'd seen some done as rainbows.  Since, after I turned 21, my Pride Parade memories are a bit of a blur of rainbows and drinking - I figured a rainbow bundt cake soaked in rum was perfectly thematic.




 I followed the Golden Rum Cake recipe as is, then colored one cup of batter at a time using gel food colorings (to avoid changing the consistency).  Into the bundt cake pan I layered the red, then orange, yellow, green, blue and purple - then popped it into the oven.

An hour later it came out and I soaked it in a rum/sugar/butter glaze that made this cake extremely moist.  I could tell from the bottom of the cake that the colors remained vibrant inside, but from the top it looked like any old bundt cake - kinda sad and brown.  But slicing in revealed that not only had all the colors remained true, but a Pride Day miracle happened and the colors curved in an arc - a perfect rainbow.



Rainbow Rum Cake

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tspn baking powder
1/2 tspn baking soda
1/8 tspn salt
1 cup milk
1 tspn vanilla extract
3/4 cup dark rum

Glaze
4 Tbspn (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup dark rum

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease and flour the bundt cake pan.  In a mixer using a paddle attachment, cream together the butter and sugar on low-medium speed, until light and fluffy.  With the mixer on low, add the eggs, one at a time, allowing each to incorporate before adding the next.  In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt - whisking the mixture to combine it well.  In a small bowl, combine the milk, vanilla extract and rum.  Beat in flour mixture and milk mixture alternately, in three additions.  Scoop one cup of batter into a small bowl and add red gel food coloring, stirring until uniform in color - then pour evenly into the bottom of the pan.  Clean the bowl and repeat for the remaining colors - orange, yellow, green, blue and purple.  Bake 1 hour.

For the glaze:  Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat.  Add sugar and 1/4 cup water, and turn heat to medium-high, bringing the mixture to a boil.  Cook for 5 minutes, stirring constantly.  Remove from heat and carefully add the rum, whisking it in to create a uniform glaze.  When the cake comes out of the oven, invert it onto a serving plate and slowly pour the glaze over the cake, allowing it to soak in.

Great Drinks, Great Bathroom & Great Company @ Company

Tonight was another installment of White Center fun, hosted by Ruth & Paul. We met up at Ruth's place for a cocktail, then headed out on the town... with the ultimate stop being the newly reopened Southgate Skate Rink. But first, we hit the newest neighborhood bar: Company.



As with every other White Center hotspot, Ruth and Paul already know the bartender, and he hooked us up with a round of delicious margaritas. Ruth recommended I snap all of them at once, and the shot turned out great.

But not as great as, oddly enough, the shot I was compelled to take of the men's room at Company. I went in to use the facilities, and the paint design floored me. Literally - I ended up laying on the floor in the corner of the bathroom to get as much of the room in the shot as possible, and I'm pleased with the results.

Bahama Breeze Now Has a Happy Hour!

My 5 day migraine finally broke today, so we headed out for lunch to celebrate. I'm still working on meeting my 25 lb weight loss goal, so a place with light options was necessary. Bahama Breeze fit the bill.



We started with a couple cocktails (what better way to celebrate not being in pain for the first day in almost a week?). Dan got the Passionfruitini, and I tried their Passionfruit White Sangria - which had chunks of mango in it and was very refreshing.



As always, there were some tempting new menu items (like Chorizo sliders), but I took a peek at the nutritional info at the back of the drink menu, and Dan reminded me of how good the Chicken Tortilla Soup was. At around 350 calories, it was perfect, and still surprisingly filling. Dan got soup and a lobster quesadilla, and I snuck a couple bites.



Our waitress was really friendly, and let us know that they've added a happy hour on weekdays from 4-6pm, so we'll have to figure out how to leave work early enough to make it down sometime.

Are Buckets of Margarita a Good Idea?

With just one day left before the winners of the Academy Awards are revealed, and Dan & I are a little behind thanks to Hilo, Hawaii not showing any of the nominees we haven't yet seen. So today was our last chance to catch one of the Best Picture Oscar possibilities... down at Renton Landing, of course.

Beforehand, we grabbed some lunch and a drink at Rock Wood Fired Pizza - a spot we'd never tried before, but heard good things from Dan's sister.

The 'Rock' in their name turns out to be a reference to their Ed Hardy-esque theme: lots of guitars and skulls as decor, and lots of 70's musical references on the menu.

I started things off with the most ridiculous thing I saw on the drink menu: The "Lovely Rita Bucket".



Literally a child's plastic bucket, complete with a plastic shovel, filled with margarita. Along with the Lava Lamp cocktail, the menu warns an individual can only order two of these booze buckets. It honestly didn't seem all that strong, but I could see how they might catch up with you quickly.



Despite the silliness of their margaritas, they do brew their own beer, and Dan gave their "Rock Steady Red" a try. He ordered a second, so I think it was good.



For his lunch, Dan went with the Teriyaki Chicken Sandwich.





I chose the "Fly By Night" Chicken Sandwich, which was decent - though the proscuitto would fare better if cut into strips, so that you don't end up pulling the whole thing out with your first bite (along with the cheese that melted and cooled onto it).



Since we were going to a movie after, I went for a second margarita - though not another bucket. Instead, I went for the "Made to Rock Margarita" - a basic Cadillac Margarita.

I have to say I didn't get any of the musical references of the drinks or my sandwich. I had to Google them to find out my "Lovely Rita" bucket pays homage to The Beatles, my sandwich to a Rush song, and Dan's beer to Bad Company. The era of music likely explained the posse of 40 to 50-something men at the table behind us, who were doing shots and pre-funking before seeing "Hall Pass".



We stuck to True Grit - though Dan is REALLY excited about the upcoming Smurfs movie.

Layover Lunch