Welcome to my blog. I document my adventures in travel, style, and food. Hope you have a nice stay!
All in Food
It seems that almost every time we're eating a meal somewhere near Hot Cakes we end up getting dessert there. Since there are a lot of good eateries in both Ballard and Capitol Hill, that means we have several opportunities to go there. Good thing, since we don't tire of either their standard fare or their seasonal selections.
I don't get to the Queen Anne neighborhood very often, but almost every time that I do, I go to Le Rêve Bakery & Café. Whether it be for lunch or pastries, I've always enjoyed the food.
Sweet Week has come and gone again, and Melody and I were able to visit several places, many which were new to us. Each place we visited seemed to be doing brisk sales of their specials, and a couple had even run out by the time we got there.
My cousin Paul got married this weekend, and unlike the last two family events, this one was in Bellingham (less than 90 minutes north of our home), not Southern California. That meant other family members made the trip to Washington, including my parents.
Today was the first Seattle Ice Cream Festival, so Melody and I decided to check it out, grabbing lunch beforehand.
We spent New Year's Day in Seattle this year, rather than in Southern California. We mixed old traditions with new ones, but the best part was our family gathered and spent time together.
Having been a success last year, Sweet Week Seattle returned this year. More places participated, and instead of two weekends, this time it was a whole week. We ended up with things from ten different places (we visited all but one; my cousin thoughtfully brought one when we saw her for dinner), and fortunately some of them were ones you could take home and wait to eat, otherwise that would have been a lot of sweets.
We celebrated Noël's birthday last night, the most recent occurrence of our birthday dinner tradition. While the details change every now and then, the central idea of us getting together to share a meal on the occasion of a family member's birthday.
Last weekend was Sweet Week Seattle, where several stores offered $5 desserts. Some of the desserts in the promotion were cookies, sundaes, and fudge. We returned from the Bay Area the day the event started, but were able to cover several places over the next couple days.
Every year we travel to the Los Angeles area to celebrate New Year's. As usual, we left a couple days after Christmas and returned on January 2nd. We stocked up on warmth and sunshine, and have since returned to cold and overcast on some days, colder and clear on others.
Melody and I went to see Tom Douglas speak at the University Bookstore the other night. Most of his dozen properties are restaurants, but one is the Dahlia Bakery; he was at the bookstore to promote the new Dahlia Bakery Cookbook. As can be expected he was very personable and entertaining. He recently won the James Beard Award as Best Restauranteur, and that day had found out he was the Puget Sound Business Journal's Executive of the Year. Tom started with some remarks and then took questions from the audience. It was the latter part where he really showed his people skills, and was interesting because was able to circle back and touch on the topics in his remarks.
The Seattle Times' food blogger (and former food critic) Nancy Leson wrote about Batter Blaster Pancakes (warning: site plays jingle when you first go there). What's different about them? You spray batter from a can onto your griddle! Nancy agrees with Consumer Reports that they're actually pretty good, especially compared to other mixes you can get.
What better food during the hot weather we've been having than ice cream? As things ended up, Melody and I got ice cream the past three days, each at different places. We can certainly recommend all of them.
Farmers Market in Los Angeles is celebrating its 75th anniversary this week. Seattle is understandably proud of its own Pike Place Market (which will celebrate its 102nd anniversary next month) and I've been there many times, but I don't remember ever going to Farmers Market. It is, however a landmark in the area.
When Melody and I met to walk home after work last night, she noticed that there was a line of people at the Häagen-Dazs near where I work. Ends up the people were waiting for free ice cream, so we got in line (which wasn't all that long) and we each got our free scoop.
Twice a year a bunch of restaurants in the area participate in a promotion called Dine around Seattle, where you can get a fixed-price dinner for $30 and lunch for $15. While it's more than we would usually spend for a meal, the restaurants which are involved are normally much more expensive. We've found it's a great way to try places we normally wouldn't; we try to take advantage for at least one lunch during the promotion. Today we had lunch at Shea's Lounge at the Pike Place Market.
Melody and I had Shabu Shabu for dinner last night. It's a little like fondue since everyone can put whatever kind of food they want into the pot, but instead of cheese (or chocolate) the liquid is a sort of broth (my mom used to do a fish stock, but I did a chicken stock last night). This picture is from 1987, and shows my dad getting ready. You can see several kinds of food on the trays and if you look closely, you can see a second pot on the near side of the table (there were several people at dinner that day).
Hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving holiday. Jean (Melody's mom) and her husband Ron came over on Thursday for dinner and we all went over to Keith and Bev's house on Friday.
We thought it would be fun to try making fish tacos for dinner, and they turned out really well. Sear-roasted mahi mahi (with ground pepper and lime juice), cabbage, tomatoes, avocado, cheese, and salsa on soft corn tortillas. They actually didn't take long at all to make, probably 30 minutes of cooking and toppings prep, including making the tortillas. They must have been yummy, since they were so messy!
