I forgot some things. P.S. it's cold out.

It's getting cold outside. This means more hot pot and comfort food. Back in Oct during my posting hiatus I forgot a picture of my spin on Rachel Ray's Reuban Mac and Cheese. I like to add Kale (probably mentioned this in earlier posts) to make it feel healthier and to help push the cheese through. You can replace some noodles with veggies in general so you're not actually eating more in volume, but that's for those who can't control themselves... many of you.

If you plan on making this your work lunch for the week, I'd suggest not putting any veggies in there in the original stock, and then just throw them in the container. They'll cook when you reheat, and not get overcooked and bitter throughout the week. Also, vegetables don't seem to keep for very long after you cook them.

Forward through for some New York-Jewish style breakfast at Roxie's diner. I think I got the Emerald City scrambler- which is brocoli, spinach, green onions, pesto and cheese. And I added meat. Probably corned beef. Substituted my sides (usually toast/bagel and hashbrowns) with LATKES! That mystery ball in the bowl is sour cream. MMMM....

I don't know why, but I associate latkes with winter. They are soooo good, and are trickier to make than you'd think. Mostly because I haven't found a recipe to love yet.

Dinner club strikes again with taco soup! Home made corn bread, fresh avocado, tortilla strips and an un-pictured mug (or more) of spiced hard cider.

Dessert was home-made apple-walnut pumpkin cake!

There were so many big pieces of apple it made the cake nice and moist. I would think that because recipes usually make you mush ingredients for cake so much that it'd be weird, but it was a good texture and made the cake much more interesting. Let me show you!

I also am obsessed with butternut squash and pumpkin. Every year I research for recipes so for an idealistically cheaper option than going to nice restaurants and fighting through crowds. Gambled on butternut squash and sage soup. Then got lazy with ingredients (didn't have parsley). Decided to spice it up a bit with curry powder, ground cloves, and nutmeg. Then to use up thyme and chicken I had, I made chicken and thyme and through that in there.

So really, I made butternut squash curry, because I also got lazy and didn't add much chicken stock. To go with my newly founded curry I made wild rice (scrape through the pantry much?) and a layer of greens.

As you can see, I added a layer of Gruyere on top, because it's getting old...

What's that red plate behind the bowl you say? Why, it's peanut butter chocolate trifle that my coworker made for people's birthdays.

Mmmm delicious. Here's what the curry looks like all mixed up:

Now I'm hungry, so I'm going to make some udon!

Back Track Post 2: All around the world in Seattle

The new, the standard, and the Men's room.

New: I recently challenged cousin's boss to a fundraiser race. Post-attempt to train I decided to go grocery shopping and pit stop at my old neighborhood espresso stand. Not such a great idea on an empty stomach and dehydrated from exercise.

To calm my jitters, I excitedly decided to go to Mike's Chili Parlor. If you've been reading with me from the beginning, you'll know this has been a place I've been wanting to try for quite some time. (Sign says "Chili, beer, cash only" - who wouldn't want to try that?!?!)

Besides, it's never good to grocery shop at Trader Joe's when you're feeling all wacky. Came in, sat down at the bar, and ordered a bowl of chili with onions, jalapenos, and cheese.


It was a Sunday, and the Redskins were on - so it was very difficult not to order a beer to go with it. But since I already felt like I was self-imploding on the spot, I stuck with water.


How it looks when you mix it all up! Mmmm.

Final verdict- delicious, but not good for my sensitive digestive track after what it was already telling me. I made it through grocery shopping, but let's just say.... I had to run home quickly. And very. very. carefully. Didn't realize there were so many bumps in the road on the way from Ballard to Northgate.

Happy hour with some physics friends turned into dinner with 1. So we decided to treat ourselves to Bizzaro instead. I miss Italy more than I realize. We had to get the drunken clams: Dad, I know you don't like tomato based clam stuff, but this was GOOD. Let me make it giant so you can see better.

See the focaccia for dipping?

All meals come with a salad. I think the carrot thing was dumb. Just make me a smaller carrot. Kind of strong on the dressing too, but I love the radishes!


The standard menu looks appealing enough to hook you into wanting to go again right away, but the seasonal menu is just too tempting to pass up!!

Exhibit A: Pumpkin ravioli with sage butter sauce

It looks like it's a cream base- but it's not!! SCORE!

Exhibit B: Happy Sausage Pillows with duck/bacon sausage

To the rest of the world, it's known as gnocchi. But I like this idea of calling things pillows.

We were understandably stuffed after this meal, but everything tasted so good I wanted to try dessert. My companion was being a wussy, so instead of the cheese plate - which is charmingly described below:


I got tiramisu! It was painfully delicious. I could hear my heart rasping as it slowed down from all the cream.


Standard: A week or 2's worth of recovery and I headed out to Mexican with some friends to Carta de Oaxaca.

I got my favorite dish there- caldo de pescado. Which is a spicy fish soup.

It's not lemonade, it's a pomegranate margarita, and that's not beer, it's water.

They have tons of salsas - and the biggest love/hate relationship I have with it is the habanero salsa. I love habanero, but the habanero does not love my gut.

As a side, we all split some fish tacos. They're not fried like most fish tacos, and stop thinking dirty. It's not that kind of fish taco.

Do you see what I see? That's right! Radishes! They are good with tacos. Who knew?

Personally, I am not a fan of mole. With the amount of food mixing I do, you'd think it'd be right up my alley. I don't know why I do not like the chocolate sauce. I just can't explain it. But if you do, this place is known for their mole. My dinner mates got two versions:

Mole Negro Oaxaqueno: black chili mole. Say that 3 times fast.

And

Tamales de Mole' Negro

Dad came into town, so the standard first stop was Mike's Noodle House. Blanched tripe/liver, and fish congee. I don't eat liver. The only time I ever had was in honor of my paternal grandmother when she passed away. It was her favorite. We'll let her keep that as just her own.

The sauce goes with both dishes pictured. It's jalapeno with soy sauce and sesame oil.

The sauce is also good for dipping shrimp into if you ever get bored of cocktail sauce!

It was also Restaurant week in Seattle, so I coerced Dad into trying something we normally wouldn't consider: Lola. It's a Tom Douglass -Greek style restaurant. Mar loves the donuts there, and I would recommend the breakfast with octopus in it. If you love seafood I think you can consider the weirdness more of a novelty. A delicious, savory novelty.

First course: Tzatziki and pita. Lamb kebabs.



They were two separate orders, but this is what I did with it:

Helllllllz yeaaaaaaaaa.

The waitress and I kind of had an awkward stand-off. I asked if there were any dishes without garlic, or minimal garlic. (Another ingredient that does not reciprocate my love for it). She looked at me and said, "This is a Greek place....."

I get what she's implying. I mean, think hummus. Ya. I know. But my Dad is in from out of town and it's restaurant week, so he should try your restaurant. Just help me out here, lady.

After a few rounds she snapped out of it and was able to very professionally and politely recommend this:

Not on the regular menu: cornish hen.

The dish that probably didn't have spit in it - Leg of lamb. You know there was garlic.


Dessert was all mine, because Dad doesn't really do desserts. I picked baklava and honey spice cake. I think the baklava came with cinnamon whipped cream, and the honey cake came with a thyme whipped cream.

Boxed it home for later. The garlic was getting to me.

A few weeks later Ash and I hit up Voula's. Which is a greek-style breakfast joint. Also featured on DDD. May have been the same episode as Mike's Chili. I think last time I got the Naked hobo with ham. This time I made sure I got the pinata benedict.

Pulled pork and hollandaise with a kick!

Ash didn't like it because it was overly smokey. Admittedly, it did overpower the rest of the dish. I like meat, so I was still okay with it.

A week later, I went to bfast with Viet at Senor Moose. No actual moose on the menu, but very good Mexican. (yes... I am starting to get tired of Mexican at this point).

I had only been here before for dinner, so it was exciting to get to try breakfast.

Chorizo con huevos

Turns out, chorizo and scrambled eggs just reminds me of a camping trip from my childhood in Cali.... This was much better than back then.

After tailgating the husky game some friends and I went to Wing Central in the U. District to watch the game.

If you want spicy, but a bit different from regular buffalo wings you should try the blazing bbq. With blue cheese. But that is just preferred over ranch for any wings I eat.

Apparently, at this restaurant all beverages that appeal to me have "Men's Room" in its name. I don't know why.

Regular bloody mary's there come with veggies. Bloody mary with bacon vodka though, must be named "Men's room mary." It also substitutes the pickled vegetables for this:

Cold bacon. That's right, cold.

The cold bacon was off-putting at first. Then I put it in my drink and let it soak up some flavor. Much more acceptable.

I then switched to beer. Wanted red ale. The only red ale they had was "Men's room red ale." Honestly, I don't understand why they were described this way.

To try if you ever visit: 1 of their 51 bomb shots, and their hell wing. You can order the hell wing individually, and you have to sign a waiver to eat it. Didn't try it at the time. But you know where that will lead to, right?

Yes. Tears and the bathroom.

Back Track Post 1: All around the world at home

I haven't posted in a while, mostly in protest to the process involved in getting the pictures from my phone and to the interweb without having to take my sim card out or having to download another stupid app on my phone.

For some reason I craved food from random countries. Since I didn't want to go broke, here's what I cooked at home (the next post will be eating out):

American I'm still loving Grocery Outlet for occasionally carrying Quaker Oats instant Grits variety packs. Decided to add poached egg:



Hearty breakfast in <5 min. We'll pretend it's healthy. I don't know what goes into instant grits.

Some friends went to Spain and discovered paellas. They learned how to make them at home. The Spanish Table has tons of paella pans, a great recipe, and the all elusive paella rice!



I've since then purchased my own pan, and am stalking a paella cook book on Alibris for cheaper prices.

Dinner club met once again- don't know what country this would classify as. I hosted and made beef and wild mushroom stew:


Also pictured, no knead bread (made with buckwheat flour instead of brown flour), and a new eating buddy made mulled spiced wine.

There was strawberry cheese cake and home-made malasadas with coconut milk! The girl who made malasadas wants to own her own food truck. You know there'll be a post when that opens!!!


Work had a farewell potluck, and I'm pretty sure I've mentioned several times how much my coworkers like food, right?

It was like Salty's brunch without the seafood. Plate 1: Savories

Starting from the left plate - at 12 o'clock: asian pasta salad, veggie sushi, cheese, home made pancit, salmon dip, taco dip, buffalo chicken dip, egg rolls, meatballs, cheddar brocoli/cauliflower stew, pita stuffed with meat and veggies and sloppy joe. To the right: veggie stew.

Plate 2: Dessert + a pickle. The pickle came later, but I had to get it because it's home pickled by my boss! She makes yummy things.


Tiramisu, pumpkin/chocolate chip zuchini bread, muddy buddies, cream cheese stuffed brownies.

Mexican P wanted to try out my new couch, so I threw together a mini-housewarming for that group and made pozole. Wiki says that it was originally a spiritual Aztec stew, and the meat was supposed to be human. There's corn or hominy in it (hominy is made from corn) - because the Aztecs believed that the gods made man out of cornmeal. I'm glad it's now pork instead of people (soylent green flashbacks for anybody?)

Start out with pulled pork (and the recipe even has you remove the fat after you refrigerate it overnight!) Pretending to be healthy. yes.

Don't worry, the greens are green chilis.

I decided there weren't (any) vegetables in this recipe, so I added carrots and celery because... I mean it's a stew. Why the heck not? Time to add chicken broth and hominy!



I also tried to make Arepas (see pork adobo post). I was not good at reading directions for the arepas. I used the wrong kind of cornmeal, and let them brown during the pan-fry step, and forgot to set the timer during the baking step.

I did, however, add green onions to the batter which was great! Since, everything else about it was just..... cornmeal.

If I had wiki'd pozole earlier, these would be in people shapes!!

Serve with sliced limes, cheese, green onions and cliantro. There was also salsa in case people just needed to have it. Oh! There was also Vino Verde which is delicious!

All together now...

2 assumptions proven wrong, but still delicious

Coconut and Rum brownies (recipe from epicurious).

I don't regularly keep dark spiced rum in the house, so I bought the little party bottle of rum. Turns out they don't sell dark spiced rum. Just spiced rum. Also, it's a bit more than 2 tablespoons. That's ok. There's molasses! And what harm could come from having just a bit more rum in the recipe?

Pretty simple ingredients: not pictured - butter and eggs.

I thought the rum would cook away. I mean, I'm stirring it over a double boiler when I first add it, and then I'm baking it. Nope. It doesn't. I made them in mini-muffin pans so people feel less bad about eating them. Also it was work, and what if the rum doesn't cook away! Not a very good "welcome back" gift if it also includes "now you're in trouble at work."

Guilt-bite-sized.

Next up: corn bread. We had a departmental potluck to welcome our newest member. There was pulled pork sandwiches, fried chicken, grilled chicken, chicken adobo, home made peanut butter chocolate cream pie, french onion dip with veggies, root beer float fixings, dessert muffin cupcakes (think swirls of caramel and such), 3 kinds of chips, chocolate swirl cookie bars, potato salad, and more!

After cooking club dinner I thought I'd try to make arepas to go with the pulled pork, but it was after 9pm and I didn't want to mess it up and have to start a new batch over. So I copped out and did corn bread from the back of the box. First time making corn bread ever! AND I used my kitchen aid mixer! It's super handy!

Kauai Family Restaurant: This place has weird hours and is just outside of Seattle, so even though Mar and Betty keep telling me how it's better than Kona, I haven't been. Until yesterday!

I ordered this: Saimin; 2 eggs; 2 pieces each Spam, Portuguese Sausage and Vienna Sausage and rice.

To me, it read as "these are the things we put in the Saimin, and we give you a side of rice."

Here is what arrived:

Yes, yes I did order a side of mac salad and a portugese sausage musubi. Why wouldn't I???

I didn't finish all the meat and rice, but I ate the crap out of that meal. (Good things always come from exercise first, eat second).

Ultimately, I think that Kona and Kauai are comparable. I like the mac salad better at Kona, but there's more interesting variety at Kauai. For example:

Butter fried mochi!!!!

They also had home made hot sauce - "good for bloody marys!" Oh Kauai, we shall cross paths again...

Life of a Socialite...

Lately, the women in my life have decided to create grouping events by hobbies. Book club. Cooking Club. Birthday club. Just kidding, a lot of birthdays lately.

Owl and Thistle: Nothing like hanging out with Sounders fans after birthday burlesque show. Especially when you get to see the prettiest black and tan ever:

Maybe Cindy just goes to crappy Irish bars? Maybe she's too tipsy to have noticed the distinct division before? Maybe you should quit judging and enjoy the view.

There were also a random tray of hot dogs, yes. I ate one. It was free. OH, but something they do there for their fries is a ranch sauce that's chock full of dill! So good!

Next stop: loco moco train station. aka Kona Kitchen.

Need I say more? Mmm. gravy and rice.

Cooking Club! Every 2 weeks we take turns hosting and everybody brings the ingredients to try out a new recipe. Or, it can be something you've done before but would be a different type of thing for everyone to try.

I missed the first round, which was seafood linguine with home made pesto. (It might have been best that I wasn't there. I hear there was plentiful garlic, which gives me heartburn even in the minutest amounts).

Second Round: filipino/asian comfort food. Everything was from scratch (except the lumpia wrappers)

- Lumpia with green beans, potatoes, bean sprouts, pork/beef, carrots, and cabbage.

- Sauce for Lumpia (do you see this J??): sugar, white vinegar, salt, garlic ***heartburn Danger!!***

- Pork adobo: some one's grandma's recipe. And oh yes, we used pork butt.

- Rice, duh.

- Arepas: South American style corn bread. DEEEELICIOUS. Think corn bread. Now pan fry. Now bake. Eat with pork adobo. Exactly.

Clockwise from the pork adobo: lumpia dipping sauce, lumpia, Arepas, rice.

One of the ladies from cooking club (Mae) is thinking of opening her own food truck. She made the arepas, and this dessert! It's very asian-style warm dessert-ish. Tapioca, home made mochi (yes! HOME MADE ! She made it while we were there!), taro, banana, and some other stuff I don't know. I think jackfruit. It was warm and yummy.

Another lady (Nicole) made these sweet cookie roll things called barquillos. Chewy but a little bit crisp, and there's a hole in the middle to put whipped cream!

mmm. Taste the diversity.

A very stuffed, around the world adventure, all in one weekend! Now that's a stay-cation! har har.

Next : Experimental pickling. Pickled asparagus lady said I could re-use the jar to make my own pickled asparagus. If they were supposed to be cooked, I just wasted a bunch. We'll find out in 8-10 weeks!