Bhut Jolokia

So I know it is no longer the hottest chile on the planet. I don't really care about that. I became fascinated with the ghost chile a while ago due to the hype of it being the hottest. Sure, it is usually around three times hotter than a habenero, but the flavor is what interests me. I love a habenero for the flavor. So delightfully fruity and sweet. Of course, you have to take the heat with the sweetness, but that is merely a minor drawback. I am wondering if the ghost chile will be the same and I cannot wait to dig into the pepper to find out. Now off to find a recipe.

I purchased my pepper at the Ballard farmers' market from Alvarez Farms from Yakima. They usually have a large assortment of chilies and they are organic. With no time or luck finding a recipe, I went to an old faithful that Jennifer and I use with the habenero.  This recipe, which we drop the tortillas from (and the mint) is a great topping for vanilla ice cream. So after finally procuring a pint of ice cream, I made the sauce. Not before having a few bites of the chile raw of course. After the first bite (about one square cm of flesh), I felt it compared equally to the habenero. The second bit was a different story. I got the hiccups, and felt he heat in my upper sinus as well as my chest. Something I had not felt before. I quickly grabbed a spoonful of yogurt to mellow it, but it was too late. The sauce combined with ice cream however, was quite mellow with mild heat. Hard to place a definition on the taste of the Bhut Jolokia too. I though upon initial bite that it might taste like a cherry. But when laying down to sleep after eating it, I thought perhaps apricot? It had a sweet taste that reminded me of a tree fruit, although I could not place which one. Once in the pineapple sauce, it did not express flavor as well. Perhaps I didn't use enough?

Chile Harvest

So for weeks I have been attempting to harvest the chilies. I had a plant of fully red cayenne, and some ripe Bulgarian Carrot as well. I didn't have much hope for the jalapenos to turn red, and surprisingly the last of the corno di toro weren't going to ripen either. But it is mid October, and I should be lucky I am getting a harvest at all, with the minimal time I've put into the garden this year.

In previous years I wind up making lots of salsa at the end of the season with my remaining tomatoes. Last year I pickled two pints of jalapenos at the end of the season, and dried the cayenne. This year I went for pepper jelly. I searched the Internet for recipes and found they used a lot of sugar. (What's with that?) I haven't cared to do the research for the science behind lots of sugar in canning. Perhaps there is none? Anyway I had to search to find a low sugar recipe and found one decent one on the Ball website.Most of the recipes on the Internet are weak, and call for a bulk to be bell peppers. I wanted to use only hotter chilies and modified the recipe accordingly. Also, my harvest did not yield as much as expected, and I had to half the recipe. (Actually a little less than half.)

I split and seeded the fruit by hand, but used the food processor for the mincing. Rubber gloves are nice for handling that many chilies as well. I started with about a dozen each of cayenne and jalapeno, and about a half dozen each of  Bulgarian Carrot and Corno di Toro. The Corno di Toro making up about one cup of minced, while the others combined to make another cup of minced fruit. I shorted the vinegar and sugar a bit from the half recipe on the website, and also just used a heaping tablespoon of the low sugar pectin. From what I could taste off the spatula before canning, it was delicious. I probably won't last a week before I pop one jar open. And for reference, I was able to mostly fill four half pint jars with the result.

Volunteer Potatoes

I guess I left some all blues in the garden last year during the harvest. It appears that I got some volunteer potatoes growing earlier in the Spring. I didn't do much for them. (I didn't hill them.) And one plant graced me with over a dozen tubers. Half of which were at least the size of a duck's egg.

Blackberries

It is that time of year again when you see Seattleites lingering along the Burke Gilman, or in Disco Park picking blackberries. (Don't worry I haven't given away your secret spot.) Jennifer and I started picking berries about three weeks ago and had enough for a crumble and breakfast for a week.

We went back about 10 days ago and got nearly five pounds of berries. I made yet another crumble, and then made preserves. It was my first attempt at making preserves, and I found most recipes to appear to have a high sugar content. (Most on the Internet call for equal weight of blackberries and sugar.) I opted for three pounds of berries to two pounds of sugar. The result was still quite sugary, so I'll adjust for the next batch.

While I can smell the fermenting/rotting blackberries while riding my bike, I doubt the season is over yet. Hopefully I'll be able to pick some more for at least breakfast use before they all run out. My height gives me the added advantage of not getting too deep into the brier while still being able to pick choice berries.

Strawberry Crumble

This Spring/Summer we've been craving strawberry rhubarb pie. Unfortunately after numerous attempts from different bake shops we have been somewhat disappointed. This past Sunday at the farmer's market we remedied the situation with a purchase of strawberries. We got four pints.

Our first pastry attempt was to use the remaining sheet of puff pastry in the freezer and make strawberry turnovers. I chopped some berries, added a bit of honey and vanilla and stuffed them in. The filling wasn't exactly right, but it was a fun way to enjoy the fruits.

Then I got around to the real goal of the berries, a crumble. I love crumble and it can be fairly healthy. I dug up the recipe I had used in the past for other fruits, and then free styled the filling.

The filling:
~20oz. cut strawberries (I made different sizes for texture.)
splash of vanilla extract (probably 1/4 teaspoon)
three splashes of OJ (probably three tablespoons+)

The crumble:
1/2 cup AP flour
1/2 cup WW flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup rolled oats
6 tbl spoons butter

No pics of the finished product because we dug into it too quickly. It came out darn near perfect. But interestingly enough, while I enjoy my baked goods straight from the oven, crumble is best if the crumble itself has time to cool and set for more crunch. I'm thinking of attempting to make this vegan with coconut oil, but that will have to wait until after the next farmer's market visit.

Garden Report

I harvested the garlic the other day. I was hoping for a higher yield, but no such luck. At least I got 20 heads even if they are on the small side. I'll have to look into why the garlic doesn't grow as large as I would like. The first year we grew garlic, it was decent size and we didn't have to buy garlic for two months. I doubt this harvest will get us a month without buying garlic, but we'll see.

I transplanted some beans to the garden hoping they are too big for the cutworms. So far it looks like they have gone untouched. Unfortunately I will not be having a good year for beans because of the cutworm problem. Now it is probably too late in the season to hunt cutworms in the middle of the night. I have to transplant some broccoli to the garden as well. These sprouts are smaller than the beans and another favorite of the cutworm. Hopefully they will survive too.

I pulled the spinach from the garden as it all bolted. We're left with collards as the only leafy green, and they are slowly getting eaten by aphids (and starting to bolt.)

Lunchbox Laboratory

For Father's Day, Lunchbox Laboratory was offering free burgers to dads. The stipulation was that you had to have a mustache, so I didn't shave for four days. Turns out they weren't really holding anyone to it.

Jennifer and I went for lunch and it was surprisingly not too crowded. (We did have to wait almost 20 minutes.) This was our first time at the new location, and probably our first time at Lunchbox since September 2009. The new environment is a bit more sterile than the old environment although many of the decorations have remained. The restaurant is much bigger and able to accommodate more people than previously as well.

We sat down and got menus. They had the typical list of menu burgers and then the build your own burgers. I felt like there were less options for the build your own, but it has been a while, so perhaps my memory embellished the list a bit. Jennifer got the black bean burger or vegetarian patty which she claimed to be the best she ever had. I went with a lamb burger as I didn't want to get something I could easily make at home. We both got shakes as well, and I seem to recall there were more shake options in the past as well. I got Mac and Cheese as my side as it was heavy on the chilies, but I was not super impressed with it.

The burger was delicious as usual, but even with my free burger, we spent $30 on our lunch. I'd be hard pressed to head back to Lunchbox unless it was a special occasion. And I think my first father's day would count.

Garlic Scapes

I clipped the scapes off the the garlic a few days ago, and Jennifer found a recipe for pesto to use them in. I think there were a dozen scapes, and it made more than we were expecting. The quick recipe for the pesto was the scapes, walnuts, Ricotta Salata, Pecorino Romano and some fresh lemon juice. We put it over whole wheat gnocchi. Only a week or so more, and I can harvest the heads of garlic from the ground.

Copper River Salmon

It is that time of the year again. A time of frenzy in the Pacific Northwest when the Copper River Salmon Season starts. About two weeks ago or so we saw the first fish in Whole Foods around $22/lb for sockeye. But that was first of the season, and it turns out they are having an amazing season for sockeye on the Copper River, so the price has dropped under ten dollars a pound.

The appropriate thing to do with Copper River Salmon is to grill it. I only add a little salt, but there are plenty of recipes out there for the salmon, I just don't feel it needs it. When we first moved to Seattle and discovered Copper River Salmon, I thought it was like buttered bacon. The fish are touted to be extra fatty due to the long distance they travel to their spawning grounds up river. And probably due to the colder waters of the river as well.

The typical companion on the grill for the salmon in our house is local asparagus. Since Washington is probably second only to California in asparagus production in the states, and it is usually abundant and inexpensive. (Especially if you make the trip to central Washington to get it from a farm stand.)

I recently had non Copper River salmon and I can definitely notice the difference. That said, the season is mostly over, but if you look hard, you may find some still around. I just got a tail fillet at PCC that I am waiting for drier weather to grill.

Sprouts!

On a recent trip to the nursery, we bought a Thompson and Morgan Sprouter. They were out of alfalfa seeds, so we opted for lentils, as they also had the shortest sprouting time of what was left. About four days later we enjoyed delicious sprouts. I threw them in a salad and Jennifer had them on an egg salad sandwich. We're currently thinking of other uses for them. We hope to grow some more, but we have been lax about cleaning the sprouter since the first batch.

Vegan Banana Bread

I'm not one for eating fresh fruit out of season. I'm not sure why. Maybe it is a biological reason. But I just don't find plums from Chile in January/February to be as nice as plums from 150 miles away in July/August. So usually during the winter and early spring I eat a lot of dried fruit. That often consists of a few packages of Trader Joe's Chile Spiced Mango, and assorted packages of dried apricots, cherries and prunes. This year I've been trying to eat more Pineapple and bananas during the winter in an effort to eat "fresh" fruit. Only I like my bananas to be yellow, and not look so much like a cheetah. When a handful got this way in the fruit bowl, I convinced Jennifer to make some banana bread.

She started with this recipe and modified it from there. For starters, the recipe calls for honey, so is not technically vegan. (Although it does say to swap for agave nectar if you want it vegan.) What I know she did different was swapped in some flax meal for some of the flour. She also added brewer's yeast to the mix as well. The quarter cup of oil was coconut oil. Jennifer added some vegan chocolate chips to the mix before putting it in the oven as well.

We both decided to have some hot out of the oven and emptied half of the 8x8 pan it was made in. Although I found it to be more of a muffin like product, the "bread" was delicious! The treat didn't even last 24 hours in the house before we polished it off. I have already purchased more honey and speckled bananas to recreate this wonderful (and fairly healthy) dish.

Garden Report

Got a lot of stuff planted earlier in the week when the weather was a bit drier than it is today. Not that planting today would be a bad thing, but I'm a little sick and it just wouldn't be healthy for me to try and plant today.


Some volunteer potatoes growing in the lower left corner there. I'm not entirely sure, but I may have some volunteer pistachio trees as well. I left them in to see what they are and what they become. If they truly are pistachio trees, I may try to transplant one into the house.

I'm concentrating more on the onions this year as many veggies we experiment with either don't grow, or we do not really use them. I'm trying spinach again, although it does not seem to be flourishing (and will probably bolt as soon as summer comes.) We are also going to grow collards, but we'll see how they do. I am trying out the tomatoes near the trees this year to see if they will still grow over there. Hard to believe only about six weeks to harvesting those garlic bulbs!

Two at Once?

Last week when preparing dinner I opted to prepare two dinners at once. This was the first time taking on such a task but I felt it might speed things up. Or at least give multiple options when it was time to eat.

My first attempt involved soup and my peasant potatoes. I remember things being a bit hectic while cooking. Mostly because I had not sorted the lentils for the soup yet and that took time I did not have while attempting a roux in the other pot. Both dishes came out well, and Jennifer got a choice when she woke up.

Last night I tried it again. This time doing two soups with some similar ingredients. The subjects were split pea, and broccoli cheddar. Both soups started with onion and added carrots and potatoes. So most of the ingredients were similar. I prepped a lot before actually starting so I wouldn't run into issues distracting me from the roux on the cheddar soup. As it turns out everything went smoothly this time. The split pea went to boil/simmer just before I started the roux on the broccoli cheddar. The broccoli cheddar finished first however, but we were putting that away for another day.

I'm sure professional kitchens do this sort of thing all the time, but it is new to me. I really like it as it may only add 20% more time, but give you double the meals. Another advantage is that prep/cleanup only happens once for two meals rather than twice. This may be a technique I incorporate more into our dining after the arrival of the baby. Of course, it works best with one dish wonders so you are not so distracted by more than two pots.

Compost

Last week I took some time on a dry day to harvest the compost. We use Green Cone composters and I switch between two, filling one, while the other digests. I managed to get over 20 gallons of soil from it.

The harvest was some wonderfully rich soil. Only pistachio shells take longer than a year to break down.


I have taken to putting pistachio shells in the yard waste each week as Cedar Grove crushes the waste promoting faster decomp. Now I only need to wait for Tilth's plant sale.

In other garden news, the garlic is plugging along just fine and about 6-8" high.

Tapenade

We were headed to Matt and Shari's on Friday for a pot luck. Jennifer and I didn't really have any ideas for what to bring. I picked up some items earlier in the day to give us some options and this is what I came up with.

I have made tapenade in the past, although I do not know how traditional I make it. I like to finely chop kalamata olives, sun dried tomatoes and roasted peppers to make a tapenade. We had two out of the three and I proceeded to soak the tomatoes while I started chopping the olives. I didn't add anything to the concoction although I did briefly consider some balsamic vinegar or minced garlic.

The twist was that I took the tapenade and mixed it into some softened goat cheese. We brought a pack of crackers to spread it on, and that was our dish. It got devoured, but not sure how well it was liked. I think it came out OK. It would have been nice to put more time and effort into a more elaborate dish.

The Stumbling Goat Bistro

The cat is out of the bag!

The Stumbling Goat Bistro calls itself Seattle's Best Kept Secret on their website. I'm inclined to agree as many people who I talk to about the Stumbling Goat have never even heard of it before. Yet, the restaurant is probably one of the best in Seattle. One of the best I have been to for sure.

Jennifer and I went over a week ago to celebrate coming to term. And perhaps a sort of Valentine's Day dinner as well. We called it the last time we may dine out before the baby. We had attempted to go on Friday February 11, but the place was full, and we were not surprised. We came back mid-week and early and had no problem getting a table. The last time we were here was for my birthday, possibly a year earlier, or perhaps two. I don't recall us making reservations, and we sat at one of the bistro tables near the bar.

Sitting at the bar waiting for a table, turned us onto something we did not previously know about The Stumbling Goat. They have great cocktails. This time around Jennifer wasn't imbibing, but I couldn't resist and got the Kraken. This was presumably made with Kraken rum and turned out to be something like a dark and stormy on steroids. (I do remember from the cocktail menu that molasses was added.) The bartender concocted a mocktail for Jennifer. They have a really nice margarita here, but damp and cold of February in Seattle didn't lend itself to that particular drink.

Jennifer ordered two dishes off the menu, while both of mine came from the specials. Jennifer started with mushroom soup and had the winter truffle risotto for the main course. Both were good, but neither really suited my fancy. I had parsnip soup as my appetizer and rabbit as the main course. I really enjoyed the soup. The rabbit was great, but perhaps not exactly what I wanted that evening. It came with roasted root veggies that were also fantastic.

After that we decided to stay for dessert. Jennifer got the chocolate pudding and I had the apple cobbler. I don't recall tasting Jennifer's pudding, but she thought it delicious. The biscuit on the cobbler was seasoned with sage, and absolutely wonderful. I think it was the first time I ever enjoyed biscuit and fruit equally on a cobbler. (I'm usually in it for the fruit.)

A week after I discussed the trip with a few friends. One had never heard of the restaurant, while the other was a fan. And who wouldn't be? The Stumbling Goat is quintessential Seattle, from the name, to all the locally sourced in season foods.

Mac and Cheese

I'm not really good at making mac and cheese. I have never used a recipe, and always just make a cheese sauce that starts as a roux. Often the sauce is too thick to make a nice mac and cheese. Always, there is not enough sauce for the amount of pasta I make.

Last weekend Jennifer went to sleep saying she didn't want more soup for dinner. She wanted to eat with a fork. Looking through the pantry I found enough ingredients to make mac and cheese. Well, at least the way I make it.

While I did not try anything different in the making of the sauce, I did a few things that may not be so traditional with mac and cheese. One is that I added broccoli, which is a nice nutritional addition. And everybody knows that broccoli and cheese are friends. The other is that I added hominy. This was inspired by Beecher's Santa Fe Mac and Cheese, a dish I had never actually tasted. I used Teasdale Gold hominy which I thought had a wonderful flavor. This addition of hominy was also spurred by my recent use of hominy in chili and I thought I should try to use hominy more.

I used a reduced fat habanero cheddar from Cabot. There was at least one issue with using this cheese, and perhaps two. The known issue is that the mac and cheese had a little too much of the heat that has no flame. I recommended to Jennifer to add sour cream to hers to help quell the heat. Still edible in my opinion, but I'm different than most people. The second issue comes from the fact that the cheese was reduced fat. In an effort to stretch a half pound of cheese in the sauce over a half pound of pasta and a can of hominy, I used a lot of milk in the sauce which the cheese did not melt so smoothly into. Not sure if this was my overuse of milk, or the nature of the cheese. Anyway, in typical fashion there really was not enough sauce, but a gratin makes everything more delicious and attractive.

Sweet Mustard

I made mustard last year for the first time. It is really quite easy, although I don't know if it is cost effective. Not to mention, I just made a standard "brown" mustard and it was plenty spicy.

After making my whole wheat pretzels, I searched some local grocery stores for a good sweet mustard. I think they might have what I was looking for at the Bavarian Meats Deli in the Market, but I didn't have time to get there. Unfortunately Seattle just is not New Jersey when it comes to mustard shopping and the choices were fairly limited. Whole Foods had some interesting choices, but I wasn't willing to spend over five dollars for a jar of mustard. So I looked at some ingredients and decided to make my own.

Due to my current no recipes lifestyle, I couldn't figure out what recipe I used to make mustard in the past. I once again did an online search and it started coming back to me. Most mustard recipes call for soaking the seeds in vinegar overnight before preparing the mustard. I had an hour. I decided to give it a go anyway. A sweet mustard at Whole Foods used balsamic vinegar. I used that instead of my normal cider vinegar. I added a touch of red wine and rice vinegar too, as I was slightly afraid of the mustard tasting too much like a balsamic vinaigrette. After soaking for barely and hour I put the concoction in a food processor and started to mill. I added about two tablespoons of molasses and continued to add more and more balsamic vinegar until it got to a consistency that I thought correct. Oh, and I also added 2-3 teaspoons of brown sugar. I wasn't super happy with it, but when I ate it with the pretzel at the party, it went well together. Good thing too, because we brought about a cup of it home.

Honey Whole Wheat Pretzels

I had a craving for whole wheat pretzels. Soft home made style pretzels. Jennifer is usually the pretzel maker in the house, but she makes a standard AP flour pretzel. (And they are good.)

Since the Super Bowl was this Sunday, I figured it would be a good opportunity to attempt some whole wheat pretzels. I searched the Internet for recipes and wasn't too pleased. Most recipes had a combo of cake flour and whole wheat. Some had weird ingredients (like added wheat gluten.) I thought I settled on one until I realized they wanted you to make the dough in a bread machine!?! I searched again. Then I found this recipe. This would be my starting point for home made whole wheat pretzels.

First, there was no way I was going to use Splenda as a sweetener. I immediately changed that to honey. Second, I doubled the recipe as it didn't seem this recipe would make enough. Third, I made the recipe with only whole wheat flour and no cake or AP flour. And finally, I substituted the baking soda/water dredge with a true boil, like a real pretzel.

One issue I had when combining the ingredients was that our honey was a bit old and crystallized. I'm not sure if this was the reason, but I had to add a fair amount of water to the dough to get it to stick together. I probably added a little too much as it became quite sticky. I let it rise in the oven for an hour without modifying it any further. Assembly went well enough as I created very home made looking pretzels. And soon I was boiling the pretzels. I used The Joy of Cooking as a guide to the boiling. Although the four cups of water was fairly low in the pot I used, and it was hard to tell when the pretzels started to float. So I may not have boiled them as long as I would have liked. Also, the water level was even lower when I made the second batch, which didn't make things easy.

Due to the all whole wheat nature of the pretzels, I also felt it was hard to tell when they were "brown" and done baking. I pretty much took them out at the end of the eight minutes, but they may have been able to go longer. I tasted one right out of the oven and thought it was delicious. I do feel they need a good sweet mustard, which we didn't have in the house. I used a little course ground mustard and that wasn't exactly right for it.

They were gobbled up at the super bowl party so I guess others liked them. Not really sure as I didn't do any polling. Unfortunately they got a little soggy overnight and were not nearly as good as when the first one came out of the oven the previous day. Jennifer's comment is that she thought nothing should be made entirely out of whole wheat flour. Oh well.

Taste of India

Jennifer and I went here a few years ago. We went again with another couple this past Saturday.

My memory of the first time going to Taste of India was that I was not impressed. The place always has long lines and people waiting to get in. My vague memory was that it was not worth it.

Upon returning, we arrived around 5pm and didn't have any difficulty getting a table to seat five plus one infant. There was a free appetizer which was potato pakora, and then we ordered. The pakora were just OK, and truthfully, I don't need to be eating battered, fried potatoes before my meal. But I had one anyway if only to sample the chutneys that came with it. (mint and tamarind) Jennifer often thinks you can get an idea of how good an Indian restaurant is by sampling the chutneys. The idea being if the chutney is spicy and fresh, then so will the main dishes. I don't think this always translates, but I do get high hopes when tasting delicious chutney before the main meal comes out. Once again though, there was nothing special about the chutney.

A nice element of the menu at Taste of India is that they actually have a spicy scale, similar to Thai restaurants in Seattle. And this scale went well with the dish that I ordered, Madras Chili Masala. I ordered it in "hottest" form and while it was not super hot, it had a good amount of heat and at least four whole dried chilies in the dish when it arrived. The smoky flavor of the chiles made the dish and I was happy to have ordered what I did. On a related note, I ordered my dish with paneer and I wished it had some veggies. Most dishes on the menu at Taste of India start with the least expensive variation of vegetables. Then they increase in price through other options like paneer, chicken, beef and lamb. It would seem to me that they should all have veggies in them, but you only get the veggies with the vegetable option. Jennifer asked for both cheese and veggies and received some cauliflower and some potatoes. Better than nothing I guess.

The garlic naan and onion kulcha were good, but I didn't really taste any other dishes, so I cannot comment. I think Jennifer was not super impressed with her dish, but she sampled mine and could see why I would like it.

On the other hand, service was fantastic, and we probably had a whole crew addressing the needs of our table. If you order Chai, it keeps coming, and the staff also keeps the your water topped off, so be aware if you don't want to drink too much Chai. Prices are a little higher than most Indian restaurants too, so be aware when going.

Tuna Fish Salad

This really is not a recipe type item. But when my mom-in-law was here recently she made tuna fish salad and I was surprised by the ingredients, or lack thereof. She only used mayonnaise and a little red wine vinegar. I was surprised.

For the longest time when I have made tuna fish salad, the dressing has essentially been tartar sauce. Which means I have almost always added chopped onion to the fish and then mixed mayonnaise and sweet pickle relish to finish it out. I was fairly happy with that for many years.

Recently I don't use the onion unless we have a suitable sized onion in the backyard. (You see, once I start cutting an onion, the whole thing goes into what I am making, so I try to avoid giant onions.) In recent years I have added Dijon mustard to the mix and sometimes I leave out the relish for some chopped hot peppers. (Pickled, from a jar.) This still adds some vinegar and gives some nice flavor to the dressing. I think I got the idea from the A&S Pork Store. I believe they had a sandwich called the "Hot Tuna" which I would order from time to time. That's the sort of sandwich restaurant you just don't find on the west coast.

Vegetarian Chili

From what I understand of the history of chili, is that it was mostly a meat dish and the beans were added later. Of course this wouldn't make sense with a vegetarian chili, so I rely heavily on beans.

Truth be told I used to be a big user of the Fantastic Foods vegetarian chili. We purchased it in bulk and always had at least a pint of it in the house for making chili on short notice. In the last few years I've moved away from using it because I just felt like I was not making my own. Even though I would modify it heavily, I never really adjusted the seasoning.

Before Jennifer went to sleep this morning she asked for something hearty for dinner. I didn't think potato leek soup was what she had in mind, so I decided to make some chili. We had some Light Life Tex Mex Grounds that I was looking to use, so that became the meat. I was thinking of leaving out a meat substitute, but I know we needed to use the grounds. I also thought of adding the new Light Life smoked sausage which we had recently acquired on sale.

I still don't do my own seasoning for the chili, although perhaps just a little bit. I mostly sauteed onion in olive oil and then added some spinach. (This is my new effort to hide spinach or kale in any meal where I can hide it.) I then put fajita seasoning on it which I buy from World Spice. I added the grounds at this point and then some of my pickled peppers from the garden, about two jalapenos worth. Then I added three cans of beans, one each of red kidney, pinto and black. I added a large can of hominy and then a large can of crushed tomatoes and let it simmer a bit. Before simmering it had a little too much tomato bite, but that mellowed out over time. I also added perhaps a tablespoon or two of Zane and Zach's Chipotle Sauce. I felt like my weak PNW jalapenos really didn't add too much heat or flavor, so it needed a little kick. I could have used a dried chipotle, but I really didn't think of it.

When plating I put a little cheese on top of mine. Jennifer likes sour cream and cheese. Although I think that has as much to do with dropping the heat of the peppers as it does her enjoying dairy products. If we have sweet onions in the garden, I'll often use one in the chili and reserve some chopped raw for garnish.

Skyway Bar and Grill, Zig Zag Oregon

Typing the heading of this entry made me realize I don't include locations of the restaurants when I post. From now forward, I'll only post the location if it is outside of Seattle.

After climbing Mount Hood, we were looking to get some food because getting back to Seattle around 9pm was not going to be conducive to eating at home. Driving through Government Camp didn't show anything interesting and we decided to give the Skyway Bar and Grill a try. From the outside it looks like a typical dive type BBQ joint. But upon entering we found it had more character and some Oregon style.

The waiter brought out the menus and we looked them over for a while before he returned. He then told us of the soup of the day, and explained that all menu items were made in house. (Or "from scratch" as he said.) The restaurant smokes their own salmon and cures their own bacon and pastrami as well. After that description we needed more time. House cured bacon sounded delicious, but a BLT wasn't the appropriate dinner after what we just did. BBQ items sounded good too. What should we do?

I was lured to the Reuben sandwich due to the house cured pastrami and scratch made sauerkraut and dressing, in addition to the restaurant's use of Painted Hills natural beef. We decided to get a large mac & cheese for the table with bacon in it to get an taste of both of those dishes. Matt got pulled pork with mashers and the beets. Josh opted for a brisket sandwich with no sides. I also got a side of baked beans.

The food was delicious. The flavors were fairly standard, but brighter and better. And I would definitely recommend the Skyway to people visiting Mount Hood or heading out to Eastern Oregon from the Portland area. Heck, I'd recommend them even if the food was fairly average because I think it is good to patronize a place that does everything in house. (I believe the waiter said the only things they don't make are the cheese, milk and butter.) They even had BBQ tofu as a vegetarian option not often seen in a BBQ joint! The one complaint I have about Skyway was our waiter. While I found him authentic and enthusiastic about the food he had some service issues. Maybe it was due to it being a crowded Saturday night? Anyway, he initially brought out the wrong dish for Matt and he kept promising to bring some samples of BBQ sauce that were never delivered.

Cassoulet

I had been craving a hearty bean soup. Jennifer and I are usually makers of lentil soups and other varieties, but I wanted a bean soup. While at Trader Joe's I picked up three cans of Cannellini beans with no specific plan for them. When I got home I realized we had nothing planned for dinner and thought about making a white bean soup. Then it came to me about making a cassoulet.

I did a quick search of the Internet to find a vegetarian cassoulet recipe. A bunch came up and I searched through them to find which I had the ingredients for and which I could make quickly. This ruled out recipes with dried beans. I noticed a few were similar, and I believe this is because the recipe was taken from Gourmet Magazine. However, I never saw it directly from the magazine and used the original magazine version modified from here. (Meaning I didn't add the tomato products.) It just so happened that the recipe called for three cans of beans and that is what I had purchased earlier in the day.

Everything else we either had in the house (carrots, celery) or in the yard (leeks, parsley, thyme.) Prep time was fairly quick and the cooking time was short enough as well. However, I think of cassoulet as being a thick dish; a stew rather than a soup. I found that with the one quart of broth (I used mushroom,) that I had to simmer it with the lid off to get the consistency that I desired. The first portion of the simmer was with the lid half off. I skipped the bread crumb topping as we did not have a suitable bread in the house, and I didn't really feel like it would add much nutritionally.

In addition, I thought it would be great to add some kale, but we didn't have any leafy greens in the house, so I skipped it. Traditionally cassoulet is always made with meat, but we opted not to have any meat substitutes. I thought some Fakin' Bacon would have worked well to add some smokiness to the dish. With all the beans the dish hardly needs more protein, but I did feel like it lacked something. Jennifer had a vegetarian version at Tilth last year where I believe they smoked the beans in a smokehouse first before making the dish. I don't have that capacity, so it didn't happen. I ended up adding a little dijon mustard to my bowl when eating it. Otherwise I found it to be a little too plain. Perhaps the modification the other blogger did adding tomatoes would have done the trick. But by no means would I be calling it cassoulet at that point. Even still, it was a creamy, hearty dish to have on a rainy winter day in Seattle.

The Family Donut

The other day coming back from our walk we passed by the Family Donut. It is our local doughnut shop and one of the best in Seattle. And to me Seattle is a doughnut town. Perhaps it is because of the coffee culture? There are several good independent doughnut shops in Seattle including a vegan one. While I do enjoy a good doughnut, I do not eat them very often as they are not usually the best food for you. That and I rarely eat breakfast outside of my house. Doughnuts and restaurant breakfasts are the food you eat when you have out of town guests.

You need only to look on Yelp for the insight that The Family Donut is a good shop. The important thing is that I think they make the best apple fritter in Seattle. Which pretty much means I think they make the best apple fritter I have ever had. The apple fritter has chunks of apple (which many others lack) and is cooked well done, crispy on the outside and nice and soft on the inside. If and when I get an item from The Family Donut the fritter is it. Although I do supplement it with another doughnut at times.

By the time we were walking in the shop the other day it was late afternoon. They were sold out of apple fritters. I wasn't having a doughnut, but Jennifer wanted a fritter. She settled for their enormous bear claw. The bear claw is nice, but not on the same level as the fritter. It is essentially a jelly doughnut shaped like a (grizzly) bear claw with chunky apple cinnamon filling, much like an apple pie filling. It is good, but not great like the fritter.

Their other doughnuts are good too, but for the life of me I could not tell you why I would prefer a jelly from Family Donut to that of Top Pot or MightyO. Perhaps I wouldn't. But their cake and standard doughnuts are good too. I feel they are similar to satisfying the crave that Krispy Kreme does, but I wouldn't say they are like Krispy Kreme doughnuts. They are less expensive too in most cases. Speaking of cases, they usually have boxes of day olds for $3/dozen. That is a pretty good deal in these parts.

Not related to their doughnuts, but back when Jennifer was drinking coffee, this was not a place she liked to go. She is somewhat of a coffee snob, and does not enjoy the coffee served at The Family Donut. Since I am not a coffee drinker, I'm going to guess and say their drip coffee is more like Dunkin Donuts and less like Starbucks.

Garlic

The garlic I planted back in October has started to sprout. Of course, just in time for the cold snap we've had for the last week. Some are already two inches high, but most are just poking through the surface. I planted more this year (20?) than I have in the past hoping for a great crop next year. Last year's crop didn't fare too well and we only had a week or two of garlic before we had to start buying from the store again. It looks like all have not sprouted, but I'm hoping this is just because of temps and planting rather than squirrels running off with the cloves. I actually laid chicken wire down on the bed to prevent squirrels from digging them up as they have a tendency to do.

Thai Fusion Bistro

I want to specify that this is the restaurant in Thornton Place, and not any other restaurant with a similar name. And while I did not scour the menu, I found no reason for the restaurant to have fusion in the title. The dishes seemed to be straightforward Thai.

We decided to have dinner out on New Year's Eve because we didn't have much in the pantry and many stores were closed, so buying new/more groceries seemed a little unlikely. We opted to head to the mall where we could get cheap Thai from the food court. But when we arrived at the mall things were looking a little closed. By the time we reached the food court, we were told they were closing in five minutes and we opted to leave. Jennifer remembered that the Thai Fusion Bistro was across the street at the apartment complex and we headed over.

It was crowded and we got the last table. Fortunately they were serving a regular menu and not some type of holiday menu. Jennifer was excited and ordered Pad Woonsen which is a dish she likes but often does not see on the menu in Thai restaurants. I went with the Pad See Ew. This restaurant uses a 1-4 heat scale and Jennifer ordered a two due to the fact they had chile sauces to bring to the table. I ordered a three because I usually order one under the top because I know I will add chile at the table.

Before the food came out our waitress brought over a plate with four containers on it. I was in luck! My favorite sauce, the soy/chile (with lime) was there. There was also crushed dried chile, pickled chiles (in vinegar) and a Sriracha type sauce that tasted "house made." I was immediately pleased. Our food came out not too long after considering how packed the restaurant was. I tasted mine before applying any hot sauces and was pleased. Both Jennifer and I found our dishes to have more flavor than many other Thai restaurants we have visited in Seattle. The Pad See Ew was distinctive and makes we want to come back for Pad Kee Mao which in many restaurants are prepared too similar to detect a difference.

I, of course applied copious amounts of hot sauces to my dish anyway because I love them. Jennifer found the "two" to be just hot enough and only used a small amount of the Sriracha because I raved about the bright flavors and the "homemade" taste.

While I love a good fried tofu, I have to say that I was interested in the tofu they prepared for our dishes. Instead of deep frying the tofu in cubes, it appears they fry it in sheets and then cut it up. While I imagine this to be healthier (with less fried surfaces) it was not the wonderful cubed fried tofu I am used to. I also wonder if fresh tofu is an option as I did not specify fried when I ordered.

Also the prices were reasonable and we enjoyed the place. Thai Fusion Bistro may have become our "go to" Thai restaurant for now.

Hot milk and mini wheats

I admit, I like cold cereal. I probably like hot cereal better, but rarely find the time to make it. We don't own a microwave, and instant oatmeal isn't really worth making. This usually means 5-20 minutes of stove top preparation to have a hot breakfast. I'm the type of person who likes to get breakfast out of the way and get on with my day. So usually I opt for cold cereal. Although lately I cannot get enough of Bob's Red Mill Right Stuff Cereal.

Possibly my favorite cold cereal type is mini wheats. I say type because I am currently eating some Kellogg's variation that is made with oats. I also like Wheetabix and their mini variants. Although typically I eat the Trader Joe's versions, my favorite is usually the Kashi Cinnamon Harvest.

Some time last winter I thought it would be nice to heat milk before applying it to mini wheats. After that thought I had seen a commercial from Kellogg's advertise this method of serving to mothers. I got around to trying it the other evening as this type of cereal is just as good of a snack as it is a breakfast. I was disappointed. The hot milk made the cereal instantly soggy. And the warmed milk didn't really add anything. I don't know what I was expecting or hoping for, but it will probably be a while before I try this again.