kiliki

Oh, I know! It's just a shame if they thought they HAD to experience the parks that way.

It's so easy to get away from that though! Most people do congregate at the fenced viewpoints, short paved trails, etc, but it's very easy and rewarding to get away from all that on a hike, and really get into the landscape that others only see from their car or from behind the fence.

What a nice trip report--thanks. Funny, at first I thought how could that be possible! Southern Utah is so wonderful! Then I remembered how during the end of my trips to various places in Europe I've started to tire of beautiful medieval hill towns, cathedrals, museums, castles...too much of any one thing can make our eyes glaze over.

Okay so here it is again: I went for the first time while visiting a friend in Denver a couple weekends ago. We had excellent service—our server noticed our wine was off though we hadn’t through half a glass! She opened a new bottle then let us smell the difference. The food was good but nothing mind blowing—none of the eight dishes we had were truly delicious, but they were mostly good. I had mushroom flan, tortellini, grouper and a coffee shake. The grouper was cooked, as all their fish is, medium rare. The thick part was gummy and weird, as you might imagine medium rare white fish would be. Yuk. But the server couldn’t have been nicer, and she offered to take it and have it cooked more. My friend had the (off the bone) pork leg, a kind of caprese salad, a pasta with mussels (the mussels were not as good as I’m used to here in WA, but I buy them from the grower at the farmer’s market and what did I expect eating a mussel in CO?) and I can’t remember what for dessert. We both agreed that it was a nice evening, but neither of us would go out of our way to go there again.

Interesting...I posted a review in answer to your question last night and now it is gone!

Will you actually be in Seattle? UPS in in Tacoma. I know there's at least one Tacoma person here, so you might retitle the thread to get their attention.

Hard Rock Cafes are still in business??? Who knew. [Moderator note: This topic continues here, [seattle] Farewell & Welcome: Closings, Transformations, Openings (Part 2)]

Sounds fun! I would probably include the (Fresh) shrimp spring rolls from either Tamarind Tree or Green Leaf, the ones with the crunchy center. You can order them to go. They are my favorite thing to eat in this whole city, I think. Oysters in the bar at Elliot's, especially during happy hour when they are cheap, would be a good addition too. In the bar there's no problem with a quick bite though on busy summer days it can take a while to get your oystes. I personally don't think Molly Moon's is worth going out of my way for but I'm assuming you've been and like it.

Thank you so much, Canknucklehead!!

That is what we've done that has taken 2 hours. Do you think that was an anomoly, then? It shouldn't take that long? The route goes right through downtown and we get stopped at every light.

If you wanted to eat good Chinese driving between Whistler and Seattle, without detouring too much from the fastest route (TransCanada Hwy/Hwy 15 east of the city/truck crossing at Blaine), where would you stop? We drive from Seattle to Whistler once or twice a year and I like to take the opportunity to eat great Chinese in the Vancouver/Richmond area along the way. But, this means a LONG detour off the route I mentioned above. Last time we stopped at Chen's Shanghai in Richmond on the way home, and we spent 2 hours crawling through Vancouver (from the exit off the TransCanada north of Vancouver, through the city, to Richmond) to get there. It was painful. So: Do I have any decent options that would only be a short detour off of my route? Next time we'll be driving up after work and staying in North Vancouver--anything there, or a short drive from 1? Or maybe I'm not seeing the best way to get from Richmond to north of Vancouver--is there another way besides going right through downtown, getting stuck at light after light? Thanks for any ideas.

(Also posted on mouthfuls) We went to Olivar on Capitol Hill last night and I can't say enough good things about this place. In terms of pure delicious-ness, this was the best meal I've had in recent memory. Chef Phillippe is from the Loire Valley but his grandmother was Catalan and he loves all things Spanish. We had four (generously sized) small plates and two large and I wanted to lick almost every plate. The (fried) gnocchi with fava beans and the seared scallops with very thin, crispy slices of sausage were absolute knockouts. The rabbit with papardelle and the beet/goat cheese/arugula salad were fantastic and the gazpacho was very good; the seafood/rice dish was good though didn't quite wow me like the other dishes. They had kir royales on their specials board and is there anything nicer than a kir royale with a lemon twist on a hot day? The wine list if very reasonably priced and heavy on the Spanish wines as you might imagine. The two of us had 4 "small" plates, 2 large, 2 kir royales and 2 glasses or wine for $110, which we thought was a very good value. It was actually too much food--we couldn''t quite finish our large plates. The staff was knowledgable and the service great, though we would have prefered more time inbetween our 3 courses (they probably think most Americans don't). Chef Phillippe came out and talked to diners and was such a warm, friendly person. It's in a beautiful old building across from the Harvard Exit theater. I cannot wait to go back.

How funny, I was just searching threads here to figure out if my husband and I want to spend OUR 40th birthdays in March (3 days apart) at Aspen, and so far Montagna sounded like the place to go. Thanks especially to John for keeping this thread updated. We will already be in CO, at Copper Mountain, for a family reunion/ski trip, and I'm just trying to figure out if its worth heading to Aspen after that for our birthday celebration (it's spring break and everything is extra-pricey). My initial feeling was that for the same $$ we could have a weekend in NYC and really eat well, but it sounds like there are quite a few good choices in Aspen (I had figured it would be largely bad touristy food, but it sounds like I'm wrong).

Russets. The Cook's Country potato salad that is in that blog calls for Yukons, though.

That reminds me, the CI American Potato Salad is fantastic. Putting a couple tbs of vinegar on the potatoes while they are still hot makes such a difference.

I've made jam with powdered and liquid pectin (and no pectin) and haven't noticed drastic differences in sugar amounts. But, I can't tell you for sure that your formula will work with liquid pectin and every fruit--I'd look at the chart in the liquid pectin box and use your judgement according to what that says.

I made the berry shortcakes for a potluck recently and as always (I've made them many times before) people raved. They are the best shortcakes I've ever had, and for potlucks I make mini sized biscuits, split them, fill the middle with the whipped cream and the berries, then put the top neatly back on. They look so pretty and people snatch them up. I can't remember what issue they appeared in but they are also in Baking Illustrated. It occurs to me all of my favorite berry recipes are from CI. The other sure fire hit--the one I can't bring anywhere without people asking for the recipe--is the cookie dough fruit cobbler recipe from August 1996.

Funny, I do my "basic" shopping--canned beans, canned tomatoes, cooking oils, any pantry staple actually, plus cheese/dairy--at Whole Foods (produce comes from the farmer's market, fish from the fish market). Their prices on their house brand stuff are WAY cheaper than my local natural food co-op or my neighborhood grocery and as cheap at TJs, and their cheese prices are better than most other places I go (yes TJ's cheese is cheaper but I don't like the quality/selection). So WF doesn't actually have to convince me that they can be an economical choice--I already think they are. I'm happy to post my receipt next time I go.

I made that blueberry pie last night and was very impressed. The filling isn't runny but it isn't gelatinous either! It is just the right texture (and flavor). This was my first time using that vodka crust and it was great as well!

You add liquid pectin after the fruit and sugar macerate, so it wouldn't be too late to add it.

I've read that rotating tomatoes is necessary, too--garden experts seem pretty adamant about this--but so far I haven't done it. I'm like you, Eden, in that they always get my sunniest spot, and there really isn't any other good place for them. I suppose I could put them in containers one year to give the raised beds a break, and just supplement by buying at the farmer's market. I've never done much fall/winter gardening--what have people had the most success with?

This year I've been using Linda Amendt's Blue Ribbon Preserves: Secrets to Award Winning Jams, Jellies, Marmalades and More, and I've been very impressed so far. I've had little luck with the Christine Ferber recipes (Sony, I can't get them up to temperature to set either!) but haven't been impressed with the standard powdered pectin recipes I've found. Amendt macerates the fruit like Ferber does, but uses liquid pectin, and it's worked great--the strawberry preserves and cherry preserves I've made are fantastic and beautiful. I don't think I ever realized what preserves actually were--WHOLE fruit, as opposed to crushed (jam). I can't wait to try more of her recipes--I've also been very disapointed with so many of the pickle recipes I've tried, and she has some that sound fabulous.

I got my first tomatoes, from "Glacier" that had a Wall O'Water on it until June.

I really enjoyed both the Laos and the Saudi Arabia shows. It's good to see him doing interesting, informative, non-cheesy shows again! The clips of fan videos were hilarious, especially when he said he would never, ever do a show on Denver.

I don't know if they do heart shaped cakes, or if they deliver, but I think Bakery Nouveau is the best in Seattle, so I'd give them a call and see. (They generally do somewhat refined cakes, though--not the typical buttercream frosted layer cakes). http://www.bakerynouveau.com/ Dahlia Bakery and Macrina would be other good picks.