little ms foodie

jrt, are those Palace Kitchen coasters I see??? Too funny as tonight Dayne made Wok seared Albacore with coconut curry from Tom's Seattle Kitchen book. I know this isn't traditional Thai but damn it was good!

Beautiful scallops Bill, wow!!!! Tonight the husband made wok seared albacore with coconut curry the recipe is from Tom Douglas' Seattle Kitchen which I have to say has had nothing but winners in it! Served with Chateau St. Michelle Dr Loosen Riesling- wow, this is a very good wine!

vengroff your bread looks like the cover of my Bouchon cookbook! very pretty!

Thanks for bringing this thread up, Della and I took the Cassoulet class last week and was looking to see if anything had been written on CC but didn't find this. Anyway the Cassoulet class was my first one and I will definately be taking more. I loved the way we were made to feel as if we were cooking together in a friends house. And Chef Gabe is so patient and good at multi tasking. I agree that I wish I could have done hands on in all areas of the class but they do let you jump around a bit once your role is finished. and let me say the Cassoulet was fantastic!! Chef even let us make a few more things as conversations brough up ideas. We made parsley juice and a dessert of shortbread cookies with black pepper creme anglaise and a port reduction sauce. I appreciate that Chef Gabe gets excited and tries to teach as much as you are willing to learn. oh, and we used the andouille sausage that the first charcuterie class made!

I'm really enjoying your blog andrea! The pictures are fabulous, thank you!

Sorry, waves, I haven't found the bottle. I looked at Silverlake Wines and Wades Wines in Los Angeles. Didn't have time to make it the Red Carpet. I was amazed that out of Wades' huge selection, he only carried three rieslings. Huh. They didn't even warrant a whole shelf. Maybe I can pick up one up at Equus in Seattle this week. I'm traveling a lot this month, but I'll keep looking! ← In Seattle they carry it at Pete's on Eastlake. I actually found it at a QFC here, not in the Riesling section but in the France section.

I think all sauces should dance in your mouth but mignonette is the correct term, it means pepper sauce or pepper vinaigrette in french. Nice to hear Blue Water is doing well, I ate there about a year ago and my friend and I loved it.

Nice recovery bilrus!!! Tonight I made canneli beans with sage, bacon and sausages. Drizzled with truffle oil and served with a nice salad of red lettuce, cucumbers, scallions, grape tomatoes and parm with a whole mustard seed vinaigrette. Drank a Renwood Barbera with this (was a WOW a month ago.

Thank you!! fried wontons and scallion cakes pork fried rice

We made a little mish mash of asian food last night and among them was a nice pot of tom kai gai I had originally found the same online recipe as Patti and after reading some of the feedback I tweaked it. It came out great, next time we will add more chilis but other than that the flavor was delish!

yes, this is definately the case but not really at the wish of the Chef. What other restaurant would close at 10pm on a Fri night?? We apologized for being loud and the staff replied that it was fun as most of their clients were between 60 and 210!

Why haven't I heard of this restaurant before??? I heard that Chef Brian recently did a 'Gypsy' dinner and the individual crocks of cassoulet was a huge hit. So while at Improptu wine bar with friends last night we decided to walk over and give it a try. It was 9pm and they were suppose to close at 10pm but they were more than gracious and sat 6 of us as the last of their customers left for the night. I spoke to Chef Brian for a bit, he is quite a spark and truely loves what he is doing. He was so nice, answering questions and chatting up everyone. We had such items as chicken liver pate (fantastic!), onion soup (the broth was WOW!!!), cassoulet (everything it's cracked up to be) duck breast in 5 spice and orange (they raved!!), etc. etc. Cheese course was the only 'o.k' desserts were great! At 11:30 when we left Chef Brian had already gone home and again the staff never once made us feel bad for being there (and dense as we are we felt fine! ) Prices are really good $15-23 entrees Wine were priced extremely fairly. Who else has eaten here or knows more about this Chef who if I ran into him on the street would think he was 23 and heading to a punk rock concert??

Anne Amie

Great! Well we paired it with our little Asian Feast which was very nice, none of the food was spicy so it worked great for the Alsacian Riesling which is much drier than most. I liked it. It's very pale in color, much lighter than straw. Immediately I got hints of subtle floral. Nice balance of sugar and acidity. This wine would be very easy to put with different foods. It's very light, both in the taste and the alcohol. My husband says that he likes it slightly warm vs. cold (as we serve most whites but most don't hold up to the room temp). He thought it had a hint of lemongrass in the flavor but that could be the food pairings!

oh man, I would take a table at any of the above. And Jin....that last menu stole my heart!!! Dinner tonight was influenced by a bit of pantry cooking that quickly turned into our 'TOUR OF ASIA' With the left over BBQ pork from the char siu bao cookoff cookoff we made fried wontons with a yummy dipping sauce. Also on this platter are scallion pancakes, they were ok but I will continue to look for a better recipe and method. Then some steamed baby bok choy drizzled with sesame oil and seeds and a bit of salt along with some home made char siu bao. Entering our Thai course my first stab at Tom Kai Gai (YUM!) Back to China we finished with a pork fried rice All this was served with the WOW Trimbach Riesling from Alsace Dessert I picked up at the Asian market while shopping, I like to grab something that looks cute. Here's what the box looked like: (if anyone knows what it says please speak up!) and what was inside... how cute are these!!! There are two trays Chufi- we just got the blue platter to match our dishes today and I thought of you! How funny as I really don't even know you!

I just found this today but it is a 2001. Is it ok if I still say a bit after we drink it tonight??

Diana, thanks for blogging! it's been a treat to read. And a treat to see the sun and the oranges and herbs, etc!! CUTE picture!!!

oh good, I ended up with Kikkoman Mirin. It has manjo also written on it next to some Japanese writing. yellow lable primarily. thanks jin, I was so worried I was buying the equivilant of a chardonnay cooking wine! eek! edited to ask: should this be stored in the fridge after it's opened?

I was shopping for Mirin today and had a hard time. Is it actually called cooking wine?? I have always been opposed to buying cooking wine but that is all I saw, in the aisles with the soy. I couldn't locate any in the wine section.

I used this method at the store, remembered it from reading the site!

Anita thanks for the link on the good brands. I was shopping at Uwajimaya today and I remembered the pictures and was able to get some good stuff. We are experiementing this weekend and next week!

That is an awesome idea!

I also forgot to let everyone know that the Cheese Cellar has wine tastings each Thurs. Buy your cheese and taste some vino!

I like the individual molten cake idea! Also for a salad what about a nice butter lettuce greens with a piece of goat cheese that is breaded and toasted up? Whenever I serve that people always feel it's very special. Or maybe do a frisee with little quail eggs, cute and different! It is all sounding divine Chufi! Your husband is lucky!!

The apartment has happy hour from 5-7pm with martini, champagne cocktail and infused vodka specials $4-5 a small selection of HH plates for $5 Very cute inside, and small!