little ms foodie

For breakfast we are making apple donuts with one of the huge apples we picked up yesterday. Super easy.....core and slice and apple, mix up some pancake batter- make it a little thin and add some fresh nutmeg and cinnamon.... Our weapon of choice, the DeLonghi cool touch fryer A little batter, a bit of hot oil..... Drain, cool and powdered sugar! Apple donuts!!!

My 1997 Cook's Illustrated May/June says that you can use 3 1/2 sheets gelatin to one package powdered geletin (volume = 1 tbsp of powdered) ←

Dayne made me a yummy cafe au lait this morning, I'm sipping on it while I work on the blog We are going to make breakfast in a bit. mighty quinn it's true although at my local market they are $6/lb. still pretty good hu? Should I admit that I've cooked with them so much this fall that I'm tired of chanterelles! crazy!! bloviatrix only the vendors selling expensive shellfish, salmon, meat, etc. take credit cards. We don't bring ours...to dangerous!

Good morning everyone! Dinner last night was fantastic!! Not only is it one of my favorite restaurants but my favorite bartender is now working as a waiter there! How does it get better than that?? Della and I arrived about 7:30, they don't take ressies so we had about a 40 min. wait. No problem! We each had a glass of champagne while we waited. The menu is divided into Vegetable/Grains, Charcuterie, Fish, Meat, Cheese and Dessert. We picked one dish to share from each category. Boy was it hard to choose!! I had my flash off because it is a small place and very dim, I didn't want to disturb others. I apologize for the dark photos, you'll have to use your imagination!! We picked 'an all purpose wine' as our waiter stated, a Vacqueyras- rhone style French red. First up was the Rosti potatoes with clabber cream. I first had rosti in Switzerland last year. They are basically the best hash browns ever!!! They are cooked and served in the smallest of Staub cast iron griddles. It's another one of the things I love about Lark- their use of individual cooking/serving pieces. Our charcuterie was the duck break prosciutto with Lambrusco wine jelly. Made in house and fabulous!! Looks like a lot but we made quick work of it! Oh I wish you could see the beautiful colors on our snapper plate! Lemon snapper perfectly crispy on the outside and flaky on the inside. Baby leeks poached in some sort of wonderful salty broth, german butterball potatoes and sorrel. The sauce was the most gorgeous green color. It was like a bit of spring!! Keeping with the duck, after all the breast was good , we had a salad of sekel pears, escarole, duck tongue confit and toasted hazelnut. This was really interesting! Whole duck tongues had the texture of bacon a bit, meaty but some good fatty?? and a smoky duck flavor. Very good! Our cheeses- a Quillisascut ash tomme from WA, a Thistle Hill Farm's Tarentaise from Vermont and a Le Berger de Rocastin from the Loire Valley. they were served with a bit of honey comb. All were fine but they were a bit boring we thought. We picked them though so it's our own fault Desser was a wonderful apple tart tatine with calvados carmel and ice cream? hmmm, can't remember what kind cause I was too busy licking the plate. We also each had a glass of dessert wine. No photo, it was beyond blurred Espresso and the bill

Susan, do you have the Immer cookbook? We are attending a dinner on Monday night that she is the guest of, pairing wines with food. That soup sounds really good!

mmmmmm! that looks sooooo good!!!

I'm snacking on the last of the comte cheese right now and some bottled water. mmmm...I really love cheese! If I'm hungry and not in the mood for anything a big piece of cheese is always good. I'm also having some of those addicting Spanish almonds that have the yummy salt and oil on them. I have to put a small amount in a little dish or I'll eat the whole container! So tonight is dinner out again. I'm taking Della to a restaurant called Lark. It's only been open for a year and is doing really well. Dayne and I have eaten there twice before. The last time was on our anniversary. Lark's chef and owner is Jonathon Sundstrom who use to be at the Earth & Ocean restaurant in the W hotel. He is doing small plates but not like tapas. They are meant to be shared and the menu is divided up- vegtables, meat, seafood, etc. It changes with the seasons so it's always fun to go and see what they are doing. The restaurant is very small and doesn't accept reservations so we will probably end up waiting for a bit in the little bar. It will be a fun night! No boys, girls only!! Tomorrow I am cooking ALL day!!!

Hi there, I am trying a new recipe and it's basically a potato foam. The recipe calls for a sheet of gelatin but I can't find it. Can I use an envelope of gelatin and if so how much equals one sheet?

LOL! hmmmmm maybe a trip to the 'other side of the tracks' tonight??? Ah forget it! I don't know where that is!! Lunch today Salad greens (we wash them when we get them home from the market and then store them in ziplocks rolled up in a papertowel), red onion and tuna from the farmers market combined with white beans, capers, red wine vinegar, EVOO, S&P. A very yummy salad!! The tuna is packed in really good EVOO so I use it to make the vinaigrette. Served with toasted baguette and some water and raspberry apple juice (also from our market)

Just a head's up to everyone that the UDist market will be having mini market days, Sat. 10-noon only from Dec 5th to Jan 22nd. No holidays. The short lineup includes Foraged & Found mushrooms, Little Prague, Pian Pianino ( a new pasta vendor), Port Madison Farm goat cheese, Rockridge Orchards, Skagit River Ranch , Taylor Shellfish and Willie Green's Organic Farm. Yeahhhhh......shellfish in the middle of winter makes me happy!!!

We have our favorite vendors of course, people we buy from all the time. We also watch the prices as from farm to farm it can be much different. Most all the farmers are selling Organic items, they have to be certified and they will have a tag displayed that shows it. There are also seafood vendors, flower vendors, bakery stalls, musicians, etc. It's really a fantastic market! Goat cheese!! Goeduck (we buy his mussels and oysters but he wanted to show the goeduck! ) this tuna is the best!! packed in EVOO Our Sat. breakfast....from the struedel lady!! Dayne showing off our struedels everything we bought from the market this week

So every Sat from May until Nov there is a local farmer's market just down the street from our house. Seattle has 5 (?) of these markets in different neighborhoods. We are lucky in that ours is the oldest and largest. We go every Sat unless we are out of town, and plan our meals around what is fresh and in season. This is the 2nd to the last week of the market. It's great to watch the market and it's offerings change thru the season. We usually treat ourselves to lattes before the market at one of our favorite coffee shops, Perkengruven. Dayne had an egg nog latte and mine was vanilla! Then we are on our way to shop. We take a list, we already planned our menus earlier and made both a market list and a grocery list.

Haha! We have already been listing ideas on where to take you guys! I think we already have it nailed down and you don't visit for another 2 months!! I am an uber-planner

Thanks Anita!! naguere & bleudauvergne- thanks for reading!! I'm glad your enjoying it. Lucy, your blog was the first one I read after joining eG. Your pictures and the way you took us through your days are absolutely my inspiration!!!

I will apologize in advance for my dinner photos from last night. I was too close and most are quite blurry, I had the flash off as to not disturb other diners! We met our friends in the bar at the restaurant Troiani and had a few happy hour drinks. Rosemary lemon drops for $5! yum!! We then moved into a nice big booth. They had a Salumi salami plate so we shared that while looking over the menus. It was so good that I almost forgot to snap a photo before we finished it off! haha! The owner came over and helped us pick out a nice red, a mix of nebbiolo and barbaresco I think he said. It was really nice. Interestingly enough when he opened the 2nd bottle he took it away saying it was corked, brought out another without problem. Very nice to have them be able to smell that right away instead of having us taste it! Most of the choices came in small or full portion sizes. This was great as it gave us all a chance to try lots of things. Dayne and I shared the paperadelle with wild boar sauce. YUMMMMMMM!!! Noodles made in house! Great texture. For mains Dayne had the lamb chops with parmesan and mustard crust. Here's where things get fuzzy!!! And I had the most awesome filet mignon with white truffle cream sauce! The piece of pancetta was on the side as were two perfectly roasted (in bacon fat) fingerling potatoes Sides of parmesan mashed potatoes, garlicky green beans and wild mushroom saute were shared by everyone. We were sooo full and going to a reading so Dayne and I both had espresso Our friends had some sweets. The zabigone (??) came with a table side display of flaming fruit in calvados My friend just could not understand why only the food got to be in the pictures! To make him happy..... After dinner and the reading we went off in search of the birthday girl Della. Her and her boyfriend were having a great dinner at another wonderful Seattle restaurant Lola (newly opened by Tom Douglas). We shared some wine and a desset....chocolate tart with orange marmelade and port ice cream!!! They put a candle on it and said it was on the house. Very nice!

What's your point? Neither is much of the food served at (a) chain restaurants and (b) italian restaurants in the U.S. ← LOL!! Reading my mind!!!

Thanks Sequim, you know I am appreciating Seattle a bit more this week too!!

Dinner tonight will be at a restaurant called Troiani. It's been open for about a year and a half and is owned by the same group that owns El Gaucho and Waterfront for those who are familar. We have been there for happy hour a few times as the food is great and they have specials until 6pm, $4 plates of seared ahi, grilled prawns, etc. And $5 drinks! We haven't had dinner there yet because just like El Gaucho, Troiani doesn't have the cheapest prices in town. But tonight we are going out with friends (who will soon find out their food will be photographed! ) to dinner and to see a humorist/show. The show is just 2 blocks away so it's a good excuse to try the restaurant. Plus Troiani has free valet parking which is great in downtown Seattle. We'll be meeting eG'er Della after the show for drinks to toast her birthday. I hope you are all understanding that there will be much liquor involved tonight and dinner pictures won't be posted until the morning!!! Tomorrow is Saturday and Dayne and I will be going to the local farmers market and will of course take lots of pictures of the foods and produce to share here. Wendy

WELCOME to eG Capt. John!!! (ok, more full disclosure....I'm pretty sure this is my uncle!! )

Oh and I'm sure everyone will join me in wishing HAPPY BIRTHDAY to 2 of my PNW members Della and Laurel! Have a great day ladies!!!

Thanks for that info crouching tiger, makes sense. Lunch today, picked by my boss..... Taco Del Mar He had the taco salad, I had the enchilada's. Not the worst thing I ever ate, not the best. I've eaten at Taco del Mar a total of 3 times in my life now. First time I had one of the burritos. They are just much to big for me! Last time I had the taco salad...yuk!! The enchilada was fine, I had one chicken and one pork. The pork was very dry IMO you can put sourcream on many things and they will taste ok! I had an ice tea with my lunch as my meal came with a small drink. This was the first time I have seen unsweetened ice tea on a menu. I hate those flavored and sweet teas (my apologies to the south!). Wendy

They are a pretty good price right now! Just tell them to stick them on some ice for you. We told them we needed 2 cocktails worth of ice! I have no idea what lunch today will be. My boss wants to go grab something with me in about an hour, I told him to pick. It will most likely be a sandwich, pizza or the like. He doesn't know about the blog!! I'm sure he will think I'm a total wacko when I snap some pictures! haha! hmmm, I wonder why it's not the same here? Of course there is no animal products in our compost, just veggie and coffee grinds. I will be on the watch! I can't stand critters!!

Not a huge fan of the spicy stuff but these are so cute, they came with room service in Las Vegas one time and I thought they were fun so I took them!! Now that doesn't mean I have a problem taking things!!! It was just that once!

I just found some tasting notes on the web from my Sauternes last night: 2000 CHATEAU DE COSSE, Sauternes This vintage is characterized by a weak overall yield, whose quality diminished for later harvests. Indeed, the fine early harvest, with developed botrytis on ripe grapes, was unfortunately followed by rain. The selection was made essentially from the early sorts. This vintage is lively on the palate, and its juice will only be fully appreciated after some time. website seems it's a second wine from the CHÂTEAU RIEUSSEC and a member of the Domaines Baron de Rothschild Group. Well I wonder if they consider 2 years 'some time'? It tasted very "lively" to me! So while I was cooking last night I thought of a few things we do and wondered how many others do them too. One is we have started composting. We have a little bucket under the sink and put our veggie stuffs in that and then we have a compost bin behind our house. I'm not a big gardener but we have started doing this to cut down on the amount of garbage we have to have picked up each week. It seems to be working out well. Another thing I do, mainly to save room in my fridge and because I like the way they look is to keep my fresh herbs as a bouquet in the kitchen window. I was watching a show one time and they were talking about what you bring the hostess of a dinner and someone said they bring a bouquet of herbs. I thought that was really cute! Anyway, mine sit in the window, I change the water everyday or so and I just take out what I need.

Hi Rockdoggydog, we will be there with Mr. Toast and Really Nice!