little ms foodie
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Posts posted by little ms foodie
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I bet it was!!
Everything you cook looks right up my alley. Your home seems gorgeous, too.
Keep it coming!
Eunny thanks for the compliment. Your stunning photos have certainly encouraged me to try to get better shots!
I'm having some tea with milk at my desk in my office.
Last night after dinner we had a small cheese plate while finishing our wine.
At 6 o'clock is a French Cantal. I love this cheese!!! at 8 o'clock is an Italian Taleggio, the smell is quite strong but the flavor is very mild. 10 o'clock is a domestic cheddar that was wrapped in linen. It is fantastic, I wish I could remember the name! It was being sold exclusively at a grocery store on Queen Anne, a neighborhood of Seattle. the other cheeses are from Whole Paycheck by our house. The asian pear is from....yup! you guessed it, our local farmers market!
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We had lunch at Oceanaire yesterday. It was ok but I wouldn't particularly go back there. mainly the service was horrible!! It took them (her) over 1 hour to get us to the point of dessert.
and it wasn't even busy!!!Full report and photos in the Blog
It's about half way down on page 2.
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I am really enjoying this blog!
I love your blue bowls and plates. The colors of the soup, pork & potatoes etc. look beautiful on them. Do you select tableware according to what you serve on it? Would you have a green salad on the blue plate? I'm curious because practically all my tableware is white so I never have to make that choice.
Hi Chufi,
We picked out our tableware when we registered for our wedding. It's called Denby Reflex. We have a mix of white and blue backgrounds. Generally I really like the blue but I will say that I don't think it's the best color when making things with sauces. The color doesn't pop as well! If I would have thought about plating more than I thought of my favorite kitchen/dining colors I would have gone with the white with blue trim. We have that on our salad plates and our cereal bowls.
My china is white though and I love plating things on that. Hmmmm, maybe we'll use the china on Sunday. After all, you are all kindof like having company over for dinner right??
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Good morning!!! Breakfast today is in honor of the 'Breakfast!' thread, hard boiled eggs and espresso.
For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, I generally have this almost daily!! I love hard boiled eggs with a bit of salt and some fellow posters here know that very well! haha!
Perfect creamy inside....my husband made these!
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Dinner tonight..... so I think I mentioned how I like to buy local and use everything I have right??
Tonight we decided to roast some potatoes (from our farmers market) with some sage I have growing outside. Sage is one of my favorite herbs. I love it!!!
My herbs are just in pots and only the hearty are still planted...rosemary, sage and thyme in our backyard.
I wish the herbs grew as well as those weeds coming thru my patio! haha!
I just mixed the potatoes (from our farmer's market) with EVOO, sage and sea salt.
Next up we decided to cook up some lentils. I have orange and puy and decided to cook them seperately to keep the colors bright and then mix them later. Simmered them with some onion, bacon, and chicken stock left over from last night.
Then I carmelized the other half of the onion and browned some pork chops. After the pork was almost done I put it in the oven to stay warm. This weekend I was in charge of making apps for a party and I wanted to make a fig/port jam and chevre confit for one. But my expereiment didn't go right the first time so I was left with a saucy concoction of fig jam, shallots, port and thyme. I thought I keep it for sauce. So I deglazed the pan with more port and then added the sauce.
Let's chant....figs, shallot, port, thyme! Damn those are some goooood flavors!!!
Put the chops back in the pan with the onions on top.
When the lentils were done I had a saute pan of orange mush in one. They cooked faster than the puy and were like smashed potatoes.
So I just took a spoonful or 2 of lentil mush and mixed it into the puy. Then added some diced up chevre (local farmers market) and some white wine vinegar and EVOO, plated the roasted 'taters and my pork chops with sauce.
It was good!!!
While I was doing this silly plating stuff, Dayne was battling kittens and wine shots!
That's our little one Bisou!
Our wine for the night, Carabella from southern Willamette Valley OR (Pinot Noir) very nice! Our matches were from Paseo el Collado in Laguardia Rioja region of Spain. We stayed in this little walled town this summer. If you ever get a chance, run don't walk!!! Amazing!!
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For our apps tonight we had one of my favorites! A little duck pate I picked up in St Jean de Luz in July. We drove up from San Sebastian for the afternoon to shop for pates and table linens! Served with bread, mustard and cornichons.
Now how did you get that home!
Wendy, this is a wonderful blog. I'm looking forward to more. You do seem to have a very nice life
tee hee, don't turn me in but I brought back a lot of pate, jambon and cheese from spain and france. I just kept pointing them towards my 2 cases of wine that I had and kept my fingers crossed that we wouldn't lose it all!
It's a great story about customs but one that is best told in person. Anyone who is ever visiting Seattle is more than welcome to have lunch with me (at Salumi!
) and I'll share! haha! And thank you very much for all the nice comments!
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Keep it up, Wendy.
Toasted leftover baguette with cheese is one of my favorite breakfasts. The cheeses vary. I will toast a harder cheese like an aged cheddar or pecorino along with the bread or just spread a softer cheese like a chevre, camembert or gorgonzola (I am flabbergasted that you don't like bleu cheese - and I had such respect for you
). I have to admit that the photos of your lunch at Oceanaire did not resemble those from Arzak
I actually toasted the bread and then put the chevre on and toasted it again!!
I KNEW I shouldn't have come clean about the blue cheese thing!!
Damn!! ahhh....Arzak! Actually if you go back to my picture of our dining room table you'll see a few things hanging behind one of the chairs. They are menus from a few places. The largest one is Arzak's!
We got home a bit ago after stopping at the wine shop. They were tasting a new Cab from Columbia Valley so we sipped while we shopped.
Now we are cooking dinner!
For our apps tonight we had one of my favorites! A little duck pate I picked up in St Jean de Luz in July. We drove up from San Sebastian for the afternoon to shop for pates and table linens! Served with bread, mustard and cornichons.
Kirs for sippin!
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"Very retro?" Come up here to northern Minnesota and say that! Unless you're referring to the actual tray itself, in which case I might agree.... Those relishes, particularly the pickled herring, are standard stock in our salad bars! So, you might say Oceanaire is being true to its Minnesota roots!
Added to say: I too am loving this blog!
hey thanks for letting us know that! Obviously different parts of the country have different dining styles (I learned that when I ordered a 'small' steak in Chicago! It was half the cow I swear!!). I wouldn't have thought of that.
Maybe going to certain chains can expand one's knowledge of regional dining?
I forgot to mention they were filming a commercial at the restauarant when we left....we aren't in it!
My cat might look that intent, but the kittens would be all over the drinks and food, tipping them over,...We have a kitten too, she is into everything. So far her favorite things are licking our baguettes, butter and seafood. She is soooo my cat!!
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Ciao Wendy,
Great Blog - I really enjoy reading your writing too! Seattle is one place I really want to go to, especially because Slaumi is there. My next stop here in Italy is working with Salumi so it would be nice to see how close the American version is! Thanks for the blog!
Ciao,
Ore
thanks Ore, it's good to have you reading!! Check out the Salumi link that Jensen posted on page two. Maybe you can start seeing some of the techniques Salumi is using and see how Americanized it may or may not be??
Third, I haven't been to Oceanaire yet, but when's the last time you saw a relish tray like that? Very retro. Too bad the food wasn't better.Jan I totally agree! It was very retro, kindof cool because I'm use to getting amuse at nicer restaurants now. Haven't had that kind of tray before.
So tonight after work (I get paid for doing this right???
) We are going to stop by one of our favorite wine merchants and pick out a few bottles. Right now our cellar has mainly things we want to keep for a few more years. We make an annual trip to the north Willamette wine region in Oregon for cases of yummy pinot noirs. Our trip is the day after Thanksgiving which is one of two weekends a year when 90% of the wineries in this area all open their otherwise private facilities for tasting and buying! http://www.yamhillwine.com/events.shtml
We feel the same way about wine as with food. If we can find things we like from WA or OR we will buy those first. We belong to a few of the wineries wine clubs so we get a few 6 bottle shipments each year. But this is our big stock up.
Our wine rack looking a bit depleted!
We have our 'cellar' in the basement. Our house is 104 years old, it's pretty scary! But it also stays cool year around (or maybe that's because Seattle stays cool year around!). We don't really regulate the temp or anything.
Wines are kept alphabetical by type. Magnums are on the 2nd to bottom and champagne on the very bottom shelf. The small table has a 1/2 case of wine we bought as futures 2 years ago that really need to sit a bit, half is on the rack. The bottom box is what's left of the cases of POP! we served at our wedding reception.
I tag most of the wines. The front has lable info and drinking dates, the back has tasting and price info.
We love our wines and generally have a bottle each night with dinner. We talk about what we are making, options for wines, then head down to the cellar and pick one out. I love doing that!
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Sorry! I just realized you provided a link. I was so excited, I didn't notice that at first.
Thank you!
*one egg yolk really provides too much sauce for the pasta holding it. Next time I make this, I'll probably do it with very large saucer-sized pasta sheets holding the egg yolk nested in some ricotta or something.
*the egg yolk filling has a tendency to "eat through" the raw pasta - if you are holding the finished ravioli for any length of time, I'd flip them every couple minutes.
*90 seconds of cooking is just about right to my taste.
I'm glad you're back in the dinner thread
Eunny what about using quail eggs?
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how was lunch?
by the way - oceanaire is based in minneapolis...not quite east coast
.Thank you!! I knew I wasn't quite right with that.
Our food was good, some of the fish was a bit overcooked/underfresh. As I mentioned the service sucked!! The wine list was completely overpriced!!! I wouldn't go back as I think there are MANY better restaurants for seafood in Seattle.
Wendy
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Back from lunch, wow talk about bad, slow service!! Good thing we had wine! I'll skip all the comments about service from here on out and just talk about our meal
So lunch at Oceanaire today to taste the $12.50 lunch menu. Fellow (new) eGullet member Della came with me.
They brought us an antipasta with bread and butter. The tray had pickled herring and crudites. The herring was really vinegry/salty/fishy. The taste changed as we ate it, we decided it wasn't our favorite!
A bottle of McManis CA Syrah 2002 to go with lunch.
Our appetizers were great! Della had the crispy fried catfish with mustard sauce and onion rings.
I had the clam chowder- smoky/spicy flavors. yum!
The appetizers were big! Next came our entrees. I had the salmon which was on a bed of onion confit, blackened and had onion rings on top. It was a bit dry but probably because I asked for the roquefort butter to be left off (I don't like blue cheese
Della had the very yummy fish stew. Excellent tomato boullion!!
Dessert of Baked Apple with carmel and ice cream....mmmmmm
and Valhrona Bittersweet chocolate mousse!
We were good and didn't finish the bottle of red, Della has it in the trunk of her car!
I definately don't eat lunch like this everyday but during the 25 for $25 I will try a few places.
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As if Seattle restaurants aren't great enough twice a year there is a month long event called 25 for $25. I know that other cities have similar events. It is a great way to try new restaurants and a great excuse to go out!
http://www.nwsource.com/advertising/restau...s/25for25_1104/
Today for lunch my girlfriend and I will be going to Oceanaire and trying their $12, 3 course lunch menu. I haven't been to Oceanaire since 1) people say it's quite expensive and 2) it's a chain and not even a local one!
I have a thing about chains. It ties in with my thing about local. I prefer to dine at restuarants that are run by locals and feel strongly about buying local. BUT that doesn't mean I never go to chains! I just keep it to a minimum. So it seems a bit weird to go to a SEAFOOD chain out of the east coast in seattle! But the 25 for $25 has given me a reason! We will report back with photos
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how wonderful for you that you and your husband share a passion. what's his specialty?
Oh he is the baker in the family for sure! I don't really have the patience for it. Dayne loves the science of baking. He makes the best pastry crust!! yummmm!!
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Very cool blog, LMF! Beautiful food. And what a pretty cat!
He's pretty but he is a monster!! Very mean unless there are drinks around!
Besides, your dining room makes up for the kitchen!I LOVE our dining room. Dayne bought the table and chairs before he knew me. They are teak and very Scandanavian designed. We always eat dinner at the table. And the table is always set with nice placemats or a table cloth. Always cloth napkins, he hates paper ones and I like having linens.
We also always eat by candlelight. It's our dinner ritual. One of the things we do as we travel and eat out is to collect matches from different restaurants and bars. We have all the matches in a large stein in the cupboard and when we light the candles for dinner at night we will blindly reach in a pull out a book. then we will talk about our memories there.
Matches from last night.... Mon Ami Gabi is a French restaurant in the Paris hotel in Las Vegas. We had a great long lunch one time there, sitting outside, watching the fountains across at the Belagio. In fact it was the first anniversary of 9/11 and I remember the patriotic songs playing to the fountains. It was hot and we had a great bottle of white Burgundy. And they kept bringing us warm bread and the best salty butter....
It's nice to talk about the memories we are making that will last our entire lives.
Wendy
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I just got finished with a staff meeting, had a cup of tea with milk during it.
This morning for breakfast:
Goat cheese on left over baguette toasted. Espresso in our Gaudi cups, bought for us by friends who were in Barcelona in 2003.
I really love using things up. I hate throwing things out. So when we have leftover baguette I like to toast it up for breakfast or make bread salad or at least breadcrumbs. At our farmers market there is a woman who sells goatcheese toasts. That is where I got this idea.
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PS Is that a waiter playing the violin on your EVOO?
Yep, a little Guy Buffett print on my oil bottles. And my trivet. I think they are funny!
Garlic Soup from a little no name French cookbook I have.C'mon, don't be shy... what's the name?I think the name is "A Taste of France" it's a little softcover book that one of my girlfriends gave me last year and I have been working my way through it because everything comes out great!
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i think that's about it in a nutshell, lmf
...this is the first foodblog i've followed since i joined (what, a couple weeks ago? seems like ages;) ) and already i am entranced by your effervescent style and obvious love of food and cooking. much happiness to you both and i eagerly anticipate the coming week!--mike
Mike that is such a nice comment, thank you!!!
You mentioned going to France and Switzerland in the same breath as expanding/learning more about food. Did you just eat really great food there and learn by absorption? Or did you attend classes of some of kind?Well I am very lucky to have a friend who was living in Geneva, now lives in Paris, who puts me up (and up with me!) for free and encourages me to come over often. I also am very lucky to have airline miles
and a very nice husband who knows that I love travel and I LOVE France . So last Oct. I went to spent a bit of time in Geneva, Zurich, Annecy and Paris. I really love French and French influenced foods. I'm a big fan of butter and sauces! haha! By hanging out with "locals" and eating at friends and in neighborhood bistros it just raised my level of awareness of the freshness of ingrediants and purchasing from as many local suppliers as possible. That is why I'm trying to do that at my home. I also bring back lots of different products to play with at home.
I haven't had the chance to take any classes but anytime I travel I try to incorporate those foods and tastes that I really loved into my cooking at home.
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Good morning everyone! I have a bit of catching up to do and a very busy day at work! I'll do what I can but I promise to be fully up to date by tonight!
Last night we tried a new soup recipe. I am trying out some new dishes for an upcoming dinner party we are having. I love having people over for dinner! Normally it's just one couple at a time as we have such a small amount of counter space that it is hard to find room for plates, platters, etc.
This upcoming dinner party is for 8 and I'm doing a 7 course tasting menu. The soup we tried out last night has won it's way onto the menu! Garlic Soup from a little no name French cookbook I have.
Mis en place for Garlic Soup
Chicken broth (store bought as we are out of our homemade that we did following the eG class
), 2 heads of garlic smashed and peeled, 3 egg yolks, bouqet garni, 1 potato diced and 4 slices of bacon diced, EVOO, S&PMain ingrediants in the pot to soften
After the stock and bouquet garni go in it simmered for 30 mins.
then egg yolk whisked with EVOO acts as a thickener!
After mixing into the soup the whole thing it gets strained, I didn't temper the egg mixture at first until I saw it hit the hot soup! That will get done before the dinner party!!!
Seasoning and tasting. Dayne bought me a special tasting spoon when we were in San Fran celebrating our anniversary. It is cool! Made of olive tree wood which I love and the perfect size for little sips!
We made some little cheese toasts with Gruyere and placed them in the bottom of the bowl.
ladled the soup over and viola!
Dayne made a great salad. Locally grown lettuces, arugula and carrots all purchased last week at our farmers market and lime mustard that I brought back from Paris.
Our wine for the night from our cellar (I use that term very loosly btw!)
Dinner!!!
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if you can (and don't mind) i'd love to hear a little bit about how you became interested in food and cooking -
thanks!
So back to your question (note to self: man it takes some time to upload photos!!)
I remember playing around in the kitchen when young and thinking it was fun but really my mom was a 1970's cream of mushroom soup girl and my dad liked us to have the same thing for dinner each day of the week (speghetti sunday, pork chop monday, meatloaf tues, you get the picture) so it really didn't bloom, so to speak.
When I moved in college and lived with people I always thought it fun to cook from recipes. But when I lived with my first boyfriend I found that I loved to cook and of course get the kudos that came with a meal. At this time cooking was using jarred sauces and bad cheese though. He didn't know the difference
Boyfriends came and went, my cooking got a bit better but I was still staying with recipes and shopping cheaply.
For a while I didn't cook at all because I started living alone, had a kitchen the size of an airplane restroom and was making good money. Out I went! Seattle has great restaurants and great chefs. My mom would eat out with me often, we tried as many new restaurants as we could.
In the meantime my best friend started working at a catering company and started talking about food all the time. Really good food. And she made stuff!! And not from recipes. Call it healthy competition but man I wanted to cook like her
I find cooking for others nuturing, I like it when people know they will get a good meal and you have put thought and effort into it. And it is made with love and caring!
As I mentioned earlier when Dayne and I first got married I was lucky enough to take a year off....and watch the food network....and go to Switzerland and France. I wanted to take care of the guy who was taking care of me! And I found a lot of comfort in cooking, chopping, tasting, seasoning...and then I found eGullet. It's addicting!!!
So this is the long version and I hope I haven't bored you all but it's what it's all about for me. Friends, family, around a table, in a kitchen, good smells, good eats, full tummies!
Speaking of, I'm full and tired and am going to go snuggle with my honey on the couch, finish our bottle of wine and then go to bed.
I'll post the rest of dinner in the morning!
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So tonight like usual Dayne and I came home from work together and got into the kitchen. We sit down usually on Fridays or Saturdays and plan a menu for the week. Dayne normally cooks 2 meals and I cook the rest. As I mentioned before we usually go out at least once.
The big thing with me is I like to use as many local products as I can. We have a farmers market just 3 blocks from us on Saturdays during the growing season. Dayne and I shop there each week. This isn't Pike Place Market but it is the neighborhood version of that. Stayed tuned and see it on Sat!
Tonight Dayne made us his awesome ginger-inis!
We got this from one of our favorite bars- Sambar. Justin, our favorite bartender gave Dayne the lowdown!
Dayne macerates fresh ginger in gin. He makes a ginger/simple syrup by boiling 1/4 c. sliced fresh ginger (skin on) with cup 1/2 of sugar and 1 c. water. as soon as it boils he takes it off the heat and lets it steep for 10 -15mins. Strain and refrigerate for up to 2 weeks.
Per cocktail: muddle 2 slices of macerated ginger with 1 ounce of ginger syrup, 1 ounce lime juice and ice- add 2 ounces gin, strain into martini glasses.
I put together some Caars cracked pepper crackers with locally smoked wild salmon and creme fraiche.
As you can see we had company for appetizers. I think our cat was more interested in the drinks than the salmon! Good cat!!
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I haven't been a member of egullet for very long but I can say that I am enjoying your blog thus far!!! Your excitement and love of food/wine/cooking definately shines through. I am looking forward to your week of blogging.
ahhh, thanks babe!! you are sweet!!!
(full disclosure, this is my best friend in the world. we have known each other since 5th grade!)
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As promised here are some pictures from last night. I've posted them to an album. Bourdain at Brasa
Rocky
P.S. If anyone would like prints just let me know, I can do 4X6, 5X7, 8X10, and hi-res files. rocky
Those are great!!! ok, you showed yours, I'll show mine!!!
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Just letting you know that I've decided it's time. I'm toasting your anniversary and your blog tonight. The bottle shall be drained
Your blog is lovely stuff! Keep it coming!
Now THAT makes me proud to blog!!! Cheers back at ya!
Wendy
eG Foodblog: little ms foodie - Sauteing in Seattle
in Food Traditions & Culture
Posted
I'm a slave to cheese, but as I said I have trouble with the blues and the very stinky stuff. One time Della and I heard that a restaurant called Palace Kitchen (owned by Tom Douglas) offered a cheese plate. This was some years ago before it was trendy and more normal for restuarants to do that. So we went, sat at the bar, had a few glasses of wine and ordered the cheese plate. The bartender sat it down in front of us and proceeded to go around it and tell us what was what. The cheeses got softer and stinkier as it went. So I was tasting in order and got to one of the last ones, put the cheese up towards my mouth when the smell hit my nose. WOAH!!! I said "that is the stinkiest cheese ever!! I'm not eating that!" To which the bartender replied "You aren't planning on become a regular are you?"
haha!!!