Ling

You forgot to add in the pastry/bread run through some of our favourite Seattle bakeries!! (And a few coffee stops along the way.) FYI: I still live in Vancouver, but I'm taking a week off to hang out in Seattle--and what better way to spend vacation time than cooking and eating, right?

littlemissfoodie and her husband brought several wonderful dishes, this gazpacho being my favourite Abra brought KatieLoeb's spiced sangria recipe, and it was some potent (and deliciously complex) stuff! There are some figs and serrano ham in the background. spanish tuna, anchovy, gherkin, red onion here's another one of Abra's creations--two different kinds of chorizo from Oyama (up here in Vancouver--I love their charcuterie) braised in hard cider. I believe the bread is from Essential Baking Co., one of my favourite breads in Seattle. quail eggs a chorizo and fig dish--this was another one of my favourites. I really liked the piquant sauce. a fish dish potatoes, peppers, eggs, and a very mild-tasting Catalonian chorizo fried meatballs The table set with about half of the food. (One thing I neglected to photograph were these great candy-coated Jordan pinenuts that apparently you can get at Spanish Table. I hogged most of the bowl...they were so good!) So now we're off to bed with our full tummies! We'll take you along for a bit of grocery shopping for the little tasting menu we're cooking up for some newlywed friends tomorrow. One of them is a southern boy and it's his birthday tomorrow as well, so the dessert will be Red Velvet cake. I am really excited about cooking this dinner tomorrow, as each guest has a unique background that we tried to reflect that in each dish that we're dedicating to him/her. Nothing is set in stone yet (except for the Red Velvet) so we'll see what looks good at the market tomorrow. Neither of us are cooks who follow recipes to the letter, so I hope everything turns out OK. BTW: Feel free to chime in about questions about our day-to-day eating habits, or general questions about what we like to cook and so on. See you in the morning!

This is the version of the story Henry loves to tell, but he seems to have blocked out the part about how he had been emailing me in hopes that I'd respond to him months before his blog even started! And the part about how he had a weird EG-foodie crush on me. So we just got back from Poulsbo where we had a great time eating and drinking the night away with some fellow EGers. Charcoop and her husband opened their lovely home to us, and the food was great. I don't think I've ever eaten so many chorizo dishes in my life! So we left Seattle in the early afternoon after a morning of baking and got a late lunch at the ferry terminal. This is the Uli sausage pizza. (Uli's is local; the sausage was pretty good.) on the ferry to Bainbridge: Our original plan was to do a Cabrales cheesecake (like the stilton cheesecake they serve at Diva at the Met in Vancouver) but I went to three stores today and none of them had Cabrales in stock, so we had to get another Spanish blue--Valdeon. Henry made the cheesecake, and though it souffled and cracked because he overbeat it (despite my repeated warnings...he doesn't listen to me ), it was delicious. I made a hazelnut and chocolate ganache tart flavoured with cinnamon and cayenne, topped with caramelized hazelnuts. (The chocolate was 64% E. Guittard--I don't have a huge stock of chocolate at Henry's place, but I do have a small selection that I can photograph if anyone's interested. I chose the E. Guittard because it doesn't have as much fruit or acidity, and would be a nice background for the spices.) Check out Charcoop's pad! Some mushroom strudel, little tartlets filled with the same mushroom filling, cod pancakes, almonds, mussels Abra brought this fantastic white gazpacho, which was my favourite thing of the evening. (I had 2 glasses...mmmm...! There is cucumber, green grapes, almonds, buttermilk, cream cheese, and some dill oil in here, among other things.) BTW, I've had quite a few of Abra's dishes in the past few months and I must say she's a terrific chef. I'm a huge fan of her cooking! salmon, almonds (flavoured with cayenne and rosemary--Henry couldn't stop eating these! ), and olives bacon and mushroom skewers, chorizo and potatoes (this was also REALLY good!) and a white bean dish that I also thoroughly enjoyed

No, he's made it several times now and it's always been the right consistency.

I haven't been there, but I received a large assortment of their chocolates/truffles as a gift. They are good chocolates, if a little rustic in appearance. Shells are quite thick, and the fillings are a little sweet for me. The way you describe that chocolate drink makes me want one NOW!

Heads up--Meinhardt no longer carries Amedei. I got 2 Santander bars today--the 70% and the 65%. I've only tried the 70% thus far, but I was not too impressed. It has an initial fake vanilla smell and taste (rather strong) that I associate with cheap candy, and it is rather chalky. The melt is not very smooth and there's no long finish. $6/100g bar.

Abra: BEAUTIFUL galette! Tweety69Bird: I don't care for jello, but that mold looks so pretty! Great job! Today I'm still finishing off the lemon sabayon tart from last night.

Sorry, I was unclear. I know it is important to follow a recipe correctly if they are citing the creator. What I meant was that perhaps it's not that important to follow a rule (if there even is one--I doubt it!) that all olive oil cakes should be dusted with salt. I misinterpreted your post.

^Watermelon-lime granita sounds very refreshing! Today I made the FL lemon sabayon tart again, this time using the sweet tart dough from a Payard book. No pic, as I've posted pics of this tart before. I do like the regular macadamia nut crust I usually do with this tart better.

I don't have Patricia's book, but how did you think the cake tasted with the salt on top? I think that's more important than whether the recipe was correct or not. The recipes for olive oil cake that I've seen do not have a sprinkling of salt on top.

What an elegant photo!

Perhaps this is more for the pastry forum, as there are a lot of professional bakers over there who can give you some help! Bittersweet contains sugar, as does semi-sweet. Bittersweet contains about 35% chocolate liqueur, and semi-sweet has slightly more sugar. Usually I see bittersweet as anything labelled 60%-85% cocoa solids. Bittersweet chocolate is the only chocolate I really enjoy eating...semi-sweet and milk chocolate are sweeter and I don't like them as much. The chocolate with the fat removed is cocoa powder.

Congratulations on a beautiful cake!

Patrick, I love the red in the background of that picture. I think you captured the crunchy richness of the croquette and the light creaminess of the pudding perfectly. Fabulous desserts all around, everyone! On Friday, I had this incredible wasabi cheesecake with matcha ice-cream at Blue Water Cafe. Saturday--we had quite a big meal at a Japanese restaurant, so I didn't really feel like ordering dessert, but I found some room for vanilla ice-cream as soon as I got home. I had the same ice-cream after breakfast and dinner tonight...kind of boring.

^Happy Birthday, Deborah! Friday We had dinner at Phnom Penh. We got the fried chicken wings and the rare anchovy beef. Both were delicious as usual. Dessert, post-Phantom, was at Blue Water Cafe. We had a few drinks and the wasabi cheesecake, which was in between a creme brulee and traditional cheesecake in texture, and arrived with a bruleed top. It was served with matcha ice-cream and pineapple compote. It was perfectly balanced and the sweetness was just enough. One of the best desserts I had in recent memory. Saturday We got the usual stuff for lunch at Traditional Taiwanese--the pork roll in chive pancake, dan dan noodles, and grilled chicken (thigh). We thoroughly enjoyed dinner at Zest with Mooshmouse and her husband later that evening. Some of the more memorable dishes included a sashimi platter with different types of soy made in-house (nori, sour plum, ginger, and another I'm forgetting), pine mushroom and red snapper broth with gingko nuts, the tuna carpaccio with yuzu dressing, hot mixed mushroom salad, and the crab and liver appetizer. We got through a good portion of the menu, and the only thing I didn't like so much was the (too sweet) fried oysters with miso sauce. We had some sake with dinner, one of them unfiltered.

I remember when I made this Peanut Butter mousse cake recipe all the time when it was first printed (6 years ago?) because it was easy and my siblings loved it. I remember once making 2 of these "cakes" (more like a refrigerator pie) so they could each have one and wouldn't fight over who got more. It's a no-bake recipe too...super simple.

They have raw egg and uni shooters at Octopus Garden in Vancouver. I love them!

Thank-you, Michelle, that was so sweet of you! I think your fruit tart looks wonderful, and I love the square shape. I haven't come across an individual square tart pan like that in N. America...it is very cute! I looked up "kadaifi"--I think it is like "kataifi", is it not? Shredded phyllo? Or does the word "kadaifi" only refer to the walnut pastry that is made with this dough, and then drenched in syrup? I found recipes to that, too. Regardless, I think the marscapone kadaifi sounds delicious.

^Yummm...I hope to try one of your napoleons one day, Annie! I think that sounds like a great idea. I would do a layer of sliced, roasted bananas...no need to mush them up. I think sliced bananas would look neater. You could add rum to the pastry cream. I like the chocolate glaze idea too, but there's also the option of doing chocolate puff pastry.

We went to a birthday dinner at Veil last weekend. Started with champagne and gougeres We had wine pairings with each course, but I seem to have misplaced my notes. I'll post them later if anyone's interested in seeing the pairings. tuna carpaccio scallop, eggplant puree, heirloom tomatoes -this was probably my favourite dish of the evening...really enjoyed the eggplant with the scallop salmon, fava bean puree, corn puree -fish was overdone, but the fava bean puree was very tasty and left quite coarse so it gave the dish a bit of texture I don't quite recall the sorbet that arrived at this point--I think it was grapefruit, with orange supremes underneath. I thought the sorbet was too sweet for a palate cleanser...the sweetness level would have been more appropriate before the dessert course. (Sorry about how dark it is, I forgot to lighten this picture in Photoshop.) Wagyu flatiron, wild mushrooms, potato puree -this dish was also very delicious, and the potatoes had an interesting smoky-sweet flavour to them cheese course with onion jam -I asked about the cheese and was told it was a goat's cheese I made a Valrhona chocolate dome cake which the kitchen plated with their famous salted peanut butter ice-cream. I love this ice-cream, and the combination was like a Reeses peanut butter cup all grown up.

I love Fukien fried rice too. Like cburnsi said, it contains a bunch of leftover meats, vegetables, and seafood (usually squid). I've not had it with a dark gravy though, but a light chicken-stock based sauce instead. Either way, it is good!

That fruit juice stand looks great! (And the guy isn't bad either... ) Do they blend the juice with anything, or is it just fruit? Any ice or water to thin it out a bit? The food at The White Pergola looks simple and tasty. Was all that food just for you two?

I think it depends on the recipe, Pontormo. I use cornstarch in stuff like pastry cream, but I also use a lot of yolks. I think it was perhaps just the butterscotch pudding recipe...or maybe I had the heat on too high or something. I strained it twice and whisked in extra yolks to try to save it, but it was still grainy and kind of soupy. Today I made a batch of Korova dough just so I could mix it into my coffee ice-cream.

^The sliced meats do not usually fall apart--the batches that have been coming out in the last few weeks were not as good as usual because they were experimenting with a new method that didn't work out as planned. It still tastes OK but the appearance is kind of disappointing.

Here I am... I second (third?) the idea of lemon tarts, and since you mentioned wanting to use up some of the herbs in your garden, you could infuse the curd with rosemary or sage. I tasted one this year that was served with a drizzle of vincotto and it was delicious. If you don't have vincotto, I would just top the mini tarts with a dollop of Italian meringue and some of your sugared blueberries. I love ludja's idea of decorating with a mix of sugared and unsugared berries. She also mentioned Emily Luchetti's book--if you have A Passion for Ice-cream, I suggest the lemon ice-cream and gingerbread cookie sandwich recipe. The flavours work so well together! I love dark chocolate with chilli and cinnamon. You could also infuse some of your ganache with the herbs from your garden. I recently had some pineapple mint-infused chocolates that were great! To go with your wine theme, you could also make molded chocolates with port or sherry in the middle. When I think of wine, I think of desserts like fig and almond cream tartlets...simple, elegant desserts that take advantage of summer fruits, yet are perfect for a picnic. If you do lavendar shortbread, you also do rosemary shortbread (again, herbs from your garden). I don't think baby creme brulee would be very easy to transport...you couldn't do them in the muffin liners because they would be too fragile, I think. I do like the idea of dark chocolate covered dried fruits, for anyone who is too stuffed for a bunch of desserts...or just as post-dessert nibbles.