musings.schelley.org

Whenever there's a small dinner party with friends, I kind of dork out. There, I've said it.

So not surprising, when Pete suggested having dinner at his house, I went to work. He foolishly assumed that I'd bring dishes already premade, but alas, he was wrong, and I may have done some non-permanent damage to his kitchen. It was worth it - I made the very excellent grilled vegetable bread salad and satisfying blueberry cobbler. Thanks to Paul for cooking the vegetables, and helping to cement the vegetable salad as one of my favorite recipes of the summer (made even better by the fact that all of the ingredients can be found at my local farmer's market).

Here's the grilled vegetable salad recipe, from Cooks Illustrated. First, dressing. Lemon juice, balsamic vinegar, garlic, olive oil, dijon mustard, fresh thyme, salt, pepper. Then, cut up, mix, olive oil up and grill bell peppers, red onions, zucchini and eggplant (my favorite); when done, toss with some dressing. Also, toss spring lettuce with the dressing. Think ratatouille, minus the basil. Also, grill a piece of bread along the way. On a pretty plate, layer the bread, lettuce and vegetables, top with shaved parmesan and enjoy the deliciousness.

I liked the summer salad so much, the next day, I cleaned out the fridge, went to the store and made a super gigantic batch. I've made two salads, and last night, tried to make a dent in my phyllo dough (long story, never get recipe inspirations after a few too many greyhounds when you live within stumbling distance of a grocery store) by wrapping the vegetables and a generous portion of goat cheese in the dough. Delicious.

Sadly, my salad pictures did not turn out. But, here are some of the phyllo dough pics for you to envision and think about (plus, if you're really curious, either come to my house for dinner and let me recreate, or look at the Cooks Illustrated picture).

I also have enough vegetables left for something else. I'm thinking a spin of Carrie's vegetable tart, with pie dough wrapped around the veggies and cheese.

Posted by Schelley Olhava at 06:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Look at this - goodies from today's Broadway Farmer's Market!

In this picture: cherries (peaking from the back, the first crop of the season), asparagus, lamb's quarter, spring lettuce and mint (accidentally cut out of the picture). Some of it will make tonight's dinner: salad with sauteed asparagus and goat cheese, and topped with a balsamic-lemon juice-shallot-honey-sour cream dressing. For reasons that I can't figure out, I've been craving salad a lot lately. Luckily, it's spring and early summer salad time at the farmer's market. I'll accompany with a Chateau Font-Mars Picpoul de Pinet, from Languedoc, of France. Intersting fact: the grapes grow on top of a field of fossilized dinosaur eggs!

The seasonal market, which is 3 blocks from my house, opened in mid-April. I've been trying to go every Sunday (when I'm in town, that is). It's a great social scene, I usually run into friends and neighbors. More importantly, the high quality produce and foodstuffs. Almost all seasonal, the food has all essential things that I love: fresh, grown by small farmers and truly, really organic. Beyond produce, other good stuff: flowers, eggs, meat (I may even buy chicken, a food that I try to avoid, because, well, most chicken is pretty bad), fish, chocolates, honey and ice cream, with more rotating in and out over the summer.

Does anyone have ideas for lamb's quarters? I remember a spectacular meal years ago with lamb's quarters filled ravioli, but not really ready to tackle that. The seller said it was like spinach, so I'm thinking about simply chopping up and sauteeing with garlic and a splash of lemon juice. Ideas are appreciated.

A bonus picture: baked tomatoes stuffed with couscous with basil, parseley, pine nuts and parmesan, tomatoes a la the farmer's market. I'm thinking that they are hot house grown, and extremely delicious. Oh, and also free of that nasty salmonella strain (a by-product of our industrial food chain, of which I could spend many hours ranting about its evils, but won't).

Posted by Schelley Olhava at 05:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

See that picture? That is a picture of braised radishes.

There is a good reason why we eat radishes raw, neatly sliced up in salads, dressed with something acidic. That's because cooked radishes, in this case, braised, are just not good. Maybe it was the recipe, although it did come from Vegetarian Cooking for All, which usually produces fairly solid results (only, add more flavoring. Trust me).

In case you're curious, here's the recipe. Saute a chopped shallot and thyme in a few tablespoons of butter, add trimmed radishes, cover in water and braise 3-5 minutes. Add radish greens, braise another minute and then remove radishes from braising liquid. Let it boil down for a few minutes, add some butter "to turn it into a sauce" and sauce up the radishes. Simple, right?

In case you're curious, here's how it all went wrong. The radishes took much longer to cook until tender, approximately 15 minutes. When cooked, they sort of had that radish bite, only meek and watery. And the braising sauce...tasted just like water with butter added. The dish was thrown away.

On the positive side, the seared coho salmon (generously seasoned with salt and pepper) and sauteed spinach (with thinly sliced garlic, salt and pepper, then squeezed of excess liquid, then seasoned with a bit of balsamic) were both delicious, definitely making up for the disappointing radishes.

Posted by Schelley Olhava at 07:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

After days and days of sickness, I finally felt well enough to return to the land of the living. My criteria: venture more than one block away from home, hang out with friends and consume at least one beer and/or glass of wine, want to cook something more complex than pushing a few buttons the microwave.

All criteria checked. Friday night, Tracy drug me to Sun Liquor, where Eric made me a few non-alcoholic vitamin C laden juices, then insisted that a hot toddy would make me feel better. He was right. Saturday night with Jess and Lisa and Jeff at Quinn's, with a glass of pinot noir and glass of Monastrell (which was quite delightful), and an excellent tongue salad and chickpea soup topped with parsley oil and candied lemon peel and other goodness.

However, the real purpose this blog - to detail the deliciousness of Sunday night's dinner: the spring vegetable risotto. Published in the latest Cooks Illustrated, the recipe ventured from all other risotto recipes in a unique way. Rather than simply heating chicken stock and adding to the risotto, it called for simmering all vegetable and herb trimmings in the chicken broth for 20 minutes, straining and then cooking the risotto as normal. An added punch - a few teaspoons of lemon juice thrown in at the end, and topping each serving with gremolata (lemon zest + mint + parsley).

Delicious, I tell you, absolutely delicious.

A very interesting unoaked Chardonnay, a 2006 Crossings from New Zealand, went quite well with the risotto, which contained spring vegetables of the asparagus and peas and leeks variety. Many years ago, when I finally figured out that I really hated the oaky and buttery flavor of chardonnays, I heard of unoaked chardonnays, and found a few in the form of white bordeaux varietals. The deliberate labeling of "unoaked" was a pleasant surprise, refreshing and not at all like the California chardonnays that I just don't like.

All in all, a nice meal along the road to recovery.

Posted by Schelley Olhava at 07:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Business travel is both a blessing and a curse. Blessing: the chance to visit new places, catch up with friends and family, possibly new adventures. Curse: the monotony of solo travel, or worse, travel with annoying people, managing home logistics while on the road (online bill pay, yeah, getting others to collect my mail, not so yeah), and the worst of all fates, struck by illness while on a business trip.

Since mid-February, work travel has ramped up and will likely remain at a steady pace through July – and the blessings and curses have reared their fabulous and ugly heads.

In February, I spent a week in Tampa, Florida. Not exactly a tourist/culinary destination, although I did get a chance to visit Lakeland, square in the middle of the state between the Gulf Coast and the Atlantic. I am still kicking myself for not trying the local café’s Coca Cola cake (I did find a recipe, hooray!). Tracy and I spent a weekend on Treasure Island at the Gambino family funded Thunderbird Resort, an island and resort stuck firmly in 1952. Absolutely fabulous, in so many ways. Rooms faced a large pool, bordered by a tiki bar and a vast expanse of beach, littered by more 1950s era resorts, hotels and cottages.

Life at the Thunderbird centered around the pool and beach; the spectacular sunset punctuated happy hour each day (I couldn't help but draw a comparison between the sunset at Salvador, where the horizon engulfed the sun, rather than the sun slipping below the horizon). And speaking of happy hour, Tracy and I discovered that Corona is actually available in cans and as the "young Seattle girls", politely accepted drinks from men old enough to be our fathers. As one would expect in the Florida area, the older set was fairly prominent.

A few weeks later, I booked a long business trip, extending it to spend Easter weekend in Boston and the following weekend in San Francisco, before heading off to Phoenix, where amazingly enough, I would have a chance to see Drew and Suzette.

Luckily, the culinary highlights in Boston were much better than in Florida. Alex, my 3 ½ year old nephew, is enchanted by all things baking. We made chocolate chip cookies (sans mixer), and later, raspberry chiffon pie for Easter Dessert. For the crust, I used Cook’s Illustrated’s new recipe (with vodka!), which was not as perfect as I'd hoped. Not cooked enough, it also shrunk a bit too much. Any number of factors probably contributed, including using all butter rather than half butter/half Crisco, an Alex meltdown (a nice reminder of how unfit I am in the parental arena), and baking the pie improperly weighted. Check out the picture - those are nails. It turns out that my brother, the non-baker, assumed that when I asked if he had beans for the pie crust, didn't understand that I meant dried, not canned beans. I'm not sure how fool-proof the recipe is, as Carrie had mixed results. In the end though, the pie was delicious. As a side note, if I make the pie again, I'll cut down on the sugar. I also substituted fresh blackberries for the fresh raspberries, and am thinking that any kind of fresh berry will work well. Hello strawberries!

Easter dinner was really amazing. Ed baked a tasty leg of lamb, studded with garlic and rosemary, and then covered with a mustard bread crumb mixture. The meat was cooked perfectly, a crispy skin surrounding deliciously pink meat. For sides, new potatoes with mint, and an asparagus lemon casserole. We eventually liked the casserole, but also came to the conclusion that some foods, such as asparagus, are better in a simple state. I should also point out, this year, the oven did not catch on fire.

I also hit Sauncie for dinner, a once upon a time favorite on Newberry Street. Dinner with the company of Amy was fabulous, but the quality of the food was not at such the high standard. Our main course, butternut squash ravioli with prosciutto, was decent, but just that. I thought that the prosciutto would have been mixed with the butternut squash, but rather, the ravioli was placed over two slices of prosciutto. A bundle of unseasoned spinach in the middle of the dish was distracting. This is my second so-so meal at Sauncie in two years, making me think that I won’t be going back. On a positive note, I did have one of the best French 75's I've ever drank at the Lennox Hotel bar after. Tasty!

All fell apart when I woke up in Boston with what I thought was just a sore throat, which got worse after 6 hours on a plane. By day two in San Francisco, my sore throat had morphed into the flu. I tried to cure my flu by treating life as normal, including somewhat normal food, in San Francisco and continuing to work. Take out Won Ton pho at the slanted door, lasagna from Café Delle Stelle delivered to the focus group facility. I decided that cupcakes could provide some type of restorative powers as well, so picked up a few to share from Miette. In my world of cupcake reviews, Miette ranks high on the list. The chocolate cake was full of structure and bite and incredibly moist. And the frosting, was well, frostinglicious. Not a typical buttercream, but an egg white frosting, so lighter and fluffier and not quite as cloying. Sadly, the restorative powers didn’t work.

I finally threw in the towel and skipped out on the weekend in Bay Area and seeing Drew and Suzette in Phoenix, which makes me sad, for so many reasons. Being sick is horrible…but being sick in a hotel room and not that close to home and having to fly to get home is really the worst of all worlds.

Sigh…There you have it, the blessings and curses of business travel.

Posted by Schelley Olhava at 04:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I have exactly two books in my cookbook collection that absolutely terrify me: The French Laundry Cookbook and Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I don’t know why, maybe because the recipes involve so many steps, probably because both books represent cooking nirvana and likely, because so many cooks perceive the recipes to be hard, regardless of the actual level of difficulty. A year ago, one of four New Years resolutions was to “cook a meal from Mastering the Art of French Cooking”. In early January, I transferred that resolution (along with two of the remaining three) to my 2008 list. I’m part of the way there…

While on vacation, I read Julie and Julia, a story of how one very crazy woman challenged herself to cook every single recipe in Mastering the Art of French Cooking within a year (and blogged about it). Not to be mean, but Julie came across as somewhat crazy…and I figured that if she could successfully cook from MTAFC, then I could too. I was inspired, and resolved to do more than thumb through the book and actually cook with Julia.

The decision to cook from Julia required dinner guests, and under the guise of "thank you for hosting my blog and why don't you come for dinner?" Richard and Melissa unknowingly were my first guinea pigs.

As I reread the recipe for vanilla souffle approximately ten times, I heard Julia’s distinctive voice in my head. I wish that she had been standing beside me while I was cooking, as nerve wracking as that would have been, mainly because I had questions. Julia, which stage of the recipe do you mean that I can cook at low heat if I want to make the soufflé ahead of time? If I don’t have a kettle to cover the soufflé before I bake it, will a plate suffice? And despite referring me to the soufflé baking dish section, I’m still confused about whether I really need to extend the depth of the soufflé dish with parchment paper and string.

While cooking, it’s fairly unusual for me to have to repeat any component of a dish due to error. This soufflé required two restarts. First, the eggs would not separate properly…so I ended up throwing out three eggs. Sort of a restart. And then, while “gently warming” the base of milk, salt and flour, the not separating eggs distracted me, and I overcooked the base. Do over.

The vanilla soufflé came together in the end. It was delicious, and between the three of us, nothing was left. But it wasn’t as I had imagined: the soufflé had separated into a puffy, egg white layer and a custardy, egg yolk and vanilla layer. I’m not sure if it separated because it sat too long or because I covered it with a plate, rather than the suggested kettle.

We ate well before dessert, starting with gougeres (gruyere cheese puffs, a recipe from Artisanal in New York, a restaurant which I may have written about, but that entry is still trapped on Nilay’s server), olives and bread and cheese (a nice and runny cheese).

The night before, I bought several pounds of short ribs, which I sprinkled with fresh herbs, salt and pepper. A few hours before dinner, I browned the short ribs, boiled up two bottles of 2005 Riven Rock Cabernet (cheapest Cab at Whole Foods), added the ribs, covered and braised the whole thing in the oven for a few hours. The meat was amazing – tender, falling off of the bones, full of the flavor of the herbs and the wine, simple and complex at the same time. We sprinkled with gremolata, a mixture of fresh herbs, garlic, lemon and salt and pepper. I used the leftover wine and fat to reduce the sauce into a nice gravy, plus polenta with gorgonzola (which cut the richness of the beef) and brussel sprout hash (brussel sprouts sliced a bit too thinly, sautéed up in some olive oil and garlic, and dressed with lemon juice and dry vermouth). Richard and Melissa also brought a very excellent Duckhorn cabernet, rich and complex and perfect with the short ribs. I should note that Mom discovered the recipe several months ago in Bon Appetit.

A week later, I used the two remaining short ribs to make ravioli, inspired by an amazing short rib ravioli meal at Delfina a few years ago. I tried to duplicate the recipe, first grinding the meat, then mixing it with leftover gremolata and gravy, using wonton wrappers for the ravioli part. The ravioli wasn’t horrible, it just wasn’t didn’t have the same taste that I remembered. Really, it sort of fell flat and even my first ever beurre blanc sauce, using Alice Waters’ recipe from her excellent new The Art of Simple Food, didn’t really help. Although, I have to admit, on its own, the beurre blanc sauce was absolutely delicious. The beurre blanc sauce is bubbling away in the little pot behind the ravioli in the picture below.

I did attempt soufflé again, this time with spinach and gruyere. Pete and Chris were my guinea pigs, and I was confident enough in success that I bought a bottle of Cremant to go with. It was worth it – the soufflé was golden and puffy and absolutely delicious.

Julia still scares me, but not as much. I'll definitely do more, and maybe someday, I'll move on to the French Laundry.

Posted by Schelley Olhava at 09:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Thanksgiving was at the Olhava's in Napa this year. The location should impress you, or not, if you know me and have heard stories of what I call the "ancestral estate".

Ed and I cooked dinner, a process that began the day before. Much of dinner was similar to the previous year, with the brined turkey, buttery stuffing and rich gravy. I made two types of cranberry sauce, a sweet sauce slightly modified from the directions on the back of the package and savory cranberry chutney. Other dishes: brussel sprouts, steamed, then roasted with garlic and olive oil; mashed sweet potatoes; and buttermilk mashed potatoes. I made ginger spice cupcakes with cream cheese frosting for dessert (notice the spider webs) and Jan brought two different types of pumpkin pie.

I think my favorite part of the meal was stuffing soaked with the buttery and rich gravy. Soooo utterly delicious.

It’s worth noting a few other food items from my few days in Napa. I ducked out of a funeral reception to eat at the taqueria around the corner – Las Platas – which was absolutely fantastic. Just so that you all don't think that I'm heartless, I knew very few people at the funeral, I really wanted Mexican and the clock was ticking down, and while the cold cuts would have been delicious, a fabulous Napa taqueria was around the corner. I inhaled a pork enchilada with red sauce and shrimp enchilada with green sauce, practially crying. I so miss good Mexican food. Mom also bought homemade tamales from somewhere, which were great snacks. Again, more delicious Mexican food.

The night before Thanksgiving, we ate raviolis and malfattis from Lawler’s, a Napa market famous for its homemade Italian food, liquor selection and for rent adult video collection.

Again, be impressed. I was in Napa.

Posted by Schelley Olhava at 08:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I keep moving, which means several housewarming parties. And since I’d been in the Vertigo long enough to unpack my boxes, paint at least one wall and make it feel like home, it was time.

Usually, I spend the day cooking, preparing food, arranging trays, making drinks. Time was short, and I made an executive decision: I ordered trays from Whole Foods. This was definitely a good idea - the food was delicious, and while I still spent time in the kitchen, the party prep wasn’t as stressful as it has been in the past (even though Carrie and Pete may disagree with that statement). And, since Carrie was in town, it gave me more time to hang out with her (until I think I gave myself a concussion, but that’s a whole other story).

I did make dessert: chocolate cupcakes with coffee frosting, chocolate chip cookies (from Elizabeth Falkner’s new and excellent Demolition Desserts) and almond cookies. Carrie assembled the requisite cheese tray and a I threw a warm artichoke dip in the oven. From Whole Foods, a charcuterie tray, grilled veggies on bread and mushroom skewers with aioli. I also made French 75 cocktails (champagne, gin, lemon, something else), which disappeared in about 5 minutes.

Carrie attempted the newest Cooks Illustrated pie crust involving flour, salt, butter, shortening and vodka from, in order to make her famous caramelized onion and blue cheese tart. It’s always interesting to watch others in the kitchen – our methods differ, but the end always turns out. Sadly, the pie crust didn’t come together that night, although we did make the tart the next night, and it was simply amazing: layers of flaky pie crust that crunched nicely in the mouth, with the sweet onions and tart blue cheese.

The party was a ton of fun. Cleaning up bottles the next day, I realized that it was a fairly hard drinking crowd. Several bottles of beer, a few bottles of wine, a bottle of vodka, 5 bottles of champagne and some other assorted liquor were consumed. Someone told me that when she left at midnight, it was clear that the party wasn’t ending anytime soon.

Happy Housewarming!

Posted by Schelley Olhava at 08:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Within a week, the gas grill and the bar arrived. Both objects are excellent additions to my home. And not ironically, but interestingly, fit within the spirit of this blog perfectly – musings on food and wine.

First grilled meal: hamburgers. With all of the fixings, of course. Lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, avocados, cheddar and because I like them, sautéed onions.

First drink from the bar: a cosmo. The bar is stocked, with room for more bottles and glasses.

I'm really excited about having the grill. BBQ just says, well, deliciousness. So many possibilities of what I can make, so many recipes that I'm excited to try. It's been assembled and functional for about a week, and already, I've used it four times. And, it prompted a new purchase: a popcorn popper for the bbq!

I'm also excited about the bar. Not only because it appeals to my inner alcoholic, but it's just so damn cool. It fits into the spirit of the Vertigo, seeming to capture that trendiness and cool of the early 60s era. The bar will be put to good use for the soon-to-be housewarming.

Here is Pete with the grill. He assembled it for me, I think because he knew that in turn, I'd grill him something delicious.

Burgers, the first meal.

The bar. The angle is bad, and since, I've rearranged the furniture. Note the wall decal behind.

The night before flying to Copenhangen for holiday, Aaron came over for dinner. While Pete was assembling the bbq, Aaron artfully arranged the vinyl decals on my wall. I'm still trying to finish it up, namely, the decals aren't sticking to the wall as well as they should. The songbirds (not chickens, Pete) are super cute, nestled in the green branches.

Posted by Schelley Olhava at 06:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Inspired in part by the Sassy Radish, I decided to experiment with the salad dressing. Two tomatillas, tomato, lemon juice, a clove of garlic, a handful of cilantro, sour cream, green onions, a garlic scape and olive oil were tossed into the cuisinart. The dressing was chunky, zesty and perfect for a salad of black beans, corn, spring red onions and a crumble of feta cheese over red leaf lettuce.

Experimentation can be good, especially on a warm summer evening.

Posted by Schelley Olhava at 09:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Memorial Day weekend kind of snuck up on me, and I discovered that most of my friends were either out of town or busy (teeth extractions, couple stuff, visitors). I found myself with lots of time, or as I described, "great voids of nothingness". Which meant it was time to cook.

Two vidalia onions. My first thought was some sort of onion tart. Carrie makes a excellent tart, but alas, she was chasing DILF's in Hawaii and not available for recipe sharing. I scanned a few cookbooks, but couldn't find a recipe that I liked. Then it dawned on me: pissaladiere from Cook's Illustrated. Basically a fancy French pizza, the dough was slightly chewier and flatter than a regular pizza. Sans cheese and sauce, it was topped with nicoise olives, anchovies, thyme, a few sprinkles of truffle salt (my addition) and caramelized onions. The pissaladiere was absolutely delicious - chewy crust, the saltiness of the anchovies and olives offset nicely by the thick layer of sweet vidalias. I shared with a few neighbors at the Park Rose Terrace; someone else contributed bbq spareribs. Weird combination, but delicious.

While looking for onion recipes, I stumbled across a recipe for ginger duck in Amanda Hesser's very excellent Cooking for Mr. Latte (there's a story behind that cookbook that maybe some day I'll share on this blog). In December, Dad gave me a duck and two breasts (he's a duck hunter). The dish required two days, I was inspired, had time and had always had good luck with recipes from the book.

Alas, so much about the recipe was right. The flavors - the duck stuffed with celery and shallots, cooked gently in a broth of ginger and soy - were right. The broth was delicious, rich, gingery, slightly salty. After resting for a day, the duck was roasted, basted in the broth. And, the broth was also used to cook some of the most delicious rice pilaf I have ever tasted.

While I loved the rice, the duck, on the other hand, the poor, poor duck. I'm sure the duck lived a good life, and sadly, I just didn't cook it right in death. It was overcooked and dry. I hadn't realized until later that the recipe was intended for a farm-raised duck, versus the wild duck that I cooked. With the winged migration (exercise and all), my duck was much leaner, and in the butchering process, it's fatty skin was removed. Which meant not only less fat, but no skin to turn into crackling goodness during the final roasting stage.

Regardless the dinner wasn't a waste. Have I mentioned how fabulous the rice tasted? I also made zucchini fritters, which were not only delicious, but fresh and bright and cut the richness of the duck broth enhanced rice. Oh, and I drank a 2003 Stama Cabernet with.

PS: Pete, Capitol Hill and Venus Cafe miss you.

Posted by Schelley Olhava at 07:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I did not beat the bridge.

It's not really a bad thing, in the course of things. I ran the 5-mile "Beat the Bridge" race on Sunday. Being in the third wave, also know as the "jogger" wave and what I half jokingly call the "loser" wave, I would have had to run two ten-minute miles in order to make it to the University bridge before it went up at exactly 9AM. By the time I arrived, people were removing the countdown clock and the bridge was up. All in all, though, the forced break was good. I had a few minutes to rest, drink some water, setting me up nicely for the rest of the race. And, the rain that started around mile 4 was a nice push, "I have to pick up the pace and finish this damn race!"

In the end, I finished at the 1 hour and 12 minute mark. Since I started 10 minutes after the clock, I actually clocked in at slightly more than an hour, or about 12 minutes a mile. Incrementally, I'm improving with this whole running thing.

That same day, for the first time in seeming forever, I actually made a real meal, vegetable curry, with potatoes, cauliflower and chickpeas. This required a great deal of chopping, multiple spices (curry, coriandor, cardamom, cinnamon, salt, pepper) and cooking. I even made two chutneys: sweet onion (yeah for the vidalia!) and cilantro-mint. The meal was absolutely delicious, hearty, spicy and perfect for the end of a rainy and chilly May race day.

In a year, I want to beat the bridge.

Posted by Schelley Olhava at 10:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Only Gabe would come up with the idea of creating a dinner in which every dish contained an ingredient that came from a tube. Luckily for me, he and friend Regina’s idea and plans for dinner coincided with my trip to New York, so I was able to participate, and most importantly, enjoy the results.

I actually didn’t realize how much food could be found in a tube, until Gabe showed me his collection, a huge container filled with tubes containing exotic ingredients. I have regularly bought tomato paste, ginger, garlic and cilantro (the last one was one of those first and last purchases) in tubes – easy to store and easy to use. But there is so much more – mustard, horseradish, fish paste type things, and in Europe, the selection is even more diverse (for example, I’ve regularly bought mustard in a tube in Finland which by the way, is one of my favorite mustards). And now I'm keeping my eyes open for new food in tubes.

Dinner started with deviled eggs, half of which contained black cod roe and half horseradish. I absolutely loved the fishy taste with the egg; I even bought a tube of smoked fish from Ikea and made my own a few weeks later (in the spirit of keeping my eyes open for new foods in tubes). From there, we moved to sweet pepper stew with chorizo. Sooo delicious, the stew contained a few ingredients from tubes, possibly paprika. For the main course, roasted chicken, sautéed brussel sprouts with white beans (garlic from a tube and courtesy of Chris), a spinach and feta cheese torta and mashed potatoes (with horseradish from a tube). I contributed a ginger cake, which of course, used an entire tube of minced ginger.

I like the themed dinner idea. Gabe’s went beyond the general cuisine categories that usually mark a themed dinner (such as Mexican, Indian, Thai, bbq, etc.) and forced us to be creative in ways that cooks are not normally challenged. I imagine it was like Iron Chef, only without the really weird ingredients and snarky comments from judges. I’ve already discussed the idea with a few of my Seattle foodie friends and we’ve thinking of new themes for dinner parties (and those of you I haven’t discussed with, don’t worry, we’ll discuss).

Themes … all good.

Below: the deviled eggs with a few tubes. Jason and I were being artistic.

The stew, with the tube of paprika (at least, I hope that's paprika).

Main course!

Ginger cake, slightly blurry. A lot of wine and food had been consumed by the time dessert was served.

Posted by Schelley Olhava at 08:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Easter 2007 will also go down as perhaps my greatest kitchen disaster yet, of which there are many. This time, the oven caught on fire. Yes, you read that statement correctly: the oven caught on fire. Technically, Pete caught my oven on fire, but since I’m a nice person, I won’t blame him (even though he later ate my Easter bunny). And, really, the gruyere cheese that bubbled onto the bottom of the oven from the potato gratin is what caught on fire, but it happened to coincide with Pete placing the apple pie in the oven.

In retrospect, the flames shooting up from the bottom of the oven were kind of cool. And terrifying. And the giant puffs of black smoke hovering throughout my apartment were decidedly unpleasant, something noticed by a few neighbors (“Oh, that was you that caused that smell�?). Thoughts ran through my mind, including “Easter dinner is cancelled…what am I going to do with 10 pounds of pig brining in the fridge…I’m going to burn down the Park Rose Terrace…�? After running around like little girls, grabbing a fire extinguisher, wondering if we should call 911, the oven door closed and the fire went out. Dinner was not ruined. And in fact, dinner was pretty good.

I brined a pork shank in coca cola, salt and herbs, not exactly the most traditional brine, but one that resulted in tender, moist pork. Before roasting, I rubbed an herb paste on the skin, then basted Porky while he was cooking with an apple cider glaze. The skin and layer of fat was flavorful and chewy, the meat fabulous. Plus potato gratin with gruyere, arugula and bacon, mashed potatoes (from Simon), green beans (from Tracy), roasted asparagus with tomato basil vinaigrette and salad (from Lee Dicks). And we started with cheese courtesy of Gavin and Elaine and artichoke dip. For dessert, Pete made an apple pie and Richard a lemon tart.

Easter dinner had once been a Bay Area Olhava tradition. We would gather to celebrate with dinner on Saturday night, generally bacchanalian affairs marked by too much wine and food and traditional Polish breakfast Sunday morning. I haven’t celebrated Easter in several years, but decided that dinner was in order when I found out that Ed was going to be in Seattle for a wedding over the weekend.

Because my brother was in town, a good selection of wine was required, most of which was from the Washington area. A 2006 Columbia Winery Gewurtz (which went the best with the pork, in my opinion), a 2004 Chateau Ste. Michelle Chardonnay, a 2004 Hogue Merlot (also from Columbia Valley), my stand-by Rex Goliath Pinot and of course, because it was a celebration, a Lucien Albrecht Cremant Brut de Blancs.

Just as an aside, Ed, Pete and I hit Salume for lunch on Good Friday. I can only describe the place as amazing – a closet sized restaurant dedicated to perfectly cured meats. I decided to go with the basics, choosing a prosciutto sandwich. Paper-thin slices of prosciutto, salty and smokey, and creamy fresh mozzarella, sandwiched between perfectly greasy focaccia. Ed had the pork cheeks sandwich, giant chunks of tender braised pork in a baguette with peppers and onions. Lunch at Salume also coincided with a warm Seattle spring day, actually the nicest day in six months, so we went to the Seattle Library (light shining through the windows) and the Space Needle for views.

Posted by Schelley Olhava at 09:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Pete turned 30, and to properly celebrate his migration into the “30s�? (a good age, in my opinion), I offered to bake a birthday cake, which then turned into a birthday dinner. And since his birthday isn’t that far from St. Patrick’s Day, I decided that Irish was perfect. Pete pointed out that he’s not Irish, but he really didn’t have a choice, and even if he didn’t want or like corned beef and cabbage, he did an excellent job of covering it up.

Last year, a few weeks before moving to Seattle, I made corned beef for Carrie, Emil, Rachel and Jeff and Melissa. The only problem was that the beef had already been corned, so I wasn’t sure if the deliciousness that we consumed was me or Whole Foods. This year, I purchased a beef brisket (grass fed, of course), and a week before the dinner, lovingly massaged a salt and spice rub into the attractive looking piece of beef. It went into the fridge, weighted down with Le Creuset filled with pie weights and a few cans of Guinness, and flipped and admired each evening.

I simmered the meat for several hours, and in the end, it was great – flavorful, tender, juicy…in all, we ate well. Veggies in the form of cabbage (of course), parsnips, boiling onions, new potatoes and turnips, which of course, were boiled in the broth after the beef was cooked, and I made Irish soda bread. Plus appetizers, cheese, crackers, tomato tart and Michael brought ceviche. And to properly celebrate Pete’s migration to 30, devil’s food cake with vanilla frosting (you devil, you!), plus a raspberry chocolate decadence something or other from Dilettante supplied by Rich.

Pete, you don’t look a day over 30. Seriously.

The next day, I ran the St. Paddy’s Day Dash 5K, coming in at 39 minutes and 29 seconds, which is about 3 minutes faster than the Jingle Bell Dash in December. My best race yet…this running thing is coming along quite nicely.

Posted by Schelley Olhava at 02:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The other night at Whole Foods, I bought a grass fed rib eye steak, invited Pete for dinner, then realized that one steak wouldn't be enough, so asked him to pick up another steak on his way over. Instead of a rib eye, he brought some other cut, but purchasing at QFC guaranteed that his steak was corn fed. Thus, we had the opportunity to do a side by side comparison of corn fed versus grass fed beef.

The difference was big. Both cuts had been prepped and cooked the exact same way, sprinkled with black pepper and truffle salt and pan-fried in a cast iron skillet, still nicely pink on the inside. The rib eye, as expected, was more tender, keeping in mind that the steaks came from different parts of the cow. But the general flavor was different, or as I said, "it was more buttery".

I also made mashed potatos with sour cream, half-and-half, sauteed shallots and garlic, black pepper and truffle salt. The sauteed spinach with garlic and lemon was delicious (and leftovers quite nice with eggs the next morning); the sauteed collard greens were bitter and disappointing.

Posted by Schelley Olhava at 11:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)