Late night adventures in the kitchen

Inspired by Mark Bittman's article on Mexican popsicles in Wednesday's New York Times, we decided to make our own variation on Thursday night. We had three limes in need of juicing, as well as a pint of strawberries from the Wallingford farmers market that were super ripe and ready to eat, so we settled on...

Strawberry-lime paletas

1. Clean and hull a pint of strawberries and juice 1-2 limes, depending on size. Set the juice aside.


2. Pop the strawberries in the blender and puree
Before...


...and after.


3. Add one cup of milk and blend.


Sea Breeze Farm on Vashon Island sells real, raw milk at the local farmers markets, and it's the only white milk I've ever willingly drank straight up. So, so delicious and perfect for our paletas. You don't have to use raw milk for these, but I recommend using whole milk.


4. Add 1/4 cup sugar and blend again.


5. Add lime juice to taste - 3 tablespoons was perfect for us.


6. Get your popsicle mold ready, along with something to pour the puree.


7. Pour it in and you're ready to freeze.


8. Find some room in your freezer and freeze the popsicles overnight.


9. Enjoy, either traditionally like me or in your own special way like Larry.

Grow your own...

Vegetables, of course. What did you think I meant?

We went a little crazy this year at the Seattle Tilth Plant Sale and brought home what we thought were about 60 plant starts, but discovered yesterday that several start containers actually held 4 starts. More spinach for us! Our usual combination of store-bought planters and recycled kitty litter buckets was no match for all the plants we had, so we built a raised vegetable bed in the backyard. It took a few days, but it's all planted now and I can't wait to eat fresh salads and veggies all summer long. I just hope the squirrels and rabbits don't get them first!


This picture skips ahead a few steps in the process. Before we started, Larry sketched out the design and then we went to Home Depot for the wood. They'll cut it for you there so you can make the bed any size you like. We chose 5 x 5 - in hindsight we could have gone larger but that would have required even more soil, and this is a good manageable size.



We needed at least 25 cubic feet of soil and wound up with 27: 18 feet of organic top soil, 6 feet of organic compost, and 3 feet of organic steer-gro manure. We layered it in - 3 bags of soil, one bag of compost, one bag of manure. (Yes, the flies did hang around for a while.)



After we put in each set of layers, we raked it to mix. We also put in some fish bone fertilizer after the first round, just to make the soil extra rich.



Once the soil is in and mixed, you're ready to plant! We started with lettuces, since we have a ton. Here you can see we've planted arugula, buttercrunch, merlot, romaine, radicchio, and summer spinach.


Here's the finished bed. On the other half we planted bok choy, napa cabbage, broccoli and brussels sprouts.



Here's the rest of the garden - like those classy kitty litter buckets? Hey, this is Seattle and we like to recycle. Just drill yourself 7 or so holes in the bottom, rinse it thoroughly and you have a great container for tomatoes, peppers or chard (which is what you see below). There are also some kale, onions and endive that we started from seed in the winter - they're just now starting to thrive.



And the back porch. In the back, broccoli and brussels sprouts started from seed - they take forever to mature, it seems. Then we have sorrel (the tall leafy one), kale, and more peppers, and strawberries on the left.



With all those flowers blooming, maybe we'll actually get to eat some strawberries this summer!

Inspiration in ice cream

Just got home from Molly Moon's, the new ice cream shop in Wallingford where we went for a celebratory scoop after the show. I'm quite sure that Molly Moon's is destined to be my new favorite indulgence. With flavors like Scout Mint (with crushed Thin Mint cookies), Balsamic Strawberry, Honey Lavender and Cardamom, there's bound to be a flavor for every palate, and every day of the week. They also have homemade waffle cones - ours were so fresh and warm that they melted the bottom scoop of ice cream. And did I mention that the ingredients are organic and locally sourced? So many things to love already, but let's get to the point and talk about how it tasted...

I'll just say that we stopped talking entirely because our mouths were constantly full.

Here's what we had:
Balsamic Strawberry - just the right amount of acid to balance out the cream, and little bits of strawberry throughout
Salted Caramel - perfection, although it tasted a little too salty coming right after the strawberry (but was awesome a few bites later), so maybe best to order it alone or with a more natural pairing like Chocolate or Vivace Coffee
Vivace Coffee - I'm not a huge fan of coffee ice cream, but this could win me over; Larry loved it

Update:
We went again 2 days later (I can see this becoming a problem - it's almost too conveniently located) and would have gone again this afternoon but the line was out the door. Will try again tonight, but in the meantime...

CARDAMOM!!!!! I think it may be my new all-time favorite ice cream flavor. Refreshing and completely satisfying in an almost savory manner. Sooooooooo good, you have to try it!
Chocolate - pure chocolate goodness without being too rich
Raspberry Sorbet - like eating mashed up frozen raspberries, seriously delicious. Not sure if it's a seasonal offering, but I could picture eating this in the middle of winter for a taste of summer.

Visit the website for more details.

The dinner club

Last Saturday night (5/19) we got together with 7 other friends for a special dinner at Cremant, a newish (it turned one in March) French restaurant in Madrona. Before I even get to the dinner part, I just have to say what a sweet neighborhood Madrona is--there are several cute shops and restaurants along the main strip, but it doesn't feel gentrified yet. Case in point--the ad for the Madrona Farmer's Market, which takes place in the Grocery Outlet parking lot. Love it! But back to Cremant. We had booked the Salon du Jardin for our dinner, which we figured was a private room in the back of the restaurant. Well, it was, but it turned out to be completely private--we were instructed to walk outside and around back, where we saw the door for our room. It's separate from the rest of the restaurant, with a door to the kitchen. I will confess that I was really excited when I saw that we had our own restroom.

We had decided ahead of time that we would let the chef choose our menu, so we had no idea what the evening would hold. We started with aperitifs, a kir royale for me and cremant (French sparkling wine from outside the Champagne region) for Larry. As the group settled in with our drinks, the host brought out a plate of cured meats, a pot of house-made rillettes (!), and 2 pots of a delicious spread made with albacore tuna, roasted fennel, olives and eggplant. You mixed it all together and then spread it on your bread--so good. Not as good as the rillettes, mind you, but then I might be just a wee bit biased since rillettes are one of my absolute favorite treats and are usually hard to find.

Our next course consisted of 2 huge platters of endive salad with walnuts and Roquefort, and a plate of 6 roasted marrow bones. I had never had marrow before, and when I first saw it I felt a little nervous, but the taste was incredible. We were instructed to spread some marrow on a bit of bread and then sprinkle some fleur du sel over it. The marrow was so smooth, like butter but even more rich, and the salt added the perfect contrast. The salad had a great tangy bite to it, and paired beautifully with a Vouvray white wine. It was so good that toward the end of the course when we saw the waitress start to take people's plates away, Larry and I quickly loaded our plates up with more salad so we could keep eating! (Yes, we are gluttons.)

The third course arrived just as everyone was finishing their wine; it was cote de boeuf and a potato gratin. The host poured us Vacqueyras, a Rhone red wine, and we started in. The beef had been braised but was still rare--again, something I normally wouldn't have tried, but it was AMAZING. There was a great crust on the outside and lovely pink, tender meat on the inside. This dish may well have converted me to rare meat. The gratin was rich and creamy, a perfect match for the beef. I know I'm starting to sound like a broken record with the "this paired beautifully..." and the "what a perfect match..." but it's true. There's a lot to be said for putting yourself in the hands of the chef; they know what dishes will go well together (and what wines to pair), they can plan a meal that will leave you satisfied but not stuffed, they can serve you the best of what's available that night, and you get to sit back and be surprised. Of course, there are some surprises you might not want--before we went Larry had requested that we not be served steak tartare or veal--but it's fun to put yourself in the chef's hands every once in a while. Okay, I'll get off my soapbox now, but try it some time!

For dessert the host brought out one of each dessert on the menu: creme brulee, chocolate mousse, rice pudding, and plums that had been soaked in Armagnac. Each dessert was delicious (the plums surprisingly so), but the creme brulee was my favorite. I really wanted to order one just for myself, but I refrained. We were all amazed at what a perfect evening it had been, and started talking about where the next dinner club would be.

One last story...just about everyone ordered tea or an after-dinner drink, and I saw that Chartreuse was on the digestif menu. I've always been curious about Chartreuse--I know it's made by monks and that it's where the name of the color comes from, but before Saturday that was the extent of my knowledge. Since we had already had such an indulgent night, I decided to try it out. It came in a little brandy snifter and was that beautiful shade of green. I raised my glass, took a deep sniff and...nearly burned my nose hairs off! Seriously, it smelled like rubbing alcohol. I took a sip; it tingled all the way down my throat. Don't get me wrong, it tasted pretty good, but it was so spicy--almost like the bite you get from cinnamon oil--and I am a wimp about spicy things. I encouraged everyone else to have a sip, not only so they could smell and taste it, but so that I would have less to drink! It was quite an experience, but it didn't end there. About 10 minutes after we left the restaurant, I realized that I was totally blitzed (don't worry, Larry was driving). I had been fine all through dinner, so it was definitely the Chartreuse. I guess it's not a drink for amateurs!

Next up: Sitka and Spruce, on June 22nd.