Al Dente

Breakfast of Champions

I wonder if the Colts will be noshing on beignets and sipping Cafe Du Monde coffee Monday morning, or if they'll be filling up on Wheaties?

I stuck to my promise and watched foreign films and painted my toenails in lieu of watching the Game. But I did get to thinking about New Orleans, which I was fortunate enough to visit just prior to Hurricane Katrina. One morning before my conference started, I ambled down Conti Street to Decatur, where lies the legendary grande dame of doughnuts, Cafe Du Monde . Now, Cafe Du Monde is the In-N-Out of beignets. The menu is sparse: just beignets, coffee (blended with chicory), milk and orange juice. But a steaming cup o' cafe au lait, and a plate of piping hot beignets doused with powdered sugar will easily tide you over 'til lunch...or dinner.

Mmm. If only they delivered.

--StellaCadente*

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Counting Down To Kick-Off!

OK, I'm not really that much of a football fan. But I do love New Orleans, so I'll be watching the Big Game.

I've traveled to loads of places in the world and I cannot think of another city that gets so fired up about food. There's a super-funky song by Kermit Ruffins called "What is New Orleans?" that really captures the flavor of that special city. He starts out with red beans and rice on Monday, fried pork chops with macaroni on a Wednesday night and goes down the list of dishes emblematic of the city's Creole and Cajun roots.

Last summer, I spent a week eating myself silly in New Orleans, savoring meals at classic spots such as Galatoire's and being blown away by new places: Still thinking about the deconstructed Oysters Rockefeller at MiLa and the exuberant seasonings of every single bite at Cochon.

My last lunch in NOLA before taking off was at Parkway Bakery and Tavern, which serves one of the city's best old-school po'boys. (Not to mention a killer Bloody Mary.) I'm going to do my darnedest to try and recreate the fried shrimp po-boy to munch while cheering on the New Orleans Saints! Dredging wild Gulf shrimp in Louisiana Seasoned Fish Fry and deep-frying 'em.

The tricky part was finding the right bread. I asked a friend who lives in the Crescent City if she had a recipe for the soft French bread rolls that make the foundation for the signature sandwich and she said: Nope. But, she suggested I look for a Vietnamese bakery and I scored! The Anxuyen Bakery in SeaTac, Washington, makes rolls used for Bahn Mi, also known as Vietnamese po'boys.

Ask for that po'boy dressed at a restaurant down South and it'll come with shredded iceberg lettuce, sliced tomatoes and some kind of sauce. I'm making a remoulade spiked with Sriracha.

-- Leslie Kelly

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Make Your Own Tortilla Chips

I am not going to lie. I had no idea the Big Game was tomorrow until I opened up my copy of New York magazine and the lovely photo (left), accompanying Joaquin Baca's Seven-Layer Dip recipe caught my eye. I thought I'd pass along the link to those readers who are gearing up for parties.

If you really want to wow your party guests, go the extra mile and make your own tortilla chips.  johnnynacho has posted precise instructions and recommendations on how to do this. (Plus, I really wanted to link to someone named johnnynacho!)

My Sunday plans include watching this movie and painting my toenails this lovely shade of Lollipop. What are you making for your festivities?

Photo credit: Hannah Whitaker
Illustration credit: John Burgoyne

--StellaCadente*

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Rye Rocks My World

A few weeks ago, at Clyde Common in Portland, my husband was served a rye Manhattan, and I became a convert.

What is it about rye that rocks my world, the way scotch and bourbon never could?

Our latest discovery is called "The Monk," the work of Jonathan Hudak of Seattle's Tilth. He told us how to make it ourselves, and now you can too.

Even if you don't typically make cocktails at home, why not give it a try. It's worth a shot.

The Monk

Ingredients:
2-1/4 ounces Sazerac Rye
3/4 ounce Benedictine
1/4 ounce Yellow Chartreuse
5 drops Fee Brothers Aromatic Bitters

Directions:
1. Stir ingredients with ice. Strain. Garnish with one square of lemon peel.

--Tracy Schneider

Somewhere Under the Pancakes, Bluebirds Fly

Happy Friday. Photo and recipe courtesy of creative mom Amanda, who blogs at  iammommy. Amazing what one can do with twelve drops of gel-based food coloring and a little ingenuity.

--StellaCadente*

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Cooking With Strangers Can Be Awkward

Reading the subheading of this article by Salon.com's Francis Lam sent a twinge of mortification pulsing through my veins, as it instantly brought to mind my recent experience at the Thai Farm Cooking School outside of Chiang Mai. Cooking with strangers can be awkward.

My instructor, Tommy, circled the city in a truck, corralling all of the day's participants. I was first to climb into the back of the covered pickup which had been converted into a communal taxi, a common sight on the streets of Thailand. As we stopped at the sequence of hotels, it became apparent to me that I would be the only solo participant. After me, only couples piled into the cab, some fawning over each other as if they had never laid eyes on a more beautiful male/female. One from South Africa, a couple from New Zealand, some from the Netherlands and Germany, and me. Used to being the third wheel, this didn't bother me, too much. Initially.

Summer Camp and Cream Biscuits

I know we're just barely spying the first crocuses, but my friends are already starting the first tentative glimmerings of summer camp plans: Will the kids play soccer, or go swimming? Art class or computers? 

I've been jealous of some of the fun available for kids, but now I know there's an adult version, and my mind keeps going back to the time I spent as a guest at the Tom Douglas Culinary Summer Camp. In 2008, I joined campers as they decorated cakes with the Dahlia Bakery's manager and participated in cooking demos and taste tests with star chefs from inside and outside the Douglas empire. Last year, I was torn whether to audit baguette-making with Douglas head baker Gwen LeBlanc, get a pickling lesson from Renee Erickson of my beloved Boat Street Pickles, imbibe a cocktail tutorial from the masters at Sambar, or a host of other options. Finally, I went for some of the guest headliners, the steak tasting with Bruce Aidells (which turned into a lively lesson on meat-cutting) and the crisp fried game hens and super-fluffy biscuits cooked up by Nancy Oakes. 

Watching those top-notch biscuits come together, an experience I otherwise never would have had, reminded me how much difference first-hand observations make when cooking. It's one thing to read a recipe, another thing entirely to watch an expert chef in action. It's like the difference, I guess, between reading about a soccer game and getting to play. 

I wish we adults had more chances like this to learn about topics that passionately interest us, having fun all the while. 

Of course, the recipe itself is nothing to sneeze at. If anything, winter is an even better time to enjoy these: 

Nancy Oakes Cream Biscuits

Ingredients:

1-1/2 cups self-rising flour
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 cup heavy cream (plus a few tablespoons more if necessary)
1/3 cup melted butter

 Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Put the self-rising flour, salt and sugar in a medium bowl. Using a fork, slowly stir in the cream until the dough just begins to come together. If it feels dry and there are too many pieces falling away, add a little more cream, 1 tablespoon at a time.
3. Once the dough comes together, turn it out on a lightly floured cutting board and pat and shape it with your hands into a 1/2-inch thick square. Cut into nine squares and dip each square into the melted butter. 
4. Place the biscuits on a baking sheet. Bake in the pre-heated oven for 15 minutes or until lightly golden. Serve hot from the oven.

Makes nine biscuits (which, as Oakes said, is two per person and one extra for the cook).

-- Rebekah Denn

Everyone's a Critic

I stumbled upon this article this morning (well, indirectly via my Twitter feed), by the Village Voice's restaurant critic, Robert Sietsema, lamenting the present state of restaurant criticism. The crux of the article: Everyone has a blog, everyone is a critic, but not everyone has the proper credentials to do the job.

In the early '90s I was a religious patron of Zagat, regularly flipping through my dog-eared copy of the LA guide. But when I moved to Seattle, near the end of the decade, I became more reliant on articles in the Seattle Weekly, and the Stranger. I've never particularly loyal to one reviewer, though. Nowadays, I tend to rely on recommendations from foodie friends, and scan the local papers for information on new restaurant openings. Of course, it never hurts to give an eatery a cursory peek when I'm out and about to get a general idea of the menu and ambiance to see if it's worth closer examination. I do use Yelp and Chowhound, but I take that content with a grain of salt, not personally knowing the reviewers.

I am curious to know, dear readers, who you rely on for your restaurant 411. Do value the opinion of a particular critic? How much import do you place on the assessment of a professional reviewer? Do chime in.

Photo: Renowned restaurant critic, Ruth Reichl, undercover.

--StellaCadente*

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Broccoli Revisited on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday!

Broccoli doesn’t get a lot of positive press. Of course, it’s a nutritional powerhouse, but because it’s a cruciferous vegetable it is naturally more bitter and can be a tough sell to many folks.

I often serve my children a vegetable platter as an afterschool snack. I sometimes include broccoli on that platter and  have found that the best way to prepare  it is to blanch it briefly in boiling water and then plunge it into cold water. This seems to remove some of that bitter edge and helps to brighten the color.

Sometimes my kids will eat the blanched broccoli dipped in ranch dressing. On other days, I have an excess left on the platter. Last week, I saved that excess and after a couple days I had a lonely bag of blanched broccoli sitting in the fridge. 

In an attempt to avoid waste, I decided to  turned my broccoli castoffs into a creamy broccoli casserole. I grabbed my favorite Le Creuset au gratin dish. I then made a basic white sauce of melted butter, flour and  milk in my beloved Le Creuset saucepan. I added the broccoli and some leftover cooked bell pepper to the white sauce and baked the concoction in the oven. Remarkably, it was a delicious success. But, I still had some casserole left after dinner…what next?

So, on Monday I took my broccoli casserole and spontaneously decided to make a veggie sandwich with it.  I sliced a little baguette, broiled it with a dab of olive oil, and then dolloped a little of the leftover casserole onto the bread. I added a little parmesan and sent the whole thing back to the broiler for a minute or two. Voila! A vegetarian sandwich for lunch…

Then, yesterday, I pushed the challenge a little further. I took the last few tablespoons of broccoli casserole, heated it in my Le Creuset saucepan, and tossed in some leftover pasta.  I thinned with a little more milk, heated it a little longer, and again found myself with a yummy vegetarian lunch entrée!!

So, this little exercise certainly pushed the parameters on broccoli, but it was a worthwhile experiment in pushing the limits on leftovers! How do you revamp leftovers?

Photo by Melissa A. Trainer

--Melissa A. Trainer

You Say Pea-Can And I Say Pea-Con

It seemed like an innocent question, posted on Twitter and Facebook after I baked my first pecan pie. (Using the classic Karo Syrup recipe.)

"Do you pronounce it pea-con or pea-can?"

The answers came fast and a few were even furious: "Pea-con rhymes with moron!"

Whoa! Let's not get too fired up about this linguistic puzzler.

This sticky sticking point demonstrates a divide between the North (pea-cons) and the South (pea-cans). My friends who live in pecan country insist it's some variation of pea-can. If you're from Mississippi, please call it Puh-Can! My buddy in New Orleans crowed: "In the Motherland, it's puh-KOHN." One Twitter pal who grew up in Arkansas added a new wrinkle, saying her family just called it Karo Nut pie.

Not to pour fuel on this potato-potot-o/tomato-tomotto discussion, but I decided to check on the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, the one that includes audio pronunciations and guess what? Both are included! Guess which one's first? Pea-Con!

No matter how pecan rolls off your tongue, I think we can all agree on one thing: It makes for an incredible pie!

I'm grateful this entertaining exchange came with sides of great advice. One friend, who had lived in Texas for years, suggested adding some chocolate chips on top of the unbaked crust before pouring in the filling. Another, from Memphis, was all in favor of spiking the baked pie with a couple tablespoons of bourbon right after it comes out of the oven. Boy, oh man, does that smell like a slice of heaven. But you'll have to wait.

The key to this sticky sweet, crunchy pie is that it needs to cool thoroughly before serving.

Now, for the next subject up for debate: Ice cream or a dollop of whipped cream on top?

-- Leslie Kelly

Sticky Rice, You Will Not Defeat Me!

Oh, sticky rice. Forever the bane of my existence! I made this gorgeous looking plate of coconut sticky rice for my friend April's baby shower over the weekend. Guests oohed and aahd over its elegant presentation, the bright colors, the borage flowers plucked from my neighbor Jean's backyard. Alas, I made a chef's fatal mistake: I failed to taste it before I put it out for the party goers. *Gasp.* My cooking professors would be none to pleased with me.  I sampled the rice and the coconut mixture separately, but not the dish as a whole. It wasn't until the last reveler had gone that I took a bite of the very chewy sticky rice, wondering how it tasted, and discovered (oh cripes!) my error. 

I am pretty sure the problem arose when I left the rice in it's steaming vessel (for more than an hour) with the lid on while I prepared the other dishes for the meal, causing the rice to toughen. Next time, that rice will be plunged into the coconut milk tout de suite. The rest of the Asian-themed meal turned out fantastic. It was only my nemesis, sticky rice, that taunted me yet again. Sticky rice, be warned: You will not defeat me!

Judith Jones and The Pleasures of Cooking for One

Do you live alone and struggle to cook delicious meals just for yourself?

If so, you might enjoy Judith Jones’s newest book, The Pleasures of Cooking for One.   Jones is the Senior Editor and Vice President of Alfred A. Knopf. She is also the editorial legend behind such American culinary icons as Julia Child and Marcella Hazan.

Although I cook for a family of five, I  purchased the compact book and was immediately pleased. The photos are outstanding and many of them were taken in Jones’s charming home kitchen. It is a treat to get the visual scoop on Jones’s everyday kitchenware and her favorite knives, pots, pans, and spice cabinet!  Jones's carefully written recipes are simple straightforward classics such as Baked Eggs, Pan-Seared Salmon,  Quiche for One,  and Scrafft’s  Oatmeal, Raisin, and Walnut Cookies.

While reading the book, I thoroughly enjoyed Jones’s variations and  her frank discussion on how to deal with leftovers when cooking for one. Leftovers and waste are often juggernauts for solo cooks, but Jones tackles this issue creatively.  After numerous recipes, she includes a little section called “Second Round.” This is where she gives delicious tidbits on how to deal with leftover fish, mussels, skirt steak, or vegetables.  There is also a whole page entitled “Putting Yesterday’s Bread to Work.” In this section, Jones discusses freezing bread and offers tips for using once it has gone stale.

Overall, there’s a lot to relish in The Pleasures of Cooking for One. For additional ideas from Judith Jones, be sure to check out her thoughtful blog, which is entitled judithjonescooks.com.

--Melissa A. Trainer

Anchovies: The Little Fish With Big Flavor

Is there any seafood that's more polarizing? Anchovies evoke strong reactions, camps divided into love 'em or hate 'em. I'm in the former.

It's not like I eat the itty-bitty filets straight. These salty gems are perfect for adding a little extra character to a dish. Even haters have likely eaten anchovies without realizing. Eaten pad Thai? Caesar salad? A muffuletta? Or oysters Rockefeller? Then, you might want to consider giving anchovies another chance.

In her excellent cookbook, In Nonna's Kitchen, Carol Field writes:

"Some grandmothers from southern Italy use anchovies in place of salt, for these tiny fish carry the flavor of the sea."

This winter, I've been experimenting with anchovies. I use just a bit in my marinara and it's transformed to a sauce bolder and richer.

I've successfully mastered an anchovy mayo that's the base for a Caesar dressing. (So easy, there's only a loose recipe: Just whirl two cloves of garlic, one anchovy filet in a food processor. Add an egg (or egg substitute if you're concerned about salmonella; I buy my eggs from producers I know at the farmers markets. Then add olive oil while the machine is running until the mixture is thick. To that, I add the juice of a couple of lemons, a splash of Worchestshire and a splash of Tabasco, some grated Parm. Prego!)

When I traveled to the coastal area of Italy known as the Cinque Terra, I was blown away by mild anchovies fresh from the sea. We don't find those often in the states, but Carol Field suggests searching out anchovies packed in salt as a good alternative. If that's not an option, "find anchovies packed in olive oil inside glass jars that all you to see how meaty and firm the contents are."

Are you a fan or a foe? What's your favorite anchovy recipe?

-- Leslie Kelly

Thrifty Cooking and The Hunger Challenge

Our local health department sponsors an annual "Hunger Challenge" encouraging food writers to eat for a week on a food-stamp budget. The conversations sparked when I took the challenge last year made a couple things very clear about cooking on a tight budget:

1. If you already know how to cook, and you have time to cook, the job of preparing inexpensive meals gets a lot easier. (I collected some of my favorite tips and recipes over here.)  

2. The job gets easier still if you have the added luxury of time to bargain-shop, and reliable transportation to get you to the stores with the best deals. 

3. Planning meals in advance makes all the difference.

Food writers are usually already good at #1, and many are lucky enough to have the advantage of #2, so the logic of using us to make a point about hunger didn't entirely resonate with me last year. This year, though, some participants went beyond the basic approach, stripping away some of those advantages. Alice at Savory Sweet Life restricted herself to the single grocery store in walking distance from her house, cutting herself off from the inexpensive vegetables and wide supply of Asian ingredients she normally would have bought on shopping trips. Patricia and John at Cook Local decided to see if they could eat frugally while maintaining their commitment to locally-grown ingredients and shopping at farmers markets, nicely taking on the common claim that such foods are unaffordable splurges. Nurit at Family Friendly Food talked about the luxury of being able to choose to pinch pennies, rather than being forced to do it. I was most wowed by the comments on Gluten-Free Girl's post, with readers giving tips on how they shop on the "challenge" budget as a way of life, not just one week a year, without feeling deprived. I could learn a lesson from them, instead of the other way around.

What are your best tips for cooking on a tight budget? A lot of people over the years have recommended the More-With-Less Cookbook as a worthwhile guide.

-- Rebekah Denn

Good Ingredients, Great Ganache

The cupcake craze is everywhere, but we set a special sweet tooth aside for the Deathcake Royale served up by Seattle's Cupcake Royale every year in the weeks leading up to Valentine's Day. Beyond the sheer silly fun of slogans like "Meant to be shared by lovers and loved by haters," it's a hardcore powerhouse of Northwest flavors, a solid, block-shaped triple-threat of chocolate cake made with Shepherd's Grain flour, ganache made with Stumptown Espresso, and a fudgy layer of Theo Chocolate decadence, all enclosed in a layer of dark chocolate ganache. 

While it does seem plenty of desserts earn passionate followings, I must say this is the first one I've seen with its own logo, bumper sticker, and even (I kid you not) Valentine's undies. If you're in the Seattle area, they're available through Feb. 14, but it's best to order in advance. 

The Royale folks kindly shared the recipe with us for the dark chocolate ganache they use on the outside of the Deathcake. It's not at all complicated, it just calls for good-quality ingredients. It's scaled back here to about one-third the size of their Deathcake batches, and should make enough to spread a generous layer on about 13 cupcakes.

Dark Chocolate Ganache

Ingredients:

8 ounces 62-65% dark chocolate, chopped
9 ounces heavy cream
1 ounce butter, cut into small pieces

Directions:

1. Measure chocolate and set aside in metal bowl.
2. Heat cream to scalding, not boiling. (When scalding, cream will form a film on surface.) 
3. Pour scalding cream over chocolate. Let sit 20-30 seconds to heat chocolate, then mix gently with whisk.
4. When chocolate and cream are incorporated, slowly stir in pieces of butter until melted and incorporated.

-- Rebekah Denn

Casserole Friday: What's Inside Your Recipe Box?

Stacy was my best friend and next door neighbor growing up. Our backyards melded together, hers with the swing-set, mine with the sandbox. We played with Barbies on the porch and rode our trikes up and down the driveway.

Her mother, Dorothy, made a casserole I was so crazy about, I begged my mother to get the recipe. I hadn't thought about that casserole for some time, but when Zachary and Clark started Casserole Friday, I went looking through my mother's recipe box and found it, neatly handwritten and titled, "Dorothy's Casserole."

Like most casseroles, Dorothy's is easy to make and requires few ingredients: an onion, a pepper, macaroni, hamburger, and tomato sauce. "I don't remember there being green pepper," Stacy told me, when I called to tell her I was now making her mom's casserole on a regular basis. Stacy's making it again too, because her 10-year-old daughter, like mine, begs her for it.

Many readers have told me that they have been rifling through family recipe boxes looking for the casseroles of their youth. If you've come across a casserole recipe from yours, won't you share it with me?

Dorothy's Casserole

Ingredients:
Olive oil
1 onion
1 green pepper
1 pound hamburger meat
1 cup elbow macaroni
1 teaspoon salt
Pepper
Butter
2 cans (15 ounces each) Hunts Tomato Sauce

Directions:
Saute the onion and green pepper in oil. Add hamburger meat and cook until brown. Mix in salt and pepper. Cook macaroni. In a buttered casserole, layer macaroni, meat, macaroni, meat. Pour sauce over top. Bake at 350 degrees F for 1 hour.

Note: I've updated the original recipe a bit. The original used margarine instead of oil to saute the onion and pepper, and margarine instead of butter to "butter" the casserole dish. You might also make your own marinara sauce to pour over the top, instead of Hunts Tomato Sauce.

--Tracy Schneider

Dishing with Kathy Casey: From Cocktails to Camel Milk

Here’s a brief recap from my first trip to the super fabulous Abu Dhabi. I had a great time developing the cocktail program for many of the Fairmont Bab Al Bahr bars and lounges. Actually, I loved my time there so much that I just went back for a 16-day trip to open the signature, Chameleon Bar! I took a lot of pictures, tweeted, and shared my adventures on Facebook.

The UAE: From Cocktails to Camel Milk
I had the most incredible time in the United Arab Emirates! My associate Keith Waldbauer and I conducted training for the Fairmont Art of Mixology Culture at the new and super faboo Fairmont Abu Dhabi. Yes, IT IS Vegas on steroids and a playground for the rich.

It was three intense weeks of hard, but fun, work. We set up and opened multiple bars--from Marco Pierre White’s new Steak House Restaurant to Frankie’s Italian Restaurant...to the beautiful Pool Bar and the luscious Chocolate Gallery. (And I want to add that the staff and managers were AMAZING!)
 
Needless to say we were up to our eyeballs in cocktails! Since, beer, wine and spirits are served ONLY at hotels, you can imagine nonalcoholic drinks are also super popular. The nonalcoholic drinks WERE amazing. The most popular, was the super simple, “why didn’t I think of that,” Minted Lemonade. This is not just mint in lemonade, this is lemonade, ice, and fresh mint blended smooth and brilliant green. It’s the perfect refresher for the hot, HOT heat (especially in Abu Dhabi and Dubai!!).  It’s tart, sweet, tangy, and refreshing! I’ve given a basic recipe below.  Just be sure to use decent lemonade with a good punch--none of this “watery lemonade,” …the kind masquerading as lemonade in the refrigerator section with a whole whopping 7% lemon juice!  It’s important to use a good lemony lemonade. Blend in a small slice of ginger for an even more intense refreshing kick.

What else did we eat and drink while in Abu Dhabi and Dubai? Only the best Indian food either of us has ever had, at the Elements Restaurant at the Fairmont Abu Dhabi! Dal, also spelled dahl, dhal, or daal, tikkas and curries of a zillion variations. No matter how you spell it, they were all amazing.  We also enjoyed delicious Lebanese food at Café Blanc, a cool café at the Dubai mall. We sat outside one lovely warm evening and sampled so many great dishes I thought I would burst.
 
Faves: Fattoush salad with tomatoes, cucumbers, crisp flat bread with sumac and coriander, chicken livers in pomegranate molasses, and another amazing nonalcoholic drink (see photo above)--served in layers of blended avocado, red dates, blended rose...three layers of sipping goodness--zowie!
 
Click here for a fun video I took and edited with my new Flip video camera, showing how they made the three-layer drink!

And yes--I know you all want to know if I drank camel milk! Of course, and I made a cocktail out of it too! 
 
Minted Lemonade
Makes 1 serving

Ingredients:
3 large sprigs fresh mint
1 cup big flavored lemonade
1/2 – 3/4 cup ice
Garnish: fresh mint sprig

Directions:
Tear mint and add to blender. Measure in lemonade and ice and blend on high till smooth. Pour into a tall glass and garnish with mint. Enjoy!

© 2009 Kathy Casey Food Studio

Why Go Out?

Why go out to eat? That is, why *do we* go out to eat? I have been mulling this over all week, and it seems like I am in synch with the Universe. I stumbled upon this NYT article yesterday posing the same question, albeit in a more academic fashion. Then last night, my brother, Antanas, fired up this documentary about Sirio Maccioni and family, which pokes at the same conundrum from behind the scenes at the famed eatery, Le Cirque. 

Looking back, I used to go out primarily for entertainment value. I enjoyed being in a fancy space, developing a rapport with the wait staff, people watching, and dressing up for the occasion.  As of late, however, I prefer gritty to glamorous. Give me a taco cart. Give me a hole-in-the wall with low-budget decor, as long as the food is good. Bruce Buschel astutely observes in his article: 

"The French Laundry makes sense because everything is fussily, through-the-roof extraordinary. The coffee shop down the block makes equal sense because the food stinks (in a deep fried way), the service stinks (in a friendly way), the ambiance stinks (in a comical way), and everyone loves it. It all adds up."

I guess that places me in the good food, stinky ambiance camp. Don't get me wrong, I still enjoy a decadent experience now and again. I more than enjoyed being fawned over during a phenomenal five-course meal at Piccolo Venice the other night. But, if I had to rank ambiance, price, food, and service in order of current importance to me, I'd say: food, price, service, ambiance. Umami, well, that's a gift from the gods.

What's most important to you when dining out? I'd love to hear.

--StellaCadente*

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The Power Of A Good Baking Repertoire

I have a large baking repertoire and many of my tried and true favorites have been gleaned from books, magazines, generous food writers, and home cooks.

Most of my baking recipes are simple and straightforward classics. Some favorites are the ones that I grew up with.  Others, such as Norene Gilletz's Blueberry Crumble Cake from The Food Processor Bible are recent discoveries.

I've been thinking about my collection lately and realize that there's tremendous value in a personal repertoire. Of course, there's sentimental value in the memories, but there's also economic value in the recipes themselves. 

As a mother of three kids, I'm constantly spinning my wheels to keep up. My tried and true baking recipes have become like a reliable kitchen assistant. I can turn to them and they will work. They pull me through in a pinch and often help to create a little peace when chaos reigns at our house.

A perfect example is the scenario that played out this week. On Tuesday, I baked one of my family's longtime favorite coffee cakes. My sisters and I treasure this recipe because it comes from a friend of the family and it must be at least fifty years old.   It's an enormous recipe made in a half sheet baking pan. When I made the cake on Tuesday,  I casually thought I'd just freeze half for another day.

Then, on Wednesday around 6 am, my teenage daughter rolled out of bed and announced that she needed to bring something for the bake sale at school that day. Her high school French class was holding a bake sale to raise money for Haiti and she needed to bring something. Yikes! We went through the usual "why didn't you tell me this sooner" discussion and then we leaped into action.

Thankfully, I had safeguarded the coffee cake and we were able to individually wrap about twenty good size pieces for the bake sale. It was only a small contribution to an enormous cause, but it does illustrate the power of a rock solid repertoire.

What's in your baking repertoire?

Photo by Melissa A. Trainer

--Melissa A. Trainer

Moonlight Oyster Picnic Makes For Slippery Fun

Seattle seafood legend Jon Rowley led a group of 50 head lamp-wearing oyster fans down to the beach on Totten Inlet near Shelton, Wash., last night and said: "Let's eat!"

The moonlit, low-tide feast at the oyster beds of Taylor Shellfish is a winter tradition Rowley dreamed up a few years ago. He calls it  the "Walrus & Carpenter" picnic, plucked from a Lewis Carroll poem featuring a Walrus and Carpenter who lure oysters for a "lovely walk, a lovely talk upon the briny beach" and then proceed to eat every one.

I lost count how many I ate after a slurping more than a dozen Virginicas, Kumamotos, Olympias and Pacifics at four shucking stations. Some picnickers brought their own knives and plucked shells right off the beach, including a few monster-sized bivalves (pictured on the right) that are big favorites at overseas markets in Asia.

One of the highlights of this incredible evening was watching the techniques of various shuckers. I've been getting lots of practice this winter, indulging in a half a dozen raw oysters once a week. But my knife skills aren't all that sharp when it comes to popping open those tight shells.
I picked up a few tips (beginners should never hold an oyster in their bare hands while shucking) and also learned that during shucking competitions, it's common to pry oysters open on the wider side.

The menu at this picnic was strictly surf and surf. There were only wedges of lemons to accompany these salty, wet kisses from the sea. Oh, and fantastic Sauvignon blanc from Cedargreen Cellars, the wine that won the competition last year to find the perfect match for oysters.

Before we headed back onto the bus for the 90-minute ride back to Seattle, the group was warmed by a super creamy, deeply satisfying oyster stew prepared by Xinh Dwelley of Xinh's Clam & Oyster House.

I'm definitely going to put this event on my annual culinary calendar. Rowley polled the group to find out if anyone was interested in a similar outing in the summer to dig geoduck. Count me in!

-- Leslie Kelly