Thanksgiving

I love Thanksgiving. It is my favorite fall holiday, as it incorporates cooking, eating, drinking, and spending time with loved ones, but without the near-obligatory gift giving of Christmas. I like giving and recieving presents, but don't like the idea that one has to buy many and often pricey gifts to show their love. Bake me a nice pie instead.

Anyway, this year I was able to get off work, but my relatives were all out of town except my Mom, who was terribly ill and not up to getting together. Love and togetherness prevailed, and I spent my Thanksgiving with friends, who got together to eat, drink, cook, and play Super Mario for Nintendo Wii. Alice's excellent idea was to roast two chickens which had been first stuffed with herbs, kosher salt, fresh ground black pepper, lemons, shallots, and garlic--butter stuffed under the skin of the breast, fresh chopped herbs sprinkled over the bird, and lastly, the entire thing covered with pancetta. It was pretty amazing, and the resulting chickens were delicious and tasted faintly of bacon.

In addition, we had a green salad with chevre, orange bell pepper, anjou pear, spicy/sweet roasted pecans, and a sesame vinagrette dressing. Carbohydrates were not lacking. Jon made sweet potatoes mashed lightly with pumpkin spice soy milk, which made the potatoes taste faintly of christmas. I used a recipe recently featured on my friend Aubrey's blog for sage and garlic mashed potatoes, and they were smooth, creamy, and flavorful. The recipe can be found at the following link, along with some beautiful pictures.

http://drumbeets.blogspot.com/2009/11/sage-and-garlic-mashed-potatoes.html

Of course, there was a pumpkin pie with plenty of freshly grated ginger and my dad's famous pie crust recipe--all of which disappeared by the end of the evening.

(Pictures from friends' iphones)

Roasted

I have been eating so many tasty things.

It is winter now, and I have been craving veggies! Yesterday I roasted a bunch of organic beets in the oven with olive oil and salt, then ate them with much lip-smacking delight.

Today I cut up two small yams, french fry style, and again, roasted with olive oil and salt. Both vegetables are sweet enough that it felt almost as though I was eating dessert.

Things I love: prosciutto.

This week has kind of turned into a "can I put prosciutto on that?" sort of week. This is something that I am very happy about. I ate a pizza with prosciutto, fig, and basil (delicious), but perhaps the most exciting was yesterday's prosciutto extravaganza. Is there anything that isn't improved by being wrapped in prosciutto? Probably not. After buying 1/4 pound of prosciutto di Parma at Whole Foods, my partner in the appreciation of cured Italian meats and I proceeded to pair it with not one, but two delicious cheeses: mimolette (which caught my eye because of its bright orange color), a semi-hard, aged French cheese, and Mt. Townsend Creamery's trailhead tomme, which was softer than the mimolette, mild, and tasty. Also, there was a perfectly ripened plum and pear, half a loaf of Campagne bread, and a 74% cacao Theo chocolate bar. We tried every configuration of these items, all while enjoying a surprisingly good bottle of rose (Belleruche cotes-du-rhone m. chaputier rose, 2007) that we had chilled previously. It was probably the best snack I have had in weeks, not only because of the excellent food, but because of the delightful company.

Huckleberry

I feel like I blog about cupcakes with some regularity. I guess it is because I really like cupcakes, and because Cupcake Royale has a cupcake of the month that is particularly delicious pretty much every month--and every month my hajj is not to Mecca, but to Ballard, where I drink coffee and savor the newest offering at my favorite cupcake place. Today, after what felt like ages of anticipation, I finally had the huckleberry cupcake, the deliciousness of which was matched by its beauty. The frosting was a gorgeous fuschia/purple with bits of huckleberry in it, and the vanilla cupcake had bits of huckleberry in it as well, lending a dull purple color that was very pleasant and tasty (and moist!). The frosting was sweet, with just enough tartness added by the berries. I savored it for a long time, eating half of it, drinking my latte, then finishing the cupcake--smacking my lips with relish. If you want one... you have until the end of September to acquire one. I highly recommend you do.

Exploring Trader Joe's

I recently moved, and have been, as a result, poor. I don't like being poor. I like spending money on things like food, going out, clothes, travel... the usual!
However, I am taking it all in stride and experimenting with cheaper eats. Today I tried Trader Joe's pasta shells in white cheddar sauce--aka, Mac n cheese in a box. I found it to be less tasty than Annie's white cheddar sauce with bunny shaped pasta, but perhaps that is just nostalgia. I did like the way the small pasta shells clung to my wooden spoon like limpets on a rock, though.

it's been a while...

Rest assured, I have been living the lifestyle of a foodie all summer, per usual. Just haven't had time/energy to write about all the delicious things I have been eating... Because I have been spending so much time eating those things.

Last night's dinner party was really lovely. We started with Mt. Townsend Creamery camembert with campagne bread (from le panier, natch) and fresh sliced peaches and a bottle of delicious Malbec, then had moist, delicious roasted chicken, lemony roasted veggies (I used lemon juice and lemon zest), asparagus, and couscous with a (sweet) late harvest Riesling.

pizza, again

This weekend was the cheese festival at Pike Place Market. At lunchtime, I avoided the bulk of the crowd, going back to DeLaurenti for another slice of their pizza.

This time, it was goat cheese, arugula, roasted garlic, roasted red pepper pizza. Just sit and think about that for a while. It was probably even more delicious than you've imagined.

I felt as though I was celebrating the spirit of the cheese festival by eating a pizza that had a slab of goat cheese on it, which was infinitely better than battling throngs of pedestrian tourists, slack-jawed in wonderment and delight at the cheesy deliciousness. Also, it was 75 and sunny in Seattle, so I couldn't be bothered to hang around downtown. All in all, a gorgeous weekend.