Summer in Seattle
Sorry I've been so negligent in posting over the past few months. Things have been crazy as the wedding quickly approaches. In addition to that, the summer was been an odd one. We planted a ton of veggies this year and even built a new raised bed to house the lettuces, broccoli, brussel sprouts, and various asian cabbages. The lettuces did a little too well and we had a hard time keeping up with them before they got too large and bitter. We're definitely going to do some more playing around with the soil next year to figure out what the right ph is, especially since the broccoli ended up being a bit bitter.
The plants relegated to pots and other containers included various peppers, basil, chard, kale, cucumbers, tomatoes, and strawberries that supplemented the remaining strawberry plants from last year. Of everything we planted the only things that did well were the lettuces and the strawberries. The tomatoes have just come in the past few weeks, about two months late. The peppers have pretty much done nothing but taunt us and chard was the biggest disappointment because last year we feasted on it all summer and this year we haven't eaten any. Despite those lackluster performers we did enjoy some really great strawberries. The new strawberry plants we put in delivered a few crops and we have eaten freshly picked strawberries as recently as last week. The plants leftover from last year were just as productive and both sets of plants produced much larger and sweeter fruit compared to previous years.
Our plants weren't the only ones behaving weirdly thanks to the weather. Much of the crops were producing much later than usual thanks to a cold summer. Some things came out as late as two months after they should. But that didn't stop us from feasting on some great locally produced food. We really got to know a lot of the local farmers a lot better this year, many of whom we've been buying from for the past couple of years. The folks at Alvarez farms have been wonderful, often sneaking a free head of lettuce or giving us a big discount on their produce. Not only is their food amazing, but they are definitely genuinely nice people who love what they're doing. Skagit River Ranch again has been a major supplier of our meat and eggs. George and Eiko are always quick with a smile and a greeting whenever they see us. Thanks to them we were able to get a couple slabs of amazing pork belly so we could make bacon. Also, their spareribs are just amazing and great for smoking. We did a comparison of theirs with another farm and their ribs were head and shoulders above the other one.
Sea Breeze Farms has been supplying me with raw milk which has allowed me to drink milk again. I've been pretty lactose intolerant since my junior year of college and the only way I could drink milk was with Lactaid. Well, raw milk is amazing because I'm able to drink it with no ill effects. There are many arguments over whether or not raw milk really is more easily digestible thanks to the bacteria that are still alive in it. They can argue all they want but I know it works for me. Pete's Butter Toffee has continued to supply us with our sugar fix and we get to talk about the Red Sox when we visit them.
I mentioned Foraged and Found Edibles about a year ago when I posted about our harvest dinner. Well, since then we've gone to them regularly and feasted on lovely truffles, morels, sea beans, chanterelles, miner's lettuce, watercress, and much more. They even remembered my large order of chanterelles last year and called me a few weeks ago asking if I'd like any and offering me a special deal. Trust me, if we didn't have a wedding so close I would have happily invested in many pounds of them. And no discussion about our favorite farmers and purveyors would be complete without mentioning Wilson Fish. They have the most amazing halibut and salmon during the summer. Honestly, the first time I tasted their fish it was a revelation. You really can't compare the taste of fish that had been swimming, literally, the day before with anything else. Plus, they're amazing people who are always happy to joke around with you and sneak you some extra samples of smoked salmon.
Even though the weather has been weird, it has been a really wonderful summer. The picture earlier in the post is of the sky as I was crossing the 520 bridge on my way home from work. Don't worry, I was on the bus and not driving at the time. I really just love the sky here, it is filled with so much drama and many layers of textures. I know most people hope for sunny blue skies for their wedding, but I'm hoping for some clouds because they make life just a little more interesting and fun and that's exactly what I think my life with K will be like. Look for a post in the next week or so where I'll share all the foods we are going to get to eat along with some pictures from the big day.
And we're done...
We just finished our last games here at Sunset. We're contemplating coming back at 4am but that might be a little crazy. Now we're scheming to figure out how to keep our shoes. I think the strategy right now is bartering. They're charging $20 a pair, but we're going to try to get all 4 pairs for $20. After all, they're pretty old and somewhat disgusting. But they say "Sunset Bowl" on the bottom! That's a piece of Ballard history right there. And so our 4 hour bowl-a-thon comes to an end. RIP Sunset Bowl - it was good to know you.
Bowling left-handed
After Crushmonster left, we decided to keep the bumpers up in his lane and bowl left-handed. So far it's going better than we thought it would - I've bowled a spare (thanks to geometry and the bumpers) and Sally bowled a strike. I think I'm doing better left-handed than right-handed this game...
This may be our last game. Sadly, Sally and I have work to do and Polly is going to see the Dalai Lama. I suppose it's for the best - we're starting to lose momentum. Bowling doesn't seem like real exercise, but your arm definitely gets tired after a while. I still don't understand how we managed to work up a sweat bowling.
--TT
Review - The Sundowner Restaurant
When you're bowling at 6am and you need a quick pickme up at 9, what do you do? You have the Sundowner Restaurant deliver breakfast to your lane. Yeah, that's right. Nothing hits the spot while you're bowling like greasy hashbrowns, a big piece of hame, and some scrambled eggs. While not the epitome of haute cuisine, the Sundowner Restaurant fills a very important food niche and they fill it well. So the next time you're at Sunset Bowl* make sure you grab some grub from the Sundowner Restaurant.
*As long as the next time you bowl is today.
Robbed!
We're all having a rough game except for Crushmonster! After two frames he's bowling a 22. By the way, Crushmonster is 4...
We're eagerly anticipating food being delivered to our lane, apparently there was drama in the restaurant. The line cook clearly doesn't like the dishwasher, who was complaining that someone took her nametag off of her apron. The cook (also her boss) pretty much said, "Waah. Get over it." Then she proceeded to tell a customer at the counter how she had tried to fire the dishwasher but hadn't succeeded. I guess it's good that they won't be working together anymore.
These are the things you miss when you don't go bowling at 6am...
Breakfast at Sunset
TT: We just ordered our breakfast, which will be delivered to our lane shortly. I'm going to miss service like that. Maybe we'll have to come back tomorrow just to eat...
LL: TT is up now and so far she's kicking everyone's butts this game. I think hunger makes her bowl better while it makes the rest of us bowl worse. At least the music is somewhat improving.
Crushmonster is in the house!
We've now been joined by Crushmonster and Crushdaddy! Can you believe we've been bowling for two and a half hours already? This fourth game is turning out to be my worst so far and the food in the restaurant smelled a little too good. Maybe we'll order some food and have it delivered to our lane. My battery is dying so I'm not sure how many more posts we'll have.
Synchronized strikes, baby!
TT: Polly and I just did our synchronized bowling round and we both got strikes! Next time we're adding in some choreography...
Going downhill...
TT: So the synchronized bowling is starting to not work out so well. At first I was getting all strikes and spares, but the past several frames have been disappointing. Oh well - it's a worthy sacrifice to make for the entertainment value of counting off our walk.
Game 1 is in the books
After a bunch of synchronized bowling and lane dancing, game 1 is in the books. Everyone did better in lane 19 than lane 20 but my differential was much greater...142-97. We're on game 2 now and Tenpin Tessie is explaining how Wii bowling hasn't helped her real bowling game.
That's right, it hasn't. In fact, there seems to be an inverse ratio of Wii to regular bowling. The better I am at Wii, the worse I am at Sunset. Also, I have a totally different spin on the "ball" in Wii bowling. Maybe it's because there's no weight attached?
Music update: Rock Lobster is now playing so the music selection is getting better.
What you don't know is I am not left handed...
So far Lane 19 is much kinder to me.
Really, Larry? That's the wittiest repartee you can muster? Very disappointing.
Missy and I had matching splits, so we bowled at the same time and knocked down the same pin. It was much more exciting than it sounds here! Now we're listening to "Two Hearts Livin' in Just One Mind" by Genesis. Or is it Phil Collins? I'm up again...
Um, you need to refer to me as Louie Lanekiller thank you very much. So right after I said 19 was better for me I bowled a 5 in that lane and had a spare in 20. The guy in the next lane mush be wondering what he's walked into with us crazies doing synchronized bowling and TT and PP dancing right after they bowl.
Double strike!
Missy and I just bowled back-to-back strikes, and Jessie got another spare. So did Larry! We're on a roll now...
Jessie just asked them to change the music - normally it's 80's but when we came in today it was really bad soft rock. You know the kind..."the best of the 80s, 90s and today." But now we're rocking out to "With or Without You" by U2. All is right in the world again.
-Tenpin Tessie
Introducing...
Let's take a minute to introduce the players today. We've got Sally Striker, Pinkiller Polly, Tenpin Tessie, and me, Louie Lanekiller. We're currently bowling on two lanes right now to get as much bowling in as possible. Over the course of the day we'll be joined by some other bowling friends.
Live blogging at Sunset Bowl today...
Jessie wants me to title it something like sunsetting on bowling, but it's too early to be witty. We're going to be blogging live from Sunset Bowl in Ballard this morning since it is the last day of open bowling before they close. We've been coming here the past 5 or 6 weeks on Sundays at 7am but tomorrow they're having an all day tournament so we're mixing it up by coming on Saturday. Look for pictures and updates on how we're doing throughout the morning.
Louie and Sally are up. Their early attempts at left-handed bowling (they're both righty) were not the most successful moments in their bowling careers. But Louie has moved on to a strike-spare back to back.
Mushrooms!
There's a great article in today's Seattle P-I about
Jeremy Faber of Foraged and Found Edibles. Some of you may remember he is the one who helped supply me with mushrooms for our Harvest Dinner a month or so ago. If you get a chance, make sure to stop by their stall at the University and Ballard Farmers Markets and pick up some tasty treats.
It's been too long
I know it's been forever since I last posted, it's been quite a busy summer. This year we decided to grow more of our own vegetables than we had in previous years. This included 15 different tomato plants, bok choy, rainbow chard, cippollini onions, leeks, red peppers, sorrel, strawberries, blueberries, basil, thyme, and I'm sure I'm missing something else. It was pretty great being able to just go into the backyard and pick what we were going to eat for dinner that night.
But the weather this summer was kind of weird so a lot of our tomatoes didn't start coming in until the end of the summer and the bok choy was done pretty much right away. Our only consistent crop was the rainbow chard that kept on giving all summer and is still producing even today. Our strawberries were a pretty big disappointment, I think we only got to eat 3 or 4 of them the entire summer. I'm sure the squirrels got away with a few more than that, but not many.
We've actually done a pretty good job procuring most of our produce, fish, and meat from the farmers markets this year. It wouldn't be uncommon for me to visit three different markets over the course of the week. There's something pretty fun about trying to figure out what you're going to make for dinner based on what's fresh at the time. "Looks like asparagus is almost done, but look at the beets!"
I've been getting getting a bunch of meat over the past couple of years from Skagit River Ranch up in the Skagit Valley. I think the aha moment happened a couple of months ago when I had made a pork shoulder roast. We were sitting down eating it and I had noticed Kristen had nothing left on her plate while I had trimmed off the pieces of fat. When I asked her about it she said, "I don't think my piece had any fat." Being pork shoulder I knew there was fat all over that thing so maybe she just didn't notice. So I decided to sample a bit of the fat with my next bite and it was a revelation. It just melted in my mouth like the most beautiful butter you had ever tasted. Normally with the fat from factory farmed pigs it would either be chewy or leave a greasy film on the roof of your mouth. But not with this pork and that's when I knew I couldn't go back to factory farmed meat.
Harvest MoonTonight is the first night of the harvest moon, which is the full moon closest to the autumnal equinox. During this time the moon rises pretty close to when the sun sets which means there isn't a long period of darkness so farmers could continue to bring in their crops under the light of the moon.
To celebrate the ushering in of autumn and the harvest moon we decided to throw a little harvest moon feast at our house this past weekend. It was a great time with lots of great food and a whole lot of good friends. At first I was a bit overwhelmed because a lot more people were coming than I thought would. It's kind of like college admissions, where the school would accept a certain number of people know x% wouldn't accept the offer. While the idea of feeding so many people was daunting, I must say it was heartwarming knowing so many of our friends were willing to spend their Saturday night with us.
I had originally planned four courses, three of which I would do the bulk of the cooking. In order to make sure I got everything done on time I had a little notebook that I used to schedule my week and assign tasks for each day. I gotta say, coming up with that schedule save my butt because luckily I got everything done with minimal stress on the day of the dinner.
The first two courses were salads and starches and I tried to do as much of that in advance as I could. Two days before the dinner I rolled and cut the pasta as well as made the two different sauces. The day before I braised one of the proteins and made one of the salads and prepped the other's dressing. The morning/afternoon of the dinner I cooked mushrooms, made the last starch and made my mise en place for the rest of the night.
The night of the dinner went pretty smoothly and according to plan. First course was salads so all I had to do was bring the one prepped salad and the other prepped dressing up to room temp and grill the romaine prior to serving. The starch course just involved cooking the pasta I had made two days before and reheating the sauces. I also had to reheat the third starch dish I had made earlier that day.
The protein course was the most challenging because a lot of that had to be made a la minute. So while people were working on their starches I threw the snapper in the oven to roast. I then took the chicken out to the grill to cook but soon found out the coals had burned down too much so I had to cook them on the stovetop and finish in the oven. While I was doing that, I also needed to make my polenta, saute my kale, warm up the mushrooms, and fire my shortribs that had braised the night before. It sounds like a lot to do, and it was, but everything happened really quickly. When the chicken was ready to be finished in the oven, the snapper was ready to come out. That made it easy to put the chicken and shortribs in the oven while I plated the fish. On the stovetop the polenta cooked, while the kale sauteed, and the mushrooms reheated. The fish went out first with the kale while I plated the shortribs, chicken, and polenta. Then those two went out and I was done. Phew!
I left the last course, dessert, for our guests to supply and I was happy I did. People brought all sorts of wonderful crumbles and cakes and other sweet tasty treats. It was an exhausting but amazingly fun night and I can't wait to do it again.
Here is the menu of things we prepped:
Course 1Potato, bacon, haricots verts served with a dijon and sherry vinagrette
Grilled romaine with roast garlic and asiago dressing
Course 2Braised lamb ragu with hand cut pappardelle
Veggie ragu with homemade linguine
Farro with chard and chanterelle and lobster mushrooms
Course 3Whole roast Alaskan wild red snapper (aka rockfish) with sauteed kale
Braised shortribs with creamy (and cheesy) polenta
Pan roasted chicken breasts with chanterelle mushrooms
Today in the news...
Such sad news today at Virginia Tech and I'm sure there will be more questions than answers in the days ahead. Today's events reminded me of a similar incident that occurred at my school when I was in college.
In 1996 at Johns Hopkins, Rex Chao was killed after being elected the President of the College Republicans. The shooter was his predecessor and former friend Bob Harwood. I heard the shot that night and the memory is still as clear as if it happened the other day. That evening I was on the phone with my sister in my dorm room that overlooked the beach, which is what we called the grassy area in front of the library. While on the phone I heard a loud pop and commented to my sister, who was also a student at Hopkins, that I heard what I thought was a gunshot. Her response was that it was probably just a car backfiring because who would believe that something like this would happen at your school. A place that is supposed to be about learning and growing as you make your way into becoming a full fledged member of adulthood. Where your parents pay a lot of money under the assumption you'll be safe. Even though we were in the middle of Baltimore, a city with one of the nation's highest murder rates at the time, I never would have dreamt something like that could happen.
Not long after I made the comment on the phone, the sound of sirens filled the air and the night was filled with flashing lights. Sadly, what I heard was a gunshot and even more shocking I knew the shooter.
Bob was a friends with my sister and a roommate of one of her good friends. He was two years ahead of me so I didn't know him real well. My only experiences with him were in Rhode Island politics as we were both from the smallest state in the country. I had been working with the Lincoln Almond gubernatorial campaign in the summer of 1994 prior to starting my freshman year of college. We had run into each other at some functions including the Republican convention where Lincoln was officially named the Republican candidate after a surprising upset in the primary. Now, before all my liberal friends here in Seattle start disparaging me for participating in a Republican convention I must point out that New England politics are different than politics elsewhere in the country. Also, Gov. Almond was a protege of the late Sen. John Chaffee who was a well known moderate and was probably more liberal than a number of Democrats, past and present.
On election night in 1994, I got a call in my dorm room from Bob congratulating me on Lincoln Almond's victory that night. I thanked him and we chatted a little while about a hard fought campaign before ending the call and getting back to studying. That was the last time I remember talking to him and didn't really think about him until that April night almost a year and a half later.
None of us could really believe what was happening and the internet was as omnipresent as it is these days so we couldn't just go to msnbc.com to find the latest news. Slowly, throughout the night, the details emerged. There was a shooting after a meeting. After the College Republicans meeting. Someone was hurt. That person was dead. He was just elected the president of the College Republicans. His name was Rex Chao. His shooter was a senior that had graduated early and come back for the election. He was caught by security shortly after it happened. His name was Bob. Bob Harwood.
That's when it became more than just a story on the 11 o'clock news. The sound of the gunshot, the sirens, the flashing lights, that wasn't something on TV or in a movie. It happened outside my window and someone I knew was involved.
On my way to class the next morning I passed the spot where this tragic incident happened. The area was taped off and there on the asphalt was a small pool of blood. Just the sight of that made it even more real and knocked the wind out of me. I continued to class saying a silent prayer for Rex and for Bob.
Over the days and months there were memorials for Rex and outrage that something like this could happen. A statue was built to commemorate a life cut short by someone whose life was now to be spent behind bars.
A few years back I was in Berkeley for Thanksgiving with my sister and her friend that was Bob's roommate joined us. He gave us an update on how Bob was doing in prison and how he had grown a beard and wore dark glasses to seem tougher and not to get into trouble if someone thought he was looking at them funny. They talked about their memories of him and we all said how tragic it all was. Two promising young men who would never have an opportunity to realise their dreams or potential.
Eleven years later and it just seems things have gotten worse. When I first heard about the shootings at Virginia Tech this morning on my way to work, the first thing out of my mouth was, "Not another shooting. Seems like there's one every week." I don't know what the answer is, but I do know an incident like this affects so many people. As time goes on, we move on...but we're never the same.
because i'm a lazy bugger
Kristen has much more pics and details about our trip back east. I promise to put more up here when I get a chance.
Kristen's Books Written for Girls
