October 21st, 2009 — Bellingham local, local, Pacific Northwest, restaurants
A long time ago, I went to a company party with a HS friend. It was held at Terrace On the Park in Flushing Meadows, NY. It is in one of the few structures left from the 1964 New York World's Fair, which was themed "Peace Through Understanding". The building represents a 120-ft high heliport built for the transportation area. The windows form a large T on its sides. For Transportation. There was an exhibit floor, bar floor and restaurant at the top – "Terrace on the Park".
As with most parties, you get a party favor to take home. I still have the one I got: a cookbook. Benson & Hedges Entertaining With Style: Recipes from Great American Restaurants. It is small, hard covered and my first cookbook. Think Windows on the World, Russian Tea Room, Mader's, The Palm, Frog, Washington Square Bar & Grill, Brennan's to name just a few of the featured restaurants. Each restaurant profile includes a brief bio and a story of the origins of the featured recipe, plus courses to pair with it. My book includes many food-stained pages, but the one most abused is for Black Forest Cherry Torte recipe from Mader's in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
A Birthday Supper
Fresh Asparagus with Lemon Mayonnaise
Cold Smoked Turkey and Ham
Hot German Potato Salad
Sliced Tomatoes
Black Forest Cherry Torte*
Cappucinno
Wine: Mosel Riesling
I would make the Black Forest Cherry Torte for birthday's, holidays, parties. Even Homer Simpson admits that Black Forest Cherry Torte is the ultimate bribe. Marge Simpson let Homer eat a whole cake once so she could Ultimate Fight an arena owner in a challenge bout….which gave me the idea for this post. And the DESIRE to make one of these cakes this week. I'm wondering what I bribe MY Homer to do…
October 14th, 2009 — Bellingham local, local, Pacific Northwest, Seattle
There is only one thing that drives me to distraction in the kitchen: trying to shape pizza dough.
I watch intently at my local pizzeria. I watch youtube videos. I read different recipes. They all do it the same way:
- floured board and hands
- a perfectly round mound of dough
- gently press the edges flat
- lift dough over back of hands/knuckles to gently shape/stretch the EDGES only because gravity will take care of the center
Gravity takes care of the center of my dough with a hole.
If the dough stops stretching, did you know it is because you have to let the GLUTEN REST? for a few minutes? If you handle the dough too much it will get tough!
- if dough loses its elasticity, lay it down to rest and WAIT
- then repeat knuckle shaping edge of dough to 1/4 " thick
- BUT make sure you keep a lip on the edge of your dough
- arrange the perfectly shaped dough on floured surface
- slide it onto preheated baking stone in oven
Don't get me started on shaping gluten free dough. It was easier to learn to roll sushi. Rice behaves.
October 9th, 2009 — Uncategorized
Magdalena's Creperie is located in the Fairhaven Village Inn and will open this month. Their website boasts:
Celebrate the Taste of Old World Europe
Well, I will because my mother is from "old world Europe" and has made crepes every Friday, Lent or not. The fillings are as varied as her imagination. My favorite crepes are filled with sweetened farmer's cheese and baked. Her crepes were generally desserts, although savory on occasion. Another I really enjoyed was filled with paprikas.
Magdalena's Creperie 1200 10th St Bellingham WA 360-483-8569
UPDATE: Open daily 7am-3pm
October 9th, 2009 — Uncategorized
I had a delicious breakfast in Fairhaven this morning. So far, there are 2 great places to eat breakfast in Fairhaven. One is Avenue Bread, the other is Harris Avenue Cafe.
It is adjacent to Tony's Coffee House and shares its bright relaxed atmosphere. The servers are friendly and attentive and the menu tempting. Wendy ate almond molasses granola, yogurt and fresh fruit. Her portions were more than adequate, especially her fruit plate with plums, apples, melon. And the coffee — excellent. This due to the fact Tony's Coffee is served: "locally roasting and blending coffee in small batches for over 30 years". I ate a poached egg, english muffin and black beans with chipotle ranchero sauce – smokey and spicey.
You can also try traditional egg breakfasts, seasoned red potato dishes, omelets galore along with griddle items. And if you show up with half-pints, they can enjoy a teddy bear pancake with a fresh fruit face. Now that I think of it, maybe I could have gotten some?
For lunch, the burgers are served with soup, salad or yam chips. The yam chips are not to be missed. Wendy's folks love them. Grilled sandwiches: chicken, portabella or veggieburger. They have lots of salads and soups – today's choices were split pea or cream of mushroom. Cold sandwiches with LTP (lettuce, tomato, pickle spear): roast turkey, greek tuna, chicken/peanut w/roasted garlic. Hot sandwiches, not to be confused with grilled sandwiches = club, cheese and greek tuna open face melt, BLT and catfish po'boy.
7 days 8am-2pm Breakfast, lunch.
Harris Avenue Cafe 1101 Harris Ave Bellingham WA 360-738-0802
October 3rd, 2009 — Bellingham local, local, Pacific Northwest
I was at it again: a Community Food Co-op cooking class. It was a wonderful experience. The tastes and aromas were delicious and comforting. Sheela Bristol was our host and she is very personable and approachable. She grew up in Malaysia and South India before coming to the US. She cooked a great meal!
The dishes were vegetarian: paneer vegetable korma, basmati rice, papadums, parathas and aloo gobi along with sweet ginger chai.
Sheela was in command and Dorothy and I her helpers. We set up the room for a full class while Sheela prepared sweet ginger chai. It was a sweet and peppery pick me up. Then, a great group of people showed up – hungry and eager to take it all in.
The first dish was paneer vegetable korma. It is a combination of vegetables (carrots, green beans, peas) and paneer (cheese) in a creamy sauce (yogurt). The interesting part of this recipe was the 'tempering spices' of cinnamon sticks, cardomom pods and cloves. Each spice is popped in a small quantity of hot oil to bring out its distinctive flavor. If the spices are combined, the taste is different. It tasted wonderfully complex with just the right amount of fire. Sheela served papdums with the korma. They are crispy lentil based wafers about 4" diameter.
The second dish was aloo gobi made with potatoes, cauliflower and blend of spices: mango powder, cumin seeds, asafoetida, coriander, paprika, chili, garam masala, turmeric. These are the mixtures that dance on your tongue. The spices you crave when you want Indian food. It was excellent!
This was served with Indian bread called parathas. We also made parathas in class. They are a whole wheat flat bread and very easy to make. I took home some extra dough and made more – YUM!
It is evident from spending 3 hours with Sheela that authentic Indian cooking is within my culinary reach. And, therefore, yours too.
