Happy Thanksgiving! We celebrated a little early with family this year, so Rob and I had a quiet and cozy Thanksgiving for two on the actual holiday. I decided to shake things up a bit since we had the traditional turkey and sweet potatoes and all of that last week. For our own little celebration, […]
Happy birthday to my hubby! We celebrated the day with a little culinary adventure :). I went to DomaineChandon.com for some out of the ordinary ideas to inspire us. We decided on a menu of Carrot and Hearts of Palm Salad with Kumquats, Cumin Seeds, and Tangerine-Curry Vinaigrette for the first course and Roasted Quail […]
Happy Halloween! We had a fun little Halloween dinner tonight based on the colors of the holiday – Black squid ink pasta and Kalamata olives with orange butternut squash and bell peppers. It not only looked festive and elegant, but the flavors also worked very well together. I would highly recommend it for your next […]
I made a couple of batches of applesauce spice muffins to warm up the house on chilly October days. The original recipe was from Gourmet magazine, and it can be found at Epicurious.com. I used a few tricks to make these treats a little healthier, though ;). I substituted whole-wheat pastry flour for the all-purpose flour, I reduced […]
The grand finale of our wedding anniversary dinner was a decadent custard dessert called a Sparkling Wine Sabayon served over fresh berries. I followed this recipe closely, however I quartered it to accommodate fewer guests. I used an individual can of Sophia Blanc de Blancs instead of a whole bottle of bubbly since it was […]
The main course for our wedding anniversary dinner was something new to our kitchen…Duck! We have had duck out in restaurants, but I’ve never tried making it at home before. I changed the original recipe from Domaine Chandon quite a bit to replace the turnip puree with a celeriac and potato puree. We love that […]
The first course of our anniversary dinner was a curried apple salad with mizuna, sprouts and prosciutto. It blends Asian, Indian and Italian ingredients, but we thought it really worked well together. We love trying new things, and this is something I would never have thought to combine on my own. That’s why I love […]
To celebrate our wedding anniversary this year, we decided to try a few more recipes inspired by the Domaine Chandon website and cookbook. We tried a few of their recipes on our engagement anniversary last Valentine’s Day, so it seemed like a good choice to try a few more on our wedding anniversary to make […]
For a festive summer evening, I made a super simple cocktail made of lemonade sorbet and sparkling wine. Just add a little melon ball sized scoop of sorbet into the bottom of a champagne glass and top with the wine. (I used a lemonade flavor, but I’m sure just a simple lemon sorbet would be […]
Every summer on this day, we have a special Dungeness crab dinner. It’s one of the little anniversaries that we celebrate, and the choice of crab for dinner has turned into a tradition. To us, it’s the perfect Northwest meal on a warm summer evening. (For instructions on how to cook the crab, visit my […]
Happy Bastille Day! La Fête Nationale! I used this holiday as an opportunity to celebrate the cuisine of France. I tried a classic that I have never tried before…Ratatouille. It’s a perfect summertime dish because it is made up of many vegetables that are in season at the moment. It is simple and healthy and […]
Happy birthday USA! Today is all about celebrating our country, and this year I decided to do that by celebrating our little corner of the country with some of the best treats that the Northwest has to offer. We started with a plate of Penn Cove Select oysters on the half shell with a […]
Happy Canada Day! We love our neighbors to the north :). We spent our honeymoon on Vancouver Island, and British Columbia is one of our favorite places to visit. It’s just a hop, skip and a jump from Seattle, and it’s an absolutely beautiful province. Even though we aren’t Canadian, who can’t use an […]
It’s the first day of summer! The sun actually cooperated in Seattle today, and it feels like summer is here. No coats necessary :). We celebrated by having fish and chips for dinner alfresco. In the summertime, we occasionally visit a little fish and chip place on Lake Union called Ivar’s. The view on their […]
Care for a cookie? Today I made old-fashioned oatmeal cookies with a modern day twist. I totally swapped out the butter for a cool product I just discovered called Earth Balance. It is an all-natural replacement for butter without all of the saturated fat. I also omitted the salt from the original recipe since there […]
I just finished reading a really inspirational book called The Help by Kathryn Stockett. It’s about a group of women who take a big risk to make a big change in the Deep South of the 1960s. I would definitely recommend it if you’d like a book about a little American history mixed in with […]
We tend to do a little more entertaining as the weather (slowly but surely!) gets warmer and sunnier. It’s a treat to have dinner alfresco after staying inside over the winter. One dish that I make time and time again for entertaining in the warmer months is my Dungeness crab cakes. They are one of […]
It’s Memorial Day weekend! The unofficial beginning of summer. 🙂 To celebrate this weekend, I tried making my own version of Chicago style Italian beef sandwiches. My husband is from Chicago, and this is one dish that is very hard to come by outside of the city limits. He misses his occasional beef sandwich in […]
My mom said she was up for something new this year, so for Mother’s Day brunch I tried an egg dish unlike anything I have ever tried before …An egg roulade. The original idea was from America’s Test Kitchen Light & Healthy 2011 magazine. They do such a nice job testing recipes at that magazine, […]
Happy Cinco de Mayo! I was inspired by a recipe on Domaine Chandon’s website for a sparkling margarita, which seemed very fitting for this evening. It replaces the tequila with sparkling wine for a lighter drink. My version of their cocktail also has much less sugar than the classic. All you need is a lime, […]