Oh, Well

Uh oh- look what's on the cover of Sunset magazine this week- it's the V house that we stayed in in Mexico! I guess that secret's out.

Go Here

This blog is beautiful in general, but this post really gets me. I must try this recipe and also move to Italy, like, yesterday.

The Sound of Chewing (is going to kill me)

Hey team. I have visitors this week and also am being whipped with homework, so I am def not cooking, baking or interneting properly. As we speak, I am sitting in the library not doing my homework due to my table neighbor who is loudly crunching on pringles. What is it about that sound that makes me totally PSYCHOTIC? Well, back to my women's studies paper!

Go look at this for awhile. It sure keeps me busy.

Image from here.

This is Healthy, Right?

When I had so much cream cheese frosting left over from the red velvet cupcakes, I knew a carrot cake was in my future. I made it last night when we went over to my dad and Lynne's house, and we couldn't wait for it to cool before we frosted it. That's why it looks kind of messy and extra delicious.

Carrot Cake
adapted from Bon Appetit
2 Cups cake flour
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon Jamaican allspice
2 tablespoons freshly grated ginger
1 1/4 cups canola oil
4 eggs
3 cups grated carrots
1 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease 2 9 inch cake pans. Mix flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, allspice and ginger in one bowl. In another mix sugar and oil until smooth, then add eggs one at a time. Combine wet and dry ingredients, then add nuts and grated carrots. Divide batter between two pans and bake for 40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean after being inserted into the center of the cake. Let cool before removing from pans and frosting. I didn't let the cake fully cool before I frosted it with vanilla cream cheese frosting, and I recommend that you do wait. Enjoy.

Happy V-D

I don't know what you guys are doing today to celebrate, but my co-workers and I are going to shoot guns to recover from this weekend together. For reals! It's our staff holiday party. First we are going to shoot hand guns (!?!?) and then we are going to have a private lunch party at a super rad brick oven (but not pizza) restaurant in town. The Quaker in me shudders at the idea of being in a room full of guns but it's the promise of lunch that keeps me interested.


Also, I made red velvet cupcakes with vanilla bean cream cheese frosting. They were so delicious. I followed this recipe here. The only changes I made were to double the salt in the cake part and half the sugar in the frosting part. And I used vanilla bean instead of extract.
I can't muster the strength to write the recipe here...I need to save the strength in my arms for shooting... go forth and prosper.

What We Talk About When We Talk About Quiche

Seattle, obviously, was insane. We started driving at 7 am, where the day started with donuts and an iphone application where you can record yourself sining T-Pain songs and then play them back, all auto-tuned up for your enjoyment. We reached Seattle at 10, parked in front of a strip club, and marched immediately to Le Pichet. We ordered a bottle of wine and most of the menu, and proceeded to show Seattle how it's done. When we had finished our meal, they put the specials board up for the day so we ordered those too. That was when we encountered the quiche. The quiche... It was tall and jiggly, full of leeks, ham and gruyere. The crust was buttery and flakey, and the very presence of it removed the last scrap of dignity that any of us were clinging to. We became hideous, wild animals. Not all of us had silverware at that point, but by the time the waitress got back to us with a few extra forks the quiche was gone, our fingers were greasy, and we were sweaty and disheveled.

After that we walked around and looked at some stuff, and then proceeded to Txori for tapas and wine cocktails. We ate fried peppers stuffed with blood sausage, squid stuffed with squid, chorizo with chocolate, and drank a cocktail called "The Little Red Penis." Then we went up to Capitol Hill to pretend to be anything but bloated fatties from Portland, but ended up drinking coffee at Stumptown despite ourselves. From there we drove out to Ballard and had more cocktails and waited for our reservation at Delancy.

Delancy is in Ballard, but not right in the downtown area. It is on what appears to be the cutest street ever. The restaurant itself is tiny and simple, with horizontal wine racks lining the back wall of the dining room. We were delighted to find that they are already getting nettles in, and we had a nettle and ricotta pizza with red onion. The nettles were so dark and rich they tasted like seaweed. It's only february! What are nettles thinking?!? We ate 4 pizzas and they were all perfect. We had dessert too, and I squealed to think I might be eating one of Molly Wizenberg's desserts. We had the meyer lemon budino with sables, and 2 chocolate chip cookies with grey salt.

I haven't always felt a lot of love for Seattle, but this trip made me feel like I could love it if I was fed pizza from Delancy and quiche from Le Pichet frequently enough.

Sweet Seattle

Fish Bowl

Happy Sunday!

Shavanagans

Tomorrow is a very exciting day! My friends and I rented a van and are driving up to Seattle for a concentrated dose of eating and drinking about town. We might also see some art or look at some boats, but mostly we will be eating. Here are a few places on the agenda:

Le Pichet for a frenchy-french brunch
Txori for tapas and cocktails
Zig Zag Cafe for classic cocktails
Smith for hipster dranks
Linda's for trashy dranks
and Delancy for dinner (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

We are also going to the Central Library to go up the neon escalator and I am hoping to take a factory tour at Theo where I can eat chocolate until I pass out! Am I missing anything? Last time we were there we had cupcakes at Cupcake Royale, but I'm pretty sure cupcakes are over and donuts are back. I shall return with a healthy dose of food photos and probably a stomach ache. Maybe a few photos of the Public Market sign?? Anyone? Anyone?