Hatch Chile Time: Cheesy Green Chile Polenta

We're right in the sweet spot of chile season. We're a couple of weeks in on Hatch chile roasting; Anaheims, poblanos, jalapenos and serranos are plentiful at the farmers market, and we're eating chile every way possible. It's funny though, spicy food isn't really part of Seattle's DNA, and yet all the supermarkets only got…

ByMichelleAugust 25, 20160Comments

Book Reviews Cooking Recipes Salads Side Dishes

The Easiest Zucchini Salad You Will Ever Make

Simplicity is a hallmark of Japanese home cooking. Sometimes, it's simplicity to the point where you actually have to ask yourself, how does this require a recipe? Often, it doesn't. Most of my grandma's "recipes" were like that. Take the scribbled list of ingredients and figure it out. This list is adapted from a recipe…

ByMichelleJuly 21, 20160Comments

Baking Cooking Pizza Recipes

Now It Feels Like Summer: Fig, Pancetta & Haloumi Pizza

Now it feels like summer. We've had a run of crazy beautiful, sunny warm days. It's light until almost 10 p.m. here. All you wanna do is sit outside, fire up the grill and sip a glass of white wine. This fig, pancetta, haloumi pizza/flatbread is exactly the nibble you need to go along with. Now…

ByMichelleJune 26, 20150Comments

Beverages Cooking Recipes

Working for the Weekend: Gingery Peach Bellinis

Something about a bellini feels infinitely more luxurious than your usual mimosa. You can get pretty decent freshly squeezed orange juice almost year round, which makes a mimosa standard. But the bellini is something special, something summer, something more than, especially with your own peach syrup. After this, you’ll never want a can of peach nectar again.

ByMichelleAugust 26, 20140Comments

Cooking Main Course Recipes

Hatch Chile Season: Zucchini Fritters w/ Roasted Green Chile

The gas burners are just flaming on under tumbling piles of green chiles and already I’m in overdrive. Every year as chile season rolls around, it’s a new challenge. What can I put green chile in this year? My first answer this year: Zucchini Green Chile Fritters. If you’ve got a garden, or a neighbor with…

ByMichelleAugust 4, 20140Comments

Cooking Pizza Recipes

FridayNightSlice: The Neil Diamond (Cherry, Baby)

Today's Friday Night Slice was inspired by a pie posted by @baconluv, an Instagram friend who lives down in Portland. A few weeks ago she posted a killer looking cherry pizza from a place called Lucca. I filed it away in my brain and last night, with a handful of cherries chilling out in my refrigerator, it was finally time to have a go at a pizza pie with cherries. This one I'm calling the Neil Diamond (Cherry, Baby). In retrospect, looking at the pictures, maybe I should have called it Purple Rain.

ByMichelleJuly 18, 20140Comments

Just for Fun Not About Food Recipes

Urban Craft Uprising: Pretty Kitchen Stuff

In the way back times of the Internet, circa 2000, people were predicting you'd be able to watch TV shows online and be able to immediately click and buy the clothes Rachel or Monica were wearing. And though product placements have gotten waaaaaay more overt on TV and elsewhere, I'm still not seeing them convert that directly to purchases. What's interesting is ID'ing items, whether paid placement or not, has made its way into the food world to some extent. Have you noticed that Food and Wine has been adding prop captions to their photos? For those of us who have too many dishes and utensils, but always seem to find room for more, I love not having to see if they've included sources at the back of the magazine. I can't say I've bought anything as a direct result, but clearly there are a lot of us coveting pretty dishes and linens and utensils. This weekend, I went to Urban Craft Uprising in Seattle and picked up some tea towels and other kitchen accoutrement that I'm sure you'll soon be seeing here. So today's post isn't really about the raspberry mint sorbet, it's more of an excuse to show off some cute kitchen stuff I've picked up along the way. I will say, by Seattle standards, it was hotter than Hades this weekend, and when it's that warm, even ice cream seems a little too mookie to really provide the refreshment you need. Hence, the sorbet.

ByMichelleJuly 15, 20140Comments

Cooking Recipes

Make Strawberry Jam Before It’s Too Late!

Strawberries have a lot in common with regret. And with the old adage, “Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today.” If ever there was such a thing as a fleeting moment, strawberry season in the Northwest truly is it. The first local strawberries seem to appear in early June and by the end of the month, they’re nearly gone. If you want to get technical about it yes, there are ever-bearing varieties here, but the June bearers – the Puget Crimson, the Puget Reliance, the Rainiers – seem to make the most flavorful jam. For a kid who grew up in California, strawberry season stretches from as early as late January nearly all the way to the fall, before starting again. It’s a luxury that we just don’t have this far north. You’ve got to pay attention to the calendar and the moment the strawberries come in, start tasting and making jam. Unlike last year, when I first started dabbling with jam, I only made strawberry once, and as a refrigerator jam to boot, not realizing what I’d be missing come January and February. This year, I was ready. Sort of.

ByMichelleJune 27, 20140Comments

Pasta Recipes Salads

Two-fer > Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto Pasta (Salad)

It’s the waiting that kills me. The calendar says late May, and yes, we’ve already been teased with some beautiful sunny days, but summer isn’t yet here. It’s a promise, it’s right around the corner. And as much as I like diving head first into a tomato salad, it’s not time yet. It is time…

ByMichelleMay 25, 20140Comments

Recipes Travel

How to Stock a Vacation Rental Kitchen

Resort vacations hold a certain allure with quick access to restaurants and poolside drinks and two towel refreshes a day, but if you’re traveling with more than two people or for an extended period of time, a vacation rental just might be the way to go. In major cities, a well situated apartment can give you a good home base for seeing the sites; at the beach, it can you give the peace and quiet, and privacy you just won’t get at a hotel. And, you can cook for yourself. On the one hand, some would say, “It’s vacation – why would you want to cook?” Well, if say, you’re entertaining the idea of a trip to the north shore of Kauai, a vacation rental with a kitchen gives you the flexibility to really enjoy farmers markets and eat local on your own. Depending on your budget, it can help save a few bucks as well.

ByMichelleMay 21, 20140Comments