Soup, There It Is: Rosemary-Scented Minestrone

Sliding in to the second week of January, it’s so-far-so-good on getting more exercise, eating more vegetables and whole grains and less meat and butter. Of course, while the new year always feels like a good time for a fresh start, I had the “benefit” of a blood test in late November that reminded me I needed to get moving and pay more attention to my cholesterol. So yeah, even if you feel like you're doing (most) of the right things, you really should have it checked every five years. Everything is documented in a food diary, and I’ll tell you, soup has been a savior as a vehicle for extra veg, beans and grains, whether its vegetarian chili, chicken tortilla, or this minestrone.

ByMichelleJanuary 6, 20131Comment

Baking Dessert Entertaining

Rosemary Cornmeal Pine Nut Biscotti

It’s Tuesday night. The gorgeous Asian pears are gone, except for a half, the blueberry muffin from Craftsman and Wolves but a memory, the husband is sick and watching Corner Gas somewhere he can’t infect the rest of the household, and I had my dad’s Sloppy Joes for dinner. It involves Campbell’s Chicken Gumbo soup. Don’t judge. It’s back to real life. It’s a relief. Being on the road, dining out for every meal, sounds glam, but it is tiresome. I’m not 25 anymore. But believe me, it’s not a complaint. I had a fantastic time in San Francisco, catching up with folks I see once a year. Italian and Cal-Italian dominated our restaurant choices over the course of the week and Tim, the friend we hung out with at the market, and I chatted about lavender biscotti, so naturally I’m diving back into posting with these little Italian cookies on the brain. So, Rosemary, Cornmeal and Pine Nut biscotti.

ByMichelleOctober 11, 20120Comments

Recipes Restaurants

Scenes From Cafe Juanita’s Alfresco Pig Roast

Hold on, the headline says pig roast. Why am I looking at soup? Because a pig roast, while delicious, is ugly gorgeous. As the sunny season winds down at Cafe Juanita in Kirkland, Washington, this soup is one of the things I've been looking forward to all summer. Pappa al pomodoro. You know this soup? Tomatoes, hand crushed. Garlic, basil, cayenne, olive oil, balsamic, sherry vinegar, bread. Served at room temp, it is the essence of summer. At Sunday night's Pig Roast, pappa al pomodoro was a pre-dinner summer sipper. This is perhaps the one Cafe Juanita recipe that gets shared the most, but I've never actually made it. Why? It's a destination dish. I'll just say, it's worked out really well that we got married in late summer. If I plan it right, I can have it at the restaurant. If you can't, the recipe is here. So what about that pig roast?

ByMichelleSeptember 14, 20121Comment

Main Course Pasta Recipes

Mushroom Ragu with Fettuccine

I’m tiptoeing into Fall. The last few mornings there’s been more of a chill in the air, but the afternoons are still warm. I'm still wearing flip-flops, but with long sleeve t-shirts. My cherry tomato in a hanging pot is in its second wind. This is when we keep our fingers crossed for one last push. Last night’s pasta carried that forward. Summer's Lite Brite punches of heirloom tomato and basil were left behind, making way for the earthiness of mushroom. We (er, I) haven’t quite given ourselves (read: myself) over entirely to the autumn, but this mushroom ragu was a first tentative step.

ByMichelleSeptember 13, 20124Comments

Restaurants

Cafe Juanita’s Al Fresco Pasta Dinner

As a food town, Seattle may not have the swagger of New York or San Francisco or LA, but it stands on its own. Ask foodies across the country about Seattle and they might mention Pike Place or the fact that Tom Douglas catered a fundraising lunch for President Obama, but ask them if they’ve heard of Kirkland, Washington and they’ll say, “Oh yeah, like at Costco. Kirkland.” A Microsoft bedroom community, Kirkland is the home of Costco #1, but it’s also the home to one of the best restaurants in the Seattle area -- Café Juanita. Specializing in northern Italian cuisine with a focus on locally sourced ingredients, Café Juanita is casually elegant, at once special occasion and neighborhood spot. You might know chef/owner Holly Smith as winner of the James Beard Foundation’s 2008 Best Chef Northwest, or for her turn on Iron Chef America, where she won her bout with Iron Chef Cat Cora. This year, Chef Smith was nominated as Outstanding Chef in the US by the Beard Foundation. But I gotta tell ya, I didn’t need the Beard Foundation to confirm that Chef Smith’s got game.

ByMichelleJuly 19, 20123Comments

Photo One-offs

Photo One-Off: Pizza Poblano

I don't think of myself as a cheap person. I'll gladly buy a bag of sea salt for $8, a good bottle of olive oil for $20 or more. I'm not a nitpicker about splitting a check when out to eat with friends. But we've had pizza delivered a couple of times in…

ByMichelleJune 29, 20120Comments

Baking Recipes

Pane Toscano & Bread Baking: Taking it with a Grain of Salt (Or Not)

Bread is fussy and variable. Some days it needs more liquid, others more flour, some times a longer rise. And the only way to really learn is by doing, trial-and-error. I'd like to tell you I whip out loaves of bread like this every day of the week, no problem whatsoever, but I'd be lying. LY--ING. In last week's chickpea and farro salad post, I only briefly mentioned the bread. The first loaf was ok, except for big hollow tear in the middle. And I had no one to blame for it but myself.

ByMichelleJune 27, 20120Comments

Recipes

Antipasti Party: Insalata di Farro e Ceci (Chickpeas & Farro, Yo!)

I keep the weather in other cities on my phone just to torture myself. Right now the line up is: home, Victoria, BC; San Francisco; Sydney; San Diego; Denver; and Arezzo. We went to Italy two years ago and Arezzo still hasn’t been deleted from the list. It’s in the low 90s, high 80s this week in Arezzo, just a tad too hot, but still the idea of sitting out under a pergola, looking out into a valley in Tuscany as the sun dips beneath the horizon, sipping a little pinot grigio, with a little antipasti…well, that sounds like dinner.

ByMichelleJune 21, 20121Comment

Main Course Recipes Soups

Rustic Tuscan Chickpea Soup

Oh, humble chickpea, when we met at the Sizzler salad bar when I was seven, you were called garbanzo beans, and you were just an alternative to kidney beans in my salad. Little did I know that around the world, other cultures were doing you so much more justice in dal or falafel or hummus.…

ByMichelleMarch 20, 20122Comments

Recipes

A Proud Moment in 2011: Giada’s “Let’s Get Cooking” Photo Contest

image from GiadadeLaurentiis.com

2011 was the year my friend Nicole turned me onto Tastespotting and inspired me to get serious about the photography on this blog. Rather than just looking to the posts for culinary inspiration, I started studying the photos on the site, how people were styling and lighting the food. I started looking at food mags in a totally different way. I read about how hard it was to get photos accepted and I took my lumps with critiques on (under)exposure and composition, but once I managed to get photos accepted on both Tastespotting and Foodgawker, a light clicked on. All that led me to enter a photo contest Giada de Laurentiis sponsored on Facebook.

ByMichelleJanuary 3, 20120Comments