Author Kevin Kwan stopped at University Bookstore in Mill Creek on Sunday. Part of a three-city mini tour in the Pacific Northwest, Kwan promoted the paperback release of book #3 in the Crazy Rich Asians trilogy, Rich People Problems. Kwan read from the book and answered a wide range of questions about the books, the…
Opening Wednesday in Bellevue Square, 365 by Whole Foods Market aims to make healthy living easier for downtown office and mall workers, shoppers and local residents.
365 by Whole Foods Bellevue is the third location to open this year. The others are in Silverlake, Calif. and Lake Oswego, Ore.
Located in the former JCPenney building, 365 by Whole Foods…
What a week. May the Fourth, Cinco de Mayo and maybe most importantly – the return of Farmers Market season in the Pacific Northwest. {Cue the fanfare!} After a weirdly warm winter, the Issaquah and Redmond Saturday markets return on Saturday, May 7.
While the first weeks of the season are usually all about asparagus, radishes, rhubarb,…
Before last weekend's Super Bowl, you might have seen the Baking Steel's pizza face off between a Seattle Skittle pizza and a New England sausage pie. As much as we love Marshawn Lynch around here, I don't think many of us are sprinkling Skittles on our 'za. Ann Osbourne Peavey, who commented on the Baking Steel Facebook post, called for a "REAL Seattle pizza" with Uli's Famous Sausage and Beecher's Cheese among other ingredients. With thanks to Ann for the inspiration, I bring you this week's #FridayNightSlice -- an Andouille and Crimini Mushroom pie topped with mozzarella and Beecher's Flagship. Now that's a Seattle pizza.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.
If you've heard of Walla Walla, Washington, the first thing you think of is sweet onions. But over the the years, wine and grapes have been muscling in on that territory. It's in Eastern Washington, about a four hour drive from Seattle. A couple of weekends ago, we got in the car, crossed the Snoqualmie Pass and drove out for Nocking Point Wines’ spring release party. The pet project of ‘Arrow’ star Stephen Amell and his buddy Drew, Nocking Point is a small label with wines created by a few different winemakers. The party, held at sports bar in Walla Walla, gave us an opportunity to head out east and see some of Washington, at least I, hadn’t seen before.
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?
The first weeks of the farmers market in Washington always feel like everyone's still trying to wake up from hibernating all winter. We get a relatively late start, opening up in April, but by then, the tulips are in full force. On an otherwise gray day, there's nothing like a burst of color to get you out of the blahs. Those are double tulips, by the way. They almost look like peonies, my other favorite flower.
