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Charred Ahi Tuna with Pasta Puttanesca

21 Saturday Apr 2012

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My first reaction was “HUH?” when I spotted this recipe.  I adore ahi tuna as a happy hour appetizer with a nice blob of wasabi on the side, and the pungent puttanesca sauce ingredients are a nice change from plain old pasta and pesto.  But combined together??  Seemed a little strange.  But then again…this recipe is from a Tom Douglas cookbook.  So I knew it would turn out great. 

Serves 4

1/3 C extra virgin olive oil, plus more for panfrying the tuna

4 1/2 tsp minced garlic

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes, or more to taste

1/2 tsp dried Greek oregano

1 1/2 C seeded and diced Roma tomatoes

1/2 C pitted and coarsely chopped Kalamata olives

1/4 C dry white wine

3 T chopped fresh flat-leaf (Italian) parsley

2 T capers, drained

6 anchovies, finely chopped (about 1 T)

1 tsp grated lemon zest

4 lemon wedges, seeded

1 lb fresh sashimi-grade ahi tuna, cut into four 4-oz portions (thick chunks or steaks are best)

Kosher salt and freshly-ground black pepper

1 lb fresh linguine or dried linguine

Put a pot of salted water on to boil for cooking the pasta.  Put a large saute pan over high heat.  Add the olive oil, garlic, pepper flakes, oregano and cook, stirring for 1 minute.  Stir in the tomatoes, olives, wine, parsley, capers anchovies and lemon zest. Squeeze the lemon wedges into the pan and throw them right into the sauce.  Let the sauce simmer for 2 – 3 minutes.

Season the tuna with salt and pepper and sear it in another saute pan over high heat using a little olive oil.  Sear the tuna rare (raw in the middle), about a minute per side.  Set aside.

Meanwhile, cook the pasta until it is al dente.  Drain the pasta and toss it in a bowl with the sauce.  Taste the sauce, and then season it with salt and pepper.

Divide the pasta and sauce among 4 plates or shallow soup bowls.  Slice the tuna portions across the grain and fan the sliced tuna over each serving of pasta.

My notes:  timing is everything with this dish because the ingredients come together very quickly.  I recommend starting the pot of water to boil for the pasta before doing the prep work with chopping and dicing the tomatoes and olives (if you are using dried pasta like I did which takes a little longer to cook).  Try putting the pasta on to cook and then start cooking the sauce and searing the steaks.

Some may prefer fresh oregano to dried, but the dried oregano has the right intensity for this sauce.  Taste the sauce before adding any additional salt and pepper, as the olives and anchovies are already salty.  Do a “smell test” of your dried oregano beforehand.  If it’s not super pungent, throw it out and get a fresh jar.

Be sure to choose sashimi-grade ahi tuna because it will be rare in the middle after you sear it (by design).  And be prepared for some sticker shock – it was $23.00 / lb when I swung by the seafood counter at my favorite grocery store.  So I went with just a half a pound…and it’s worth every penny.

I prefer adding the chopped parsley just before serving, rather than during the cooking process.  This keeps the parsley’s flavor fresh and it’s a nice color contrast with the pasta, sauce and the tuna steaks.

I too was a little squeamish and “ewww” about the anchovies.  It’s not something I typically shop for.  But anchovies are essential for the true, pungent flavor you want in this sauce.  When they are diced up and done sautéing you won’t even notice they are there.  But your fingers might smell a little after chopping them up.  Rub some lemon wedges over them to fix that.

Do you know what “puttanesca” means?  Well, pasta puttanesca literally means “whore’s spaghetti.”  There are many stories to its origins, but the version I recall most vividly is from an Italian cooking instructor I had the pleasure of learning from many years ago.  “…the sauce is HOT, CHEAP and QUICK”  she exclaimed.  Ah, got it.

Buon appetito!

From Tom Douglas’ Seattle Kitchen

Singing the Tom Douglas Praises…again

01 Sunday Apr 2012

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Along with other Seattle treasures like Starbucks, Nordstrom, Microsoft, Amazon, hiking, boating and skiing literally in our back yard, lush green, beautiful mountains and a few decent professional sports teams…we have Chef Tom Douglas.  He and his wife, Jackie, are the owners of five restaurants:  Dahlia Lounge, Etta’s, Palace Kitchen, Lola, and Serious Pie, all in downtown Seattle.  You simply cannot talk about great food in Seattle without mentioning Tom!  Now, I have yet to try Lola and Serious Pie, but I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the Dahlia Lounge, Etta’s and the Palace Kitchen.  I smile and remember grabbing brunch at Etta’s one morning with friends and walking up a few blocks to catch a matinee performance of the symphony at Benaroya Hall.  A blissful Seattle day!  This was a few years ago, and I remember it was hard finding restaurants downtown that were open for breakfast or brunch.  So a walk down to Etta’s it was.  I hear Lola has an incredible breakfast.  Definitely on the to-try list.

I was suprised to learn that he’s originally from Delaware!  His dishes capture Pacific Northwest flavors to a T; his signature is using fresh, local ingredients to put a fresh twist on a classic dish.  Charred ahi tuna with pasta puttanesca anyone?  This is next on my list to make…I’m curious how the tuna will taste with a pungent puttanesca sauce!

I was definitely craving some food variety this weekend and that’s a good sign.  I’ve been a little run down…not with a flu or cold or anything I could put my finger on.  Just tired.  And not really motivated to cook.  When I get home from work and am exhausted it’s all I can do to whip up some pasta and pesto…my own form of comfort food.  But even that gets boring after awhile.

So this weekend it was off to the grocery store.  I thumbed through Tom’s Seattle Kitchen cookbook, savoring the wonderful ingredients and the stories behind the recipes, looking for inspiration on what to cook.  Sometimes I like to play a game with myself and just randomly pick a page in a cookbook and THAT’S what I’ll be making for dinner that night.  Ooops…not up to making a dish with octopus in it, so I kept flipping the pages.

Then I found it:  a clam linguine recipe with pancetta, jalapenos and garlic.  See what I mean about a fresh twist on a classic?  Never would have thought about pairing up jalapenos with clams.  But it sounded intriguing!  And delicious!  Then I realized I had some shrimp that needed to be used up soon in my fridge and decided to use that instead of clams.  Now, normally when I try something for the first time I follow the recipe pretty much exactly as written and then make my own notes on what to tweak.  But the shrimp won out.  I’m sure Tom won’t mind.

Here’s a confession:  I absolutely adore grocery shopping.  Roaming the aisles, wondering what wonderful dishes are just dying to come out of all these wonderful foods.  Looking at the spices and wondering what else I need to add to my collection.  Cheeses, vegetables, wines…fantastic, glorious food!  Now I’m sure I would feel differently about grocery shopping if I had kids to feed.  Might be more of a chore than a joy.  Sure, we all need to eat, but for me being single with no kids, grocery shopping is an adventure.  Yep, I’m a true Taurus…I LOVE my food and take it damn seriously.  But not so serious to also have a little humor and play around with it.  Try new things!  Take risks!  The food isn’t going to bite you. 

There are a lot of ingredients, but this goes together quickly – serves 4

  • 2 jalapenos, cut in half and seeded
  • 1/4 C olive oil, plus more for brushing
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 3 ox pancetta, diced (1/2 C)
  • 1 tsp minced garlic
  • 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes (or to taste)
  • 2 lbs clams, scrubbed and rinsed
  • 1/4 C dry white wine
  • 1 lb linguine
  • 1/4 C unsalted butter
  • 4 tsp chopped, fresh flat-leaf parsley
  • 3 tsp fresh lemon juice
  • 2 tsp grated lemon zest
  • 1/2 C fresh, flat-leaf parsley
  • 1/4 C shaved parmesan cheese
  • 4 lemon wedges

Preheat oven to 400 F.  Start a pot of salted water boiling to cook the pasta later.  Brush the jalapeno halves with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Place on a baking sheet and roast in the oven for 10 minutes.  When cool enough to handle, dice finely.

Put a large saute pan over medium high heat. Heat 1/4 C olive oil, add the pancetta and cook, stirring, until browned, about 2 minutes.  Add the jalapeno, garlic and pepper flakes and cook, stirring, another minute. Turn the heat to high.  Add the clams and wine and cover. Cook until the clams open, about 3 minutes.

Meanwhile, cook the pasta in the boiling water until al dente.  Add the butter, chopped parsley, lemon juice and zest to the clams in the pan and toss until the butter melts into the sauce.  Drain the pasta.

In a large serving bowl, toss the pasta with the clam sauce and whole parsley leaves. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

NOTE:  feel free to put Parmesan on this dish, despite the Italian thing about “no cheese with fish.”  Use grated cheese or make Parmesan curls with a potato peeler. Make sure the clams mostly end up on top of the pasta, facing up.  Move them around with tongs if you need to. Discard any unopened clams.  Garnish with lemon wedges.

This is absolutely delicious…even substituting shrimp for the clams!  Now, as I’ve always said (and learned the hard way awhile back), be sure to read a recipe all the way through before you start.  A recipe is not a mystery novel with a surprise ending!  You don’t want to get caught with your pants down getting ingredients prepared only to then read, “Cover and marinate overnight in the fridge.”  Oops…you’ll be ordering pizza for dinner probably instead.   So when I read about roasting the jalapenos in the oven, I laughed a little.  Is it ridiculous to heat up a whole oven to 400 degrees to just roast four small jalapeno halves?  Answer:  YES.  Does it really make a difference?  YES.  Be sure to take the time to roast the peppers…the flavor would be totally different if they had been just thrown into the saute pan uncooked.  So trust me (and Tom) on this.

Buon appetito!

Urban Beach Alternative

25 Sunday Mar 2012

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Last week L invited me to join him out on the Long Beach Peninsula for a quick weekend getaway.  He had a client photo shoot lined up and the use of a very nice vacation rental.  But plans changed and he wasn’t feeling well, so that got scrapped.  No worries there…for some reason as the week unfolded I was not entirely on board with getting out of town this particular weekend.  Not sure why as I didn’t have any real solid plans save for catching up on sleep and getting outside for a walk if the weather held up.

We decided to postpone the almighty popcorn ceiling scraping project at my townhouse yet another weekend and just hang out over at his place.  I reminded him that hey, dude, it’s been over a month (6 weeks?) since we got started and we still haven’t finished the upstairs.  It was Super Bowl Sunday, in fact.  And I joked that Whitney Houston and Davy Jones were still alive when we got started, teasing in a warped sense of humor moment.  But it’s all good.  I know we’ll eventually get it done.  I think we agreed on June as a deadline, but given our pace that will likely just to get all of the upstairs scraped, sanded, primed and painted.  Downstairs is going to be a whole other hairy beast.  I’m getting tired just thinking and typing about that road ahead.

So the plan was to chill out and watch hockey (when it’s Saturday that means Hockey Night in Canada – can’t beat that for a TV doubleheader).  Tacos, scratch margaritas and hockey.  Sign me up.  I don’t know L’s secret taco recipe, but I’ll share my margarita recipe here at the end of this post.

Holy damn, I slept in until 11:00am Saturday.  Even me, a notsomuch morning person, felt a little guilty as if I was wasting the day away.  But I know myself well…I needed that sleep.  I had thought I would have the energy to schlep into the gym – a place I haven’t visited in, gulp, over a year – for a much-needed workout, but somehow that didn’t happen.  Laziness.

I trotted off to L’s place that afternoon with a bag full of tequila, triple sec, limes, a cocktail shaker, a shot glass and a couple of margarita glasses carefully wrapped in towels.  He had an amazingly large bowl of scratch guacamole already made – enough for 20 people – but we sure chowed it down – with chips and salsa.  Ole!  Now when I say “trotted” I mean probably a 40-45 minute drive.  L lives in the Sunset Hill area of Ballard in Seattle, a quiet neighborhood in the city which is really busting out and growing, at least in its core.  And I thanked myself for filling up my car prior to that drive, for the main route to his house through Ballard is now all torn up with major street construction.  One lane roads with flaggers everywhere.  Brutal, especially for all the businesses along this street I’m sure, despite the myriad of “we’re open during construction” signs pleading down the street.  I remember crawling along in my car and seeing a reader board on one of the cafes:  “Free monster truck show with every meal.”  I wondered “HUH?” for a few seconds before I finally got it.  Aha – at least they’ve got a sense of humor about all of this.

L and I chugged down a few margaritas, devoured chips and guac and later some tacos.  After a beer nightcap and watching a GREAT Vancouver Canucks OT victory over Colorado, we were both pretty tired.  And it was barely 10pm!  L insisted I stay over and I was grateful for that.  I had a little buzz going on, so driving home that night was totally out of the question.

Now, for those of you tuning in fairly recently, L is my guy BFF.  Everything is totally platonic so crashing at his place was not a loaded big deal.  He let me use his bed while he crashed in the next room in his new guest bed.  I couldn’t believe I was going to bed so early, especially on a Saturday, but I guess I really needed the sleep.  It always takes me awhile to get to sleep even when I’m at home – I usually like to/need to read something light like a magazine no matter how late it is or how tired I am.  And I typically sleep in my own bed, so this was a change having immediate pitch black in a strange, new bed with no reading material.  And the silence.  I giggled to myself at the irony…the utter silence at L’s house in the city (he lives near the end of a dead end street) compared to the gentle roar of street noise I am now used to hearing around the clock – like nice white noise – at my suburban townhouse.

By around 8:30am or so he and I were both up, dressed and ready to take his friend M’s dog for a walk.  What a glorious Sunday morning!  We made the short drive to Golden Gardens Park, one of the few waterfront parks in Seattle with a sandy beach.  Oops, I was in high-heeled boots – and my sweater and jeans from the night before – and not in any condition to walk in the sand, so we stayed on the asphalt paths. 

How’s that picture at the start of this post for a morning welcome?  A cool, brisk morning and the sun beaming down on the Olympic Mountains, looking west.  We passed countless walkers, joggers, dogs…even saw a woman in the sand doing a slew of yoga poses.  So while I wasn’t wearing the best shoes for a brisk walk, it felt good to get one in.  And the salty air and breeze is the best soul therapy I’ve ever experienced.

Then it was off to brunch at The Blue Glass, one of L’s favorite spots.  I get giddy trying new places to eat so I could not wait to try it…and could not believe I was hungry after last night’s taco feast. 

Behold, their breakfast burger…sausage, egg and absolutely nothing McDonalds-ish assembly line about it.  A few dashes of hot sauce and some fries with their house-made ketchup topped off with a few cups of coffee and I felt totally refreshed.

We even made a quick stop to the nearby Goodwill store.  L has this uncanny knack for finding great things there at a steal of a price.  At the risk of sounding, well, how I don’t wish to sound, it’s not my first choice for places to shop, but admittedly if you take some time and dig around you CAN find some really great deals.  Voila…I found two pairs of pretty much brand new Adidas sweatpants…for $15 total!  Perfect for the rink or just lounging around. 

So, for the second weekend in a row, the Ballard neighborhood delivers.  It’s another world compared to my suburban haunts, and that’s exactly how I like it.  A touch of salt air, a slower pace with a slice of city vibe injected…and continuing to discover it with a great friend – this is what I adore. 

Oh, and almost forgot – here’s the margarita recipe!  Bring a couple cans of limeade to make more and additional limes for garnish.

  • 3/4 can limeade, thawed in the fridge
  • 4 shots Tequila
  • 2 shots Triple Sec
  • Juice of one lime
  • Salt
  • Beer (optional…couple swigs to cut the ‘tart’ to taste)
  • Crushed ice

Mix all ingredients except for the salt and crushed ice in a cocktail shaker.  Salt the rim of each glass and pour the mixture over the crushed ice. Garnish with a lime wedge.  Serve to good friends and have fun.  CHEERS!

Tangent Time!

04 Sunday Dec 2011

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I admit it, I got distracted and didn’t have my “homework” ready for today.  Yeah, I could have crammed and tried to read and ponder the 3rd chapter of The Four Agreements, but you know what?  It’s not worth it.  This is deep stuff that needs to be read with passion and concentration, not some lame attempt at speed reading just to feel “ready” for today’s post.

So what happened?  Well, I had lunch with T, one of my dearest friends.  We met at Wildfin in Issaquah…she’d heard great things about it and I am always up for trying a new place to eat.  I ended up having a small burger and went easy on the fries.  I don’t eat meat everyday but I guess I was craving red meat way deep down.  After a few nights in a row of yummy pasta tossed with a little pesto it was time.

T has been attending these seminars about…understanding men.  Really?? And she just raves about them – she says it’s totally changed her outlook and viewpoint on dating and relationships, and has strengthened even her friendships with women too.  Sounds pretty profound, eh?  Wow, what’s going on here?  How can you learn stuff like this in a class?  Led by mostly women?  

She smiled and pulled a small paperback book out of her fabulous Hermes Bolide handbag.  Called Making Sense of Men, by Alison Armstrong.  She couldn’t wait to loan it to me!  Now, I admit, I’m a “black hole” book borrower (that’s a self-coined term by the way).  It’s not intentional, but I am not a voracious book reader, and books loaned to me, well, tend to get absorbed into a bookcase here forever and ever, never to be returned again and possibly not ever read at all. I promised T I’d do my very best to not do that in this case.  And she’s pretty tenacious, so I’m sure if I don’t return it promptly she’ll have no qualms asking for it back – as she should!

Now.  If you knew you were going to focus on reading the Third of the Four Agreements, but then had to choose between that and a book suddenly plopped in front of you called Making Sense of Men, what would you do? Read them both perhaps?  Well, this is me we’re talking about here, and given I don’t do a lot of book reading, I caved and chose the Men book to focus on.  Can’t blame me…plus it would be less likely to end up on a “black hole” bookshelf here in the townhouse.

I didn’t know how quick a read this was!  I pretty much read it in one evening, and have re-read it a couple of times!  Can this topic be summed up in a 70-page book?  Well, of course not…we’re human and complex creatures.  And yeah, I’ve read John Gray’s Mars & Venus books, the 1990s classic The Rules and a few others about dating and relationships too.  All endlessly fascinating really…and anything I can learn about these creatures called men who I adore and who also sometimes drive me batshit crazy, well then all the better.

It’s fascinating how entirely different we are wired.  Amstrong proclaims that 99% of the confusion and frustration between men and women is because we – mistakenly – assume we are versions of eachother.  “Men are not hairy women,” she goes on to say!  Ha ha ha that made me giggle.

She goes on to break down the two types of attraction men have towards women.  The first – Sexual Attraction.  Obvious, right?  OK, I won’t give away Armstrong’s list of what goes into that – check out the book for yourself.  And what does her list of sexual attractions trigger in men?  They want to have sex.  Period.  Doesn’t mean they want to date us or have a relationship with us or fall in love with us.  Nope.  I even remember some John Gray books talking about the same thing a little differently.  If a man is physically attracted to a woman, it’s just that and nothing else.  This confuses us as women, because our first ‘degree’ of attraction in a man is if he’s mentally stimulating to us (whereas in men the first ‘degree’ is physical).  With mental attraction in a man, maybe it’s his humor or intelligence that stirs us.  By the time we as women are feeling physically attracted we’ve already gone through two other ‘layers’ or ‘degrees’ of attraction if that makes sense.  So ladies, if a man is physically attracted to you, enjoy it and don’t take it too seriously. 

What’s the other type of attraction a man has for a woman (but not ALL women per se)?  Charmed and Enchanted.  Aha!  Who wouldn’t want to be with a man who is compelled to spend time with you, take care of you, protect you, contribute to you…and make you happy?  Without you needing to do anything but just be fabulous YOU?  Damn, sign me up.  Makes me even swoon here a little just sitting in my office chair, relishing those moments men have done those things for me.  Without any need to make any effort and certainly not nag.  THAT’S bliss right there. 

Armstrong goes on to explain in what she calls “Men-glish” (love that) – what men say and what it means in female-speak.  Things they say to us or offer to do for us when they’re Charmed and Enchanted.  Believe me, I’m not affiliated with the author of this book or the publishing company or anything, but if you’re intrigued by my ramblings here, go pick up the book for yourself!  One big key?  We as women need to be receptive to these wonderful things men want to do for us!  Anyone here ever have a man offer you his jacket because it was cold?  And responded by a, “…but won’t you be cold?” in return?  No, no no!!  You are not his mother…accept his generosity and snuggle in his jacket for pete’s sake!  Hell, I never turn down even the grocery store bag boy’s offer to carry my bags to my car.  Just enjoy it and smile with a warm thank you.  Sure it’s his job, but you’ve probably helped make his day too.

And there is serious “juice” required of us to be the best we can be as women.  Things like being self-confident and authentic.  And if a great outfit and killer pair of shoes helps you get there, go for it.  Nope, we can’t be self-confident fueled on emptiness like sugar and caffeine.  Rest, good nutrition, exercise…THAT’S what does it.  Don’t forget passion…whether it’s for our kids, cross-stitching, volunteer work or salsa dancing, as Armstrong explains.  And RECEPTIVITY to men’s offerings…the doozy!  YES!  If that guy asks you out for dinner and you’re even the slightest bit interested, go!  All you have to do is show up, look your hot self and just enjoy a great evening out.  Nothing more, nothing less.  Receive it graciously, ladies.

I could go on and on, but I’m just intrigued with these simple yet profound insights from Armstrong in her book.  Don Miguel Ruiz, I promise your 3rd chapter is my focus this week!  

The Third Agreement:  Don’t Assume Anything.     

Holy Cow, am I Eating Again??

14 Sunday Aug 2011

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Again? Already thinking about what to cook for dinner tonight?  After last night’s Seafood Fest?

I have that wonderful post-bloat feeling of fantastic food at a fantastic party.  And I feel relieved that I don’t have to wear anything snug today.  Just another lazy Sunday, where the only thing on tap is making a run to Goodwill, read and pick up a few things for dinner.  No hockey tonight.  Summer season wrapped up with a disappointing shootout loss in our playoff game.  I had a major Silpada jewelry event that same night which trumped hockey (rare, because hockey is usually on Sunday nights), so I found out about the loss through my teammates.  Bummer.  Is it October yet??

Yes, Goodwill.  A purge here in the ol’ townhouse is very, very overdue.  Sometimes I struggle getting going on a home project.  I get overwhelmed and then end up procrastinating, doing nothing.  I look at the clutter building up here in the home office.  And the guest bedroom which is still crowned the Room of Crap and Good Luck Getting to the Ironing Board.  Hmmmm.  This is NOT OK!! 

So what do I do?  I play a mental game with myself, and break down an overwhelming task into smaller pieces.  Every time I need to go downstairs to the main living room/kitchen level here, I make myself take at least one thing out of the home office or the guest room that needs to go.  And I start a pile downstairs near the dining room.  Repeat as needed!  

Voila – in about 24 hours I had a couple large garbage bags full of old computer shit, knick knacks, books, jewelry, shoes and clothes that are ready for Goodwill! The cute, stuffed polar bear I won at the Puyallup Fair a couple years ago doing Skeeball?  Sorry, dude, you’ll make a kid happy in your next home.  Remember the Left Behind book series from the 1990s?  I’d purchased the entire set over time and never cracked open a single one of them, despite numerous raves from many of my friends – even my grandfather.  Le Sigh.  If I haven’t read them after 15 years sitting in my bookcase then it’s time for someone else to.  Also in the “outta here” pile: a set of 4 glass beer mugs I maybe used once in 20 years.  THAT feels good.  I looked at the hodge podge of a dozen mismatched wine glasses currently on the floor in the guest room and considered getting rid of them too but I decided to keep them.  THOSE are good to have for larger parties.  I just need to box them up and get them out of the guest room!

Larger parties…what a segue. I’ve been looking forward to my new consulting firm’s annual Seafood Fest.  The staff has been buzzing about it ever since I joined the group in July, and I’m sure they’ve been in planning mode far earlier than that. “Are you coming?”  “Can you make it?”  “Can’t wait to see you there!”  I probably heard this every time I sent in a timesheet or collected my pay stub.  The energy was contagious!

And the party was amazing, just as I expected.  Our CEO hosted it in her home as she does every year, and just about everything on the menu was made by her and her team from scratch.  Right down to the homemade ice cream, her signature dessert!  Her home is fantastic for entertaining.  She has a front yard with enough room for a large table and chairs plus a couple of grills and a drink stand, a large kitchen and great room on the main level inside, and a huge back deck with room for multiple round tables, mingling and the incredible view looking west toward Puget Sound and across the water to the Kitsap Peninsula (and I think some of Whidbey Island too).  

I soaked in the view with a nice glass of Sauvignon Blanc and enjoyed meeting other fellow consultants and chatting with our CEO, T, and her team!  What a great team.  This really didn’t feel like a work-related party…it felt like family.  Really and truly.  T LOVES to entertain…and it shows.  Party for 80 guests?  No problem, right? 

Seafood fest knocked it out of the park.  I’m kicking myself for not getting any pictures of the food with my phone but it was unbelievable.  This year the theme was Caribbean, so we had jerk chicken and beef on the grill, blackened halibut (our CEO caught the halibut herself off of Vancouver Island earlier this year – she had the video of it playing in the living room!), rice and bean side dishes, salads with papayas and mangoes, chips and wonderful salsas, and even a couple of pizzas!  Dessert was a choice of pineapple or lime-flavored cupcakes, and two kinds of homemade ice cream – pineapple and vanilla with a little cinnamon.  Simply incredible.

And the weather turned out decent too – it was a little cloudy during the day but thankfully burned off later in the evening.  This summer really hasn’t been a summer, so I was happily relieved we had a warm evening last night!

Great people and great food.  There simply is no better combination out there.  And so many reasons to celebrate!

Now it’s time to get started on dinner.  While I might not be super hungry after all that wonderful food last night, it DID inspire me to keep honing my cooking skills.  I’m pretty good at it, I must say!  Practice, practice, practice.

Tonight it’s another dish from the Primal Blueprint Cookbook I’ve posted about a few times before.  Chicken and fennel stew with, onions, garlic in a broth of beer and coconut milk, garnished with fresh parsley.  Can’t wait!             

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04 Monday Apr 2011

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Never have I been so happy to flip a calendar page!  Welcome, APRIL!!  March, well, you were great for the first five or six days, then you pretty much blew chunks.  Better luck next year.

You know what’s great about blogging?  The power of the written word never ceases to amaze me. I’ve had a fair amount of feedback on my March posts, for example…from empathy and support all the way to ‘get over it…for fuck’s sake stop blogging about it.’  Hmm.  Us Taureans are masters at digging in our heels…we’ll do whatever we want to, when we want to.  And I’m extremely flattered that people read my writing.  It’s from me all the way down to my toes.  You might not always like what you read in here.  Some of my posts I’m very proud of, while others might be mediocre or clunkers. But you can be assured it’s all Me.

After about a year and a half blogging (this is my 110th post – wow) I smile and laugh at the variety of topics in here.  Maps. Makeup. Childhood memories. Food. The almighty Job Hunt.  Whatever it is, I’ve stayed true to my self-imposed ‘rules’ in here:  no names – initials only. It’s OK to call out locations (cities, restaurants, shops) by name but not people.  Stay away from political or religious-themed posts.  Too polarizing.  And the biggest rule of all? 

No apologies and no regrets. 

When you know you want to start a blog but have zero idea what it’s going to be about – well, you need a LITTLE structure, right?  I know damn well that once something’s out here I can’t take it back.  Sure, I can remove posts but it really can’t be undone.  I am human and gloriously flawed as we all are.  Some stuff in here may later be cringe-worthy once more time has passed, but it’s documented, out there and I can’t (and don’t want to) do anything about that.  

I made one of my favorite dishes last night – Moroccan style chicken with olives.  The spice combination is incredible:  cumin, ground ginger, cinnamon, paprika and a little cayenne pepper.  Combine that with garlic, sauteed chicken in olive oil, kalamata olives, a couple bay leafs, white wine and chicken stock…the aroma is heavenly.  Therapeutic even.  I threw in a can of diced tomatoes when I discovered that my newest cookbook also has a version of this recipe too.

Still battling through this second cold/sore throat – whatever it’s going to evolve into.  I volunteered last week with a few co-workers at a middle school where they were conducting police training.  They needed actors to simulate various scenarios in a school shooting, such as people running down the hallways screaming, or being hostages held up in a classroom with the shooter.  It’s a really great experience and the police are so very appreciative of our time so they can train on how to handle what’s become a sad fact of reality in our schools – and workplaces too.  We wore multiple layers of clothing plus protective headgear as the ammo they use in the training is like paintball on steroids.  The headgear is a little like Darth Vader meets Miner’s Helmet. Hard to breathe. I got overheated and maybe somehow that made me vulnerable to getting sick again.  All I know is I wasn’t feeling very good once we were finished, like a bad wave washing over me.  But I will definitely volunteer again!  

I was chatting with my good friend T today and she reminded me that emotional stress has probably affected my health too.  I think she’s right.  She also recommended saging my house.  Gets rid of negative energy.  Bad juju.  Now, I’m pretty open-minded about stuff but I have always kind of pooh-pooh’d saging. Plus, I don’t want my house smelling like I had a million friends over smoking pot all weekend.

But, I jumped in my car and headed down to the PCC – a food co-op and organic grocery store chain here in the Seattle area.  I knew that if I wanted sage, that was the closest, most convenient place to find it.  And how wonderful to re-discover this store.  I used to frequent it far more often when my work commute took me right by it on the way home a couple of years ago.  And when I delved into raw food “cooking” and vegan cooking it was one of the best places to find specialty ingredients.  With super nice, helpful staff.  We are so fortunate here to have such an amazing variety of higher-end, specialty grocery stores. 

Is it expensive?  Sure.  But, after reading The Primal Blueprint I totally get and agree with the author’s argument that doing away with processed foods, energy drinks, energy bars, whole grains, dairy, etc means more $$ to devote to what’s truly good and healthy for our bodies.  Pick up the book if you can – it’s a great read and Mark Sisson says it far better than I can here.

So, off I went to purchase some sage. I also stumbled upon some fish oil capsules (I haven’t tried these either but they are highly recommended).  And I found my favorite gluten-free crackers.  I’ve had a hard time battling my weight gain, which was very gradual over the past 7 or 8 years (after losing about 30 lbs walking a few miles a day for a few months).  And I have a weakness for late-night snacking.  Things like chips with super hot chipotle salsa and a blob of sour cream.  I need to think more about what I’m putting in my body and try staying away from too many carbs, gluten and such.  Plus, cutting back on dairy. Now, I’ve never met a cheese I didn’t like, and that’s a hard one to give up, honestly.  Just a tiny wedge of delicious brie at breakfast can keep me content all the way till lunch.  Sounds a little weird I know.

I’m going to try this healthier eating discipline and see where it takes me.  Snacking on a handful of (unsalted) nuts.  Or gluten free pretzles.  Flax seed chips.  Holding off on the cheese.  Trying rice pasta whenever possible, or running steamed cauliflower through the food processor as a substitute for rice. Can I do this?  And wave the smoldering sage around my house, once it’s nice enough weather to open the windows?  You bet.

And I just found this treat on a friend’s Facebook page.  Love it.

“This morning at 7:33 AM (Pacific), the Moon renewed itself in Aries… New Moons are always opportunities for setting intentions, for starting, for letting go of what was… Well, what’s going on is that it’s time to be getting on. Time to get on with what needs to be done. Time for all the ways you’ve thought about it to become reasons for how you are doing it. — Jon Waldrup, Sense of Vision Astrology”

Now, when’s it supposed to warm up around here anyway?

Does Sex Cure Jet Lag?

21 Monday Feb 2011

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…asking this question in my best Carrie Bradshaw-esque narrative/musing style.  If you’re a Sex and the City fan like me (HBO Series a few years ago for those who have been living under a rock) you know what I’m talking about.

But even if you don’t you might be intrigued by this post’s title perhaps?  And are there scientific studies out there?

My answer is who cares about scientific studies!!  There’s no better way to welcome your man back home from a long 2-week overseas vacation.  Halfway across the planet mind you.  And the bitch of the international date line when returning.  20+ hours of flying plus what the hell day/time is it anyway?

I literally bounced out of bed on Saturday morning – far earlier than my usual snoozefest.  I knew G’s flight was scheduled to arrive early afternoon but who knows with flight delays how it would really turn up.  Well, turns out his flights were pretty much on time.  I fell back into bed in a blissful doze, enjoying the unexpected sunshine pouring through my bedroom window blinds.  The sun felt SO warm and glorious inside, but damn it was cold outside! 

After some morning coffee and a quick shower I blasted down to the airport, my heart pounding and fluttering.  Had it really been a whole two weeks since G was away?  I’d gotten emails from him nearly every day – very unexpected given he wasn’t sure how much online time he would have, plus the texting/calling fees are outrageous.  No worries there.

I won’t ever forget seeing him walk up to my car at the airport in the sunshine…big smile, great shades and looking incredibly hot in his travel gear.  And bringing him back to his apartment so we could just crash out and spend some wonderful time together…so very missed.  And oh – did we forget to eat? Does he feel like eating?  Yes!  Time for a late lunch.

I was perfectly OK with just letting him sleep given I had no idea how exhausted he would be, but was glad he wanted to hang out for awhile before going back home to sleep.  So we grabbed a couple burgers + manhattan for him/beer for me, with more of that incredible winter sunshine streaming through the restaurant windows.

And then while hearing all about his trip, suddenly there was a long, black jewelry box on the table.

He bought me the most incredibly gorgeous Opal bracelet…a double row of oval-shaped, turquoise blue opals set in sterling silver.  AHHH, this is so incredibly gorgeous it took my breath away and I about burst into tears.  Turquoise blue is probably one of my favorite colors of all time and I LOVE all things sterling silver.  This beautiful bracelet, now on my wrist thanks to his help and a big kiss too makes me so happy.  And you know, I’m not really in general a huge gifts-oriented person…I’m more of a quality time type girl when it comes to Love Languages [see my post on our weekend at Discovery Park and elsewhere], but I’m blown away by his generosity.

Generosity with a huge helping of quality time too.  Today we met up for a long walk around my neighborhood, loved hearing more about his trip and then went off to see friends at their house for dinner.  Soft tacos and delicious southwest-style homemade soup with pork, green chilies, cilantro, hominy and spices. Bliss.  These are some of the people from his supper club which I was very honored to join for the first time back in January.  And we’ll be meeting up again here in early March.  

His family.  And how humbled, welcomed and happy I feel to be a part of this group.