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The Conway Muse…and More

01 Monday Sep 2014

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So a woman from Iceland falls in love with a Seattle firefighter…and they open a blues club in an Scandinavian dairy barn built in the early 1900s in a tiny town called Conway, WA.  Which probably won’t even show up on your typical GPS.  How’s that for a totally random start to this post?  You still with me?

Well, it’s all absolutely true.  And fabulous.  Yep, it’s the Conway Muse.  Sure, most GPS’s won’t find it, but thankfully my trusty (yet somewhat outdated as in c. 2011) Windows Phone sure did.  Which is a good thing when you’re driving around in the glorious Skagit Valley at night…a rural part of Washington State.  No street lights.  A nice change from the urban/suburban driving around I typically do.

What a glorious Labor Day weekend!  Rain on Saturday?  Who cares?  It was time to hit the Mount Si trail and get outta Dodge for a while.  It’s a 3100′ gain in 4 miles (6.6 km), so it’s somewhat of a butt kicker but not quite a lung crusher.  A sweet spot for expert and novice hikers alike, so the trail review points out.

Mt. Si_8-30-2014Here’s the view from the top!  The fog swirled and rolled around constantly, and the rain came and went on and off.  While huge, tall trees protected us from the rain most of the time, once we got on the final leg of the trail there were no trees with lots of daylight (and some rain) pouring in.

Mount Rainier would be visible from some of this viewpoint on a clear day, but that was not meant to be on this soggy but fantastic Saturday.

And how delicious it is to wake up on a Sunday knowing there’s still ONE more day left in the Labor Day weekend.  And the weather returned back to her late summer sunshine, with just a hint of chill at night to remind you she’s shifting soon into fall.

Off to La Conner, WA.  Just 60 miles (100 km) outside of Seattle and you’re in another world.  Rural yet vibrant.  A passionate artist community with glorious cafes, galleries, shops and beautiful views of the Swinomish Channel.  And you might spontaneously stop at a farmers market along the way which happens to dish up locally-made ice cream in waffle cones in eye-poppingly huge portions.  Oh yeah!  Love me some salted caramel!

Your visit to La Conner is not complete without a meal and a beverage of your choice at the La Conner Brewery.  While they have an incredible selection of wood-fired pizzas, if you’re full up from the ice cream you ate earlier in the late afternoon like me and yet are craving your greens when it’s dinner time, I highly recommend their Greek salad.  What a nice surprise how fantastic the food was there! Their large size is perfect for sharing with two.

The Conway Muse delivers.  Eclectic, funky, friendly, laid back, chill…with incredible music.  And given I love road trips, getting there is half the fun.  It’s not far from La Conner, but an adventurous drive on flat, Skagit Valley two-lane highways…in the dark.  Once you arrive you’re wrapped in wonderful music and an easy, welcoming vibe.  Your live music that night might have a cover charge, or it might be “pass the hat” style.  I was glad to have read a little more about the history of this place ahead of time, as seeing the Iceland flag on one wall and the collection of Seattle firemens’ hats otherwise might have struck me as just odd, random décor.  But nope, that’s the founders’ roots.  Cool!

If you’re looking for a great spot to stay in La Conner, there are many.  But try the Hotel Planter, on First Street a short walk from the Swinomish channel.  Easy walking to all the shops and cafes nearby.  And lots of charm…that hotel was originally built in 1907!  Super high ceilings, and I love the hexagon tile in the bathrooms. It’s an intimate hotel with just 12 rooms, and each has their own private bathroom and shower.  Their courtyard features lots of local artists’ work and it’s a really cool escape in an already cool escape like La Conner!

On your way back to the Seattle area, stop at the Portage Bay Café in the U District in Seattle.

Yep, it was a fabulous holiday weekend, everyone.

At Long Last…We Meet! And other Weekend Highlights.

15 Sunday Jul 2012

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I was reminded threefold – yes THREEFOLD – this weekend about how much I adore time with old and new friends enjoying great food, drink and conversation together!  It just doesn’t get any better than THAT!  Anytime year ’round is wonderful, but there’s something about the laid back summer vibe that makes it even more special. Even without a lot of summer vacation (at least for me; as a consultant I’m paid for hours worked so paid vacations are non-existent), this was just the triple dose I needed to make it FEEL like a vacation, AND to catapult me into this (short) workweek and my upcoming trip to Kansas City, MO later this week.  That trip still seems like a dream to me as it’s been in the planning for several months.  Now it’s just a few “sleeps” away!

It kicked off Friday night with my dear friend T.  We toasted the end of the workweek and a rather tough summer so far on her part (her Grandmother’s passing and all involved with arrangements before and after and travel back and forth and all that) at Wildfin, a casual spot we’ve enjoyed in the past for lunch. Friday night was sunny so that meant sitting outside…ahhh…dinner al fresco!

Saturday was a fantastic BBQ at P’s house.  P is a former co-worker I worked with – loosely at the same company – 4-5 years ago, for barely one year (my entire business unit got dissolved, long story, so I went as quickly as I arrived pretty much).  She’s one of those rare, treasured former co-workers who has become a great friend, for far longer than any time we even worked together at the same company!  I credit her for igniting my passion for running (which is sadly dormant right now but will re-awaken), photography and travel!  She’s off to Ecuador and the Galapagos in just a few weeks with another mutual friend of ours!  Her menu was delicious halibut steaks fresh from Alaska, sautéed sliced potatoes, fresh salsas for dipping chips and veggies, an incredible ceviche mirrored after one she enjoyed on one of her recent trips to Belize, and some hard-core Sangria provided by a few of her other guests who are quite the connoisseurs – love it! And numerous other yummy munchies and drinks.  Oh, and did I mention the desserts?  After a slice of tiramisu and some raspberry frozen yogurt I was beyond full.  YUM.

It was one of those afternoons you just never wanted to end.  Laughing, eating, drinking, watching the dogs run around and play in the yard…and wondering what the weather is going to do next (this is Seattle-area summer, after all).  Thankfully the weather was terrific.  And P’s house is just perfect for entertaining.

I barely slept that night, despite a full belly of great food and some butt-kicking Sangria that required me to pop a Motrin before going to bed, ha ha.

Today (Sunday) I drove down to Lacey, WA, just a short hour or so from my house.  I met up with a friend I’ve been chatting with online for years but have never met in person.  And oh man, this is a long story so buckle up.

A little over 6 years ago I was bored at work and did a random online search about a handbag I was considering purchasing.  What popped up was a myriad of results…a little overwhelming.  And then, one of them caught my eye – it was a link to an online discussion forum..about purses and handbags!

I clicked on that link and my life has not been the same since. Since May 2006.  Seriously.  What I’d clicked on, unbeknownst to me at the time, was how this online discussion forum was designed. I’d never seen one before in my life. And…it was all about – mostly – handbag shopping!  What people liked and didn’t like!  Sorted by handbag designer!  With pictures!  I was immediately hooked and became obsessed.

What’s also spun out of this online forum are other subforums devoted to just about any other lifestyle issue:  tv shows, movies, makeup, other shopping, relationship issues, family issues, celebrity style, raising kids, jewelry…and on and on.  And behold…a HOCKEY subforum too!

That’s right…there’s a subforum on that site that’s devoted to hockey chitchat…what a delicious slice of the universe this is!  Well, at least for me – and a few other thousand women – it is.  Where else can I browse for pictures of fabulous handbags, shoes and sunglass, read about the latest makeup trends and immediately shift over into chitchat about the NHL draft, for example?  Or the playoffs? 

For some reason last year, the hockey subforum chat group got a little snarky.  I don’t remember all the details, but some wackaloon came in during the playoffs and pretty much shit on everything we’d all been discussing for ages.  OK, I realize there are fair weather fans out there, but puhleeze.  There is an etiquette out there for online chit chatting, for real, which said person clearly had no clue about.  And there were 82 games in the regular NHL season prior to the Stanley Cup playoffs, hello???  So don’t come in a-poo pooing in on things.  Just saying.

Anyway, after one too many shittings-upon, one of the women in the group posted a rant (maybe on Facebook, can’t remember), saying something like “haters are hatin’ on my Happy Hockey Island.”

What a stroke of genius!  Within a day or so we had a spin-off online chat forum with invitation-only access set up just for the 10 or so of us who were frequent posters in that hockey subforum. Something completely separate and different. Thankfully we had a resident expert/guru who knew how to do this!

And…the rest is history.  NOW we have our own little separate subforum of goodness!  I still post and chat occasionally on the original forum, but the core of my online viewing and posting has now shifted to this happy hockey island.  I love these girls so much I can’t even stand it.  They’ve been with me through hell and back and me for them as well.

And after all these many years, I finally got to meet one of the women from this spinoff group this afternoon!  What a thrill it is to meet someone online and just see how much the same they are in real life as compared to their online ‘presence’ and ‘voice.’  I LOVE that.  After years of online chatting and posting and whatnot…to be greeted with a huge HUG in real life is priceless!

We had an amazing lunch at the Budd Bay Cafe in Olympia, WA.  Wonderful clam chowder and salads, plus a nice boardwalk area overlooking the port, the farmer’s market and the state capitol just a few blocks away.  As a lifelong Washington State resident this was even more special for me, as I’d not spent much time in Olympia or Lacey.

After lunch we walked long the boardwalk – Percival Landing, all endlessly fascinating to me as a tourist in my somewhat-local region!  Typically the Olympia/Lacey area is what I blast through on the freeway on my way out to the Washington State Coast.  This was a rare, delicious opportunity to experience it close up, with my dear online friend and her husband.

I’m so touched and happy at how wonderful that meetup was.  And yet not surprised either. K was exactly in real life as she is online, and meeting her husband and Mom was just a fantastic bonus.  I smile and know this is not the last time we will all meet up again.

Behold, the power of the internet!

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!