I attended last Saturday’s kids and parents cook together cooking class at Palace Kitchen with my cousin, Jamie, and her seven year old daughter, Ilana. Ilana walked in bursting with enthusiasm, already dressed in a flowered apron, and ready to cook! After a discussion by Sean, TDR Operations Manager, about how to build a health-oriented pantry and a demo by Audrey, TDR Roving Sous Chef, on how to bone a chicken (photo bottom right) and how to cook chicken breasts over potatoes, we moved into the kitchen to get cooking.
(By the way, Sean shared the story with class that the First Thing He Learned to Cook was tuna casserole, but he made the mistake of using tablespoons instead of teaspoons for the recipe! This makes Sean another winner in our staff blog contest.)
Ilana wrote this note about shallots (photo bottom left). Actually Audrey was answering a question for a parent who cooks for someone who doesn’t like garlic, and Audrey suggested shallot as having a little more punch than a regular onion- not exactly saying shallots were better than onions, but I love that Ilana was taking notes!
Our side of the room was assigned the chef’s salad. I must admit I worried for a moment that Ilana might find making a salad boring compared to the sloppy joes and tamale pie that the other half of the class was making, but we had a blast! Ilana and the other kids enthusiastically chopped lettuce (photo top) and other vegetables, grated hard boiled eggs, made salad dressing, sliced chicken, and mixed, mixed, mixed the big bowls of salad with latex-gloved hands! It’s easy for me to forget that a young kid has probably never made a salad from scratch, and that every part of the process is fun and interesting. (Ilana has already informed her mom that they need to buy a fish-shaped veg peeler like the one they used at Palace “because it works sooo much better!”)
Afterwards, we sat down and ate the fruits of our labors. Ilana loved the sloppy joes, but I really liked the salad, even with the healthy all-yogurt-no-mayo ranch dressing.
If your kid likes to cook, I highly recommend this class. The spring classes are all sold out, but there will be another series in the summer featuring farmers market produce, so keep your eyes on the Events page of our website.
April 12th, 2010 | 3 Comments »
Those of us commuters exiled to the suburbs often take heat from our city folk friends about how we dwell in a culinary wasteland. And while dining density may be lagging, you cannot knock us about boring doughnuts. Not anymore.
Downtown Mill Creek’s FROST Doughnuts stands as a shiny haven of sophisticated sugar to shut up any urbanite. The cases are kaleidoscopic displays of classics like basic cake and pillowy French crullers to fancy-schmancy tongue-tinglers they call “Evolved:” dreamy Bourbon Pecan, spicy Aztec Chocolate, lush, white Wedding Cake (so pretty you’ll cry!) and Southern Red Velvet under sweet cream cheese icing. They’re all so round and smooth you just want to cuddle them.
Yes, city pals, FROST Doughnuts is worth the commute. Suddenly the North End got a little closer, huh?
April 8th, 2010 | 3 Comments »
I can’t be certain where my cooking began, that single recipe that got me hooked in the kitchen. I’m not even sure my love for cooking even started with food. My hands have always been happy just mixing things, anything, together and seeing what turns out.
At first, I’m sure, it began with one of my sunbaked mud pies. No one could mix mud as smooth as me, no one.
Mud pies then led to more mature concoctions, and I soon started experimenting mixing together half filled unlabeled bottles of who-knows-what that we found in the garage. This was a short lived hobby, though, that ended with very frightened parents. In my late 8′s or early 9′s, I started dabbling with house seasoned Top Ramen soups. This was where I, Iron Chef style, blindly picked bottles of condiments that hung out in the fridge door and spiced up my Ramen packet. Ketchup was my go to bottle, though I distinctly remember one soy sauce/ranch combo being surprisingly pleasing.
Moving on a few years, towards my more edible creations, comes to mind not necessarily a recipe but more a skill set.
Growing up, for most of my childhood, my Dad was the harbor master at the local marina. I spent countless hours there after school, impressing the old sea dogs with my boat safety skills and crab knowledge. Usually about once a month or so, just before leaving to head home for the day, me and my dad would go clamming. We’d grab our bucket and hand trowels and head far down towards the low tides edge. I knew to tread lightly on thebeach and to watch for the mini geysers pushed up from the clams under the sand. Read the rest of this entry »
April 8th, 2010 | 1 Comment »
Garrison Keillor, the beloved star of Prairie Home Companion, was in town taping a couple radio shows at the Paramount Theater. Tom hosted an hour-long Q&A with Garrison at the Hotel Andra, a sold-out event where a portion of the proceeds went to KUOW as a fund-raiser. As expected, Garrison had some pretty funny things to say about Seattle!
April 8th, 2010 | No Comments »
Serious Pie hosted a complimentary tasting of Italian craft beers yesterday during Happy Hour. Matt Younts, of Click Wholesale Distributing, poured tastes and waxed enthusiastic about unusual beers such as Farsons Lacto Malta Stout, Nuova Mattina, Nora, and Re Ale. These were truly some of the most interesting and unusual beers I’ve ever tasted! Fun, educational, delicious, and free- doesn’t get much better than that!
April 7th, 2010 | No Comments »
Yesterday morning, Tom appeared on the KIng 5 TV show, New Day Northwest, with radio talk show host, Dave Ross, and One Reel President, Norm Langill, to talk about saving Seattle’s fireworks. Watch the video here.
April 7th, 2010 | 1 Comment »
After a really long week, I was excited to have Friday night off- a rarity in catering. It called out for comfort food and movies.
I seared pork chops rubbed with Old Bay (no Rub with Love in the house), steamed asparagus, and made Yukon gold mashed potatoes with a liberal amount of butter and blended it with a dollop of white truffle cream, and enjoyed a nice glass of ’05 Syrah from Columbia.
Everything related to truffles can be found at La Buona Tavola in the Pike Place Market. They have a great array of creams, spreads, and oils infused with white and black truffles. Heavenly!
April 6th, 2010 | 3 Comments »
I grew up with my grandmother, in her house. She emigrated from Odessa, Russia, and landed in Queens, New York, where she was re-united with her husband after a 12 year separation. Apparently, it was quite an odyssey. She escaped the Bolshevik Revolution, losing most of her family members, by boat to Turkey. She had to hide her two young sons under her floor length skirt because the Bolsheviks were taking young boys away.
So, she escaped with her two sons, her samovar, her silverware (which I now have) and her stainless steel hand cranked grinder.
Every Friday, I would go with her to the butcher, where she would pick out a robust chicken. I remember the sawdust on the floor and the chickens running around. We would take the chicken home, with all its innards kept separately. She would pluck the feathers and burn off the stubble. Then the chicken soup would begin. But this is not the first thing I learned how to cook. It was the liver of the chicken that I learned how to cook, when I was 5 years old.
Grandma would sauté 2 to 3 onions in chicken fat called schmaltz. In a sautépan, she would sauté fresh chicken livers, still warm. She must have bought extra livers from the butcher, because I remember a lot of chicken livers. In another pot would be boiling 6 or 8 eggs. I would peel the shells off the eggs. Then I would take the whole eggs, the sautéed chicken livers, and the sautéed onions and put everything through the grinder, hand cranking.
Now THAT is Chopped Liver!
(Editor’s note: this is our 5th entry in our staff “The First Thing I Learned to Cook” blog contest.)
April 5th, 2010 | No Comments »
Look at the stunning windows Julie Hartley prepared at the market spot while we are under construction.
(Editor’s note: Julie is wife of Sean Hartley, our Operations Manager. Our new spot is on the corner, right next to Etta’s, in the Pike Place Market.)
April 5th, 2010 | 1 Comment »
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