And our good friends Jake & Brie who we collaborated with to throw this party 🙂 *yeah that’s a shot luge ice sculpture 😎
Categories: Being lazy in Seattle
Tagged: seattle christmas, seattle holidays
A 9pm to 11pm Seattle cooking blog
Categories: Being lazy in Seattle, Seattle weekends
Not me, swear….Assshhhllleeeeyyyyy
Categories: Being lazy in Seattle, Jack the Cat in Seattle
Tagged: jack the cat
We received a quick note from a Whole Foods representative regarding a one-day sale on wild- caught Marine Stewardship Council (MSC)- certified Sockeye Salmon this Friday, December 7th at $7.99/lb (almost a 50% savings) !!
Whole Foods Sockeye Salmon are hand-selected by their port buyers at the peak of the season. It is certified sustainable by the MSC, meaning salmon populations are relatively abundant, fishing methods have minimal impact on the ecosystem and the fishery is managed effectively to maintain sustainability. Also, the MSC’s chain of custody certification means that the fish are fully traceable from fishery to Whole Foods.
Mark and I for some reason always get our salmon at Jacks Fish Spot in Pike Place Market (only if Jack is working) otherwise Whole Foods seriously does have a great seafood selection…fresh, variety and friendly service.
Here are a couple recipes they recommend:
Spice-crusted Roast Salmon with Ginger Beets
Honey Mustard Salmon Salad
Citrus- Marinated Grilled Salmon with Tabbouleh Salad
Our recipe to follow!
Tagged: Crispy salmon, crispy salmon skin recipe, foil wrapped salmon, food, honey mustard salmon, Jacks Fish Spot, Jacks Fish Spot in Pike Place Market, marine stewardship council, salmon, salmon populations, salmon seattle, salmon skin, seafood blog, seattle seafood blog, sockeye salmon, whole food south lake union, whole food south lake union seafood, whole food westlake, whole foods cheap recipe idea, whole foods seattle
If you are all eggnog’d out and looking for a way to get rid of your eggnog without wasting the holiday spirit- use it for french toast!
It is all about the bread…I prefer thick and spongy bread when making french toast so I sent Mark out to visit one of his favorites- Dahlia Bakery. The sous chef must have been in a good mood because Mark came back with a gorgeous, fresh and fluffy loaf of bread, “exclusive” for use at Dahlia Lounge & Lola :0) PERFECT.
Fresh Loaf from Dahlia Bakery!
You can either use leftover homemade or carton eggnog…whichever you have available! Put about 4-5 cups of the eggnog in a mixing bowl, add 3 eggs, cinnamon (1 tbsp *), nutmeg (2 tsp*) and vanilla (1tbsp*)…whisk thoroughly. Transfer mixture into a shallow dish and then slice your loaf in 1″ slices.
Slice bread into 1inch slices
Preheat a skillet or frying pan and melt about 2 tsp of butter. When the butter has melted completely (starts to sizzle) and the skillet/pan is hot, dip one slice of bread at a time into the eggnog mixture- make sure to coat each side, don’t soak!
Transfer eggnog mixture into a shallow dish
Place the bread slices on the skillet/pan and cook (turning only ONCE!), making sure both sides are brown. Repeat the steps- adding butter between each batch- and serve with a bit of syrup if desired!
*Normally, I say “to taste”…please don’t taste, but if you like more cinnamon, nutmeg and/or vanilla- go for it!
Eggnog French Toast
Categories: Seattle breakfast, Seattle weekends
This past weekend Ash and I went over to Oliver’s for a couple drinks with some good friends of ours. I was pleasantly surprised to see that Oliver’s had updated their menu to include holiday drinks…including eggnog! The description read something like…”if you have had eggnog out of a carton, you really owe it to yourself to give our homemade recipe a try.” So of course I did 🙂 and it was of course awesome.
Slowly pouring into yolk mixing bowl
So yesterday while at Whole Foods South Lake Union I bought the ingredients with some helpful advice from a store worker. He had recommended something to me which I believe made the eggnog awesome! Start with a creme anglaise. As is with most of my cooking I read a bunch of recipes and then do it the way I think makes the most sense in a blended fashion. I came across the Alton Brown version of eggnog along with a wikihow article too, combine that with the guy from whole foods and I think for my first eggnog batch ever…I NAILED IT!
Here is what I did…
First get a dozen farm fresh or organic eggs. Since most eggnog’s are basically raw eggs it just makes sense to get the freshest eggs possible. Separate the yolks from the whites into two bowls. In a medium sauce pan heat up 1/2 a pint of heavy whipping cream and about a 1/3 gallon of whole milk. Bring to a slight boil then turn down to a very low heat. Next with the yolks, beat with the hand blender adding pure cane white sugar until the yolks start to turn a little less yellow. This next part is tricky…but slowly pour into the bowl the milk/heavy whipping cream from the the sauce pan. If you do this slowly enough you will not be making scrambled eggs but in fact an awesome eggnog. Every once in a while taste to your desired sweetness by adding more sugar. The mixture will start to get a little foamy do not worry all is well.
Mixing to taste 🙂 Just add sugar…you’ll know 🙂
With the egg whites beat with the hand blender adding sugar until you have soft peaks.
In a larger bowl add the yolks with milk mixture and a couple big spoon fulls of the fluffed up egg whites (folding in)…you probably will not use all the fluffed up eggs.
Nailed it!
Finally add about 6 to 8 shots of Captain Sailor Jerry’s Spiced Rum 🙂 or to your desired liking.
You can add shaved nutmeg at any time and on top of each glass to serve up to you.
This recipe is probably good for about 12 drinks.
He is photogenic.
Put the entire bowl into the freezer for about 20 minutes. I personally started drinking it right away 🙂 But most people seem to prefer it cold aka Ashley and her sister Maggie 🙂
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Do you really know how Seattle got the nickname “The Emerald City?” The name was picked in a contest in the 1980s and the winning entry was submitted by a California Realtor who had a summer home in the San Juans.
The name Emerald City was a stolen from the city of Eugene, Oregon home of the Eugene Emeralds baseball team.
REAL locals know Seattle as: Jet City, Queen City (hence the name Queen City Grill in Belltown), Rain City or New York Alki (yea really).
Tagged: a creme anglaise eggnog, eggnog creme anglaise, eggnog creme anglaise recipe, eggnog recipe, heavy whipping cream, how to make a cooked eggnog, how to make eggnog, how to make eggnog at home, how to make eggnog easy, how to make eggnog from scratch, how to make eggnog recipe, how to make eggnog with alcohol, organic eggs, seattle eggnog recipe, seattle food blog
Archie’s Martini Onions
A while back, Ash and I were going to get into the martini onion business (we even had the labels made, pic above). Then I had a falling out with martini’s but now we are back! First batch should be ready by February 2013 🙂
Categories: Midtown Seattle, Seattle weekends
Since moving to Seattle, every year I head back to Tri-Cities to spend the Thanksgiving break with my older brother and my nephews. A LOT of traditions from Thanksgiving Super Bowl (nephew v. nephew with an quarterback draft prior to game) to heading over to Atomic Ales to fill up growlers…but this year was different and I would say more EPIC because my wife Ashley came with too 🙂 What a relief! It was just a great feeling having her with me the entire time…while she did watch the Thanksgiving Day parade and sip mimosas (all weekend) I reluctantly watched football with breaks to play with Nerf guns with my nephews. In the end our Thanksgiving spread prepped by my aunt Bendo was perfect…nothing weird to report however we do have rice with our Turkey 🙂
On Friday when I was looking for Gin, I opened the freezer in the garage to find it jam packed with meats! I asked my brother what the deal was…turns out he partnered on a Angus Cattle from Knutzen. I asked for what he thought was the best cut from his share and he gave me two bone in Rib-eyes.
During the drive back I decided to prepare the steaks in a calm environment aka not my Dad’s BBQ.
Here is how I did it…
1) salt and peppered the steak adding the tiniest pinch of paprika
2) I got the gas BBQ hot (about 700 degrees)
3) Placed the steak on the grill for about 3.5 minutes per side
4) then I rotated to add the cross-cut marks for another 1.5 minutes per side
5) I dashed each steak with Worcestershire sauce and painted butter on each
6) removed from grill and let sit for 5 minutes
I ate my steak with a bread cutting knife 🙂
Thanks E!
When Ash tried to make me hungry by just making salad…I jumped in with my own take with her main ingredient BROCCOLI. You see I am easy going, do not follow recipes and not afraid if I mess up a meal and if I do mess up, I will be the first to admit it 😎 So basically if you take what Ashley made here and add al dente spaghetti with fresh shaven Parmesan reggiano you have something awesome with truffled broccoli and full stomach.
**NOTE I did quickly saute the broccoli with a pat of unsalted butter 🙂
a great meal to complement…Ashley’s salad 🙂
We just got a new TV so we took advantage of the rainy lazy Sunday and spent it indoors. While Mark flipped back and forth between movies, shows, biographies, documentaries, etc, I spent most of the day next to him on the couch on my computer.
Melt butter, Nutella and Peanut Butter on low in a large pot
As I was Pinteresting, I found a delicious recipe for Peanut Butter Marshmallow Squares…then I found out it was NO BAKE and I was sold :0) Oddly enough, I happened to have all the ingredients too, so a trip to the store was not necessary (and would have been a deal breaker). I added a little twist to the recipe by adding Nutella, vanilla and a little salt.
What you need:
– 1/2 stick unsalted butter
– 1 1/2 cups creamy peanut butter
– 1/2 cup Nutella
– 1 11oz bag of butterscotch morsels
– 1-2 10.5 bags of mini marshmallows
– 1 tsp vanilla
– kosher salt, to taste (light sprinkling)
Pour in butterscotch chips and vanilla
Prepare a 9″ x 13″ pan with cooking spray.
In a large pot over low heat melt butter, peanut butter and Nutella.
Pour in butterscotch chips and vanilla, stirring constantly until creamy.
Stir until creamy and remove from heat
Remove from heat and all mixture to cool for about 10 minutes.
Mix in the marshmallows and spread evenly in the pan. Lightly sprinkle with salt.
Refrigerate for at least an hour and cut into little squares. Enjoy!
Spread in prepared pan and refrigerate for at least an hour
Categories: Being lazy in Seattle, Midtown Seattle, Seattle Baking, Seattle Desserts and Sweets, Seattle weekends
Tagged: butterscotch chips, butterscotch morsels, dessert, lazy sunday, nutella marshmallow bars, nutella marshmallow bars ideas, nutella marshmallow bars pinterest, nutella marshmallow bars recipe, peanut butter and nutella marshmallow bars, Peanut Butter Marshmallow Squares, Peanut Butter Marshmallow Squares no bake, Peanut Butter Marshmallow Squares pinterest, peanut butter nutella marshmallow bars recipe, seattle food blog
the Seattle Cook 