toulouse petit breakfast happy hour...again

every other ad agency/publisher in the world has the week inbetween christmas and new years off except for razorfish. surprise surprise. i'm pretty sure we are the only publicis owned company that doesn't. so because of that we (nick, steph and i) decided to slack off slightly today and hit up some breakfast happy hour at toulouse petit before working the rest of the day from home :)

as you recall i jump on any opportunities i get breakfast happy hour (from 9-11) at toulouse because most plates are only $6!

today i went for the crawfish and tasso scramble. it has bits of asparagus, bell peppers and onions in it topped with black pepper tasso gravy. really the gravy is what won me over because i was debating the biscuits and gravy as well. of all the items i've tried there, this is probably my least favorite because while everything sounded great, the gravy wasn't very flavorful at all which was disappointing since the entire dish was drenched in it.

oh well. we also have monday off and we're making a reappearance!! this was decided before we left today :)

adult spaghettios...that's right.

sunday night i decided to make soup because i was feeling daring. soup isn't something i make too frequently. it's ironic because cat, megan and i exchanged our christmas gifts earlier on sunday and megan gave me a recipe book called 'for the love of soup'!!! girl knows me too well. right when i'd gotten home from oregon, cat found me on my bed with about 8 books sprawled around me looking for a soup recipe. and then two hours later i added another to the collection. :)




so the best part of it? i made soup and decided to just wing it.

bad decision.

i had this vision of tomato soup with some ground turkey, vegetables and some pasta in it so i got those ingredients. (p.s. have you ever had itty bitty star pasta? it is the cutest thing ever!! comes in a little box at the store.) chopped up all my veggies and browned the onions for a little bit, then added in some ground turkey with a bunch of spices. that part i got under control. then came the soup part. i added in some chicken stock (two cans and one container to be exact), a can of tomato paste and some cream. that's when i should've known better. i had WAY too much broth in there. i got desperate and put in some corn starch to try to thicken up the concoction (yea right) so finally i got smart and whipped out another pot and started transferring some liquid over before throwing in the remaining ingredients. that saved it for sure. i kept tasting the 'soup' as it was simmering and added salt/pepper/tobasco as necessary to give it a little more flavor.

in the end i ended up with what rachel ray has dubbed 'stoup'--a stew/soup. it actually isn't bad. i thought i was doomed at first but it's turned into something i enjoy popping back into the microwave to reheat. i call it the adult version of spaghettios because of the pasta and meat that's in there. i'd like to think it's a little healthier than the canned version. i oughtta trademark this before spaghettios starts putting it on the shelves...

in any case, i learned my lesson--definitely sticking to a recipe next time!!

christmas dinner

on christmas day, my family headed to portland to meet up with the rest of the bee hive...haha. yes, i said that. this year we met at my aunt sue's for a delicious dinner! of course as soon as we got there she had snacks which were very dangerous. if it were up to me, every meal would be a meal of appetizers. perhaps that's why i love dim sum so much.

anyway, she hit up costco which meant there were little spanakopitas and spinach artichoke parmesan dip (you know what i'm talking about). and then my aunt had smoked salmon that she caught herself, and another aunt brought homemade paté. mmmmm.

for the actual meal we had prime rib which was cooked pretty well--lots of pink in the middle and then a ham my aunt made which was excellent. i'm not sure how she made it--i should've asked but it tasted like it was somehow infused with orange which definitely made it yummier.

as for sides we had baked potatoes, broccoli, another dish of potatoes, salad, CORN (love it), and salad. i wanted to die i was so full. i was definitely in fetal position for a while!

christmas eve dinner

i decided to attempt to impress my parents by cooking them christmas eve dinner this year. i mean, my mom complimented my thanksgiving food so i decided to keep riding the wave.

on the menu was steak with a brandy dijon sauce, twice baked potatoes, and roasted vegetables.

they loved it!!!! yay go me!!!!!!!!!! :)

i've been a little pioneer woman happy but i followed her filet au poivre recipe. to cook the steaks, i heated up a pan, melted some butter and then threw the steaks on there to sear for about a minute on each side. both my mom and i thought the pan was hot enough...but it wasn't. boo. however, because i had the sauce to cover the steak, we could forgo the lovely seared color. then after i seared both sides, we threw it in the oven to finish at 500 degrees for about 5 minutes. if you do this, you get VERY pink meat, which my family enjoys. so you adjust your timing accordingly.

the sauce that i made with really quick and easy--after i took the steaks out of the pan (and out of the oven), i squired some dijon mustard and then got that going with some brandy. after letting the two cook together for a bit, i added in half and half (you could use whipping cream too) and then eventually peppercorns. give it a little time and it will thicken up and get saucy!

the twice baked potatoes took the longest to make so good thing i got a little head start on that. i baked the potatoes at 400 degrees for 1:15 and then you're supposed to cut them in half, scoop out the potato leaving the shell intact, and then filling it up again with your filling. well, i didn't have enough patience to try not to tear through every shell so after scooping out the potatoes and adding in sour cream, bacon bits, butter, a little milk, green onions, cheddar cheese and seasoning salt, i put the mixture into a baking dish and back into the oven. oh yes, and i topped with more cheese. you can never have too much, right? (side note, it was in the oven for about another 15 mins or so before i took it out)

and now for the vegetables. brussel sprouts and balsamic vinegar just sounded good to me so i went and found them at trader joe's. in case you weren't aware, brussel sprouts grow in stalks and now you can get them on the stalk at the grocery store! i think it's a new thing these days. all you have to do is snap them off the stalk, cut off the end, and then i halved them. i also got some fennel and cut that into chunks and threw in some carrots for good measure...although we could've done without. i mixed the veggies in a bowl with salt, pepper, olive oil and balsamic vinegar before roasting them in the oven at 400 for about 45 minutes. about half way i moved the veggies around so they could evenly brown and did a little taste test to make sure i didn't need anything else. they turned out SO tasty. you gotta try it!

yea. i was walking around trader joe's with one of those suckers. it's like a weapon.

beautiful, beautiful steak.

the finale!!

FROYO!!!!!!!!!!

i love froyo so much that i had to dedicate a post to it. what i love even more is self-serve froyo! mock all you want, californians, but this is the pacific northwest!

i was actually quite shocked to see that corvallis already has a few 'yogurt extremes' around town that have self-serve since we just got menchies in seattle a few weeks ago.

i must say that yogurt extreme is kicking menchie's ass in terms of pricing and toppings. i suppose seattle is expected to be a little more expensive. i'm sure once yogurtland comes in on capital hill, prices might drop. supply and demand, right?

yes, those are mini gummy bears. best invention EVER.

layered dip

so i gave my friend jason the idea of making the pioneer woman's layered dip the other week and it looked really yummy so i insisted that we make it when i came back to corvallis! it's actaully one of the easiest things in the world, you just gotta get all the ingredients!

the layers are (in order from bottom to top):
refried beans heated over the stove with chilis and tobasco (or your fav mexican hot sauce...i'm a personal fan of tapitio)
shredded cheddar
sour cream
guac (we mashed up avocadoes and then added in some of the pico de gallo we made)
monterey jack cheese
olives
pico de gallo

you could really do them in any layer that you want but jason insisted that we follow her order. i argued that it all looks the same once it goes down anyway ;)

kingfish café

my good friend troy is moving to maui (really rough life, i know) with his company in a few weeks so we had dinner together last friday at kingfish cafe on capital hill. it's a little more off the beaten path since it's back on 19th, but worth the trek. the only thing is they don't do reservations. luckily, we got seated pretty quickly arriving there around 8pm on friday night. otherwise i'd be prepared to wait about 20 mins.

i was in the mood to try a LOT of things so don't judge me!! :) i got a cup of crawfish chowder, macaroni and cheese with collard greens and then a mint julep! when in rome, right?

the crawfish chowder was delightful. it wasn't very thick and so full of flavor. it was perfect and not too filling. i also happen to love crackers in my chowder so i was very pleased with the amount they gave me. troy got screwed over a little though.



then came the huuuuuuge helping of mac and cheese. it was to die for. they use onions and some pepper in it with two kinds of cheeses. the cheese was a good consistency and the extra shredded cheese on top was very tasty as well. i should note that it reheated well the next day too. i should caveat that this dish usually comes with a green salad, but for some reason i was craving collard greens so they made the swap for me! the greens were bomb. they put some heat in them so that was a nice surprise and i felt like they never ending. no matter how much i ate, i felt like the amount left didn't change!

then there was the mint julep in a mason jar. holy hell it was strong. i haven't had too many in my day, so it's tough to compare, but it took me a while to drink that sucker :)

i need to go back soon and try everything else on their menu!!

salumi

we've been talking about salumi for a few weeks at work so we decided to make it happen! salumi a cured meats sandwich store opened by mario batali's father. the thing with salumi is that you need to get there right when it opens, which is at 11. they are only open from tuesday-friday from 11-4 and are able to remain profitable...yea. enough said.

we got there a little later, around 11:15 and there were a solid 20 people in line ahead of us. in a matter of ten minutes, there were probably another 20 people behind us in line. you squeeze into their very rectangular store and are greeted by their laidback ladies (and one gentleman) making the sandwiches behind the counter. they have tons of salami and allow you to sample, which is probably why it takes a while.

steph, michelle and i ordered the muffo sandwich which has a homemade olive tapenade with TWO kinds of salami and cheese (provolone i'm guessing) on their ciabatta rolls. oh man. it was SOOO good. i only had half of it then even went through the trouble of heating my oven the next day to reheat the second half. it is that good. blake was a little tied up at work so i picked up a meatball sandwich for him which had peppers and onions AND fresh mozzerella cheese. yeah. i was doing bicep curls with the sandwich on the way back to the office...

built burger: take two

today was erika's birthday at work so we thought it would be fun to plan a surprise lunch for her because she turned the big 3-0! she was the one who introduced us all to built burger last month so it's only natural that we would surprise her with their tasty burgers! it was tough to figure out what she wanted without her knowing what we were up to but in the end it was successful! they even delivered, too, which was nice. but to be fair, we did order twelve burgers ;)

last time i tried the pinnacle (bacon bleu) burger so this time i thought i'd give the 'magnificent chorizo' a try. in the patty this time was beef mixed with chorizo, cotjia (which i didn't really taste) and roasted poblano peppers (also didn't really taste). then instead of your lettuce, tomato nonsense, they had a lime slaw which i highly enjoyed. it was the tang that was needed after the saltier patty. they need to stop being so salt happy over there. from what i remember, my last burger was salty too. i would say that this one is just as good as the first one i had--which means that i still haven't been completely wowed yet. erika had the sriracha burger which is supposed to be similar to a bahn mi so i think i might have to try that next time! perhaps the asian influence will win me over, haha.

pork chops + risotto

last night i got very ambitious and decided to cook up some pork chops and attempt to master butternut squash risotto :) at one point i had all four burners going at the same time which was slightly stressful but i had emily over so she helped me out!

i marinated the pork chops in a caribbean jerk marinade and then pan fried them. i don't cook pork and i clearly need more experience because my pork came out well done :( luckily for me well done pork isn't nearly as bad as well done beef so it was still edible! emily helped me caramelize some onions and then i whipped up a quick sauce using a roux and then adding in some of the marinade (from the bottle...not what was on the pork) to give it a little more flavor! towards the end, i added in the onions and it turned out quite nicely. not gonna lie, i was proud of myself for making it work!

then came the risotto. a few weeks ago i attempted to make butternut squash risotto but didn't have enough squash so it was more bacon-y than squash-y. well this time, i only added two strips of fresh bacon (and the safeway guy was giving me crap--he even asked if i was gonna get more bacon than last time to which i replied: nope! just two this time!) and one pound of pre-cut squash. i roasted it in the oven for about 30 minutes but i still don't think that was enough because some pieces were still hard. i went at it with the potato masher but i couldn't get it all.

in the risotto i added a little cinnamon and rosemary to add some flavor. i think it worked out quite nicely. and i had arugula (when do i not?) so i added some in at the end with a LOT of cheese. you can't have risotto without, cheese. that would just be boring! i'm still not 100% happy with how it turned out so i figure third time's a charm!! maybe in a few weeks ;)

breakfast club: table 219

breakfast club met today at table 219 up on capital hill. i've been once for dinner and i had a good experience so when brooke suggested it, i was all in. i ordered the maple glazed pork belly dish with corn and mozzarella pancake with scallion eggs. yes, this is what i ate for brunch. i was really excited for the pork belly mostly because it brought me back to the pork belly that i had during restaurant week at crush. i knew i shouldn't have set my expectations that high but i did was let down...naturally.

the pork wasn't bad...i just didn't expect a log to show up on my dish. it was also hard to cut into and got all stringy. the corn and mozzarella pancake was great though i felt like they needed to add a little more syrup or something because it was a little dry. the eggs were good, but it's kind of hard to screw up scrambled eggs with green onions. i think i got a little too adventurous for brunch. i probably should've stuck to my fall back: eggs benedict! oh well. next time.

betty restaurant

i have been SO BAD about eating out this week. going to LA on monday threw everything off because after i got back, work got crazy and i never made it to the grocery store. the saddest part is that i literally live across the street from safeway :(

so saturday night my friend will and i hit up betty on upper queen anne because once again, i was too lazy to cook. it happened to be happy hour still by the time we got there (4-6:30 daily) so i ordered a few things to try out with a generous glass of pinot grigio :)

will got the betty burger which is supposed to be fantastic. we learned they even make the 'butter bun' themselves. i ordered pork tacos and steamed manila clams with chorizo sausage. apparently i was really in the mood for chorizo this last weekend!

the food was so great! especially after the food i ate at pintxo, haha. i would say i enjoyed the clams a little more than the tacos. the tacos were good...but they were a little puny and just your standard shredded pork taco. don't get me wrong, it was seasoned well, bla bla but the clams won me over.



they were very generous with the clams and the chorizo! actual chunks! not garnishes! the broth was a little spicy and really yummy to dip my bread into. the only issue i had was how they presented it. who puts clams with broth in a tall cup!? it was weird to eat and i couldn't get to the broth till i ate majority of them. i'd re-think the plating, betty! i will definitely be back though :)

pintxo

cat and i had gotten a groupon to the restaurant pintxo in belltown. it replaced the restaurant txori but serves essentially the same food, which are tapas.

we ordered a considerable amount of food for under $40 which included lamb meatballs, bacon wrapped dates, pork sliders, and quail egg toast. this is one of those restaurants i can say with certainty you can pass on. i'm glad we tried it but i'll be taking my business elsewhere. they definitely have good intentions with the food...but can't execute well.

this is the best dish we had all night, and sadly there were only three. you just can't go wrong when bacon is wrapped around dates (unless you're the restaurant tango, that is) but it was executed very well!


these were the lamb meatballs. the texture of the meat is hard to explain but it seemed like they touched the meat too much when they were mixing everything so it was a little tough. there was a mint sauce that accompanied it which i enjoyed.


the sliders were pretty tasty but they had a bit of citrus which made the sliders too tangy. a little hint would've been nice. you shouldn't have to make the same face that you would when eating a warhead...


these were the biggest letdown EVER. first off, they advertised the toast like there was actual chorizo on it...not a GARNISH of it. anyway, all they did was take toast, put ham on it, a quail egg and the meat garnish...people you gotta have a sauce or something to tie it all together. it just tasted bland.


nice try pinxto...we'll see if you make it longer than txori.

blue ribbon cooking school

last night i went to blue ribbon cooking school with another publisher for an event. blue ribbon cooking school is a place you can go with groups to cook dinner together with a chef that leads you. it's nice because they have everything pre-measured (and in some cases, pre boiled) so it's really easy to throw together...especially when you're holding a glass of wine in the other hand :)

i've been to blue ribbon a few times and i always have a great time! well obviously...food and bevies? need we say more.

on the menu last night were some pear proscuitto blue cheese and arugula slices and rosemary skewered shrimp for our appetizers. those were already pre-made and waiting for us when we arrived. they also had the most delicious pitcher of lavender lemonde. give it a shot sometime--you won't regret it.

we headed to our kitchen after snacking a little and got to work. i was a big nerd and took pictures of the whole cooking process :)

jess and ben here are making the cabernet sauce for our flat iron steaks! she's pouring chicken broth into a mixture and he's chopping up some shallots.


next, blake and griffin had to rub down the flat iron with a creole seasoning and olive oil so it could marinate for a while.




now blake and steph are chopping up vegetables to roast! we had tomatoes, fennel, kalamata olives and onion with salt, pepper and olive oil drizzled on top.

the veggies before they went onto the sheet to roast!

this next part was probably my favorite: truffle mashed potatoes!! we used a ricer to mash up the potatoes. i'd never used one before but it was really cool. the chef taught us the key to making fluffy mashed potatoes--you put the potatoes (yukon) into a pot of cold water, bring it to a boil, then let it simmer ~25 minutes. trust me, they were incredibly light tasting.

generous portions of truffle oil were applied pre-baking and post!

now it was time to work on dessert--chocolate liquid cake! the chef is pouring the chocolate into the whisked eggs after it sat out for a little bit so that we wouldn't make scrambled eggs ;)

finally it's time to eat! blake has had one too many beers and is holding his nut-free salad so we won't have to epipen him :)

our salad of spinach, cranberries and toasted hazelnuts with a delicious vinagrette

the truffled mashed potatoes! i tried to make a gamespot logo...haha


the entire meal! plated very nicely by our chef :) the flat iron was sooo good!


the desert! it was garnished with mint and a blackberry sauce which was fantastic. however she overbaked the cake just a teeny bit so it wasn't very liquidy. oh well, it still tasted amazing!

bloody mary

sorry it's been a while since i've posted--work and the holidays have done a successful job of sucking up my free time and energy but i'm back! this last sunday i went to my first seahawks game EVER and it was so fun! it was a publisher outing so there were some perks ;)

we had club level tickets so we could go into the club level before the game started and hang out. since it was still technically the AM i thought i'd start with a bloody mary because i hadn't had one in ages AND this one came in a jar!!! i'm a sucker for this kind of stuff.

bloody marys are always hit and miss. i was a little nervous about this one being that it was made at qwest field but i must say that it is one of the better ones i've had in my day! the mix was spicy and flavorful without being overbearing. and it helped that they stuck in blue cheese stuffed olives! oh man they were so good. in the end i could only drink about half because i was getting so full from it. if you're ever there for a game, it's worth a shot!

turkey pot pie

with all of the turkey leftovers we had, i was very excited to give pot pie another try! the first time i tried making pot pie with my cousin, we ran out of flour and substituted pancake mix instead...then didn't have a processor to make pie crust with so we had to improv a lot! it still turned out well in my opinion :)

well this time around i made turkey pot pie with my friend liya and she happened to pick up a processor over black friday! i was nervous about the pie crust but we used the same recipe as i did last time (melissa d'arabians) and it was fantastic! from what i hear, pie crust usually has shortening but hers uses butter. well let me just say we succeeded! the crust was so flaky! next time i just need to work on presentation--you know, folding the crust so it's pretty :)

the filling was great! we had peas, carrots, corn, celery and turkey. we boiled the vegetables for a bit and then simultaneously cooked a chopped onion in butter then added some flour (to make a roux) then some chicken broth and then eventually added in the vegetables and turkey. the mixture doesn't seem thick but give it some time and it will get there! then we rolled out our dough, put it in the pan, put in our filling, covered it with the remaining dough and baked for ~35 mins. it was so flavorful and eaten very quickly! i had a tiny sliver left for lunch this morning so i would say it was a crowd pleaser! i think i need to try making sheperd's pie soon, hehe.

best baguette!

every time i drive through portland, i find an excuse to stop at best baguette which makes the most amazing bahn mi sandwiches EVER. bahn mi is a vietnamese sandwich which consists of a french baguette, meat of some sort, pickled carrots and daikon, jalapenos, cucumber and cilantro.

now, the white kids at work order the grilled pork or chicken usually but my personal favorite is the 'ham.' i have 'ham' in quotation marks because it's not like black forest ham...it's some vietnamese type ham...i don't know what exactly it is--and i'm ok with that! usually on the 'ham' sandwiches, you also get paté on it!!! in my opinion, the paté completes the sandwich.

when i'm in seattle i hit up saigon deli (sketchy hole in the wall near 12th and jackson-ish) but the bread there just doesn't compare to best baguette's! there are two locations in portland so hit one up the next time you're there!

chicken. feet. that's. right.

i don't know why chicken feet have such a bad reputation but they are probably one of my FAV things to eat at dim sum. go ahead. judge. in case you're wondering--no, i don't eat the bones...just the skin that's been braised. haha, i am not making this better for myself--i'm aware.

well i had these lovely ones at 'hk cafe' in portland with my parents and relatives after thanksgiving. i made sure my dad ordered some along with the other dim sum goodies because jade garden (my dim sum place of choice in seattle) has hit or miss chicken feet.

i don't know how to describe the flavor but the sauce is just sooo good. just do yourself a favor and order some the next time you hit up dim sum :)

thanksgiving with the bees

if you are a loyal reader of my blog (bless my friends), you probably read saw my post about the turkey that we make. oh man, this year was full of surprises but in the end it did not disappoint! the turkey was juicy and so flavorful...no need to drench in gravy like you have to with some. my dad was constantly flipping the turkey in the oven to make sure it was getting evenly cooked but i don't think he cooked it long enough...or hot enough...and didn't use a meat thermometer (cause we don't own one and he's hardcore like that) so you've probably figured out what happened. we're all sitting around the table, he starts cutting into it and it's still PINK in some places hahahaha. after butchering it to pieces very quickly, he shoved it back into the oven and then after maybe 20-30 more mins more turkey was ready so we busied ourselves with the sides for the time being.





this year i made a cranberry apple sausage stuffing which was a first. i was a little nervous about it but it was damn good and may have to make an appearance every year. even my mom was impressed so that says a lot! i got the recipe here (http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Awesome-Sausage-Apple-and-Cranberry-Stuffing/Detail.aspx). i followed it pretty much to the t but then added more stock to the stuffing that did not make it into the turkey so it wouldn't be too dry. the apple is a very nice touch--thanks for the tip steph :)





then i rocked some mashed potatoes and jazzed things up this year by roasting garlic beforehand. i had to cheat a little because we didn't have actual heads of garlic so i threw a bunch of cloves in a pyrex dish, added olive oil and threw it in the oven for about 50 mins covered with foil while the turkey was going. it worked out quite nicely! the only mistake i made was letting papa bee make the potatoes because i was busy with the gravy. i specifically gave instructions to NOT make the potatoes into mush (but adding too much milk) and low and behold...we had MUSH. booooooo. at least it still tasted good!





then came the gravy! i had never made it before from scratch so i was pretty excited. i got inspiration from the pioneer woman's recipe and i stared at her pictures several times before i got the courage to attempt. i don't know why i was so scared because it was so easy and so good! we took the turkey drippings and strained it because the marinade included green onions, etc. and then i took some of the green onions and put it into a pan and heated it up with some flour to attempt a roux of some sort. shortly after i added in low sodium chicken broth and then after a bit i added in the drippings. i had to add a little more flour and then a little corn starch to help thicken things up but it worked fabulously! we barely had enough for leftovers the next morning :(

drippings! (gravy pic is above with the mashed pots)


then i attempted to throw together an apple pie...haha. let's just say good thing my family is a savory and not a sweet family. we just aren't into pumpkin pie. none of us. i think we always had it cause it was the thing to have...but none of us enjoy it. so we weren't going to make any dessert (don't act all shocked) but then my mom said she wanted an apple pie so i decided to macgyver something up. i would say it was a solid effort...but improvements could def be made. i think it started to go downhill when i told my dad to go buy crust (yes, i was feeling lazy) and he brought back a graham cracker one...haha. then i started slicing up the apples thinly...and realized i forgot to peel them...more vitamins, right? the recipe i was following (paula deen's crunch apple pie) called for apple sauce which my father ALSO forgot to pick up so i decided to throw in two greek yogurts instead. the greek yogurt worked, but i think it was just a little too thick so maybe a mixture of yogurt plus some apple sauce next time would be good...and perhaps a real pie crust. the vanilla ice cream definitely helped. not my finest cooking moment haha.



we didn't make a green bean casserole this year because i was going to make a corn casserole then i got kind of lazy and was worried we had too much food. we also don't do cranberry sauce. my mom made a salad and decided that spring rolls were a necessity so she busted out some quickly. we had to have an asian touch to thanksgiving after all! :)