Valentine's Weekend in Seattle

Although I've only been in Seattle 4 or 5 times, I still feel like I've come home when I arrive...who knows why.

Took the light rail from Sea-Tac up to the International District stop, which is actually closer to the Seahawks stadium than the Stadium stop. It was great! You really get to see the neighborhoods south of the city. At this time of year the trees are bare although there are plenty of evergreens. Here and there you can see plum trees in blossom. Unlike last year when it was amazingly snowy, apparently this year has been a mild winter. There was still rain and drizzle and sprinkles all of the days except today, but it didn't put a damper on the trip.

No recipes this post. For those of you who are interested, here is a brief of the trip highlights:

My daughter has a wonderful offbeat sense of humor...and so does her friend Miss A. We had wine and pizza and then expressed our creativity by making fused glass pieces in a party setting at Paint Away in Renton area. There is lots to paint, too, if you prefer ceramics painting. Great vibe at this store and good instructions for newbies like me.

The next morning we met up with Lynn and Peabody for breakfast at Portage Bay Cafe' in Ballard. Had such a good time gabbing that I forgot to take any photos, even though I really liked the porridge with dried fruits and nuts and mixed grains. The time flew by! It is such a treat to spend time with both of these wonderful women...maybe next time I'll be able to stay longer and cook or bake with them. Thanks for the cookbook Lynn...cookie recipes from the Cookie Baker and an amazing red velvet/vanilla cupcake toe eat!

Ballard is a neighborhood that I wasn't at all familiar with. It has dozens of interesting shops and restaurants and fun architecture, too. The photo at the top of the post is of the window display of one of the businesses there. There is also a smoked salmon 'outlet' right next to Portage Bay Cafe' with good prices on the kind of smoked salmon that goes into gift baskets.

That evening we had a girls night in, watching a movie and some Netflix TV episodes, too. We decided to have nibbles, including the corn, bean, and tomato salad, some hummus from Trader Joe's, sea salt pita chips from the same place, apple slices, red pepper strips and mini carrots. A bottle of Washington State red wine was too much for the two of us, but a delightful drink with our nibbles.

One morning we walked to Fremont and ate breakfast at Homegrown. What a great place - the egg and bacon 'sandwich' included local eggs, very very yummy bacon and a house made roll. The oatmeal comes with it, is served in a coffee cup and had crystallized ginger and currants on top. The coffee is delicious. Surprising that I needed some of theirs after having a latte' from Kuma Coffee the same morning, but when you are in Seattle, coffee drinking to excess seems somehow appropriate.

My birthday present was a trip to the IMAX too see the movie Avatar...I had waited to see it with my daughter. I loved it and got energized by watching all of that creativity and imagination on screen. It helps that I love science fiction and have read everything that Anne McCaffery has written...although there were lots of other influences in this movie, too. The message of interconnectedness is very appealing.

Our Valentine's day brunch at a small Seattle neighborhood restaurant, Avila, was delicious, too. The watercress salad was an unusual side dish with an omelet, but quite delightful. We even tried their elbeskivers that were filled with cream cheese and huckleberries and topped with powdered sugar...yum!

According to Wikipedia, ebleskivers are somewhat similar in texture to American pancakes crossed with a popover. We found ours to be more like a donut crossed with a fluffy muffin. They are not particularly sweet, but the fruit added some and so did the powdered sugar. I could see these becoming the next scone or mega-muffin if marketed properly. They are baked on the stovetop in a special pan, so have the delight of a warm donut but are not deep fried. They can seemingly be filled with all sorts of things. Any energetic business person want to run with this idea? BTW I’d skip the powdered sugar for takeout.

Back home safe and sound. Thank you dear daughter for a delightful trip!

The Three Bakers - July Daring Bakers Challenge

Once Upon a Time...

In the Land of St. Honore', in the town where coffee is king, but chocolate isn't too far behind, the Three Bakers decided to leave the packing to Goldilocks and to check out some food goodies.

First they had some Bread Salad, heavily punctuated by laughter, at Essential Bakery Cafe', but it was tooo bready (even if the bread was good bread).

Then they sampled some freshly handmade truffles at Suess Chocolates which were very, very good, but took a bite out the the wallet. They are still a baby, being three months old, but have already won the Best Truffle award at the recent Chocolate Salon, delightfully reported on by Lynn of Cookie Baker Lynn.

Next they enjoyed the upscale splendor and lively flavor combinations of chocolates at Oh Chocolate marveling at the buttery caramels and rich truffles, but, alas Goldilocks needed help so off they went.

Later one of the Three Bakers took the Daring Bakers Milano recipe and picked up on the coffee and chocolate flavors so recently enjoyed, adding cocoa to the cookie batter and some Kahlua liquor, too, instead of lemon extract.

The filling is almost pure chocolate, thinned with a bit of whipping cream. The cookies were tender and delicious and JUST RIGHT!

The other two of the Three Bakers will surely agree once they get a taste (soon)!

If you have not already done so, do wend your way around the blogosphere to see all of the wonderful Milano cookies created by the very talented Daring Bakers.

Here is a link to the Blogroll. A big 'thank you' to Nicole of Sweet Tooth, our sweet hostess this month, for giving us a challenge that allowed creativity and produced such a great cookie. The original recipe can be found at her blog. Another 'thank you' to Lis and Ivonne for creating the Daring Bakers and for all the effort that goes in to making it a premier baking group.

My changes? Oh, almost forgot that. I used a half recipe, reduced the powdered sugar to 1 cup, added 2 tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa with the powdered sugar, added 1/2 tablespoon Kahlua instead of the lemon extract, and added an extra 2 tablespoons of flour. Otherwise it is just as written on Nicole's blog.

Happy Daring Baking!

Sourdough - Woot!

One hot, hot morning a few summers ago in Seattle, after spending the night in my daughter's temporary corporate housing apartment directly under the living room fan...on couch cushions no less, I rose at dawn to go outside for, hopefully, cooler air. Since Seattle is supposed to never have heat waves, no one seems to install air conditioning. Too bad for us because it really was a heat wave, so even making coffee seemed unreasonable in that sweltering apartment.

I walked down toward Pike Market and was delighted when I came across Macrina Bakery. Coffee? They had wonderful coffee. Something to go with the coffee? The choices at Macrina early in the morning are daunting. I chose a couple of breakfast sweets and a sourdough roll. Christmas before last we were back in Seattle and, in Elliots Bookstore, I found Leslie Mackie's Macrina Bakery & Cafe Cookbook.

Now I could make some of their goodies for myself at home.

One of the things that caught my eye right away was their recipe for Sourdough Starter made with organic grapes. What an intriguing idea! It was too late that year for my own grapes, and last year I was in the throes of a brand new job, so this year I finally tried out the recipe! One of the differences between regular bread made with commercial yeast and artisan bread is the use of starters, sponges, and bigas which help develop more complex flavors in the bread. The version I'm making is the simplest, using only unbleached white bread flour. For the loaves I added a little whole wheat flour, too, for flavor.

After two weeks of faithfully feeding my sourdough starter, made with my own grapes, last night I started some bread and today I baked it and we ate it. Exciting!

Since the yeast in the sourdough was provided from the skins of the grapes growing near the mailbox, plus whatever is lurking in the air, I wasn't sure how it would taste or if it would rise. This is the first time I've tried to make sourdough, so I was a bit nervous about my levain (starter)...would it really taste a nice sour or a bad sour flavor...had the fluctuations in temperature at the beginning killed the yeast? I really wanted it to have a sour flavor, a good crumb, and a nice crust.

After mixing and kneading the dough, oiling it lightly, and setting it in a large mixing bowl with a light, loose wrapping of plastic wrap on top, I let it sit overnight over the fridge to rise.

This morning I saw that the recipe on OrganicToBe.org that I was using (with no added yeast) wasn't going to do the trick, so I plopped the dough back in the KitchenAid mixer, attached the dough hook, and in another bowl proofed 1/2 teaspoon of yeast in 1/2 cup water. Once the yeast got fuzzy looking, I whisked in another cup of bread flour, then added that to the dough in the mixer. After a bit I decided that the dough still needed some flour, so, bit by bit, I added about a tablespoon at a time. I think I added about another 1/3 to 1/2 cup.

Eventually it was time for more kneading, oiling the dough again, back into the bowl, plastic wrap over again, then the rise.

This time, after about 4 hours, it had risen to double in bulk, so I punched it down, formed round loaves and set them on oiled parchment paper on a a baking sheet. A damp tea towel went over both loaves, then more rising time...about another 4 hours. At that point the dough had spread more than it had risen, but I really wanted to bake 'em and see what happened. I followed the directions in the OrganicToBe.org recipe (below) for baking.

It took longer...closer to an hour 15 minutes than 35 minutes...but they baked up with a nice crust, a firm but moist crumb and....tah dah!...a nice sour flavor. The first loaf was almost finished off at dinner...and there were only three of us. Yummy!

Next time I plan to knead it longer by hand, to shape the dough for a bread pan instead of the round boule, and mist the top with water for a different crust. I loved the flavor and texture and look forward to a long, happy relationship with my levain. Let's see, sourdough pancakes, sourdough muffins, sourdough baguette, sourdough bread with apricots and pecans.....

Natural Sour Starter
Makes about 13 oz. of starter
For the Starter:
6 ounces organic grapes
1 ¼ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 ½ cups filtered water, at room temperature

For the Feeding Formula
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1 cup filtered water, at room temperature

It takes about two weeks to create a starter, but the time involved each day is fairly short. The starter you end up with can be used to bake with for years if you take care of it. Once the two weeks are up, you only feed your starter once a week.

Creating the Starter
• Day One: Place the grapes in the center of a 10-inch square of cheesecloth. Gather up the sides of the cloth and tie with string, creating a sachet.

Leave a tail of string at least 10 inches long. Whisk flour and water together in a medium bowl until all lumps are fully dissolved and the consistency is like pancake batter. Using your hands, crush the sachet of grapes and lower it into the starter. Tape end of string to outside of bowl so that it doesn’t fall into the mixture. Set the bowl, uncovered, in a warm room, about 70 degrees F., and let sit for 2 days.
(Elle’s note: I had trouble finding a warm room. Even over my fridge, the warmest place in my home, was only warm now and then. We have a solar home & no central heating, so the temp varies by 20 – 30 degrees most days/nights. Eventually I put the starter in the microwave because the temperature stays pretty stable there, if not exactly warm.)
• Day Three: Small bubbles will appear on the starter’s surface. Remove and discard the sachet of grapes. Now the starter is ready for its first feeding.

• FEEDING THE STARTER
• Note: you will need to make a new batch of feeding formula every time you feed the starter. Combine flour and water (amounts listed above) in a medium bowl and whisk until flour is dissolved. Stir this initial batch of feeding formula into the starter and let sit in a warm room for 1 more day, uncovered.
• Day Four: Stir the starter with a whisk and discard half of the mixture. Stir in a batch of feeding formula and let sit at room temperature for 2 hours. Then place the starter, uncovered, in the refrigerator for 1 day (Starters need oxygen, which is why they are usually left uncovered.) Store the starter on one of the refrigerator’s highest shelves to keep objects from falling into it.
(Elle’s note: I found that my dog Xam loved to eat the discarded starter, which made me feel better about discarding it.)
• Day Five through Fifteen: Remove the starter from the refrigerator, stir it with a whisk, and again discard half of the mixture. Stir in another batch of feeding formula, let the starter sit at room temperature for 2 hours, then return it to the refrigerator. Repeat this process for 10 more days, feeding the starter at about the same time each day. Be sure to let the starter sit out for 2 hours after each feed before returning it to the refrigerator. After these 10 days the starter will be ready for baking and will require less attention.
(Elle’s note: I found that feeding the starter right after dinner and then putting it into the refrigerator two hours later before I went to bed worked really well. Since we had just finished washing up from dinner, it didn’t seem too hard to wash up the mixing bowl, whisk and measuring cups that were used each time the starter was fed.)

Starter - how it looked after 15 days

MAINTAINING a Natural Sour Starter

Once your starter has a life of it’s own and has become sour through the 15 day process given above, it is much easier to maintain than to create. Choose a day of the week that works best for you because you will feed the starter that day each week. The process is just like described in day 5 through 15:
Once a week remove the starter from the fridge and stir it with a whisk. If there is a crust, just remove it with a spoon before whisking. Discard half the starter, stir in a batch of feeding formula and let starter sit at room temperature for 2 hours, then return it to the fridge. Note: Never use up more than half of your starter.

Even with weekly feedings, the starter will lose some of it’s leavening power over time. Before you use the starter in recipes it will require a jump-start:
Remove the starter from the fridge 24 hours before you plan to use it to bake. Stir it with a whisk, discard half the volume, and add a batch of feeding formula. Keep the starter at room temperature and feed it again 12 hours later. Let the starter sit at room temperature for another 8 to 12 hours before baking with it. Measure off as much starter as your recipe calls for, then feed the remainder one more time. Let the starter sit at room temperature for 2 hours, then return it to the fridge.

Starters that are fed daily don’t need an extra feeding before being mixed into dough.

• It’s always best to use starter 8 – 12 hours after their most recent feeding.
• Starters should be at room temperature when they are used.
• Always feed the remaining starter when you remove starter to bake with.
• Never use up more than half of your starter.

Now you get to use your starter to bake something! I chose to bake a simple bread:

Sourdough Bread
From OrganicToBe.org blog

The tradition of sourdough bread on the West Coast began with the forty-niners , the wave of prospectors who came west in search of gold in 1849, and it continued into Alaska when gold was discovered there a few years later. But the tradition really blossomed in the late twentieth century, when the artisanal bread-baking movement took root. Places like La Brea Breads in Los Angeles, Acme Baking Company in Berkeley, and Grand Central Bakery in Seattle introduced Americans to traditional breads based on natural levain, or wild starters.

Makes 2 loaves, 1 1/2 pounds each

1 cup sourdough starter - this is how it looked going into the dough bowl:


1 1/2 cup lukewarm (70°F) water
1 tablespoon kosher salt
4 1/2 cups organic unbleached white flour (I substituted 1/2 cup whole wheat flour for 1/2 cup unbleached white flour)

Put the starter, water, and flour in the bowl of a stand mixer and whisk to make a smooth batter. Using a paddle attachment for the mixer or a wooden spoon, stir in the salt and 3 cups of the unbleached flour, 1 cup at a time, to make a very soft dough. Use a dough hook or the wooden spoon to add the remaining 1 1/2 cups flour and mix or knead the dough until it is very smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes.

2. Lightly coat a 4-quart mixing bowl with oil and transfer the dough to the oiled bowl. Turn the dough over once so that the top of the dough is lightly coated with oil. Cover the mixing bowl with a very loosely applied layer of plastic wrap and allow the dough to rise at room temperature, lightly covered, until it has doubled in bulk, at least 8 hours, and preferably overnight.

3. Press the air out of the risen dough and gently knead it until it is springy again. The dough will have a smooth, flexible “skin.” Divide the dough in half and, working with one half at a time, shape the dough into 2 balls, tucking the cut edges of the dough into the center of the balls and stretching the “skin” over the surface of the dough balls without tearing it.

4. Put the balls of dough on a baking sheet lined with a silicone pan liner or baker’s parchment. Loosely cover the loaves with plastic wrap and let them rise until they are doubled in size, about 4 hours.

5. Put a baking sheet on the bottom rack of the oven and put a second rack one position above it. Pour a 1/2-inch layer of water into the baking sheet on the bottom shelf. Preheat the oven to 450°F, and if there is a convection option, use it. Just before putting the loaves in the oven, use a box cutter or a very sharp knife to cut shallow slashes in a cross over the surface of the loaves, about 1/8 inch deep.

Bake the loaves until they are well browned and sound hollow when tapped; an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center of a loaf will register 200°F, about 35 minutes. Transfer the baked loaves to a cooling rack and let them cool to room temperature before slicing.

Don't forget to feed your starter once you have removed the starter for the recipe!

Seattle On My Mind

If you've not had the experience of missing a grown son or daughter who have moved to another state or country, you might not understand why Seattle has been on my mind a lot since Christmas.

After she graduated from college, Sweetie and I were lucky to have our daughter living near by, no more than 40 minutes when she lived south of here, and that luck held for over four years. Even when she was in the LA area, it seemed like we could go visit easily. When she moved to Seattle last summer we drove there together and I really knew just how far away she was. I also found out that I really enjoy Seattle and find it to be a very comfortable place to be.

We did get to visit with her at Christmas, but each of us had a cold during that time, which put a damper on much activity. She has come here a couple of times, too.

A little over a week ago we were again in Seattle. The weather was nice a couple of the days, and rained the others so we knew we were in the right city. There were decorated pigs around the downtown area, and construction going all over, so we knew it was summer. Lots of people walking and biking. The food was wonderful no matter where we ate...surely Seattle.

It's difficult to decide what was the best. The cupcakes and coffee at Cupcake Royale were great. The breakfasts at the 5 Spot in Queen Anne filled me right up. Dinner at the Santa Fe Cafe' with a chef friend of hers brought some very rich dishes from New Mexico.


Probably the most enjoyable was the linguine dish pictured above, with fresh Copper River salmon, that I enjoyed at Cutters near Elliott Bay when I had the pleasure of meeting Peabody of Culinary Concoctions by Peabody.

It may have been the freshness of the ingredients, or the lightness of the cream sauce, or the deft hand the chef had with the herbs, but it was probably that I thoroughly enjoyed talking and laughing with Peabody. As you may have gathered if you've read her blog, she is very knowledgeable about baking but modest about it, fun, witty, and she holds strong opinions. My kind of woman! Her photographs are also stunning. I was lucky because she brought me a small loaf of her grandma's bannana bread (which was perfect for eating while waiting for our delayed flight that evening) and a delicious lightly spiced cake with blackberry jam. Thank you Peabody!

So now I've had a little daughter time and I feel much better. I'm naturally biased, but I think she is beautiful, smart, a dynamic sales person and a great friend.

So now you can be jealous that I spent time in lovely Seattle, ate great food, had daughter time and spent a wonderful afternoon with Peabody. And I can be jealous that y'all have had time to cook and bake and blog about it. Heehee.

This Little Piggy

Time available to be at the computer blogging has been in short supply all of June so far. The good news is that there were nice reasons for this (mostly), but the bad news is that it is continuing. A good friend had surgery and I'm off to play either Florence Nightengale or Nurse Rachette, depending on what is needed.

So I'll leave you with this little piggy, one of a number found around Seattle during my visit last weekend. This one sits outside a chocolate shop and the chocolate just drips down him.

Happy trails for now.