Every year after the exhilarating, exhausting effort that comes with the holiday season at a busy, fine dining restaurant, Canlis shuts down for three days.  All Front of House, Back of House and Side of House (as we like to call ourselves in the office) employees have a few days to just be. Needless to say, it’s pretty treasured time.

My three days were spent here.

We left Seattle after work on New Year’s Eve. My parents, D and I headed toward Snoqualmie pass in light traffic and spent the next four hours singing along to my Dad’s impeccable taste in show tunes, eating fresh mozzarella and tomatoes sandwiched between a thick loaf of bread from Bakery Nouveau and dreaming of the snowy wonderland awaiting us in the Methow Valley.

We skied until our muscles were so sore that we could barely get in and out of the car at the end of the day. We drank gin & tonics and played Hearts. We took over the nearby children’s sledding hill and laughed our heads off as we slid, completely out of control, down the slope. We curled up on the couch with bowls of warm Cardamom rice pudding with pistachios and rosewater from Yotam Ottolenghi’s Jerusalem (thanks to my mother who packed all the ingredients she would need to make it for us).

We ate delicious sandwiches at Cinnamon Twisp and wandered around between the beautifully stocked shelves of Glover Street Market.

Their produce was so fresh it made me want to grab one of the organic bamboo salad bowls for sale and make a salad right then and there.

It was a good start to 2013. Just far enough away from the hustle and bustle of our beautiful, exciting Seattle lives to gain a little perspective and start the year off well. I wish you a wonderful new year.

The shift from long summer days to the short, crisp days of fall is complete. A steady, persistent rain hits the windows as I write this at my kitchen table and that cozy, warm feeling that autumn inspires has completely taken over.

I returned from three weeks away from Seattle on September 26th and have slowly but surely been settling into my new Queen Anne digs. After a lot of nesting, it is finally starting to feel like home. Old hardwood floors, a washing machine that shakes the whole house when it’s on spin cycle and a ton of character are just some of the things that have us head over heels for this place. One my favorite purchases during my travels was a gorgeous Icelandic wool blanket that now graces the end of my bed in the colder weather and reminds me of the beautiful countryside I visited.

I love wandering around the house in these while deliriously carrying out my morning routine before I’ve actually fully woken up. I bought mine years ago at Nordstrom, but Lands’ End and L.L. Bean both have a great, very reasonably priced selection.

I found this phenomenal recipe for Baked Pumpkin Oatmeal on Eat Boutique last week. I made it for an early morning breakfast date with a friend and we loved it. Talk about comfort food! If you try it, I recommend halving the brown sugar to 1/4 cup and toasting the pecans so they’re crunchier after the last half hour of baking. Enjoy!

I also highly recommend eating it in bed if you’re feeling decadent.

There is nothing like settling in for a multi-hour brunch/newspaper reading/coffee drinking marathon on a Sunday morning. We generally post up at Macrina and stay until we start getting dirty looks.

Cold weather also means that it’s time to bust out the festive, warm, boozy drinks. Like Hot Toddies. Here’s an delicious and very simple recipe for this wintertime treat.

This city is flush with incredible new restaurants and there is no better time to try them than right now when you need to focus on bulking up to keep yourself warm this winter. Please tell me I’m not the only one who justifies eating things like thick slices of light, buttery brioche toast and marmalade with this logic. That’s what I had this morning at The Whale Wins and it blew my mind with its delicious simplicity. I recommend Seattle Met’s great coverage of the Seattle restaurant scene to stay up on openings etc.

Wishing you coziness until next time…

There are some friends that enter your life and then, thankfully, never leave despite distance, time or the ebb and flow of your interests as individuals. Julia is one of those friends. We met our first year of college and have seen each other with increasing irregularity after those four years were completed and we walked off into the unknown with our diplomas. There have been chance and wonderful overlaps over the last four years: summer nights around the campfire on Orcas Island when we both happened to be there at the same time, dinner in Seattle between her return from and preparation to jet off on her next (incredible) international adventures. I couldn’t have been happier when, a few months ago, she has chose Seattle as a semi-permanent spot to nest for a while.

As soon as she was settled (and flush with rhubarb from her mother’s garden) she invited me over to her beautifully decorated home and kitchen to do some canning.

We used Marisa McClellan’s recipe for Vanilla-Rhubarb Jam from her blog Food in Jars and also spent plenty of time thumbing through Liana Krissoff’s Canning for a New Generation for future inspiration.

Of course their were cocktails. She had concocted the most wonderful minty, clementine-infused vodka which she combined with lime soda water, garnished with mint and handed to me to sip on while we boiled the jars, simmered the rhubarb and scraped vanilla pods.

And there were snacks: fresh chevre, fat olives, cracked wheat crackers and and an amazing garbanzo bean dip.

I left with three warm little jars of jam nestled between folds of newspaper inside a cardboard box to keep them from moving too much while they set as I drove home. It was the nicest evening and I am looking forward to so many more like it. Such a treat to have you home Miss Julia!

In honor of my incredible Dad (who responded “oh, that’s today?” when I called to wish him a happy father’s day), I bring you the best of something that we have a very shared love for. The one thing neither of us ever turns down at the end of dinner even when everyone else at the table has thrown in the towel. Dessert. Here are a few delicious things I’ve tried recently to start us off:

Hot Cakes Molten Chocolate Cakery’s molten chocolate cake in a mason jar…

and look at this beauty of a space in which you can have your cake and eat it too.

Gigantic s’mores from Josh Henderson’s Guest Chef Night at Farestart. I can’t believe I hadn’t yet been to one of these fantastic dinners until last month.

Apricot upside down cake at Restaurant Zoe.

Now, for something a little more practical: these overnight, no-cook refrigerator oatmeal recipes are so easy and the perfect breakfast. I’ve been eating them without fail almost every morning for the past few weeks.

When you get tired of your forays into the world of chilled oatmeal, go to Restaurant Bea in Madrona for brunch and try the Biscuits and Gravy. Tom & Kate are doing good work with their beautiful little space and fantastic food.

This post wouldn’t be complete without mentioning a few great things to sip on as your summer gets started. This is the tasting lineup at Schooner Exact in SODO. Their beer can be found all over Seattle but it’s not a bad option to stop in and stay a while while you’re running errands in the south part of town.

For a quick refresher on a hot afternoon add a splash of soda water, bitters, cranberry juice & a squeeze of lime to ice. For the workday (pictured above on my desk) version that’s all you need. For the after hours version, just add gin.

Anything at Rob Roy. Especially during happy hour (4-7). Plus, if you need any further nudging, they were just named one of the Best Bars in America by Esquire.

Happy Summer!

We spent Memorial Day weekend this year looking out at this view of Lummi Bay:

It was so beautiful.

Our amazing friends Ben & Chris were our hosts for the weekend. This is Ben buying 5 huge crabs straight from the bay for dinner. (Thanks to Ben K. for letting me use this photo!)

Waiting in salt water.

Being devoured. For a perfect tutorial on how to clean and cook Dungeness crab use this fantastic video from Chef Becky Selengut.

We lit these on the beach after dark. I especially love the instructions on the box reminding you to hold the sparkler away from your body.

On Saturday morning we participated in Ski to Sea, a relay race beginning on the slopes of Mt. Baker and ending in Bellingham Bay. D and I paddled a canoe 18 miles down the Nooksack river against a fierce headwind. While I won’t deny the incredibly taxing nature of those three hours, I cannot wait to do it again next year.

That night, our whole team celebrated with numerous bottles of icy beer, juicy burgers grilled on the deck and a shockingly early bedtime. Perfect weekend.

There is a quote from M.F.K. Fisher that I love: “First we eat, then we do everything else.”

As the days grow longer and we are graced with extra hours of sunlight in the morning and evening, I happily have found myself with even more time to eat, bake, and lounge for just a little while longer with friends over cocktails in backyards and on restaurant decks. I seek out more new places where you can only eat in the earliest (I’m talking about you Crumble & Flake) or latest hours of the day. No matter the time of year though, eating always comes first for me as I prioritize my days.

Let’s talk about rhubarb:

It first called out to me from the shelves of the West Seattle Produce Co from among the abundance of fresh, local vegetables and fruit they have to offer. I answered the siren call of the bright red stalks despite never having purchased or even given rhubarb a second thought before and filled a big bag. I knew that Food52 (James Beard Foundation’s Publication of the Year!) would have a great idea waiting for me.

They did, of course. That night I set to work on Ann Dimock’s Straight-Up Rhubarb Pie and it emerged from the oven with the rhubarb and sugar bubbling up through the vents in the crust JUST like the recipe said it would. I was pretty proud of myself. I served warm slices of it accompanied by big dollops of Whidbey Island Ice Cream Company’s vanilla to a group of friends. The evening also included homemade mojitos with mint from our backyard sipped out of old milk jugs made by our fantastic neighbor Chelsea.

You have to make this pie.

While it’s baking I strongly suggest going outside with a big mason jar full of sparkling water and a wedge of lime and spending some time with a great book. I’m almost done with Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant by Jenni Ferrari-Adler and it has been such a treat.

 A few weeks ago a big bunch of my family got together on Vashon for dinner. It’s amazing how hard it is to make this happen as all the “kids” (the youngest of whom is now 22) get older and are all off living their lives. It was wonderful. The dish above is Yotam Ottolenghi’s Turkey and Sweetcorn Meatballs with Roasted Pepper Sauce from Ottolenghi, The Cookbook.

Picnics in the grass at Golden Gardens have also begun taking place with more regularity. A bottle of white wine (and coffee cups to drink it out of), some soft cheese and La Panzanella croccantini are our go-to basics.

 A few weeks ago we made the drive to Walla Walla for our annual wine tasting weekend. We get a group of about 13 friends together every May and head east for a weekend on sunshine, phenomenal wine and food. This year did not disappoint and the 2 full days we were there included visits to Dunham, Buty, Amavi, and Va Piano accompanied by more eating than I want to admit. Breakfasts were had at Olive & The Colville Street Patisserie followed by dinners (and second dinners) at Sweet Basil Pizzeria and The Green (which has the best fish tacos I’ve ever had in my life). We bought huge Walla Walla sweet chicken burritos for the drive back to Seattle from my favorite taco truck.

I hope that your longer days have been wonderful so far.

Making a good granola is one of those things that, although seemingly simple, has eluded me until now. The first time I tried to make it, I managed somehow to set the oven 100° over the prescribed temperature. I realized this when, only halfway through the bake time and after stirring the mixture dutifully every 15 minutes, the kitchen began to smell strongly of smoke.  That batch emerged charred and smoldering and the thought of how much wildly expensive maple syrup I’d just ruined put me off trying again for quite a while.

Then one of my favorite Seattle bloggers posted a recipe that looked so fantastic (and simple enough) that I was tempted to step away from my stubborn, anti-granola agenda and try it.

So I did. It is so good. Maple syrup, olive oil and brown sugar coat the oats, nuts and coconut flakes as you combine the ingredients and the smell is comforting and irresistible. I wanted to dig in with a spoon before I’d put it in the oven.

As it bakes, regularly opening the oven door to turn it over so it heats evenly provides the opportunity to fill your whole house with the rich smell of toasting pecans, sunflower and pumpkin seeds. Making it is a treat from start to first taste and I have to thank Molly Wizenberg immensely for posting this recipe. Enjoy.

Olive Oil and Maple Granola (from Molly Wizenberg’s Orangette)

Adapted from Nekisia Davis, Early Bird Foods, and Food 52

Molly’s Advice: Nuts and seeds can add up, but I buy mine at Trader Joe’s or in the bulk section of my local grocery store, and that helps keep the cost down. I also was able to find coconut chips in bulk. (And if you’re wondering exactly what coconut chips are, here‘s a picture.)

The next time I make this, I might cut back a little on the brown sugar, but I recommend trying it as written first.

300 grams (3 cups) rolled oats
125 grams (1 cup) raw hulled pumpkin seeds
130 grams (1 cup) raw hulled sunflower seeds
50 grams (1 cup) unsweetened coconut chips
135 grams (1 ¼ cup) raw pecans, whole or chopped
85 grams (packed ½ cup) light brown sugar
1 tsp. kosher salt
175 ml (¾ cup) maple syrup, preferably Grade B
120 ml (½ cup) olive oil
Dried cherries, optional

Preheat the oven to 300°F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, combine the oats, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, coconut chips, pecans, light brown sugar, and salt. Stir to mix. Add the olive oil and maple syrup, and stir until well combined. Spread the mixture in an even layer on the prepared sheet pan. Bake, stirring every 15 minutes, until the granola is golden brown and toasted, about 45 minutes. Remove the granola from the oven, and season with more salt to taste. Cool completely on a wire rack. If you’d like, stir in some dried cherries. Store in an airtight container.

Note: Will keep at room temperature for up to a month.

Yield: about 7 cups