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

For Christmas this year, I was given a food processor by my parents as a gift. It’s a magical tool and since receiving it I’ve been on a path of discovering just what it can do. I am also struck by just how often cookbooks call for the use of one in recipes…recipes I can now dive into instead of feeling deterred by my food processor-less state and flipping to the next page. In our kitchen which lacks a blender, it has also allowed me to enter the world of smoothie making…and I’ve entered with reckless abandon.

For whatever reason, I’ve never been a big smoothie drinker. Until now.

A few weeks ago I became a smoothie making fiend. It started with this Kale-Apple smoothie recipe from Real Simple and has since morphed into a series of various concoctions…

These Titanic ice cubes which, I kid you not, are the only kind of ice cube you’ll find in our freezer are always the last ingredient in before blending. How we’ve gotten through half a year in our house with only a tiny rubber ice tray which yields three Titanics and three ice bergs is absolutely beyond me. They look pretty good nestled atop that kale though don’t they?

After a lot of testing I’ve finally landed on this…

A Smoothie for Spring:

Ingredients:

1 large handful of chopped dinosaur kale (stems removed)

2 large celery stalks, chopped

1 large banana

1/2 cup of apple juice (no sugar added)

a splash (or more) of vanilla almond milk

a generous spoonful of almond butter

2 Titanics (or 4 regular ice cubes)

This will give you a large (pint-sized) glass. Wishing you many mornings of your own satisfying smoothie mixing…

Here’s what’s been going on lately…

I’ve been running more as the days get longer and the weather gets warmer. Two weeks ago I ran a 5K at Seward Park. The race was organized by Ethan & Angela Stowell to benefit the Fetal Hope Foundation. By the end of the run and the attendance at the wildly successful post-race food tent overseen by some of the city’s best chefs, they had raised $60,000. At the finish line, all the participants were handed these little packs of fresh pasta as favors.

I’ve been eating some delicious things. Tom Douglas’ Serious Biscuit  just happened to be on my way home from the race. This is ripe banana over homemade peanut butter and a beautifully baked biscuit drizzled in honey.

I’ve been sliding down slides and hanging off monkey bars more than usual. Thanks to Big Brothers Big Sisters of Puget Sound, I had a creative, hilarious and very high-energy ten year-old “little sister” added to my life this past October.  We hang out about once a week and I can’t even emphasize how fantastic BBBS is.

My roommate has been baking and creating lots of exquisite things. I came home to find these sitting on the kitchen counter the other day. They had caramel swirls baked into them and buttercream frosting topped with dainty sprinkles. Living with her is rough.

I’ve been spending a lot of time at Milstead & Co. in Fremont. They make perfect little macchiatos and let me take up space every morning while reading the paper before work.

I celebrated another birthday. We had dinner at my parent’s house and used these blue martini glasses which belonged to my great grandmother to kick off the evening. We feasted on crostini (which I cannot wait to tell you about in a future post), two incredible dishes from Yotam Ottolenghi’s award-winning cookbooks and a cake from Lesley Mackie’s Macrina Bakery and Café Cookbook. It involved fresh raspberries, coconut and lemon curd and was heavenly.

Dinner table ready to be gathered around.

D and I were guests at a grand Easter party on Bainbridge Island. There was an egg hunt, badminton, croquet, a huge spread of delicious food in the front room of an idyllic farmhouse and lots of people in pastel.

We kept it classy with a bucket of PBR & Rainier on ice.

We wore sandals or nothing on our feet at all because it was sunny and warm which was such a treat.

I can’t thank our hosts, Alison & Adam, enough for their hospitality. As the sun got lower all the partygoers walked and drove for the ferry which shuttled us back to our city. The day really did feel like the official start to spring.

A few other things to share:

I was lucky enough to attend one of two opening nights for my friend Kate’s new restaurant, Restaurant Bea. She and her business partner/head chef Tom have done such a beautiful job with food and the feel of the space. You should plan a visit.

My dear friend and coworker of the last 2.5 years is leaving on a tour with 5 of her very musical best friends and their bands this week. This is their gorgeous website and if they’re headed your way you shouldn’t miss them: http://www.togetherwewillgo.com/

I am already excited about hiking. Every year I rely heavily on the Washington Trails Association website for ideas and advice on which trails won’t still be covered in snow when I inevitably try to go too early in the season. It’s a very valuable tool and I hope you can use it too if you find yourself craving some fresh air and time in the Olympics or Cascades.

A trip to L.A. in mid-March. The weather report called for grey skies the whole time which didn’t faze us due to days filled with the most wonderful new (to me) people,  good food and even better coffee and company:

Backstory: D met my parents about two months after we’d started dating. After a particularly wonderful day of snowshoeing on Mt. Rainier during which I’d met a handful of his friends and decided he was an even better person than I’d initially thought based on how much I liked them, I asked him to go with me to my parent’s house for dinner that evening on a whim. Eleven months later, it was only fair that I face the nerve-racking introductions as well with a trip to L.A. to meet his parents in return. When we arrived at D’s mom’s house at 3am to this sweet note anchored by a picture of us she’d framed, I realized there was no need for use of the term “nerve-racking” in describing the situation.

There was luxurious morning reading…the kind I’m never fully able to justify at home without feeling a tinge of guilt over the fact that I’m not up doing something else.

The Intelligentsia Coffeebar on Abbot Kinney Boulevard was our first stop of the trip (unless you count our 2am post-flight burrito) after a rainy drive through Malibu Canyon and along the water through Santa Monica. The expert baristas pulled the shots, steamed and poured the milk for our lattes in sync. We took our perfect drinks outside and sipped them under the grey sky.

The decision was made to come back before the end of the trip for macchiatos served in these little shot glasses.

For lunch on Friday we landed a coveted spot among legions of attractive, thin, tan Californians around a communal table at Gjelina. There wasn’t a thing on the menu we didn’t want.

These marinated beets with burrata, arugula, walnuts and balsamic rocked our world.

We wandered the grounds and sculptures and tried to sneak into a lecture at D’s alma mater.

We walked into and out of the library and remembered why we missed (and didn’t miss) being in college.

Then we headed back to the house so I could finally meet D’s mom and sister. I was shaking when we walked through the door and gave them each a hug. Minutes later, any anxiety dispelled, were all laughing around the dinner table. Just thinking about it makes me smile…I am already looking forward to the next time I see them.

We went to the beach which was quiet and devoid of sunbathers and surfers and ate brunch on Saturday at Duke’s while the waves and wind pounded the bulkhead outside. This was followed by warm shrimp curry over rice with D’s dad’s welcoming family at their house an hour north.

Surprise blue skies…on our hike we knew we had achieved weather victory despite the predictions when the blue of D’s jacket almost matched the sky and sea…

 and when the view looked like this. I considered changing the title of this post.

We ate dinner at Picca by the light of this little votive filled with corn kernels: the tuna tartare and locro de quinoa won us all over.

On Sunday afternoon we drank Two Buck Chuck Sauvignon Blanc and ate homemade pizza and caprese salad with our friends Alex and Astrid who drove down from Santa Barbara. It was such a treat to see them. Then we sped downtown for a cello concert at the Walt Disney Concert Hall during which D whispered in my ear, ” I have NEVER see so many cellos in my life!” I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Suddenly it was our last day. We spent the morning hanging out with the most well-behaved five year-olds I’ve ever met while visiting D’s Mom’s classroom. She is the most ideal kindergarten teacher imaginable. The rest of the day involved as much time in the sunshine as possible.

We walked on the Santa Monica Pier…

and confirming that on Muscle Beach even the pitbulls wear sunglasses and look like they could do 100 pull-ups in a row.

On the way to the airport we stopped at In-N-Out. It was my first time and I couldn’t have asked for a more quintessential or delicious way to say goodbye to our trip…until our gin & tonics at LAX before our flight. I will see you again soon California.

I’m sitting at the kitchen table right now, lazily munching on baby carrots and thinking about some things I want to share with you.

Sun is filtering through our windows and there is a gaggle of little crocus buds forcing their way up in the garden outside the window. I was worried that they would die when there was a freeze after they first showed their heads, but they’ve prevailed, and with them have come warmer temperatures, a little sunshine and that wonderful promise that a northwest summer is on its way…someday…

While we’re waiting…

Go to RN74 on 4th and Pike. They have $1 oysters and $5 sparkling wine waiting for you from 6-to close the first Wednesday of every month.

Write something to someone. The experience of writing, sealing, addressing and stamping a letter or card and knowing that someone you care about will be getting it in the mail is just about as wonderful for you as it is for the person receiving it. I wandered into a lovely stationery store in Wallingford today and found this, which will be going to my beautiful friend Claire.

Have a pizza party. This picture is of my leftovers today from our party last night. They  were just as good if not better than the pizza tasted last night. We bought Trader Joe’s dough (which is a complete steal at $1.29 a bag) and then I put out bowls of chopped crimini mushrooms, red onion, mozzarella cheese (fresh and shredded), arugula, basil, chopped garlic, thinly sliced pear, pesto, cooked chicken sausage and a plate of prosciutto for a homemade pizza extravaganza. Maybe someday I’ll be adventurous enough to  make my own dough like my friend Shawnti, who made and brought her own gluten-free version that was naturally far superior to the store-bought kind I had.

Read a fantastic book on a cloudy, rainy,  spring day. I have a stack of about five on my bedside table that I’ve been wanting to get through and sometimes I have to remind myself that it’s okay to take an afternoon to just read. Quietly. By myself.

Find something to drink that takes you back to the days of Shirley Temples around the pool when you were six.  I found this at a marvelous, quirky natural foods store in Chelan on the way back from a ski trip. It tastes like summer.

Find a little escape that provides brief respite from the grey-skied and snowless spring on the west side of the mountains. I love Mazama for this. Stay at The Mazama Ranch House and grab dinner makings at The Mazama Store to cook dinner in your room or make reservations for the restaurant at Sun Mountain Lodge. Mazama is the ultimate low-key little town and the snow and daily grooming of the cross country ski trails stick around until at least late March.

This is my favorite picture from a recent trip to Mazama with just my parents. The sun was shining and I did my absolute best to beat the self-timer and make it into the picture in ten seconds on skis. When I couldn’t quite make it, they both leaned toward me which I think is the best part of the photo.  I also have my hood up which may give the impression that I take myself seriously on skis. You should know that I fell at least five times that day and the majority of those falls took place while I was standing still for water breaks.

Here’s to our impending summer and enjoying our Seattle spring.

This weekend we jumped in the car and drove to Portland. My lovely friend Kathryn lives there and visiting her is always such a treat. We ate, drank and laughed our way through two days and now I am home…wishing I was still there. Even though I am firmly rooted in the Seattle food scene, I’ve got to hand it to Portland for putting on a very good show. Though it’s been seven hours since my last meal, I am still full. Here are a few of the things we tasted and enjoyed:

visiting the incredible PSU Pod for some food truck lovin’ and eats like…

this delicious pulled pork sandwich from The People’s Pig

and this burrito which A enjoyed very much (don’t worry, she approved this photo).

We made a stop at Kenny & Zuke’s for a beautiful, light coconut macaroon. It was warm and noisy and friendly and we wanted to stay but we were so full that we couldn’t justify or stomach eating more than our little takeaway dessert. I can’t wait to go back.

We settled down at a worn wooden table for a beer flight at Deschutes Brewery…and another at The BridgePort Brewpub.

Back across the river, we made a trip to Potato Champion…something I recommend doing no more than once a year. Planning on heading to dinner in about two hours, we justified the stop by claiming that the extra large order of Belgian-style pomme frites and beer battered cheese curds we split were hors d’oeuvres. They came with dipping sauces (of course): rosemary truffle ketchup, chipotle mayo, and bourbon honey mustard. We couldn’t even think about dinner until four hours later.

We spent our time until dinner drinking Moscow Mules while playing several rounds of Euchre and then…

we sat down at this little table at Pok Pok. It accommodated the four of us for an unforgettable meal and countless cups of their pandan infused water. Afterward, we headed home tired, happy and oh-so-satisfied.

We woke to foggy skies and cold morning air and immediately headed down the street to Ristretto Roasters for something warm to wrap our hands around while we walked around the neighborhood. Kathryn pointed out fantastic little shops on Mississippi Ave, my favorite of which was a tiny store selling flowers, a huge array of chocolate, special salt, champagne and a selection of bitters. I should mention that The Meadow, and really the entirety of our weekend, felt like something straight out of Portlandia.

Then there was brunch. Tasty n Sons. Heaven.

We had Erin’s sweet biscuits with warm blueberry compote, North African sausage with an over easy egg, couscous & cauliflower and the cast iron frittata with caramelized onions, butter-roasted cauliflower, olives & feta. We loved every bite.

Our last stop was Powell’s Books in downtown Portland. I cannot believe I had never been before. It was paradise and I found about 20 cookbooks and books that I wanted in a 30-minute period. Here are a few:

 Wonderful weekend.

I’ve tried to blog before. I wrote a few posts, took pictures to accompany them and then posted them and then suddenly I was filled with angst…angst akin to when I was 13 and the only one still wearing leggings and baggy t-shirts in a sea of cool kids clothed in Abercrombie and Fitch. What if no one wanted to read them? I tried to make it just about food and wine but I worried that I didn’t know enough about those things to write legitimately about them. That my camera wasn’t good enough to take the beautiful food photos that everyone else seemed to be taking. So I stopped.

It’s taken me a full year to realize that I can’t embark upon this feeling embarrassed or self-conscious, because none of the people whose blogs I read and love did. I’ve been inspired by a lot of great people  and my own growth over the course of 2011 to stop worrying. As 2012 begins I’m just doing this, with confidence, for myself and whomever feels like checking in…and I’m really excited.