Archive for July, 2009

Summer Treats

Tuesday, July 21st, 2009 | daily | 4 Comments

newman-and-dan-july-09There was a joke last year about Newman and Dan texting each other before they dress in the morning and I was going to say something today, but I didn’t want them to leave without taking the furniture Phil and I are unloading.  It won’t hit me that they’re getting their own place until I’m back at work and then I’ll feel like their mothers did three years ago.  When Badley heard I was giving this old blue chair to Newman, he texted me asking for it.  And when I confirmed what he already knew…well…I’m going to be hearing about this chair all next year every time I want anything from President Badley.  So it won’t help when he sees this photo of Newman holding a jar of homemade raspberry jam and Dan with what I had left of my stash of last summer’s blackberry vodka.  But of course they will share.

Wines Constantly

Friday, July 17th, 2009 | daily | No Comments

maryhill-wineryThis part of Washington state is new to me and nothing like the Pacific Northwest of most imaginings.  It’s almost desert-like and full of photo-begging views of blue and grey-hued mountains and valleys.  We’re at Maryhill Winery for a Counting Crows concert later tonight, but the band is immaterial.  It was just an excuse to sit in a spectacular setting eating an outdoor concert picnic, a genre of meals that sounds good even without knowing the menu.  Back in Seattle, I prepared caponata, humus, Israeli couscous salad with roasted vegetables, and bought a goat cheese from The Spanish Table and some walnut bread from Boulangerie Nantaise.  In the winery retail shop, I saw  an apron imprinted with “Wines Constantly” and was instantly reminded of my working life.  Last week, I received a series of texts from the guys…”we miss your food, when are you coming to hang out with us?”  I’m sure I’ll eventually tire of sitting under vine arbors drinking syrah and cooking for just two.  But I’m not sure when.

Field Trip

Tuesday, July 7th, 2009 | daily | 6 Comments

summer-produceWhen my husband asks me what I did today, I’m going to have to confess to something as embarassing as saying I was hanging out with the addicts under the 99 viaduct knocking back a fifth of gin.  I spent hours in Bellevue.  For those not from these parts, Bellevue is to Seattle what West Plano is to Dallas.  I get why people live in souless suburbs.  I did it for years when my kids were school-aged.  What I don’t get are the people who like living in suburbs.  My vision of Hell is scrapbooking and PTA meetings as my only recreation and Cheesecake Factory and Chilis as my only dining options.  And, okay, I know that Bellevue has some very trendy, expensive stores and restaurants, but it’s a little like fine dining in an airport terminal.  There’s just something cold about not having any dirt or homeless people on your streets.  Still, I needed to shop for home furnishing fabrics and we don’t have that in Queen Anne. So I was cheered up greatly by the sight of a real farmers’ market in a strip mall parking lot.  The okra was a stand-out and if there’s a point to this post (is there ever?), it’s to offer this simple tip:  any firm vegetable (okra, green beans, broccoli, asparagus…), olive oil, pepper or other spices, 10-15  minutes or so in a 400′ oven, then salt.  You can make that in quantity hours ahead and serve it at room temperature and it will change how you feel about some produce.  I’ve reduced my vegetable recipes down to this single method, the only way I’ve found to get more than 3 guys to make room on the plate for something other than flesh.

Forbidden Fruit

Saturday, July 4th, 2009 | daily | 7 Comments

raspberriesI got talked into buying way too many raspberries at the farmers’ market today.  You have to be lazy or blind to actually buy blackberries in Washington, but these beauties are different.  Still, after making jam and a lemon-raspberry syrup (to mix with vodka or sparkling water), I’m sort of done for the day and there are a bunch of them still sitting on the table accusingly.  It’s good to be busy because after 2 weeks away from the House, I’m running out of things to do and find myself browsing the internet for other blogs like mine.  But there isn’t much and what there is makes me wonder if the writers are on heavy prescription meds or don’t actually work in a Greek house.  In my searching, I found an ad for a live-in fraternity house mom (a concept that is just ludicrous on it’s face) that listed in the requirements “avoid inappropriate relationships with members,”  which just made you wonder about the previous termination.  It was right there along with education and experience…oh, by the way, hands off the boys.  I haven’t heard of any such shenanigans here at the UW, but one sorority cook was fired last spring for drinking during Greek week.  “There was more to it,” Kirk told me, the chef in question being one of his customers.  And where I work, there would have to be a whole lot more, because one thing I will say for this job, you really have to  try hard to outdo your employers in outrageous behavior.

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