Anne: The end of an era

Bad phone picture to end all bad phone pictures. Anyway, in case you can't tell what this is...it's a crock pot, which my phone kept on wanting to autocorrect as crackpot. See the signature burnt-on stain from some spilled over chili 5 years ago? This crockpot was handed down to me from my mom and is a whopping 18 or so years old. Now we'll have to get a new one and put this one to rest. :'(

Anne: Carbonation

We have found a new addiction this summer, and it's name is bubbly water. Of course being us we couldn't leave it at just purchasing over-priced fizzy water from the store. And those "sodastreams" are practically as expensive. No we had to make our own. With a 5lb CO2 tank, we'll probably not need to fill it up for about a year. Ahhh, so refreshing.

If you're interested go here for the details on making your own. Everything can be purchased on Amazon!

Anne: It's that time again...

While everyone is posting pictures of the happy couple and beautiful decorations at the wedding, let's just all remember what's important. We may have come for the wedding, but we stayed for the bacon jam.

I'm sorry for those of you who haven't tasted this, it was one of the best foods I've ever had the privilege of eating. Luckily, the bride's mom was gracious enough to share the recipe.

Okay, fine here's one of the couple. The poor camera phone quality is eclipsed by how cute they looked dancing together.

Anne: Pile of Cabbage

If you think I'm saying that like it's a bad thing, you clearly haven't lived any time in Pittsburgh with sauerkraut and haluski. Besides under all that cabbage are three delicious tacos from Marination.

Tourista Part 5 -- Theo Chocolate

Ben's mom and brother came to visit this past week, which basically meant we were tourists all weekend. This is what happened.

The baby roaster

If you've never had Theo Chocolate, available nationwide no excuses, you should stop whatever lame thing you're doing and put that in your face right this second. Theo has some pretty tasty chocolate and they do great flavor combinations, but what I really love is their company. They're a bean to bar chocolate maker, that's fair trade, organic and awesome. This was my second factory tour, another thing I highly recommend if you are in the area they give you chocolate!, and one of the things I really appreciated was the passion of the young lady giving the tour. You could just tell she loved what she was a part of and the mission of Theo. 

Tempering the Chocolate in the confections room -- intense QA assessment taking place

Tourista Part 1 -- The Crab Pot

Ben's mom and brother came to visit this past week, which basically meant we were tourists all weekend. This is what happened.

The Crab Pot has the whole We've-been-on-TV thing going for them, and I'm not going to lie they were packed. We'd been wanting to check out this place out for a while, at least to say we'd gone. Family gave us the perfect excuse. Besides I love crab and their Seafeast seemed worth a try if not a bit gluttonous. They have four types, each one with a little more added than the last--including expense. Then you order per person. For the four of us we settled on a three person Pacific Clambake. It was so much food. Definitely tasty though in a city like Seattle where there are SO many restaurants to try it's hard to say we'll be back. Though anywhere they give you a bib and a hammer has got to be classy.

Magic Made Them Disappear, Portland Part 2

We visited Portland this weekend and this is what happened.

We spent pretty much the whole weekend eating. Seriously. Hit a lot of the major spots including Voodoo Doughnuts. It's a must do as far as experiencing Portland and I'm glad we went though we probably won't go back again. Well maybe for another Memphis Mafia, but I'll have to ration calories for three days.

This box contains a dozen doughnuts.

Demolished in less than 24 hours.

Other places we ate in Portland: 

Brunch at Screen Door - order the Chicken & Waffles (best fried chicken I've ever had) and the Praline Bacon (from Jen "I don't even like nuts or bacon and this is delicious!" <-- blatant misuse of quotations)

Drinks at The Mash Tun - great patio atmosphere (kid-friendly)

Dinner at Grain & Gristle - order the Kale Salad (even if you don't like kale) 

Bruinner at Kenny & Zuke's Deli - (only Justin was hungry) order the pickle assortment and the weirdest latkes I've ever tasted, they were like huge hush puppies

Dinner at The HUB (Hopworks Urban Brewery) - Order everything! or especially the Pulled Pork sliders and the Pint o' Pretzels. There was much discussion on the brews so order at your own discretion

I got VD in Portland

Voodoo Donuts that is. Justin's digging in the the raspberry filled Voodoo man. Yum

TOGOMELETTE

Sometimes you have to wake up at 5 AM for work, and sometimes you decide the best way to make yourself get up is by cooking breakfast with someone else who needs to wake up that early for work to. Which is a great plan until as you are making tasty mushroom cheddar omelettes, you realize you have no time to eat it.  Thus was born the togomelette. Get it, an omelette to go! Delicious here or there! 

Airports - Part 3

The Ugly

Usually you take a picture of food because it's so good or exotic or something you made yourself.

I took a picture because I knew people would not believe how terribly awful stinky gross bad this $10 taco salad was.

International Women's Fair

So Anne & I started volunteering at Refugee Women's Alliance (ReWA) as ESL teaching assistants. Before you go congratulating us on how selfless and awesome we are - know it's completely selfish. It's an excuse to eat awesome Ethiopian, Somali, Vietnamese, Thai, Russian, Bhutanese & more food!

Here's the picture of the buffet I snapped at the International Women's Fair:

Seriously though, after independently becoming more and more aware of the issues & atrocities surrounding refugees and victims of human-trafficking, Anne & I really wanted a tangible way to help. Turns out, right now that means passing out papers and asking these lovely women how many children they have.

Cast iron

I've been experimenting with cooking in cast iron. Here Justin enjoys the rewards of my alchemy.

Community

I had the chance to go to a lunch and learn more about FareStart, an organization I've been volunteering with. This is their community table in the middle of their restaurant. It had the purposes: the importance of gathering around food, remembering their students always have a place to come and that nothing is beyond saving. The two pillars as well as the table top are reclaimed from the building when they were set to be destroyed.

If you don't know, FareStart is an amazing organization that teaches people culinary arts who otherwise wouldn't have the opportunity to support themselves. They do this in a variety of different ways and so much more than that.

They are basically my new heroes.

Please check out more about them and if you're in the Seattle area, stop in for a weekday lunch, their Thursday guest chef dinners or volunteer with them in the contract kitchen. You will not be disappointed.

Dies Sancti Valentini

So Justin and I don't really celebrate Valentine's Day. However, recently I've been overcome with gratefulness for having such a swell fellow to be my partner in this life.

So to show my affection and gratitude, I decided to make him a steak dinner, accompanied by smashed potatoes, sautéed beet greens, and roasted brussels sprouts & beets.  I finished it off with a roasted heart-shaped beet.

For me, I was just cooking a tasty meal for the man I cherish; it just happened to coincide with the day that other men rush to the grocery store after work to pick chocolates and flowers.

Food allergies

I'm not a vegetarian or follow the paleo diet. I don't really follow any diet. I just love unadulterated real food and cooking from scratch.

But what I do seem to be allergic to is recipes.

This is homemade "pudina gosht" or a tastey facsimile. I interpreted 3 different recipes, substituting, adjusting, and overhauling until I just tossed my lamb legs and mint spice mix into the crock pot for several hours. Bon appetite!