Tomorrow we are heading up to the Greenwood neighborhood for the 14th Annual Greenwood Classic Car and Rod Show. It has become a family tradition since my parents live right near there. There are lots of really cool old cars (and some ugly ones) so it’s pretty fun. There are live bands and food booths selling hot dogs, Polish dogs, kettle corn, and fresh cherries. But, instead of the food booths, we will be stopping by the 74th Street Alehouse for lunch and a beer. This is some of the best pub food in Seattle. They consistently produce top quality sandwiches and salads and have great rotating specials. And they have a big selection of beers on tap. My parents go there at least once a week and we’re so jealous. My dad really likes the gumbo. In fact, it is famous! You can order the very same 74th Street Gumbo at Moon Time in Couer d’Alene and The Elk in Spokane. The only drawback there - no fries! But the excellent fish tacos, featuring whatever fish is fresh that day, more than makes up for it.

Speaking of fries, we met up with our friend Tim last weekend at the Park Pub (also in the Greenwood area) and they did have fries on the menu. They were a little on the soggy side but were coated in a nice, spicy seasoning. It was a cool pub, very laid back and not at all crowded (but, in a good way, not in a creepy way.) Other places that I like in the Greenwood neighborhood include Gorditos (monstrous, “healthy” burritos), Georgia’s Greek Deli (a casual Greek restaurant and deli with live music on the weekends), and Red Mill burgers (meat and veggie burgers which you can order plain or, my favorite, with cheese and roasted green chilies.)

I’ve been on a mission recently to add more whole grains to my diet; several weeks ago I decided that I would try a new grain each week. I’d be like the Tony Bourdain of grains, trying anything and everything. OK, so trying a grain isn’t all that adventurous but I have always had this prejudice against grains (other than rice, of course, which I eat all the time.) Because whole grains are so healthy, I have always assumed they must have the taste and texture of rabbit food. I know I shouldn’t feel that way but, I do. So my mission would be to find a grain that gets me to overcome my prejudice and, if I’m very lucky, one that I might even consider eating nearly as often as rice.

A couple of weeks ago, I bought some organic quinoa from Trader Joe’s and made a salad of quinoa, black beans, corn and bell pepper in a lime-cilantro vinaigrette. Quinoa is an ancient grain from the Andes; it is very high in protein and amino acids. My salad was very good. The quinoa was surprisingly light (very un-rabbit food like), making it an ideal substitute for rice. The next week, I made tabbouleh using bulgur, a form of quick-cooking whole wheat. It wasn’t bad but the bulgur could have been a bit softer. I might try using it in a recipe where it is actually cooked rather than steeped as in the tabbouleh. I’ve seen recipes for bulgur pilafs or even chili with bulgur. Last night, Robert and I went to 22 Doors and I ordered the farro “risotto.” It was made with Bluebird Farm’s Farro, caramelized fennel, walnuts and golden raisins and was topped with pea vines and ricotta salata. Farro is a form of wheat and it is used a lot in Italian cooking. It was pretty tasty but they gave me a huge serving and, after a while, it began to feel very heavy and started to taste like, you guessed it, rabbit food. But, I actually think the grain itself was much better than that dish and I would really like to try using it in something at home. It was crunchy and very nutty in flavor and I could see it being good in a pilaf or salad. There are a couple of recipes for farro in Lynn Rosetto Caspar’s “The Italian Country Table” that I might need to check out. So, although none of these grains has completely blown me away, I do feel like I have found a couple of new foods that I would be willing to experiment more with and ultimately incorporate into my cooking. If any of you have recipes for whole grains that you love, please let me know.

Tomorrow is my birthday! Although I’m not particularly sentimental when it comes to my birthday, I do like to squeeze in as much celebration (in other words, eating) as possible. Why not, right? Robert refers to this as my birthday “week” and it officially kicked off last Wednesday when his gift to me arrived via UPS.

On Friday, my friend took me out for lunch at Tulio. We were given fresh foccacia bread and olive oil to snack on while we perused the menu. I had the springtime risotto which was made with fresh peas and baby carrots and topped with pea vines and saffron cream. It was buttery and delicious and I can’t believe I managed to eat the whole thing. My friend had the asparagus soup and the spicy orrechiette with sausage, rapini and tomato sauce. Then, because I apparently needed more to eat, we split the pistachio semifreddo for dessert! Semifreddo is a partially frozen cream. It was really, really good. I was pretty much useless at work after that.

Last night was the celebration with the family. I selected El Greco for the event. Robert and I love their brunch but had never been there for dinner. We started off with a bunch of appetizers: complimentary olives and bread, baked idiazabal cheese with crostini, pears and serrano ham (delicious!), grilled asparagus with a sauce that I didn’t catch (also delicious), grilled baby octopus (chewy but not horrible) and sweet potato fries (crisp and sweet!). They also gave us a free serving of that evening’s appetizer special which was a puff pastry with cheese and spiced strawberries. It seemed more like a dessert than an appetizer but it was tasty and I’ll eat anything with strawberries. I won’t describe each of the entrees but here is a quick rundown of what was ordered: my mom had the clam linguine, my dad had the daily risotto (which had meat but, since they make it to order, you can order it vegetarian or even ask for other vegetables - good to know for the future), my brother had the salmon special, my brother-in-law had the duck, Robert had the Greek lamb burger and my sister and I split the bread salad and the crispy penne. The crispy penne is comprised of penne that has been cooked and then fried until, well, crispy. It is topped with a spicy tomato sauce with eggplant, capers, olives and tons of garlic. A good helping of ricotta salata garnished the dish. It was a big hit. It’s no wonder the website calls the crispy penne a local favorite. After all that great food and a couple of glasses of pinot grigio, I was a happy camper!

It’s Tuesday which means Great Chefs of the World is on the discovery home channel tonight. I’m pretty sure I’ve already seen all of the episodes but, I always watch anyway because I find the show to be very relaxing. I’m not sure if it’s all the gentle whisking, the oh-so careful placement of extravagent garnishes, the soft accents of the, usually French, chefs or the acoustic guitar music in the background but watching this show really calms me down. I also love that they make these crazy dishes that I will probably never in my life even attempt to make. I mean, sometimes, they are really far out there…like chicken cooked in pig’s bladder. No thanks! I think I’ll leave one that to the Tony Bourdains of the world. Great Chefs also has this cool retro aspect to it. Sometimes they’ll show a really old episode (like from the 80’s) and it’s interesting to see how much cooking has changed since then. Back then, there weren’t too many cooking shows on television. Now, I think there are too many. I rarely tune in to the Food Network anymore. The cooking shows on that channel focus too much on the basics, most of which I already know or could easily figure out on my own. Watching somebody on TV cook something that I could easily make myself isn’t interesting to me. But watching somebody tediously cut baby potatoes into the shape of mushrooms and then pan-fry, braise and broil them only to completely cover them with paper then slices of rare meat and $30 worth of garnish, now that’s fun!

Hi everybody. Welcome to my brand new blog! I decided that Blogger wasn’t giving me enough control over my own blog so I have switched to Wordpress and I’m much happier with it. Now, the commenting system will actually work the way that it is supposed to! I can also customize the blog as much as I want because all of the files and the database live on my server instead of Blogger’s. There is also rss, search and better categorization for my posts. Let me know if you notice anything odd, though. In other news, I deleted the “seasonal” menu from elliemay.com. Too much upkeep. I’d rather blog about the seasons than be tied to creating a big seasonal menu all the time. Hopefully having a new, more functional blog will inspire me to write more often!

We have a “buddy” system at my job - every time a person is hired they are assigned a buddy who will take them out to lunch on their first day and answer any questions they may have. Today, I was a buddy for the first time. I might not have done a very good job answering their questions but I think I did a good job on lunch. Since the firm was buying, I decided to spend a little more than usual so we went to Sazerac in the Hotel Monaco. It is sort of cajun/comfort food and, although it’s not outrageously expensive for lunch, it is certainly more than I would normally spend for a regular workday meal.

First, we were given a basket of homemade bread that was made with cornmeal but wasn’t as dense as regular cornbread. It was a bit dry but very tasty (especially with butter.) Then came my salad which was crisp and peppery but overdressed for my taste. My buddy had the white pizza which was made with mozzarella, chevre, fontina and red chile flakes with an olive oil base. I didn’t try it, but she said it was really good. For my entree, I ordered the handmade ricotta dumplings which were served in a spicy tomato broth with favas and arugula. This was topped with a crispy parmesan tuile (like a cracker.) It was pretty darn good. The perfect food for a rainy day in Seattle. I would easily consider going back there for that dish on a special occasion, such as a birthday lunch. We had really good service (which hardly ever happens when you are me) and, as an added bonus because I hate making phone calls, they have easy online reservations.