Some of you may have been or may still be experiencing problems getting to my site.  It turns out that my webhosting company has some of their servers in Hong Kong.  Due to a series of earthquakes in Taiwan on Tuesday, submarine cables were damaged which caused a major disruption in internet and telephone service in parts of Asia and also caused some disruptions to elliemay.com!  Access may be slow or intermittent for a few days more but should be resolved soon.

Now that the chaos of the holidays is pretty much over, I’m getting back to my normal routine and that means the return of weekly winesdays! For this week’s winesday, I decided to go with a very traditional Burgundian meal: Oeufs en Meurette. Oeufs en Meurette is poached eggs in red wine sauce served over toast. The recipe that I used is pretty long and time-consuming but not at all difficult. As a plus, a lot of the work can be done ahead of time. I was able to get it all done after a short day of work, however, including peeling the baby onions by hand. The eggs are poached in the red wine causing them to turn a creepy gray-purple color. Fortunately, they get covered up by the sauce (which was only a slightly creepy purple color.) As expected, it was quite a rich dish but, what the heck, it’s still the holidays! This is the best time to treat yourself to really yummy, fattening foods.

My matching wine was, of course, a red Burgundy. I went with a bottle of 2004 Domaine du Prieure Pinot Noir. The wine was much lighter than most pinot noirs I’ve tried. In the glass, it looked just like cranberry juice. I’m not sure if it was this particular wine or if all the wines of Burgundy are this light. I guess I’ll have to try another to find out. By the way, all red Burgundy wines are made from pinot noir grapes except for Beaujolais which is made from gamay grapes.

In a really smart move, I decided to skip the rush of Pike Place Market and visit a small wine shop in my neighborhood instead: European Vine Selections. I am in love with this shop! I should have been going there this whole time. It has a really great selection of wines from all over the world packed into a pretty small area. It’s a very low key store. No pretentiousness and no pressure. Wines are stacked irregularly (in some cases, hazardously) in cardboard boxes, many with a decent layer of dust. Descriptions of some of the wines are available, written in barely legible handwriting. I went a little crazy while I was there and bought several other wines including a bottle of Prosecco for New Year’s Eve. If you’re ever up on the north end of Capitol Hill, you should definitely check this store out.

This year’s Scandinavian-themed Christmas Eve dinner was a roaring success! Considering that nobody in my family is Scandinavian or really has ever eaten much Scandinavian food, we were quite happy that the dinner turned out as well as it did. Here is the menu and links to the recipes where available:

Swedish Meatballs
Roasted Pork Loin with Cardamom-Currant Jelly Sauce
Poached Salmon with Mustard-Dill Sauce
Mushroom Pie
Kukkakaalilaatikko (Cauliflower Rye Casserole)
Potato Pancakes with Sour Cream and Homemade Applesauce
Braised Red Cabbage with Apples
Romaine and Cucumber Salad with Sour Cream-Dill Dressing and Blue Cheese

Although the meatballs were addictive, the pork loin was beautiful and the cauliflower rye casserole won for most amazing name, the biggest hit of the evening was the mushroom pie. The filling, which consisted of little more than mushrooms, onion, thyme, and cream cheese, was so good. It was really hard not to just serve it up right then and there as our lunch. The crust had a bit of leavening in it which made it puff up. The end result was closer to a mushroom pot pie than a tart. I had some of the leftover pie for lunch today which was definitely the high point in my first day back at work.

More photos from our dinner are below. The last photo is of the baby hats that my mom and sister and I made for a charity called Caps to the Capital. We knit the hats and then let everyone at our Christmas party choose one that they could submit in their name. Aren’t they cute?

I can’t wait. I love Christmas so much! Yesterday, I went over to my mom and dad’s for a big day of cookie baking and Christmas Eve dinner planning. It turned out that my mom had made most of the cookies already, but we did spend a couple of hours making Thumbprints. We roll ours in chopped almonds and use apricot and raspberry jelly for the filling. We also usually make Russian Tea Cakes (also known as Mexican Wedding Cakes), Mandelbrot (a Jewish biscotti-like cookie) and Pizzelles (Italian waffle cookies.) This year, in keeping with our Scandinavian Christmas theme, we tried a new recipe: Scandinavian Rye Cookies. They are basically a sugar cookie with some rye flour added. They turned out pretty tasty. We also received a package in the mail this week from Robert’s family in New Mexico containing Biscochitos (Spanish anise seed cookies.) In my family, we almost never make cookies with chocolate or mint flavors or ones that require icing or frosting. We tend to prefer drier, crunchy, even slightly salty cookies, flavored with nuts or spices; the kind of cookies that go really, really well with coffee. What Christmas cookies do you traditionally look forward to every year?

Yesterday, I made a big batch of posole (or pork and hominy, depending on where you’re from.) Posole is so good in the wintertime. In New Mexico, it is commonly served at Christmas or on New Year’s Day when it is said to bring good luck in the new year. Posole can be extremely basic, consisting of little more than broth and hominy, or it can be made into a much more deluxe dish by adding meat, vegetables and spices. Mine was pretty simple: cubed pork, hominy, onion, garlic and spices. I made some red chili to drizzle on top which really gave it some heat. I also like to add a splash of tequila to the bowl before digging in!

And yes, for those that are keeping track, I normally don’t eat meat but, every once in a while, I like to treat Robert to the real thing. I actually ate about 4 cubes of pork myself before I started to feel strange and ashamed. FYI, I do have two excellent, completely vegetarian hominy recipes on my website, Posole Verde and Hominy and Squash Stew.

Robert and I had lunch today at the Lockspot Cafe down by the Ballard Locks. I really like the Lockspot. It has a very comfortable seaside tavern feel with lots of dark wood, old timers and seafood dishes. They are known for their fish and chips so, of course, that’s what I had to order. It’s always hard for me to resist fried clam strips when I see them on any menu, though. Most people hate them but I have always loved the little nuggets of goodness, even when I was a little kid. But, today I was in the mood for fish and chips. The fish and chips at Lockspot were pretty tasty. Not amazing but definitely good. They stayed crispy to the end and that’s of utmost importance to me. I heard that Totem House, across the street from Lockspot has really good fish and chips too. Another place I would like to try is Sunfish in West Seattle. They supposedly have the best fish and chips in the entire city. What is your favorite spot for fish and chips?

By the way, the photo above was taken with the digital camera that I won at Robert’s company holiday party last night. Finally my blackjack skills paid off. It was casino night followed by an auction and I won enough chips at blackjack to outbid everyone else for the camera. Be prepared for plenty of food photos from now on!

We are right in the thick of what Robert refers to as the “whipped cream holidays.” This is the span of time (roughly November to February) during which whipped cream starts to appear on the cocktail menu of every restaurant and bar in the country. If it’s got kahlua, creme de menthe, bailey’s, or frangelico in it, it’s going to be topped with whipped cream. People where I live practically count the days until eggnog and peppermint lattes show up in the coffee shops. I usually stay away from any beverage made with excessive amounts of sugar and cream; I prefer my coffee black and my cocktails basic. This year, however, I found myself wanting to make eggnog. I have absolutely no idea where this impulse came from because I have never been an eggnog drinker. But, there it was, this strange desire to indulge in a sweet, fattening holiday drink. I would soon be participating in the “whipped cream holidays” just like everyone else.

On Saturday, Robert and I wandered down to our local liquor store so that he could replace his diminishing supply of Maker’s Mark and I could get the rum I needed for my eggnog. I was originally planning on using the eggnog recipe from How to Cook Everything which is for a very quick, uncooked eggnog. But, then I came across this recipe which had been given rave reviews by all who had tried it. In this recipe, you cook the egg yolks slowly in spiced milk and then, after it has cooled, you add cream and lots of rum. It was a little bit more work but really was not that difficult. The only tricky part was combining the hot milk slowly with the egg yolks so that they don’t curdle.

I let my eggnog sit in the refrigerator for several hours before serving. It was very tasty and, as expected, extremely rich (see the recipe notes for calorie and fat count, if you’re curious.) I’m pretty sure the rum was actually the healthiest ingredient in there. That same evening, as Robert and I were sipping our eggnog, we happened to flip to the Food Network right when Emeril was making eggnog for his audience. His preparation was very similar to mine but, for some reason, his eggnog was coming out a disconcertingly bright shade of yellow. More frightening, however, was the extremely lumpy texture that his eggnog had taken on. It looked like scrambled eggnog. And this was the premade version that he pulled out of the fridge to serve to his guests, not the version he had been making live, which would have been slightly more forgivable. As we watched in horror, we began to appreciate the smooth texture and spicy, rummy flavor of my eggnog so much more!

Yesterday, I took the day off work so that I could participate in one of my holiday traditions, a full day of shopping, eating, and Christmas dinner planning with my mom and sister. Before dropping me off at my mom’s in the morning, Robert wanted to swing by Group 2 Motorsports to bring some doughnuts to the guys, one of his own holiday traditions. We stopped by Top Pot Doughnuts and I picked out a dozen for the guys and ordered two unglazed old-fashioneds for Robert and myself. Top Pot is the best doughnut shop ever. They started out in a small shop in my neighborhood, Capitol Hill, and now have a few locations in Seattle, each with it’s own unique atmosphere. I couldn’t wait so I immediately wolfed down my doughnut in the car on the way to the auto shop. It was sweet and crispy and would have gone wonderfully with some coffee if I had been smart enough to order some. Then, while Robert ate doughnuts and discussed new wheels for his car with the guys, I perused the old alfa romeos sprinkled throughout the garage.

After that, it was off to Ballard with the gals for shopping and lunch. Ballard is this really cool neighborhood just outside of Seattle with lots of artists, funky shops, great restaurants, old buildings and a large Scandinavian population. We are planning a Scandinavian dinner for Christmas this year so, of course, we had to check out Ballard’s various Scandinavian delis. For lunch, we went to La Carta de Oaxaca, a hugely popular restaurant that serves authentic Oaxacan dishes. It has a really stylish atmosphere with long, wooden tables (some are communal, an emerging trend here in Seattle) and tons of framed black and white photos of Mexico covering every square inch of the walls. The menu has about 15 choices, all small plates that are great for sharing. We started with warm chips and guacamole and chose 3 different salsas from the salsa bar. Then, we split the tostada de camarones (lime-marinated prawns and avocado on top of a freshly fried corn tortilla), mushroom empanada (spiced mushrooms grilled in a flour tortilla), and the enchilada with red sauce, Oaxaqueno cheese and a fried egg. Everything was very fresh, not too cheesy and very well executed. And, since we had gone for lunch, we didn’t have to deal with the hour-long wait that plagues the dinner crowd.

It was a long day of shopping and trying to figure out just what the heck that is in those jars at the Scandinavian delis so, for dinner, Robert and I decided to take it easy and stay very close to home. We did, however, try a new place in our neighborhood. A couple of blocks from our home is one of those haunted locations where a new restaurant is popping up every six months or so only to close down a couple of months later. Right now, it is a restaurant called Cypress. The menu features casual Mediterranean food and actually has really reasonable prices. Robert had the lamb burger with Greek fries which he enjoyed. I always have to be more complicated so I ordered the calamari appetizer as my main course, a fattoush salad and a glass of retsina. The retsina was a different brand than the one I am used to and it had a much tamer pine flavor. It was more like a very lemony wine. The calamari dish was actually pretty good - calamari sauteed with chickpeas and sundried tomatoes served on top of seared spinach. The fattoush salad could have been better. It had all of the proper ingredients - romaine, cucumber, tomato, scallions, mint and pita croutons - but there were very few pieces of pita in mine and, those that were present, were slimy and chewy rather than crisp. Also, for some reason, it was really hard to eat. It was as if the vegetables were chopped in such a way as to make them both unscoopable and unpierceable. Overall, the food was OK and worth the price but, they may need to make a few improvements if they want to last longer than their predecessors. I will be going back, though, because the polenta fries that are offered with their sandwiches sound quite intriguing.

For tonight’s winesday, I served Louis Jadot 2005 Beaujolais-Villages. Beaujolais is a French wine that is meant to be drunk young and typically has a very fruity, juicy flavor. It is also distinctive in that it is the only red wine that is traditionally served lightly chilled. It goes well with many foods and, because of its juicy quality, it has a very broad appeal. If you don’t like beaujolais, you probably won’t like any other red wines. Louis Jadot beaujolais wines are widely available. I think I’ve even bought this wine at Trader Joe’s. It tastes of berries and spice and even a little bit of…grapes! Imagine that. It tasted to me like what you think wine tastes like when you are a little kid. This wine would be equally good as a holiday wine as it would be served at a summertime picnic.

For dinner, I decided to do a pomegranate-glazed salmon. I thought that would be a nice, festive match for the wine and I’m currently on a pomegranate molasses kick. I was hoping to develop this recipe for the website as part of a group of holiday-inspired dishes but I think it still needs some work (see my cooking notes below if you are interested in what I did.) The salmon itself was really good (local king salmon from Pure Foods Fish) but the glaze was just a tiny bit too sweet for me. However, the meal overall was really good and very pretty: pomegranate-glazed salmon, celery root and potato mashers, and sauteed swiss chard.

Here is my loose recipe for pomegranate-glazed salmon. Whisk together 1/4 cup fresh orange juice, 2 T pomegranate molasses, 2 t brown sugar, 1.5 t lemon juice, 1.5 t soy sauce and 1 t dijon mustard. Sear 2 salmon fillets on both sides until just done. Transfer to warmed plates and cover with foil. Add 1 tablespoon minced shallots to the pan, stir for 20 seconds, add the pomegranate mixture and cook until thickened. Add 1/2 tablespoon butter and salt and pepper to taste and spoon the sauce over the salmon. I think this recipe could easily be expanded upon. Rosemary, mint, star anise or five spice powder, and balsamic vinegar would all make interesting additions.