Check out the crostini I made for my company’s Halloween party today. There not quite as scary as last year’s tasty eyeballs, but I think they’re pretty cute. I topped the crostini with homemade Fig & Black Olive Tapenade and then made bones and skulls out of fresh mozzerella. I only made a few skulls because they were more labor intensive. Since I was cutting everything out freehand, my bones each turned out a little bit different. Some looked like thigh bones and some looked like thin ulnas. One turned out gigantic like a dinosaur bone! Happy Halloween everyone!

I’ve been dying to try a pumpkin beer for weeks now. It’s odd because I’m not normally the type of person to go for novelty beers. I like my IPA and that’s final. The problem is that I’m very susceptible to hype. As soon as Elysian Brewery announced that it would be hosting a pumpkin beer tasting, people around town started really hyping it up. 10 pumpkin beers on tap? Including one undergoing a second fermentation inside of a giant pumpkin? That’s exciting stuff! How could I not have pumpkin ale on the brain after hearing about all of that?

Well, I missed the pumpkin beer tasting because of other obligations, but I did manage to locate a 22-ounce bottle of Elysian’s Night Owl Pumpkin Ale at my store. This beer gets rave reviews from both beer critics and anonymous drinkers on the internets. Many claim it is, hands down, the best pumpkin beer out there today. Having never tried a pumpkin beer before, I can’t really say whether this is true or not, but it was quite good. It primarily tasted like a mild, slightly sweet pale ale. But, with every sip, you get a subtle, yet instantly recognizable, taste of pumpkin pie. Elysian ferments their Night Owl with 150 pounds of pumpkin meat and infuses it with pumpkin pie spices including nutmeg, cinnamon and clove. My only complaint is that it seemed a little flat, but that could just be because I am so used to drinking hoppy IPAs. I’m curious how it is straight off the tap. I might just need to run next door to Elysian and try it. Who knows? Maybe they will still have it available straight from the giant pumpkin tap!

Last night, Robert and I stopped by Quinn’s, a new pub that opened up a few blocks from our apartment (new restaurants are popping up all around us it seems - I can barely keep track anymore!) My dad, who never cooks but enjoys watching cooking shows and reading food blogs, alerted me to this place. Quinn’s has only been open for business since Thursday night so they are still in their “soft opening” phase. This means that they haven’t actually announced a grand opening yet and instead are letting customers slowly discover the place and trickle in, using this as a time to work out any kinks and get everything organized before the official opening.

Well, the slow trickle idea might not really be working out so well. The place was pretty packed when we arrived. I guess everyone reads the same food blogs as my dad and I do. Still, we were able to snag a table upstairs (Quinn’s has two levels, a lower level with seating and a long bar, and an upstairs with additional seating.) It looks really nice inside, with lots of dark wood and dim lighting and warm hued walls. The 2-story windows are decorated on top with a striking graphic checkerboard of clear and textured glass. Somehow, Quinn’s manages to be open and airy yet cozy at the same time. It seems slightly upscale at first glance, but everyone in the place was dressed very casually. The closely packed tables and seat yourself casualness keep it from being at all snooty.

Prices are at Quinn’s very moderate. Snacks run between $3 and $5 and plates are between $6 and $19 with most coming in somewhere around $11 to $13. Between Smith and now Quinn’s, there seems to be some sort of “re-meatification of Capitol Hill” campaign going on. Duck rillettes, rabbit pate, marrow and oxtails all make an appearance on the menu. There is even an option for “braised farm animal of the week” (as if it won some sort of prize or something. “You, lucky goat, have been selected as this week’s braised animal. Congratulations!”) There are also your standard pub options, like burger and fries and fish & chips, and some delicious sounding sides such as curried lentils and roasted cauliflower with golden raisins. I could easily make a whole meal out of Quinn’s side dishes.

The beer list boasts a wide variety of primarily imported European beers. I tried the Abbey Leffe, a Belgian beer that Robert remembers enjoying when he was vacationing in Paris. It was very floral and spicy, like a really good wine. For my meal, well, I just had to order the fish and chips. I wanted to go with something more creative, but fish and chips is just such good pub food that I couldn’t help myself. Robert was more adventurous; he ordered the wild boar sloppy joe with fried sage leaves.

At one point during the evening, we were presented with a small plate of sliders and another of cheesy gougere (savory choux pastry with cheese.) We hadn’t ordered them but figured it was some sort promotional gift. We later learned, after we had gobbled them down, that they had simply gone to the wrong table. Oops! Our karma remains intact, though, because Robert had shared them with the people sitting at the table next to us (Robert loves sharing food.) In fact, in very anti-Seattle fashion, we ended up chit-chatting with our table neighbors for quite a while as we were waiting for our checks. That’s got to say something good about Quinn’s, right? If it can get strangers in Seattle to actually talk to one another? Hey, and we weren’t even sitting at the now-ubiquitous communal table (yes, Quinn’s has one too.)

Quinn’s is being referred to as a “gastropub” by the media. Gastropub is a British term for a place that specializes in food that is slightly more upscale than the average pub grub. By that definition, most of the pubs in my neighborhood probably qualify as gastropubs so, for me, Quinn’s just seems like a regular neighborhood pub. It is comfortable, casual, friendly and a great place to settle in for a beer and some snacks. This will be a perfect spot for Robert and I to engage in one of our favorite weekend activities: spending the afternoon at the pub reading our books and savoring a couple of pints.

There is a theme to this week’s winesday, but it was a purely unintentional one. Normally, when winesday rolls around, I pick out a special wine and then try to plan the perfect meal to serve with it. That didn’t happen this week. This was probably the most impromptu (read: poorly planned) winesday of all. When my CSA box arrived this week, the items contained within it practically required me to make squash soup, and squash dishes aren’t that easy to pair with wine because they have a tendency to be on the sweet side. I know this because I just served squash soup a couple of winesdays ago. I was originally planning to serve a Sauvignon Blanc that I had on hand but, when I was at the store picking up some last minute ingredients before dinner, I bought a completely different wine on impulse. No, this was certainly not the most well thought out winesday.

The theme that brings it all together (and keeps this winesday from being a complete disaster) is that all of the major elements featured this week come from sources located within 100 miles of my apartment. If you spend a lot of time reading food blogs like I do, you have probably heard about the 100-mile diet. This is a movement that challenges people to eat only foods that are grown within 100 miles of their home, the idea being that eating more locally is better for you, the local economy and the global environment. While, there is some debate about whether consumption of local goods really is better for the environment (e.g. it may actually take more energy to grow beef in Britain than it does to grow beef in New Zealand and then ship it to Britain,) it can never be a bad thing to support your local economy. Even better, since local produce doesn’t have to be bred for shipping, it usually tastes better. Fellow Seattleites can read up on the local chapter of the 100-mile diet at Sustainable Ballard.

My CSA box comes from Boistfort Valley Farm which, according to Google Maps, is located 99.5 miles southeast of my apartment. This week, my box came stocked with spicy chilies, cilantro, one huge orange kabocha squash and a link to a recipe for Butternut Squash Soup with Green Chili-Coriander Chutney. Even though it isn’t a great wine pairing, how could I not make that soup when all of the required ingredients were sitting right in front of me? The recipe calls for butternut squash, but I figured the kabocha would be a fine substitute. Orange kabocha is a very strange squash it turns out. When cooked, it has a dry, chalky texture, almost like a roasted chestnut. I’m not sure I would like it roasted or steamed as is, but it made a beautiful, velvety soup. And, what a brilliant orange color! Most squash soups are a golden yellow hue, but this was bright, bright orange. I’m curious to see how it compares to the green kabochas we are supposed to be getting soon.

This week’s wine comes from Lopez Island Vineyards. Lopez Island is part of the San Juan Island group and is located about 100 miles northwest of Seattle (the winery itself is actually 99.8 miles from my apartment.) Since the island is on the cool side of the Cascades, Lopez Island Vineyards focuses on growing cool weather grapes including some unusual varieties such as Siegerrebe and Madeleine Angevine. Like most of the island wineries, they also have a nice selection of fruit wines. I decided to try the 2006 Madeleine Angevine. This is a white wine grape from the Loire Valley in northern France, one of my favorite wine producing regions. The Lopez Island Vineyards 2006 Madeleine Angevine won the gold medal at the Los Angeles International Wine Competition. It is also organically grown!

Rounding out the meal was a loaf of bread from Tall Grass Bakery (7.4 miles away) and a salad of escarole and Cameo apples (also from the box.) I topped the salad with Cranberry-Orange Chevre from River Valley Ranch in Fall City, WA (27 miles away.) Everything was delicious but, as I fully expected, the soup wasn’t a perfect match with the wine. This is too bad because this wine was really, really good. It was crisp with flavors of grapefruit and tropical fruit. It deserved to be paired with something perfect like steamed mussels.

While I can’t claim to know where Tall Grass gets their flour from, and I seriously doubt the coconut I used in the chutney was local, I think this meal comes pretty darn close to qualifying as a 100-mile diet meal. From an ethical standpoint, I felt really good about this meal. The fact that it was all delicious only made it better!

We met up with friends for breakfast at the Salvadorean Bakery in White Center this morning. I had been hearing such great things about this place so I was really looking forward to trying it. The first thing I noticed when I walked into the Salvadorean Bakery is the display cases full of amazing-looking pastries and cakes. Yum! The second thing I noticed is the rather harshly lit, sparsely decorated dining area. Not exactly what you would call ambiance. But, for me, this is usually a sign that I’m in for some really good food! I have found that, in the majority of cases, the amount I enjoy a meal is inversely proportional to the price, service and level of decor in a given restaurant. I could pretty much care less about ambiance; when I go out, I want to be treated to food that I can’t easily cook myself. Grilled salmon fillet atop polenta with a wild mushroom ragout? I could whip that up any night of the week (at about half the cost it would go for in any restaurant in my neighborhood.) Authentic Salvadorean pupusas, on the other hand, is something I will probably never be able to duplicate accurately at home. And, at a mere $2 each, I’d be happy eating pupusas on a plastic stool in an alleyway let alone in a clean and spacious albeit ambiance-free cafeteria.

The Salvadorean Bakery’s breakfast menu isn’t huge, but it was still a pretty tough decision. It all sounded so good! I finally settled on the breakfast platter because it came with a little bit of everything. The platter consists of two eggs (fried or scrambled) topped with salsa, a fried plantain, refried beans, an unusually large helping of crema, a wedge of crumbly, white cheese (similar to Mexican Cotija,) two rotund links of super-spicy chorizo and a couple of homemade tortillas. The tortillas at the Salvadorean Bakery are much thicker than Mexican tortillas and have a wonderful fresh masa flavor. They were great on their own but even better topped with a bit of egg, beans and crema. I also loved getting the little wedge of cheese. I gave Robert my chorizo and kept the cheese as a little treat for myself. The fried plantain provided a nice sweet counterpoint to the rest of the meal. Robert ordered some kind of stuffed breakfast sandwich. I forget the name of it, but it was basically a football shaped loaf of freshly-baked bread filled with sausage and scrambled eggs. It looked really delicious.

I was disappointed that I didn’t get to try the pupusas but, with the breakfast platter, that would have been way too much food. Pupusas are stuffed masa cakes, a Salvadoran specialty. They are made from the same dough that the tortillas are made from but come with a variety of fillings including meat, black beans and cheese. One that sounds particularly interesting is filled with cheese and loroco flowers. Maybe next time.

In addition to breakfast, the Salvadorean Bakery has a delicious-sounding lunch and dinner menu. I hear their soups are awesome. If you are in the mood to try some really honest, authentic, distinctive food or if you just happen to find yourself in White Center one day with nothing to do, be sure to swing by the Salvadorean Bakery! Salvadorean Bakery is located at 1719 S.W. Roxbury St.

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays because it is such a food-centric holiday. I couldn’t wait to sample some of my favorite Thanksgiving dishes so I decided to do a little preview dinner.

A couple of hours before dinner, I made a quick cranberry sauce. Cranberry sauce is one of the easiest things in the world to make. It practically cooks itself so there is absolutely no excuse for eating canned cranberry sauce. I also don’t think there is any reason to go crazy with additions. Orange zest, wine, spices and dried fruit all sound great, but I prefer to keep my cranberry sauce as simple as possible. For one bag of cranberries, bring to a simmer 1 cup of water and 1 cup of sugar (I usually use a tiny bit less sugar because I like it on the tart side.) When the sugar has dissolved, add the cranberries. Simmer the cranberries for about 10 minutes and then remove from heat and chill thoroughly. That’s it! My favorite part of this process is watching the cranberries pop as they cook. That popping sound alone makes my mouth water for the winter holidays. If you have leftover cranberry sauce, do what my mom does and swirl it into plain Greek yogurt!

Another important component of any Thanksgiving dinner is winter squash. I had two beautiful Sweet Dumpling squash leftover from last week’s CSA box. Sweet Dumpling squash are cream-colored with green stripes and look sort of like Delicata squash, but they are short and round rather than elongated. They are very cute, and one makes a perfect single serving. I cut each squash in half, scooped out the seeds and roasted them in a 375 degree oven for about 45 minutes (cut side down first, then I flipped them over once during cooking.) Before serving, I drizzled them with a rosemary-brown butter sauce, but they didn’t need it. They were sweet and delicious on their own.

Finally, what Thanksgiving meal would be complete without stuffing? Some may proclaim that turkey is the most critical part of the meal but, for me, the real point to Thanksgiving is the stuffing. No Atkins diet around here! In my family, we always make our stuffing as a separate dish outside of the bird to ensure lots of crispy topping (and to avoid potentially contaminating the stuffing with undercooked bird juice.) I didn’t really have a recipe but, as it turns out, stuffing is one of those things that you don’t really need a super-strict recipe for. A mixture of bread, savory herbs and veggies and plenty of butter could never turn out horrible. That said, there are a couple of keys to making a good stuffing. It is important to taste the stuffing before baking to make sure it is seasoned properly. Seasoning is always a little tricky with something that gets baked because you can’t add more once it is assembled. Also, you want to get the liquid to bread ratio right so that your stuffing is neither too dry nor too wet. For 6 ounces of dry bread cubes (about 1/2 of a large loaf of French bread,) I used 1 cup of stock and 1 egg. Those amounts produced a stuffing with a nice balance of moist interior and crispy exterior. I forgot to make gravy, but it was not missed. I really wanted eat the whole pan myself but, unfortunately, Robert really loves stuffing as well so I had to share!

For this week’s winesday, I am highlighting one of Robert’s wine picks: Kiona 2003 Lemberger. I always love it when Robert chooses the wine or has a suggestion for what to make for dinner. It makes my job so much easier. I was particularly excited about Robert’s selection this week because Lemberger is a new grape for me. As an added bonus, this wine comes from my home state of Washington! I like to do my part to support the local wineries whenever I can.

Not to be confused with the stinky cheese of a similar name, Lemberger (also called Blaufränkisch or Blauer Limberger) is a wine grape of Austrian origin. In the Old World, it is grown mainly throughout Eastern Europe, particularly in Germany and Austria. Lemberger’s main presence in the New World is in Washington State where it happens to grow really well. Kiona Vineyards, located in the relatively tiny Red Mountain AVA on the eastern edge of the Yakima Valley, was actually the first winery in North America to plant Lemberger grapes. Their Lemberger always wins lots of awards and has even been referred to as the “gold standard” for Washington Lemberger.

Stylistically, Lemberger wines tend to be very fruit-forward with mild tannins and a light to medium body. Berries and plums are among the typical flavors found in these wines. They are most often compared to Beaujolais, a wine commonly described as “juicy.” Because of their light and fruity character, Lemberger wines are able to be paired with a wide range of foods. Meat, cheese and pasta dishes are all fine, of course, but I’ve heard of people pairing Lemberger with cold cuts, BBQ and even Mexican food. Hey, why not? A wine this juicy is halfway on its way to being a sangria!

This kind of food compatibility is perfect for me; since I don’t eat meat, I always have a harder time finding foods to pair with red wine. I decided to serve the Lemberger with a simple fall meal. I had some beautiful Delicata and Sweet Dumpling squash in my CSA box so I combined them to make a squash soup. Squash can be tricky with wine because it is so sweet. To counter this, I opted for a creamy, buttery style of soup. I stayed away from ingredients that would add further sweetness, such as apples or cinnamon, and instead flavored the soup with rosemary and plenty of cream. I served the soup with melted gruyere croutons and a salad of arugula, roasted beets, apples and hazelnuts.

The Kiona Lemberger was, not surprisingly, very fruity. It had flavors of blackberry and blueberry (think blueberry syrup, not fresh blueberries.) As the evening progressed, it began to taste a bit like an Ocean Spray Cran-Something Cocktail which sounds bad but wasn’t. This was a very tasty wine. Like Beaujolais, this would make an excellent wine choice for the winter holidays. Good job, Robert!

Yesterday, on my way home from the yarn shop, I stopped by The Chocolate Box for some goodies. Ever since Robert coerced me into joining him in his nightly chocolate ritual (and, believe me, he really had to twist my arm), I have been trying to raise the bar a bit by purchasing better quality chocolate than you get with, say, a Kit Kat or Whatchamacallit. I know…I’m a total snob. But, a handful of M&Ms every night is not good for you. A couple of pieces of quality dark chocolate, on the other hand, is practically a requirement for optimal health these days. The Chocolate Box, with its focus on high-end, fancy chocolates, is the perfect shop for this. They sell chocolates from many different producers, but the biggest presence in the shop is definitely the much-loved Theo Chocolates.

The Theo Chocolate factory is located in the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle (in the old Redhook Brewery building.) It is known for being the only chocolate company in the United States that uses both organic and fair trade cacao beans. Locally-produced chocolates with a conscience - you can’t beat that! Theo produces three kinds of chocolates: individual Theo confections, Theo Origin bars, which highlight cacao beans from different parts of the world, and the wildly inventive 3400 Phinney bars featuring such flavors as Coconut-Curry and Bread and Chocolate (filled with salty bread crumbs!)

I’ve been meaning to try the 3400 bars for a while now but, on this day, I was in the mood to try a variety of flavors so I picked some individual confections. I couldn’t help but be wooed by the wackier flavors. Hey, when you are spending $2 a pop for these tiny morsels, it’s hard to justify ordering plain-old, unflavored chocolate (even if it is good chocolate.) I chose Fig & Fennel, Peanut Butter, Chipotle Spice and Cardamom Caramel. I also was given two free samples at the shop; one was a Neapolitan and the other was some flavor that I don’t know because, like a brute, I just wolfed it down without even listening to the guy. All of the chocolates were excellent. The Chipotle Spice was surprisingly spicy, and the Peanut Butter was filled with smooth peanut butter cream studded with crispy, salty peanut bits. My favorite was the Fig & Fennel which had a deep, rich fruit flavor. I think the label mentioned that it was made with Washington Merlot (wine and chocolate - what’s not to love?) It was boozy and delicious and definitely something I could make into a nightly habit.