Did you know that popcorn actually grows on ears just like the corn you are used to eating throughout the summer months? Of course, you did. Everyone knows that. Still, I couldn’t help but be a little bit surprised when I found out that the tiny ears of dried corn that came in my final CSA box last month were not merely a seasonal household decoration but were, in fact, edible popcorn! Specifically, these ears were strawberry popcorn, an heirloom variety of popcorn that grows to only about 4 feet tall and produces short, round, ruby-red ears of corn resembling strawberries (hence the name!)

CSA members were instructed to let the little ears dry out for at least a month before separating the kernels from the cob and popping them. Last weekend, I popped my first batch! Removing the kernels from the cob was a bit tricky; the kernels came off without much resistance, but their pointy ends proved to be a bit painful. Next time, I’ll have to employ some sort of tool other than my thumb for this purpose.

Once I had a small pile of kernels, I simply popped them in a nonstick pot over medium heat with a touch of oil and salt. Despite their deep red coloring, the kernels popped up to a nice, bright white. Although they were much smaller in size than conventional popcorn, they were no less tasty. And, the best part? Even the kernels that didn’t pop were soft enough to eat easily. No worries about accidentally breaking one’s tooth with this popcorn!

Although it was just a tiny amount, barely enough to even qualify as a snack, I was so happy to be eating this last little remnant from Boistfort Valley Farm‘s CSA season. Sadly, the farm suffered heavy damage as a result of the flooding that swept through Washington State earlier this month. They had to cancel their final produce delivery due to a complete loss of winter storage vegetables. They do expect to be up and running again for next year’s CSA season, however, and I can’t wait. In the meantime, I will savor my two remaining ears of strawberry corn!

Well, my family and I shared another wonderful Christmas holiday together. We ate some great food, listened to our fill of Christmas music, and traded a few nice, sensible gifts. And, to top it all off, it actually snowed. In Seattle. On Christmas Day. I can’t even remember the last time that happened!

The theme for this year’s Christmas Eve dinner was Greece. Check out our menu:

Lamb Stifado (which we made sans potatoes)
Garithes me Aginares kai Manitaria (Shrimp, Artichoke, and Mushroom Casserole with Bechamel Sauce)
Spanakopita
Roasted Lemon Potatoes
Dolmathes (Rice-Stuffed Grape Leaves) with Tzatziki sauce
Yiganthes (or, what I like to call Jumbo Greek Beans)
Steamed Green Beans
Greek Salad
Grilled Pitas, Roasted Peppers, Mixed Olives and Peperoncini
Greek wines: Naoussa Boutari Red and Vin de Crete, a white wine by D. Kourtakis

Everything was wonderful, and it actually ended up being a pretty easy dinner to put together as many of the dishes could be made ahead. And, as usual, we began discussing next year’s dinner while enjoying this year’s dinner. Next year’s theme will be a return to a family favorite: Mexico. That means homemade tamales – yes!!! Happy holidays, everyone!

I have this mental checklist of activities that I like to do each December to help get me into the holiday spirit. Some are obvious: decorating my tree while listening to Christmas carols, baking cookies at mom & dad’s, and watching my favorite old holiday specials on TV. Another one of my favorite things to do around this time of year is to get dressed up and go out for a holiday cocktail. It started in my college days when my friends and I would meet at Kinkora for drinks and to exchange gifts. Kinkora was this old Irish dive, and our holiday drink usually consisted of whatever cheap beer was on tap, but they always had a Christmas tree up and a roaring fake fire going so I was guaranteed to leave the place full of holiday cheer. Later, after Robert and I had met and were living on First Hill, we enjoyed going out for a holiday drink at The Hunt Club in the Sorrento Hotel. The Hunt Club had everything you would want in a holiday bar – slightly ritzy, very cozy and a menu of old school cocktails. The past few years, we have had a harder time finding just the right place for our holiday drink. There are plenty of bars on Capitol Hill, but so many of them are too sleek and posh. More hipster-cool than cozy and festive.

This year, we decided to try Licorous for our holiday drink because it is close to home and I heard that they make excellent cocktails. Licorous is located right next door to Lark and is actually owned by the same people. Licorous has all of the elements of a posh Capitol Hill bar, but it manages to be cozy at the same time. A sleek bar, silver ceiling tiles, and retro, geometric designs provide the cool factor, but dim lighting and rust & pumpkin colored walls and drapes give it enough warmth to make the space inviting and cozy. Although it is often referred to as Lark’s little sister, and many people in fact use it as an area to sit while waiting for a table at Lark, Licorous has plenty going on to make it a culinary destination all its own. Exquisite cocktails aside, the menu at Licorous (designed by John Sundstrom, chef/owner of Lark) features inventive small plates in the same style as Lark but at slightly lower prices.

Though the menu looked interesting, we weren’t there for the food, just the holiday drink. Now, I feel the need to make a point of clarification here. When I say holiday drink, I am not talking about a beverage made with some syrupy chocolate or mint liquor and topped with whipped cream. I hate that stuff. For me, the ideal holiday drink is any sophisticated, adult cocktail that is appropriate for winter (think bourbon or brandy, not margarita or mai tai.) Licorous’ Barbaro cocktail fit the bill perfectly. The Barbaro consists of Elijah Craig bourbon with Amaro Ramazzotti, Cinzano, and Drambuie, shaken and served in a tall flared glass with an orange twist. It is a perfectly balanced drink, slightly sweet with a bitter finish. Very delicious. I also ordered the rye whiskey popovers that are meant to accompany my drink (each specialty cocktail has a matching nibble that can be ordered for an extra $2.) The popovers, which were closer in my opinion to miniature bread puddings, were very yummy. I could have easily eaten 5 orders of them. They went beautifully with my drink, and weren’t a bad match for Robert’s Knob Creek either. I think we may have found our new holiday drink spot!

Licorous is located at 928 12th Avenue and is open Monday through Saturday 5PM to 1AM.

For this week’s winesday, I picked up a bottle of 2002 Semele Ribero del Duero from producer Bodegas Montebaco. Ribero del Duero is a wine-producing region that is located along the banks of the Duero river in northern Spain, just southwest of Spain’s most famous wine region, Rioja. Ribero del Duero almost exclusively produces red wine, most of which is made from Spain’s signature grape, tinto fino (aka: tempranillo.) Other varietals are grown mainly so that they can be blended with tempranillo, a common practice in Ribero del Duero. The Semele wine that I bought is 90% tempranillo and 10% merlot.

I’m always struggling to find vegetarian recipes (other than pizza and pasta) that can be paired with red wine. This week, when I was browsing recipes on epicurious.com, I noticed that there were a lot of Mexican dishes being matched up with Spanish reds such as Rioja and Ribero del Duero. This struck me as interesting for two reasons: 1) I never really think of Mexican food as being good wine food because it is often so spicy, and 2) Spanish food and Mexican food are very different from one another so why would the wine from one country be such a natural fit for the cuisine of another? But, I decided to roll with this idea and pair my wine with a homemade tortilla soup. Instead of topping the soup with the traditional crispy corn tortillas (which, I suppose, means it can no longer be called tortilla soup,) I served it with fancy quesadillas on the side.

My soup turned out good, but the quesadillas were the real hit of the night! I was inspired by this recipe for Roasted Squash, Red Pepper, and Jack Cheese Quesadillas, although I took it my own direction. I roasted acorn squash, onion and garlic together until well-browned and then pureed everything in my food processor. To assemble the quesadillas, I spread a thin layer of the squash puree on a flour tortilla, added some grated Beecher’s jack cheese, sprinkled on some smoked paprika (a Spanish ingredient that, however weakly, ties the meal back to the wine,) topped it with another tortilla and then seared the whole thing in a pan until it was browned and crispy on both sides. It was really good. I’m sure it didn’t hurt that I slathered the outside of the tortilla with butter before cooking it! The squash puree helped keep everything melted and soft (I absolutely hate it when melted cheese starts to solidify as you are eating it.) And, the squash flavor wasn’t overpowering at all. In fact, Robert commented that it seemed like the quesadillas were simply made with some really good, mysterious cheese.

Tempranillo is one of my favorite grapes so I was excited to try it from a wine region other than Rioja. I was particularly intrigued by the description at the wine shop, “black as night with tootsie roll.” You’ve got to love those unusual wine descriptions! It was quite dark indeed. It had a nice dark cherry and spice flavor. Like all tempranillos I’ve had, this wine was very drinkable, by which I mean well-balanced and easy to drink lots of. While it may have been a bit heavier on the tannins than I anticipated, something I try to avoid when pairing red wine with vegetarian food, the tannins were smooth, not harsh. The wine actually went really well with the meal (particularly those creamy, cheesy quesadillas!)

Each December, around the time that bonuses are handed out at my job, I like to treat Robert to a nice dinner out. Nothing outrageously expensive or anything, just a great meal in a fancier restaurant than we normally go to. That really isn’t saying much because, most of the time, we are pretty cheap. What can I say? We like our pubs and budget Thai restaurants. But, every once in a while, it is fun to splurge and dine out in the restaurants where foodies like me are probably supposed to be eating.

Last night, on a whim (or, on a “lark” you could say) we decided to head down the street to Lark. It was completely unplanned, but it turned out to be the perfect place for our special occasion dinner. Located in the uber-popular 12th Avenue area of South Capitol Hill, Lark has been getting plenty of acclaim ever since it opened for business several years ago. We tried going there once before, a while back, but it was slammed (they don’t take reservations.) Last night, the winter cold seemed to be working in our favor as we were able to get a table right away.

As is typical of many of Seattle’s newer upscale restaurants, Lark has a very casual, understated elegance. White tablecloths and candles are about all you get in terms of decor. Tables are situated close together in the big, open dining area, and you practically have to walk through the kitchen to get to the restroom. Very casual, very comfortable. I think the emphasis here is more on the food, less on the surroundings.

Lark’s menu is broken up into Cheese, Vegetables & Grains, Charcuterie, Fish, and Meat. Like so many places these days, the dishes at Lark are all small plates that are meant to be shared (to be fair, Lark was one of the pioneers of this movement in Seattle.) Our waiter explained that 4 or 5 dishes is usually sufficient for a couple like us.

We started off with Lark’s homemade crackers and a wedge of Echo Mt. Blue Cheese which is a cow and goat milk cheese from Oregon. We were also given a selection of homemade breads: a plain French bread and a very dark, slightly sweet bread that Robert especially liked. Our waiter informed us that it was dried cherry pumpernickel. Yum – I love pumpernickel!

Our second dish was ricotta gnudi (gnudi are similar to gnocchi.) This dish consisted of three ovals of pillowy soft ricotta dressed in a brown butter sauce and topped with currants, pine nuts and the tiniest cubes of winter squash. It was delicious; the texture of the gnudi was incredible.

To complete the meal, we ordered a couple of fish dishes. We were really tempted by the special of the night: seared scallops with porcini mushrooms and brussels sprouts (I love any restaurant that dares to serve brussels sprouts!) But, since neither of us is particularly crazy about scallops, we ordered the bacon-wrapped cod and the Spanish mackerel instead. The cod, which was wrapped in the thinnest slices of bacon I’ve ever seen, arrived in a subtle truffle broth sprinkled with diced celery root. The fish was cooked perfectly and the light & crisp bacon added just enough flavor to the dish without being overpowering. The cod was good, but the mackerel was our favorite dish of the night. Robert and I are big fans of mackerel, and this dish was a perfect example of why. It was pan-seared (again, cooked perfectly) and served with Bomba rice, chorizo, kale and marcona almonds. The briny, oily flavor of the fish matched so well with the spicy, rich chorizo. It was an outstanding dish that left me dreaming of mackerel all day today.

To drink, I opted for the 2006 Hiedler Grüner Veltliner which proved to be a decent match for the wide variety of tastes throughout the meal. Everything about our experience at Lark was wonderful: the service was friendly and helpful, all of the dishes we tried were excellent and, although it was pricey, it wasn’t ridiculously so (and the food was definitely worth the cost – a rarity these days, in my opinion.)

Lark is located at 926 12th Ave and is open Tuesday through Sunday from 5:00pm to 10:30pm.

Last weekend, my sister and I went to my favorite neighborhood restaurant, Dinette, where the special of the day was chicken cannelloni. We don’t eat chicken so we didn’t order it, but everyone else in the place did. Every time we looked up, skillets of bubbling cannelloni were being brought out to the other tables. We contented ourselves with a meal of toast topped with herb frittata, ricotta gnocchi with delicata squash and leeks, and house pickled sardines with fennel and radishes – all of which was delicious – but, still, I couldn’t get the image of that cannelloni out of my head; I started craving cannelloni in the worst way. Finally, tonight, I decided that I just had to make it!

Cannelloni are pasta sheets that are rolled around a filling and then baked in a sauce, typically tomato sauce. The result is similar to lasagna except that the pasta is rolled rather than layered. Like lasagna, you can pretty much fill cannelloni with anything. I wanted to do something really special with my cannelloni so I decided to try making my own homemade ricotta and use that as the filling. It turns out that making ricotta at home is laughably simple. The toughest part is lugging a gallon of milk home from the store. I followed this recipe from 101 Cookbooks. You simply heat whole milk and buttermilk together in a pot until the curds separate from the whey. Then, you transfer everything to a colander lined with cheesecloth, hang the cheesecloth, and then let the ricotta drain until it stops dripping. That’s it! It couldn’t be easier, and this ricotta is infinitely better than the stuff you get in tubs at the supermarket.

I flavored my homemade ricotta with minced parsley, nutmeg, grated parmesan cheese, and salt and pepper. To make the cannelloni, I made a small batch of pasta dough and ran it through my pasta machine on the thinnest setting. I cut the pasta sheets into rectangles and then cooked them in boiling water until they were almost done. Then, I rolled the pasta around generous helpings of the ricotta, topped the whole thing with a very simple tomato sauce, and baked it, covered, in a 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes. To drink, I served a Dolcetto d’Alba from Poderi Elia. Dolcetto is an Italian wine that is similar to a full-bodied Pinot Noir.

The meal was great and certainly satisfied my cannelloni craving. And, with today’s heavy rain and wind, it was a perfect evening for hot, cheesy cannelloni. I can’t decide which wins for most comforting dish of the weekend: the French onion soup I had at Presse last night in the middle of that awesome blizzard or tonight’s cannelloni. The snowstorm is pretty hard to beat, but I think I need to give the edge to my cannelloni with homemade ricotta, if only because it was such a labor of love. Hooray for winter cuisine!