Robert and I had a fantastic dinner last night at Anchovies & Olives. Halfway through, we had already declared it the best meal of the year! Like many dining establishments, Anchovies & Olives was doing a special prix fixe menu for New Year’s Eve - five courses at $75 per person. That’s not cheap, but in this case it ended up being worth every penny. Each course came with a choice between two different dishes. We decided to keep it simple and order one of each to share. Might as well sample everything, right? Highlights for me included the tiny kusshi oysters topped with green apple ice, the hamachi crudo (raw yellowtail served with blood oranges, shaved beets and horseradish) and the seared arctic char with trumpet mushrooms and braised radicchio. Robert enjoyed the escolar crudo which came topped with spicy coppa, persimmon and arugula. Our favorite dish of all, however, was the squid ink spaghetti with sea urchin, mussels and bread crumbs. The pasta - made fresh in house - had a wonderful firm, chewy texture. Combine that with super-sweet mussels and perfectly crunchy fried bread crumbs and you end up with one truly unforgettable dish. Talk about closing out 2009 on a high note!

Inspired by the Spanish cooking class Robert and I attended last summer, my family decided to do a big Spanish feast for Christmas Eve dinner. It was one of the more hectic cooking experiences I’ve had. Since my sister couldn’t make it for the full day of cooking, and since we were now the so-called “experts of Spanish cuisine,” Robert and I were responsible for more of the cooking this year. Robert pitched in both with dicing various ingredients and attempting to keep a calm atmosphere in the kitchen. Unlike me. I’m very good at making lists, organizing tasks, and taking care of any leisurely advance cooking, but once the pre-dinner chaos ensues, I tend to freak out a little. Cooking two giant pans of paella while simultaneously sautéing greens, filling mushroom tartlets, making sure the table is set and that the guests have drinks in hand - all this plus a toddler underfoot, sweeping up after you with his brand new broom - makes for a pretty crazy time. It was a miracle the way everything came together. Here is the menu:

• Tortilla Española
• Mushroom Tartlets
• Seafood Paella
• Pork, Chorizo & Bean Stew
• Braised Artichokes
• Sautéed Greens with Almonds and Red Grapes
• Green Salad with Oranges and Red Onion
• Sangria

The paella and the pork & bean stew were the evening’s biggest hits. I was worried about the paella since, in spite of my planning, we ended up making it up as we went along. It turned out great. The rice was cooked perfectly and the seafood was moist and flavorful. We even managed to develop a nice socarrat, the caramelized crust that forms on the bottom of the paella pan and is considered by many in Spain to be the best part. The pork & bean stew was especially tasty. Then again, how could a recipe that calls for spicy Spanish chorizo and smoked paprika be anything other than wonderful? Other highlights included the sautéed greens, which we made using a combination of red chard and Tuscan kale, and the mushroom tartlets, which highlighted my sister’s perfect pie crust. Our Spanish feast will definitely go down as one of the most memorable Christmas meals in my family’s history. Happy holidays!

I hope you all had a wonderful New Year’s holiday. This New Year’s Eve, Robert and I headed out for drinks at Licorous followed by dinner at Lark. While our meal at Lark wasn’t quite as mind-blowing as last year’s, there were still plenty of highlights: an ultra-creamy blue cheese from Rogue Creamery, a duo of caviars (arctic char and sturgeon,) mussels cooked with morcilla sausage and kale, and an amazing quince tarte tatin served with nutmeg ice cream. Then, like I do every year, I came home and fell asleep before midnight (this time I almost made it - I was up until 11:45!)

I may have missed out on the fireworks & late-night reveling but the party wasn’t over just yet. For me, the real celebration happens on New Year’s Day because that’s posole day! Every year, I make a big batch of pork posole for New Year’s Day. Not only is it a delicious first food to have in the new year, it’s also the perfect remedy for anyone who might have partied a little too hard the night before. This year, my family came over to share in the posole feast. We started off with roasted squash quesadillas and mixed veggies with a dip that I made out of sour cream, pumpkin seeds, cilantro, chilies and lime. Then, it was time for the main event - the posole! I keep my posole very simple: just pork, hominy and onions in a lightly seasoned broth. I cook it for hours so the pork is completely tender. On the side, I provide red chili, chopped white onions and white tequila for each person to doctor their posole with as they wish. This year’s posole seemed especially delicious, perhaps because I used the dried hominy that I got in Santa Fe. After dinner, we snacked on bizcochitos (courtesy of Robert’s mom in New Mexico) and took turns playing with my little nephew. It was the perfect way to ring in 2009!

Our theme for this year’s Christmas Eve feast was an oldie but a goodie: Mexican! We love Mexican food in my family, and this year’s meal certainly didn’t disappoint despite us being thrown off our game a little (a nine month old baby and a whole lotta snow will do that to you.) I actually missed out on some of the cooking (gasp) thanks to the snowpocalypse. Robert didn’t want to drive on the icy roads so we ended up stuffing our gifts into our backpacks and hiking through the snow to catch a bus to my parents’ house. Considering how slippery and bumpy our bus ride was, I think Robert made the right call even if it did mean me showing up late for cooking duty. It definitely added a little bit of adventure to our Christmas Eve! Here is our dinner menu:

Chips with Guacamole and Homemade Salsa
Spicy Carrot and Jalapeño Pickles
Pollo en Mole
Red Chili Pork Tamales
Sweet Potato Tamales
Hominy and Squash Stew
Anasazi Beans
Mexican Rice
Shrimp, Tomato and Olive Cocktail
Green Salad

The two highlights of the meal were the tamales (duh) and the pollo en mole (my sister spent several days making the mole from scratch!) The tamales actually gave us a bit of a scare. This was our first time using fresh masa rather than dried masa, and the fresh masa resulted in a much thinner dough than we were used to. It was almost too watery to work with. Fortunately, the tamales firmed up perfectly during cooking, and I think they were tastier than the tamales we have made in the past (fresh masa must be the key!) Although there weren’t really any lowlights, my spicy carrots and jalapeños were deemed too spicy for guests and were therefore relegated to the kitchen where only the bravest souls (like me) would have to venture in to taste them. For drinks, we served several varieties of Malbec and Cranberry and Vanilla Bean Mimosas which have nothing to do with Mexican food but were quite festive nonetheless. Merry Christmas everyone !

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Mine was excellent. There was plenty to be thankful for this Thanksgiving: an awesome end to the presidential election, a much-needed four day weekend, another wonderful Thanksgiving meal and especially the fact that my pumpkin pie turned out okay! It wasn’t until my mom put me in charge of the pumpkin pie this year that I realized I had never made pie before. Crazy, I know! I’ve made my share of cakes but never pie (which is funny considering that, in the age old pie vs. cake debate, I’ll take pie any day of the week.)

Pie is intimidating, particularly when it comes to making the crust. Just type “pie crust disasters” into google and you’ll find tons of tales of pie crusts gone awry. Many pumpkin pie recipes have you pre-bake the crust before adding the filling (also called “blind baking.”) This keeps the crust from becoming soggy but can also be the source for some problems. Steam trapped under the crust can cause it to puff up considerably making for an uneven crust and reducing the amount of room available for filling. Also, the sides of the crust can shrink or sag while baking. In my case, the sides sagged quite a bit; in some places it completely folded over itself like a pair of crumpled socks! I gently eased the crust back up the sides while it was still hot from the oven and was thus able to avoid having my very own pie disaster. However, my decorative edges, which were quite “rustic” to begin with, were all but gone after pre-baking. Oh well, it doesn’t need to look good to taste good!

With my crust done, it was time to move on to the filling. The recipe that I chose, Pumpkin Butterscotch Pie, is not all that different from a standard pumpkin pie. Oh, except that it has scotch in it! To make the filling, you first heat brown sugar and butter together to form a caramel. Then, you are told to whisk in the scotch and cream until smooth. Um…it didn’t exactly happen that way for me. There was no “whisking until smooth.” As soon as the cold liquids hit the hot caramel, I was left with a solid sheet of hard candy. It looked like delicious candy, but nobody wants a pumpkin pie with a sheet of rock hard caramel in the center. Luckily, the caramel eventually melted back into the cream. Another near-crisis averted! The rest of the process - adding pumpkin and spices, filling the crust, and baking - was easy as pie (pun intended.)

The pie was a huge success! Everyone in my family went crazy for it. The butterscotch flavor wasn’t overly pronounced, yet it provided a nice, subtle background note. The crust turned out really flaky and the filling was amazingly smooth. The only issue was that the pie was a slightly off-putting neutral color. I’m thinking that this might have been because I used a fresh pumpkin which had much paler flesh than the brilliant orange stuff you find in cans. Again, it certainly doesn’t need to look good to taste good, and none of us cared one iota about the color as soon as we bit into our slices. It was a lovely way to end a lovely Thanksgiving meal (the leftovers made for an equally lovely breakfast this morning!)

I’m declaring this weekend to be the unofficial start of the holidays. Thanksgiving may not be for another few days, but I’m ready to start celebrating now! People around here get so mad when they see the shops putting up their Christmas decorations early, but I’m a total sucker for it. I just love the winter holidays. Robert won’t allow Christmas music until after Thanksgiving, but I know one way to start celebrating this weekend - by mixing up a special holiday cocktail!

My perspective is that holiday cocktails should always involve bourbon, brandy, or one of the other brown liquors. This isn’t the time for vodka (although, gin, with its wintry pine flavor, is acceptable.) Winter flavors such as orange, spice, apple and pear work well for a holiday drink. Flipping through a recent issue of Bon Appetit, I came across a recipe for a cocktail called Northwood #2. Inspired by the New England woods he grew up around, David Moo of the Brooklyn bar Quarter, created this special cocktail that fits my idea of a holiday cocktail perfectly. To make the Northwood #2, simply shake the following ingredients with ice and strain into coupe glasses:

3 tablespoons gold rum
2 tablespoons brandy
1.5 tablespoons fresh apple cider
1 teaspoon pure maple syrup
3/4 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

It couldn’t be easier to make, and tastes delicious! This is a pretty strong drink; the apple and maple flavors are quite subtle. I suspect that some people would want to increase the amount of apple cider to make the drink more palatable, although I thought the flavors were perfectly balanced. Then again, I might be some kind of lush because I thought the recipe made a perfectly reasonable single serving (it is actually supposed to serve two!) I may try this again using spiced cider for even more of a winter flavor. Happy holidays!

Check out the scary cheddar spread that I made for my company’s Halloween party. Okay, so there isn’t anything all that scary about the spread itself (I mean, the recipe is a little white trash which, in a way, is scary.) The truly creepy part of this dish is my kalamata spider garnish. The spiders weren’t nearly as labor intensive to make as last year’s skull and bones crostini, but I think they’re just as cool. Simply use half an olive for the body, and then cut thin strips for the legs. If you wanted to up the creep factor, you could even use a couple of peppercorns to replicate those gross bulging eyeballs that spiders sometime have. I didn’t go there - the shiny, black kalamata skin gave these spiders enough of a menacing quality for my taste! Happy Halloween!

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!

My family and I had a wonderful Thanksgiving once again. The weather was sunny and gorgeous, and the food was extra delicious (our Thanksgiving dinner is always good but, somehow, this year, it seemed better than ever.) Here is the menu:

• Juniper and Herb Roast Turkey
• Gravy
• Stuffing
• Mashed Potatoes with Red Chili
• Baked Sweet Dumpling Squash
• Sauteed Brussels Sprout Leaves with Ginger, Lemon & Chili Flakes
• Mixed Greens Salad
• Cranberry Sauce
• Ice Cream Pumpkin Pie

Most of these dishes are standbys that we serve every year, or old favorites that we haven’t had in a few years (such as my mom’s famous ice cream pumpkin pie - glad to see that one make a return!) However, there are always some changes to the menu each year. This year, the big change was with the turkey. My mom always feels guilty because she refuses to brine the turkey even though all the recipes out there claim that you have to brine the turkey for best results. Her problem with brining is that it takes up so much valuable refrigerator space; you are required to get a container large enough to be able to completely submerge the turkey in it, and then somehow fit that into an already crowded fridge? That’s not so easy for anyone with a normal sized kitchen.

This year, my mom came across a recipe from chef Maria Hines, of Tilth restaurant here in Seattle, for Juniper and Herb Roast Turkey. Instead of brining, this recipe calls for salting the turkey a day or two in advance, claiming that this helps the turkey stay moist during roasting. Oh, and the turkey is also wrapped in bacon! Who needs brining when you’ve got bacon? The result was a delicious and moist turkey, and the pan drippings made the world’s most flavorful gravy. Mmmm…bacon gravy.

The other big change this year is that I was in charge of choosing the wines. This task usually falls to my sister but, since she is pregnant and can’t enjoy the wines herself, it hardly seems fair to make her pick them out. Plus, now that I’m known as “Miss Winesday” among my family members, I have a feeling the wine might be my responsibility from now on (as if I’m some sort of expert or something - far from it!) I bought a bottle of Maryhill Winery Pinot Gris and a bottle of Walnut City Wineworks Pinot Noir. The Pinot Gris was good but not particularly memorable; the Pinot Noir was excellent!

A note about Thanksgiving wines: People make a big fuss over which wines you can and can’t serve with Thanksgiving dinner but, if you do a little bit of research online, you will notice that a very broad range of wine types have been recommended by various wine experts. It’s as though each wine expert wants to be the more daring or creative one by recommending a wine that nobody has suggested before. The only wines you really want to avoid serving at Thanksgiving are wines that are too sweet, too oaky or too high in tannins. Other than that, I say pretty much anything goes!

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!