Next week Edible Thoughts embarks on another sojourn to France. Our first stop is Lyon, where we spent two days at the end of our trip last year. As promised, we’re renting a flat so we can cook with some of the ingredients from the weekend market. After Lyon, we hit the road for points south. Check out the posts in the weeks to come.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2016/08/23/coming-distractions/
Aug 21
Distinguishing the Tourists from the Locals in Seattle
It’s high tourist season in Seattle. Cruise ships disgorge their human cargo upon returning from Alaska. Would-be hipsters from Sheboygan, Savannah, and Seagoville arrive in search of legal recreational weed (or to attend Hempfest, which happened to be this weekend). Discerning between the two groups at Pike Place Market is easy.
Definitely a Local
Parks in a nearby garage, takes the bus, or rides their bike
Dresses in flannel shirt with a wool hat, even in 90° weather
Footwear consists of Birkenstocks or other sensible shoes
Keeps to the right
Avoids the area of the Market next to the fish-chuckers unless buying fish from them
Buys flowers, or something for dinner
Definitely a Tourist
Tries to drive through the Market, thinking s/he can get a parking spot on the street
Honks horn to get pedestrians to cross faster (horn honking is a serious faux pas hereabouts)
If a female, totters on spike heels over the cobblestones
Takes selfie at “original” Starbucks (which actually isn’t the original Starbucks), or the Gum Wall (back in gooey, gross splendor after being cleaned last summer)
Stands in the middle of the aisles obstructing traffic
Buys a t-shirt, maybe
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2016/08/21/distinguishing-the-tourists-from-the-locals-in-seattle/
Aug 20
Even the Trees are Sweating
It’s been a hot couple of days here. The National Weather Service has issued a severe heat warning through tonight. This morning I noticed an odd thing on the big Douglas fir off our deck: Sap drizzling down the cones. The sap resembles an icicle, but no self-respecting bit of ice could last more than a minute outside today.
It’s a sap-sicle!
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2016/08/20/even-the-trees-are-sweating/
Aug 14
Feeding Between the Lines, BBQ Edition
As I’ve mentioned before on this blog, many of our friends have food allergies, intolerances, and aversions. This can make menu-planning a bit of a minefield. However, last night’s barbecue at Casa Sammamish was a high water mark. Most of the main offerings accommodated everyone (or we had alternatives).
Julian wanted to barbecue some ribs for the crew. We’d made a recipe with Thai mango sauce from Hugh Carpenter’s Ribs cookbook, and thought it would be suitable for the feast. The sauce was naturally gluten- and egg-free. We left out the garlic from the recipe to allow the allium-intolerant person to try them. We also purchased some hamburger and portabello mushrooms in case the ribs were too weird for the kids. I made a fennel salad with orange and teardrop grapes (purple seedless grapes that are shaped like tiny icicles). Others brought allium-free salads and guacamole. We had gluten-free burger buns for the intolerant/allergic kids. The mom of said children made gluten-free, egg-free peanut butter cookies. (Fortunately, we don’t have any peanut allergies in our group–yet.) And we even had a zucchini-free meal to satisfy Julian and the other summer squash-averse men.
As is typical at these get-togethers, nobody starved. We had plenty of beer, wine, and non-alcoholic beverages for everyone. The conversation was abundant. We watched some of the Olympics, mostly on CBC (the Canadian Broadcasting Company). We sent the remaining gluten-free buns home with the kids and their parents. Best of all, we have leftovers of the ribs, barbecue sauce, and salad for tonight’s dinner.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2016/08/14/feeding-between-the-lines-bbq-edition/
Aug 08
Weekend at Mount Baker
If your idea of a good day hike is encountering busloads of tourists going to the souvenir shops, go to Paradise at Mount Rainier or Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park. Mount Baker National Forest is a more rustic experience. Most of the hiking trails are unpaved. Access to the trailheads is not for the faint of heart–or vehicle. You will encounter joint-jarring boulder fields, mountain streams, and snowfields in August. However, you’ll see some phenomenal scenery that the bus tourists can’t access.
Mount Baker is better known as a ski resort. Because of heavy snowfalls, its ski season is longer than resorts farther south in the Cascades. Summer is a quieter time in the National Forest. The lodge and lifts are closed. The Highway has some cringeworthy switchbacks and shoulder-less stretches, especially east of the ski area.
We drove up to Mount Baker Friday night after work. We set up at the Blue T Lodge on the outskirts of Glacier. The Blue T is next to the Chair 9 Restaurant and Bar, which boasts the “Last or First Cocktail” depending on what direction you’re traveling on the Mount Baker Highway. After a fine breakfast at Graham’s, we went to the Ranger Station to get a trail recommendation. We chose Lake Ann.
Lake Ann, the destination for our hike.
The Lake Ann trail starts as a downhill stroll through the forest until you reach a valley of wildflowers–and mosquitos. From then it’s a long slog up a boulder field. You also have some streams to ford. Finally, after a short stroll on a snowfield, you see the lake. You can also see the glacier on Mount Shuksan, Mount Baker’s sister mountain.
Mount Shuksan, and its glacier.
As a National Forest, dogs are welcome on the trails at Mount Baker. Not so in the National Parks, unless the dogs are for service purposes. We saw canines on the trail ranging from chubby chihuahuas to German shepherds. We also encountered many hikers with kids of various ages and enthusiasms. One toddler was not happy to be in his dad’s backpack. Then we saw a couple with four little girls, three of whom could have been triplets. These kids were troopers. They passed us at one point, and the girls weren’t whining in the least.
The hike was pretty strenuous for us, since we hadn’t been on a real death march for two years. We drove back to Chair 9 and devoured a pizza, then both of us crashed after dinner. Julian had leg cramps all night. I slept like a rock.
We highly recommend staying near Mount Baker the nights before and after a long day hike. You’ll be able to get an early start. Your legs may be hamburger, especially after the Lake Ann down and up slog. You’ll find numerous condos for rent during the summer, plus a few restaurants in Glacier where you can carbo-reload. Save your driving until the next day.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2016/08/08/weekend-at-mount-baker/
Jul 29
Bothell’s Bouncing Back!
Early on the morning of July 22, a fire broke out in a building under construction on Main Street in downtown Bothell. It quickly grew to three alarms. Fire departments from around the area came to fight the flames. Not only was the origin of the fire destroyed, the building across the street was a total loss. It housed a neighborhood café and several small businesses, some of which had no insurance. Luckily, no resident or firefighter was injured or killed. The fire could have been much worse, as many of the Main Street buildings are wood frame structures. Here’s a video link that gives a drone’s-eye view of the damage.
The fire was so hot, even the crane melted.
This is what’s left of the building that housed the Kozy Corner Café and other small businesses.
Since the fire, the city has rallied to support the business folk who lost everything. One brewpub held a benefit earlier in the week. Last night Julian and I went to a block party on Main Street. Surviving businesses were donating a portion of their profits to the cause. The local Rotary Club was taking up a collection for the firefighters’ fund. A band was playing. The Hop and Hound, a local drinkery, hosted a beer garden. And many people, including us, got their first chance to survey the carnage.
The community spirit is what impresses us the most about Bothell. Some of the outpouring is grieving the loss of longtime hangouts, but it’s also supporting folks who may have lost everything. Bothell will bounce back.
The sign sums it up.
An update: Last week’s block party netted over $60,000 to benefit the small businesses that lost everything. Main Street reopened today. Still no word on the cause of the fire.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2016/07/29/bothells-bouncing-back/
Jul 18
Iced Tea Season at Last!
When I lived in Texas and North Carolina, iced tea season lasted from March to November. Here in the northwest, it’s abbreviated because of the cooler climate. Last week I declared it iced tea season, to great rejoicing. However, we needed tea suitable for iced tea.
As I have said time and again, iced tea is to be black, strong, unsweetened, and unsullied by other flavors. Unfortunately, I live amongst too many Philistines here in Seattle. Even the venerable Perennial Tea Room in Pike Place Market will sample tutti-frutti iced teas. This is the equivalent of the snickerdoodle coffee that a cookware store in Greensboro used to hawk–and which made Julian gag. Luckily, amazon.com happens to sell Luzianne, the ne plus ultra of iced tea bags. Since Julian had to order some other stuff, it was no problem to add a box to the shipment.
Put some south in your mouth–but don’t sweeten it.
There are many ways to get from teabag to a tall, cold glass. One can brew the tea the traditional way, by boiling water and letting the tea steep a few minutes. If you really want a strong brew that can stand to be diluted by lots of ice, this is the way to go. Sun tea caught on in the 1980’s. I often make refrigerator door light tea: Put the teabags in a pitcher of cold water and chill overnight. Cold brewing extracts less of the tannins that can make tea too bitter for some palates.
Once the tea is dark enough, fish out the teabags and pour some over ice in a glass. If you must, you can add a spritz of lemon. Don’t sweeten it. Save those sugar calories for more important things, like peach cobbler. For the full effect, drink the tea underneath a ceiling fan or in front of an air conditioner and complain about how ungodly hot it is. Ah, summer!
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2016/07/18/iced-tea-season-at-last/
Jul 17
Acting out of Fear
After the attack in France last week, one of my best friends encouraged me to avoid Nice later this year. My mother asked yet again, “You’re really still going to France?” Mercifully, my sister did not ask the same thing when I talked to her today. I know they’re speaking from concern for our welfare. Where does the acting out of fear stop, though? Folks moved out of NYC after 9/11 out of fear. Paris has had a drop in tourists since the attacks last year because of fear. Probably Disney World has had a fall in attendance after the Pulse night club massacre, not to mention the alligator attack, because of fear. I could walk out the front door of our condo and be hit by a meteor, but I’m still going grocery shopping this afternoon. I refuse to huddle in a bunker in Montana and eat canned pork and beans just to be “safe”. If you let fear control your life, those who profit from fear (be they terrorists or a certain political candidate) win. I’d rather act out of faith, hope, and love–with a dash of prudence thrown in to keep my mother calm.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2016/07/17/acting-out-of-fear/
Jul 16
The Hard Part
As you may recall from my earlier post, Victory, the Forterra Land Conservancy has agreed to buy the Wayne Golf Course and sell it to the city of Bothell. Grants have been secured for over half of the final sales price. Now comes the hard part: What do we do with the land once we have it?
The city of Bothell sponsored an online survey and two “visioning” sessions to solicit input from citizens regarding land use. The City Council held a study session on July 12 to hear the report on the survey and visioning meetings. The overwhelming consensus of the citizenry is to keep much of the land as open space with a minimum of active use (play fields and the like). In addition, restoring the Sammamish River so it can sustain fish and wildlife was a high priority. It was therefore disconcerting to hear the comments of some of the City Council members going in an opposite direction. A few examples:
- One Council member advocated keeping it as a golf course that the city would run.
- Another member suggested keeping part of it as an “executive” or “disk” golf course.
- The former mayor (who, as you recall, secretly bought the back nine and wanted to develop luxury homes on it) is now advocating for a swimming pool and play fields on the property.
Allow me to give a reality check to our elected leaders, based on my vantage point as a neighbor of the golf course:
- The original owners of the Wayne Golf Course wanted to sell because they were losing money on golf. Most of the front nine is covered by a conservation easement. The back nine is not covered by a conservation easement (although that may be an option to gain funds from King County); however, much of the land is quite boggy. The number and location of the water hazards change with every rainfall. It would take yards of fill to support a structure such as a swimming pool or a soccer field. The presence of Waynita Creek imposes a boundary on and limitation to development.
- Most golf courses make their real money through drinks, meals, and catering events such as weddings. The current clubhouse requires significant improvements to bring it up to code and Americans with Disabilities Act compliance. The current kitchen is far too small for a catering operation.
- Golf courses are environmentally unfriendly due to the use of pesticides and fertilizers. This goes against the goal of salmon habitat restoration.
- Extensive infrastructure improvements are needed to allow access to the golf course/future park. Waynita Drive is already clogged with traffic.The city has no plans to widen the street, replace the woefully inadequate wood-foundation bridge, or add a crosswalk for people to travel safely between the front and back 9. Unless these improvements are made, putting anything more than a low-impact park there will be fraught with frustration for people who arrive by car.
- Much ado is made about parking. There is an existing parking lot on the front 9, along with parking associated with Red Brick Road Park. While having a few paved parking spaces is optimal for disabled access, limiting the amount of impermeable surfaces is necessary to reduce runoff into the river.
Citizens of Bothell need to make their voices heard loud and clear to the City Council. Otherwise, the Wayne Golf Course may meet the fate outlined in Joni Mitchell’s song, Big Yellow Taxi:
“Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone?
They paved Paradise and put up a parking lot.”
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2016/07/16/the-hard-part/
Jul 16
Say It Ain’t So!
We were downtown on our monthly coffee run (for Julian, not me). We made another stop at the Spanish Table, one of our go-to joints for good, cheap wine and ingredients for paella. The first clue that something was amiss was a sign that the deli case was for sale. Then I saw the sign above the wine: The store is closing at the end of August. Steve Winston and Sharon Baden, the longtime owners, are retiring. The Paris Grocery, the sister store down the block, will remain open and carry some of the items from the Spanish Table. I may have to go back next month and pick up some last-minute provisions (or cookbooks) before it closes.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2016/07/16/say-it-aint-so/
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