When a friend arrives at your front door not only with his toolbox for some awesome handyman work (Gavin, you are the BEST!) but also with a bag of beautiful red pears what do you make? Pear Crisp sounds good this time of year but if you are lucky enough to still have arugula growing in your garden why not do a delicious Autumn salad?

Here’s a recipe for an Arugula and Pear salad from Rachel Ray using a combo of my favorite simple ingredients (including Gorgonzola and toasted walnuts!!!!) that combined together are absolutely delicious especially when the temperature starts to dip and the tomatoes just don’t taste like summer anymore!
Bon Appetit!

This past weekend Seattle Library held their Friends of the Seattle Public Library book sale in a giant warehouse in Magnesun Park. We almost didn’t go, thinking the crowds would be horrific, but with prices like this, who could resist?

We were so happy to find the sale totally organized and although we arrived at around 10ish on Saturday morning the crowds were really bearable, I mean the place is huge – suddenly cavernous becomes COZY!

Seriously, there must have been hundreds of thousands of books! All categorized by genre, you basically just had to take a deep breath and dig in to find that gem you were looking for! Great books and great people watching!

There were people of all shapes and sizes but you could definitely tell who were the dealers – they literally were gathering up boxes of books all on little roll carts and some had the mobile “scanner” app to get a retail price on the book. It was all very interesting and there was definitely something for everyone!

Some managed to find space better than others (and not get trampled!)

So Seattle!

And don’t forget the little ones! Gotta get them started off on the right literary foot!

In case you need re-fueling – it wouldn’t be Seattle without a caffeine kick!

Time to check out – a little overwhelmed, we didn’t go super crazy but walked away with at least a dozen or so books!

Maybe your local library is doing something similar? Check it out and for all your Seattle bookworms, until next time…
Holiday Mini Book Sale Saturday, November 20, 2010

Spring Book Sale April 15 – 17, 2011

Maybe by now everyone’s seen this but if not check it out! This is one friendly or in-love alpha kitty!
Scroll down for the entire love fest – this is all happening in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania!

Love amongst the leaves!

Just scratch my back please!

Just plain cozy

overcome with passion or something! (my favorite!)

This past Saturday was totally Indian Summer in Seattle! Bright blue sky, big white puffy clouds and temps in the low 70′s – just gorgeous! Sunday countered with a little drizzle and cloudy, gray skies. Time to relax and get cozy! The perfect day for a long walk all around Queen Anne. You can walk forever here, there are so many great streets with beautiful houses and lots of gardens still growing things. Even several pumpkin vines I am keeping my eye on.

We stopped to gather horse chestnuts – they are non edible so they will end up on my table or something. Pumpkins are showing up at all the grocery stores but of course there are plenty of pumpkin patches to go to and that’s where we’ll be!

We stopped by Macrina Bakery to have a coffee and just look at the beautiful breads – soup and bread, Fall staples in my book! (check back for lots of soup recipes!)

I’ll take a loaf of that and definitely the one with the Kalamata olives too!

Where are the greatest places to go to in Seattle in Autumn? I plan on figuring this out sooner rather than later! If you’re an Autumn fan then button up ’cause that’s Cozyland’s favorite season and there’ll be lots to read about!

Thanks to modern technology – and in this case the wonders of SKYPE, although I now live in Seattle and my book club is in Los Angeles I was still able to participate via this application! Of course this was not nearly as fun (or easy) as actually being there but at least it was something! Thanks to everyone in the book club for taking the photos and helping with the notes, could not have done it without you!

A Hedgehog. Spiky on the outside, elegant on the inside!

And of course, host with the most, Craig who somehow managed to work probably a 10 hour day and then still come home and welcome 5 book club bombshells into his home!

Below, the gang at Craig’s house. Yup, here we are – spiky on the outside, elegant on the inside?

It seemed that not everyone fell in love with this book and the discussion was not as thorough as usual. Some thought the author was verbose or nothing seemed to happen and the story just didn’t move enough? Coupled with maybe we were a bit distracted when Elizabeth brilliantly asked everyone to go around the table and tell the highlight of their summer? There were several juicy stories but
can you say “multi-colored sarape?

And were we further distracted when we each gave Miriam our favorite childhood book as our own book club version of a baby shower?

Little Henry already is off to a good start into the world of Literature!

Come on Craig, who needs to cook lasagne after a day like that?
Middle Eastern cuisine delivered right to the doorstep! Lots of it and delicious!

And the usual gallons of wine!!!! Cheers Meredith and Miriam!

I too was not a big fan of this book at first although was liking it more and more towards the end. I have found that being in a book club, and actually being “assigned” a book to read makes me finish books I would otherwise abandon. And then to refresh my memory for the club’s discussion I went back and re-read quickly and found parts that I really liked.

I liked that the book takes place in Paris (although it really just centers around the various different apartments in one particular building and rarely ventures out of this setting).

I liked how there was a lot of tea drinkers in this book. A quote from Renee “when tea becomes a ritual it takes its place at the heart of our ability to see greatness in small things”.

The good guys seemed to own cats!

And most importantly, and one of the points of the book, they had an appreciation for the simple, smaller things (camellias on moss) in life that many overlook.

Elizabeth and Sara enjoying the simple things. Or, just drunk.

So then on to what seems to be the favorite part of the evening, where we cast the book as if it were a movie. What can we say, this is a Los Angeles book club….

The casting:

We are pleased to announce with this ensemble cast and Parisian location our director is none other than Woody Allen.

And I will take this time to note that although no hedgehog ever appeared in the book, if it did, it would be played by Craig’s dog Coco.

The concierge, Rene – Kathy Bates or Yolande Moreau (a French actress who looks like Kathy Bates!)
Paloma – 12 year old Jodie Foster or Scout from To Kill a Mockingbird
Manuella, Renee’s tea drinking friend – Sophia Loren playing a Portuguese
Ozu Koiziumi – Former Prime Minister of Japan Junichiro Koizumi or Nobu
Ozu’s assistant Paul Nuygen – Jason Wu
Lucien, Renee’s husband – Jacques Cousteau
Maman – Carla Bruni
Papa – Roman Polanski
Colombe – Paloma’s sister – Lindsay Lohan or either Olson twin or both…
Tibere, the drug addicted son – Michael Cera
Tibere’s father – Nicolas Sarkozy
People in the building:
Jacinth Rosen- Anjelica Huston
Arthrens – the food critic – Jeremy Irons
Arthrens druggie son Jean – Justin Timberlake

Perhaps because of a lack of affection for this book, a little dose of Attention Deficit Disorder and little to no knowledge of French actors, that is as far as we got in the casting, highly unusual for this club! But we did manage to scrape together a pool of actors who we thought could fill in those gaps. Keep in mind we were going for a kind of haughty, snobby and potentially mean spirited crowd..
For the assorted men in the building we would consider:
Edward Norton
James Spader
Mr. Green Jeans (are we sure?)
Mr. Rogers
Morgan Freeman
Andrew McCarthy
Anthony Hopkins
The entire Obama family
(I’m adding two of my favorite French actors for authenticity : Jean Reno, Vincent Cassel)
Women in the building:
Blythe Danner
Gwyneth Paltrow
Chloe Sevigny
Gina Rowland
Catherine Deneuve
Juliette Binoche
Ines de la Fressange
Cher (she has to be in there!!!!)

Did we forgot to cast the homeless man that was ultimately the cause of Renee’s fate? Or did I just not hear that? Please club members, let me know! (maybe this is where Cher fits in?)

The book club also selected the next selection of books. Next club meeting is being hosted by Meredith and is to be held somewhere on the weekend of December 4th:
Below, the order, with the host and the book!

Meredith – The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
Leslie – The Russian Debutante’s Handbook by Gary Shteyngart
Elizabeth – Olive Kittridge by Elizabeth Strout
Sara – Never Let me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
Craig – The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
Miriam – Menonite in a Black Dress Rhoda Janzen

Until next time bad boy and girls,
Yours truly, Leslie
and our mascot

What the what?
That’s Whatcom County in northern Washington where all the farms are! And this Saturday they had their annual free County Farm Tour. A chance to go to eleven of the farms that grow the gorgeous, local produce Seattlites can buy from the farmer’s markets and stores and put on the dinner table each night!

As fresh as it gets! (I bought these potatoes!)

Whatcom County is about 1.5 hours from Seattle and mostly a very pretty drive. I started out my day with enthusiastic recruitees Kimberly and Lori with our first stop at the local PCC Natural market to grab our map and a little lunch for the road. How lucky were we that Lori knew how to negotiate her way around those country roads – we couldn’t have done it with out you and your expert driving!
We were shooting to visit 5 of the 11 farms but only made it to 4. That just means lots more to explore!

Our first farm was Bellingham Country Gardens.

This is where I got my ‘taters dug right out of the ground! Although we were told that it wasn’t a very big crop that year they also had plenty of squash, pumpkins, carrots, beets and lots more!

One scary scarecrow!!!!

Our next stop was at Cloud Mountain Farm.

They have an extensive nursery which is a favorite among the locals. We took a beautiful walk through the apple orchard! So many trees and so many different varieties of apples!

Tomatoes (below) still growing like crazy!

Whats a drive through the country without a stop at the local general store? Lori had the inside scoop on a this one called “Everybody’s Store” - I’m pretty sure because it has something for – you guessed it, everybody!

From the La Times:
(Everybody’s) will bag organically grown produce, medicinal herbs, home-baked goods,wines and smoked salmon, plus books, wool hats and socks.”

The deli looked particularly amazing with lots of gourmet cheeses and Kimberly vows next time we return (to pick our pumpkins!) she’s getting a liverwurst sandwich! (I think I’ll probably stick with turkey..)

They had a great selection of candy including these espresso beans. Cool beans!

And these cool seed packages

Next stop on our tour was Boxx Berry Farm. And can you believe we had to drive through something called “Raspberry Ridge” to get there? Yup, this is where they grow the most raspberries in the country!!! The bushes were bursting and there were fields of them! Did I mention this is my favorite fruit! I had really come to the right place!

Wikipedia tells us:

Whatcom County is the top producer of raspberries in the state. According to the Seattle Times, in 2004 Whatcom County growers produced 46 million pounds of raspberries, 85% of the state’s crop. Given that the state itself is the #1 producer of raspberries in the country, with over 87.8% of the crop in 2002, this makes Whatcom County responsible for almost 75% of the nation’s raspberry production.
They also tell us that Russia and Serbia are HUGE producers – who knew?

It took a few u-turns but we finally arrived at Boxx Berry Farms.

This place was hopping! They really had a lot of great stuff going on from the little train ride for the kids

To free tastings and tractor rides for the adults! This actually was the highpoint of the day for us as we learned some cool things about farming. My take away: Blueberry bushes live for 40-50 years. Raspberry bushes for 8-10 while strawberry plants about 3 years.

Also, they had a huge field of carrots planted for the purpose of freezedrying and sending to nations in need such as Haiti. Love this!

The samples of local ice cream with homemade strawberry sauce were to die for!!!! (and I don’t even love strawberries but this was sooooo good!). They also were giving away roasted corn on the cob and are hosting the 9th annual Whatcom Harvest dinner on September 26th which I’m guessing will be pretty great! The menu sounds amazing with items like grilled oysters on the halfshell with heirloom tomato mignonette and sweet onion aioli and Lummi Island wild reefnet gravlax on rye toast with apple butter and crème fraîche. Oh my God…………..!!!!!!!!!!!

Last stop of the day was Bellewood Acres. You’ve heard of wine tasting? Well, now try apple tasting!
I’ll be a purist and have mine without homemade peanut butter please!

They have 25,000 apples trees are divided amongst varieties such as Gravenstein, Zestar, Tsugaru. Sansa and Sunrise. Ok, so I’ve only heard of one of these before – I’m learning!!!

They also grow pumpkins, decorative gourds and corns. And have a great gift shop with fresh ground Honey Roasted Peanut Butter, gourmet honey, caramel, and jams. New this year is our Apple Cider Vinegar and Apple Cider Syrup.

And I should also mention the bakery with apple pies and turnovers and a couple excellent cheeses too.

This post is making me hungry!!!!

I love that I can know some of the farms that my food might come from! And I will continue to explore the region and take lots of pictures so check back here for more info! And in the meantime, support your local farmer!

We were so lucky to catch a cooking demonstration from the Seattle Food Geek on Thursday night at the Queen Anne Farmer’s Market.

I’d heard of Seattle Food Geek (Scott Heimendinger is the man behind the glasses) but being still so new in town hadn’t really checked him out yet. I was thrilled to see that we caught him almost at the beginning of his demonstration on how to cook salmon sous vide and on a cedar plank. I really liked Scott’s style – he is interesting, informative and entertaining! I caught a definite sense of humor running through his presentation – he just seems like a really cool guy who after he gets done his true geek day job at Microsoft he becomes geek chef extroidinaire!

So we all know what a cedar plank is (how come his didn’t catch on fire like mine did?) but what the heck is sous vide?

Wikipedia tells us: Sous-vide (pronounced /suːˈviːd/), French for “under vacuum” is a method of cooking that is intended to maintain the integrity of ingredients by heating them for an extended period at relatively low temperatures. Food is cooked for a long time, sometimes well over 24 hours. Unlike cooking in a slow cooker, sous-vide cooking uses airtight plastic bags placed in hot water well below boiling point (usually around 60 °C or 140 °F).

Scott served samples of both styles of salmon with a drizzle of buerre blanc. Both were delicious but I have to say I’m still partial to the cedar plank style but was really happy to learn about this sous-vide method I’d never heard about. And also about a major new cookbook called Modernist Cuisine that’s coming out that will make foodie history.

From the Modernist Cuisine website:

Modernist Cuisine is a six-volume, 2,400-page set that is destined to reinvent cooking. The lavishly illustrated books use thousands of original images to make the science and technology clear and engaging.

and a quote worth taking note of:
“This book will change the way we understand the kitchen.” — Ferran Adrià

That sounds like one helluva book (retailing at $600! Hope our Seattle Food Geek doesn’t get the crazy “Julie and Julia” idea to cook every recipe out of this book – that would take a really long time and make one very very long movie and I would need a lot of popcorn!