it would be an honore, sir

there's a little nugget of gold hiding in ballard. i stumbled upon it last week. this one-block stretch on 14th & 70th, between a bunch of houses, is filled with potential treasures: Honore Artisan Bakery, A Caprice Kitchen, an art studio that offers classes (i didn't catch the name) and a bar called Tarasco's (they have karaoke Saturdays). All of these places seem to have something of value to offer you, even if it is as simple as a croissant au jambon or a cup of coffee.

eaten by simple folk

According to the wikipedia reference guide, Tagliatelle was once available only for the bourgeoisie and was served on silver plates. These days, however, it is a much less sophisticated tradition and can be eaten by the "simple folk." I may be simple, but get real people, I still eat all of my meals on silver plates. Allison made this the other night. She prefers to smash the peas between her teeth because she likes the feeling, so you can skip that step too if you want an extra activity while you eat. Also, her version was even more tasty because she used spinach & chive fettuccine from Trader Joe's and jalapeno chicken sausage, which was spicy and flavorful.

TAGLIATELLE WITH SMASHED PEAS, SAUSAGE & RICOTTA

(Recipe inspired by Giada De Laurentiis)

1 pound fresh or dried tagliatelle pasta (or other wide, long pasta)
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 pound hot Italian sausage, casings removed
1 pound frozen peas, thawed
1 cup whole milk ricotta cheese
1 bunch fresh basil leaves chopped (about 3/4 cup)
1/4 cup fresh grated Pecorino Romano cheese
salt to flavor

DIRECTIONS

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, about 8 to 10 minutes if dry or according to package directions if fresh. Drain pasta reserving 1 cup of the pasta cooking water.

Meanwhile, in a large, heavy skillet heat the olive oil and garlic over medium-high heat and add the sausage. Use a wooden spoon to break up the sausage into bite-sized bits. When the sausage has browned, about 5 minutes. Remove and set aside. Add the peas to the pan and, using the back of the wooden spoon, smash the peas. Turn off the heat. Add the ricotta cheese along with the cooked pasta and toss to coat, adding the pasta cooking water in 1/4 cup additions, if needed, to make the pasta moist. Return the sausage to the pan. Add the basil, Pecorino Romano cheese, and salt. Toss gently to coat and serve immediately.

Cannelloni with Ragu

This recipe is from a "Kids Cook Italian" class I took back in 1996. Time flies, and 13 years later it turns out adults can cook Italian too, and this recipe is still really tasty, and only takes about 1/2 an hour to prepare. It comes with a recipe for ragu, but you can use any sauce you have on hand, I used some bolognese that I made earlier in the week.

CANNELONI A LA RAGU

For the Ragu:

Chopped celery, onion, 5-6 cloves garlic and carrot

.5 lb. ground beef

.5 lb. ground pork

1 can tomatoes

.5 cup milk

.5 cup tomato puree

1 tbsp. Italian seasoning

salt & pepper to taste

Saute vegetables and garlic in olive oil. Add meat and cook until no longer pink, add milk, tomato puree, tomatoes and seasonings. Cook 20 min. or until liquid has reduced considerably.

For the Cannelloni (8-10 servings):

1 pkg. frozen spinach, thawed & drained

15 basil leaves, chopped

1 lb. fresh ricotta

6 oz. shredded mozzarella
salt & pepper

2 eggs

.5 cup grated parmesan

1 lb. fresh pasta sheets (cut into 20, 5x6 pieces)

Ragu (above)

Combine drained spinach, basil, ricotta, mozzarella, salt & pepper and eggs; mix well. Add .25 cup parmesan, reserve the rest for topping. Mix well, and set aside. Preheat oven to 375 degrees and set aside greased, 9x13 pan. Fill cut pasta sheets by putting filling in the center lengthwise and rolling loosely like a fat cigar. Arrange in a single layer in the dish...not too crowded. Spoon sauce over top and cover with remaining parmesan and additional mozzarella if desired. Bake 20 minutes, or until cheeses are melted.

what is cooler than building something that other people get to keep?

Uhhh...building something that YOU get to keep. Dan and I took a class to learn how to build a wood-fired pizza oven. Here it is. We might get invited back to eat pizza out of it once it's all dried.

Until then, we must begin sourcing supplies and convincing friends to be laborers for a day. Also, we need a place to put it.

Here is the recipe for the structure:

1/3 dirt

1/3 clay

1/3 hay

sand and buckets for forming the dome

cement blocks

white bricks

fruit wood

steal plate for cooking surface (Dan's invention)

positively radishing

Ravishing Radish hosted a tasting for ladies and gentlemans getting married at the Georgetown Studios Historic Engine Room in the Original Rainier Brewery Building. The longer the name, the more fun you will have. Guaranteed. Lily and Greg are having a marriage there so we went to check it out, sample some hors d'oeuvres, taste some fancy 5-7 layer cakes and get familiar with the photo booth. All in all it was a pretty sweet afternoon and we got some good photos of the grounds and friends. The best appetizer was crostini with goat cheese, nectarines and honey and the best part of the cake was the pistachio layer with currant mousse and currant coulis. Somebody told me so.

Please take note of the Falafel truck in the last photo. Kelly and I found it on the walk back to her car. It appears that it may not have fled to Portland after all. Unless this is an impostor who wrote "Falafel" on his yellow van. Please confirm.

"sounds like dinner number two to me. did we not feed you enough chili dogs?"

Kristin and Elof moved into a loverly new loft. It is very nice and comes with rooftop access. Rooftop access includes such highlights as: a magic, gas-burning fire pit filled with brown glass beer bottle shards, various owl decoys, free (probably) basil and thyme herbs, one seagull (not scared by the owl decoys) that poops in the corner, three BBQ grills for which to make chili dogs and a view of the entire Puget Sound. You must bring your own novelty-sized bottle of wine. Thanks for sharing your chili, dog.

The KEXP BBQ was free this year with the headliner Dinosaur Jr. I had never heard of them, but they played a nice cover of The Cure's Just like Heaven. Lily said, "this is the only song of theirs I know." Samesies, but only because it's not Dino Jr., it's The Cure.

After the show we went to Tavolata and enjoyed a boatload of pasta dinner and accompaniments. Everything we had was delicious, salumi platter, yellow beet salad with gorgonzola, oxtail pasta, clam pasta, lamb pasta and squid pasta with prawns and anchovies, my most favorite of all was the squid pasta. if you count the salami, during that meal we consumed seven different animals. way to go everybody.

tangy surprise ice cream minis

these ice cream sandwiches are adapted from the Lemon Ice Cream Sandwiches with Bluberry Swirl featured in this month's Gourmet. i'm not going to claim that i used the recipe they provided, although it was 100% what inspired me to go down this path, i made a few significant departures that resulted in an ultimately tangier and more miniature product. here's where i strayed...i did not bake my own sandwich layers. i used the leftover nilla wafers from the cheesequakes. i did not measure a gosh darn thing. i just put some blueberries in a pot and some juice in some ice cream, and ta-dah....it became a dessert. this is a perfect no-bake treat for those who don't like to measure and have come to appreciate the art of eyeballing and taste testing. i have learned that, in life and in cooking, your eyeballs and taste buds rarely let you down.

Here's about what i did, and what ingredients are needed to recreate:

Tangy Lemon Blueberry Ice Cream Snacks

40-50 nilla wafer snack cookies
3 cups vanilla ice cream
1 lemon (juiced and zested)
1 cup blueberries (fresh or frozen, i used frozen)
2 tsp. cornstarch

Mix ice cream with zest of one lemon and 1/2 of the lemon juice, place back in the freezer while you prepare the blueberry compote. Heat blueberries over medium heat until they release some juices, mix cornstarch and remaining lemon juice and add to blueberries. Stir about 5 minutes or until sauce thickens. Refrigerate until cool, about 1 hour. Once the compote has cooled, swirl into ice cream mixture. Sandwich blueberry lemon ice crean between two nilla wafers and wrap in cellophane. Chill another hour before serving. Makes 20+ ice cream sandwiches.