Month: March 2011

Between the Zig Zag and Lecosho.

I took a detour home tonight, stopping briefly for dinner by a Fireside.

Wendy invited Mr. T & I over for happy hour with her and her husband, D. We enjoyed amazing drinks — I was so impressed by D’s skills.

Later, back east of Greenlake, we picked up takeout at our favorite neighborhood place: Savatdee. The Lao menu’s been updated! I have a new challenge to work through. I started with #1, the Lap Ped Yang (duck salad). Delicious!

Valentina invited a crew of us to meet the CEO of Foodspotting. We spent our lunch hour enjoying a variety of The Row House Cafe’s specialties. I knew I was going to love the place when I realized there were FIVE types of grilled cheese sandwiches on the menu. I hope to take my book club gang there sometime — it’s a great coffeehouse with a wonderful, casual menu.

Like some kinda Pied Piper, Where Ya At Matt drew out all the Louisianans (and then some) to a crawfish boil at Le Bon Ton Roule in Fre-lard. Mr. T and I got a half pound + a full pound (respectively, though portions seemed far smaller than I recalled a pound being) and joined my ol’ friend Karen from Louisiana under the tents. Right as we wrapped up our food, rain blew in under the tents and ran us off. Well, it was good while it lasted.

Mr. T took this picture before the monsoon hit:

I didn’t leave my house today, so here’s another from the backyard.

Catching up on my documentary queue tonight, with stories of the Berlin Airlift.

Several times a month, I drive along 36th in Fremont. I used to live nearby and the Troll under the bridge was commonplace to me.

Today, I noticed a rare sight – zero tourists snapping photos as I approached. I stopped to take a picture.

We took a distracting walk with The Baron through Ravenna at dinnertime.

During last year’s cold Summer, I gave up (effectively) on most of my culinary plants. Tonight, I investigated a bit more to see if anything remained. I found my hardy marjoram!

The month’s Burger of the Month excursion was to Toulouse Petit, for my third visit to the establishment. During the first one, a year and a half ago, the environment was so loud I couldn’t hold a comfortable conversation with my future in-laws. The second was a riot, for my bachelorette party, and we were up for noise. This 3rd visit was just right for me for this Monday night — not too noisy to enjoy our pleasant company.

I ordered the beef burger medium rare and Mr. T ordered the lamb burger, as the gang split or shared some of both, along with grits, crawfish beignets, and other Creole plates. I was at first underwhelmed by its presentation — the burger appeared naked for the way the menu chatted it up. I mean, look at that rundown listed above. You expect it to be The One. Instead, there seemed a few wispy strands of onions and a smudge of sauce to go with the ample cheese.

For a moment, I thought it was. Turns out I’m easy for Stilton on beef, so I was in heaven as I wolfed down the first quarter; I was starving and so thrilled to be eating I wasn’t taking time to assess components. Then you could hear the rumblings as commentary began. E pointed out the bun/burger ratio was way off. A shrugged. Others followed with a general ‘meh’ and Mr. T mumbled something about liking yesterday’s more.

There were other highlights of our meal. The die-hard potato lovers graded the pommes frites well. E’s asparagus had me fantasizing about upcoming Spargelzeit. The crawfish beignets were an awful lot like the best fried crawfish balls — maybe just as good as what you can get at any number of well-known Cajun places in southern Louisiana.

All in all, we agreed the BOM outing wasn’t one of the best for the intended purpose. But we’ll be back, for those Creole options.

The lilacs are coming!

We paid our first visit to Uneeda Burger today. I recommend the lamb burger with tempura lemon, though the Western burger wasn’t shabby.

I wonder if this Uneeda sign or that one inspired the name.

Daffodils are now ubiquitous in the local markets! We picked up a set for today’s birthday girl.

Mr. T bought a new camera this AM. He took these before and during the surprise gathering.

My friend Marion reserved the Needle & Thread speakeasy for her birthday tonight. There is no set menu generally — the bartenders ask your preferences and improvise. But tonight, there was a Marion cocktail that went through 7 iterations before we left. (I’d ended my run for the evening after Marion #2, since I have a big day planned tomorrow.) The Marion started out very pink but not far off from a Negroni, and evolved into something more Champagne and Elderflower by 1 AM.

I highly recommend this space for private parties.

Recently, Mr. T’s developed an interest in photography, which I fully encourage. He spent a lot of the evening using my camera and caught some good pictures of friends.

The Birthday Girl and B

J & B, who I also spent the weekend with, on Bainbridge last week

The neighbor’s tree, under the moon tonight.

Misty rocks.

For the 3rd time, we planned a girls-only Catan night. Except when we showed up at the Beveridge Place Pub, it was Trivia Night! We adjusted our plans accordingly. At one point, Misty said she wanted her picture on someone’s blog. Done and done. It’s not that common to find someone that psyched to have their picture taken so I was excited to be posting this, too. I’ll have to snap her picture more often.

Beveridge Place Pub is very much into allowing everyone to bring their own food to gather. (It’s a great Third Place.) We took advantage of their encouragement and Kristi made and brought in pulled pork for sandwiches. It was awesome:

Picture by Marika, from instagram.

Our setup was quite the conversation starter in the packed pub.

Team Wood for Sheep placed 5th. Not too shabby for our first night out.

Also awesome: yesterday’s sunset in Seattle.

Surprise daffodils sprung up along our back fence line. However did they get there? Doesn’t matter, but I’m happy to note Spring is less than a week away. Yesssssss.

Happy Pie Day! We celebrated with key lime pie after dinner.

I planned to leave Bainbridge around lunchtime. It’s such a peaceful place, I didn’t make it away to the return ferry until 4:30. I was home in the nick of time for a makeup dance class.