Month: August 2011

Tonight I attended the Tom Douglas Ice Cream Social at the Palace Ballroom.

The Flavors I tried:
By Peaks Custard:
Beautiful Bay Leaf
Chocolate Turtle

Fainting Goat Gelato:
Almond
Salted Caramel
Grapefruit Sorbet

Old School Frozen Custard:
Vanilla Affogato with Zoka Coffee

Procopio Gelato:
Stracciatella
Fig

D’Ambrosio Gelato:
Ricotta
Biscotti

Bluebird Ice Cream:
Theo chocolate

Dahlia Workshop:
Buttermilk Peach Cobbler

Parfait:
Butter Toffee

My favorite was the vanilla custard from Old School.

We had to wrap up the evening at Palace Kitchen with SALADS.

A little wisdom from a center on Ravenna Ave.

Though, I protest a bit: more than a handful of days close to 80 would have been superb.

We met up with the Burger of the Month gang at Uneeda Burger. Mr. T & I had our usual order — the lamb burger with poutine. The most delicious surprise of the night goes to the salted caramel shake.

I caught an evening ferry to Bainbridge tonight, to meet up with friends on the other side.

Spectacular views all around.

My first stop on the island was Hitchcock. My advice regarding Hitchcock: it is a fairly easy walk from the terminal, if you’re not carrying much. I couldn’t imagine enjoying this in the rain — my walk along Winslow Rd took 15 minutes.

If you see a Mexican-inspired watermelon, basil, and cucumber salad on the Hitchcock menu, don’t hesitate to get that. On the salty side, but so delicious I wished it was the whole meal. Others loved their beets. I followed my choice with the Spaghetti (like a Carbonara, but with lambchetta). It needed a bit more oomph, and I learned likewise for the egg fettuccine and the Sablefish. I’d give it another go, though.

We skipped dessert to head to Mora for ice cream!

While running an errand over lunch, I came across this new hotel on the main Ballard drag. Stylish! It fits right in with all the hood’s new cute shops.

An old sign caught my eye as I parked my car this afternoon. 2 more sleeps til I go to Bainbridge to spend the weekend with Carey!

Today was in a tower downtown. Except for the top-notch Afternoon Tea at the Fairmont, and RN74 for dinner.

We journeyed to The Gastrognome’s to help her initiate the new Green Egg she’s babysitting. Her grilled flatbread was amazing, as were the porkchops, and kebobs.

My fave picture of the Gastrognome, of all time!

Karen, Mr. T, and I, along with a few other friends sailed Elliott Bay tonight. Colder than the two prior years, but still lovely.

My food-centric book club discussed As Always, Julia tonight. It’s a compilation of letters between Julia Child and Avis DeVoto. Everyone brought food inspired by Julia Child.

LUPEC Seattle had a bonus mid-month event, thanks to Charles from Google Places. Great to catch up with friends from LUPEC and my Burger of the Month gang. (It’s been too long since I’ve hung out with most of them!)

My favorite book club discussed The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks tonight. Highly recommended.

Motomotoyama brought these snacks for us to eat…except discussion was so good we forgot to eat these until everyone else left.

My friend Marion held a “Boot the Boot” party today, to celebrate her freedom from her demon boot (and recovery from a surgery). She brought in 8 kinds of pie from High 5. The Lemon Shaker was my favorite, but I had to take a pic of the Marionberry.

I approve of these kinds of reminders.

Today was Can-It-Forward Day at Pike Place Market, where a number of friends were involved with coordinating and teaching, along with the folks from Ball. I showed up mid-afternoon to check them out.

The shibaguyz taught the Pepper Jelly class. Remind me to take more classes with them; they’re hilarious.

This giant box of radicchio showed up on the porch today — a gift from an agency in California. I’d canceled my CSA for the week, so this sounded like an okay substitute when they contacted by email. I was envisioning enough endives for one meal, but instead, I got 10 lbs. of three different kinds.

Then out of curiosity, I found myself doing some Friday evening radicchio research. The best findings came from The Silver Spoon — I say yes to Parmesan and butter baked with most vegetables. In the end, tonight we went for roasting after tossing in olive oil. I’d like to try grilling next, but radicchio and walnut rolls (with more Parm + butter) look very promising.

I kinda wish I could remember how long ago I got this. Found in my backpack today.

This fella presides over my bus stop.

Baron the Australian Shepherd, guards for us while we ate dinner.