I just found an awesome blog about a mom/wife/awesome lady who does a fun “Foodie Tuesday” every week. She has a dope recipe for the “Best Baked Ziti ever” and I couldn’t resist reading it.

NOW I WANT IT. A LOT. So I’ll be making and freezing a batch at some point in the next couple of weeks. In the meantime, go check it out!!!

Riley, his apple and his Nonna (bad camera phone pictures, sorry!)

Riley and his mommy, my older sister, Kate.

Funny Faces

Seriously, could we BE more related?!

Riley with his Chewie (that's me)

EW, GROSS!

Now that you’ve indulged in massive amounts of cuteness, here’s a great short list put together recently by REAL SIMPLE, that I got in my email. They’ve rounded up the perfect snacks to take on the go this time of year. Great for those days you have to do holiday shopping after work, or a Saturday morning you find yourself running errands all over town.  Rather than stopping somewhere to stuff your face full of greasy, fatty burgers (which I’ll admit, sound amazingly good, and I’ve had a few in as many months recently), pack these budget-friendly items suggested by Madonna Behen to keep your energy up when you’re away from the roost.

• Apples. Though tasty, peaches, pears, and oranges can be messy to eat, and bananas get mushy. Apples can withstand a lot more abuse.
• Protein-rich raw, unsalted nuts, such as almonds, sunflower seeds, and walnuts. Tote these for their sheer indestructibility and relative indifference to air exposure.
• Dried fruit. To keep the sugars in fruits like raisins from crystallizing, empty a few handfuls into resealable bags. (Toss the less airtight boxes.) For items like mangoes and apples, seek out those with no added sugar, to keep calories down and crunchiness at bay.
• Vacuum-sealed tuna packets or tuna-salad kits (complete with mayo and crackers). Like Lunchables, but for grown-ups.
• Celery sticks, baby carrots, olives, cherry tomatoes. These veggies can withstand a fair amount of jostling and time away from the refrigerator.
• Packets of plain instant oatmeal. Empty one into a travel mug before a flight, ask an attendant for boiling water, and you have a quick breakfast with no cup necessary.
• Drinkable yogurt or single-serving containers of applesauce. Punch a straw through the foil and it’s a spillproof, no-utensil healthy snack.
• Dried ginger. A sweet snack that can also help keep motion sickness at bay.

Great, all-natural snacks like fruits, nuts and protein-packed tuna will prevent the 3pm splurge at the drive-thru, while keeping your daily calorie count in check, not to mention your wallet! Thanks to the REAL SIMPLE crew for keeping us on track this holiday season!

Waking up to a beautifully trimmed tree this morning, with homemade stockings just waiting for goodies!

Please forgive me for being away for so long, and if it makes it any better, I’ve got serious holiday surprises and giveaways comin’ round the bend to make it up to you – my 5 readers. As you can see in the above, early AM shot, I have been busily getting ready for the holidays over at Casa Sampson. I took the super hunky boyfriend with me on the tree hunt, and despite being turned away at the logging roads due to too much snow and not enough snow ploughs, we landed the beautiful Noble now gracing my living room:

Super hunky boyfriend, Harrison, with our freshly cut, 7 ft., perky Noble.

Before we get too far down the snow flurry roads filled with giveaways though, I want to gift you the first recipe (if you can call it that) that you’ll want to use at every function you attend. It literally takes less than 5 minutes to pull together, then just slap it in the oven and walk away. You can do this right before you leave for a party, and show up with a warm, crowd pleasing and FAT FREE dip that will knock the socks off anyone that tries it. Make sure to check out the nutritional facts after the recipe, which I got from inputting the whole recipe into my favorite tool, www.myfitnesspal.com. Here we go!

**By the way, there isn’t a picture of the dip because I got caught up in playing with my nephews and forgot to take a picture, but rest assured I’m making this again and will update the post when I have a picture. Better yet, why don’t you make it and SEND me your picture to post in a holiday update! If you do, there might just be a little gift in it for you!

Siiri’s Fat Free Artichoke Dip

• 1 block fat free cream cheese
• ½ a small container of fat free cottage cheese (about a cup or so, this doesn’t need to be exact)
• 1 can artichoke hearts
• 1 egg
• ¼ cup (or a handful) of either bread crumbs or panko bread crumbs (I had panko laying around and you can get it at any grocery store in the same isle as bread crumbs. If you use bread crumbs, you may want to use seasoned ones, regular/plain might be kinda gross…)
• Spices: dill, salt, pepper, garlic powder

Directions:

• Toss the cream cheese, cottage cheese, egg and spices into the food processor (or you can use your magic bullet, but you’ll probably need to do it in 2 phases…) Blend till completely smooth.
• Chop the artichoke hearts roughly so they’re smaller than when they came out of the can. I did NOT do this, and I regret it. Stir drained artichoke hearts into dip.
• Spread into baking dish (You may want to spray with non-stick spray. I did NOT do this and think it would have made the dip brown better on the bottom and also helped the dip release from the dish for better scooping up with your cracker.
• Sprinkle with bread crumbs lightly
• Bake at 400 for 20 minutes. If the bread crumbs have not browned, I turn the oven onto broil and babysit it like a hawk until the top gets brown and pull it out immediately.

Here’s some tips I now have after doing this:

• Salt and pepper it before baking. I didn’t do it since it was my first time and I regret it. I would have added about 1/8tsp pepper and a 1/4 tsp salt before mixing in the food processor
• Bake it in a shallow dish like a pie plate. The thicker the dip, the longer it’ll take to bake.
• Make sure your artichoke hearts are small enough. I think the size really made my dip not as good, it was too much of a mouthful.
• I’d error on too much dill rather than too little. When you’re adding it, it looks like a LOT, but it’s pretty mild, so I’d go for around 2tsps or even 3tsp (which is, of course, 1tbsp)
• If you have something additional to add, like capers, that’d be yummy too.
• Don’t be afraid to really blend the crap out of the mix before you dump and spread into the baking dish. It adds some whipped/airy texture that puffs up in the oven, and adds to the volume.

And here are the awesome nutritional facts:

From my stock of recipes I've created and input into www.myfitnesspal.com

This recipe makes just the right amount for a pie pan or tart pan, which makes for easy carrying to a party, and simple presentation (tart pans of course look a bit more finished). I listed the dish as serving 6 people, so if you’re really watching your P’s and Q’s, you may want to consider gently cutting it into 6 or 8 visible wedges and then just scooping out that much onto your plate. But honestly, it’s so healthy, it really doesn’t matter!

And rather than serving with just crackers, (although Wheat Thins, Triscuts, or homemade crostini are the best for this), I sliced up raw zucchini and cucumber and placed those right next to my dish as a healthier suggestion. By the time you’re ready for dinner, you don’t feel like you’ve already had dinner.

Honey Lavender mini baked cake doughnuts with a cream cheese brown sugar glaze and dried lavender

Double Chocolate mini cake doughnuts, baked, with chocolate glaze and crushed pistachios

Ginger nutmeg mini cake doughnuts with orange glaze and coconut sprinkles

All the kids, ready for a field trip to the office to treat my coworkers!

Just before devouring my birthday churros! YUM

This year, I did a low-key, girls night out in my hood. At one of my favorite places. BARRIO. It’s one of my favorites because they just do the food and service so well. They are not pretentious, the food is by and large fantastic, and they welcome everyone in to try what it is they’re doing.  They even take constructive criticism well, and USE IT, to be better.  That is why I like them.  (*And they’re not paying me to blog about them either. I have been a fan since DAY ONE.)

Because foodies love to share their favorite spots with others, and talk about food until everyone tunes them out, and because everyone loves a little gratuitous food porn, I am sharing a little montage of my birthday dinner with you all.

First of all, get your mind right on this – I want you to really put yourself at my party, okay? We were sitting at this beautiful, long, wood plank table, right at the window line. The windows are these huge, glass, bi-fold windows that they have open during the summer. They take up the entire wall, so really it’s just open to the outside. Love it.

See, amazing open air "windows" right next to us.

And there you see a few of my special ladies: (left to right) Jessica, Rachel and Danae!

So, once we all arrived, about 14 of us, we started ordering a few celebratory cocktails when it became VERY apparent that the drink de jour was The Hotness. Yes, of course that’s it’s name. What’s in it? Glad you asked: cachaça, lime, lemon, st. germain, and soda. It’s got a fresh cucumber slice in it that somehow makes you feel like you’re sitting pool side at a fancy resort. And they go down super smooth, so of course, we each had about 3 of them.

The Hotness

How could you NOT want that?!

So anyway, we decided to order a few small plates to share around since only a few of us were hungry enough for dinner. And I know you want to see what we had, right?!

Civeche plate? Sure, why not!

So what you’re looking at here is the Grilled Prawn & Rock Fish Ceviche with tobiko, mango, cucumber,
habanero, fresno chiles, red onion and cilantro, alongside the ahi tuna crudo in the back there with some fried plantains to scoop up all the goodness. There are no words to describe how fresh and delicate the rockfish was. The avocado was a perfect pairing, and then in the front the grilled prawns were firm and slightly salty, which was great with the pop of tobiko (the orange fish roe you see on top).  Need a closer look?!

Ahi crudo

And…..

Prawns with tobiko

Then it was on to some hotter dishes, the grilled corn (I’m not a corn person, but the girls said it was pretty dang tasty) and the SUPER FREAKING SPICY chicken – little drumsticks:

Grilled corn

And….

These were so spicy, I had to order another drink.

Luckily there was a creamy little Ranch like sauce we had on the side, which saved my mouth!

By now, as you can imagine, the girls are getting a little annoyed with my inability to eat ANY dish before taking 20,000 pictures of it. But we were having a great time, and since it was my birthday after all, they complied.

Here are a few pictures of all the great conversations happening around the table – I love that all these special ladies were having really interesting conversations and many of them were meeting for the first or second time…

Ziglets and I.

And then we had ONE handsome man who was special enough to join ladies night, my precious little honorary nephew, Roman…

I die. all the cuteness.

He was born in May to my dear friends, Akash and Marissa, and he’s the toast of the town.

So you know we ended the evening with churros and chit-chat on the sidewalk, and then a few of us (who hadn’t had their fill of fun yet) traipsed through Cap Hill, did a little birthday shoppy shop and finished the night off with drinks at a local hole called Moe Bar.

All in all, an amazing night, amazing birthday and amazing dinner. What more could a girl want?!  Thank you to all my beautiful and intelligent girlfriends and thanks to the staff at BARRIO for the excellent service and attention to detail – as always you made everything perfection, and I do believe some of my friends that hadn’t been in before really had a great time.

I hope whoever is reading this finds a way to celebrate with their friends and loved ones on their next birthday that makes them and everyone around them smile with happiness in their hearts. I’m so lucky to be surrounded by these gals!

Yeah, HI! Who wouldn't want to curl right up on that couch with a glass of wine, plate of grilled salmon tacos and a hot date?!

And here was my hot date, my dear friend Danae!

Girls night out!!!

A little birdie/foodie friend of mine sent me an exclusive invitation to join him at the Tulalip Casino and Resort up North, which was exciting because I’d never been and have heard the resort service (and linens) are to die for.  So obviously I cleared my schedule and headed North for an afternoon of food, vino and great company….

The chefs couldn't grill it fast enough! The salmon was perfectly done, super moist, and the perfect side kick to the flank steak you see keeping it warm on the grill. YUM

Before I walk you through the seventeen plates I tasted (okay, maybe not that many plates, but my stomach couldn’t tell the difference!) you need a little context about the origin of the meal.  The resorts did themselves a solid by finding a super talent in Chef PerryMascitti, who had this to say about the menu he put together for the event with the Mi Sueno Winery:

“One my last visit to Napa in September 2010 during the crush season, one of our stops was the Mi Sueno Winery.  As we were talking to the staff, I was getting the whole picture of what Rolando Herrera was all about.  He was a great success story with humble beginnings.

Myself and Rolando enjoying what I think was the BEST glass of wine of the night - The Herrera!

And here’s a bit about the wines we sampled:

Rolando Herrera, owner and winemaker of this boutique winery that is Spanish for “my dream”, will be the featured guest at the wine and dine evening.  Mi Sueño, located in California’s Napa Valley, has been honored to have a wine served on three separate occasions at White House state dinners.  At Tulalip, guests will have the opportunity to taste six of Herrera’s wines from the silky Los Carneros Chardonnay to vibrant Pinot Noirs, dark fruit Cabernets and the tantalizing El Llano Cabernet and Syrah blend.

Okay, so now that you know HOW this menu came together, here’s WHAT was on it:

A  Festival of Tastes from México and Pacific Coastal Regions

To Refresh
Jamaica and Horchata Juice Bowls (I forgot to take a picture of the Horchata because I was SO busy drinking 5 glasses of it. How’d I have room for anything else??)

For Tradition

These are the little corn tortillas that sent the most enticing baked corn scent wafting through the patio....you don't see any flour tortillas because I ATE THEM ALL!

Freshly made to order corn and flour tortillas
Grande Salsa Bar  ten different styles of salsa

On Ice

The haute couture of the evening, literally made to order, one of a kind every time. Whatever you want (added in or left out for that matter), and as much as you could stuff in your purse. WHAT?!

Fresh Fuerte Guacamole – Barista made to order (above)

The ceviche was so tender and fresh, with just the right amount of spice from the fresh peppers and citrus. Just the way to warm up your palette before diving into the tacos and salsas!

Ceviche Bar – raw seafood with lime, tomato, garlic, serrano, green onion
Seafood Cocktail with shrimp, scallop, squid in spicy chile sauce

On the Mesquite Grill
Mesquite Pollo ~ California Citrus Glaze

Flank Steak Carne Asada ~ Adobada Spice Rub:

So many salsas to top your flank steak, and yet it would have been perfection even if it stood alone...

Camarones Skewers ~ Tomatillo Sauce

Grilled Salmon ~ Roasted Chile-Honey Mop:

A little mango salsa, a lot of salmon and homemade flour tortilla down the hatch!

To Stuff
Tortas de Carnitas Bar, Cacique cheese, roasted salsa, white onion, avocado, crema

For a Sweet Ending
Caramelized Flan ~ Kahlua Sauce (I missed this, but there’s no way I had room anyway….)

Buñuelos ~ Mango:

Bring me all the desserts. On one plate. Immediately.

Mango, Pineapple and Papaya ~ Lime, crushed raw sugar, chile powder (seen in the glass above, a perfect balance of spicy, sweet and refreshing)

Mexican Wedding Cakes:

That was just my plate. Just kidding. um, not.

Of course we were so stuffed, we stayed the night and hit up the pool and hot tub for a little R&R before retiring to our rooms where we melted in the BEST. SHEETS. EVER.:

Note to self: Order in BULK!....I wonder if it comes with turn down service at home?

And watched the Mafia Marathon on AMC. Classic.

In the morning, we had fully recovered and hit up the cafe in the resort for breakfast, where we split a fruit tray (with the sweetest blackberries I’ve had all year, honestly) and a veggie Benedict with extra crispy hash browns:

Done and................

.....done!

So, that was my food field trip! I laughed (Rolando is a sweet and funny guy!), I cried (when I couldn’t eat anymore), I stuffed my face like a bear facing hibernation…Thank you so much to Chef Perry and his team, and Rolando and his team for coming together and creating what will honestly be one of the best cook outs I’ll ever remember!

I got the inside track on the following two face-stuffingly good items, and if you’re like me (cheap and unable to resist a chance to stuff your face) then you’ll want to be on point, so pay attention!

Both live tomorrow right here: http://www.giltcity.com/seattle, and you can indulge in The Chocolate Box and 106 Pine & Teacake Bake Shop

For the treat deets, click through to the rest of the post and more mouth watering pics!

First……..

The Chocolate Box and 106 Pine

58% Off Wine and Chocolate Pairing for Two with Urban Wine Tour for $90 (Original Price $216.5)

Includes for two:

•  Two flights of wine
•  Six pieces of chocolate to share and pair
•  Two glasses of wine after tasting
•  Two tickets to the “Urban Wine Tour”
•  Signature salted caramel bites
•  Bottle of wine to take home

And Second…….

Teacake Bake Shop

40% Off Fresh Mini Treats Deluxe Sampler for $24 (Original Price $40)

Includes:

• Eight strawberry jam thumbprints
• Eight Mexican wedding cookies
• Eight star sugar cookies
• Eight coconut macaroons
• Eight lemon coconut cookie sandwiches
• Six chocolate cookie sandwiches

Shipping is not included, not for pick up.

+++++++++++++++

Do you need an excuse? How about Labor Day?! How about back to school? How about you’re hungry? I could keep going, seriously…..

First up is a giveaway that starts today and goes till next Friday, being brought to you by a little hometown coffee company you may have heard of, Starbucks.

They recently did a complete redesign of their online store (see above), StarbucksStore.com, and to celebrate, they want to give one of my lucky readers $100 gift card (WHAT?!) to go splurge on the site!  I know, I’m very excited. It does kind of suck that I can’t win it for myself, but then again, I love sharing with my fellow coffee lovers, so I’m happy to give this away!

Want to win? Click through to get the dirt on entering…..

To enter this fabulous giveaway, follow these EASY steps:

1. Head over to StarbucksStore.com and check out all the fun new swag.
2. Find something you’d like to call your very own, and leave me a comment in this blog post with a link, and tell me what it is!
3. One lucky winner will be drawn from all entries (one per person) that are submitted between 8.12.11 and 8.19.11.

GOOD LUCK!

Curious about the new online store? I was too, so I had them send over a few blurbs about what’s new:

·         Coffee and Tea Tours– Purchase a Coffee Tour or Tea Tour and explore different Starbucks coffees and teas.  Seven available tours allow customers to compare and contrast flavors to discover the nuances within a cup, making them the perfect gift – delivered right to their door!

·         Starbucks Reserve Coffees – StarbucksStore.com offers customers across the U.S. access to Starbucks Reserve™ coffee, otherwise only available in select U.S company-operated Starbucks stores. These exotic, rare, and exquisite coffees are hand-selected for their unique flavors and are available in limited quantities.

·         Coffee and Tea Subscriptions – Looking for convenience?  Customers can enjoy the luxury of setting up scheduled deliveries of coffee, tea and Starbucks VIA® Ready Brew right to their door as often as they like.  Experiment and get recommendations from our knowledgeable coffee masters.

SO, on your mark, get set, WIN!

Thanks for celebrating my birthday with me and I can’t wait to see what you guys come back with!

-Siiri

This time around we’re celebrating the recent launch of Fonte’s “The Vault”.  You may have seen my recent post about my 27 coffee cupping I did recently.

What you see is what you get! So for the list of goodies being given away to one lucky winner, plus instructions on how to enter, click through!

Here’s the deal: we’re getting the word out about a great chance to get access to small lots of special roasts.  Here’s more info on what exactly this means:

“The Coffee Vault”
Registered members can source limited quantity, high quality single origin beans.

Beginning July 18, Fonté Coffee will launch a new program called “The Coffee Vault”.  These hand-selected, extremely limited small lot coffees vary in price from $20 a pound and up depending on the bean origin. Fonté will source and purchase a specified amount of single origin beans which will be sent to the roasting plant and placed in a zero oxygen environment to preserve freshness. These rare, unroasted beans will be stored separately so each registered client can call or email Fonté Coffee with their weekly order.  Steve will roast-to-order a one pound minimum of the reserved micro-lot coffee, shipping the following day.

If you want more information on this, you can contact Lara Jones at ljones@fontecoffee.com.

WHAT’S IN THE GOODIE BAG:

• A pound of Fonte F2 Blend
• Two sleek, black logo mugs for you and that special breakfast partner
• A gift card you can use online or in their Seattle store!

TO ENTER:

• Leave a comment on this post with either a question for Steve, Mr. CoffeeKnowItAll from the image above and my cupping, or visit www.fontecoffee.com and leave a comment here with an item you’d spend your gift card on with the link!
• Do this between Thursday, August 4th 4:00pm Pacific and Thursday, August 11th at 5:00pm Pacific to have a valid entry.
• Only one entry per person.  Winner will be chosen at random on 8/12/2011 and notified.

GOOD LUCK AND HAPPY CAFFINATION!

Cream Cheese stuffed lychee with exotic fruits and basil oil

The column, which runs every Tuesday online here: http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/voracious/three-way/, focuses on preparing one ingredient three different ways:

“When your fridge starts to moan and groan from the monotony of the same lame ingredients, it’s time for a culinary three-way. Turning a tired stovetop into a weekday workhorse, Voracious columnist Siiri Sampson brings a fresh, seasonal, or obscure ingredient to life with three treatments: decadent, healthy, and quick-fix.”

So a couple of weeks ago I decided to embark on demystifying the lychee – a true pearl of the South Pacific.

I won’t get into the crazy nitty gritty, for that you can check out the full article, “Exotic Three-Way for Summer with Lychee.” But I did want to show you a couple of pictures like the one above. I did not alter the color, so when you see that bright pink shell/skin on the left, that is truly what the inside looks like. The lychee nut is fleshy and white with the smallest, slender pit that reminds me of a quarter of a walnut. I was able to pry them out relatively easy with a pair of tweezers.

Go check out the article to see how I prepared the lychee and if you’ve got time, stop by your local Asian market to see if they’ve got any. The prime time is about a week or so ago, but you can still find them fresh and always canned – which are almost as good.

Enjoy and happy weekend!