My Kind of Comfort Food

I first had Mizithra Pasta at Pegasus Pizza in West Seattle many eons ago as a child, except then it was known to me as Greek Spaghetti. I could never figure out what the crumbly white cheese was, but I knew parm didn't come close.

Each bite was a little bit of buttery, garlicky, cheesey heaven for my kiddie taste buds, and it's a dish I haven't outgrown, thankfully.

It's shockingly easy to make, not to mention fast, despite the fact it probably rates up there with many of the all-time heart-attack city foods, it's still one of my favorites.

You'll need 2-4 servings of spaghetti pasta.
5-10 peeled cloves of garlic (adjust according to how much you like garlic)
1/3 stick of butter
1 cup of grated Mizithra cheese

Boil a pot of water for your pasta. I don't suggest salting it because the cheese is plenty salty.
Put your pasta in.

Five minutes before your pasta is finished, make the sauce.

In a frying or saute pan, over medium-high heat, add your butter.

As the butter melts, add your garlic cloves.

Swirl pan around occasionally and watch closely for the butter to turn light brown to a deep amber.

When it is a deep amber, pull from the heat.

I remove the garlic cloves from the pan because I don't want it in my pasta. Kevin puts all the garlic on his pasta

Drain your pasta and toss with the brown butter in the frying pan.

Add your cheese and toss again.

Serve pipping hot.

Foodie Club

I've always wanted to belong to a book of the month club, but there's something in me that rebels against mandatory reading- a holdover from my school days I'm sure. I read plenty on my own, without the pressure or prompting a monthly book club warrants.

Yet I love the idea of getting together with friends at some one's home to experience something communal - a sharing of ideas and opinions.

Expanding my culinary horizons, rather than literary horizons, appeals to me on a much more fundamental level.

Some ideas...

A cookbook of the month club. Everyone purchases the same cookbook, makes one recipe and brings it to the gathering to taste-test and review. Who honestly has time to test out every recipe in a cookbook? I think it would be a fantastic way to expand my cookbook collection and add new dishes to my repertoire.

Cheese of the month club. Each member brings a different representative of the same cheese (brie, blue, etc) and taste/review each specimen. There are so many cheeses out there I'm dying to try, but who honestly has the budget to buy 10 different cheeses just to taste-test? It would be much easier and economical if every one brought a wedge to share. 10 different kinds of blue cheese or even 10 different cheeses from the same cheese maker.

New recipe of the month club. Similar to the above, but instead of being restrained to one cookbook, you can pick a course: appetizers, amuse bouche, ice cream, second course, cookie, cake or secret ingredient (Iron Chef style): basil, vanilla, garlic, squash, or even a theme: French-Polynesian, thanksgiving and so on.

Last Supper Club. This is a fantasy of mine to have a new host each month provide their version of what they would like their last meal to be. It would be a wonderful way to learn about each other and examine food at the spiritual/emotional level.

It's hard to pick just one, isn't it?

Seattle Days, Kent Nights

This week we've moved in with the 'rents while our house is being taken over by floor refinishing crews.

Since we both work in Seattle during the daytime and we'll be heading to Kent each evening... we have a plethora of restaurants to choose from. The money we'll save in gas is going straight to our eating out fund.

On my list:
Lucky Star Chinese for my crab won-ton guilty pleasure. Their plum dipping sauce is out of this world. Lucky Star easily has the best crab ragoons/wontons in the NW and believe me I've sampled more than my share at multiple restaurants up and down I-5.

Godfather's Pizza for the cinnamon dessert pizza. Because I'm pregnant and that's what I want gosh darn it. And Tacoma doesn't have a Godfather's to speak of, woe is me.

Ristorante Isabella's for an encore of their house salad and bread.

Kent Station for the multitude of restaurant offerings. (I'll be sampling Panera Bakery chocolate chip bagels for my lunches this week- thank you very much. )

Kent, you've come a long way baby.

When I get back to my beloved Tacoma-land, I'll start posting some of my favorite Tacoma dinning spots.

Misty Sandwich

Misty had some of us girls over for a slumber party several months ago and she made two of my all-time favorite meals:

1. Chicken-Potato Bake Casserole (elevated by the addition of a Misty-trademark ingredient)
2. Misty Breakfast Sandwich

I've attempted to re-create both but my imitations can't touch the originals made by Misty.

Kevin requests The Misty Sandwich by it's rightful name "Can we have a Misty sandwich for breakfast/dinner?" and I've shared it with a few friends who can also attest to what a stupendous hit this sandwich is.

The Misty Sandwich is really an open-faced bagel sandwich whose ultimate success depends on the careful step-by-step following of instructions. The real trick is to make sure you broil each layer in the oven to ensure every ingredient is thoroughly cooked, melted and piping hot, and the flavors are melded together. Misty insists on this point and frankly after my own test-runs with this recipe, I have to agree.

Ingredients:
1 Asiago Bagel
1/2 avocado
2 large tomato slices
4 strips of bacon
cream cheese
veganaise
cotswold cheese
salt and pepper to taste


Instructions:
Slice your asiago bagel in half
Spread veganaise on each side
Place both halves under the broiler until the veganaise begins to disappear/melt into the bagel
Remove from oven and add cream cheese and repeat the broiler process
Remove from the oven and add tomato slices, avocado - sprinkle with salt and pepper. Then add bacon and cotswold cheese slices.
Place both halves under the broiler until the cheese melts.
Remove from oven and place each bagel half on two plates and serve hot with a knife and fork.

Servings:
2 people

Substitutions and Additions:
You can add a cooked egg if you like, but it doesn't need it
You can substitute ham for bacon
You can substitute cheddar cheese for the cotswold

Thank you Misty!!! Now I need to write out the chicken-potato bake casserole that Misty makes!

Spankin' Blue Cheese Chicken

Another Crystal Creation... Spankin' Good Blue Cheese Chicken.

I'm not actually eating a lot of meat these days, much less chicken. But right now I could really go for some chicken- Deep friend, oven baked, pan fried... it don't matter.

Apparently I CAN eat blue cheese as long as it's pasteurized, but I'm paranoid and have been following the "foods to avoid list" quite seriously. As long as soft cheeses such as blue cheese is on it, I ain't touching it til this baby pops out.

Doesn't mean I can't think about eating it though! Blue cheese + chicken... a very happy marriage.

Spankin' Good Blue Cheese Chicken (created by Crystal) is definitely a good company dinner when you need to impress but don’t have a lot of time to spend in the kitchen. It’s also very forgiving if you don’t use exact measurements. It gets raves each time.

● 4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
● 1/2 cup of flour
● 2 cups of buttermilk
● 3 Tbs. of butter
● 1/2 Tbs of garlic infused olive oil
● 5 cloves of peeled garlic
● 1 cup of white wine
● 1/2 cup of blue cheese (preferably Gorgonzola)
● Parsley for garnish

Wash and pat dry 4 chicken breasts. Pound flat. Place chicken in bowl with buttermilk and let it marinate for an hour, covered, in the fridge.

In another bowl mix 1/2 cup of flour with seasonings of your preference (paprika, salt, pepper, garlic powder). Dredge each chicken through flour mixture. Set aside.

In a frying pan, over medium heat, melt 3 Tbs. of butter and 1 tsp of garlic olive oil. The addition of oil prevents the butter from burning too quickly. When butter and oil begins to sizzle, add chicken breasts quickly. Cook until done, flipping once. Remove chicken from pan and allow to rest.

Immediately de-glaze pan with white wine, scrapping up browned bits. Add five cloves of garlic. Cook garlic just until it softens but doesn't burn and until the alcohol from the wine has cooked off and reduced. Turn down heat and add blue cheese, stirring until sauce is smooth. You may add a splash of buttermilk for added creaminess/richness, but remove the pan from the heat while you do this so the buttermilk doesn't curdle. Plate chicken, cover with sauce and garnish with parsley.

Rice Krispie Chicken and it's all alright!

One of the things I crave lately, thanks to my pregnancy are homemade Rice Krispie Treats, but I always have cereal left over and I don't eat cereal really. What waste! What horror! What's a preggers to do? Why make Rice Krispie Chicken of course!

(Oh, but of course!)

Rice Krispie Chicken was often made for the family gatherings on my Mom's side. Us kids (cousins and siblings) used to stand around the pan after it was pulled from the oven and scoop up the hot, buttery krispies with our spoons while the adults took pieces of chicken. I can't lie- a couple aunts joined in on the fun too!

Recipe below! But heed this warning- the stray buttery krispies left on the pan are surprisingly addictive so get your spoons ready when that pan comes out!

Preheat oven to 350°.

Rinse chicken and marinate in enough buttermilk to completely submerge the chicken, and place the covered bowl in the fridge for 1 hour.

Melt butter in a glass measuring cup.

Crack three eggs and make a seasoned egg wash.

In a large bowl easure out 8 cups of rice krispie cereal. Set the bowls side by side with the egg wash and with greased jelly roll pan nearby.

Dip each chicken piece in a seasoned egg wash and then dredge through the rice krispie bowl, coasting with a thick layer of rice krispie cereal. Use your hands to ensure chicken is thickly coated. Line on jelly roll pan. Sprinkle remaining rice krispie mixture over the chicken pieces. Season with salt and pepper.

Drizzle each chicken piece with melted butter (An alternative to the egg wash is milk and melted butter, or plain yogurt.)

Bake at 350 for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Check oven often for browning. If chicken begins to brown, cover loosely with foil and continue to bake until done and juices run clear.

Seeking a Triple Threat Italian Restarant in Tacoma

There's a now-deceased restaurant in West Seattle that I measure every Italian restaurant against

Now obviously an individual's preference for this restaurant or that restaurant is exceedingly taste-specific. This individual requires her Triple Threat Italian restaurant to have the following: star house salad, stellar artisan bread with flavorful dipping oil and superb pasta, preferably with a cream sauce of some sort.

Star + Stellar + Superb = Triple Threat.

Ristorante Ragazzi's in West Seattle is the only one I've come across in the last 13 years to fulfill the Triple Threat criteria and it's no coincidence that it set the bar in the first place. When it closed, my heart broke more than a little knowing I'd have a nearly insurmountable task in finding an equivalent.

Favorite restaurants that die live on in our memories and taste buds in a sort of restaurant-neverland that we can't get a reservation for.

Take a drive with me down (memory lane) California Avenue to Ragazzi's in the Admiral District and find street side parking. You'll walk past the Admiral theater, a hole in the wall Pizza by the Slice Place and finally happen upon the door of Rigazzi's. I'll insist this is much better than Angelina's and tell you that you're in for a nirvana experience. You'll enter with me and see a bar on your left and the restaurant going straight back as you walk up to the hostess and ask her to seat the two of us at a booth.

As you sit down with you, you spy the open kitchen across from us on the north side of the restaurant (the smells waft & linger and it's a heady experience that makes your mouth water)and there's an enormous fireplace roaring away. Over the years the decor changed but you'll immediately pick up on its warm and rustic ambiance.

Slices of crusty peasant Italian bread accompanied by a dipping oil of crushed garlic, red pepper flakes and rosemary leaves are brought to the table. You pour a puddle of oil on a small bread plate and tear off pieces of bread to sop it up. You'll order with me the best house salad you've ever had. It'll arrive on a small chilled plate with spring greens dressed generously with a creamy garlic dressing and topped with Parmesan cheese. Like me, you'll want to wipe up the last bit of dressing with your bread off your plate and you do. Without guilt and with much anticipation you order the gnocchi in cream sauce. It arrives in a bowl of generous proportions where individual puffs of the potato pasta float happily in the cream sauce which has a touch of garlic and a sprinkling of nutmeg. The little clouds of heaven melt in your mouth.

You want this meal to be your last meal on earth, you could die happy right now and you make plans to come back as soon as you can. You leave with regret that you don't have room for dessert, but you leave smiling anyway in a haze of having been well fed and fed well.


Back to the present.

Don't get me wrong- I like chicken marsala as much as my mother does and an authentic Florentine Rib Eye is enough to make me want to uproot my life and move to Firenze permanently. But to me, Italian food in America will always be about the pasta and when I crave Italian, I want pasta, not chicken marsala.

Last weekend I had the pleasure of eating at Ristorante Isablla's in Convington. It gets a two out of three! Star salad, Stella bread, but merely decent pasta. Most Italian restaurants only merit 1 out of 3- superb pasta, but so-so bread and eh salad. Or stellar salad, but non existent bread and unispired pasta. Definitely a repeat contender but not quite a Triple threat. The search continues.

The closest gnocchi that nears the heights of Ragazzi's is in Rome- hardly practical or economical for the Tacoma Pregnant Lady. It did have the most amazing Gorgonzola cream sauce of the likes I've only found in Rome.

Vince's in the Renton Highlands and Federal Way has a memorable pesto-cream gnocchi that I go back for again and again. But their house salad is something I avoid and the bread isn't anything worth writing about.

One place I need to check out- at the insistence of co-workers, friends and yelp.com is Salvatore's on Roosevelt Avenue near my work.I feel a glimmer of hope or maybe that's just hunger.

I'm hoping to find my Triple Threat somewhere closer to my home in Tacoma....til then, I'll keep reminiscing of Ragazzi's.

Bruchetta Love

This is my favorite Bruchetta recipe. My aunt Jeri inspired this and I've mostly kept it the same. Nothing says summer to me than this tomato bruchetta recipe. It's super easy, filing, healthy and a huge crowd pleaser.

BRUCHETTA

Heirloom or Roma tomatoes
Basil
Garlic
Olive Oil
Balsmic Vinegar
Sugar, Salt, Pepper to taste

Ciabata bread, sliced

Cut tomatoes into a medium or large dice
Roll up several basil leaves together and shred finely
Peel one clove of garlic, crush and mince

Place all three ingredients in a bowl or on a large platter and toss.

Sprinkle sugar, salt and pepper to taste and toss again.

Drizzle with olive oil, toss one last time.

Drizzle the top with balsmic vinegar and garnish with extra basil and set aside to marinate for at least twenty minutes.


Brush your sliced ciabata bread with olive oil and broil in the oven until lightly toasted. Serve warm and pile the bruchetta on each slice.

Enjoy!

Blackberry Dreams: When the deep purple falls, over sleepy garden walls...

Nancy Leson talked about foraging for blackberries in her Seattle Times blog All You Can Eat last Friday.












Link
http://blog.seattletimes.nwsource.com/allyoucaneat/2008/08/15/urban_foraging_a_berry_good_pa/


It got me to thinking about the last time I foraged for blackberries and made a summer dish. We lived in Lacey at the time and behind our block was a huge field overgrown with blackberry hedges. We'd arm ourselves with long sleeves, jeans, sturdy shoes and a bucket or two. Afterwards we'd come back with our buckets overflowing, our arms scratched, our fingers and lips stained for our efforts.

We'd reserve half the blackberries for pie making and the rest for later. The pie blackberries would be washed and tossed in a mixing bowl with sugar, flour and nutmeg and let sit for an hour to thicken. Then we'd pour the sticky, gooey blackberries into a pie dish which were covered with either home made or store bought pie crust and baked. Since it didn't have a pie crust on the bottom of the pan, technically it was a blackberry cobbler.

The remaining blackberries we'd eat throughout the week, plopping them into our cereal bowls, eating with yogurt and topping our vanilla ice cream with.

Is there anything more simple and instinctive than berry picking and hauling them back to the kitchen to make a summer dessert?


I had an amazing nectarine crisp the other night, courtesy of the culinary goddess Marilyn Smith. My dainty bowl had warm slices of nectarine crisp topped with an oat and brown sugar crust, and a dollop of whipped cream. It was intoxicating and quintessentially Northwest. There were many eyes-a-rolling in ecstasy around the table that night.

So now I have berry pies, fruit cobblers and fruit crisps on the brain.

Makes me want to get out my basket and go urban foraging before the summer is over!

Pregnant Lady Eats

This blog should really be titled Pregnant Lady Eats because what I'm eating and more to the point, how I'm eating is completely different from what/how I normally eat (Before pregnancy: gourmet, unusual, spicy, flavorful. During pregnancy: quick, easy, doesn't make you puke.)

So while I haven't left my palette at the OB-Gyn's office entirely, I'm still not as refined as I normally am when it comes to sampling the best Tacoma has to offer. But the word normal no longer exists for me in pregnancy-land.. so hopefully this blog will still be relevant to someone.

However, I'm not apologizing for that. If there's anything I like more than talking about food, it's writing about it, even if its during these inauspicious/auspicious times.

About my culinary philosophy because Garlic-knows if I ever compete for Top Chef or the Next Food Network Star I must have a culinary philosophy or I'll be voted off with disdain by Mr. Oh-so-sexy but oh-so-finicky Flay... (gentle superfine sugar-coated sarcasm, the better to finish creme brule with.)I rather like that: Finicky Flay Throws Down with Pregnant Lady Eats.

I'm a foodie, but not a food snob. I'm a cook, but not a chef. I'm pregnant, but not totally without taste.

I think food should be a fun, hedonistic and indulgent experience, but one that is accessible to everyone and easy on the wallet. Flavors should be familiar enough that it borders on nostalgia with a "what is THAT?" kick that elevates the dish to a new level.

And that's what I call good grubbing.