Life's a Banquet
'...and most poor fools are starvin to death!' ~Mame

Link: http://www.waterfrontbakery.com

I have had fun the past couple of weeks connecting with some new friends and reconnecting with others. Do you ever get lonely, even when you are surrounded by lots of people? It happens to me sometimes, especially in relationship to work, because we don't really have friends in the restaurant biz that we can talk with. We do have mentors who have become friends and perhaps the most significant of those are John & Laura Nesby, of Mor Mor Bistro in Poulsbo. From the first moment that we met them they have been gracious and helpful and wonderful role models for us in the restaurant world. While I would do anything for them, we don't have a social relationship, and so it was especially nice to talk with them for an evening last week at the Seaport Salon & Day Spa's annual charity event. They thought they were having a nice night out when I spotted them and sort of crashed their evening, which was never my intention, and then suddenly a couple of hours had passed and I had usurped their entire night out. Of course they were more than generous about it and it was really nice to chat with them and reconnect. They are pioneers in this region when it comes to utilizing local food and they have one of my very top picks for dining out in Kitsap, and certainly the best place in Poulsbo, so check them out!

I have also had a 'second date' with my new friend Cynthia, and we are planning a wonderful event this summer at her farm which I will tell you about as soon as we have more details. You will love both the event and her beautiful farm, which is where I want to live now. Another 'second date' was with Alison, who writes for WestSound Home & Garden Magazine, and she says her article about the cafe will be in the summer issue. She is so funny and fun to be around that on the two 'interviews' we had we ended up talking about everything; what should have taken about an hour took far longer and was far more enjoyable than other interviews I have had!

To top it all off I finally had a one-on-one play date with my friend Shauna. I have known her for a couple of years via email and her blog, we have been to a Chef's Collaborative event together, and I have been at a party at her house. Monday I got to spend the afternoon with her, and sweet Lucy, talking up a storm and watching her make a gluten-free puff pastry that looked impossible, yet she turned it into a beautiful thing. Her story is really something and the way that she shares it with others is a work of art. Quite frankly I am grateful that I do not have Celiac Disease or other gluten intolerance, and I am proud that we can offer safe, fabulous food to our customers and friends who do suffer with this. Shauna has helped me learn ways to respectfully respond to those needs and she has also helped me to know that we are not able to meet every need, every day, and it is okay to do the best that we can.

I hear more people talking about how difficult it is to find new friends as we get older. I have single friends who liken it to the dating scene: where do you go to meet people with the qualities that you hope for in a friend, or in a date? When Mark and I started our business we knew that it would encompass our lives for at least the first five years, and we asked our families and friends to be patient, and to please visit us since we knew we would not be able to get out much. We were so right about that! Many of our friends have faded out of our lives and others have given up on us, and some have stuck with us and continue to forgive our absences. Almost none of them live on the Peninsula and that makes it even more difficult to get together. My friend-for-life Linda changed jobs a few years before I did and she would tell me that she got lonely and I did not really understand what that meant. I completely understand it now and I cherish the times that I do get to talk with or see her. Let's face it, nobody relates to us like our lifelong girlfriends do, not even our wonderful and loving husbands.

What do all those dates and friendships have in common? We seem to come together over some sort of nourishment. A cup of tea, a shared happy hour menu, a hot sandwich and a bowl of soup are all things that I have enjoyed with those aforementioned friends this past month. We have sought out quiet, locally owned places to escape to for a few moments, or we have prepared things for one another, and always the emotional nourishment of good conversations have been so much more enhanced as we share the physical nourishment of food and beverages. I learned this ritual of hospitality from a long line of women and have nurtured that particular habit my whole life so far. When someone is ill or there is a death in the family we take food to heal the wounds and comfort the souls. When we celebrate or gather together for fun we gather in the kitchen or crowd around a restaurant table to excitedly share the tastes of success. We are always more successful when we tickle the taste-buds of our potential friends and beaus and I know that many people shut down and stop eating when they are terribly sad...there are mountains of poetry, parables, and other literature to prove it.

This ritual of feeding each other does not just occur in our society, it happens across the globe in all cultures and across all social stratas. Many cultures have specific foods to feed the specific needs of each occurrence, as in the purple rice they use in villages in Thailand for communal celebrations. We could spend years learning more about how to feed each other in body, mind and spirit. I bet you have built social rituals around food and drink that are based on your family traditions as well as life experiences and I would love to know about them! What is your favorite food or drink to celebrate with? To impress someone with? To nurture someone? To comfort your self? and whatever else comes to mind. What are the stories behind the foods and rituals?

This week we have Dining Out for Life where we donate a portion of our sales to the Kitsap HIV/AIDS Foundation and in order to donate more, we hope everyone who possibly can will come in to eat that day. It doesn't cost the diners anything over and above the fabulous food they will have, and it is a great way to commune with our neighbors and show support for an important cause. This year there are more places to choose from than ever and I love the hopefulness in that! When we first brought this event to Kitsap County only a couple of other restaurants joined in the event; this year I count 11 of us! Ghandi Indian Cuisine has been a part of it since our first year and I think the others are newer to it, and I welcome them! There is room for everyone when we have the best interest of the community in our hearts and minds, and no matter which of us you dine with that day, you are sure to enjoy the meal just a little bit more knowing the good you are helping to do.

On Saturday I am pouring wine at the Body reFORM Pilates Studio Relay for Life Charity Benefit. I am bringing wine maker Frank Roth, from Eliseo Silva wines (Tagaris Winery) to tell his stories behind the wines. Each $20 ticket goes to the American Cancer Society and this is quickly becoming a top annual charity event! You can still get tickets at Monica's and at the Pilates studio.

Time flies and behind that comes Cinco de Mayo (Betuel always makes great food for us on that day), Mother's Day and then on May 15 the big Hama Hama Oyster Farm Day Trip/Food & Wine Tour. We kept the price down to $49.99 per ticket and what a deal that is! It is one of the lowest tides of the year so the guided beach walk will be phenomenal. Lissa will have shrimp, sea beans, oysters & clams for us to include in our feast and Mark will bring bread & dessert. I will make a few fantastic salads and we will have a gourmet feast on the beach! Hoodsport winery will be there to taste us on their new Orca line of wines, and Meg & Brad Gregory from Black Sheep Creamery will be on hand with cheese samples and amazing stories from their farm in Adna. Olympic Mountain Ice Cream will be on hand to add to Mark's dessert and that will take it to a whole new level of goodness. Plus we will show you how to shuck, bbq and make a stew out of the oysters, a clam steaming demo and tips on foraging for all who want to know. Or you can sit by the fire pit and relax while we do all the work for your feast! Lissa is lining up a local band to play music for us and I have asked all the wildlife to be on hand for entertainment purposes. They agreed and so did great weather! We will start the carpool caravan at 9:30 at the cafe and make sure everyone who has a ticket can follow along and even share a ride. This is going to be a most fabulous day and we are limiting attendance to 30 people only, so if you want a ticket you should let me know as soon as you possibly can. Believe me when I say this is the way we want to feed you the seafood you want to eat! If you miss this one we will be planning another farm tour event at a wonderful place in Chimacum Valley this summer, so stay tuned and watch for that one.

The recipe this week is so simple I hesitate to call it a recipe. It is quickly becoming asparagus season and most people I know boil it. I do not. My favorite way to have asparagus is roasted and I want to share with you this beautifully simple preparation that takes about 10 minutes and can be a fantastic addition to any meal once you have picked it up at the farmer's market:

Preheat the oven (or grill) to 350 degrees.
Place a piece of parchment paper on a sheet pan.
Trim the tough ends off of however much asparagus you may want to cook.
Drizzle about a Tablespoon of olive oil per asparagus bunch over the trimmed stalks, sprinkle some salt and pepper over it, and gently schmear it all over the asparagus with your hands.

Lay out the asparagus so it is in a single layer, and generally not touching each other and squeeze a bit of fresh lemon over the top.
Toss it in the oven and roast it for about 4 minutes, then turn it and check it in 2 more. If it needs a couple more minutes let it go, if not take it out. The super thin stalks may only take 3-4 minutes, while thicker stalks could take upwards of 10. I like it to remain a bit crispy and not at all mushy. That's it!

The best way I know to improve on this already fabulous dish is to take it out of the oven and let it cool down just a bit, then throw some fresh goat cheese on it. The residual heat will melt the cheese a bit (which is why you want to cool it some first, otherwise it melts to a saucy consistency that you may or may not love) and some will stay chunky and oh yummy yum yum.

You can do this with just about any vegetable that you can think of. Green beans are about to be in season as well and I love them roasted. Yea, I can't think of a vegetable I don't love roasted... can you?

Link: http://www.waterfrontbakery.com

My hard drive was corrupt last week and that is why I could not post. For the past 3 years in a row my hard drive has gone kaput around this time of year. This time I had a feeling... it was not very tangible, the startup was taking a fraction of a second longer than it used to and I just had a feeling. So I took it to my guy and sure enough it had to be replaced! The irony is that last year when it happened I bought this computer off the shelf because we had a credit at Costco that covered the cost. This has Windows Vista on it and I hate it so much that I will NEVER give Microsoft money again. Everyone says 'just go to Windows 7, it's so much better' and I say NO! Unless one of my 2 friends who works at Microsoft gets it for me I will not be spending money.. and I am not asking them to get it for me. My computer guy partitioned my hard drive and put Linux on it for me so I can start playing with it and getting used to it. So far I have not had a chance to do anything because I spent the last 2 days getting all my crap, ur, I mean programs back onto this machine so I can use it again. At least I didn't lose everything this time... that is so much better than the alternative!

Last Friday Mark and I stayed up very late and went in to Seattle to see Pink Martini play at Benaroya Hall with the Seattle Symphony. OH. MY. GOODNESS. I have seen them both before and loved them separately. Together they do more than make beautiful music together.. they make every cell in my body reverberate with the musical magic that they perform. You have never heard Pink Martini as well as we did that night, unless you have heard them with a symphony. I counted 86 people on the stage total, including the conductor. It was so amazing! We were both already tired and at one point we were sitting on the light rail train headed in, and we joked about having dinner in the Mt Baker area and heading back home. As soon as the first song started I was so glad that we went. Because we had to get my computer we did not get to stop and have Vietnamese food like we wanted to. Rather we had hurried appetizers at the Triple Door (which is the same kitchen as Wild Ginger, with no wait!) and then got in to our box. I love getting box seats at Benaroya! It makes me feel special and it is such a great view. Mark loved it more than he thought he would and that did not really surprise me. Unfortunately, because we were up until after midnight (which is way past our usual bed time) we felt hungover the next day. And I only had 3/4 of my pint of beer! We catered/served dinner for 18 on Saturday so it was a long day, but all worth it in the end.

The nicer weather last week afforded us a couple of grilling nights and that was a big hooray! We got some halibut and I always forget how much I love halibut. It smells a little fishy and yet it never tastes that way! It is so good and all we did was the usual: olive oil, salt & pepper. We grilled some green onions out of my sister's garden and those were great as well. They were a little short because I had been using the greens to garnish things for a few days. We also pan 'fried' the oysters we got at Hama Hama and they were fantastic as well. Lissa had told me that she felt oysters needed to be parboiled before frying them, so they are more well-cooked than otherwise. We tried both ways. I decided not to parboil because she admitted that they lost flavor, so rather I melted some butter and began the cooking process in that. I took them out when they were about half cooked and dropped them into a simple coat of cracker meal and polenta. The others I just put directly into the coating. I got a pan hot and 'fried' them all up (the reason I say 'fried' is because I don't use much oil. I spray the pan with cooking spray and add a small dollop of peanut oil, just to coat the surface). Mark and I agreed that while delicious, we far preferred the raw oysters to the par-cooked ones. The flavors were cleaner, stronger and true oyster flavors while the others were a bit 'dumbed down'. I suppose if you are introducing someone to oysters for the first time this might be a way to go... but I love oysters too much to muffle the flavors.

The other thing we both agreed on is that polenta is not the right thing to coat them in. The grains are too big and the only reason I used it is that we did not have a finer grind of cornmeal in the house, so I won't do it again. Panko is our favorite and we will stick to that. We ate all that lovely seafood with some bok choy and kale raab that I got from the Poulsbo farmer's market. I heated some olive oil, toasted some garlic in it and then discarded it, sprinkled in some red chili flakes and sauteed the greens all together. I added a few drops of wine and lidded it for a minute just to get the tougher stems tender, then finished the saute so the liquid evaporated, added a sprinkle of salt and VOILA! The tastiest greens around! I ate them for dinner, then breakfast, then made more and did it again. They are great with a couple of over-easy eggs on them. I got eggs from Cynthia at Rodstol Lane Farm and the yolks are gorgeous! We also lucked out and got some bacon from Jerry Darnall (a local hog farmer and co-conspirator on the Kitsap Food & Farm Policy Council). It was the tastiest bacon we have ever had and that is truly saying something! I cannot wait to eat more of his pork later this year.

So here we are at a wonderfully busy week. Leslie's birthday, Rheycel's birthday, and 'Earth Day'. Since every day is Earth Day at the cafe we are having a Spring Party on Saturday the 24th. We will make some of our catering menu specialties (such as caramelized onion tart) and give out free samples, plus wine tastes. There will be a live radio show via KITZ AM 1400 and the Kitsap Community & Agricultural Alliance and we will have musicians from the Washington Academy of Music playing upstairs. One of the coolest parts will be that our Sailing & Rowing Team, which is based in Old Town, is hosting their first district wide regatta down on the docks. We are making sail boat cookies to celebrate and root our team on! It will be too busy for me to get to a farmer's market on Saturday; luckily the Old Town Silverdale market opens today. So Saturday will be super festive and fun and then Mark and I have to get out of town so we can help his Aunt Dee & Uncle Johnnie celebrate 50 years of marriage. It will be a family party and fun to see all his cousins, not to mention his parents, brothers, and of course our favorite nephew Travis.

Travis is driving now, by the way. For those of you who followed his working with us the past few summers we are hoping he will want to do it again and this year he can drive me in! Pretty amazing since just a couple of years ago his dad and I were in the 9th grade together... or maybe it was longer. Time flies when you are having fun!

I have to get in and get ready for 30 boxed lunches, 15 CO/XO wives have a reservation (we love our Navy community!) and a couple of functions this evening that I need to be at. Since I embedded recipes in above I will not add another here, and if you have made something that you want to share with us send it to me! I would love to get it out there for you, plus we all want new ideas to make for our families and ourselves. Have a great week!

Link: http://www.waterfrontbakery.com

The Poulsbo Farmer's Market opens tomorrow and I am really looking forward to it! It will be fun to see who is there and what they have and what I can use for a catered dinner we are doing next week. Port Orchard will open on the 24th and that is the other one I get to more often than any of the others. I mainly hit Poulsbo when I can simply because there are more farmers and at PO there are more crafters and plants people. PO has the bbq guy though, and that is worth it's weight in diamonds. THE best bbq this side of Mississippi! Poulsbo has CJ's breakfast burritoes and I love those darn things so much that I can't believe I just went 6 months without one! I want to try to hit more markets, more often this year, though we shall see. Saturdays can be busy at the cafe with catering and special orders and the season for that has started (thank goodness!!) we have a seated dinner for 20 upstairs on the 17th, the Spring Party and radio show at the cafe on the 24th, an off site catered Kentucky Derby party and a charity wine tasting both on May 1. That Kentucky Derby party is a really cool job that we love. The ladies who put it on came to me 3 years ago with a menu that they wanted and we have adapted the recipes to do them 'our' way, and they have loved them every year! From oven-smoked pork butt, sweet potato casserole and cheese grits, to spoon bread and caramel nut tarts, I look forward to cooking this party for them every Spring.

Yesterday Mark and I went out to the Hama Hama Oyster Farm just outside of Lilliwaup (the other side of the canal) and spent some time with Lissa, who is part of the new generation that is running the farm. This place is super special to both Mark and me. We have childhood memories all around this place and we have been eating their oysters practically all our lives. I met Lissa James and her brother Adam a couple of months ago on that agri-tourism seminar farm tour that I told you about, and we started hatching a plan. Most of you know that Mark and I host an 8-day food and wine tour in Italy each October, and I have been wanting to do something like that, in day-trip form, around here. Hama Hama will be our first trip. We are going to take up to 30 people for a day trip in May, on the lowest tide of the year. There will be a farm tour, guided beach walk and fire pit. There will be live music, and Meg & Brad Gregory of Black Sheep Creamery will hopefully be there with samples of their fabulous sheep cheese and info on cheese making. We will learn how to pick oysters, shuck them, and do a cooking demo class all about oyster stew. We will also dig a few clams and learn about the other foragable edibles in the area, and then have a wine tasting with Hoodsport Winery and their new 'Orca' line of wines. We will have a wonderful meal with a bounty of seafood: oysters on the half shell, bbq'd, pan fried, pickled and in the stews; steamed clams; canal shrimp; sea beans from the estuary at the farm; Mark's crusty Italian bread, 2 or 3 different styles of salads and side dishes; wine; and oh yes, we are hoping to get the folks from Olympic Mountain Ice Cream out there with their gremolata for the oysters, and their ice cream for dessert along with some wonderful creation of Mark's. Oh yea, baby, this is going to be amazingly fantastic! We have invited a few eagles and other wildlife to make their appearances and with the lowest tide of the year we just might find a lost civilization out there. I CANNOT WAIT for this to take off! Lissa and I are still finalizing a few things before we begin to sell tickets so watch the web site and here for that announcement in the next week or so.

This is my final installment in the story of how I got here, and the things that helped to shape my life as it is now, in relation to all things food. I started the story 3 posts ago and in this fourth post I will bring us to present day. All of the things I have written about (and more) played roles in building up my value system. Of course, my parents played (play) the biggest role of all, from forming my food tastes and values, to supporting me endlessly in my endeavors. I remember our family going in search of the divey-est dives with the most phenomenal food that we could find...breakfast joints, Chinese food, teriyaki steak and eggs... of course we got the occasional bucket of chicken or take out pizza, and Lord knows when my parents were both working hard and raising two young daughters frozen meals were relied on more than a few times. But those are not my key memories; the huge family gatherings with everyone cooking and bringing great food to the table are. The 'try at least one bite of everything and then you can go' rule was way better than at my friends' homes where they had to clean their plates no matter what. As we got older and our lives could have easily grown apart from family meals, my parents made us merge, at least a couple of nights a week family dinners were still a priority and telling one thing we learned that day was more often fun than it was a chore.

It is a natural transition for us to go from living our values, to living our values through our business, and yet so often we find others to be surprised that we do this. Why wouldn't we? I know this wasn't the original plan: I was so sure of my law enforcement career plans that when they got derailed I thought there was no meaning left in my BA, or anything else that I had done. I tried other paths, including the time I became a certified Nutritional Herbalist and Reiki master, and I learned many more things that help me in my business today, though I certainly never thought that could tie in. I still love those parts of my life, and I do not mourn the loss of those dreams like I thought I was going to. Rather I am grateful to have had them and for having them help get me to where I am today. Looking back it is so easy to see the path and how it all ties in... which was unimaginable during those parts of the journey. That knowledge helps me sit more easily within the journey I am on now. I may not know where we will end up, though it doesn't really matter because I just keep getting happier and more satisfied with my life.

What do you want to be when you grow up? I can tell you from experience that the best way to be happy doing it, no matter what you do, is to live your values all the time. It's the only way to fly!

The recipe today is my grandmother Marylee's Oyster bisque. It is a simple dish and I have created other styles of stew based on this recipe.

2 large carrots, peeled and chopped (her recipe says to julienne them, I do not)
2 onions, peeled and chopped
2 leeks, chopped
6 'tender' celery stalks (I use the innermost part of the stalk, leafy parts and all), chopped
5 TBS unsalted butter
Salt & Pepper to taste

1/4 cup flour
6 cups hot fish stock and/or chicken stock (I use mostly clam broth and add some chicken stock)
2 cups dry white wine or vermouth
1 large bay leaf

32 fresh oysters, drained
4 more TBS butter
10 drops worcestershire sauce
Salt & Pepper

2 cups sour cream whisked w/3 egg yolks
fresh herbs, chopped fine (I use flat leaf parsley and chives)

In a covered 3-quart saucepan, cook the vegetables slowly in the butter until tender, though not browned-about 10-15 minutes. Season to taste.

Sprinkle the flour over the veg and cook, stirring gently, for about 3 minutes. Dribble in 2 cups of hot stock and whisk or stir to make a perfectly smooth mixture with the flour; gradually stir in 4 more cups of stock and the wine. Add the bay leaf, bring to a simmer and simmer slowly for 10 minutes. adjust seasoning as needed.

Meanwhile melt the next 4 TBS butter to bubbling in a frying pan and add the oysters. Let cook for one minute, turn them and cook one more miute, or until they are plump and swell slightly. Drop in the worcestershire, S&P, and pour it all into the soup base. Be sure to swirl some of the soup into the pan to get all the oystery goodness out and into the pot.

Whisk the eggs and sour cream together in a heat-proof bowl and by driblets whisk in 2 cups of the hot soup liquid into the sour cream to temper it. Fold the mixture back into the soup pot and stir over moderate heat until the liquid has thickened slightly. Do not bring this to a simmer.

Adjust seasonings and serve at once with a sprinkling of the fresh herbs. Voila!