The Pink Door has created an authentic Italian dessert in honor of the bounty of the season, as well as the recent National-Can It-Forward Day at Pike Place Market.

Ball Canning Company’s Canning Across America event showcased some of Seattle’s favorite chefs demonstrating  popular summer canning recipes, including a mixed-berry jam, dill pickles, canned tomatoes, and more with viewers asking questions and sharing tips via live streaming video. An excerpt can be viewed here:  http://bit.ly/mRl3YT

The Pink  Door’s pastry chef (and Pike Place Market native) Kelsey Angell created a delicious Mixed Berry Crostata, inspired by freshly canned mixed berry jam, prepared by local canning expert and gluten-free baker Jeanne Sauvage.

“Crostata is a typical Italian dessert made with jam. The ‘pasta frolla’ or pie dough is spread with the jam and topped with a lattice crust. We are modifying it by adding Northwest blackberries, blueberries, and currants on top of the jam. So the final masterpiece is half Italian Crostata and half a traditional American Pie–just like me!” explains Jackie Roberts, founder of The Pink Door.

You can try your hand with the recipe below (courtesy of The Pink Door), or enjoy it at venerable Pike Place Market restaurant for $8.00.

Mixed Berry Crostata

One 9-inch Tart pan with a removable bottom

Pasta Frolla:

3 Cups All-Purpose flour, Unbleached

1 cup Super fine Sugar (Bakers sugar)

1/4 tsp. Kosher salt

1 Lemon, zest and chop or use a micro-plane

1/2 pound unsalted butter, diced

2 egg yolks

1 egg, whole

Filling:

1 Jar Ball Canning Company Mixed berry Jam

2 baskets mixed berries, such as…currants, blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, gooseberries

Mix dry ingredients, cut in the butter until walnut pieces size.

Add the eggs, and mix just until incorporated.

Divide 2/3rds and 1/3rd . Form into a round flat disc shape between two pieces of wax paper or plastic. Let rest for 1 hour.

Roll each circle, The larger goes into the tart shell, the smaller gets cut into strips to form lattice over the top of the berries.

Fill the unbaked shell w/ 1 jar of mixed berry jam and cover w/ berries mixture.

Lattice over top. Brush w/ egg wash. Sprinkle w/ turbanato sugar.

Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes or until the crust is golden and the fruit is bubbly.

Let rest to room temp. serve!

I was recently interviewed by Big Bob Woehler, a friend and long-time wine writer for the Tri-Cities Herald and a magazine I’ve been writing for for the past 11 years, Wine Press Northwest.

Bob and I chatted during one of his weekly Bobcasts (audio podcasts) about a column I’d written for the magazine’s Spring issue on wine-tasting opportunities in and around my beloved Pike Place Market.

I’ve lived in the Market neighborhood for 21 years and seen its ups, downs, and all arounds. Glad to report it’s been very much on an upswing lately.

And nothing points to that as much as the almost dozen or so places to sip wine in the ‘hood.

Listen to my favorites here, and here’s hoping you’ll be able to journey to the Market soon for your very own bit of wine tasting.

If you haven’t already, you need to buy your tickets for one of the best parties of the year: Sunset Supper at the Pike Place Market.

Enjoy food from Seattle’s best restaurants and the region’s premium winemakers and microbreweries.

Dance under the stars and buy a raffle ticket or spin the wheel for great prizes to support the Pike Place Market Foundation and all the good work they do.

Other upcoming dates of interest to Market lovers include:

Market Anniversary Celebration: Tomorrow–August 17

Downtown Home Tour: September 18

Second Annual Pike Place Market Artisan Food Festival: October 1-2

One of our favorite restaurants in the ‘hood, right down the street from our condo along the Harbor Steps, is Matt Janke’s luscious Lecosho.

We’ve been remiss about writing about Matt’s second restaurant, not because we don’t love it, but because we sometimes just want to sit and eat and enjoy and not overthink things too much.

It’s the same reason I sometimes order a favorite dish time and again. And that favorite dish at Lecosho is the Grilled Octopus with Chickpeas, Salsa Brava, and Mama Lil’s Vinaigrette. It’s listed as an appetizer, but I find the bulky bowl of beans and tentacles is plenty to satisfy and satiate my appetite.

A few weeks ago, I had my grilled octopus accompanied by a side order of good grilled asparagus. Oftentimes, when “Yakima grass” isn’t in season, I substitute one of Lecosho’s finely crafted House Green Salads that’s always topped with a perfectly coddled egg.

These two dishes, plus Matt Janke’s thoughtfully selected and reasonably priced wines by the bottle and glass round out a dining experience of “food we like” (the restaurant’s catch phrase).

Way to go, Matt!

One of my favorites dishes–something that I get a fierce craving for from time to time–is the vegetarian chili at the Steelhead Diner in the Pike Place Market.

Here’s a gorgeous cup of Alex’s Vegetable Chili, the thick, spicy stew topped with a melt of oooey, gooey Pepperjack cheese; a BIG dollop of sour cream; cilantro; and pico de gallo; and accompanied by a rakish raft of crispy cracker.

For being so warm, comforting, and downright satisfying, Steelhead Diner’s vegetarian chili more than deserves my Dish of the Day.

Very sad to see two more businesses in the Belltown neighborhood of Seattle shut down. Here are workers taking debris out of Twist Restaurant and Lounge. . .

And Ventana Restaurant a few doors down already cleared out.

Both establishments are right across the street from La Taberna del Alabardero, which called it quits a few months ago.

Truth to tell, Spencer and I try to avoid this stretch of downtown after nightfall as it seems to have fallen into the hands of heavy party-goers and club aficionados.

Our long-time friend and colleague, Jackie Roberts, owner of the venerable Pink Door restaurant in the Pike Place Market, and her chef, Steve Smrstik, have recently become avid beekeepers.

In an effort to raise awareness about the peril of the honeybee, Roberts and Smrstik will present the documentary,  “The Vanishing of  The Honeybees,” followed by conversation led by local “Beeks” (beekeepers)  from Seattle’s Urban Bee Project.com on Sunday, August 7, at 6 p.m.

“Our food chain is in peril as the honeybees are perishing,” Roberts told me. “We started this past spring with one hive in our backyard. The colony multiplied very rapidly and formed a ‘swarm,’ and right before our eyes 6,000 bees flew onto a branch 30-feet-high in our neighbor’s  back yard. It was quite thrilling!

“Our hope in showing this documentary is to help educate and raise awareness about the dire situation of the honeybee and what we can all do about it as urban dwellers. Many people do not realize that without the honeybee we would not be able to enjoy many of the foods we eat. Our front-yard vegetable garden is lushly thriving thanks in great part to our phenomenal friends, the honeybees.”

Attendees are asked to donate $5.00 to attend the viewing and join the conversation. The Pink Door will be serving complimentary antipasti.

So mark your calendars now for Sunday evening, August 7. Local honeybees, beekeepers, and the entire food chain will thank you!

Every now and again I get a craving for a particular food. Sometimes it’s Oysters on the Half Shell (which I attribute to low iron and magnesium counts). Other times it’s a good Salmon Caesar Salad. Sometimes (hate to admit it), it’s Southern Fried Chicken.

A few weeks ago, craving the city’s best Salmon Burger, I started my quest.

We began our search at the venerable Virginia Inn in the Pike Place Market, which has always been known for their crab cakes. The Inn’s burger,  pictured above, is made of ground salmon, basil-pesto aïoli, and a blanket of Swiss cheese atop. A bit gummy, okay flavor, but nothing to write home about.

We found the next contender at Chinook’s in Fishermen’s Terminal, a restaurant that has been featured previously in our Dish of the Day. This was an actual sockeye salmon fillet, simply grilled, on a plain bun with the fixings shown above. Pretty lackluster and ho-hum, sadly.

Finally, I found my favorite Salmon Burger at Ray’s Boathouse, a place we’ve written about in this blog and in “Pacific Northwest Wining and Dining.”

We enjoyed our salmon upstairs in the casual Ray’s Cafe upstairs. This was a well-seasoned, flavorful, perfectly grilled specimen on a good bun.

The description from the menu reads, “Fresh salmon ground and seasoned at Ray’s, spinach leaves, and tarragon-shallot mayonnaise.” The lovely side salad that I asked for instead of fries enhanced the flavor of the sandwich.

With picture-postcard views of Shilshole Bay outside our window-side seats and a couple of glasses of freshly brewed iced tea, we savored the joys of living in the Pacific Northwest as I enjoyed Seattle’s best Salmon Burger.

Since I don’t eat pork myself, and don’t cook it at home, my meat-lovin’ better half often orders it when we dine out.

And even though I won’t order it, I will taste it, and these two recent dishes are real finds. . .worthy of winning a joint Dish-of-the-Day award.

Here is Seared Pork Tenderloin with Smoked Yam, Clams, and Pickled Pepper from Tilikum Place Café. It’s very European in style, reminiscent of Portuguese Pork and Clams.

The spices (a dash of chipotle?) were amazing with the sweet, yet smoky, sweet potatoes.

And here is a Large Plate from Olivar’s menu–Duo de Cerdo–Grilled Pork Loin, Braised Pork-Shoulder Lasagne, and Spring Vegetables.

Although both parts of this duet were tasty, Spencer is STILL raving about the lasagne, in particular.

Cheers to Olivar and Tilikum Place Café for creating such original Dishes of the Day!

With just about every chef and restaurateur in Seattle opening second “small-bite/casual” restaurants and/or offering up killer deals for cheap eats during daily happy hours, sometimes I wonder if fine-dining is dead in our fair city.

So a couple of weeks ago, I made a Saturday-night-at-eight-p.m. reservation at The Georgian, the stunning main dining room in the venerable Fairmont Olympic Hotel to find out.

As we settled in with a glass of bubbly (me) and a gin martini (Spencer) and perused the menu, we were (frankly) amazed at the reasonable price points for such a glamorous setting, with soaring ceilings, a live-music duo of pan flute and upright bass, extensive wine list, etc.

We could have ordered à la carte or opted for the three-course prix-fixe dinner ($69 per person with wine pairings; $49 without), but decided to go all out.

We chose the five-course dinner (including a dessert soufflé!), plus wine pairings, for $99 per person ($69 sans vino).

Here’s the gorgeous bread-and-butter set-up–with four flavors of butter and spiky strips of crunchy lavash cracker–that set the tone for a tone-y meal to come.

After a bit of a wait, the lovely first course came out–Tempura Morel Mushrooms with Truffle Camembert and Morel Shooters (light and lovely mushroom juice in test-tube-like shooters!).

Toothsome and gooey-good, the tempura morels paired perfectly with Domaine Schönheitz 2008 Pinot Gris from Alsace.

Gotta love that sterling-silver skewer and swipe of mushroom dust that makes this plate presentation so pretty.

The second course was another visual knock-out and tasted just as good. Deadliest Catch included razor-thin shavings of the sweetest Alaskan King Crab along with Dungeness Crab Fritters, artistically topped with Arugula Salad. It also went well with the Alsatian Pinot Gris.

Inspired!

I adore beets in just about any form, so was super-pleased with the third course, Roasted Baby-Beet Salad with Candied Pecans (like the best fruit-and-nut bar I’ve ever tasted, probably due to lots of added butter), Goat Cheese, and Walnut Vinaigrette.

The goat cheese is the white blob on the right-hand side and was done molecular gastronomy-style–it was light and fluffy in texture and simply the essence of chèvre.

Unlike me, hubby hates beets, so our server graciously substituted the Olympic Caesar Salad from the three-course prix-fixe dinner and didn’t even charge anything extra.

Both salads were paired with Poet’s Leap Winery 2008 Riesling, one of our all-time fave off-dry Rieslings, and another thoughtful pairing from The Georgian’s long-time (seven years) sommelier–Joseph Linder.

After so much good food, we could hardly believe that entrées were yet to come!

Here’s my gorgeous Smoked Alaskan Wild King Salmon. It was served with Shaved Granny-Smith Apples, Locally Foraged Morel Mushrooms, Yukon-Gold Potato Balls (fun to eat!), and a rather sweetish-sauve containing Olympic Rooftop Honey.

Rex Hill 2008 Pinot Noir from the Willamette Valley was a truly wonderful wine for this perfect pairing.

We both gasped in wonder when we saw the artistic shapes, dots, and lattice-work on Spencer’s gorgeously plated Roasted Rack of Lamb with Tomato Crust, Kalamata Olives, Sweet-Pea Quinoa, and Grilled Spring Onion.

The lamb was flavorful without being too gamey; the pea quinoa is something I’d like to make at home; and the lattice work grating is something I’ll gladly leave to Georgian Executive Chef Gavin Stephenson to prepare.

Spencer was more than happy with his entrée’s wine pairing: Château de Clairvoy 2005 Côtes de Bourg from Bordeaux.

Sad to say, but because they are labor-intensive and temperamental to cook, few restaurants bother with making soufflés any more. Lucky for us, The Georgian still turns out a stellar daily-changing version.

Ours was called the “Black and White,” served with Crème Anglaise and a chocolate-covered strawberry, but they also offered up Chocolate Mint. Hard to go wrong with either one!

Although there were occasional service gaffes (a long delay between aperitifs/cocktails and the first course, being seated at a table facing away from the musical duo, the hostess setting up our table after we had been seated), we left thinking that, at least when it comes to its food-and-wine offerings, The Georgian still offers up very fine dining in Seattle.