Huckleberry Cupcakes

Just before the Labor Day weekend began, I got a call from our doorman that a delivery had arrived.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Cupcakes,” Nick replied. ”Do you want me to send the delivery man up with them?”

“If it’s cupcakes, then you bet,” I replied.

Turns our our good friends at Cupcake Royale had sent over samples of their September flavors–Huckleberry and (just in time for the start of school) Peanut Butter & Jam Cupcakes. (We wrote a Taste column about this fine company and visionary owner/founder Jody Hall for The Seattle Times Pacific Northwest magazine in February 2010.)

Resisting the mightiest temptation, I didn’t dive in immediately, but gave Spencer a call with the good news.

“I’ll be right up,” he said.

Somehow, I managed to deter his visit to my office and we both held of on sampling the compelling cakes until after dinner.

I must admit, the Huckleberry Cupcake, with its silky white body studded with berries and its icing so very, very huckleberry good, hit the spot when paired with a nightcap (just a wee glass!) of Australian Shiraz-Viognier we had left over from the evening before.

The Peanut Butter and Jam Cupcake

The PB and J went down nicely with a more “normal” accompaniment–a glass of cold milk. Peanut butter is one of my favorite foods in the world, and I go “nuts” for anything that’s salted caramel, so this cupcake flavor combo really rang my chimes.

You might have seen Cupcake Royale on a recent episode of the Food Network’s Cupcake Wars. Here are more details on the company’s September offerings.

Huckleberry Cupcake

Say goodbye to summer and hello to huckleberries. It’s a fair trade-off in our book and we always celebrate September with our Huckleberry Cupcake (aka “the Huck”). We fold in fresh, local huckleberries (fresh, as in they were picked for us this past weekend) into our vanilla cupcake and top it with a huckleberry buttercream frosting. This cupcake brings all the bears to the yard. We have partnered with local farm Foraged & Found Edibles to provide us with our huckleberry crop this year. In case you don’t know what a huckleberry is, think of it as the little brother to a blueberry but with even more flavor.

Peanut Butter and Jam Cupcake

Peanut Butter and Jam, sitting in a tree. This classic combo has our vanilla cupcake, filled with fresh local strawberry jam (fresh, as in they made it last week) topped with a super fluffy, salty peanut butter buttercream. Sprinkled with chopped peanuts and a coarse sugar and sea salt mix.

Last week we spent a few days on the Oregon Coast in Lincoln City, then two days in Astoria, a charming maritime-based town on the border between Oregon and Washington.

It was a good, if rather hectic, trip.

Last Monday  in our hotel room in Astoria, I woke up with two insect bites on my left forearm. We’d slept with our balcony door propped open, and I figured a hungry mosquito had made a midnight feast of me.

The “mosquito bites” itched like crazy and got very red and raised over the next two days. From the outset Spencer, who’s deathly afraid of spiders, said he thought they were not “mosquito bites,” but spider bites.

By the time we arrived home on Tuesday night, they were looking pretty angry. By noon Wednesday, there was a pink ring radiating out from the two bites and moving up and down my arm.

Spencer insisted I call our doctor. I did better and sent the iPhone photo (above).

Christy, the nurse, called back quickly with a bevy of questions and a concerned/worried tone in her voice.

Our doctor called a few minutes later and slapped me on antibiotics and Benadryl Anti-Itch Cream to fight sepsis!!!

As much as I hate taking medicine, almost instantly, I began to feel better.

Over the next several days, the puffiness and pink circle went away. I was so relieved. Thanks heavens for penicillin!

It’s been a tough couple of months for the left side of my body, between my run in with the tape dispenser in March, and now, a venomous spider in August!

Let’s hope these incidents don’t come in series of threes.

A couple of weeks ago, I ran an article about finding the best salmon burger in Seattle. Ray’s Boathouse Cafe won by a mile.

When I sent the link to my brother and sister-in-law in central Florida, they were inspired. So that very evening, with their three teenagers off at camp and a quiet night on their hands, Nancy and Brad grilled up a batch of salmon burgers purchased from Fresh Market.

Sad to say, they weren’t very impressed with the burgers (we would have been better off just grilling a piece of salmon, Brad reports), they were impressed with the evening’s wine pairing, a bottle of  Cruz Allen 2008 Reserve Pinot Noir from Mendoza, Argentina.

In a follow-up email, Brad had this to say about Argentinian wines in general:

“Although known for Malbec, Argentina is producing other great varietals now. They are excellent quality for the price. Argentina is similar to Australia about 5-10 years ago, before Australia was ‘discovered,’ and prices went up. Here is a good piece on Argentinian wine making.”

Thanks for the insight, Nancy and Brad!

A few weeks ago, with a new camera in hand that gave me an excuse to attend an event I might not normally have gone to, Spencer and I set out in the Lex for Fremont, a.k.a, The Center of the Universe.

Our destination?

The Red, White, and Dead World’s Longest Zombie Walk.

As reported by the seattlest blog, “Last year the event managed to get 3,894 zombies to come to Fremont, taking the world record. However that was soon beaten by 4,026 undead bodies at England’s Big Chill Music Festival. This year the event managed to take back the title by bringing 4,233 people to the streets!”

The Zombie Squad had a colorful booth, and we met lots of other likely suspects along the way. The hearse in the photo above seems a particularly appropriate backdrop, as does the sign in the background advertising local radio station 107.7, The End.

Since this is, after all, mainly a food blog, I wanted to prove to you that zombies work up an appetite when they are out doing whatever it is zombies do all day. Here they are eating real food–no human flesh!–along the sidewalk.

There were zombie children. . .this one with a zombie baby perched on his shoulder. . .

And zombie families.

A young zombie boy enjoyed breakdancing with adult creatures of his ilk. . .

While a zombie d.j. spun appropriate tunes for the somewhat dazed, bloody crowd on this uniquely Seattle and totally unforgettable summer afternoon.

Be on the look out for DRY Soda’s jaunty new “tasting truck” at your local supermarket and around the Northwest.

The truck debuted at DRY’s Pioneer Square headquarters early last month with a lively Kick-off Party in honor of its upcoming Savor-the-Flavor Tour.

First stop? Portland, with other West Coast cities soon t0 follow.

You can savor DRY Soda in six flavors: Lavender, Lemongrass, Blood Orange, Rhubarb, Cucumber, and Juniper Berry. It’s available in grocery stores, restaurants, luxury hotels, and boutiques in the United States and Canada and even in select international locations.

And, of course, from the tasting truck!

One of our favorite places to pop in for a late-afternoon, after-work glass of wine and appetizers is our neighbor just across the courtyard, ART Restaurant & Lounge in the Four Seasons Hotel.

We’ve long been fans of Chef Kerry Sear’s amazing sliders–available in salmon, veggie, and beef iterations. We’ve also loved his shrimp appetizer, which featured perfectly cooked chunks of shrimp with a shooter glass full of spicy tomato juice. Eat a bite of shrimp, sip the juice, and you had a cool-tasting treat.

After a recent menu change, we were heartsick to find out the former shrimp app had disappeared, replaced with a new version–Poached Blue Shrimp with Lemon-Cilantro Aïoli and Chili Olive Oil.

But not to worry. It’s a gorgeous dish, served in a clear cup over dry ice, so that it leaves a trail of “smoke” as it passes through the dining room.

Which more than qualifies ART’s Poached Blue Shrimp as our Dish of the Day.

A couple of months ago, I started to become interested in plastic cameras, inexpensive cameras that offer unusual effects when you take pictures with them.

I was going to get a Holga or a set of Lensbaby lenses that diffuse the light, produce light leaks and color shifts, and shoot off center.

But, recent convert to Apple’s amazing iPhone4 that I am, instead I discovered an app called Hipstamatic that automatically creates these rather wonky images.

At first I thought I’d use the Hipstamatic iPhone app only to take photos in my other life. But one Saturday afternoon, over lunch at Bambuza Vietnamese Cuisine in downtown Seattle, I started playing around on some food shots.

Here’s one of the first ones I took. A simple shot of our tea cups and pot, striking against the vivid grains of the bamboo tabletop. And you just gotta love the 1960s-era ivory edges!

Below is my Vietnamese Crepe taken in a lot of natural light with the regular iPhone4 camera.

Same photo taken with the Hipstamatic! I love the way the crumpled napkin in my lap becomes part of the photo. . .like some sort of weird white sculptural element.

Over dinner at Vito’s on First Hill that evening, I took a photo of my Angel Hair Pasta with Calamari using the regular camera.

And the Hipstamatic, which created a warm and romantic shot, like something from another era.

Sunday evening, during dinner at the ever-romantic and long-running Andaluca in the Mayflower Park Hotel, I couldn’t resist playing around with the Hipstamatic once again.

Here’s a shot of our wine bottle and glass. . .love the frayed edges and rich, warm, crimson tones created by the seemingly magical Hipstamatic app.

I’m continuing to experiment with this very HIP(stamatic) app, and will post more food shots from time to time, so please stay tuned!

On March 1, the good folks at Cupcake Royale, whom I profiled in a Seattle Times Pacific Northwest article last year, rolled out their latest monthly cupcake in honor of St. Patrick’s Day: Bacon Whiskey Maple Cupcakes!

This delicious twist on Irish whiskey features moist vanilla butter cake made from local ingredients like milk, eggs, and butter from Medowsweet Dairy, and specially milled Shepherd’s Grain cake flour from Shepard’s Grain farmers in Eastern Washington.

The cake is hand-frosted with Irish Whiskey Maple Buttercream. Made with Jameson Irish Whiskey and real maple syrup, this malted maple swirl truly takes the edge of. . .a sweet tooth, that is.

Meat eaters will enjoy the real bacon bits from Zoe’s Meats that perch atop the icing; vegetarians can opt for a dusting of organic maple sugar and shamrocks.

Irish eyes will be smiling through the end of March, when Bacon Whisky Maple Cupcakes exit the cupcake case.

So visit any of the five Cupcake Royale locations in the Puget Sound area, including Bellevue, Capitol Hill, Ballard, Madrona and West Seattle for a taste. Or order up a batch for delivery today–St. Patrick’s Day–or any day until month’s end by calling 206.883.7656. You can also order online at cupcakeroyale.com.

Last weekend will go down as one of the worst in recent memory, since early Saturday morning I fell and cut the base of my pinky finger on the sharp metal edge of a heavy-duty tape dispenser.

It was a pretty deep gash, but I toughed it out for four hours (even enjoying the always-amazing Oyster Stew and Beet and Arugula Salad at Place Pigalle) before the throbbing pain became too much.

Figuring we would not overload the United States health-care system, we opted not to go to our local emergency room, but rather to a nearby Urgent Care Clinic.

There, the doctor suggested he glue the wound back together versus stitches. Sounded good to me, as I hate needles or anything having to do with the sight of blood.

About an hour later, we were back on the street and ready to pick up our day, more or less where we had left off.

Things didn’t go well that night, as we could see blood coming out from underneath the bandages. The pain intensified.

First thing Sunday morning, I was all ready to go back to Urgent Care and get them to fix me up (again).

“No you won’t!” Spencer said. “We’re going to a real ER this time!”

And so we did.

Once there, a very nice doctor, originally from northern England so he had a pleasing Scots-like accent that reminded me of Scotty from the Star Trek television series, said the finger never should have been glued.

After several minutes of irrigation with warm saline solution (which felt wonderful!), he gave me two shots down the nerves in my finger (which hurt like hell!).

Next, he draped the wound with a blue cloth with a hole in the center,  then inserted four stitches made from blue nylon (or whatever stitches are made of).

He said I’d need to be in a splint for about a week, to stabilize my pinky and keep the stitches from pulling out.

So I am now doing all my typing with a splint and four stitches. NOT easy, and so other than for my blogs and articles, I’m sticking to lowercase as it’s too hard to shift.

I found out that Martha Stewart recently had to go to the emergency room for stitches, too, after her dog accidentally butted her in the lip, resulting in a bad split. Here are her gruesome photos, which certainly rival mine.

Get well and heal up soon, Martha!

Meanwhile, I will try to do the same. Splint off on Sunday; stitches out next Tuesday, if I last that long, sigh.

January is a prime month for enjoying raw oysters on the half shell. And I love nothing better than partaking of them myself and shooting a photo or two both before and after (better to see the beautiful shells)!

Here is the gorgeous plate served up at TASTE Restaurant in the Seattle Art Museum (currently closed until February 15 as part of the furlough imposed on all SAM properties to help save money).

And more bounteous beauties from Shuckers restaurant in the Fairmont Olympic Hotel. Varieties (left to right) are: Hunter Point (kind of bland–almost meat-like!), Kumamoto (a bit watery, but always a favorite), and Penn Cove (very briny).

Nothing this good ever lasts long enough. . .

Here’s the lovely oyster service at Cafe Campagne in the Pike Place Market.

And just for fun, a duo of oysters at Blueacre Seafood. . .a bit of lagniappe from the resident expert oyster shucker at the seafood bar that evening.