During our eight-day holiday sojourn last year in Santa Rosa and Carmel, California, we ran across this fabu Christmas tree at one of the lifestyle shops in downtown Carmel.

We loved the way this tree was totally wine-themed, from the barrel stand to the wine bottles twinkling with lights to the strings of spent corks.

And here’s a final, more detailed view, of this very special holiday bush. Too cool!

As the holiday season rushes by us, please consider supporting an industry that has been hit hard not only by the lagging economy but by readers’ changing reading habits: publishing.

Here I am with fellow authors Cynthia Nims and Carol Frieberg signing books earlier this month at Parkplace Books in Kirkland, Washington.

I signed all my books: Pacific Northwest Wining & Dining, the Pike Place Public Market Seafood Cookbook, and the Pike Place Market Cookbook. Too fun!

One of our “go-to” places, especially this time of year when we need an fun, festive place to meet friends for drinks and a bite, is TASTE Restaurant at the Seattle Art Museum. Danielle Custer, our friend, colleague, fellow Seattle Dame, über-talented chef, wine expert, and general manager of TASTE, runs a tight ship along with executive chef Craig Hetherington, with an emphasis on local, fresh, seasonal food products and wines.

Happy Hour, which runs 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. on the days the restaurant and museum are open (Tuesday through Sunday), is a real deal, with every item on the bar menu costing just $6. Here’s one of my faves–Griddled Cheese & Roasted Tomato Soup Shot, which normally sells for $9. Certainly puts Campbell’s and Velveeta to shame.

The boys in the group each ordered two Mini Organic Beef Burgers & Fries with Cumin Gouda, Dijon Aïoli, and Spicy Pickled Red Onions. (The sliders usually go for $6 for one, $9 for two, and $12 for three.) Unfortunately, the guys weren’t in a sharin’ kind of mood, so I snagged nary a bite nor a single fry!

Pastry chef Lucy Damkoehler was kind enough to send out her Dolci di Taste, a dessert trio in honor of the current Michelangelo exhibit. It included two light-as-air lemon cannolis, Winter Squash Crostata (a savory-leaning butternut-squash rustic tart), and my favorite–Hazelnut Gelato with a crunchy nut crust.

A bottle (or two!) of Lange Estate 2005 “Three Hills Cuvée” Pinot Noir ($67) from the Willamette Valley, paired perfectly with our savory items.

Here’s a lovely blog that posted recently and features my Pike Place Public Market Seafood Cookbook. I am so happy that when I updated the original book in 2005, I chose to highlight only seafood that wasn’t (currently) endangered. Now everyone is paying more attention to the overfishing of our seas, thankfully.

The Pike Place Public Market Seafood Cookbook makes a lovely holiday gift, hostess gift, or stocking stuffer. Loaded with 50 recipes and 50 photos, plus seafood shopping tips, Cook’s Hints, and Fun Facts, it sells for just $14.95, and measures six inches by six inches, so is easy and economical to ship.

Whether you are a fan of the “Twilight” series’ Team Edward or Team Jacob, you just gotta love the Olympic Peninsula, the inspiration for author Stephanie Meyers’s mythical creatures. Here’s a shot from our car window that shows the moody skies that typify this special place in the world. I love how the sun looks like it’s shining behind waxed paper. Temperatures matched the gray landscape, as it was appropriately dark, cold, and windy the weekend we visited for the region’s annual Passport Wine Tour.

First stop on our research trip of Olympic Coastal Cuisine (a newly minted term coined by the Olympic Peninsula Culinary Tourism Association) was Fins Coastal Cuisine, an atmospheric second-story, waterfront restaurant in downtown Port Townsend (PT). These are the absolutely bounteous Mediterranean mussels I ordered that came swimming in a lovely Rosé-based broth (!) flavored with fresh rosemary. I ate each and every one.

Walking around the charming boutiques and galleries in downtown PT, we happened upon a new waterfront hotel where we’ll definitely be laying our heads next time we are in the area. Clam Cannery Hotel is built in–you guessed it–a vintage clam cannery, and each of the five rooms is unique and beautiful, with Sub-Zero appliances; sweeping water views; and artisan-crafted doors, cabinetry, and floors.

At dinner overlooking Port Hudson Marina (also in PT), we enjoyed these perfectly fried local oysters served as an appetizer at T’s restaurant. They were light and crispy and just perfect with their beautifully piped aïoli sauce and watercress salad.

A hearty breakfast the next morning at Hudson Point Cafe got us ready to face a day of wine touring in nearby Port Angeles. Here is the Smoked Salmon Omelette with a cup of luscious black beans and whole-wheat toast, paired with pink grapefruit juice.

We enjoyed the six wineries in the area that spread from Port Townsend to Port Angeles. Highlights included Camaraderie Cellars, where Don and Vicki Corson have built a winery that speaks wine in every detail, from the olive-cluster-studded fire pit to the whimsical wine-themed art work to the wood-fire-burning pizza oven embedded with wine bottles. Harbinger Winery and Olympic Cellars Winery, on the main highway through town, also are well worth a stop, as each excels in ambience and well-crafted wines.

Shortly after we returned, The Seattle Times’ editorial page printed a very interesting article entitled, Sucking the Life out of Forks. It documents the problems of notoriety for this small western Washington town as 60,000 tourists in search of “Twilight” moments collide with a permanent population of just 3,200.

While researching my latest Pacific Northwest magazine Taste column on Savory Desserts (that was published in yesterday’s Seattle Times), I received this very interesting cookie recipe from Heather Earnhardt, pastry chef at the Volunteer Park Café in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood.

My article was running long (as usual!) and we weren’t able to print the recipe in the magazine, so I am very pleased it’s finding new life online here in my blog. Many thanks to Heather for sharing her recipe.

And my article was timely. . .a few weeks ago, NPR featured also featured an article on using bacon in desserts.

Bacon Chocolate-Chip Cookies

Makes about 3 dozen cookies

This creative cookie recipe comes courtesy of Heather Earnhardt, pastry chef at the Volunteer Park Café in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. It adds a savory element (bacon) to a traditional cookie dough with delicious results. At the Café, the cookie is whimsically called the Miss Piggy Chip and is the size of your hand!

1/2 pound dry-cured, thick-cut bacon

4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons kosher salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

3 sticks (12 ounces) unsalted butter, room temperature

2 cups light brown sugar, firmly packed

1 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs, plus 1 egg white, room temperature

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1 pound best-quality semisweet chocolate chips, such as Guittard

1. Preheat the oven to 325°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or Silpat.

2. In a medium skillet over medium-high heat, cook the bacon, turning once or twice, until crisp and lightly browned, 3 to 5 minutes. Drain on paper towels. When cool enough to handle, chop and set aside. (Alternatively, you can microwave the bacon until crisp or bake it in a 375°F oven for 12 to 15 minutes.)

3. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, and soda.

4. In the large bowl of an electric mixer, using the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and sugars until light and fluffy.

5. Add the eggs and egg white one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition. Add the vanilla and mix thoroughly.

6. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the flour until thoroughly mixed, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Gently mix in the chocolate chips, then the bacon.

7. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, rotating the baking sheets halfway through cooking time, until the cookies spread slightly and turn light golden brown.

Cook’s Hint: Pastry chef Heather Earnhardt uses a two-ounce ice cream scoop (slightly larger than a golf ball) when making the cookies at home. At the café, she makes four-ounce balls to create larger cookies.

My friend, colleague, fellow Seattle Dame, and Seattle celebrity chef extraordinaire, Kathy Casey, is opening her fab Food Studios in Ballard for a holiday open house. There she will sign her latest tome (her ninth!), Sips & Apps, and sell all manner of her delicious specialty foods.

Here are details straight from Kathy’s press release:

“Mark your calendars or leave Santa a note for the Kathy Casey Food Studios Open House on Saturday, December 12th, 11:00 a.m. to  7:00 p.m. Make sure to drop in!

“There’ll be delectable delights to sample plus gift items for sale. And I’ll be signing copies of my latest book, ‘Sips & Apps.’ You’ll have a chance to sample some tasty tidbits from ‘Sips & Apps’ like my Bacon, Blue Cheese & Pecan Cocktail Cookies, Lamb Sliders on Homemade Rosemary Buns, and Croque Monsieur Puffs!

“There’ll be lots of goodies to fill your favorite foodie’s stocking. From delicious oven-pretty packaged little Spiced Apple Cakes, bags of crunchy Fennel-Roasted Walnuts, housemade candies and our always-popular Maker’s Mark “Over 21” Fruitcake. And that’s not all!

“We’ll also have our Dish D’Lish® specialty products: seasoning salts, Cocktailor® cocktail mixers, and limited-edition preserves, including Fig, Fennel & Orange Chutney, Blackberry Lemon Verbena Jam, and the always-festive Sugarplum Preserves! Well also be offering housemade Hot Buttered Rum Mix, locally made Ballard Bee Honey, and incredible candied pumpkin in syrup from Argentina!”

Kathy Casey Food Studios® Holiday Open House

Saturday December 12th
11:00 am 7:00 pm
5130 Ballard Ave NW
Seattle, WA 98107
206-784-7840

Over a glass of wine late one afternoon at Purple Café and Wine Bar I had the pleasure of meeting Enzo Schiano, a former Microsoft marketing heavyweight turned olive-oil producer and winemaker in Tuscany. Schiano and wife Claire Beliard (a native of France) make Poggio la Noce extra virgin artisan olive oil at their hillside estate in Fiesole, Italy.

Schiano, a native of Naples, Italy, who studied in the United States before joining Microsoft, has been making olive oil in his groves (2,000 trees farmed organically!) situated above Florence since 2001. This year I tasted his “olio nuovo,” or “new” oil that had been pressed just a week or so before he returned stateside.

As you might expect of a just-pressed extra virgin oil, it was a vivid green color, redolent of aromas and flavors of new-mown grass, fresh herbs, and a bit of pepper, yet still smooth and satin-y. Yum!

The oil, which sells for $24.99 for a stylish 500-ml bottle, is sold at Whole Foods Market, some Metropolitan Market locations, DeLaurenti Specialty Food & Wine, QFC, and online at the Poggio Web site, so you should have no problem finding it.

Enzo is also a winemaker, and his delightful Gigiò wine, a Sangiovese blend, is available locally at McCarthy & Schiering Wine Merchants (which also carries the olive oil). I’d buy it for the whimsical label alone, not to mention the lovely wine inside.

This time of year, these Italian treats with a Northwest tie would make lovely holiday or hostess gifts.

During the 23rd annual Les Dames d’Escoffier annual conference in Philadelphia in October, I took a wonderful seminar with my buddy, and Philadelphia Dame and chef extraordinaire,  Aliza Green at the venerable Reading Terminal Market in downtown.

Here’s a photo of some of the unusual spices she described, then cooked with.

The workshop so inspired me that I rushed back to Seattle and went to World Spice Merchants (along Western Avenue, just below the Pike Place Market) and MarketSpice (a venerable Pike Place Market shop that’s been in business since 1911!) to restock my spice rack.

I loved the way at World Spice Merchants that they ground my Kashmiri garam masala (an Indian spice blend), right before my eyes. It’s also neat because they offer five different blends of garam to choose from and you can smell them and compare prices before you buy them!

Also at World Spice, I bought an ounce of Aleppo Pepper, a warm, chocolate-y, chipotle-like pepper with a moist texture. It’s so special, I’ve been sprinkling it over scrambled eggs, soups and stews, and just about everything.

Still on a spice jag, instead of preparing the traditional Thanksgiving turkey this year, I made Madhur Jaffrey’s Silken Chicken, an excellent recipe from “Madhur Jaffrey’s Quick and Easy Indian Cooking” (Chronicle Books, 2007). It combines heavy whipping cream with garam masala, cayenne, ground cumin, paprika, fresh garlic, and fresh ginger to form a marinade that is briefly rubbed (just 10 minutes!) into chicken breasts that have been previously been slit, pricked, and rubbed with salt and lemon juice.

Just before baking the breasts, sprinkle them with a bit more of the spices and black pepper, dried mint (I used fresh), and another sprinkle of lemon juice (I used Meyer lemons for a very aromatic option).

Here’s the dish just before I popped it into the hot, hot oven.

The chicken is roasted at highest oven temperature in the top third of the oven and the result really is silken, velvet-y chicken and sauce, as shown below. Yum!

Three nights later, I tried the dish substituting thin turkey fillets for the boneless, skinless chicken breasts. The dish was still delectable, but the turkey was drier and not as “silky” as the chicken, so I’d definitely opt for that. I feel this preparation would be too overpowering for any type of seafood, other than a hearty white fish, such as swordfish or halibut.