tiltawhirl

the taste of fall

Fall means apples, to me. And apples mean apple cider. And apple cider, my friends, means APPLE CIDER doughnuts.

So here I am, in Washington, the APPLE STATE, but there doesn't seem to be much of a tradition of apple cider doughnuts here. Apples are serious business here. Maybe Washington doesn't grow a lot of cider-type apples, or maybe cider making just isn't profitable enough, or something. Anyway, a quick search of the web shows that apple cider doughnuts are more of a New England/Northeast kind of thing.

It turns out, my childhood source of apple cider doughnuts sells them online! http://www.deliciousorchardsnjonline.com/scripts/prodList.asp?idCategory=20

Growing up, we'd go out to Delicious Orchards and get bags of apple cider doughnuts. We'd get two kinds - the cinnamon/sugar ones (I am not sure if those are "plain") and the powdered sugar ones. We'd also get a gallon of fresh cider, and some of that applesauce cake with the white frosting.

The cinnamon doughnuts usually first. I wasn't as crazy for the powdered sugar ones, but if that was all that was left, I'd eat those. They were kind of messy though. At the end, when no one could eat another apple cider donut, there was always one powdered sugar one left, and it would loll around in the drawer for a few weeks, getting pulverized in that plastic bag until it was white powdery dust.

Delicious Orchards seems to be trying to corner the homesick/hungry ex NJ resident market by also offering Taylor Pork Roll, and Shickhaus Griddle Franks. If you haven't had a pork roll egg and cheese sandwich on a poppy seed kaiser roll, you have not yet lived.

http://www.deliciousorchardsnjonline.com/scripts/prodList.asp?idCategory=30

Summer of Fun, week 4

This weekend our fun event was the RedHook brewery tour. We went to the Forecaster's Public House for lunch, then did their brewery tour. Both were just OK.

The food was alright, "nothing to write home about" to quote Ryan. The beers were pretty good, I went with the Blonde Ale on a nitro tap. If you've never had a beer on nitro, I recommend it. It makes it very creamy and smooth.

The tour was more of a tasting and less of a tour than we expected. Which was still nice, we paid a dollar each and got generous pours of five different Red Hook beers, and heard about the history of the brewery from a very nice guide. But it all took place mostly in one room, with just a window looking out into the brewery. Also, our tasting/tour was infected with a couple of asshats who wanted to make a spectacle of themselves and talk while the guide was talking.

It probably sounds churlish, but in general, people really drive me nuts with their constant need to be the center of attention at something like this. Like people at concerts or performances who need to yell something during quiet moments. We also saw Lewis Black this weekend and during his act, people kept yelling things to him. You know, the usual "I love you man!" type things. Why don't they just stand up and yell "HEY EVERYBODY LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME!" And if the performer humors them by making some comment in return, I imagine they go home thinking "I talked to Lewis Black - I was part of the show!"

On the wall in the brewpub though, they had this excerpt from John Gardner's "On Becoming a Novelist" that I thought was kind of interesting. The connection to brewing is tenuous, except to say that they admired the spirit of mild insanity that infects those who are passionate about making writing great stories, and thought it was a similar type of mania that drove them to make beer.

From "On Becoming a Novelist":

"Like any other kinds of intelligence, the storyteller’s is partly natural, partly trained. It is composed of several qualities, most of which, in normal people, are signs of either immaturity or incivility: wit (a tendency to make irreverent connections); obstinacy and a tendency toward churlishness (a refusal to believe what all sensible people know is true; childishness (an apparent lack of mental focus and serious life purpose, a fondness for daydreaming and telling pointless lies, a lack of proper respect, mischievousness, an unseemly propensity for crying over nothing); a marked tendency toward oral and anal fixation or both ( the oral manifested by excessive eating, drinking, smoking, and chattering; the anal by nervous cleanliness and neatness coupled with a weird fascination with dirty jokes); remarkable powers of eidetic recall, or visual memory ( a usual feature of early adolescence and mental retardation); a strange admixture of shameless playfulness and embarrassing earnestness, the latter often heightened by irrationally intense feelings for or against religion; patience like a cat’s; a criminal streak of cunning; psychological instability; recklessness, impulsiveness and improvidence; and finally, an inexplicable and incurable addiction to stories, written or oral, bad or good. Not all writers have exactly these same virtues, of course. Occasionally one finds one who is not abnormally improvident.

I have described here, you may think, a curious and dangerous beast. In fact, good writers are almost never dangerous..."

Summer of Fun, week 3

This weekend's special events were a little less exotic than in previous weeks, but no less fun. Therefore they qualify under the Summer of Fun rules.

Our first event was the Dock Dogs competition at Carillion Point in Kirkland, Washington. You might have probably seen dock jumping on ESPN’s Great Outdoor Games or on the Outdoor Life Network. Basically, a dog runs really fast down a dock, and jumps off the dock into the water to fetch a toy or float that the handler has tossed into the water. The object of the competition is to achieve the greatest distance on your jump.

These dogs get some major air.

It was interesting seeing the different techniques handlers used. Some made the dog stay at the far end of the ramp, then got their attention with the toy and then sent the dog after it. Another guy threw the toy, then grabbed the dog and kept pulling him back, back, back, the way you do with those windup toy cars that you pull back and release. It was great fun waiting for him to let go. One woman stood back with the dog, held the dog back then threw the toy from way at the end of the dock into the water then let the dog go. The thing that was most fun was seeing the dogs waiting to go get the toy - they were so intent and excited.

A few more pictures of dogs in flight:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/michellemc/sets/72157600393231607/

After that, we went to the Washington Brewers' Festival to sample some beers. And sample we did. If you like beers, brewers' festivals are a great way to try some beers you've not tasted before.

The festival was at Saint Edwards State Park in Kenmore, and it was a nice place for the event. We arrived late in the afternoon, and a lot of people were heading out, but they had us park out in a satellite lot that was probably a half mile from the festival. It was a nice walk to the gate, and we spotted what we thought might be a few shortcuts back to the parking lot, via various trails in the park. But they all had police tape accross them to discourage you from taking them.

Once we got to the gate, we paid our addmission fee and got our tasting glasses. The 4oz tasting glass is the real beauty of these events. I like beer, and I like trying different beers, but I don't really drink that much anymore. Normally I can handle about two 12oz beers, then I'm done for. So with a 4oz pour I can try more beers.

So I started out with a blackberry cider which was nice. Then I saw Kona Brewing Company, and I like their Wailua Wheat beer (flavored with passion fruit) so I had one of those. After that my mental notes are a little weaker. I could go back and look at the beer listings but I'd rather give you the "from memory" version since it will be a more honest account of what the day was like. There was something (maybe a Belgian Wit) from somewhere with a red colored cooler. Then I decided I wanted a pretzel. No one was selling warm pretzels, I couldn't believe it. Ryan and I split a bratwurst instead. We people watched, and noticed a few trends that we discussed. Why were there so many people wearing Chicago Bears shirts? Why do you always see at least one guy wearing a Utilikilt at any event that has the word "festival" in it?

After this, I was ready to drink some more, so I got  another cider from Wescott Orchards on San Juan Island. Other beers followed, I remember two in particular that were interesting. My favorite of the day was a jasmine infused IPA from Elysian. It's noteworthy that I remember all the details - the beer and the brewer, because by this point I was a little drunk.  Another one that stands out in my memory was a spiced wit, with coriander, that at first I wasn't crazy about because I thought it smelled like cat litter. Then I realized I had just used hand sanitizer and that it was my hand that smelled that way - not the beer. Once I covered my hand with my sleeve, it was quite nice.

We were out of tokens at this point so we started to head back to the car. I still had this idea about finding a shortcut trail back to the parking lot but Ryan wasn't too keen on walking around in the woods near dark with a slightly drunk person. I noticed that the police line tapes had been removed from the trailheads and I said "Hey, the LAPES are gone!" I'm not sure what that word was supposed to be, I was thinking ropes or tapes but somehow it came out lapes.

Farmers' market

fresh eggs
Originally uploaded by Michelle McGee.

We went to the Redmond Farmers' Market this morning, or I think, more accurately, it is called the Redmond Saturday Market. There are a lot of crafts for sale there, probably more than farm products, so it's more appropriate. A lot of the crafty type stuff was very nice.

We got some fresh eggs, and when the seller opened the box to check them out for breakage I was pleasantly surprised of the variety of pastel-y colored eggs. They looked like Easter eggs, and made me think of this picture my friend Richard took, of their Easter eggs. So I took a similar picture of my own, although I like his composition better.

Farmers' Markets are getting into full swing all over the country right about now. Our local ones are still a little weak for produce - the good stuff isn't ripe yet. Lovely asparagus and nice greens are ready now, though. And some beautiful flowers.

I was reading an article recently though, about the popularity of farmers' markets. Apparently, a lot of the markets don't set any standards for percentage of grower participation (eg, 75% sellers who grew their product themselves). Also, a lot of the markets are offering more and more prepared food, in response to people who want to come to the market for dinner, maybe buy some flowers and leave. Basically they want to come and walk around and see fresh fruit and vegetables, but mostly they want a slice of pizza and a bag of kettle corn. They then stop at Safeway on the way home to buy a bag of Fresh Express lettuce. The farmers aren't making money.

I think we're lucky in this area, we have some great farmers' markets - you could go to one every day of the week. And you see the same farm names at every market - local growers, selling stuff that is freshly grown. Why would someone be leaving with nothing but a bag of kettle corn?

Although the Redmond Saturday Market is nice, I think I prefer the midweek market at Crossroads, or the one in Bellevue on Thursday. There are fewer vendors, but more produce vendors than crafts.

Theo Chocolate Factory

Yesterday, my coworkers and I took a tour of the Theo Chocolate factory in the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle. It's housed in a really cool building that used to be the Redhook Brewery. Apparently this is some kind of magical building that only produces the world's greatest substances.

Theo makes "premium organic and fair trade chocolate" which coincidentally is absolutely delicious and amazing.

There was a lot of chocolate sampling, and our tour guide walked us through the processing of the cacao. It was weird to think that all the metal pipes over our heads were full of chocolate-y slurry, moving from machine to machine.

We also visited the confection room, where the chocolatiers created confections and chocolatey treats, like these "Spring Eggs". In the photo below, she's setting the eggs on bases made of chocolate "Nib Brittle" which has pieces of cacao bean in it.

Finished Spring Eggs:

Week of entertainment - part 2

We took a break from being entertained on Thursday, in order to prepare for the weekend.

We started out on Friday night, going to dinner at Tavolata, in Seattle, with our friends Ian and Maura. It was very good, probably one of the better Italian restaurants I've been to since moving to the West Coast. Most of the seating at the restaurant is at a long communal table in the center of the room, which normally rates right up there with "quaint bed and breakfast" for me on the "no thanks" scale, but it was fine, even though right as we sat down our table mates greeted us and offered us some of their appetizer. Which of course, is very nice, but disconcerting. It takes a few minutes to relax and get used to it. Anyway the food was good, we had a nice time.

After that, we headed over to the Showbox for the start of Lebowski Fest West - an event for fans of the film "The Big Lebowski". We arrived too late to see The F***ing Eagles but just in time to see Har Mar Superstar (warning: linked content contains one mildly objectionable word).

I would wager a guess that our party was divided on whether that was good or bad luck, since at the apex of Har Mar Superstar's performance he was mostly naked, sweating profusely, singing a Justin Timberlake-y remix of "Alone Again, Naturally" by  Gilbert O'Sullivan (possibly the most depressing song ever written). Then, just to top it all off, his nose started bleeding.

I think it's important to add, he didn't suddenly disrobe or anything, he just gradually undressed. It kind of snuck up on us. As you can see from the picture, he's not uh, conventionally attractive, as in "probably not the person you picture when you hear about someone performing naked". I think Ian hit the nail on the head by saying it was like watching a live action version of "The Critic" (Jon Lovitz) perform naked.

After that, Jeff "The Dude" Dowd came out to introduce the movie.

It was a little odd, standing in a club watching a movie, but it was fun to see and hear people shouting along with the film Rocky Horror Picture Show style.

i bought all the diet root beer

I've been dying for a diet root beer for days.

It all started back on the night of the snowstorm. We stopped in to Ryan's office on the way home, after sitting in traffic for hours on the way over from my office, and I grabbed a diet Mug root beer out of the fridge in the kitchen.

This kicked off a long dormant addiction to diet root beer. They say that the first time you try crack cocaine, as soon as the effect wears off, your body starts screaming for more crack, instantly.

I'm like a crackhead, but for diet root beer.

We try not to keep diet soda in our house. We have a friend who comes over and often asks "Hey, do you guys have any diet soda?" At first, we'd just apologize and say no. Then one day he commented "Well, you guys don't really like soda..." and I confessed.

"We do like it. We like it a LOT. I'm just not mature enough to have it in the house."

As soon as a 2 liter bottle of diet Pepsi arrives in our house, it's just an immediate race to the bottom of the bottle. If there is diet soda around, I will drink it until it's gone, to the exclusion of any other beverage. This isn't a good thing, because then I don't drink water, I drink diet soda which has a lot of sodium and caffeine in it. When there is diet Pepsi in the house it's a huge party - I'm running around, pouring it over my head, laughing like a maniac. "It's so good! It's so delicious!"

So, once I had that diet Mug, I was immediately back to work the next day looking for my next fix. It was snowy, so my friend and I walked from the office over to a nearby 7-11 to try to score. The only diet sodas they had were coke and pepsi. And a dozen different sugary energy drinks. No luck, 7-11 wasn't holding.

The next day, Audrey went to Whole Foods to pick up lunch, and checked there. Still nothing. Whole Foods apparently doesn't deal in that sort of thing.

Finally today, I had had enough. I went to a regular, honest-to-God grocery store and hit the mother lode. Diet Stewart's root beer in individual bottles, six packs of Diet Hansen's root beer (made with Splenda!), diet Mug in a 12 pack!

I lost control. I bought it all.

This has happened to me before - I can't find something I want for a short period of time, then when I do find it, I go nuts. I know it's stupid while I'm doing it but I can't help it.

The final score was two diet Stewart's root beers, a 12 pack of diet Mug, two six packs of Diet Hansen's. 26 diet root beers!

I even got an Orange and Cream diet Stewart's. Apparently diet root beer can be a gateway to the more exotic stuff.