The Adventures of a Calamari Queen
Christian, Wife, Mommy, Homemaker, Retired nurse, Fur-mama,living a simple and minimal life!
Couple of weeks ago, we had a nice sunny saturday afternoon here and it was just the perfect time to visit Pike Place Market again. I so love that place! We decided to have lunch at Serious Pie, some of the best pizza of your life! This is our fave Pizza place in Seattle! The wait time was like 30 minutes so we had an excuse to go to Tom Douglas’s other restaurant Lola, and get their famous doughnuts. Giada De Launrentii mentioned that they were the best doughnuts for her:) We agree!
Sip Bar and Restaurant is the 2nd resto that we dined at during the Seattle Restaurant week last month. So convenient because it’s located in the same neighborhood that we live in. It was my first time to visit the place and we all loved it (though we all agreed that it’s a pricey place!). The place is so cozy and their food is great. Their creme brulee is to die for:)
One of my fave comfort food! This is an Ina Garten recipe and you can get this from the food network website:)
Place the ground meats, both bread crumbs, parsley, Parmesan, salt, pepper, nutmeg, egg, and 3/4 cup warm water in a bowl. Combine very lightly with a fork. Using your hands, lightly form the mixture into 2-inch meatballs. You will have 14 to 16 meatballs.
Pour equal amounts of vegetable oil and olive oil into a large (12-inch) skillet to a depth of 1/4-inch. Heat the oil. Very carefully, in batches, place the meatballs in the oil and brown them well on all sides over medium-low heat, turning carefully with a spatula or a fork. This should take about 10 minutes for each batch. Don’t crowd the meatballs. Remove the meatballs to a plate covered with paper towels. Discard the oil but don’t clean the pan.
For the sauce, heat the olive oil in the same pan. Add the onion and saute over medium heat until translucent, 5 to 10 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 1 more minute. Add the wine and cook on high heat, scraping up all the brown bits in the pan, until almost all the liquid evaporates, about 3 minutes. Stir in the tomatoes, parsley, salt, and pepper.
Return the meatballs to the sauce, cover, and simmer on the lowest heat for 25 to 30 minutes, until the meatballs are cooked through. Serve hot on cooked spaghetti and pass the grated Parmesan.
My sister Rosell is in love with short ribs lately that she requested this dish again. I’ve been wanting to try the short rib recipe from the Bon Appetite October 2011 issue. I think by far this recipe has taken the most prep time yet. I tried 3 different recipes already and this was the tastiest by far, so we all agree that it was worth it! So most likely, I will stick to this one and will definitely make this again:)
Red Wine-Braised Short Ribs ( 6 servings; Bon Appetit,october 2011)
5 lb. bone -in beef short ribs, cut crosswise into 2″ pieces
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 Tbsp. vegetable oil
3 medium onions,chopped
3 medium carrots,peeled,chopped
2 celery stalks,chopped
3 Tbsp. all purpose flour
1 Tbsp. tomato paste
1 750 ml. bottle dry red wine(preferably Cabernet Sauvignon)
10 springs flat-leaf parsley
8 springs thyme
4 springs oregano
2 springs rosemary
2 fresh or dried bay leaves
1 head of garlic,halved crosswise
4 cups low salt beef stock
1. Preheat oven to 350. season short ribs with salt and pepper. Heat oil in a large Dutch oven over medium- high heat. Working in 2 batches, brown short ribs on all sides, about 8 minutes per batch. Transfer short ribs to a plate. Pour off all but 3 Tbsp. dripping from pot.
2. Add onions,carrots, and celery to pot and cook over medium high heat, stirring often, until onions are browned, about 5 minutes. Add flour and tomato paste; cook, stirring constantly, until well combined and deep red, 2-3 minutes. Stir in wine, then add short ribs with any accumulated juices. Bring to a boil; lower heat to medium and simmer until wine is reduced by half, about 25 minutes. Add all herbs to pot along with garlic. Stir in stock. Bring to a boil, cover, and transfer to oven.
3. Cook until short ribs are tender, 2-2 1/2 hours. Transfer short ribs to a platter. strain sauce from pot into a measuring cup. Spoon fat from surface of sauce and discard; season sauce to taste with salt and pepper. Serve in shallow bowls over mashed potatoes with sauce spooned over.
We participated in the Seattle Restaurant week (was on going for 2 weeks) this week mainly because I wanted to experience it without spending so much money. We really enjoyed it a lot, although all of us agreed that we can’t eat like this everyday. We dined at the Melting Pot in Bellevue, and Sip and Wine Restaurant here in Issaquah Highlands. Melting Pot is always fun to do because it’s a fondue restaurant and we don’t do fondue here at home. Hubby mentioned that we should be doing fondue because it’s not that expensive and versatile in the sense that we can do different types of cheeses and chocolates for dessert.
We had this simple stir fry steak last week. It’s not really worth writing the recipe because there’s no recipe that I followed in this one. I just marinated the sliced beef then marinated it in bottled steak sauce then stir fried it together with bell peppers. I just love the colors of the dish because it reminds me of Italy, one of my dream countries to visit:)
Here’s more of our weekend trip to Leavenworth!
We spent a great day at Leavenworth, WA. yesterday and it was such a nice day to visit the lovely town:) It was so nasty going there (pouring rain, foggy, windy) but so worth it when we finally arrived and enjoyed the place during the Fall season! We spent our New Years 2010 here and got to see Leavenworth during the wintertime, and let me tell you, it’s really the classic winter wonderland place:) I was excited because it’s Rosell’s (my sis) and Riley’s (our cute Schnauzer) first time to see the place. It was such a perfect day to be there, sunny and the changing of the leaves colors, so many fun things to experience. We did some wine and beer tasting, ate a yummy Italian dinner, and shopped at Smallwood farmers market! I’ll have 2 posts of our Leavenworth adventure because Hubby took a lot of nice pictures that I want to share everybody:)
I cleaned our front and backyard this week and wasn’t up for cooking dinner after that, so I declared to Hubby that “I deserved some steak” LOL…so off we go to Flat Iron Grill and used a coupon that I purchased a while ago. I always order their Flat Iron 10 oz. with salsa criolla, goat cheese polenta and chimichurri! It’s so good:)
I’m participating again at ThePleatedPoppy for WIWW! It’s been a very nice fall season here in WA this past week, sunny yet chilly so I had to wear lots of sweaters and my super comfy black boots!
