Well whaddaya know: there’s not one, but TWO exciting food events happening at the Pike Place Market on the week of my birthday. Even better, you can eat to your heart’s (or rather belly’s) content and know it’s all for a good cause — proceeds from both events benefit local nonprofit organizations.
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This summer has been a hectic one for me at work and August was a particularly busy month with two huge events back-to-back. So my 10-day vacation to San Francisco at the end of the month couldn’t have come at a better time!
The title of this post was one of the many hilarious quotes from Kevin Gillespie at the 2nd Annual Gig Harbor Wine & Food Festival on August 6.
Nothing brings me more joy than an event that celebrates great, locally-sourced food and supports a worthy cause at the same time. The Community Alliance for Global Justice is celebrating it’s 10th anniversary this year, and on June 11th, you, too, can celebrate with them at their 5th annual “Strengthening Local Economies, Everywhere” (SLEE) dinner.
Ahem. *Deep breath in*
My name is Jenn…and I’m a frozen yogurt addict.
No, not the wannabe fro-yo made from ice cream and flavored powered! Ptssh! I’m talking about the real stuff, made with actual yogurt. And my fro-yo snobbery doesn’t end there. I only like a particular brand: Red Mango. I’ve tried many other brands, but none have the perfect harmony of tangy flavor and smooth texture quite like Red Mango. Ahh, yet another genius idea to make its way over from the motherland (South Korea) 
.
Despite being crazy busy the past couple weeks and the fact that my weekend will be a short one (work event in BFE Redmond tomorrow – ugh), today turned out to be a pretty good day.
For starters, I finally found time to update this blog, bringing the total for April to a whopping TWO posts!
My favorite color is green. I’m part Irish (I even had reddish hair as a kid. Imagine that – a red-headed, Asian-looking alien child 
). My husband’s name is Patrick:
What I’m saying here is I heart St. Patrick’s Day. In fact, my friends treat it like my second birthday — I get cards, gifts, candy, you name it for St. Patty’s Day every year.
The cold, crappy, rainy weather this weekend (PS: I think that groundhog was drunk when he made the prediction for early spring this year – hrmph!) had me craving warm comfort food. I rummaged through my enormous “recipe pile” — recipes and cooking notes written on everything from post-its to gum wrappers — and came across my notes from a pasta-making class I took last year with Dylan Giordan, executive chef of Serafina and Cicchetti. Then the lighbulb in my head went off: GNOCCHI, baby!
For $125 a pop for general admission tix alone, I didn’t think I’d ever end up at COCHON 555. But then my dear friend and fellow food blogger Kristin (author of KristinPotPie) won free VIP tickets to the event and invited me to accompany her this weekend. I know I get all giddy for every food-related event I go to, but this one in particular had me bouncing off the walls. An event dedicated to pig – and more importantly, the sustainable farming of heritage breed pigs – is definitely a winner in my book!
One of the best things about working downtown again: killer happy hours within walking distance! I recently checked out happy hour at Lecosho, Matt Janke’s (formerly of Matt’s in the Market) newest restaurant nestled in the Harbor Steps, which just so happens to be a stone’s throw away from my work.
I had heard nothing but great things about this place and finally had a chance to try some of their nibbles at the last Foodportunity event — they served up a delicious, yet scary-looking (think bologna and meatloaf having a love child), duck mortadella over a crostini.
When I joined a friend for a proper meal at the restaurant, we shared the hand-made cavatelli with wild mushrooms and a side order of the cauliflower with bagna cauda. I absolutely fell in love with the cauliflower — perfectly crisp and packed full of garlicky-salty flavor! So naturally, I decided to try making this dish at home. Happy hour prices or not, the Amateur Gourmand is all about being economical these days .
You know what cauliflower is (doi!), but what exactly is bagna cauda, you ask? Bagna cauda means “hot bath” in Italian. A hot bath (or warm dip, rather) made up of olive oil, butter, lots of garlic and anchovies, and usually served fondue-style with veggies. The dish at Lecosho had the bagna cauda mixed into the roasted cauliflower, which I really liked.
I said anchovies…did I lose you? Don’t knock it till you try it people! Anchovy filets add so much depth of flavor! And, once those suckers dissolve and cook down, there isn’t any pungent fishy flavor…just the perfect salty bite.
So anyway, I’m also trying to watch my figure these days so I opted to leave butter out of my version of bagna cauda (I know, I know, first anchovies, now this…). The flavors were still spot-on and I didn’t feel so much like a blimp after eating a bowl…and then licking the bowl clean . I had some Brussels sprouts on hand who wanted to join the party so I threw them into the hot tub time machine as well.
If you have any kiddos or men in your life who need a little extra convincing to finish their veggies, give this recipe a try (let’s face it, some grown dudes are worse than kids when it comes to veggies).
Serves 2 as a side dish
For the veggies:
For the bagna cauda:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Toss veggies with olive oil and lay in single layer on baking sheet. Roast until browned, approximately 25-30 minutes.
Start on bagna cauda when veggies are about 10 minutes from being finished (you want the bagna cauda to be warm when you coat the veggies). In a medium saucepan, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add crushed red pepper flakes and garlic and sautee until garlic starts to soften, about 2-3 minutes.
Add the anchovy filets – YUM! Reduce heat to low.
Using a wooden spoon, break up the anchovy filets; cook on low heat until they have fully dissolved into the oil mixture, about 5 minutes.
When veggies are done roasting, remove from oven and coat with finished bagna cauda. Toss to coat evenly. Now, if for some reason this isn’t salty enough for you, by all means add more salt. I found it to be plenty salty with just the anchovies.
Top with minced parsley and serve immediately while hot. Buon appetito!
