What's for Dinner?

In Seattle, Andrew and I fell in love with Macrina Bakery & Cafe's Mushroom and Pepperoni Quiche.  It was to die for and I decided I wanted to try and make it, but make it without grains or dairy.  I used this recipe here, on the Paleo Diet Lifestyle blog to guide me and then added pepperoni and sauteed mushrooms, and a little bit of Parmesan cheese.  I avoided the crust this time, but I have been researching some grain free options like this crust here.  It was great, a slight taste of coconut, which was weird, but it didn't bother me because the pepperoni and mushrooms were so savory!

What's for Dinner?

I have been wanting to make the Cauliflower pizza for so long.  Finally, usually our night to order pizza delivery, I decided to make Against All Grain's Meat Lover's Pizza with Cauliflower Crust. 

So we used the meat and veggies we already had, chicken sausage, pepperoni, and tomatoes.  It turned out very nice! I wouldn't say pizza, but it was delicious!!! I will definitely be making this again trying out different toppings!

Grillin' Week #3: Cornish Game Hen (My Week)

Ok, you must be thinking, what happened to Grillin' Week #2, well that was the same night as the Picnic at the Mission which was scheduled before we found out the couples for our weekly dinner could only host dinner the same night.  Sorry, but the picnic won!

So Week #3 was at our house, and the Henwood/Pilato/Kelly Household selected a nice little hen as the mystery meat for the night, cornish game hen.

I have cooked this once before, but couldn't remember a thing about what we did or how it turned out, good thing is at least it isn't a bad memory! The first thing that came to mind when given this challenge was beer can chicken! We made this one night in our BBQ Cooking class and it was super juicy and delicious.  I went through all my saved recipes, but couldn't find it anywhere.  So I find an email from our BBQ teacher and hoped he gets back to me within a few hours.  Well to the rescue Mr. Feeney (No, not the same one from Saved by the Bell) was able send me a copy of his recipe!

It was pretty simple, season the chicken (cornish game hen for tonight), pour half the beer out or drink it, place the chicken on the beer so the beer is tightly in the chicken's cavity and nicely holding it up.  Then place on the BBQ until the meat is at 180 degrees.

I served the beer can cornish game hen with a side of Pancetta & Sweet Potato Hash and Lemon Parmesan Roasted Broccoli.  These are two of my favorite quick and easy sides to make that went perfectly with the hen.  I have to say I was pretty impressed with results!

Seattle Photo Blog!

So here is a picture blog of our trip to Seattle!

Black Bottle

This was our first food & drinks in Seattle, just across from our hotel and it was absolutely delicious and much needed after our flight!  Finally we were on VACATION! 

Night Out

Shorty's

Wandering the streets we stumbled upon this place.  I have no idea what brought Andrew in, I mean usually clowns and fairs are creepy, and wouldn't you also think the people who go to a bar like this are too... Well it was completely the opposite and we had the BEST TIME!!! We even went back the next night to play more pinball! Beer & games, you really can't beat that, well yea you can when you beat your boyfriend over and over in pinball!

Good Morning Seattle, you are foggy! 

Macrina Bakery & Cafe

Very close to our hotel as well, we ate at Macrinas, bummed that they weren't serving brunch on Friday we still ate some amazing food.  This is a pepperoni and mushroom quiche was light, fluffy, creamy... really good! Then as a little sweet treat we ended the meal with an upside down nectarine cake, that was fabulous. They did run into a few issues of running out of food, but that was our fault for starting our day around 11am.  

Pikes Place

Fish, Fruit, and Flowers! 

Mistral Kitchen Happy Hour! 

Meet our mixologist, Nick!  He crushed ice with a hammer, stirred whisky, twirled orange peals, carved ice blocks into diamonds, smoked hickory, and recommended some great happy hour appetizers! 

Drink stop on the way to Spur

Spur Gastropub

(2nd Dinner of the Night)

I was too full to sit comfortably at this point but not too full to enjoy the food.  We had the tomato and basil salad with mozzarella ice cream, tagliatelle with a duck egg, wagyu sirloin, and the most amazing grass fed beef burger!!! It was all so good, we couldn't help but eat it!

So I really messed up on dessert, it was good, but the ice cream was tarragon ice cream and I hate tarragon... I was delusional at this time.  TOO MUCH FOOD, my bad we only had one "dinner time" in the city! 

Macrina Bakery & Cafe Brunch!

I had to try the brunch and Andrew was still sleeping so I headed back to Macrina's before the ran out of everything and sat down and enjoyed brunch and people watching (one of my top 5 things to do).  So after having an amazing nectarine upside down cake, I figured the nectarine waffle was going to be great too... well until they served it with unripe fruit! It was really bad, but I kindly asked for some berries and they quickly brought them to me and I was happy and enjoying my breakfast once again.    

Marination Station

This was a hot little spot close to the university!  I wish we had more time to check out this area, but I am glad we made a stop here!  This place was an asian taco fusion place... We did a sample of everything: Tacos, Sliders, and Quesadilla! 

Heading to Whidbey Island 

Don't worry, we had our fish and chips while waiting to cross the ferry to Whidbey Island! 

Downtown Langley, Whidbey Island

Met my mom for some wine tasting and stopped by a cupcake shop that had this bacon treat! 

View from our House

Homemade food for the party!

Garlic Shrimp appetizer, curry salmon with rice and cabbage, chocolate cherry cake with homemade coconut gelato! It was nice to have a home cooked meal, look how happy Andrew is!  

Deception Peak, beautiful!

Whidbey Sunsets

Mukilteo Coffee Co

Andrew always orders the right thing, his french toast were delicious! I don't have a picture but their baked treats were really good too... it was a nice snack while waiting in the ferry line back to the mainland.  My breakfast sandwich was good, but bready... yea that is coming from the person who doesn't usually eat bread! But I think I made a bad order, this sandwich wasn't anything to talk about.

MOD Pizza! 

On the way to the airport we went to Bellevue and checked out the town, pretty much business offices and malls, I was not complaining.  We came across MOD on yelp, it was close, cheap, and great reviews.  Walking in we discover it was Chipotle style dining for pizza, umm yes please!  And I loved the thin crust pizza.  Can we please have one in Santa Barbara?