Weee! Presents!

I hate the mall.  I like shopping but I don’t enjoy fighting people for parking spots or listening to screaming kids present at the mall.  I would also like to avoid elbowing strangers in the face so that I can buy everyone I know the same $15 sweater as sometimes you must when you do your holiday shopping at a mall.  What I am saying is that I prefer a  less headache inducing experience.   Time is getting short for shopping and the malls are only getting crazier so I am happy to present Gift Local.  Various Seattle business including one of my personal favorites Cupcake Royale ( I may have mentioned them once or twice.  Did I mention I had their cupcakes at my wedding?) have gathered together to ask their fellow Seattlites to support local businesses with their holiday shopping.

This initiative centers on asking people to take the “Gift Local Pledge.”  This doesn’t mean that you have to swear off malls for all of eternity and wear only locally handmade everything.  I wouldn’t ask you to do that.  They only ask that in the course of your holiday shopping you shop at at least three local, independent businesses this holiday season.  That’s just one book from Elliot Bay Books or University Book Store, one fish from Pike Place Market, and one cupcake from Cupcake Royale and you will have fulfilled your duty.  It’s totally free to take the pledge and they will also send you a packet of great deals to aid in your shopping.  Also, you’ll be stimulating the local economy  and helping to keep Seattle awesome and that’s just a bonus.

I have already taken the pledge as I have already been to more than three local stores mostly because I really like shopping and but too many gifts.  Sadly I still had to go to the mall.  So, if you hate malls, go on, take the pledge and discover some new stores and maybe a get a few more unique gifts this year.  If you need some help finding places to check out you can search by category or neighborhood

over at Think Local .  I just learned that there is a store in Redmond that sells nothing but Tiramisu.  That’s what I call a good time.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone!

In an effort to start planning ahead more often – I present to you, Arcade Lights taking place NEXT Friday, April 20 at the Pike Place Market. Arcade Lights is a celebration of local artisan foods and beverages and live music all in the name of a good cause: The Market Foundation.

What/Why:

At this fun festival of culinary delights for guests 21 and over, more than 60 local artisan food and beverage purveyors will sample a variety of sweet or savory foods, including seafood and sausage, doughnuts and ice cream—and tasty beverages including beer, wine, coffee, hard cider and sodas. Enjoy live performances of jazz, acappella gospel, folk and rock, performed by Market buskers. Ticket includes 10 tokens event-goers redeem as they choose. Proceeds benefit the Market Foundation and the preschool, senior center, food bank, and medical clinic that serve those who need a helping hand.

There will be no shortage of delightful establishments on hand. Check out the full listing of participating wineries, breweries, coffee roasters, sweet treats and big bites here.

Tickets are $25 in advance (this is where the planning ahead part comes into play) and $30 at the door. Proceeds benefit the Market Foundation and the preschool, senior center, food bank, and medical clinic that serve those who need a helping hand.

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For all you people who enjoy the planet-

The Sounders won 2-1 against the Chicago Fire last weekend and it was our first win of the season and it was SO GLORIOUS.

Oh my goodness, I don’t know where that came from. 

As I was saying, for all of you who enjoy existing on the third planet from the sun, April 22nd is Earth Day!  One day during the year when we all ought to set aside our differences in belief and celebrate the wonder that is our world.  For example, water?  So extraordinary.  Only naturally occurring element whose solid form is less dense than its liquid form (just think about it – if ice didn’t float on water, we’d be in a lot of trouble trying to sustain life around here *shiver*).

And in honor of this lovely day, the Nature Conservancy is teaming up with Pike Place Market to hold a Picnic for the Planet Party!  All of you who enjoy food and being not inside are invited to head for the market.  There’ll be music.  There’ll be sweets.  There’ll be activities.  And for those of you who enjoy picnics but abjure the whole picnic basket concept as far too strenuous, there will be delicious, delicious food.  The local organic kind, which makes it twice as nice.

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Now I’d love to be a judge for that contest!

The Seattle Cheese Festival is conducting a recipe search for the best grilled cheese sandwich recipe.  The winner of the contest will appear during the Seattle Cheese Festival, which takes place May 14-15, 2011, to give a live demo on the chef’s stage.  The winning sandwich will also be on sale at the festival. 

Deadline:
The deadline for entry is May 1, 2011.  To enter your recipe, please email it to info@seattlecheesefestival.com.

Finalist and winners will be notified by May 5, 2011.

Recipe Guidelines:

• It must contain a readily available cheese and bread.
• The recipe can contain up to 6 ingredients
• Include a brief description (75 words or less) of the inspiration for the sandwich

Judging:
The recipes will be judged based on creative use of cheese, flavor profile and relative ease to make.

A little inspiration?

2010 Winner – Stefany Dybeck with Fonduta Fettunta Grilled Cheese
2009 Winner – Crystal Ortiz with Grilled Suds N’ Cheese
2008 Winner – Jeff Bergman with Grilled Stichelton and Black Forest Ham Sandwich

I don’t know what it is about this upcoming weekend, but there is a boatload of food festivals happening that as a foodie, makes planning the weekend a challenge. So we’re taking a break from our “Best Bites of…” series to give you the lowdown on the best of the best food events to help you get your chow on.

• Saint Demetrios 50^th Annual Greek Festival – One of my most favorite events to attend each year, the Greek Festival celebrates all things Greek and features TONS of homemade food including gyros, baklava, spanakopita, moussaka and more. In addition the festival hosts a traditional Greek tavern with beer and wine tasting as well as a food market to take home a taste of Greece with you.
• Festa Italiana – If Greece isn’t your cup of tea, check out Festa Italiana which celebrates the, “cultural roots of Italians and Italian-Americans by presenting and promoting the arts, the food and the spirit that are uniquely Italian.” The event features bocce ball tournament, chef demonstrations (including Chef Anne Burell, Mario Batali’s sous chef) and even a grape stomp!
• 1^st Annual Artisan Food Festival – Sponsored by the Pike Place Market Foundation, the Artisan Food Festival will bring together local artisan food and beverage companies to celebrate the best of what artisan-crafted products have to offer. Try tasty vittles from Macrina Bakery, Theo Chocolate, Rain Shadow Meats and Estrella Family Creamery and more.
• Fisherman’s Fall Festival – What does a salmon BBQ, oyster slurp, Deadliest Catch and survival suit races have in common? The 22^nd annual Fisherman’s Fall Festival in Ballard. The festival honors the return of the North Pacific fishing fleet to the terminal, works to increase the public’s knowledge of the importance of the fishing industry while raising money for the Seattle Fishermen’s Memorial Foundation.

This is only a sampling of the fabulous events going on this weekend including Fremont Oktoberfest, ‘Bite of Mud Bay’, Hops and Crops Festival and more!

Seattle is well-known for having an abundance of wonderful farmers markets. Beyond being the home to one of the most famous in the country (that would be Pike Place Market for those of you who were scratching their heads), almost every neighborhood has a market which sells fresh and local produce. While each neighborhood farmers market each has their own distinct vibe, the mission remains the same: support small farms and build healthy connections through local food.

My personal favorite (and the favorite of many local foodies) is the Queen Anne Farmers Market. The market runs every Thursday from 3 pm to 7 pm during market season and boasts an amazing selection of local produce, chef demos, book signings, musicians and more. But my favorite part about the Queen Anne Farmers Market is of course…the food!

Queen Anne Farmers market has a rotating smorgasbord of amazing mobile food carts that grace the market each week. Here you’ll find familiar favorites such as Parfait Ice Cream, Skillet Street Food (mmm, poutine) and Maximus Minimus, as well as up and coming stars such as Where Ya at Matt and Anita’s Crepes. The market is the perfect place for a late lunch or a quick and easy dinner and is a great way to try some of the city’s best food.

If you haven’t yet checked out Queen Anne Farmers Market, do it! The market season ends in October. And check out the market’s website to get the latest on each week’s chef demos, book signings, vendors and more.

This Sunday marks the second annual Fruit Festival down at the Pike Place Market. This is the second pairing of local, delectable natural sweets and a race for the fastest and most creative chef down at the iconic market, which also makes a great activity to entertain out of towners. Of course, this is also a site to see if you’re a local down at the market on a Sunday afternoon shopping for the season’s best locally grown fruits and veggies.

At noon, spectators are encouraged to cheer the chefs as they engage in a friendly “Iron Chef”-style competition. Chef Josh Green of the Virginia Inn and Chef Ron Anderson of Etta’s Seafood will vie for the title of “Master of the Market.” Each chef will be presented with two secret ingredients at noon.

They will then have 20 minutes and $25 to shop from farmers in a mad-dash for ingredients. After the shopping spree they’ll return to the cooking tent to create, in 45 minutes, a dish of their choice. Upon presentation of each creation, judges will merit each based on originality, taste and presentation.

Here’s a full schedule to the festival’s events:

• 10:00 a.m. – Cooking demo with Diane LaVonne of Diane’s Market Kitchen, sponsored by Chukar Cherries
• 11:00 a.m. – Kids of any age (adults, too!) can draw on Chalky the Pig, color fruit pages and receive a helium balloon. Until 4:00 p.m.
• 11:00 a.m. – Performance of “Women’s Votes, Women’s Voices,” presented by the Museum of History & Industry and Live Girls! Theater. It reenacts the Seattle suffragette experience of 1909 that led to Washington women winning the right to vote in 1910.
• 11:30 a.m. – Pie eating contest for adults, followed by kids. See how much pie can be eaten in 90 seconds!
• 12:00 p.m. – “Master of the Market” Chef Competition with Ron Anderson of Etta’s Seafood versus Josh Green of the Virginia Inn.
• 1:00 p.m. – Live music performed by the gypsy jazz band Ranger & the Re-Arrangers, sponsored by Chukar Cherries. Until 4:00 p.m.
• 2:00 p.m. – Cooking demo with Chef Daisley Gordon of Campagne.
• 2:30 p.m. – One more go-round of the Pie eating contest for adults, followed by kids.
• 3:30 p.m. – Water Balloon Toss

The sun is supposed to be out on Sunday so I can’t think of a better way to stimulate your taste buds

You’ve been waiting for it, and now it’s arrived. Call up your friends, family and out-of-town guests and entertain them with what will be one of the finest afternoons you’ll have brimming with Seattle adventure. There is no better way to introduce guests and feed your need for Seattle history and culture than to walk in Seattle’s shoes. Allow me to introduce you to The World’s Greatest Seattle Walking Tour (TWGSWT).

Jai Ferguson, Founder of TWGSWT

With some time to kill and a passion to tell a story, TWGSWT founder Jai Ferguson, created this tour after spending hours reading, walking Seattle’s streets and submerging himself in its history. He created a roughly two-hour traipse throughout downtown, Belltown and Pioneer Square summarizing Seattle’s past and present. It takes participants past many of the sites that make Seattle special and teaches about the characters and events that have transformed Seattle from fledgling backwater outpost to burgeoning 21st century metropolis.

Being a lover of this city as well, it’s worth pointing out that the tour has been created with both tourists and locals in mind, so the highlights will likely vary on the audience. Visitors will hit many sites in the downtown area including Pike Place Market, Westlake Center, SAM and the Hammering Man and Pioneer Square.  For locals who’ve likely seen most of the sites, the highlights are the stories of Seattle’s past that may not be very well-known.

“Seattle has over and over again throughout its history captured the world’s attention, said Jai. “The tour tells those stories.”

Besides obviously being the “World’s greatest” the tour differs from other Seattle tours in several ways.

• It is inexpensive ($10 per person).
• Rather on focusing on Seattle’s food scene or the great fire 1886, the tour captures the city from its beginning as a timber camp to today as one of the greatest cities in the world.
• No reservations necessary – The tour operates everyday during the week and twice on weekends.
• Personalization – the tour is conducive to conversation and questions without keeping up a bus load of people.

How it works: Meet at Westlake Park (corner of Pine Street and Fourth Avenue) at either 10:30am or 2pm Friday, Saturday or Sunday or 11am the rest of the week.  The tour guide will be carrying a The World’s Greatest Seattle Walking Tour sign.

For additional information on scheduling and directions to the meeting area, visit the website and become a fan of the tour’s Facebook page. To have immediate questions answered, send an e-mail to: info@theseattlewalkingtour.com

West Seattle isn’t just about Alki Beach and fulfilling Pacific Northwesterner’s need to pretend, for 10 short hours on a summer day, that we live life as though we were regulars on Mission Beach in San Diego. Don’t me wrong, I encourage and personally love the beach cruisers, ice cream stands and beach volleyball but there’s more to West Seattle than this strange Southern California-esque phenomenon.

And here is another reason:

The Pike Place Produce Company and Corner Produce by Pike Place Market is opening a year-round farmers market selling fruits, vegetables, cheeses, eggs and milk, olive oils and pastas on West Seattle soil. The market is located on a former auto-sales lot at 4755 Fauntleroy Way. According to a recent post on the West Seattle Blog, the market will be open seven days a week, the goal of the market is to cater to commuters and those who leave and return to the neighborhood at breakfast and lunch time. The current schedule is slated for 7am-7pm to accommodate commuter hours.

One of our favorites of the iconic Pike Place Market in downtown Seattle is the samples of fresh fruits and vegetables, cheeses and other delicacies, Pike Place Produce Co. will sample goodies from other local vendors including Smith Brothers Farms and Beecher’s Handmade Cheese.

You may be curious how the old Huling Brothers auto lot can be transformed into a quaint neighborhood market? The owners Mike Cains, Bruce McPherson and Bob Klein, plan to transform the space to tastefully display local arts and crafts, seasonal displays and provide activities for families and children. With a little landscaping and “edits” to the old sign the Pike Place Produce Company will have a place to call home, officially May 1.

So I was walking down to Pike Place Market.  The day was unseasonably warm, the sun was out, there were very few tourists clogging the the arteries of downtown.  I’ve always felt like tourists are like the calories you get from a particularly rich ganache – unwanted, but necessary to enjoy the dessert.  At any rate, I was diddy-bopping along, ready to get down to some serious organic produce shopping when someone called out to me.  Something like “Hey, what do you think?”  I didn’t think much of the Sidewalk Woman tapping on a picture of President Obama with one unpainted fingernail.  And then my eyes focused and I realized that the photograph had been doctored with a Hitler mustache, and as my feet carried me forward, I heard the woman behind me again:  “What do you think about sending Obama to the moon?”  I think she must’ve been addressing people behind me, because I heard someone reply, “I think that’s terrible!” in carrying tones of disgust.

I managed to keep my violent tendencies in check (except for a few unfortunately squashed tomatoes) but the indignation hasn’t worn off.  I can think of few things more un-American than wanting to jettison the President of the United States into the wild blue yonder.

All right – I’ll concede that Sidewalk Woman probably didn’t mean, Hey, let’s strap President Obama to a rocket and send it into outer space.  Probably.  She was so casual about it.  There was a smile in her voice and the sun in her face and it was nothing to her to say something so awful.

It reminded me of a conversation I’d had with my brother.  Apparently Dane Cook told a joke addressing rape – I’m paraphrasing here, but basically good, solid Dane pointed out that the word rape represents something truly horrible – a terrifying and violent act, one of the worst things someone can do to another person.  Yet it’s lost all meaning in our vernacular, and that is uncool.  Like, Yes, I’m sure if we were to go to a battered women’s shelter and asked a woman who resided there what her rape had been like, she’d reply, “Well, you know, it’s a lot like, in Halo, when you get hit from behind by a gravity hammer.”

Now I’m not going to get preachy at you, because I’m terrible at Halo and the urge to trash-talk and scream and throw the controller at my fellow Halo players is usually overwhelming.  But that’s in the privacy of my home and directed at people who are killing me – and now it seems that I’ve wandered off the point, but I haven’t.  Sidewalk Woman reminded me of Dane Cook’s joke because it’s demonstrative about how careless we’ve become with words.  How low the public discourse has sunk.

And I know I haven’t talked about books this whole post, and you’ll have to tune in next week to find out what I thought about the fresh-friend doughnuts at Lola’s (also the lighting and its reading suitability).  I’ll just finish by saying that there a lot of different viewpoints out there, and a lot of different ideas to consider, especially if we want to stay a Union.  But surely we can agree we should say No! to advocating the death or permanent incapacitation of our state leaders!

Right?