Raving Amicks

To celebrate the end of my 30th rotation around the sun, I invited some friends to Crawfish King in the International District last Saturday. I’d never been there before, but a friend from work whose culinary taste and skill I admire recommended it. I’ve been to Crab Pot and had a good time, but this place makes Crab Pot look like Sizzler. Anyway, we got crawfish and sauce all over ourselves and it was fantastic.

Even before we ordered food, my friends had perched a cardboard box of unusual size upon the table. After navigating (with assistance) the styrofoam puzzle within, an incredible form emerged: two chicks at the same time.

The statue was purchased from a strange store in Leavenworth that appears to specialize almost exclusively in naughty statues. Our favorite is a busty pirate named “Trixie”, but she is also life-sized and requires some creative engineering to fit on a coffee table. My drinking buddies understandably opted for the table-top version.

I’m sure Mindy is reevaluating our relationship accordingly. ^^

1. Obscene double-decker, grilled zucchini and goat cheese quesadillas topped with tomato-basil salsa from some dude named Bobby Flay.
2. The infamous cherry pizza. The awesome magazine that published this recipe folded in June, so I do have the original in case the link ever breaks.
3. And a new favorite of ours: Quinoa and Avocado Salad with dried fruit, almonds, and a lemony vinaigrette.

This site needs an update, so here are some shots of delicious foods I made in the past two weeks.

Stuffed zucchini using the zukes we swiped from Jennifer’s garden a few weeks back. The recipe is Zucchini Stuffed with Feta and Dill. It’s definitely a recipe for zucchini lovers. But my all-time favorite zucchini recipe is Zucchini alla Scapece, which is basically lightly fried zucchini slices marinated in balsamic and mint.

I also made this Cherry Pie using the awesome pie cherries the Amick parents sent home with us. I drained the cherry juice into another vessel for a day in the fridge while they thawed, and then made this pie using a teeny-tiny star cookie cutter I had laying around. I added some orange zest, but the orange we had was super-fragrant and overpowered the pie. I later mixed one part cherry juice to one part standard orange juice and drank that, which was super tasty.

Both pictures feature our insanely awesome Heath plates. We started collecting a new set of plates because the old ones Tyler bought had really stupid bowls that were not good for eating soups on your lap (very important in this household with Movie Nights at least once a month), plus the matching plates were not oven safe. Since we don’t have a microwave, being oven safe is also a huge plus. I highly recommend Heath Ceramics if you have the extra cash to spare on plates that will last you a lifetime. They’ve been around since the ‘60s and aren’t going anywhere, so it’s also easy to add new plates as they break or you decide you need more. I also just scored an an awesome vintage salad bowl made by them, but that is for another food post.

Made your Mom a great dinner and did the flower thing.  She made some great Valentine’s Day cupcakes

From Munich, we flew in to the airport in Kiev, Ukraine, where Vlad’s uncle kindly picked us up. The next day, we wandered out to see Kiev’s Golden Gate, which was a lot of fun to climb inside. Nearby was the kitty statue pictured here with me.

To get to the Golden Gate and just about everywhere else that we visited in Kiev, we went by subway. Subways in Ukraine tend to be highly stylized, with mosaics and marble and granite used to beautiful effect. This seems to be fairly common in eastern Europe, and it was one of my favorite aspects of the trip. A few subways were also very deep, presumably for protection against nuclear warfare, with high-speed escalators just to get people in and out in a reasonable amount of time.

(more…)

The Mom unit and I travelled to Seattle to see Mason and Dieter and to see the WWU Junior class exhibit. Very cool exhibit and WWU rocked! Had a great early dinner at an Indian restaurant – Mom had a Mango Lassi and we had some great food out of their Tandoori oven.  Check out Mason’s new haircut!  Mom was freezing as we visited the Tacoma Glass Museum (Mason – remember our visit?).

Anyone having dinner on Saturday nite will have fresh steelhead (caught Thurs. afternon)!

Hey y’all. Mindy posted some pictures of our new wine glasses a while ago and it’s high time I ‘splained ‘em.

These wine glasses are the sequel to our fantastic beer glasses and they use the same serious-business, full-body tempering (apparently using heat and not chemicals). The tempering requires an increase in glass thickness, but results in strong and stable, long-lasting glassware. They’re extra short for stackability, which also adds a bit of stability. I like ‘em, and Mindy’s even warmed up to them.

I conned Mom and Dad into getting a set of 12, cuz I had to order ‘em by boxes of 48 for $200. I found the best deal at ReStockIt.com with free shipping and some sort of discount (they have sales a lot). I’m going to give the 6 of them I have left over to Dieter. Hopefully these will hold up to the harsh realities of Dieter’s roommates. I’ll be bringing them down the next time we come to visit, hopefully in the next week or two.

Used my X-mas present twice. Helps make great pizza. Ya’ need lots of cornmeal evenly spread out under the dough to make sure it slides off cleanly. Thanks Mindy & Tyler!

Inspired by a friend’s recent skillet apple pie, I made my own from this recipe. It’s a really annoying site that makes you have a log in, so I’m also posting the recipe below.

The only thing that I would change is to add a little salt to both the crust and liquid mixture that you pour over the apples. Otherwise, the crust came out beautifully and it’s a mighty tasty, homey pie.

(more…)