Latte at Cafe Campagne

We recently went to Seattle for a long weekend and to see the Picasso Exhibit at the Art Museum. We were also going to try and hit the Battlestar Galactica exhibit at the SciFi Museum but we didn’t make it this trip. Perhaps that’s an excuse to go back before it ends in March?

Anyway, we did go to:

Cafe Campagne 1600 Post Alley at Pine Seattle, WA 98101

We ate breakfast here on a Sunday morning. Luckily, it was kind of early (10:00 am), so the wait was only about 30 minutes, which gave us some time to walk around the market a bit. The latte here was wonderful and so was my omelette and rosemary raisin brioche toast.

Hotel Max 620 Stewart Street Seattle, WA 98101

Right downtown and we got a great rate and 1/2 priced parking ($15/day). The hallways are all gray and the doors have blown-up . . . → Read More: Seattle!]]>

Latte at Cafe Campagne

We recently went to Seattle for a long weekend and to see the Picasso Exhibit at the Art Museum. We were also going to try and hit the Battlestar Galactica exhibit at the SciFi Museum but we didn’t make it this trip. Perhaps that’s an excuse to go back before it ends in March?

Anyway, we did go to:

Cafe Campagne
1600 Post Alley at Pine
Seattle, WA 98101

We ate breakfast here on a Sunday morning. Luckily, it was kind of early (10:00 am), so the wait was only about 30 minutes, which gave us some time to walk around the market a bit. The latte here was wonderful and so was my omelette and rosemary raisin brioche toast.

Hotel Max
620 Stewart Street
Seattle, WA 98101

Right downtown and we got a great rate and 1/2 priced parking ($15/day). The hallways are all gray and the doors have blown-up black and white photographs of musicians/album covers/stuff like that on them. The rooms were a little small, but honestly a little bigger than our bedroom at home (we have an old house) so it really didn’t bother me at all!

Pike Place Market
1501 Pike Pl.
Seattle, WA 98101

Fun to walk around…crowded on the weekends but nice on weekdays. I picked up some fish here to bring home. Some ling cod that I pan seared and made a quick sauce for with vermouth, garlic, capers, lemon and butter. Really, really good! And yeah, we saw them throw some fish too.

Dahlia Lounge
2001 4th Avenue
Seattle, WA 98121

Awesome dinner! I could have eaten a giant bowl of the Ahi tuna yuzu kosho, fennel pollen, nashi pear sea bar snack and I loved my cocktail. My meal was the Alaskan king salmon saffron risotto, newaukum valley leeks, chanterelles, aleppo, cucumber mignonette and I really enjoyed that too!

Seattle Art Museum
1300 First Avenue
Seattle, WA 98101

We saw the Picasso exhibit here. Neat but really crowded. And you couldn’t take pictures inside the exhibit but still wonderful.

Honorable mention: The Night Kitchen. We hung out here for about an hour Sunday night after a so-so Mexican dinner in Belltown. Super comfy atmosphere and tasty grapefruit vodka drinks!

Okay, on with the photos!

Outside the market

Flying fish counter.

Hanging chiles with baskets of squash and potatoes.

French rolled omelette filled with chevre and herbs served with chicken and pork sausage and roasted potatoes.

Hotel Max at night.

4th floor hallway at Hotel Max.

Apparently, Darth Vader playing violin is a common thing. We saw a Darth playing violin in Victoria, BC and Hotel Max had a photo on one of the 3rd floor doors.

Awesome lemongrass and kaffir lime martini at Dahalia Lounge. Actually, huh, maybe it was Lemongrass & Thai Basil…? Anyway, it was delicious!

More Dahlia Lounge: Lemon-scallion dungeness crab cakes butternut chorizo hash, smoked pimenton aioli, new crop apple, watercress, toasted pepitas. jwa got this and he liked it a lot!

Dessert: Doughnuts, fried to order with vanilla mascarpone and huckleberry jam.

Seattle Art Museum: That’s a big mouse!

And a big jacket…

Huh, and a lot of toes.

Totem pole downtown.

Looking at downtown from the harbor area.

Space Needle!

I just finished a mosaics workshop at Portland Community College and here it is — Octopus!

Detail — the big glass things at the top and bottom are not plates — they were from the Dollar Store!

It will hang outside on the back fence as soon as I go to Home Depot and get some grout sealer. It’s on concrete backer board and it’s all broken plates (except for the blue and turquoise glass bits).

Working on it Sunday night

I started it last Saturday (although, I actually starting breaking plates and nipping the pieces last week), and worked on it for about 5 hours that day, 4 hours on Sunday and 2 hours Monday night. I actually finished it in time to let the adhesive dry for 48 hours before grouting! We met as a class tonight to grout at the Portland French . . . → Read More: New Mosaic Project — Done!]]>

I just finished a mosaics workshop at Portland Community College and here it is — Octopus!

Detail — the big glass things at the top and bottom are not plates — they were from the Dollar Store!

It will hang outside on the back fence as soon as I go to Home Depot and get some grout sealer. It’s on concrete backer board and it’s all broken plates (except for the blue and turquoise glass bits).

Working on it Sunday night

I started it last Saturday (although, I actually starting breaking plates and nipping the pieces last week), and worked on it for about 5 hours that day, 4 hours on Sunday and 2 hours Monday night. I actually finished it in time to let the adhesive dry for 48 hours before grouting! We met as a class tonight to grout at the Portland French School. The instructor was Pauline Tait and it was a really fun workshop.

I was getting a little concerned that I was not going to get it all done in time.

Spencer was really not all that impressed…

I’ll take more pictures once it’s up on the fence! Okay, coming soon: Gazpacho and a Plum-Marzipan tart.

I took a watercolor workshop today (Saturday) through PCC, taught by Jude Siegel. Funny story — I bought her book, A Pacific Northwest Nature Sketchbook a couple of months ago to inspire me and then I thought I would sign up for a class for further inspiration.

A couple days before the one-day workshop, I figured out that the woman teaching the class that I signed up for, was actually the artist who did the Northwest sketchbook I had just bought. Ha! What a wacky coincidence!

My best painting of the day is the title image — five panels of sketches around Jude’s yard. I liked the class a lot although I wish we would have spent more time on watercoloring. Oh well, I believe I will be doing some watercolors in . . . → Read More: Fun with Watercolors]]>
A few panels that I did during watercolor class, in the Garden Home are of Portland, Saturday, July 21..

I took a watercolor workshop today (Saturday) through PCC, taught by Jude Siegel. Funny story — I bought her book, A Pacific Northwest Nature Sketchbook a couple of months ago to inspire me and then I thought I would sign up for a class for further inspiration.

A couple days before the one-day workshop, I figured out that the woman teaching the class that I signed up for, was actually the artist who did the Northwest sketchbook I had just bought. Ha! What a wacky coincidence!

My best painting of the day is the title image — five panels of sketches around Jude’s yard. I liked the class a lot although I wish we would have spent more time on watercoloring. Oh well, I believe I will be doing some watercolors in the yard tomorrow.

Perhaps the raised garden beds, and the flowers in front and maybe even the new fence. Then, I will come in and post either about curried macadamia nuts or seared ahi tuni with a shitake cream sauce. Woo!

Edited to add, yay! It got there to Andrew at Spittoon Extra. It’s really cool to think that my art project from the basement last weekend is now in England!

I recently registered for What’s for Lunch Honey’s Blogger Postcards Around the World event. So fun. Buy or make a postcard for your secret postcard buddy, mail it off and receive another postcard from your own food blogging sender. I’ve received my recipient (not telling yet!), made my postcard this weekend, and it’s all ready to go in the mail Monday. Going to the post office and everything.

The one thing is as it’s a whole lot of acrylic paint and ink jet ink, I’ve decided to put the postcard in a vellum envelope, lest the receiver open their mailbox to a gloopy, wet mess if the postcard gets rained or snowed on en route.

I . . . → Read More: Valentine BPW: A Fun Art Project (and a Recipe)]]>

Edited to add, yay! It got there to Andrew at Spittoon Extra. It’s really cool to think that my art project from the basement last weekend is now in England!

I recently registered for What’s for Lunch Honey’s Blogger Postcards Around the World event. So fun. Buy or make a postcard for your secret postcard buddy, mail it off and receive another postcard from your own food blogging sender. I’ve received my recipient (not telling yet!), made my postcard this weekend, and it’s all ready to go in the mail Monday. Going to the post office and everything.

The one thing is as it’s a whole lot of acrylic paint and ink jet ink, I’ve decided to put the postcard in a vellum envelope, lest the receiver open their mailbox to a gloopy, wet mess if the postcard gets rained or snowed on en route.

I think I’m still honoring the spirit of the postcard as you can see the postcard clearly through the envelope, this way, it should just get there all intact. And cost a bit more in postage but no big deal.

The green smudgy thing is sort of the Hawthorne Bridge — eh, it’s expressionist!

The recipe on the back is for a quick pasta sauce that I make occasionally — it’s especially good with gnocchi. It’s also nice as you can add to it — feta, meatballs, sausage, more veggies, whatever you are in the mood for.

Spicy Valentine Tomato Sauce
1 tbsp olive oil
1/3 cup white onion, chopped
1/4 cup carrots, finely diced
Salt & pepper
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 cups tomatoes, seeded and chopped
1 tbsp fresh basil, chopped
1/4 cup green or black olives, chopped
1 tsp fresh oregano
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper or red pepper flakes
1 cup chicken stock
1/4 cup red wine

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over high heat. Add the onions, a little salt and black pepper and sauté until the onions are translucent. Add the garlic, carrots, tomatoes, wine, olives, basil, oregano, and cayenne. Stir in the stock and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 20 minutes.

Remove from the heat and purée in a food processor or blender. Serve with pasta.

Thanks again to What’s for Lunch Honey for arranging this whole valentine postcard exchange. I hope my postcard gets to where it’s going safely and I’m also really looking forward to my postcard! Who will it be from??? Where will it be from???

Updated to add that my postcard is officially on its way! I even guessed correctly at the postage needed. Gave it to the mail man and everything. It should be there in about a week.

Stay tuned…

So, my SHF dish is done but my extra-credit materials are not. So, SHF post this weekend. Today, we bask in the glory that is my finished (!) mosaic project — see, the last post was almost a year ago.

We live in a bungalow. When you go up the stairs, there is a counter with built-in bookshelves, a bathroom and three bedrooms. When we first moved in, I knew I wanted to do something fun with this large 12 foot by 1 1/2 foot counter top space. I just didn’t know what exactly. I just wanted to add something to the house that would be here after we left. Sort of like adding a piece of mine and jwa’s history to our house.

Then it came to me. A mosaic. There’s shattering glass involved, toxic fumes, grout, it’s some-what permanent and it involves . . . → Read More: Two and a Half Years Later…]]>

So, my SHF dish is done but my extra-credit materials are not. So, SHF post this weekend. Today, we bask in the glory that is my finished (!) mosaic project — see, the last post was almost a year ago.

We live in a bungalow. When you go up the stairs, there is a counter with built-in bookshelves, a bathroom and three bedrooms. When we first moved in, I knew I wanted to do something fun with this large 12 foot by 1 1/2 foot counter top space. I just didn’t know what exactly. I just wanted to add something to the house that would be here after we left. Sort of like adding a piece of mine and jwa’s history to our house.

Then it came to me. A mosaic. There’s shattering glass involved, toxic fumes, grout, it’s some-what permanent and it involves hours and hours (and hours) of tedious work! It’s perfect. It started well. I think I finished laying out half the glass tile designs in the first three months. But then…

I had longer and longer breaks between work sessions. Then, two years passed. Well, finally last week I laid the last piece of cut glass down and then I grouted the whole damn thing. (Very messy!)

But it’s done. And I feel a huuuuuge sense of accomplishment. Yay!