Serious Pie Seattle.

Serious Pie My MIL and I went to Tom Douglas's Pizza place Serious Pie, in Seattle during her visit. We were there during 'happy hour' from 3-5 (I think!) and a 1/2 sized pizza was $5. We sampled what I have highlighted in bold. It was really really good! The crust was the typical wood fired oven crispy with air pockets. However, the dough seemed to have a fair amount of cornmeal in it which loosened up the gluten in the crust and gave it a very easy 'bite through'.

The house made duck prosciutto was truly amazing! The texture was identical to Jamon and the flavor was all duck. This was a real treat! We also had a salad that was on special that has roasted baby beets and turnip and snap peas.

I wish I'd written down all of the ingredients because I'd love to try and replicate it. The peas tasted of anise or fennel. which was a really nice summer combo that I am going to use myself!

Starter Menu
baby lettuces, radish, muscatel vinaigrette 8
duck proscuitto, pickled apricot, arugula 9
asparagus, anchovy, pecorino salvatore 7
fava beans, local radishes, miner's lettuce 8
artichokes, proscuitto, baked egg 9
house lomo, arbequina olive oil 8

Again the pizza in bold are the ones we tried. The concierge at Nordstroms recommended the potato pizza and just as she said it was really wonderful. A simple rustic no brainer if you think back to the basic economics of Italy when pizza evolved.

I was really excited to try both the egg and the clam pizza's because I had just watched Jamie At Home ant the pizza episode a few days prior. I was not a letdown and I will say it's a tie between these two combinations for the best artisan pizza ever!

Pizza Menu
buffalo mozzarella, san marzano tomato 14
yukon gold potato, rosemary, olive oil 14
cherry bomb peppers, sweet fennel sausage 16
roasted chanterelles, truffle cheese 16
guanciale, soft egg, arugula 15
penn cove clams, house pancetta, lemon thyme 15
house salumi, caramelized onions, sole di sardegna 16
roasted porcini, smoked pancetta, wood violet 16

Toro brand Norwegian tomatsuppe med makaroni (tomato soup with macaroni)

This soup should be back in the store by mid July. The ship is due in NYC, June 31st. I can't wait! Buy Toro Tomato Soup Here

Toro brand of Norway makes the best dried tomato soup ever! In Norwegian it is tomatsuppe med makaroni (tomato soup with macaroni) it comes in pouches - dry, you add water. Add french bread and butter and a green salad and you have a complete meal in less than 10 minutes.

For an authentic Scandinavian touch, hard boil a couple of eggs and add one to each bowl, sounds bad, tastes fantastic!! This soup has a tomato taste that is so different than what we think of as tomato soup here in the states.

This is the regular version without the macaroni. It is just as tasty and ready in 5 minutes!

There is also a 2pk of instant 'cup of soup' with delicious mini croutons.

favorite has to be the Mexican tomato soup. Our family loves cumin and this soup delivers the taste in a lovely creamy tomato base. Just looking at the package makes me think that I must have this tonight!

I'm happy to have dinner ready in 5 minutes.

Top Chef Masters Round Three

Chef Rick Bayless is one class act! He just seems like such a good guy. He really has an easy command of his idea, and the execution of it. He was in the zone.

Chef Fabio shows us how to make Bayless Tounge Taco's step by step.

Seperated at birth ...?

Lutefisk TV Dinners: An ode to Norwegian Culture

By John and Sally Macdonald
Special to The Seattle Times Thursday, May 9, 2002

Oh, I'm glad it's time for lu-te-fisk again, Even though it makes the house smell like an old pig pen,I'm glad it's time for lu-te-fisk again.— Stan Boreson song

POULSBO, Kitsap County — "You know what's wrong with Norwegian food?" a friend asked, not waiting for an answer. "It's all white. It tastes really yucky. And it smells."
Well, veteran Northwest entertainer Stan Boreson and squeamish friends notwithstanding, what would one expect from a country that straddles the Arctic Circle, where fresh produce isn't exactly a year-round commodity, and whose 4 million people have three dozen ways to describe features of glacial ice?
The conversation soon degenerated to a dare: Bet you can't find something Norwegians eat that tastes good, isn't white and doesn't smell up the kitchen.
And so we found ourselves in Poulsbo, the most typically Norwegian of Washington communities, asking about lutefisk, lefse and other pale dishes from the motherland.
Residents were finalizing plans for Viking Fest, their version of old-home week, when they celebrate the adoption of Norway's constitution May 17, 1814, give a nod to Viking ancestors and raise money for scholarships for deserving high-school graduates. The celebration is May 17-19 in the waterfront area along Liberty Bay, where Norwegian immigrants founded the town.
Poulsbo was founded when Jorgen Eliason, his sister Rakel and his 6-year-old son E.J. settled at the head of the bay. They were attracted no doubt by the look of the place — the sparkling water reaches deep into the rich farmland like the fjords of home.
Pale food, everywhere
It was still a little early for lunch when we arrived at Poulsbo's Front Street, the main shopping area with its faux old-world storefronts and Scandinavian-import shops. So we stopped at Sluy's Poulsbo Bakery. There, among a sweet array of smiley-face cookies and gooey breakfast treats, was a tray of lefse.
Lefse is to Norway what tortillas are to Mexico — plate-sized griddle cakes made, in this case, of potato dough. White, though not smelly, we smirked. Although, if you do as the Norwegians sometimes do and add a little sugar and cinnamon, lefse takes on a definite brownish cast and a delightfully sweet taste.
Our next stop was the Marina Market in the next block north. "Sure, we have all kinds of Norwegian stuff here," said owner Jonathan Rowe from behind the counter where he was restocking the candy.
"We have romme grot over here. It's packaged sour-cream porridge that you can fix at home. The herring in sour cream is in the refrigerator case."
Let's see now. That's white lefse, white porridge and herring in white sauce. It wasn't looking good for the non-white food groups.
"The lutefisk TV dinners are over there in the freezer case," Rowe offered. They cost $8.99

each.
Lutefisk is definitely white. And it's the smelliest dish in the Norwegian repertoire. It's dried codfish that's been soaked in a lye solution made of birch ashes.
If you bought lutefisk "fresh" (and that's a relative term) as opposed to frozen — you'd put it in a cheesecloth bag and reconstitute it by soaking it in boiling water. Then you'd smother it with white sauce or butter and serve it with boiled potatoes. A very pale menu.
Rowe's TV dinner had color, though: in one corner was a little pile of green peas. We bought a couple of the TV dinners and headed over to the Sons of Norway Hall, just off Front Street on King Olav V Vei.
Every Wednesday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. the sons serve a Norwegian lunch to the public for $7. They call it Kaffe Stua, which translates to something like coffee house.

Buy New Day Fisheries Lutefisk Here and Poulsbo Pickled Herring

Happy Fathers Day!

Happy Father's Day! We celebrated my going to see Night at the Museam: Biggest Battle in History

Funny Monkey's best Stiller

This was dinner!