Odds & Ends
Odds & Ends: Kitchen Vignettes, Seattle Love, and the Perennial Plate
By Irene Yadao
We were delighted that our new friend, Aube, writer of the award-winning blog Kitchen Vignettes, mentioned us on her website this week. In the same post, she also offers a fabulous nettlekopita recipe that we’re dying to try, especially after the buckets of nettles that Rebecca recently procured. We love Aube’s inventiveness and creativity, both in the kitchen and behind the lens. Thanks for the shout-out, Aube!
Photo of nettlekopita, courtesy of Kitchen Vignettes.
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Exciting news from Seattle: Chef Renee Erickson is adding a new restaurant to her repertoire, which currently includes Seattle staples The Walrus and the Carpenter and Boat Street Cafe and Kitchen. The Whale Wins, which will focus on wood-fired dishes, is set to open this summer in a converted warehouse in the Fremont Collective. We can’t wait to visit next time we’re in the Northwest.
Photo of Renee Erickson, courtesy of Boat Street Cafe.
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If you haven’t yet had the pleasure of following the work that Daniel Klein and Mirra Fine have produced on The Perennial Plate — you’re missing out. It’s an amazing web documentary series about socially conscious, sustainable agriculture and cooking. The subjects (and the people) are diverse and wide-ranging. Each episode is relevant and revealing, and compels viewers to open their eyes to where their food is coming from. But the show isn’t didactic. It’s interesting. And fun. We’re looking forward to seeing what they have in store for their third season.
We urge you to check them out at theperennialplate.com. In the meantime, here is a link to an episode they filmed in Montana, called The Cows and the Horses, and a link to the final episode of their second season, which recaps their journey.
A clip from Perennial Plate, Season Two, Episode 70.
Odds & Ends
Odd & Ends: New Cookbooks We Love and Culinary Cool Kid Evan Strusinski
By Annemarie Ahearn
Here are a couple of our favorite new cookbooks. 
Ripe: A Cook in the Orchard, by Nigel Slater: So far, we’ve made the Cinnamon Rhubarb Polenta Cake and the Fig Orange and Polenta Cake with Greek Yogurt and Mint Tea. Both divine. We’ve also been making all kinds of ice creams with our incredibly efficient ice cream maker that whips up 2 quarts in 25 minutes. It was $70 on Amazon and is great for making ice cream at home.
The Perfect Scoop, by David Lebovitz: This is a lovely book on Ice Creams, Sorbets and Granitas. So far, we’ve made a Cardamom & Cinnamon Ice Cream and a Wolly Apple Mint for our May Full Moon Supper.
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When I first met forager Evan Strusinski, he taught me how to catch mackerel in Rockport Harbor and find chantarelles on the islands of the Penobscot Bay. That was only three years ago, and I felt as if Maine was our secret. Now, I flip through the pages of Outside Magazine to see his handsome face, and today I found him styled for a shot in Paper Magazine, which ran a feature on “Culinary Cool Kids.” I hope he remembers us when . . .
Odds & Ends
Odds & Ends: Ethical Meat-Eating, Fergus Henderson, and the James Beard Awards
By Irene Yadao
If you flipped through last weekend’s New York Times Magazine, you may have read this Ethicist contest-winning piece, written by a dear friend of Rebecca’s, Jay Bost. It’s a great article entitled “Give Thanks for Meat,” and it eloquently states our feelings on the act of consuming meat.
Jay, a vegetarian-turned-meat eater, writes:
For me, eating meat is ethical when one does three things. First, you accept the biological reality that death begets life on this planet and that all life (including us!) is really just solar energy temporarily stored in an impermanent form. Second, you combine this realization with that cherished human trait of compassion and choose ethically raised food, vegetable, grain and/or meat. And third, you give thanks.
Thank you, Jay, for your sentiments.
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Speaking of meat, here’s a great article from London’s Financial Times that profiles nose-to-tail pioneer Fergus Henderson. It’s a quietly beautiful glimpse of the chef and his wife Margo (also a chef) in their West Covent, London home.
Photo of Fergus Henderson from The Financial Times
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The esteemed James Beard Foundation held its annual James Beard Awards ceremony last night. Among the winners was our friend Matt Dillon, owner/chef of Sitka & Spruce in Seattle. Matt won Best Chef award for the Northwest region. Congratulations to Matt, his talented sous chef Emily Crawford and the entire staff of Sitka & Spruce. For a complete list of the winners, click here.
James Beard Award winner Matt Dillon of Seattle restaurant Sitka & Spruce