Fun with Food

MOUTHS TO FEED: A few days ago, I offered to take dinner to a friend's family. Their young daughter recently underwent her eighth surgery. They have to drive all the way down to Portland from Seattle for her procedures and appointments. I figured they could use a hot, hearty meal waiting for them during their last trip. 

We opted to make beef and bison chili, a favorite of ours. It has tons of roasted carrots, onions and celery, and a nice amount of warmth without being too hot. We filled up two enormous glass jars for them.

We made some cheesy rolls as a side. I remembered that Red Lobster is famous for cheese biscuits, so I found a copycat recipe online. We followed it carefully and they were really good! (Next time I would add sharper cheese and a pinch more salt, however.)

We decided on good ol' snickerdoodles for dessert. They looked and smelled so good!

We've also been planning this month's Teen Feed. We'll be serving on the fourth Saturday of the month, which puts us a couple of days after Thanksgiving. Rest assured, our menu will be 100 percent turkey free. :) I know the teens will be "turkeyed out," for lack of a better term, by Saturday.

Instead, we're going with food of the Asian persuasion. A big, flavorful stir fry will be our main entrée (think lots of protein in a spicy sauce, with mega veggies over aromatic rice).  Sides will be egg rolls and nori (seaweed). Dessert will be matcha and white chocolate cookies or an Asian-inspired custard.   We'll have bubble tea for dessert, and a couple of other treats, too. 

When researching for this month's menu, we went to DK Market, a sprawling Asian grocery store in Renton. They have thousands of interesting things, but this box caught my eye. 

Purple pancakes? Who could pass that up? So, I bought a box for CJ and Annabelle. We gave it a test drive. The pancakes are, indeed purple. 

Their flavor was really good. A little earthy and not as sweet as regular pancakes. We would buy them again.

STOLEN TACOS: Back on November 4, we took advantage of Taco Bell's "Steal a Taco" promotion, whereby anyone who wanted one could get a taco for free, thanks to there being a stolen base during the World Series.  

It's a genius promotion on their part. You might think, "How can they afford to do that?" Well, I'll tell you how. We spent 17 damn dollars for our "free" tacos by the time the kids were done ordering drinks and another meal item apiece. 

Seventeen

 

BIRTHDAY GIRL: Another one from the way back machine ... About three weeks ago, we celebrated Annabelle's 17th birthday - pandemic style, of course. 

She had Japanese class that morning, but afterward, we headed into the big city to visit a couple of old haunts. First stop was the former Card Kingdom store, and its restaurant Cafe Mox. I think both places now are just called Mox Boarding House. It's in Seattle's oldtown Ballard neighborhood.

We rented a private gaming room there. That felt like a safe way to celebrate.

In the Red Room we played one of Annabelle's favorite games, Betrayal at Haunted Hill. 

Here's a description of it from its press release back in the day (2004):

Betrayal at House on the Hill quickly builds suspense and excitement as players explore a haunted mansion of their own design, encountering spirits and frightening omens that foretell their fate. With an estimated one hour playing time, Betrayal at House on the Hill is ideal for parties, family gatherings or casual fun with friends.

Betrayal at House on the Hill is a tile game that allows players to build their own haunted house room by room, tile by tile, creating a new thrilling game board every time. The game is designed for three to six people, each of whom plays one of six possible characters.

Secretly, one of the characters betrays the rest of the party, and the innocent members of the party must defeat the traitor in their midst before it’s too late! Betrayal at House on the Hill will appeal to any game player who enjoys a fun, suspenseful, and strategic game.

Fittingly, since it was her birthday, Annabelle wound up being the one trying to kill us all, and she basically wiped up the floor with us. Nothing like going on a murderous rampage to say "Happy Birthday to Me!" 

We had some light appetizers while playing the game. Afterward, we moved on to another favorite old haunt, Hattie's Hat. It was one of the first restaurants we discovered when we moved to Seattle way back when. The restaurant dates back to 1904. When we first started going, they had a huge aquarium in the middle of their tiny dining room. The kids loved that and their kids menu. 

We were happy to see Hattie's had a large outdoor seating area now, and there were little hand-warming fires on each table. 

The menu hasn't changed a bit since we started going to Hattie's. It was a fun way to celebrate Annabelle's day.

History in the Making

 

FOO DEBUT:  On the evening of October 19, we were a part of a little bit of history being made. Through a stroke of good luck and good timing, we rather miraculously were able to score tickets to the first concert-or event, for that matter-ever held at the new Climate Pledge Arena (formerly Key Arena). (I found out about the show via a radio station's Instagram post while in a crappy airport restaurant a few weeks back. The show was a benefit event, with limited access. You couldn't even find it listed on Ticketmaster's main site. However, we found a 'back door' and got in. Hooray!)

On the west edge of Seattle Center Grounds, Climate Pledge Arena was recently built with a 3. billion dollar budget (which I can't quite wrap my head around). I have heard a couple of people say one of the things that made it so expensive was that contractors had to elevate or suspend the entire roof of the old Key Arena, as it was dubbed a historic landmark (dating back to the 1962 World's Fair). In the photo above, you can barely see the roof structure beyond International Fountain.

By the way, you can't be at Seattle Center without an obligatory Space Needle shot.

Since it was the first event ever at the new arena, there was some chaos, as you might expect. Customer service people working the ingress lines didn't really know the rules themselves (such as bag size, vaccine card checking, and more). We ended up going to four different lines before finding one that seemed to have their act together.

Once inside the area, we set about finding our seats. That was no easy task because section signage is subtle to the point of being nonexistent. And there were exactly ZERO ushers, at least where we were, so you were totally on your own. That was unexpected.

We were surprised that the show apparently started at 7, which was the time on the tickets, but usually shows don't start on time, and often that time on the ticket is when doors open. There was nothing  on our tickets or online about when doors actually opened, by the way.)

Anyway, the opening act, Death Cab for Cutie, was already playing when we arrived. That didn't exactly crush us as we're not huge fans, truth be told. Anyway, Death Cab played a full, concert-long set. Then there was a little break before the Foo Fighters came out to play.

Our seats were pretty good, in the lower bowl and pretty near the stage. The seats themselves were comfortable, and bigger than the tiny ones that plagued old Key Arena.

We've seen the Foo before, and they NEVER disappoint. This time was no exception.

A two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, front man Dave Grohl was in fine form. He has a little history in Seattle, having been the drummer in that little band called Nirvana back when grunge music ruled the world. 

Once in awhile, Dave still gets behind the kit. Below was Dave's drum solo during a cover of the Queen hit "Somebody to Love."

Mostly, though, now Dave's the front man and the amazing Taylor Hawkins plays drums for the Foo.

We were happy when the Foo Fighters changed gears and played a mini set as the DeeGees (a riff on the BeeGees' name and Dave Grohls initials). 

Recording some disco tracks was part of how the Foo Fighters have spent the pandemic. 

It was a great evening and I'm so happy we were able to be a part of it. 

You can read The Seattle Times' review of the show here: https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/music/photos-foo-fighters-death-cab-christen-climate-pledge-arena-with-first-concert/