Balls and Walnuts
more than you ever wanted to know
Thirteen things I bought
Jake’s growing up. Here he is enjoying a hunk of bread in Il Terrazzo Carmine.
We rented a lightweight wheelchair for Karen for this trip, and Jake insisted on doing most of the pushing. (Except down steep hills. Karen kept flashing on Kiss of Death; I kept imagining the chair careening downhill, Jake bouncing along behind it, saying, “I can handle it! I can handle it!”) He didn’t put up a fuss when we went out for sushi or dim sum, and he even tried most of the dishes. He likes dim sum now. Hallelujah!
We didn’t get into any major rows, either, for which Jake and I both deserve praise, but since Jake isn’t the adult, he gets most of the praise. Grumble. Anyway, all in all, this was a highly successful vacation. I’ll tell you more about it later, but for now: thirteen things I bought on our vacation*.
1. Books, of course. In Medford, we picked up Jenna Rhodes’ The Four Forges (for Jake) and Jennifer Crusie’s Faking It (for Karen and me). Thanks to a misunderstanding, I left these books behind in Medford. After I finished the book I was reading (PBW’s Beyond Varallan), I searched Barnes and Noble and found Julie Kenner‘s Carpe Demon. So far, so good — lightweight fare, but lots of fun.
2. Wind-up toys at The Great Wind-up (Pike Place Market), including a pair of tennis shoes, an inch worm, a penguin, and Death.
3. Fontina and aged Jack cheese at Beecher’s Cheese (Pike Place Market). But, you can’t stop at cheese, so . . .
4. Cheese knife and honey hazelnut crackers at Beecher’s Cheese, too. We shared the crackers and cheese with Blue Gal, Mr. Blue Gal, and their three Blue Gallettes.
5. Chai tea, Chipotle pepper powder, and a seed roaster from Marketspice (you guessed it — Pike Place Market). Note to Marketspice: invest in a better website, guys. You’re spitting distance from Seattle’s version of Silicon Valley. Act like it.
6. Microplane zester and pizza peel from Sur La Table. You knew I had to go to Sur La Table, right? Now I can zest lemons and limes with the best of ’em . . . and I wasn’t home three hours before I had used my pizza peel. (Do I get an honorary Domestic God/Goddess award for making homemade pizza margarita this evening, and unpacking, and doing all the laundry?)
7. Map of Belleview. Lots of great restaurants in Belleview, but the Seattle maps tend to ignore this upscale suburb.
8. A pound of cherries from Pike Place Market.
9. Two keychains from Pike Place Market (for my employees). Good heavens, that sounds cheap. So will it make you feel better to know . . .
10. Two of those thingamabobs where you stick a votive candle under a pool of fragrance to put smelly stuff into the room air (for my employees). They like that kind of stuff.
11. About $100 worth of gasoline for the rental pickup we didn’t want. Honestly: don’t rent from Advantage, people. The airport gal tried to bait-and-switch us when she realized they didn’t have a smaller car for us — the car we had reserved. So much for reservations. Finally, they gave us a pickup truck and acted like they were doing us a big favor. Neither Karen nor I are comfortable driving big vehicles, in case you’re wondering why I’m tweaked.
12. A way cool ferry ride from Bainbridge Island to Seattle. I’d never taken a ferry before, so for me, this was a high point of the vacation.
13. Groceries from a Belleview Indian market (Sagaar’s): Amchur powder, roasted channa, papadums, gulab jamon, and a ten pound bag of Basmati rice. Yes, I schlepped ten pounds of rice back with me on the plane — because Basmati is that good (and we can’t get large bags of it locally).
More later.
***
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Must. Resist. Allure. Of May’s Thirteen Food Blogs!
Darla’s Heinerfest photoblitz
JMC’s Korean market haul — what, no kim chi?
Trish’s husband’s 13 tag lines
Sapph’s Thirteen bits of trivia (interesting!)
D.
*I’m contemplating how best to thank my guest bloggers. They did a terrific job, don’t you think? For now, THANK YOU, folks, thank you.
Pike Place Market is pretty damn cool, isn’t it? It was one of the places they modeled Vancouver’s Granville Island after, but Pike Place is the real thing. I love the old parts of it, like the ancient washrooms in the middle part.
2. … Death.
Like the Terry Pratchett Death?
5. …invest in a
betterwebsite…There’s nothing there but a logo and a color. That’s not a website. It’s barely a business card.
11. …she realized they didn’t have a smaller car for us — the car we had reserved.
I don’t think rental places actually have small cars. Every time I’ve ever rented a car, they’re always out of the compact cars that I reserved. I’ve always gotten the free upgrade to the next size. I’ve never had to take a pickup, though.
Welcome home, Doug! Looking forward to hearing how you use all this stuff you bought. 🙂
My TT is up after much frustration.
Sounds like Seattle was excellent. It’s on my list of places to visit. I need to get serious.
My TT is up: more food. http://jmcarr2001.livejournal.com/75053.html
Doug, just send them a loaf of your famous foccacia. And since I gave you the idea, don’t you think I deserve one too? 😀
[…] Doug: He bought stuff, so where’s mine? […]
Dean: I love that place. I visited it once before, in ’89 or ’90, when I interviewed in Seattle for their residency program in ENT. At that time, the weird Chinese herbalist shop was a witchcraft supply shop. I remember buying mandrake there, just for the hell of it, and another root-like thing that looked like a goat with horns.
Pat: yup, Death, just like in Pratchett’s novels. Cute li’l guy.
Darla, jmc, gotcha covered.
May, I wish I could. But that stuff goes stale by the second day! I’m making some tonight, matter of fact — I’m letting it do the slow rise in the fridge.
The only gift Dear Butcher wanted for Hannukah last year was a microplane grater. It holds the “beloved object” status in our household.
The children worshipfully refer to it as “Daddy’s grater,” and all of us make sure it is immediately rinsed clean after every use. Verrily, I say unto thee, it is a wonderful thing.
But we don’t have a pizza peel. Maybe next year. (And yes, you do get the domestic goddess award for making the pizza, and unpacking, and et cetera.)
Evil.
I want some focaccia, but I’m out of flour. In fact, I’m out of sugar, butter and eggs. All 4 main food groups, can you believe it?
I’ll get back to you on the last chapter really soon–I’ve read it already, just haven’t found the time to write what I thought about it.
You can’s get large bags of Basmati locally? Where do you live!?
If you like ferries, you’ve got to come to BC some day. We’ve got big ferries, small ferries, free ferries, ferries with 18 tiers of fuel surcharges, ferries for cars, bikes, people, pets, kayaks, ferries as part of our transit system, our highway system … You name it, we’ve probably got a ferry for it.
The cheese was delicious, the Oregon brandy is half gone (hic) and it was a nice visit. Can’t wait to eat better food at your place. Next summer…
Suisan, the peel is fun but not indispensable. I’ve been using a cookie sheet for years (the kind with no rim).
Thanks, May. Take your time.
Nox, we live in the boonies. Look at the extreme SW corner of Oregon on the map. That’s us.
sxKitten, it’s definitely on our to-do list. We would have visited this time, except I’m the only one who has his passport in order.
Blue Gal, any time! Make it this summer!
Oh, the wind-up toys!! I want some nasty ones. LOL Too funny! Glad to see you back.
Happy TT! Mine are up.
Douglas, it sounds like vaca heaven–although I do envy your time with BG, MBG an’ th’ lil’ BGalettes (sound like lil’ french breads, don’t they?).
Readin’ ye talk o’ your own crew, Karen & Jake, makes me want t’sail into your port o’call. BTW, Jake be quite th’looker…;)
Hmmm, th’poop deck be dirty again an’me frock coats aren’t gettin’ ironed on their own, now are they?
Yes, Trish, they did have some nasty (if unimaginative) wind-up toys. I managed to keep my son from those. Not that I shelter the kid, but I didn’t want to have to hear him chortle about it for the next 24 hours.
Cap’n, my but your poop deck gets poopy quickly. You’d be most welcome out here. Have to warn you, though, that we’re off the beaten path. A desert isle, really 😉
Mine’s up! Still Thursday here in Canada too!
~Sapph.
Welcome home Doug! Sounds like a great vacation, and I envy you your microplane, I may have to order one. Next week, if you’re curious, I’m posting a cooking entry pate a choux (accents missing since I can’t figure out how to put them in) and the stuff you can fill it with. (shameless bit of livejournal whoring (blogwhoring sounds better) sorry about that) And again, welcome home.
Oh Bearded One, feel free to blogwhore all you like. When you post, come on over and put up a link in the comments.
No passports required for you Amurcan types – it’s YOUR government that’s kicking up the fuss about us border-hopping canucks and our inadequate IDs. ‘Cause, yanno, we all hide terroristic tendencies beneath our polite, beaver-loving exteriors.