Late heat wave

Yesterday the temperature at SeaTac Airport hit an unbelievable 93 degrees, smashing the previous September high record to smithereens.   Here in West Seattle, closer to the water, it wasn't quite that warm but still a spectacular day for working outside, and work I did.  I painted the back deck, a once a year job that has never been done in September before, because it's usually cool and rainy by now.  Not this year. How about these eight foot cannas, glowing in the sultry evening light?   And if you grew tomatoes in Seattle, you have a bumper crop now.

More cherry tomatoes than even I could eat, and bowls and bowls of nice Roma from just two plants.  But remember that Indigo Rose heirloom variety?

It produced hundreds of unappetizing little black tomatoes that ripened, but tasted like...well, mealy old nothingness.  John wouldn't touch them, and I have to say, they reminded me a bit of nightshade berries that grew on our farm; Mother taught us to be terrified of them.  All "heirloom" tomatoes are not created equal.

Back to the wonderful Roma variety.  If you've never done this, you have to try it.  Cut them in half, touch of olive oil, simple, slow oven drying (250 degrees) for about 3 hours.  They eventually caramelize into something that tastes like tomato taffy, a substance that is truly wonderful mixed with pasta, or in this case, shrimp and garlic with a dab of salted butter.

 

With grilled eggplant, maybe the best thing I ate all summer.

Full Pull

John and Paul

"This year has been, for me, a heady mix of joys and sorrows. It is a year that has underscored the importance of building happy memories with family and friends, those memories that serve as life-rafts in seas of trouble. I firmly believe that wine facilitates happiness; that it is an enabler of our best times together; that it can be the rope that binds those life-rafts together."

- Paul Zitarelli, 35, Philosopher, Owner, Full Pull Wines

I've been meaning to write about Full Pull Wines for a while, but haven't gotten around to it because the interesting business model needs some explanation for our friends and family living in states where a shopper can't even pick up a bottle of wine (liquid food, according to Robert Mondavi) at the grocery store.  In Colorado and other places, "the rope that binds the life-raft" requires a separate stop at a depressing liquor store.

 Anyway, in Washington we can buy beer, wine or even a gallon of vodka at the grocery store, a drug store, Costco, various liquor mega-warehouses, etc. etc. I guess marijuana is next at Safeway, once they work the bugs out of the new legislation. I don't know if this marks the decline of decent civilization, or just a happy convenience. I won't be around when the jury finally comes in on that.

But with all this easy abundance and choice at our fingertips, it might seem odd that a niche wine seller, marketing through an exclusive email list of "special offers" and operating out of a warehouse in an industrial area, could be so seductive to Seattle wine lovers.  Now-- imagine picking up your order at 10 am, and offered a nice blind tasting of fine wines in the alley?  Somehow, it's all very classy and fun...

The Full Pull Wines "storefront"

Saturday morning pickup

SODO district, Seattle 

Here's the way this works.  First you join the mailing list, then interesting wine offers start to pour in from Paul, no doubt brightening up the workday email queues of many folks around town. Buying is always optional, and you're entertained by good stories as you learn about wine makers, soil, vineyards and history.

The subscriber reads the luscious descriptions, and imagines drinking (or hoarding) these specially selected, small production boutique wines. Of course there's an easy on-line ordering process, and you can pick up your impulse purchases on Thursdays, or occasionally Saturday mornings. Full Pull will even ship right to your door, but you won't get the TPU (Thursday pick up) price.

Checking the order with Matt, Warehouse Manager

Yelp Full Pull review:  The offer emails are awesome...You're a strong, strong willed person indeed if you can read them and not purchase. And if you are that person... PLEASE teach me how. 
I'm poor now. But at least I have lots of WA state wine. 

Ha! Paul Zitarelli majored in applied math at Harvard. I'm jealous about his right brain/left brain abilities. Unlike most people, he can write and do hard arithmetic. Some bloggers are stuck forever at 4th grade math level.  Paul spent time in his youth working at different jobs, figuring out what he wanted to do with his life, and then he opened Full Pull about 4 years ago.  He's currently working toward becoming a Master of Wine, the pinnacle of professional wine achievement, earned by only a few hundred people in the world.

And we just learned that the Full Pull warehouse is running out of space and moving soon to a new location.  When the Seattle winter arrives, we won't have tastings outside on a windy, wet day next to a dumpster. (Not that we minded.)

Way to go, Paul! It was nice meeting you on Saturday.

Wilderness family

Amanda sent these cute pictures, taken on a hike to a North Cascades glacier lake this past weekend...

Here's Nova in a scenic wonderland, pulling a funny face :-)

And sweet Maya...

This day in history

On September 9, 1956, Elvis Presley walked on The Ed Sullivan Show stage and made music history with his iconic performance of ”Hound Dog." He was 21 years old.

Here's a description from the Ed Sullivan website:

Following an innocent act by an Irish children’s choir called The Little Gaelic Singers, Elvis Presley took the stage and sang, “Don’t Be Cruel” and “Love Me Tender.” After Señor Wences’s ventriloquism act, Elvis returned to perform “Love Me.” During this song the camera moved in for a close-up of Elvis’ face, and then, as if on cue, he smiled and snarled his upper lip. The studio audience went wild. Elvis closed that evening with the performance of his hit, “Hound Dog.” 

After the broadcast, a stuffed Elvis was burned in effigy by crowds in Nashville and St. Louis. The press was critical of his style and movements, and the supposedly negative influence of rock and roll on America’s youth. He scared parents. Of course this immediately made him wildly popular with millions of teenagers. 

In this old video, I think the best part is watching his uncomfortable background singers, The Jordanaires, originally formed as a gospel group. Elvis looks like he's having the time of his life.

Moon Cake

"Whishing you have beautiful Every days 

and a lifetime of happiness together."

John brought this box of Chinese pastries home from work on his birthday-- a gift from his friends Bonnie and Kimny.  The cakes are beautiful and the packaging is pretty fancy, since moon cakes are traditionally given to clients, relatives and friends during the important Mid-Autumn Festival.

The Moon Goddess

Here's the charming and perplexing English translation off the box lid (and I'm not making this up.)

The Mid-Autumn eats the moon cake. The moon cake can be used as the name and the Mid-Autumn of a kind of food to appreciate the month contact together, these in the old matter of the south Sung. Since Ming dynasty, the relevant Mid-Autumn appreciate the month to eat the recording of the moon cake the more and manufacture a round flat cake to present every Mid-Autumn, common peoples all. The size does not wait, shout to "moon cake." Market store moon cake that sell, make much the son, with fruits strange appearance, the moon cake want worth several hundred money. 

Humm...There's an article in Wikipedia to the rescue for us common peoples all, where I learned about moon cakes as a symbolic Asian food. The crust is usually made with lard, and inside there's a thick filling of bean paste (or other things) along with yolks from salted duck eggs. Very few people make moon cakes at home, because it's so labor intensive and there are many regional variations. Each moon cake has approximately 1000 calories!  They aren't gobbled down whole, but served in small wedges with tea.  Of course, non-traditional, fat free moon cakes have also appeared on the market. 

This is the traditional one. Each moon cake is wrapped individually with a little "food preservative" packet inside. That fancy imprint on top is the Chinese characters for "longevity" along with the name of the bakery.

And the moment of truth. What do they taste like?  Well, that particular combination of flavor (the paste is sweet, the egg yolk very salty) is common in Asian food, and more unusual in American sweets.  Although how about a bowl of ice cream with pretzel sticks? And what's more trendy right now than salted chocolate and caramels?  Thanks, ladies, for the tasty and interesting treat!

Feast or famine

CAPE: Convective Available Potential Energy

Meteorologists use a measurement called CAPE to determine the amount of instability in the atmosphere.  Around here, we usually don't have a CAPE reading above 200, but yesterday it reached 2000 in some places, meaning the potential for strong thunderstorms. The weather is unsettled and strange for September-- not the ordinary rain we get in early fall. There's been more lightening and thunder in the past few days than in the last 10 years.  It was a wet night, and we'll get another inch or so today.

I cut some dahlias and roses yesterday before the heavy rain knocked them over.  Still so pretty, but it's almost time to switch gears to clean-up mode.  There's a back-breaking amount of vegetation that has to be cut off and hauled out of here after our vacation. I was thinking about asking Mr. Lee to "rent" me one of his strong, hard working boys for a few hours.

Speaking of cleaning up, the raccoons left a nice mess on the deck yesterday morning.  There was a bucket of plums (left outside because of fruit flies) and of course the rascals waited until they were perfectly ripe before dropping by. They took a bite out of a few and then scattered them around.  Well, no amount of washing is enough when it comes to raccoon saliva, so the rest went in the compost.  My fault, I should have given them all away sooner because everyone loved them.  I had it in my mind to make some "plum compote" but it's actually a relief to pack up the canner until next year.   

And last but not least.  Happy birthday John!  Hope your workday passes quickly-- your favorite birthday dinner tonight.  So I'd better get busy.