PEACHY KEEN

One of my favorite features of summer in Seattle is a particular peach found at Sosio's Produce Stand in Pike Place Market. Now, if I were a fruit I'd be a peach, so I'm partial to prunus persica to begin with. That said, these are special- rotund, firm, fuzzy,  flawless, and super juicy. Not to mention unparalleled texture and flavor. Downright the best peach you've ever had the pleasure of meeting (other than yours truly?). In light of their magnificence, said peaches have been given the moniker of "Holy Shit Peaches." I'm not making this up, people. There is a sign that reads just that, perched amongst the piles of perfect peaches at Sosio's. If you don't believe me, it's worth a trip to the market.

To commemorate these summer superstars, I whipped up a little cocktail in their honor- the Pike Place Peach Fizz. A base of peach puree, a long pull of tequila or vodka, a few fresh mint leaves, lime juice and a splash of real ginger ale. On the rocks. Stone fruit on the rocks, come to think of it...

Here's the recipe for a round of drinks for friends, or maybe just a bottomless glass for yourself. Either way, mix up a batch and before you know it you'll be feeling peachy keen.

Time For A Chaat

I know it's been a while and it's definitely time for a chaat. No, not a typo, or some new slang for a super long chat. I'm talking chaat, as in delicious snacks, typically served from stalls or carts road-side in India.

I'm not a fan of most fast food. Or of most street food. (Especially street meat. You know, hot dogs sold on sidewalks. Dogs should be walked on sidewalks, not eaten.) But when I lived in India I became obsessed with chaat. Specifically, samosas. Triangles of pure comfort- crunchy fried pastries stuffed with a blend of smashed potatoes, peas, cilantro, and seasoned with a fragrant blend of cumin, coriander, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and chilis. Living thousands of miles away from my family at the tender age of seventeen took its toll- in the form of 10 pounds. I credit most of this weight to the many samosas I ate.

I discovered this recipe for Pea Puffs on the 101cookbooks blog and was inspired. Basically a lighter, healthier version of a samosa, using a wonton wrapper in place of the heavy pastry. With the addition of potato and fragrant spices I created my own simple samosa. Holla.

Here's my version of the recipe. These make great appetizers for a crowd, or a delish dinner with a nice spinach salad (shown above with a little mango, citrus, avocado and almond slaw). Bonus: These sultry little samosas freeze really well, so you can always pop a few in the oven when company comes round. You know, for a chaat.

Tulip Skip

On a recent Friday, four girls played hooky to go tiptoeing through the tulips. It was purely spontaneous, blooming out of no where with a 6:57am text message, "can you play hooky today? we should drive up to see the tulips." The blossoms are fleeting and only last so long...so, we decided to say so-long to our laptops and to-do lists (and in the case of one, our teachers) and make a day of it.

So, a few hours later, my perennial playmates and I skipped out of the city and headed north to Mount Vernon. Rows, and rows of tulips. A press of petals in red, yellow, pink, white, orange, purple, coral. As one of the truants in the group of hooky-players observed, "that's a lot of bulbs." Truth.

We were just as confused by the sign (above) staked into the ground as you are. We'd heard that rows of tulips were made just for tiptoeing. And tiptoe we did.

literary landscape

Steph and I went on a field trip today. We forged our mothers' signatures on the permish slips and trotted off for a little sojourn to the bibliotheca. Despite living less than a mile from this architectural wonder, neither Steph nor I had ever set foot into the Center Seattle Public Library.

Rem Koolhaas, the Dutch architect extraordinaire, designed this magnificent angular edifice of concrete, steel and glass. Miles of aisles, a million books. You'll get interested in things you never knew you wanted to know about (like clocks or the history of wallpaper.) But only if you can draw yourself away from the gorgeous landscape of the library itself. I was the weirdo taking pictures of the floor. (In actuality, I probably looked quite sane in the context of the kooky melange of public citizens.) At any rate, the potential for intellectual stimulation is inherent. And if you just feel like looking at pictures, well, the straight up eye candy doesn't require one to even crack a cover. Well, okay, crack a cover because the insides of the books are pretty too.

 P.S. It's free.