*contest winner is Krista Phipps, comment #20

Fresh off the heels of the most brilliant food and adventure weekend in Portland, Oregon, I’m back in the saddle. And by saddle I mean bed, because Oregon chewed me up and spat me out like a piece of too-tough tentacle. And I liked it. I can’t wait to share the highlights with you once I shake this eensy cold, but in the meantime, I have a peace offering, since you deserve a bit of food fun too. At least if you’re going to be in Seattle in early October.

With the launch of Gilt City Seattle, along came curated partnerships with some of our area’s top chefs. Thierry Rautureau is top of the tops, and he even has the ever-present fedora hat and James Beard Award to prove it. His restaurant, Rovers, has consistently made “best-of” lists since way back in 1987 when Thierry took the reins. Read more

Summer is coming and with it, a full dance card. The weekends are filling up fast and the lingering question in our minds burning hotter than VD in a jacuzzi is “what on earth should I wear to all these parties?” Well, my pretties, you can stop fretting in your fiddleheads because I’ve got you covered for at least one salty soiree.

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I have never had much use for Peeps. They are spongy, saccharine and come in colors that never seem to match my outfit. Food that matches my outfit is always a bonus, so I decided to make an outfit out of Peeps in order to get that pastel shade of banana slug yellow just right. In fact, Peeps resemble the banana slug in more than just color. For example, when you squash one, it tends toward the gooey. Both “foods” are considered acceptable to feast upon by the cultures that eat them, yet I am not a member of either of those cultures. Finally, both are very attractive to the toddler set.

Because of the strong parallels between Peeps and banana slugs, I briefly considered fashioning a bikini top out of Peeps and a bottom out of slugs. I even captured a slug to try. I did not bargain on my bleeding heart oozing forth with compassion for the gastropod when I felt his whole body stiffen at the sight of the impending hot glue gun, but ooze it did and so I spared the slug. Instead, I inflicted the torture upon myself. Have you ever taken a hot glue gun to the crotch? I am ok with killing animals for food, and I am a big fan of using the whole thing, offal and all, but, I reasoned with myself, banana slug would not taste good with hot glue smeared down his back. Read more