Whiskey Cola Brisket BBQ at Mariners Games

The home of the towering Space Needle, Amazon.com, Nordstrom and Microsoft, and the birthplace of Boeing, has something else that rockets it to the forefront of, oh, everything. Safeco Field aka The Safe, was the first baseball stadium in the country to up its game with quality local eats.

Ethan Stowell, the local wonderchef who is at the helm of the Seattle changes will offer juicy, saucy, boldly jalapeno'ed Holy Smoke BBQ, Double Play Sausage + Chicken, Oyster Po’ Boy and Big League Burgers at Safeco Field starting tomorrow, all made with local high-quality meats, seafood, vegetables and breads. Last year he debuted Hamburg+Frites and La Creperie in the Safeco Bull Pen.

The brisket above has whiskey cola sauce and apple/jalapeno slaw on a potato bread bun. It's big and it's yours for $9.75.

Lamb Cake for Easter

At Easter I make lamb cake with the Lambchop face and serve it at breakfast and dinner. If you have the cake mold, it’s easy: use your favorite cake recipe or a box of cake mix.

The mold takes most of the batter, and as it bakes it compresses into a texture
like pound cake. The rest of the batter you can use for cupcakes.

The recipe:
Your favorite cake recipe, or you can use a box of cake mix.

Frosting:
3 3/4 cup powdered sugar (about 1 pound)
2/3 cup butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ cup sweetened coconut flakes

Directions:
Heat oven to 450 degrees with the rack in the center
Place the lamb cake mold on a cookie sheet. Grease it on the
inside surfaces, so cake will release.

Into the side with the lamb face, pour in cake batter to fill.
Leave the back side empty, as the cake will expand into this as it bakes. Place
a toothpick along the neck portion. This will provide stability when you are
taking the cake out of the mold, and when it is sitting upright. Place the back
of the mold on top of the front. The mold should fit together.

Keeping the cake mold on the baking sheet, bake the cake at 450 degrees for 10 minutes. Then turn the oven down to 350 degrees and bake for another 40 minutes, for a total of 50 minutes.
To test to determine if the cake is fully baked, remove it
from the oven. Take the back off and put a clean toothpick in the thickest part. If the toothpick comes out clean, or with just a few crumbs on it, the cake is fully baked.

Remove the cake from the oven, still on the baking sheet, and take the back cover off. Let the cake sit for about 5 minutes, then loosen it gently from the pan, remove it and set it on a wire rack until it is cooled, about 1 hour.

Frosting Directions:
This is the classic frosting recipe on the C&H powdered sugar bag. You can use a food processor, standing mixer, handheld mixer or mix it by hand.

Mix the butter and confectioner’s sugar in a large bowl. Add
milk and vanilla and mix again until thick and smooth. The frosting will thicken more by itself - just make sure it isn’t runny.

To frost the lamb, set it on the serving plate. Put a spoonful of frosting underneath it to hold it in place. Start frosting from the bottom up, back to front. When you reach the lambs’ head, go more slowly and use a thinner frosting spatula or knife to get into the curves of the face.

Place two chocolate chips on for the eyes, and for the mouth you can use a sliver of licorice, a clove, or anything else you have handy. I use a clove bud with the stem attached.

As soon as the lamb cake is frosted, pat the coconut on top. Depending on your frosting texture you may need to press some of the coconut in gently. Let it set for an hour before serving.

You can find lamb molds at a few places, like amazon.com and
http://www.bakery.com/equipment/pb/cake_molds.asp

St. Paddy's Day

Shepherd's Pie and a Guinness at Paddy Coyne's for St. Patrick's Day. I love shepherd's pie so much I ditched the corned beef and cabbage. At the end I threw some salt on my Guinness just to see how that tastes - it was really good! This pub was crazy wild.

The funny thing is I don't have a drop of Irish blood in me. Whattya gonna do?

A Taste of Trees

Washington State’s The Herbfarm, a top-rated restaurant, is always on the delicious side of eating discoveries. They have an interesting take on trees as “…the unheralded workhorses of the food world” giving with their fruits and nuts, but also “flavors from their flowers, saps, berries, seeds, bark, leaves, needles, and even smoke.” Herbs, mushrooms and truffles grow under them and the moon smiles over them.

The dinner series begins February 17 with nine courses sequenced for flavor and paired with wine. What’s to eat? There are more things at http://www.theherbfarm.com, but check out these these courses from the menu:

• Sumac-Crusted Pacific Albacore Tuna, Parsnip Cream & Oregon Olive Oil, Fennel, Apple, Radish, and Flat Leaf Parsley
Paired with 2010 Adelsheim Auxerrois, Ribbon Springs Vineyard, Oregon

• Charcoal-Grilled Saddle of Lamb, Rosemary-Farina Cake, Sausage of Wild Black Trumpet Mushrooms and Lamb, Slow-Roasted Onions, and Brown Butter-Birch Tree Syrup Sauce
Paired with 2007 Rôtie Cellars, Southern Rhône Blend, Washington

• Woodinville Whiskey Mini Savarin with Walnut Butter, Bay-Walnut Cream, Walnut “Sand,” Whiskey Snap Tuile & Salted-Big Leaf Maple Syrup Ice Cream