Friendship and Food, Seattle Style!

This past weekend, I flew up to Seattle to help my good friend Leah Jacobs celebrate her birthday. I've known Leah ever since we worked together during my 3 year stint in the Pacific Northwest. Hard to believe it's been 12 years since we met! And although we don't see each other as much as we'd like, I always manage to get up to visit a couple of times a year.

The flight from Burbank to Seattle takes a little over two hours, and I left after work so I didn't arrive until 9 PM and hadn't eaten dinner. Leah is a restaurant connoisseur, and she suggested a place up on Capitol Hill not far from my old apartment. So off to Poppy we went.



Walking in the back entrance is like traipsing through your neighbor's beautiful herb garden. It was the perfect setting for the treats that followed.



The food is Indian inspired, composed of small plates, almost like a tapas bar. The atmosphere is modern but cozy and the food was AMAZING!! I highly recommend the dungeness crab spring rolls (photo above) and tandoori chicken with slaw, which we shared. And the apricot frozen yogurt for dessert was heavenly!! Everything was fresh and flavorful. No surprise to Seattle natives, since the head chef used to run The Herb Farm, a local favorite. Next time you're in town, check out Poppy (http://www.poppyseattle.com/index.html).

Saturday morning, we headed to the gym, then across town to the University district to check out the Farmers Market and pick up some ingredients for dinner that night. Leah and her hubby Spencer had invited over their friends Frederick and Susie, so Leah had come up with a nice summery menu for us to cook for dinner. So much fun to be shopping for fresh fruits and veggies in perfect 75 degree weather! We took these home...







And I can't resist taking pictures of pretty flowers wherever I find them.



Before we headed home, we took a break for lunch with Leah's step-sister Peach. The patio at the Eastlake Bar and Grille (http://www.neighborhoodgrills.com/eastlake/) was the perfect spot to watch some boats and have a few Raspberry Vodka Lemonade cocktails while we caught up on girl talk. We're the ladies who lunch!

When we got home, it was time to get cooking! Leah is one of my absolute favorite people to share a kitchen with. She's an organization freak like me (she alphabetizes her spices!), and I understand how she works things in her kitchen, so we make a great team.

Our first order of business was turning our $10 flat of blueberries into a pie!



For some reason she trusted me to cut the dough. Thank goodness I had some hardware to measure and make sure I got the vent holes in the right spot!



While I was cutting the dough, she was cutting the butter, so I had an excuse to pull out the camera. She hated me doing it, but she looked so cute in her apron! And I warned her the photos were going in my blog, and she didn't steal my camera, so I figure I'm safe including them.







This is looking promising....we'll know in an hour or so.



While the pie was baking, I got to chopping all the ingredients for a Country-Style Greek Salad while Leah brined breasts of chicken. Those we covered with a Cajun spice rub and grilled outside.





Spencer, our sommelier, made sure we had some lovely wine choices. Frederick pitched in as well. And yes, by the end of the night we went through all four bottles....



But how could you not linger over a lovely dinner in such a nice setting!



And the pie....it was a hit!



Thanks to an energetic dinner conversation, we were up past midnight, which made Sunday a sleep in day. Spencer and Leah had tickets to see Elvis Costello in concert Sunday night, so I booked a mid-afternoon flight home. But I couldn't leave without taking in brunch at our favorite spot... Lola (http://www.tomdouglas.com/restaurants/lola). Their Bloody Mary was just what the doctor ordered...

Oh, and I almost forgot! Leah's birthday gift was the one I wrapped in the crazy fairy dust silver paper a few blog posts ago. She recognized it instantly from reading my blog! So she was smart enough to open it outside.





Leah and Spencer are headed to Florence and Amsterdam next month, so I thought she could use a couple of books of city maps. We used one just like them when we all went to Paris last year, and they worked beautifully.

Happy Birthday my friend, and thanks for another magical culinary tour of Seattle! Your sous chef will return after hockey season to cook with you again. Start planning the menu...