A Few Discoveries

I'd like to share a few discoveries with you since coming back to Bellingham. Coincidentally, they have to do with food - this little city does quite well for itself in that area.

Our local food co-op opened a location just a couple minutes from my mom's place while I was away, and being the grocery shopaholic I am, it's a delightful place to go.



On Saturday I was in search of apples for a compote I was making, so when a mound of local organic Ginger Gold apples caught my eye in the produce area, I made sure to add an extra one to my bag to eat fresh and crunchy.



At home I sliced up the spare apple and passed a couple juicy slices on to my mom. Thankfully it occurred to me before we got any further into oohing and aahing that this apple would probably pair perfectly with the Whiskey Cheddar in our cheese drawer. And, oh, was I right!



The cheese came from my other Bellingham discovery in the past week: a superb little cheese shop in Fairhaven called Quel Fromage. It's small but pristine with clean white walls and a beautiful cheese case, filled with goat, sheep, and cow milk cheeses in all forms and textures. While I was there, per recommendation of my sister, I picked up a Bucherondin and my previously-mentioned Whiskey Cheddar. Both are amazing, but the cheddar leaped ahead in favor when placed alongside a slice of crisp green Ginger Gold apple and eaten in one harmonious bite.



If you don't have a specialty cheese location where you could possibly track down, or request, a Whiskey Cheddar (this one comes from County Limerick in Ireland), then at least make sure you buy some good sharp cheddar cheese as you head into fall. As the apple season peaks, this is one of my favorite snacks.

As the Sun

Bellingham has been flooded with sunny days lately. This is some evening light hitting the banks of the harbor at the marina.

We went out to play for the evening
We wanted to hold on to the feeling
And the stretch in the sun
And our breathlessness as we run
To the beach endlessly
As the sun creeps up on the sea
- Lisa Hannigan*, Lille

*I'm crazy about this musician right now. Been listening to her for three months straight and still not sick of her sound or poetic lyrics.

Homey Little Corner

Tonight was the first night I got to really absorb the fact that I am back in my homey little corner of the United States. Dinner was shared at one of my favorite places, Boundary Bay Brewery, and then we drove to the marina to walk through the park and along the rim of the sail-filled harbor.

For now, we'll focus on dinner. (My camera's battery died before I could get the rest of the photos off it, so another day I'll make sure and share pictures from the marina.) Apart from Boundary Bay's ales, this place has an atmosphere certainly worth bragging about. It's nothing pretentious, and everything tastes best when eaten on the patio on a sunny summer evening. The winner in the taste bud category this evening was the Yam Alechiladas. Hands down.

Beginnings and Endings

It really wouldn't be fair to skim over the last few weeks, as much as I like to keep this blog current. Those days deserve better. After all, they marked the end of my time with Foodzie, an internship and life in San Francisco that I will always treasure. They hosted a reunion with a childhood friend from my years in New Zealand; this reunion took the form of a road trip down the winding, cliff-hugging Pacific Highway to Santa Barbara. There the days were spent revisiting memories from a life that seems so long ago, but in fact only three years ago laid significant foundations in my art education.

And that education has officially ended! As of Thursday, I have completed all my course requirements and am awaiting my final grade and then my diploma.

Here are some pictures to chronicle the endings and beginnings in the past two weeks...



Ending of life in San Francisco (my last breakfast, eaten on a bench by the ferry building). Beginning of my love affair with Blue Bottle cappuccinos and Frog Hollow fruit...



...the sunlight was brilliant that morning.



Beginning of road trip.



Nearing end of road trip...in a much drier climate.



Beginning and end of Santa Barbara photo shoot, just a detail from an antique wagon on the sidewalk in Summerland. I was not in tourist mode.



Beginning of a happy return to Washington food. A peak at my fig danish, still inside its bag and fresh from Columbia City Bakery on my first morning back in the Northwest. I'll be around here for about three weeks.

What My Eyes See

Pictures say it best when the sky has long been dark and the amount of words that could be spent catching up on the last week(s) threaten a further lapse into silence. Here is what I have to give tonight, friends.