Emily


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Sometimes It’s OK to Cheat: Dump Cake

So I know that here at ES (and in my life in general) there is a no-cheating policy. That is, make your own damn food, don’t use a bunch of boxed, pre-made mixes and shortcuts. Basically, don’t be Sandra Lee. Sometimes, just sometimes, though… there is a time to break the rules.

Now is that time.

Have you ever heard of “dump cake?” Kind of a gross-sounding name, I know. My mom used to make it for us when we were younger. It’s a very easy, quick, and delicious dessert comprised solely of peach pie filling, cherry pie filling, and yellow cake mix. After dumping those in a cake pan and baking, it kind of comes out as a cross between an actual cake, a cobbler and a pie. Anyway, this summer I got to thinking about my mom’s dump cakes and decided I wanted to bust out my grownup version of the old favorite. It still uses some of the “cheater” ingredients—canned pie filling and cake mix—but I changed up some of the flavors (coconut instead of cherry) and added a few more interesting elements to the topping (toasted coconut-almond crunch versus just cake).

I wasn’t sure if this old recipe would stand up, but the acclaim I received from everyone who tried it confirmed my actions. Sometimes it’s okay to be a cheater.

Peach, Almond, and Toasted Coconut Dump Cake

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in Desserts / Recipe 3 comments
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Endless Road Trip Seattle: Hipster Hangover Brunch

I bet by this point in my Seattle journey you’re like “she must be done talking about grease-laden brunch foods.” But, my friends, you are sadly mistaken.

Smith is an ultra-hipster tavern featuring rustic, seasonal pub fare and a relatively small yet lovingly curated, unique beer list. A cavernous bar featuring taxidermy and slightly creepy portraits of old men with beards, it may seem like a strange choice for the first meal of the day, but I had been dreaming about their gastropub grub every morning of my trip. Trust me, feeling like you’re chillin’ on the set of a Portlandia sketch is worth it for this brunch.

My old apartment in Capitol Hill was a short three-block walk from Smith, so my body had been used to their piping hot mugs of Stumptown coffee, their creamy, salty sweet potato fries dipped in rich aioli, and their beefy breakfast entrees on a very regular basis.

The number one stunner, though, is Smith’s breakfast sandwich. This is no run-of-the-mill McMuffin knock-off. It might just be the heartiest and best hangover meal in Seattle: fatty, thick shreds of brisket topped with a runny fried egg, fried green tomatoes, hot mustard, and melted gruyêre cheese, all piled onto a warm, buttery potato bun. Rob ordered it and to this very day he won’t stop waxing poetic about how delicious it was; this is a Texan appraising brisket, so no small praise.

Smith / 332 15th Ave E, Seattle, WA 98102 / 4pm-2am Mon-Fri / 10am-2am Sat-Sun

Also on The Endless Road Trip: Seattle
1. The Most Powerful, Brouwerful Hour
2. Clucking Great Fried Chicken
3. Porky Passion at Paseo

 

in Breakfast / Food Travel / Restaurants 0 comments
Coconut Mocha Syrup
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100 Ways to Cook with Coconut

A lot of people think of coconut as a warm-weather flavor, but we’re here to tell you that it is delicious year-round, in both savory and sweet dishes. So while it’s almost September (still technically summer, though, dudes!) we encourage you to think outside the box and embrace the wonders of coconut for your year-round cooking needs. Shredded coconut, coconut milk, coconut flour, coconut oil, coconut everything! We’ve scoured our favorite food blogs for some of those taste-the-tropics style recipes we all know and love, but we’ve also rounded up curries, soups, meats, pizzas, seafood and more, all celebrating one of our favorite—and surprisingly versatile—fruits.

Click on the photos for full recipes.

Coconut Lentil Soup Apple Cinnamon Cocomeal Whole Wheat Coconut Waffles Prestigio Cheesecake
Cauliflower Mappas Mango Coconut Popsicles French Coconut Pie Spicy Coconut Kale Quinoa
Grilled Coconut Sweet Potato Kebabs Coconut Limoncello Cupcakes 5 Ingredient Coconut Curry Coconut Milk Cornbread
Turkey Coconut Curry Soup Carrot Cake Granola Buttermilk Pancakes with Coconut Syrup Baked Coconut Shrimp
Creamy Coconut Vodka Sauce Sesame Coconut Bok Choy Mango Coconut Mojito Tropical Breakfast Pizza
Roasted Strawberry Coconut Ice Cream Butternut Squash Soup with Coconut Milk Samoas Bark Peanut Butter Coconut Protein Bars
Spicy Coconut Peanut Prawn Noodles Coconut Peanut Curry Dip Mango Milkshake with Coconut Sorbet Chocolate Almond Coconut Gobs
Kale Coconut Salad Pacific Rim Burger Coconut Cilantro Jasmine Rice Coconut Strawberry Sandwich
Chocolate Chunk Biscotti Thai Pot Pie Curried Green Beans Peanut Butter Coconut Cups
Mini Coconut Poptarts Coconut Flax Pancakes Blueberry Coconut Bread Pudding Coconut Curry Tempeh Wrap
Chinese Coconut Buns Pina Colada Donuts Thai Chicken Soup Pina Colada Cupcakes
Strawberry Coconut Buttercream Layer Cake Coconut Corn Chowder Chocolate Rumballs Coconut Curry Shrimp with Peanut Noodles
Sweet Potato Coconut Ravioli Red Curried Vegetable Tomato Soup Coconut Creme Fried Pie Fresh Corn Saute with Coconut Milk and Sriracha
Coconut Cereal Cookies Thai Ginger Peanut Dressing Coconut Pound Cake Coconut Bacon
Spicy Coconut Noodles Beef Rendang Creamy Bacon Rosemary Polenta Red Velvet Coconut Donuts
Coconut Peanut Sauce Beef Pistachio Coconut Rice Pudding Pineapple Coconut Tarts Coconut Cream Pudding Cookies
Grilled Tofu with Spicy Coconut Milk Sweet Potato Pecan Coconut Cake Coconut Lime Chicken Strips Tropical Kale Salad
Pineapple Tofu Curry Cowgirl Cookies Mango Coconut Tartlets Caramelized Banana Oatmeal
Coconut Lime Granola Coconut Green Curry Lentils Coconut Protein Bars Chocolate Crunch Quesadillas
Garlic Chili Coconut Mussels Coconut Date Bonbons Corn Squash Coconut Stew Banh Mi with Coconut Lime Dressing
Coconut Butterscotch Chow Mein Cookies Coconut Quinoa Hot Cereal Coconut Salted Caramel Pie
Coconut Hot Chocolate Creme Brulee Coconut Rice Pudding Coconut Jam Cookies Salmon Coconut Pizza
Mango Coconut Salsa Banana Coffee Cake with Coconut Pecan Frosting Pumpkin in Coconut Milk with Crispy Tofu Coconut Mocha Syrup
Island Carrot Cake Coconut Buckwheat Breakfast Bake Peanut Butter Chocolate Coconut Rice Krispy Treats Creamy Lemon Thai Inspired Noodles
Coconut Baked Pork Coconut Creme Brulee Vietnamese Clam Curry Indian-Style Chickpeas

 

All 100 Ways — 1,600 recipes and counting! — found here.


in 100 Ways / Featured / Lists 4 comments
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Endless Road Trip Seattle: Porky Passion at Paseo

The best sandwich in Seattle is not exactly the most photogenic one, but trust me, with flavors and textures his heavenly, it doesn’t matter one bit. Welcome to one of my most favorite things I’ve ever put into my mouth: the Caribbean Roast sandwich at Paseo, a little cash-only sandwich shack on the beach.

Originally located on the side of a busy road in Seattle’s Fremont neighborhood, Paseo has been such a longstanding favorite with locals that they were able to open a second location outside Golden Gardens, a beautiful seaside park in Ballard. You walk up to a window in the little building, place your sandwich order (feel free to add on rice and beans or their amazing corn on the cob), pay with about $8 cash, then chill on a wooden bench enjoying the lovely sea air while waiting for your paper-wrapped, sloppy, meaty masterpiece to arrive.

The star of the Caribbean Roast is its pork shoulder, which is soaked in Paseo’s special tangy marinade and slow-roasted until it is melt-in-your mouth tender. Huge hunks of said pork are nestled in freshly-baked local Macrina Bakery bread slathered with garlicky aioli, alongside crisp lettuce, cilantro, pickled jalapeños, and – my personal favorite – thick rings of sweet, roasted onions.

Seattle is passionate about Paseo—so passionate that the shop often runs out of bread halfway through the day! I told my Texan boyfriend, who was visiting with me, that any time you mention to a Seattleite that you had Paseo for lunch, they jealously exclaim “Aannuuugghhh! Paseo!”.He laughed, thinking I was joking. By the end of that night, everyone we mentioned our Paseo trip to indeed muttered envious, guttural noises. I guess people just can’t help their reaction once they’ve experienced the Caribbean Roast, the true coup de grâce of the sandwich world.

Paseo Ballard / 6226 Seaview Ave. NW / 11am-9pm Tues-Sat
Paseo Fremont / 4225 Fremont Ave. N / 11am-9pm Tues-Fri / 11am-8pm Sat 

Also on The Endless Road Trip: Seattle
1. The Most Powerful, Brouwerful Hour
2. Clucking Great Fried Chicken

in Food Travel / Pig / Restaurants / Sandwich 3 comments
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Egg Separation Trick: Magic or Logic?

There’s a YouTube video making the rounds:

 

Lots of internet people are pretty excited about it, but commenter splendid696 asks, “Simple physics is now black magic? Are we going back to Dark Ages?” Ol’ splendid696, ever the realist. I mean, they have a point, but it’s still cool. Also I never took physics! So take that!

Personally, I’ve always been a fan of the old-fashioned shell-to-shell maneuver, but I’ll admit my success rate isn’t quite 100%. Sometimes I just get overzealous about smashing the egg and then I get shards everywhere, you know? I think I’ll give this water bottle trick a shot sometime soon, just for the hell of it.

in Eggs 0 comments
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Endless Road Trip Seattle: Clucking Great Fried Chicken

Most people think of salmon as Seattle’s prime protein, and while it’s true that seafood is a Northwest mainstay, this city can cook up some fried meat just as well as any southern hotspot. Thanks to Oprah, Seattle has been lauded for Ezell’s chicken, but I have a different go-to for fried bird: Skillet Diner in Capitol Hill. Famous for their cult hit bacon jam, Skillet started out as a small food trailer that became so popular they were able to afford a brick-and-mortar place in Capitol Hill; prime real estate.

Skillet’s burger and grilled cheese are amazing, but to me, nothing beats their fowl. I’m most fond of the fried chicken sandwich on fresh potato bread with pickled and charred jalapeño aioli and kale. It’s served with another Skillet signature, their ridiculous poutine, a giant pile of fries smothered in a gratuitous amount of herbed cheddar sauce:

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in Breakfast / Eggs / Food Travel / Fowl / Restaurants / Sandwich 0 comments
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Endless Road Trip Seattle: The Most Powerful, Brouwerful Hour

As loyal ES readers may remember, earlier this year I moved to Austin, Texas from my longtime home of Seattle. Last month I went back home for a visit, and I made it a point to be a food tourist in my hometown and revisit my favorite food and drink experiences of the Emerald City.

Seattle has a pretty intense happy hour culture. Seriously — every bar, restaurant, and coffee shop has some sort of drink or food special going on in the early evening. Why? Probably because it’s so dreary and unappealing outside most of the time, businesses need to drag people out of their cozy apartments by any means possible.

One of my favorite happy hours in Seattle technically isn’t a happy hour at all; it’s Power Hour at Brouwers, an amazingly stocked Belgian beer hall in the pleasantly funky Fremont neighborhood. With 64 beers on draft (almost all local or regional craft brews) and over 300 beers available by the bottle, this place is heaven for beer lovers, especially those seeking out hard-to-find European varieties.

Not only is Brouwers’ booze selection great, but they have a solid food menu. These are no average happy hour bar bites; we’re talking freshly baked pretzels with beer-cheese sauce, Belgian-style mussels, frites with spicy, creamy Dragon Sauce.

Brouwers is also home to some of my favorite sliders ever: Carbonade Sliders, Belgian-braised Kobe beef with bacon and St. Bernardus beer, topped with the aforementioned beer-cheese sauce on a brioche bun. Richest baby sandwiches ever?! Maybe, and perfect when washed down with a strong, sweet ale.

Power Hour can be enjoyed from 3-6pm any day of the week, either inside Brouwers’ cavernous, castle-like inside or their serene outdoor patio. Happy hour pricing or not, this little taste of old Europe is worth a trip outside, rain or shine.

Brouwer’s Cafe / 400 N. 35th St, Seattle, WA 98103 / 11am-2am daily

in Drinks 0 comments
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