Two of our friends took the long journey from Seattle and the other two are T-Towners like us. All four are vegetarians, the husband likes his meat, and I can swing both ways — a flexatarian if you will. I lean toward the non-meat eating side with a special emphasis on seafood. Maybe you know this already. I can’t remember what I tell you people. 

One of my lovely guests was six months preggers and literally had some sort of consumable in her dainty little hands at all times. Wheat and dairy were not agreeing with her delicate disposition, and of course what do I bring loads of: cheese and breads. 

Not completely off topic, have you seen the new Wine Dictator? I mean Wine Spectator of course. It contains a cheese guide of their top one hundred cheeses that are the bomb. I highly recommend you pick it up. It is a great source for wine and cheese paring, along with recipes and cheese descriptions. 

Back to my weekend, I pulled out a lavish spread of cheese, crackers, bread, fruit and tapénade. Costco happens to carry two of my favorite cheeses Delice De Bourgogne (France) and Cambozola (Germany) and a Mediterranean style tapénade made by Cantaré. 

Delice is a delicate triple crème that mocks the very existence of Brie. It’s rich, creamy, salty and has a slight bite on the finish. Cambozola is also a triple crème but contains the tang of blue veins like Gorgonzola. It is creamy, dense and nicely spreadable. 

The Cantaré tapénade was a lovely distraction from our dairyland overload. It was filled with roasted red Capija peppers, black and green olives, sundried tomatoes, white beans, etc. Great by itself on a cracker or add some feta and stuff a breast of chicken. It would also be a great base for some pasta and spicy sausage. 

 

Dinnertime rolled around and our vegetarian feast consisted of mustard and herb marinated firm tofu, roasted corn and spinach risotto, and vegetable kebobs. We paired the meal with one of my favorite wines, Château de Pellehaut Côtes de Gascogne. This is a white blend of many grapes including Ugni Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc and a host of others I’m pretty sure most have never heard of. It’s crisp minerality and floral nose reminded me of summer, and at this point, that is all I have left. 

After our guests left the next day, the husband and I needed to ease our way back into the world of carnivores. All this vegetarian clean living left us longing for meat, but we couldn’t stress our systems out by diving head-on into something like a steak. I’m kidding of course, but we didn’t have any.

Cabin life can be Spartan, so we do what we can with what we have. I skewered chunks of halibut and rustic bread wrapped in proscuitto that had been tossed in a rosemary, garlic and olive oil mixture, threw them on the BBQ and watched with a careful eye as to not burn or overcook them.



You can find this recipe in Sunset magazine this month. It’s a keeper.

After a fun and food-filled weekend, today is our actual anniversary, and I have run out of ideas and just plain “fooded” out. So tonight it might be pizza and beer. Tomorrow we head out for a proper anniversary dinner at the Sea Grill where for a moment, just a moment, I can pretend it is still summer.

Eat out, Tacoma. We need your love.