brewing, baking and more

Hello Readers! Its finally starting to seem like summer around here - which includes more than just sunshine. Around here it means food trucks galore, farmers markets, festivals, and concerts!
After suffering through a miserable week of food poisoning (I'm the only person who can acquire cryptosporidium just by walking around) I needed to get out of the house. The best way to celebrate was Brewer's Festival! Held right down the road in Marymoore Park here in Redmond it was an enormous gathering of tasty food and delicious beer from local artisan brewers. I only got to try a few of the several hundred samples they had, but ones to take note of were the Pumpkin Ale from Elysian Brewers, North Sound's cherry vanilla stout, and Big Al's Ol' Smokey which tasted exactly like the smell of barbequing pork ribs. I can't wait to pick up a bottle and make a tasty batch of chili with it!

Two IPAs, a stout, and a mango-wizen

Besides that, I've still been cooking mostly at work, although I pulled out my tomato cobbler dish the other night for some friends. Some fun things I created at work include oysters rockafeller with leek sprouts, bacon wrapped jalepeno poppers with raspberry goat cheese, and lavender lemonade!
We're lucky enough to have amazing bartenders where I work and when I brought my lemonade to them they went to work right away at creating a fantastic cocktail. The recipe is as follows:

• 1oz citrus vodka
• 1oz sparkling wine - make sure its fairly dry
• fill glass with lemonade, about 1 cup
• top of with a float of St. Germaine's elderberry liqueur

If you would like the recipe for the lemonade, my friend Ellie did a fantastic job making her own batch and garnished it with lavender sugar on the rim. Check it out here.