There is hardly a dish that equals roasted chicken for its simplicity, elegance and comfort. This is especially true when it's combined with roast potatoes that are cooked in the same pan, beautifully caramelized and just the right texture. The cooking temperature for this recipe is higher than you might expect, but is essential to crisp the skin of the chicken, which in turn releases its fat, leaving you with moist meat and deliciously flavored potatoes. I prefer free-range breasts (which are generally larger than garden-variety) both for health reasons and because it really does make a difference in taste. For the potatoes I use red, which roast nicer than the starchier yellow and hold their shape better than baking potatoes.Because you're roasting chicken breasts as opposed to a whole bird, it takes less than an hour from start to finish. Fresh rosemary is tossed with the potatoes, and the chicken is dressed with nothing more than a little lemon and fresh sage - the sage leaves are delectable in their own right when cooked under the chicken skin.
Last Saturday, Jan. 7, the National Society of Film Critics voted "Capote," a portrait of author Truman Capote during the time he was preparing to write his "nonfiction novel" "In Cold Blood," the best picture of 2005.The awards voting occurred at Sardi's restaurant in New York City, and determining a winner took longer than almost any other decision in the NSFC's 40-year existence. "Capote" edged out "A History of Violence" by a single point in a head-to-head contest on the sixth ballot. Wong Kar-wai's "2046" had been the next-highest-polling title below those two films on ballot number five."A History of Violence" did win in two other categories: David Cronenberg for best direction and Ed Harris as best supporting actor. Philip Seymour Hoffman was named best actor for his work in the title role of "Capote," which he also co-produced. That was one of only two first-ballot victories this year.Reese Witherspoon was judged best actress for her performance as June Carter (Cash) in the Johnny Cash biopic "Walk the Line."
Richard Berkeley-Steele is enjoying an effervescent about-face.Last seen on Seattle Opera's stage in 2005 as an ardent, emotionally fraught Siegmund undergoing life-or-death tribulations in Wagner's "Ring" cycle, Berkeley-Steele is about to play a frivolous, rich party boy. This intense tenor, who typically performs dramatic opera, has been cast in the role of Gabriel von Eisenstein for Seattle Opera's upcoming production of Strauss' comedic "Die Fledermaus.""Most characters I play are angst ridden," Berkeley-Steele said. "I can't imagine Siegfried or Siegmund asking, 'Have you tried this new cocktail?' or 'Would you like a cigar?' Eisenstein's angst is whether he's going to miss out on his bridge party."Not that this change of pace is all fun and games. "Eisenstein is a much greater challenge to me than many dramatic roles, partly because 'Die Fledermaus' is comedy, and I very seldom play comedy," Berkeley-Steele said. "And comedy is very serious business. It takes a lot of quick energy."The tenor notes that "Die Fledermaus," set in 1890s Vienna, is a drawing-room farce whose brand of humor relies mostly on word play and manners. Still, there is a touch of slapstick. "In one scene, the prison guard and I do a little bit of Buster Keaton."To Berkeley-Steele, the comedic sensibility of "Die Fledermaus" is also reminiscent of the "Thin Man" movies, starring William Powell and Myrna Loy as a rich couple who solve mysteries for fun. "They both flirted outrageously with everybody, and it was jolly good fun in those days. That's the charm of it.
Would Joseph Stalin have approved of Seattle Children's Theatre's world-première production of "Peter and the Wolf"?Probably not, despite the Soviet Union dictator's indirect role in the creation of Ukrainian-born composer Sergei Prokofiev's best-known work.Commissioned by the Moscow Central Children's Theater not long after Prokofiev returned to Russia after years of living and composing in America and Europe, "Peter and the Wolf" was written over four days in 1936 shortly after Stalin established a repressive "Composers Union" that determined what kind of music was acceptable for the masses. A forward-looking experimentalist with an exotic touch, and composer of fantastic scores for the Kirov Ballet's "Romeo and Juliet" and, later, Sergei Eisenstein's 1938 film "Alexander Nevsky," Prokofiev played it safe and wrote "Peter" as a means of introducing children to various instruments in an orchestra. The idea was that an orchestra conductor would narrate the story of young Peter's adventures involving sundry pet friends, a hunter and a villainous wolf. Throughout the fable, each character would have a musical signature played by a specific instrument or instrument section: strings for Peter, clarinet for a cat, flute for a bird, oboe for a duck, timpani for the hunter and French horn for the wolf. Since Prokofiev's time, "Peter and the Wolf" has become an international staple in arts experiences for kids.
Typically, traffic-weary homeowners flee the swarms of city automobiles for the serenity of suburbia.Still, though a healthy dose of gridlock appears to be imminent for one of the Seattle's most-beloved neighborhoods, many homebuyers are frantically trying to scratch their way into Fremont. Initial construction of the Fremont Bridge is already under way, and a full-fledged facelift will begin in spring/summer 2006.But while traffic this summer may slow to a crawl, the real estate market in Fremont seems to be chugging along with quiet indifference. "The road construction affects both Fremont and Wallingford as far as altering traffic patterns, but it doesn't seem to be affecting home prices," said Tracy Allinson, of RE/MAX Metro. Greg Stamolis, of Windermere Real Estate's Ballard office, agreed."I think it may have some impact on the market," he said. "But most people understand that the inconveniences are temporary and that improving the infrastructure will only make the area more viable in the long term."
My son came running into my room last night complaining that he'd lost all feeling in his butt. This didn't come as a huge surprise to me, although it did make me wonder what he'd done this time. After all, this is the boy who stuck his hand into a blender, the one who thinks having his appendages turn purple is a badge of boyhood honor and who has peed on his cousins from the top of a tall cedar tree. Not much surprises me about his antics any more. At this time, he was shivering and shaking, so I told him to take a hot shower. He emerged an hour later after emptying the hot-water tank to tell me this story.
About 100 concerned Wallingford residents gathered Jan. 9 at Hamilton International Middle School to discuss crime in the close-knit neighborhood.According to Christine White, Wallingford Community Council (WCC) board member and 10-year Wallingford resident, the meeting was prompted by a random increase in burglaries of occupied homes this fall.Neighbors need not be alarmed, however, because crime in Wall-ingford doesn't seem to be going up; this fall's increase seems to just be an anomaly, White said.But the WCC, along with its Quality of Life Committee and the Seattle Police Department (SPD), saw it as a good opportunity to arrange a more organized block-watch program, and just encourage residents to get to know each other.
Vegan Pizza Pi just began its fourth year in the University District last November. Located on the corner of North 55th Street and University Way Northeast, it's difficult to miss the large awning announcing Vegan Pizza Pi. Plenty of pizzerias offer vegan options, but owner Russ Kemsley has yet to find another strictly vegan pizzeria anywhere else. Many may question the idea of a vegan pizza, since we tend to picture traditional pizza with cheese, a variety of meats and more cheese. Kemsley kept all palates in mind, though, and conducted extensive research to discern the best flavors and textures to appeal to vegans and meat-eaters alike.
In a world that seems to be getting smaller in size, but growing exponentially in complex world issues such as poverty, discrimination and illegal trafficking, one small University District-based nonprofit, Bahia Street, is attempting to dramatically alter the future for a small minority group of young women living in Brazil. Plagued by inequality, violence and extreme poverty, the majority of African-Brazilians live among the endless shantytowns that skirt Brazil's largest cities. Here, open sewers and crumbling rooftops are two signature features that line the roadside where young children spend their time playing and begging, according to Bahia Street leaders. The mission of Bahia Street is to break the cycles of poverty and violence by providing quality education opportunities for economically impoverished young women and girls in Brazil.
"I was kicked out of my grandparents' house due to my homosexuality," said Peter (not his real name), age 17. "They did not approve of me having a boyfriend. When I found out that I wouldn't have a place to live, I talked to a Lambert House case manager. She helped me to get into foster care." You might have passed many times by the modest blue house on 15th Avenue and not have known that the building is a safe haven for queer youth. But Lambert House will celebrate its 15th anniversary this year, and last year underwent significant renovations with help from volunteers from Microsoft, City Year, Seattle Works, Casey Family Program, Lambert House and others.Gay boys, lesbian girls, transgenders and questioning youths age 14 to 22, can come to Lambert House six days a week. And they don't just come from Seattle. Participants come from all over King County and beyond, including Shoreline, Federal Way, Tacoma, Auburn and Aberdeen, to name just a few.
The Mae West Fest has risen from the graveyard of festivals past. After a one-year hiatus, the festival devoted to women's writing has been resurrected under the leadership of executive director Heidi Heimarck, who founded the original festival in 1996 with Elena Hartwell. After a round of restructuring and fundraising over the past year, the Mae West Fest received grants from the Emmett R. Quady Foundation and the Seattle Neighborhood Initiative Funding Program. The funding will help keep the festival alive and also allow the artists involved to be compensated, according to festival organizers.
One of the byproducts of my recent 100-day stay in Olympia, performing home healthcare for an oldster who watched CNN and Northwest Cable News 10 to 12 hours a day, was to cancel my morning newspaper subscription once I returned to Seattle. This action was something that in the past I'd never have even considered. For years I believed that reading a daily paper was essential to my mental health.I realized in OIympia that I no longer need a daily fix. I read The Seattle Times once a week, on Wednesdays, read the P-I Fridays and get a Sunday New York Times to go with my subscription to Time magazine. And I learn more reading The New Yorker every week, especially about Iraq, than I can learn reading all the other previously mentioned publications together.
This is my last monthly column for the Capitol Hill Times. I've thoroughly enjoyed writing each month for the paper. But change happens and we all must move on. And moving I am to the sweet, quaint and QUIET (shshsh!) little neighborhood of Wallingford. I think I'm either getting old or just plain tuckered out from all the noise noise noise of the late night, early week-day morning partiers whooping it up, the police, fire engine and ambulance sirens blaring at all hours of the day; and yes, the crack addicts still hanging out on the front steps of the apartment building I live in because it just happens to be a block away from Deano's Pub and Deano's Grocery. It's right behind a well-known crack house. And for some reason, nothing real is being done about any of it. But don't get me wrong. I really like where I live. I like my neighbors, I like the tenants in my apartment building, I even like my landlord. He's even a Republican, one of those nice Republicans who isn't so extreme but still fiscally aware and responsible, which as I get older and more responsible myself, I realize is an important principle to have.
"This is a special time," said Mimi Gates, director of the Seattle Art Museum (SAM). Gates, who's been at the helm of SAM for more than a decade, was speaking at a Friday, Jan. 13, reopening tour of the Seattle Asian Art Museum in Volunteer Park. "In terms of the art museum overall, we're moving full speed ahead."The Seattle Asian Art Museum (SAAM) had been closed for much of 2005 for needed renovations and upgrades, upgrades that included a new roof and new skylights. SAAM opened to the public on Saturday, Jan. 14.With the closing of SAM downtown earlier in the month - SAM will remain closed in order to complete a large expansion project, one that will greatly expand the museum's current floor space - the Seattle Asian Art Museum will serve as the focus of SAM's activities for most of the year.
In 1802 the nation that would become Haiti came into existence. It became the only nation on earth to be formed as a result of a successful slave revolt. Haiti was France's main Port in the Western Hemisphere, and without it France and Napoleon were forced to sell a major asset in the New World to help fund their war with England. The transaction became known as the Louisiana Purchase.In the early 1800s America needed to map out this new territory, and a team lead by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark was assigned the task.Within their Corps of Discovery was a slave named York. Born in the 1770s in Virginia's Caroline County, his parents were called Old York and Rose. Only first names were used because there was no need to keep in depth records on slaves. York grew up as a companion to Clark because Clark's father owned him. When the elder Clark passed away his son inherited York in 1799, the reason why York was part of the Lewis and Clark Expedition from 1803-1806. York became the first African American to traverse the northern part of our nation from coast to coast.