Top Pot Doughnuts: fresh from the fryer

Posted in Adventures, Exploring Seattle, Food by mszerwo

Ta-da! Top Pot co-founder Mark shares his fresh chocolate, creme-filled doughnuts

Brandon and I recently had the pleasure of attending a private tour of one of Seattle’s hottest doughnut-teries (like a bakery, but solely for doughnuts): Top Pot Doughnuts.

Brandon loves, loves, loves doughnuts and we make it a point to visit well-know doughnut shops when we’re out of town, on vacation. Some examples include: VooDoo and Blue Star in Portland, Gourdoughs in Austin, and Doughnut Plant when we were in New York City for our honeymoon. We record food and travel network shows about doughnuts and doughnuts often grace our breakfast table.

I’m less of a doughnut fanatic (rather than a sweet tooth, I have more of a savory tooth) but I can’t say no to a good maple bar or frosted doughnut with sprinkles.

Top Pot Doughnuts opened in Seattle in 2002 and they currently have 16 locations here. (Plus a newly-opened shop in Dallas. If you’re reading from Dallas, you should go check them out!) One of the locations is very close to my day job and I’m lucky enough to have doughnuts grace the office kitchen once every couple of weeks. They have many varieties of doughnuts, with the classics and several seasonal favorites. In fact, I just saw on Facebook that the blueberry cake doughnut made its seasonal debut. I’ll have to pick some of those up soon.

Mark Klebeck and I met through my day job and the more I spoke to him, the more excited I was to share his glowing personality and doughnut knowledge with Brandon. Mark and his brother are true entrepreneurs and I was so excited to hear how they started this and so many other businesses.

Mark met my Dad, Brandon and I at the Top Pot flagship store on 5th Ave in Seattle. (It’s kind-of famous, thanks to a former Seahawk with a sweet tooth.) This location makes 3,000 dozen doughnuts each day to supply doughnuts for the greater Seattle area (that’s 36,000 daily) and runs pretty much around the clock, shutting down for a mere 4 hours each early morning. We stepped behind the counter and into the back to a world of hand-forged doughnut delight.

Mark and his brother, Michael, created a cookbook for their doughnuts and you can find their dough recipes in there.

Yeast doughnut dough at Top Pot

The doughnuts rise 300 percent, so they start off much smaller than you think they’re going to… Like these maple bars being punched out. Doughnut making at Top Pot is an incredibly manual process (truly hand-forged) and the dough above gets rolled flat, perforated and then run through an old-fashioned press that punches out yeast-raised doughnuts like these:

Maple bars: the early stages

Nothing gets wasted in this process. The leftover yeast dough scraps from the bar and circle doughnuts gets combined together to form Top Pot’s famous apple fritters. (One of Brandon’s favorites.)

Leftover dough = apple fritters

Apple fritters before the fryer and glaze

Once the doughnuts are in their shape, they need to rise. Top Pot has a walk-in proof box where the doughnuts go to rest and grow. This process takes less than an hour. Once they’re plumped up, it’s off to the fryer! All of Top Pot’s doughnuts are fried and we were able to watch cake doughnuts, yeast-raised doughnuts and apple fritters get fried all at once, in separate vats.

For the cake doughnuts, this machine plops the ring of dough in the oil. As it cooks, the doughnut rises. Here is a batch that are almost ready for their glaze!

Doughnuts in the fryer

Once they’re all cooked and floating, the metal tray that is hiding at the bottom of the fryer is lifted out and the doughnuts get cooled:

Hot doughnuts, comin’ through

Once cooled, many of the doughnuts (fritters, old-fashioned, etc…) get glazed. The glaze-r is so cool. The doughnuts are placed in a single layer on their wire rack and the whole rack makes its way to the glaze table. Then this trough gets filled with glaze and the doughnut maker covers the whole rack in a swift motion:

Well-glazed glazed doughnuts

Here is Mark walking us through the process. Brandon was really intrigued and was hoping for a sample.

Mark & Brandon: Best buds at Top Pot Seattle

Lucky for him, Mark is generous and Brandon was able to eat his favorite, still warm, doughnut, an apple fritter! He was happier than a kid at a candy shop. Or a kid at a doughnut shop. Same thing, I guess.

Fresh doughnut? Yes, please.

Our tour finished with more sampling and more learning about the doughnut business and coffee bean roasting business, the profitable side of Top Pot Doughnuts that Brandon and I, the only two Seattle-ites who don’t drink coffee, have very little experience with.

My Top Pot favorites: frosted doughnuts! (Not pictured: my other favorites: the maple bar)

And Mark was nice enough to autograph our Top Pot cookbook…

Autographing our Top Pot Doughnuts cookbook

…and pose for a photo with us!

Brandon, Mark, and Megan | Top Pot Doughnuts, Seattle, WA

Top Pot is really invested in their community and they have partnered with Northwest Harvest to sell raffle tickets to the Seahawks/49’ers re-match in San Francisco over Thanksgiving weekend. Buy your tickets at any Top Pot location and know that each ticket purchased provides 45 meals. More info can be found here. The drawing is held on June 6.

Thank you to Mark and Top Pot for a wonderful, fascinating, and tasty tour and we look forward to continuing our adventures and trying every doughnut variety you produce!

Oh, National Doughnut Day is on June 6. I know I’ll be celebrating and I hope you do too… perhaps with a visit to Top Pot? Maybe I’ll see you there!

7May2014

{Wine Wednesday} Vine Trainings

Posted in Adventures, Drinky drinky, Wine Wednesdays by mszerwo

It’s small business week on Megan’s Island Blog. On Sunday I told you about Little Britches Bakery and today I’m here to share Vine Trainings with you.

Our Vine Trainings set up

Me & Zach of Vine Trainings at my sister’s wedding a few years ago

Vine Trainings is run by Zach Geballe, a certified sommelier, columnist for Seattle Weekly, and long-time friend of mine. I do have an especially embarrassing photo of him as a baby that I won’t share here… at least not yet.

Last summer Brandon and I had the pleasure of hosting several of our friends and Zach, for a Vine Trainings class.

Hosting was easy: Zach brought the wine, glassware and educational materials and we supplied the location, some snacks (palette cleansers, if you will), the atmosphere, and the audience.

The class includes a minimum of seven wines (we had Zach pick them out) and we walked through each of the bottles, as a blind taste test type of situation. The training lasted several hours, with Zach guiding and educating us through each sip with hands-on instruction and a whole lot of fun.

Zach of Vine Trainings in action

Interested in having Zach give your group a vine training?

Prices start at $35 per person, and the specific wines are customizable and negotiable. Zach also offers wines at a discounted price if you like what you taste.

As the Vine Trainings website says, it truly is “perfect for birthdays, anniversaries, bachelor or bachelorette parties, or any time you want to gather your friends together for an unforgettable evening!”

Check out Vine Trainings online, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

Cheers!

Vine Trainings set up

23Apr2014

Kelsey Creek Farm

Posted in Adventures, Exploring Seattle by mszerwo

Did you know that there is a farm in Bellevue, WA, just minutes from Megan’s Island?! I didn’t. But now, I do. And you do too.

A few weeks ago some girlfriends and I were looking for a scenic walking location somewhat near Bellevue. I did some quick Google-ing and discovered Kelsey Creek Farm. This place looked pretty online, so I was excited to check it out in person.

Side note: I have a thing for barns and farms. I have a goal in life of owning a nearby barn/farm and renting it out for weddings. I think I’d make a killing and have a lot of fun. That’s on the bucket list. More details at some point, although it’s many years away. In the meantime, I pin ideas to my “Dream Barn” board on Pinterest. I love Pinterest.

I digress. Back to the Kelsey Creek Farm. The Farm is run by the City of Bellevue and is open everyday from 9:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. We stopped in on a Sunday mid-morning and were the only people there. It’s free to walk through (donations are gladly accepted) and you can “meet” lots of fun farm animals: sheep, goats, chickens, bunnies, horses, pigs, and a cow.

Here are some of our new friends:

Sheep at Kelsey Creek Farm

Cow at Kelsey Creek Farm

Bunny at Kelsey Creek Farm

Goat at Kelsey Creek Farm

Fluffy chicken at Kelsey Creek Farm

Kelsey Creek Farm offers group farm tours, farm classes (for kids 2-6 years old) and day camps (for kids 4-7 years old). It also can be rented out for birthday parties. Occasionally, it holds special events that adults might enjoy too. In fact, one of them is coming up this next Saturday (4/26/14, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.). What is it? Sheep shearing! Here is the description from the web site:

Watch the sheep being shorn of their winter coats. Enjoy spinning demonstrations, children’s crafts, tractor/wagon rides, pony rides, food, animal viewing areas and more. No pets allowed in the barnyard areas. Free shuttle service available from Wilburton Park and Ride, 720 114 Ave SE and Bannerwood Sports Park, 1630 132nd Ave SE. No entrance fees. Costs vary for food and activities. No ATM on site and we cannot accept charge cards. Go here for more info.

Kelsey Creek Farm: Such beautiful terrain

We had a great time exploring on our walk and I wanted to share some of the opportunities at Kelsey Creek Farm beyond walking and making new critter friends.

They offer “adoption” of critters on the farm, which is a fun idea. I have a friend — and a husband — that I think need to “adopt” an animal or two. More information about critter adoption here. They also offer a picnic shelter event space for up to 50 people, for a mere $30 per day — actually,I’m not sure about that exactly. The three difference websites about the Kelsey Creek Farm aren’t clear on what you actually get for $30. I guess you have to email someone for more information. (Update: I found actual fees, after clicking through about 15 different pages. It’s much more than $30. More here.)

That leads me to my next point: Kelsey Creek Farm needs to streamline their websites! There are too many sites with too much out of date and/or confusing information. For example:

You can start in several places. I started with Google. There, I found http://www.farmerjayne.com/which directs to http://bellevue.com/happening.php?id=1036 (which appears to be a for-profit website highlighting events in Bellevue. Why would a city venue direct away from a city site? Seems counter-intuitive to me). I initially stumbled across the Kelsey Creek Farm through the “walk on in Bellevue” website. (Nice SEO!)

Thinking that there had to me more information somewhere, I Googled City of Bellevue and searched for “Kelsey Creek.” Only 2,600 page options came up. I started at the top and found this page with relatively no information and really mediocre photos http://www.bellevuewa.gov/kelsey_creek_park.htm. I eventually found this page which seems to have the most information: http://parkstrails.myparksandrecreation.com/Details.aspx?pid=23.

Normally I don’t have the patience to go on a wild goose chase like this for something fun to do. The Kelsey Creek Farm website (I can’t remember which one; there are too many) states that they have more than 250,000 visitors each year.

Anyway, there are some great links here about a great event this weekend at Kelsey Creek Farm. Grab your rain gear and head out to the Kelsey Creek Farm this Saturday. Maybe I’ll see you there?

31Mar2014

Week 9: Potatoes

Posted in 2014 Themed eating, Adventures, Food by mszerwo

With a quick trip to Idaho planned for the end of the week — including a really delicious meal at Snyder’s Winery — we knew that this week had to be potato as our theme of the week. Let me tell you… we didn’t slack off with this week’s special ingredient. We enjoyed potatoes at least once every day that week.

First, we started with sweet potatoes. We used our mandolin to cut some salt and pepper crinkle chips, cooking them per my friend Krissie’s recipe. They turned out pretty well. There were some mushy ones but then there were also some delicious crispy ones. And those delicious crispy chips? We paired them with homemade turkey burgers and my favorite kale salad. Man, were they good!

Sweet potato chips

Turkey burgers, sweet potato chips and kale salad. YUM

Next, we sauteed some red potato slices with rosemary, salt and pepper that we had with grilled salmon and asparagus. We were going to make the Pioneer Woman’s ‘crash hot potatoes,’ but were too hungry to wait that long to make them. We’ll make those some other time.

Salmon, red potatoes and asparagus

Did you know that gnocchi is often made out of potatoes? We did! And we made our gnocchi, turkey sausage, kale, and butternut squash dish. Delicious.

The best way to enjoy potato gnocchi

And then? We went to Idaho, land of potatoes…and we went potato crazy! We had hash browns at the hotel, a pizza with shredded potatoes (it was called “Idaho Ranch”) and this monster baked potato at Snyder’s Winery. This was the second time we’ve had this potato and steak feast, so we knew what we were up for. Not pictured: the coconut shrimp appetizer and house salad. Oy. So much food!

Snyder’s Winery’s baked potato and steak (And I don’t have small hands)

Next up? Asparagus week. (Yes, I’m as far behind as ever on posting these, but I’ll get there!)

25Mar2014

What a weekend!

Posted in Adventures, Exploring Seattle, Food by mszerwo

Did you enjoy this past weekend as much as we did?! Brandon finished finals, which meant the end to a long, long quarter. So what’d we do? Celebrate!

We checked out Crumble & Flake, a new-to-us bakery in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle.

Crumble & Flake has received rave reviews, so we thought we’d check it out. I got the cheddar cheese and smoked paprika croissant and Brandon got the pistachio twice baked. My croissant was delicious and very interesting. In addition to being spread inside like a filling, the batter/dough was orange, as though the cheese and paprika were infused in it. There isn’t any seating at the bakery so we took our croissants to the University of Washington to eat them among the cherry blossoms.

Since we were so close, we opted for lunch in the University Village at Din Tai Fung. It’s a favorite of ours and we enjoyed our usuals: pork soup dumplings, garlic green beans and shrimp fried rice, along with something new: pork and vegetable steamed buns. Not unexpectedly, we loved them.

So full and ready for naps, we headed back to Megan’s Island where we powered through the sleepiness and got to work on spring cleaning the yard. We spent several hours pulling ivy, sweeping, leaf blowing, raking and packing many yard waste bags. Let me tell you… it looks good here. We’re absolutely ready for spring and for more sunshine.

I’ve got some great plans for both the yard and parties with the spring and summer. So looking forward to the longer days and warmer weather!

Now… onto this week. It’s going to be a doozy.

Me & B enjoying another year of cherry blossoms at UW

17Feb2014

Beignet mix giveaway!

Posted in Adventures, Food, Giveaway by mszerwo

I brought a bit of NOLA back with me and want to thank you, my readers, by rewarding you!

Enter to win this box of Beignet Mix from Cafe Du Monde

Enter my Rafflecopter giveaway to have a bit of NOLA sent your way,with this box of Beignet (French doughnut) Mix, straight from New Orleans. Enter as many times as you’d like! The contest ends at midnight on Monday, February 24, 2014 and the winner will be contacted via email.

Enter the Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck and enjoy those beignets!

Mix + powdered sugar = Delicious! Enter to win your mix now

16Feb2014

My long weekend in NOLA

Posted in Adventures, Food by mszerwo

I can’t believe its been almost a month since my long weekend in New Orleans, celebrating my friends Jenny and Nick’s wedding. Things have been so busy that I’m finally getting around to writing about it. You can thank this nasty cold I’ve got for giving me daylight hours to do some blog writing. I love being at home, but I hate being sick. Hopefully it goes away soon. Besides, I’ve cleaned out the DVR.

Back to NOLA. More than 250 people flew down to New Orleans for this destination wedding and it turned into a really fun reunion of sorts. It was great because the whole group of friends was in a single location, living it up. We walked Bourbon Street (in both the daylight and the wee hours of the morning), we strolled the waterfront, we explored cemeteries and we ate and drank and then ate some more. The best part about New Orleans, besides celebrating the bride and groom? Walking and drinking. It was so great to grab a drink “to go” as we headed to your next location or explored pop up markets as we waited for our table for dinner.

Enough words. It’s photo time!

The sights!

Jackson Square, New Orleans

New Orleans selfie!

A pretty courtyard in New Orleans

Getting ready for Mardi Gras!

Loving the New Orleans architecture

The scenic view of the river

Cafe Amelie in New Orleans. Best meal I had in NOLA!

And the food!

My favorite meal of the trip: Shrimp and grits with corn and andouille maque choux

Pulled pork sandwich from Cochon Butcher. Delicious. I also had a side of Brussels sprouts and mac ‘n cheese.

Check back tomorrow for a special giveaway in honor of my most recent trip! Have a great week!

13Feb2014

Adventures in barre

Posted in Adventures, Workouts by mszerwo

The Dailey Method Barre Studio

The other night I was driving home from the park and ride and I spotted a new business on Megan’s Island: the Dailey Method barre studio. I did some research when I got home and discovered they have been open a few short weeks and were offering a tremendously amazing grand opening special. (The special runs through Feb. 15. Get your deal and join me!)

I have so many friends who love barre method and swear by it. I’ve been interested to try it, but the cost (typically $20 per class) and locations (not Mercer Island or close to my work) have deterred me… until now! The grand opening special was six weeks of unlimited classes for $100.

I went to my first class on Saturday and I had a pretty good run before coming down with the plague. I was terribly sore, but I kept going back, so that’s good, right? On the plus side, I’ve found muscles that I didn’t know existed and everything seems to be firming up. (I’m sure a lot of it is the work out itself, but I also give credit to actually working out so frequently.)

I’m planning on doing “bar-ray” (as Brandon calls it) very regularly for the next six weeks (minus the past 3 days when I’ve barely left my couch infirmary). Depending on the results, I may continue the bar-ray. If not, this will be a nice little jump start to my at-home workouts. I’ve taken “before” photos and plan on showing them off, once there is something to show off. Until then, I’ll keep you updated on the fun things I’m learning throughout this six week process. This is what I’ve got so far:

They weren’t joking about those see-through Lululemon workout pants. Wowza.
Turns out not everyone got the memo about their sheer qualities. (I’m looking at you, Ms. Downward Dog in front of me…)
There are about 1 million uses for those karate belt/strap things.
Saving your neck from strain is one of them. I’ll be using the strap a bit more today.
It takes a completely frozen water bottle one hour in a warm room to start to thaw. (Not to self: remember thawed water bottle next time)
Being sore is a state of being.

I’m really looking forward to getting well and jumping back on the bar-ray bandwagon.

29Jan2014

{Wine Wednesday} NOLA cocktails

Posted in Adventures, Uncategorized, Wine Wednesdays by mszerwo

It’s Wine Wednesday again and things have slowed down enough that I’ve had time to write about it! (FINALLY.) I’m still working on my post about my recent excursion to New Orleans and as I work on it, I thought I’d share some of my favorite NOLA cocktails with you…along with some recipes!

Pimm’s Cup. Delicious.

Pimm’s Cup

I had quite a few of these on my long weekend (including my first and last drinks of the weekend) and each one was just different enough and all were refreshingly delicious. Here are the ingredients: Pimm’s liqueur, fresh lime juice, and ginger beer, with a cucumber. There are a ton of recipes out there, and I’d recommend getting those ingredients and getting to work. You really can’t go wrong. If you’re visiting New Orleans, definitely stop by the St. Lawrence bar for a Pimm’s daiquiri. It’s SO GOOD. It’s like a Slurpee but with booze. And if you’re in New Orleans and looking for ginger beer, visit the 12 Mile Limit and enjoy my friend Sam’s homemade ginger beer. I haven’t had the pleasure, but he speaks very highly of it and he’s pretty modest.

Here are some links to what I expect are fabulous Pimm’s Cup recipes. When in doubt, or if you’re being lazy, mix or pick up some lemonade and add some Pimm’s and ice. It’s easy and delicious and how I drank Pimm’s before I visited NOLA.

The Sazerac. Yes, please.

Sazerac

I used to think that Sazerac was a bar in Seattle with a really good happy hour. Turns out its an absinthe drink that originated in New Orleans and according to Wikipedia is “sometimes referred to as the oldest known American cocktail, with origins in pre-Civil War New Orleans.”

The Sazerac is a combination of cognac or rye whiskey, absinthe, and bitters; it is “distinguished by its preparation method.” (Wikipedia)

Thank you to my friend Brian for introducing me to the Sazerac’s history and enjoying several with me over the weekend!

When I wasn’t drinking Pimm’s Cups or Sazeracs, I was busy imbibing in Hurricane’s, Fireball and red wine (my favorite!). What a weekend!

Hurricanes at Pat O’Brien’s with my cousins

Fireball time with Jessi and Brian

Here are most of my ladies at the wedding. Such a fun weekend!!

15Jan2014

{Wine Wednesday} A wine bachelorette

Posted in Adventures, Exploring Seattle, Wine Wednesdays by mszerwo

I recently threw a really fun bachelorette party for one of my close friends, Jenny, who’s wedding I’ll be celebrating this weekend. We spent the whole weekend celebrating: watching the Huskies win on Saturday and then we were up bright and early for brunch and an afternoon of wine tasting on Sunday. I had some pretty great ideas that I wanted to share with you, the internet and my readers, in case you’d like to use any of them for a wine tasting party of your own!

First, the decorations.

I had a few bottles of wine on hand (thank you, Wine Wednesdays) that I soaked in big bucket of agitated warm water and OxiClean for several hours. If you’re lucky, the labels will float right off (House Wine) and if you’re not, you’ll have to peel the label and adhesive off of the bottle. Beyond the soaking time, I wasted an old sponge and about an hour making sure the bottles were clean. I thought about spraying them with chalkboard paint and using chalk to write a special message. Instead, I saved a step and used a gold paint pen to write “Soon-to-be Mrs. Fazioli” on the bottles. It didn’t look like much during brunch, but once the sun went down, the bottles looked so great!

I also have these great candle holders from Crate and Barrel (I would like to share them, but they are apparently discontinued. Bummer.). The great thing about these candle holders is that they are totally customize-able, but they’re also really pretty plain. For this party, I took some of my leftover corks (thank you, Wine Wednesday), cut them into thirds with a serrated knife and voila! instant wine decor for FREE. I also kept some corks full and displayed them in an oversize wine glass. It helped add some height to the table.

Side note: I like to spend a few bucks every season to add some flair to the house by decorating these candle holders: sweethearts around Valentine’s Day, candy corn around Halloween, and cranberries and fake snow for the holidays.

Next, the treats!

When I asked the bride what she wanted for snacks that afternoon, she replied “cheese.” So, I had some flexibility. I put together these adorable gift boxes for the guests, complete with gummy bears, Ghirardelli chocolates, Hi-chews, anti-spill wine pourers and customized mini-bottles of wine.

For the mini bottles of wine, I used these wine stain images and Avery’s 5164 labels. I set up my design in InDesign, printed them and slapped them on the bottles. I used the wine stain images again and created the name tags for boxes, printed them on cardstock and cut them out with a punch. I attached them to the takeout boxes with some leftover silver elastic ribbon. Finally, I Googled “red wine glass” and found this image. I printed out a page of those on Avery’s 5293 labels. It was pretty easy to come up with some really nice customization for Jenny’s big day before the big day.

I also packed many cheese dishes for the bride: caprese skewers (tomato, fresh mozzerella and basil with balsamic vinegar on a toothpick), brie slices, Beecher’s Marco Polo cheese (a favorite of mine!) and a tray of cured meats. We busted them out at the second winery and they were all a huge hit! I also packed some pirates booty and additional wines for the bus. Delicious success.

Day of… We had quite the spread:

Hashbrown and egg casserole from Allrecipes.com (a favorite of our group of friends)
Tropical fruit salad with mangoes, pineapple and strawberries
Kiwis
Bagels and cream cheese
And…Mimosas! We enjoyed Cook’s champagne and tropical frozen juices

Next, we hopped on the party bus and headed to Woodinville. We tasted at Efeste (who was having a pizza release party!), Davenport Cellars, Robert Ramsay Cellars, Covington Cellars and Matthews Cellars. Phew. It was quite the day and we really enjoyed the wines!

Look at all those smiling faces!

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