The leading independent book publisher in the Pacific Northwest

Love your local taco truck? Have a camera? Then you are all set to enter in to the taco truck photography contest. Cyrus Farivar, freelance journalist and editor of CaliforniaTacoTrucks.com has called on taco truck photographers to enter their taco truck photos in a contest that ends on Nov 4th. The top prize is a signed copy of Tacos: Authentic, Festive & Flavorful by Sasquatch author Scott Wilson. Any photo at all that captures the taco truck experience, and is from California, is welcome to enter.

We caught up with Scott at his mountain redoubt in Oregon to see what he has to say:

“I’m super psyched to have the book Tacos associated with such a wieldy team as CaliforniaTacoTrucks.com. My adult taco life began at the trucks in Redwood City so it’s cool to see this contest form within the taco truck rubric of the entire Bear Flag Republic.”

For more information, see www.CaliforniaTacoTrucks.com. For more taco philosohy, see www.TacoMatrix.com.

The weekend I started reading The Collector: David Douglas and the Natural History of the Northwest, Jack Nisbet’s excellent new biography on the nineteenth century Scottish naturalist and explorer David Douglas, my wife and I were on a trip to Kalaloch Lodge on the Olympic Peninsula, getting back to nature and “disconnecting” from modern life for a couple of days.

As I was reading the book, overlooking the ocean while sitting in front of our television-, Internet-, and cell phone signal–free cabin, it dawned on me just how different my definition of “roughing it” is to Douglas’s. Witness:

(1) For the two-night stay in our “primitive” cabin—which of course had electricity, not to mention a small kitchen with refrigerator—we packed one small suitcase, one overnight bag, one large ice chest, and three large grocery bags of provisions. (And, to be honest, a GPS tracker, two iPods, a digital camera, three books, five magazines, etc. . . .)

In contrast, for his 1826 exploration from Fort Vancouver to the inland Pacific Northwest that lasted several months, besides the clothes on his back, David Douglas packed only “one extra shirt, two handkerchiefs, a blanket, a single cloak, and no stockings at all.” His one indulgence for the journey: 100 pounds of collecting paper to preserve his samples and specimens.

(2) We spent hours preparing for our “spontaneous” campfire on the beach. This included buying a package of bratwurst, buns, corn on the cob, bottles of squeezable ketchup and mustard, paper plates and plastic cutlery, aluminum foil, skewers with extendable handles, a box of kitchen matches, a stack of newspapers as starter, and two pre-cut bundles of firewood from the general store. Despite all this, it still took me an hour to get a decent campfire going, and even with our fancy skewers, we managed to simultaneously singe and undercook our brats, not to mention both dropping our corncobs in the sand while roasting them over the fire.

By comparison, after grueling 12- or 15-hour days of crossing hard terrain, Douglas and his party were often lucky to locate a dry place to camp, and even if they didn’t, they had no choice but to find a way to start and maintain a fire if they wanted to survive the night. On a good day, they would be able to hunt game for a nourishing dinner so Douglas and crew wouldn’t have to resort to eating plant roots (not necessarily predetermined as edible) or one of his collected avian or mammalian specimens for supper. During really bad stretches in hostile terrain, the party might be forced to eat one of their horses. Corn on the cob rarely accompanied their campfires.

(3) We found a few jellyfish washed up on the beach and saw a lot of birds, trees, and a few squirrels.

Douglas identified more than 80 species of flora and fauna that now have his name (douglasii) attached to their scientific monikers, and is credited with introducing hundreds of other species to the world outside of North America.
Author Jack Nisbet
Photo by Dean Davis Photography

Obviously, these are extreme contrasts. But even the most hardcore hiker or camper will never have the opportunity to explore and experience the vast and staggering wilderness of the Pacific Northwest in the way David Douglas (and others like him) did. Jack Nisbet’s amazingly detailed and documented narrative of Douglas’s life and travels gives us an idea of exactly what it was like to see through the explorer’s eyes. We are fortunate that despite the encroachment of civilization, so much of the wilderness and natural beauty of Washington, Oregon, and British Columbia remains for us to appreciate.

But I can’t help wondering: Would David Douglas think so?

Events for Jack Nisbet, author of THE COLLECTOR

Wednesday, October 7, 7:00pm
Auntie’s Bookstore
Spokane, WA

Friday, October 23
Montana Festival of the Book

Thursday, October 29, 7:30pm
Powell’s Books (on Hawthorne Blvd)
Portland, OR

Saturday, November 7th, 1:00pm
Spokane Costco (store #66)

Sunday, November 8, 2:00pm
The Seattle Room at The Seattle Public Library (book sales by Elliott Bay)
Seattle, WA

Monday, November 9, 7:00pm
Third Place Books (Lake Forest)
Seattle, WA

Tuesday, November 10, 7:00pm
Village Books
Bellingham, WA

When I started at Sasquatch last month, I quickly began to scheme. The wildly unorthodox plan I’ve been hatching involves completing my holiday shopping early. Really early. That way, come December, I’ll retain my sanity and actually enjoy the holidays instead of frantically careening from overcrowded store to understaffed post office and back again. I know, I know, it’s only October, but this little experiment in off-peak living has the potential to be a real stress reliever. So far, my proximity to Sasquatch and its delightful catalog of children’s books has been a big help.

I’m currently oohing and aahing over the Alphabet Bird Collection, and I want to personally thank Shelli Ogilvy for checking one more name off my gift list. When I first saw the stunning art for the Alphabet Bird Collection, I had that elusive reaction every diligent gift hound constantly seeks: that moment when you come across something that immediately makes you think of the person you’re trying to buy for. It’s perfect!

From Avocet to Zone-tailed Hawk, Ogilvy introduces readers to each bird with a gorgeous, rich-hued painting, playful rhymes, interesting facts, and each bird’s song phonetically mapped on a musical scale. It’s a great combination of visual and auditory stimulus that will likely have the budding ornithologist on your list drooling…or at least “sweee-sweewee-sweee”-ing along with the Junco or “kyow-kyow-kyow”-ing with the Quetzal.

Here’s a sneak peek of my favorite bird:

Diving from the air in quick pursuit,
The Kingfisher hunts for fish or maybe a newt.

Sing along to the Kingfisher’s song:
“tshrrrR tshrre tshrrR”

Now all I have to do is ensure my three-year-old nephew doesn’t check this blog post!

P.S. If you’re like me and every gift giving opportunity induces both thoughtful reflection and anxiousness, you’ll also want to check out this gem; Shanon Lyon’s insightful Gifts with Meaning: How to Choose Unique and Thoughtful Presents for Any Occasion just might be your lifesaver and mine.

This is Larry.

        He gets lost.  

                           A lot.

This past weekend, Larry, our lovable (if easily distracted) pup got lost in Seattle AGAIN! In an effort to find his owner, Pete, he wanted to get his picture taken.  Fortunately, he found someone with a Blackberry… 

Do you know where he is?  Email your guess to custserv@sasquatchbooks.com.  If you guess correctly, you will be put in a drawing for a special prize!  Please include:

Your name

Company (if applicable)

Shipping address

Email

The drawing will take place on Monday October 12th.

Need another hint?  

Email your guess to custserv@sasquatchbooks.com by Thursday October 8th.

Growing up on a small Vermont homestead, I was often put to work harvesting and preserving the seasonal bounty. We had a two-acre garden and miles of wild fruits and berries to sustain our family of six. I helped fill five-gallon buckets with blueberries and wheelbarrows with cucumbers, and took hikes through the woods with my dad to find hidden apple trees. After the harvest, I would help my mom fill row after row of mason jar with tomatoes, dilly beans, raspberry jam, apple butter, and cucumbers, just to name a few. Months later, with our home covered in snow, we’d fill our bellies with the fruits of our labor.

Though I no longer live in the country, I’m often reminded of that life when the plum trees of Seattle are overflowing with fruit. A few weeks ago, a friend and I biked to the house of a neighbor, who had more plums then he knew what to do with, and picked about twelve pounds worth. We then sat around chatting while we pitted the plums, cooked, and filled jars with sweet, velvety plum jam.

If you know where to look and what to pick, a country life can be found, even in a bustling metropolis.

Here’s a recipe for plum jelly from Canning & Preserving Your Own Harvest, a handy offshoot of The Encyclopedia of Country Living.

Plum Jelly

Most old neighborhoods seem to have at least one ancient plum tree, buzzing with yellow jackets and laden with fruit that goes unpicked. Don a protective long-sleeved shirt and brave the wasps for the makings of this beautiful jewel-toned jelly. Different varieties of plums will yield slightly different results as their natural pectin levels vary. Damson plums are very tart with acidic skins and are much higher in pectin than other plums, for example.

Season: Mid- to late summer
Yield: 6 cups
Store: Cool, dark pantry

4 pounds Italian prune plums, halved and pitted (at least
1/4 of which should be barely ripe)
2 cups water
3 to 4 cups sugar
3 to 5 tablespoons lemon juice
Place the plums and water in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Simmer until the fruit is very soft, 15 to 20 minutes.

Transfer the fruit to a dampened jelly bag or cheesecloth-lined colander suspended over a bowl. Drain for several hours to fully extract the juices. The yield will be about 4 cups. Do not press on the fruit, squeeze the bag, or try to hurry the process in any way—if you do, you will cloud what should be a rosy-golden, crystal-clear juice.

Measure the strained juice into a preserving pan and add 1 cup of sugar for every cup of plum juice; taste, adding lemon juice to make the fruit pleasantly tart.

Heat the mixture over medium-high heat to bring it rapidly to a boil, stirring constantly until the sugar dissolves. Cook the jam until it reaches 220°F on a kitchen thermometer. Remove from heat.

Carefully ladle the hot jelly into hot, sterilized half-pint jars, allowing 1/4 inch headspace. Use a water-bath canning technique and process for 10 minutes.

I have been resistant to football my entire life. My father–who played college ball–had to endure the nonchalant expressions of two daughters before he finally got the son that understood the joy of touchdowns, interceptions, and tailgating.

To his credit, my father still took me to Husky games. He was convinced that his “concern rays”—those rays that all sports fans exude that have been known to influence a game’s outcome—would infect me too. I had never seen him like this; early September transformed him in to a raging lunatic, gesticulating at the TV and ranting about the #*$(&*(@ Oregon Ducks. Not only was I impervious to his “concern rays, ” but I blamed football for stealing my dad away from me. (I finally got him back in January after the football mania subsided and he regained sanity.)

In high school and college, I had male friends and boyfriends patiently explain the game to me and quiz me: “What is a first down?” and “How many yards is a football field?” They groaned when I inevitably answered with “a tackle?” and “how long is a yard again?”

Imagine the irony when I discovered we had acquired a football book, entitled Notes from a 12 Man: A Truly Biased History of the Seattle Seahawks. As the publicist at Sasquatch, I am to be the champion of the book and the author, largely responsible for its commercial success. No pressure. Upon my introduction to the author, Mark Tye Turner, I felt that I should apologize for my lack of football knowledge and general ignorance. But as I read through the book, I found myself INTERESTED in what he had to say. He made football funny, informative, and approachable—something that I could get behind and something that I could become INVESTED in. As the book hits stores this week and football season begins anew, I’ve found myself embracing it, anticipating it, and realizing that maybe…I’m my father’s daughter after all.

Meet Mark:

SoDo Sports
September 8, 6pm

Elliott Bay Books
September 11, 7:30pm

Hawk’s Nest Bar and Grill
September 11, 9pm

Seattle SoDo Costco
September 12, 1pm

Tune In:

KZOK-FM Radio, The Bob Rivers Show
September 8

KING-TV
September 9

KISW-FM Radio, BJ Shea Morning Experience
September 10

KCPQ-TV, Q It Up Sports
September 10

710 ESPN Radio, The John Clayton Show
September 12

Mark Turner online:

http://marktyeturner.com

As a resident member of the Sasquatch book club, Get Lit, I seek books that stimulate conversation, engage the ethos, and broaden my perceptions. With that criteria in mind, I wholeheartedly recommend taking a look at The House of Hope and Fear: Life in a Big City Hospital by Audrey Young, M.D., when thinking about your next book club pick.

Whether you are on the treadmill at the gym or commuting on public transportation, universal health care is the current topic of controversy. Everyone has a strong opinion, but no one has the answer. Is this issue doomed to be unresolved like so many others facing our lawmakers? How will indecision directly affect our lives? No one can argue that health care is a personal issue. There is nothing more sacred than the trust people place in their doctors. Enter Audrey Young, an M.D. from the University of Washington, who started her medical career at Seattle’s Harborview Medical Center, a big city hospital with a mission to treat anyone who needs medical care–without exception.

Author Audrey Young, photographed Tuesday, Oct. 5, 2004 at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. (Photo Copyright 2004 Ted S. Warren)

From patients without physical addresses to those who spare no expense, the people Dr. Young writes about become as real as the topic tormenting our government. Young is a doctor who has lived and breathed the public health care system, and she knows its flaws and strengths. She sees the need for a health care system that benefits rich and poor, old and young, insured and uninsured alike. The House of Hope and Fear is a realistic personal account of what it takes to balance the pressures of an inner city public hospital, and how to cope with the consequences of every decision. Audrey Young, who has been called a “fine storyteller” by People magazine, manages to bring humanity, poignancy, and intellect to a story that is, unfortunately, not uncommon in our country.

Welcome to week two on the Sasquatch Books blog. We had a few technical difficulties with the Comments function, but it’s up and running now, so please join the conversation. We look forward to hearing from you!

I wanted to write today about Julie & Julia. OK, not really about the movie nor about the book, but about the discoveries that can be made within a wave of interest like the one that’s lifted Julie & Julia and the related books to the bestseller lists.

How cool is it to see Julia Child and her accomplishments so celebrated that Meryl Streep plays her in a top-flight Hollywood movie and people are racing to bookstores to pick up her classic tome Mastering the Art of French Cooking? (Also, don’t miss Julia’s fabulous memoir, My Life in France, on which much of the movie is based. Both of these books I devoured over the course of a great vacation some years ago.)

Here at Sasquatch we have just one or two degrees of separation from the amazing Miss Julia via a terrific cookbook we published last fall, Cooking with Les Dames d’Escoffier: At Home with the Women Who Shape the Way We Eat and Drink edited by Marcella Rosene with Pat Mozersky. Featuring an unpublished recipe from Julia Child, Cooking with Les Dames d’Escoffier is a treasure trove of 125 recipes, kitchen wisdom, and culinary talent from the many talented women inspired by Julia Child to make cooking their life’s work.

In the early ’70s, the irrepressible Carol Brock, then Sunday food editor at The New York Daily News spearheaded the formation of Les Dames d’Escoffier, the feminine counterpart to Les Amis d’Escoffier, an all-male organization of eminent chefs. Today Les Dames d’Escoffier boasts 26 chapters across the U.S. and Canada, and includes such legendary names like Alice Waters, Dorie Greenspan, Marcella Hazan, Lidia Bastianich, and many of today’s newest culinary stars.

This is one of my favorite cookbooks because reading it really is like having your kitchen full of these legendary cooks, sipping a little wine with you as you prepare another beautiful home-cooked meal. I imagine inviting Julia herself along with M. F. K. Fisher, Joyce Goldstein, Anne Willan, and many others into my kitchen as I make dinner.

And you can too! Why not let Alice Waters share with you how to make her divine Mushroom Ragù for Noodles (a personal favorite of mine). Like the best of recipes, it is simple, precise, and the resulting dish will melt in your mouth.

Mushroom Ragù for Noodles

This is not your typical pasta dish. Rather, it is an aromatic combination of minced vegetables and mushrooms simmered in just a bit of olive oil and cream, then spooned over buttered noodles. Simple to prepare yet highly flavorful, the dish is typical of those that have made its author, Alice Waters, a culinary icon of our times.

Prepare Ahead: The ragù can be made 1 or 2 days ahead, then briefly reheated to top the freshly cooked noodles.

1 tablespoon olive oil plus additional for sautéing
1/2 large onion, peeled and finely diced (about 1 cup)
1 carrot, peeled and finely diced (about 1/2 cup)
1 stalk celery, finely diced (about 2/3 cup)
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 sprigs thyme, leaves picked from stems
3 sprigs parsley, leaves only, chopped
1 small bay leaf
1/4 cup fresh tomato, finely diced
1 pound fresh mushrooms (choose a mixture of two or three types: chanterelles, black trumpets, hedgehogs, cultivated brown or white)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus additional for sautéing
1/4 cup heavy cream or crème fraîche
1/2 cup water or chicken broth (if not vegetarian)
8 ounces wide egg noodles (first choice is homemade fresh pappardelle, the classic accompaniment to such a ragù)
1/4 to 1/3 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
Freshly chopped parsley

Heat the oil in a large, heavy skillet over medium heat. Add the onion, carrot, celery, and salt. Cook until very tender, but regulate heat to allow little or no browning. Add the thyme, parsley, and bay leaf. Cook for 1 minute and add tomatoes. Cook for another 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and reserve.

Carefully clean and slice the mushrooms, keeping each type separate. If they are very dirty, it will be necessary to wash them (crunching down on dirt and sand is very unpleasant). The mushrooms may take on some water, but it will be thrown off shortly after they hit the hot pan. Heat enough olive oil and butter to lightly coat a small skillet large enough to hold each batch of mushrooms. Sauté each type of mushroom separately. As they cook, the mushrooms will give off liquid; let the juices boil away or tip off the juices and set them aside (the reserved juices can be added back to the sauce later in place of some of the water or broth). Continue cooking the mushrooms until tender and lightly browned (you may need to add a little more oil or butter). Turn each batch of cooked mushrooms onto a cutting board, chop to the size of the cooked vegetables, and combine with the reserved vegetables and herbs in the larger skillet. Repeat this process for all the mushrooms. Then add the cream and water (here you can substitute reserved mushroom juices for any part of the liquid). Bring to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes. Taste for salt and add as needed. Moisten with more liquid if desired, though the ragù is not intended to be soupy. Remove from the heat and reserve.

When ready to serve, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the noodles and cook until barely tender. While the noodles cook, gently reheat the ragù. When the noodles are done cooking, drain, reserving about 1 cup of the cooking water. Return the noodles to the pot and toss with the butter and cheese and enough of the cooking water to keep the noodles separate and well-coated. Spoon the noodles onto a warm serving platter or 4 individual plates. Top generously with the ragù and a sprinkle of parsley. Serve immediately.

Makes 4 servings

Suggested Beverage: A California Pinot Noir from the Carneros district.

Set yourself free! This is the first post on the Sasquatch Books blog. We are a small press in Seattle with some cool authors writing about living large in the garden, getting the best room when you travel, and expressing your inner gourmet in the kitchen. Sasquatch has regional roots in the Pacific Northwest, and most of our authors come from the western states. Our authors have lots of different things to say, and we will be bringing those ideas to the fore in this blog.

So this is Gary; I’m the publisher here at Sasquatch. And I’m thinking about scallions, aka green onions. Simple, basic, easy to ignore. I have tended to think of them as parsley with a bit more flavor, sprinkled on top of some dishes. But in Georgeanne Brennan’s new cookbook, Gather, there’s a wonderful recipe for Creamy Polenta with White Cheddar and Green Onions.

Once you get over the fact that you have to stand at the stove and stir the polenta or it turns into something geologic, it’s easy. Georgeanne recommends bringing some reading material to the stove. I’ve been making this for breakfast, so I bring the newspaper (yes, that atavistic thing printed on big sheets of paper). Wow, maybe it’s the combo of sharp cheese and green onions or the fact that the onions are sautéed, but they become delicious green flavor buds in this comforting dish. Here’s the recipe:

Creamy Polenta with White Cheddar and Green Onions

1 bunch green onions
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, divided
6 to 7 cups water
1-1/2 cups polenta
1 teaspoon coarse sea salt or kosher salt
1/3 cup shredded white cheddar cheese or soft, fresh goat cheese
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground white pepper

Finely chop the green onions, using all but the upper third of the green stalk. Melt 1 tablespoon of the butter in a frying pan over medium heat. Add the green onions and let them “sweat,” cooking them through but not letting them brown, about 5 minutes. Remove them from the heat and set aside.

In a large saucepan over medium-high heat, bring 4 cups of the water to a boil. Add the polenta in a steady stream, whisking as you pour it into the pot. Whisk in the salt.

Reduce the heat to low and continue whisking until there are no lumps, about 5 minutes. Continue to cook until the polenta is soft, has thickened, and begins to pull away from the sides of the pan, about 20 minutes. (Add more water if the polenta gets thick before it is soft enough.) Stir in the remaining butter, the cheese, pepper, and green onions. Serve immediately.

Makes 8 servings