One of the easiest things to make from scratch is cranberry sauce, and it can be made days (as in, you can make it this weekend!) in advance. Use the recipe on the back of the bag, which usually involves sugar and orange juice and possibly orange zest. It takes about 10 minutes and it…

Nikol Nakamura has been able to do things a lot of pastry chefs would like to do: she cut her teeth at The Herbfarm, got her longtime wish of apprenticing under her idol, acclaimed San Francisco pastry chef Donald Wressell, and served miniature works of sugary art at Seattle’s former Four Seasons hotel (now the…

Holy splintering headboards! There’s less than 48 hours before I get to see Breaking Dawn: Part 1, the latest installment of the Twilight movies. I won’t be fighting my way through hoards of shrieking tweens (the tickets for opening night sold out too fast). I’ll be up north with the refined 21+ crowd, enjoying overpriced…

Thanksgiving is about tradition. Everyone has expectations about the day, the food, what time the dinner should happen, whether there should be copious amounts of drinking… The fastest way to find out what your expectations are is to go to someone else’s house for thanksgiving and experience all the things they do wrong. I once went to…

MUST WATCHTemporary Distortion: NewyorklandNew York City–based performance company Temporary Distortion throws projected video, confining sets and minimalist live acting into a blender—and the resulting smoothie makes for a mesmerizing evening of film, visual art and theater. For this new piece, Newyorkland, the group takes 1970s cop dramas as atmospheric inspiration for a tale of four…

Here’s something fun you can try at your holiday gatherings: As you’re handing your brother-in-law a beer, hand him a chunk of chocolate to go with it. Strange but true: When chosen carefully, chocolate and beer taste great together, as I found out firsthand the other night in Fremont. It was another crazy sold-out event…

Local arts provocateur Greg Lundgren just posted a video that, as far as I’m concerned, should shift the way we think about artist proposals from now on. Using the viral video generator Xtranormal (parent to this NSFW “I want an iPhone” video), Lundgren made an animated video about landing a meeting at the Gates Foundation…

Today Intiman Theater announced big plans to relaunch its 40th season. Actually, the theater just launched a pledge-drive in disguise. The Intiman still has an unclear amount of debt to pay off (the Seattle Times reports it’s around a million). So the board has decided not to spend nor budget anything for future productions without…

Cupcake Royale is offering a sweet deal for Twilight fans. They’re giving away 25 pairs of tickets for a Breaking Dawn, Part 1 preview, playing on November 16 at Pacific Place—two days before the movie officially opens. Each Twilight prize pack includes a pair of tickets, plus two hats and two T-shirts. The contest ends…

It’s 11/11/11 and several shops are celebrating tonight with killer sales and swanky parties: Vian Hunter in Madison Valley is hosting Issaquah-based Lizzie Parker’s newest collection tonight from6-8 p.m. at their 11/11 party, where guests can model the casual wear in the shop while enjoying cocktails.   (Above) One of my favorite shopping haunts (um,…

Apples, pork, booze with character and baked goods with substance… I love the autumn calm before the holiday storm, when food is comforting and uber-seasonal without being too over the top. Here are a few of my favorite November eating events that tread the perfect line between reasonable human behavior and coming wonderfully unhinged.  Will…

Acclaimed indie artist Laura Veirs is back with a much-lauded album Tumble Bee: Laura Veirs Sings Folk Songs for Children (released November 8). Recorded by Grammy-nominated producer (and husband) Tucker Martine in their home in Portland, Oregon, it covers a wide range of American folk songs and features amazing guest artists, many of who are…