Happy Birthday... from the 'hood

Happy Birthday to our friend across the street, aka Biff and Zeke's mom... from your friends at the Dog Denizens of Genesee Park (DDGP)!

As the party planner of the block, you have achieved Pamela Harriman status in our 'hood as the "hostess with the mostest." We toast your birthday with a Pomegranate wine spritzer.

And tell Biff and Zeke that they owe as a column!

Pomegranate wine spritzer

• 2 tablespoons lime juice
• 1 tablespoon Grenadine
• 2 cups Prosecco
• ¾ cup pomegranate juice

Combine lime juice, Grenadine, Prosecco and pomegranate juice in a large pitcher. Serve in large glasses filled with ice. Garnish with mint leaves or citrus slice.

Make your voice heard if you want to keep your dog parks

The City of Seattle Department of Parks and Recreation is hosting two public meetings to gather public input about the future spending on municipal facilities. The Citizens for Off Leash Areas (COLA) is asking people who use the off-leash parks to speak out. The department is drawing up a five-year plan that will determine how city monies will be spent on "preserving and developing public outdoor recreation facilities, including parks, trails, and boating facilities."

The soccer, baseball, pee-wee football, basketball, skateboard, hiking, Ultimate Frisbee, flag football, rowing, community garden, and motor boating lobbies will make their case. Competition for dollars will be tight with the municipal, county, state and federal budget deficits. Here's your opportunity to state your case if you want to see off-leash areas preserved or expanded:

http://seattle.gov/parks/Publications/DevelopmentPlan.htm

Let the March Madness begin

Congratulations to the University of Washington Huskies men's basketball team, which captured the Pacific-10 Conference Championship and earned a seventh-seed in the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) tournament!

The Huskies will take on the University of Georgia Bulldogs Friday evening during first-round, March Madness action in Charlotte, NC.

If you want to embrace the cuisine of the host city, you might want to cook up part of a pig for a Carolina pulled pork sandwich. Thought that Carolina barbecue was mustard-based, which seems to run common in South Carolina.

Pulled Pork

• 1½ to 2½ pound pork shoulder roast
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon celery salt
• Pinch of ground cinnamon (about 1/8-tsp)
• 2 tablespoons cider vinegar
• ¼ cup ketchup
• ¼ teaspoon chili powder
• ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
• ¼ teaspoon sugar
• ½ cup water
• Cider vinegar and Tabasco sauce to taste.

Brown roast in a small amount of fat, then place in large baking or roasting pan.

Add salts, cinnamon, vinegar, ketchup, chili powder, nutmeg, sugar and water in a saucepan, and bring to boil. Pour mixture over pork roast.

Cover pork with aluminum foil. Bake in preheated 325-degree oven at 40 minutes per pound. Occasionally baste with drippings.

Transfer pork roast to cutting board. Remove meat - which should be tender - from the bone. Chop or shred the meat into small pieces. Season pork to taste with cider vinegar, Tabasco sauce. Serve hot atop a bun.... brioche, whole-grain, potato, etc.

Woof, woof!

No longer vegan... another reason to celebrate your birthday

Happy Birthday to our friend in Pierce County!

We know that you won't go culinary crazy with Duck Confit or Beef Bourginon. But that doesn't mean that you shouldn't celebrate with some form of dairy... a medium cheddar, sour cream or a pint of Breyer's mint chocolate chip.

How about a queso dip... a gooey Mexican concoction of cheese and chiles? Television commercials will tell you merely to combine Velveeta -- a "processed cheese product" -- and a can of Rotel tomatoes zapped in the microwave. You can do better.

Roasted Anaheim Queso

• 4 tbsp. unsalted butter
• 4 tbsp. all-purpose flour
• 1¼ cups milk (cooks will tell you to use whole milk, but you're likely to add 1% or 2% milk. No Soy Joy)
• 12 oz. grated Monterrey Jack cheese
• 3 tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro leaves
• 2 large grilled or roasted Anaheim chiles, peeled, seeded and thinly sliced
• ¼ tsp. salt
• 1/8 tsp. cracked black pepper.

Melt butter on medium-sized saucepan at medium heat. Add flour and cook for one minute. Add milk and whisk until the roux is slightly thickened. Remove from heat and add chiles. Stir in chiles, cilantro, salt and pepper. Transfer to serving bowl. Serve queso with blue, white or yellow tortilla chips.

Plus, a cocktail is definitely in order, perhaps the Lemon Cosmopolitan martini. Like you, it's kinda free, kinda wow.

Lemon Cosmopolitan Martini

• 2 oz. Absolut vodka
• 1 oz. Cointreau
• 1 oz. cranberry juice

Combine ingredients in a shaker filled with ice. Strain into martini glass.

Garnish with lemon twist.

A belated Happy Birthday, Jersey... it's not like anybody reads this blog

A belated Happy Birthday to our friend in Jersey. We conveyed our Facebook greetings and sent a gift your way. Yet we neglected to -- in Tony Soprano-speak -- "show our respects" by communicating our best wishes via Dog Denizens of Genesee Park (DDGP). Yes, you'd probably say, Fuggetaboutit.

It's never too late to party, as the pundits tell us that "life is a cabaret, old chum." We scoured the 'net for a cocktail recipe that reflects your 1980s sensibilities, and found the Fuzzy Navel. It's sweet, simple and sublime.

While you sip a Fuzzy Navel, surf the 'net for the latest dish on Brat-Packer-gone-really-wrong Carlo Irwin Estevez (aka Charlie Sheen), the self-described "rock star from Mars." When you think of Charlie -- if you must at all -- remember the promising young actor who starred in Wall Street, Young Guns and Hot Shots! Part Deux -- and not the raving lunatic who earns $1.8 million per episode for Two and a Half Men.

Is life fair? Think of the wisdom imparted by a former podmate, who once opined, "Fair only comes once a year."

Fuzzy Navel

• 1½ oz. Peach Schnapps
• Orange juice

Mix Peach Schnapps and orange juice in a highball glass filled with ice.

Stir.