Our first Winery Tour – Novelty Hill / Januik

Carrie and Aura traveled to Woodinville for a fabulous day at Novelty Hill / Januik Winery.

Both labels are produced in a beautiful (the building has won architectural design awards) state of the art, green facility.

We were part of a group of Tacoma wine buyers brought up by our lovely sales consultant, Lili from Noble Wines.  A dozen of us rode up in a van (good thing we had a driver!) and by the end of it had become quite a cozy little family (we even had a sing-a-long on the way back!)

The goal of these events, of course is to get us introduced to and excited about the wines produced there.  It worked! Check in next week to see which of their yummy wines we add to our selection!

And did I mention they fed us?  The amazing chef (like many wineries, you can rent this one for weddings, etc) prepared a great lunch for us: trout, asparagus, beef tenderloin, roasted baby carrots….and this amazing wine sorbet (video recipe is on their Facebook page, and mine!)

We had such a greattime that it inspired us to figure out a way to have an Azarra hosted event for a handful of our wine enthusiasts.  We are looking into the cost of having a car & driver take us up.  If we figure out an afforadble way to do it, we will let you know!

Bocce Ball!

Come visit us on Facebook!

Since all the cool kids are doing it, your Azarra family has found its way to Facebook.  You can visit your favorite hairdresser there, and if you become a fan of Azarra, you will get all the event invitations to our tastings, etc.

So far the calendar includes three items:

July 11 – 12-3

Our first tasting in the new Tasting Room!

This one will be focusing on BEER!

(Thanks Kris & Click Distributors)

July 25 – 12-3

Wine Tasting with small, family-owned, Northwest wines

(Thanks Michael & Cru Selections)

August 22 – GRAND OPENING Open House – 12-8

We will have our beauty industry friends and our beverage industry friends together to help you have a great time.

Last week’s interesting hair

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Last week’s interesting hair

Hair by Jonathan

What do you cook when you are drinking Le Drunk Rooster?

We added a new wine last week.  Le Drunk Rooster is a French Grenache made with grapes grown on 25+year old vines.  I know the obvious recipe choice would be Coq au Vin, but that didn’t sound very “summery ” and this is the last day of my Memorial Day Weekend (what the rest of the world calls the unofficial start of summer.)

I decided on Buttermilk Fried Chicken, Cornbread and Corn on the Cob.

I have two rules about fried chicken. The meat (not just the crust) has to be tasty, and it has to be crispy.  Here is how I go about making sure those two things happen:

The morning of the meal I put the chicken in the fridge to marinate in Bulgarian Cultured Buttermilk to which I have added one packet of Uncle Dan’s Original Southern (now Classic Ranch) dressing mix. I turn it of few times and the thick buttermilk clings to the meat.  Yum.

When it is time to cook, I mix up the flour dredge.  A plate full of flour, a good heaping spoonful of Smoked Paprika (enough to make it a bit orange,) Salt & Pepper and our new House Seasoning (thanks, Costco!)

Now, here’s the little secret: after mixing in all the seasoning, stir in a quarter cup or so of buttermilk.  (It can be fresh or from the chicken marinade. No need to worry about chicken cooties because this is going to get cooked REALLY well and will kill any of said cooties.)

Take the chicken from the marinade and dip it in the flour mixture (which will be a little crumbly). Next it goes into your hot pan of Peanut Oil.  Keeping the oil at 350° is the hardest part of the whole event.  Keep checking it and adjust your burners as necessary.)

Now, people will tell you that you should cover the pan for the first half of the cooking, but every time I do that, things get too “cajun” looking, and I like a lighter, golden brown crust, so I keep it uncovered so I can keep an eye on it.

Here’s my other little secret: I only fry it until it is pretty, then I put it on a foil lined pan and into a 350° oven (which is where I am cooking the cornbread!) to finish.  I am a stickler for proper food temperature, and I have make the mistake of serving fried chicken that looked done but was still bloody at the bone.  No more! It can hang out in the oven until it is 170º right next to the bone.  (This is where a digital probe thermometer comes in handy.  Since I bought myself a chef’s coat (thank you Costco Business Center) I keep one in my handy little arm pocket.  Yes, I am a geek.)

I have a preference on cornbread, too, as you can well imagine.  I can make it from scratch, but I like to use the Marie Calendar’s mix as a base and doll it up to meet my mood.  It comes in a nice bag and I can make as much or as little as I want.  If all I want to do is add water, it will make a fine bread.  Of course, I never do.  Today it was the aforementioned buttermilk (hey, I bought a quart, I may as well use it all!) honey and an egg.  Tangy, sweet, and a little on the cakey side.

I hope you all enjoyed your Memorial Day Weekend as much as I did.  See you back at the salon on Wednesday (FYI, that’s the day we get new wine shipments!)

Related articles by Zemanta

• Cook More Often, Eat Better… (youarekillingme.net)
• Restaurant Recipe: Buttermilk Fried Chicken from Ad Hoc (thekitchn.com)
• Buttermilk: Home Creamery Event III (vindelatable.blogspot.com)
• Memorial Day BBQ (amantdevin.blogspot.com)

Last week’s interesting hair

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Another great drink to jump start your summer

Image via Wikipedia

Here’s a helpful video recipe!

I would prefer it with a bit less peach nectar and a smidge more sparkling wine (really loving our Proseco at the moment!) but give it a try and let me know what you think!

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• Peach and Roasted Red Pepper Bruschetta recipe – 46 calories (dietrecipesblog.com)

First Sangria of the season

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We have all fallen in love with the Bon Bon Shiraz Rose.  It’s a beautiful wine to enjoy on it’s own, but to celebrate the kickoff of summer, I concocted this fresh and fruity recipe for my Memorial Day BBQ.

Give it a try and let us know how you liked it.  And keep yours eyes open for more sangria recipes as the summer goes on.

Strawberry – Watermelon Sangria

1 cup ripe strawberries, hulled
2 cups watermelon (no seeds!), cut into small cubes
1 -2 limes, thinly sliced
1-3 tablespoons sugar (just enough to macerate the strawberries)
1/4 cup Cointreau
750 ml bottle Bon Bon Shiraz Rose wine, chilled
3 cups lemonade (I like Newman’s Own, and their limeade works, too for a more tart effect), chilled

Slice strawberries  and place into a serving pitcher with the watermelon and lime. Sprinkle sugar over the top and let sit until the fruit gives up a bit of juice, then add liqueur. Leave at room temperature for 1 hour (or prepare the night before and keep in the fridge). Stir in wine and lemonade. Serve in a goblet with a straberry garnish and enjoy!

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Looking for a condo to rent downtown?

One of our clients has a great condo available for a great price.  

Call Steve for more info: 206-380-3779

Aveda in the news – Vanity Fair

 

Sure, Aveda president Dominique Nils Conseil runs the first beauty company to offset 100 percent of its electricity with wind power, but for the 53-year-old executive, green living begins at home. Each day, Conseil and his wife, Misato, carpool to work—a practice they adopted instead of purchasing a second car (hybrid or otherwise). And for short trips around downtown Minneapolis, where the couple lives, Conseil opts to ride his bicycle. “I’d travel by bike to work if my commute didn’t include 25 miles on the highway,” he says. At home, the Conseils’ environmental efforts range from using energy-efficient lightbulbs to stocking the kitchen with products from the Wedge, a natural-food co-op.

Read the rest of the article here.

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ooo, pretty blonde hair

Surprise!

First day of wine sales – Wednesday May 13

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We are very excited to open the doors on Azarra Salon & Wine’s wine department!  We will be stocking a variety of labels, many with the same level of whimsy that you have come to expect from us.  Wines like Pure Evil, and Educated Guess will fill out shelves, and the selection will change regularly.  Prices will be mostly $10 – $20, but we will have a few in the $20-$30 range.  If you have special requests, please let us know and we will try our best to track it down for you.  (Our wine reps are very helpful people!)

Remember, in order to be able to do tastings, we have to sell about $2000 a month in wine.  That’s about 130 bottles.  Consider yourselves challenged!  I will do a weekly post of how close we are.

Hey, by the way, if we haven’t said it lately, thanks for coming along with us on the journey.  We started in 1991 as a bunch of girls in their 20’s in a funky green and pink salon next to a laundromat.  We never once forget that we have gotten to this beautiful place in life and business because of the relationships we have with our great clients and friends.

See you soon!

Revel Boutique Open House May 30 – UPDATE

 

UPDATE- This event was scheduled for May 23, but we decided to hold it the following week so those of you who were getting out of town for Memorial Day weekend wouldn’t miss out.

 

Love clothes? Want to buy some new Spring fashions at 30% or more off department store prices?

Join us on May 23 30 from 11-4 for some hot bargains!

Last week’s interesting hair

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May Day – Annie Wright School – Hair by Jonathan

Prom - Hair by Jonathan

Azarra in the press

All this talk about selling wine in the salon has gotten us some press.  Last week we were visited by South Sound Eats and The Weekly Volcano.   We are appreciative of the attention!

Read the articles online here:

South Sound Eats (Kris Blondin)

The Weekly Volcano (Jessica Corey-Butler)

We are in our new space

Image by Andrew Albertson via Flickr

I can’t tell you how excited we are to be in this new, luxurious space.  We are all very much enjoying having our own space, and no, we don’t miss each other.  There are still lots of opportunities for us to be together, but with the private rooms, when the blowdryers are all going, you don’t have four hairdressers and four clients screaming to be heard!

We have extra space, so we are actively recruiting new team members.  As you can imagine, we don’t want just any old hairdresser.  It takes a special person to be on the Azarra Team!  We hope to have news to share with you by summertime.  And speaking of summer, we will be having a Grand Opening in June.  I will get a date to you as soon as I get it hammered out.  We will be getting a banquet license for that day, so we will be able to serve wine.  (Yay!)

As to the wine: just to clarify, we are selling bottles of wine for off-premises consumption.  That means you may not consume on the premises.  Got it? And don’t try to talk us into any hanky panky, because doing so could cost us our license.

Here’s the kick: if wine sales make up 50% of our total retail (not services) sales, then we can do tastings.  A tasting is defined as a 2 ounce pour of no more than 4 different wines.  This is really what our customers want, because it gives them an opportunity to sample items before purchase.  Until we get there, you will have to rely on our judgment and suggestions.  Rest assured the staff will sample all the wine on your behalf!  As luck would have it, we have a Tasting Room with a bar all set for when this happens.  So you are all on notice: if you want to do tastings, buy lots of wine from us!

Now, here are some pictures of the new space, but to really get the full effect, you are just going to have to come see it for yourself!  And don’t bother pointing out to us that there are a lot of bare walls.  Art will take a while to collect.  We don’t want to throw things up just to fill space.

Dawn has a blog!

Check it out here!  She is just getting started, so get yourself subscribed and you can keep up!

Last week’s interesting hair

a wedding party decended upon us

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Big News from Azarra!

We have overgrown our current space and are moving into a larger space.  Same building, Same floor.  Heck, we’re still going to be Suite 210!

There are a few great things about this move about which clients and staff can both get excited.

We have a window!  No more peeking through the slits or walking out into the hall to see the weather!

Private rooms!  Each hairdresser can work in as tranquil a place as they like.  But don’t worry, the shampoo bowls and processing machines are in the common areas so there will be plenty of time to interact with other clients and staff.

Wine!  We have applied for a license to be a wine store.  I know you all are buying wine somewhere.  It may as well be from us.  Grab a bottle of shampoo and a bottle Chablis.  Efficient, no?  Hey, we are here to help.  Just for clarification: it is not legal for a salon to serve wine to their clients.  A wine store can do tastings if 50% of their retail sales come from the alcohol.  So, if you want to taste wine in the salon, buy lots of it and we can get to that 50% quickly.

The move will happen sometime in April.  We will start painting and moving things a bit at a time.  There may be a week or two when we are doing the hair in the new place, but walking back to the old space for the shampooing.  Moving the plumbing is the biggest task and we are at the mercy of the plumbers on the timeline.  There will be additional lighting installed, but that should be less of a chore.

We will keep you posted as each step happens.  Set yourself a bookmark for the blog (or subscribe) so you can be in the loop.  Of course, we will have a party when we get it all put together.

In the meantime, enjoy these Before photos.  We’ll post some During photos as we go along.  See you soon!