Fabulous Falls

I have not seen the falls this full in years!



We took a picnic and hung out at a park along the river with our friends and then popped over to the falls for a quick peek. Speaking of peek...





I couldn't stop laughing at Miles in his carrier with just his eyes peeking out. He looks kind of miserable doesn't he? And if you look closely you can see Kelly peeking into the photo too.



The emerald river. Not sure why it's so green...kind of odd.



Feeding our faces.






The falls.



Typical Dan.



My new favorite picture of Dan.



The ride home.

Panzanella Salad

We had an enjoyable weekend this past three day weekend celebrating Memorial Day. Since the weather has been breathtaking and warm, I made a few salads for various meals we had with friends. Sunday we went to Snoqualmie Falls with Steve, Kelly and Miles and took a picnic and relaxed in the sun on the grass. After dinner, Steve strapped Miles into the harness and we walked around the observation desk and grounds. Miles eyes, barely peeked out the top of the rather overwhelming [in my perspective] baby harness thing-a-ma-bobber. I made a pasta salad and this panzanella salad to enjoy.

Dan’s Artichoke Panzanella Salad

5 to 6 cups bread, cubed and dried
2 cups cherry tomatoes, roasted
1 cup cherry tomatoes, fresh
1 16oz can cannellini beans, drained
1 16oz can quartered artichoke hearts, drained
1 to 1&1/2 cups feta cheese, crumbled
1 large orange pepper, chopped
¼ cup fresh basil, finely shredded
¼ cup chopped red onion, sweet onion or chive
¼ cup fresh parsley, finely shredded
¼ cup fresh lemon juice, reserving zest
½ cup best quality olive oil, plus more for tomatoes
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Slice tomatoes in half length wise and arrange on a cookie sheet skin side down, and cut side up. Arranging in this fashion is necessary to prevent sticking to pan. Drizzle with olive oil, salt, pepper and a little sugar. Slow roast tomatoes for 90-120 minutes until they are dried, chewy and caramelized.

Cube bread and allow it to stale for a day or two. Day old sourdough bread or any other good rustic bread works best. Alternately, you can cube bread and bake it off in oven at 250 degrees for 20 minutes to dry it out.

Combine dried bread, roasted tomatoes, fresh tomatoes, onion, beans, artichoke hearts, diced peppers, cheese, lemon zest and fresh herbs. Mix gently. Whisk together fresh lemon juice, olive oil and salt and pepper to make vinaigrette. Pour over bread and vegetable mixture and combine well. Add more salt and pepper to taste if necessary. Serve at room temperature.

Extra Bitter!

Apparently I have a reputation to uphold. I was presented with a gift today from my colleague and friend Stephanie. I now have a t-shirt to wear under my blazers when I go out on the evenings or weekends. The funny thing, is that I actually can be a bitter person from time to time. Though, mostly to get a dramatic reaction out of somebody! Funny.

The New WaMu

I'm feeling a little bit nostalgic watching WaMu become JP Morgan Chase. I guess probably because I spent seven years of my professional working career for them in product management and deposit strategy, as well as managing branches. I moved to Seattle for employment with WaMu and joined a company firmly grounded in four states, and just ramping up for mergers in three more. I joined the ranks of 9,000 employees. At the time I left the company, I was able to watch it grow to 65,000+ employees conducting retail banking in 14 states and mortgage banking in 32 or so states. Watching it fail, and be taken over by the FDIC and sold has been very interesting. I feel very fortune I offloaded my stock options and common stock in the company back in 2004 when I left financial services, and moved over to health care services. Every time I drive by a branch here in WA state and see the signage changes over to Chase, I always make a brief mention. Too bad the company failed due to poor choices and bad decision making, as well as a very interesting economic melt down. It's interesting to see part of your past be wiped off the face of the planet.


No more "Pixie The Pig," that used to be sold at WaMu Ocassio Financial Centers in four different colors. It's now just a vanilla looking white piggy with a internationally recognized logo. At least the company has that going for it now.

Chihuly Paintings

At my employer, I really feel fortunate that these two world class medical centers are making a concentrated effort to showcase beautiful art throughout the halls and public spaces. Art can be extremely soothing, and can help lessen the level of stress, when most people in a hospital environment are high stressed or have high emotions due to a loved one undergoing something health crisis related.

This is a recent procurement and unveiling of Dale Chihuly. He donated five panels that are hanging above a grand circular staircase up at UW Medical Center. The colors in this are amazing, and it's a nice contrast to the overly clinical white walls often associated with hospital space.

Yum!

...not sure I can say more than that. This is what I woke up to after my Sunday nap, chocolate cupcakes with orange flavored buttercream frosting. It's like a sugar miracle, thanks honey!

It's Tori Time Again!

I'm counting down the days until the new Tori Amos CD releases on May 19th. I really like the single that has been playing on the radio "Welcome to England." She's also on tour again later this fall and winter. I'll have to decide if this proves as good as all her last albums, and maybe purchase tickets to see her again. Every last album of hers, I play over and over again. Probably to Holly's dismay. We own almost every CD she's recorded, with the exception of all the concert specific live track recordings and so forth. I'm sure this new CD will be just as good as her past dozen or so.

Summertime Citrus Tart

I was in the mood to make a home made key lime tart this past weekend for Mother's Day. Normally this would have been made with lime curd, but I couldn't find it, and did not want to make the curd from scratch. Instead I used good pre-made meyer lemon curd and lime zest and it came out perfectly. I made the crust out of crushed gingersnaps instead of graham crackers. The filling is lemon curd, cream cheese, granulated sugar, fresh lime zest and fresh lime juice. Yum!


I whipped some cream until stiff and piped it with one of my star tips onto the tart. I flavored the whipped cream with coconut extract instead of vanilla extract. I decided to take a half way point picture, mainly because my hand needed a break from all the piping.


The finished product with some lime wedge garnish. I'll be making this again. I love lemon or lime flavored desserts. This made a nice summertime dessert for Holly and I to enjoy on Mother's Day. We have leftovers. Who wants some?

Honoring Our Mother's

I had an extremely neat opportunity to honor my mother and the women of this world yesterday in sacrament meeting at church. Mother's Day is always hard, as is Mom's Birthday. It was nice to be able to gather my thoughts on the amazing influence women leave in our lives, and pay public tribute to Mom yesterday. I hope everyone loves their Mom as much as I love my Mom.



Miss Me – But Let Me Go
Author Unknown

When I come to the end of the road
And the sun has set for me
I want no rites in a gloom-filled room.
Why cry for a soul set free?

Miss me a little – but not too long
And not with your head bowed low.
Remember the love that we once shared,
Miss me – but let me go.

For this is a journey that we all must take
And each must go alone.
It's all a part of the Master's plan,
A step on the road to home.

When you are lonely and sick of heart
Go to the friends we know
And bury your sorrows in doing good deeds.
Miss Me – But Let me Go!



Happy Mother's Day Mom! We love and miss you terribly! Not a day goes by that I don't see something that reminds me of you, or think of a wonderful memory we shared. I spend more and more time in the kitchen as I get older, feeling closer to you, cooking all your recipes and sharing amazing food with my friends. Thank you for sharing all your amazing talents with your children.

Drenched

For those of you not it Seattle, let me begin this post by explaining to you the weather we are having. Last night we had around 45mph winds and torrential downpours. I would like to say the winds were at higher speeds as I listened to them and the pelting rain from 3am on...which is where this story begins.

It's 3am, I've been woken by the rain and can't get back to sleep. Not only because of the drum roll on the window, but because of the motor boat on choppy water sleeping next to me. 6am comes awfully early, I'm grouchy because I had to get up a half hour earlier than normal so I could drive Dan to the Medical Center for a meeting.

We make it there in plenty of time, my task is to drive down to Dan's office, park the car, take the trolley, take the bus walk to work. Not ideal, but doable. I get to Dan's office, I realize I have his keys which means he can't get into the car and pick me up at the end of the day. I'm already cranky so I decide not to check in at the front desk with the freak security guy and just sneak up to Dan's floor and drop off the keys. I forgot that you need a key card but luckily some nice, and probably should be reprimanded, guy asks me what floor and uses his key card to let me in. Sweet!

I go up drop off the keys and head out for the trolley. Lucky again it is no longer a downpour outside, just light rain. I figure it's just a block to the trolley so I don't need to use my umbrella. As I approach the trolley stop I see that it is already parked and waiting, I also see the only bus that rides along that street pull up behind it and let the passengers off. I curse under my breath, but to my delight the trolley stays put so I jog a little to get there before it darts off, only to find that the doors are closed and won't open when I press the button to get in. The trolley driver then tells me that she's been sitting there for 2 hours because the tracks are blocked and she won't be moving anytime soon. The next bus is in 45 minutes.

So, I decide to walk, in not so good shoes and in weather that is raining just enough to need an umbrella, but so windy that it would do you no good. It is not a short walk. So I sit here typing soaking wet, with frizzy hair and annoyed.

Well, maybe I feel a little better now that I've let it all out.

Boehms Chocolates

This past weekend, Holly and I were out running errands over on the east side in Bellevue and Issaquah. We decided that we wanted to pop up and see the historical Boehms candy shop and chalet. When one sees a Bavarian village replica, you might think, "How cheesy is this place going to be?" Regardless of the cheese factor, you can't turn down a good piece of homemade candy! Particularly, since we both have recently started making homemade candy.


Our gut instinct was right, the inside of this chalet was cheesy, and the teenage girl sales associates were in period clothing, but they did have a vast array of chocolate candy offerings. This place is pretty historical apparently, and learning/reading the history was a fun aspect to the actual purchasing of candy. My favorite piece of candy was the "Matterhorn." It was a fudge ganache center, dipped in a pale green tinted white chocolate. It has a pointed tip to simulate the top of a mountain. You could tell that some of these candies were produced by a machine. But you could also tell which ones were hand dipped, and which ones seemed to be past down from each generation. I liked reading the history of how the Matterhorn candy came into existence. All and all, it was a fun distraction from our day of errand running. If you are heading east on I-90, take the front street exit in Issaquah and follow the signs.

Homemade Chocolate Orange Gelato

Holly and I were in the mood this past weekend to get the ice cream maker out, and try some new recipes. We both were in the mood for chocolate gelato. I looked up some recipes in Bon Appétit, Cooks Illustrated and Gourmet. I also looked at a basic Ben & Jerry’s recipe. I decided to sort of meld these all together and get this recipe exactly to where Instead of just plain chocolate, I wanted to enhance the basic flavor a bit with a hint of orange. The end result was amazing! We will be making this new recipe I came up with, over and over all summer long.

Dan's Chocolate Orange Gelato

1 & ½ C whole milk
1 & ½ C heavy whipping cream
4 large egg yolks
¾ C sugar
12oz best quality bitter or semisweet chocolate, chopped
1 TBS best quality pure orange extract, do not use imitation
Candied orange zest – optional

In a double boiler slowly melt 8oz of chopped chocolate over simmer water bath. When melted, cool to room temperature. In a large saucepan heat milk, cream and ½ C of sugar, until sugar is fully dissolved. Gently heat this mixture to 120 degrees if you have an instant read thermometer, about five minutes. Do not boil. Meanwhile, in a separate bowl beat the four egg yolks with the remaining ¼ C of sugar and orange extract. Beat until yolks are pale yellow and sugar is thoroughly incorporated. Mix cooled chocolate into egg mixture. Whisk thoroughly. Add milk/cream mixture ½ C at a time into egg/chocolate mixture, stirring well after each addition. If you incorporate the milk all at once, it will not mix together properly. After milk/cream mixture has been incorporated into the egg/chocolate mixture, place entire mixture back into saucepan and simmer gently to 180 degrees. This step is about six more minutes. Gently simmer until mixture coats the back of a wooden spoon. Transfer mixture to a large bowl and refrigerate until completely cool. Once completely cooled, transfer to your ice cream maker and freeze according to your ice cream maker’s directions. Once ice cream is almost solid, mix in the remaining 4oz of chopped chocolate and orange zest, if desired. Once set, transfer to freezer proof container and freeze until solid.

Summer 1980 Flashback

One yard of bargain priced fabric, made for four swim suits which equated to months of summer fun! Look at how cute we all are in our "matchy-matchy" shamrock swim suits and speedo. How come as adult siblings we rarely wear matching attire? Maybe next time we fly to visit my family, I'll try to convince Rebecca, Melanie and Gretchen to all go shopping together and we'll pick up new matching suits to enjoy. Doubt it!

Emergency Preparation

Holly and I, have been making a concentrated effort to really beef up our emergency preparation supplies. Over the past 18 months, we have been putting together a comprehensive emergency kit, a 1+ year food storage system, and other associated supplies in the event of a major natural disaster, widespread pandemic, or just because it really is good, sound common sense to have this in your home to fall back on. Disasters and pandemics aside, given the state of the economy and people being laid off left and right, food storage is a saving grace if their is no continual income. I purchased a few things today to try and finish off a portion of our kits.

1) Portable potty lid [we need to purchase another 5/6 gallon Home Depot bucket]
2) Disposable portable potty bags
3) Portable potty chemicals
4) A dozen or so 115-hour liquid candles
5) A solar powered / battery / hand crank, radio which easily converts
6) Gas shutoff wrench & water shutoff wrench
7) Portable water tables and water purification system

I know no one is truly ever prepared for a natural disaster. I'm always surprised how many people don't take this type of preparation seriously. If you really think about it, it's not a church's responsibility or a community's responsibility or the governments responsibility to take care of you in a disaster, or even your extended family's responsibility. Though, I'm sure all three organizations and your family will step up to the plate to help out if it's super extreme. Adding a little bit to your preparation, food and monetary supply, month by month can quickly add up. Same process for building a substantial nest egg to fall back on at some point in your life. As far as I'm concerned, its all about systematic spending and saving that is well below your take home pay, and choosing to live conservatively when it comes to fiscal spending. I think at this point I just need to get a few army issued thin style wool blankets, and a gun to keep all the unprepared people in the community away from our home during a disaster. I'm sure I can barter in a disaster with them all. $100.00 for a can of tuna fish or a bottle of water. Kidding of course! :)