Good Eats!

Culinary things I can't live without.

1) Maldron flaked sea salt
2) Greek or Spanish extra virgin olive oil
3) Organic tomatoes
4) Organic basil
5) Prosciutto or Serrano
6) Pellegrino with fresh lime wedges
7) Cheese
8) Rustic style breads
9) Milk chocolate & bittersweet chocolate
10) Grilled vegetables

I Love My Family, Both Of Them

Holly and I, have had an amazing time the past few days with family. Though Utah is not my favorite place any longer. This is the place where we can come visit and be with our families. For this reason I still have a special place in my heart for Utah. We were able to head to Wyoming for a few days and go to the VanOrman family reunion. It's always great to see aunts, uncles and cousins that I don't get to see on a regular basis. We spent time with my family and have been spending today and will spend tomorrow with Holly's family. We are heading back home to Seattle Monday evening. I love our families very much and am always grateful for the time time we have to spend with them.

Sandals Wanted

I can't find a good pair of sandals to save my life this season. I am trying to like the gladiator style, but just can't wrap my mind around it. For those of you that don't know what gladiators are. It's this.



One because I don't feel they look great on my leg, and two...well, they're too gladiator. But they are everywhere, I can't find hardly anything else in the stores!

The other options are super high wedges, which I don't love. Mostly because I'm fairly tall already and seem to have kind of short friends so I feel huge in heels. Or the backless heels which are okay, but I don't love with pants because my pant leg gets caught between my shoe and my foot.

So that leaves me with these.



And that is not an option. Who wears these anyway?

So my dilemma stands. I can't find any sandals and I'm not too happy about it. If anyone has any bright ideas where I can find something good. I'm all ears.

Remlinger Farms Restaurant

I have to say, after a very laborious u-pick experience this past weekend at Remlinger Farms, the four of us sort of anticipated that the farm restaurant would be good food. Maybe it was an off day, but it was basically Costco style food court. The sandwich I had, had soggy bread on it. Everyone pretty much had a marginal meal. The only saving grace to this meal was the lady with the ginormous visor and hair to heaven hairdo [see below]. The more places I eat out at, the more I realize I just like cooking myself at home. It's disappointing when you spend money on marginal food. The fresh fruit on the other hand, was amazing.


Alien invasion, or one full bottle of Aqua Net hairspray? Four HUGE thumbs down on the style choice here.

Blackberry Jam & Raspberry Molasses Jam

This past weekend Holly and I, along with Steve, Kelly and Miles, got up early and headed over to Remlinger Farms to do u-pick. We spent the better part of the morning picking fresh raspberries. After we picked the berries, I also picked up some pre-picked blackberries to make jam as well.


Blackberry puree, lemon juice and sugar all bubbling away.


The best blackberry jam recipe I've come across.


Same for the raspberry jam recipe.


Raspberry pulp getting ready to cook down with lemon juice, sugar, brown sugar and molasses. Yum!


The water bath canner on the stove top. The half pint jars are bubbling away to water seal.


Holly has a great eye for photo taking...


Another angle.


And another one.


The finished blackberry jam. This batch made 18 half pints.


The finished raspberry molasses jam. I love all the vibrant colors in the jars!

Sweet & Spicy BBQ Sauce

My water bath canner is out, so I have been in the mood to can what is currently in season. With the latest crop of organic Walla Walla sweet onions, peppers and such, it's been a perfect time to make a big vat of sweet and spicy BBQ sauce.


Caramelizing the finely diced onions and garlic.


Using my Cuisinart processor to fine dice all the organic Poblano chili's, Serrano chili's and sweet red and orange peppers.


Sweating the moisture out of the chili's, and continuing to caramelize all the veggies, before I add seasonings and tomato puree.


Organic tomato paste and puree are added.


A slew of spices and seasonings are added to the pot. Chili powder, cayenne pepper, dry mustard, cider vinegar, honey, molasses, sea salt, fresh black pepper, hot sauce, and liquid smoke to name a few. I cut out most of the sugar and sweetened almost entirely with honey and molasses.


After mixture cooked down for a few hours and thickened, jars are packed and ready for water bath processing.


A typical Dan food styling shot and photo opportunity.


Another camera angle.


Enjoying the fruits of my labors. I love the beautiful orange and red color that permeates the bottled sauce. We'll enjoy lots of meals with these, and it will save a step or two as I'll have plenty of sauce on hand.

Sharolyn's Spicy Dills

I whipped out my Mormon canning genes this past weekend, and decided that I wanted to make a batch of organic spicy dill pickles. After our day trip to see the lavender fields in Sequin, I made pickles. This is one of my Mom's recipes I've learned over the years.


Soaking and scrubbing the pickling cucumbers, and getting the jars ready.


Getting the organic kirby pickling cucumbers, sweet onions, garlic, fresh dill and other spices.


Fresh organic produce.





Packing the jars, prepping for the brine.


After water bath processing, and waiting for the seals to "pop," to ensure shelf stability.


Food styling & photo shoot! :)





Another angle with the camera.


In about six months I'll have wonderfully spicy dill pickles to enjoy in the Fall and Winter. I enjoy canning, more and more as the years go buy. I plan to do BBQ sauce and spaghetti sauce this next weekend, and some organic yellow heirloom tomatoes as well.

Here's To A Relaxing Planned Weekend

I'm looking forward to the weekend. The overly stressful aspects of work, are always nice to leave behind for a few days while we all regroup over the weekend. I've been a little bugged with all the road construction in downtown Seattle making for an absolutely crazy commute home from work. But, in my effort to learn to let things go, I just need to deal with it and turn some tunes on in the car.

I'm really looking forward to leaving work today and going to the kick off concert for Tori Amos's new US Tour "Sinful Attraction." It should be a fun concert. I've seen her multiple times in concert before I was married and with Holly. We've never been to a concert venue at WaMu Theatre, so I'm curious as to how this will pan out. Last time we saw her was Christmas 2007 at the Paramount Theatre in Seattle. We'll be thoroughly entertained, that's for sure.

Also, we are taking a "daycation" over to the Olympic Peninsula on Saturday to go see all the in bloom Lavender Fields. It's a week before the actual Lavender Festival, but who wants to peruse all the trashy trinket carnival gift shops. We sure don't. Looking forward to a nice get-a-way...

Drip

We have been living with a drippy kitchen sink and bathroom faucet for quite some time now. I finally decided I had had just about enough of all the drip, drip, drip from the bathroom at night keeping me awake and the pool of water accumulating under our kitchen sink.

When the plumber came out I knew the kitchen sink would be the biggest problem, but what he found was a surprise to me. It wasn't the faucet like I thought it was (though he tightened it to be safe) it was the stupid spray nozzel (which I use all the time) that was the culprit.





But of course that is not all. When one thing is broken usually other things quickly follow. We found out that we have 2 cracks in our garbage disposal which was also contributing to the pool of water under the sink. Of course, we don't have the patience or skill as some of our friends have, so I'll spend another morning at home with the plumber while he installs it.

The only good thing I can think of in all this is, well, three things. 1. At least the leaks weren't worse. 2. I discovered where the water shut off valve is. And 3. We found a good plumber who I feel is not trying to rip us off. It's expensive, don't get me wrong, but I think he could have stuck me with more after he gave our home the once over.