All Decked Out

We had an excellent and pretty productive Thanksgiving weekend. We started it off Thursday enjoying an amazing meal with our friends Kelly and Steve. We have had Thanksgiving with them for the past 6 years swapping houses every other year. This was our off year so it was nice not worrying about making a turkey or cleaning the house, instead we helped with sides and dessert.

Dan making rolls.




Cranberry Salsa.



Sauerkraut Mashed Potatoes (plain potatoes were made for me!)



And of course Pie, with a fancy leaf border.




YUM!



I don't have any photos of the table, but Steve and Kelly did a beautiful job decorating for the festivities. They also made two really juicy and flavorful turkey breasts, gravy, stuffing, and a fun salad with Manchego cheese and pomegranates.

Friday we spent the day putting up the Christmas decorations. We thought it would only take an few hours, but we found out the lights on our trees were out so spent almost the whole day redoing them. It was not fun at the time, but it looks beautiful now.








We also went to the tree lighting at Westlake Center. We do NOT need to do that ever again. There were way too many people, and it was a serious let down since they fireworks never went off. Seeing the fireworks from our hotel room the past two years at the Marathon was way better than being in the crowd. Oh well, we had to say we've done it once in our lives.






And finally, we spent yesterday wrapping candies and packing up the boxes. And of course sampling them along the way to make sure they were still good :)

11 Years And Counting

Today is my 11th anniversary at my place of employment. Can you believe it? Actually I've now worked at HA for 11 and a half years including my internship. I got a nice call from my boss thanking me for all my hard work and excellent contributions to the firm. I think that replaces the gold watch in these economic times.

Caramel, Twice Over

I ended up making two batches of caramel this past weekend for the holidays. The first batch which is pictured below is a really good traditional caramel recipe. It is of course loaded with sweet cream butter, whole milk, heavy cream, sugar, pure vanilla. It is the best recipe I think for caramel. I also decided to make a second batch with slight alterations. The second batch consisted of brown sugar instead of cane. Dark corn syrup instead of light, and some molasses. The darker version yields a different taste mainly with the addition of pure molasses. Holly chopped up a few cups of pecans and we mixed that throughout the molasses version. The holiday candy making projects for this year are now complete.


Starting the 2.5 hour labor intensive process of home made caramel.


Close to the finished product. Caramel for Christmas anyone?

Turkey MURDER!

While driving into work this morning, Holly and I were surprised with protesting on the Dravus Street bridge over 15th Ave NW north and south bound lanes. I love our politically charged neighborhood's of Ballard, Magnolia and Interbay. All sorts of women and kids were gathered with ginormous white signs. I'm sure some men were present, but I didn't see any. In huge red letters, the signs draped over the bridges so all car traffic travelling north and south could read stated..."Thanksgiving is a Turkey MURDER!" I was laughing so hard I couldn't get my camera phone out in enough time to document the venue.

Missing France

With the drizzle outside, I'm finding that I miss being on vacation. Holly and I have been reviewing photos to print to make a condensed version of a photo album, since all the photos we want to print got super pricey, real fast.

Overlooking the French Riviera in Nice, France.


The King & Queen of America in Monaco.




Exploring the palace gardens in Versailles, France.


On the bridge, in the sun viewing Notre Dame Cathedral. Did I mention the sun was in my eyes and I could not see anything!


Atop the Arc du Triumph in Paris, France.


Eiffel Tower in Paris, France.


Rodin Gardens in Paris, France.


In front of Notre Dame, our first night in Paris after we got bitched out a by a street vendor. "Beesh, Beeshes." I want a Nutella crepe so I can chuck it at someone! :)

Happy Birthday To Me!

I had a wonderful birthday on Friday! I got to talk to my super cute niece on the phone who told me it's no fun I have to work on my birthday (I totally agree with her). I had an excellent dinner with my sweet husband and our good friends followed by cake and, my favorite, peppermint ice cream. Dan spoiled me rotten by giving me an iPod Nano which I am having tons of fun loading music onto. Plus a fun crafty holiday stamp, great cards from family and friends and a gift card from my mom to go shopping. All in all I couldn't ask for anything better.

Attitude of Gratitude

With Thanksgiving around the corner, I feel like I have a tremendous list of things to be grateful for in my life. So many people in our families, neighborhood, city, the world in general are really struggling and having a hard time. I wish we could do more than what we are doing. But despite the challenges that anyone of us could be facing, we all have an extreme amount of things to be grateful for. Here are a few things I'm grateful for.

1) Holly first and foremost. What a privilege to be living life with your absolute best friend. We laugh with each other every day, and have so much fun together and trying what life has to offer us.

2) Our families are amazing. All the different personalities really play into immediate family diversity. I'm grateful for all the experiences and learning situations I have with all my family members on both sides.

3) I'm grateful to be in a job that I ACTUALLY like, and an industry that I actually feel like I'm making a difference in. I also have amazing colleagues that I get to spend a good portion of each of my work days collaborating with. Sure, every job has it's politics and bureaucracy to deal with, but I'm genuinely happy in my change from financial services to health care services.

4) I'm grateful Holly and I both are financially conservative. We both are on the same page in that saving for the betterment of our future, our pending kid's future, unforeseen rainy days, church service opportunities down the road in retirement, is more important than the latest and greatest vehicle and wardrobe or other self indulgences.

5) Our warm house and warm bed with all the pillows and blankets. I was just laughing out loud last night, at how much I love our nest and taking a nap and burrowing under all the covers and cuddling.

6) Great friends of varied ages and backgrounds.

7) The freedoms of this nation, and freedoms of practicing whatever religion I see fit, as well as aligning myself with any political affiliation I see fit. This list could go on and on.

Happy Birthday Holly Honey

Today is Holly's Birthday. So I want the whole world to know that I am the luckiest man alive, and have the coolest girl in the world as my best friend and wife. Here's wishing you a fantastic day, and many more years of fun filled memories together. It is an extreme blessing in my life, to be able to live life together with you. I love you! Happy Birthday!

Savory Baking Treats

It's that time of year for yummy breads and desserts made with pumpkin and other spices of the season. I was looking through an old email today and found this recipe from back at my pot luck days at WaMu staff retreats. I had tried a bunch of recipes to get this one exactly to where I like it. I think I'm in the mood to make this, this upcoming weekend. Given our change in eating habits, I'm sure I'll be giving a lot of this away.

Dan’s Pumpkin Bread

1 & ½ C sugar
½ C oil
2 eggs
1 C pumpkin
1 & ¾ C flour
¼ tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
½ tsp ground cloves
½ tsp cinnamon
½ tsp nutmeg
½ tsp allspice
1/3 C water
½ to 1 C raisins, dates or dried cranberries
1 C chopped walnuts

Combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Pour into 1 large pan (takes about twice as long to bake) or 4 to 5 small loaf pans. Sprinkle with walnuts. Bake at 325 degrees for 45 minutes or until knife inserted comes out clean.

Small loaf pans are typically 3” by 6-7” long. Raisins and/or nuts are optional if you don’t really like them. Use what you have on hand and mix to taste.

Antique Cake Plates & Silver

While visiting family a week ago, we were very much surprised to find ourselves with a box of priceless family heirlooms. Since Mom's passing in 2006, my eldest sister and her husband have been helping to settle the estate of my grandmother who passed a few years before my mother and lived in the house next door to us growing up. We were given one of a kind, hand painted porcelain china plates and baby bud vases. My grandmother loved to paint china among many other home inspired hobbies.

To me, the real heirlooms of this family packed weekend came from my own mother. My Dad decided that he wanted all his children to have some of the beautiful things that he and Mom collected early on in their marriage, and throughout their adult lives together. Holly and I now have beautiful antique cake plates to adorn our own home, as well as pieces of Mom's sterling silver service set, pieces from her porcelain tea cup collections and the soup tureen from their wedding china to accompany our yearly tradition of making soups for our friends and neighbors in the fall. My Dad painstakingly ensured that each and every piece that was given to all of his children, were pieces that we each had connections or sentimental attachments to as a child or adult. What I refer to as the "baby cake plate," is a very simplistic modern looking glass cake plate. As a child, I remember during the holidays walking up to the side board in our dining room on Christmas Eve and looking eye level at the various homemade chocolates that were wrapped in green and red foils and displayed on this "baby cake plate." As a kid, the cake plate and candies seemed huge, and I know the look on my face was even bigger as I awaited to have my piece of candy, or more than likely simply snuck one and tried to rearrange the remaining candies to look like no one had snuck one. The porcelain tea cup and saucer from her collection is the set she made Postom for me in, the night before I went to the MTC on my mission. Mom and I stayed up most of that night talking as I was getting ready to leave for two years. All of these things, Dad ensured we could relate to with distinct memories. These items may have not cost a lot when they were acquired by my parents, but to me, these items are beyond valuable. They are priceless.

It was very emotional to be given these items, and to bring them back to our home in Seattle. I still have a hard time being in my parents home, looking at all the things Mom created for the home of our childhood and not being able to find her their creating or having a conversation with her like we use to. Mom exists in every nook and cranny of my childhood home and the memories flood extremely deep as soon as I step foot outside of the car when we go to visit my Dad. It's reassuring to know that Mom exists very deeply in the homes of all her children as well, even though she no longer gets to visit us all.

I feel the most grateful that my family absolutely loves each other to pieces, and we love spending time with each other. Not are families are that lucky or make the effort. It is an extreme blessing to have the relationship with my family and Holly's family that we both do. I honestly have mixed emotions about using these heirlooms from my Mother, as I don't want them to ever get broken or damaged. But I know she would want us to entertain with these, and use and love these pieces as much as she did. I look forward to using these pieces in the decades ahead, and eventually sharing them with our next generation.

Chocolate Immersion

The second we stepped into my sister-in-laws house I knew it was going to be a good weekend. We were welcomed with the luscious fragrance of chocolate, what more could you want? I'll tell you. How about 700+ chocolates all lined up in a row freshly dipped and begging you to taste one.






That's pretty much how the weekend went, we dipped some, they set up, we ate some. We ate some more, and then packaged them up. It was great! Dan was in his element dipping away and perfecting his technique and learning how to put bottoms on the chocolates while I applied the crushed candy cane.


Notice the apron..."Damn Good Cook."




Of course everyone helped out. It was a good way to make the work go faster and learn from each other.










We had a great time laughing, making a mess and eating. I love that we do this every year!

A Quick Read

I'm almost done with my food industry book from Michael Pollan, and am still unsettled on what I want to eat for the time being. I'm definitely not touching industrial raised beef for a while. I've decided that my next book needs to be more simplistic in nature, and not require any thinking on my part whatsoever. So I've decided to read Eragon and the two subsequent books in this fantasy series based on my brother-in-law's recommendations. I have not read the Harry Potter or Twilight series, but the sci-fi of fire breathing, human eating dragons could be very fun. OK, maybe he/she [not sure the sex of the dragon yet], doesn't eat people. I'll have to read it to find out.

Nine Wonderful Years!

Holly and I celebrate nine wonderful years of marriage today. It's like we've always been a part of each others lives, and at the same time nine years has flown by quickly. Together we have experienced many things from deaths in our families, to layoffs, purchasing our first home, the challenges of expensive schooling, and most recently the pursuit of adoption to expand our family here in Seattle. Holly is the rock in our relationship, and is my absolute best friend. I love you more and more each day. Happy Anniversary!

Since we have our temple commitments this evening, we celebrated last night by going to Volterra in Ballard. The contemporary Italian menu was amazing. I tried organic wild boar for the first time, and holly had some free range organic chicken. Both dishes were to die for. Volterra makes it's own salamis and other cured meats on the premise and we had some of these meats and fresh Italian cheeses for a starter. Our salads and desserts were also amazing. I am becoming addicted to pickled or roasted beets on anything. Anytime I can have espresso and rum or madeira soaked tiramisu, I'll jump at it. We definitely will go to Volterra again. The quaint atmosphere is perfect for any special occasion, or if you just want really good Italian food.

I Feel Sick!

We've had a busy weekend, making fondant centers and dipping candies, all while going through 70 pounds of chocolate. We are going home with 300 candies and this is just the start of what Holly and I will dip this holiday season. We have already eaten our fair share of chocolates, and are now in SERIOUS need to go back on our diets! :)

We've had a great time visiting with both our families, enjoying the cold brisk winter air, and seeing the fresh snow. I forget that we are in the mountains when we come to visit family. We'll post pictures later in the week.

Candy Making Weekend

It's that time of year when my siblings all gather together and make home made candy and other confections for the upcoming holiday season. We started this tradition in 2006 after Mom's passing. We all have come to look forward to this weekend every November where we can get together, tell lots of fun stories, reminisce about mom and the holidays of our childhood, and of course make all these great candies that we learned from Mom. We love keeping the tradition going of making beautiful home made candy, packaged perfectly for gift giving. We can't wait to see everyone this year!

Holly and I making treats at home in Seattle last year.





Wrapping candies and creating custom packaging. Holly has amazing skills as a graphic designer, and has come up with a great color and packaging scheme each year. From the traditional CDs we make for everyone, to the gift tags and box packaging. I'm excited for the holiday season to be approaching.