Quinn's on Capitol Hill - GO, go NOW!

Our gift to my brother for his birthday other than the 6 bottles of wine (thanks Chris!) was a dinner to anywhere he wanted to go within reason (a.k.a. flying to Paris for a 15 course meal, yeah not so much). It took Jody a while to figure it out, but in the end he decided he wanted to go to this gastropub named Quinn's (http://quinnspubseattle.com/) on Capitol Hill.

Chris and I immediately go to the webpage and check out the menu. Ok, so it was admittedly not impressive in the sense that there are no fluffy descriptions. "Bone marrow", "Fried Frogs Legs", "Rabbit Pate" - sounds neat and cool, but where are the adjectives, right? Plus Capitol Hill isn't exactly close (hey we live on the 'Eastside' now) and parking there is nearly impossible. But you know, you just got to do what you got to do. :)

Jody and Sakeneh come over, we carpool to Quinn's - and within 5 minutes of looking we found a parking spot - which was the was the first of many amazing features of the night. Walking up to Quinn's you first notice the extremely large and clean windows - and that the place is PACKED! It was overcrowded, loud, and freakishly Robson Street-esque. People of all ages wearing various stages of what they considered going-out-on-a-Saturday-night attire. Of course being Seattle and Cap Hill various couples and families as well, man/man, woman/woman, man/woman?, you get the point. The hostess had matching circa 1982 Barbie Pink sunglasses, undershirt, and belt with the Flashdance sweatshirt and leg warmers on and happily told us that a table would be about 30 minutes. Sitting in the entryway we were admiring the loft-garage feel, the hardwood ceilings, the brick and concrete pillars, and that the bar and tables looked inviting.

I don't think it was 30 minutes, maybe more like 15 and we were at our table - center front of the bar and next to the windows. We ordered some drinks. I know that Jody and Chris had quite a few types of beers, I am not a beer expert but I can tell you that they were all good. Jody is into home brewing and he and Chris were really enjoying each beer as the meal progressed. I ordered a drink made with rosemary bitters (yum) and later a Ginger beer. Sakeneh ordered a bourbon drink with cinnamon bitters that we sent back. The cinnamon bitters cocktail was the most disappointing thing of the entire evening. We did not let it hinder our excitement though.

Snacks were up first - chicken liver croquettes and spicy peanuts. Both delicious beyond belief. I don't know how much of it was because we were pretty hungry - but man I have got to figure out what was in those croquettes besides the liver. The nuts were so good we ordered another serving. I think the nuts were coated in a lightly beaten egg white with the seasonings -- THEN fried or pan fried. There was this awesome sweet-spicy crunch and the nuts were not greasy. The croquettes had a not-too-thin-not-too-thick crispy coating which contrasted nicely with the yummy filling.

We were hungry now. Our waitress who I wish I knew her name - she was very awesome and treated us well, she spaced out the rest of our order so that we had time to savor, enjoy, and digest everything. Up next was the Fois Gras. Remember how I said there were no adjectives on the menu? Well I think I know why...because there wouldn't be enough room to put all of the words. Seriously people, this fois gras was...good, delicious, savory, buttery, texture-perfect, colorful, seared in the most awesome way, served at perfect temperature...yeah you get the point. It was served on this broiche which was springy yet crunchy and an apple-walnut sauce. I need to stop thinking about it because now I want some.

Next up was the grilled romaine salad with olives, tomatos, vinegar-tasty-red onion pieces, also the fanciest poutine ever -- hand cut fries with melted fontina and chives sitting in a pool of demi glace (feel your arteries hardening yet?), AND a salted cod-mashed potato dip served with homemade thin potato chips. It was after this that I felt full and 4 out of 5 doctors would say "stop eating", but since we were with a doctor and he was still eating it was obviously OK to continue (haha).

Bone Marrow was next. With these little amazingly hot yet soft and toasted pieces of baguette. We were all expecting the generic little 1" pieces of marrow that we would need to pick up and suck on. Nope, not at Quinn's. The bone was at least 4" in length. Served with this citrus jam on the top minced to perfection. Delicious is all I can say. And yes, still feeling full, but again, kept on truckin'.

Butternut squash soup with curried croutons, endive salad with salted pork nestled at the bottom, and a fried sunny side-up duck egg. The soup was perhaps the only other disappointment of the evening (besides the cocktail with the cinnamon bitters) if you can call it that. Accompanied with all of the foods we had been eating it was a good comparison to help your palette recover from the flavors and fats and salts, but if I were to order it all by its lonesome I would probably not enjoy it nearly as much. The croutons on the soup were also a little soft - which I don't know if it was because we waited to taste the soup after we had the salad, but again croutons were more untoasted than toasted. The texture of the soup though so amazingly light and airy. The endive salad was amazing - the salted pork was crunchy and captured the flavors of american bacon and the chinese style of making "crunchy" fat pork without all of the 5-spice seasoning. The apples were just right and not too sweet and went with the fennel and endive pieces. The fried duck egg came a little late, but believe it or not was a great mouth feel with the salad.

My stomach was wishing I had worn elastic pants by this point, but nonetheless we had more food to consume. And we had all commented at this point that the remainder of our meal would be a true test to how good the food was - because we were all so freaking full that the food would need to be amazing.

Well...the food was amazing. Steak tartar - impressive that it was served on a chilled plate. The crostini that came with it were still warm and crispy but not brittle (awesome). The tartar had a lovely olive oil feel and which allowed you to appreciate the tomatos, chives, and black pepper. Then the mussels with chorizo - amazing sauce which I think was a whole stick of organic butter along with garlic cloves and flat leaf parsley. These mussels had a great sea-water flavor. I think the cooking time was from when the chef placed the liquid into the cast iron pot, covered it, and then the waitress brought it to us table side and uncovered it -- so perhaps a matter of 2 or 3 minutes?

Believe it or not it had been almost 3 hours by this point...still unrooted from our table we said what the hell let's have dessert. We asked for the menu to look at dessert (apparently after 11pm the menu switches to the late-might menu) and decided against the Whoopie Pie because hey there is only so much one should eat (haha), but had the apple pie with their homemade cinnamon-brown-sugar ice cream, chocolate pudding with a blueberry compote and a pile of whipped cream, and Bailey's irish cream brulee. The top on the brulee was a little thick and burnt, but the custard part was excellent, smooth and not too cold with the irish cream flavor throughout. The chocolate pudding was very chocolately without being scary dark or milky sweet. The pie was well good pie and the ice cream was a good compliment to the thick crumble crust. Accompanied by three double-espressos and a latte (mmm...Caffe Vita) it was now that I realized that I have to come back to Quinn's again, and also try Restaurant Zoe (http://restaurantzoe.com/) -- both are owned and operated by the same people.

In case you were wondering we went to Quinn's with the sheer idea of trying all of their small plates which we successfully did. I think if our stomachs could endure more food we would have ordered some large plates too - the wild boar sloppy joe, or the fish and chips, or even the steak with frites (yes, more frites). I am determined that the large plate items would be just as high quality as the small ones were. When I go again it has to be with another couple so that we can order and taste more items. I am sure that Jody and Sakeneh would be up for it!

All in all - Quinn's was a great place. Would I bring an 8 year old here? No. But Quinn's isn't designed for people with small appetites, small children, or people unwilling to try new things. Ok let me clarify... Quinn's seems like it would be a great place to stop in for a quick bite, but let's be honest - you are going to want more than one item from their menu, so don't cheat yourself out of something to the point of regret you owe it to yourself to try as much as you can handle, and then go for more. You can bring children here as there are signs that clearly mark where under 21 year olds can and can't be, but since when was the last time you knew of an 8 year old that would put up with a 3 hour meal? :)

Quinn's was also not grossly overpriced. The quality of food outshines the sometimes too loud Ska/Off-pop music that pumps out of the speakers. The price of this food is also amazing which I think is essential for places in Seattle these days. We consumed all of what you just read, at least 3 or 4 split-bottles of ale, cocktails, etc. -- 4 people for $250 TOTAL. AMAZING.

My only wish is that Quinn's would relocate to Kirkland or someplace with more parking. :) Ok, now I am beginning to sound like my parents...(haha) I am looking forward to my next trip to Quinn's (http://quinnspubseattle.com/).

Awesome Birthday Weekend

I have to take a few moments to reflect on the awesome event that was my birthday. Although it was on Friday, it seemed to span the entire weekend.

Friday:

• Arrive at work and am greeted by Danielle, who bestows a card and a Curious George toy
• Michael arrives with balloons
• Roger arrives with french pasteries (the start of my downward sugar spiral of shame)
• Danielle had mini Trophy cupcakes delivered
• Charlene and Cristina arrive with card and gift
• Surprise 2-dozen red roses delivery from Chris arrives, yay!
• I Love Sushi lunch fun with Charlene, Cristina, Tracy, and Danielle
• more sugar...
• Go home to a wonderous Otto's hot dog and french fry extravaganza along with my favorite cold pea salad, awesome cheeses, and pie (even though I fell asleep before I could enjoy the pie)

Saturday:

• Sleep in!
• Biscut-donuts for breakfast and yummy coffee (more sugar!)
• Trips to Target, Trader Joe's, and Starbucks (soy pumpkin-spice latte, mmmmmmmm)
• Go to my parents for homemade almond fried chicken, sweet and sour pork, wintermelon soup, veggies and ice cream cake
• Get home to realize the Huskies sucked ass (boooooooooooooo)

Sunday:

• Sleep in again!
• Tasty breakfast
• A trip out to Maltby to have Snoqualmie Gourmet Ice Cream
• Grocery shopping
• More tasty cheeses, oysters, and some mackeral

Overall, a filling weekend as you can see. I don't remember having had so much sugar before I was to the point of shaking - that is how I was on Friday.

Anyway, another year arrives and I am happy to have it!

Our vacation was legend...wait for it...ary!

Our week long escape to Canada was excellent, fabulous, relaxing, and rainy. The rain was a welcomed sight just because of the extreme heat we have all been experiencing lately in the Pacific NW; however, I admittedly did not use my brain well when packing as I did not pack accordingly. First, I THOUGHT I had left my rain jacket in my car, but it was and still is happily hanging in the first floor closet. Second, I packed a pair of blue jeans that were hemmed for sunny happy weather and short heels - obviously not for rainy drag the pant hems in the puddles with sturdy shoes wearing. Lastly, I forgot to pack handy Shout stain wipes with me, and as anyone who knows me, I am a little messy around food.

The vacation started immediately after work got out on Friday the 7th - Jody, Sakeneh, and Heather came over for some delicious Americanized-Chinese take out food. Heather is in town for a short time to surprise her Mom for her 70th birthday. We had a wonderful surprise by a HUGE brown recluse spider who if I had not spotted it accelerating across the carpet it may have been more of an unpleasant than humourous experience.

Chris and I packed up and left for Richmond on the 8th. God bless Nexus, have I mentioned how much Nexus Cards are AWESOME? Well, they are, so you should go and get one if you haven't gotten one by now, don't tell me you only visit Canada once a year, don't tell me you don't want to deal with the hassle of the waiting and the RMCP interview, don't tell me you don't think it is worth the $55 fee -- because you will SO forget about all of that the first time you use it. IT IS AWESOME. After checking into the Four Points Sheraton we proceeded to eat nothing but Chinese food (3 meals at Sun Sui Wah, another at the place across the street from SSW, trust me -- stick with SSW). Oh, Sun Sui Wah is http://www.sunsuiwah.com/. We also had a brief trip to the Real Canadian Superstore to buy delicious canadian sweets. Mmm... coffee crisp.

Sun Sui Wah - pea vines with oyster mushrooms. Mmmm...

Sun Sui Wah - pork, mushroom, and shrimp shu mai. AWESOME.

So where are we, oh so inbetween meals we ventured to the Reifel Bird Sanctuary again - http://www.reifelbirdsanctuary.com/ and this time did NOT get chased around in circles by angry Japanese cranes protecting their babies. No this time we were stalking all of the herons (solidary birds, right) we could find. On our way out of Richmond to catch the Tsawwassen-Duke Point BC ferry - I got to see what M&M Meat Markets were all about. Large amounts of frozen meats and meals for an affordable price it seems. Our brief visit in the Tsawwassen store the saleslady was very friendly and allowed us to ask the usual questions and surprisingly there were 3 customers who came in and out with their purchases while we were browsing/killing time.

One 2 hour ferry ride later we were in Nanaimo and on the 10th we checked into the Coast Hotel on Bastion Street. Decidedly asianed-fooded out we had a psuedo American but really Canadian meal of BBQ ribs, chicken, and butter chicken. Our hotel room had the biggest bathtub I have yet to experience in a hotel room IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROOM with this amazing view of the water. We discovered the best place in all of Nanaimo so far -- Mon Petit Choux -http://www.monpetitchoux.ca/ - AMAZING coffee. VERY affordable prices and the breakfasts we enjoyed there were fantastic.

Top - Latte, Bottom - Cappuccino. Seriously, some of the best coffee we have had - all from Mon Petit Choux.

A nanaimo bar at Mon Petit Choux, in Nanaimo, BC of course. Delish!

Walking around in downtown Nanaimo you get the sense of very good attention to details such as bricks and signage, but admittedly there isn't a ton of stuff to do in the core itself. The waterfront walk is impressive and we had a good time walking around especially on the floating people-only pier. There was a mother and pup seal swimming around, people crabbing, families bringing their Tim Hortons down and enjoying - half eating and half trying to entice the seals to jump out of the water. The water area is perfect for seaplanes and we got to enjoy seeing them take off and land just as though we were at the Pan Pacific in Vancouver, or at the Laurel Point Inn in Victoria. We were also treated to a rather long practice session by Canada's own Snowbirds - who were apparently in town for a fundraiser event. The Snowbirds (http://www.snowbirds.dnd.ca/v2/index-eng.asp) are Canada's equivalent to the Blue Angels.

We left Nanaimo on the 12th and had a few hours to kill before we could check into the Chemainus B&B -- which was only 45 minutes away via car along the Trans Canadian highway. We drove up north and realized the Nanaimo community was only extended by the various shopping centres (yes, centres we were in Canada after all) along the highway. We stopped to explore a Canadian Tire store (think Joes, formerly GI Joes, now bankrupt of course meets Tri-State, Idaho's most interesting store), and after that I decided that we needed to return south. We stopped at the Petroglyph Provincial Park which is just outside on the south end of Nanaimo (before you hit the highway exchange for the ferries). I was disappointed a great deal by the park - the hike was maybe 2 minutes up a hill and the actual sandstone had been horribly kept up over the years. The best part was definitely the large birds of prey we eventually tried to follow via car.

We made our way down to Ladysmith which is the largest township after Nanaimo and before you hit up Chemainus. I must say - the Tim Hortons there was extremely busy. We drove into Duncan and picked up some local meats from the Duncan Butcher shop before heading back to our B&B. The B&B was fantastic. http://www.chemainusbb.com/ -- I STRONGLY recommend this place - the pictures do not lie. First the bed is comfortable, the place is EXTREMELY clean, like you feel bad dropping your first crumbs from your deliciously provided locally baked Vancouver Island bread -- and it is ONLY $125 a night. The place comes with a gas grill, a fairly sizeable kitchen area along with induction burner, pots and pans, plates and silverware -- coffee maker, etc. There are tons of places to sit outside and enjoy the birds and wildlife that come by. Free wi-fi, free international calls (to the US at least), your own phone line, a working desktop computer, and an air conditioner if you so desire. PLUS there is a full sized washer and dryer for your usage. LOVE IT!! The only downsides to this place is that it is not directly next to the water -- although there is an awesome view where you can see the BC ferries that take you to the smaller islands -- and the other downside is that you need to take a full flight of outdoor stairs down to get to the room. The next time we go, we are bringing different bags and packing lighter as the stairs were slightly cumbersome with our suitcases.


A rufus hummingbird - this little guy loved the flowers outside our windows at the Chemainus B&B.

This is a rambly post isn't it? Well you are still reading so...haha. We thoroughly enjoyed our stay in Chemainus. Downtown Chemainus is a mix of Leavenworth (without all of the kitsh) meets Oregon coast relax feeling. We spent a good portion of a day exploring the beach and downtown. We also spent a good part of another day at Pacific Northwest Raptors - http://www.pnwraptors.com/birds_of_prey_visitor_center.html. Very fun place and we really enjoyed all of the birds even through the rain. My favorite bird there was not a raptor, but a kingfisher from Australia, the kookaburras!


Roo, one of the two kookaburras at Pacific Northwest Raptors in Duncan, BC Canada.

So three nights later we had to check out on Saturday the 15th...which if you are astute you will know that it is our FIRST year anniversary of getting married. Woot indeed. We took the ferry back over to the mainland and stopped at the Tim Hortons in White Horse for my double-double, half dozen donuts and some timbits.

And here we are to this moment right now as we know it. This coming week is going to be EXTREMELY busy for the first week back after vacation. Next week -- we'll have a kitty!!

More pictures from our trip are up here: http://cleemd.smugmug.com/

Two dishwashers are starting to sound like a good idea!

Last night the first Tweet was sent from our house via Rusty Pitman's fancy Blackberry. Now tell me, who uses Twitter but NOT Facebook? Rusty if you are reading this, then you need to sign up for Facebook because seriously Facebook is so much better than Twitter. I only say that though because I have a hard enough time keeping Facebook up to date let alone find the time to sign up for Twitter.

Rusty, Robin, Patti, and Justin came over for dinner last night. We had a lot of fun and even though we ended up sitting in our formal dining area for the first time, it wasn't in my opinion a formal dining experience. For example we didn't have super fancy china or fancy placemats (I had a hard time remembering where all the placemats were!), etc.

Our menu was the following:
Appetizers: Champagne, wines, yummy cheeses, salumi salami, dips, crudites, chips
Salads: Plain Caesar and Shrimp Caesar Salads (thanks Patti and Justin)
Veggies: Grilled peppers, fennel, and onions
Starch: Grilled lemon-tarragon infused small potatoes
Proteins: Grilled alder planked salmon, NY strip steaks
Desserts: Fresh strawberries, banana bread-bread pudding, Mississippi Mud Cake (thanks Robin and Rusty!)

So even though there were only 6 of us, I think we managed to use all of our dinner plates, salad plates, glasses, and serving utensils. This morning I was thinking to myself that two dishwashers are starting to sound like a good idea!

I may be going to Macy's later today to exchange some items and possibly get more plates! Looking forward to more entertaining for other family and friends.

A day of love

I admit that I really love the freecreditreport.com commercials. The jingles are snappy and one in particular gets stuck in my head - the one with the bicycle. Inspired by some boredom on this overcast Saturday morning I finally googled where I could find all of the lyrics and convenient URLs to the commercials - and some sucker already did the work for me :)

Go here http://www.garagespin.com/2008/08/17/free-credit-report-song-commercials-music-mp3-and-lyrics/ to see 'em all. F to the R to the E to the E, to the C to the R to the E D I T, RE to the PORT to the DOT to the COM.... love it!

Today also happens to be Valentines Day version 2009. My personal thoughts about Valentines Day is that it is a great day in general, but I am not all into the candies, cards, or the thought of HAVING to go out and purchase something probably totally unneeded for your loved one (s). Last night Chris and I had a very enjoyable omakase dinner at I Love Sushi where thank goodness I made reservations as the place was packed! We then took a stroll around University Village where we (at least IMO) came very close to purchasing some new fancy shiny things from the Sony store. Today we are relaxing for now, probably with an eventual trip to a grocery store to do one of my favorite things .... GROCERY SHOPPING.

I LOVE grocery shopping. I know many people dislike it and I have been told by my friends-recently-turned-real-adults-because-they-now-have-children that once I have kids of my own I will grow to dislike the art/activity that is grocery shopping. There is something about how neat the aisles are, how the products invite you to pick them up and read, how grocery stores place key items on end-caps or at eye-level, the imagination I get when I see ingredients...just fascinating.

Hope that your Valentines Day version 2009 is lovely!

Bacon Explosion!!

I saw this and had to share it... http://www.bbqaddicts.com/blog/recipes/bacon-explosion/. Does that make your whole body hurt or what?

In other news, this week workwise is kind of "sucky" as my co-worker Sandy said to me this morning. It isn't an issue of not liking work - we all feel kind of meh. That is the best word for it MEH MEH MEH MEH MEH.

The Super Bowl is this weekend and I could give a rat's patootie. I am planning on getting together with some friends Saturday night for food, wii, wine, wii, and food. I think pretty much in that order. Sunday I will meet up with some other peeps for Dim Sum and a bakery run or two.

You know what else is an explosion? Your federal income taxes after you get married. Holy cow who knew getting married would change your IOU to the government so much. I absolutely abhor tax regulation and believe there is a reason why you pay "the accountant" good money to do your taxes.

I wonder if I created the Bacon Explosion if I could claim it as a health deduction?

Adventures in Birmingham, AL

Friday, January 16, 2009:

Our trip started off by waking up at 3am to wash-up, drive and park at the airport, and be ready to board a 6am flight to Atlanta, GA. Not so bad until you realize when you get to the airport at 4am-something-er-other that the Starbucks and Tully's coffee stands are still closed... and to think that people probably stood in line for at least 45 minutes waiting for their cup of caffiene. While waiting at gate A13, I was lucky enough to sit next to a young woman who has been blessed with a very high pitched super southern voice. She was on her cell phone openly complaining to her mother about food, weather, clothing, work, the upcoming flight, shoes - you see where this is going. Other people around us were getting up from their coveted seats and choosing to stand because of this young woman. I passed the time by trying not to fall asleep.

I slept most of the way to Atlanta. Once we arrived, I made a beeline to Chik-Fil-A where I managed to stand in line for 10 minutes. When I thought I was going to order, there was a small kerfuffle with some woman around me. Note, Woman #2 is standing behind me.

Chik-Fil-A employee: Next in line please.
Woman #1: Hold on, you can't say next in line please, there are 2 lines here!Woman #2: That's right, who's next, her or her?
Woman #1: I dunno, we both been waiting a looooooooooooong time, so where is the order? We need order here!
Woman #2: That's right, who's next, there has to be order with these lines - that ain't right.
Me: That is OK - you go next ma'am.
Woman #1: OK can do, just wanna make sure I ain't gettin' in your business because you took a step forward there.
Me: It is OK, please.

Another conversation took place with an angered man who apparently had waited over 15 minutes for some Chik-Fil-A nuggets. To top off the experience, their ice machine was out of ice. Good times. After enjoying our sandwiches we hoofed it over to Terminal B. It was then I decided that the Atlanta airport needs stronger air conditioning because it is warm in all of the other terminals. Our Back to the Future moment - we arrived in Birmingham (3:54PM CST) before we left Atlanta (4:00PM EST). The flight was great it was 37 minutes packed with snacks and 2 beverages. Andrew was very prompt in picking us up, so prompt that he didn't even have to pay to park at the Birmingham airport, of course they only charge $1 per hour and Andrew was only at the airport for 5 minutes. Nice huh? I don't know if we could ever get away with that in Seattle. We quickly checked into the Best Western and then drove around eventually ending up at SuperTarget!!!!!

SuperTarget deserves its own paragraph. What can I say, this place is HUGE. It is a Target Greatland with groceries. Target Greatland is about 1/3 larger than a regular everyday Target store. I thought it would be a lot more like a Fred Meyer or even a Super Walmart, pleasantly it was not. The store still had that wonderful Target quality of white, wide, and clean aisles. The products were well stocked, clearly lableled and marked, and all faced perfectly (faced means - perfectly lined with labels facing front). The aisles were clean and easy to read. The groceries were not bad looking and were reasonably priced. We managed to pick up a box of Blueberry Pancakes wrapped around breakfast sausages, I deemed them Sweet Corn Doggies.

Finally it was time for Cracker Barrel. Oh the Cracker Barrel, how I have missed your biscuits, how every side comes in its own dish, the endless sweet tea and rocking chairs...the store of crap in front I do not miss, but the food was delicious. I had the chicken and dumplings platter with all sorts of goodies. We finished the night by walking through a Whole Foods and being introduced to a card game called Phase 10. I say introduced because apparently both Chris and I are the only two people who have never heard of this card game. I believe it is designed by the same people who have made SkipBo and Uno, somehow in my childhood I never heard of the game Phase 10.

Saturday, January 17, 2009:

Our day started with a 90 minute drive to Huntsville. We decided to have lunch at a chicken restaurant called Tenders - where the chicken is kickin'!

It is here where I realized the south has an obsession with chicken as it was very clear that chicken places outnumber hamburger joints. Onto the US Space & Rocket Museum, it was great as they staged a replica of a Saturn V rocket in full-size and available to walk around.

Now I know y'all be disappointed, but I do not have any photos of Decatur. Andrew had planned for us to visit the Cook's Natural Science Museum. Lots of dead bugs, dead stuffed wildlife, etc. Decatur is also the home of Meow Mix. On the way home we stopped at a Sonic (mmm... cherry lime-aid) and then we had dinner at the original Golden Rule BBQ. Delicious BBQ followed up with Banana Pudding. It was indulgence at its finest followed up with more Phase 10.

Sunday, January 18, 2009:

Andrew made a great breakfast with the largest pile of sausage gravy, ever. We feasted on biscuits, fruits, juice, pan-fried potatoes and onions, homemade preserves from his sister-in-law, and somehow we forgot about the Sweet Corn Doggies. One short gravy-induced-nap later we headed to the Birmingham Civil Rights Museum, walked around Kelly Ingrahm park and a wonderful homeless man named James "Dredd" Bonds gave us an impromptu lecture of the park and the history of what happened in the park during the civil rights movement.

The museum was impressive - part of it were closed though for touch-ups which we all thought odd since it was MLK Jr. weekend and Obama's Inauguration coming up and all. We then ventured to the Sloss Furnances.

Another trip to Sonic we had decided that we had consumed enough gravy and fried foods. We went to Whole Foods and purchased some delicious items to make a homemade pasta dish with 16-20 count shrimps, carrots, peas, onions, mushrooms, milk and lemon juice. I finally won at Phase 10, although I convinced that Andrew cheats.

Monday, January 19, 2009:

Had a great homemade breakfast with Andrew, we unfortunately tried the Sweet Corn Doggies - I still can't believe that Andrew and Chris ate theirs, I took one bite and that was one too many. It tasted like the blueberry krispy kreme donut wrapped around a swift and serve sausage. Why we thought it was a good idea to buy and try I do not know, but I do like saying Sweet Corn Doggies.

Flew back to Atlanta to fly back to Seattle. I managed to stay awake to see two in-flight movies, Tropic Thunder and Batman Dark Knight. Both were good in their own rights - I have the song where Les Grossman dances stuck in my head still. Had a fog-filled drive home around 10pm, relaxed and fell promptly asleep at 11pm.

Our next adventures? Who knows. I just hope it doesn't involve anymore Sweet Corn Doggies. Thanks again Andrew for being such a gracious host!

House Buying...perhaps we'll wait.

For those of you who know we have been yearning for a house of our own for some time. Renting can be a bore and our current establishment is nice livable, but we are ready to move on. After the wedding and the party and the thank you cards and getting back to a lower-stress way of life, I was hoping that now would be the time we would buy...and then this past weekend and today happened. Sure the Dow has been below 10,000 points before, but this is definitely different. I am afraid to log into my 401k site to even look at how much less of value I have to my retirement. Chris checks everyday so I am sure that he isn't as shocked, I do not have the discipline to check even once a week. Egads!

We just got word from our landlord that he has agreed to basically let us live at our current place as long as we want to, he has no intention of selling during this volatile economic market. I don't blame the man - there have been a few houses across the street from ours that have been on and off the market more times than the UPS driver misdelivers packages to our house (i.e. A LOT).

I hope that we will be able to save wisely for a downpayment. I know it is always so tempting to buy anything and everything on a whim when you can see the money in your own checking account. I am guilty of it just like anyone else - "Hey I have a few extra bucks, I'll just go to Target and get a few things"...$100 later I have 4 Target sacks full of stuff.

Perhaps in the next couple weekends or so I really will get my rear in gear and go to a packing store to buy moving boxes. With the way the Dawgs are playing right now it isn't even worth watching them on TV with 100% attention as I normally would.

Other updates - we have been like I said trying to just unwind still from everything that has happened. I had a birthday and my Dad made almond fried chicken and sweet and sour pork - very good. Something that I can only eat about once a year because it is so bad for you, but it sure does taste good. Facebook is this new exciting application in my world right now as well - at first I was resistant and now...I have to be a good girl and make sure I don't allow myself to become obsessive about checking it and seeing what my Facebook friends are up to.

Wedding and vacation wrap-up - yippy!

Hello hello. My apologies for the late post as I have received quite a few messages from folks asking how was the wedding, when will my blog be updated, where are the photos, when is the reception again, where are you registered, and...was Elvis at your wedding?

Reception reminder - September 6, 2008. Those who were invited should know where and when, if not email Jonell...we are registered at Macy's and Sur La Table...and no Elvis was not at the wedding.

The wedding itself was awesome. Short and sweet just the way we wanted it. Before I dive into it, let me start from the beginning of the Las Vegas-Vancouver-Port Angeles adventure.

LAS VEGAS, NV
Wednesday, August 13:
Chris and I hop in the car, drive excitedly to the Green Bug lot (aka SeaTac Parking), get on the plane and all that jazz. I love flying because it gives me a chance to use my ipod iTouch for movies so I enjoyed Trading Places (IMO one of the best comedies of all time ever!). One of Chris's friends from Yakima was taking the same flight as us so we waited for him once we deboarded the plane and it was off to the Venetian. Our room...was huge. And fancy. It had two separate bathrooms and the master bathroom was as big as my living room (if not larger). The room had a wet bar - sadly not stocked. And a 10' round table. We ended up having dinner that night with Chris's friends at the Delmonico steakhouse in the Venetian. It was delicious and of course over the top.

Thursday, August 14:
We had a 9am tandem massage appointment at the Venetian's Spa. Now I have been to many a hotel spa in my lifetime, never have I been in one so HUGE nor swanky. This place kicks all other spas' asses and thensome. I talked with a hostess and she said that they are making the spa even BIGGER even though it has over 90 rooms. After the massages Chris got a break while I had my nails done. We had a small break and we met up with Johanna, Mark, and my parents and had some chinese lunch at the Venetian's asian noodle restaurant (forget the name right now, but it doesn't really matter - does it?), then it was off to the rehearsal. I thought the rehearsal was just right around 20 minutes but my Dad seemed to think that it should been longer. Again another break where we had to rush down to meet the wedding gown and suit cleaners - they only took cash and demanded we meet them in-person to receive items even though I was told more than once that the clothing could have been left with the bellhop and that we could pay via credit card... can you tell that that irked me only slightly?? (haha)

Another small irk was at 6pm we had a reservation at the Venetian's Grand Lux Cafe for all of us to eat together -- but they would not seat us until everyone was present and they were going to cancel our reservation! I was on my cell phone trying to get a hold of all of the late people - luckily the hostess felt sorry for me and seated us without our entire party being on time... I am laughing about the whole thing now because it just seemed so stupid, but believe me at the time I was pretty irked. After a huge rehearsal dinner we went to see Wayne Brady with Karen, Phyllis, Jennifer, and Grandma. Wayne Brady - please stick with your improv-only routines as your singing was a bit much. Overall a good show though and it was fun!

Friday, August 15:
The BIG day has arrived. We have breakfast and then I proceed to spend 90 minutes in the salon getting my hair put-up and my make-up airbrushed on. Very exciting indeed. Johanna and Heather were nice enough to meet me early and help me get dressed. We walked over to the chapel which is in the Venezia Tower (a resort within a resort if you will) and I got to wait in the bridal room, but it ended up being that almost everyone at some point came into the room and chit-chatted with me for a while. I have to admit that I wasn't really nervous until I was left all alone for a few minutes - then I could feel my heart beating faster and I had that big-exam-I'm-going-to-hurl-feeling that quickly went away because Johanna came back in to wish me luck and gave me a hug (thanks!).

The ceremony itself was very short like I preluded to and we wanted it that way. Pastor Steve did a great job of being an easy-go-lucky guy and had a great sense of humor. After the ceremony we started the picture taking. NOTE the photos are password protected, email Jonell for the URLs to the albums and the passwords.

After much picture taking we had about 45 minutes to run back to the room, cool down, change and then head downstairs for the most incredible Italian meal I have had to date (sorry Mrs. Roberts, your cooking is outstanding too!). We had a huge meal at B&B Ristorante -- a Mario Batali restaurant in the Venetian. You may read one of my many pre-wedding posts for the exact menu; it was tremendous. The pork chop was SOOOOO good. Well, everything was good so I am not sure how else to describe it other than -- it was dang tasty. After dinner a bunch of us sat in our huge room and watched the Olympics -- because we are all obsessed with them. BTW, I miss the Olympics, but that in itself is another post.

Saturday, August 16:
We slept in and then went to our photography appointment which was suppost to start promptly at 11am. We arrive with a few minutes to spare and it was quickly apparently that Mr. and Mrs. Bridezilla (another couple) were going to run long and into our appointment. While Chris was giving the photography salesperson the evil stink-eye, someone finally got her attention and she let us at least sit down and look at our photos. I stepped out of the appointment briefly to talk to Johanna and Mark during which the salesperson apparently apologized profusely to Chris. I wish I had heard her doing so because it was rather rude of her to make us wait 20 minutes. In the end we ended up purchasing all of the digitals - which is great since we wanted the rights to reproduce and we are in the process right now of putting together a slide show which will be seen by those of you attending the reception.

After our appointment we spent a few hours with Marc and Tina and their two little ones. I thought it would be best to visit and have a room-service lunch since the kiddos may not like sitting in a restaurant. Boy was I ever right - the kids needed space to run around and just be kids. We said good-bye to them and then we hung out with Johanna and Mark for a while. We met up with Joe, Andrew, and Heather and had the glorious Wynn buffet for dinner. My stomach still hurts from thinking about it! We said good-bye to Johanna and Mark, and then the rest of us went and saw the Beatles LOVE show at the Mirage. It was by far the best Cirque Du Soleil show I have seen in Las Vegas to date. Thanks Joe!

Sunday, August 17:
Basically flying home, unpacking, laundry, repacking.

VANCOUVER, BC
Monday, August 18:
A fast and fun drive up to Vancouver, BC. We checked into the Pan Pacific and had a great dinner at the hotel's restaurant - The Five Sails. If you enjoy gourmet food - particularly seafood, lamb, and duck at roughly $35-$45/entree prices - you need to go The Five Sails. This place is a hidden gem. The views from the tables first of all are fantastic - you get to see Grouse Mountain, the Lions Gate Bridge, a floating Chevron station, the future international broadcasting center for the 2010 Winter Olympics, and a huge cruise ship if you are lucky. And since it is Vancouver it isn't ultra-shiek. Gore-tex loving, fleece and track-suit wearing, jeans with button-up shirt kind of people are Vanouverites. The food is also something that is such a pleasure to enjoy. By now I think we have had 2/3 of their menu and as always - delicious. I had the duck and Chris I believe had the lamb.

Tuesday, August 19:
We did our usual walking around Robson St. routine. We found one of those souvenir shops and got ourselves some Olympics stuff. I got a fleece, a curling pin with the cute mascots on it, and a magnet. Chris got some commemorative Canadian coins. You know the Canadian Mint is so much cooler than the US Mint. I highly doubt our government would ever consider printing coins that celebrate anything other than dead people. For dinner we had a reservation at the elusive Tojo's. First let me say that we thought about trying this place when we saw it featured on Anthony Bourdain's show from the travel channel. There was an episode where he went to Vancouver and he just went on and on about how he hated nature but he LOVED his friend's restaurant, Tojo's. So after some online scoping we said "why the heck not". Second if you are familiar with the Seinfeld episode with the soup nazi - I think that episode was based on someone like Tojo.

We walked into Tojo's and immediately I was impressed with the detail put into the interior design - the restaurant's ceiling panels slope with the shape of the building and you don't feel like this is a normal Japanese restaurant. Tojo approaches us and basically tells us "I tell you what to do, when to eat what with what, everything I make I invented - no copies, all original". We proceed to eat his version of omakase which IMO consisted of too many cooked entrees and not enough sushi or sashimi creations. Do not get me wrong - what he served us was in fact delicious and scrumptious and very ingenious. I just don't know if the whole meal (for two people now) was worth the $500+ Canadian we spent. Overall a good meal and I am glad that we went to try it out.

Wednesday, August 20:
We went on a new adventure to the Reifel Bird Sanctuary - just about a 20 minute drive out of Vancouver. This place is awesome and I cannot wait to go back. First it is very reasonable - I believe it was less than $10 Canadian for us to enter the park. Second you can buy a HUGE bag of bird feed - which BTW came in extremely handy - for only $.50 Canadian. The sanctuary is huge and extremely private and quiet. The most exciting birds we saw also decided to hunt us down. The red-headed Sandhill Cranes were extremely aggressive and there were warning signs all over saying such. On our stroll they found us -- and if it were not for the bird feed I am almost certain they would have found us more interesting than anything else. As Chris describes it - there is a scene in Jurassic Park where the velasoraptors are running after the fat computer guy whom I'll call Newman. The birds ran JUST like the velasoraptors.

After a break at the hotel we had dinner at C Restaurant. C has quickly become one of our favorite places to go when we can afford it. The times we have gone we have only had the wine-pairing dinner - which is a 6 course meal with 6 wines. Roughly $300+ Canadian for the both of us and extremely wonderful. My friend who is also a professional caterer, Char -- has also expressed her liking for the great C Restaurant. I encourage you to go to their website and look at their menu - exquisite.

Thursday, August 21:
Grouse Mountain was the destination of the day. We almost did not go because the weather looked like it was not going to clear up, but we went anyway. Not much had changed since either of us had gone up last although there is a new Lumberjack Show which I thought was pretty nifty. We got some great photos (I don't have those yet) of all of Vancouver once the skies cleared up.

We had planned to go to yet another elusive Vancouver establishment - the Blue Water Cafe + Raw Bar -- and after some discussion we decided to not try it out this time and went back to The Five Sails where I had the halibut and Chris enjoyed "the catch" which was sablefish with maine lobster and prawns. We had the same server as from our first night in town and she was great fun as she shared her own favorites of Vancouver.

PORT ANGELES, WA
Friday, August 22:
We had to stop in Richmond, BC at Sun Sui Wah for dim sum. The new find was a dish that had pea vines supposidly with shrimp cake paste wrapped in a rice wrapper and fried in the shape of a pouch. Sounds weird I know but it was really quite good. Then I could not leave Canada without another Tim Horton's double-double so we hit up the Tim's in White Rock before crossing the border. Have I mentioned that I LOVE the NEXUS card? (haha)

We found our way to the Keystone ferry dock on Whidbey Island and after a ferry ride, drove from Port Townsend to Port Angeles, or PA as the locals call it. We checked into Domaine Madeleine Bed & Breakfast - our favorite place in the PA area to stay. The Ming Suite was delightful as always - Jeri had the mattress and the deck replaced so it was definitely spiffied up yet still felt like a home-away-from-home as it is very familiar to us. We had dinner at Michael's Divine Dining and we found out Michael was our server for the evening! The food and hospitality was superb and we could not have asked for a more comforting meal. I had the chicken marsala and Chris enjoyed the pork chop. For dessert Michael served us quite literally 2 pints of homemade boysenberry sorbet. Yum.

Saturday, August 23:
Jeri and her son Shawn served up an awesome 5 course breakfast (see the website if you don't believe me). Afterwards we spent the day at Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge aka Dungeness Spit. It was high-tide so there was not way we were going to walk the 5.5 miles to the lighthouse; however, we did see some seals, seagulls and other birds about. It turned out to be a gorgeous day and we both got sun-kissed on the cheeks.

Toga's International Cuisine was our decision for supper. Normally we may have opted to go to Victor's aka Sabai Thai, but we had just been there in July so Toga's it was. It was definitely not disappointing -- just really filling! Jeri was kind enough to stop by the restaurant earlier in the day and bought us a bottle of wine to go with our meal. Chris had a steak and I had the beef stroganoff. Again very good and so dangerously filling.

Sunday, August 24th:
After another breakfast we leave PA to encounter 2 hours of sitting on 101 - car accident and traffic was at a standstill. We got home around 530pm to yet another Sunday of laundry and catching up on emails.

And if you are still reading, congratulations, you deserve a quick picture (haha) preview:

Again ALL the photos are password protected, email Jonell for the URLs to the albums and the passwords.

Whiz Boom Bam!

This past weekend was the 4th of July and for once it did not rain in Seattle! We went over to my parents where my Dad yet again cooked enough food for 40 people - somehow all 19 of us managed to consume most of what was prepared. Smaller turn out this year but only because not all of the extended family showed up. It feels like every year there are more things to eat and later on more things to light up and watch explode. All in all it was great fun for everyone. We did not get home until almost midnight in which I immediately took 2 Aleve and went to sleep. Every year I tell myself to take the day after the 4th off and I never do - well this year I did not have to since the 4th fell on a Friday.

The rest of the weekend we spent with the Lees; Saturday we traveled to Poulsbo to see Aunt Phyllis and Uncle Lowell's house (in the process of still being built and finished...), then we decided to travel to Port Angeles to eat at Sabai Thai. SOOOOOOOo good and so worth the drive. Sunday we met up at 99 Ranch and enjoyed some Chinese lunch and did some shopping.

We are still very much enjoying the Blendtec Blender - it definitely blends. I am glancing at a calendar right now and today is July 8th. 5 weeks away is the big date in Las Vegas. Only 5 weeks!

The Blendtec Blender - it blends

Will it Blend? That is the question. Over the weekend Joe bestowed a wedding gift to us - a Blendtec blender. This thing ROCKS - I love it and it is freaking awesome. It does blend and it blends extremely well. We immediately tried out some homemade strawberry margaritas; freshly hulled and halved strawberries, fresh lime chunks, a few shots of tequila, grand marnier and topped it off with ice. In literally 5 seconds everything was blended together as it took us longer to pour the drinks than to make them. AMAZING. After the strawberry margaritas Heather and Joe made a milkshake type of drink with bailey's, frangelico, and something else. It looked good. Later on we did make another type of milkshake.

Yesterday we enjoyed a morning and an evening fruit beverage. Admittedly we purchased some ingredients to make Blendtec's version of lactose free ice cream (french vanilla coffeemate ew I know, but hey if it is lactose free and yummy I'll give it a try). I cannot wait to see what else this magical whirring machine can do.

For those who have not witnessed a Blendtec Blender go out to Will It Blend? and check out the videos. Yes the videos are quirky and yes the machine is expensive, but soooooooo worth it. The machine slows up and down as needed. Maybe I should get one for work so I may have homemade frappucinos...

Almost there...

It's been a while since my last entry so I won't waste any more time.

Wedding Updates:
- Chris got a suit, he decided to go to Nordstroms and not the Men's Warehouse to get a fine all black Hugo Boss suit; single pleat pants with all the fixings I suppose. I admit that I don't know a lot about Men's clothing let alone suits, but the salesperson was really nice (thanks Sam!) and the suit will be fantastic. Sam was nice enough to do a pre-sale slip for us since the Men's Half-Yearly sale starts on Friday - we get the sale price! The suit should be all tailored and ready for pick-up in a couple weeks.
- Invitations...has taken up a few hours of our weekend. Everything is done except Chris is waiting to get all of his addresses; once obtained we will print out labels, stuff envelopes and be good to go. All of the other items are ready we just need those addresses. If Chris has sent you an email asking for your address, please reply -- please. I REALLY want to get these invitations in the mail.
- Cake...we have our second tasting scheduled for June 17th - just about a week away.
- Florist...will finalize total centerpieces needed once RSVPs from yet-to-be-sent invitations come back to us.
- Salty's...same as florist stuff.

I think that is it. Other stuff - work has been going well, the weather has been not so bad for Seattle. We have managed to get out during the weekends to take walks and photos (Zoo, Aquarium, random parks in Everett and West Seattle, the Arboretum). Joe and I have been trying to learn Bridge with some fellow curlers and so far, Bridge is hard!! I am trying my best but it is a lot harder than it looks IMO because there are so many things to keep track of. With more practice the easier it will become.

I have been trying to keep up with my friends from Avanade and have been somewhat successful considering that we don't work together anymore. I saw Shawn and Krista for happy hour on Friday, I am hoping to have lunch with the newly employed Rusty on Wednesday, another happy hour with Silvina and Charlie on Friday, and perhaps some drinks and snacks with Patti and Lindsay on Saturday. What a busy week! I should try to squeeze in some work while I'm at it. (haha).

Our Engagement Photo session is this coming Saturday as well. Let's hope for some good weather! Luckily it is in West Seattle, so we may all have to treat ourselves to the world's best almond croissant from Bakery Nouveau...mmmmm.......

Peanut Party and the weekend

I like to put out natural unsalted seeds and nuts in a pan on the deck to feed the animals. Sometimes we are lucky enough to get a glimpse of who is coming around to snack. Generally they are squirrels and bluejays. This morning we saw a stripey friend (a.k.a. raccoon) out and about which surprised us since it was 730 in the morning - aren't raccoons supposed to be tucked away somewhere when it is daylight? It inspired us to put more peanuts into the tray and we were rewarded; Chris got some nifty photos of a bluejay!

The bluejay and the peanut party tray, woo!

The bluejay on the rocks in the backyard.

In other news - we had a great weekend. The weather was outstanding in the low 80s and it got downright HOT Saturday afternoon. Saturday we got up and went to the Woodland Park Zoo (http://www.thezoo.org/) and to our surprise had to wait about 20 minutes in an extremely slow moving line to even gain entry to the zoo. Once inside it didn't feel nearly as crowded as I was expecting it to be. We got to see almost every animal there including TOUCANS, a tiger, and giraffes. Very exciting. It got very hot so we left and went home figuring we would hit up the Seattle Aquarium (http://www.letleonardin.com/) some other day. We had a light dinner and Johanna called - we were on the phone for almost 3 hours. I have to admit when I got off the phone my neck was tweaked out. It was good to catch-up with her.

Sunday I slept in and Heather and I hung out all day. We ventured over to West Seattle so that I could explore Lincoln Park for good photo spaces for the reception (family photo time kind of thing). We stopped by and visited with Ann and then we all went down to Alki in a feeble attempt to eat at Bamboo (http://www.bamboobarandgrill.com/), but there was no parking. The Spuds fish and chips were tasty morsels though followed up with a trip to the Husky Deli (http://www.huskydeli.com/) for a double-scoop of French Orange and Husky Flake. SO good. We went back to the Webb house and I caught up with Heather's mom. A quick trip home to grab the reusable grocery sacks and then it was off to the grocery store at 730pm to buy weekly food. WHEW!

I wish I was enjoying a peanut party right now. Or some more Husky ice cream (French Orange, where have you been all my life)...

Spot is cancer free!

Just read an email from my Mom - the vet said that the mass that was removed from my cat is benign and should not return at all. Yippy for Spot!

We are going through an abnormal heat wave for Seattle this weekend. We are getting ready to go to the Woodland Park Zoo and then to the Seattle Aquarium - wish us luck since who knows how many other people will be doing the same thing. Yesterday was a ghost town at work and after the work-day was over, Joe and Heather came over and we had a BBQ meat fest. We feasted on Kobe Beef hamburgers, bratwursts, and teriyaki-pineapple meatballs with a grilled pineapple and keylime pie for dessert. Today - the zoo and fishes like I said. Tomorrow I think Heather and I are going to hang out getting lost in West Seattle and then who knows what else, but I am positive it will involve a lot of screaming at the Wii while we play Mario Kart Wii.

Here's to my kitty and the great weekend!

T-minus 3 months and counting (wedding stuff)

I know that some of you have been wanting a real wedding and reception planning update entry so here I go!

Las Vegas (ceremony/wedding) update - the only things left to even remotely think about are salon appointments, gown and tuxedo pressing, and waiting for the minister and photographer to call me. I can't book the salon until 30-days out and I figured at that time I would call the gown and tuxedo pressing place. According to our event planner, the Venetian appointed minister and photographer will be calling me about 14-days out. We have our room and flights booked. We have our rehearsal appointment set, we have a limo set for our round-trip adventure to Las Vegas City Hall to obtain a marriage license. We have our post-ceremony dinner planned. I even have some fun events already to do - mainly that I am seeing LOVE at The Mirage.

Seattle (reception/party) update - we met with the bakery (see previous post about Bakery Nouveau), I have already talked with the florist. I have a new hair stylist who I absolutely love and she will be doing hair and make-up. We have a hotel room booked and a photographer who is also super. My dress is in my house along with all of the accessories. Chris still needs to get a tuxedo and we have to still finalize everything with Salty's, but will do that after we send out and receive RSVP cards.

So you're probably wondering when we are going to send out the invitations. We have everything in terms of supplies ready to go - so I think we will get them done the weekend of June 7-8. There are minor things that need to be done like getting all of the address labels formatted (should only take an hour at most), stamps, but we are good to go.

Now for those who want all of the details...
Hair/Make-up: for those that know me I am not a super girly-girl and am rather low-maintenance 99% of the time. I figured though that getting married is a once in a lifetime kind of thing so I have been investing a lot of my time and resources into hair and make-up. A co-worker suggested a stylist by the name of Heather Price and so far Heather has been FABULOUS. Heather works out of cutz in Wallingford, and it has been a lot of fun getting to know her - plus her rates aren't tremendously expensive (IMO). I have established monthly appointments with her to make sure my hair is in tip-top shape for August and September. For the reception/party she will be coming to our hotel room and getting me ready on-site. I am WAY excited as she will definitely take care of me so I don't need to stress about looking good.

Food in Las Vegas: we decided to go to the Venetian's B&B Ristorante for the post-ceremony meal and we are having a custom 4-course meal - very fun. We will be having the following:
Antipasti (2) - B&B Salumi with Fiddleheads, Marinated Fresh Anchovies with Radish and Fennel
Primi (1) - Goat Cheese Tortelloni with Dried Orange and Wild Fennel Pollen
Secondi (3) - Grilled Pork Chop with Seckel Pear, Cipollini, and Vin Cotto, Spicy Two Minute Calamari Sicilian Lifeguard Style, Brasato al Barolo with Horseradish Gremolata
Dolci (2) - Sbrisolona with Spicy Caramel Poached Cara Cara Oranges and Creme Fraiche, Cioccolato with Bourbon Caramel and Vanilla Bean Gelato

...We are still planning on having a very informal psuedo-rehearsal dinner the evening of August 14th at the Venetian's Grand Lux Cafe. Again those of you are who going to Vegas with us will receive separate information personally.

Food in Seattle: I have an appointment to finalize everything with Salty's in early August.

Gown: I had my final fitting on May 9th - fits like a glove (seriously) so I guess I'd better pay attention to all of those fun summer alcoholic drinks I like - can anyone say diet sprite and pineapple rum? Mmmm...

Rings: Should be ready by June!

Cake: see previous posting...but perhaps I forgot to mention that we are getting free delivery since Salty's is so close to the bakery. I need to schedule a second tasting with William, but not until June.

Flowers: I had a visit with the Admiral/West Seattle Metropolitan Market floral department back in mid April. Since the reception/party isn't attached to a ceremony on the same day, the floral department said that this is just a regular party - so less complicated in terms of contracts. We will have a variety of centerpieces and I specifically said I didn't want them to match - I think it will be more fun that way.

I don't know if there are any other updates that are needed. The biggest things still "to do" are tuxedo stuff, finalizing stuff with Salty's, invitations...oh and figuring out what kind of a "short" honeymoon we will take the week of August 18th. Probably just to Canada and back.

Next big adventure clock will start after September 6th -- house buying!!!! Stay tuned...

Dinner with Yumi

Do you have a friend that you hardly ever get together with, but you are still good pals when you get together? That is how Yumi and I are - we can go for months without an email or a phone call, but when we get together we have a grand time. Tonight was no exception; Yumi was kind enough to meet me at 7pm and we had a great dinner at Atlas. She had the pork chops with greens and hush puppies (not donuts as she eagerly called them). I had snapper with a purple slaw and mango fritters.

Jonell with snapper, red slaw, and mango fritters (yes, mango chunks were dipped in a pancake batter and deep-fried).

Yumi with her Jim-Bob pork chops, greens, and hush puppies (which tasted like fried corn bread with a lot of honey on top).

Anyway we had a good time catching up - she got to hear about wedding stuff and trips, and I got to hear about her decision to move to Hawaii. She is moving there on June 1 - so I was lucky to get the chance to have dinner with her.

Bakery Nouveau is HEAVENLY

Last night was deliciousness beyond imagination. Joe and Heather came over and we all carpooled to Bakery Nouveau (http://www.bakerynouveau.com/). Jody joined us 10 minutes into the tasting. OH MY GOODNESS GRACIOUS GUMDROPS was it delicious.

Walking into Bakery Nouveau you are immediately hit with what can only be described as the most delicious - sweet, buttery, and savory feelings everywhere around you. The display cases are not overfilled and are very clean (I think they must clean the crumbs after every pastry sold). Every table was filled last night, but a couple occupying a larger table saw us walk in and graciously moved to a smaller one. We sat very eager to taste what at that time had quickly become highly anticipated and unexpected. William Leaman, the head chef and owner of Bakery Nouveau greeted us with spoonfuls of his homemade lemon filling and coffees. WOW. This was tremendously good. It was tempting to eat all of it in one bite but I somehow managed to refrain from doing so. After reviewing the list of things I had scribbled out for him, William then came back with some warm-out-of-the-oven chocolate cake, immediately followed by his buttercake with lemon--and then a 64% chocolate and chocolate piece of goodness cake. After eating these treats we had more conversation and he sent us home with two fresh baguettes.

WOW. WOW. Wow. Did I mention this place is HEAVENLY? Jody packed up the left over crumbs in a sack and took them to his girlfriend.

Chris and I have decided that we will go with the buttercake which William will infuse with vanilla-simple-syrup and fill with lemon filling with fresh raspberries. We will also go with the 64% chocolate-chocolate cake. The idea is the two cakes are very different with unique tastes, sweetness and density variations, and just gorgeous colors with texture contrasts. Both will be covered in simple white buttercream, and going with my hydrangea idea, William will create them with royal icing. We will schedule a second tasting with William at that point he will have a rough sketch or sample to show us of the finish products and probably a more exact pricing point.

I kept an open mind and palette last night especially since I was still slightly miffed that it took so long to re-arrange my tasting appointment, but all has been forgiven from the taste of the lemon filling atop the buttercake. Apparently the bakery's new found success (word of mouth plus featured in this month's issue of Sunset magazine) has caused quite a stir and many solicitors have called - so now I have the inside lane directly to William and his creations. William is an artist and loves what he does (extremely modest and humble) - I loved how he talked about his previous creations; during the end of our visit he showed us some photos of finished cakes and he shared his stories behind the photos and the people who inspired the cakes. I am honored that he will be making these cakes for our marriage celebration.

I ask that you take the trip to West Seattle to 4737 California Ave SW. You will NOT regret it. Bakery Nouveau is where it is at.

Wedding Cakes

I am trying to figure out what kind of photo-ready-yet-still-edible-and-not-too-big wedding cake to order. As I sit waiting for Bakery Nouveau to call me back to hopefully reschedule our tasting appointment I have reviewed some of the photos I have collected. I am going to go with a hydrangea theme as the bouquet I am using in Las Vegas will be blue hydrangeas; I haven't been super picky about any one thing yet, and I am finding the more I look at different cakes the more specific I want to be with it. I like the idea of hydrangeas because they are friendly in appearance and come in a wide variety of colors making the cake softer in appearance...at least that is my thinking thus far.

Here are two ideas I have found - as this is a smaller just for photos-and-us-yet-still-edible-cake I am thinking 2 layers, no more than 3.





But if you want to see something completely different and freaking cool, check this out:



If you want to see more Mario Cake go here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/alttext/sets/72157594289496628/

Delicious!

We are enjoying some crepes with strawberry sauce. Delicious! I give all of the credit to Heidi's Cottage Cheese Pancake mix (if that link doesn't work for you, try this https://ssl2.ilinkadv.com/heidispancakes/index.html). All you do is add eggs and milk, whisk, let it sit for 5 minutes, then cook. Fabulous. I cut up some strawberries earlier and the ones that were super ripe almost over-ripe (think soft and almost squishy) I put in a sauce pan with a little water, some sugar, vanilla, lemon juice, salt, and a dash of corn syrup. So some homemade strawberry sauce and insta-crepes.

All the same that isn't the only thing that is delicious. My new job - I love it so far. It is still feeling "new" to me even though I'm in my third week, but so far everyone is so nice and genuinely appreciative of the potential I bring. It is nice working in an environment, hold on...it is WONDERFUL to work in an environment where they care so much about you as an employee, not only the free drinks and snacks, but the atmosphere is so refreshing.

This past weekend we went to Yakima for the Yakima Enological Society's Platinum event. We had 19 wines, 5 courses plus appetizers...wow a lot of booze and food. It too was all delicious. We were also invited to brunch with the Sukos. Delicious. We were treated to some self-caught wild salmon from Alaska that had been smoked. Yum!

An Inconvenient Truth

Last week was a stretch - it was one of those weeks where you wake up every day and deep down you know it is a different day, but you immediately feel as though the day should be Tuesday. My week was filled with more transition tasks to various people meaning a lot of meetings. And a lot of phone calls. And those calls lead to more meetings...with people in India at inconvenient times. Combine all that with co-workers wanting to take me out for coffee and lunch and dinner and drinks - and when Friday finally rolls around I am exhausted and -- I get sick of which leads me to recap the week - with the inconvenient truth being my weekend illness.

Recap of the week.

Monday - had a pleasant lunch with Toni - she and I started with Avanade roughly the same time and believe it or not we haven't worked directly with each other often, but I still feel that we connect on some level. She was gracious enough to take me out to The Fish Club where I had the prosciutto and fig flatbread and Toni had the cheeseburger. Overall it was a little pricey but what else can you expect from a Todd English joint that is part of one of the swankiest hotels in the downtown/Belltown area of Seattle. The flatbread was delicious - freshly handmade with jus tthe right amount of fig and green onions on top to spice up the prosciutto. The cheeseburger admittedly looked more delicious than my flatbread. Toni had them substitute fresh fruit for the fries and they served oh approximately 3 cups of fresh fruit. I joked with the waitress that I would hate to see how much fries they put on the plate, I don't think she got where I was going with it. Just the same it was a pleasant meal. I was in a constant state of meetings until around 730 that night leaving work just in time to go curling.

Tuesday - had a great lunch with Bhargavi. Again, someone who has been with the company almost as long as me, she and I have always been on the same team. We went to Noodle Ranch where I had my usual Japanese Eggplant with Tofu. She had them make Pad Thai without fishsauce or eggs - it still looked great.

Wednesday - Mahnaz took me out to lunch - we went across the street to Anthony's. We had a rather personal chat and I walked away from it feeling calm. Later that night I went home to get Chris and we returned to a nice small dinner that Kate was kind enough to put together at Cutter's.

Thursday - had a nice lunch with Shawn and Ray at LaVita E Bella - where we took Rusty for his good-bye lunch as well; it was a delicious lunch. Later that day some of us went out for drinks at Twilight Martini Lounge and after that I met up with Heather at UVillage. I can't figure out when exactly it was that I got sick, but I definitely know that after I got home from hanging out with Heather that I was not right.

Friday - Kate again was nice enough to organize a good-bye lunch for me, a catered event with Ezell's Chicken being delivered. Krista put together a photo montage of me and there was even a gift and card. I was touched to say the least. I wrapped up some work and went for some SBUX with Shawn and Krista. I get home and I am definitely sick. The inconvenience of illness prevented us from traveling this weekend.

We were planning on going to Yakima this weekend, but it did not happen. I have been taking a lot of medicine and coughing. And sleeping. And now, it is time for more NyQuil so that I may rise and shine for my last day of work tomorrow.

Jones Soda instead of Coke? Uh no...

So I'm talking on the phone with my good friend Rusty just now -- and I have this uncanny ability to multi-task (although I'm uncertain if drinking a chai latte, talking on the phone, and surfing the internet count as multi-tasking) and I come across this headline Jones Soda replaces Coke on Alaska Airline flights. First of all, ew. Second of all, ew.

Need I say more?

Flight Attendant: Excuse me would you care for a beverage?
Me: Oh yes, I would love a Diet Coke.
Flight Attendant: Oh I'm sorry, we only have Turkey and Cranberry flavor left, is that ok?
Me: WTF!

On another note, I got some emails from Gates Foundation today very swank. They want to bring me in to interview for a position. Haven't heard anything else from UW Libraries yet, but again, working on weekends? Ew. As I'm still at work for this blog, it is time for me to hit the road!

Mango Pie, bad. Puckerdoodles, good.

I tried a slice of mango pie last night. Dreadful as I feared. What is sad is that I think if there wasn't a rule already that states "do not use fresh or frozen mangos" in jello, then I will be glad to write it. DO NOT PUT MANGO PRODUCTS IN WITH JELLO. So wrong. The "cream" part of the pie is actually not bad, it kind of tastes like one of those orange-vanilla ice cream cups. Then if you are unfortunate enough to get a chunk of chillified mango in your bite -- the moment your teeth chomp down on that piece of fruit...all thoughts lead to "ew, what the hell is this in my mouth". I am still debating on whether I should just chuck the whole thing because like I said, the cream part tastes really good. We're going away to Yakima this weekend, perhaps it will be thrown away then...

Tomorrow we are having a cookie competition at work, so tonight when I got home I started baking up a storm. I made 3 trays of lemon squares (they're bar cookies) and a batch of Puckerdoodles. What are Puckerdoodles you ask? They are a take on Snickerdoodles, so same basic ingredients, but I added lemon and lime zest, and fresh lemon and lime juice; omit the cinnamon and wa-lah -- Puckerdoodles. They turned out pretty well to say the least. I hope that people will enjoy them!

And Christmas is only 14 days away...

Mangos + Orange Jello + Pudding + Cool Whip = Last time I'll make this pie...

Ok so I have been told that I am a pretty good baker. My lemon squares are sought after, my snickerdoodles are a sleeper hit for everyone even chocolate chip fans, and I can make a pretty mean banana cream pie (I got Joe to eat some and he doesn't even like bananas). Peach cobbler, banana bread, brownies with mint chips, russian tea cakes, you name it I more than likely have baked it. I really like this old time book called The Cooky Book, but that in itself deserves a separate blog entry...

When I was younger I used to make this Strawberry Romanoff Pie all the time especially since my uncle and grandma loved it. It is really a Jell-o recipe where you mix pudding, gelatin and cool whip together in a fashion (note -- not mixed all at once, there are actual steps you need to follow) that makes a light psuedo-mousse-like filling with strawberries swirling around. Andrew I know you're reading this getting grossed out since you abhore strawberries, I have a point trust me... ANYWAY, this pie I made and people really liked it. My grandma who is no longer with us, she just really enjoyed this pie so I have fond memories of making it for her in her kitchen when I was 8 years old; it was so special -- like a BIG deal to make something for my grandma who was a great cook. Flash forward to now...I decided last week I would make this pie again but switch around the ingredients, after all it is just gelatin and fruit, right? What could go wrong?

I will tell you what went wrong...the pie I made tonight. I just got done folding in the cool whip and fruit. I licked the spatula and woah baby -- sweet and super tart at the same time. I am uncertain if the orange flavored gelatin helped? Perhaps I should have just used unflavored gelatin. Maybe there is a rule somewhere that you aren't suppost to put mango into gelatin. Who knows. I am hoping that the pie will be better for eating once it has had a good 8 hours to set up in the fridge.

Mmmm..pie any one? At least the banana bread I made tonight I know is delicious.

10,000 calories later

Maybe not 10,000 calories, but we'll round up to be safe. Another Thanksgiving has come and gone. We got to my parents house around 245pm and it was non-stop eating. We had to have dessert first to make sure everything was in tip-top order. All in all there was a 20 lb. turkey, a 25 lb. bone-in rib roast (maybe 30 .lb???), 10 .lb of chinese fat pork, oodles of desserts, salads, breads, gravies and sauces...I can go on.

My brother's girlfriend, Sakeneh -- she made this really great upside-down apple cake, very delicious. Jody made some burnt-butter spoon and jam cookies...there were pumpkin and pecan pies, my Aunt Jeannie brought some shortbread-layered-with-cool whip-and-pudding dessert, and then the red velvet cakes and lemon squares. Let's conduct the sticks of butter countdown, shall we?

Apple cake = 1 stick
Burnt-butter cookies = 2 sticks
Pumpkin pie = 1/2 stick
Pecan pie = 1 stick
Shortbread dessert = 2 sticks
Red Velvet cake = 1 stick
Lemon Squares = 2 sticks (1 per tray)
Grand Total = 9 1/2 sticks of butter -- and this was for desserts only...

My Uncle George is my only white relative and he is from Arkansas -- he really enjoyed the red velvet cake, so much so he had two pieces (if he goes into a diabetic coma because of the cake he said he wouldn't blame me); my mom enjoyed it, as did my cousin Tiana who apparently has tried to make red velvet from scratch. I confessed that I used a cake mix -- everyone was surprised because they said it was "so good". "So good" because they may have never had it before? "So good" because of the frosting? All the same, I gave credit to where it was due and perhaps I'll have Andrew supply me with more cake mix because I think my family will want to eat it at every holiday gathering now.

And before I receive an email from those of you out there that want to know my frosting recipe for the red velvet cake, here it is:

Cream Cheese Frosting - for Red Velvet Cake

2 - 8 .oz packages of cream cheese, room temperature
1 stick of butter, room temperature
2 cups (approximate) of powdered sugar -- you can add to your liking
1 cup of sweetened shredded coconut
1/2 cup of pecans, chopped

Mix everything together with a hand blender until no more chunks of butter or cream cheese are visible -- and sugar has mixed completely. Frost cool cakes immediately; add decorative coconut and pecans on top of frosted cakes if desired.

Notice how I omit any form of marshmallow fluff or melted marshmallow products from the frosting...there are a number of reasons I omit. Why? First there is enough sugar in the thing already, why kill myself even that much quicker? Second I believe that the marshmallow product would cause the frosting itself to set up and possible become too stiff. And lastly marshmallow fluff is nasty. Enough said.

I hope everyone had as much fun on their Thanksgiving as I did!

Desserts are done, turkey here we come!

Red Velvet Cake and Lemon Squares - done! We had to run to Safeway for a few things including more pecans and shredded coconut so that I could complete the frosting for the cake. Chris is currently finishing up his homemade cranberry sauce which has pineapple and orange zest. Should be good especially since it smells delicious and extremely sweet in our house right now.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and as I have stated before -- everyone will be gathering at the Chinn Compound in Redmond. I called and my Mom said that she was trying to make the picnic table look nice; they apparently moved one of the picnic tables inside the house so she was attempting to drape table cloths all over it. Our conversation ended with her yelling at the cat to get off the table.

I hope all of you have an enjoyable Thanksgiving!

Bobby's Hawaiian Style Restaurant

For those that know me, I pretty much watch FoodNetwork nonstop if I can get away with it even if it means sitting through Sandra Lee and Rachael Ray on a random Sunday mid-morning. There is this show on FoodNetwork called Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives and on the show they did some "local" favorites, one of them being Bobby's Hawaiian Style Restaurant up in Everett. We thought that the food looked so good we drove up there a few weeks ago to check them out. The food is fantastic -- I know there may be reviews floating around the internet if you will saying "the portions are too small" or the "food is too sweet"... all I can say is HOW MUCH FOOD DO YOU EAT??? Holy crap -- they serve portions that IMO are already too large and the sugar level isn't horrible considering most of it is a form of teriyaki.

We have been to Bobby's twice now, both times the food was excellent. The service leans slightly on the casual side with a really loud stereo. I think it would be fun to go up there for the live music performances and also for dinner, something tells me that the service at dinner is their bread and butter.

I would recommend going and checking it out, it is only a short 15-20 minute drive up I5 from Seattle.

Vancouver BC - September 2007 Trip - Day 3

Aren't we all special today! I am blogging for the second time today. I left off as Chris and I were heading out the door for some Dim Sum. We strolled from our hotel up northeast to dine at Kirin. The name itself sounds more Japanese than Chinese, but according to Vancouver Magazine, Kirin was named Vancouver's Best Dim Sum and Chinese restaurant so we had to go and check it out. We walk in and the place is completely empty which at first startled me until Chris pointed out the time -- 1040am. We think that they must open at 1030am and we were the first customers in the door. Surely enough by 1100am it was hustling and bustling. We enjoyed quite a few little dishes including beef tendon, eggplant with fish, gai lan (chinese brocoli to y'all who don't know), congee (rice porridge) with chicken, dumplings, spicy salt and pepper squid, mandarin styled pork spareribs, chinese donut and mango pudding. It sounds like a lot and it felt like it too until we started walking around again.

From Kirin we walked up and down Robson and various side streets. We checked out Canada's equivalent to Barnes & Noble -- it is called Chapters. Very spacious store indeed! I am impressed with how many non-book items they carried (nice stationaries, toys, local products, et al.). We leave Chapters and ended up at The Bay where Chris quickly pointed out -- BUTTER TARTS.

BUTTER TARTS backstory if you will...I ran across this Canadian Public Radio piece on Butter Tarts -- and from what I gathered, Butter Tarts are a big deal for many Canadians. I have read quite a bit about what a Butter Tart should be, runny or not? Raisins or not? I am fascinated since I've grown up traveling and staying in BC and have not once heard of a Butter Tart. Back to us at The Bay...so I am staring at the pastry case that has the sought-after Butter Tart. "One butter tart, in a bag please" and $1.33 Canadian later I have it in my hands. You have no idea how excited I am at this point -- me and a Butter Tart just waiting to try it out. We make our way back towards Canada Place where we find a Tim Hortons. We treat ourselves to the "We just had a huge Chinese meal but we're hungry 3 hours later snack" of the Butter Tart, a Canadian Maple, a French Crueller and 2 large Double-Doubles. This particular Butter Tart was runny and contained raisins. Being that it is my first ever Butter Tart, I can't say I am swayed one way or the other -- it was good, like a pecan pie without pecans. It was very sweet, too sweet for my personal liking but I did appreciate the flaky crust with the runny middle. I am not going to run home and start baking these up by the dozen, but it was definitely something worth trying. If anyone can recommend some really good Butter Tarts (April and Steve, I know you read this sometimes...) let me know and I will make it a point to check it out. Our donuts were outstanding as always, makes me wonder how Americans can settle for the greasy donuts that come out of Krispy Kremes. Tim Hortons definitely has a lot more flavor -- and are a lot cheaper even with the horrible exchange rates right now. I could definitely go for another Double-Double right now though -- so good. Ok, I need to stop thinking about Tim Hortons for now...

After our snack we spent a good hour looking out onto the water. The Pan Pacific is located at Canada Place and Canada Place is basically where all of the cruise ships load up and leave. Lots of activity takes place around here, water buses, airplanes from HarborAir, all of the sight-seers at Stanley Park -- just a lot of fun!

And now...it is just past 400pm, the Husky Game isn't on until 715pm tonight and Chris is asleep. Good times. I have determined that the next time we come up we have to try traveling on the SkyTrain throughout the city. An all-day pass is only $8 and it allows you unlimited travel on all routes including the water bus and the regular street buses. How cool is that?!

I have no idea what we will do later tonight, I hope it isn't anything too fancy as I don't feel like getting all dressed up; however, speaking of dressing up I have noticed that Vancouver is just the birthplace of nightlife-casual though. Everyone walks around dressed psuedo-REI and psuedo-designer which IMO is great. It doesn't seem like you are frowned upon because you are wearing hiking boots with dress pants and a polar fleece atop your fancy blouse. I love it. I noticed that while we were walking around Robson as well -- a relaxed acceptance of "just be yourself". Another thing I noticed is how many Starbucks there are so much so, I am beginning to wonder if downtown Seattle has more or if downtown Vancouver has more. Vancouver also has a lot of other coffee and tea shops in general though -- crazy Canucks love their caffiene too I suppose (this coming from me who usually goes to SBUX 3 times a day, go figure). Like I said -- not sure what is up for the night but I know tomorrow will consist of going to the Real Canadian Superstore. Oh fun!

Mmmm...donuts....

I had a craving, an Alton-Brown-Feasting-On-Asphalt inspired craving for donuts. Last night I watched Alton Brown and his crew eat 3+ dozen donuts in some small area of Missouri (which apparently is home to 8 Mom & Pop type donut shops alone) and I was hooked. I wanted a donut right then and there. I thought about driving to of all places the Krispy Kreme on Aurora for a donut. I'm not a super fan of donuts in general let alone Krispy Kremes, but I just had this hankering for some fried empty sugary calories.

I woke up this morning and the first thing that popped in my head was "donuts, must get them now before the rest of the neighborhood wakes up". We did finally make our way to Top Pot donuts on 35th and 70th. There was a line out the door and a rather annoying couple standing in front of us -- of which the man was constantly swaying and choosing to speak to his girlfriend when the distance between them was the greatest -- so I heard this over and over "blah blah -- WHAT?" for approximately 5 minutes. This however did not sway me from donuts -- we were getting them dammit and I didn't care how long it took. There were no crullers (visibly that is) or custard filled ones available today, but we did load up on long johns (aka bar donuts) both chocolate and maple (I guess you can't get vanilla long johns in Seattle -- I've checked, no where it seems...), apple fritters, plain glazed and two random cake donuts. Two large coffees and $18 dollars later, we had them. Cue angelic music here... after a quick trip to the grocery store to buy some fixins for dinner we arrived home to which I had a donut. 2 halves to be exact because well...I had to eat two flavors! The chocolate long john was suitable although I had this wish that it be filled with pudding or something nonetheless -- still delicious. Then I had some lemon-filled powdered sugar fantasy. It kind of tasted like a lemon filled donut I would get from Safeway or something. Joe is right though, the blueberry cake-donut with the sugar and cinnamon -- outstanding.

I've done some further reading on Seattle area donuts. Seattle is apparently the birthplace (no big surprise honestly) to the "best vegan" donuts around. I kid you not -- this place called the Mighty-O which is on 21st and 55th is not far from us either, but they only have cake like donuts. It makes sense with all of the rules of sticking to a vegan diet and vegan requirements, but c'mon, no raised donuts?? My friend Jay at work is a self-proclaimed lover of all food that is bad for you and he said that he was surprised how good these vegan donuts were. Thanks Jay, but I'll take your word for the time being. Plus I've been reading that the Mighty-O has some sad surcharge for those who don't pay with cash--give it up, not worth my time then. I came across an old Seattle Weekly column about donuts where the URL ended with screw-krisy-kreme.php .... NICE. Admittedly, my brother Jody and I waited in the dead of winter for 2+ hours at the Issaquah drive-thru for Krispy Kreme donuts and yes at the time they were the shit -- they were everything, we were the envy of all those at work when we brought in the dozens of sugar-bombs. However, if you don't eat them when they're hot, they really aren't all that...although their milk machine with their icy cold milk, sooo good...

Now besides wanting to drive up to Canada to get some Timbits, there is this little donut shop that I drive by all the freaking time that I want to try out -- Family Donut in Northgate (directly west of I5 next to the 7-11). I've read good things and I want a good french cruller, yum! Actually what I want right now is a nap as my sugar-bomb donut high is fading. Some day, Family Donut and I will meet, oh yes we will...who knows maybe they have vanilla long johns too?

Lids are important.

There is this latte machine on the 2nd floor of my building. I think upon it's last service the drink count was up in the 250,000+ range. Over the years I have nicknamed the in-house coffee service as avaCoffee or avaLatte. The grinds have changed over the years and although now we are using Starbucks branded coffee beans and grinds, the avaCoffee still isn't the same as going to Starbucks or even Tullys.

I'm all for free coffee -- and in a pinch, avaCoffee does great, it smells like coffee, it looks like coffee and if I'm needing it -- with enough syrup, sweetener, and coffee mate -- also can taste like a doctored up coffee. The only complaint is the coffee never seems to be as hot as I want it to be. Often times I find myself microwaving a cup of just poured coffee because I want it hotter. I don't think the problem with the temperature has anything to do with the thermal containers, but it is the lack of lids we have (or rather, do not have). Pouring a cup of coffee, walking back to your desk and by the 4th or 5th sip -- the coffee is lukewarm. Booo!

Disclaimer -- I love our Facilities team and they are awesome and responsive, it isn't your fault that the coffee does not stay warm 5 minutes after pouring. :)

Starbucks...I may pay $2.08 for my Tall Americano with room, but it is worth it for the retaining HOTNESS.

Now you may be saying "go out and buy yourself a mug with a lid then your coffee won't get cold as fast"... that may be the next thing on my to do list. :)

Red Velvet Cake

I've been asked by quite a few people including Annelise who actually left a comment (yay, Annelise) what exactly Red Velvet Cake is and what it tastes like. From what I can gather, Red Velvet Cake is simply a chocolate cake with a LOT of red food coloring added. What also sets this chocolate cake apart from any other is that the recipe calls for 1 teaspoon of distilled white vinegar and 1 cup of buttermilk. Chris found out that there is a chemical reaction between the cocoa powder and the vinegar and buttermilk -- which apparently give the cake the smoother, more "velvety" texture. I would like to say it is as smooth as velvet, but considering I have never consumed velvet in my lifetime, I can't really make that claim.

The chocolate taste is less intense and quite honestly -- the cake probably wouldn't be very appealing by itself. Think of it as this BRIGHT RED cake that is way more dense than a sponge cake....I made a cream cheese frosting for it and as much I as abhor frosting, the frosting on this particular cake makes it taste gooooooood. I folded in some shredded coconut and some chopped pecans, so there is definitely something "tasty" in the frosting. I found that at least with the cake mix version -- you can't taste the food coloring so that is a start. I particularly enjoy the cake with a glass of milk.

If you look at wikipedia for this cake -- it claims that most Canadians associate Red Velvet Cake with a now defunct department store chain called Eatons. Who would have thought that? All this time I thought it was a southern thing (which is apparently not true even though grocery distributors along the west coast do not carry Red Velvet Cake mix)...

Links, soup, shopping...

My apologies as apparently the links to my archived posts aren't working very well. Joe, when you read this help me out man. I "upgraded" to the beta version of blogger, whatever. I'm sure there is just some setting I need to look at somewhere.

Thanksgiving was filling. We ate a lot of fun at my parents house, then we went to my aunt's house in Fall City and ate more food. I didn't even wake up today until 10am. Chris is cleaning up the downstairs room. For those of you who have been to my abode, the downstairs area has always been..well, cluttered and full of stuff. Chris has been working diligently today--he said he took out 3 bags of recycling, 2 bags of garbage and burned an entire bag of old bills. Yes that means that we can access the fire place. Yay! He is breaking down a bunch of cardboard boxes now.

We have started eating the leftovers--today we had turkey soup. VERY good. Now, what to do with all of these sweet potatoes and ham...I spent most of my day browsing online for Christmas presents. You know online shopping kicks ass. I only have a few minor things to pick up from various stores, but a majority of my shopping is DONE. Woot!! Done! I also need to say that my friend Max--has a great online store. Check it out at www.maxwaugh.com. I also shamelessly gave Amazon business today. Amazon is a great searching tool that I generally use for price comparisons but hardly ever go straight to their site and just buy things -- with the exception of the day after Thanksgiving. If you look at my purchase records with Amazon -- it shows a yearly trend; I always buy a lot of stuff from Amazon the day after Thanksgiving. Anyone else guilty of this?

Lemon Squares!

I make Lemon Squares twice a year; once at Thanksgiving and once more at Christmas. My house smells of Lemon Squares right now and boy oh boy it is getting me even more excited for Thanksgiving. I've been making Lemon Squares for at least the last 16 years (if not longer). Seeming as how I'm 30 years old now...you can imagine how many sticks of butter that has been! I used to go bake-crazy around the holidays. Seriously, I would make batches and batches of cookies like non-stop from Thanksgiving all the way through Christmas Day. Snickerdoodles are still my favorite -- there is something about how they are FRESH and HOT from the oven. HHhhmm. I would like to make Chocolate Crinkles as well although admittedly they weren't as tasty as Snickerdoodles. And of course, Russian Tea Cakes (aka Mexican Wedding Cookies). My dad just LOVES those, he can eat a whole batch (one batch yields 60 cookies) in one sitting. I remember years where I would make at least 4 batches of Russian Tea Cakes.

I was talking with Shawn today at work about how your perspective of holidays change as you get older. We decided that the holidays are so much more exciting as adults; you appreciate them more because you don't have as much time to yourself it seems. As a kid admit it--Thanksgiving kind of sucks. You don't get any presents, there isn't any fun music to listen to, there is no candy, and all you do is sit around the small table at Grandma's house and eat turkey with your cousins. Not exciting. As an adult, Thanksgiving is about gossiping and getting to talk to your now "cool" older relatives and realizing -- "hey, I'm an adult now, this is fun".

Not much has happened since. I mean, work has been busier than ever. Getting my boss ready for her maternity leave, still transitioning knowledge to people, catching up with research, and at the same time planning events for April 2007...aaaaahhhhh! The weather here in Seattle has been crappy. Lots and lots of rain. Its raining right now, big surprise. Oh hold the phone, what am I saying -- there has been some excitement -- there was another woot-off on www.woot.com. The Huskies surprisingly won the Apple Cup this year (yay!). I just finished watching season 2 of LOST. And tomorrow, I get to eat Lemon Squares. Maybe I'll make some Snickerdoodles too... hahaha.

And now to save myself another blog entry, I'll post the Lemon Square recipe for those of you (you know who you are...) who will ask me for the recipe...

Lemon Squares

1 cup of all-purpose flour
1/2 cup of butter
1/4 cup of confectioners' sugar

2 eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
2 tbsp. lemon juice
zest of one lemon
2 drops of yellow food coloring (optional if you want your squares to be YELLOW)

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Mix flour, butter and confectioners' sugar thoroughly (best with semi-cold butter so that the dough is crumbly and not like cookie batter). Press evenly into a square pan (8x8x2"), building up a 1/2" edge. Bake 20 minutes. Beat rest of ingredients together until smooth (sugar should be almost completely dissolved and the color will turn lighter yellow, I like using a whisk). After crust has baked for 20 minutes, pour yellow mixture over crust and bake for another 25 minutes. When cooled you may dust the tops with more confectioners' sugar. Makes 25 squares.

Total baking time: 45 minutes
Prep time: 15 minutes
Eating time: 5 minutes

Happy Eating...er, Thanksgiving.

Wishes granted -- Pork Chop Recipe

Believe it or not, I have had a few requests (email, in-person, even IM) for this "pork chop" recipe. Believe it or not, it isn't terribly difficult, in fact it is very White Trash. I would say Asian Trash, but all of my non-Asian friends say there is "no such thing as Asian Trash".

So here we go. Pork Chop Recipe!
Ingredients:
- 4 to 6 pork chops -- rib chops preferred
- 1 box of Original Pork Shake n' Bake
- 1 packet of Pork Gravy (see earlier post about Pork Gravy woes of my parents)

Prepare a baking sheet with tin foil and a wire rack for cooking. The tin foil will make clean-up a snap (thank you Reynolds Foil commercial) and the wire rack will elevate the chops to keep them crispy. Once this is set up, set aside. Pre-heat oven to what it says on the Shake n' Bake box.

Each box of Shake n' Bake comes with 2 seasoning packets. Open one of the packets and dump contents onto a dinner plate. It helps if the plate has ridges so that the seasoning doesn't spill all over your kitchen. Take one chop at a time and individually press each side of the chop into the mix. The entire chop must be completely covered with the mix. Once coated, place onto prepared baking sheet with wire rack. Generally one package of seasoning will get you through 4 to 6 rib pork chops depending on size.

Bake the chops in the pre-heated oven for 30-35 minutes. At the end of the baking, turn on your kitchen fan and switch the oven to broil; let chops broil for an additional 5 minutes. While chops are broiling, prepare gravy mix per directions on package. For creamier gravy substitute half of the water with milk.

Serve with your favorite starch (being Asian-Trash, we use rice) and vegetables. We often have had to make extra gravy for the rice. Also, to ensure that your meal is as authentic as my meal--have some Chinese Plum Sauce available. Pour some plum sauce onto the chop and/or mix directly into the gravy to taste. Bon Appetite!

To save a buck or two?

My parents have always cooked pork chops (rib chops, please!) one of two ways:
1) Shake and Bake Original Pork Coating
2) BBQed with Johnny's Fine Seasoning Salt

If they choose to cook the first way, it requires gravy. Yes, Pork Gravy. Over the years, the cooking and shopping in my immediately family has switched from my Mom to my Dad. So now Dad does all of the grocery shopping--which means Costco, Cash & Carry, 99 Ranch (asian speciality grocery store along the US West Coast) and the bi-monthly trip to Safeway. He shops the others at least once per calendar week. I receive a IM nudge from my Mom this past weekend, asking me about where to buy Pork Gravy in bulk. Yes, in bulk. Apparently Cash & Carry no longer carries Pork Gravy in large bulk container and my Dad is freaking out. Why? The individual packets of gravy you buy at the store such as below:


Apparently the individual packets are too costly for my Dad--they retail from $1.79 to $2.09 each (depending on which grocery store you go to) when not on sale. So I said "Why don't you just buy them when they are on sale?" but apparently that is just not what Dad wants. They are even thinking of driving up to Canada during Memorial Day weekend to check out the Canadian SuperStore to see if they have Pork Gravy for "cheaper".

Oy. Of course, we are also talking about the same man who when I was in high school--loaded us all into the family vehicle one Sunday and we went on a quest for Weed-B-Gon in the gallon sized containers--because as everyone knows, products are generally cheaper if you buy them in larger containers. We ended up driving all the way to Cle Elum (middle of Washington state kind of deal) to buy Weed-B-Gon by the gallon.

Well, today is Monday, but the sun has gone for now...and it's raining. What more will happen today?

Starbucks Banana Frap -- try it!

This morning had the usual tasks:
1) Turn on lamps
2) Turn on computer; log in and open my usual applications
3) Check email, reply to urgent ones
4) Read my daily comics from the Seattle Times (Arlo and Janis, For Better or For Worse, FoxTrot, and Luann, FYI)
5) Get pinged by at least 2 people to make a daily Starbucks coffee run

We get to Starbucks and lo and behold--it was sample day! I tried the new Bananas and Creme Frappuccino Blended Drink (I think that is the official name, whatever) and let me tell you---SO GOOD. I've been reading on other blogs that the "banana puree" that goes into the drink itself doesn't look so appealing, but hey I'm not a barista and I don't plan on seeing the puree any time soon. It couldn't be any worse than when I make homemade banana bread?

Just the same--so so so so good. There was a nice lady ahead of me in line--and she said that she had to come back to Starbucks in the afternoon to get a Banana Frap. Exciting, no? Ray got to try the new Banana Creme Bar--which is basically a bar-shaped piece of banana cream pie if you ask me--he said it was very good eats, so perhaps I'll have to try that sucker some time as well.

Will the Green Tea Frap sans Melon and with extra green tea powder be replaced with this new Banana Frap as my favorite? The nutritional value of each is pretty much the same. Not that I'm a calorie counter, but did you know that the White Chocolate Frap has like 610 calories (grande, no whip)!!!!!

Now you may be wondering, did I go back this afternoon to get a frap? No. I decided I didn't need any more sugar today. :) At least..not yet!!

HHmmm.. microwaveable pork rinds...

Yes, that's right--microwaveable pork rinds.
I decided to buy some from Oh Boy! Oberto (that is actually how Oh Boy! Oberto has their name trademarked--I am not suffering from poor grammar for those of you who aren't Seattle natives, thanks.). Here is the direct URL for those of you who have been afflicted by this latest craze:
http://store.obertofactorystore.com/baconcurls11.html

The story goes as this...my friend Andrew moved to Alabama to do more of this school thing. He came back to visit and brought with him some of these pork rind products. We tried them and they're good. I bought them as a joke for my co-workers --- but admit it, some of you like them! If you haven't been afflicted by this yet, swing by my office (my co-workers that is..) when I return from my vacation and I'd be more than happy to provide some of the pork-rind extravaganza with you.

Speaking of vacation, we're about ready to do that. We'll be heading over to Marrowstone Island and renting a house. Should be fun. I tried to Google Earth it last night, but apparently since it is so close to a US Naval area, the pictures were slightly blurry. All we have left to do is pack up the car, head to the store, and jump on a ferry. It'll be nice to get away from internet and "real life" for a while. I am hoping that the weather will be cooperative and we'll be able to do a lot of stuff outdoors like walking, biking, kayaking, etc.

Maybe when I get back I will feel like posting some pictures to the photo album.... hahaha! :) Y'all have a good week. Good times!

It's just Cream Cheese

Wow, it's been a while since I've said anything here. Comcast is not so evil anymore, my friend Andrew visited Seattle for a week and now has returned back to Alabama, my team at work went Curling and had a great time, and I've been to the grocery store so many times in the past couple of weeks I think the cashiers know my debit card number better than I do.

I've been to the store so often because I like to cook especially for people who like to eat. So when Andrew was in town, I had to of course go out and buy things for lunches and suppers and snacks and drinks and more drinks and more snacks, etc. The last evening that Andrew was in Seattle, we all went down to Federal Way to have dinner with Joe's parents. Joe's mom cooked up this extraordinary amount of food (made me regret having such a large lunch earlier in the day) and it was all very good. She also made this awesome cheesecake, and I say awesome because it wasn't this heavy-set baked overtly sweet and overdone cheesecake (ala Costco...). No no, in fact it was this light, smooth easy-to-eat cheesecake. I liked it so much she gave me the recipe, and this is where the cream cheese comes into play....

As I've been to the grocery store so many times, I go and I had been forgettnig to pick up..yes you guessed it, cream cheese to recreate this cheesecake. Last night, I go to the store yet AGAIN and I actually put the cream cheese into my basket. I go to the register, swipe the card and see the cream cheese get scanned. I drove home, unloaded the groceries and there is no cream cheese to be found anywhere. I look all over the house, no cream cheese. Go outside and retrace every step, no cream cheese. Look in my car, no cream cheese.

To not think about this cream cheese, I watched a Nova special about Amundsen's journey through the Northwest Passage. I even though about watching the Gold medal Men's Curling match again from the Olympics (DVR is good...).

Should I go to the store tonight? Hhmm. I know that Heather wants to try and have a Dick's Hamburger night (she is moving to LA next week!!)... I can stop by the store again.... :)