I’m very thankful for my family & friends. And that someone else is cooking Thanksgiving dinner. And that this pregnancy has been very uneventful. What are you thankful for?
Happy Thanksgiving!
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Category Archives: dinner
Saturday = fun day
Saturday was a rowing day. And I didn’t row a lick. First, practice, although I was in the launch, and not rowing. But, the launch is educational in more than one way, so I enjoyed the experience.
Next, shopping with girls from the rowing team. We traveled to Tukwila to experience the new and improved Southcenter Mall, but most importantly to visit the new H&M. The Seattle area will be home to at least three new H&M stores (that I know of) in the coming weeks, and with the Tukwila store the first to open, and I believe the largest of them all. A new one will be opening at University Village near my house, but I just couldn’t wait.
Finally, for dinner I went to The Nick to celebrate fellow rower Kate’s birthday week. The plan was dinner first then some putt-putt, but I was so beat by the time we were done with dinner that I skipped the putt-putt. But, I really wished I didn’t. It was so frikkin hot at home that I just stayed awake, unable to sleep. Shoulda, woulda, coulda.
Here is a memory from the evening: A veggie burger. The burger is eggplant-based patty with curry. The roll is ciabatta.
Veggie Burger from the Nickerson St Saloon
Had to scrape off that extra may. It was a bit much.
BBQ in the ‘Quah
Last week we ventured out of our comfort zone and went over to the Eastside to visit Joanne & Pete. The live in the Issaquah Highlands, what I like to call The ‘Quah. As we’re driving up the hills to get to their house we pass by tons of cookie cutter homes, townhomes, condos and small shops that make up this development and I’m thinking to myself, yeah, maybe when we have kids and tire of the city and decide to move to the ‘burbs, maybe this could be a place I could live in. At the same time the husband blurts out, “Man, I could NEVER live here.”
Anyway, we had a fun afternoon of doggie play date plus BBQ. I won’t get into the details of the crazy antics Max performed (note to self … do NOT leave dogs out near the barbie, but more importantly do not leave food out in the open near the grill, with the dogs locked outside. Bad idea!).
The kids, Bode and Max, tired from playing, and wanting to come inside for eating, drinking and more playing.
The husband and I brought over his famous Asian Noodle Shrimp Salad (cold noodles, mixed with peanut oil, tomatoes, snow peas and other natural flavors). Small tangent here … I love this dish, a perfect summer dish. It is a recipe his mom handed down to him years and years (and years) ago. This time I made it. Now. I’ve been Asian all my live (oh really, you ask)… Yes. And not once do I recall my Chinese family every making a dish like this. Seriously. Is my memory just that bad? I remember chow mein type dishes in general, and maybe a peanut noodle dish and lots and lots of soy sauce. It is really very yummy and so easy to make, though. But, I digress.
Asian Noodle Shrimp Salad
Joanne outdid herself with very tasty turkey burgers (couldn’t even tell it was turkey, we all said, which, really, for a turkey burger, is the best compliment). Side salads and chips. For dessert Joanne whipped out these cool “dessert pizza pies”: Sugar cookies with a lime-cream cheese frosting, topped with fresh kiwi, strawberries and blueberries. Yum.
Dessert pizza pies
It’s now our time to host J&P for dinner back in the city. We’ve gotta get ourselves a grill first.
Spider rolls and camera phones
It’s hard to sit in front of the computer when I could be out sitting on the deck! But, here I am because the blog is like a shark. You gotta keep moving or you’ll die.
With that … a sushi shot. For the past two Fridays I’ve got out for sushi. Last Friday I went to Sam’s Sushi with the girls. We then went down a block to see Mamma Mia! at the Majestic Bay. I ordered the Spider Roll and a California Maki roll. Last night the husband and I ventured out to Sushi Tokyo on Roosevelt, where I enjoyed a Spider Roll and Futo Maki. Stuffed to the gills both times. And, yes, the Spider Roll is my favorite, as a matter of fact.
The photo below, though, is one I found on my phone from the last time the husband and I went to Sam’s, possibly in May or so. Can’t really remember. It turned out much better than the pic I took of the Futo Maki roll from last night, so I thought I’d show it here.
Seattle roll (I think) from Sam's Sushi.
For a camera phone, the pic isn’t all that bad. It looks a bit crummier on the phone, even. Who woulda thunk it. Here is another fun pic I took with the phone. My niece and her dad, my bro-in-law, hamming it up at Ivar’s.
What did we ever do before we had cameras in our phones?
Pike Place Market, last week
A flashback to a couple of Saturdays ago. Some friends in town from Olympia, and since little Wyatt had never been to Pike Place Market, we decided to head down there to watch them throw the fish. I forgot to bring my camera, so I had to take some pics on Amanda’s camera, which she just sent along to me. We had a late lunch / early dinner at Sound View Cafe. A nice location, pretty busy, but I don’t think I’ll be returning. We had a chicken sandwich come to us, uncooked. Unappetizing, unfortunately. I had the tuna fish. Cooked.
The pics are nice. A bit dramatic, as Amanda’s camera had some feature turned on that turned all of the photos sort of soft, until we figured out how to get “back to normal”.
I want my baby back baby back baby back baby back …
MM a few weeks back had a coupon, buy one package of baby back ribs, get one free. We bought ’em, then stuck ’em in the freezer for another time. That other time was today, when we decided to pull out the BBRs for visiting family. The BBRs were not that taxing … just heat and serve. And they tasted great! Meat-falling-off-the-bone type of experience. The niece decided that they were too “saucy” and we needed moist paper towels to eat them, but very enjoyable despite the fact that high fructose corn syrup was the third ingredient listed (after pork and water); and that HFCS was listed TWICE in the ingredients. Hey, it was still a great bargain considering we got one package free!
On the side I steamed some green beans with carrot slices and a little garlic; the husband whipped up a big salad, and I also made some mac ‘n’ cheese that unfortunately turned out a bit too milky. A slotted spoon does wonders for milky mac ‘n’cheese.
I want my baby back baby back baby back baby back baby back baby back baby back baby back.
I want my ….
Vacation
Today is the first day of my week+ vacation. Even though I am not going anywhere (the husband and I will be spending the next 10 days building a new deck!) today I decided to eat like I was on vacation.
Breakfast. I asked the husband if he wanted to go out for breakfast, but we were waiting for our deck wood delivery so it wasn’t really a possibility. Instead I made pancakes! Yum. Just your standard Bisquick pancake. I split one tiny pat of butter amongst the stack, then drizzled some pure maple syrup over the top. On the side you’ll see some white-flesh peach slices. Juicy, sweet, but not mushy. I love summer fruit!
Lunch. Thunderstorms greeted us throughout the night and into the morning. By 11:30 it was still raining on and off, with an occasionally sound of rolling thunder from far far away. It reminded me of growing up on the East Coast, back where thunder and lightening was the norm, not the exception. Home, of course, reminds me of great comforts food. Among the greatest comfort foods, ramen. I made myself a bowl of ramen, and added some snap peas (courtesy of the aforementioned CSA goodie box), an egg and sliced green onions. Definitely hit the spot.
Dinner: As I was on vacation, I decided to forego the husband’s menu for dinner. He had salad and leftover quiche. I made myself a new Seattle Classic (for me, anyway). Walla Walla onions are in season. They are sweeter than any other onion I’ve tried. They show up in stores in July and one of my favorite Walla Walla onion dishes is a simple grilled cheese sandwich, with a nice strong cheese, a nice artisan bread and some fresh, raw WWOs right in the middle. On this occasion I chose English Cheddar and Walnut Bread from Essential Bakery. The cheese at first didn’t appear to melt all that great, but the sandwich sat for a few minutes as I prepped the rest of the meal (simply potato chips and some more of those snap peas that I enjoyed at lunch), and soon enough the cheese was as gooey as it needed to be.
Mmmmm …. vacation …
Catch of the Day
Got some good stuff from co-workers this week. First the veggies, and now salmon. Phil goes fishing in Alaska about every two years, and catches enough fish to last him, oh about 2 years. He arrived at work with some fillets for us. Phil recommended the white salmon, which has a little more fat content and thus great flavor.
The husband baked the salmon over the weekend. A simple salt/pepper rub with some teriyaki marinade over the top. We chilled then enjoyed it during 90-degree weather. A really nice, cool meal during the unofficial kick-off of summer this weekend. Finally. Seattle’s foray into offical summer, we hope, had us sweating in 90-degree sun this weekend. Hey, I’m not complaining here. I say bring it on!
Coq Au Vin
One of those rich and heavenly dinners from a couple of weeks ago … the husband’s coq au vin has potatoes, onions, carrots and celery, with “meat falling off the bone” chicken, all simmering in a savory red-wine sauce. An herb roll to the side soaks up that amazing sauce. Topped with (what else) crumbled bacon. Mmmmm ….
Father’s Day
I talked to my pop on Father’s Day as we were driving home from the husband’s parents’ house on the Eastside. My dad was watching Game 5 of the Celtics/Lakers finals, so we cut the call sorta short. When I was growing up in Hartford Dad and I watched LOTS of Celtics games. Man, that was a good time to be a Celtics fan. I had a near life-sized poster of Kevin McHale hanging on my wall that freaked my mom out if it was sorta dark. Back in the day, it was all about Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, DJ, Chief, and my favorite (for some strange reason), Danny Ainge. The husband is puzzled as to why I liked Danny Ainge so much. Well, so am I, but he and DJ were my favorites.
Back in the day, the Celtics played 4 games in Hartford every season. One exhibition and three regular season games. I didn’t know it, but as I was watching an aging Larry Bird, I was also getting an opportunity to watch an up and coming Michael Jordan. Who knew? I loved going to those games! I’ll admit, I was much more eager to attend them when I was younger … middle school or maybe even younger. As I grew older, went to high school, and started doing high-school stuff, the games became less of a priority.
I left for college in the fall of ’93, and was heading to a new city with a fresh team. In Chicago, there was a bigger, better sheriff in town, and his name was Air. After growing up in the 80s with a string of Celtics championships, I was about to embark on another dynasty. 70-win seasons, three-peats, it was another great time to be a basketball fan!
I stopped watching basketball 10 years ago when I moved out here to Seattle. The Sonics are in a sorry state right now, with Clay Bennett trying to ship them to Oklahoma City. It’s a sad, sorry thing. While I don’t want them to leave, I certainly don’t feel like paying 100 bucks a ticket to see them play, either.
So, it’s with great pleasure that I can become a fan this time, of my old team, the Celtics. For real. Dad, thanks for taking me to those games. Those are days I won’t soon forget.
Go Celtics!
By the way, here’s a little sampling of what we had for dinner at the in-laws. At the in-laws it was all about Tiger and the U.S. Open. The husband’s father, at some point, deserted us in the dining room and pulled up a chair to the television in the kitchen to watch the last few holes. Then we all ran in to watch the replay of the 18th hole. Father’s Day was a good day for fathers all over.
The hors d’oeuvre: Melon wrapped in prosciutto; pearl onions with salami and cream cheese; a soft cheese with light crackers, and, my favorites, Cool ranch Doritos, Fritos, and guacamole. When has anyone ever called Doritos an hors d’oeuvre?
The Dinner: Grilled Salmon marinated in a ginger/sesame sauce with a pesto aioli; boiled potatoes and breaded zucchinni.
The dessert: Homemade apple pie (yes, as a matter of fact the mother-in-law and I did compare pie-crust experiences), with vanilla ice cream (not in the pic):
Way to go. A great meal.