Happy Easter

It's been such a long time since I posted! We've been keeping pretty busy here. My parents visited this weekend, so it's been a nonstop tour of restaurants and shops and hikes and all sorts of things. A little recap:

Jesse and I at Slappy Cakes. Notice the K and J pancakes in front of us, of course.

Hiking in the Gorge: this is Upper McCloud Falls, on a very rainy day.

Easter Brunch on the roof: with lemon curd, baked french toast, quiche, hot cross buns, and mimosas!

Happy Spring!

I have new fabrics and new projects to post about, so check back soon!

La Calaca Comelona, or, "The Hungry Skeleton"

I realize it's a little off to post about a Mexican restaurant on St. Patrick's Day. But I'm not Irish, so St. Paddy will forgive me, I'm sure.

We tried a new restaurant on Monday night: La Calaca Comelona ("The Hungry Skeleton"), on SE 23rd and Belmont. It was an instant favorite. It's ironic, actually, because we used to live 3 blocks away from it, but never tried it. Now we live across town, but decided to make the trip. And hooray that we did, because it was so good!
 Besides a lot of burritos and taco stands, we don't actually have a good selection of tasty Mexican food around, so it was quite a nice change from a giant burrito. They make everything from scratch there, from the salsas to the tortillas, and it all tastes so delicious. A friend asked "Isn't that the place where they don't serve you chips and salsa?" Well...yes. But it doesn't matter. They do give you different salsas to drench on your food, and that's all you need. And the food!

It's inspired by central and southern traditional Mexican, and look nothing like what you'd see at the local burrito stand. They have a short menu, almost like a lunch menu, that has tacos, sopas, and tostadas to choose from, with varying ingredients, for a little as $6-7. Then the dinner menu has bigger entrees, a bit higher priced, that are delicious and wonderful.
We decided to share the pulled pork sopa: a mixture of pulled pork, cabbage, and salsa over a thick corn tortilla. And then we split the Blackberry Mole over Chicken, with pears. We just had to try that once we saw it. It was a perfect mole--a little smoky, but with a fruity taste from the blackberries. As good as that description sounds, though, we both preferred the sopa! It was a bit stronger in flavor, I think.
I sipped my horchata throughout the meal, and we gazed on the slightly creepy Day of the Dead skeletons hanging around as decor. They're brightly colored, so they come off as happily eerie. The whole atmosphere and the food all brought me back to our honeymoon in Santa Fe.

{Photos from La Calaca Comelona}

Out back of the restaurant they have a cute little garden space and an outdoor bar. It was too chilly when we went, but we'll be back! Another horchata, a few tacos, and I'll stay all night long!

Doesn't that sound way better than potatoes and green beer?
Nonetheless, Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Valentine's Day Events

We had a pretty low-key Valentine's Day here. It was Sunday, but since I had to work, Jesse took it upon himself to cook me an amazing dinner. This took days in the making, and required him to hide things in the freezer, go grocery shopping on the sly, and in general sneak around and ban me from the apartment.

My present also took a lot of sneakiness, but less so, because Jesse doesn't usually look in my sewing stash, so I figured I was safe even if I left it out in plain view. I like to take the road that if I don't tell him there's a surprise, he won't even pay attention if I leave things in obvious places. Whereas if he tells me not to look in the fridge, it takes all my strength not to look in the fridge. (I didn't. It was a pleasant surprise.)

So, without further ado, here are our respective Valentine's Day surprises. One of Jesse's presents to me:

 

This is Baked Alaska, in it's natural habitat, the freezer.  This view allows you to see the layers inside: we have chocolate cake, then 3 layers of ice cream (Hagen Daz), topped with a layer of whipped meringue, and finally baked in the oven for a few minutes to turn the meringue night and toasty. When sliced, this is topped by homemade fudge sauce. The whole thing is, in a word, heavenly. And amazing. Delicious. Wonderful. Worthy-of-being-paid-large-sums-for. The rest of the meal was just as good, but really, everything pales in comparison to this.

And my present to Jesse:

Sorry it's sideways. I can't figure out how to turn it around. Anyway, since it's expensive to buy nice lingerie, I figured I could just whip some up! This babydoll cami turned out pretty well. I ripped the lace and the button placket from an old shirt, so the buttons go all the way up the side. It's a little loose, so it really needs straps. (But honestly, it's not like it really needs to stay up anyway. Tee hee.) This is the rest of the fabric I used for my previous pretty blouse, and I'm quite happy with how it was used. I tried to make undies to go with it, but that was a complete disaster. 

This worked out, though. I won't say much more, except that it was pretty well received.  :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Birthday to Me!

We got back last night from Seattle, and here are a few pictures of fun to share.

First we went to the Space Needle in hopes of doing the touristy thing. Unfortunately, the touristy price tag was a bit too high for us, so when presented with the  choice of seeing a cloudy view or going to the "Experience Music Project" Museum, we decided better memories would be made with the latter.

Here is a picture of a giant sculpture made out of over 700 instruments. And then a picture of me playing a theremin, which actually fulfilled a dream of mine. Theremins are pretty awesome, even though it sounded awful when I played it. They show up quite a bit in hokey science fiction movies from the 50s, and in a certain Beach Boys song. I like how the picture makes it look like I'm actually producing that yellow squiggly on the wall.

For dinner we went to the piers and tried a seafood restuarant called Ivan's Acres of Clams. I was hoping to get a picture of said acres, but no luck. I did get a picture of our seagull friend that visited us, though!

Then we headed to our lovely little Bed and Breakfast outside of downtown. It was the perfect little place--lovely without being too cutesy! I did notice when we grabbed breakfast that the other guests had our ages beat by a half century or so.... but it was still perfect. We relaxed and slept in, and I opened the presents we had brought. Then the next day...

Coffee! Wandering around! Exploring! Buying a birthday sweater! Stuffing our bellies full at Pike's Place Market! We ate, in order, a crepe, potstickers and yakisoba noodles, a Russian pastry called a Piroshky, and samples of smoked salmon and dried fruit. At this point we didn't really want to be done, but our stomachs said we were, so we ended at The Crumpet Shop with tea and a crumpet.

Then, stuffed to the brim, fat, and happy, we headed home. I am now 25 years old and still don't like baked beans. But I do like Seattle, my husband, and birthdays.

A Celebration of Hannukah

I don't know much about Hannukah.
One year, in Prague, I went to a Hannukah party where we ended up playing "Drinking Dreidel" and having a dance party. I don't think that was a very traditional Hannukah celebration, though.

This year, I decided we should try to pull off a Hannukah celebration, complete with food and dreidels and everything! Jesse used to celebrate Hannukah when he was growing up, so I thought he'd be a pretty good source of information, but it turns out all he remembers is getting an extra 8 days worth of presents. No help there.

But I figured I knew enough to make the food okay, and we'd just kind of wing it from there. Here's how it turned out...

We mixed the traditional potatoes and onions and fried them crispy brown to make latkes. We even made our own applesauce to put on them!! These turned out delicious--I would most definitely make them again. (The sour cream we tried to make is another story...another blog post...)

We made matzo balls and matzo ball soup. This turned out...not so delicious. I didn't season the soup properly, and the matzo balls tasted a bit like wet crackers, so it was just an all around flavorless, lumpy, wet spoonful you got when you ate it. People politely pushed their spoons around while suggesting things I should have used when making it, like salt and spices. I would say "next time" if there would be one, but I'm fairly sure there won't.

We read a Hannukah story, just to get in the mood. More to know why in the world we were trying to spin a dreidel and eat matzo balls. Here you see Andrea doing a fabulous job of reading The Latke Who Couldn't Stop Screaming, by Lemony Snicket. I recommend it, and judging by the riveted looks on everyone's faces, they do, too.

 

In all, there was hanging out, drinking of wine, laughing at jokes, eating of food, and sharing in the wonderful company of my dear friends who showed up to celebrate a holiday none of us knew anything about.

I might not know the details of Hannukah, but I'd call our little makeshift celebration a smashing success. Happy Hannukah, everyone!!

Next up, Kwanzaa???

O Christmas Tree...

On Sunday we went to cut down our own Christmas tree! This is a step up from last year, when we found our tree in the back of a tree lot, propped him up with a homemade stand, put a hat on his top for want of a better topper, and named him Olaf.

Olaf.

This year we ventured out with the Beedles to cut down our own tree and make some memories. I have to say, Andrea and I were a bit more excited than the men at this memory-making excursion, but they perked up once they were given the saw.

We wandered around a forest of tiny douglas firs, looking for the perfect tree for each of us. It's a pretty big decision! Especially when you have the power of the saw--you don't want to go cutting down the wrong tree.

We finally found the rights ones, and Jesse chopped it down in a very manly way while I sipped my hot chocolate.

Jesse and his tree.

Our marriage's first Christmas tree!

The Beedle's chosen tree.

Andrea and I were so excited to be looking for our first Christmas trees as married couples that we broke in song a few times. Mostly O Christmas tree. Then we danced around one, just to drive the point home.
Now our trees are home, watered, set up, and mostly decorated, looking oh so festive and beautiful.
How lovely are your branches, indeed.

Christmastime in the City

Christmas is finally here! The stores have been decorated since before Halloween, but I don't allow myself to get into the the Christmas mood until after Thanksgiving. To each holiday their due, you know. But now Thanksgiving has past, and it's Christmastime--the most wonderful time of the year! It may or may not be true, but when the cold is biting your nose, cookies are baking, and trees are lit up along the street, it's hard not to believe it.
This year is our second Christmas, but our first as a married couple. I've tried to find decorations to celebrate this important fact, but Jesse doesn't seem to think it's as important, so I've contented myself with a some nice holly branches and a very Martha-Stewart-esque cranberry-filled jar.

 

Notice Mr. Moose. He's new this year, and I feel he's a very welcome addition to the holidays. Also, the cranberries. I seem to have a thing for cranberries this year. I've included them in a few recipes, floated them in my spiced cider, and now they're in my December decorations. Mostly, I just love how they float. You can't see it very well in this picture, but they float very nicely, and sticking your hands into a bowl of floating cranberries is incredibly satisfying as they lightly bump up against your fingers. I've always thought cranberry farming would be a good job, solely for this reason.

So it's December 1st, and I've decorated my cozy home, baked cookies, and listened to festive music. The holidays have begun!

This Year's Thanksgiving

In photos...

Jesse in the kitchen.

He made Poached Pear Tart with Chocolate Ganache... oh my word.

I made cranberry apple cider. I just love how cranberries float.

The spread of food (after we demolished half of it.) Homebaked bread, corned beef, green beans, mashed potatoes....mmm!

Suki wanted some, too.

Our Post-Dinner walk, to make room for leftovers.

We found a bridge, and drank hot chocolate!

The Ghost of Thanksgiving Past

Thanksgiving is sneaking in on me this year. It seems like it was just Halloween! Thanksgiving is always that weird holiday that is a big deal, but no one's quite sure why. Sure, we're all thankful that the Pilgrims survived to be fruitful and multiply, but half of us came in on a later boat anyway. And we also know that the pilgrims and Native Americans didn't have the best of relations, no matter what our 5th grade school play tells us.
So it's become this strange family celebration that centers around food, and the awkward tradition of announcing what you're thankful for. But since it's always fun to eat, and it's good to be thankful for things, I won't argue. Instead, I'll remember a few Thanksgivings that stick out to me.

1) I'm about 12 or so, and it was just my parents and I for Thanksgiving that year. We'd decided to do something different, so we had gone to the library to get cookbooks from another country, and make a cultural feast. That year it was Mexico--the next it was France. The tradition only lasted 2-3 years, but I remember always being so very excited with what we could come up with.

2) I'm in college, and everyone is home for the holidays. Thanksgiving is generally a day to sleep in and veg until it's time to eat, but for some reason my parents decide it's a great idea to do our town's Turkey Trot--a 5k race way too early on Thanksgiving. Since they threatened no food unless we did it, I bundled myself up and flailed my way to the finish line. You know that terrible feeling of being out of shape plus being in cold weather? The feeling of your lungs giving out on you? That year, I was thankful I survived.

3) 2007. I'm in Prague, Czech Republic, teaching English. This memory has two parts, really. Part 1 includes the actual day of Thanksgiving, where my roommate and I got locked out of our apartment and had to borrow metro money and coats from the old Czech lady next door to find someone to unlock it.  You know what we were thankful for.... 
Part II is where we celebrated our very own American Thanksgiving with a lot of English teachers stuck in a country that doesn't do Thanksgiving. We pulled out a potluck feast complete with turkey, casseroles, veggies, and my new tradition of making kolaches!

 

4) 2008: my first Thanksgiving with Jesse and his family. I was introduced to all sorts of new "traditional" food like apricot balls, chick-lets, tried a couple new recipes of my own, and continued my kolache-making tradition. Plus, Jesse and I struck gold with the leftovers and went home with our next 25 meals. Score!

So, those are just a few that stand out in my mind. It's funny, I don't really remember strong, solid, Thanksgiving traditions. We seemed to change it up every year depending on who was there, who was vegetarian, and where we were. My Thanksgiving requirements are being around good people, with good food, and maybe getting to see some of the Macy's parade. Then, putting up decorations and turning on holiday music, because it's Christmastime!!