Seattle!

Julie and I took a vacation earlier this month to the Pacific Northwest all the way down to San Francisco.  We had never been to Seattle so we wanted to go check it out, so we decided to head there for a few days, then rent a car and drive down the Pacific Coast Highway to San Fran to see Julie's Aunt and Uncle there.  We have a boatload of pictures, so I think we'll do this in a few segments.  First up is our time in Seattle.

We spent Memorial Day weekend in Seattle, which accidentally coincided with the Folklife Festival bringing out all of the hippies and just about everyone else in town it seemed.  Our drive from the airport was made much longer because of the line of cars heading downtown, right where our hotel was located.  But we got in just fine, and after a quick nap we headed out to see the town.  We stopped at the Pike Place Market first and saw the first Starbucks, the fish throwing butchers,  and tons of people looking around the market.

The first Starbucks!

After the Market we walked our way back to our hotel that was about a mile north.  We grabbed some hamburgers at a local favorite called Dick's.  Then we headed through the Folklife Festival and grabbed a snack and watched people by the fountain Key Arena and then turned in for the night.

Sunday morning we had a date set up with Theo Chocolate to take a factory tour.  The factory is in Fremont which meant that we had to either drive or walk two miles over Queen Anne Hill.  We choose to walk, and man they really mean it is a hill!  We woke up pretty early and had found out that there was a farmer's market by the factory so we thought we would go get some fruit for breakfast and then hit up the chocolate...  well we didn't know that the market didn't really start until 10 am, so we decided to find a coffee shop and get some breakfast there.  We found ETG in Fremont and it was a wonderful little place.  Then since we still had time we made our way over three blocks to find the Fremont Troll.  He holds a real VW Bug.

This is what Julie and I plan on doing when we retire!

Wonderful street food at the Market

That is a real VW bug!

Then it was about time for chocolate!  We had a great tour of the only Organic, Free Trade Chocolate Factory in the USA.  We learned that all their flavored chocolate is mixed by hand which is pretty impressive for the amount of chocolate they sell across the country.  You can find them at Whole Foods and REI.  After the tour we headed to the farmer's market and found some pizza for lunch.  After lunch we walked back over Queen Anne Hill and then headed to the Flagship REI store to pick up some camping supplies.

After we found everyone at REI we headed back to our hotel to get ready for our big fancy dinner at the top of the Space Needle!!    We had a great dinner, mostly because of the view, the food was fine, but a bit pricey, but then we were eating dinner in a rotating restaurant at the top of the Space Needle!  It was totally worth it!

The following morning we headed to Oregon!

DC in May

Well we are back from our trip down the West Coast, but I figured I should write a quick blog about a trip I took out to DC for one of my best college friend's bachelorette party!  I flew out with Liz and we meet up with the other girls that flew into DC and then we all headed over to Candice's place for a big surprise!  She had no idea we were coming and her fiance Chris did a great job setting everything up with one of my other best college friends Amy!

Candice surprised

Ruth, Jan, Me, Candice, Amy, Rachel and Liz

We had a great time hanging out the night we got there!  There was a ton to catch up on!  I don't think Chris got a word in with all of us girls there!  The next day we were lucky enough to be in town for an air show at Andrew's Air Force Base.  We spent the afternoon watching all sorts of planes fly overhead and then we got to end the air show with the Blue Angels!

Candice and Chris

After the Blue Angels we headed back to Candice's to get ready for a night out!  We had to take a group shot and then since we are all Sailfish, we had to show some school spirit!  We went out for dinner in Claredon and then danced the rest of the night away.

You wish, you wish, you wish you were a fish!

The following morning we all finally woke up and then after lunch we all headed back to our homes.  We took one last group shot minus Jan.

On the way home it was the night of Eclipse, which Liz and I could see in Dallas!

Can't wait for the wedding!

Bicycling...no cooking!

Julie decided to skip this week's Tuesday's with Dorie baking thing, for a few reasons.  We had quite a bit of stuff going on this weekend and on Monday so we didn't have much time, and well...the recipe called for 7 sticks of butter!!!!!  Seriously, 7 sticks of butter.  I can only imagine the resulting pecan rolls would have been delicious, but I don't think that I need 3 1/2 sticks of butter for breakfast. 

So to help fill the void, I thought it would be a good idea to talk about how we are trying to stay somewhat fit against the bi-weekly flood of buttery goodness! 

As we mentioned a while back, we bought some bicycles from the REI, and have become regular cyclists since then. OK, probably not so much just yet, but we have been riding when the Spring weather has allowed.  Tonight Julie and I went out for a ride with our friend Kim, and it was quite lovely.  We rode from the Starbucks right by our house up the road to King Soopers, down close to the Garden of the Gods, and back home, for a total of 11 miles.  We are still new to this bicycling thing, so we didn't bring the camera, but here is a lovely picture of our map, and our elevation gain (since we're in Colorado and all).

We started up at top, and rode South, then came home

The scale is a bit odd...but those were some tough hills

This wasn't just for fun and cookies, we are actually training for a bicycle event!  Not a race at all, just an evening ride through Colorado Springs, called the Starlight Spectacular!  This is a ride which does a big loop starting by the Garden of the Gods, heading to downtown Colorado Springs and then back up to the park.  It is a 14 mile loop, so we have to get our legs and rear ends ready for the event!  It happens on June 9th so watch out for our post about that, but it starts at 10 PM so we might not have many pictures! 

TWD: Baking with Julia - Hungarian Shortbread

Whoa I can't believe another two weeks have already flown by.  Over the weekend Mikey helped me make the Hungarian Shortbread, you can view the recipe of butter at 1smallkitchen or The not so exciting adventures of a dabbler.  The recipe was pretty easy to put together, especially after all the butter got to room temperature!

Here is the butter and sugar getting mixed with the egg yolks.

After the dough was all put together we stuck it in the freezer so it could get hard enough to grate with our box grater.

I grated the first half of the dough and let it cook for about ten minutes in the oven before adding some homemade strawberry jelly and then added the second half of the dough.  The strawberry jelly was made last year with my parents, it has been a tradition to whip up some strawberry jelly since the first time we  all made some over three years ago to give out as our wedding favors!  We have one jar left, but can't seem to use that one for sentimental reasons.  Is it even still going to be good?  Oh well.. back to the shortbread.  Here is the grated dough and the precooked assembly.

Ta-da, it cooked wonderfully!  I had to leave the house so Mikey was helpful, as usual, and took it out when it had achieved a wonderfully golden crust!  Then he coated it with powdered sugar.  Of course he cleaned it up before I got home, but he said he got sugar everywhere!  It was worth it!

I cut it up into pretty small pieces and took it to work to share!  There was no way I was going to leave all that buttery goodness in the house!

TWD: Baking with Julia - Lemon Loaf Cake

Yum, I like lemons! And I like cake! I was pretty excited about a Lemon Loaf Cake, so we decided to make it last week after we took a bike ride and it turned out great.

We started out with the getting the lemons zested!

Then we mixed up the flour and heavy cream and lemon zest and the eggs. There was more in it, but I can't remember... you can check out the recipes on the hosts of this week's recipe at Treats or The Beauty of Life. They have some great pictures!

We got it all mixed and into the oven. The recipe said to let it cook for 50-60 minutes, but in the world of breads I have learned they take a lot longer. I blame the Colorado altitude! So, after about 70 minutes in the oven, it looked done, even though the top didn't split, so I used a toothpick and it came out clean so I called it fully cooked!  After letting it cool for a approximately four seconds, I cut a piece and had the first bite!  I really waited a lot longer than four seconds, but I was anxiously awaiting it to cool!

I was a little surprised at how non-lemony it turned out to be.  We thought about making some lemony icing to put on top, but figured we didn't need that much sugar and that it was excellent by itself.  I think it would be great for a strawberry shortcake type of dessert and I think I would make it again someday!

I also learned that it needed a lot of grease in the pan... but somehow we didn't mind eating the bottom that got stuck in the pan!  Don't tell!

The Dog Blog!

So, I would think if you are reading this, you are probably familiar with the fact that Mikey is allergic to every animal know to man. Well, except maybe a fish, but a dog in our house is probably never going to happen. Which is why when some friends and I went for a walk with all of their dogs I couldn't resist the opportunity to play and take pictures of them!!

We headed to the Santa Fe Trail for a four mile loop trip from Woodmen Rd to Ice Lake. Everyone but Aaron and I have dogs, but we all had a great time! Here are the dog blog pictures!

First we have Aaron and Kirsten with Kahlua and Lucy. Then there is the Tameaka with Zen with Aaron and Kirsten. Then the back of Keli with Powder and Zen in the lake. Then the only picture of me, with Kirsten and Lucy. Then Tameaka and Aaron's engagement picture... well not really, Tameaka is marrying Roger in July!!! Then there is Keli and Kirsten with Powder and Lucy. And lastly is the whole group getting some water! Hope you could tell which were dogs and which were people!!

While walking, we came across two snakes and the following deer leg bone... a gross nature walk somehow got thrown in to our beautiful weather dog walk. But it was a great walk, and hopefully we all can get together again for another dog blog! Don't let this last picture haunt you! hehe.

TWD: Baking with Julia - Pizza Rustica

Well it's Tuesday, which means another baking adventure story is coming your way! This week's recipe was called Pizza Rustica, but I think it is better described as a quiche with a lot of cheese! The hosts of this week were Emily of Capitol Region Dining and Raelyenn of The Place They Call Home. You can check out the full recipe at their sites if you are interested!

The recipe said it was considered a casual finger food in Italy, even though it looks a bit fancier. It started with a sweet crust, kind of like a pie crust and not a pizza crust. Then there were some eggs followed by a lot of cheeses - ricotta, mozzarella, and pecorino romano. And some parsley and prosciutto. I decided to throw in a few chopped onions and that was about it! It was easy to whip together, except the proscuitto was a little hard to get into small pieces. Mikey helped out with shredding it! Then I made a lattice crust topping and stuck in the oven. Here are a few pictures we took along the way. I made them a little bit smaller than usual, but you get the gist.

After we got it in the oven, we were hoping it would turn out ok because we planned on eating it for dinner! It was actually pretty good! I was a little surprised that I liked it because it was not like any pizza I had ever had. I am not sure we would make it again, but I am glad we tried it. We might try it again if we are actually back in Italy for the real thing!!! Well, that and some gelato!