katycoffey

Rainier

2012-02-04T17:33:00.001-08:00

February has been a beautiful month so far and Joel keeps reminding me that while winter and spring are dark and gloomy in Seattle, February is the second or third best month around here. To enjoy our first weekend day this month we headed up to Rainier for a great day of snowshoeing.

On our drive home we were in the right place at the right time and stumbled across this amazing view.

Here is a cell phone pic for now, more pictures from our day later.

2012-02-04T08:52:00.001-08:00

Crafty January

2012-01-29T20:19:00.001-08:00

Between the house remodel and a super busy work schedule, I haven’t been very crafty over the past few years. After finishing my Christmas craft, I decided that this year I’ll complete at least one crafty project a month. To start January off right, I decided to finish up a baby quilt I had started a few years ago, and luckily got it finished just in time to give to a co-worked the week before she had her first baby. I figured I probably shouldn’t start on 12 new projects without finishing the ones I had in limbo!

To make this quilt, I bought a set of flannel receiving blankets from Target or Fred Meyer (like I said, it was a few years ago that I started this!). I then just found a pattern that seemed like it would be fun to make and cut up the receiving blankets into the right right sizes.

For the backing I found some flannel at JoAnn’s that matched the rest of blanket and cut it down to size. I used the same fabric for the binding as I used on the back. This is only the second quilt I’ve finished (besides a bunch of little patchwork quilts as a kid ), and I’ve used this tutorial from Heather Bailey for the binding of both of them.

Here’s the top:

And a close-up of one of the blocks:

All finished!

One project down, 11 to go!

A Fun Christmas Craft

2012-01-01T14:18:00.001-08:00

During November I stumbled across a tutorial for an adorable little Christmas ornament of a Matryoshko Doll. I decided right then that I just HAD TO make some as gifts for family and friends.

Here is the Matryoshka Doll Ornament from the tutorial.

I’ll be the first to admit that my embroidery skills are seriously lacking, but Danielle’s instructions were SO easy to follow. I made a few tiny modifications…I didn’t do quite as much embroidering, I used some different stitches, and I just put all my pieces on my top background instead of embroidering onto the white pieces and then onto the back…but I think they turned out so cute!! (oh yeah – and I picked out a bunch of different colors too!)

I cut out the pattern (I think I printed out the pattern at about 25%), and traced it onto a manila folder. I then cut that out and used it as a guide for all the dolls I made.

Now I just need to make one more to keep for myself!

A HUGE thank you to Danielle of MySparkle for putting together this awesome tutorial. Everyone I gifted these to just loved them!

Spicy Cedar Plank Salmon

2011-09-21T19:23:00.001-07:00

Joel surprised me tonight and brought home a whole coho salmon. What can I say – he knows what I like. (a quick side-note - a couple times a year when salmon is in season and the grocery stores have good prices on fresh wild salmon we’ll buy a whole fish to filet out into individual meal sizes, vacuum seal, and freeze for a later date.)

Living in Seattle we have the opportunity (privilege?) of eating delicious fresh seafood all year long. Even with all the seafood we eat, we have pretty simple tastes and normally make things the same way every time. Steamed clams, steamed crab, shrimp with lemon and garlic, salmon on a cedar plank…while I love to cook, we aren’t about to take risks with our precious seafood.

Tonight I decided to take a small risk with our salmon and tried a new recipe (of course I wasn’t stepping too far out of the box, because we still grilled it on a cedar plank and one of the main ingredients was brown sugar). It was definitely a risk worth taking – I would highly recommend trying Real Simple’s Cedar Plank Salmon. Sweet, with a surprise spicy bite – Joel and I agree this recipe is a keeper! Easy ingredients – thyme, cayenne, brown-sugar and of course salmon, and while the recipe said to grill it for 40 minutes, since we didn’t grill up a full 2 pounds of salmon – we just grilled up 2 portions worth – it only took about 10 minutes of grill time.

I forgot to take my own picture – but here is the Real Simple picture – DELICIOUS!

Playing Dress-Up

2011-09-16T22:48:00.001-07:00

We’ve done a substantial amount of work to the inside of our house, but unfortunately over the past (almost) 5 years that we’ve been in this house we’ve neglected the poor outside. We did upgrade the paint job, but other than that we’ve let nature take its course..literally…blackberries completely overtook the backyard, in fact, if you only saw the backyard you would have thought that the house had been vacant for twenty years…This summer we’ve been putting a lot of work into the outside of the house. More posts will come, but we rebuilt the backyard fence, pulled out all of the blackberry bushes, created a little patio off the side of the driveway (okay, really more of a parking spot for the bbq), and laid down some bark.

The outside is definitely coming together, and is leaps and bounds better looking than it was 4 months again, but really still needs some help.

Here it is now…well almost now – a couple weekends ago we replaced the window on the left, but I’ll post about that later.

I’ve been playing a little photoshop dress-up tonight.

Cedar shingles on the upper front triangle of the house

Re-roofing (our current roof is nearing the end of its life) in a darker shade

and now for the chimney…stucco

or maybe some faux river rock…ooo…pretty….

I’m not sure we’re digging the cedar shingles, but I do think the front face of the house needs something to add a little personality…any ideas?

San Diego Zoo

2011-08-30T21:01:00.001-07:00

We’re getting ready to head down to San Diego for a fun weekend getaway this fall…I just stumbled across this picture from the San Diego zoo and now I just can’t wait!

Thank you TripAdvisor for the awesome pictures!

Summer Reading (part 2)

2011-07-29T09:11:00.000-07:00

A few more of my summer reads.

Summer Reading

2011-07-27T21:10:00.001-07:00

I’m managed to do a lot of reading so far this spring/summer (thank you rainy Seattle summer!)

Here are some books that have make it onto my nook…a big thank you to the Seattle Public Library – I haven’t had to buy a single book!

finishing off the fireplace

2011-07-25T22:08:00.001-07:00

You may remember that our fireplace originally looked like this:

and then for awhile it looked like this…

We decided we wanted to have a simple mantel, something that was modern, finished looking, and pulled the place together. simple – nothing fancy. I’m not sure why it took us so long to put it together, because it really was a simple project…although it did take 2 tries to get it right.

take 1: we attached the trim first, then primed and painted, then put caulking on it to smooth out some of the dents and knots, and then tried sanding it back down to paint again. needless to say, this wasn’t the best approach – and luckily our supplies were cheap because into our scrap pile they went. our caulk was old and never dried, sanding after priming was a major fail, and trying to do anything on the uneven surface from attaching the trim first was just hopeless.

take 2: no pictures this time – I just wanted to get the thing finished. this time we did it in the right order.

step 1: sand
step 2: prime
step 3: paint
step 4: attach the trim
step 5: paint the trim
step 6: attach directly to the brick using liquid nails!

and it is FINISHED!

Our Home: Now (July 2011)

2011-07-10T11:53:00.001-07:00

So I finally got around to taking some “after” shots of the house so you can see the progress we’ve made since moving in. The word “after” should be taken lightly because clearly there is still some work to be done (like finishing the mantle…a project I’m working on right now and will hopefully share the finished product soon). Okay – I admit it – the house was only clean enough to take pictures of because we had people over last night. I think we should have people over more often just so we are forced to keep the house clean!

Living Room: View from the front door before…

and AFTER!

view from the hallway into the living room before:

now:

another after (without the mantle) of the living room – this poor picture doesn’t have a matching before, but it will survive. oh..and yes, it is July, and yes, we have a Christmas tree. that’s how we roll.

view from the living room into the dining room before:

and now!

view from the kitchen into the dining room before:

and now:

master bedroom then:

and now:

and I don’t have a before picture of the master bathroom, but here it is now:

Guest Bedroom then:

now:

and the office:

now:

bathroom 1:

now:

Clearly decorating (and adding some COLOR!!!) needs to be a priority, but I think it is so much better than before!!!

Seattle Rock’n’Roll

2011-06-25T16:02:00.001-07:00

Today I completed my first half marathon! Besides a little charley horse in my calf right after the 2nd mile, everything went well. I was really nervous because I wasn’t very good about getting in my training runs (eek!) but I FINISHED and I did it averaging 12 minute miles – which, all things considered, I’m very pleased with it!

Here’s the starting line at 5:45 am…nothing like being early

My corral right around starting time…can’t even really see the starting line!

and we’re getting close!

and closer! let’s get this show started!

Yeah!!! I’m a finisher!

ugh.

2011-06-15T18:52:00.001-07:00

I got stuck with a bunch of these this week:

I haven’t missed work yet, but am definitely not on my A-game. who gets a nasty cold in the summer??

apparently I do.

Dreaming of the Beach

2011-06-13T21:47:00.001-07:00

I’m not going to lie, tonight’s episode of the Bachelorette inspired this post. Ashley and the remaining bachelors are on the island of Phuket, Thailand and the scenery is absolutely gorgeous. Southeast Asia, specifically Thailand are very high on my must-see list, so consider this a little pre-trip (very pre-trip since it will probably be a few years before we make it there!) planning. Do you think I can convince Joel that trip planning is the reason I seem to be addicted to watching the Bachelorette?

There are so many places to see in Thailand, I don’t even know where to start. Of course we’ll probably hit up Bangkok and Phuket, and we’ll spend some time in Pattaya to help out 3L Foundation to finally see the hard work my cousin has poured her heard into….but besides that, I don’t know how to pick where to go (in my mind, there is no time limitation on this trip)! Since some of the favorite places we’ve travelled to are smaller, low-key, less touristy places it seems like Ko Maak, a small island south of Ko Chang might be the place for us.

Who can pass up crystal clear water like this?

And these views?

So beautiful!

The first settler on the island established a coconut plantation. Most of the island is still owned by the original family that settled there.

Totally a side note – I stumbled across this picture while looking for pictures of Koh Chang. What in the world?? The website didn’t say anything more than that you too can have a close encounter with a whale shark….ummm – I love snorkeling and really all things water sports but I DON’T really want to get this close to a whale shark!

Our home: Before–the bathroom

2011-06-12T15:18:00.001-07:00

When we first purchased the house we had 1.5 bathrooms. The bathroom with the shower/bath combo was in the hallway and the master bath was just a toilet and a sink. Unfortunately I only have a before picture of the full bathroom – you’ll just have to imagine the half bath – it had the same seashell sink as the picture below and had beautiful bows and flowers stenciled on the walls like the master bedroom did.

Semi-Before: the main bathroom (we had started painting this bathroom – the true “before” bathroom was all that sunshine yellow color)

photo organizing…and a cute kitty

2011-06-11T20:08:00.001-07:00

I’ve been trying to figure out the best way to organize and share my pictures online. For a few years I was an adamant user of flickr but this past year when my pro account expired I decided not to renew because off all the other free online resources out there. Now I have the tricky task of choosing which resource will be the best for me. Anyone have a recommendation?

Since deciding not to continue with flickr I have been going through my account to make sure all the pictures saved out there are saved on my hard drive. Without my pro account I can only see my 200 most recent pictures, so part of the process I’m going through is deleting the pictures that I know are saved. If you read any of my older blog posts some of the pictures won’t show up – sometime I’ll go back and repost them (sorry for any interruption!)

I stumbled across this picture of cute kitten we found in the streets in Peru while cleaning out flickr.

good reads. No One You Know

2011-06-10T09:25:00.000-07:00

This was the first book of Michelle Richmond’s that I have read, and I am definitely looking forward to picking up (okay – checking out) another one of her books. I laughed, I cried, and the detail made me feel like I was next to Ellie, the narrator; from the coffee fields in Nicaragua to the coffee shops in San Francisco, I was right there the whole time.

good reads. the NOOK

2011-06-09T09:26:00.000-07:00

Growing up I was quite the book worm. Ask anyone in my family - my nose was always in a book. I remember one summer of lifeguarding in highschool I was reading 2 or 3 books a week; it was a really slow pool and I had A LOT of downtime…it was AWESOME (almost as awesome as my tan was that summer ) Over the past several years my reading material shifted to CPA study guides, financial statements, and accounting guidance…not exactly my definition good reading. I was excited when I left public accounting last summer because it meant I would have more time for leisure reading. As a late adopter of the e-reader craze and being the incredibly cheap person I am, I did a lot of research last fall to decide exactly which e-reader would be the perfect fit for me.

I narrowed the field down to the Kindle, the Nook, and the pocket edition of the Sony reader. After many hours of research and too many trips to Barnes & Noble, Target, and Best Buy, I jumped in and purchased the Nook. The ability to check out library books put the Nook above the Kindle in my book (no pun intended), and the size of the screen was the determining factor that took the Sony reader out of play. I’ve been really happy with my purchase and my Nook is now a required item on any packing list.

The Seattle Public Library has an awesome inventory of digital books and so far I haven’t had to actually purchase any books to read, another major plus for my thrifty lifestyle! They do have limited licenses on books, so I’ve had to put holds on some of the newer releases, but there is always something good to read and the holds don’t take too long.

Since I’m always looking for good reading list I figured I should probably start sharing some of the books I’ve been reading too; so be on the lookout of some of these books over my next few posts!

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

Okay – I just went out to Barnes & Noble to link to my Nook only to find out they have a NEW Nook – a few inches shorter than mine – but the same display size, full touch screen, better battery life than the Kindle and all sorts of other fun features. SO COOL!

Before–the outside version

2011-06-08T20:24:00.001-07:00

Our Home: Before

2011-05-26T21:11:00.001-07:00

Looking back on our home remodel project, I’m really disappointed we didn’t do a better job of taking before pictures of our house. (I guess that is a note for next time!)
Here are some of the before pictures we actually have – they aren’t true before pictures because the day we were handed the keys to the house I pulled up the carpet. The previous owner didn’t believe in cleaning and had WAY too many pets for this size of a house – add that to 20 year old carpets and you’ve created a recipe for disaster on my allergies.
These pictures are from the weekend we moved into the house. I’d apologize for the mess, but for the 4 (going on 5) years of our remodel our house has been in a semi-constant state of disorganization. I’m actually surprised we both make it out of the house fully dressed for work every morning. Well – I guess it isn’t actually that bad, but some days it sure feels like it.
Alright – here it goes…
Our living room – view from the front door:

view from the hallway into the living room

view from the living room into the dining room:

view of the stylish orange wall down the hallway:

View into the kitchen from the dining room:

Master bedroom (let me ask you – who doesn’t want a princess pink master bedroom with frilly white curtains?)

guest bedroom 1:

Guest bedroom 2:

it looks like I still need to dig up some before pictures of the bathrooms before sharing the after pictures.

2011-05-19T06:46:00.000-07:00

10 years ago today I went on my last first date….we started with bowling and then caught the AMAZING movie Joe Dirt at the movie theater….the rest is history.

To celebrate 10 years, I thought I would share a few pictures…enjoy!

2001 - Our first dance.

2002 - My high school graduation:

2003 – Joel’s Senior Prom

2004 – Halloween in my college apartment

2005 – Easter in my college apartment

2006 – JOEL PROPOSED!

2007 – Snow in Seattle

2008 – Trip around the Olympic Peninsula

2009 – Whale watching in Puget Sount

2010 – One of our few Argentina pictures

2011 – Bellingham for my cousin’s graduation

2009 Papio Cabernet Sauvignon (by Joel)

2011-04-23T22:39:00.001-07:00

2009 12 Apostles Cabernet Sauvignon Review (by Joel)

2011-04-16T19:51:00.001-07:00

If you haven’t read any of my previous wine reviews, all you need to know beforehand is that I focus on the value of the wine based on what I paid. I am not only looking for a good tasting wine, but I’m looking for a great wine at a great price. If you want more detail on how I define a good value, see my first wine review. So now to the review…
The bottle is a 2009 12 Apostles Cabernet Sauvignon from Aussie Vineyards. We bought this at Grocery Outlet for $2.99. Aussie Vineyards lists Grocery Outlet as the only US distributor so I ignore the regular price of $12.99 that Grocery Outlet claims the wine sells for elsewhere. In my previous review of a 2009 Buckley’s Cove cabernet, I suspected that the 12 Apostles cabernet and the Buckley’s Cove cabernet were in fact the same wine under two different brandings by Aussie Vineyards. After trying both, I no longer think that it is the same wine. The Buckley’s Cove was a terrible wine, getting a low value rating and an overall score of 2 out of 10. I’m happy to report the 12 Apostles is a little better.

The wine itself has a dark appearance that glows more purple than red. Like the other south Australian cabernet’s I’ve had, 12 Apostles was too dry for my taste. It had a sweet plum and berry flavor. It’s mild flavor left it feeling underaged. For the price I paid, I was content enough to finish the bottle but I won’t be buying again unless my options were pretty limited. If you’ve pulled this review up on your phone while standing in the wine aisle, my recommendation would be to try the wine for yourself if you get it at $3 but pass at any higher price.

Wine rating: 4 out of 10
Value Rating: Medium

wishing I was here.

2011-04-16T11:13:00.001-07:00

sorry for the lag in posting…life has been busy and I’m longing for a vacation or at least a weekend with hints that spring is coming…nice blue sky, warm weather

I just discovered pinterest.com….what a cool site!

2009 Buckley’s Cove Cabernet Sauvignon Review (by Joel)

2011-04-10T19:13:00.001-07:00

Time for another wine review! Katy and I loaded up on the recent Grocery Outlet 20% Off Sale, buying almost 20 bottles of wine. Most of the wines were cabernets, my favorite along with malbecs. After a big purchase like this, I have a lot of wines to choose from when starting a new bottle. I have a tendency to drink the ones I am least interested first, working my way towards my favorites.

For my first bottle from the batch, I chose a cabernet sauvignon from south eastern Australia. The wine is a 2009 cab branded as Buckley’s Cove. The reason I was least interested in this particular wine is because its labeling leads me to believe that it is branded under several different labels sold at Grocery Outlet, most likely all the same wine. With so many wines out there, I rarely like to drink the same wine twice. Suspecting that this wine was bottled under several different labels that I purchased made me feel a little cheated. However, the bottle was only $2.99 before the 20% discount, so I can’t gripe too much. Grocery Outlet claims the bottle sells for $12.99 elsewhere, which I find funny since the distributor lists Grocery Outlet as the only US seller. In other words, this is regularly a $3 bottle of wine. So at $3, is it a good value?

I chose to use an aerator on the freshly opened bottle. If you have never used an aerator, I assure you it is not a myth that it instantly changes the taste of a wine. The difference is always noticeable, but it doesn’t always improve the flavor. On some wines, I like the changed taste, others not so much. On the Buckley’s, my first glass was underwhelming. The taste was overly sweet with a tart aftertaste. It tasted like berries that were not ripe yet, which is not an appealing flavor. I gave this wine another shot without the aerator. It was still too tart and had a strange sparkling water-like zing. I may have trouble even finishing this bottle. On a scale of 1 to 10, I give this wine a 2 with the aerator, 3 without it.

I try to give all wines an equal chance, keeping in mind that price inherently can impact perception. With an open mind, this still tastes like a wine that should be priced at $3.
Wine rating: 2 out of 10
Value Rating: Low

Guest Post: 2005 Le Chanceux Cabernet Sauvignon Review (by Joel)

2011-04-08T20:56:00.001-07:00

This blog is typically not about wine, partly because Katy doesn't drink wine very often. However, she really likes it when I guest blog so I decided to use her blog for a wine review. I'll begin with my credentials; I have none. I drink a lot of wine but don't think I qualify as a wineo. Most of the wine I drink comes from Grocery Outlet, a "bargain market" that sells deeply discounted items acquired from overstocked distributors or liquidating businesses. I typically pay less than $10 a bottle, often less than $5. Like everything I buy, I look for value. If I buy a bottle of wine for $15 that is usually priced at $100, that is a good deal. But if that same wine tastes the same as a $5 bottle of wine, it was not a good value. I find that Grocery Outlet typically offers good value for wine. All the wine aficionados probably stopped reading at $5, so for the rest of us, here is my review.

My latest Grocery Outlet treasure is a 2005 Le Chanceux Cabernet Sauvignon. This vintage is from Belle Filles Vineyard of Napa Valley. The pricetag (if you believe it) said the normal price is $50, but Grocery Outlet sold it to me for $10. I googled the label and found that the bottle actually does sell for around $50 at other retailers so it was a good deal, but was it a good value?

The first thing I noticed was like most of the 5+ year old vintages I have had, this cabernet has developed a fair amount of sediment in the bottle. I like to call it the "pulp". You can avoid getting much of the pulp if you are careful to not agitate the bottle too much when pouring, but it doesn't bother me either way. On first taste, I noticed a pretty deep oak taste and tobacco. There is very little sweetness to this wine and it is very smooth. I don't know all the wine terminology but I would say the taste is quite bold or rich. It has a deep, lasting aroma like a malbec. Overall, I would give it a 9.5 out of 10. For a $10 price tag, that is the value I am looking for in a wine. If you happen to find this for a similar price, grab a few bottles!

Don’t Cry For Me Argentina! (Part 4)

2011-04-07T09:51:00.000-07:00

For some reason Windows Live Writer didn’t like it when I had parts 2-3 combined into one post…or parts 3-4 in one post. I’m REALLY not trying to drag out this series!
The devils throat.

The devils nostrils?

Two miniature otolaryngologists in the devil's throat.

More route 68.

In this photo: Little foot. The Great Valley.

Red rock.

More red rock.

Even more red rock!

The GOL smiles for one last photograph before getting broken into at a mall parking lot in Salta. No more cameras = no more pictures.

Can I move here?

2011-04-06T01:21:00.000-07:00

Sunday Project

2011-04-05T08:45:00.000-07:00

Joel decided to make some good use of his time on Sunday and build a drawer organizer for our silverware drawer.
Before:

Planning the design:

The builder:

a couple hours of work and an awesome new silverware drawer:

Lowes Coupon!

2011-04-04T09:47:00.000-07:00

If you are anything like me you are ALWAYS looking for a good deal and often make multiple trips to HomeDepot or Lowes in any given weekend.

Here is a coupon for $10 off your next $50 purchase (and I always seem to get up to $50 pretty quickly…)

Don’t Cry For Me Argentina! (Part 3)

2011-04-03T08:27:00.000-07:00

Another lesson learned. I take pictures of people. Joel takes pictures of scenery. Since my pictures got stolen we ended up with primarily pictures of scenery. I swear we were both on this trip…and had good intentions of getting lots of pictures with both of us in it…I was even taking a series of pictures of joel taking pictures. it was going to be awesome…maybe next trip

Get your kicks on route 68.

And that killer cacti!

These next pictures are not from Alcova. Again, that's for the Wyoming peeps.

Route 68 between Salta and Cafayate, Argentina.

The water looked like tomato soup but tasted like dirt.

Yet another child star fallen on hard times, Wishbone now roams the lonely canyons of Northern Argentina looking for food.

Grocery Outlet Wine Shopping

2011-04-02T16:59:00.001-07:00

This weekend the Grocery Outlet is having a wine sale - 20% off all wine purchases. In case you didn’t know – the Grocery Outlet’s wine is already REALLY discounted ($12 wine for $4) and they have a pretty good selection too!
I’ll post pictures/details of our purchase, but for now:

Joel was pretty excited about our wine shopping excursion!

Don’t Cry For Me Argentina! (part 2)

2011-04-01T07:15:00.000-07:00

Again – Joel gets the credit for the photo commentary…Joel also gets all of the credit for the photos since he was the smart one and downloaded pictures throughout the trip….when our bags got stolen so did my cameras and a week’s worth of my pictures. Lesson learned.
Cabra Corral

Argentine Chef Boyaredee. This stuff was amazing!

A happy girl!

A bridge

Yellow rock

Don’t Cry For Me Argentina! (part 1)

2011-03-31T21:57:00.001-07:00

I don’t remember whether or not I shared the story of us getting robbed (okay – not that dramatic…our car got broken into) in Argentina…so sometime I will…but in the meantime, these are the pictures from the part of our trip that we DID have a camera for. You’ll have to give Joel credit for the captions on the pictures…these are the comments he posted on his facebook album.

The ferry from Colonia, Uruguay to Buenos Aires is called the BUQUEBUS. Every time I saw this word, it reminded me of the BBQ BUS that would grill burgers at my elementary school on track day. My Casper peeps know what I'm talking about.

The steak in Argentina is a bit better than you get from the BBQ bus.

Katy operating the elevator like a pro. This is the first elevator I have been on that requires turning a doorknob

On our flight to Salta, our Nalgene bottle leaked about a liter of water into the overhead compartment above us. We found out that water pouring through the light fixtures does not cause an electrical fire in the cabin of a Boeing 737. Good job Boeing!

Blocks of salt stacked behind a mound of salt. FUN FACT: The Salinas salt flats are one of only a couple places on Earth with more white bricks than Charlie Sheen's basement

The fearless Volkswagen GOL, ye are the salt of the earth

Argentina is very high in sodium.

Want a mountain pass road that never needs plowed? Build it out of salt!

Argentine grape juice. Malbec = winning, DUH!

Lazy Lizard

2011-03-30T06:43:00.000-07:00

I just found pictures of this outdoor bar/restaurant in Caye Caulker. It sounds like people just hang out on the beach at the restaurant and go snorkeling right there. Apparently the view of the sunset from there is awesome too.

Cheap drinks, tasty appetizers, laid back atmosphere…my kind of place!

We’ll just have to check it out!!

According to Lonely Planet, it is 18 of 43 things to do in Caye Caulker. I guess we’ll be able to keep ourselves busy if someplace this cool is only 18th on the list!

Fly Away

2011-03-29T09:11:00.000-07:00

Joel just got back from a fun weekend getaway with his dad, uncle, brother and Grandpa in Vegas.
I got a lot of text/picture updates (mainly from Joel’s brother) but these two pictures were my favorite!

Outdoor Paradise

2011-03-28T09:09:00.000-07:00

I got a spring magazine from Lowes the other day and it reminded me how much I want a great outdoor living space in my home someday.
Isn’t this just beautiful?

The Boise Song!

2011-03-26T10:19:00.001-07:00

I grew up in Boise and still consider it home. When I stumbled across this link posted by a facebook friend I went to elementary school with, I just knew I had to share it.

And if that isn’t fun enough…I also found the Spokane song…another place close to my heart after spending 4 years there at school

Now if only I could find the Casper song….

Hunting…for mushrooms

2011-03-25T07:55:00.000-07:00

I’m always in awe of what amazing mushrooms the Pacific Northwest has to offer. Shopping at Pikes Place Market always yields such cool wild mushrooms like the hedgehogs we found last month.

We just signed up to become members of the Puget Sound Mycological Society but unfortunately their April class has completely filled up. After shooting off an email out asking to get put on the waitlist I got great news back that they are hoping to open up a MAY class - fingers crossed that we’ll be able to get registered for that class as soon as it opens!

In the meantime, I guess I’ll just have to take a look at the recommended reading list and figure out if we can make it out for some of the field trips!

MISSING!!!

2011-03-24T09:13:00.000-07:00

Joel and I got a pet for Christmas. His name is Gus and he cleans our house.
Gus cleans our floors every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, but after about an hour he gets tired and goes back to his home. Since he only plays for about an hour at a time, he only does the main portion of our house on a regular basis. When we don’t close the doors to the bedrooms, he wanders into the rooms and isn’t able to find his way home.
The other day Joel was the last one out of the house and FORGOT to close the bedroom doors. That evening we couldn’t seem to find where Gus had fallen asleep and somehow this sign found its way to our front door.

I think it is about time we got a real pet…but maybe not since we can’t keep track of this one!

Spring has SPRUNG!

2011-03-23T05:39:00.000-07:00

Flowers have finally started coming out and spring is finally here!!! I hope the nice weather sticks around for awhile.

This weekend I spent a little time playing with my new camera and enjoying SPRING!

Skagit River Brewery

2011-03-21T05:30:00.000-07:00

On our way up to Bellingham on Saturday, we made a quick stop at the Skagit River Brewery in Mount Vernon for lunch. After pouring over the menu, we finally decided to split the Brisket Sandwich and caesar salad.

Our ratings (on a scale of 1-5):
Price: 3 – $13 for a sandwich and salad seemed a little steep for where we were but there was more than enough food in the one order for both of us for lunch
Food: 4 - It was a nice lunch, and while the meat was tender and the bbq was good, the caesar and bun for the sandwich both could have been better.
Service: 4 – The service was good and the staff was friendly, even though they seemed busy and slightly understaffed for a Saturday afternoon.

Go Gonzaga!

2011-03-19T15:10:00.000-07:00

Go Zags! I’ve got them winning the entire tournament…so they better not let me down (Joel is just glad I didn’t have to buy in with the bracket I made)

Spring is Coming!

2011-03-19T09:05:00.001-07:00

We’ve got a little of this going on today. Hopefully it sticks around for awhile.

We’re heading up to Bellingham for the day to celebrate my cousin’s graduation (far left). When did we all grow up??

Free Luggage Tags!

2011-03-17T06:52:00.000-07:00

KLM often has free offers for these awesome personalized luggage tags. “Like” them on Facebook and customize your own tags!

I just ordered a set with this picture from our Argentina trip!

Mt. Saint Helens

2011-03-16T06:51:00.000-07:00

Another amazing place in the Pacific Northwest

Loose Leaf Tea! Try for FREE!!

2011-03-15T06:51:00.000-07:00

Teasta has a great deal going on right now. Order 2 (different types) sample teas, use the promo code TRYME when you check out, and the tea will be shipped to you for free!!! I just ordered the Tropical Green Tea and the Wild Blueberry Green Tea.

There are so many good flavors!

Cozumel

2011-03-14T07:23:00.000-07:00

As I’ve said before, Cozumel is one of my all time favorite places. I was looking back at the blog and realized that I never finished posting about our 2009 trip to Mexico. At this point that doesn’t really matter, but I thought I’d at least share a few pictures from the Cozumel portion of the trip.

We rented a red slug bug to tour the island. We rented it through Isis and found their prices to be fair and service to be good. We’d definitely recommend them.

One day we spent about a half a day driving around the island. Really it is just one big loop and if you drive the entire thing without stopping it would probably take an hour and a half or so. We stopped at many different places and probably took 4-5 hours.

Cozumel has several different sites with ruins. Not nearly as grand as Chichen Itza, but still really cool. This was our stop at El Cedral.

This is near the south point of the island. The water was really rough and the shoreline was really rocky.

At one point on our drive we stopped and bought a coconut from a vendor on the side of the road. It cost about $4, which is kind of ridiculous since the vendor just picks them up from the trees on the island, but it sure tasted delicious!

Also on Cozumel is a tequila museum. I thought there would be more information on how the tequila is made..but really it was just a big store with free tastings.

Back at our hotel, Fiesta Americana, we enjoyed blue skies, blue seas, and awesome snorkeling. The snorkeling right out the door of the resort is actually some of the best on the island, and other snorkel tours take their tour groups there.

This was such an awesome trip!

AWESOME GAP DEAL!

2011-03-13T17:16:00.001-07:00

Coupon for $25 off a $50 purchase (in store) at GAP when you enter your mobile phone number.

Dreaming of Summer Fun

2011-03-13T11:21:00.001-07:00

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about what we want to do this summer. There are still a lot of areas in the great Pacific Northwest that we haven’t yet explored.

I stumbled across this camping ground that I think would be great fun to visit.

Hopefully we’ll have a chance to pull out our trusty tent

And catch a few of these delicious creatures (I’m talking about the crab of course).

I’ve got the whole world in my house

2011-03-12T07:08:00.000-08:00

Okay – not really…but I do want to have a map of the world as wall art around the house.
I haven’t decided which piece I want, but with as much as Joel and I love to travel, I really think it would be a really cool addition that reflects our personalities.
There are some modern pieces I like, such as this one (comes in a variety of colors):

Or maybe something a little more traditional (and detailed) like this one:

Beach Time!

2011-03-11T07:12:00.000-08:00

In addition to our adventures at the ruins, our trip to Belize will give us some quality beach time.

We’re planning to spend a portion of the vacation at Caye Caulker.

Caye Caulker is a small island northeast of Belize City with a population of about 1,000 people. Most everything is within walking distance and besides walking, the primary modes of transportation are bikes and golf carts– the island itself is about 5 miles long.

I’ve read in several different places that the island reminds people of Cozumel, which is one of my all-time favorite places. You can snorkel right off the shore, and there are apparently world class snorkeling sites less than 30 minute boat rides away. (We definitely need to get an underwater camera…can’t miss shots like this!)

Eek!!! I’m so excited!!! I can’t wait for SUNSHINE and BEAUTIFUL SUNSETS! (Did I mention that Seattle got 1.5 inches of rain on Wednesday? DEFINITELY ready for the sun!)

****Click on the pictures to see their website sources.

Loreto Mexico

2011-03-10T09:23:00.000-08:00

Its no secret that I LOVE to travel…and I LOVE to hear about other peoples travels. The other day a co-worker was telling me about one of her upcoming trips. It was a quick conversation, but left me wanting to learn more.

Beautiful Loreto Mexico. Our Lady of Loreto Mission was the first Spanish settlement in the Californias. Fast forward 300 years and the area is being revived through a new development – Loreto Bay. This development is so different than the development in other destination Mexico cities like Cabo and Cancun. This development is being done in a very conscious, sustainable way. There is wind power and solar power. All of the pools are salt water…and the grass on the golf course is watered using salt water from the ocean. The development is calling itself “largest sustainable resort community under development in North America.”

While there you can go fishing, diving, kayaking, sailing, and hanging out on the beach… there is also amazing old architecture and the town is filled with history

You really can’t beat this beautiful scenery!

I don’t even really like golf – but look at that course.

Mountains in one direction, ocean in the other. 75 – 90 degrees year round.

My co-worker is heading down for Holy Week (the week before Easter) and will get to celebrate the Easter season by participating in traditional celebrations from Palm Sunday through Good Friday. Beautiful scenery, countless activities, and traditional celebrations in one of the most historic towns in North America. I’m so jealous!
****Click on the pictures to see the website sources.

Banana Bread!

2011-03-09T09:01:00.000-08:00

Since the bananas in my fruit bowl began to look like this:

I decided it was time to make one of my favorite breakfast treats – BANANA BREAD!

I can’t even remember the last time I made a loaf, so I was really excited to make a double batch with all of our on the edge of too ripe bananas (I guess that is what happens when I work until 9:30 or 11:30 every night in a given week…food at home doesn’t get eaten)

The recipe is self-explanatory.

Cream the butter (I use margarine) and sugar.

Add eggs and mix thoroughly.

Add in dry ingredients and milk (soured with lemon juice)

Finally mix in the bananas (I had to mash the bananas before mixing them into the batter because they weren’t quite ripe enough).

I bake mine at 325 for about an hour and 10-20 minutes. I’ve found that cooking it at 325 instead of 350 does take a little longer, but bakes the middle crease better than it otherwise might.

DELICIOUS!!!

Food for thought

2011-03-08T06:33:00.000-08:00

I saw this awesome bumper sticker this weekend:

It took me a second to figure it out, but how cool is this??

Family Tree

2011-03-07T06:13:00.000-08:00

I LOVE family history – old family pictures, family heritage, stories, all of it. I’ve also been trying to figure out how we want to decorate our house since we’ve [mostly] finished our remodel. Hanging up old portraits isn’t really our style – and wouldn’t really fit in our house, but I hadn’t come to terms with leaving all of my old pictures sitting on my laptop’s hard drive. Imagine my excitement when stumbling across this:

Modern wall art using one of my favorite things…old family pictures!

I was SO excited about this, and actually couldn’t fall asleep the first night I saw it because I was trying to figure out exactly how to make it work.

Now I just need to find the time to get it all put together. Thank you Martha!

Free??

2011-03-06T17:50:00.001-08:00

Most people that know me know these two things about me.

1. I LOVE good deals…especially FREE deals
2. I LOVE school supplies…and yes – even though I am an adult and work in an office, I do still call them school supplies.

Staples combines these two things and has become one of my favorite places to shop. Almost every week they have awesome deals..and deals are even better when they are things that I can actually use!
This week we walked away with 2 packs of photo paper, a ream of colored printer paper, a ream of white printer paper, 2 packs of paper clips, a pack of pens and 2 packs of envelopes. The total (before tax/coupons) came to $50.96. We threw in a $10 off $50 competitors coupon (some Staples stores do honor competitor coupons – you just have to ask!) to bring the total down to $40.96. We then used a $15 Staples reward coupon that we had received back from a previous deal and paid $28.43 (includes tax). We will get back $46.96 in rebates, which means we actually MADE $3.53 on the transaction! I call that a productive trip.

While Katy was out (by Joel)

2011-03-02T22:03:00.001-08:00

Katy had to work really late tonight, so she couldn’t blog. While I was all alone at home, I created a guest-blog for her. I was really sad that she had to work late...

Since I was on my own, I had to make my own dinner. I made what is called a Joel-meal. It was a croissant egg and sausage sandwich. Here is the recipe:

1 HYTOP frozen croissant egg and sausage sandwich (HYTOP is cheaper than Jimmy Dean).

FYI-James Dean was an actor, Jimmy Dean makes sausage.

Next: Remove the packaging and microwave on high for 66 seconds.

Next: Enjoy the delicious sandwich!

*I stole this last picture from Google since I ate the sandwich before I could take a picture. The rest of the pictures I took. My best work is probably the one of James Dean.

A Glimpse of History

2011-03-02T08:00:00.000-08:00

I’m not a huge history buff, but I find ruins so fascinating. Machu Picchu on our Peru trip and Chichen Itza in Mexico were so cool to see!!

There are a TON of ruins in Belize. There is no way we can see them all (and I’m sure I would get burnt out after a few), but picking which ones we want to see is going to be really tricky!

1. Tikal, Guatemala; Our trip is to Belize, but so many people cross the boarder to make it to Tikal. Tikal is the largest site in Central America and covers 23 square miles. Large portions of it still haven’t been excavated and a lot of the buildings are in really good condition.

2. Lamanai – This site has over 700 Mayan buildings. I think you take a boat up a river to the site, and the site is on a lagoon. You are even allowed to climb up one of the temples (by the time we made it to Chichen Itza they had started prohibiting people from climbing on the ruins. We were disappointed, but I’m glad they will be around for a long time)

3. Caracol – this is the largest site in Belize. Excavation began around 1985 and is still going on.

4. Xunantunich – This is a smaller site in Belize, but apparently has a huge temple in it. From the top of one of the temple you can see Guatemala in one direction and San Ignacio (Belize) in another direction. This is less touristy than some of the other sites

And these are only from one day of research – so many options!

Are you ready for some ROCK ‘n’ ROLL?

2011-03-01T08:00:00.000-08:00

I did it - I am officially registered for the Seattle Rock n Roll half marathon!

This will be my first half marathon and I’m so excited for it. Bands every mile, a finishers concert, a fun course through downtown Seattle, and HOPEFULLY good June weather.

Here’s to four months of good training.

Pumpkin Bread

2011-02-28T09:00:00.000-08:00

I make some pretty awesome pumpkin bread. It rivals the stuff sitting in the Starbucks pastry case (well…actually it beats it – I don’t really like the pumpkin seeds the are on top of the Starbucks stuff). The only problem is my normal recipe calls for at least 3 cups of sugar. I only like to make my recipe once or twice a year because of that – but I LOVE pumpkin bread, so I’m now in search of a better recipe.

Attempt #1. This is good, but not good enough to make again. The texture is too gooey. We’ll see what it tastes like on Day 2.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup canned pumpkin (about 1/2 a 29 oz can)
1 cup applesauce
1 1/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg

I poured the batter into an 8x11 baking dish and baked at 350.

40 minutes later I ended up with a very dense and doughy pumpkin bread.

Still steamy from the oven – it was delicious! Hopefully it makes good breakfasts during the week.

2011-02-27T14:30:00.000-08:00

Joel was having a little too much fun playing with the remote for my new camera the other day.

Life is never boring around here.

Hedgehog Time

2011-02-27T11:32:00.001-08:00

Our dinner with Pike Place ingredients wasn’t nearly as gourmet as I had envisioned, we ended up keeping it really simple so the highlights would be the fun ingredients we purchased at the market.

First – a close-up of the hedgehog mushrooms:

Aren’t they so cool looking???

And the final product…we tossed the pasta with a little pesto and parmesan cheese, and sauteed the mushrooms with a little margarine. The mushrooms cooked down a ton – we thought we had purchased plenty for our meal, but Joel and I each only ended up with a couple bites.

I really want to take advantage of all of the awesome wild mushrooms we have here in the Pacific Northwest. I’m thinking about going to a class put on by the Puget Sound Mycological Society so that Joel and I can go hunt mushrooms on our own. How cool does that sound??? Hedgehog and black trumpet season is almost over, but morel season is coming up!!

Pike Place Menus

2011-02-26T17:51:00.001-08:00

Today we played tourists in our own city and headed down to Pike Place Market. We navigated the crowds and came away with delicious lunches and ingredients for a fun dinner.

Joel’s lunch…a sloppy (but amazing) gyro.

My lunch…crab cocktail.

And delicious dinner ingredients.

I’ll be back later with our dinner creation…assuming it turns out well!

You Better BELIZE It!

2011-02-21T21:05:00.001-08:00

We’re headed to BELIZE in November! We just booked out trip last week (using miles of course)…and now comes the fun part…nine months of planning.
Since the snorkeling is good and there are caves to raft through…we’ve decided we need a waterproof camera. Does anyone have any good recommendations?
Here are two of the cameras we’re currently looking at…we’re hoping that some good deals come up between now and our trip...
Pentax Optio W90:

Fujifilm FinePix XP10:

Recipe for Refinishing Wood Floors

2011-02-12T16:01:00.001-08:00

Start with floors that look like this:

Incorporate an awesome machine.

and a motivated husband.

And ta-da! Refinished wood floors.

Hi Moxie!

2011-02-12T15:47:00.001-08:00

Fun Registry Items

2011-01-29T18:08:00.001-08:00

My sister is getting married this summer and when I asked her if she and her fiance had registered yet, she said they hadn’t because essentially they already have 2 full working households. Since she is having a hard time deciding what they’d want to register for, and because she reads the blog, I figured I’d take a few minutes to highlight some fun things I think they should ask for…whether she listens to me or not is a whole different story.

1. KitchenAid Mixer. I LOVE my KitchenAid. Cookies, breads, mashed potatoes (I’m sitting here wracking my brain trying to think of healthy things I make with my KitchenAid since they are both really healthy eaters….some of the breads and muffins and oatmeal bars are healthy….)

2. Vita-Mix. We have a KitchenAid blender and really like it, but everything I’ve heard about the VitaMix blenders are amazing.

3. Zorijrushi Rice Cooker. Christy – I know you guys probably already have a rice cooker, and I haven’t tried this one out, but I think it’d be perfect for you. It cooks rice, oatmeal, bulgar, quinoa, steal cut oats…has a timer you can program…MAGIC!!!

4. A good set of knives. We love our Henckels, but there are a lot of good ones out there (Shun and Wusthof both come to mind)

5. A good BBQ. We probably grill at least 3 nights a week, even in the winter. My Grandpa gave us a Weber for Christmas the first year we were married and we love it – one of the best (and most used!) gifts we’ve ever received.

6. Joel’s mom gave us a Vidalia Chop Wizard a few years ago, and while I was skeptical about how much I’d use it, we actually use it all the time. Carrots, onions, potatoes, mushrooms, sweet potatoes, celery – we just put them all through this. (Joel and I each separately tried to put chicken through it – I definitely wouldn’t recommend that :-))

Snow is in the forecast

2011-01-09T11:11:00.001-08:00

but I’m looking forward to sunnier days

My mom has been scanning pictures from our family albums and just sent me a USB drive with over 700 pictures from throughout my childhood. It’s been so much fun looking through them all!

project time!

2011-01-02T15:00:00.001-08:00

it seems like I just did this:

Looking back, I guess it was a year and a half ago…which makes it somewhat acceptable that it turned back into this:
A quick 15 minutes later, a clean drawer emerged again.

Happy 2011!!

2011-01-01T23:03:00.001-08:00

I’m not sure where the past year went…but I do know it was great! We both started new jobs, we had some great vacations, and got to spend a lot of quality time with family. We’re looking forward to an even better 2011 during which time we’ll hopefully be moving into the 2011 HGTV DREAM HOME (I can dream big right?)!

I’m not a big resolutions person, but I do have a few goals for the year:

1) Be a better blogger…26 posts in 2010 – not quite what I was aiming for

2) Organize my pictures and other computer documents. After getting our bags (and most of our pictures from the trip) stolen in Argentina, I’ve realized the importance of backing up those things that are important to me. Since most of my pictures are digital, I need to organize them and BACK THEM UP!

And because we had a low-key New Years Eve, here are a few pictures from snowmobiling in Casper over Christmas. (THANKS Roxann, Greg, Byron and Joe for making snowmobiling possible – we had a GREAT TIME!)

It’s been a BOOT kind of Christmas!!!

2010-12-28T19:53:00.001-08:00

URUGUAY

2010-11-19T09:13:00.001-08:00

We hopped on a plane yesterday morning around 8, and we finally made it - 25 hours, 3 flights and 5 time zones later. It’s 2:30pm here in Montevideo and we just got to our hotel. We both want to go out and explore, but we decided that showers and a quick nap are probably the best route to go right now.
Views from our window:

I’m so excited to see this up close:

There is such an old European feel around here…and then you see modern structures like this one:

And a sinking ship? really?

Getting excited to go walk around. We saw some amazing looking strawberries for sale on our walk from the bus to the hotel that we might just have to go check out.

Sound Time!

2010-11-14T18:30:00.001-08:00

My parents came out to Seattle this weekend for a quick visit. We took the opportunity to eat some great seafood and visit some sights out on the peninsula, including the Naval Undersea Museum and the Dungeness Spit.

A funny story about the middle picture below – the diver standing next to my dad was sitting on a bench when we first got to the museum. My mom, Joel and I all saw him move and realized it was a real person but my dad was already on his way over to him and had no idea there was a real person inside this costume. Dad sat down on his lap and then jumped up startled when the diver statue started moving under him. After that, we decided we had to get a picture of them together.

Thank you Mom and Dad for a great weekend!

Salineras de Maras – Peru

2010-11-10T21:05:00.001-08:00

Another PERU collage! The same day we visited Moray, we stopped at Salineras de Maras, the ancient salt mines. Many families have different pans in this large salt mine, and they are passed down from generation to generation. There is a salt water spring at the top of the mine that is left over from when the mountains rose from the sea (again, this is from our cab driver – so some info might have been lost in translation :-) ). The stream from the spring is routed to the different pans to fill them up. Individual pans are then blocked off from the stream so the water can evaporate leaving the salt behind to be harvested (do you harvest salt? collect it? hmmm). It is a fascinating site and they have been getting salt from the pans this way since pre-Inca times.

Moray – Peru

2010-11-09T22:23:00.001-08:00

FINALLY getting pictures from Peru last year sorted ;-).

These pictures are from Moray Peru. We hired a cab in Ollayantambo (for under $50 for the whole day – and that included a generous tip) to take us to some of the surrounding areas, including Salineras de Maras and Moray.

Moray was one of the coolest places we’ve ever seen. There were several large circles in the valley, each with several different terraces. Our cab drive told us (and some of this may have been lost in translation, so if really interested I’m sure you can find more online) that each of the different levels was used to grow different types of crops because the elevations provided different “sub-climates”.

Looking down on the circles, and at pictures before we even got there, I was expecting them to be a lot smaller, each new level maybe 4 feet higher than the rest – but I think these pictures really show how incredible this sight actually was…and to be completely honest, it was quite a hike climbing up those little stone steps in circle after circle.

A love affair with BOOTS!

2010-11-07T19:27:00.001-08:00

Let’s just start out with this: I’m cheap. or thrifty. or frugal. Take your pick – i respond to all three.

That may be why it has been so hard for me to make a decision about cowboy boots - I’ve wanted cowboy boots for over a year and a half now, and fell in love with a pair about a year ago - but decided not to get them right away because they are expensive (in my book) and i figured my love for them would pass…and I had a job where I had to dress up everyday. So fast-forward a year…my love for these boots hasn’t passed. AND now I have a job where the dress code is casual (or i guess technically there ISN’T a dress code) so I can wear cowboy boots WHENEVER I WANT. SO now comes decision time. WHICH COLOR???

The countdown is on.

2010-11-07T17:46:00.001-08:00

2.5 weeks until Argentina! Between now and then, we have 2.5 weeks of work, packing, and a weekend visit from my parents! Our trip will be here before we know it.

I keep saying I’m going to post pictures from past trips, but that never happens, so here are a couple from our visit to Lake Titicaca during our Peru trip last year.

This last one obviously isn’t out on the lake, but is in Puno, the Peruvian town that is a major gateway to the lake. Joel and I were out walking through town and there were hundreds of women that had gathered in the central plaza in town, all dressed in their green skirts, these hats, and their blankets full of stuff. They all lined up, stood around for a few minutes, and disbursed again within 20 minutes or so. We were expecting a parade or march or something, but nope, nothing else happened (and of course, if there was someone directing the whole situation, we a) didn’t see that and b) wouldn’t have been able to hear even if we had heard it).

stuffed mushrooms

2010-11-07T17:37:00.001-08:00

My camera lives in my kitchen and documents most of my culinary creations, with the intention that I’ll immediately sit down and blog about them. Well, in case you haven’t noticed, I’m not a very good blogger and most of those creations never make it to the blog. I’m bound to make that change :-).

Here is my most recent creation – stuffed mushrooms. And before we get any further – here is Joel’s reaction “it’s a lot of stuff on a very good mushroom.” (I do think he liked it though…)

Stuffed Portabella Mushrooms:

4 portabella mushrooms (with the hope that these will be good for a reheated lunch)
1 sweet onion
1 can diced tomatoes – drained and rinsed
1 can artichoke hearts – drained and rinsed
1/4 c quinoa
~1/4 tsp ground pepper
~ 1/4 tsp ground sage
sprinkle of cheese to melt on top

Dice the onion and mushroom stems and sauté in EVOO until cooked through. Mix in sage and pepper while cooking. In a separate pan, cook quinoa until tender. When onion/mushroom mix is completely cooked, add tomatoes, chopped artichoke hearts, and cooked quinoa. Cook until heated through. Spoon mixture over portabella caps. Cook uncovered at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes. Sprinkle cheese over the mushrooms after 20 minutes, and cook for another 5-10 minutes, until mushrooms are tender.

ENJOY!

And because it’s never too late to showcase our Halloween pumpkins: (right? right.)

UH-OH!

2010-10-31T15:35:00.001-07:00

Something's wrong with my blog! Why aren’t these posts showing up right?

UPDATED! Magically fixed somehow.

Recent photoshoot

2010-10-31T15:34:00.001-07:00

I’m such a bad blogger and am so far behind on posting (don’t I always say that???).
Remember this little guy? Well, now he is the proud big brother of an adorable little sister. Here are some pictures from our photoshoot - isn’t she the most adorable little 6 month old?

2010-09-14T19:43:00.001-07:00

Mariners baseball. My oh my.

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2010-09-11T12:44:00.001-07:00

a few more from the olympic game farm…because it was just so cool!

One of the several bears…just waiting for bread to be thrown into his mouth.

YAK ATTACK!!! Isn’t he SO CUTE!!

Olympic Game Farm

2010-09-09T22:06:00.001-07:00

We had such an awesome time at the Olympic Game Farm this past weekend.
Here are just a couple pictures of our new elk friends!

2010-09-09T21:58:00.001-07:00

Camping is never complete without a campfire and smores :-)

labor day camping trip

2010-09-06T10:56:00.001-07:00

a trip to the Olympic game farm and some great hiking with awesome views. better pictures to come later.

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blogging on the go

2010-07-26T07:31:00.001-07:00

many new posts to come soon...but for now I'm trying out a blogging app from my new phone.

and because i'd hate to post without a pic - here is one of us at a sounders game earlier this year.

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guess where we’re going….

2010-02-27T21:23:00.001-08:00

Winter Olympics!

2010-02-22T09:58:00.001-08:00

I LOVE winter! (well, not Seattle winters...those are just wet and grey...and my job isn't exactly conducive to letting me enjoy winters, but I guess that is the way it goes)

With the Winter Olympics going on, I was reminiscing of my trip to the Salt Lake Olympics in 2002. My high school cross country ski team made the trek from Casper, WY down to Salt Lake to watch one of the cross country ski races. What an experience!!! It was amazing getting to see all the excitement around the Olympics in person, I wish I had the chance to go see the Vancouver Olympics since I only live a few hours away from that excitement.

Here are a few of us that made the trip together. I can't believe this was 8 YEARS AGO!!! (but I am happy to say that the group of us in this picture still keep in touch!)

Trip Planning

2010-02-21T09:42:00.000-08:00

Wampus was helping me plan our upcoming Thanksgiving trip.

Unfortunately, he thinks we should go to Brazil instead of Uruguay and Argentina.

Sorry Wampus...tickets are already booked!

forgot to mention…

2010-02-06T21:17:00.001-08:00

I forgot to mention in my last post that Girls on the Run made it onto Eric’s Little Heroes (a program through Komo news that features local kids’ sporting events in the Seattle area). Check it out – the video is so cute!!!

Girls on the Run is SO MUCH FUN!

2010-02-06T21:13:00.001-08:00

Last summer I joined the board of directors for Girls on the Run of Puget Sound and am having a blast being involved in this organization. I got several friends together and we ran the GOTR 5k last December (this just reiterates how far behind on posting I am).

The theme was SUPER HEROES and since most of us work for Ernst & Young, we decided to be Ernie’s Angels (Charlie’s Angels qualify as super heroes right???).

Here is our awesome team, plus Joel, the supportive bag carrier.

Thank you everyone for joining the team! Mark your calendars for the spring 5k on May 22 – we’ll be running buddies this time around!

Brodie

2010-02-06T20:56:00.001-08:00

The couple weekends ago a our friends Krista and Brian came and stayed the weekend with us and brought their dog Brodie. Brodie was such a fun dog, I was hoping they would accidently leave him in Seattle with us.
Isn’t he such a beautiful dog??

Can you guess what breed he is?

and just for fun….here is a picture from Krista’s blackberry of Brian and Joel enjoying a friendly competition of wii swimming:

Red Lentil Soup

2010-01-31T20:04:00.001-08:00

I am always trying to find easy healthy lunch options to take to work. One of my newest favorite things to do is make a big pot of soup, freeze flat in individual portion sizes in ziploc baggies, and take them to work for lunch. I just pull the bag out of the freezer and by the time it is ready to heat it up for lunch, it is fully defrosted! PERFECT!

This weekend I made soup based on this recipe to take to lunch a couple times this week.

Red lentil soup:

1 c red lentils
3 c chicken broth
1/2 tsp cumin
pepper (1/4 tsp maybe?)
juice of one lemon
1/2 chopped onion (i probably should have chopped it finer, but we’ll see how it tastes!)
the recipe calls for salt, but I left it out since my chicken broth has a high sodium content.

It smells delicious – I hope it tastes just as good tomorrow!

2010-01-31T18:39:00.001-08:00

Katy: What vegetable should we have with dinner tonight?

Joel: Well the sloppy joe’s have pickles in them.

a dinner experiment

2010-01-16T20:24:00.001-08:00

i thought it passed….joel – not so much (he ended up with ice cream for dinner)

chopped red potatoes, beets, acorn squash, onions, and carrots. tossed in an olive oil, rosemary, garlic and lemon juice mixture. roast for 30-40 minutes at 400 degrees. DELICIOUS.

blue sky art.

2010-01-15T21:59:00.001-08:00

thoughts of sunnier days. horse art. sculpture art. rain - go away!

FRESH BREAD

2009-12-29T09:47:00.001-08:00

It doesn’t get much easier, or fresher, than this:

I made this recipe (cut in half) last night and was surprisingly impressed with how simple it was and how good it turned out. This recipe only took about 10 minutes of actual work, and the kneading part was really easy because I just used the kneading hook on my Kitchen Aide. I think I need to tweak the recipe a bit (I used EVOO instead of normal olive oil, and the taste was definitely a little too strong, especially for a breakfast bread), but otherwise, it was PERFECT!

Oh yeah, notice the gorgeous plate my sister got me for Christmas??? Thanks Christy!

Product Review

2009-12-27T19:54:00.001-08:00

We are at the airport on our way back from a wonderful Idaho Christmas (more on that in a later post), but before we board our plane, I just wanted to mention a fun product review I get to do for www.cookware.com sometime in the next week for so. They have some really fun products, including the fun one I’ll get to play with and some Rachel Ray Cookware that looks like it would be fun too!

Now just because blog posts are more fun with pictures….here is an adorable picture of my new little cousin in an outfit her dad wore 30 years ago!!!

to my fantasy football team.

2009-10-12T20:23:00.001-07:00

I am proud of you for scoring 119 points this week, even though it resulted in a loss. You played well, you stayed strong, and while it may have been a loss this week (following your previous 4 losses), I have faith that one day you will actually win. There might be a bit of re-organization this week, but trust me (if you can – after 5 consecutive losses) – it will result in a stronger team. I’ve made some poor choices – such as dropping Ginn and Fasano – who others doubted, and I myself also doubted (hence my dropping them) – and they proved us all wrong this week with a strong showing in the Dolphins game. For your sake, my dear fantasy football team, I hope that the decisions I make will continue to let you be one of the highest scoring teams in the league for the rest of the season. We still have a chance. We can still prove the league that we are a threat. I WILL TAKE YOU TO THE PLAYOFFs……just hang in there with me for a few more weeks. Thanks again, Katy’s Coffey House, for having such a good showing this past week. I’m proud of you….even though it resulted in a loss….again.