We stopped at the University of Washington rowing center. The rowing 8 shell that won the gold medal in the 1936 Olympics, the Husky Clipper, is on display there. A book was written about it, called The Boys in the Boat.
Then on to Pike Place Market for the obligatory walk-through.
A misty, drizzly day led to a very enjoyable trek through the Olympic National Forest, walking along trails on Walker Mountain, a drive through Quilcene, a Fat Smitty’s burger in Discovery Bay, antiquing in Port Townsend, a little geocaching, climbing through 100 year old bunkers at Fort Worden State Park, and walking to the beach to see the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Point Wilson Lighthouse.
A few shots from the day…
To celebrate the end of my last day of work, at 5pm last night I popped the cork on a bottle of Dom Pérignon Vintage 1993 that I received upon my promotion to the executive ranks. (woo hoo!) I kept putting off opening it until an appropriately auspicious occasion.
Well, here we are 15 years later – and this was to be the occasion. Conventional wisdom says that good champagne shouldn’t be saved or aged. I didn’t really know that at the time. Over the years we have joked that this bottle of champagne, which has taken up space in our refrigerator on its side all these years, was going to be flat and vinegary when we eventually opened it. So, i was fully expecting that. We even had a backup bottle of bubbly on ice, just in case. But, low and behold, there was a resounding pop when the cork came off, and no shortage of fizz and bubbles! And it tasted good, like… a very special bottle of champagne. 🙂 I take that to be a good omen on the closing of one chapter of my life, and the start of the next.
Cheers!
I would also like to thank Teri & Jim for this absolutely stunning orchid that they sent me today. You guys are the best! It’s gorgeous, thank you!
Last night we celebrated Laura’s birthday by going on a wine bar crawl downtown. We had picked out 6 or so places ahead of time to stop in at for appies and drinks during the night. We made it to 5 of them! In crawl-order: Prelog’s, Irene’s, True Food Kitchen, La Condesa & The Secret Bar at the W Hotel. A good time was had by all.
I especially liked this overhead light fixture at La Condesa:
Seen on a building along one leg of the crawl…. i agree 🙂
White Russians, all around! Vodka, Kahlua & milk over ice. We’re channeling The Dude.
Yesterday was National Chocolate Ice Cream Day! I did my part to celebrate. Did you?
I’m going to have to learn to tell these guys apart.
Hummingbird Nectar Recipe
- Mix 4 parts water with 1 part granulated sugar in a saucepan and heat until sugar is dissolved and the mixture reaches a light boil for a minute or two. Let cool before filling feeders.
Tulips! I had a very nice Valentine’s Day. We went to the lake for the afternoon, and enjoyed a great sail up the lake a ways. Kevin, Kurt, Marty & Sue joined us on our boat, and Lori & Joe sailed along on Camelot.
And to cap off the day we had a delicious dinner at Andiamo. They were serving a special 4 course dinner with wine flight, and it was wonderful.
Now, I’m trying to get psyched up for Monday…
Chicken thighs on the ‘bachi. Yum. 
I’ve crossed off another project from my growing wanna-do list in my head this weekend. As you may have come to know through this blog, we like to make homemade pasta. A lot. Spaghetti, fettucine, ravioli, waddevah. It’s the food of the gods. Over the holidays, I ran across a fresh pasta hanger on Amazon and it looked so simple and easy to make, that I refused to put it in my cart. We have a gynormous wood shop out back. So I did a little recon and found what I needed already in the shop and… voila! Ye olde pasta hanger. I made it without glue, so I can take it apart to store easily in the cabinet.
Tonight I tried it out. So, here’s how it went down:
I used our Kitchen-Aid roller, starting on setting 1 – ending on setting 5. Rolling and dusting the dough with flour several times on each setting. After rolling each of the three balls into a sheet at setting number 5, I cut each in half. I found that each of my six pasta sheets ended up making about 2 ounces of pasta – a serving. So 3 eggs + 2 1/4 cups of pasta yields approximately 6 servings.
Next, I put the fettucine pasta cutter on the Kitchen-aid
I hung each section on my new, handy-dandy pasta hanger. (Awesome!)
Then I threw the pasta into a pot of boiling water. I sauteed the other bits in a skillet with some olive oil and I let the flavor develop.
Yummm!
We roasted a whole chicken the other day and I took both cooked breast pieces and transformed them into a magnificent, mouthwatering curried chicken salad.
Simply delicious.
Here’s more or less what went in. It made 2-3 cups of chicken salad.
Curried chicken salad
Mix well so everything is coated with yellowy goodness. Then put it in the fridge – for several hours before serving, to make the flavor pop. Be patient, it’ll be worth the wait.
By the way, the baguette came from Baguette House over on North Lamar. They make the best baguettes I’ve ever tasted. Hands down. Go get you some.
🙂
I started out the evening with a mess of ladies headed downtown to serve at a Mobile Loaves and Fishes dinner downtown. We prepared food, mingled with the guests, and helped pass out clothing. Our party included a teacher, technology experts, a VP, retirees, and retiree-wannabes. It was a night well-spent.
Afterwards we moseyed into Pelon’s Tex Mex on Red River,and enjoyed margaritas, some chips and salsa, queso, and very good service. You should check it out.
Outside art: 
And inside art:
I have a running list, mostly in my head, of things I want to try. Homemade mozzarella cheese has been on the list for quite some time. We go through enough of it, so I wanted to give it a shot and see how it turned out. So here we go…
The recipe I used is here. And it is a good one. My additional notes with pics below.
I ordered some citric acid powder and Fromase rennet tablets (vegetable-based) from my trusty Amazon account. 
1 1/2 tsp citric acid powder dissolved in 1 cup of cold water. I used bottled spring water, since chlorinated water is a no-no. Set aside.
1/4 tablet Fromase rennet dissolved in 1/4 cup bottled spring water. Set aside.
1 gallon whole milk. Homogenized but NOT Ultra High Pasteurized (UHP) – another no-no. I used HEB-brand whole milk, and I will again.
1 tsp kosher (not iodized) salt
Pour milk and diluted citric acid unit a 5-quart or larger stainless steel or ceramic NON-REACTIVE pot. Stir well. Aluminum or iron are bad… from a cheese-making perspective. I have a Le Crueset enamel-over-cast iron dutch oven that was a good size, and the enamel ensures it won’t interfere with the citric acid / milk reaction.
Raise heat, slowly, to 90 degrees Farenheit. Remove from heat. Add diluted rennet solution and stir, most lightly, for 30 seconds. Cover and don’t disturb for 5 minutes as the curd sets and starts to separate from the whey liquid. The consistency of curds you’re going for is soft tofu-ish. After 5 minutes, mine wasn’t very solidified, so I covered again and let sit for another 3 minutes.
Uncover and make 1″ x 1″ cuts from top to bottom. I used a stainless steel cake frosting spreader.
Return to low heat, stirring lightly, until temperature is 105 degrees farenheit. Remove from heat and continue stirring for another minute or two. The curds start separating from the liquid whey and will want to begin to clump together.
Separate curds from whey. I used a stainless steel colander on top of a large plastic bowl, and a stainless steel scoop. The picture below shows the remaining whey at the top, and the glass bowl of almost-mozzarella curds in a microwavable bowl at the bottom – ready for the next step.
Heat in microwave in small bursts, measuring temperature, and stirring in between bursts, until mixture reaches 135 degrees farenheit. My microwave is pretty strong, so I used 20 second intervals of heating, and then stirring, until it reached 135 degrees.
Strain off remaining whey. Begin kneading (like dough) and stretching, alternating, until mixture becomes cohesive and stringy.
I forgot to add the kosher salt until after the cheese got to the ball stage. So, this attempt yielded stringier portions than I had imagined. But it held together alright. Next time, I will use less salt than called for in the recipe (I’ll try 1/2 tsp next time). I formed my first batch into 3 loaf-ish shapes.
And then I put in a container with part whey liquid / part water and covered in the fridge.
First taste… caprese salad…. delicious!
I’m going to get another gallon of milk proto! I’m hooked.
Sheila365 