Homeade! Peach Ice Cream

My hubs rocks! I think this all the time but last Thursday he came home with a hand written note (which makes my heart melt) & and ice cream maker for Agatha!!!

Unfortunately it isn't feeling too summery around here but we decided to make it feel like summer in our apartment and make the quintessential Peach Ice Cream first.

It was Peaches, cream, sugar, vanilla and Patience :) We made it the night before, put it in the fridge, and the next morning churned it for 30 mintues. We kept just getting caught starring at it change into frosty deliciousness. Plus we frequently dipped our fingers into it, you would have too!

It was so thoughtful and we ended up having a lot of fun with it, playing records,

chopping together, being goofy. These are my favorite married moments!

Next we're trying vietnamese coffee ice cream, because just saying it makes our mouth water, plus sorbets just have fruit and sugar in them so I'm pretty sure that's healthy so more of those are in order too!

Saturday Ride

This weekend we biked up to Capitol Hill and had the best burgers ever!

 It had bacon jam and brie and we could watch the olympics!

Also headed to a place there called Sun Liquor where they distill their own gin and vodka. We got something called rhubarb bees knees :) and sat in the sunshine

Then we biked up to Wallingford, ate tacos, watched Moonrise Kingdom, sat at murphys eating chips and salsa and watching more olympics, and ended the night with biking to Dicks for a late night burger (2 in a day oops)

It was such a nice day out and we had a lot of fun biking around to explore and slow down and enjoy what's right around us. Plus we finally got a fan so hubs is soooo happy!

Ballet Class

I danced when I was little (like grade school little) but in middle school I was told I had to choose between dance and soccer. I was a very big tomboy and obviously chose soccer. But I've still always loved dance. I've always wanted to go back. I started talking to Joshua about it and he encouraged me to find a way to do it. Lo and behold I found an adult only ballet studio 4 blocks from our apartment AND they were reasonably priced. So I signed up! Now I have 8 weeks of very beginning ballet (haha aka I know nothing class)

I've been to 3 so far and I LOVE IT! It is so fun! There is a live pianist!!!, wood floors, ballet bars, mirrors and I bought a pair of ballet slippers (did you know you have to sew the elastic on yourself?!)
My teacher is really great, she uses all the french words and really kicks our butts with holding out poses and keeping them until she corrects everyone. It has turned out to be a really good workout and something that I've come to treasure every week.

Hubs just keeps calling me his Ballerina Wife and asking me to show him things I've learned. He always starts laughing though because he says I have the most giddy smile on my face everytime I show him things.
I'm so happy he pushed me to do it! Being married has really shown us that we also need our own activities. If I could I think I'd call in sick every day to spend all my time with him but in reality that's probably not healthy, since we've both started adding in things where I do things with a friend everyother week, he plays online with his friends every Tues, I have ballet Wed, etc it has really made it more fun to come back together and get to tell each other about our experiences and show each other new things. For the first year we were kind of sad every time we had to do something apart but now we are learning it can bring us closer too.

Plus that means every wednesday hubs is in charge of dinner. And boy does he impress-

portabello mushroom & pepper fajitas and sparkling juice :)

my yeilding garden

I was so excited when I went to water my garden the other day and saw orange heads poking up from my carrots! So, being impatient, I dug one out. They are so cute, I love them! I have quite a few more that I'm going to let stay in the ground for a little while longer, but I'm so proud of them!

We've used up most of our herbs, except the cilantro which became coriander because I didn't water it enough :) And our strawberry plant produced 10 strawberries total. The onions are small but are starting to poke up and I'll be digging those up soon!

I'm so happy that some of it worked out so well..and with, umm, so little of my loving attention.

But I have kept all of our air plants and cactus alive for a whole year :) I named them so they get more love

I can't wait to plant more next year, But I do think after I pull up my arugula plants that I'm going to plant some kale. I'm told it's the Northwesty thing to do

Grilled Wedge Salad

I have always thought wedge salads sounded fancy, but they always seem to be topped with blue cheese -ick. When my friend Michael was here he mentioned a grilled salad. I knew that was  how I wanted to venture into this.

So I got a nice size romaine lettuce from the farmer's market and went for it. Wowza it was really tasty. Hubs doesn't like thinking of salads as meals but he was really a fan of this one and suggested we do it again soon. The flavors we ended up using all went together really deliciously! The smokey grilled flavor really brought this to life!

salad:
1 large head of romaine lettuce, pull off any wilting leaves and chop of the top inch of it
1 zucchini; halved
1 avocado; halved

feta for topping

for dressing:

4 tbs oil

2 tsp balsamic vinegar

1 1/2 tsp djon mustard
few grinds of salt and pepper

1   heat up the grill and lightly brush the cut portion of the zucchini with oil

2   place the zucchini and avocado, cut side down, on the grill

3   then mix together the dressing ingredients and brush onto the outside of the romaine and drizzle some inside it as well, use about 1/2 of what you made

4   once the zucchini and avocado are pretty warm move them to a less hot place on the grill and put on the whole head of romaine

5   grill it for about 3 minutes on each side, the tips should start to blacken

6   once it's almost done remove the zucchini and avocado, slice the avocado

7   then cut the romaine in half lenghtwise (or hotdog is the way my art teacher always described it)

8   serve with avocado slices, feta, and more dressing on top and then cut away looking all fancy with your wedge salad :)

A wedding!

We went to a wedding for one of Joshua's co-workers this weekend. It was at they Olympic Sculpture Park which is a really beautiful location! I got to meet a few more of the guys Joshua works with, eat free food, free drinks, dance to some Passion Pit, and hang out in a beautiful setting celebrating 2 newlyweds. We had a really good time, especially considering we knew less than 6 people there.

sculpture park while the sun is starting to set

 

the newlyweds

They gave out blinking bikes as favors! We all wore them

Plus there was a photo booth and I'm pretty sure the group of us have 1/2 the pictures in the batch

Met a few new people, plus some old. I love when his coworkers have wives!!!!!

Especially super fun goofy ones that make up awkward drink names :)

 

this is the boys dancing ALONE on the dance floor at one point :)

Homeade Pizza Rolls

O frozen pizza rolls, when my mom bought these you had to hurry up to grab any because once we knew they existed in the house they were gone! We used to usually warm them up in the microwave because we were so impatient, we were kids give us a break.

When I was at the grocery store the other day I saw them. I was so torn. But then I thought that it might be more fun to make them. And it was! It was really fast only about 15 minutes to pull them all together and 10 minutes to bake them (not much longer in total than it took them to cook sometimes)

Plus it was really nice because I could thrown anything I wanted into them. I wasn't limited by pepperoni and cheese. These could be really fun to mess around with!

Their exterior texture is of course not the same but almost better because it allows the inside flavors to be more present and it still bakes up with a nice crisp exterior just not with the "I was also possibly fried first" texture. And they were hubs approved :)

Homeade Pizza Rolls:

Makes 24, could use whole packet of wontons and freeze some too!

1/2 package wontons

1/3 onion; diced

2 cloves garlic; minced

1 red pepper; diced

8-10 olives; diced

1/2 cup sauce

1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

1/4 cup mozzararella; grated

1   preheat oven to 425 degrees F and spray/grease a cookie sheet

2   in a small skillet cook the onions, peppers, garlic for about 5 minutes and remove from heat

3   then add in the olives, sauce, pepper flakes, and mozzarella

4   line the cookie sheet with wontons and get a small bowl of water ready by your side

5   put about 1 tbs of filling into the center of each wonton

6   to close them dip your finger in the water and run it along the edge of the wonton, fold them in half and seal them closed with your fingers

7   you can push them pretty close next to one another and I fit all 24 on one sheet

8   place in oven for 10-12 minutes, they will lightly brown, check the bottoms

9   but with all pizza rolls let them cool for a few minutes, or burn the roof of your mouth like I always do because you're so eager to try them out :)

and after you eat these you don't even have to feel bad about it!

No oil no butter Brownies, that still rock

I love, nay adore, brownies. The problem is once I make them I want to eat them ALL myself. I usually make the homeade Hershey's brownie recipe but I really wanted to find something more healthy if possible. When I found this I super curious and they turned out amazing.

Hubs tried them without knowing what was in them and loved them. They are a tad more fluffy and less dense then normal homeade brownies which was also a nice treat. You can't tell that there is anything different in them and when you split them open you can't see any zucchini!

I highly recomend giving this one a try if you want to feel a little less guilty. I was super proud though that I only had 1 and sent the rest to Joshua's work :)

plus zuccini are in season right now!

Zucchini Brownies:

Recipe from Food Plus Words

2 eggs
1 tbs vanilla
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup applesauce
2 cups zucchini; grated (about 2 zuchinni)
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 cup chocolate chips(optional)

1   preheat oven to 350 and grease an 8x8 pan or cupcake tin
2   in a large bowl mix eggs, vanilla, sugar, applesauce, salt and zucchini
3   in a medium bowl mix together the flour, cocoa, soda, cinnamon
4   add the flour mixture to the wet until just combined
5   stir in the chocolate chips
6   pour into 8x8 pan and bake for 30-40 minutes OR into a cupcake tin about 3/4 full each for about 12-15 minutes

Then after everyone tries them enjoy telling them there is 2 cups of zucchini in them!

strange that these go in the same bowl!

Tempeh Lettuce Wraps

Our friends gave us home grown lettuce- a lot of it!

But we had just bought some romaine from the farmer's market and I really didn't want to waste any of it or eat salads for every meal, so I went with lettuce wraps.

You could put other meat in them but I really like the nutty taste and the texture of crumbled up tempeh
The hot pepper can be left out but we really enjoyed the kick


1 package tempeh; crumbled
1/3 onion; chopped
2 pepper; chopped
3 cloves garlic; minced
1 small hot pepper; minced
toasted sesame seed oil
handful of parsley; chopped
S&P to taste
1-3 tsp soy sauce
head of lettuce
feta for topping

1   saute the tempeh, onion and pepper for about 3-5 minute in the toasted sesame seed oil (or regular oil, I used it to add flavor)
2   then throw in the hot pepper and garlic for a few minutes
3   add parsley, S&P, and soy sauce
4   serve in pieces of lettuce rolled up with some feta

Michael in Seattle.2

Sunday we all went to Ballard for the Seafood fest and checked out the locks.

The boys ate lots of fishy things, I stuck with the calmer clam chowder :)

And of course since were were in Ballard we got gelato!

in Seattle you can only drink beer at concerts and festivals inside fenced off areas,

 this is the boys complaining :)



clam chowder, very chunky, very good

lots of fried seafood



 

there is a fish swimming up the ladder in this picture! Talk about lucky!

For the first time since we've gone the locks were FULL of salmon.

Seriously some were the size of my torso.

We got to see about 6-8 of them jumping too and a few successfully made it up the ladder step.

There are 21 steps that the fish have to jump or swim up to get to the fresh water to go lay their eggs. And sometimes they jump and miss, talk about tiring!



That night we headed over to one of our Capitol Hill favorites Barrio for some more mexican food and cheap fantastic drinks. We hung out by the candle wall and had a really great time. It has been a so much fun hanging out with Michael and just catching up and relaxing. I love having individual time with friends that I've previously mostly hung out in groups with.

Plus it's really nice because he's been a really chill, easy going guest haha, always nice

Part 1 of Michael's visit HERE

Michael in Seattle.1

Our friend from college is on a cross-country road stop and hung out with us all weekend!

We started of Thursday night with grilling up an insane amount of veggies and the Aaron's stopped by. Friday he hit up the market and we went to Ballard to eat some tapas and sip fancy drinks (until the boys switched to the below beverage, not classy)



the boys drinking local :)




skeeball

 Saturday we went and had a relaxing, filling brunch and headed over to Gasworks Park and then we went kayaking!!! Which is now Joshua's newest obsession.



Michael matches the gasworks pipes :)



One of the best parts was the 2 hour kayaking we all did. We kayaked over to the arboretum and then made it through to the other side to get a quick peek at the city. It was a really fantastic day to go too.

There are a bunch of overpasses and wood walkway bridges that we could paddle and weave under, sometimes you had to duck

And of course since you rent your kayaks from a mexican restaurant we finished  it up with margaritas, tacos, and salsa!

It has been really fun and easy to hang out with Michael and we've done a bunch of things or gone to places we haven't gone before which always makes it fun for everyone.

Check back for Part 2!