Friend Snowshoe adventure

Joshua's high school friend was out to visit this weekend. He took Friday off and they went on a snowshoeing adventure. Most of the trek up was shrouded in misty clouds and quite disappointing, then at the top the clouds slowly began to thin. They ended up with spectacular views and the weather was warm enough for them to hang out and watch it all happen. They said the transformation of the views was really cool to watch. The cloud began to settle below them and then looked like a foaming lake held in by the trees and the mountains.

The rest of Matt's visit was spent having a fancy night in Capitol Hill, biking around to breweries, playing games, it was his birthday while he was here so I made a 3rd cake for the week which we took to the FOE and ate. Since we were 4 of 7 people in the place we were promptly signed up for karaoke by the bartender and participated in some pretty bad performances.

Hello Kitty Cake

I was asked to make a cake for a 2 year old who likes Hello Kitty, pink, yellow, and candy. I think I nailed it. I have never tried to tie dye icing before and had no back up plan, luckily it worked out and looks quite spunky. I love the candy and the sunflower seeds creating pattern. Started out very skeptical about making a Hello Kitty cake and I ended up having a really great time making it.

Post-Holiday Party

My office had our Post-Holiday party this past weekend. The event was at MOHAI, museum of history and industry. It is in South Lake Union in a beautiful building that sticks out into the water. The floor of the space is end cut wood from ships and the exhibits are fabulous. Also there was endless wine & beer & cheesy gnocchi. We also had a DJ and my office is actually quite stellar at starting a dance party. As always there was also a photo booth, which we took liberal use of!

I was also very excited to get to wear the leather harness I made to go with my dress. Also proud to say I found Joshua's tie at the thrift store. :)

We headed out to a few bars post party where we ate a bunch of the desserts from the party someone brought in boxes. Then Joshua and I went to get a cab it was like $25, which neither of us was willing to pay. Therefore we started walking, it was actually a quite nice night out and we ended up walking 2.3 miles (I was in wedges) from South Lake Union to Fremont. We crossed the Fremont bridge and finally got a $5 cab the rest of the way. Ended the evening eating shapes box mac & cheese.

Snowshoe Adventure

 

This past weekend we gathered into Richard and headed for some snow, finally. For our friend's birthday she wanted to go snowshoeing and it turned out to be a fabulous day for it. We drove to Steven's Pass and hiked Skyline Lake. Since most people were there for skiing it was a pretty chill trailhead, which was lovely. 

 

 

Joshua got a bit of an ice beard. It felt like a pretty cold day, but I am also a cold wimp.

 

The snow drifts over the huge boulders at the top were stunning. Some of the drifts exposed the wind paths that had rustled the top fluffy layers and others were jutting off the top of rocks with large cantilevers. The wind was biting but the day was so clear and the landscape up there was mesmerizing.

After we were done playing outside we headed back to the Nelson's place for some homemade ramen. The boys took on the cooking and it was very tasty.

Borscht

I can't remember the first time I tried beets or borscht but I do know I'm now hooked. There is a Russian piroshky place near my office and I love to get a cup of borscht and a piroshky for a dreary day lunch. Besides being very delicious I also swoon over the perfect color of borscht. I've had a few helpings of other people's borscht recipes and this is currently my favorite.

 

 

1 lb. slice of bone-in beef shank; fat trimmed

1 onion; diced

8 cups beef broth

4 large beets; peeled & chopped

4 carrots; peeled & chopped

1 russet potato; peeled & chopped

2 cups thinly sliced cabbage

3/4 cup chopped fresh dill

3 tbs red wine vinegar

1/4 cup heavy cream

Salt and fresh ground black pepper

 

1   in a large pot brown the beef  in a few tbs of oil. After a few minutes turn over the beef and add in the onions. Let them cook for about 5 minutes

2   Add in 4 cups of beef broth and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cover, cook until meat is falling off the bone - about 1 1/2 hours.

 

3   Once meat is cooked remove it and chop it into bite size pieces. At this point you can store the beef and broth in the fridge for the next day or keep on cooking. When you remove the broth from the fridge or continue on you should now skim the fat from the top of the broth.

 

4   Once the meat is removed bring the broth back up to a boil. Add in the beets, carrots, potato and the rest of the broth. Simmer for 15-20 minutes, beets should be easily pierced with a fork.

 

5   Once the beets are cooked add in the cabbage, beef and dill. Simmer for 10-15 minutes

 

6   Remove the soup from the stove and stir in the red wine vinegar and salt and pepper. Ladle the soup into bowls and drizzle in heavy cream, top with dill.

 

 

 

For small group last week, since our oven was out of commission, I made tahini puppy chow with chocolate covered sunflower seeds. This then made up the majority of my dinner that night!

 

Lemon Curd and White Chocolate Ganache Cake

 

I had the pleasure of making a cake for a client's friend's birthday. Her only request was something lemon and something yellow. I'm still obsessed with my bee pollen sprinkles and knew those were going to make an appearance. I ended up making a lemon curd filling piled between citrus zest cake and drizzled with a white chocolate ganache that I tinted yellow. Topped it all off with some tiny meringues and bee pollen.

 

Right after I whipped up my cake batter I realized my oven was BROKEN. The bottom heating coil had actually snapped. So you can't just put cake batter in the fridge for later. It was also quite late at night. I finally decided to walk over to the Fraternal Order of the Eagles, which is connected to our building, we aren't member mind you.

 

I asked the bartender man- Hi this is going to be a weird question but I'm your neighbor, my oven just broke and I need to make a cake. Do you have an oven

 

His response- Yes we are oven people.

 

He saved me and was so kind. So the cake got done and we are also now members of the FOE!

Thanksgiving Cake

 

I forgot to post this cake I made for a client for Thanksgiving. It was a cardamom spice cake with tahini cream cheese frosting. I decked it out with almond paste and tulle cookie leaves.

Post-Apocalyptic Smash Putt

 

Last Saturday we donned our most post-apocalyptic black & leather outfits to hit up Smash Putt downtown. I ended up looking a lot like Rey from Star Wars. Someone at putt putt apparently even asked Josh if me looking like her was intentional, ha.

 

We'd been to Smash Putt before but this one was downtown. It was crowded and chaotic and we had an 11pm tee time but it was excellent fun. My favorite hole was the Operation Hole where you had to use the pincers below to get your ball out of traps and if you hit the edges you got shocked.

 

The classic scratch & sniff hole, and laser hole were also back. A lovely erratic time was had by all.