Joshua is 30!

This past week Joshua turned 30! We celebrated on his actual birthday by going out to a fancy restaurant with friends. Normally we would only go the 2 of us and it was a really fun experience to go out with a small group and be all fancy, order a bottle of wine, appetizers, a dessert with a candle. We all felt so adult.

Then over the weekend we threw a big party. There were balloons that lit up different colors, giant #30 balloons, glow sticks, disco balls and constant records playing. It was so great to see so many people we love in one room having a good time. It's my happy place.

We had prosciutto wrapped shrimp, butternut squash mac & cheez, beet salad on a stick (an invention I made that I think is genius, a big ol cheese plate with salami and olives and of course this year donuts galore! Joshua loves donuts, so I decided to do that instead of cake this year. It ended up taking about 9 hours to complete 4 different donuts with 3 different types of dough. I learned a lot along the way and mostly enjoyed it. His favorite was still his go to- pink with rainbow sprinkles. I also made a chocolate frosted with cocoa nibs, bourbon basil blueberry, and sugar & cardamom coated filled with lemon curd. It was fun to watch everyone try to pick donuts and see which they liked best. We didn't end up with very many left over.

I also made a taco piñata, his other favorite food, and filled it with chocolates and mini (plastic) bottles of liquor. I only made it with masking tape but it took about 12 people to finally crack it open. My lunch hour piñata making skills were stronger than I realized.

Joshua had a really great time and we finally headed to bed around 1:30am. Then on Sunday I'm pretty sure I spent the entire day on the couch barely able to move:)

Valentine's Day Dessert

 

The dessert was very tasty and I love how bright and fun the pistachios make it look. We've been enjoying a slice each day for the past few days, I'll be sad when it ends!

 

here was our dinner!

Pistachio Shortbread Milk Chocolate Tart:

5 oz shortbread cookies
2/3 cup shelled unsalted pistachios
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
4 tbs butter; melted

1   pulse the cookies, pistachios, sugar and salt in a food processor. Then add in butter and process until the mixture holds together.
2   press the crumbs into a 9" tart tin on the bottom and up the sides. Refrigerate for 15 minutes
3  preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Place the tart in to bake for 15-20 minutes, until golden brown. Remove and let cool completely

1/2 cup shelled unsalted pistachios
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp coconut oil

1   pulse all this together in a food processor.
2   sprinkle all but a few tbs onto bottom of tart shell. The bit you keep will be to decorate the top of the tart. Gently press the pistachio mixture down onto the tart shell.

5 oz milk chocolate; finely chopped
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup whole milk
1 egg; beaten

1   in a double broiler bring cream and milk to a light boil and remove from heat. Immediately pour in the milk chocolate. Let sit for 1-2 minutes and then stir until all the chocolate is melted.
2   let sit for 7-10 minutes then beat in the egg.
3   pour into tart shell and bake for 30-35 minutes, chocolate mixture should be set
4   let cool and decorate with remaining pistachio paste, chopped pistachios, mini meringues or anything else you can think of.

I finally gave him a haircut. I forgot how handsome his face is without all the hair in the way :)

Valentine's Day Dinner

 

Joshua and I opted to cook a fancy dinner for Valentine's Day. We made it an all day affair by simmer sauce all day prepping pasta dough. Around 4 we made some fancy cocktails and asparagus ribbon salad so we wouldn't be hangry while making pasta. Then we rolled out all the pasta and let it hang to dry, made another cocktail and rolled into our olive bread heated in butter and rosemary. Once the pasta was dry we boiled it all up added the sauces and moved over to our trunk set up in candles. Eventually made our way to playing a short round of darts, then ate some pistachio chocolate tart and watched the 007 Spectre movie.

So in less words, we slowly ate tons of carbs all day!

 

 

I love egg white cocktails. Joshua is good a making fancy cocktails. Ergo I passed the recipe I wanted onto him in hopes that it would turn out well. Luckily I was right and it turned out tasty and a cute shade of purple. The egg white foam was a successs!

 

The Elk's Own:

double it to make 2 drinks

1 1/2 oz straight rye whiskey

1 oz Ruby Port

1/2 oz fresh squeezed lemon juice

1 tsp simple syrup

1 large egg white

1   place all ingredients in a cocktail shaker, shake viciously for 3-5 seconds

2   add a few ice cubes and shake again for 8-10 seconds

3   strain into cocktail glass

 

We hadn't tried uncooked asparagus salads before and it turned out to be delicious. I've only made asparagus ribbons once before and it is a little frustrating at the beginning but once I got the hang of it all was well. This salad looks really impressive but is quite simple and delivers great flavor.

Asparagus Ribbon Salad:
1 lb asparagus
1/2 lemon; juiced
olive oil
1/4 cup pine nuts; toasted
sea salt and pepper to taste
parmesan cheese

1   rinse off asparagus and using a vegetable peeler strip the stalks into ribbons, from the end toward the tip
2   toss asparagus ribbons in a bowl with a sprinkling of lemon juice and olive oil
3   place in gentle bundles on 2 plates and top with pine nuts, salt & pepper, and parmesan cheese

 

We feel we are now master pasta makers- we didn't jam up the machine with sticky dough at all this time! We used the same recipe as last time found here.

 

For the pasta we made the most complicated Bolognese sauce I've ever attempted. We had to make 2 pestos and then the sauce. I really want to try the 2 pestos though with just the pasta, they were even quite tasty on their own. In the end it was definitely worth it and had so much great flavor!

 

 

Chorizo Bolognese sauce:

 

2 tbs olive oil

1 lb ground chorizo

2 cloves garlic; minced

28 oz can whole peeled roma tomatoes

1/2 cup whole milk

1/2 cup red wine

1/2 cup sun-dried tomato pesto; recipe below

2 tsp dried basil

1 tsp dried oregano

1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

2 dried bay leafs

salt and pepper

1/2 cup fresh sage leaves

1 1/2 cup baby kale

1/3 cup olive oil

1/2 cup manchengo cheese

parmesan cheese

 

1   in a large pot or dutch oven heat oil over medium heat. Once the oil is hot add in the chorizo and brown all over. Then add in the garlic for 2-3 minutes.

2   crush the tomatoes into the pot with your hands, watch for splatter. Stir in the whole milk, wine, pesto, basil, oregano, pepper flakes, pinch of salt and pepper. Simmer for 20-30 minutes over medium low heat, stir occasionally.

3   The sauce is technically done after this but for more flavor simmer, covered, on low heat for all day, stirring occasionally.

4   when ready to serve pasta, in a food processor process the sage, kale, olive oil and manchengo cheese into a pesto

5   cook pasta unil al dente. Drain pasta reserving 1 cup of pasta water. Place pasta back in pot and add kale pesto. Add in pasta water a few tbs at a time until a sauce forms

6   plate pasta and then add on a heaping ladleful of chorizo Bolognese. Top with parmesan cheese

 

Sun-dried Tomato pesto:
can be made a few days in advance and kept in the fridge, also makes a good sauce on it's own.

6-8 ounces sun dried tomatoes; drained
1 cup fresh basil leaves
1/4 cup pine nuts
3 cloves garlic
1 tbs lemon juice
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup olive oil

1   place all ingredients except oil in a food processer and grind together
2   slowly drizzle in olive oil until pesto has formed
3   store in air tight container in fridge


I'm going to do a dessert post separately, as this one is already quite hefty.

Mountainous Anniversary Trip

We try to take the day off for our anniversary but this year it couldn't work so instead we took the whole weekend to celebrate. Drove up to Mt. Baker area and camped outside our trailhead with a fire, boxed wine, reading via headlamp, and a stunning sky full of stars. The sky was so incredibly clear that night the stars were sparkly and out in force.

 

Next morning we were up early and packed up to head for a hike on Park Butte. It is a trail used to ascend Mt. Baker so we were hanging out right at it's base. We love being up close to the mountains so this was lovely! Maybe next we'll go to the top ;)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After our hike we headed over to Baker Lake, hiked in a few miles and hung up my birthday hammock for it's first run. Hammocking (word?) is awesome! We swung over the lake, took a nap, and enjoyed being alone with one another. It was an amazing way to spend time celebrating 4 married years together.

 

 

4 Year Anniversary

photo by the amazing Samantha's Studio, website here

For my birthday this year Joshua wrote me a letter, a five page letter. He's a beautiful writer and able to express all that my heart feels in words. I'll never be able to capture my feelings on paper the way he can so I'm going to steal how he started off the letter:

"I don't know what to say about how I feel about you right now. I am thinking back over the last near-decade we've know each other and there is just so much. You are so much more than I ever expected to get out of life"


I love you my Joshua, and thank goodness you accept my show of love, affection, appreciation, admiration & excitement that I find in you and our marriage in forms other than words.

Heart Shaped Food Dinner

Quite randomly I came home Friday suddenly afflicted with some silly cold. Hubs asked what I wanted for dinner and when I said burger he lovingly went on a run to find me one. Then most of Saturday/Valentine's Day I was useless. Although we did get to watch a giant chunk of Elementary season 2 while I huddled under blankets. By Sunday I was feeling more uppity so we cooked our Valentine's Day dinner a day late, which really was just dinner with more red things and dough shaped into a heart because why not!

We started off with the fanciest cocktail we've ever constructed at home. And it was so delicious! It was fun to sip it and try to detect all the flavors and to have the rose water syrup linger on your tongue. Adding the sparkling water was perfect to give it a little fizz but also make it a larger drink without adding more alcohol. Here it is, make it!

Rose Grapefruit Cocktail:

First you have to make rose simple syrup and this can be kept in the fridge for a week. You can also use the extra rose water syrup to add a 1 to 3 of sparkling water.
1 1/4 cup water
2 cups sugar
1/4 cup rose water
3 tbs lime juice

1   bring water and sugar to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes, stir occasionally
2   add in rose water and lime juice and simmer for 10 more minutes, stir occasionally
3   remove from heat and let cool before using in drink, store in fridge

for the drink:
1.5 oz gin
.75 oz rose syrup
.75 oz grapefruit juice
.25 oz lemon juice
2 dashes of peach bitters
cardamom pod
ice
sparkling water

1   in a shaker lightly muddle the cardamom pod
2   add in gin, rose syrup, grapefruit juice, lemon juice, peach bitters and a few cubes of ice
3   shake and strain over ice
4   add in sparkling water and finish with a twisted lemon peel

I wanted to make pizza (because we love it almost as much as we love one another) but I wanted a little spin on it so I made my charred pepper sauce as the base. This sauce is so versatile and really quite easy to make. Now a huge hit on pizza in our opinions! Then we layered on 3 types of mushrooms (decadence!), crumbled spicy sausage, sprinkled on some goat cheese and grated pecorino. Wowza this pizza should be sold somewhere! Best combo ever I now believe!

We also had a mixed greens strawberry salad with cranberry mustard dressing which was very adorable and very tasty. I've listed it out below.

Mixed Greens Strawberry Salad with Cranberry Mustard Dressing:

5-6 cups mixed greens
8-10 strawberries, cut off greens and slice
4 radishes; sliced

Homemade Granola Croutons:
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup sliced almonds
1/2 cup pistachios
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tbs fennel seeds
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg white
1/4 cup olive oil

1   preheat oven to 350 degrees F and mix all ingredients in a bowl
2   spread out mixture on baking sheet and bake for 10-15 minutes
3   let clusters cool before putting on salad


Cranberry Mustard Dressing:

3 tbs olive oil
2 tbs lemon juice
1 tbs cranberry mustard
1 1/2 tsp honey
a little salt and pepper

1   mix all ingredients together well in small bowl and drizzle over salad

Cheers to Three Years!

This is our three year wedding anniversary!
I found the photo above while cleaning out my computer the other day- it was from our 3 year dating anniversary. It makes me smile and love even more what we have now, we've come so far but also I really feel like we still have that "thing" we had when we were dating.

This year was our hardest year of marriage so far. Not hard, just the hardest. We felt a little lost and busy a lot of this year. Buy a house, don't buy a house, not feeling home anywhere, feeling overwhelmed and like we had no time to make our own choices, not being able to find time to be alone with one another, work not being fulfilling and so on. But I still loved this year, I still love this man. It's ending on an upswing though! with moving and fitting in some weekends with just the two of us and getting back out to the mountains.

God has blessed us in so many ways and the littleness and pettiness of all the stuff that was burdening us this past year has caused us to reevaluate some things, clean out things and stop talking so much about the future and instead living in the now. I'm so happy I come home to this man and we're both learning what it means for that to be joyful in the things that actually matter to us.

Yay Three Years :)

year one & year 2

2nd Anniversary

Today is our 2nd year anniversary!

I'm so excited to call Joshua my husband and daily he shows me how glad he is I'm his wife.

I thank God for what we have and how He has blessed us with growth over this 2nd year.

I'm constantly learning more about God's love through being married to Joshua

and even though sometimes it's hard and hard to put myself aside ,

I love that we're unravelling God's plans for us together

Some parts of our wedding I remember better than others -

I don't remember almost anything our pastor said,

I do remember never losing your gaze while we stood up there

and the way you looked at me

and the feelings that were surrounding and inside me,

and I remember all our family and frinds having a

giant party afterwards and never wanting it to end

The party may now be just the 2 of us most of the time,

 but I'm still loving every second of it

Happy 2 year anniversary Hubs!

Love you so much

I wrote this out one day because there were little things I never wanted to forget.

I hand wrote it out and hung it above our bed, it's our love story:

Freshman year- 4th floor, Daniel's Hall,

Joshua saw her walking in
He was playing ukere with friends,
he whispered to one of them-
she is the most gorgeous girl I've ever seen
he knocked on her door and asked her to join,
she said yes.

One night watching a movie with friends
he reached over and grabbed her hand.

their hearts both fluttered.

Another night she asked him -

will you just kiss me already,
he replied with his lips.

Then came a year
full of 5am phone calls
cheap movies and stargazing.

They flirted and pined,

fought and apologized,
learned to know each other's hearts

Until, while hiking in North Carolina 
he held her back and they fell behind the rest
he asked her if she trusted him
and then asked her to be his,
she said yes.

School sent her traveling and he went to visit
boston-snowy walks and high-rise dinners,
chicago-late night drinks and stolen cars,
seattle-bike rides and parks by night
filled them with romance and adventure,

One cold winter day he to parked outside a church,
a church he knew she wanted to be married in,
he pulled out a piece of leather,
tied it around her finger
and asked -Marry me,
she said yes.

Fast forward to June

in that same very church

standing in front of God and family,

starring only into each other's eyes,

they said yes.

A week later, belongings all packed

they hoped in the truck and drove off

for a cross-country honeymoon

and to their new home Seattle

to figure out the beginning of their new adventure

together.

He's 25 Birthday dinner

I took him to a birthday breakfast but I've been dying to try out this restaurant in Capitol Hill so I decided he needed a birthday dinner too, plus I bought a new dress that I really wanted to get dressed up in. So yes, slightly selfish motives.

We went to Sitka and Spruce and grabbed a pre-dinner glass of wine in the marketplace that leads into it. My friend Camila showed it to us when we grabbed dinner with them last weekend and we couldn't wait to go back. It's a market during the day and at night they serve wine and appetizers inside, gah love it.



I think we could live off of fresh bread and salted butter!


It was a fantastic date night, it was really cold and windy out so hudling inside a place full of old wood beams and ceilings and a cooking fire was perfect. Also I could only get reservations for 9:45pm so we were the last people there, which felt special and even a little more romantic.

Less adventurous than last years birthday dinner, but amazing food and great company.