Junior League Gala 2013

Saturday night I went to the Junior League of Seattle Gala.  It's our annual fundraiser and funds a huge portion of our community partners throughout the year.  This year the theme was Masquerade.  A group of my girlfriends and I went together -- it was fun to get all dressed up and leave the husbands at home, felt a bit like going to prom!  The night consisted of a silent auction, followed by dinner and a live auction, then was wrapped up with a 'dessert dash'.  We had a great time :)

 

I started feeling a little worn down late that night, turns out I was catching some sort of virus :(  I had planned on hosting brunch for two of my friends and their babies (Priscilla, in red above, and Lauren, group photo bottom right).  The table was set and my menu planned, but sadly I had to cancel.  We'll re-schedule soon!

Do You Bivy?

Do you bivy? I don't bivy... or let me re-state, don't want to ever have to bivy.  Will, he's excited to bivy.  He was going on an overnight back country ski tour this pas weekend but it got cancelled due to high avy danger.  But to prepare for the trip he had to purchase a bivy; the plan was to build a snow cave and sleep inside it. To protect your sleeping bag from moisture you put it inside a bivy.  I do not get the allure of this but he was stoked and sad when the trip fell through.

For a more detailed description of a bivousac sack "bivy sack" please click here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bivouac_sack

I think Will looks like a bug caught in a net!

 Happy camping.

February

Hello :)

No particular excitement going on this week, but did want to share a few photos.  The weather has been really nice and yesterday was the clearest day I think we've ever had since moving here over a year ago.  We could see Mt. Baker in all her glory.

We haven't lived in our house for a full year yet, so we are still learning surprises from the yard.  This week we saw a single bloom open up on a camellia tree by our front door.  It's going to be beautiful when the whole thing is flowers!

The white peak behind the tree is Mt Baker in the distance.  It's a shot from the corner of our dining room; I've never seen it before from our house and told Will our value just went up because we have a view! haha... sort-of ;)

Cascade Mountains in the distance, view from the dining room.







Peach cake I made for dinner at a friend's
house this week. It was good; I also added a
lime glaze made with powdered sugar.

Hope you are enjoying your Saturday -- I've spent mine sleeping in and piddling around the house (which I must admit, I'm very good at).

Cooking, Skiing, Grilling...Oh My!

Goodmorning (or afternoon, or night)!
This will be a hodge-podge of a post but will show you that I'm staying on track with one of my goals for the new year --- cooking.  I've been using a lot of recipes out of Barefoot's new book, Foolproof, given to me by my sweet friend Gwen. 

But before we eat...we exercise :)  A few photos below from a backcountry ski trip last weekend to Yodelin.  Also below are some photos from two weeks ago; we stopped on the way home from Stevens Pass to watch some kayakers come down the Skykomish River.  It was a beautiful day and if you look closely, you can see the snow-capped mountains in the distance behind the kayakers. We've had a temperature inversion the last few weekends, meaning that it was warmer at higher elevations and cooler in the lower elevations, very strange. Anyways, it made for beautiful, sunny days in the mountains. Who wouldn't want to ski when it's sunny and in the 40's :) Made me happy to get sun!

And now for the cooking!  I've been making all sorts of things, photographed a few.  Let's see...I've made: two soups, chocolate chip cookies, kale chips, home made vegetable stock, orechetti with broccoli rabe (and chicken sausage for Will), seared scallops on tomatoes, and we grilled on our new grill!  My parents got us a grill for Christmas and we decided to order a Weber. We got it on Amazon (duh) and it came in two days; however, if you don't buy at a store, you have to put it together yourself!  It came in a ton of pieces and looked quite daunting.  It was actually pretty simple and was a success!

Orechetti with broccoli rabe; I added the meat
separately at the end.

Success, looks good, AND works!!

Kale chips

Seared scallops on tomatoes with crostini..
Sorry, can't get the photo the right orientation.

Home made tomato soup

I am going to a Superbowl party today so am going to make mini-pizzas or mini calzones for an appetizer.  Will kind of laughed when I said I was going to a sporting event party and asked me if I even knew who was playing.. I didn't.  But, I told him I knew it should be intersting because the 'brothers' were involved.  "Which brothers are these?" he asked me.  Hum... he called my bluff. I had just overheard someone at work say the 'brothers' so I said, "Oh you know, Payton and Eli Manning." He just laughed... anyways, Happy Superbowl day!