New Favorite Dinner

Charlie and I have a new favorite summertime dinner. It's easy to make and so good that I had to share.

Sloppy BBQ Chicken Sandwiches
2-3 servings

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1-2 tablespoons cilantro
1 walla walla sweet onion
1 tablespoon of oil
2-3 tablespoons of Tom Douglas Rub with Love Ancho Molasses BBQ Sauce (or delicious bbq sauce of your choice)
Whole Wheat hamburger buns

All I do is cook up a little boneless skinless chicken breasts. We don't have a microwave so I just boil it in a pot of water with some seasoning - usually a little Mexican seasoning or something with some spiciness (to be honest I don't know if this really adds any flavor, but it makes me feel good because it changes the water into more of a broth). Boil until done, then chop it up in small pieces and put it in the fridge to chill it.

Chop the cilantro and about 1/4 of the onion very finely and mix in with the chicken. Slice the rest of the onion into strips. Heat about 1 tablespoon of oil in a pan over med-high heat and add the onion strips. Season with some salt and cook until golden brown. Add to the chicken mixture.

Take the chicken mixture out of fridge and add the bbq sauce. Toast the buns and heap the chicken on top! Yummy! (one time I also made some coleslaw and put this on the sandwich too, I enjoyed this a lot, but Charlie was less enthusiastic...)

So proud of my pots...

I got back from Spokane on Thursday afternoon and I planned to go to the nursery to plant my pots that afternoon... but instead I got a flat tire on the way home from the dog park and had to scrap that plan and put it off for the weekend. Fortunately, yesterday I finally finished the two on my front porch. I picked out all the plants by myself and I really tried to pay attention to the sunlight, watering and other needs of the plants, so hopefully I got it right and all will flourish. I was more interested in picking out pretty flowers, textures and height and shape of the plants and at the very least I think I got that part right. I even picked out some fragrant items so hopefully the next time you are waiting for me to come to the door you'll feel calmed and soothed by the smell of lavender and orange blossoms. :)

Full Circle Farm

Charlie and I joined a CSA with Full Circle Farm in Carnation and we had our first delivery a week ago. Check out all the fresh, local and organic fruits and veggies we got! We got our delivery on Thursday and I had to leave for a week in Spokane on Sunday so we were under some serious pressure to use them all up quickly, but I made a summer squash and corn soup with the squash and corn and a kale and beet salad, a cherry compote that I'm saving for this week, a couple green salads with amazingly delicious avocados and more... Check it out for yourself, you can request special items and switch out fruits or veggies that you don't like!

http://www.fullcirclefarm.com/

All the baby showers are over, now it's time for Milton!

Kelsey had another baby shower last night with family this time. I was amazed at the talent and skill that went into some of the gifts. You should visit Kelsey's blog for some examples, but here's a pic of me, Mom, Kelse and Grandma enjoying ourselves. Kelsey and Milton received quite a bounty of gifts... hopefully it will inspire Milton to come out and see it all for himself. He's not due for another 2 weeks, but I have a feeling he's coming sooner than that!

Lemons and pots and plants, oh my!

Today I am going shopping for pots with my Mom's bff B-Z. She is a buyer for a store and therefore has access to a fancy pot store that Swansons and Ravenna Gardens and all the local gardening stores get their fancy pots from. I am thrilled because I always longingly walk by the Ravenna Gardens pot displays and quickly walk away before I can convince myself that $100 (or sometimes even more!) is a reasonable price for a pot. Soon I will be walking by with a big smile knowing that I got myself a deal on some of those same pots! I love a good bargain! My plan is to buy a tall pot for the front porch to go with a small squat one that I already have and maybe a couple more for the back deck, and if I can find something perfect then one for my living room to add a little indoor life to that room. I have already set my sights on a plant for the living room. It's ambitious for a novice gardener like me, but I'm motivated so I think I can make it work. Hopefully sometime this winter you will visit us and find that we have our very own, fruit producing, meyer lemon tree! Wouldn't that be the coolest thing? Apparently they smell good too! Love the smell of lemons... These trees come with a 3 year warranty too so that's bolstering my confidence quite a bit :)

New Friends...

Look how happy Sammy is about all of her new friends!


We teamed up with Charlie's college friend Sean and his girlfriend Amy to create a dinner club. We each found another brave couple that would be willing to commit to a monthly dinner to be hosted by one of us each month. Saturday was the first one and I'm excited to say that we all hit it off and this just might work! We didn't plan this, but fortuitously 3 out of the 4 couples has at least one member that moved to Seattle in the last 6 years. I don't think I've been to a Seattle party with that many out of staters since my first frat party! I had planned a Northwest themed meal, so if all the out of staters haven't had a chance to get their fill of Washington flavors, then they might of last night... Anyway, I think it was a great way to meet some new people and I can't wait to see what next month's party has in store. Here are some recipes and pictures from the night:

Warm Goat Cheese with Tomato Herb Salad
1/2 cup dried break crumbs
salt & pepper
1 egg
goat cheese
tomatoes - the recipe actually calls for beefstake slices, but I used grape tomatoes and assorted heirlooms because the color was prettier
2 cups of lightly packed mixed herbs - my herb garden had a hard time with this tall order, but I managed. In retrospect I would have added some arugula or something
balsalmic glaze - the recipe calls for red wine vinegar, but I prefer balsamic (especially the yummy reduced kind that comes as a glaze)
olive oil

Slice the goat cheese into medalions. Dip in egg, then coat with bread crumbs. Refriderate for 15 minutes.

Toss the herbs and tomatoes together and dress with a little oil and vinegar. I added a little garlic, red pepper flakes and fennel, because I cannot leave anything simple. If you found the beefstake tomatoes instead, then toss the herbs in a little dressing and place a slice of tomato on each plate with some dressed herbs on top.

Heat a large nonstick skillet over med-high heat. Add 2 tablespoons of oil. When the oil is almost smoking, add the cheese rounds. Cook until lightly browned, about 45 seconds, then turn and cook the other side until the cheese feels just quivery, about 45 seconds longer. Place the cheese on top of your salads and serve immediately.

Alder Smoked Salmon with Raineir Cherry Walla Walla Onion Relish
Alder planks - soak them overnight so they don't burn up
Salmon
1 t Salt
1/4 t freshly ground pepper
1/4 t mustard powder
1/4 or less of brown sugar
olive oil
1 T butter

Mix together the salt and pepper, mustard powder and brown sugar. Brush the salmon with melted butter and season with your mixture.

Put the soaked planks on the grill and cover. Heat each side for about 3 minutes (or follow the directions that came with your planks). Once finished, immediately brush the plank with olive oil and lay the salmon on top. Cook until done. FYI - it took a LONG time for our salmon to cook so plan accordingly.

Relish:
2 Walla Walla onions
1/4 lb cherries
balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper

grill the onions with salt and pepper. Chop them up. Chop up the cherries. Mix onions and cherries with a tablespoon or so of the vinegar, add salt and pepper to taste. FYI - I used a little reduced balsamic vinegar that comes as a glaze instead and found it delicious. I also used a tiny bit of smoked black sea salt and that added a nice smokiness.

We also had some these recipes out of two of the barefoot contessa's cookbooks.

Green Green Spring Vegetables

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_35318,00.html

Coconut Cupcakes - I know there's nothing Northwest about coconut, but I L-O-V-E these cupcakes, so whatever :)

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_21486,00.html

Home Improvement!

Today we got a new chandelier for the kitchen. I never liked the one that came with the house and this morning I was looking through the Pacific NW section of the paper (I love to look at the mansions for sale in that section) and there was an add for Rejuvination that featured the light of my dreams. The Rejuvination store is just south of Safeco Field and they have some really cool stuff there. It seemed to me that the focus of the store is to provide lighting, light switches, door knobs, etc. that match up to the period of your house. I didn't ask about the period for the light we picked out, but it has a cute retro vibe so hopefully it isn't totally out of character with our house.

Before, we had this really ugly very Shaky's Pizza circa 1988 chandelier:


After, cute and unique!

http://www.rejuvenation.com/index.html?ipb=GA2001&gclid=CMLUm8z7vZQCFSEbagod9HgLUA

Sammy's Dream Day

One of the most important things in Sammy's life is her collection of balls... she loves tennis balls that squeak the most, then plain tennis balls (preferably one that's been left behind by another dog), then squishy plasticy ones that she can destroy and then any other kind of ball (I've even seen her try and pick up a basketball), so you can only imagine Sammy's pure shock and delight when we arrived at the dog park yesterday to discover 2 garbage bags, filled to the brim with tennis balls. Sammy could not pull herself away. She would grab one and I'd throw it, she'd bring it back, discard it, grab another one... we did this for probably 30 minutes and went through about half of one bag before I finally convinced her that it was time to go swimming... She ran around the park like it was Christmas morning and as she approached each new dog to play I could swear that each dog was saying to the other "Did you see the bags of tennis balls?!?"

It's hard work being a doodle...

Charlie and I are both morning people so our household is up an out of bed pretty early... this is even more so now that we don't have adequate curtains to block out the blinding sunrise, but Sammy is another story. She is not a "morning dog". She wakes up for her breakfast and then promptly goes right back to bed (with her favorite ball of course). This morning she was in deep REM and slept like this for the entire time that I was getting ready. She was nice enough to lazily get up and walk me to the door when I left, but I have a feeling she went right back up to bed and is probably sleeping there right now! What a lucky little doodle!

Back from KC!

Kansas City was actually very pleasant. They have lots of parks and shopping and the city was much prettier than I expected. So that was a nice surprise. I sure am glad to be home though and I want to tell you guys about the book I'm reading. It's called What is the What and it's by one of my favorite authors, Dave Eggers (If you haven't read A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius then I highly recommend that you do) but his new book is actually a biography of a guy from Sudan. He was one of the lost boys that made their way here to the states after having their families and villages murdered. These kids wandered through jungles and deserts to find their way to refuge camps and the story of how they managed it is riveting and heartbreaking. I have to keep reminding myself that it's a true story, that thousands of little kids actually made this trip. Anyway, it's a great book and it really opens your eyes to struggles in other parts of the world and makes you thankful for what you have. There's nothing like a story about civil war and refuge camps to make a 5 day business trip to KC seem pleasant...

http://www.amazon.com/What-Vintage-Dave-Eggers/dp/0307385906