Seattle So Far

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Christmas on the Bayou

I went home for the holidays and ate until I was cross-eyed. There's never enough time in the day so I wasn't able to make it to Baton Rouge to see friends and family but I hope to make it there next time around. But before I went back down south I did a few things around Seattle over the holidays. Including picking up my lovely Christmas time wine from my wine club. YUM.

Tasting at DeLille

Enjoying the enclosed patio

It was a yucky day out.

After that I went to the Pacific Northwest Ballet's showing of The Nutcracker. It was great and a little different from the version that I'm used to. Also, the Seafair Pirates were there collecting for children's charities and adding to the general festivities.

Yaaarrrrrrr

The opening screen for the Nutcracker

After all of this I headed down south for the week of Christmas. I was hoping to spend a lot of time sitting outside and soaking up some sun. However, the Seattle weather seemed to follow me south. Oh well.

Strange things were afoot in the Seattle airport

Margaritas and cookies at DFW!

Christmas tree w/o any cats in it!

Southern Pecan...a good way of knowing I'm back home.

Ari looking festive

Looking down the Bayou

Lovely Seattle weather in south Louisiana

Christmas Eve wine. It was accompanied by Beef Burgundy

Birthday cake!

Christmas dinner...Turkey, mashed potatoes

Sweet potatoes w/ blue cheese and pecans, gravy, and dressing

homemade cranberries...

broccoli rice and cheese casserole and mac n cheese

Christmas decor

Festive kitty

Heading north! Back in DFW for round two.

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Pig goes BOOM!

Ok not really but we did make a 'fancypants' bacon explosion for Thanksgiving. Since three of the four people at my thanksgiving were from the south we did a 'southern thanksgiving'. Holy crap was there a lot of food. My favorite part though was practicing my knife skills. Watch out.

Making the pecan pie crust for the crabmeat cheesecake

Crabmeat cheesecake baking

Chopping the porcinis and apples for the pork stuffing

War zone.

That's me. Cutting the fat layer off of the pork roast.

Butterflying the pork.

Boom! That's what you do when you know how to use a knife.

L smashing it to an even thinness

Layering w/ Kale

Rolled up and happy. About to get wrapped in proscuitto

Trying to remember the proper method for tying w/ twine

Monster Chanterelles

Crabmeat cheesecake for Turkey day brunch

Searing the pork

Buttermilk pie

Sweet potatoes w/ blue cheese and candied pecans

Whisking the grits dressing

Princess waiting for her wine.

All is right w/ the world

A thing of beauty

Sweet potatoes, biscuits, and collards!

Happy.

Grits dressing

Oooooo....

Post dinner walk for digestion

You can hike in the winter?

Who knew? A few weeks ago I went on a 'winter hike'. Seeing as how this is Seattle and not Aspen the ground was covered in moss instead of 20 ft of snow. Thus the hiking. It was still pretty cold though. So we drove out to Little Mt Si for a quick hike. We saw some ice cycles and there was quite a bit of snow on the mountains in the area but our hike was too low in elevation to really have anything to worry about. This was a super easy hike but it was so pretty. There were house sized boulders strewn around everywhere and they were all covered in furry green moss, as were the trees. I love that everything here is covered in a green carpet. The 'rainforestyish' area really kind of looked like fairyland. However, when hiking, even on an easy hike, you do get warm. Then you get to the top for the view and lunch and cool off. And get cold. Really freaking cold. So take note kids, do not get overheated and then 'come down with' hypothermia. Anyway, here are some of the pics from the day. My next 'winter hike' will probably be snow shoeing WHICH I'M SO EXCITED ABOUT! Seriously. I've wanted to do that since I was about 6 and went to Colorado for the first time.