Saturday, August 24, 2013

Shrimp! Glorious, Magical Shrimp!

Back in May I went on an adventure on the high seas!  Or on Hood Canal.  Whatever.  Don't judge.  There was water and boats and other various things of a marine nature. Turns out that in Washington the laws around shrimping are slightly different than they are in the Gulf.  Each person is limited to 80/day and only allowed to go out about 6 days (ish) a year.  I highly recommend going with a friend that will donate her entire haul to you due to a shellfish allergy.  It's quite convenient.

Heading out of Seattle on the ferry.  Mt Rainier in the background.

The view from the dock

Out on Hood Canal shrimping, not a bad view.

Shrimp traps

A passing boat tossed us some jello-shots.  9am jello shots? Yes, please!

Pulling up our shrimpy haul

A glorious and delicious spot prawn

Back on the sailboat after shrimping on the work boat.

Celebratory mimosas

Heading back to Seattle on the Ferry.  Hi Rainier!

160 spot prawns.  NOMNOM

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Beefaroo

I hope this post makes since seeing as how I just downed a couple of NyQuil tabs.  Yay!

This is going to be short and sweet.  I made a beef stir fry last night for some friends from the CSA box a friend and I split every week (check out http://newrootsorganics.com/ they rock).

Beef Stir Fry

1.5lb of very thinly sliced beef
2 cups rice (we used a random mix of jasmine and brown rice)
2 bouillon cubes
1/2 an onion sliced thin
1 large red bell pepper sliced thin
2 zucchinis cut in thin strips
1 head of broccoli
vegetable oil
4 or 5 cloves of garlic
Garlic Chili Paste
Sriracha
2 oranges
salt and pepper

It's stir fry so just kind of wing it.  This is what we did and it was delicious.

pour the juice of two oranges along with two pressed garlic cloves, salt, and pepper into a bag with the beef.  Marinate for as long as you'd like.

heat up four cups of water w/ the two bouillon cubes, when it starts to boil add your rice and some sriracha, reduce heat and cover.
when rice is close to being cooked pour three or four tablespoons of the oil into a wok and heat over med-high heat.
when oil is shimmering add the onions and stir constantly until soft
add in bell pepper and cook for five minutes
add in beef and a couple of spoonfuls of the garlic chili paste (more or less depending on how much heat you can handle) while stirring constantly
toss in the broccoli and three minced garlic cloves and cook for a few minutes and then add the zucchini.
cook all of this together for a few more minutes.  Ladle over your rice and eat up.  I added additional garlic chili paste to the top of mine and it was glorious.  There were many happy people at the table.

Delicious Garlic Chili stuff

The final product. NOMNOMNOM



Tuesday, February 12, 2013

One tequila, two tequila, three tequila...

One of the best things you can do in the middle of a Seattle winter is fly south.

Heyo Mexico!

Hola Puerto Vallarta!
Drinks at 6:30 am?  Why not?!
Heading out at dawn.

The first morning at Mexico


The walk to the market

Can't beat this.


Relaxing

Tapas del Mundo!

Pelicans

Mexican Rose'

Cooking class at Tapas del Mundo.  AMAZING salsa!

The remains of our cooking class feast
Delicious



View at breakfast




Post zip-lining

Heading home post zipping

Enjoying some Spanish Coffee

Amazing view from the road


From the boardwalk in Puerto Vallarta



Amazing food in Puerto Vallarta


Final view of the sun and trees in Mexico


Frozen fog upon landing at Sea-Tac



All in all a good trip.  You really can't beat a week of sun, sand, amazingly friendly people, and delicious foods.

Monday, December 31, 2012

Shoes for Snow

It's like walking on air.  Really cold air but air nonetheless.

Until you trip over the toe of your snowshoe.  But that's a different story.

Heading out of Seattle toward Snoqualmie.  Lovely sunrise over the mtns.

Getting closer, there's some snow on the mtns now.

Heading out.  Considering trying the shoes in the deep drifts.

Snowshoes!  We were on the groomed nordic trails for cross country skiers and skate skiers.


Lovely view of the lake

Nice flat terrain.  The best kind...

Christmas trees

Can't tell in the picture but about to head up a very steep pitch.  Not so fun in snowshoes...



Nothing better than some warm cider and rum when you take a lunch break.


The snow makes some interesting looking creatures out of the trees 
The sun finally started to come out.

Pretty amazing shot of the mountain we climbed with the sun breaking through the fog.


Medicine for aches post snowshoeing.  It will cure what ails you.