Fish On!!!

Just a few pics from Matty & Omid's fishing adventure this past weekend. Enjoy!

Wanna go fishing?!

More food to love....

ADORABLE almost too cute to eat sandwiches. I wish I had thought of these for my kids.....check them out here.

Who Doesn't Love Maurice Sendak?

Where the Wild Things Are CUPCAKES! LOVE THESE!!!

Make This!

I made flour tortillas to go with our fajita dinner tonight. I had some Mission-brand tortillas on hand, but not enough; and I didn't want to run to the store. I found an easy enough recipe on Tasty Kitchen and decided to try it. These were very easy to make They resemble the chalupa or gordita tortillas (thick & chewy) from Taco Bell. They are kind of bland by themselves, so I made a quesadilla to see how they tasted filled. Matty declared them 'delish' and I think they should be great with the fajita filling tonight.*Update* Remy was bad while I was out for one hour. He grabbed the Ziplock bag, tore it open and ate all of the tortillas. He also tore into my fajita seasoning mix, but only ate a smidgen of that. I can only guess it was a little spicy for him (serves him right). Now we have post poned this meal for tomorrow when I can make some more tortillas. :( Yo me gusto!

Ooh La La!

This morning I decided to try and make French crepes for breakfast. I was a little worried as I don't have a crepe pan. I used Omid's big wok/saute pan instead. It worked surprisingly well. If I had known crepes were this easy to make, I would have made them years ago. Oh well. This is our new breakfast favorite. Nas' crepes were full of butter & powdered sugar, while Matty filled his with strawberry jam (compliments of Laurel) and whipped cream. The recipe said it would yield 14-16 5" crepes, where mine yielded 4- 11" inch crepes (because of the large pan I used).

First try - not so good.

Second try - I liked this one much better.

Third try

Fourth try.


Tres magnifique!

J'aime

French translation courtesy of Nas. ;)

French Crepes
3/4 flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
2 T powdered sugar
2 eggs
2/3 c milk
1/3 c water
1/2 t vanilla

Sift dry ingredients together. Make a well in the center and add wet ingredients. Pour into a hot crepe pan and cook until brown on one side. Flip and cook the reverse side. Enjoy!

Am I the only one?

This post is dedicated to Sarah (who put the thought in my head...again).

The reason I am doing this crazy post today is because my friend Sarah posted on FB that she was watching season 4 of Little House on the Prairie. You know, the episodes where Mary goes blind. Immediately after reading that....I thought of Adam. Then I thought of Lindsey Buckingham. This happened when I was young too, all because Season 4 of LH was on tv about the same time that Lindsey Buckingham's ridiculous song, Go Insane was always on the radio or Friday Night Videos. These two will always be linked for me. It's crazy. Lindsey Buckingham
Linwood Boomer, aka Adam.


My favorite Fleetwood Mac song....Never Going Back Again. I have to think about this song to get Go Insane out of my head!

Out & About

Omid, Matty, Remy & I decided to spend the day on the Columbia yesterday. Nas opted to hang out with her friends instead. On our way to the boat launch, we stopped at QFC for some Coke & ice. The Swedish Fish people were there giving away free samples of Swedish Fish & Sour Patch kids. Matty made a guess as to how many Swedish Fish were in the tank.

I hope he wins!
Heading to a fishing hole.



Skipper.

Wishing he'd brought his iPod.

We stopped at Lady Island to have a bbq. Matty threw sticks for Remy to fetch. The sun finally came out and it was warm. Loved it.

Remy decided to jump off the back of the boat & swim.

He was just like a kid. Once he'd jump off, he'd swim around, climb back up the ladder and jump off again. Remy must have done this 10 or 11 times. It was so cute.

Splash!

Make This!!

This is soooo good. I found this recipe in the Oregonian Food Day section when Nas was a baby. I've made it several times and it never lasts more than a day. It is very good and very delicious.


Brown Sugar Pound Cake

2 1/3 c brown sugar (firmly packed)
1 cup sugar
1 cup butter - room temp
1/2 vegetable shortening
6 eggs
3 1/2 c flour
1 tsp baking powder
dash of salt
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup chopped walnuts - optional

Preheat oven to 300*. Grease a 9-inch tube pan. Cover the bottom with foil to prevent leaks.

Combine brown sugar, sugar, butter & shortening in a bowl and beat until light & creamy. Beat in eggs, one at a time. In another bowl, stir together flour, baking powder & salt. Slowly stir the flour mixture into the butter mixture, alternating with the milk until just blended. Stir in vanilla and optional walnuts.
Pour the batter into the prepared tube pan and smooth the top. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the cake comes out clean, about 1 1/2 - 2 hours. Don't open the oven door for the first hour.

Good Eats!

We went out to dinner with Omid's parents last night at a restaurant in NW Portland called Serratto. It was really good and we had a great time. Remy, on the other hand, apparently did not have a good time while he was at home - alone. He was mad at us (once again). He got "back at us "by stealing a bag of bread, eating it's contents (one slice) and shredding the plastic bag to bits. Mad Dog
What was left of the bread bag.

I have to look at the bright side. I would prefer Remy steal food than get mad and go potty on our furniture (like my parents Yorkie used to do). This is much easier to clean up!

EEEEK!

Something disturbing happened to me at breakfast this morning. I poured my Raisin Branch Crunch into a bowl like I always do and was just about to pour the milk when I noticed a SPIDER! In my cereal! I usually don't mind spiders and will move them outside, but this guy was particularly ugly and fast. I also didn't like the fact that he was ON MY BREAKFAST. I turned to grab my camera to shoot a pix of him on my cereal but he escaped. I finally found him and grabbed a napkin and mushed him. I feel better now that he is gone, but I can't bring myself to eat that bowl of cereal. Yuck.

R.I.P.

Country Doctor's Wife's Opinion of Julie & Julia....

Read this!

Movie Review

The Time Traveler's Wife.

Wow. All I can say is: It's good. And Sad. Take tissues. And a friend who will cry too. Boo hoo.

Final grade: A

Thanks for meeting me today, Sarah!

Love This!

New! From Japan!

My friend Kumiko came over to visit today. She recently returned from a trip to Japan and brought some goodies for us all. The neatest item was chocolate covered potato chips.

They looked just like Lay's. The chips were good (& I don't care that much for chocolate).

Sweet and salty at the same time.

Movie Review

I forced my sister to go to the new movie Julie & Julia with me last night. I have been waiting to see this movie and had only heard great reviews. The movie in a nutshell was okay. It's based on two books: Julie & Julia by Julie Powell and My Life in France by Julia Child. It was typical Nora Ephron. If you like Sleepless in Seattle & You've Got Mail (which I don't) you will love the Julie Powell parts of the movie (which I didn't).

In my opinion, the movie would have been much better if they'd left the Julie & Julia parts of the book OUT and made the entire movie based on My Life in France. Meryl Streep, Jane Lynch and Stanley Tucci are EXCELLENT in this movie. I was bored, uninterested & fed up with Amy Adams' whining & tantrums when the movie flipped to modern times. I thoroughly enjoyed the parts of the movie about Julia & her husband Paul. They were an adorable couple and everyone should have love like that. Their love story was so very sweet.

Overall movie rating: B-

Flea. Flea Fly. Flea Fly Flo. Vista.

I don't know how we got started on camp songs, but B remembered the song, "Flea" from camp long ago. I also taught it to my kids a few years ago. We all started singing it, Nas grabbed the camera, Remy was upset and Matty stole the show (don't miss his jazz hands). Enjoy!

Two New Fall TV Shows I Will be Watching....

Have you see Fox's new show, GLEE yet? I missed the pilot but watched it last night online. I really enjoyed it.

The other new show, Community, looks pretty funny too.

Unrequited Love

I am so in love with MAC eyeshadow as an eyeliner. Unfortunately, MAC doesn't love me back. My eye problems have returned. :(

The opthamologist gave me a stern warning yesterday to throw away the eyeshadow. If I keep using it...I will keep having problems (which will be nobody's fault but my own). I am having a very difficult time summoning up the courage to do so - as I paid $20 for this tiny pot of shadow. So...when Nas gets home from her camp this afternoon, I will ask her to do the deed for me. :(

Goodbye MAC - my eyes will never have that smoke-lined look again. I will miss you!

Because I love my family....

I made them cream puffs for dessert tonight. Yum!

This is the easiest recipe I have found to date. The choux pastry's texture was pure velvet. Just beautiful!

**Quick note: My oven needed 25 minutes to get the pastries a golden brown.

Mona Lisa Cream Puffs
(from Diana Abu Jaber's book, The Language of Baklava)**

Filling
2 cups heavy whipping cream
1/2 package instant vanilla pudding (large box)

Choux Pastry
1 cup water
1/2 cup butter
1 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
4 large eggs (room temperature)

1 dark chocolate bar

Preheat the oven to 350*. Stir together the filling ingredients and keep in fridge.
Bring the water to a boil in a saucepan. Add the butter & boil until melted. Add flour & salt all at once and stir until it forms a dough, then scrape into a mixing bowl. Add the eggs one by one and beat in with a wooden spoon until smooth.
Scoop heaping tablespoonfuls onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 20 minutes, until lightly brown. Let cool, then split open each pastry into equal halves. Spoon the filling onto the bottom half of each pastry. Shave the chocolate over the filling then top with the other half of the pastry. You can also conserve some of the chocolate bar, melt it and pour this over the top of the cream puff.

Sprinkle with confectioner's sugar or shaved chocolate.
**The Language of Baklava by Diana Abu Jaber is a wonderful read interspersed with lots of yummy recipes. Read it!!

I delivered these two to Omid at work, so he could sample them for me.

Fields of Gold

Driving along these fields was something else! They were so beautiful! Even my kids thought so. Driving by, the strands of wheat looked so soft and velvety. I just wish we could have stopped the car to touch them.

In the lobby of our hotel in Colfax there was a huge mural on the wall of the wheat fields. Sadly, I didn't get a photo of it. :( Underneath was a verse from the Bible. It read, "Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes, and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest." John 4:35

Pullman Part Two

We left campus after about an hour and half (NOT nearly enough time!!!!) and headed downtown. Mechanical Engineering Lab (lots of fun times for Omid!)

Downtown


Swilly's Retaurant. This used to be our favorite hangout.
Best Nanaimo bars ever!





Pizza Pipeline!
Good, cheap pizza.

Darling poster for the Lentil Festival.

Lentil ice cream anyone?

We wanted to stay in Pullman, but the two hotels that accept pets were full. We booked a room in Colfax at the Best Western Wheatland Inn. It was spic & span and full of Dachshunds. Remy thought they were cute. Most of the dogs just barked at Remy. One of the Dachshund owners wore this tshirt.

Hilarious!

(Heidi: great gift idea for Kurt!).

Coming up next: Wheat fields!

Pullman (at last!) Part One - WSU

After spending most of the day on the river, we FINALLY made it into town. One of the best parts of the trip was looking at the wheat, barley & lentil fields. They were so beautiful!

Combines!

Pullman at last!!! WSU here we come!


Driving up Stadium Way onto campus.

Walking in front of the old Bookie. The new Bookie is in the cub. Unfortunately, it was closed. No new WSU garb for me this time. :(

Bryan Hall

Holland Library

The CUB Mall

The stadium.

Go Cougs!

Even the dumpsters have school spirit!

Future Cougs!

Most of the campus grounds were under construction. All of the roads that I remember on campus are now pedestrian-only walkways. This is by Fulmer Hall. So nice & new.

Thompson Hall (peek-a-boo).

Omid in front of Sloan (engineering bldg)

Thompson Hall again.

The Coug - it looked like it had closed down. Too bad, so sad. I wanted to go in and look for my name scrawled on the wall. :(

Regents Dorm

(where I lived before Omid swept me off my feet & we ran away to get married. By the way...my heart still skips a beat when I hear his key in the lock. Love you baby!).

We walked over to Greek Row. Ward standing on where his fraternity USED to be. It was condemned & demolished.

Lin with her sorority house

The trip to Pullman would not be complete without a trip to Cougar Country Drive In!

Waiting for our food!

Beats Top Burger hands down!

The kids inside the new CUB. Yes, that is a Barnes & Noble Cafe in there.

Mother's Cuboard what happened to you??!
I had a video to share...but it's taken over an hour to upload it. I will try again later!
Coming up: Downtown Pullman