A Year without a Christmas Tree

With all our interior renovations it looks like this may be a year that our precious ornaments and sparkly lights stay boxed in the basement. The living room is divided with a huge plastic sheet and every surface (on both sides of the sheet) is lightly coated in a fine layer of drywall dust. Not ideal for antique ornaments even if we could get the tree in.

Because yes, in fact, we do have a tree! My parents brought us one from their property when they came down for Thanksgiving. A beautiful tree that is currently hanging out a bucket of water on the front porch.

To top it all off, wind and rain have made the outdoor space pretty blustery this past week. Flooding is rampant and branches are down everywhere. Things are supposed to calm down this weekend so we may end up settling for setting up the tree on the back deck where we can see it from the living room window. No ornaments, just lights may have to do it for this year.

Sad, because we love our ornaments so much. Many of them are inherited from Matt’s grandparents. This year we also picked up another 10 antique ones from an estate sale. We love decorating our tree.

Silver lining: the house projects are going well! Matt is finishing up drywall and then it is just a waiting game before our friends can move their stuff back to their house (we are storing it while they remodel too), THEN we can relocate stuff from the next room we tackle. Open up another wall, frame in a new cased opening and THEN…dunh da da…we can open the kitchen wall! It has been a really fantastic learning experience about our house. We have spent lots of time in the attic, learned about load baring walls, electrical, and tuned up our drywall and framing skills (my best skill: cleaning up…I have been leaving most of the construction to Matt). The house may be a disaster right now, but it will be SO WORTH IT when this wraps up. I suppose a year without a Christmas tree will just make next year’s that much more special.

July 4th

The 4th of July: a pinnacle of summer fun. Lemonade, fireworks, BBQs, lawn games, maybe a campfire all come to mind. For many of us the the PNW this has not been the record for the 4th. The weather forecast usually promises sun about 10 days out, and then ends up being drizzly and 60 degrees on the actual day. Not ideal.

This year was an exceptional exception to this Seattle “rule”! We were camping at the family lake property on the Kitsap Peninsula and it was between 85 and 95 all weekend long. Perfect for camping sans rain-fly, running around in swimsuits and lots and lots of water time. The lake water was super warm and clear this year, and we spent hours splashing around like big kids. Paddle boating, swimming, water Frisbee toss, and making good use out of the neighbors floating raft with waterslide and diving board.

We chowed down on hot dogs, fire roasted corn and s’mores (and steamed broccoli because we like to get our veggies in!) and then were treated with a surprise apple pie! The neighbor, Mike, brought over a fresh-out-of-the-oven homemade apple pie, complete and homemade vanilla ice cream and a shaker of extra cinnamon! What a treat!

It was a spectacular, HOT 4th of July!   

Christmas Chickens & Fish

It was a whirlwind leading up to Christmas. A weekend with Matt’s parents, too many projects leading to late nights up working in the rain by headlamp (yes, we are that dedicated), hours of cleaning, cooking, baking and laughing. It was an awesome Christmas week.

This year we hosted in our sweet island house. That meant cleaning like a mad woman for two days before everyone arrived. I have to say the house has never looked better. The counters were piled with cookies and Matt and I prepared an epic feast for Christmas Eve. The Italian side of his family celebrates with the Feast of Seven Fishes, so we did our take on it for this party.

After many lists, coordinating with my mom to bring some of the food, thawing, marinating, chopping garlic, garlic and more garlic…we were ready. Want to know the line up? (prepare to get hungry)

• Locally smoked black cod (with cheese and crackers)
• Broiled clams on the half shell
• Dungeness crab cakes from home caught crab
• Grilled lemon garlic prawns
• King crab legs
• Baked salmon
• Aglio e olio with anchovy
• Plus bread, salad, and wine, wine, wine!

Halfway through crab cakes we realize how much food we had and ran next door to grab our neighbors, George and Linda at the Palouse Winery. Linda was busy, but George came over to eat…bringing with him three bottles of wine and then later going back for two more! What a fun night. Christmas music, laughter, stories, food, wine, food, wine, and more laughter and wine. It was a feast.

Christmas morning we opened stockings, ate breakfast, opened gifts and then took an island tour. The sun poked out just in time for a beach walk!

The best part of hosting Christmas Eve and morning? Leftovers, quiet and relaxing Christmas night. Matt and I enjoyed the hot tub, some cold salmon, and leftover wine selection from the night before. And then slept like rocks.

Boxing day is a work day for him, so I drove him in and we grabbed coffee on the way through town (to go with our leftover cake of course!) I picked up a Christmas gift for the chickens: a panel of clear roofing to make a skylight for their coop! We strapped it to the top of the mini, and 30 minutes later the girls had light in their coop! It looks awesome!

Oh, and they now have names! Cesar is our rooster, and his ladies are Mary (not in this pic), Belle (the yellow blonde), Holly (red/brown), Helen (silver grey) and Rita (blond and white one in front).

Happy Christmas! Happy Chickens! Happy Friday!

Comfort Food Favorites

Now these are staples of our family’s holiday table. They are not the tried and true “been there since great-grandma-whoever” but they are SO GOOD that we can’t have a holiday feast without them. In fact, they are so popular that every guest also requests the recipes. And they are vegetable dishes…totally healthy! 🙂

First up: Carrot Puff. My grandma introduced this to our family 10 or so years back and it is a stronghold year round. We have made it with carrots, or squash, or sweet potatoes…or a combination. We have made it in a Dutch oven over a fire. In deep round dishes and big flat 11x17s for picnics. It is best hot but we have been known to eat it cold. It tastes like vanilla pudding so even the pickiest of vegetable eaters will gobble it up.

Carrot Puff

• 2 lb carrots or sweet potato or squash or mix of all – peeled, cut into cubes, cooked till tender ~ 20 min boiling
• 1/2 c. melted butter
• 5 eggs
• 1/4 c. sugar
• 6 Tb flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp vanilla

Mix all ingredients together in blender, adding cooked carrots a little at a time. Blend till smooth. You may need to do in 2 batches and mix together. Pour into greased casserole dish. Bake at 350 about 50 – 60 min until firm in the middle and golden.

Next up? Super awesome corn bake. Again, this one is pretty versatile in the veggie department. Sometimes we add cubed summer squash. Sometimes not. It is great either way!

Baked Corn (and squash if you choose)

this makes an 8×8 pan or so…….

In large bowl:

beat 2 eggs
add:
1/2 cup milk
salt, pepper
2 Tb flour (~ 4 if you add squash)
1 Tb sugar
1/4 c melted butter
2 -3 Tb onions chopped small
1/2 c grated parmesan
1/2 c grated cheddar (I probably use more)
add: a pound of corn / squash cubes mix and pour into greased 8×8 pan Bake 350 about 45 min. Done.

Enjoy!

The Perfect Tree

This will be our second Christmas on Vashon. Snuggled down in our little house, enjoying the glow from our stove, and watching the sunset over the Olympic Mountains. Things look pretty different too. The living room has been refinished…complete with the new door! Friday was the second to final touch – paint! Molding will have to wait till after the holidays. The view is different too. With the big tree gone we see so much more sky. The sunsets have been incredible.

In preparation for the holidays we spent a good portion of the weekend cleaning, dusting, moving furniture to make room for a tree. Bonus: there was snow on the ground.

We woke up Saturday morning to a rare treat: fresh snow blanketing (ok, thin 1/4 blanket) the ground. The temperature was still dropping and so it was perfect conditions for a beautiful tree cutting day. We headed out to the car and …. nothing. The car would not open. The door handles were frozen shut. We managed to climb through the hatchback of our little mini cooper (wish I had gotten a photo!), warmed up the car and took it on a scenic snowy drive. Sure, we could have gone straight to the tree farm, but in all likelihood the car would not have been warmed up enough to let us out the doors!

We first stopped at Augie’s Tree Farm, a place we had been planning to go since we moved here. Unfortunately we did not find what we were looking for. After much debate and more driving, we ended up stopping at the fish stand along the highway, where this month they also sell trees. 5 minutes later we had found the perfect Noble Fir. Paid, loaded, done! Not our typical tree cutting adventure but fun none the less! And it was so cold that quick experience was all I really needed.

We got the tree home and immediately got to put our new 36″ door to the test: it was perfect! So much easier to bring in a tree than last year! We set up the tree, let it defrost and dry, then decked it out in lights and vintage ornaments inherited from Matt’s grandparents. It is perfect.

We curled up next to the tree for a feast: roast duck with mashed potatoes and balsamic figs. Yum. Yum. Yum.

Happy Holidays!

My 12 Days of Christmas: Five

Today will be a reflection on just exactly this title: our five days of Christmas. Matt and I coordinated our final few days off this year so that we could have a whole FIVE DAY BREAK to surround our first holiday on the island. We kick it off tonight with dinner and a show…a fun night starting at Radiator Whiskey (a new whiskey bar in Pike’s Market) and then a holiday treat: the Land of the Sweets – a burlesque Nutcracker at the Triple Door! The rest of our weekend plan involves lots of down time, cookie baking, and most importantly…not leaving the island! We want to take full advantage of the built in quiet that comes with Vashon.

On this 5^th day of Christmas we awoke to a wonderful (anticipated) surprise: SNOW! We had about ¾” as we headed down to the ferry for our commute in to work. It was peaceful and cold…but that new coat was perfect! (I went with the teal for those who were wondering). Snug and warm and commuting with my love before five days off…things are pretty dang good!

My 12 Days of Christmas

I came up with the idea to have my own Christmas 2013 blog countdown. As Christmas is getting nearer, I have a ton on my mind and wanted to capture some of it on here in a more organized way. So….welcome to my 12 days of Christmas countdown! I am going to be reflecting on favorite memories, important things in my life, holiday traditions, places and people in a format crammed into some pre-define numerical context. We will see how it goes. Come along for the ride!

 

Twelve

When I first think of 12, a dozen immediately comes to mind. There are lots of things that I could relate to a dozen: our weekly adventure to find local eggs on the island, buying doughnuts, the stacks of egg cartons in the basement waiting for our future eggs. I think that last night I found a perfect kickoff topic though: a review of the past 12 months. No, I will not rehash that here, but last night Matt and I sat down and went through thousands of photos from our past year of adventures. We were embarking on the annual task of putting together a Christmas card!

In previous years I have used Costco for their inexpensive holiday card options, but this year wanted something with a little more umph. I found a great website called PearTree Greetings (there are MANY card company options out there!) for making cards that are slightly more personal, and higher quality for just a smidge more cost. The one we picked also allows for two sides and a LOT more content! We looked through Facebook albums and file after file on the computer to select images. What we ended up with is pretty good. Not exactly what I wanted, but the Pinterest worthy couple photo shoot did not happen this year. 🙂  We had to make due with regular old life snapshots. (though next year I am scheming to have this photographer do a shoot for us!)

But what a fun year it was! Travel and school and buying a house. We had a lot happen these past 12 months. Christmas cards will go out soon and I cannot wait to see what people think of this year’s story.

If you want to try out PearTree Greetings here is a referral promo for $20 credit towards your first purchase! link http://www.peartreegreetings.com/Elvis/referred.jsp?share=945333

Come back tomorrow as the countdown continues to eleven!

Home

I cannot capture the joy and love and time spent at home this weekend. It just felt right on every level and we soaked up every moment.

Pancakes for breakfast

Making a recycle run

Limbing trees in the woods

Me stepping on a nail…and Matt coming to my rescue to carry me out of the woods

Homemade ravioli with leftover homemade cheese for filling

Movie night

Sleeping in

French toast

Staying warm and cozy inside

Rediscovering old Christmas tree decorations

Homework: check!

Thanksgiving dinner for two: turkey breast, sweet potato, fresh cranberries, stuffing and gravy

It was so good to be home.

Ferry Lines and Black Friday {our first Thanksgiving on the Island}

Wednesday afternoon I baked a cake. A beautiful cranberry upside down cake.

 

Thursday morning we headed out for Thanksgiving with both families at Matt’s aunt rosemary’s home. We had a pretty short ferry line, but still managed to barely sneak on as the last car on the 11:55 route. Good thing we drive a mini! A bigger car would not have been allowed. Driving through the West Seattle ferry waiting area was a different story altogether…a line of cars that was at least a 3 boat wait!

We made our way through holiday Seattle traffic and arrived to a house full of people and love and amazing smells. We laughed and ate (Matt’s homemade cheese and my cake were major hits!) and played a round of 9 hole.

On the way home there was almost no traffic and we easily made our ferry…and for the second time that day were stunned at the line on the other side. Remember all those cars lined up to come out to Vashon? Well there was about a mile’s worth lined up ready to come OFF that night!

We had early morning Black Friday plans. Now I am not one to stand in line for “great” deals, personally I wish the shopping spree day did n

ot exist, but there is a local hardware store that carries a coveted garden tool, and was giving one away at 6:15am: a Vashon broadfork. Yep, the Mother Earth News and Grit magazine touted traditional man-powered tiller is made on OUR island and we wanted one. With a steep price tag, we were eager to get in the drawing. We pulled up around 6 and waiting for our name to be called. With only 10-15 other people in the store we had pretty good odds! But sadly it was not meant to be. We ended up giving in and buying one anyway and came home to drop me off and send Matt off to work. I was home in bed by 6:30! Gotta love small island life J

We are so looking forward to a weekend at home. We have our Christmas tree to put up, and half the presents are already wrapped. Cleaning, limbing trees, tearing out blackberries, relaxing and catching up on homework and sleep sounds wonderful! There is so much to be thankful for!

Cranberry Upside Down Cake

(adapted from Simply Recipes)

The rum adds extra lightness to the cake. With this amount you will not taste it. Next time I am going to try doubling the rum to get more rum cake flavor.

INGREDIENTS

Topping

• 3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 6 Tbsp unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup dark Cruzan rum
• 12 ounces fresh or frozen whole cranberries

Cake

• 1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• Vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, room temp (plus more for buttering the pan)
• 3 large eggs
• 1 Tbsp orange zest
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/4 cup of milk
• 1/4 cup dark Cruzan rum

METHOD

1 Generously butter the bottom and sides of a 9-inch diameter cake pan.

2 In a small saucepan, place the 1/4 cup of butter and the 3/4 cups of packed brown sugar. On medium high heat, stir the sugar as the butter melts. Once the butter is melted and mixed in well with the sugar, stop stirring and let the mixture simmer for 15 seconds or so.

3 Pour the brown sugar butter mixture into the prepared cake pan. Spread the cranberries on top of the sugar butter mixture.

4 Preheat oven to 350°F. In a medium bowl vigorously whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and ginger.

5 In a separate bowl, use an electric mixer to beat the butter until light. Add the sugar and beat together the sugar and butter until fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Add vanilla and orange zest.

6 Mix a third of the dry ingredients into the mixture. Beat in half of the sour cream. Mix in another third of the dry ingredients.  Mix in the remaining sour cream. Beat in the remaining dry ingredients and then the milk and rum.

7 Pour batter over the cranberries in the cake pan, and smooth the surface. Place in the preheated oven and lower the heat from 350°F to 325°F. Bake until a tester comes out clean, 55 minutes to an hour. Cool cake in the pan on a rack for 10 minutes. Run a blunt knife around the inside rim of the cake pan to loosen the cake from the sides of the pan. Then turn the cake out onto a platter.

May Day

Happy May Day

It is a stunningly perfect sunshine filled day here in Seattle on May 1, but the news is nothing but warnings reminiscent of last years public demonstrations turned violent. For me, May Day is about spring and neighbors, so that is what I will focus on.

May Day cones made from wallpaper are still one of my favorite childhood memories, and symbolize all that is still good and beautiful in the world.