Bite of Seattle. Yum fun.

Fall Baking

It seems to be that time of year when the baking cravings start. Sam and I made a couple different batches of caramel dipping sauce--including some to share at his "Fall Social" last week.

And yesterday, we stayed home from school and made pumpkin cookies.

We thought Sam might be getting the flu, but it turned out he's cutting his 6 year old molars! So, there has been lots of whining and moaning in between the baking.

Happy fall, everyone!

Happy Birthday to Me

Sunday was my birthday and we had a relaxing, but fun day just hanging around Ballard, visiting the farmer's market, the library, the park, and a yummy pub for lunch.

Here are a couple of shots of Sam at the park...

...and with the cake we had for dinner.

Happy Halloween

Here's a behind the scenes look at Halloween decorating by Sam. He didn't want to get his hands dirty with the "gross stuff" in the pumpkin, so he taught me all about the different parts of a pumpkin (learned at school), designed the jack-o-lantern and then supervised the execution. He was a bit of a micro-manager, but overall his Project Management skills were superb. Besides the jack-o-lantern request for decorating the house, Sam also suggested we hang his pirate flag up on the house since, "it will be spooky for people if they think that pirates really live here."
Superman Sam really lucked out. He apparently lives in the Halloween Capitol of Seattle. Just a couple of blocks from our house are the streets that literally hundreds, if not thousands flock to for Halloween treats and tricks. It was something to behold.
Superman also ran into his friend, Obi-wan and they spent about 2 hours collecting quite a bounty. Sam is really lucky that his Dad took him out and not his lame-o mom who probably would have taken him to about 5 houses. Oh well, they had a lot of fun.
And Sam is the sweetest, most generous boy ever. For every piece of candy he eats, he lets Ari and I choose one too. Anything that there is 2 or more of, gets offered up to share. Even the favorite chocolates. Now that is really something to behold!Mmmm, chocolate and caramel!

Happy New Year

The past couple of days we have been celebrating Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. This was the first in a string of Jewish holidays that Sam gets off of school: 7 days in four weeks. This is a bit of a stress to manage with 2 full-time-job parents, but a good time of year to remember family traditions, start new ones, and reflect on the past and coming year. Ari began work about a year ago at the new paper and I have since started my work for the hospital. Sam stayed at the same school this year, but they moved to a new location last year and he's now moved up into the pre-K classroom. In June, we bought and moved into a new house in a new neighborhood. To celebrate the new year that has been one of transitions, we spent some time preparing some family favorite traditional recipes: tzimmes, coleslaw, and kasha varnishkes. Ari followed Harriet's instructions to make "Grandma's Meat" and Sam and I made a newer family favorite from 1,000 Jewish Recipes: Rugelach. Rugelach is a delicious stuffed cookie dough cookie and we prepared 2 versions, one with chocolate and pecans and the other with cinnamon, sugar, and walnuts--which Sam referred to as "the plain kind."

Everything was delicious. The first night we were on our own, and the second night we were joined by our cousins and switched things up just a bit for a vegan version. Thankfully Sam and Ari managed to scarf down all the meat within a day! That first night, Sam professed, "my meat is the yummiest thing on my dinner plate" even though he was a bit confused by our departure from vegetarianism and kept calling it tofu. He did seem to equally enjoy the veggie nut loaf on Tuesday night. And challah and apples tied in the "yummiest thing to dip in honey taste test contest vote." (By the by, that is only grape juice in Sam's wine glass above.)

All-in-all we had a nice holiday and Sam really enjoyed helping make all the special dishes and cookies. Here he is in his "helper costume" complete with footed Spider Man pajamas and fire chief boots.
...and his "helper apron."

Happy New Year!

Blackberry Bonanza

You may have noticed that I twice mentioned picking blackberries in the past week. I'm not talking the cell phone-PDA kind of blackberry, either. We're talking good old-fashioned, pick-by-the-side-of-the-road beauties like the ones my grandmother made into countless pies and jams every summer of my childhood. The Pacific Northwest has a love-hate relationship with these delicious but invasive berries, as I read about on the New York Times dining pages.

We found some on Bainbridge Island at Fay Bainbridge State Park; in fact we went looking for them there because Emily read about them online. We picked over the bunch that were accessible on the beach, but we saw that the road we drove back on was lined with them. It was hard not to pull over and join the fellow-pickers we saw, but we had enough for a cobbler and had a ferry to catch.

We saw more berries on our walk down to the Arboretum and Japanese Garden along Lake Washington Boulevard, but we didn't have an appropriate bag to transport them home in. Sigh. But the next day, we chanced upon the mother load at Seward Park, and did have an extra grocery bag with us.

Though we were exhausted, hungry and scratched, we picked and picked until the bag was starting to rip under it's weight.

And even then, we were not truly deterred until we saw this warning sign posted: Poison Oak.

For those of you willing to brave the poisonous plants and potentially poisonous pesticides, I found a Pacific Northwest wild berry primer. Go forth and forage; you don't even need to leave the city.

What I Did on My Summer Staycation

Well we didn't get a summer vacation per se this year, but Sam and I took a long weekend trip to Maryland and then we had the last week in August mostly off from work and school. I had to go in one day for a presentation and Sam (and his parents) went to school one evening for Back to School Meet the Teacher night. My presentation went well, but Sam was sad to find out that 3 of his 4 best friends were assigned to the other pre-K classroom. He gets to see them during outside playtime and in the late afternoons, but he's still confused and stressed by the situation. On the other hand, we had a great time during our free time together. Emma came to visit for part of the week and we all played the part of Seattle tourists. Here's a recap of the week.

I've already written about our trip to Mount Rainier.

On Monday, Sam and I took the bus down to the Seattle Center to visit the Children's Museum. Unfortunately the museum was unbearably crowded, so Sam negotiated a stop at the carnival rides instead. He frequented the airplane ride and the 2 bouncy slides.

We also went to the Seattle Aquarium, where Sam and Emily were fascinated by the sea otters, and we all got to see an octopus have his lunch. Sam was tickled by the machines that simulated waves in the tanks. And running around on the pier with a friend from school that we ran into.

On Thursday we took the ferry to Bainbridge Island. We started off the morning in downtown Winslow for breakfast then headed up to Fay Bainbridge State Park to walk on the beach and pick blackberries.

After a few clams "attacked us" Emily was determined to dig one up, which she accomplished after much effort.

We returned to Winslow for a bit of shopping and lunch. Best of all was dessert at Mora's. And my lovely yarn purchase from Churchmouse yarns. My first yummy Malabrigo.

On Friday we made it to the Ballard Locks. Sam and I are regulars, but it was Emily's first visit and she was rewarded with jumping salmon and the most enormous barge we've ever seen.

On Saturday, Ari was finally able to join our sightseeing and we made it the Arboretum and the Japanese Garden as I mentioned before. Sunday we took our last summer outing to Seward Park. We picked more blackberries and exhausted ourselves.

It was the best summer staycation ever.

So Long, Emma

Today we said good-bye to Emma who has been visiting us this past week. We all had a lot of fun exploring Seattle together, eating a lot of yummy foods, and hanging out.
Even though Emma pestered me constantly to begin working on her requested/demanded convertible mittens, instead I was inspired to design a scarf in honor of her Pinkberry frozen yogurt obsession. To be fair, Emma cannot partake of the traditional ice cream treats, like this amazing strawberry that Sam got at Mora's on Bainbridge Island. (Totally worth the ferry ride, people!)
I'll post the details of the scarf once it's finished, but you will note that I said "design" as in 'I designed this scarf myself and did not follow any pattern.' Okay, it's a very simple pattern, but mine all the same.
Also, I have conceptually designed Emma's mitts, but have not yet knit a stitch. Oh, I'll get to them...eventually!