Ellen B. is still away from her computer until next week but wanted to leave you with this recipe since we have entered pumpkin season.
My family has a favorite easy Spice Cake that I’ve made over the years and I decided to switch it up a bit for pumpkin season. Instead of using applesauce that the original recipe called for I used 100% pure canned pumpkin and pumpkin spice instead of nutmeg.
When someone puts so much thought and energy in making an event so special it needs to be documented. I choose to document it here on my blog. I was blown away at the vision our niece had for showering her soon to be daughter-in-law and for the tribe of helpers who came along side her to make it all come to life. As guests we were treated to a very special time at Delaney’s Bridal Tea. Our niece’s ‘tribe’ were there before the event and well into the night when the event was over cleaning up and washing tea cups and tea pots. What a wonderful community!
The shower was held in Ryan and Michelle’s yard in Newhall. Michelle is our sister Kathy’s oldest daughter. The groom, Jack, is Ryan and Michelle’s son.
Jack’s grandmother (my sister Kathy) and Jack’s auntie (my niece Melissa) gathered flowers at the L.A. Flower Mart the day before the event. They brought the flowers to Michelle’s the day before the event and many hands arranged the bouquets in the tea pots.
Kathy baked the meat filled piroshky and they were delicious and transported those of us with Russian heritage back to our Mother’s kitchens.
The father of the groom was the scone chef!
Cousins of Michelle’s came early and assembled the tea sandwiches.
Another cousin made Gluten Free tea goodies for those who are gluten intolerant.
A dear friend made these melt in your mouth meringue kisses!
Michelle’s ‘tribe’ helped from before the shower began through and to the end with all the details that help create an celebration to remember.
Lemon curd and Clotted cream were added to each table for the scones.
Our daughter-in-love, Laura, flew in early to be a support and helper for Michelle.
Another lovely detail were the shower favors that were on each guests place setting.
It was a love filled event from beginning to end.
My Bridal Tea II post will feature all the guests and the ‘tribe’ that made it all come together.
The main reason for our weekend stay in Spokane was to watch our granddaughter compete in the annual Irish Feis at the Convention Center. The Feis would begin at 8am on Saturday. We arrived to Spokane on Friday late morning and did some of our usual shopping before we ventured all the way into the Downtown area. Our first stop before we would check in to our hotel was the MAC~Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture. This museum is in an older historical neighborhood of Spokane. The houses surrounding the museum were all quite grand.
There was a special exhibit on called Iron and Honor: The Art of Knighthood
The contents of this exhibit were a collaboration from Italy.
On the grounds of the museum we spotted this small statues in bronze on our way to the Campbell house (mansion) and Carriage House which was open for visits on this Friday.
They are called ‘The Return of the Four Leggeds”
The historic Campbell House was built in 1898. The greatest advancements in technology were included like indoor plumbing, hot and cold running water, electricity, central heat and a telephone. The Campbells lived in the house with their servants for 26 years. In 1924 the house was donated to the Eastern Washington Historical Society.
What a grand entrance hall! The house is approximately 13,000 square feet on three floors.
This reception room was a bit out of place for the design of the house in general. It did make us say, Wow. “Mrs. Campbell received callers on Thursdays in this room. It is decorated in the French Rococo style and has silk moire and gold gilt on the walls.”
You can see why the pink room seemed out of place in contrast to all the other ground floor rooms.
Up the grand staircase to the bedrooms. There were a few other smaller staircases going up and also down to the basement rooms.
We had a nice chat with the docent who was sitting in the kitchen. It was interesting to read the hand written menu courses for a typical evening meal. Fourteen courses! The cookie recipe is one that the house serves during their special Christmas openings for tours.
We ended our house tour in the Carriage house where the electric car is housed and a lot of history and displays are available to read and on videos to watch.
At this point on Friday our room was ready at the hotel. We drove to the hotel and checked in. I used a mobile key entry for the first time and was quite proud of myself that it worked. After freshening up we walked to Tavolata for dinner. A little Italian theme happening with the Italian Knighthood exhibit and then an Italian dinner. This walk along Spokane Falls Blvd. gave us a few moments to experience the Good Samaritan story (we did not identify as the Good Samaritan on this walk, we moved to the other side of the road).
We enjoyed this meal celebrating Greg’s birthday again. We would recommend this restaurant especially at Happy Hour with same dinner portions at a lower cost. After dinner we had a pleasant walk back to the hotel.
Our Colville kids arrived to the hotel after dinner and came to our room to visit and to say goodnight. Early to bed to rest up before a full day on Saturday.
When zucchini is plentiful baking zucchini muffins is a good option using a recipe similar to this one I found online. This is an easy recipe to follow.
For whatever reason this birthday celebration for Greg in 2007 got removed from my blog and I’m adding the photos here for the sake of history. This celebration happened on the 31st of August instead of on his birthday because he would be back in Southern California on his actual day.
The dinner and dessert gathering happened on Friday evening the 31st of August in Edmonds, Washington.
A birthday trifle for a crowd was his cake this year.
Some memories are a little tougher than others. 🙂
Our friends who hosted this gathering live on the Puget Sound shoreline.
As per usual Jody made enough food for the crowd and to send home leftovers.
Thankful for memories of this time and of our dear friends.
Before this celebration Josh, Laura, Katie, Greg and me were at our favorite Mexican Restaurant to celebrate together. It was our famous Tequila/Taco Tuesdays at La Corona in Kirkland.
Early on in our weekly tradition, Leticia was our waitress. In later years, when we switched to afternoons instead of evenings, Lilianna became our most favorite waitress ever!
I probably put together this next collage to post on Greg’s actual birthday in 2007. This was his 54th birthday!
Meanwhile back to 2026…
We enjoyed the cheesecake I made to celebrate Greg’s special day. Greg was with our middle son on his birthday hauling firewood and when unloading at their house our grands and DIL were able to wish Gramps a happy birthday. Our oldest and youngest called with birthday greetings for their dad. Greg’s brother and sister-in-law who live in North Carolina also called with birthday wishes. Greg was thankful, too, for all the greetings for his day on my blog and on Facebook and Instagram and texts!
When I went to link up this morning for the Hodgepodge we had the news from Joyce that her dear Mama passed away earlier this week. Our hearts and prayers are with you, Joyce, and with your whole family.
1. How do you feel about the transition from lazy summer days to a busier fall routine?
I’ve always loved the transition from summer to fall. Even the years I was in school, I welcomed with excitement going back. These days I enjoy the fact that Ladies Bible studies will start up again and there will be more order in our days. I enjoy Fall weather and Fall events like cider fest and the corn maze.
2. Your favorite cookie?
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I like homemade Loaded Chocolate Chip Cookies with oatmeal, walnuts, almonds, and sometimes coconut!
I use the toll house recipe and load them up with extras.
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3. What’s something you’ve learned from a culture different than your own?
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I grew up in Southern California just outside East Los Angeles and the neighborhoods we lived in were multi cultural with Mexicans, Jews, Russians, Armenians, Japanese, Scots, and Heinz 57 Americans. I included Scots, although I only first heard of anyone who was Scottish in 5th grade when Karen’s parents moved to Montebello and she was introduced as a new student in our class. I was enthralled with her from the start and she taught me a few Scottish dance moves that we shared with the class for show and tell. I think we sang a song, too, The Bonnie Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomand.
Apart from the great food we enjoyed in the homes of my friends from these cultures, I learned about the Jewish custom of coming of age.
A bar mitzvah and a bat mitzvah are both Jewish coming-of-age milestones. A bar mitzvah (“son of commandment’) marks the religious maturity of a boy at the age 13, while a bat mitzvah (daughter of the commandment) marks the religious maturity of a girl, traditionally at age 12.
I was invited to one of my Jewish friends Bat Mitzvah and I was blown away by the lavishness of the celebration!
These are my multi-cultural Cheer friends from my high school at a Russian dinner at my house before a football game. (My Scottish friend from 5th grade, Karen, is the one with the rollers in her hair). We would have a meal at a different Cheer members home before Varsity games. They are eating borsch. That was just one of the food items my mother prepared for them. I think I see piroshky on the table, also. After the meal we would all get our cheer clothes on and head to the game for a night where we would work off every calorie we ate at dinner!
This is one of my best buddies from school days, Nanc. I spent a lot of time in her home where I learned how to make guacamole and we learned every popular Leslie Gore song by heart. Her parents brought me along to Mexican restaurants with them and to the downtown wholesale fashion district for shopping. Growing up, my family did not eat in restaurants so that was an eye opening experience all its own. Her dad drove a Volkswagon Square back and we spent many miles in that little car. One summer when she got back from visiting her uncle who was a jeweler in Mexico City she gifted me the ring below that he made for me.
While we were living in Camarillo for a short time Nanc and I reconnected online and we met up a couple of times for meals and to catch up on life. The photo above is of one of our meet ups. I hadn’t seen her for 40 years! There is a long story about that…
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4. Food critic, film critic, book critic, art critic…which hat would you most like to wear? Tell us why.
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Of these choices I’d choose the Food Critic hat because I love to travel and I love to try new restaurants and eat good food. I’d have a hard time writing bad critiques, though. I’ll just choose to be a traveler and enjoy trying new food in different places and being satisfied.
I’m not a film buff, or the reader of a variety of genres, and I’m definitely not artsy.
5. What’s a small, random thing from your childhood that you still remember clearly?
This will give you a little insight into my character. I remember hiding from my mother and father on Saturday mornings because I did not want to go to Russian School. When they found me, I would stomp my feet and say, “I’m an American!”. Well that didn’t work. In my latter years I was thankful to have learned the Russian alphabet and to learn to read and write in Russian.
To say “I am American” in Russian, use Я американец (if you are male) or Я американка (if you are female). If you want to say “I am from America” or “from the USA,” you can say Я из Америки or Я из США.
Я американка, Yah Amereekanka, I am American.
6. Insert your own random thought here.
These questions pulled up a lot of memories from my past.
This is a quick easy bread to make using Bisquik or another pancake and baking mix
Ingredients:
1 egg
3/4 cup of sugar
1- 1/2 cups milk
3 cups Bisquik mix
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
3/4 cup finely chopped almonds
3/4 cup blueberries
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Prepare a 9x5x3 inch loaf pan by greasing it.
Beat the egg and add the sugar beating until well combined.
Add the milk and Bisquick mix and beat well.
Stir in almonds and almond extract.
Carefully blend in blueberries.
Pour batter in prepared loaf pan.
Bake for 50 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean, ovens vary so check at 45 minutes. Cool in pan for about 10 minutes and then remove from pan onto wire rack to continue cooling. Slice and enjoy.
This macaroni salad can be served hot or cold and it can also be kicked up by adding cooked and seasoned ground beef to make a more hearty meal.
Ingredients:
16 ounces of small elbow macaroni cooked in well salted water
5 ounces of crumbled feta cheese
4 ounces grated fresh Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup or more of fresh baby spinach julienned
3 green onions chopped
Olive oil
Salt and Pepper to taste
Method:
Bring a big pot of water to boil with a good amount of salt.
Add the elbow macaroni and cook to a nice al dente stage.
Drain water and add a little olive oil to slightly coat the elbow macaroni.
Immediately add the feta and Parmesan cheese while macaroni is still hot.
Add green onions and spinach.
Add salt and pepper to taste.
Toss and serve hot or you can refrigerate to serve cold at a later time.
If you want a more hearty meal instead of a nice side dish add some cooked seasoned ground beef to the salad and top with a little more Parmesan cheese. If you want the dish to be cheesier just add more feta and Parmesan cheese. You can also add more green onions or spinach. It’s up to you and your taste buds.
In the carefree summertime it’s good to have a few no pressure, no fussing meals to fall back on.
This simple meal takes less then 20 minutes to prepare and can be served up with a simple green salad and some bread. Here’s my carefree pasta meal.
Ingredients:
12 ounce package pasta of your choice
24 ounce jar of Alfredo or other sauce of your choice
1-2 cups ground turkey or chicken, cooked fully
1 cup chopped fresh tomatoes
1/4 cup sliced green onions/scallions
1/2 cup sliced mushrooms
fresh grated parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste
Method:
Cook 12 ounces of pasta of your choice in salted water to al dente and drain.
Leave in pot.
Add a jar of Spaghetti Sauce or your favorite sauce to the noodles.
Add the cooked ground chicken or turkey.
Add fresh chopped tomatoes and chopped green onion.
Add fresh sliced mushrooms.
Cook all ingredients together until sufficiently heated through.
