Still Feasting…

…instead of fasting. Soon I will have to resume my de-fluffing but Dear and I went on a quick getaway to the Olympic Peninsula this week on a whim. Spent the night in Port Angeles after driving to the northwestern most point in the contiguous U.S.A. I have a few posts to show you of the beautiful things we saw but today I’m just going to fess up on all the good eats we enjoyed in just one day!

To go on this adventure we had to take a ferry from Edmonds to Kingston on the Kitsap Peninsula.

Our first food stop after disembarking the ferry and driving to the Olympic Peninsula was the Oak Table Cafe in Sequim. You cross the Hood Canal Bridge from the Kitsap Peninsula to get to the Olympic Peninsula.

Their specialty is an Apple pancake that you see above. It’s kind of like a souffle and it’s really enough sweetness for 4 people. I didn’t eat the whole thing. It was delicious and for me a once in a lifetime experience. So that started our eating experience for this day.

After driving out to and coming back from land’s end we checked into our B & B and got a recommendation for dinner.

Happy to report Dear now has another drink to copy for my pleasure called Old Mexico.

After my very sweet start to the day I was happy to end with a delicious savory surf and turf choice for dinner. We had a salad and a Dungeness Crab cake for our starters. I’ll show our B & B breakfast in another post…

I hope you aren’t hungry or dieting while reading this post! We are back home and back to cleaning and sorting and tucking away and throwing things out at this old house. We are in for another hot weekend here in the Seattle area. How are you doing?

I’m avoiding talking about the news because it is so troubling to me and I know many of you share my feelings. My heart and prayers go out to the families who lost their brave Marines yesterday and to those who were injured…may God comfort them and help us all.

Eggs-cellent

Click over to the Mennonite Girls Can Cook Blog to get the recipe for Gluten free Ranchero sauce for Huevos Rancheros and other Mexican dishes. We served this dish when my niece and her husband were visiting in June. My niece is Gluten and Lactose intolerant so I had to come up with a breakfast that would work for all of us. This recipe got the thumbs up from her and my son who is lactose intolerant and from the rest of us who don’t have to watch our gluten and lactose intake.

Last night my son, nephew and grand nephew attended the Seattle Sounders Soccer Game. My nephew got this photo of me with the few, the proud, the Marine Corp band. I enjoyed a fun back and forth with these Marines.

And here’s my son, nephew and grand nephew…

We had a good time in the sun even though our team lost.

Today at this old house the bath/shower tile surround is going in. Should be a full day of work here. Hope you all have a good Tuesday.

Adios Pears and Summer!

I’m going to participate in Kathleen’s Let’s Dish this week with a table set for Dear’s birthday and a show and tell of what I did with all my pears from my tree.

A combination of lavender and green with the last of the fresh lavender from my bushes for the center of the table. I liked the look of the round shimmery green placemats I bought on clearance at Fred Meyer for 99 cents each. The purple glasses and green glasses are from World Market. The napkins are from Anthropologie but I purchased them at Goodwill.

Now for my pear experiments…

Quartered fresh pears tossed in sugar and quick cooking oats, butter, lemon juice, and a little flour. I topped that mix with pastry shells split and laid on top and baked till the shells were golden.

My first pear tart looked good but the crust was wrong…

My second pear tart that I made for Dear’s birthday dinner was more successful. The crust is a keeper and I’ll be posting the recipe on Mennonite Girls Can Cook in October.

Pear sauce goes a long way. Here it is with buttermilk pancakes. Yummy. We also had fresh cut pears with lemon juice and sugared lightly as a topping for buttermilk pancakes. I finally pulled out those strawberry bordered plates to use before fall is upon us. I bought them at Goodwill.

Last but not least a few cups of fresh pears peeled, cored, and chopped then sugared well for my last addition to my Smirntopf! This will be ready to enjoy at Christmas time personally and as gifts…

Hope your last weeks of summer are going well…

Pears for Your Heirs…

Pear trees, especially the old English varieties that would have been the subject of this proverb, take many years to mature and give fruit. You don’t plant them for yourself but for your heirs.

The full version of the phrase, which is a 17th century English proverb, is:

Walnuts and pears you plant for your heirs.

The sense of the altruistic nature of tree planting was also expressed by Thomas Fuller in his work Gnomologia, 1732:

“He that plants trees loves others beside himself.”

ht: The Phrase Finder

We’re thankful to whoever planted the trees in our yard. We have a few very mature trees compared to the rest of the neighborhood because our home was the original home surrounded by acres of land that were sold to a developer who put in houses. An old resident down the hill from us told me that our property was originally a nursery called Primrose Acres.

Look at all those pears we picked off our one tree. I know a small portion of them will be used to finish off my Smirntopf but what to do, what to do with all the rest. I’ll try to give some away. Maybe make some pear sauce. There are lots of lovely tarts and other things I can make but I’ll have to give those baked goods away as I’m restraining myself.

If you live close by and want some let me know.

Fresno Raisins

When we were in Fresno at the MCC sale I bought a baggie of raisins that a local farmer donated for the sale.

The raisins on the left are from a box that I bought at the grocery store. The raisins on the right are the ones I bought in Fresno.

Not only are they big but they are so tasty!

Today we are going to attend a wedding on Whidbey Island with many dear friends. Our son and daughter in law are in the wedding. We are looking forward to a joy filled celebration.

Fat Tuesday…

…also known as Shrove Tuesday.

“While many enjoy Mardi Gras, French for Fat Tuesday, as a time of indulgence and possible gluttony, others spend the day in prayer, preparing their hearts and minds for the upcoming period of Lent.” You can read the rest of this interesting article here.

In the UK, Shrove Tuesday is also known as Pancake Day (or Pancake Tuesday to some people) because it is the one day of the year when almost everyone eats a pancake. In keeping with the tradition of my favorite country to visit I’ll be making pancakes for dinner tonight.

The name Shrove comes from the old word “shrive” which means to confess. On Shrove Tuesday, in the Middle Ages, people used to confess their sins so that they were forgiven before the season of Lent began.

On Monday Dear, Katie and I enjoyed a meal together at the BeachHouse Bar and Grill in Kirkland.

Later in the day Josh and Laura came over for dinner and we enjoyed getting caught up with Katie on her new life and her and Andrew’s road trip across the U.S.A.

In keeping with the theme of food, I posted an old favorite from peasant Russian kitchens for you today at our Mennonite Girls Can Cook Site. Click over for the recipe.

Do you observe Lent? Are you going to be eating pancakes today? I enjoy the thought of preparing my heart and mind for the season leading up to Easter. This year with the wedding filling up a lot of this time I’m going to have to try to catch those moments of preparation where ever I can.

Have a wonderful Tuesday whatever you do or enjoy today!

Saturday Fun…

Nothing deep to share just these beautiful roses we picked up at Trader Joe’s yesterday for $4.99. Why walk away without buying them? And…

…have you ever seen a Brussels sprouts Stalk? It was $2.99 at Trader Joe’s. I just had to buy it. Of course Dear and I enjoy Brussels sprouts more than most people do. It’s another one of those tastes I’ve acquired in my adult years. So I think these are on the menu for today along with some Lamb Shanks and mashed potatoes.

Brunch at Mom & Pops

My mother went all out for us again. Katie and I were in the greater L.A. area on Saturday and Sunday and told my mom we’d pop in for breakfast. We weren’t surprised to be greeted with a morning feast. I’ve said before that my Mother’s Love Language is preparing food for people. I missed photographing the cantaloupe and strawberry plate that looked like a flower. She made Vareniki stuffed with potato this time and served them with asparagus with zest of orange and topped with grapefruit. My sister Vera and nephew Tim and his wife Jessica joined us. It was nice to enjoy a smaller group for a change.

Katie, Jessica and Tim

Katie with my mom and dad

From brunch Katie and I traveled north to the La Canada/Flintridge area of Los Angeles to meet up with other family members at Descanso Gardens. I’ll be sharing those photos soon. We packed so much into two days my head is still spinning.

A Funny Thing Happened…

…on the way to Thanksgiving! I spent so much time enjoying real live people and real good food that I didn’t have time to upload photos and post about it. I’m re-winding now and getting caught up. Please bear with me.

Have you read or seen the T.V. shows about those great Food Trucks that move about the city offering good food at different locations each day? Dear and my brother and his wife had seen a segment about the Best Food Truck in the U.S.A. and a truck right here in Seattle won the distinction. On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving we found out it’s location and headed out with our Thanksgiving company to have some good eats! Marination lived up to it’s honor and served us up some really good food. To thank the people of Seattle for nominating them it was Free Taco Day! Woohoo!

The food was delicious and the people who run the business were great! Find out where they are today by clicking on the Marination link above. You won’t be disappointed when you take your first bite!

We were hankering for something good to wash down this fabulous food and found out that Hale’s Ales another great Seattle establishment was just down the street.

I’ll be adding this link to Foodie Friday because it’s all about the Food! Thanks Gollum for hosting Foodie Friday.

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

Foodie Friday ~ Eating on Vancouver Island

Welcome to Foodie Friday hosted at Designs by Gollum. Click on the logo to see more.

My husband, daughter and I spent Tuesday on Vancouver Island and we managed to eat well. From the Ferry in Sydney on our way to Butchart Gardens we stopped at a restaurant called The Roost which had great freshly made food. I opted for their sandwich special with Beet Borsch on the side. The sandwich was a chicken, cheese, basil, tomato, red onion and portabello mushroom. Dear had the same sandwich but with a Roasted Yam and cilantro soup. Katie ordered the 3 cheese quiche with a garden salad. We would go back to this spot if we ever ferry across from Anacortes to Sydney again. After we walked about Butchart Gardens and on our way into Victoria we stopped in Oak Bay and were happy to stumble upon the Penny Farthing where we enjoyed some traditional Fish & Chips and Lamb Stew. It’s too bad we had to be in the ferry line for 90 minutes prior to our trip back to the states or we could have fit in one more good meal on the Island!

The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b.

To honor and encourage

Category Archives: Food