Tag Archives: Food

The Festivities Continue…

Get ready for photo overload. Today we are preparing for our daughter Katie’s 24th Birthday Bash!! Her actual birthday is tomorrow. In the meantime I’m posting lots of photos from our Christmas Eve and Christmas Day Festivities. May God’s blessings continue…

 

Christmas Eve was quiet with just the 3 of us. We went to a Christmas Eve Candlelight service and shared our traditional meal together.

 

Christmas morning our tradition is to check out what Santa brought in our stockings, then move on to a great Swedish Pancake breakfast that Dear lovingly makes for us each year and then we exchange our gifts to each other. We missed you dearly Dan!!

 

Then our whole family heads to the Spiro’s for Christmas dinner. We met Dave and Jody 25 years ago when both our families lived in Ventura, California and we attended Bible Fellowship Church.

 

Dear and Dave

 

Our girls and Dave and Jody’s girls.

 

Grandma Mary the Matriarch of the Spiro Family. Isn’t she lovely at 80 something!!

 

Our dear friends Bob and Jan (Jan is one of my walking buddies and Bob is Dave’s brother) with their mom Mary.

 

Laura and Josh

 

Bridget and Laura

 

Katie, Josh, and Lucy

 

Laura, Katie, and Jamie

 

Katie and Josh

The Kid’s table…

 

 

The view of Puget Sound and the Olympics at Sunset…

 

Our family had a wonderful day from morning to night celebrating with family and friends the birth of our KING!

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.

Friday’s Fave Five ~ Walks-Relationships-Food

My favorites can always be narrowed down to these three…a nice long walk, peaceful relationships, and good food. A fulfilling walk is one shared with someone who I have a good relationship with or am building a relationship with. Food, sitting around a table, is always better if it’s shared with someone. My past week has been rich with walks, relationships, and good food.

Visit our kind hostess Susanne at Living to Tell the Story to join in with your favorites from this past week…

 

1. Early Saturday morning Dear and I walked at Emma Wood State Beach and enjoyed the cool crisp air. We usually will stop at our favorite breakfast spot in Ventura after these walks. Allison’s has the best hot out of the oven baked biscuits and fresh raspberry jam. Oh they serve eggs and stuff, too.

 

2. Saturday evening we met my brother Steve and his wife Kelly at Tam O’ Shanter in Glendale for a birthday dinner. Kelly is celebrating a milestone birthday and we wanted to treat her at our favorite spot for prime rib. The chocolate souffle and C.C. Brown’s hot fudge were pretty good, too. Oh, right about now you are probably wondering how my healthy weight loss program is going, aren’t ya? Well with these habits of mine it’s going slow but I am losing instead of gaining. So far I’ve lost 4 pounds.

 

3. For Willow and my walk this week we met up at Joy’s Blueberry ranch and then walked through a neighboring ranch or two. Instead of going past rows of blueberries we walked through an avocado grove and past rows and rows of raspberries. Joy told us we could pick some raspberries even though it wasn’t her property. Those ranchers are all like family :0) I still felt guilty for picking and eating…

 

Here’s the great variety of growing goodness we’ve spotted on our ranch walks…

4. On Tuesday afternoon I drove across town to my parent’s apartment for a meal with four of my nieces, my three sisters, one of my SIL’s, two nephews, my grand nephew and grand niece. Would you believe I didn’t take one photo? It gets a little crazy when we all cram into that little apartment for a meal. It was good to see everyone and to get caught up a little. I was happy to get to spend some time with my folks before I head North for the rest of the year.

5. On Wednesday I decided to go to a regular kind of store instead of a thrift store and I was able to buy 4 shirts and 2 pairs of pants for Dear and 2 tops for myself for $150 with $30.00 cash coupon back to spend next week. I was pleased with the experience and now I won’t have to go back to a regular store for a long time. We aren’t your fashionista/fashionisto.

Bonus!! My #6 is a looking forward to…

 

spending lots of time with these peeps and my kids over Thanksgiving!!

Blessings everyone! Looking forward to seeing your favorites…

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.

Mosaics With Blue Confessions…

 

It’s the time of year for scenes like these. Confession #1: All these scenes are from last October.

 

These shots are from this year, this past Saturday. Getting closer to Blue here. Confession #2: I’ve started a weight/exercise regimen. I wasn’t going to share this at all because every time in the last year I’ve “tried” something and shared it I end up gaining weight and I’m a little embarrassed about that. So the program I’m trying gives me one day a week to eat whatever I want. That day was Saturday so Dear and I were up early as usual and decided to make a 3 mile roundtrip walk to a donut shop. I sense some skeptics out there shaking their heads and thinking poor ellen b. she’s doomed to failure again. I’ll try to keep you posted on how good or bad I do.  :0)

 

Finally I’ve gotten to the blue for Blue Monday. These shots are from Saturday also and this was a great new Mexican spot we enjoyed in Ventura, California called Taqueria Tepatitlan. Remember this is my eat anything day and I didn’t take photos to show you what I had for dinner! Look real hard at the window and Corona sign and you’ll see the blue. Confession #3: Since there was so little actual blue in my shots I added the blue background to trick you into thinking this qualifies as a Blue Monday Post.

Now make sure and visit Mary at Little Red House for Mosaic Monday and visit Sally at Smiling Sally for Blue Monday!

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.

Eating Our Way Through Two Countries!!

 

My daughter Katie and I set out on a rainy adventure through the top left corner of the U.S.A. to Canada on Tuesday. Just before we got to the border of the U.S.A. and Canada we stopped at the Blackberry House Cafe in Blaine. Friends of ours own the cafe and we wanted to check it out since we were in the neighborhood. What a great spot for some good eats and good coffee. We had a little visit and bought some fresh bread to take home. Make sure you stop by sometime at H street and 3rd!

 

Here are the owners and our yummy breakfast. Aaron is a pastry chef. Sorry the photo is a little blurry…

They let us across the border after a few questions as to our purpose for visiting the fine country of Canada. We told them we were visiting to go to lunch. They wanted to know where we planned to eat. We said “Stanley Park”. They wanted us to be more specific so we said, “The Teahouse Restaurant in Stanley Park”. That was the right answer so they let us proceed!

 

I think our food choices at the Teahouse Restaurant look like something you’d get served on Top Chef. Don’t let the name of this restaurant fool you. It’s not about the Tea here but it is about some very good food.

After lunch we spent some time at the Aquarium in Stanley Park and then enjoyed seeing some beautiful views under dry skies before we headed back to the Border.

When we got to the border we were asked some more questions to see if we were worthy to re-enter our country. They were concerned about agricultural products. They wanted to know where we ate, too. I’m wondering if the Border Patrol are compiling a book on most frequented eateries in Canada…

 

After all those questions about food we got hungry again and stopped at Taco Lobo in Bellingham. Lovella had given this spot a good review and she was right. We got there at 4:45 and ordered our food and as our food arrived the place filled up to overflowing.

If nothing else you can rest assured if you ever travel with us you won’t be hungry!!

And just for the curious if you have a smooth border crossing you can make it from my house to Vancouver in 2-1/2 to 3 hours.

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.

It’s Time for the Rooster Party!

Barb at Bella Vista is our lovely hostess for this event. Click on over and check out her sidebar to see all the participants who are showing their roosters this Friday!

I’m starting off with the real thing. These noisy guys were excited to wake everyone up so you can get an early start to make it around to all the party blogs!

All Around the Barnyard

All around the barnyard
The animals are fast asleep.
Sleeping cows and horses,
Sleeping pigs and sheep.

Here comes the cocky rooster
To sound his daily alarm.
“Cock-a-doodle-doo!
Wake up sleepy farm!”

 

You are going to need a good farmer style breakfast so you have the endurance to see all the roosters today so how about this…

Apricot-Almond French Toast with eggs and turkey sausage? or…

One of these egg dishes? Have fun everyone!

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.

Friday’s Fave Five ~

Time to think back just 7 days and remember your favorites. Once you’ve done that head over to Susanne’s at Living to Tell the Story and join in the fun of Friday’s Fave Five!

A boring week would be very nice but I might not see that for a little while.

It was so nice to have my daughter here with us along with her boyfriend. They flew back to Seattle on Sunday.

 

My daughter having lots of time with her cousins and grandparents is another favorite.

Being with my brother’s family from Dallas for more then one day makes my favorites, too. We had time at Disneyland, time at our open house on Saturday and then a few more hours on Sunday at my niece’s shower before they flew back to Dallas.

Putting on an event with my family is always a lot of fun. On Sunday my sisters and nieces and I put together a Tea Baby Shower for the next little girl who will be joining our family later in September. The time together with my nieces and all my sisters and SIL’s was wonderful.

Lastly is that yummy meal you see in the collage. Dear barbecued all that for dinner on Wednesday and it was oh so good. The Corn on the cob was my favorite. So buttery garlicky corny good.

Thanks for visiting. I really do appreciate the cyber friendships blogging has afforded me!!

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.

A Week Filled With Favorites!

It’s time to visit Susanne at Living to Tell the Story to join in the fun of remembering our favorites from this past week.

 

At the very top of the list is the good extended time we’ve had with our kids this past week. We had meals together, went to church together, traveled to Canada together, enjoyed sporting events together, and cared for each other.

 

On Tuesday when Dear, Katie and I traveled to Vancouver Island and back we saw a great Sunrise and Sunset.

 

Finding great places to eat when we’re traveling is a favorite thing of mine! We really enjoyed our eating adventures on Vancouver Island and back home, too.

 

Seeing signs that remind us of good books we’ve read  is always fun.

Enjoying all of God’s creation intensified in a beautiful garden and out on the waterways…

Looking forward to seeing all your favorites from this past week!

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.

Friday’s Fave Five ~ Where’s My Brain?

When I woke up today and wondered what day of the week it was it dawned on me that I forgot all about Friday’s Fave Five. Scramble, scramble here we go. Thank you Susanne for helping me keep my days straight! Visit Living to Tell the Story for more favorites or to join in.

 

1. On Sunday I was still in Southern California and Dear and I met his brother and wife for a birthday brunch at the Tam O Shanter in L.A. We don’t get together very often with T and C and it was fun to catch up a bit and enjoy a good meal together. Turning 60 is a very good excuse for a nice meal.

2. On Monday Willow and I were able to get a early morning walk in and it was hot, hot, hot already. It was good to catch up since we hadn’t walked for a couple weeks. What a surprise to see the  Jacarandas still blooming.

3. Monday evening I flew to Seattle in a smaller plane where the seats were closer together and smaller then usual (is that’s possible?) but I had a window seat and got some fun shots of Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Rainier. I arrived in Seattle to warm temps, too.

4. Tuesday evening I joined my kids and a friend at the U.S. Open Cup game at a small venue to see the Sounders beat Houston 2-1 in overtime. It was an exciting game and fun to be right on the field. Again it was very hot.

5. Making blueberry muffins with blueberries from my bush was another fun treat this week.

My daughter’s sunburn is finally in a tolerable stage and it’s good to see her feeling so much better. Wednesday was a very hard day around here. Friday is really looking up!!

Blessings and I’m looking forward to seeing what you’ve been up to.

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.

Moroccan Shower and Tablescape

I’m posting my photos from our Moroccan Bridal Shower now and will link these up for Tablescape Thursday later in the week on Susan’s Between Naps on the Porch Blog. I’m traveling back to L.A. from Seattle tomorrow for a funeral on Wednesday and won’t be around the computer much. I’m staying at my condo in Camarillo until Monday the 20th when I fly back to Seattle and finish off my scheduled time here.

My daughter and I decorated our deck gazebo on Sunday for a Bridal shower for her friend Kristen. Katie is in the wedding in August. We decided on this theme because Kristen has enjoyed this culture and has taken Belly Dancing courses. It took Katie and I a couple hours to decorate the gazebo.

Here’s what we started with. The pile of stuff in the top photo are things I’ve accumulated from Goodwill and other thrift stores with this theme in mind. Yards of fabric and window scarfs are inexpensive second hand for the amount of fabric you get. We also used large tablecloths we had on hand that worked in with the colors.

This is the final result. The Bride to be was so pleased and “blown away” at what we created in honor of her.

 

We could have used a lot more safety pins then we had but ties really came in handy as did the good ole stapler.

 

 

 

 

 

I prepared Rack of Lamb with Ina Garten’s recipe from her Barefoot Contessa Parties book. The mustard mixture that coats the racks seasons the lamb so well. I’ll share the recipe later. I also made basmati rice with almonds and raisens.  The salad we served was with persian cucumbers and a persian salad dressing.

 

Because Kristen is gluten intolerant we found a gluten free brownie mix and prepared the brownies and served them with rasberries and a chocolate sauce.

 

As dessert was served the winds whipped up and the rains came down followed with thunder and lightning. The girls evacuated to the family room for opening presents and some nice hot tea.

Thank you for visiting. I hope to get around bloggyland on Thursday after my travels and the funeral. Blessings!

On Thursday you can see more scapes at Between Naps on the Porch.

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.

Mariners Baseball in Seattle…

 

Another fun day in the Seattle area yesterday. We headed downtown early for the Mariners game and had a Happy Hour dinner at Boka. We love to get half-price food and the food here was delicious!!

 

The weather cleared up nicely for the game.

 

It was Salute to Japanese Baseball night so we all got our Japanese baseball hats and saluted!

Well lookie here both Josh and my niece Debbee caught a fly ball! :0)

The girls are off and running today again…

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.