Sunday, September 26, 2010

Recreate a restaurant sandwich...

When I worked at that restaurant in the Napa Valley, I had a couple favorite dishes - and up top was the heirloom tomato sandwich. I recreated the sandwich here at home, and after some tweaking, I think it's really good.


Ingredients:
Sourdough bread
Mayo
Garlic
Heirloom tomatoes
Fresh basil
Havarti or fontina
Balsamic vinegar

1. First - put some garlic through a press, mix it with some mayo. Let that sit.

2. Lightly toast a piece of bread, spread with "garlic aioli". Next, slice the tomatoes. Here you can go two routes. If you're going to do it traditionally, you'll reduce the balsamic vinegar to make a syrup. If you're going to do it the easy way (how I did it this week), drench the tomatoes in vinegar and let them drip off a bit before setting on the bread. Add cheese, then make a basil chiffonade and sprinkle over the top. In the picture above, I used olive oil, but I don't recommend it - looks nice but the flavor just isn't right. Finally, pop the whole thing in the toaster oven until the cheese is soft but not melted and EAT UP!

3. Die of deliciousness.

I realize that middle step is really long, but this is my first "recipe", so bear with me. :)

Sunshine

Yesterday may have been the most beautiful day in Port Townsend ALL YEAR! It was warm (okay, like 68 degrees - that's warm for PT), it was sunny, it was gorgeous! A couple friends (including my mom, and a couple people my age and their mom) came up for the evening and we spent some time at Fort Worden, first at the lighthouse watching ships go by, then exploring the bunkers.

Then we headed downtown, where I thought "Oh man, I forgot my coat!" but I didn't end up needing it at all! The Port Townsend Film Festival was underway, and we caught some of the outdoor movie festivities between ice cream and dinner. Yes, we did have dessert first and it was wonderful!

We had dinner at The Fountain Cafe, which was described by one online site as a "foodie" place. We enjoyed the food, and even better, had great conversation! Topics included Facebook, the Napa Valley, travel, and carbonated beverages.

Fun people, delicious food, I came home and went to bed happy.

Good friends! (In matching clothes!)

I matched friends twice recently! The first time was on purpose - I saw Firefly wearing her pretty purple top, so I got out my purple top. Then, we took a picture to document it. Look how tall she is! (I'm pretty sure she'd want me to point that out to you.)

The next time was a coincidence at work! During our pizza lunch, my co-workers and I realized we totally matched! Purple, Huskies sweatshirt, and gray.

I may be partial to other Washington teams (go Cougs!) but for this occasion, I was happy to be wearing the colors.

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Kimberly and Mary Heather's Totally Excellent Adventure

It was a must anticipated event - no sleep for four days, or at least we both woke up at 4am (and then went back to sleep).

Kim & MH were headed to the Jefferson County Quilt Show, hosted by Cabin Fever Quilters. Because it was going to be a big day, we got up early and set out for provisions to sustain us on our arduous journey. Undertown provided Bob's Bagels and a mocha for MH:

and a chai for Kim:

On our endeavor to stimulate the failing economy, we decided to start with low point and build from there, so we started at the fairgrounds. The economy hasn't been kind, and there weren't many vendors at the quilt show. Neither of us bought anything, and we ended up leaving after the first door prize drawing, which we didn't win. Boo.

On to bigger and better stores!!

Next we went for crafting supplies at Crafts Cottage. The economy may be a theme here - because Crafts Cottage is going out of business, largely due to the economy. We did our part to help them close in style and spent quite a while looking at everything in the store.

Then, we headed out of town, but not too far, and stopped at Kala Point for a quilt shop and some lunch. It's the quilt shop that MH shops at the most locally, so she wanted to show Kim. After that it was time to restock up on provisions again. We had Panini sandwiches with Havarti, spinach, some olive spread, yellow squash, and eggplant. They weren't bad (MH says "they were good!") as long as you didn't look at the guts falling out. The lady at the deli told us about a yarn shop across the way where we were temporarily delayed.

Kimberly was overcome with her love for new quilt shops when we arrived at our next stop, Quilted Strait's new location in Port Gamble. Kimberly had to stop and take a nap in the store while Mary Heather tried to decide what to leave on the shelves for other patrons to buy (MH says "That's not true! I didn't buy that much! I've bought WAY more at other stores! And weren't you taking forever deciding blue or green?"). After she finally ("Whatever!") made her selections the duo set out to revive Kimberly with a sugar high from Sluys Bakery in Poulsbo. The whirlwind shop-till-you-drop adventure continued with Rubber Soul and Heirloom quilt shop in Poulsbo. Then just in case there was a crafting deal we might not have found yet, we hopped over to Silverdale where we concluded our adventure with stops at Joann's and Michael's. At Michael's, Kimberly and Mary Heather were all over a bin of cheap stamps like white on rice. And to think they almost missed spotting that bin on the way to the checkout stand.

Would you like to see the loot? Of course you would! (This part is especially for Karrina - we've been thinking of you during the whole post. If you're anything like Kim, you'll zoom in on the picture and figure out what everything is and have questions and opinions about it all!)

First up, crafty stuff! We smushed it together - MH's spoils are mostly on the left, Kim's on the right.

And, fabric!

MH observed on the way home, "I can buy new projects so much faster than I can get anything done." The reason we're telling you this now is: You may not see finished products from these supplies for a while. At least from MH.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Checking in with my camera...

In case you were curious what I've been up to, I figured I'd see what my camera has to say - in chronological order of recent history, I went to a TangoHeart concert, and they lost my reservation, which was the best thing that could have happened! I ended up in the best seat in the house - here's my view, without zooming:
I've done several trips to and from Bellevue (been going to 24/7 for a year now) and the weather was beautiful on many occasions:

I threw a totally awesome baby shower, complete with the most delicious cupcakes I've made EVER. I don't even have a picture of the best ones, but here are the chocolate:

(The best were vanilla - funfetti with lemon buttercream frosting and I LOVED the frosting. I usually don't like frosting.)

One Saturday night, mom and I went out and got in touch with our southern rock sides and checked out the band "Kane" at a free concert on the beach. The lead singer is an actor on Leverage, a show that I watch pretty regularly. The concert was pretty good - and we looked hot, for being so cold.

Most recently, a group from 24/7 came over to visit me and we finished the day at Elevated Ice Cream. I had Swiss Orange Chocolate Chip and Amaretto Hazelnut with hot fudge, almonds, whipped cream, and jimmies. YUM.

So, that's me checking in. How have things been with you?