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.

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.

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?

More Loot - and what I plan to do with it...

Since you know me pretty well, you know I did not limit myself to the Neptune purchase while I was shop hopping. I also bought a layer cake - also a Tula Pink design, but this is her latest - Plume. I got it at the Bellevue shop, Quiltworks Northwest, which I liked very much.

I bought the layer cake with this quilt in mind - I like the fun circles - although I'm not sure if I'll be able to let myself do raw edge applique. I may end up modifying the pattern a little bit. I haven't gotten the binding or backing yet - but all in good time. :) Suppose I ought to get some sewing done. ( I know, right!?!)

My camera battery died, so I can't show you all the fabric I got a Quiltworks - but this is part of it. One fat quarter, and one quarter yard that I'm planning to use for another coin purse from the pattern I got in Sisters, OR.

Fun stuff!

Smooth sailing... sort of.

If I've never told you about the time I got stranded at sea - let me summarize: Small boat, no motor. We got in the water around 5 on a Friday - followed the big boats around, but when the wind died they all went in and we were stuck with one paddle. Then, the tide changed and the sun went down, and I don't know how to sail. The man I was with was wearing prescription sunglasses and had nothing else. I did make it home around 11:30, freezing cold, quite hungry, and wet.

So, I'm telling this story to a couple guys after work last week and one asks, "Do you want to go sailing Friday after work?" I was like "Yeah!" "Wait! Do you have a motor?" "Yes? Okay!"

Friday did not disappoint in the weather department. It was beautiful when I arrived at the (just go ahead and pardon my lack of boat jargon knowledge) boat parking area.

I headed over, reminded the guy that I can't sail for my life and he said I was still invited, so off we went. It's what I call "the Friday night saily thingy", but turns out, it's a RACE! I totally looked the part.

Scott, boat owner and man in charge, had two helpers - the young woman you see below, and the young man in the next picture. I did very menial things like "pull on the red and white rope", while they jibbed and hoisted and reefed and did all manner of sailor-y things.

I did learn the difference between the three sails, although I'm having trouble remembering their names now... there was the main, the jib and the spinnaker (thank you, wikipedia!).

So, the race... What happens is, you head out into Port Townsend bay and there is a committee boat with "directions" on the back (in this case 2SWYF, or something) and then you follow the directions, and I'm not really sure what you win besides the bragging rights. In our case, the W meant this yellow thing:

So, we had to start, go around the yellow thing, go around another thing, then finish. Then, the 2 meant we'd do it all again with another start and everything. Well, we had a bad start the first time (and by that I mean we started last) but finished near the middle of the pack. Then, the wind died. So we sat around for a while. All of the sudden, the wind came back with a vengeance! So, we reefed the sail (by we, I mean they) and while that happened Scott fell which was not cool. Then, we were going really fast and tipped over way far and sitting all up on one side of the boat, and you have a blind spot - as you can see from this photo:

So, imagine our surprise when we're flying along and all of the sudden hear a crash as we hit another boat traveling perpendicular to our boat. Needless to say, I discovered that sailors really do swear like sailors! But, the people involved were super chill about it and went to work on straightening it out. There was some damage to each boat, involving things like a bulkhead and a cleat, so I took my limited sailing knowledge and headed for home, where I had trouble calming down because it was so exciting!

Before any of that ever happened, I was thinking, the phrase "leisurely sail"? Not really possible. Because either you're constantly adjusting the sails and ropes and this and that, or there's no wind and you're not really sailing.

That being said, I loved it, and I think I can't wait to go again.