At work-ish

 

So the other morning, I went to put my lunch in the fridge at work and found this:  Someone's yogurt.  Opened.  No lid.  With a spoon sticking out of it.  Eeewww!  Who does that?  Some of that food has been in there for months. 

 

Then another day I went to do some usability testing and met Erin for lunch.  We went to Lunchbox Laboratory in Bellevue.  They had a rice crispy treat milk shake.  I HAD to try it.  Because what if it was almost as good as the FANTASTIC shake I had at Shake Shack in NYC?  It wasn't.  Not even close.  And the marshmallows were old and dry and yucky.  I think every time I go to any burger place I think it will be as good as Shake Shack.  It never is.  But that doesn't keep me from trying every once in a while.  I need to find a reason to go to New York City or DC 

 

And these?  These are brown butter cream cheese red velvet cupcakes from Dahlia Bakery.  There was a bit of a mix up with my order and Dahlia Bakery and I experienced, quite possibly the BEST customer service I've ever encountered.  They not only made it right for me, they went above and beyond and delivered the replacement order to the East side from Seattle for me AND they got me to speak very highly about them to everyone at our event.  And the even better part...the red velvet cupcakes were delicious and a hit.  Also:  The coconut macaroons and the ginger snaps were yummy.  I will be back for those, for sure.  Thanks Dahlia Bakery.

Hogs and Cubans

 


There was a HUGE food truck round up at the Harley Davidson dealership in Renton, WA a few weeks ago.  

 


Kellye, her husband and I visited.  I saw more chaps than I've ever seen outside of a Western movie.  And more black leather than I've EVER seen.  AND a ton of Harleys, which goes without saying, I suppose.

 


I split a Cuban with Kellye's husband, from Snout & Co.  It was delicious.  I went back and got their Seattle variation to go for dinner.  It was good too, but since I had to have them leave off the onion relish, I suspect it could have been better.  

 


Ken and I also split the mushroom tacos from Contigo.  They were not delicious.  They were very "one note" as Ken said.  The could have used some cilantro or something else to give it a bit more depth of flavor.

 


Kellye and I split the Jamaican patties at The Jerk Station.  The pork was spicy and yummy and tasted a bit like a samosa - which surprised both of us. It was good but not something I'd search out in the future. 

 


And right here is, quite possibly, the best thing I had (though I've been craving that Cuban since I had it).  Handmade vanilla bean ice cream between two snicker doodles.  TERRIFIC!


There's another food truck round up/rally thing at Seattle Center on Saturday.  I'll be heading there for sure.

Seattle Center Fun

 


I've been spending quite a bit of time at Seattle Center recently.

 


I'm not exactly sure why now, but it's just happened.  
When I went there with Dad & Katherine we saw an Angry Bird being launched at the Space Needle with a T-Mobile magenta slingshot.  

 

And they were installing a Chihuly installation that I am SUPER excited to see completed.

A few weeks ago I went to see this play at one of the theaters at Seattle Center.  I'd seen it several years ago at BYU and thought it was the most hilarious play I'd ever seen.  I hurt from all the laughing.  I said if I ever saw that the play was being performed anywhere I was again I would go see it.  And so I did.  It was a tiny, itty bitty theater.  Very cozy.  And the actors did a great job.  It wasn't as funny as it was the first time I saw it, but it was still pretty good.

Apples and Lemons

My Sunday School class and I played a game of Draw Something (kind of) a few weeks ago.  I told them if they ended up with more coins than me I would make whatever treats they chose.


Turns out they chose apple pie and lemon bars.





I hadn't made an apple pie since I was 14 or 15.  

I found this recipe for upside down apple pie with a caramelized pecan topping which sounded absolutely delicious.

And I didn't need to make a crust from scratch.  Which Alton Brown promises me I can do successfully, I just don't know that I can trust him, because he really doesn't know me.

So store bought crust it was!

The kiddos liked the pie and it was yummy.  And absolutely easy to make.

The lemon bars were uber-lemony.  And the crust was super easy.  The only change I would make to the lemon bars would be to either use only half of the crust dough (because it was just a bit too thick for me) or maybe use a half sheet pan and double the lemon curdy stuff.  I used real lemons and lemon zest and they WERE lemony.

Flowering Trees

 

There are some things I can't help but photograph.  Food and flowers.  

 

I absolutely love all of the flowering trees that have bloomed recently.

 

The cherry blossoms are breathtaking.

 

And around every corner there seems to be several trees in bloom.

 


The contrast of the flowering trees against the evergreens is just breathtaking sometimes.

 

These are from trees I encountered on my way home from work the other day.

Also:  I obsessively take photos of my family, just ask them.

Random Things in Hallways

I came home one night to find:  TV!  HUGE TV!  Just sitting there in the hall with some FREE signs made from spiral notebook paper and taped to all sides of the TV.  It was there for 3 days.  I phoned the office and told them about HUGE TV and by the time I got home from work that day it was gone.   Thank goodness!  I figured someone was moving and after moving all of their heavy boxes they just couldn't bring themselves to carry the HUGE TV down the one flight of stairs to the moving truck.  Turns out no one from my floor had moved recently.  Now I think someone from my floor got a new TV and didn't want to pay for someone to come pick up HUGE TV and rather than take it out to the curb with the FREE signs, they figured the hallway was just as good.  Hilarious.

 

And this note in a plant in a random hallway at work just cracked me up for some reason:  "PLEASE DO NOT POUR ANY LIQUIDS ON THIS PLANT.  THANK YOU  THE MANAGEMENT"  I work in a 6 building complex.  Our company is in the majority of the buildings.  And this is the best we can come up with?  A hand-written index card?  Stuck askew in the plant?  LOVE IT!  Long live the plants!

NYR - Pi Day

 

In March I went to Duvall as my friend's Craigslist buddy.  She wanted to look at a piece of furniture. And, you know, a woman can't be traipsing out to a complete stranger's house alone.  

 

For the past few years I'd been operating under the assumption that Duvall was the middle of nowhere.  Of course this was all based on what people that have lived in the Seattle area for 30 years or longer.  And 30 years ago Duvall was probably a sleepy farm town but now it's a town with strip malls and housing developments.  The neighborhoods just pop up out of nowhere.  You're driving through fields and fields like the ones above and suddenly:  McMansions!

 

We stopped here for me to take some fotos.

 

The aforementioned piece of furniture in the back of the car. 

 

And as it was Pi Day (3/14) we stopped at one of the strip malls for some pizza.  I would have preferred some actual pie, but, being unfamiliar with the area we had to make do with what we could find.

Pasadena, CA

In February and in accordance with my New Year's Resolution, I visited a place I'd never been before:  Pasadena, California.  Tara and I took the kiddos to a children's museum.  They had tons of fun (aren't they adorable?).

And they climbed this huge cool stair thing.  It looks like a staircase Dr. Who would have in the TARDIS.  And we all know the TARDIS (and bowties, fezes and Stetsons) is cool.

I really liked what I saw of Pasadena.  Lots of green grass and trees and large homes.  

For the record:  I also went to Vegas and to several casinos I'd never been to before and to parts of Las Vegas I'd never been to as well.

Under Pressure

 

Dad and Katherine got me a pressure cooker.  I had been wanting one for a few months but hadn't gotten around to getting one.  So it was a very timely gift.  I remember using a pressure cooker or being around one when I was much younger.  And I remember using one once on my mission.  But that past experience didn't make me any less nervous to actually use the pressure cooker.  I set it, ran and sent a text to a friend telling them that if they didn't hear from me, it's because the lid blew off the pressure cooker and decapitated me.

 

The good news is that I survived and so did the eggs I was cooking in the pressure cooker.  Turns out that electric pressure cookers are more stable than stove top pressure cookers (especially on an electric coil burner stove top).  Of course, when the end of the world comes and there is no electricity, my pressure cooker will be useless.  The price you pay I guess.

 

So I made boiled eggs in about 5 minutes.  They were prefect.  Moist, not over-cooked.  I've mostly been using the pressure cooker to make beans.  I've plans to use it to make a cheesecake, among other things.