Christmas 2012

Playing catch up. 

We were good this year. :) It may have been the best Christmas dinner ever!

Carving up the prime rib. 

Grampa and Gramma: Prime Rib

Aunt Leslie: Brussel Sprouts

Aunt Becky: Mashed Potatoes and Grilled Onions

Mom: Cabbage Salad

Me: Black Rice Salad and Tarragon Cooked Carrots (These recipes were fantastic, I'm happy to provide recipes upon request, once I get moved in and find them)

Followed with Allergy Free Apple Spice Cake with Spiced Frosting from Living Without Magazine. It was fantastic and is highly recommended. We used too much frosting but man it looks great!

Visit to Lompoc, CA (in November 2012)

I'm a little behind. I just want to catch up for historian stake. 

Paella at Beachside restaurant in Santa Barbara, CA. Non-traditional but clearly delicious!

Followed by lots of home cooking from mom and me with Great Aunt Suzie and Great Uncle Bryce's help. We cooked up tacos and had steak night! 

Mom's birthday dinner at Steamer's restaurant in Pismo Beach, CA just north of Lompoc. This is my family's favorite restaurant to visit for a special occasion. We each got our own mini-bottle of Freixenet cava. Yum!

Mom's scampi with mashed potatoes and gravy!

My allergy-free fish tacos!

Cheers!

Some good dishes of the month:

Safeco Field goes gluten free? Go Mariners! That's right GF fish and chips served at the Hit if Here Cafe behind right field. We went to watch the Red Socks sadly lose. But it was a great game with great food!


My man Matt got what would be my number one non-allergy-free choice: The bacon wrapped pulled pork hot dog with sweet apple chutney. Yum!



For my homecoming after 2 weeks away, what better than strawberries and bubbly.



Just another dish we made at mom's. Grilled corn, tomato salsa stuffed in tostitos and covered with Tapatio!

Love you too Mom!

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Easter!

It's an Easter flashback to times of white tights and white hats. The times we will forever ask: "Mom, why did you do this to me?" I seem to be having a good time despite the tights riding up my diaper. Cheers!


(Alex, Me, Rachel)
Oh those tights.


(Rachel)
Ready to go!


(Me)
I'll find that egg.


(sis and I)
Hats... really? And more tights.


(sis and I)
Where did the tights go? :) We wised up.

Dinner at Gramma's

Here's our quick and easy dinner at Gramma's on Sunday. Scallops with bacon and wilted spinach. Cooked the bacon first and removed from pan. Then we used brown rice flour and home made cajun seasoning (paprika, oregano, salt and pepper) to coat the scallops (via the ziplock shake) and cooked them in the bacon grease. Chop the bacon, throw in a bag and a half of spinach (still not enough) and cook it down. Mom made some wild rice to go with it. What a fun, easy, and tasty meal! Highly recommend it.

Old Christmas Dinner

It's old only because obviously I'm about 3 weeks late on this post but the photos are so cute. The family and I celebrated finger-food Christmas on the 23rd and then mom, Rich and I headed to the beach for a great, relaxing time.



Fresh live crab from ABC Asian market, looking awesome in mom's antique sink



Rosemary golden mini-potatoes and sausage stuffed portabella mushrooms



Rumaki! Bacon wrapped dates with chestnuts in a special sauce and then we also had bacon wrapped scallops, I don't know how that happened



Mmm, the mushroom was so good



Rumaki!



Christmas dinner at the cabin, that and margaritas



Our Christmas tree!



So cute!

To Gramma's House We Go

Christmas at Grammas was two days early. We had it on Wednesday since we were going to the beach. I wanted to show folks these photos of Gram's awesome house. These are of the board room which used to be the garage. Been fixed up since then and is the hoppin' place to be.



Gramma found 100 year old sheet music that Dan and Colton were checking out.



We busted out the really old Christmas vinyl that hardly plays on the new machine-Bing Crosby.



One of Gramma's many many quilts.



'Woodstove' (it's electric)



Rich and Gramma



Grampa's got his Christmas shirt on for us! (Even though it's two days early)



Cousin and me :)

Allergy-Free Restaurant Review

Well, if I'm to do product review, I ought to do allergy-free restaurant review. Friday night, after obtaining mom's Christmas tree we went to Bridgeport Ale House at 36th and Hawthorne (Portland, OR). To my most pleasant surprise they had two vegan, allergy-free items on the menu. It rocked. I had the Hawthorne Vegan Bowl with organic quinoa, black beans, grilled tofu, mushrooms, kale, roasted sweet potato & spicy cashew sauce minus the sesame, with added grilled chicken and half an avocado. Oh my god it was the best new thing I've had in a while. So so good. Their other item on the menu was a black bean burger with vegan cilantro mayo. Obviously mine would be bun-less so I went with the bowl. Good choice. Highly recommend it. The non-allergy folk joining me had the mac n'cheese, catfish po'boy, a BLTA and a pitcher of Ebenezer. First GOOD AVOCADO I've had in a while. I'll be back!

Gypsy Soup, Again and Again

Yes, I'm re-posting previous recipes. I don't care. It was different this time. I made it and ate it with different people. I even made it in a different kitchen. :-) I was at my sister's new apartment with friends helping her get ready for Crafty Wonderland this weekend. Gypsy soup has been my dinner twice this week. The homey veggies and the spicy kick just can't be beat. For me, it's a throw-together recipe meaning that when I make it I usually have 'nothing' to eat and end up with this. I know not everyone keeps this on hand so if you need me to bring it and make it :-) just let me know. And so here again is my post though I'm only doing the ingredients which for me, change every time.

Gypsy Soup Recipe Link
4 tablespoons olive oil
2 cups chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped celery
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 cups diced peeled sweet potatoes (my goal for cooking is to make sure these are super soft)
2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon ground turmeric (this is an anti-inflammatory agent)
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon salt
1 pinch ground cinnamon
1 pinch cayenne pepper (I put too much but, I don't have much kick in my life with being allergic to chili)
1 bay leaf
3 cups chicken stock (3 cups would NEVER be enough, I put more like 6, the broth is the best part!)
1 tablespoon tamari (it's like soy sauce but without the gluten-you could use soy sauce)
1 cup chopped fresh tomato (or canned diced tomatoes)
1 1/2 cups cooked garbanzo beans (I wish they had been in longer-I'm not a recipe person & we were hungry)
3/4 cup chopped green bell pepper (I don't like green bell peppers... I used a red)



Cookin' away



Rachel made goat cheese garlic spread which, I'm sure is to die for. Sadly it was discovered post-allergies so I haven't tried it but with the ingredients you can't go wrong!

Recipe
1 head of garlic (about 10 cloves) (Roasted in the oven)
2 medium red onions, thinly sliced (Carmelized)
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp brown sugar
10oz goat cheese (I used an 8oz package and it worked fine)
Balsamic Vinegar
Fresh basil (for garnish), chopped
Baguette
Olive Oil & Sea Salt

Result:





Dinah enjoyed the party too. Ahh, a good end to a hectic day.

The weekend in Seattle

After chowing at Gramma's we headed to Seattle for Thanksgiving and it was awesome. Mom, Rich, Dan, me, Rich's twin brother Andy and his girlfriend Angie. We stayed in a house on the Sound in West Seattle. It was a mansion compared to where any of us live. It was incredible to spread out and not have 5 people in mom's parlor (seated for 3-4). Andy and Angie went out on the town on Saturday but we were completely satisfied with just hanging out at the house. Big screen, big couches, big kitchen, and a hot tub. What more do you need?







THIS is vacation. Hot tub and mimosa at 1pm. Yes!



Momma made turkey soup with leftovers from Thursday.



I made a GF pizza but look at that stove!



GF dumplings are a' cookin'. Made with GF Bisquick which rocks!



Everyone else's dumplings all done.



Dan caught me in a rabbit pose. Mmm basil.



Pizza ingredients: kalamatas and fresh basil,



sun-dried tomatoes and mushrooms,



Prosciutto too! So gourmet.



Whoa, what else can we put on the table!



eating, eating, eating



Luxory! The weekend was absolutely glorious. Lucky us! :-)