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May 7, 2004
The Senior VP of my division bought me the Junior League of Seattle “Celebrate the Rain” cookbook (as a thank-you, I guess, with such-nice-notes inside from himself and his wife). I am sitting here with my mouth watering over some of the simpler recipes I’ve found inside (meaning, the ones I may actually use):
Right now, I wish I were at home on this rainy, blustery day, reading under a blanket on the couch, enjoying our new view and savoring:
Broiled Westcott Bay Oysters with Pepper Cheese:
12 medium oysters
4 oz Viking or Monterey Jack hot pepper cheese, grated
Tabasco or other hot pepper ssauce
Chopped fresh parsley & lemon wedges
Shuck oysters
Preheat broiler and set rack 6 inches from top element. Cover rimmed baking sheet with rock salt or a large piece of crumpled foil and set oysters on top so they sit evenly. Sprinkle cheese over oysters and add 1 to 2 dashes of Tabasco to taste. Broil the oysters until the cheese bubbles and browns and the oysters are firm to the touch but not rubber, 3 to 5 minutes.
Remove oysters from oven and transfer to serving platter, sprinkle with chopped parsley and serve right away with lemon wedges for squeezing. A dark, porter style beer from the Northwest would be a good companion to this spicy cheese & oyster combination.
Uuh…YUM. Something about that combo sounds absolutely appealing to me right now, along with some crusty, warm bread with a big slab of melting butter.
Given my lack of time to find decent oysters (or more specifically, those from Westcott Bay) today, perhaps I will instead go home tonight, watch the sun set in the clouds & rain, and the twinkling lights across the lake emerge while sharing with my husband this treat made almost entirely of things already in my kitchen:
Warm & Smoky Bacon Gorgonzola Dip:
7 slices of bacon, diced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
8 oz cream cheese at room temp
¼ c half-and-half
4 oz Gorgonzola or other blue cheese, crumbled
2 T minced fresh chives, plus more for garnish
4 T finely chopped smoked almonds, divided
Grapes, for serving
Sliced baguette, crackers, crostini, celery and/or carrot sticks, for dipping
Preheat oven to 325F. Cook bacon in large skillet over med heat until almost crisp, 4 to 5 minutes. Scott out bacon with slotted spoon onto small plate, drain grease from pan and return bacon to pan. Add garlic and continue to cook until bacon is crisp, 2 to 3 minutes longer.
Blend cream cheese and half & half until smooth. Put mixture in med bowl and stir in bacon and garlic, Gorgonzola and chives. Spoon into 2 cup oven-to-table dish. Cover with foil and bake until heated through, about 30 minutes. Stir 3 T of almonds into hot dip, then sprinkle remaining almonds & some minced chives evenly over top. Serve with grapes, bread, crackers and/or vegetables.
Try a classic Manhattan to complement the richness of this dip.
Mmm. OK. I will.
My late grandma’s surprise gift to us was that she left her hall closet stocked full of liquor. Thank you, Grandma. When we were in Palm Springs with her last fall, she turned to me over our cocktail hour at the pool one evening and said very seriously “you know, Jessica, Scotch cures all that ails me. Just one drink, and everything just melts away. Its just heavenly.” Well said, Grandma. Although I don’t have a preference for Scotch, there is most certainly something to be said for a good drink. A Manhattan would really hit the spot right now.
Tonight Mike & I are taking Hana over to her cousins’ house under the guise that we will go back to the house and get some home improvement projects completed. I think Mike is also under this impression, but I would really prefer to scrap those plans and just go enjoy a quiet, childless drink at a local bar. Mike’s response is a toss-up. He’s very motivated to finish our painting and our floors, but I think he’s also damn sick of it, so I just don’t know if I can talk him into bailing out for one night.
We officially started sleeping at our new house on Tuesday. I had already stocked & organized (well, for now anyway) our kitchen. We brought enough clothes to last us through the week. Most of the toiletries are already stocked away. All of our linens had already been moved over. So we brought our mattress & box spring over on Tuesday night and spent our first glorious evening in the new house. All I can say is that it feels so right. I feel happy. At peace. There are thousands of things we need to do in the house, but I don’t feel that pressure anymore. I just feel incredibly happy and blessed that we are now living there. It is going to be disorganized for awhile, and there will be many improvement projects lurking around (forever, probably), but I just look out the window over the lake, or take a walk through the neighborhood, and I know this was meant to be. The phrase “its feels like coming home” is so super corny, but it feels exactly applicable for me right now.
This weekend we officially move OUT of our old house. Meaning, get all the lingering things out of there. We’ve done a pretty good job of clearing it out, but there’s still stuff left to move. The big-ticket items especially, like the couch and armchair and sideboard and computer and TV/DVD and dressers. Mike’s got several big guy friends lined up with trucks for this, so really, it is out of my hands. My clothes, though. I have to deal with those. I’m hoping my parents can find their old car-travel-hanging-bar thing so I can just hang all the items on hangers in the car and be on my merry way. I hate fighting with armfuls of limp clothes on hangers sliding all over the place and out from the bottom of the pile; I’ve done that one too many times to have any more patience for it.
Hana’s 2nd birthday is fast approaching (May 27). How could it possibly already be TWO years AGO that she was born? Wow. We have a birthday party planned for Sat. 5/22. Just a family affair plus Melissa & Ella – cake & ice cream; nothing extravagant. I don’t feel up to it this year, with all of the craziness in our lives this month. I considered having a “kid party” at our new beach club, but again, I’m just not up to it this year, and Hana doesn’t know the difference yet anyway.
Hana started daycare this week. The first 2 days were really hard on all of us. She cried a lot when we left and Mike & I both felt terrible. I even, for a brief moment, considered bagging it all and asking my mother-in-law to be her daycare again. Mike quickly talked me out of that. Although we are not really super structured people, Mike’s mom is SUPER-DUPER not structured, for the most part. She would sometimes implement some structure to Hana’s day, but it would only last a week or two. She allowed Hana to watch too much TV, even after we’d asked her not to numerous times. She rarely had Hana on a regular nap schedule, and I would occasionally come home from work to find that Hana had not napped AT ALL, which left me with a basket case of a child to deal with. At any rate, Mike & I had both decided that the structure of daycare and the socialization with other kids would be very good for Hana (and us!), given our current situation (meaning, we both work, so SOMEONE has to take care of her while we do that). We fell in love with a daycare about 3 minutes away from our new house, and so there she is. It is a small privately owned daycare/preschool. There is one class for 1-2 yr olds, another class for 2.3 yr olds, and 2 preschool classroom. The teachers are wonderful. They pick her up and hug her and kiss her and rock her, and have been so incredibly warm and sympathetic to all 3 of us as we adjust. The other kids are all happy, energetic and very enthusiastic about hugging their teachers and being affectionate, which leads me to believe, as I thought, that this is a great, warm, caring place. By Day 3, Hana didn’t even cry when we left. Jenna (one of the teachers) held her at the window and they waved goodbye to us, and Hana looked a little sad but didn’t shed a tear. When I’ve come to pick her up after work and spied on her a bit before she knows I’m there, she is always very engaged and happy and laughing. She has shown us around to her favorite toys, and we’ve talked about the painting and coloring and blocks (etc) that she has done during her days and she seems very happy. She loves the food they serve; I’ve had lunch there with her twice and I must say the cooks (they have 3 cooks who make all meals from scratch) do a very good job. The chicken-curry-rice-cheese-broccoli casserole was my favorite, and all of the kids DEVOURED it. Hana tells me that Mikayla (“Mik-AYA) is her friend, and the teacher says (no surprise) that outdoor playtime is Hana’s favorite time, followed closely by circle time (songs, etc.) and story time. She took her first nap there yesterday, and they say she went down easily and slept for almost 3 hours. Things seem good. I hope this continues.
Near our new house, there is a local “Towne Centre” (no, really, that’s how they spell it); it is really just a glorified strip mall that has been there since the 50’s. ‘Shopping center’ is probably the best term. As a kid we called it “The Mall.” When Melissa moved into my parents house during the summer after college, she heard us refer to this shopping center as a mall a few times before she pointedly advised me, “you know, that’s not really a ‘mall,’ Jess. It still cracks me up to this day. She is so right. I told my friend Shannon (who also grew up in the area) and now she calls it “the-not-really-a-mall mall.” ANYWAY. This ‘mall’ has an Albertson’s, a Rite-Aid, a Laundromat, a Hallmark, a fabric store, a take-out pizza place, a small library, a bakery, a Starbucks (of course!), a Subway, a Baskin-Robbins, a Hollywood Video, a big bookstore, and a food court. There is also a medical clinic, a dental clinic, several physical therapy type offices, an insurance office, a Curves exercise place, a vision clinic, a toy store, an Edward Jones Investments office, etc etc. My point to all this is that most everyone who lives in Lake Forest Park (the town we have just moved to) frequents this ‘mall’ for errands, for check-ups, for shopping, for dry cleaning, for groceries, for a cup of coffee after a walk on the trail on Saturday morning, for an ice cream cone on summer days. You name it. And back to my point. My point is that every time I go there, I see someone I know. And I’m not exaggerating. EVERY time. And usually I see more than one person I know. And usually I see several friends. Or I cross the path of someone I haven’t seen in years. Or my dental hygenist. Or my 7th grade English teacher. And it is so fun, and I really love it. And it just makes me so happy to have moved back here, to this place that really, truly feels so much like home and like the community I want to be in and want to raise my kids in. And it also reminds me that I can never run to the grocery store in old sweats and messy hair, because I will surely run into an old high school crush who is now 30 with an shrinking hairline.
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