This week started GREAT, it was sunny, it was warm, trees blooming everywhere...


And then yesterday it SNOWS!


What the hell!? COME BACK SPRING! Whatever I did that may have hurt your feelings, I take it back!

YEAH BREAD!

I admit I'm a little out of control. But it's so DELICIOUS! FUN! EASY! CHEAP! to make your own bread!

This one is called Irish Soda Bread, and the recipe came from HERE, sooo good!


Comes out looking small, but it goes a long way because it's a more dense bread and allows you to cut in thinner slices. You bake it in a SKILLET! I baked it for 22 minutes instead of 15, and added some sugar and cinnamon.


And this one, is the same as THIS ONE, but this time I sifted the flour after measuring, resulting in more flour. I was curious as to what would happen, and look! It grew way higher than the dish. I also added only one spoon of melted margarine in the end because last time I felt it was too moist. Isn't it beeaauuutiful??


This one seems to be Brock's favorite so far! And I'm glad I made those changes because I think it's better than the first. The crust is SO good.

Hi Folks,

I'm posting the last few pix from when my inlaws were here. Obvy, the first few are from the Space Needle!







The park has a bunch of cool statues scattered about.


When I see this one I think, God just had her nails done and is picking Brock's brain. Maybe he had an itch? His plate needed tuning?


Then, they left, and the skies said POO! I will throw ice at you!
And it hailed, about 2 hours after they drove off.

Two words: Selsun. Blue.

Picking the hail off his back


No puppy, they're not coming right back.
:(

In the past few days the oven and I have become very closely acquainted. These are some of the yummy things that the thing's been spitting out onto our dinner table lately. There were other dishes but we ate them before we thought of the camera!

I've only had Shepherd's Pie once and I can't really remember the taste, but this thing came out delicious! Here's the recipe, which I derived from a few I found online and I adapted to what I already had in the kitchen:

SHEPHERDS PIE

• 3 potatoes
• Melting cheese for mash and to sprinkle on top
• Milk
  
• Green onions
• ¼ - ½ onion, cubed, large chunks
• Butter or Margarine
• 1 lb ground beef
• Flour
• 1 bullion beef stock
• Ketchup
• Frozen green peas
• 1 can of corn

Peel and dice potatoes in 2cm cubes so they cook faster. Put them in a large pot and cover them with water. Salt the water and boil over high heat until the edges start to come apart to the touch. Transfer potatoes to a bowl and combine with cheese, about 1 Tbsp of butter, and mash with enough milk to make it soft. Add cut green onions and salt and pepper to taste.

In the meantime, dissolve a beef bullion in 2 cups of boiling water. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 375º F

In a large skillet, on medium high heat, melt about 1 Tbsp of butter and spray some cooking oil. Stir in diced onions and cook till translucent. Add ground beef and break apart so there are no large chunks. When beef is nearly all brown, add a couple of Tbsps of flour and stir. Stir in, little by little, half of beef stock. Lower to medium heat and let it thicken for a couple minutes. Finish off with a squeeze of Ketchup, salt, pepper to taste.

Transfer to deep baking dish. Sprinkle frozen peas and the drained canned corn. Add layer of mashed potatoes. Sprinkle with more melting cheese (Parmesan/ cheddar/ mozzarella)

Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes or until top is golden brown.

For gravy, melt a Tbsp of butter in a small sauce pan, add a Tbsp of flour and stir to form a paste. Little by little and stirring constantly, add remaining beef stock and cook over medium heat until thickened.

VOILA! EEESY!

Seatlle Inlaws Trip, Part Four!

This is a funny one. Nancy had the great idea to take the ferry across the sound to Bainbridge, while Brock and Denny went to a car museum in Tacoma. We had a fun, sunny day. Rode the ferry, drove around Bainbridge's neighborhoods and walked around the shops. Had sinfully rich pastries and bought some yarn and beads. BUT. We only remembered we had our cameras while on the ferry on the way there and back. So here are a whole lot of pictures of the ferry rides!

Enjoy!

At Pier 52, waiting for the ferry:

Driving into the ferry!

Parking in the ferry!

The front/back of the ferry!

Nancy, taking a picture of me!

Me! taking a picture of Nancy!

Seattle skyline in the still foggy morning:

Nancy said, do something Titanic-ee. In my mind I thought, no way I'm doing the "I'm the king of the world" bit, so I did a salute instead!

The cranes! from the other side!

THIS IS THE ONLY PICTURE TAKEN WHILE ON BAINBRIDGE, GETTING OFF THE FERRY:

In here would have gone pictures of the town, the shops and the pier. Oh well.

Ferry! on the way back! To be fair, it was a different Ferry.

The skies where a lot clearer and the skyline looked way better:

Awesome!


My attempt at being artsy. Fail?

On the way back, our car was FIRST in line!

So if you ever wondered what it's like to ride a ferry, now you know.

And for good measure, THE INCREASINGLY FLUFFY PUP!

The 3rd installment in the highly acclaimed and much anticipated saga "The Suters drive around Seattle and see things".

These are pictures of when we went to the Museum of Flight. Which was AWESOME! And I'm not that big into planes to begin with. This place really has some amazing exhibits and we had a great time here.


This is the lunar rover thing. The wheels are MESH. Oh how cool would it have been to touch it! But I didn't.

Ok, this is a module like the ones that get connected to the International Space Station. See HERE. It was so cool in there I totally spaced it (get it?) and didn't take any pictures. I actually got very emotional, they have a window with video of what it's like to see the Earth from up there and I lost it. Fun fact: They can fit 2 of these in the Space Shuttle.

Brock sitting in an SR71. Blackbird. Or so he says.

This is the "Great Gallery".


Here Brock and I were attempting, and failing, to space walk. Brock ran out of fuel and I crashed into some extremely expensive space equipment. We are SO fired!

Resting the feets!

Oh, ok, this thing is SpaceShipOne. I didn't see it when we were there, Dennis took this picture. I would have LOVED to see it and I kick myself for missing it. It's the first ever privately funded ship to bring a human up into space. In 2004 it won the X Prize for reaching an altitude of 100kms and a bunch of other really important firsts. Brock and I followed it closely back then and it was really exciting stuff. I think Virgin bought it and they'll use the technology to start private spacetravel. Yeah. Oh, to be rich and powerful.

They have a Concorde and an Air Force One

The famous Hairways Concorde.

Inside Air Force One. JFK flew in this one. They don't let you sit here.

Some very important people peed in this bathroom.

The Suters!!

A beautiful exhibit of WWII planes. The upstairs was all WWI.

About to pee my pants because this fake hot air balloon basket thing was really high and ree-heeealy shaky.

In the "Red Barn Building" which I believe was the Boeing's first headquarters.

A map of old Seattle. We found out that where we live used to be called Dungland or something. I wonder why they changed the name...

Big airplane part thingie.

Edumacation is fun!


Yay! End Batch III!