kaia inside

I have been kinda down lately, so for a nice cheer up Jersey and I wanted to see our daughter today. I booked a 4D ultrasound at Pregnancy Journal. It was so wonderful to actually see little Kaia's face. Now I don't feel I am giving birth to a dragon!

She's so cute. We both think she's going to look like me. She's got my lips and nose so far!

This is her in the yoga pose Padahastasana, hand to foot!

vashon

Since we moved to Seattle I have been aching to go to Vashon Island. I read that the farms there are organic, even though they aren't certified. I got back from work in San Francisco this week and decided to take the ferry over. Jersey and I haven't taken a car ferry since we were kids so we woke up early all giddy!

We drove into town and got to the Farmer's Market on time to get my knives sharpen (finally!), had some soup, and bought some amazing melons and fall squashes.


The main reason I wanted to check out Vashon Island was for Sea Breeze Farm. I read that they had the most amazing meats, dairy, and eggs. You can also purchase and eat there. By serendipity we ran across their brand new retail cafe off the beaten path.

They were serving lunch. Jersey had the ham and biscuit and I had the chicken and dumplings.


I can't tell you how amazing both dishes were. I devoured most of Jersey's collard greens. They both tasted better than any of my southern relatives' recipes! I love the hint of vinegar on the collard greens, not overwhelming like you normally have at a lot of places, enough to brighten that natural collard green flavor. The biscuit was light and flaky. I didn't investigate too much of the ham, as it wasn't my dish, but it tasted salted enough but wasn't tough at all. My chicken was full of flavor and the dumplings were at that right consistency of tender and not mushy or too hard. We bought a few things at the counter, including duck eggs! I can't wait to bake with them this week. Another shiny item we got was their cheese. I should have bought a whole wheel! It was delicious and salty. We ate the whole thing when we got home!

I gotta tell you, this place is my FAVORITE place in all of Seattle. I am hoping to visit at least once a month.

After lunch we headed back to the car to drive around the island. I jumped back to the farmer's market to pick up a caramel apple. Not only was the apple delicious (grown right on the island), but the person who made them was clever enough to use an apple branch as the stick!

We drove around and found the coolest thing! A SkatePark! What a great place to live and raise a family. You got the beauty of the island, the great produce and a place to rip it up after school (or work!)

healthy snacks

We made some health snacks at Binko's. Persimmon tarts and pumpkin pudding. Another student brought in cream cheese bread. Yet again I forgot my tri pod, so most of the pictures came out really bad due to the lighting. I will recreate the recipe at home soon! At Binko's we used Kombacha for the pudding, but for my recipe I will use some french pumpkins.

mushbrella

Just think, ants use these to cover from the rain.

happy big eight clara

Today was Clara's birthday party. Karen arranged a cool and culinary educated party at Eat Local. A sushi chef came and taught the girls how to make California rolls.


The adults got to try too, mine was oishii!

The lovely antics of Jersey makes everyone laugh.

Happy Birthday Clara! I hope you like your Barack Obama birthday card! Thanks Karen for inviting us!

bagelmania

I got some really good rest last night. It's been a while. I woke up so refreshed, that I decided to make bagels! I used the recipe in Nigella Lawson's "How to be a Domestic Goddess." I found that the recipe tends to make my mixer stand do a lot of work and I didn't get quite the look I wanted for the bagels. Next time, I am going to reduce it in half.

It takes a while to make them, but I found that my bagels, even though they weren't uniformly pretty, tasted amazing.

I made simple cheese scrambles to accompanied the bagel.

last day farmers' market

Today was the last day of the Queen Anne Farmer's Market. I put on my raincoat and wellies and headed two blocks down the hill. I didn't get much, just eggs, corn, and tamales. I wanted to get some winter squashes, but there wasn't a ton of organic ones that caught my eye.



There is a cute community garden near there as well. You can pick the lettuces, tomatoes, and herbs right off the plants.

These are the roses in my backyard.