Pigs in a blanket.

The dogs decided to help me change the sheets on the bed.  They are such good helper dogs!

Ice Cream

I've been on an ice cream kick lately.   Unfortunately that means eating it and not making it.  Might explain why my pants are a bit snug.  I picked up some beautiful pears at the store the other day and went in search of something to make.  I landed on Pear Ice cream by David Lebovitz.  He's one of my all time favorite chefs so I assumed it would be good.  It took me 3 days.  First day I made it and put it in the ice cream maker but...  it never froze up.  I let the maker run for 30 minutes.  Weird.  I decided I had not cooled down the custard enough before pouring it so I put the maker back in the freezer and refrigerated the custard again.  next day, I tried again.  Still it would not harden up.  I couldn't figure it out.  Then suddenly I remembered that the ice cream I've been eating never seems very hard.  It is always super soft and creamy.  I went and checked the temperature on my freezer and sure enough, it was set at the highest temperature.  Nothing was actually freezing all the way in there.  I'm surprised I haven't died from eating poorly frozen food.  (Not sure what I would die from but I'm sure there is some kind of bacteria growing.)  I re-set my freezer and put the maker back in.  Next day, I tried one more time.  This time it did freeze up but not super solid.  After all that work, I thought the ice cream was just okay.  It taste very fresh but didn't satisfy my taste buds.  At least I fixed the freezer :)

Fall in Seattle

Last weekend I got invited to an Apple Press party.  My cube mate, Patrice, held it at her house in Tacoma.   I picked up Kimberly and we drove down there mid day on Sunday.  Tacoma looks nice.  Patrice's neighborhood was adorable and reminded me of the East coast.  The house are all older and look a little like New England homes with big yards in the front.  Patrice had buckets of apples from her 2 trees in the backyard.  Her brother and several other friends were there and together we cut, pressed and strained apple juice for hours.  We ate German potato salad, macaroni salad, veggies and Bratwurst.  Kids were carving pumpkins and dogs were running around.  It was fun and very fall like.

I made an old fashioned Apple cake.  It was pretty good.  Very dense and moist.  It would probably be good served warmed with a scoop of ice cream.
Really nice day and fun to be outside.  Fall is here.  I'm worried it will be gone too fast.  High temp today...  48!

Rainy day

It's a rainy Saturday.  Not that unusual for Seattle.  I plan to clean, bake and watch bad TV.  The perfect Saturday.
Last weekend I made a lemon pound cake.  It turned out pretty good.  I made it because my cube mate, Patrice, loves lemon pound cake and she was such a big help for my meeting.  I wanted to say Thank you.  She invited Kimberly and myself to her house this weekend for an Apple crushing party.  Homemade Apple cider!  I am baking an Apple cake.

Here is the lemon cake photo and a beautiful cup of coffee I got from the cafe downstairs. (Yes... occasionally I do drink coffee places besides Starbucks.)  I'll post photo's from the Apple party tomorrow.

New start

My Meeting is over!  For the past 8 weeks I've been working non-stop on a large meeting for 350 field partners.  I happened last week and went very well.  All the hard work paid off.  I can now get back to my blog, facebook and other time wasting activities.  This weekend I've been in pajamas and have barely left the apartment. 
The international cooking dropped off a bit.  I was eating out so  much over the past 3 weeks that I feel gross and fat!  I think I ate more fast food in 3 weeks then I've eaten in a year. 

This weekend I fixed some nice fall dishes since it is 50 degrees outside and the leaves have all turned. The vegetable Galette has beets, sweet potatoes and Butternut squash.  3 of my favorite things in the whole world!  The apple salad is apple, avocado, blue cheese and pomegranate seeds.  Delicious.    

Autumn Vegetable Galette

I'll bet back to the international stuff soon... I promise. 

Apple salad