Another great Slow Bowl Party

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Vineyard

Wow! What a great weekend. I just got back from a wonderful time in Paso Robles. You know how sometimes when you repeat a party or revisit a city, that it doesn’t live up to the original time or memories. The 2nd Slow Bowl was just as much fun as the first one.

I enjoyed the wineries that we visited this weekend better than last time. We made a repeat visit to Castoro. They have great wines at a reasonable price. We also had a great picnic spread.

The next winery was Tablas Creek. I really wanted to visit this winery because I love Rhone wines and wines made by the Perrin Family. The wines were very good but they definitely need a bit of aging.

Yesterday we visited Justin which is gorgeous. Their wines are more in the Bordeaux style. I had tried several of these last year but I really like them this year. I didn’t bring any back but I’m going to try to pick up a few more here. I really loved the Sauvignon Blanc. I didn’t think Sauvignon Blanc was a good varietal for the area. I think of it as more of a cooler grape but they do an excellent job.

Justin also has a great restaurant and a lovely B&B. It would make a great retreat.

Starz

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funny pictures

Do you ever see a picture that touches something deep in you? This one does it for me.

I sent the Lolcats website to a fellow cat fan. I was surprised she hadn’t seen it before since it has gotten so much publicity this year. I check it from time to time but she is now a daily fan. She found this post and is using it for her desktop. I saw it the other day when I passed her office and just said Wow!

National Wear Red Day

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Today is the day for women to wear red. Not for a red hat day but to remind women of the dangers of heart disease for women. How many of us know of women in our lives who is affected by heart disease. It is a serious factor in my family; much more than breast cancer.

Heart disease and other circulatory diseases run in my family. My father and grandfather both had it. My grandfather died from it and my father had multiple bypass surgery twice.

But it doesn’t just affect the men in my family; it also has affected the women. My mother had a stroke which incapacitated her both mentally and physically for the last 6 years of her life. It was a result of high blood pressure and other factors. My sister has also been treated for heart disease.

I watch my blood pressure. I try to keep my weight down. I need to exercise more.

But we all need to watch for signs and take heart health serious. Let today’s red dress be a reminder that heart disease is the number one killer of women and we can do much to prevent it.

Off to Slow Bowl

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This weekend is the second annual Slow Bowl. This is a Slow Travel Get Together. We had our first GTG last year and it was great fun. We are renting a large house in Paso Robles where we will be hosting dinners and gathering. On Saturday, we will do some winetasting and have the main dinner. Sunday will be a bit more winetasting and of course the Super Bowl. Check out last years photos.

I’m really looking forward to seeing old friends and meeting some members for the first time. I hope the weather is good.

I’m also going to try to blog daily for the month of February. A group of bloggers from Slow Travel are going to give it a try. Maybe it will get me in a good habit. I will be away for the weekend but I have a couple of post scheduled for the next few days to get me going with the group.

Snowy Day

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I guess I didn’t believe the forecasters. Weather forecasts here in Seattle are pretty unreliable. It was below freezing last week but sunny. It was great to see the sun even if it came with a frost bite. Sunday was cold but the sun was out for the afternoon. I did notice a difference late in the afternoon but it didn’t feel exactly like snow. But the forecast was for snow. Not a flake by time I went to bed on Sunday.

I woke up to NPR and the local reporters were talking about the spin outs near Alderwood Mall. Sigh. I really didn’t want to have to deal with snow. I looked out the window and there was a good 4-5 inches in my neighborhood.

I decided to bus to work. I usually drive up to the Shoreline Park and Ride and catch the bus from there. We had about 4-5 inches but the temperature was just at freezing so it was slushy. It wasn’t to bad of a drive and the traffic was light. The direct bus to downtown arrived right after I got there. I almost got on it but decided to wait for the local run which gets me closer to my office.

Bad move. It turns out that none of the buses were making it to the Park and Ride. I waited about a hour before deciding to go ahead and drive in. The snow wasn’t that bad as I got closer to downtown Seattle. It ended up an easy drive.

And wouldn’t you know it; I passed three buses! It turns out they didn’t go down to the park and ride. Next time I’ll catch it at Aurora Village.

Yellow Thai Curry

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Yellow Thai Curry

I love Thai food. It is my favorite next to Mexican. I shied away from cooking it at home for a long time. The ingredients looked too exotic and I thought it would be difficult. Fine Cooking Magazine had a great section on stir frying rice noodles a year ago. It was a great introduction to SE Asian cooking. My favorite dish is Pad Thai. I’ve tried a couple of different recipes and I want to try it with tamarind paste. I’m going to try Pim’s recipe soon.

I’ve also becoming interested in Thai curry. I used to eat at the Mandalay Cafe in Seattle. They had an awesome Burmese curry. But alas, they have closed. I came across a Goan Fish Stew from Food and Wine. It is quite tasty and easy to make on a work night. I have used both tilapia and shrimp.

I did not realize how easy it is to make a curry. Ms Glaze had a very interesting looking Yellow Thai Curry on her blog. The ingredients looked just right so I gave it a try tonight.

First a quick trip to my local market which has a good supply of Asian food – Shoreline Central Market. I love to go there and search through the shelves for ingredients. I knew they carried lime leaves, thai basil, galangal, and fresh lemongrass. Unfortunately, I didn’t know what shrimp paste looked like. I did find a jar but I was a turned off by the plastic purple color on the jar. I should have got it. It was what I needed. I ended up having to substitute anchovy paste.

It was very easy to make. I used a food processor to grind the ingredients for the paste. The aroma of the paste frying brought my hubby into the kitchen. I can not find langoustines here in the NW so I used local rock shrimp and squid. The squid was really good in this curry. I’ll make this one again.

By the way, it goes great with a NW Riesling.

Planning a vegetable garden

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It has been several years since we have had a real vegetable garden and not a few tomato plants in pots. This year we are using the space G used for his nursery and we are going to put in a few raised beds.

G decided to use the tables he had for raised beds. These originally came from Ballard Market. They were used in the produce area for displaying potatoes, etc. They have been great tables for the past 10 years. But they are also good frames for small beds for vegetables. Just turn them over and cut off the legs.

We are going to have to lay them out on landscape cloth because that area has a bad case of horsetails. Hopefully the landscape cloth will keep them down a bit. As soon as the ground thaws a bit from our recent freeze, G will level the ground.

Now to decide what to plant.

Soon to be veggie garden

Soon to be veggie garden

Raised bed frames

Frames for the raised beds

The original tables

The former table

Seattle Arboretum

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Frosty leaves

It has been cold and frosty this past week. The lows have been getting down almost to 20 degrees. The low sun does not reach into the backyard and icicles are coming out of the ground. But usually the frost comes with brilliant clear days.

We took an opportunity on the clear sunny cold Friday to check out the winter garden in the arboretum. Last year we visited it at the end of February. But we heard the witch hazel was in bloom.

It was gorgeous. The sun had warmed a few spots and the fragrance of the witch hazel and daphne was intoxicating. Here are a few shots.

Witch Hazel

Frisky squirrel

Click through for a slide show at Flickr

Over my head

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But I found a life ring.

I started French last week. It turns out that there were not enough students who signed up for Beginning Intermediate so they decided to combine first and second level Intermediate. Ack! Everyone had been taking the class together and they were way beyond me. We had a test the first day and I knew very little. And my speaking fluency was just not up to the same level as the rest of the student.

I originally signed up for first level Intermediate because of the time of day. I typically work a 10 hour day (4 days a week). I didn’t really want to wait around for a class at 7pm. It is also too far for me to go home and go back. First level Intermediate was at 5:30pm which was good for me. But Second level was at 7pm. That makes for a long day.

Unfortunately, all the class options at 5:30 were early beginners. What to do?

The advance beginners was also at 7pm on Tuesday. And the instructor was the same one that I had in the summer and I liked her a lot. So my life ring is to move to Advanced Beginners. It turns out that they were actually studying at the beginning Intermediate and it is great. It feels a lot like the level of my class in France. But they are covering some grammar that is new to me. I’m still having problems expressing myself. I just can’t come up with anything but very simple sentences. But I will still have chance to study, listen and practice French. So for now, class is good.