Shitake!

So happy to have received my first delivery from Terra Organics. I was so bored with buying the same old vegetables from the store, and was hoping Terra would help broaden my veggie world. They did! First box had red dandelion greens, parsnips, brussel sprouts, apples, pears, curly parsley, and Shitake mushrooms -- AND they provide recipes!

Okay, I have to say I'm not a fan of Shitake mushrooms but I did promise myself that I would try everything in the box so tonight I cooked the mushrooms. Terra included a recipe for mushroom fettuccine but that didn't sound good. I found a recipe from vegetariantimes.com (love them!) for a mushroom ravioli using won ton wrappers. I thought if I have to buy won ton wrappers, I might as well just make veggie gyozas so that's what we had: Vegetarian Gyozas with Edamame Succotash, yum! This recipe will probably make about 24 gyozas. I cooked 12 tonight, and froze the remainder (place uncooked gyozas on a paper covered plate and cover lightly with plastic wrap. Keep on plate until frozen through, and then transfer to freezer bag).

If you're wondering if Japanese food is hard to cook it's not. It is time consuming to prepare so make sure you give yourself enough time for the prep:

Vegetarian Gyozas: (serves 2 to 4)

1/2 small Napa Cabbage (Savoy works too) cored and thinly sliced

1 large carrot shredded

4-5 fresh shitake mushrooms cored and finely diced

3 sliced green onions (white and light green part only)

1 clove garlic minced

1/4 cup soy sauce

2 Tbsp canola oil

2 Tbsp water

1/8 tsp cayenne (or to taste)

2 sliced green onions reserved for garnish

Prepare veggies and combine with sauce, cover and marinate in fridge for 1-2 hours (you can also add finely diced Tofu, but make sure to use the extra firm). Drain vegetable mixture before filling wrappers. The leftover filling makes a great salad, and is good over rice too. Heat 1 Tbsp canola oil in frying pan, and cook gyoza till brown on bottom (about 3-4 minutes). Add 1/4 cup water, and cover pan for 3-4 minutes or until gyoza is tender. Set aside on plate.

Edamame Succotash:

1 cup frozen shelled edamame

1 cup frozen corn

1 seeded and diced red bell pepper

Wipe water from frying pan. Add 1 Tbsp canola oil, and saute veggies for about five minutes until crisp/tender. Return gyoza to pan to warm, toss with veggies and plate. Sprinkle with reserved green onions.

Brunch with the Boys

Paul and I rarely get up to Seattle, but when we do we like to get together with the boys. We started out with coffee at Top Pot in Capitol Hill, took a nice stroll around the neighborhood and ended up at Volunteer Park Cafe for lunch. The cafe was awesome, kind of a cross b

etween Antiques and Rosewood. It's just the kind of place I'd like to have if I ever owned a cafe, snuggled in a residential area where patrons walked, biked, or drove by for a bite. They serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and are right outside of Volunteer Park with the arboretum and Asian Art Museum which was our next stop. There was an exhibit of Japanese motifs that I was hoping to see, but unfortunately it was closed so they could set up for the next showing of Japanese woodblock prints in April. Oh, poor me -- I guess I'll have to make another trip out to Capitol Hill, and I suppose I could force myself to have another bite at the cafe.

REI Flagship Store

My feet are in sad shape. Suffice it to say that in my youth I did not heed my doctor's advice and continued to spend all day in high heeled shoes that were great to look at but not great for my feet. Fast forward 20 years and I am now trying to find shoes somewhere between stylish, affordable and orthopedic -- not an easy find let me tell you. A friend recommended Keen shoes which are available at REI but Tacoma's store has a limited supply so off we went today to their flagship store in Seattle. Have you seen that place? Forget about availability of merchandise, the surroundings are fantastic! There's a bike trail if you want to try out your bike, a hiking trail, a waterfall, stone steps -- hard to believe we were in downtown Seattle. Anyway, I found my shoes but I'm more excited to go back and look in their "garage" department for gently used returned merchandise to see if I can find any bargains. And I might pack a picnic lunch too!

Day Trip: Southeast Portland

I know, I know, it's been a while since I've written anything, but I have been busy. Let's see, Paul and I have been experimenting cooking with fish, I've learned how to play Texas Hold 'Em, hosted a party at the house, finished the tiles for a public art project that should be installed by the summer, all things I could have blogged about but I didn't so get over it.

It was a beautiful day so we decided to visit Lisa in Portland (and we got to meet her friend Hannah). Lisa is moving with Hannah this summer from N Portland (so close to the NE area which I LOVE) to SE Portland (which I plan to grow to LOVE).

I love Portland for so many reasons: The Tin Shed, Nicholas Restaurant , their Japanese Garden, and Farmers Market, great parks, public transportation, artists' markets, and bike-ability, and now I have a few more favorites to add to the list.


After we dropped off Hannah we went to Lisa's favorite resale shop Rerun on NE Freemonth where I paid a little too much for a ceramic planter and metal bell. We found another shop on SE Division and 34th, Village Merchants on SE Division & 34th . VM had a ton of cute knick-knacks, and they also sold children's linen in the same car pattern Kevin had on his kiddy-bed (awwww).
And where else but in Portland can you get a fabulous meal at a grocery store deli? I am so in love with New Seasons Market. Spendy, yes, but I would love to have one in Tacoma.




Paul discovered an art walk in SE Portland. It was a mixture of value priced street art, to over priced bad art, and artist studio tour where the fantastic art was displayed.

We topped the day off with a great cup of coffee at Random Order Coffeehouse and Bakery. They have an awesome selection of sweet and savory pies that I managed to resist. Another reason for a visit to Portland.

Recycled Wrapping

I love White Elephant parties, and I'm so excited to be attending one tonight. Our instructions were to wrap our present, but not in holiday paper as this was not a Christmas party. A White Elephant present is a wonderful way of recycling (or re-gifting) unwanted presents, and I thought the wrapping should follow the recycling theme. So here's my idea on recycled wrapping paper:
For my present I taped a page from a coloring book on the sliding glass door (my answer to a light table), taped the paper over top, and outlined with a sharpie pen. Then I wrapped the present, used some old unwanted yarn to crochet a ribbon, and tied it around a box of crayons that was part of a promotional hand out I got this summer.
For Paul's present I used the same ironed out craft paper, and attached some unwanted practice pieces (leftover from my attempt to learn how to crochet flowers) to the chain ribbon I crocheted, and ta-da!

A day to remember

Yesterday Heather and I joined hundreds if not thousands of citizens to line South Tacoma Way to pay our respects as the bodies of the four slain Lakewood police officers were driven to the Tacoma Dome for their memorial service. We stood for over three hours before reluctantly we had to leave, and the processional went on for another hour after we left. So much to take in -- the numerous police agencies from California, Oregon, Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, and Minnesota to name a few. There were representatives from the Indian Nations of Puyallup, Menominee (Wisconsin), and Tulalip. The DEA, Department of Corrections, US Customs, and Homeland Security along with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

It was a sad day, knowing that four families had to formally, and publicly say goodbye to their loved ones. It was a proud day to see how the community rallied behind the police. It was a humbling day to see the national and international support of the four fallen officers, their families and fellow police officers. And it was an experience I hope to never again witness.

Craft Fairs and Fundraisers

Today I went to the Tidefest in Gig Harbor, a fundraiser for their high school. Several people I know had booths at the event, so it was fun visiting with them as I did a bit of Christmas shopping. As always, my tour started with my friend Charan, but it was nice to see Mark Hudak, Dan Barnett, Ron Carson, and Susan Thompson -- potters all. There was a wonderful mix of painters, sculptors, woodworking, textiles, and crafts.

Afterwards I went to Bridgefest, a yearly event for the N. 21st Street Business District. Sonja added a fundraiser and silent auction with all proceeds going to the families of the four Lakewood police officers who were killed in an ambush last week. I had fun purchasing some chocolates and buying a T-shirt. KIRO TV was there interviewing Sonja, and unbeknownst to me took footage of me selecting chocolates which was aired on the 5:00 o'clock news. Ooh! I'm famous!

Lucky for me I ran into Rick and Heather at Sonja's so I had good company as I looked through the shops. Then we stopped at Upper Crust where I ordered some lunch to bring back to Paul. Rick and Heather split the special of the day: Chicken and Dumpling Soup -- all you could eat! Of course we couldn't pass up sampling their wine flight while we were there. What a fun way to spend the day.

Busy Day

Thursday I drove my mom to the airport to see my nephew Billy and his wife Sarah off on their new adventure -- a three year contract with Boeing in Hungary! I marvelled at Sarah's cool as she negotiated with the counter agents who seemed bent on keeping their pets from making the trip. Luckily all was settled in the end, and Billy, Sarah, and their two dogs and two cats are now happily settled in Hungary.

Then I dropped my mom off in Puyallup, drove into Tacoma, and off I went with my friend Jennevieve to Seattle. Jennevieve had a meeting with a private school to learn about a art project for an upcoming fundraiser. If her bid is selected she's offered to hire me as a contractor on the job (wow!). Anyway, we spent the afternoon collecting information on the project, and doing a walkaround, taking pictures of the project space. Wish us good luck!

Wheat Meat

My friend Brenda and her husband Brian are vegans, and she invited me over one day to learn how to make Seitan (or wheat meat as it's commonly called). I was happy to accept even though I'm not a vegan. I am also not a big meat eater so I enjoy finding meat subsitutes whenever I can. It was a very interesting process: wheat gluten, nutritional yeast, all sorts of spices and vegetable stock kneaded together into a dough that's cut into balls and then simmered in vegetable stock -- pretty delicious stuff. I wish I could say I made all sorts of delicious recipes from my share of the day's work, but honestly I just sliced it up and made sandwiches -- yum! Anyway, I have a standing invitation to come back anytime to make more. Soon as the holiday rush is over I plan on taking advantage of that offer.

The best part were the vegan cupcakes that Brenda had made for us to snack on!

Paying My Respects

My conscience wouldn't leave me alone. It had been urging me since Sunday to go to the Lakewood Police Department to pay my respects. The entrance to the police station looked just like it did on TV. I grabbed the flowers that I had brought, and walked over to the corner. People were quietly milling around to look at the flowers, candles, balloons and stuffed animals. Every once in a while an officer would be embraced, and condolences given. I laid my flowers down without the card I had purchased -- I just couldn't come up with the right words. I put the bouquet down right next to a drawing done by two school aged girls -- I would guess third or fourth grade by the writing. It was a picture of four headstones with RIP across each one. The grass was colored green, the sky blue, and above the picture three sentences written:

I'm sorry that you're dead. I'm sorry you were gunned down. I'm sorry that you're not here.

I couldn't have said it better myself.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Yesterday was my birthday, and what a lovely day I had. Paul took the day off and it's a treat when I get to spend the whole day with him.

The day started with a delicious breakfast prepared by Paul.

Next we were off to Clay Art Center to investigate whether to repair and update my kiln or buy a new one, and I got to pick up a couple new tools to play with.

Afterwards Paul and I stopped at the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber for a brown-bag lunch and discussion on "Transportation in Tacoma for the 21st Century". Then it was back to the house to pick up Kevin. The two of us went to to see "The Men Who Stare at Goats".

We returned home just long enough to unwrap some presents, and then we were off for dinner at one of my favorite places, Europa Bistro.

It was quite a while before we were seated (oops, should have made reservations) but the owner kindly offered us a glass of Sangiovese while we waited. Dinner was fantastic and we finished it off with a slice of heaven in the form of cake (courtesy of our wonderful waiter).

There was another cake waiting for us at home so off we went. We did a little song, I blew out the candle, we somehow managed to eat a teenie-weenie slice of cake, and then I was ready for bed. Thanks to Kevin and Paul for putting it together, and to all my friends for their good wishes. What a wonderful day!

Tin Shed Love

Monday Kevin and I gave Lisa a ride home to Portland, and that gave me a good excuse to introduce Kevin to my favorite place to eat, Tin Shed. Kevin didn't look too excited to be eating outside in rainy November, but I assured him the patio was enclosed and there would be overhead heaters to keep us warm. We had a good visit waiting for our food to arrive, and then kept our attention to more important matters until our plates were clean.

Studio Tours, 2009

November is Art at Work month in Tacoma, and the Studio Tours are easily my favorite event. Unfortunately this year presented the same problem I have every year -- how to get to all the studios I want to visit. This year we were on a very limited schedule so we were able to stay longer at each studio.

First we went to see Claudia Riedener at Ixia Tile Tacoma. She had a wonderful display of her tiles, and an activity area where people could carve their own tiles. Kevin decided to carve house numbers. It'll be fun to see how they tur

n out. I spent quite a bit of time in the yard visiting all my old heads. See there was this project about five years ago, and I lent my face to be cast, and I made the mistake of giving the cast to Claudia so my image has made it's way on top of mermaids, concrete heads laying around her garden, clay images on the side of pots, etc. It's creepy and funny all at the same time. I also discovered that one of Claudia's tiles are in the book 500 Tiles. Pretty impressive!

Next stop was to see Jennevieve Schlemmer a painter/mosaic artist/sculptor/ public artist. Her studio was filled with many examples of her work, but I was drawn to the make a pet rock station where I admit I probably had more fun than the kids. Jennevieve just started a new business on Etsy, Raven meets Crow, animal art with an urban touch, and her inventory is expanding every day.

After my fingers dried we were off to see Brenda Groboski. Brenda is a fiber artist who spins and dies her own yarn using materials from wool to dog hair, and she has TWO shops on Etsy, Afghan Artistry, and Naturally Spun, and a blog. Her husband Brian had some paintings on display also.

Our last stop was to see Bill Colby, a master print maker and a really funny guy. By the time we reached his studio there was only about 20 minutes left till closing so it was a bit of a rush. I was so interested in what Bill was saying I forgot to take pictures. He was a Professor of Art at UPS for over 30 years, has been included in Who's Who in America, and has work spanning almost 50 years. Really impressive man.