Learning to cook: My New Year's Resolution

I graduated from high school and moved out on my own at 17. I was a responsible teenager, had a full time job, paid my bills, and cooked for myself. I could scramble eggs and make pancakes for a weekend brunch. I ate filling lunches by heating Campbell's soup and grilling a cheese sandwich. When I tired of Kraft Mac N Cheese and Hamburger Helper I moved onto more gourmet meals like Tater Tot Casserole for dinner, and so I survived. After a year or so it occurred to me: I didn't know how to cook, and that I really wasn't comfortable in the kitchen something I'm sure I inherited from my mom.

I don't think my mom is comfortable in her cooking skills. Even now after preparing our family recipe for spaghetti for almost 50 years she still pulls out the recipe card to check measurements and ingredients. We never really cooked together since she discouraged anyone being in the kitchen with her which, in her defense, was a very cramped space. Mostly I learned to cook by following recipes, or cooking with my dad, who never followed a recipe. His specialty (besides getting every pot and pan dirty) was leftover soup where we'd open up the fridge, pull out whatever caught our eye and made soup with it. Since then I've always been jealous of people who can create tasty simple food effortlessly with no thought of a recipe or measuring. Maybe it's just my perception that people can cook that way, although I have seen a few pull a wonderful meal seemingly out of the air. Over the years I've tried that magical style of cooking, and have most often failed (which my longtime friends can unfortunately attest).

My cooking skills have improved dramatically since marrying Paul, and I love to see my old friends shocked looks as they exclaim, "This is good! You made this?" when they've come for dinner. I'm addicted to cooking shows and love to try new recipes but have never reached the level of intuitive cooking I've so longed for, and lately I rarely cook for anyone besides my husband and son. I test things out on them all the time, but despite their reassurances I'm rarely satisfied with the results. On the other hand, I hate to cook for anyone else. I get easily flustered, and still cannot plan a meal where all the components are ready at the same time. So I decided to go to culinary school -- until I saw how much it cost. I mean, come on! It's not like I want to do this for a living (although I still fantasize about owning my own little neighborhood cafe), I just want to cook well, and feel confident in my skills. So I've decided to learn how to cook the old fashioned way. That's right -- I've ordered Julia Child's Mastering French Cooking (the two volume set!). It's my Christmas present to myself, and since Amazon is still in the pre-ordering phase I probably won't see it until Christmas. I know it isn't an original idea, but I'm doing it anyway! I'm not promising to complete Volume One in a year, but I will post pictures and details about the experience!

Leftovers

I love to use little bowls when I cook. I cut, measure, and put everything in their own little bowl so they're all ready to go. I also like to pretend I'm on a cooking show so you'll usually find me talking to an imaginary camera person as I'm preparing the evening meal. I never said I was normal.

So tonight we're having vegetarian enchiladas. I have a ton of brown rice to use this week, a half of a red pepper and yellow onion -- sounds like enchiladas to me. I used to have a rocking recipe for enchilada sauce, but dang if I could find it so I just threw something together. Wasn't half bad if I say so myself!

Enchiladas Estoy Desperada

Enchilada Filling:

1 15 oz can pinto beans drained

2 cups (approx) cooked brown rice

1/2 small yellow onion diced

1/2 red bell pepper diced

1/2 cup shredded cheddar

1 tbsp vegetable oil

6 flour tortillas

Enchilada Sauce:

2-3 tbsp vegetable oil

1 tbsp flour

1 6 oz can tomato paste

3 tbsp chili powder

1 tsp Oregano

1 tsp Cumin

1/2 tsp salt

2 cups vegetable stock (or water)

Saute bell pepper and onion, cool and mix with rice and beans. Set aside.

Heat vegetable oil over medium heat, add flour. Cook for a minute or two stirring constantly.

Add Chili powder, Oregano and Cumin and cook for a minute or two stirring constantly.

Add tomato paste and cook for a minute or two stirring constantly. Add about a 1/2 cup stock/water to keep from burning.

Add remainder of stock/water and salt.

Bring to boil, reduce heat, and cook until thickened, about 10-15 minutes stirring occasionally.

Assemble enchiladas, top with sauce and cheese. Heat in 375 degree oven for 20-25 minutes.

Ta-dah!

Yes, I'm still alive!

September has really been a whirlwind -- I can't believe it's almost gone. Paul and I took a vacation smack dab in the middle of the month, and it seemed like we were gone for ages. We were actually only gone for eight days, but that's a long time away for us.

Anyway, first we went to Washington DC (well Fairfax, Virginia actually) to visit Paul's daughter Anne. She's moved there to pursue her nursing and to be closer to her boyfriend, John. It was a walking vacation, let me tell you. They have a great transit system, so we just hopped on a bus or a train, and then just walked, walked, walked. Paul's got the pictures on his computer. I'll add them eventually.

Next we were off to Minneapolis for a tile conference I was attending. The conference was fabulous, and I was surprised to see how well represented Washington State was. One of our instructors, Carol Rose Dean, lives on Vashon, and there were five other students from Western Washington. While I was in class Paul spent time with his brother Tom and family. Tom is the environmental writer for The Star Tribune, and had just returned from an assignment on the Isle Royal. Tom's wife Anne Landreman is an artist who also teaches art at Diamond Path Elementary, a school of international studies. They were great hosts, and we had lots of fun.

So we're happy to be home. I'm working on a project for the City of Tacoma, tile inserts for a concrete bulb-out on 6th Avenue. The project has been on hold for two years, but hopefully will go through this time. The construction portion is going out to bid this week so fingers crossed!

The Tacoma SIT IN

On a beautiful sunny thursday afternoon I along with approximately 40 others decended onto Tollefson Plaza at the request of Lance Kagey for a "flash mob" art project. You can read about the particulars here and here. Hope you enjoy the photos!

My chair and the finished result:

Lynn arrives ready for business!

The "Mob"

And The Results:

I heart my Dentist!

One of the perks being married to Paul is his wonderful dentist, Dr. Giesy. He's young (er than me!), accomplished (has won several awards, and also lectures around the country) and he puts up with my general fear and hatred of all things dental. In fact, it kind of amuses him. I'm just back from my twice yearly cleaning of my pearly yellows, and we had our usual chuckle over my desire to replace these sad old teeth with some snow white dentures. I guess after ten years I should just give up the fight.

So as I leave I stop to chat with Sherri and Sandy, make my next appointment, and Sherri hands me my reminder card (which I always lose) and says here's a little something for you from us to show you how much we enjoy you and your family. Now how sweet is that? Click here for contact info if you're looking for a really good dentist.

BJs Restaurant and Brewery

It was the brewery part that got my attention. I'm always on the lookout for breweries to take Paul, and there are plenty of them around here. BJs is beautifully decorated, and very comfortable with black leather(ette) seating, dark woods, granite, and slate. And they have a lot of employees circling around. There's the person who greets you, the person who seats you, the person who tells you your server will be with you shortly. Your server takes your order and you don't see her until she drops off the check. There's one person to drop off your food, and another person to take your plates away. Personally I'm always kind of exhausted when I leave a place like that.

The food was okay, not great, not good, just okay. Paul wasn't very impressed with their beer. He likes a hoppy beer, but didn't think their IPA was very good. He had a taster and said they pretty much all tasted the same. Maybe it's the Belgium style of brewing that he's not fond of, who knows? Anyway, happy hour appetizer, hamburger for me, giant chili baked potato for him, and our drinks came out to a smidge over $51.

I think we should have gone to the Hub.

Happy Freezer Stock-up Day!

Today was mostly cool and cloudy. Perfect day to stock up the freezer with some soups and sauces. I spent most of the morning chopping veggies, and stirring pots of lentil soup, pea soup, and spaghetti sauce. I use Barefoot Contessa's recipes for the soups. The spaghetti sauce recipe comes from my dad's memories of spaghetti he ate as a kid. He grew up in a predominately Italian neighborhood (well Sicilian to be exact) and he loved his spaghetti sauce dark and thick. I've posted the recipe if you're interested.

Bill's Spaghetti Sauce:
1 large yellow onion finely chopped
4 cloves of garlic minced
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp crushed dried rosemary
1 bay leaf
2 15 ounce cans tomato sauce, plus two cans of water
2 14.5 ounce cans diced tomatoes, plus two cans of water
1 6 ounce can tomato paste
1/4 cup (approximately) red wine vinegar. (Honestly I just pour and taste until I think there's enough.)

Add olive oil to pot until bottom is just covered.
Saute onions until smushy soft (almost a paste).
Add garlic and dried herbs and cook for about two minutes (add a little water if necessary to keep from scorching).
Add canned tomato products and water.
Add bay leaf
Stir in red wine vinegar.
Bring to boil, reduce heat, and simmer with lid ajar stirring occasionally until sauce is reduced by half (approximately 3-4 hours).

Tomorrow is clean the stove top day!

Summer Pottery Sale

For the third year Susan generously opened her house to several of her pottery pals for our very successful summer sale. (combined sales just over $3,200) Every year I promise myself I will make some new items, and every year I end up selling my old stock. I'll have to make some stuff eventually or else I won't be able to participate. I did all right this year (considering my very limited inventory) and have tucked the money away for an extruder I hope to buy next year. Here's some pictures:

Susan's packed dining room.

That's my table with the blue tablecloth.

And I had a few pieces on the second's table.

Charan chats with some customers.

The heart of the operation! Jill tallies up the sales, Kazumi wraps the purchases, and Susan keeps the music going.

Jill's Barney needs some loving.

I was surprised how sad I was to sell the very first mosaic I had made.

Time to relax!

Murano's Bite

I confess: Paul and I eat for our entertainment. Can you blame us? There really are quite a few good places in Tacoma to chose from. We were looking for some place new, and remembered hearing good things about Murano's Bite so off we went.

Now, I love a good Manhattan, and they are hard to find, let me tell you. Bartenders either forget about bitters and vermouth, or they dump in some juice from the marachino cherries, or (worse case scenario, and I'm talking to you McMenamins!) they add cherry liquor. The Bite's Manhattan was just right, cold, smokey, slightly sweet...um-um-ummmmmm. Paul ordered a Scotch, and was soon enjoying some Dewar's (evidently their house brand).

The food was good too. Not great, but good. Paul had Chicken Ceasar Salad, and I had their organic chicken something. Okay, okay, yes, obviously I liked my chicken, but I'm not convinced our dinner was worth the bill -- with drinks, dinner, and tip it was over $75.

That's a pretty fancy evening for us. I'm not sure we'll be back for dinner, but we couldn't help but be tempted by their lobby bar. Beautifully decorated and so inviting, maybe we'll go back with some friends for their Thursday night all night happy hour. Anyone interested?

A Dash to Portland

A glitch with Lisa's work study program, Paul writes an incorrect address on her rent check, a new car just itching for a road trip, and it's off to Portland to set things straight. I was going to take my son and his girlfriend along but those plans fell through at the last minute. Luckily for me Paul ended up taking the day off to keep me company. Neither one of us relished my taking the trip alone.

We arrived in Portland around 11:00 a.m., dropped off Lisa's rent check, and decided to grab some lunch at Por Que No?, a cute little restaurant in what used to be a garage for one of the many houses on busy Mississippi. Anne says it's her favorite place to eat.

Such a cute place.

Waiting for our lunch.

It's no myth. People in Portland love their bikes!

And the City provides them plenty of places to park them!

It was worth the wait!

The Mississippi area is a great place to explore. It's filled with shops, restaurants, bars, and public art. It's a little "grittier" than it's neighboring district to the north, NE Alberta, but like Alberta it's jammed full of business offices, residential housing, shops, restaurants, and drinking establishments.
There's a recycling store that's the same as any other you've seen, except for their front door. It was a community art project, and it's just amazing!
We didn't stay too long. We wanted to make sure we missed the rush hour traffic, and it was 96 degrees by 1:00 p.m. Who wants to walk around in that heat?

Day Trip Number One

Recently we took a road trip to McMinnville and Walla Walla which begged the question: why don't we do this more often? We figured we don't have to take a week-long vacation in order to see all sorts of wonderful things in the Pacific Northwest. We could take mini-vacations or day trips. So we asked some of our friends if you had a free day and felt the road calling your name where would you go? Yesterday Paul and I picked two of the suggestions (Paul added a twist by including the new Central Link from Tukwila to downtown Seattle), and we headed off for Day Trip Number One.

My brother Jim suggested: Seattle Waterfront. Aquarium, ice cream, see the mummy dude, do the arcade, lunch at Ivar's Chowder bar, dinner at Spaghetti Factory, maybe a run up to the Seattle Center or Westlake Mall. My friend Charan agreed saying: Recently I have been thinking about doing the whole Seattle thing. Downtown, water front, aquarium, pike place market. Paul's son Ben said: come visit the Ben's...see their beautiful new apt together and go out for lunch or dinner! Paul and I have been talking about the new link from Tukwila to Seattle, and thought why not combine them all and spend a day in Seattle?

The Link was so much fun. We drove to Tukwila, parked our car and headed for the train. It was a smooth ride, a little over a half hour and we had fun peeking out the windows -- especially at the cars that were stopped on I-5 in traffic jams. Sound Transit did a good job with all the stations, and I loved looking at all the public art. (I hope they do as good of a job with their extension from Tacoma to Lakewood.) We traveled all the way to Westlake Center (a round trip ticket from Tukwila to Westlake per person is $5 and good on buses outside of the downtown free zone). It was wonderful not to have to battle downtown traffic or deal with the parking headache. We made our way up and out of the bus tunnel and shopping areas to meet up with Pat. Benagain (Ben's boyfriend is also named Benjamin. To keep them straight when we're talking everyone else calls him Little Ben, but I call him Benagain) soon joined us and we were off to Le Pichet to see Ben and have some lunch. Lunch was amazing. You can see pictures on the link above (Day Trip Number One). After lunch Benagain, Pat, Paul and I went to Pikes Place to look around their rummage sale, and then we split up. Pat had a shift at the Can Can, and Benagain was off to the Brasa for work.

Paul and I strolled around, did a little shopping, sat in the park, and waited for Ben to get off work. Then we were off to see his new apartment (he moved in with Benagain at the beginning of the month) where we relaxed for a bit and visited. Soon we were off on another bus to go to see Benagain at the Brasa. Some luscious cocktails, delicious small plates, and some great conversation had us wondering why don't we do this more often? It was getting late, and we had to get home to our puppies, so it was goodbye hugs all around and off we went to Westlake Center to catch our train home. It was around 9:30 when we pulled into the driveway, and the girls finally forgave our abandonment after some pets, and a very late dinner.

We managed to do most of the things on the list. Westlake Center, Pikes Place, ice cream, lunch and dinner, but never made it to the waterfront. Another time absolutely. Pat wants us to move to Seattle, but we both agreed -- Seattle is a great place to visit but we love living in Tacoma. What a great day!

Blind Wine Tasting Tonight!

I'm very excited for tonight's Wine Pundits gathering. We'll be meeting at Rick and Heather's for a blind wine tasting. I think they're really interesting -- tasting wine without the visual signals from the color, bottle, label. Should be an interesting night.

Heather selected a Tapas theme for the evening, which should be fun. I was going to make stuffed dates, but I'm having trouble finding them. I haven't given up yet so maybe it'll still happen. Just in case I've started roasting some garlic and red peppers for my hummus, but who knows? Maybe I'll get lucky and bring two dishes tonight!

A Walk, Some Talk, and Breakfast.

Today was the first day I've been out of my house since Sunday. I had a reaction to some antibiotics, broke out in hives, and today I finally felt well enough to move about. Heather and I met for our usual walk around the neighborhood, but this time we went across the sky bridge to Ben Dew's for some breakfast. We had oatmeal which was delicious and filling, and now I'm at home trying to catch up on emails, blogs, and phone calls. Who know? I feel so good I might even get to some house work. Naw, that might be pushing it a bit. Maybe tomorrow!

Does any one really park in their garage?

We returned from a short trip to Idaho visiting with Paul's family on their yearly trip to the lake. Paul was anxious to get home, because this was the week that we were finally going to clear out the garage and the downstairs room so we could set up my pottery studio, and maybe park our car in the (wait for it...wait for it)...garage! As usual I forgot to take before pictures, but if you could imagine all this Filled with junk, and piled on top of this

Which is now neatly stacked and ready for our garage sale, then you have a pretty good idea what it used to look like.

The downstairs room is another matter. Years of stuff stashed in the room to sort through "later"Kids moving and could we please store these boxes for just a few months

To maybe the kids might want this one day

Along with all my supplies and equipment make for a nightmare.

Hopefully we'll have a sale this weekend, and get rid of more stuff. The "after" pictures may not look so good, but we're thrilled with the progress we made.

Take Me Home Country Roads

Today I had lunch with someone I have not seen since June of 1979! Dawn and I first met in the 6th grade. She had moved to Puyallup from Alabama. We became friends, and even performed in the school talent contest together singing "Country Roads" with Cindy accompanying us on piano. Anyway, we were friends through junior high school but lost touch in high school as friends sometimes do. Dawn joined the Army after graduation, and I found employment as a secretary first at an office supply store, and then a construction company -- eventually moving to Seattle to attend an art school. Dawn contacted me first through Classmates.com, and then Facebook. It was great catching up with her, and I found out she lives in Spokane with her husband and two children so we made plans to meet during our annual trip through Spokane to and from Pend Orielle.

It was wonderful to see Dawn, and I recognized her right away. I swear she hasn't changed a bit except for losing her accent. She claims it can come back in an instant when her sister visits. Paul sat patiently as we commiserated about the usual aches and pains of growing old, losing memory and mobility, and the few odd (in her case) or many (in mine) pounds that have stuck to our bones.

I had warned Paul that she might tell a story. It's one she and I have discussed several times over the last few months. I know she tells it to express her gratitude for a kindness received when she needed it, but I'm usually left with this squirmy feeling that I should have done more. It was in the 7th grade, and I'm not sure why but for some reason Dawn started coming to school without a lunch. Somehow or another I noticed it, and started sharing the odd piece of the lunch my mom would pack for me. Dawn remembers how on Friday I got to buy my lunch, and I would share a slice of bread from my lunch plate.

Dawn did tell Paul the story, and as she was showering me with compliments all I could think was I wish I did more. I wish I was more aware of her situation, and I wish I had shared more. I wish I had invited her over to my house for dinner or to spend the night, and I wish I had made more of an effort to stay in touch.

It was wonderful to see her today, see her smile, and hear her laugh. I'm glad she's happy. And this time I'll stay in touch.