sustainability dinner

Madison Park Conservatory hosted a sustainable seafood dinner on Monday night featuring the Pike Place Fish cookbook. The dinner consisted of five delicious courses including an oyster on the half shell, salmon tartar, spring pea gazpacho, seared salmon with seagrass and olive oil gelato for dessert. They used two types of salmon (Copper River salmon and Washington Marbled King) and prepared them exactly the same way, presented them both on our plate, and we got to compare the two to see which we liked better. While both were amazing, the Copper River was my favorite. Such a fun night out and everyone who went got a cookbook to take home. They are going to be doing this series all summer long with the next one being a paella party on July 29th. 

two for tuesday

A little weekly photo project.

Two pictures 

Showing the bits and pieces 

of Jen's and my life

summer solstice

Every year Freemont celebrates the solstice with a crazy, wacky, over the top  parade that includes all kinds of awesome costumes, weird characters and outstanding floats. This year was no exception, and the icing on the cake was that it was a sunny, clear and 80 degree day. Mother nature really got it right this year. Of course, the one draw back is that it doesn't make for very good pictures. The sun created lots of shadows and harsh light. But, even though my pictures were better last year, I'll take the sunshine over good photos any day! Here are a few, though.

My friend's son was SO excited about everything. So cute!

Happy Summer Solstice!

under construction

Anders and I have been talking, wishing, planning, thinking about expanding our tiny little kitchen into a bigger space for years, and we FINALLY have made it happen this year. We spend a great deal of time in our kitchen because cooking and eating and entertaining is such a major aspect of our lives. The problem is, we don't have enough room, and we don't have a dining room table. When friends come over, we have to eat around our little coffee table, and our storage is so limited that our blender and juicer sits on top of our refrigerator. But not for too much longer! In the next 6 weeks, we'll have a expanded kitchen with a new wall pantry and a dining room table (with bench seating!). I can't wait to show you all the after pictures, but here are a few befores and the progress so far.

Before Inside: Please note the crap important equipment on top of the frig. Our counter will be expanded and turned into an island, and the sink wall (kinda hard to see in the picture) will be gone.

Before Outside: Look at this big empty space we have just waiting to be turned into a dining room!

And how about this terrible dirt patch. It needs to go! Maggie is going to be sad, though. It's her favorite mud pit.

Day 1! Here we go! Shingles off!

Day 2! The dirt is dug up and we have a big metal pole. Woo!

And they removed our chimney...hi Maggie!

And now we have beams. Not sure what they are for, but it's still exciting.

Not a lot of progress just yet, but we are still super excited. Stay tuned!

two for tuesday

My friend Jen over at Mermaid City and I decided to do a weekly photo project (and you know how I love photo projects). We are calling it Two for Tuesday after being inspired by this project. Our subject is Bits and Pieces, and I hope that it really helps me take notice of the tiny day to day "stuff." It just so happens that Jen and I both decided to photograph food for our first two...funny yet not surprising!

Jen is the top, mine is the bottom

guemes island

Anders and I just got back from a long weekend in Guemes Island. This is our second year there, and it's always a super fun time. This year included: sunshine, relaxation, a hot tub, too much food, lots of laughter, tired dogs, smoked onion potato salad, water balloon toss, jump rope, yoga, bitty babies, more food and more relaxing. Here are a few pictures!

Isn't it funny how dogs always lay right in the way?

See last year's pictures here and here.

#tag

My new favorite hashtag on Instagram is #wethepeephole. So funny. If you are on instagram, check it out. And, of course, I had to play along.

furry 5k

Anders, Maggie and I ran in the Furry 5k yesterday to support the local animal shelters. It was nuts! So many dogs, but we all had a great time. Maggie beat me in the race, but she has four legs and I only have two, so I feel like she had an unfair advantage. Here are a few instagrams from the day. My favorite is Maggie yawning. She was so excited to be there. Er...

p-patch

Last night I met up with some of the other Pike Place Fish wives and their kids, and we had a lovely picnic in a p-patch. It was a warm and sunny night with good conversation and babies. I sure do love getting to hold (other peoples') babies.

I've never actually seen artichoke growing before. Pretty cool.

The p-patch!

This little guy doesn't belong to me, but I sure do love him.

He actually belongs to my friend, Dina.

And this sweet girl? 

She belongs to my friend, Meghan.

 And this handsome boy?

And this pretty girl?

They belong to my friend, Jennifer

My friends sure do have awesome kids!

It was a lot of fun ladies! Let's do it again soon!