Into Year 8

Recently I went back to look at some of the first entries in this blog, beginning October 22nd, in the ancient past of 2006. There were a lot fewer folks blogging then...I mean A LOT fewer. In fact, there were a whole lot fewer people on the Internet, especially older folks like me. That has changed as the baby boomers have more time on their hands as kids leave the nest and some of us retire. People of all ages have become more comfortable with technology during that time, too.

The fun thing about the Internet is that no one really knows anything about you, so when I started this blog I was accepted, or it seemed so, by bloggers all over the world and many years younger than I was. It has been fun to see the life changes that have taken place among many of the younger bloggers I met then. Some have married and have had kids, some have moved from amateur to professional photographers and writers, some have moved, change jobs and professions, discovered different ways to eat, different cuisines and culture, expanded their talents and skills, and more. We have lost some bloggers and gained many more. I've learned a lot and had virtual fun with them over the years.

My personal journey during these seven years has included new jobs, new skills from going back to school, a half dozen or more home improvement projects, a huge increase in cooking and baking skills and recipes, new virtual friends made, and a continued interest in food and how it can bring us together. I take lots more photos, and some of them are better than the ones from the first year. Now and then I throw in some photos of flowers (like above) or of a project or something else non-food, but mostly this blog is about food. My favorite thing still is to try a new recipe, often making changes to the recipe right off the bat, then to share the results with friends and family. Sharing good food around the table is one of the unfailing sources of joy. On occasion it is a flop and I resolve to try it again as written or make other corrections, but mostly I find a new recipe to keep, like the one I just posted for butternut squash and yam soup.

I get excited about discoveries, too, like the fact that you can make excellent caramelized onions in a crock-pot, with no stirring or watching to make sure they don't burn. You can make enough to use some and freeze some for later. These brown, savory, slightly sweet onions are made from inexpensive yellow onions and they add so much flavor to so many kinds of dishes...omelets, vegetables, savory tarts, pizza, in soups, over grilled meats or poultry, and so on. I bet you will find your own favorite ways to use them.

This is another one of the blessings of blogs...you can find amazing things like this. I was looking at one of the blogs on my sidebar (I forget which one) and it had a link to another blog, where I found a link to this recipe. I find that it's more fun to find recipes this way than just to use a search engine (if I have the time) because you never know what you will come across. Thank you Dorothy for the easy caramelized onion recipe!

Thanks for checking out my blog...do come back. You never know what you will find here, either. Onward...into year eight of blogging.

Dorothy’s Crock-Pot Caramelized Onions from the Shockingly Delicious blog

6 large regular yellow onions (3-4 pounds)
2-3 tablespoons good quality olive oil

Peel onions and cut them into thin slices; you should have about 6 cups (exact amount is not crucial, though). Mist the inside of the ceramic insert for the slow cooker, place onions in cooker and drizzle the oil over the slices. Cover and cook on high 10-12 hours, until the onions caramelize. They will have a deep brown color. Leftover caramelized onions may be refrigerated, covered, up to a week or two. They may be frozen up to 6 months. Makes 3 cups.

Valentine's Weekend in Seattle

Although I've only been in Seattle 4 or 5 times, I still feel like I've come home when I arrive...who knows why.

Took the light rail from Sea-Tac up to the International District stop, which is actually closer to the Seahawks stadium than the Stadium stop. It was great! You really get to see the neighborhoods south of the city. At this time of year the trees are bare although there are plenty of evergreens. Here and there you can see plum trees in blossom. Unlike last year when it was amazingly snowy, apparently this year has been a mild winter. There was still rain and drizzle and sprinkles all of the days except today, but it didn't put a damper on the trip.

No recipes this post. For those of you who are interested, here is a brief of the trip highlights:

My daughter has a wonderful offbeat sense of humor...and so does her friend Miss A. We had wine and pizza and then expressed our creativity by making fused glass pieces in a party setting at Paint Away in Renton area. There is lots to paint, too, if you prefer ceramics painting. Great vibe at this store and good instructions for newbies like me.

The next morning we met up with Lynn and Peabody for breakfast at Portage Bay Cafe' in Ballard. Had such a good time gabbing that I forgot to take any photos, even though I really liked the porridge with dried fruits and nuts and mixed grains. The time flew by! It is such a treat to spend time with both of these wonderful women...maybe next time I'll be able to stay longer and cook or bake with them. Thanks for the cookbook Lynn...cookie recipes from the Cookie Baker and an amazing red velvet/vanilla cupcake toe eat!

Ballard is a neighborhood that I wasn't at all familiar with. It has dozens of interesting shops and restaurants and fun architecture, too. The photo at the top of the post is of the window display of one of the businesses there. There is also a smoked salmon 'outlet' right next to Portage Bay Cafe' with good prices on the kind of smoked salmon that goes into gift baskets.

That evening we had a girls night in, watching a movie and some Netflix TV episodes, too. We decided to have nibbles, including the corn, bean, and tomato salad, some hummus from Trader Joe's, sea salt pita chips from the same place, apple slices, red pepper strips and mini carrots. A bottle of Washington State red wine was too much for the two of us, but a delightful drink with our nibbles.

One morning we walked to Fremont and ate breakfast at Homegrown. What a great place - the egg and bacon 'sandwich' included local eggs, very very yummy bacon and a house made roll. The oatmeal comes with it, is served in a coffee cup and had crystallized ginger and currants on top. The coffee is delicious. Surprising that I needed some of theirs after having a latte' from Kuma Coffee the same morning, but when you are in Seattle, coffee drinking to excess seems somehow appropriate.

My birthday present was a trip to the IMAX too see the movie Avatar...I had waited to see it with my daughter. I loved it and got energized by watching all of that creativity and imagination on screen. It helps that I love science fiction and have read everything that Anne McCaffery has written...although there were lots of other influences in this movie, too. The message of interconnectedness is very appealing.

Our Valentine's day brunch at a small Seattle neighborhood restaurant, Avila, was delicious, too. The watercress salad was an unusual side dish with an omelet, but quite delightful. We even tried their elbeskivers that were filled with cream cheese and huckleberries and topped with powdered sugar...yum!

According to Wikipedia, ebleskivers are somewhat similar in texture to American pancakes crossed with a popover. We found ours to be more like a donut crossed with a fluffy muffin. They are not particularly sweet, but the fruit added some and so did the powdered sugar. I could see these becoming the next scone or mega-muffin if marketed properly. They are baked on the stovetop in a special pan, so have the delight of a warm donut but are not deep fried. They can seemingly be filled with all sorts of things. Any energetic business person want to run with this idea? BTW I’d skip the powdered sugar for takeout.

Back home safe and sound. Thank you dear daughter for a delightful trip!

In Harmony and Friendship

It's been a while since I've seen Anna of Anna's Cool Finds. She has been consulting, going to school to get her Ph.D. and also dieting and exercising...something that I should be doing more of. We were finally able to get together this evening in Marin and Sweetie came with me and Anna's Dad came with her, so we had a great evening with good conversation and stories.

We ate at Harmony, a Chinese restaurant which is less than a year old. Harmony Restaurant is in Mill valley, in the Strawberry Village center, right off of Hwy. 101 and about an hour south of our home. It's a very elegant place with lovely stone tiles and highly polished bamboo tables. The serving pieces are beautiful to look at and functional, too. No paper wrapped chopsticks here. The elegant wood chopsticks looked like rosewood and were smooth and pleasant to use.

It was packed most of the night and for good reason. The dishes are prepared carefully and the cooks use fresh, high quality ingredients. The flavors really shine. This is some of the best Chinese food you are likely to eat outside of China (or Chinatown in a large city). They also have a busy take out section.

We started with dim sum. These small bites are traditionaly served for lunch and rarely after early afternoon. We were thrilled that at Harmony dim sum can be ordered all day and into the evening. The steamed dim sum are brought to the table in beautiful bamboo steamers. The morsels themselves provide taste and texture contrasts. Small dishes of soy sauce, sweet and sour sauce which includes Meyer lemon, and a medium hot red pepper sauce come with the dim sum.

Everyone seemd to enjoy the steamed scallop dumplings.

The shrimp gow have rice wrappers, succulent shrimp and some bamboo shoots. We also had the pea shoot gow which were my favorite. The shoots were very fresh and had a little crunch and there were also mushroom slivers. Sweetie liked the spinach dumplings and the buns with Peking duck.

Anna encouraged us to try the turnip cake. It was delicious and unlike anything I've ever had with turnip. The texture was creamy with a nice crust and it was slightly sweet, but the crust was slightly salty.

Next came calamari which had been quickly fried in a tempura type batter. It was tender and flavorful. It came dusted with a mixture of fried chopped garlic, green onion, jalapeno peppers and red peppers and garnished with lime slices The mixture was quite good; even when all of the calamari were gone it was eaten by itself and we noticed that the garlic bits were tasty all by themselves.

We had mu shu chicken accompanied by plum sauch and the thinest pancakes I've ever seen. The chicken was finely chopped and the mixture included fresh spinach, crisp bean sprouts, shitake mushrooms, and scrambled egg with wonderful seasoning.

The final dish was chow fun with barbq pork. The wide noodles held lots of a delicious savory sauce and the dish included lots of bean sprouts, onions, and tender pork slices.

We finished with a trio of hot teas. Oolong, Poy Nay black tea and jasmine tea provided contrasts in tastes and a fine way to enjoy more conversation and laughter.

As we were getting ready to leave, Sweetie and I were thinking of a few more friends in Marin who might enjoy meeting us at Harmony. It would be worth the drive.

Harmony Restaurant
800 Redwood Highway, Suite 401
Mill Valley, CA 94941
(415) 381-5300
Open Daily:
Lunch: 11:00 - 2:30 p.m.
Dinner: 5:00 - 9:30 p.m.