Small Returns Update

After returning from trips I am always amazed by the serenity I feel in my own home and the gratification of owning a space (well, renting, technically--but emotionally owning) and within that space I get to make my own rules. A small miracle of being an adult I suppose. Also a nice discovery is that it feels like March--a wet March to be sure--but trees are starting to bloom and Seattle seems to be making it's subtle seasonal transition to spring, by which I mean 50 degrees and raining as opposed to 40 degrees and raining...last year I recall some beautiful April days, however, so hopefully we can look forward to that again. The weather currently, however, is lending itself nicely to quiet days indoors and after the busyness of previous months I look forward to some focused alone-time. Well, not totally alone of course, since we have kitty keeping guard over the house at all times. Grandma Nono kindly sent me her original ipad (since my computer is broken) and Nathan found a new fun game for Lyra on it:


Lyra meet iPad from Kaitlin McCarthy on Vimeo.

As you can see she loves it. As soon as I played this video just now, lyra jumped up on the desk from her nap and is all "meow meow meow" and scratching at it.  Another technology addicted soul...

The people have spoken...

LANDSLIDE FOR LOVE!

Washington state approved gay marriage! As did Maine and Maryland. And Minnesota refused to ban it. A victory for civil rights! I have no doubt that some day history will reveal the opposition to gay marriage to be no different than the bigotry that opposed inter-racial marriage once upon a time. Between going to Mt Holyoke, and living in the most liberal neighborhood of one of the most liberal cities in America, I know my fair share of people who identify as other than heterosexual. And they deserve to be part of the same happiness that Nathan and I get to be part of. And it makes my marriage feel even more legitimate, knowing that I'm partaking in an institution that is available to everyone. Well, at least in Washington.

Democracy at work.

We also LEGALIZED POT because the war on drugs has failed, and it's time to regulate (and tax!) a substance that is used by many many people who would otherwise never break a law in their lives. Let's turn a waste of money (jailing harmless citizens) into a way to generate revenue for the state. 

Washington also elected Jay Inslee, Susan Delbene, Jim McIntire, Bob Ferguson, and Maria Cantwell.

Oh yeah. And OBAMA.

I know I have King County to thank, who voted at near 86%!!!!

I am also proud of many of my friends who worked on campaigns and helped to pass many important issues, especially Referendum 74.

In the rest of the country, voters made a clear statement about their values. We are all particularly pleased to see Richard Mourdock and Todd Akin destroyed at the ballot box for being sexest (strong language necessary) assholes. Elizabeth Warren with her progressive economic expertise declares victory in MA, and more women were elected to the senate than any other time in history, including our first ever Asian-American woman. In addition to that, the first ever practicing Hindu, and several openly gay persons were elected to Congress. It is a breath of fresh air to feel that the country is shifting, finally, to accept our compatriots who may not lead the "white bread" lifestyle. The Republican party is not representative of this country anymore. It's not necessarily that I think there aren't some respectable Republican views, there are. I understand that the party used to stand for small government and fiscal responsibility, but as long as I've been politically cognizant, the Republican party has been forcing large (ineffective) government action down our throats, like the No Child Left Behind act and trying to amend the constitution to limit marriage rights. I think they are torn because they are trying to at once appeal to extreme religious persons who scare the majority of the country, to fiscal conservatives who are wary of the Bush administration's track record, and to Tea Party nut jobs. The angry white vote is not enough to sustain the Republican party anymore. The minorities they have alienated are becoming majorities, women are educated more now than ever, and the people who have seen the wrong end of this recession are poor now, and will vote in their interest. I hope that the Republican party will see this as a sign that reform is necessary, that it is time for the party to get back to its roots of rationalism, instead of attacking women, the environment, poor people, gay people, and minorities. And hopefully they will stop throwing around the word "Socialism," because they clearly don't know what it means. 

To my republican friends and family, I hope this is a wake up call to your party. I hope they come back stronger, more honest, and more realistic. It would be nice if our government actually worked the way it was supposed to. 

If you have time, watch this clip. I don't find Rachel Maddow to be funny, so her jokes are kinda annoying, but her points regarding the election hit home for me. 

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Plum Food Truck

The restaurant I work for is trying to start a food truck. They made a video that I'm in as part of the fundraising. Here is the video, and the link to the kickstarter campaign is below it. Anyways, I thought it would be fun to share since I'm in the video, and it's informational about the the place where I work.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/plum/seattles-first-vegan-food-truck-by-plum-bistro

Mostly what I ate this week.

Well, it's not been a crazy week event-wise, but we've been keeping busy. Nathan decided to invest in a new (used) bike that will be speedier than the heavy road bike he has been riding to work. He has very large hills on his way home from the university.

I think he was installing his water bottle holder here?

Anyways...once this week I made a SUPER easy dinner. 

At QFC you can get chicken breasts individually sealed in plastic, ready for the freezer. They come in packs of about six and often the packs are two for one! Skinless-boneless breast can be expensive, but not when they are two for one in bulk! The packaging is great--one is plenty for me and nathan to split, and better yet, they are sealed, so I take the back of the mug or glass and tenderize it while it's still sealed, and no worries about chicken germs getting everywhere. Stays contained and then cooks up real quick--in about the same time as a pot of rice with some vegis in the steamer on top!

a before and after--frozen then thawed and pounded

This is my rice cooker with the vegis on top. So there's a super simple dinner idea that also allows you to get out aggression by whaling on the chicken breast a little bit.

I also made a not so simple dinner this week. Last wednesday I headed out to the Columbia City Farmers Market (columbia city is a district of seattle I'd never been to before) but there's an express bus straight there basically from my house. Columbia City is south, where I don't venture too often, but it was super cute! It had a little main street type area with shops and theaters. There was an amazing looking used book store with a ladder to get to the high shelves, but sadly there was a sign announcing it was closing due to not enough sales to cover basic operating costs. : (

I bought these beautiful dahlias there for $5. Lots of beautiful arrangements, but decided to stick with straight dahlias since I know they keep pretty well.

Also got these beautiful heirloom roma tomatoes and zucchini for a recipe I had been wanting to try.

I got some lettuce and other heirlooms as well. 

The recipe is "Zucchini Rice Gratin" which I got off of Smitten Kitchen blog, and it looked super delicious to me, and a way to use what the season has to offer. Basically everything looks super delicious on the blog, and her photos are amazing:

http://smittenkitchen.com/

Zucchini Rice Gratin
Adapted from Gourmet, March 2008

My prior quibbles about this dish were that it always stuck to the pan (I try to alleviate this by having you oil your baking dish), was way too salty (and we are hardly salt-phobes, thus I’ve reduced the total amount from 1 1/2 teaspoons to 3/4 teaspoon; feel free to add more if you find it needs it), and that it used too many dishes. You can reduce your dishload by lining your zucchini baking sheet with aluminum foil (tomatoes are reactive with aluminum so I’d leave their tray bare) and hoping that you’ll consider using one skillet for the rice and onions. Despite the fact that I couldn’t reduce the moderate dishload further, we’ve never once felt that this dish wasn’t worth the extra suds.

1/3 cup uncooked white rice, long-grain is suggested but use whatever you prefer
5 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 pounds zucchini (about 3 medium), sliced 1/4-inch thick
1/2 pound plum tomatoes, sliced 1/4-inch thick
Table salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 medium onion, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme leaves
1/2 cup grated Parmesan, divided

Preheat oven to 450°F. Cook the rice according to your favorite method. The package directions work in some cases, but check my notes above about adjustments I find I have to make. If you cook the rice in a large, wide-ish covered skillet, it might cook even faster but you’ll have the chance to use it again (and save on dirty dishes) when you need to cook the onions in a bit.

While rice cooks, coat two large (or, if you have the same pitifully small oven as I do, three smaller) baking sheets each with a tablespoon of a of olive oil (a bit less for smaller pans). Spread zucchini and tomato slices on the baking sheets in as close to a single layer as you can. Sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon salt and a few grinds of black pepper. Roast tomatoes for 10 minutes and zucchini for 20. Flip zucchini halfway through; it’s not worth the messy effort for the tomatoes. Leave oven on.

Heat large, heavy skillet (such as the one you used to cook your rice) over medium heat. Once hot, add 2 tablespoons olive oil, heat oil, then add onions, garlic and 1/4 teaspoon salt to pan. Cover and reduce heat to low, cooking onion until limp and tender, about 15 to 20 minutes. Stir occasionally.

Combine onion mixture, rice, eggs, thyme, half of your grated cheese and a half-tablespoon of olive oil in a bowl. Add a good amount of freshly ground black pepper. Use the remaining half-tablespoon of olive oil to coat a shallow 2-quart baking dish. Spread half of rice mixture in bottom of dish. Arrange half of roasted zucchini on top. Spread remaining rice mixture over it and please don’t worry about being neat about this; dinner will be “rustic” tonight! Arrange remaining zucchini on top, then tomato slices. Sprinkle with remaining grated cheese and bake until set and golden brown, about 20 minutes. Each oven varies, but I find mine does the very best browning when the dish is on a rack near the top of the oven.

Here was how mine came out:

It was tasty, but not worth all the prep work with the toms and zucchs. Wondering what if I just sauteed the zucchinis with the onions (in the same pan I baked it in) and just popped the tomatoes on without all that pre-baking business. Then it would be a super simple weeknight kinda meal. With a lot fewer dishes. It could also maybe use something a little more zesty? Anyways, you should all be proud that I actually managed to follow a recipe start to finish without straying, and next time I can use this basic recipe (mixing rice, cheese, egg, veggies and baking it) as a platform for culinary improvisation.

Also this week was my friend Jenny's birthday. I made this little girl for her:

And she had a picnic at gasworks park in Fremont. Nathan and I packed our bicycles up with cheese, bread, fruit, sangria, tapanade, etc. and had a lovely bike ride around lake union. Lots of sailboats out enjoying the weather. It was the perfect temperature all evening. How often can you say that?

The gasworks, downtown seattle across the lake, and the moon.

A perfect day...and last week.

It's been a crazy summer. I spent most of July participating in a dance festival that culminated in a performance, and while I kinda enjoyed the intensity of dancing 7 hours a day and then working at plum on top of that, it did leave me kind of short on time to do things like blog.  My dear friend Helen also participated in the festival with me and lived with us, and her last week in Seattle she was joined by her boyfriend and our mutual friend, Kyle. Helen's birthday is July 29th, and she wanted to go to Mt Rainier National Park (Nathan and I had never been) and Helen has lovely family in the area that took us out! So these are pictures from the beautiful hike we had up to Mt Fremont. 

Helen Poses like Captain Morgan. Kyle models the stylin' frame pack I bought for five dollars at our neighbor's garage sale while waiting to be picked up for the day. Sweeeet!

This is totally candid.

Nathan on the path through the shale.

The top! What a view!

AND SURPRISE! Kyle proposes to Helen. Helen says Yes.

This is a reenactment.

a blurry picture I took of the ring. Kyle designed it! Helen's favorite color: PINK!

 On the way down.

Fields of wild flowers!

SNOW!

So that was a grand and most perfect day. Followed by mad packing because Nathan and I had to leave the next morning to the midwest. I was on vacation, saw a lot of people who read this blog (so don't need to fill them in), and got to relax a lot while watching Olympics, which is exactly what I needed. 

Jump to current times...

Nothing too exciting going on here. However, in an effort to write on a more regular basis, here are a few things I did do recently:
Last tuesday was our 2nd wedding anniversary (we got some super sweet cards from the grandparents!) and we also went to dinner using the Poppy gift certificate the Bankas gave us for our birthdays.
Poppy is very convenient to our house and had some delicious, delicious food. You basically order one of a few options, and it comes with a variety of 7 or 10 things. They call them "thalis." There was some indian influence (note the naan bread) but otherwise it didn't feel particularly ethnic unless GORMET is an ethnicity.

Ok, we shared all of our items. Nathan got duck with fresh currents and peaches, strawberry-tomato-sage soup, curried kohlrabi, pickled blueberry and apricots, and a beet salad with gingerbread croutons.

I had some kind of beef, zucchini gratin, fennel blossom soup, the same beet salad, some other kind of salad with cucumbers, and pickled fennel.

Dessert thalis.

 Ok, and then one day for lunch I made myself this with the basil from my window boxes, which somehow survived not being watered for nine days while we were in Michigan/Wisconsin.

Then on Sunday we went to a friend's boyfriend's birthday "Rib Off" in which there were I think 7 ribs competing and we had to vote for a winner! It was extremely difficult. They were all delicious, and the weather was perfect. We played "corn hole" which is a kind of bean bag tossing game, and I was terrible at it.

We hadn't been to Madrona Park before. It was lovely.

 Two of my favorite dancer friends by lake Washington.

Too bad it was a touch chilly for swimming. It's hard to see in the picture (which is funny, because it was very easy to see in real life) but Mt. Rainier is just about center in this picture over the water. I need to learn how to make mountains show up in photographs!

My Day Yesterday

Yesterday was so nice. Finally I was feeling well enough to do things (unfortunately I seem to have relapsed a bit today), so I cleaned up the apartment, which had been suffering from my sickness-related laziness, and worked on my new craft project (which I'll talk about later). Our handyman and assistant showed up (thank god I cleaned!) to open our windows, so finally we can get some cross-ventilation. That alone would be enough to make a good day, but they also replaced our broken toilet seat and gave us a rubber plug for our tub! It's like christmas!
In the evening I had to attend a meeting in Ballard--for those who don't know, Ballard is a super-fun area of Seattle. We would like to go there more often, and although it is only six miles away, this can mean 2 to 3 busses and over an hour of travel time just to get there. Yuck. So I figured, since I was going there already I might as well do a few other things I have been meaning to do there. The first one was stop at the Joann Fabrics there (which isn't a great store generally, but I needed some certain items for my craft project that I can't get at the small Capitol Hill fabric store) and the second to go to the new BBQ restaurant that opened up recently where one of my friends works. Since I would need to get around Ballard once I got there, I decided to take my bike, which also cut out one of the busses on the way there, and since it was turning into a beautiful (but windy) day, I got some nice riding out of it. If I hadn't been sick I would have biked all the way there along the Lake Union Trail, but I figured some light riding would be best, especially around Ballard's cute neighborhoods. My meeting went well, and Nathan and Brian met up with me after their Ultimate Frisbee game (which they dominated!) so timing worked out perfect for a late dinner at Bitterroot. We started out with jalepeno hush puppies and buffalo fried chicken livers. Then we all split the combo platter known as the "cowboy killer." That is half a chicken, brisket, pulled pork, and ribs served with a pretzel roll and three sides. They were out of ribs, so they replaced it with pork belly. I was sad about the ribs, but the pork belly was amazing, obviously. This is the face Nathan made when he realized there was a three-inch-thick slab of bacon on our table:

They smoke their meats in house with apple wood, and you could really taste the flavor. The brisket and the pork belly were the most amazing (correlated to fat content perhaps?) Scratch that, the cheddar grits were the MOST amazing, but aside from that. The chicken and pulled pork were alright. The grilled asparagus was great. We got to choose from sweet bbq sauce, xxx spicy, and a vinegar-mustard sauce. I tend to like a Carolina-style vinegar sauce, and while the mustard sauce was pretty good, I think it needed more heat. I'm not big on sticky-sweet bbq sauces at all, except for Nathan's/Joy's, which has a strong acidity to it because it's made with lemons.
So that was my nice day. Monday is kinda my weekend, so I like to make it count! We are all suffering from a bit of a food hang-over this morning, and I'm brainstorming about a vegetarian dinner for tonight...

Brushes with FAME

I'm a girl in the big city and I work at a tiny and hip vegan restaurant and so brushes with fame are basically inevitable. Here is the news:

Last friday: Ladida...normal day at work...why bother to shower or comb hair? A private party from 2-4 in the restaurant? Okaydokay. It's 1:30, I wonder what this private party is, OH the MAYOR OF SEATTLE is coming HERE to sign some legislation into city law and they are going to be taking THOUSANDS OF PICTURES so make sure the restaurant LOOKS PERFECT and BY THE WAY YOU WILL BE REQUIRED TO STAND BEHIND THE MAYOR AND DIRECTLY IN THE SIGHT LINES OF A THOUSAND CAMERAS. 

It was pretty cool I guess. I got to meet mayor McGinn. It is a bill requiring 5 paid sick days a year. Which is a pretty cool way to not spread diseases, especially if you work in food services. Of course it isn't fool proof because you are most contagious right before you start having symptoms, so how could you know you need a sick day! Viruses are tricky! Also, paid sick days law does not help you get your shift covered, which at least in the case of plum, is the only reason anyone would come to work sick. But the bill is pretty cool for a lot of jobs, and my boss Makini helped make it happen and gave a speech and introduced The Mayor. Then there was a lot of official recognitions and thank yous, and clapping that is required in politics. For those of you who don't know, I dislike politics because I think it's a bunch of empty rhetoric and appeasing people so they'll vote for you/do what you want, but somebody's got to do it and that is how the game is played. Yay for paid sick days and meeting my local government.

Here is a picture!

There I am standing awkwardly with a bunch of people who deserve to be in this photo.  Also the woman on the right came in for dinner the other night and her baby is adorable.

OK, fast forward to this past Friday night and my more recent brush with fame (also Plum related) is with this guy:

It's okay if you don't recognize him. I totally wouldn't have except that he made reservations under MOBY. And if you are of an older generation, you might be thinking he's a whale, but he's not, he's a famous cross-over electric pop music artist. And even though the reservation said MOBY I was still dubious because of the How I met your Mother episode where they see this guy on the street and they say, "Hey that looks like Moby! Moby, come party with us!" (it's new years) but then the guy turns out not to be Moby and actually a crazy guy with a gun. But that was not so in this case, it actually WAS Moby and he was very nice and soft spoken and ordered the Heirloom Tomato Salad, Potato and Olive Pizza, black coffee, green tea, and banana cake with chocolate frosting and coconut flakes. I hope he liked the food. I tried to be very professional and pretend I didn't know who he was, but I did kinda fumble my words a little bit...

So this was a lot of fame two weeks in a row. I don't know that I've met anyone famous before. Oh wait! Not true. I met Merce Cunningham when he was still alive backstage at the Power Center and he told me (and the other dancers I was with in this tiny dressing room) about his dice that he used to choreograph with and how he had to get the store manager to bring down the jar of dice off of a high shelf and he picked out one of every color. I also saw Obama speak at the Michigan graduation, and I met Nancy Stark Smith. She even came to my thesis concert, so that was pretty neat! And I saw Dick Cheney through his car window. I could have seen famous people and not even known it. I'm not very good at remembering faces or celebraties... all for the best probably. 

We signed a lease!!!!!

After an extremely anxiety inducing week, we finally signed a lease. It was a super stressful process and pretty much I never want to do it again... We basically learned that you have to be the absolute first person to see a property, so you can guarantee to be the first to put in an application, and then you will get first refusal. One bedrooms are in high demand, so we had to be pretty agressive. We ended up being first in line for four different apartments over the course of like 3 days. One adorable one with a great kitchen, but it was over a bar. Another that we loved but was supposed to be 850 sq ft. We measured. It was 500... Another that was super nice, but the location was less convenient for nathan and not much storage. The apartment we ended up getting, we had the second showing, but we got there mega early and the showing before us was a few minutes late. Are you two my 12:00? You bet we are. The girl after us filled out an application, but she was 7 minutes late and now she doesn't have it. I would feel bad for her, but she was late after all. Anyways, my self-induced stress-sickness can now be over because we have a really beautiful apartment with (almost) everything we wanted. Pictures! The previous owner's stuff is all in it, and she's moving, so it's kinda messy. Apologies. Also, rooms are difficult to photograph. No wonder they use those wide-angle lenses.

 Here is the living room looking into the dining room (that's right, living AND dining) and then nathan is at the threshold to the kitchen and the bedroom is beyond that.

 The bedroom--there's another window on the wall you can't see. The closet isn't walk-in, but it goes far back and has lots of space. There is another very large closet off the living room with some built in cabinets inside and more hanging space. The storage in this place was very alluring.

 The electric stove was our one big concession. Nathan really wanted gas : ( but we will have a dishwasher! : ) (on the right, you can just see the edge in this picture). Lots more counter space than in our current apt, which we were looking for. Our little galley kitchen is very hard to cook in. This is still galley, but significantly bigger. The idea is that we will cook at home more. The door leads to the basement and back parking area and laundry. 

 Bathroom--no clawfoot tub (sigh...there was one in two places we almost got) but very nice and clean tiling, and some of the old character was left intact. 

 At the entrance to the bathroom there is a little built in vanity area that is super cute. You can't see in this picture, but the wall on the right hand side in there is completely built-in cabinets that have tons of charm and functionality.

Chandelier!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Need I say more. Also note picture moldings that run throughout. It's a little hard to tell, but the ceiling curves between the picture molding and the top.

 The living room looking in the opposite direction. You can see our faux fireplace. We are allowed to paint pastels, so if anyone has any color ideas, I'd be open. Right now it's a lot of white!

 Ok, this picture stinks, but apparently after this tree loses it's leaves, if it's clear, you can see the olympic mountains from here.

 A close up of the built-in in the living room.

 It has a cool little landing at the top of the stairs where our door is. It was hard to get a good shot though.

And here is the outside of the building. We are the top window on the left. I think it will be super cute once we get all our nice stuff in there. It is located right on the bus line for nathan and walking distance for me to work and dance class, so that is probably the best part of all. No more dealing with bus 49 on a daily basis!

We don't officially have it until Sept. 1st. Hopefully the girl will move out a few days early, but if not we will have to load all our stuff into a truck, stay somewhere, and then unload it all the next day, since we have to be out of our place by the 31st. Yuckers. We shall see...the girl is out of the country until next week, so we can't ask her. I'll keep you updated!