Friday, 9/10/2010

Today is technically not the first Friday of the month; however, Ben's company celebrated "First Friday" tonight. In a nut shell, employees from his company gather together the first Friday of each month at a local restaurant or tavern to chat, eat, and have a few drinks.  Due to Labor Day weekend, this month's gathering was postponed a week, until today.  Katie and I had been out and about, running errands, and stopped by Ben's office to take him home.  When he mentioned that first Friday was in progress, we decided to park the car and partake.  We met his coworkers at El Malecon, on the corner of Seneca and Post Alley.  It is just a block away from his office; so, it is convenient.  The servers are nice and the food is OK.  The best part is that there is always room for a large party. 

I was starving by the time we got there, so I basically ate nachos along with a margarita for dinner.  Ben only ate a couple chips, so he had left over spaghetti and garlic bread when we got home. Katie was quite entertaining at the restaurant.  She said "hi" to everyone, gave fist bumps and high-fives, and played with her food.  She didn't eat much, but that does seem to be a dinner trend these days.  

After we put Katie down for the night, I started to bake cookies for our church's 2nd time sale tomorrow.  If you are in or near West Seattle and you like to hunt for treasures, you should stop by Fauntleroy Church UCC tomorrow, between 9am and 3pm.  In addition to the great deals, you will find delicious baked goods...like my cookies:)  I baked Old-Fashioned Soft Pumpkin Cookies using a recipe I got from www.verybestbaking.com--a Nestle website.  The specific recipe is found here:  http://www.verybestbaking.com/recipes/detail.aspx?ID=32364. 

A couple notes about the cookie recipe:

• I add in a cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips for each batch.  The recipe says you can add an optional 1/2 cup.  I found that I needed more chocolate:)
• I have never made the glaze that the recipe calls for.  I don't think the cookies need it with the chocolate chips.  Also, the glaze would make them too sticky to stack and store efficiently.  
• In my oven, the cookies are definitely done in 15 minutes.   
• I don't grease the baking sheets, because I line my baking sheets with Silpat--non-stick baking mat. 

After eating his first pumpkin cookies of the season, Ben said "Ah, Fall is here" with a big smile on his face:)

Thursday, 7/8/2010

Today was our last day at the family reunion. It was also the hottest day we've had so far. It was definitely over 90 degrees in the sun. Plenty warm for our little family:) There was lake access at Zephyr Conference Center, but there was no beach. I would have had to walk in on the rocks or jump off the dock in order to get in. Didn't seem like a good way to get Katie into the water. Instead, we went down the road to the Liberty Lake County Park to take a dip in the lake. It was perfect! The water was cool, but not too cold. After applying a thick layer of sunscreen, and finding shade for Ben to sit in, Katie and I went in. It was fun to get her in the water. She splashed, pointed at ducks swimming by, and hollered "hi" at Ben.


We got back to the lodge with enough time to change into dry clothes and get ready for the afternoon's chicken activities. My great-grandparents had a chicken ranch that dad and his cousins worked on when they were growing up. To start off, my dad and a couple of his cousins told stories from the ranch. Lots of fun tales about gathering chickens and eggs, cleaning Great-Grandma's house and eggs, throwing eggs, catching runaway chickens, etc. There was a "cluck-off" between a couple cousins. And then, we had the chicken gift exchange. During the five years between each reunion, we all search for $5 gifts that have something to do with chickens. It is always fun to see what we all come up with.

We had a spaghetti feast tonight. Spaghetti with meat sauce, salad, and garlic bread. In her past, Katie has never been much of a spaghetti fan. That changed tonight. She couldn't get enough. She was even swiping it off my plate when I wasn't giving it to her fast enough:) I should let you know that she has run wild and hard for three days straight. Tuesday and Wednesday she didn't nap at her normal times and was out late each night. Today she wouldn't nap at all.

As dinner was winding down, my mom nudged my dad who got my attention just in time to catch Katie's head. She had fallen asleep, covered in spaghetti sauce. My mom says that her eyes were rolling right before she fell asleep. She didn't move while Ben cleaned her face and hands with wet paper towels (I forgot to pack a wash cloth today). We got a little worried and actually checked to make sure she was breathing. She was. There were quite a few babies and toddlers there, so we were able to put Katie in a borrowed pack-n-play for a half hour while we packed up our stuff. What a tired little girl.


I am so thankful we were able to spend three days with my family. What a wonderful group of chickens:)