Seaside Trip

The third week of January brought us our first taste of Oregon Coast Winter Storms. 
WOW!

Luckily, we never lost power for any length of time here in town.  The winds got up to 100mph and we actually had to take our stained glass hanging out of the big window due to the panes rattling so hard we honestly thought the hanging was going to break!

We went to Seaside, OR (about 2 hours north) on our days off.  We got a great rate on an oceanfront room.  Gotta love off season rates on the Oregon Coast!  This is the view we had:

Seaside has always held a special place in our heart.  It was our "getaway" place when we lived in Tacoma.  A place associated with relaxation.
Although it was stormy and incredibly windy, we had a great time.  We met up with one of our old friends, Linda MacDonald Lewis.  She is an amazing ambassador for Scotland, a poet, and writer, to name a few of her many talents.  We stopped by her shop to visit and then ended up going out for lunch and drinks.  I laughed until my cheeks hurt.  Skott and I have said that when we get to visit Scotland someday, we are going with her as our tour guide....  Some day I will have to do a post about Linda.  She is incredible!

The dogs enjoyed the car ride to Seaside.  Haha.  Lazies!

Skott and Fucie relaxing in motel

Skott trying to mimic Izzy

The winter storms have really changed the beach.  A lot of debris has been deposited.  But then we can go out a couple days later, and it's gone.  Always changing.


Debris on beach.  (Don't mind my fat finger in the picture)



More debris.  (And more of my fat fingers! geesh!)

In between storms, we have been getting out and walking every chance we can (which lately has only been once or twice a week).
Yesterday, there were a lot of interesting things deposited on the beach:

Uprooted trees

The red was so brilliant!

Don't underestimate the power of the ocean!  This was a piece of plywood impaled on the tree

Winter storms also create a lot of sea foam

Second week of January 2012

The tale of the leaking roof continues :(
and we faithfully check the papers, Craigslist, etc every day for new places to rent.  I am most irritated about the fact that we have to shove everything in the bedroom over to one side to avoid the bed getting dripped on.  I have no nightstand and it feels really cramped in the bedroom.

The weather has been phenomenal and we have been able to take a lot of walks this past week.

Skott has been busy cutting bottles again.  He taught me how to sand them.  We spent part of Thursday working on them.

Most of the wine bottles he is wiring and turning into lamps.  We are searching for the right decorative bulbs to put in them, but this is an idea of what they look like:



unplugged

plugged in

a brownish green one

I know the pictures don't do them justice, they are actually very pretty and put out a wonderful, soft light.

Carolyn's liqueur bottles make wonderful ice cream dishes.  They are thick and heavy glass.  We are also going to experiment with vinyl lettering and acid etching on them:

ice cream dish

Skott made one of my favorite breakfasts for me- Belgian pancakes.  Mmmm
Diced ham, mushrooms, and onions cooked on top/into a pancake with cheese melted on top.
Seriously, its delicious!

I have been attempting to crochet fingerless gloves.  Learning a lot, will post pics when they are done.

Busy weekend again at work.  Next week Skott is starting an earlier shift.  Hopefully, it won't be long before I can follow.  There is a bad bunch of people on the graveyard shift that call in all the time so we have been having to stay late a lot.  Grateful for a job tho!

Hummus

We have been toying with the idea of getting a food processor for a long time.  We are really trying to examine our lifestyle, needs, and wants and live more simply.  We weren't sure if we would use a food processor enough to warrant the expense.
The town we live in has a fabulous outlet mall.  We go to one of the kitchen stores to buy refills for our soda stream  (http://www.sodastreamusa.com/ ) and the last time we went we also had to refill our CO2 canister so we got a $10 off coupon for anything in the store.  Nice!  We looked again at the food processors and then went home to think on it a few days, read reviews, etc.  When we went back that weekend, they happened to be on sale!  So we picked up a really nice Hamilton Beach food processor for $34.99!

love love love it!

We have used it for many things but perhaps my favorite of all is hummus.
I absolutely LOVE hummus!  We work with so many people that have never tried it.  I love bringing them samples of my hummus and seeing their favorable reactions.

So I'd like to share my recipe and encourage anyone who hasn't ever had hummus to give it a try.  It is very healthy and you can custom season it.  It makes a great alternative to chip dip or veggie dip!

Basic Hummus:
2 cans (15oz each) Garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained
1/4 cup lemon juice (or lime juice) -I have used both fresh and concentrate and both work fine
1/2 cup roasted tahini (can be salted or unsalted, you can adjust salt later)
1/2 cup water
slightly less than 1/4 cup olive oil
4 garlic cloves (must be fresh garlic, the minced stuff in a jar gives the hummus a "metallic" taste)
1 1/2 tsp salt (more or less to taste)

combine all in food processor and blend until smooth.  Then add "flavors".  If making just plain hummus, consider adding more garlic after taste-testing.
Flavors will be stronger (and better) after chilling for 24 hours so when possible, make in advance.

Some flavor ideas:
Roasted red pepper and chipotle
one large red pepper (look up internet directions how to roast them in your oven, it's very simple)
chipotle powder to taste (I used 2-3 tsp)
smoked paprika to taste (1 tsp)

Smoked mushroom, onion, and garlic
we pre-smoked with mesquite wood chips in our smoker 1/2 red onion, 2/3 pkg crimini mushrooms, and a bunch of garlic cloves, all tossed in olive oil.
We added all of the above to the basic recipe, using 6 total garlic cloves.

Spicy hummus (couldn't really think of a creative name)
2 roma tomatoes (smoked on the grill, but you could use the same oven roasting method as the peppers above)
1 tsp Sanaam peppers
2 tsp Aleppo peppers, dried and crushed
1 1/2 tsp Chipotle powder
2 tsp smoked paprika

Other flavor ideas/combinations that I want to try:

- "Pizza" hummus -using italian herbs and tomatoes
- Anything with fresh herbs (basil, rosemary, chives, etc)
- A "cheesy" hummus using cheese powder and hmmmm, maybe bacon salt??
- A curried hummus
- Toasted pine nuts and parsley
- Ranch flavored

Enjoy!  Let me know if you come up with any other ideas or suggestions for flavors to try

First week of 2012

Whew!
With the nice weather added on top of the holiday season, we've been very busy at work.  Meeting lots of nice people (as well as a handful of grumpy, not-so-nice people).  Sometimes I really wonder what happens to people that they feel they can treat another human being as rotten as they do.  Add in the factor of them "losing" and boy, -it is sometimes REALLY hard for me not to laugh out loud!
For example, I was tapping on to the single deck blackjack game.  Now single deck blackjack is different from all the other blackjack tables we have in that the cards are "pitched" to the players and they are allowed to hold them in their hands (versus regular blackjack where the cards are laid out on the table by the dealer and players are NOT allowed to touch their cards). Also, since it is a single deck (versus six decks on the regular games), the odds are slightly in the players favor if they have the ability to "count" cards and know if a big or small card is coming next.
While I was waiting for the dealer to finish their hand, the floor supervisor stood behind me and said "This guy is probably going to be very mean."  Ok, no big deal but nice to have a little warning.
I tapped on and there was just one guy playing.  He was a big guy with plastic-surgery arm candy sitting at his side.  I struck up a little chit chat and it was ok for a few minutes.  Then I beat him on a hand and it was like a switch flipped.  He started freaking out saying that we only switched dealers cuz he actually started to win with the other guy and now look, I am going to take all his money.  I kind of laughed and jokingly said "No sir, we all deal for an hour on a table before we get a break so you are stuck with me for the next hour."  I could literally watch this guy get angrier and angrier with each passing hand that he lost.  He started flinging cards and chips and at one point, even threw the cards so hard that they hit me in the chest.  I just stopped, gave him "the look", and continued on.  He was acting so childish that I almost laughed outloud.
Needless to say, he lost all his money and stomped off yelling and whining like a little baby.

But enough about casino stuff :)

We have been taking advantage of the nice weather and taking a lot of walks.  Skott found an AMAZING piece of pink sea glass the other day, as well as the bright blue chunks.  We had never seen or heard of pink before.  When I googled it, it is very rare and probably from the depression era.  We will have to do something really fabulous with it.

We bought a smoker with some Christmas gift money.  We finally got to set it up yesterday.  We smoked some turkey legs.  They turned out amazing!

There was a gorgeous sunset yesterday.  I was trying to capture it through the spare bedroom window, but you just can't get the full beauty on film

Skott made a couple more bracelets out of the reclaimed pallet wood.  I thought they turned out really nice!  They are a gift for his cousin and partner.