Trout Almondine

Today we went hiking to Rattlesnake Ledge. It was actually a pretty chilly day here in Seattle. But once we got we got in the car, the weather opened up a bit. Rattlesnake Ledge is about 45 minutes away from us and it was a nice drive over there. We went through Ballard and it was kind of cool. It is like a upper-middle class suburb was just plopped in the middle of a forest.

Hey! I found a handsome guy by the lake!

On our drive up, we saw several cars with their dogs out on the back! It was pretty crazy. I don't know if I'd want my dog on the back while I'm going 60 miles per hour. But the dogs didn't seem to mind. When we got to the parking lot it was kind of crowded. Prior to going, I had heard that this is one of the more popular hikes since it is so close to the city.  For some reason I didn't think there would be this many people. But once we got going it wasn't that bad. There was a couple though that was right on our ass. I finally stopped to the side to take a drink of water because it was making me anxious that someone kept following you closely, when you are just trying to leisurely enjoy your hike. 

All ready to go with his day hiking pack!

The view off of the ledge

When we got to the ledge it was fairly crowded. There were about 20+ people on the ledge. To be honest, I felt a bit nervous because there were so many people! If it had only been like 6 people, then I would have gone out further to see the view. But there are so many people with backpacks that are preoccupied taking photos or selfies, meh. I just didn't want to venture out closer to them. Wayne agreed too, so we took a few photos then headed back down.

Wayne: "Look away deep in thought!"

My thoughts: "My butt hurts sitting on this gigantic rock!"

Overall, the hike itself was great. It was probably in the low 60's but once we got moving we weren't cold. The hike up was pretty engaging. We first started out near the lake and then moved into the forest. The trail would fluctuate too (either uphill or downhill.) I was pleased since my ankle felt pretty good. If we go again, one thing is for sure, we will leave earlier! There was way too many people. I'd rather go up leisurely then run into people on my way back down. It was funny though, in the morning you could see the people that were dedicated about hiking. They had the hiking gear on, hiking outfits and equipment. When it hit around noon (when we headed back down) up came the people wearing jeans, GAP sweaters and Victoria Secret sweatpants. Once we got to the ledge though the views were spectacular. I don't know, words really can't explain the feeling you get that you're on top of the world (okay not really) but I guess when you have that sense of accomplishment. I can only imagine how people that successfully climb mountains for a living feel.

We then went over to Ballard to get some bibimbap. It wasn't the great, but it did the trick. It filled my tummy! :) We totally passed out when we got home. When I woke up, we then made Trout Almondine from Blogging Over Thyme for dinner. I didn't really have a chance to take a lot of photos of making it, but we grabbed some fresh trout at Whole Foods. I had stumbled upon Laura's website randomly.  Her recipes look delicious but I also found her story was very inspiring. She went to culinary school and documented her experiences on her blog. After she successfully graduated she then went into marketing and communications for a speciality foods company. The fact she was able to chase her desire of going to culinary school and stay true to what worked best for her is admirable. Read more here. 

Anyways, I'll get started on my thoughts of making this bad boy fishy: Let me tell you, de-boning a fish is effing hard. The fins and backbone was still intact. I had a sharp knife but I was fumbling a lot. It just turned into a fishy mess. But it was a good lesson. I want to continue to work with fish more so I can learn how to properly de-bone and gut a fish. Then I seasoned the trout with salt and pepper then dredged it in flour. Wayne helped out by making the asparagus. After seasoning the fish, I cooked it in the pan and then made the sauce. 

Our crazy fire alarm went off halfway through making the food! The alarm kept screaming in a female with an accent, "BEEP BEEP! Fire! Fire!"  My first reaction was that the parchment paper under the asparagus caught fire. But when I opened the oven, the asparagus was perfectly fine. We guess the alarm detected some smoke around the oven. But we didn't see any smoke. In our previous apartments, our alarm would go off and it was obvious to us.  Meh, it was weird. I hope it doesn't happen again! Stupid sensitive alarm. 

Ta-da! Finished product! But the sauce, the sauce was fantastic! I love capers. They are like tiny balls of sourness. I love putting them in my tuna salads. Despite how difficult preparing the fish was, the dish turned out quite well. Trout reminds me of salmon except not as fishy and it turned out really good with the roasted asparagus and pineapple. The fish was lightly flaky and the caper sauce solidified the meal. 

After dinner we watched the movie, Hector and the Search for Happiness.

I was surprised. The movie got low ratings. I thought it was a fantastic movie with a lot of heart. 

I believe that happiness isn't a constant state. Nothing in this world is constant. If it is, then it is not growing. I think love encompasses many aspects of happiness. I think there are people out there that do believe happiness is made out of money. Which might not true to everyone but it is to that person. It doesn't make their means of happiness wrong, it its just different. Or like a person that just wants their family to be happy. Or another person has their work be their source of happiness. Both are forms of happiness in my mind. Just the equation doesn't work for everyone. I think we are also socialized to believe we can obtain happiness. That if you are successful businesswoman, with a loving family, lots of friends then you are happy. But life doesn't work out that way. Sometimes what we believe is happiness doesn't turn out to make us happy.

When I was growing up soccer made me happy. But as a grew older, the happiness got sucked out of it. I still love the sport, but there are so many memories (both good and bad) attached to it. It is hard to find that happiness again. But now, one of my moments of happiness occurs when I cook. There is an essential need to eat food. So it makes me feel like I have a purpose in my actions. But then I have the freedom to create what I want. No one tells me what to make or how to make it. I get to release my creativity. 

Then I share it with people I care about. I love how Wayne will eat anything I make. He won't judge it either. Which when I cook, it feels like a piece of my soul and pride goes into it. He enjoys it and we experience it together. Food can become a journey and what is awesome is I get to create this journey ever so often a week. Another thing that makes me happy is Wayne. To be honest, when we first met each other I never thought we would last this long. But as time goes on, I know he's the one for me. Sure, thing aren't perfect (nothing in life is.) But when things get tough or when I need someone to lean on, I know he'll be there and vise versa. That he'll grow as a companion and is willing to explore life with me. 

Blogging Over Thyme's Trout Almondine recipe can be found here.

Sty tuned for more adventures!

Emma 

Sweet Potato Shepherd's Pie & Baileys Irish Cream Cookies

This post is super delayed.
I've been kind of busy and after I got done cooking all of this food, I didn't feel like posting about it!
We did a Pi Day Dash on March 14th (3.14 get it?) My ankle felt wonky but I was able to finish the race! My time also wasn't that bad having a healing ankle and not running a whole lot!

Plus the best part was we got pie at the end! I think one of the irritating things out here in Seattle is that they mention "pie" but instead for pizza. When I think of "pie" I think of an actual pie! So, I was quite happy to get actual pie after the race. Not as good as Achatz Pies though. Michigan represent!
Here are some photos:

Wayne finishing on the left side.

Me looking like I'm dying on the left... lols!

 For St. Patrick's day I made an awesome Sweet Potato Shepherd's Pie from Cook Like a Cavewoman and Baileys Irish Cream Cookies from Buttercream Blondie. I haven't really had a chance to dapple around their sites. But it looks like they might have some other awesome recipes I might want to try out! I pretty much did a Google search on Irish inspired paleo recipes. I don't know, I just didn't feel like doing corned beef and cabbage this year. I think I tend to lean towards making a Shepherd's pie because you literally just throw stuff together and cook it. I like that it is simple.

Anyways, let's get started.

Pretty much I chopped up a bunch of sweet potatoes and boiled them until they got soft. Then I mashed them up with some grass-fed butter and fresh rosemary!

Then I also chopped up some onion, celery, carrots....

...cauliflower, rosemary and garlic!

Next, I cooked up some grass-fed beef with the onion till soft, then added the rest of the veggies. I added some beef broth, tomato paste, coconut aminos, rosemary and some ground cinnamon. Then threw it in my handy dandy casserole dish. 

Then I took the Mashed Sweet Potatoes and smoothed them on top. 

Ta-da! Finished product number one! This was really delicious. I loved the sweet potato topping with the meaty filling. Wayne said this was on his list of favorite dishes!

After scarfing down dinner, I then got started on making the cookies. Wayne was excited to taste these. He even posted on Facebook about it! Way to add pressure dude. 

He is a cutie though :)

Okay, I like baking and sweets but I have a certain time limit. I like cooking and baking but if it takes longer than 2 hours, I get antsy. I lack patience and I felt these took too long for me. I really wanted to enjoy making them but it just hit a point where I just wanted them to be done already. I think for some that have more patience, it would be really fun to do. Might I also mention, I suck at rolling. I don't know why either. Maybe I lack technique, patience or pressure. But whenever I roll dough out, (be that pie dough, cookie dough or whatever) it never seems to turn out perfect. I have one side that is perfect then the rest of the sides are too thick or too thin. 

Ta-da! Finished product number two! I was exhausted. They look really cute though don't ya think?

When we ate them after baked, I wasn't a huge fan. The cookie turned out more like a shortbread cookie. But the Baileys filling was delicious. However, we found after a day in the fridge, these tasted much better. I think maybe because the butter used in the cookies needed to get cold again? Not sure. In short, they turned out pretty good. Would I make them again? Probably not. But they do look super adorable.

Cook Like a Cavewoman's Sweet Potato Shepherd's Pie recipe can be found here. 

Buttercream Blondie's Baileys Irish Cream Cookies recipe can be found here. 

Emma 

Ginger Scallion Pork Meatballs

Wow I can’t believe it’s already mid-March. It kind of feels like we have been living here a lot longer. We had a long weekend. We went up to Leavenworth and went snowmobiling with some friends. Some of my friends were going skiing at Stevens Pass. I really wanted to snowboard but I had recently hurt my ankle while working out. I was doing box jumps and landed on my left ankle funky. I always had ankle problems, so I knew I needed to take it easy.

Blue skies!

Wayne and I

#selfie!

My gut was telling me if I snowboarded, I would screw it up even more. Plus I was worried about the snow conditions. Good thing I went with my gut. For snowmobiling, the weather was absolutely perfect! It was like 65 degrees and sunny. Wayne and I took turns driving and the sun felt spectacular. It was surreal to see the mountains in the distance. We had a fun time doing that plus I made a nice lunch for friends. I think they liked it.

Pretty much this week, I’m resting my ankle and taking it easy.

Currently, I’m reading “Still Alice.” It is probably on my top 5 – hardest book to finish list. Not because it is so technical, but because it is so dense in emotion. It’s tough reading about the descent into Alzheimer’s. But I really like Lisa Genova’s writing. She really pulls you into the character and how it feels to be in their shoes. I want to see the movie with Julianne Moore. I heard she did a fantastic job portraying the main character. Plus I like her as an actress. Anyways, let’s get started.

So, tonight I made Paleo Ginger Scallion Pork Meatballs from Zenbelly’s cookbook. Wayne kept eating everything in sight while I was making this! He apparently was super hungry so he inhaled these after I finished baking them. I really liked making these because they were so simple! Pretty much I just threw all together some ground pork, fresh ginger, coconut aminos, fish sauce, coconut flour and scallions. 

Big mess.

 

Cute little meatballs.

Ta-da! Finished product! I added a quick Napa Cabbage Stir fry with onions, and bacon. I felt like it needed some type of base.  I thought these were really good and simple. They kind of reminded me of Dim Sum shumai dumplings - just without the dumpling wrapper. I think these go in my favorite recipe binder since they're so simple. Stay tuned for more!

Emma

Cabbage Rolls

It's been a while since my last post. Wayne and I have been sick the past couple of days. I think we got the flu (correction, I believe Wayne got the flu and passed it onto me). I work from home so I don't leave the apartment and mingle with people as much as he does! Anyway, yesterday I pretty much slept all day and drank a TON of fluids. I feel much better today but Wayne is still a sick mess. Poor guy. At least he has me around to take care of him (somewhat.) I make sure he has enough water and Kleenex but I won't sit near him and listen to the hacking/coughing. 

It kind of sucked because we had to cancel our plans this weekend. Yesterday, we were planning on going to a Seattle bar and watch the DePaul Men's basketball game. The alumni department had a Seattle meet up event.  But yesterday, we were so sick we barely had the energy to move around the apartment. Then today we were going to get brunch with some friends. But again, Wayne is like a cesspool of germs with his coughing and runny nose...The last thing I want to do is get our friends sick. Anyways, I felt a little better and decided to cook something new today. 

I follow Stupid Easy Paleo on instagram and I always like her posts. This is first blog entry I've done with one of her recipes. Please check out her Paleo Cabbage Rolls recipe here. Her recipes are very straight forward and don't call for a lot of steps. I tend to avoid recipes that call for a million steps because I like cooking but I don't like waiting! I think next time I make cauliflower rice in advance and then use the leftovers for this dish. Let's get started!

Itty bitty cabbage packages!

 I've never made Polish dishes before so I was pretty excited to try this one out. I've been kind of in a rut with inspiration. Maybe it is because I've been sick...I have found myself grabbing things that are super easy and don't call on a lot of energy to cook. Like rice, eggs and no-nitrate hot dogs (rice is not paleo I know) but it's easy on my stomach! Or soup...we have been having soup quite a bit. Anyways, first, I took some green cabbage and boiled it. That way I could use the leaves for the wraps. 

Isn't this purple cabbage pretty? When I saw it at the grocery store, I felt inclined to use it instead of regular white cauliflower. I chopped off any bad spots and then put it in my blender to make the "rice." I also chopped up some white onion and cooked it with the cauliflower. 

Then I mixed up some ground beef, ground pork and the cauliflower mixture together. There were also some seasonings added too! Then, I rolled them up into little packages! It took a while to figure out how to roll them up, but after I got the hang of it, it was kind of fun! Stupid Easy Paleo has a video down below that shows you how to roll these if you struggled like I did. Next, I put some tomato sauce and diced tomatoes for the bottom and also on top of the rolls.

Then I baked them in the oven. Oh man...the apartment smelled really good!

Ta-da! Finished product! These were really good! I liked how simple it was and tasty it turned out. The rolls were meaty but not to heavy and the tomato sauce added enough juiciness! Yum! This was perfect for an early dinner/late lunch! I wrapped up the leftovers for later if we get hungry again.

Again, please check out Steph's, (Stupid Easy Paleo) website. Her recipe is here with all the measurements and instructions. It looks like she has a ton of great recipes on her website and I know her book, The Perfomance Paleo Cookbook, is on my list of cookbooks to get! P.S. I'm not asked to endorse this, I just want to give credit where it is due and share the fun recipes I try out!

Stay tuned for more.

Emma