See you there!

So many years ago, when I still lived with my parents and went to high school, we had crates of tomatoes. It was September and my mom’s tomato plants were just laden with them. My mom already cans salsa and tomato sauce, but there were still too many. So I took to the web and found a tomato recipe. Over the years I created my own, which I will share with you today. It is so delicious, my brother who doesn’t like tomato soup loves this recipe. I suggest you try it.

Fresh Tomato Soup

Step 1	Using a heavy saucepan set over medium heat, sauté onions in olive oil, stirring occasionally until tender and translucent, about 10 to 12 minutes.
Step 2	Stir in tomatoes, lemon juice, rosemary, celery seed, and basil (you can add other spices than these, I just like these ones) and continue to cook over medium heat stirring occasionally to prevent scorching, about 20 minutes or until the tomatoes have broken down and rendered much of their liquid.
Step 3	Puree soup in batches using either a food processor or blender. Then strain the mixture through a food mill or medium mesh sieve placed over a clean saucepan, discard remaining peel and seeds.
Step 4	Reheat soup mixture gently over medium-low heat, season with salt and pepper. Add heavy/light cream or milk to taste (anywhere from 1/2 cup to 1 1/2 cups or until you achieve the consistency and flavor you desire.) Season to taste.
Step 5	Just before serving (about 1-2 minutes before) add fresh basil, torn into small pieces to the soup.

Serves 4-6.

I suggest adding those spices or others, it really makes the soup what it is. Another option is adding orange zest instead of or with the lemon juice. This is a good recipe to use your split tomatoes in because it comes out the same whether they’re firm or soft.

If you’d like to freeze it, freeze it after you puree the tomatoes. After defrosting it, then heat and add the cream/milk and fresh basil. It’s so delicious in the dead of winter to have a hot bowl of fresh tomato soup.

Let me know how it goes!

You can also view the recipe here:

One site that I frequent to find some good deals is FatWallet.com.

I’ve found some decent deals there, like Women’s Day Magazine (15 issues) for $4.99 or Asics sneakers for $24.99. They also have cash back through the site, but I still recommend using Mr Rebates, Cashbaq and the like for all your online shopping.

The primary way to use this site to find deals is through the forums, and through the Top Deals list. If you take the time each day or every other day to at least skim the Top Deals, I’m sure you’ll find a diamond in the rough.

Today they have a 45% off coupon for Michael’s and black satin sheets on amazon for $15.99!

Happy deal finding!

To begin the tale of how I arrived at this dilemma, a little back story.

I grew up drinking, more like guzzling, 2% milk. I drank a lot of milk growing up. Numerous glasses a day, 20-30 oz probably. And my mother was happy with that, she’d rather I be addicted to milk than Coke.

But then my parents found that my brother had really high cholesterol so my mom slowly switched us to fat free milk. I didn’t mind, my dad protested a little. He wasn’t even a fan of the 2%. So for my teen years I happily drank fat free milk.

Now in my adult years I still drink a lot of milk. A glass in the morning, for a snack, when I don’t feel like water, at dinner. Actually pretty much every meal. For the last year I’ve been buying mostly fat free, but occasionally 1% or 2%. But after reading Musing of a Housewife’s blog and her switch to whole milk…I started to wonder.

You would think I would have thought about this before. In a college nutrition course I had to write a paper for milk, and one against milk. Now the one against milk really did disturb me, like the % of feces allowed to be in milk. Didn’t know that? It’s disgusting, really. But I’m too much of an addict to let the cons deter me.

My mom always told me that my dad never got sick because he was raised on raw whole milk. And it is true that I can’t remember a single time save once or twice he was ever bedridden with illness. And he rarely gets anything else. There might be something there, I’ll say there is.

Recently I came across an article that was printed in the New York Times on 12 February 2006. You can read it here at Full Harvest.

Basically it boils down that whole milk is a whole food. Every part of it works together to give you the complete nutrition it offers, the fat playing a key role in absorbing things like the protein and calcium. So if you drink fat free milk you’re missing out on most of the vitamins, not to mention that through the process of making the milk fat free they remove the vitamins anyway. Yeah, yeah they add things like vitamins A and D back in, but really, that’s just not the same quality. And don’t even get me started on how important vitamin D is, especially for those of us who live up North and lack the sunshine as a source.

Anywhoo, back to cow juice. The biggest con of whole milk is well, the fat content. But, according to the above article, people aren’t getting fat from drinking whole milk. Furthermore, low fat diets aren’t as beneficial as we think they are. Now there’s a lot of research behind these statements and I suggest you read the NYT article and books like Real Food: What to Eat by Nina Planck to learn more about what I’m talking about.

Another factor is exercise. You should be exercising every day, at least a few times a week. I am what I would call physically fit and at a very healthy weight so I’m not really worried about the fat in whole milk. So what does this boil down to? That I’m switching to whole milk, maybe organic if I can afford it. But with how much milk I drink this might not be realistic at the moment. The best would be raw, organic, whole milk from grass-fed cows, but I’m going to have a not-so-easy time finding that in addition to that costing a lot more than I want to pay.

What do you drink? Whole? Low fat? None?

Also, any input or feedback would be more than helpful. I want to learn a lot more about this topic.

Oh and sorry lovelies, the whole milk vs. 2%-fat free will have to wait. I’m so torn!

Alright, this icing recipe (do you say icing or frosting?) is a classic. It was a family favorite growing up. My mouth waters just thinking about it…

Caramel Icing

1/2c margarine
1c packed brown sugar
1/4c milk
About 2 1/2c powdered sugar

1. Melt margarine, add brown sugar.
2. Boil over low heat 2 min. stirring
constantly.
3. Add milk. Keep stirring until
it boils again.
4. Remove from heat and let cool.
5. Add powdered sugar gradually beating
after each addition until correct
consistency.

Now I should warn you, whenever I frost a cake a two layer cake with this it tends to…slide. I haven’t taken the time to figure out how to fix it yet, but at least make sure your cake is completely cool before frosting.

The picture of the cake above is from my birthday this year, beginning of August. The actual cake was a yellow rum cake. Imagine, rum cake with caramel icing. It’s as tasty as it sounds my friends. In fact I’m tempted to make one, my husband’s birthday is coming up…

At the last International Olympic Committee gathering to choose the 2014 Winter Olympics, I was there. Well, sort of. You see it was held in Guatemala at precisely the time I was visiting there (July 2007).

It was a big to-do there. Closed off streets for blocks around the event center. The newspapers chomping at the bit. It was actually quite exciting. There were 3 major world leaders in tiny little Guatemala, of course Putin being the most significant. There’s a video of his speech, he’s speaking English but the translator kind of talks over him on the video, located here. I heard that he bought a house to stay in just for the few days he stayed there, though that was never verified.

Look at Putin among the birds of paradise flowers, isn’t it nice?

Russia put on quite a show for the IOC. They even built the first ice rink in Guatemala (article can be found here) and brought in their most famous Russian ice skater (also happens to be my favorite), Evgeni Plushenko. I about died when I saw his picture in the Guatemalan newspaper, Prensa Libre. I had no idea he would be there before I saw that. They even said what hotel he was staying in. Don’t you know I kept my eyes peeled in Antigua and I swear I may have seen him in the marketplace. A pale, blonde Russian kind of stands out amongst Latinos. But I was headed somewhere…now I’ll never know.

The above photo was of him rollerblading with Guatemalan children shortly after he got there.

I’ve met him before at a Champions on Ice shindig, so my life is still complete. I’m also gunning for seeing him perform at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. I mean, this is the closest the Olympics will ever be to Seattle. You bet your bottom dollar I’ll be there. I’m still hoping to be chosen as a volunteer, but so far no word.

Do the Olympics excite you as much as they excite me? I used to dream of working for the IOC. I even took a quarter of French (one of the IOC’s official languages). I even plan to visit their headquarters in Switzerland someday. Have I mentioned that I am in love with Switzerland? No? Well that’s another post for a another day sweetums.

Next: My agonizing decision about whether to switch to whole milk. Help?

Remember how it hasn’t happened?

Well here it is folks! My top 10 favorite waterfalls, seen and unseen!

1. Multnomah Falls

   

• Location: Portland, OR

• Why:My handsome husband proposed to me here.

• Status: Seen

Photo Credit

2. Ipsut Falls (I don’t have a good photo of it, sorry!)

• Mt. Rainier, WA; near Ipsut Creek Campground

• Why: It has this huge rock at the bottom that the water runs over into a very calm pool. It’s very secluded in the backwoods of Mt. Rainier, difficult to get to now since the roads were damaged in the 2006 flood.

• Status: Seen

3. Semuc Champey

• Location: Coban, Guatemala

• Why: The water is so clear and blue! I swam in the little pools, they were so refreshing. It was a long trek down a dusty, one lane road, with numerous sharp turns and dropoffs…but so worth it.

• Status: Seen

• Note: This waterfall deserves it’s own post about the adventure, keep a look out!

Photo Credit

4. Plitvice Lakes National Park

   

• Location: Croatia

• Why: This is as close to Rivendell as anyone could ever get. Just look at it! It’s surreal!
  

• Status: Unseen, sadly.

Photo Credit

5. Clear Creek Falls

   

• Location: Yakima County, WA

• Why: I think the standing rocks at the bottom really appeal to me, they seem so unique.

• Status: Seen, but I have no real recollection of it, I was young.

Photo Credit

6. Pools of Oheo

   

• Location: Hawaii

• Why: I really have a thing for stairstep waterfalls

• Status: Unseen

Photo Credit

7. Hraunfossar

• 

• Location: Iceland

• Why: It’s so wide and blue! Agh, it’s so pretty it hurts.

• Status: Unseen

Photo Credit

8. Dynjandi (Fjallfoss)

   

• Location: Iceland

• Why: It combines stairstep waterfall with water sliding over smooth rocks, two of my favorite characteristics.

• Status: Unseen

Photo Credit

9. Thi Lo Su

• Location: Thailand

• Why: I love waterfalls that make me feel like I’m in Rivendell if you can’t tell…(shameless rhyme). There are a lot of amazing waterfalls that I easily could put on this list. To see more go to this site!

• Status: Unseen

Photo Credit

10. Shiraito

    

• Location: Japan

• Why: The color of the pool is what really catches me on this one.

• Status: Unseen

Photo Credit

Ok, so I said it was a top 10 list but it’s really impossible for me to narrow it down to 10. I would have included every waterfall on the Asia top ten list alone, you can view it here.

Waterfalls are magnificent, beautiful creations that are such a blessing. I praise God for every single one. Amazing!

What’s you’re favorite waterfall of the ones above? Not listed?

Stay tuned for the tale of Semuc Champey!

*I take no credit for any photos in this post, they’re sources are listed above.

For me and my husband to unpack it took 3 1/2 days. I include the 1/2 day because I unpacked nearly the entire kitchen on the first night. And I have broken down so many cardboard boxes it’s ridiculous, but I have recycled them like a good Seattle girl.

Now how to move to a new home?

• Begin packing 2 weeks ahead of time and be finished the day before.
• Rent a Penske truck, not U-haul, not Budget. Penske. Also get quotes for a variety of days and pick-up times, even drop-off points as this all effects the total cost.
• If you can help it then completely pack everything and sleep at a friends home the night before putting everything in the moving truck.
• Wrap furniture in sheets and blankets, some of our furniture was damaged because we mistakenly thought it would be alright.
• Got to a liquor store and ask for boxes, the dividers that are in them are perfect for transporting cups and glasses.
• Wrap dishes and breakables in clean clothing or towels, then you don’t have to wash the newspaper dust off of them when you unpack.
• Put the furniture in last into the truck so it’s the first thing out.
• And the number one tip is: Get as many friends/family as you can to help!

So there are many other facets to moving, though most of the rest of them that I have are apartment-living specific. Like making sure you either transfer or cancel utilities the day you move, and call ahead of time for internet since it takes a few days to transfer. Oh and lastly, forward your mail a week in advance.

Remember my previous post’s love story about Seattle? Well our roommate has only been in Seattle for a few days in his life. So we will introduce him to the wonders that be. Am I looking foward to it? You betcha.

And did I tell you that we already found the nearest bistro with great happy hour deals? It’s a great place. It’s modern, serves large meals, 2.50 beers during hh, amazing appetizers, and it has wifi. It’s our new Friday night spot. Did I mention the lovely outdoor seating with a view of the lake?

Later this week: Our new apartment and maybe even a picture or two!

The answer for me is 5. Well, soon to be 6 if you want to be technical. But that number is my whole life, and ironically also since I turned 18.

I didn’t move once in my whole 18 years.

Move #1: Into my first dorm, Mercer Hall.

Move #2: Then part way through the year I moved the 2^nd time to another dorm where I could have my own room.

Move #3: To my cousin’s basement where I lived for a summer before I was married.

Move #4: Into my first apartment with my husband.

Move #5: A move to Spokane for 4 months for a contract job. This weekend will be my 6^th move. And it will be back to Seattle. And I am excited!

My husband and I do not like Spokane. The culture just does not groove with us. The thing I like the most are the skywalks downtown, and Spokane Falls. And spring weather is better. Being close to Coeur d’Alene isn’t bad either, I really like it there. And no hurt meant to any local Spokanites, it’s just not our thing.

But Seattle is where the heart is, which is funny because neither of us ever lived in Seattle before college. I grew up about an hour away, he was several hours distance away. What can I say? We like coffee, we like rain (more like mist), we like salmon, and we like lots of green. We like all the parks, being surrounded by water, the transportation system, (Spokane’s is awful), we like islands, real mountains, ferries, cold weather, and trolls under our bridges.

Huh, this looks like a list. I should perhaps make a longer list, as it is such a favorite pastime of mine:

Seattle, why I love thee

-Seafood

-Northface jackets

-Amazing coffee shops

-Fish are thrown, not handed

-We have a super easy recycling system

-We don’t carry umbrellas (you know, because we have webbed toes)

-The view of Mt. Rainier on a sunny day after a month of clouds is always breathtaking

-Lawns are more like moss carpet

-I never have to call some computer specialist since countless friends are computer science guys

-The city may shut down in the snow, but man no one blinks an eye at a drizzle and rarely at a downpour

-Really tasty Asian restaurants

-Summer wildflower fields on Rainier, there are no words

-We measure distance in hours (as soon as I moved to Spokane I noticed that I started using miles…it was scary)

-We have our own mini Panama Canal (the Ballard Locks)

Ok so maybe I like Seattle too much. And trust me, you get used to the clouds and drizzle so fast, the pros outweigh the cons. Not that I want you moving to Seattle, I’d like it not to be crowded. I’m not saying Seattle is the best, but it is for me. Every large city I’ve been to does not compare, and I’ve been to a lot.

So what do you like about your city?

As in, you’d take a vacation with the point of touring just waterfalls?

Would you join WLA (Waterfall Lovers Anonymous)?

I introduce to you a not so anonymous waterfall lover: me! (surprise, surprise)

I have dreamed of going on a waterfall vacation as long as I can remember. My parents used to take me places specifically because they knew there was a waterfall there that I would like. And living in the great Pacific Northwest waterfalls can be found aplenty.

Now why have I gone off my rocker and started babbling about waterfalls? Well because my most wonderful husband surprised me by taking me to the one above on our 1st year anniversary. He has understood this love for waterfalls quite well. He proposed to me at this one below (Multnomah Falls):

Photo and credits found here.

Ah to reminisce. It was a chilly day, but sunny. We drove a few hours on Spring Break to visit friends in Portland, OR. On the way the boyfriend told me to read him directions. Well we exited at Bridal Veil Rd (coincidence?) and continued on the parking lot at the waterfall. I asked him why we were here and he said, “To go on an adventure!”

So we bought a peppermint mocha to share (my favorite drink, did I mention I love my husband?) and climbed the steep hill to the top of the falls. It’s quite the trek, let me tell you.

And a proposal took place. Now it was an intimate affair and not one I am willing to share here. But it was perfect.

Lo and behold we are now married. And we went to Palouse Falls for our anniversary and had a lovely picnic. I could see us visiting one every year on that day.

The day beforehand we went to Silverwood. It was alright, the Tremors rollercoaster was a lot of fun. So were the waterslides. But there were too many people for our tastes. (Ironic that we should say that, we are downtown Seattle natives…) I think it was all the families that were getting to the husband. He loves children, but I think it was too much for him.

Anyway, it was an amazing time. The husband bought me these and gave them to me at Palouse Falls. What is it about him and giving me jewelry at waterfalls? No complaints here.:

I adore pearls. And these earrings have small diamonds on the bottom to give them some sparkle. Very classy. If I had to define my favorite style it would be classic. At least that’s what I strive for.

But you know what else? I don’t have pierced ears. Now before you say,”And your husband didn’t know that?!” and,”You don’t have pierced ears?!” Just hold yer horses there pard’ner.

He does know. And yes I do not.

The earrings came with a story that my husband specially chose. You may find it here.

Now don’t go all crazy on me. The point of the story is that I am choosing to be is wife and serve him willfully the rest of my life. It’s a symbol of that loyalty.

Anyway, it meant a lot to me. And now I am to get my ears pierced in the next month or so. Then I can wear my beautiful earrings!

The reason I didn’t previously have holes in them was because my mom said I couldn’t til I was 16. FYI my mother doesn’t have her ears pierced and she’s in her 50s. A rare, but awesome thing.

When I turned 16 I just didn’t care and decided to hold off. When my husband and I were dating I asked him what he thought and he said he kind of liked the uniqueness of not having them pierced.

But here we are. And I’m happy. I love jewelry, I own a ridiculous amount of necklaces. So now I’m going to own a ridiculous amount of earrings.

What are your favorite pair of earrings?

To come: Pictures of my favorite waterfalls, some I’ve seen and some I am still hoping to see.