Hi, everybody! Sorry it’s been so long since Nick and I blogged last. We’ve settled in at home and haven’t really had anything blog-worthy to talk about lately. We’re both very happy and doing well, though!

The weather was beautiful yesterday (sunny and cloudless, temperature in the mid 50’s), so we went for a walk to nearby Meadowbrook Park (pictured above). It’s a peaceful little sanctuary that’s home to diverse wildlife (ducks, beavers, cranes, geese, otters, etc.) and interesting architecture. We saw lots of ducks and a handful of Canadian geese while we were there.

Homemade square pizza with pepperoni and basil

In Seattle, we are surrounded by mountains. There are the Cascade Mountains to the east and the Olympic Mountains to the west. The mountains are absolutely stunning on clear days — especially this time of year, when they’re still covered in snow. There’s a scenic spot nearby that we went to yesterday that has a great view of the mountains. I didn’t have my camera on me, but I’ll try to get a picture another time.

Nick has been craving Jet’s Pizza lately. It’s a Michigan pizza company that makes deep dish, square pizzas… and there isn’t anything like it (that we’ve found) in the Seattle area. So, Nick decided we should make our own! He ordered some pizza pans online from a company in Michigan (the same or similar to the ones Jet’s uses) and we found a “foolproof pan pizza” recipe. We made the dough and sauce from scratch and had our homemade Jet’s-inspired pizza for dinner tonight. It turned out really, really good!

Outdoor Bistro Set

So that we can enjoy our backyard a bit more, we got an outdoor bistro set over the weekend. We had been browsing for small outdoor dining sets for a while and fell in love with this set’s mosaic stone tile tabletop. We like that we can eat outside now and it’s nice to have somewhere to sit when we’re grilling.

We’ve been neglecting the garden lately since we’ve been so busy, but we had some time this weekend to tend to it. Nick and I are both totally new to gardening, so it’s been fun learning about taking care of everything. We want to plant some more herbs, but we’ll have to wait until next year for that.

Our New BBQ Grill

One of the things that Marie and I were really excited for about getting a house was the ability to have a barbecue grill. This was a high priority purchase for us since summer just started and something about summer time grilling is just so appealing. Today, Marie’s dad, Larry, came over and we went grill shopping with him. Marie and I had already been scouting out grills and found two different style grills in our price range and size at Lowe’s. After having Larry take a gander at them and approve of either, and with some extra help from a friendly sales person at Lowe’s, we made a decision and went home with a grill. It only took the two of us just under an hour to assemble it. Assembly was easy, and the instructions were clear to read so it was a breeze.

Tandoori Chicken

While Larry was over we cooked tandoori chicken for dinner. He’d never had it before, but it’s a favorite of ours since discovering tandoori chicken last year. To fancy it up a bit we grilled red peppers and made saffron rice instead of the standard white rice. Of course we also grilled up a couple of naan breads to accompany the meal. It was a hit and Larry said he’d love to help us eat it next time we cook it.

The recipe we decided to try out first is called Crunch Tortilla Chicken with Avocado Dip. It was delicious and has earned a spot on our cook frequently list. It does take a bit of prep since the chicken has to marinade for 2 hours, but other than that it’s an easy recipe and we keep most of the ingredients for it in the house. A jalapeno pepper and avocado are the only ingredients we’d need to go out of our way to pick up.

The only thing I would change is to prepare some Spanish rice or something a little more exciting than corn with it next time. We also had avocado dip left over, so we’re going to try it on tacos tomorrow. If that works out we’ll probably plan tacos for a day or two after this meal in the future, otherwise we’ll cut the dip portion in half.

A special thanks to Daisy, Lisa, and Lori for the awesome house warming present!

Nick and I spent Christmas with family at my grandparents’ cabin. It’s a beautiful log cabin and my favorite place to spend Christmas. Nick and I flew out here for Christmas a few years back and it actually snowed on Christmas (many people are surprised to learn that it hardly ever snows here in western Washington)! This year, though, it rained. December has actually been a pretty dry month in Seattle, so it was a bit of a surprise to see the rain.

On Christmas Eve, we had our traditional Swedish dinner consisting of swedish meatballs, potato sausage, lefse, etc. I made the layered jello salad again, but this time, I didn’t mess it up! Yay! Nick and I also made oblaten, which is a German chocolate & wafer dessert his grandmother used to make every Christmas.

Nick, Amanda, and I also had a pre-Christmas celebration with Dad, because he was going to eastern WA for the holidays. The weekend before Christmas, we invited them over and Nick made roast beef and mashed potatoes.

Nick and I got ourselves the Lord of the Rings extended edition for ourselves for Christmas, so we invited Amanda over yesterday for a LOTR marathon. We watched the Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers yesterday and Amanda and I finished off The Return of the King this morning. Each movie is roughly 4 hours long (2 Blu-ray discs each!) in the extended edition, so it took us a while to watch everything.

Sorry for the text-only post. I took a few pictures on Christmas and Christmas Eve, but they didn’t turn out well. Whoops!

Nick, me, and Amanda at Grandma and Grandpa W's

A few weeks ago, Nick, Amanda, and I visited our grandparents in the Tri-Cities (in Eastern Washington, about a 3.5 hour drive). We were very busy while we were there! Grandma and Grandpa W (Dad’s mom and stepdad) took us out to dinner at Red Lobster (where we feasted on crab!) and P.F. Changs. We also picked peaches (nectarines weren’t quite ripe enough yet – darn!) and went to a fruit market that had GIGANTIC Walla Walla onions. We also got to spend some time with Jackie (Grandma’s sister), Luther and Esther (Grandma’s brother and his wife), Gary and Karen (Dad’s brother and his wife. Thank you for the home-grown veggies, Karen!), and Grandma and Grandpa D (Dad’s dad and stepmom). We played a few games of Shanghai Rummy while we were there, too.

Snoqualmie Pass Backup

On the way home from the Tri-Cities, our 3.5-hour drive turned into a 6-hour drive! :O There was an accident on Snoqualmie Pass that caused a huge backup for miles miles. We were literally parked on the interstate. There was a horse trailer up ahead of us and they took the horses out and walked them along the interstate. Some people desperately needed to use the bathroom and had to resort to going in the forest on the side of the road. Thankfully, we had food, water, and Internet access!

A week or so after the Tri-Cities trip, Mom, Amanda, and I went to the Washington Park Arboretum. We walked 4 miles through the park and along Union Bay. It was a very warm day, so by the end of our walk, Amanda and I were very hot, sweaty, and worn out. Mom was still full of energy, though! The pictures below are all from the trip to the Arboretum.

Arboretum Path

Marsh Island Walkway

Union Bay Canoers

Husky Stadium

Mom and Herbie

Totem Pole

Well, those are the most exciting things that Nick and I have been up to in the last few weeks. We’ve also tried a few new recipes, I suppose. I made Peach Muffins with the peaches we picked in the Tri-Cities, but they didn’t turn out that great. There was not a lot of peach flavor. We also made Chicken Shawarma, which was awesome. It wasn’t like the shawarma we had back in Michigan, but it was still really, really good. Tonight, Dad is coming over for dinner after his baseball game and we are going to try out a Baked Salmon Fillet recipe.

Blueberry muffins

Since we have so many blueberries, I decided that it was time to do something with them! What a brilliant idea, huh? I always make blueberry muffins with mix from a box, so yesterday was my first time making blueberry muffins from scratch. I used a recipe I found online for “To Die for Blueberry Muffins” and the muffins turned out great. My only complaint was that the muffins were a little too blueberry-y, perhaps because the blueberries were pretty big. The muffins sure made the apartment smell amazing, too.

Yesterday afternoon, Amanda called me to see if Nick and I wanted to remove another post-it note by going to Alki Beach Park yesterday evening. Why, sure! So after Nick got off work, we headed out to West Seattle. We walked along the beach and then went to Duke’s Chowder House for dinner. Duke’s was right off the beach, so we had a nice view of the water while we ate. Or well, Mom, Amanda, and Nick had a nice view. The setting sun was directly in my eyes, but Mom saved the day by sitting on a booster seat (lol!). Thanks, Mom.

Pictures of our dinner:

Amanda and I got the NW Coast Dungeness Crab & Bourbon Chowder (yum!), Nick ordered the Wild Copper River Cedar Plank Salmon (he loved the asparagus that came with it! O_O), and Mom got a triple chowder sampler with NW Coast Dungeness Crab & Bourbon Chowder, Lobster Pernod Chowder, and Cajun Chicken Corn Chowder.

Pictures of Alki Beach Park:

Playing Munchkin

A few days ago, Nick and I bought Munchkin, a role-playing card game that we’ve been wanting to try out. On Saturday, we went down to visit Amanda and brought Munchkin with us. We had fun wielding the Rapier of Unfairness while wearing the Horny Helmet. Together, we fought monsters like the Gelatinous Octahedron, Flying Frogs, and the Wannabe Vampire (which Nick avoided by shouting “Booga booga!”). We got cursed with Chicken On Your Head a few times, too. I think Nick and I will be picking up a couple expansion packs in the near future.

Tandoori Chicken

For dinner on Saturday, Nick and I tried another new recipe: Tandoori Chicken, which we ate with rice and naan bread. It was really good and very flavorful, but a little spicy for me… though that was probably because someone forgot a couple ingredients.

One of the awesome things about our new apartment is that we live right next to Seattle’s second largest park, Magnuson Park. It is located on a former Navy airfield and there are still old military buildings throughout the park. Seattleites even play tennis in the old hangar.

A beach at Magnuson Park

Nick and I visited Magnuson Park for the first time yesterday. We spent an hour walking nearly 3 miles to, from, and around the park. The weather was fantastic (sunny and temperatures in the mid-70’s), so it was a nice day to visit the park. Speaking of the weather, the last couple weeks have been amazing and the 7-day forecast shows more sunny, warm days ahead. I love Seattle summers!

There were lots of people at Magnuson Park – out on their boats, swimming, playing frisbee, sunbathing, barbequeing, walking, biking, playing baseball,… We even saw a group of people playing cricket!

This last weekend was Seafair weekend, too, so there were lots of events going on in Seattle, including Blue Angels performances. Although Nick and I didn’t get to the park in time to see them, we certainly heard them practicing this last week!

Quick lemon garlic fish

I’m glad that Nick and I (finally) visited Magnuson Park and I’m sure we will continue to go for many walks there in the future.

For dinner, Nick and I decided to try something new. I found a recipe online for Quick Lemon Garlic Fish that looked yummy and pretty easy to make. We used the recipe for the marinade (parsley, lemon, garlic, olive oil, salt, and pepper), but we baked the tilapia in the oven rather than grilling it. We had steamed broccoli and corn on the cob for side dishes. Everything was delicious, especially considering that it was Nick’s first time cooking fish! For dessert, we had fresh strawberries. Yum!