Salmon, night 2

Since Matt only used half the salmon, Nile cooked the other half. She didn't know what to do so check Fumi's food blog and found this recipie using miso and mayonase. It came out very well. Thanks Fumi!
マットが使わなかった鮭の残りが有ったからどうしようか悩んだ後で文ちゃんのみそ焼きレシピを使わせてもらいました。おいしかったです。文ちゃんありがとう!

Sunday Night Dinner 日曜日の夕御飯

On Sundays, Nile has to work so Matt started making dinners for Nile. The first Sunday, Matt used the salmon that has been sitting in the freezer. Matt used Lynne Rossetto Kasper's recipie that Matt found online.
日曜日はマットは休みだけどナイルが仕事がある日だからマットが御飯担当になりました。担当第一回目は冷凍庫で宝の持ち腐れをしていた鮭。レシピはマット大好きなラジオ料理番組のひとのです。

Matt also made dessert too. It is a strawberry-rubarb tart made with almond crust from our favorite baking book: Macarina Bakery Cookbook.
この日マットはデザートまで作ってくれました。イチゴとルバーブのアーモンドタルトで私たちが今一番好きなマカリナベーカリーの料理の本のアモーンドタルトのレシピを使いました。

Can you please make dinner next week? 来週もよろしくね!

Flavor of sping 春の味

Nile went to Pike Place Market today and got some Fiddle Heads.　Nile cooked it with butter and lemon. Matt didn't like it at first but after Nile told him it goes well with Beer, he liked it.

今日ナイルがパイクプレースマーケットに行った時にぜんまいを買いました。バターで炒めた後でレモン汁をかけました。マットは始め苦いから好きじゃなかったけどビールト良くあうよってナイルが言ってからは好きになった（みたい）。

Pear Pancakes 梨パンケーキ

This morning we wanted pancakes so we made Bartlette Pear Pancakes. We blended the pear and the wet ingredence and then mixed in the dry. It was very good. Next time Nile wants it with cheese sauce.

今朝パンケーキが食べたかったから洋梨のパンケーキを作りました。まず梨を牛乳と卵と砂糖と一緒にブレンダーにかけてそれに小麦粉を混ぜました。おいしかったです。次回はチーズソースと一緒に食べたいです。

Asparagus pasta アスパラガスパスタ

Nile got some asparagus but didn't know what to do so she went online and found this recipie from Martha. It is an interesting recipie because it calls for Avocado! We weren't too sure but it was good. Tha other things there is sugar snaps, garlic and snow peas (the store Nile went to didn't have enough good looking sugar snaps). The recipe can be foud here.

せっかく買ったのに何をしていいか分かいアスパラガスを使いたくてインターネットでレシピを探した後でアメリカの栗原はるみ、マーサ・シュチュワートのレシピを見つけました。なぜこのレシピにしたかというとなんとアボカドが入っているから!　どうなるか分らなっかたけどおいしかったです。他の材料はにんにく、スナップピース、スノーピース（スナップピースが足りなかったから）れしぴ（英語です）はここです。

Dinner 晩御飯

The second night that Jennie and Angela were here we had a pasta dish from a Union Square Cafe cookbook we were borrowing from the libary. This is Linguini and spinach with a bread crumb and parmisian topping.
ジェニーとアンジェラが遊びに来た二日目のご飯は図書館から借りたニューヨークで有名なユニオンスクエヤーカフェの料理の本を見て作りました。ほうれん草とパスタの上にパン粉とパルメザンチーズがいっぱい。

It tastes better than it looks ;-)

見かけよりはおいしくできました。

Sculpture Park 彫刻公園

We visited the new sculpture park in Seattle. Nile had been once before with Meiko, but it was Matt's first time. The tree in the background is made out of stainless steel pipe. We took this picture for our niece Claire (she just turned two--Happy Birthday Clair!) who wants to see more pictures of us and fewer pictures of food.
彫刻公園に行ってきました。ナイルは前にも行った事があるけど(めいちゃんが遊びに来ていた２月)でも今回がマットは初めてでした。後ろに写っている木はステンレスのパイプでできたもの。この前２歳になったクレアは食べ物じゃなく私たちが見たいと連絡が来たので特別クレアの為に撮りました。

In the foreground is a sculpture that Matt thought was interesting, and in the background you can see two ferries racing for the other shore.
手前の彫刻はマットが興味を持ったもので、その後ろに２隻のフェリーが競争（嘘）してるのが見えます。

This giant typewriter eraser is a crowd pleaser.
その昔のタイプライター用の消しゴムはマット曰く皆のお気に入り。

Pizza! ピザ！

Jennie and her friend Angela visited us from Vancouver this weekend. We made pizza. Tonight's pizza had figs, goat cheve, and walnuts. (Cheve is a soft cheese.) It was pretty tasty
友達のジェニーとその友達のアンジェラが今週末遊びに来ました。晩御飯にピザを作りました。今晩のピザはいちぢく、くるみ、ヤギの柔らかチーズです。結構おいしかったです。

Cookies!クッキー！

Tonight we felt like cookies, so Matt baked the family recipe. 今晩マットがクッキーがほしいと言い出してマットがクッキーを作りました。

Matt's been reading a baking text book and by applying a couple of techniques from the book got these to come out the best yet. It is important to have your butter at room temperature and your eggs slightly above room temperature. When creaming the butter, use speed 2 for a long time instead of speed 4 or 6 for a short time. We were also running out of all-purpose flour, so he used cake flour.
最近パンやクッキーやケーキなど焼き物の教科書を読んでいるマット。それで習った知識を応用して作ったのがこのクッキー。ポイントは特にパターを室温にちゃんと戻してゆっくりゆっくり砂糖と前合わせること。今日は中力粉が切れたため、薄力粉を代用。

These were fluffy and melted in our mouths. The raw batter was also pretty good. :-)

とってもふわふわなクッキーができました。生地もとてもおいしかったです。

Dahlia Bakery Foodダリアベーカリーの食べ物

We went to Bainbridge Island again this weekend to talk to Sussy and Q-chan about their restaurant. It was a gorgeous day, so we walked down to the ferry. On the way we stopped at the Dahlia Bakery. There we got a sandwitch and cupcake for lunch.

今週末シアトルから３０分のフェリーに乗ってベンブリッジのすっしーとQ ちゃんのところに遊びに行きました。天気が良かったからフェリー乗り場まで歩いていきました。その途中でシアトル有名シェフのトム・ダグラスのダリアベーカリーに寄り道して昼ごはんのサンドイッチとカップケーキを買いました。

The sandwitch is marinated tofu with some other Japanese influenced toppings. Nile really liked it, and she doesn't usually like sandwitches. Matt thought it was okay. The cupcake wasn't quite as good as the Orange Chiffon cupcakes that Matt made the other day, but it was okay.
サンドイッチは豆腐の味噌マリネしたものに貝割れ大根、なます、そしてしいたけが入っていてナイルはおいしいと思ったけどマットはいまいちでした。カップケーキは見かけだけで味はマットが作ったオレンジシュフォンカップケーキのほうが全然おいしかったです。

On the island the magnolias were in bloom. We saw this one on the way to Sussy and Q-chan's house.
スッシーとQちゃんのうちに着く前にとってもきれいな木蓮が満開でした。

Stawberry Pancakes イチゴパンケーキ

We are starting to venture out to make some yummy things again. With the rest of the stawberries (left over from the donut incident) Matt made Straberry Pancakes. We hope that we're clear of our curse now!

少しづついろいろまた作り始めています。今朝(この前のドーナツの残りの）イチゴを使ってパンケーキを作ってくれました。これで悪運が終わったことを祈ってます。

All-purpose Flower vs. Cake Flower 中力粉と薄力粉

Since Nile made the Crab Suffed Mushroom, our kitchen has been cursed. Nothing since then has worked. Nile thinks it is because she made somthing yummy without trying all that hard.

Matt made strawberry donuts that flopped as part of it. Matt adapted a recipe from his Professional Baking book, but "to be safe" used cake flower rather than all-purpose flour. Therefore, we are posting this on our blog so we can all learn a lesson from this. When making donuts, don't use cake flour.


この前蟹肉詰めマッシュルームを作って以来運が悪いうちの台所。手抜きした罰が当たったように何もおいしくできない最近。マットが張り切って前の日の夜から準備して次の日の朝作ったイチゴドーナツも失敗でした(涙)。

イチゴドーナツのレシピがなかったから前使ったドーナツのレシピを使って作ったところ中力粉じゃなくて薄力粉を使ったのが間違いでした。

これを機会にみんな学習しましょう：ドーナツは中力粉。

Crab Stuffed Mushroom 蟹肉詰めマッシュルーム

The other day, Nile had to go to Whole Foods for Takashi, and found this at the fish section: Crab meat stuffed portebella. She bright it home and cook it at home and it was yummy. Easy food can be great when you get it from a great source.

この前家のお父さんのお使いでホールフーズ(とてもおしゃれなスーパー）行った時に魚売りのコーナーで見つけた蟹肉詰めの巨大マッシュルーム(ポートベラ）。家で焼いて食べたらとてもおいしかったです。手抜き料理もいい所からだとおいしいですね。

Smoked Salmon Salad スーモクサーモンサラダ

We went to the Pike Place Martket and got some smoked salmon and made a salad with it. It was very good (although the salmon here is burried with other toppings).

この前シアトルで有名なパイクプレースマーケットに行った時にスーモクサーモンを買ってきたからそれでサラダを作りました。(サーモンが他の具に隠れて見えないけど)とてもおいしかったです。

Donut 1

While Nile was hard at work this morning, Matt made donuts. First he researched donut recipes online and put together a spreadsheet with the baker's ratio comuted for each of the key components. He also added the recipe for "Airspeed Donuts" from the back of the Top Pot donut box.
The recipe used was:
1c flour
1/8c milk
1/2T vinegar
1/4T butter (melted)
1 egg
1/4c sugar
1/4t soda
1/8t salt
1/4t vanilla
1/8t cinnamon
1/8t nutmeg

Cook in 375 F oil for 1 minute per side until light brown.

The recipe was based on the median donut recipe from the research he did. It was a very soft dough, and he was unable to cut it successfully without adding more flour. This resulted in a slightly over-worked dough.

Still, pretty tasty. :-)

squid!

Nile has been watching a lot of NY Times videos. This is a recipe by Mark Bittman that contains jalapenos. We wern't sure how hot it would be with the seeds, so we took out the seeds. Next time we're going to leave the seeds in. The recipe can be found at: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/14/dining/141mrex.html?ex=1175140800&en=693590bf8709ad64&ei=5070. For greens we used arugula.

Hanami 花見

We found a nice afternoon (that seem to be far and few between these days ) and had a picnic at Volunteer Park. We sat under our favorite tree and had a great time.





Since we sprung forward, we didn't stay till sunset. Maybe we'll go back before the end of the cherry season.

Stinkey day at UW greenhouse

Nile went to visit the UW greenhouse, that happed to be a very stinkey day.

dinner on March 9th

Nile was feeling especially creative that day so she cooked a few 1st time foods:
kabu radish with tofu skin (age), bacon with collard green and kabu leaves, stuffed Thai eggplants.

Snow Shoing

We wanted to go snow shoing on Superbowl Sunday, and thought it would be a great day since everyone else would be watching the game. Unfortunately, everyone else thought it would be a great idea, and it was all booked up. So, we got the next available date which was the first Saturday in March!

Here's Matt playing in the snow. He's never seen so much snow in his life. There was 12 feet of accumulation and 20 or more pushed up from the plows.

We went with Russell and John. They were nice enough to drive, which we really appreciated. Even though our car has seen snow before, we've never driven on a mountain pass. Fortunately the weather was perfect.



Snow shoes were included as part of the hike. They wern't the tennis racket kind that we wanted, but instead were much more functional and bright red.


This outhouse was completely snowed in. It was only partially accessible because the tree well created by the tree standing next to it. The tree in the other picture is completely hollow on the inside, but still healthy. This is possible because all of a trees nutriance flows through the few inches near the surface of the tree. The core is only for stability.



Here our guide is telling us about some hazards of snow shoing. This hole in the ground goes down 12 feet to a small creek below. Falling in could mean that you'd be stuck for quite a while. Matt was just excited to see a big hole in the ground. Our guide also talked to us about some ecology of the area in the winter. This lichen is food for deer, and some other animals. Humans don't have the enzymes to digest it, so you shouldn't try eating this to survive if you had to.



Matt liked these natural snowballs. The tree looks a lot like a snow man, and the snow ball on the right was created by a small piece of snow that rolled down the hill and got bigger and bigger. Literally, the snowball effect. :-)