Return of the veg

We missed veggies last week because we were gone. This week's haul was fantastic. I did trade some of the tomatoes and zucchini for pickling cucumbers though.

We got: Dill, cherry and regular tomatoes, beets, lettuce, pickling and slicing cucumbers, garlic, green onions, patty pan squash, yellow squash, carrots, potatoes, beans.

I made refrigerator pickles with the cucumbers, sauteed the purple and yellow beans with some garlic and olive oil. Green onions went on pizza tonight, with the tomatoes made into the sauce. We're still working through the rest.

Camping on the coast

After my work meeting in Newport ended we met up with Jeremy and Cassidy and their kids for a camping weekend. Being mid-July, all the campgrounds were at capacity, so Steve was in charge of checking all the nearby campgrounds for vacancies. As it turns out, he found a fabulous walk-in site at a campground about an hour south of Newport (Washburne). Our shady, wooded site was at the end of the walk-in path, so it was pretty private, and plenty big for both tents and all our chairs to fit around the fire. Naturally, I didn't

During the morning on Saturday we went to the Newport aquarium because it was a bit rainy, but while we were there the skies cleared up and it was a gorgeous, warm day. After the aquarium we went to Neptune Beach to do some tidepooling (Jeremy is a marine biology professor, so fun to explore with!).

It was fun to camp with friends, they introduced us to a new camp dinner idea - chicken quesadillas - that were really, really good (the secret to making them camping friendly is to use canned chicken). And I think we got their kids hooked on pudgie pies as a great alternative to s'mores. I hope we can make this an annual event (at least!).

Aquarium fish. : )

Sea-side visit

My work trip to Newport was productive (for me) and Steve had fun checking out the town, walking the beach (several miles of it), and doing some drives up and down the coast.

We took our time with the drive down and back to Newport - highway 101 instead of the interstate...and we stopped both ways at the Tillamook Cheese Factory. They make good cheese, and they're one of the only places you can find cheese curds out here. Both times it was an absolute madhouse inside - So. Many. People. 

We were able to catch up with friends from Maryland, Jason and Emily, who now live in Newport. We hadn't seen them since we moved from Solomons in 2009, amazing how time flies. Now that we're all on the west coast, we're hoping to see them more often.

Steve watching the waves surge in.

The weather all week was surprisingly warm and sunny.  Which is guess is good, but given all the hot weather we've had in Olympia, I was kinda hoping for cool and cloudy.

Carnival at the lake

There's a carnival happening downtown! Steve biked downtown and after work I walked over to join him and wander through the rides, games, and vendors. It was great people watching, but that's about it. But since it was such a nice night, it was a nice stroll before going home to make dinner. If one of the food stall had been selling fried cheese curds, I'd have been all over that though.

The carnival is set up along the far side of the lake, and if you look close you can see that Steve is one of the people at the bottom of the hill (he's waiting for me to join him and texted me saying I should hurry up because "the vominator is waiting for us").  We didn't actually go on any rides though.

This week's veggies: carrots, cilantro, dill, lettuce, swiss chard, green beans, garlic, red potatoes, sugar snap peas, cherry tomatoes, 2 zucchini and a summer squash.  We're running out of ideas for how to use the summer squash and zucchini since we don't love them, so this week I sliced them up and am trying pickle them using the same recipe I used for the cucumbers last week. Those turned out amazing, so we'll see if it works.

CA pics

Oh, I almost forgot! I did get out twice to do non-work things in California last week. The day I arrived in town I went to the coast and went for a walk at Natural Bridge State Park.

Then, towards the end of the week my boss really wanted to go visit the "Mystery Spot"...a self-proclaimed gravity anomaly that makes all sorts of weird things happen (if you forget everything you every learned in physics and logic classes). It was entertaining enough (for $6).

I'm behind!

I was pretty busy last week with work travel, and Steve was holding down the fort at home (and picking up our veggies), so here's a late breakdown of what's new here.

The heat wave broke! We're now back in the 70s and low 80s in Olympia! I'm pretty stoked about the cooler weather. I was in Santa Cruz last week where the temps were in the low-mid 70s every day. Perfect. Oh, and I got rear-ended in my rental car, but the damages were all small dents that fell below the minimum size for needing to file an insurance claim. Next week, another trip for work (to Newport OR) that'll probably be a lot more stressful since I have actual tasks to do instead of just observing things.

Our veggies last week were again excellent. I'm really pleased with the variety again. Steve took a picture, but it's kinda blurry so I'll just write it out. We got: 2 small heads leaf lettuce (1 red, 1 green), beets, potatoes, broccoli, 1 bunch carrots, 1 lb cucumbers, 1 yellow squash, 2 zucchini squash, green beans, snow peas, 1 sweet onion, 1 head garlic, and basil.

I made homemade pickles with the CSA cucumbers, some of the garlic, and dill from last week over the weekend. Then tonight for dinner we made a Thai basil stir fry with chicken and tons of veggies from the CSA. It was better than most restaurants too, and I'm going to make this again soon since it uses a ton of veggies. Steve found his new favorite sauce - the Sriracha sauce made by Tobasco. It's not quite as spicy as the 'usual' brand we get and has more garlic flavor. Win-win, we love it.

Today at work we had to run up to Seattle for a meeting and ate lunch at a great place in Chinatown. My boss is from Taiwan and took us to her favorite dim sum place. She said it's her favorite because it's inexpensive, fast, and really authentic. It was definitely all of those things (though there was a wait to get a table since it's popular). She did all of the picking of dishes to try, which meant I tried things I probably would not have on my own...case in point: I tried a chicken foot. It was fried then soaked in a great-tasting sauce. But the sauce made all the crispiness of the frying go away, so the texture was too soft and flabby for my liking (kinda like a chicken wing that's not crispy enough, and far less meat on it). And honestly, I had a hard time mentally, knowing I was gnawing on a chicken foot and all the tiny bones. I think I would have liked it a lot more if it was still crispy. But I tried it! Also, the photo below is kind of gross so I'm sorry (at least I kept it small!). It's the chicken foot after I started nibbling on it and then I decided I definitely needed a picture. I don't know what I was expecting it to look like, but dang, it really just looks like a foot. MOM DO NOT CLICK ON THE PICTURE, you don't want to see it.

Yellowstone pictures

Steve made it home! Here's some awesome pictures...

Steve comes home today!!!!!!!

I'm so excited, Steve comes home today. I feel like he's been gone FOREVER. But it's only been two weeks. Once he's back we can post some pictures from the trip - he was in Yellowstone National Park for the past two days, so in addition to pictures of family and friends, it sounds like he's got a bunch of pics from yellowstone.  Mostly though, I just miss they guy and am excited to see him...for less than 24 hours since I'm leaving tomorrow morning for a work trip to California. :(

Oh, and something else fun - yesterday a friend from undergrad, Jeremy, was passing through Olympia with his wife Cassidy and two kids and we got together at a local park. We haven't seen each other since another friends wedding years ago, so this was a fun treat. They live in Oregon now, and we're already planning a camping trip together for the end of July down by the beach. Jeremy's a professor of marine biology so I'm hoping he can teach us all about the local tide pool inhabitants. How awesome is that?? I can't wait.

A bit late, but here was our veggie share from this past week. We're getting a good mix, I think. I wish we were getting some spinach and arugula and kale, but overall I'm pretty happy with what we are getting. This week I again ate all the shell peas pretty much instantly. Maybe someday I'll actually cook them, but I love them raw, right out of the shell. We also got sugar snap peas this week, and while I usually love them, these were a bit tougher than I like. We've had such hot, dry weather I think it's really taking a toll on some of the veggies (like peas!). Oh well, they were still pretty good. I made zucchini bread right away, and also cooked swiss chard with some of the garlic in olive oil and pretty much ate it straight out of the pan. Yum.

So this week: baby cabbage, carrots, lettuce, swiss chard, garlic, broccoli, shell peas, dill, sugar snap peas, onion, turnips, zucchini, cilantro.