Going to the chapel...

Dani and Jared are getting married!

Yay!

But as everyone knows, there can't be a wedding without a bachelorette party.

And what better place to celebrate Dani's last days of singledom than Catalina Island?

The island of romance, romance...

This gem of a spot off the coast of Southern California was the perfect spot.

Jeremy graciously offered to captain the Morning Star for us, 26 miles across the Pacific.

Here we are. Me-Dani-Lauren-Christin.

We look festive right?

Here's Dani a few hours later.

The classic bachelorette.

Sash,

inappropriate necklace,

drink in hand.

She had her party pants on!

There was dancing, karaoke, and lots of laughter.

aka: memory making!

We even got a bit of exercise.

Biking our way up through a canyon to the top of the Wrigley Memorial.

You got that right.

We are hard core.

And then there was floating.

And beautiful sunshine.

And a boy named John,

where did he come from?

As you can see it was an amazing trip. Full of amazing food, margaritas, jet skiing, mild seasickness...all making for an incredible pre-wedding island getaway.

Okay Dani, now you can get married!

A preview of what's to come...

This is Dani....

 Our incredibly adorable bride-to-be.

This is us in Catalina.

(Minus Christin, the 4th member of our crew.)



And here's a preview of the awesomeness that was Dani's Bachelorette Extravaganza.

Details and more pictures to follow...

Dear Blog Readers,

I will be on a mini-vacation starting tomorrow and won't be able to update,

but please don't stop checking back here!

I plan to be back blogging on Monday with lots of fun bachelorette party pictures.

Enjoy the rest of your week and have a wonderful weekend!

xoxo

Classic Cooking

Up there next to roasting a chicken, making homemade jam has always seemed like something you just must know how to do.

I know, I'm ridiculous.

That being said, last night I made strawberry jam and it was so easy and so delicious.

Way better than that store-bought stuff!

Strawberry Jam

All you need:

4 C strawberries, washed, diced and mashed

1 C sugar

pectin

Follow the recipe included with your pectin, but basically you just bring the mashed fruit to a boil, add the sugar and pectin, then bring it back to a boil. Remove from heat and voila!

Let it cool and you've just made jam!

I had a problem last night though. Once the jam was made and jarred, I realized we didn't have any bread to put it on.

So I whipped out my delicious Paula Deen The Lady & Sons Savannah Country Cookbook and made some delicious Southern Tea Cakes.

The perfect solution to my jam dilemma.

Here's the recipe.

Southern Tea Cakes

Ingredients:

4 C all-purpose flour (I used unbleached white)

1 tsp baking soda

2 tsps baking powder

2 C sugar

2 eggs

1/2 C buttermilk (can substitute 1/2 C milk + 1/2 T vinegar)

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened

1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl sift flour, soda, and powder together. Add remaining ingredients and blend well. Dough should be soft. Roll dough out onto a floured surface until approximately 1/4 inch thick. Cut dough into desired shape and bake on a slightly greased sheet for 10-12 minutes.*

*I used parchment lined baking sheets and I also noticed I needed to add additional flour. The dough was too sticky at first.

This recipe will make around 4 dozen tea cakes. I shaped mine with a 1/4 C measuring cup. Just press down to cut out shape and roll away excess dough.

Delicious!

Also thought I'd share with you some photographic evidence of our totally awesome softball skills.

See Jeremy pitching?

And there I am catching and batting!

Proof.

And P.S. I got my tooth fixed this morning :)



Welcoming Summer to Portland

What a weekend!

Temperatures in the 80's,
amazing sunny skies,

and lots of summer fun.

Here's a little recap of the weekend, in highlight form.

Friday

Friday means softball. Our team, Prestige Worldwide, took on the David Douglas Day Care team.
Sounds intimidating, right?

We played like champs though and did our absolute best to defeat our opponents.

Unfortunately we lost both games and I took a ball to the jaw and chipped my tooth.

Awesome.

I'll be calling the dentist now.

Saturday

Saturday was spent enjoying the beautiful sunshine.

After waking up and watching the world go by with Buoy on our patio, I went over to the gym and squeezed in a spin class before Jeremy woke up.

When I got out of spin I saw I had an email from Foodbuzz.com congratulating me for making their Top 9!

Check it out by clicking here.

I was so excited! My recipe was in the top 9 out of thousands of entries!
Guess everybody loves fish tacos this time of year :)

Later in the afternoon, Jeremy, Buoy and I met up with our friend Matt and his adorable pup for lunch at the Lucky Labrador. Definitely a perfect spot on a sunny day.

Food, drinks, and dog-friendly!

Sunday

Sunday was spent helping Dani prepare for her wedding by doing a bit of shopping at Ikea. Then destressing by heading over to the City Fair and riding the carnival rides until we all felt like throwing up.

Matt and his girlfriend Carrie met up with us for dinner and then we headed back over to the fair. It ended up being an amazing day/night. Too bad it was a Sunday, makes for a tough Monday morning!

I hope all of you had an amazing weekend too! I will be updating sporadically over the next couple of weeks. Dani and Jared are getting married and I'm lucky enough to be involved in a lot of the pre-wedding excitement. Starting with the bachelorette party this weekend!

See you all back here tomorrow! xoxo

Family Taco Night

Who doesn't love tacos?

Last night we fired up the grill and made fish tacos.
They were perfect.

Here's how to make the easiest/most delicious fish taco dinner in the world.

What you'll need:

2 salmon fillets

1/2 head of cabbage

3 tomatoes

1/2 an onion

1 avocado

3 limes

cilantro

salt and pepper

corn tortillas

black beans

1. Make up a bowl of toppings. This wasn't exactly salsa (we had some fresh salsa on the side), but this was great for beefing up your tacos. I cut up some of the leftover cabbage from last night's dinner, diced 3 tomatoes, 1/2 of an onion, 1 avocado, 1 TBL cilantro, added the juice from 1 lime and a bit of salt and pepper.

2. Take two salmon fillets and place them each on a square of foil. Fold the foil up around the salmon, forming a boat. Pinch the ends. Add a drizzle of olive oil, the juice of half a lime, salt and pepper. Then seal up your foil and place on the grill for about 10 minutes. You want your salmon to be light pink and flaky. I've had a lot of trouble getting salmon cooked just the right amount, whether grilled or baked...but grilling it in the foil turned out perfectly!

3. When your salmon is all done, build your tacos! Corn tortilla...topped with some black beans, the cabbage/tomato/avocado mix, some extra cilantro, lime juice if you like and extra salsa if you have it on hand and want some extra spice.

We ate ours with some grilled corn on the side. It was a perfect summer dinner and we will definitely be grilling our salmon this way in the future!

Time to get back on track...

I don't know about you, but Memorial Day weekend always seems to mean hamburgers. Even with the weather being pretty lousy this past weekend, Jeremy and I managed to squeeze in some mini adventures and lots of yummy food.

Saturday we took a little trip out to Sauvie Island. Located just a few minutes outside of Portland, this little island is full of farm land. In the fall Portlanders head out there for corn mazes and hay rides...this time of year we enjoy lots of farm produce stands and the pretty little beaches. I definitely recommend taking the drive out there if you want a very close escape from the city.

I also had the chance to try out and play around with a new Challah recipe. I highly recommend it and with all the leftovers you can make amazing french toast for breakfast the next day!

Challah
Recipe adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients:
1 1/2 packages active dry yeast
1/4 C honey
1 TBL plus 1/2 C sugar
1/2 C olive oil or vegetable oil
5 eggs
1 TBL salt
7 1/2 - 8 C unbleached white flour (or all-purpose)

Directions:
1. In a large bowl, dissolve yeast and 1 TBL sugar in 1 and 3/4 C warm water.

2. Whisk oil and honey into yeast. Then beat in 4 eggs, 1 at a time, with remaining sugar and salt. Gradually add flour and mix together. When the dough holds together you've added enough flour and it's ready to knead. I did all of this in my stand mixer which helps a lot, but I still kneaded the dough after it was mixed by hand to make sure it was nice and smooth.

3. Put in a greased bowl and cover with a damp dish towel. Place in the oven to let rise. I turn on the oven light to make the oven a bit warmer. You can also turn on the oven to 150 degrees and then turn it off. Let rise for 1 hour, then punch the dough down and let rise for 30 more minutes.

4. Take your dough and divide it in half. Braid each loaf. I did a traditional 3 part braid. For each loaf you will need to divide the dough into three balls and roll out into 12 inch strands. Pinch together the three pieces at one end and then proceed to braid. After braided put the dough in the fridge and let rise for another 3 hours. If you're in a rush you can put the dough in a warm spot (the oven) for another hour.

5. Whisk the remaining egg and paint onto the loaves. Make sure you get all the nooks and crannies. Challah is supposed to have that nice thick golden crust.

6. Bake at 375 degrees for 35-40 minutes. Make sure the loaves are a dark golden brown before removing from the oven. Let cool for 30 minutes, slice and serve!

 So that was Saturday in a nut shell! 

Sunday we embarked on another adventure. As a kid my family would always take our summer vacations in the Northwest. Driving, camping, and hiking our way through the state and national parks that spread throughout Oregon and Washington. One of my favorites was Mt. St. Helens.

 The mountain and surrounding forest is incredible to see, but what makes Mt. St. Helens so unique is its recent history. The volcano erupted in 1980...taking out almost 250 square miles of forest and spewing ash that covered cars all the way in Southern California.

Jeremy had never seen the volcano so we decided to head up there. In shorts and sandals we took off, but as we climbed the mountain we began to realize we had definitely miscalculated. Starting around 2,000 feet elevation the fog was so dense you couldn't see 50 feet in front of you. Not to mention the 3 feet of snow that still covered the ground.

Unfortunately we couldn't even see the mountain that was right in front of us. I guess that means we will have to go back if summer ever comes to Portland!

Monday, on our last precious day of the holiday weekend, we headed up to Angels' Rest with our neighbors Matt and Carrie. As soon as I get the pictures from Carrie I will add them to this entry. It turned out to be the most perfect day! Sunny and beautiful, when we reached the top of the hike we had a panoramic view of the entire Columbia River Gorge. I highly recommend this hike!

All in all it was an amazing weekend. Only problem...we stuffed ourselves so full of food that Jeremy and I have had to hit the reset button on our healthy eating this week. I have lots of veggie-packed meals planned for the coming days, starting with our meal last night inspired by my favorite blog The Little Red House.

Here's the recipe for these delicious Chili and Lime Bowls. You must try these...best part is you get to build them yourself! Makes you feel like you're 5 years old, but who doesn't like playing with their food?

Chili and Lime Bowls
Recipe from The Little Red House

Ingredients:

1 TBL soy sauce

1 TBL lime juice

1 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp dried oregano (or fresh if you have it)

1 tsp olive oil

2 medium sweet potatoes or yams, peeled and cut into 1 inch cubes

1 15 oz. can of black beans

1 cup grape tomatoes, sliced in half

1 cup edamame

1 avocado, diced

1 head of cabbage, leaves washed and removed

1/4 cup sliced green onions

lime wedges

Directions:

1. Put together your Yogurt Lime Dressing. Mix 1/2 C plain low-fat yogurt, 2 TBS lime juice, 1 TBS soy sauce, 1 TBS chili powder, 1 clove minced garlic, 2 TBS chopped cilantro, 1 TBS chopped chives. Whisk in 1/4 C olive oil until combined.

Put in fridge until ready to use.

2. In a small bowl, mix together soy sauce, lime juice, chili powder, oregano and olive oil. Toss with sweet potatoes and then roast in oven at 425 degrees for 35 minutes.

3. Put all your veggies out and then build your own lettuce bowls! Place the green onions on top, add the fresh lime, and drizzle on some of the dressing!

This was a delicious meal and ended up being surprisingly filling! I recommend using The Little Red House if you ever are looking for some healthy recipes full of yummy fresh ingredients. Thank you Sheena for a great dinner idea!

Stay tuned...tomorrow I'll be back to fill you in on Taco night.