Dog Sitting and Scenes from the weekend

This little package arrived in my mail box on Friday and I could not have been more delighted with it's contents.  Tiffany (an amazing photographer, seamstress, crafter, and mom...who I know through Carrie) made these for me.  The craftsmanship on the purse is incredible and the fabrics are sooo perfect!

Elsie (Brian's parents dog) is staying at our house for a few days.  These two are like peas in a pod.  And this is what happens when I have no plans on a saturday afternoon...the dogs become subject to my randomness.

 Sunday afternoon we jetted up to Leavenworth for some snowshoeing with Bryan, Emily, Bob and Leslie (Emily's mom and dad) It was a beautiful day and was snowing like crazy!  We had so much fun treking through fresh untouched powder.

Lemony Goodness

I made these this morning and they were light, fluffly, not to sweet, and perfect addition to the morning tea or coffee!  I particularly like fancy muffin liners, I gotta find more of these!


Sour Cream Lemon Muffins
yields a dozen standard muffins
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt 
zest of two large lemons, finely grated
1 1/4 cup sour cream 
2 large eggs
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1/3 cup  fresh lemon juice 

coarse sugar for sprinkling 

Prep your muffin pan with a little non-stick spray and preheat the oven to 375°F.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and lemon zest. Use a whisk to break up any lumps and thoroughly combine. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the sour cream, eggs, butter, lemon juice.


Mix together with the whisk quickly until the batter is moist but combined. It shouldn't take more than 30 seconds or 20 strokes. Expect the batter to be thick and a little lumpy. If it seems overly thick (there will be some variation in moisture content between sour creams) feel free to add a splash more lemon juice.

Bake for 16-20 min or until the muffins are light golden brown on top and a toothpick comes out clean. Do not over bake. 

Weekend Away in Seattle and Whidbey Island

This weekend Brian and I went to Seattle and Whidbey Island with our friends Brock and Amber. We got up Saturday morning and hit the road where we made a pit stop in Cle Elum at Owen's Meats for my favorite jerky and donuts at the Cle Elum Bakery. Then it was off to Seattle to Alan and Amy's to say hi to Nora for her 3rd Birthday.

 After we saw Nora we went downtown Seattle and did the Underground Tour, Pikes Place, and ate amazing seafood.

We ate lunch at the Crab Pot and Brock and I split a bucket of seafood. It was awesome.  And yes we did need bibs.

From Seattle we headed over to Ballard to the Locks to check those out, we wished they had been running, but it was cool to see anyway. 

Then it was off to Whidbey Island. We found a star fish!

Here's the boys watching the ships out the window with their binos.
 

 The boys found a board and decided to make a teeter totter...

 At Fort Casey there were a little herd of deer just grazing and they let me get soooo close.

 It doesn't matter how many times we go to Deception Pass, it's just gorgeous.  I love reflection pics from sunglasses.

At Fort Casey I couldn't resist rolling down this hill!

Bugles Addiction

Every Christmas Ruth (one of their neighbor's when he was growing up) brings over her plate of goodies and a bowl of this amazing snack mix.  It's always a fight to see who can get to it first.  Well this year I finally asked for the recipe, which might have been a mistake...cause now I am addicted. Not only to the snack mix but to one of the main ingredients.  BUGLES!  Have you had them lately? Ever?  They are so bad for you and so good at the same time!  Anyway, I made this for the weekend snack and I thought ya'll would love it!  

Ruth Knebel's Bugle Snack Mix

1 medium bag bugle's

2 cups pretzels

1 box Chex

1 can mixed nuts

Mix in large bowl

In heavy saucepan, boil for 2 minutes

1 cup butter

2 cups brown sugar

1/2 cup corn syrup

Pour over dry mixture and bake at 250* for 1 hour stirring everying 15 minutes.  

I split them up into 3 9x13's to bake them.  I would also make a little extra sauce to coat them a little more.  

Enjoy!

 GO TO THE STORE and buy some bugles...you must go now. They are worth the trip!

 I don't know why I have an obsession as of late of making my food into words and shapes...didn't my mother ever teach me not to play with my food.  

Happy LOVE Day!

You might remember the Valentine's Day progressive dinner from last year? Well we decided to have another one it was so much fun. This year we started at Lyndsy and Ashley's for appetizers, salads, and a wii tennis tournament. Then we came to our house for salmon, twice baked taters, and asparagus and some minute to win it challenges, then we were off to Dean and Jonda's for a zebra cake, pound cake with strawberries and a little photo booth fun.  There was a stipulation you had to have Valentine Shirts and Ashley and Lyndsy definitely had the best shirts!  They made velcro hearts so they could stick together!  How clever was that!

 Lyndsy and Ashley won the tennis tournament....although Brian and I gave them a run for their money!

 The boys preparing the salmon.

Brian put together a whole slew of minute to win it challenges that were so much fun!  This challenge the boys had to put vaseline on their nose and then transfer cotton balls from one bowl to the other...

 This challenge was terrible and Brian saved it for right after dinner!  The boys held a toilet paper roll a few feet apart from the girls.  Then we had to grab the end of the roll and spin as fast as we could whoever was wrapped up in the TP the fastest won....let's just say I am not so good at spinning...i ended up on the floor about ready to loose my dinner!

Brian named this the elephant game or something to that effect.  They had to put panty hose on their head with a baseball in the end and with out using their hands, swing the baseball back and forth to knock over the water bottles....this was hilarious to watch!

Not sure what he called this game, but you had to roll the tennis ball, hit the stick, and try to land in the baskets...

PHOTOBOOTH FUN! 

 The whole crew...minus Dean, who was taking little Dane to his sisters!

Hearts!

My banister is feelin' the LOVE! I can't get enough of banners...they are so cute hung anywhere!

Feelin' the Love

Whose feelin' the LOVE? Hot chocolate tastes so much better with heart shaped marshmallows.