Bittersweettoast

Sometimes when I finish a post I start wondering if I'll ever come up with another idea again. Fortunately, inspiration keeps coming, sometimes in the strangest ways. We were up in Victoria, B.C. this past weekend, a last-minute getaway to join up with Eric after he finished sailing in the Swiftsure race. If you've never been, Victoria is one of those places that beckons you to become English. We had perfect, drizzly, tea-drinking weather, and my son quickly proclaimed the weekend to be his favorite "eating" holiday ever. He divides our vacations into two categories: "active" trips in which we burn off more calories that we take in and "eating" trips, which speak for themselves. Imagine that -- a 16-year-old boy who actually enjoyed touring the Butchart Gardens, perhaps because the afternoon tea there involved some really delicious eating. The gardens were indeed beautiful and captured well by my sous-photographer, Johanna. So my mind was o...

Sixteen years ago today I had one of the most fearful moments of my life. Well, that may be a little dramatic, but I was very pregnant with our second child. We had  moved two weeks earlier to the Eastside, one bridge away from Seattle where I was set to deliver. For those of you who do not live in this area, there's a really big lake that separates Seattle and the Eastside communities and  two bridges that connect them. Every morning and every afternoon many cars travel very slowly over those bridges as Seattleites and Eastsiders drive to work and back home. So my fear of going into labor during rush-hour, complete with visions of a bridge delivery dancing through my brain, was not a crazy one. Lucky me, my first contraction on May 14th arrived at 5:30am, just as all those little worker bees were leaving their garages and heading to the office. I was doomed to deliver in the backseat of our car; not exactly what I was hoping for. By 6:30 we were on the road. It was...

Cinco de Mayo. Even if you never studied Spanish, you know this means that day in May when we eat Mexican food and drink Margaritas. What you may not know is why. Cinco de Mayo commemorates the Mexican army's  victory over France at the Battle of Puebla in 1862. You see, the year before this victory, Mexico was in financial ruin and needed to default on some loans from Europe. Britain and Spain were able to negotiate with Mexico, but those pesky French saw this as the perfect opportunity to finally grab a chunk of land on the other side of the Atlantic. Late in 1861 a large French fleet arrived and stormed the Mexican shores at Veracruz, forcing President Juarez to retreat. But in a great David and Goliath turn of events, Juarez put together a rag tag army of 2000 who, on May 5, 1862, fought a French army three times its size and won. Although the war went on for six more years before Napoleon III gave up and returned home to his cafes and croissants, this impre...

I went skiing this past weekend, and although I should have been exalting over the ten inches of new April snow that unexpectedly fell, I couldn't help but think of all the recent Facebook posts I had seen over the past week from friends vacationing in Hawaii. My heart was not in the snow, as nice as it was. Instead it was seeking a warm, sunny beach, blue skies, and the scent of beautiful plumeria blossoms. Perhaps this is why, as I pondered the subject of an overdue blog post, my mind veered towards the Mai Tai. Call it a lame attempt to summon tropical breezes in 50-degree weather, but I've been thinking about Mai Tais for a couple of months now. I had one last summer, umbrella and all, on the island of Maui, but to be totally honest I was not enamored by the drink. Despite my love for fresh pineapple, I don't actually like the fruit in any other form, so my pineapple-laden drink just wasn't hitting the spot. Rum is also not my favorite spirit....

My dad and I used to have this tradition of trying to beat one another at finding the 6 differences as quickly as possible in Hocus Focus, that two-paneled picture you see in the Comics & Puzzles section of the newspaper. As simple as the drawings were, it was amazing how challenged we each could be, especially when the other quickly got to 5. I still play Hocus Focus when free time allows. On days when the differences just don't appear, I imagine my dad quickly claiming victory; when my own vision works wonders, I gloat at my prowess and make my victory "V". Here's a little version of Hocus Focus for you: Okay, I admit, I stretched the rules of the game because there are more than 6 changes between these two pictures. The one on the left shows my liquor collection pre-blog days when I had the ingredients to make a gin and tonic, kir, and margarita, along with an assortment of little airplane bottles that were used for cooking and baking. Now, ju...

You've probably noticed that my productivity this month has dropped off significantly. Writer's block? Not exactly. Life has gotten in the way and, in particular, the passing of a generation has stymied my creativity. My stepmom died last week, and as is so often the case with those battling a terminal disease, the speed of her decline was both a blessing and a shock. Emotionally, I was on a different timeline, one that would allow at least a few more conversations, maybe even one more visit. Instead, a generation in my family slipped away before my siblings and I really had time to ponder what this means. We are the sole survivors who will now need to take it upon ourselves to plan gatherings. It's up to us to pass down stories and traditions to keep our parents' memories alive. As with most new stages in life, I feel woefully unprepared, maybe because I'm the baby in the family. For every ten pictures taken of my brother as a baby, I got one. My brother and sister...

We enjoyed a trip of extremes two weeks ago, starting in LA and ending in Whistler, B.C. College family weekend, swim meet, then skiing. Water in two very different forms took center stage, which got me thinking about H-two-oh. Solid, liquid, gas -- we use it in so many ways and for many different reasons. As a novice bartender, my biggest battle has been with my freezer. How do I allow my beautiful ice cubes to cohabitate with my frozen peas and Trader Joe's Mandarin Orange Chicken? Flavors in a drink can mask the added flavors that sneak into the ice, but I know that I'm serving an inferior product. The ice cubes that most regrigerator ice makers produce are also less than appealing -- the cubes are the wrong shape and melt too quickly. I've done a little research and the prospects, though extreme, are tempting.  Apparently I'm not alone in my obsession. The first article I read ditched the home ice cube tray and suggested freezing water in a large bowl...