I made some lovely whoopie pies last week--unfortunately, my lab scoffed them up before I could get a picture. So no, these are not the whoopie pies that I made (they're Bon Appetit's), but mine looked pretty similar.

I made this exact cake recipe, but I substituted a basic cream cheese filling for the maple one (I had cream cheese in the house, but no marshmallow fluff). They were actually quite tasty, and not too sweet, which was good for the people in my lab.

I know Amanda was considering making these for the holidays, so here are my thoughts on the recipe:

1. I would add extra cinnamon, it wasn't spicy enough for me. Granted, I added a little less nutmeg than the recipe calls for because I didn't have much left, but I know some of you will want to leave the nutmeg out all together. More cinnamon! Other than that, the cake was delicious. Manda, you might even be able to substitute your famous pumpkin cake recipe.

2. When you drop the cakes on the baking sheet, take a bit of extra time to make them smooth on the top and as round as you can make them. For some reason, I thought they would spread out as they baked, but they definitely do not--if anything, they puff up higher! And some of mine turned out to be weird oblong shapes, which made matching them up for pies more difficult.

3. Try and make the cakes a bit flat. They don't seem that big when you have them on the baking tray, but then once they bake, and you try and put two together....well suffice it to say that my pies posed a bit of a challenge to actually fit the pie into your mouth.

4. Lastly, invest in some parchment paper (I think Reynolds makes a pretty cheap version these days). It made the cakes just lift right off, with not even a chance of sticking or starting to make crumbs on the bottom. I thought it was great!

http://www.bonappetit.com/magazine/2009/10/pumpkin_whoopie_pies_with_maple_marshmallow_cream_filling

Another hiking post! This one was from the past weekend, it was perfect weather for a hike. Braulio and I hiked the Summerland Trail in the Sunrise area of Mt. Rainier (NE of the mountain). It was about a 5mi climb in, eventually coming to some wildflower meadows with lovely vista points of the mountain.

This first picture shows some rocky crags like you never see in the Appalachians ;-)

We were climbing up through a bit of a ravine.

Creek! With a very narrow little bridge.

Crossing the bridge takes skills.



Ta-da! Mt Rainier. It doesn't look nearly as imposing in the picture as it did in person, but I swear, its enormous. And very snowy.


Maybe I'll climb it one day?

It's turning into a bumper season :)

So Jason and I went out to Lowes and Home Depot yesterday and picked up a bunch of paint swatches and now we are officially overwhelmed...so many colors to choose from!

Below is the cross stitch that Aunt Linda gave us last Christmas...this definitely has to be hung up in our kitchen, so I guess this is my inspiration for the kitchen paint colors. What do you guys think? Would a pale green look nice, or should I just go with neutral colors... The living room/dining room will definitely be neutral because of the pink carpet. And I'm thinking that whatever color I choose for the kitchen I'll just carry it over into the family room, so I need to pick something I'll really like since those are the two rooms where we'll spend most of our time!

This morning, I found a funny card that Manda sent right after Pat and I moved out here ("I tried a dessert called Death By Chocolate, but it only made me stronger") -- she included a few nice photos from our going away party in summer 2005. I thought you guys might like this one :)

I think everyone has heard by now...Jason and I came home Tuesday night to a broken hot water heater and a flooded living room. The carpet was so soggy that when we walked on it the water came up over our toes. About half of the living room carpet was soaked, so it was quite a feat trying to rearrange furniture to dry out the room. Here is a photo of what the living room looked like during the drying process...

And we managed to pack even more stuff into the dining room somehow...

Yes, this is our box-spring out in the front yard...

At least Reese had fun turning the pile of furniture into a tent where she could hide out and play guitar while we were cleaning up...We really can't wait to move into our new place!

Bettiann was nice enough to offer us her mom's old dining room set for free! Jason and I went over to take a look at it this weekend. It's about 40 years old, and it wouldn't be my first choice if I could pick out a set to buy. But it's in decent shape and the price is right, so we think it will be perfect to get us started. We can save up to buy a new set in a few years. The table comes with 2 leaves to make it longer for family get-togethers. :)

I went back for a second look at the house on Tricorn Road tonight and I snapped a few photos. I didn't take our good camera because I wanted to be stealthy about taking the photos, so I used our little point and shoot. All in all I think this house has a lot to offer. There is some traffic noise as the turnpike is nearby, but I think we would get used to that. The pluses are 4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, 2 car garage and nice yard.

There is a small foyer inside the front door with steps leading upstairs. If you're standing in the front door to the left is the living room. Yes, that is pink carpet with light blue walls and a flowery border. Do you think we should ask for the pink curtains to be included so we can keep this look?Through the living room is the dining room with more pink carpet...

Here's the kitchen, good counterspace but maybe a little short on cabinets. I really like the window by the sink, but I'm not a fan of the weird random stained glass window in the family room by the french doors...any ideas on what can we do about that?

The kitchen is open to the family room which has a wood burning fireplace and french doors to the deck. The white door on the right leads to the garage, laundry room and powder room, and there's another door that would have been to my right as I took this photo and that leads to the basement...

Not the prettiest finished basement, but I think it would make a fine playroom...

There's a nice deck out back and the yard is a half an acre...

Here's the master bedroom, I dont know why the photo looks fuzzy like that, that's what I get for not taking the nice camera...
master bath...
One of the guest bedrooms. They are all a pretty good size
Guest bathroom...
That's it. I'm pretty sure we're going to put in a bid, so keep your fingers crossed for us!

Some pictures from my most recent hike to Lake 22....no pictures of our other stop along the stillaguamish river though, I didn't want to carry my camera when I was swimming/fording the river :) The water was great! Refreshing but not too cold (definitely not for a 90 degree day).


Forest on the way up...and part of Andy's back.


Some really awesome mountain peaks in the canyon surrounding the lake.


The lake is mostly snowpack/glacier melt.

Lake 22! There's some trout in there, believe it or not. They stock it though, since most glacier lakes don't have natural populations.