I just had to post a few pictures of Reese in her Halloween costume. She dressed up as Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz and she was just too cute. I think she enjoyed her first trick-or-treat experience, although we did have some kids come to the house dressed as scary monsters which resulted in Reese clinging tightly to my leg and saying "all done, all done!" :)

Before we even started trick-or-treating she found our stash of lorna doones and wanted "cookie please"....how can you resist that face?

Trick-or-treating with Unc...

Enjoying the spoils of a successful Halloween...

Jason, Shannon and I headed down into the city for the parade madness this morning. It was crazy how many people were at the train station when we got there at 8:15am...it was just a sea of red! We were lucky enough to squeeze our way right onto a train and managed to get one of the last seats. They crowded as many people on as they could, so a lot of people were standing the whole way down (plus the overcrowding meant that the ticket guy never got to us, so we had a free ride down and back!).

So Taguchi, Jimmy Rollins (with the camera in front of his face), and Joe Blanton

Shane Victorino and J.C. Romero

Jason also saw Cole Hamels and Pat Burrel, but I missed them and didn't get photos. All in all we were glad we went down, even with the craziness. It was fun to see the players and to be so close to the parade. YAY PHILLIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I finally cut open that acorn squash from the market to try a recipe from Moosewood Restaurant Simple Dinners. (Mom and Dad, remember going to Moosewood when we visited Ithaca?)

As recommended, I scooped out the seeds, sliced it up and baked the slices at 400 for 15 min in a buttered pan. Once they started browning, I flipped them over, added *more* melted butter, brown sugar and cinnamon, and baked for an additional 5 min.


This is far from the best picture in the world (even Photoshop couldn't help me here). But you can see that at places on the squash where there was lots of butter, the brown sugar melted and got all yummy....but where there wasn't enough, it just sat there and got crusty. Crusty brown sugar? Not nearly as nice as melty and all yummy.

Moral of the story: Use more butter. Am I my grandmother's grandchild, or what?

It's October 28th, and we got our first snowfall of the season! Ok...so it wasn't a "measurable" amount, but it did get us an early dismissal from school! They had 5+ inches of snow on the mountain. Looking at the picture, it's hard to tell what season we're actually in. About half of the leaves are still on the trees, and yet we had our first Nor'Easter!

Good thing we got the driveway done!! :-)

I always talk about going to the Ballard Sunday Market in my posts...so I took a few pictures this week so you could see what its like :)

The market! They rope off a block in Ballard and everyone sets up their stalls on the streets.

There's always a couple different groups of live music around...usually some guys with a fiddle, and someone playing an accordion ;-)

I'm finally trying my hand at posting a message on the family blog!! Laura's post about her first bread making adventure got me wanting to bake bread again too. I had dad get some yeast at the market this week. It's been years since I've made bread, so I wasn't sure how rusty I would be. But it all came back to me as I went through the process. We made Italian Bread and I think it turned out pretty good!

My new favorite meal is...boiled kale. I know, I know it sounds gross. Boiled vegetables, bleechh. All the vitamins end up in the water, the vegetables are nasty, we've heard this all before. But you have to believe me, boiled kale is undeniably good. I first read about it here and found a nice bunch of kale for $1 at the Sunday market. So why not?

My variations to Orangette's recipe (as reproduced from Zuni Cafe) include substituting broth made from bouillon for the stock (didn't have any stock on hand, and definitely too cheap to buy some), and whatever bread I had on hand for the toast. In this case, some week-old bread from the Wallingford bakery (can't beat $1 per loaf)!


The result was a spicy and somewhat sweet kale broth, to which the fried egg only added extra richness. Something about the simmering process renders the kale sort of buttery and soothing, and brings out some hidden sweetness, in a way I never thought green leafy vegetables could be. Be sure to include the egg and the red pepper flakes to this recipe, I bet it wouldn't be nearly as good without it.

Oh! And don't forget the next-to-last step, rubbing a clove of raw garlic over the toast *right* after it comes out of the toaster. The garlic melts just a little bit against the toast, and releases some delicious aromas. I don't know if it matters much to the final taste of the dish, but it sure feels fancy.

Boiled Kale

1 medium onion, diced
3 cloves garlic
red pepper flakes
olive oil
1 bunch kale, washed and drained
2-3 cups of your favorite stock
salt and pepper to taste

In a large saucepan, heat a dash of oil and saute the onion until translucent. Add 2 cloves thinly sliced garlic and red pepper flakes and saute a few minutes longer to let the flavors come out. Add kale, and turn gently until wilted. Top with enough stock to cover the kale; bring to a simmer, cover, and keep simmering on low heat until the kale is tender, about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, fry an egg in a bit of olive oil. Prepare toast from the best bread you have on hand, and rub a clove of garlic across it while it is still hot. Place toast into a shallow bowl; top with kale, a bit of olive oil, and the fried egg. Garnish as you like, perhaps with freshly grated cheese, or just salt and freshly ground pepper. I added a little extra broth to the bottom of the bowl, so the toast could soak it up.

Curl up and enjoy :)

Hooray! I'm so glad most everyone is on and posting now :) In celebration, I'm posting a picture of...my first yeast bread! Ever! It's a simple bread, but it turned out well.

The crust is light and crispy. Mom said that she always taps on the bottom of her loaves, and when the tapping sounds hollow, they're done. So I tried to tap on the bottom so Mom could hear it over the phone....and she just laughed at me because she thought it just sounded hard as a rock! But they're not that bad....after their first rising, I shaped the loaves into little baguettes and baked them on a cookie sheet instead of a bread loaf pan, which contributed to the extra crispy-ness. And I think the cell phone distorted the extra glorious overtones of the tapping. Trust me, they're fantastic.




Simple Sandwich Baguettes
Makes 4 (I split the recipe in half to make 2).
Adapted from Cuban Bread recipe on Baking Bites.

1 package yeast (2.5tsp)
2 cups warm water
1 Tbsp sugar
4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, plus more for kneading
Egg wash, if preferred

In large bowl, mix yeast, sugar and water. Let stand for 10 min, until yeast is foamy. With wooden spoon, mix in flour until combined (dough will be sticky). Let rise for 2.5 hrs (I turned out the dough, cleaned out the bowl and sprayed it lightly with canola oil, then put it back in to rise. I don't know that it makes a huge difference). Cover bowl with saran wrap. Once the dough has doubled, knead in another half cup or so of flour, until the dough no longer feels sticky to the touch. Let rest for 15 min. Divide dough into 4 portions, and shape into baguettes. Place on lightly greased pan and cover with clean tea towel. Let rise 45 additional minutes. While loaves are rising, preheat oven to 400. Brush with egg wash (if desired) and bake 25-30 minutes, until golden brown.

I didn't use an egg wash, but I think I will next time, to give the loaves a better visual appeal. All in all, a basic, no-fail white bread. :)

Dorothy was out shopping yesterday and bought me the cutest book called Hello, Cupcake! She said she thought of me right away when she saw it. It's funny because Laura just told me about this same book the other day. I can't wait to show it to you guys, I love it...I was thinking maybe we could try making these snowmen cupcakes for Christmas this year...what do you think??