Cooking is always more enjoyable with others...



Pretty table setting

When I was down in California for work JoAnne had a little luncheon with her close friends that took a recent trip with her and Ray. She wanted to cook an assortment of recipes of things they had as a closing to the trip.

It's always more enjoyable cooking with others than by yourself although I do like cooking for parties or holidays for people (other than my kids) because seeing people enjoy my cooking gives me pleaseure. My kids either pass or fail my cooking on if Auntie Kelly or Grandpa John makes it better than me... "It's good but Auntie Kelly's is better."... whatever :-)

We made Sea Bass (totally nummy, sorry no photo was too busy cooking), a potato gratin dish in individual ramekin dishes (again no photo), green beans with toasted pine nuts (no photo.. yeah I suck)... BUT I did get photos of the tomato & watermelon salad & a roasted beet with tzatziki sauce appetizer...

The Summer Salad with Tomato & Watermelon was delicious! It was surprising to find the combination of watermelon and tomato but it was light and refreshing.

Roasted beets, topped with tzatziki sauce, sprinkled with toasted walnuts and drizzled with fine olive oil. Can you say nummy?

Anyway, try the salad... I think you'll like it as much as we did and it's safer than eating mayo based potato or macaroni salad that's sat out on some picnic table in the sun for too long.

The Queen of Sheba Spokane

On Saturday I picked Madeleine up from Camp south of Sandpoint and took her to the airport so she could go back to Seattle for August.

Savannah went with us and we stopped at the most fabulous Ethiopian restaurant... which is good because it's the only one in Spokane. 

The owner, Almaz, is the nicest lady and she always remembers us. If you are coming to Spokane for any reason I highly suggest going here.... you won't regret it. The restaurant is located in a cute building called The Flour Mill and it kinda has the same feel as the lower level of Pike Place Market.

Here's the link to the restaurant website Queen of Sheba Spokane - Click here!

Now some photos for you to see:

Madeleine and the Owner, Almaz. Such a nice lady!

I can't remember the name of this game but you move the stones around.

Nummy food!

Madeleine on the other side of Security screening... bye Madeleine!

1/16/10 - Day 2 Part 1 - Lake Coeur D'Alene Trip

So on this morning I woke up early and headed out to the market to do some grocery shopping that we didn't have time for the day before. The girls were still fast asleep from staying up so late the night before.

Albertson's had Dungeness Crab on sale cheaper than hamburger so I picked up some to have later today along with ingredients to make "JoAnne's To Die for Macaroni & Cheese" that I posted the recipe for.

By the time I got back the girls had already been to the pool and back so they unloaded the vehicle and I asked Megan if she wanted Crab or the Mac N Cheese for lunch. She chose Crab so we set the table, melted the butter, sat down and gave Megan her first lesson on how to properly break into a Crab.

She struggled a bit so I ended up doing a bunch for her but she did do some by herself and was sufficiently full by the time we got done so she didn't starve trying to break into her meal.

Still trying to hide some...

Also at one point the girls had started to put together a few gingerbread houses I picked up after Christmas... Madeleine's was having trauma while we were eating.

Another successful meal for the books... So far a very fun trip...

~Jamie