{made for dinner} penne with two tomatoes and mozzarella

Finally, another post in this series!  I'm so excited to share this recipe with you because it's one of my all time favorite weeknight pasta dishes.  Penne with two tomatoes and mozzarella has all the ingredients for a perfect weeknight meal - simple, quick, and delicious.

Here's what you'll need:

  • 6 oz fresh mozzarella cut into 1/2-inch pieces
  • Coarse salt and ground pepper
  • 12 oz penne rigate
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes (I prefer cherry, but either will work)
  • 1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes, sliced (usually found in the produce aisle by the tomatoes)
  • 2 garlic cloves, sliced
  • 1/4 cup snipped chives

Place cheese pieces in the freezer (this will help the mozz keep its shape once you add it to the pasta later.)  In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook pasta until al dente.  Reserve 1/2 cup of pasta water; drain pasta and set aside.

In pasta pot, heat oil over medium-high.  Add the cherry tomatoes, sun-dried tomatoes, garlic, and pasta water.  Cook until cherry tomatoes soften, 2 to 4 minutes.

Add pasta, chilled cheese, and chives to the pot, season with salt and pepper, and toss to combine.

That's it!  So easy.  The recipe usually makes enough for both of us to have a healthy portion, and for me to take some to work the next day for lunch.  It pairs great with a small side salad with balsamic dressing and bread (though it's filling enough we usually just have it on its own.)

Original recipe courtesy of Martha Stewart.

amy butler's short pleated aprons

As late as last summer I was still secretly hoping to do a 100% handmade Christmas... yyyyyeah, that didn't really work out. But I did manage to make a couple things for my sister and mom - well 2 of the same thing: Amy Butler's Short Pleated Aprons from her In Stitches book.

If you're thinking about tackling this pattern, I can assure you it's about as easy as Amy Butler gets. You can make each apron in only a few hours (I'm pretty sure the pressing took longer than the actual sewing,) and all you need is thread and a yard and a half of fabric - no special notions - which is very rare for an Amy Butler pattern.

Here's a close up of the waist band, pocket, and towel loop:

And here are the beautiful recipients!

(FYI, in case you're curious... I used Midwest Modern Fresh Poppies and an unknown Westminster fabric for my sister's apron, and Daisy Chain Clematis for my mom's apron.)

{maternity series} week 16

I hinted last week that I had a big photography project planned for 2011... well here it is! Welcome to the first week of my maternity series project. Inspired by two other moms-to-be (Lexia and Cole), I plan to post pictures of my growing belly along with a note to the baby every week until delivery day. I realize that this week's set might seem a bit more like my weight loss "after" photos from several years back than pregnancy pics, but I promise I have actually gained weight. Hopefully my bump will be a bit more prominent in next week's post. :)

five for 2010: a year-end review

For everything that happened in 2010, I can't believe it flew by as quickly as it did!  We bought a house, painted nearly every room, built a dining room table, took a couple trips back east, ran races, went to Hawaii, found out we're going to have a baby (yay!), and then it was already the holidays.  Whoosh!  If you'll remember, I started the year with a little to-do list.  I was well on my way at the 6 month mark, and am happy to report that as 2010 comes to a close I've managed to cross everything off my list.  Here's a recap: 1) Make our first house feel like home - This house looks quite different than it did a year ago.  The navy blue guest bedroom is now a calming pale green, the mustard colored landing and stairwells are now a neutral cream, our red bedroom and yellow bathroom are now a light gray, and our sun room got a total makeover:

As thrilled as I am with how the sun room turned out, I think the room I'm proudest of is our dining room:

The decision to build our own dining room table was a little crazy, but so worth it.  There's not a meal eaten at that table that I don't think of the hard work that went into building it.  (Okay, I also notice the little flaws in the stain I wish I could fix, but then I tell myself that no one but me will ever notice... hopefully.)

Up next for the house in 2011... making over the nursery and DIYing a family room in our totally unfinished basement.  I'll still feel like taking on home improvement projects when I can no longer see my feet, right?  Suuuuuure.

2) Re-engage at work - I checked this off my list not long after we moved into our new permanent offices this summer.  There's something about having your own desk, filing cabinet, a monitor and keyboard that does wonders for employee morale.  And it doesn't hurt that the economy has picked up a bit and our clients are spending research dollars again, so we've been nice and busy in the 2nd half of the year.

3) Open my own Etsy shop - DONE! In the first 6 weeks of my shop being open I'm thrilled to have sold through just over half of my inventory, including all but 2 of the Roll-up Shopping Slings.  I'm hoping to add more Shopping Slings in the first few months of 2011 using Amy Butler's new fabric collection, Soul Blossoms.  I also plan to add some baby-related items, like nursing covers and applique onesies.  I'll, of course, have some projects for my own kid in the works (so excited to break in the new serger my mom got me for Christmas!), but I'm hoping my back will hold out and I can get at least a handful of new products listed before my big belly takes over.

4) Run a marathon - Well, I ran 2 half marathons.  That sort of counts, right?  :)

5) Improve my photography skills - This one is still an ongoing to-do, but I'd like to think I've come a long way in the past year.  I learned how to use the manual setting on my camera, got much better at Photoshop, and thanks to my very generous husband am now the proud owner of a 50 mm lens and an external flash.  He also got us Aperture for Christmas, so I'm quickly trying to get up to speed on that.  I even have a big photography project in the works for 2011!  (More on that in a couple weeks, so stay tuned.)

I feel really good about everything I accomplished in 2010, which might lead you to believe I'm about to present an all new list for 2011, but you'd be wrong.  If I have a single to-do for 2011 it's to decrease the amount of pressure I usually put on myself... to be as flexible as possible with what comes my way.  Trust me, I could write post after post about how I want the rest of my pregnancy to go, everything I'd like to get done before the baby comes, what I want for the birth, what kind of mom I want to be, etc, etc, etc.  Truth be told, there are few things I find more satisfying than planning (and planning to plan, and planning for alternate plans should the original plans not work out.)  Planning is my Prozac.  But if there's one thing I've learned from watching my friends become parents over the past couple years it's that the most important thing you can do for yourself is to try to just enjoy every minute of this crazy ride... to not stress about everything being just-so, because it's not going to be, but it will be better than anything you could have imagined or planned for.  So that's what I'm going to try to do... 2011 will be the year of Breezy Allie.  (Heaven help me.)

gooey corn flake holly wreaths

I first had these in the 2nd grade when I traded for them in the lunch room.  My mom tended to make fancier cookies (nut balls, thumbprints, etc.)... nothing as gooey and colorful as what my friend Melissa pulled out of her lunch bag.  It should tell you something that one of the many things I looked forward to about adulthood was getting to choose which Christmas cookies to make during the holidays, knowing that these would always make the list.

The recipe follows the same basic approach as making Rice Krispie treats, but the corn flakes and shape create a much more tender, though no less crunchy, texture.  And the Red Hots give it a nice seasonal twist.  Here's what you'll need:

  • 1 (16 ounce) package large marshmallows
  • 1/2 cup butter, softened
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons green food coloring (much less if you're using gel food coloring)
  • 4 1/2 cups cornflakes cereal (about half a box)
  • 1 (2.25 ounce) package cinnamon red hot candies

The first step is to melt the marshmallows, butter, and vanilla over low heat.  You could add the food coloring at this point, too, but I prefer to wait until everything has melted together so I have better control over the color.

Go ahead and add the food coloring now if you haven't already.  Be sure to use less than the recommended amount if you're using gel food coloring.

Now you're ready to add the corn flakes.  (Mix them in gently.)

Here comes the tough part.  You'll want to work fast, and keep the mixture over very low heat while you work so it doesn't cool to a big clump.  There are two ways of going about assembling the wreaths - the over-achiever way, and the lazy way.  I opt for the lazy way, but if you're feeling up for a challenge, the over-achiever way produces some very cute treats (that actually look like wreaths.)

Here's the over-achiever way:

Portion warm cereal mixture evenly by using a 1/4 cup dry measure coated with cooking spray. Using sprayed fingers, quickly shape into individual wreaths. Dot with cinnamon candies, using prepared frosting to hold candies in place.  Store in single layer in airtight container.

Here's the lazy way (aka my way):

Take a spoonful of the mixture and drop it onto wax paper.  Stick the candies on while the mixture is still warm (so they'll stick).  Let cool completely, then store in an airtight container with wax paper between layers so they don't all stick together.

Whichever way you choose, they'll be delicious.

{Christmas 2010} food

Christmas food for us is all about tradition.  Well, sort of.  For the past few years we always had our fancy Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve.  It started out that way because we had to travel the day after Christmas and didn't want to deal with dishes and leftovers.  But since we weren't traveling this year, we decided to switch things up a bit.  Our fancy dinner (white bean tuscan soup followed by beef wellington) got moved to Christmas day, making room for a new tradition on Christmas Eve: Santa-boli!

Santa-boli is our usual stromboli with a couple dough cut-outs in holiday shapes.  (We discovered that cookie cutters are an excellent way to make a favorite meal into a holiday meal.)

For dessert, we had Christmas cookies:

Corn Flake Holly "Wreaths" (These will be getting a post all their own tomorrow)

Roll-out cookies with piped royal icing

I tried something a bit ambitious for the roll-out cookies this year... piping and flooding with royal icing.  They turned out great, but I don't know if I'd do it again next year because, holy moly, was it a pain in the rear.  I started with homemade white royal icing, then colored it in batches of green, red, and blue.  I thought I'd save myself a lot of hassle rinsing out the piping bag by using little squeeze bottles, but actually getting the icing into the bottles took forever.  There was also a lot of planning involved because I had to do all the piping first, then dilute the icing with a tiny bit of water to do the flooding.  If I wanted to pipe on top of flooding I had to make sure I hadn't already diluted that color.  Despite all this, I was still pretty excited about how each one looked as it was finished.  Very fancy and professional.  Not to mention delicious.  But I'm guessing next year with a 6 month old baby I'll be lucky to slap on some buttercream and sprinkles. :)

{Christmas 2010} decor

It's hard to believe that Christmas is already over!  So sad.  Overall, it was the best Christmas yet... the first in our new house, and the last we'd spend just the two of us.  (Well, the two of us and one very excited dog.)  Here's a recap of how we decorated this year:

The first step was to decorate the outside of the house.  We might have been a little excited.  We might have been thinking about how we'd decorate for the past year.  We might have driven through our neighborhood last year before we moved in to check out the competition.  Shhhhh.

The next step was to decorate the inside of the house.  This year, my approach was to try to make things look really festive, but to not spend a lot of money doing it.  So I loaded up on ornaments and ribbon and went room to room adding little touches of red, green, silver, and white...

After putting up the tree (we're traditionalists and go real every year, and probably always will) the last step was to find a nice way to display the many wonderful Christmas cards sent to us from family and friends.  After outgrowing a couple different locations, we finally settled on displaying them on the buffet in our dining room.

Up next... the food!

Fluffy White (the best frosting ever)

My mom has been making cakes with this frosting for pretty much my whole life.  For a girl who has a mild addiction to marshmallows, it really doesn't get any better than Betty Crocker's Fluffy White.  It's got a marshmallow fluff flavor but the texture is so light and well, fluffy... more meringue than melted marshmallows.  It's seriously, blissfully good.  But out of nowhere several years ago groceries stores stopped carrying it!  We searched high and low but couldn't find it anywhere.  (This, of course, only added to its appeal.)  So after a couple years of going without it I decided enough was enough, and scoured the internet for a retailer.  Thankfully, Amazon came through for me - the catch: I had to buy a whole case, which I gave to my very excited mother that year for Christmas.  It's is apparently the only way you can get the Fluffy White goodness anymore.  But of all things to have to buy by the case-ful, you could do a lot worse than this frosting.

While I was home for a few days in mid-December, my mom made sure to make our favorite childhood foods, including yellow cake with Fluffy White frosting.  This time, I documented the occasion...

One of the many beautiful things about this frosting is how easy it is to make... all you do is add boiling water to the mix, beat in the mixer, and voila - frosting perfection.

After much beater and spatula licking, it was time to frost the cake.  My mom put a layer of frosting between the cakes, then frosted the whole thing, making vertical stripes along the sides with the frosting spatula.

She topped off the cake with some coconut and raspberries to give it a nice holiday feel...

Dinner was great, but the cake was even better.  Trust me... order a case.  You won't be disappointed.

big news...

I mentioned in my last post that life has been a little chaotic lately... well, that's because about 2 and a half months ago Jared and I found out that we're going to have a baby!  :-)  We're feeling extraordinarily blessed, a smidge overwhelmed, and most of all - really excited.

My first trimester was pretty rough in terms of the morning sickness, but by some miracle I still managed to get my Etsy shop launched, finish a scarf, and sew a couple Christmas presents.  (I'm secretly hoping that Jared will develop a strong urge to cut out pattern pieces for me, because my back ain't havin' it much longer.)  Now that I'm in my second trimester I've started getting really excited about all the fun DIY projects we'll be taking on over the next 6 months (Baby S is due June 14th).  I already got a baby knits book and my friend Sarah gave me Handmade Beginnings for my birthday.  We should find out the gender toward the end of January (yes, I'm definitely finding out), and once we know that the nursery, sewing, shopping insanity will commence.  Stay tuned!

PS... I should mention that the above accomplishments (shop, scarf, sewing) would not have been possible without the help and support of my amazing husband.  He was a lifesaver during my first trimester - making me lemonade, eating super bland meatless dinners every night, stepping up around the house because exhausted/nauseous me couldn't get off the couch, generally proving day in and day out that he's going to be an awesome father.  This picture is for him:

martha's super fudgy brownies

Sorry for not posting much over the past few weeks!  Life has been a little chaotic.  More on that later... Right now, it's brownie time.  Super Fudgy Brownie time, to be exact.  I first tried this recipe a couple years ago when I challenged myself to make brownies from scratch (the box kind is so tasty there seemed little need to go through the all the effort of homemade.)  If you've never had brownies from scratch before, the best way to think about them is like how you felt about cupcakes from scratch the first time you tried them.  Richer, denser, more luxurious... excellent, but lacking in the nostalgia of the ones your mom made courtesy of Duncan or Betty.  That being said, I haven't made brownies from a mix since I started making these, so that should tell you something about how good they are.

The name of these brownies couldn't be more accurate - they're like fudge in cake form.  So if you like fudge, you'll definitely like these brownies.  Here's what you'll need:

  • 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into pieces, plus more for pan
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
  • 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 8 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped (see my note about chopping the chocolate in Step 3 below)
  • 1 1/4 cups sugar
  • 3 large eggs

To make the brownies:

1 ) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brush a 9-inch square baking pan with butter.  Line bottom and two sides with a strip of parchment paper, leaving a 2-inch overhang on the two sides. Butter paper, and set pan aside.  (This step may seem like Martha's just over-complicating things, but I promise it's worth it.)

2 ) In a small bowl, whisk flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

3 ) Place butter and chocolate in a large heatproof bowl set over (not in) a saucepan of gently simmering water. Heat, stirring occasionally, until smooth, 2 to 3 minutes; remove bowl from pan.  (I've experimented with several different ways of chopping the chocolate and I've found the best way is to leave each square in its wrapper and give it a good whack with the flat side of a meat tenderizer - then empty the contents of the wrapper into the bowl and repeat with the next square.)

4 ) Add sugar; mix to combine.

5 ) Add eggs, and mix to combine.

6 ) Add flour mixture; mix just until moistened (do not overmix)

7 ) Transfer batter to prepared pan; smooth top.

8 ) Bake until a toothpick inserted in center comes out with a few moist crumbs attached, 50 to 60 minutes. Cool in pan for 30 minutes.

9 ) Using paper overhang, lift brownies out of pan; transfer to a rack to cool completely (still on paper).  (This is the point when you'll be glad you went through all that effort of prepping the pan!)

10 ) On a cutting board, using a dampened serrated knife, cut into 16 squares. Store in an airtight container at room temperature, up to 2 days.

Enjoy!  :)

thanksgiving redux

If I had to score our Thanksgiving dinner this year I'd give it a solid B+.  There were a few things that could have been better, but I feel like we're getting much closer to a solid t-day lineup.  Here's the menu:

Bonnie's Cheese Ball...

I don't know if this is the real name of the recipe but we got it from my mom's friend Bonnie and that's what we've always called it.  It's so simple, yet so delicious.  I love any and all cheese, but this cheese in particular works really well as a Thanksgiving dinner warm-up act.

Basically all you do is mix together green pepper, onion, pineapple, and cream cheese then roll it in chopped pecans.  Easy peasy!

Here's the recipe:

  • Ingredients:
    • 2  8 oz packages of cream cheese
    • 8 ¼ oz can of crushed pineapple (drained really well, using paper towels or a potato ricer - this step is very important or the cheese will be watery)
    • ¼  cup chopped green pepper (chopped small)
    • 2 tablespoons chopped onion
    • ½  teaspoon salt
    • Chopped pecans
  1. Bring cream cheese to room temperature.
  2. Add all ingredients.
  3. Roll in chopped pecans.

Makes one big or two small balls.  Can be made up to 2 days in advance of serving.  Also freezes well.

Creamed spinach...

The mashed potatoes were kinda m'eh, so I won't bother writing about them.  We'll try again next year with those.  Onto the creamed spinach...

I've never been a big green bean casserole or brussel sprout fan, so I set out this year to find a good alternate green.  I hadn't really thought of spinach as an option, but we had creamed spinach during our amazing dinner at Lahaina Grill in Maui, and when I saw it listed under the Thanksgiving sides on Food Network I was sold.  The only thing I'd change about this recipe for next year is to use half of the red pepper flakes.  I like heat, but it overpowered the dish and left a pretty strong after burn.  Other than that, though, the dish was super tasty and I definitely plan to make it again next year.

Luby's Cornbread Dressing...

My friend Sarah is going to be disappointed to read this, but I wasn't crazy about this stuffing.  I prefer my stuffing to be more bread-like, with visible chunks of moist bread, and this was more like a casserole or egg bake (you add eggs to mixture before you pop it in the oven.)

Maybe I just didn't make it right, I don't know.  The flavor was really good, I just wasn't crazy about the texture.  I think for next year I'll go back to the last year's stuffing, Tyler Florence's Carmelized Onion and Cornbread Stuffing.

Cranberry Sauce...

I grew up eating canned cranberry sauce, so I wasn't quite sure what would be involved in making the real stuff from scratch.  Thankfully it was super easy.  The orange zest overpowered the cranberry flavor a bit more than I would have liked, so next year I'll probably reduce it to half an orange.

Parker House Rolls...

I loooove me some Flaky Grands, but when I saw this recipe in Food Network magazine for pull-apart dinner rolls from scratch I had to try them.

Oh man were these good.  They were so tasty and filling... like a little meal all by themselves.  The recipe made at least double the rolls we actually needed, so if you're not cooking for a lot of people I recommend halving the recipe.

Turkey...

Jared added a twist to his Simon & Garfunkel butter this year... bacon.  That's right - parsely, sage, rosemary, thyme, and bacon.  Yum!

After the butter was shoved under the skin, Jared popped it in the Big Easy for about an hour and a half... and voila!

Deeeeeelish.

Random Order Coffeehouse pies...

I know what you're thinking... store bought pies?  I have a blog about all things DIY and I went and bought pies instead of making them myself.  But I firmly believe that every good DIYer needs to know when to admit that something is over their head.  I don't know what it is about pie... I've made pies in the past and never been wowed.  Maybe it's the crust, maybe I'm just not patient enough.  I don't know.  But I do know that Random Order here in Portland makes a heck of a good pie.   In addition to ordering these bad boys for Thanksgiving day, we also stopped by earlier in the week to pick up a few pieces of their Oregon Cherry pie and man oh man... these people know their way around a pie.  If you're ever in Portland I highly recommend stopping by and getting a piece.  Of anything.  I don't think they make a bad pie.

Anyway, where was I?  Oh right, thanksgiving pies.  Here you go...

I had never actually had Pecan Pie before this Thanksgiving... crazy, huh?  Well I am a convert.  Holy moly was this pie good.

So there you have it.  Thanksgiving 2010.  I'm full all over again.

{made for dinner} tortellini soup with spinach & tomatoes

This first recipe in my {made for dinner} series is as easy as it is tasty, and perfect for a time-crunched weeknight. It's one of the first recipes we made from The Scramble and has been one of our go-to dinners for the past 3 years. Here's what you'll need:

  • 1 Tbsp. olive oil (not pictured)
  • 1 tsp. minced garlic (about 2 cloves)
  • 32 oz. chicken or vegetable broth
  • 9 oz. regular or whole wheat cheese tortellini
  • 15 oz. diced tomatoes with their liquid
  • 1/4 tsp. black pepper
  • 1/2 tsp. dried basil
  • 1/2 tsp. dried oregano
  • 3 cups baby spinach
  • 1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese, or to taste

In a large saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Saute the garlic for one minute, then stir in the broth. Bring it to a boil, then add the tortellini, tomatoes, pepper, basil, and oregano.

Reduce the heat to keep it at a low boil for 7 minutes, then add the spinach. Simmer it for 2 more minutes, then remove it from the heat and serve it immediately, topped with Parmesan cheese.

Prep + cook time = 20 minutes

Servings = 4 (approximately 254 calories per serving)

a belated blogiversary

Oops! I was so caught up with the Etsy shop launch that I totally missed the 1 year anniversary of my blog! I can't believe how much has happened since I started blogging... here's a little recap by the numbers:

  • 55 blog posts
  • 102 comments (thank you!)
  • 47 completed sewing projects
  • 2 Yudu projects (here and here)
  • 12 recipe posts (much more to come in year 2)
  • 1900 dollars saved by DIYing our dining room
  • 9 amazing days in Maui for our first wedding anniversary
  • 365 days of feeling insanely grateful to have a husband that unconditionally supports my passion for sewing, crafting, and DIY

A big thank you to everyone who's read, commented, and supported this blog. It really means so much to me. Here's to loads more projects and recipes in year 2! :)

the binder

This is the binder. It's not pretty, it's not fancy, but it's where we store all our recipes... and over the years it's become a sort of litmus test for whether or not a recipe gets our nod of approval. If we know we won't make it again, it doesn't go in the binder. Simple, efficient, the binder represents one of the more blissfully organized aspects of my life. (Trust me, there aren't many.) It's organized into 10 different tabs: Chicken, Pork, Beef, Fish, Vegetarian, Pasta, Soup / Chili, Side Dishes, Breakfast, and Dessert, and clear sheet protectors help to keep the recipes splatter free while we're cooking.

Jared and I started collecting recipes early on in our relationship when we found ourselves cooking dinner together most nights. To help us get started we signed up for The Six O'Clock Scramble, an online seasonal weekly menu planner. Every week they sent us 5 new meals and a grocery list, and we could swap out any meals we didn't like. It was really helpful and I highly recommend it if you want to cook dinner at home more often but aren't sure how to get organized. We started supplementing The Scramble recipes with ones we got from Food Network and Martha Stewart, and it didn't take long before we had amassed enough recipes that we needed a way to keep them all straight... hence, the binder was born.

So why am I telling you all this? Well, it seems to me like the tradition of home-cooked weeknight family dinners has become a bit of a lost art. In the age of processed and prepared foods, I think a lot of people choose not having to think about it over flavor and nutrition. But what those people don't realize is how easy and quick dinner can be if you just take a little time to plan our your meals. So that's why I'm sharing our process with you. It works really well for us and maybe it'll work well for you, too.

Here's how we tackle meal planning... every Sunday morning we sit down with the binder, a notepad, and pen. We take a quick inventory of what we have in our fridge and pantry from last week's meals that we didn't use up (usually things like tortillas, heavy cream, chicken stock, and veggies) and use that as our starting point for meal selection. Meals that feature ingredients we need to use up or already have get chosen first. Then we look for stuff that we haven't made in a while or that will be quick if we have something going on a particular night that week. We also try to pick meals that feature seasonal ingredients (Epicurious has a great tool for finding out what's in season where you live.) The final list of meals for that week goes on a magnetic pad that we keep on our fridge. As for which meals get cooked on which nights, we usually decide that day based on how we're feeling.

So there you have it... the binder, our system, and my two cents about the benefits of cooking weeknight dinners. I'll be posting recipes and tips for some of our favorite dinners in a new regular feature called {made for dinner} (I know, real original) so stay tuned.

the made by bird Etsy shop has LAUNCHED!

I've spent so long thinking about this and planning for it that it's hard to believe the made by bird Etsy shop has actually become a reality.  A huge thanks goes out to my incredibly supportive family and friends.  I could never have pulled this off without their endless encouragement.  And thanks most of all to my husband, who has been my sounding board, my rock, my everything a husband is supposed to be but rarely is... he had more faith in my ability to do this than I had in myself, and I probably would have given up on this whole idea a long time ago had it not been for him.  Okay, okay, enough with the gushing.  Time to celebrate... not only did I finally open my Etsy shop, but in doing so I crossed the last item off of my five for 2010 list with two months to spare.  Woohoo!!!  :-D

{maui} day 9

It was our last day in Maui and we were determined to make it a great one.  We got up at the crack of dawn and made our way down to Makena Landing in South Maui for a sea kayaking/snorkeling trip with Maui Kayaks.  Jared and I shared a tandem kayak and were 2 of only 7 people in our group.  Our guide, Griff, was super nice and extremely knowledgeable.  His passion for the island and respect for the marine life were contagious.  We went to three different snorkeling sites and saw huge sea turtles at each site.  (We saw lots of fish, too, but the turtles really stole the show.)

(btw, all of these photos were taken with a Fujifilm Quick Snap waterproof disposable camera... we were pretty impressed with the quality compared to other underwater disposables we've tried)

If you're ever in Maui and want to take a snorkeling trip, I highly highly recommend Maui Kayaks.  When we went to Australia for our honeymoon we took two different charters out to the Great Barrier Reef, and while the charter boats are less work, kayaking gives you access to sites the big boats can't get to, and going out in such a small group made the experience even better.

After our snorkeling trip, we headed back to the hotel, took a nap, and went down to the pool for our last afternoon of sun, sand, and swimming.  I'm not going to lie, it was really really really hard to leave that pool.  Those last moments of warm sun were so bittersweet.  Oh, who am I kidding - they were just bitter.  We live in Portland.  The sun won't shine like that until next July.  That's TEN MONTHS AWAY!  What?  No, I'm not crying.  Must be - uh - sand in my eye.  Or something.

Anyway, we got all gussied up and set up out on the lenai to watch the luau until it was time to leave for dinner.  The hotel doesn't usually have luaus on Saturday nights, but we got lucky - a cruise ship had pulled in that day and booked a private luau.  Did I mention that the cruisers were nearly all retirees?  Have you ever seen retirees try to hula?  Well take my word for it - it was fantastic.  Truly truly fantastic.  The actual dancers were pretty great, too... particularly when they busted out the torches.  I don't know how they don't burn themselves to a crisp, but I guess that's why they're the pros and I'm the girl watching from her lenai 5 floors up.

The luau ended at 8, just in time for us to make it to Lahaina for dinner.  We decided to have a belated anniversary dinner on our last night in Maui (the chili dogs were great, but not exactly the romantic celebratory dinner we're accustomed to) and everyone said Lahaina Grill was the place to go for such a dinner.  Those people were not wrong.

Our dinner was aaaaaamazing... easily one of the best dinners we'd had in a long time.  We were the old farts of our section (everyone else was on their honeymoon) but the hostess took pity on us and gave us a card signed by the entire staff, and took a customary couples picture of us...

Here's what we had:

  • Bufala Salad (olawalu tomatoes, bufala mozzarella, truffle oil, aged balsamic vinaigrette, alziari extra virgin olive oil, and black kilauea sea salt)
  • Sauteed line caught local mahi-mahi (kula spinach, herbed mashed potatoes, gorgonzola pancetta bits, and chardonnay beurre blanc) -> this was the best mahi mahi we'd ever had and we d-e-v-o-u-r-e-d it.
  • Kurombuta Pork Shank (pork shank with black currant demi-glace, pearl onions, asparagus, creamed spinach mixed in with mashed potatoes)
  • Triple Berry Pie (raspberries, blueberries, and black currants with whipped cream and strawberry sauce) -> this pie was insane!  Absolute pie perfection.

We rolled ourselves back to the car after dinner and took a quick stroll on the beach at the hotel before spending the rest of the night out on the lenai, playing cards and getting tipsy.  Despite a relatively early flight the next day, we didn't go to bed until 2am or so to try to delay the inevitability of going home just a little longer.

And with that, our amazing vacation and this series of posts have come to an end... thanks for reliving the adventure with me!  :-)

{maui} day 8

We slept in the morning of Day 8, had a late breakfast, and trekked out to Black Rock for more snorkeling.  The fish were abundant and similar to what we'd seen the day before at Honolua Bay.  We'd been snorkeling for nearly an hour when we had our second sea turtle sighting.  They're so much bigger than everything else in the water that it's always such a surprise when come out of nowhere and are suddenly mere feet away.  We saw another turtle after that, and then a HUGE ray!  Turns out it was a spotted eagle ray, like this:

It set my nerves off a bit (I'll admit, I had brief flashes of getting Steve Irwined), but it was so beautiful and graceful I couldn't help wanting it to swim back toward us so we could get another look.

After snorkeling we set up by the pool for a few hours of sunbathing and swimming - a combination that never seems to get old.  Another late afternoon nap, followed by the sunset cliff dive on Black Rock, and we headed out to Lahaina to do a bit of shopping and to get some dinner.

We grabbed some beers and burgers at Cool Cats (voted the "best" burgers in Maui.)  The service was a tad slow, but nothing like what people griped about on Yelp.  The burgers were delish, as were the fries and onion rings.  They had a guy playing classic rock tunes, who was a delightful change of pace from the island music we'd been hearing for the past week.  He played The Weight for us, which was excellent.

After dinner we stopped for our 3rd and final shave ice of the trip.  This one was BY FAR the best.  The girls at Ululani's were chatty, but it didn't detract from their ability to make some damn good shave ice.  First they shave the block of ice like snow then they pack it down and aerate it with a straw before pouring on the syrup.  We got 1/2 pineapple 1/2 strawberry (hey, we know what we like when it comes to sweet treats and we stick to it) and the taste and texture were far superior to any of the other shave ices we'd had so far... each spoonful melted instantly in our mouths.  Mmmmm, it was so good.

Next up for Day 9... our last day in Maui.  :-(