The Weekend In A New York Minute

This weekend featured a lot of indoor activities: reading, Olympics watching, internet perusing, scrabbling. With one beautifully-snowcapped Central Park exception.

Sticky Notes | My mom sent me this book, Manuscript Found in Accra by Paulo Coelho with more sticky notes attached than there are pages. Am I supposed to actually read it or just refer to the flagged Clif Notes version? Clearly the book spoke to her. Hoping it does for me as well, though I'll need to stock up on post-its first. Have any of you read it? Thoughts?

Scrabble Saturday | Saturday night was a real wild one, let me tell you. Grammar took a bash to the face while spelling & vocabulary tumbled out the window along with the dictionary. All in the name of Scrabble!

Winter White | Since we all enjoy bemoaning the winter doldrums this time of year, especially when uppity guests like Polar Vortex and Snowpocalypse overstay their welcome, it's nice to know a few New Yorkers (Central Park I'm looking at you) can keep it together under such inclement circumstances. White truly is her color.

Seattle Street Style | I'm sorry if you're sick of hearing Seattle this and Seattle that, but the Emerald City holds a soft, mushy place in my heart from which bouts of nostalgia gush forth periodically (especially during Macklemore-SuperBowl-Seattle-is-having-a-moment times like these), so please bear with me. The latest to tug at my heartstrings is this lovely street style blog I discovered over the weekend. Dana Landon, the photographer and author behind it, has a simple yet captivating style that's completely delightful. New posts appear daily, so check out It's My Darlin' for a dose of inspiration and a peek into the style of Pacific Northwesters. No flannel in sight. Side note: another equally great street photography blog is the ubiquitous Humans of New York.

Enjoy your Monday!
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Volunteer Park

While home for the holidays last week, my Mom & I took an impromptu walk (meant to be run) through Seattle's Volunteer Park a few blocks from home. Initially, we marched out the door with grand intentions of working off the 50+ chocolate salted caramels we I consumed in a holiday-induced binge, Lululemon gear on ready for max exertion. Instead, on a whim, we re-routed our course through the nearby park for a more scenic backdrop from grey city streets. Man, am I glad we did. Not only did we time it perfectly just as the sun was setting, bathing the already-beautiful grounds in all sorts of magical light, but we made up for the so-far lackluster workout by climbing to the top of the park's historic water tower. All 106 spiral stairs.

Of course, I've climbed these stairs before. The park's soaring oak trees, yawning stretches of grass, winding walkways, and stone wading pool are all familiar faces to me from a childhood spent in its greenery. But the last time I climbed the water tower was a distant memory from more youthful years, and now the circular stairwell looked especially steep.

Much to our surprise, exhilaration replaced reluctance when 106 stairs later (plus a few stops along the way to snap pics but in reality catch our breath) we crested the final step thigh muscles and dignity intact. Take that youth! We still got it!



And apparently so does the water tower. Her charming brick glory shimmered especially bright in the late afternoon sun.

After much ooh'ing and aah'ing, the descent proved far more enjoyable filled with our excited chattering over the water tower's loveliness as if we'd just discovered an unknown hidden gem in the city (ah vacation brain!). High on park life, we stopped into the Conservatory too, warming ourselves beneath the leafy palm trees and swampy air.

Finally, just as the setting sun dipped below the horizon, our wandering took us by the infamous "doughnut" sculpture with the sun's last rays peeking through the center just perfectly.

 Well done, Volunteer Park. Well done.

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Flourless Chocolate Cake

The prospect of making this cake intimidated the heck out of me. As still somewhat of a novice baker, I've yet to attempt anything "flourless" in the kitchen. The thought of missing so crucial an ingredient (even gluten free recipes call for some form of flour) gives me the heebee jeebees. So, what's a fearful baker who's conveniently home for the holidays to do? Call in the big guns: DAD. You might notice much older (and wrinklier?) hands in some of the pics; wouldn't want you thinking those were mine. To be perfectly honest, my dad baked this entire cake. I just supervised and annoyingly peeked over his shoulder the whole time snapping away. Does that make me a bad blogger? If so, what a delicious cheat and done only with the best of intentions. If you like chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate, this cake is for you. Who needs flour?

We worked from an old, dusty recipe torn from the pages of a nondescript newspaper circa 1992, so I can't properly credit the original source, but a similar recipe can be found here.

Ingredients:

1 lb bittersweet chocolate or four 4 oz. bars (we used Ghirardelli's bars here)
2 sticks of unsalted butter
1/4 cup hazelnut liqueur (or coffee, almond, chocolate)
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
7 eggs at room temperature
1 cup sugar


Directions:

Preheat oven to 350° F. Butter a 9-inch springform pan, line with parchment paper, and butter the parchment. In a saucepan, simmer the bittersweet chocolate (broken up into pieces), butter, and the coffee liqueur. When the mixture is fully melted & smooth, stir in the vanilla extract and set aside to cool. While that's cooling, beat your eggs for several minutes until they're fluffy (don't worry if this takes a bit longer than you expect) and add the sugar. Combine chocolate mixture with the eggs/sugar and blend. Pour batter into pan and bake for one hour or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out virtually clean. Let cool in the pan, then loosen springform and remove. When the cake is fully cooled (we allowed it to sit overnight), dig out your sifter and sprinkle powdered sugar over the top. In a pinch, use a sieve for this step (amateur hour in this house!) and feel free to throw in a paper cutout of your favorite holiday shape to form the "blank space" in the center. We went with the obvious--a tree! Enjoy and Merry Christmas!

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A Weekend Out West

I learned two lessons this weekend: 

1. Washington State needs to master the art of the air conditioner. 

2. Something kind of magical happens when you explore your own hometown as a tourist, especially when it's with someone experiencing all the sights, sounds, smells and seafood for the first time. 

In honor of Kev's inaugural visit to the Pacific Northwest, Seattle pulled out all the stops & threw on her Sunday best of sunshine and blue skies. Notwithstanding the slight heat wave going on (90 degrees! Constant sweat! No A/C anywhere!), all four days we were there, the sun-drenched streets and sparkling waters of the city just dazzled. Even as a jaded local, I was thoroughly seduced by her nautical charms.

Like professional tourists, we packed every day tightly with the major sights and spots the city has to offer.

Pike Place Market... where Kevin discovered the infamous "gum" wall, the first Starbucks store from 1971, and the salmon throwing fishmongers. The gum wall went over exceedingly well.

The Great Wheel...where we took in spectacular views of the Seattle waterfront while sweating bullets in the tiny ferris wheel car that had a broken A/C. We were like bugs under a magnifying glass.

The Space Needle... where we squinted our way to approximately 5,000 selfies without much success.

Experience Music Project... where Kevin reconnected with the 1990's version of himself who loved Nirvana and punk rock. Also known as 2013 Kevin.

Alki Beach... where we attempted to stage a jumping photo montage. Nailed it.

The Seattle Underground Tour... where we discovered how idiotic the founding fathers of Seattle were in building the original streets at sea level when measured at low tide. Turn-of-the-century sewage pipes are no match for the force of a rising ocean. A lot of poop jokes ensued.

The Ballard Locks... where we were able to take a good hard look at what we'd been eating at every meal the last three days (eek!).

Oh, and can't forget Kaitlyn & Dave's wedding...where we watched my childhood friend tie the knot in a beautiful ceremony and took awkward photo booth pics that probably should never see the light of day let alone this blog.

Of course, a visit to Seattle is not complete without one dip in the ocean. Or at least a feet-only semi dip.

Did we miss anything!? 

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