The Cove

We just watched a heart-wrenching documentary exposing dolphin killing in Japan called "The Cove". Please watch this movie and learn more about it at: www.takepart.com/thecove. It's disturbing and sad, but has a powerful message that we think is important to spread. Chels and I saw many dolphins in Hawaii and they are so beautiful in their natural habitat! We hate to learn about the abuse and horror they're being subjected to in Japan, but it's important to educate ourselves to stop it. Here are some pictures of dolphins we saw while on our honeymoon-- please let us know what you think of the movie, and thanks for watching!

Blended Creations

We received two blenders as wedding gifts, both a regular standing blender and a smartstick immersion blender and they are awesome! We've been using the immersion blender since August and love it! Chels loves using it to chop veggies, especially onions so she doesn't cry. We use it for dips, whipping cream, chopping, and last night I made hummus for the first time. I think it was a success... Chels likes it, so that is a compliment :) A few weeks ago we were given the other blender for a wedding gift and have had fun making smoothies with it. Todd and I made frozen margaritas the other night after work and they were delicious! It was great because I have these fun margarita glasses we got to use, which makes them that much more authentic--well, maybe not "authentic" but delicious for the first time making frozen margaritas. I'm excited to see what else we can make with our new blenders--maybe soup will be next, we'll see!

Birthday Bowling

Last night Chels and I went to our friend Lindsay's surprise 30th birthday party and had a great time! Her partner Stacy and Lindsay's sisters planned the party at The Garage Billiards on Capitol Hill--and Lindsay was actually surprised, yay! Her family came into town for the event and it was really fun to see her reaction when she saw all of her friends and family there to celebrate her birthday. Here are some pictures:

Chelsea and the birthday girl

Stacy and Candace

Chelsea and Candace

Noal, Mandy, Alana, Nya, and Chels

Nya and Mandy

Happy Birthday, Lindsay!

The Best Ice Cream OF ALL TIME!!!

Yesterday Chelsea picked me up a pint of my favorite ice cream, Molly Moon's Salted Caramel, and it is the best ever! We discovered Molly Moon's Homemade Ice Cream last summer at Eat Local in Seattle and Candace has been addicted to the salted caramel flavor ever since. Today I found out we have TWO Molly Moon's ice cream shops in Seattle, TWO!!! I'M SO EXCITED! Check out the other delicious flavors on their website: www.mollymoonicecream.com. Eat local is also pretty cool--they make foods prepared with organic and sustainable ingredients, which they freeze to maintain the flavor & nutrients. And it's great because then you can make them at your home sweet home whenever you want! Check them out at: www.eatlocalonline.com.

Sunday Sunday Sunday

So yesterday was Sunday, for those of you who did not know it. Just a little reminder. Chelsea and I decided to go down to the park by our house and play some basketball. Needless to say, I was not as awesome as I thought I would be after not having played in about 7 years... However, Chels and I were both still able to pull out some semi-awesome skills like the tried-and-true right-handed layup and the corner of the key rebound shot. It's good to know that some things you can't forget! The free throw and 3-point shots are still needing some practice (well, for me at least: Sean made a 3-point shot)! Sean and Claire came down to join us, and here are a few of our better moments:

They came over for dinner and I tried a new recipe. A baked pasta with spinach, artichoke hearts, and mozzarella & parmesan cheeses, yum! We also had strawberries and cream for dessert, as I am now (since Friday) able to whip cream, yay! :) Sean, Claire, Chelsea, and I also played the board game "Ticket to Ride" which they received as a Christmas gift from Sean's parents. It was pretty fun! Not sure if it's my favorite over "Settlers of Catan" just yet, but it's worth checking out. Happy Daylight Savings!

Great Recipe

Here's an easy and delicious recipe for Curried Rice with Shrimp that we had for dinner last night!

Curried Rice with Shrimp: serves 4

hands-on time: 20 minutes

total time: 45 minutes

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 large onion, chopped

2 carrots, chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

2 teaspoons curry powder

1 cup white rice

1.5 pounds large shrimp, peeled and deveined

1/2 cup fresh basil (I did not use this)

1) Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and carrots and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft, 6-8 minutes.

2) Add the garlic and curry and cook, stirring, until fragrant, 2 minutes.

3) Add the rice, 2.5 cups of water, 1/2 teaspoon salt & 1/2 teaspoon pepper and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer for 15 minutes.

4) Season shrimp with 1/2 tsp. salt and 1/4 tsp. pepper and nestle them in the partially cooked rice. Cover and cook until the shrimp are opaque throughout, 4-5 minutes. Fold in the basil and serve.

Thanks Real Simple! This recipe is real simple and "real" delicious!

Home Sweet Home

Here are some pictures of the apartment Chelsea and I moved into in November 2009. Hopefully you will all get a chance to come visit, but for those of you in Minnesota, here's a little visual tour.

Walking through the front door takes you into our living room, or you can go up the stairs to the bedrooms. We'll start with the living room: we have a half bathroom just off this area, bordering the living and dining rooms.

You can see the dining room is tucked off to the left, with the bathroom and closet to the right.

From the dining room, the kitchen is just around the corner to the right. We also have a back door with a little cement patio area. Big enough for a BBQ, we'll see!

From the front door, you can go directly up the stairs instead of into the living room.

At the top of the stairs is the full bath, with the second bedroom/office off to the left. And from the second bedroom there is a short hallway leading to the master bedroom.

And that concludes the tour of our little home sweet home! Hope you enjoyed it! :)

Lazy Saturday

It's a lazy Saturday today...for Kitten, that is. Look at what she's been up to: I was reading a magazine at the table and got up for a second to change the laundry and look who stole my spot! Good thing she's cute :) Kitten's having a great time lazing around today, meanwhile Chelsea is working and I am doing laundry, dishes, and grocery shopping, oh my!

Here are some more cute pictures to share: mostly of our niece Clarabelle, and one of her and our nephew Ashton (Candace's sister Mandy's little one), who we'll get to meet for the first time this summer when we visit Minnesota. Can't wait!

Friday Night Dinner

Tonight Chels and I had our friends Nick and Ann Marie over for dinner. This is the first visit to our new place for them--we've been friends for a few years and used to be "neighbors", both living in the Sand Point area north of the University District. Our dinner dates usually go back and forth between our two places and with both of us couples having moved multiple times in the past few years, it turns out to be a dinner and tour of the newest "new" place almost every other time! Last month we went to their new apartment and got to meet Nick and Ann Marie's new Australian Shepard puppy Gus. Very cute! :) Kitten was the furry friend representative at our place tonight and she actually sat in their laps, which is very brave for her. Candace was the chef this evening and made a Minnesotan classic, the cheesy potato casserole. Mom's recipe, of course (though it may actually be her younger brother's original genius, not too sure). We had asparagus as the side, with fresh bread and white wine (root beer for Chelsea). I made a relatively easy chocolate cake for dinner called "melt-in-your-mouth" cake with a brownie-like consistency. Very tasty! And I whipped cream for the first time to top the cake, with some pointers from Ann Marie. Fresh strawberries and raspberries (and vanilla ice-cream, of course!) accompanied the cake for a very delicious dessert, if I do say so myself! Before you think I'm the next Julia Child, however, it was not all smooth sailing: I tried to flip the cake out of the pan and only half the cake decided to come out! Hence the need for the whipped cream topping to add not only a delicious dressing, but a more presentable dessert :) Any tips on getting the cake to release easier from the pan? All in all, a very nice and fun dinner--good friends and good food!

It's Greek for Me

Tonight Chelsea and I, along with her cousin Claire and Claire's boyfriend Sean, attended a cooking class at PCC, a fancy Seattle grocery store (or "natural market", if you will). We had a really fun time! The food featured was Greek, as I'm sure you gathered from the title. We learned how to make spanakopita, an appetizer made of flaky dough filled with a spinach & cheese mixture. Then we learned how to make tzatziki, a yogurt-cucumber-dill dip which pairs well with pita bread. Chels was a little apprehensive to try the dessert, galactoboureko, which turns out to be a delicious custard, almost bread pudding, type of filling inside layers of phyllo dough (which happens to be the same dough used in the spanakopita, but with a much different taste!). Chelsea actually liked it--way to be adventuresome, honey! :) We also learned how to make a tasty baked-bean dish called fasolia yiahni, made with multiple veggies, cannellini beans, and olive oil. It was very good! For Seattleites, I highly recommend taking a PCC cooks class. Learn more at: http://www.pcccooks.com/.

And as a side note - Chelsea only was able to complete 1 of her 3 essential showering steps due to a sudden lack of hot water. Not cool. Not cool at all. (*Might have something to do with Candace washing dishes at the same time...oops).

Happy International Women's Day!

For those of you who were not Women Studies majors or minors, find out more about International Women's Day at: http://www.internationalwomensday.com/ and start the celebration! :)

Chels and I just watched "Up" and it was very cute. Squirrel!!!!!!!! Good recommendation, Steph! Chelsea made a great dinner: pasta with broccoli, red peppers, kalamata olives, and feta cheese, yum!

And here is a cute picture of Snuggles to leave you with...

Our Time with Cutter

Candace and I had a lot of fun dog-sitting for my boss' dog Cutter. He is a French Bulldog and is almost 1 year old. We took him with us to Camano over Valentine's Day weekend.

He liked to lay in front of the fireplace every chance he got, and also made friends with the neighborhood horsies!

Thanks to Aunt Cathy and Uncle Sandy for letting us stay at their place!

Hawaii Pictures At Long Last!

We've finally put our Hawaii honeymoon pictures up on our wedding website! Check them out at: www.mywedding.com/candaceandchelsea. Maui is very beautiful, it's truly indescribable, so hopefully these pictures will help :) Enjoy!

Cute Baby Alert!

Look at our cute little niece Clarabelle! She is Candace's little sister Ashley's baby and will be a year old in May. Yesterday, Grandma Jean said Clarabelle has been mimicking talking on a cell phone--she saw a guy on TV on a cell phone, put her little hand up to her ear and began talking gibberish into her own "phone"! Isn't that cute? We get to see her again in July when we visit Minnesota. SHE'S SO CUTE!!! Must take after her favorite Aunties C & C, ha ha :)

Lindsay Fuller & The Cheap Dates

Last night we went to a show at the Fremont Abbey to support our friend Lindsay Fuller. It was awesome, great job Linds! Check out her website: http://www.lindsayfuller.com/ to learn more about her music. Lindsay played at our wedding (for those of you who were able to attend) so you may remember her from that. She's currently working on a new record so stay tuned!