breakfast with class

While looking for some other recipe last week, I came across the "Strawberry omelet." It sounded nuts, but I wanted to try it! So when a co-worker mentioned she would be picking strawberries, i asked her to pick me up some so I could try it.

This breakfast is the ultimate in class. Without a doubt the most beautiful omelet I've ever made.

Here's the recipe:

Strawberry Bliss Omelet (pulled from here)

I made a half-recipe, but here it is in full:

Ingredients

6 eggs
2 tablespoons water
1/2 teaspoon salt
Dash pepper
2 tablespoons butter
2 ounces cream cheese, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1-1/2 cups sliced fresh strawberries, divided
Confectioners' sugar


Directions

In a large bowl, whisk the eggs, water, salt and pepper. Heat butter in a 10-in. nonstick skillet over medium heat; add egg mixture. As the eggs set, lift edges, letting uncooked portion flow underneath. I made the mistake of putting my eggs on the stovetop before I had sliced my strawberries. Don't do this. You don't want to need to be fiddling with your omelet when you should be cutting your strawberries!

When the eggs are almost set, sprinkle cream cheese, brown sugar and 1 cup strawberries over one side. Fold omelet in half. Cover and cook for 1-2 minutes or until brown sugar begins to melt. Slide omelet onto a plate; top with remaining strawberries and dust with confectioners' sugar.

Our ingredients. The almond milk ended up being from the other recipe I was looking at. I almost put it in anyway, but I decided to start simple, and stick with the recipe. Always time for further exploration in the future.

In the rush of getting the strawberries sliced, I forgot to take any intervening pictures, but here's the finished product:

Ta-da! A breakfast with class. I added the powdered sugar a little later, and it really completes the meal! If there is such a thing as a breakfast wine, this is the meal to make with it. For now, I drank some cranberry-blueberry juice with it, which was delicious, of course.

Ultimately, my eggs did not completely set on the inside, but I think that may be because I wasn't lifting the edges enough earlier on. Still, it was good, and I'm going to continue experimenting. This one was not very sweet, so i think in the future I may try one of the ones where you put in milk and maybe vanilla. Nevertheless, today's was a successful breakfast adventure. Yum!

notepad

So i'm a big fan of using my phone to record things throughout the day. Thoughts, ideas, directions, groceries--anything a person might need to recall. Unfortunately, my phone's Notepad feature has a 100-character (including spaces) limit on my notes, so sometimes I have to sprawl things out over multiple notes. It's about time to clean out some of my old ones, as they've been building up, but I thought i'd copy out a survey of my notes so you can get an idea about my life. So here is the list of notes currently saved in my phone, with comments if i feel like it:

1) "rocky top" clog-- passion in work, in hobby, fam. Funerals are cultural reminders. ~ From Aunt Lesley's funeral. "Rocky Top" was the song they played at the end; I was struck by the balance the funeral showed of her passion in every part of her life. Finally, the purpose funerals serve is that of cultural reminders of what is important, what is honorable, what is worthy of striving for in life, as well as providing a space for mourning.

2) How would you describe yourself to someone else? ~ One of those survey questions that are enlightening to actually try and answer. Sometimes I sit down and ponder this, even though I never quite answer it.

3) sccoos.org/data/tracking/ib
monitoring plumes
federal support for water testing?
hormgts
Voice of sd

4) ((combination for a lock somewhere))

5) Audubon trips July 17, 8 o clock. July 24 hurricane ridge trip.

6) Pablo Almodovar; director; "talk to her", "women on the verge of a nervous breakdown" ~ Ester's extended family recommended this director--i've not yet looked him up, but supposedly he's really sweet.

7) ((address for someone i tutored)

8) People are like events. Some people come and go and change things. I am event too. Diff levels of depth. ~ There are people who have gone from my life who I will never connect with again, yet still they have had a lasting impact that still instructs the way my life is lived. Juliet Hansen is probably my biggest example of this. We haven't spoken in ages, but for a time she was a big influence on my life. I should look her up again... but it would never be anything like what it was. Our friendship at that time affected me in a particular way, and I am glad for it. Kinda like this.

9) Swallow black with white underside circle around tail. ~ It was probably a violet-green on a cloudy day. I'll never be sure though...

10) Mexican cheese, onions, brn sugar
6+tomatoes
2 cucumbers
beets, walnuts, broth

11) What are the things that key me into the spirit? What quenches the spirit? Not what else do I need,

12) Ciao database. All international affairs and stuff. ~ I have no idea.

13) Whimbrel.

14) This service i render is not my own. It is a gift from my family, and to it, and to she whom we honor.

15) Black-headed grosbeak. Towhee? ~ That's the spotted towhee I was looking at. I've since seen a black-headed grosbeak and now I can tell the difference.

16) Towels, pictures, map, Tupperware. Mug, plant, tea ~ Things needed for a happy office.

17) By confronting our sins against others, we are forced to encounter our sins against God. ~ Pastor Steve, sermon on Jacob wrestling God. Really tied it together in a cool way.

18) When jacob encounters his brother, he is really [also] confronting himself--and God. by confronting our sins against others... ~ see above.

19) luggage, laptop case, jacket, science shoes ~ stuff to buy for Washington!

20) What is the gospel for individuals? What did the disciples preach before christ's death? The Kingdom of God is near. ~ epic sermon I listened to when I went to a Naz church in Chicago. The sermon's final climax and denouement were kind of bland, but the central question was fascinating-- "What was the gospel the disciples preached before Jesus died for our sins?" We will be talking about this here some day, because this question is one that never occurred to me before this sermon, and ever since comes up in my thinking about what is the gospel and what does it mean.

21) God brings about moral change--love, joy, peace. If you already have these, faith brings you there for others. ~ And into his service, as part of God's work in bringing about the fruits of the spirit in others. I always wonder when people list the fruits of the spirit and then say you can only get them if you're a Christian. But that's just not true--some people of other or no faith are loving, joyful, peaceful, etc. What does the gospel have to offer them? Perhaps a chance to take part in the work God's doing to bring about these fruits in others. This note comes from another sermon, one just last sunday or so, but building in some ways off of #20.

22) Spiritual dev, physical exercise, career/development, personal reading, educational videos, news. ~ Things to do when bored.

23) The _only_ thing the church ultimately has uniquely is the truth of faith--can't prove it, not only comfort.  ~ While faith can comfort you, it's not the only thing. While faith can give life meaning, it's not the only one. The only thing the church uniquely offers is its message, which in faith we hold to be true. But all the benefits of a life of faith can be attained in other ways. If someone doesn't need these, we don't need to offer those things to him or her. At that point, we have only faith and our understanding of the world, which we can share and they can believe or not. But you can't prove it, not by personal experience nor by historical evidence. It is faith alone. Which I think is ok.

24) The exodus was the defining idea for the old testament. Today? What gospel the disciples taught while Jesus was alive? ~ Back on the theme of understanding how Scripture's messages apply now. A combination of class in Chicago and that sermon while I was there.

25) White underparts, brown back and wings, speckled brn near throat, light beak with dark tip, light br ~ I don't know what this was. I should have recorded some size info too....

26) Elwa bridge, off of 101? heading to joyce ~ A place possibly to hunt for bats!

27) When it's a struggle to pray, it's a great time to praise.

28) Possible conduits of grace: marimba, church!, Service, food, reading; (no point in feeling guilty) ~ If for whatever reason praying is hard or reading scripture directly every day or journaling aren't helping you connect to God.... then they are not helping you connect to God. Try to find out what does help you connect, and use those conduits as much as you need to. Mix and match! combine! This was sort of the point of a chapel speaker this past semester. I thought his ideas were kind of interesting.

29) What is my passion? What matters to me? What do i love? ~ Worth pondering more, always.

30) What already keys me into the spirit? God never forms two people the same way. Different "conduits of grace" see #28. And #27.

31) John Ortman, "slowing." take the longest line [in the grocery store], drive behind the grandma (or paul). practice waiting. ~ Another idea one of the last chapel speakers slipped in.

32) King's way church in carlsborg? church with no reputation (time to change) ~ notes from conversation with the pastor here at Sequim Naz. KW church might have some young people I could go to Bible study with. The other is something he was talking about-- his church currently has no reputation in the Sequim community--good or bad. He mentioned this he thought was a great time to make changes in the way the church relates to its community--to build a reputation, for good, in a new way. I think the idea of a church's reputation (in a sense independent or at least separate from thoughts about individual members).

33) Watch?? ~ I want to buy one.

34) Starlings: 12345, glide for a second, 12345..... ~ It's how they fly.

35) Baggage claim, part 1, out the door, giant planes from the ceiling, door 00 ~ How to get to my hotel shuttle in Seattle airport!

36) 23? Form from library; dollars for seattle ~ Idk what the 23 is about. Other stuff is what i need to do the morning before i leave for Washington state! I don't really need this anymore...






So a lot of those are unnecessary. But there's a peek into the kind of things I hold on to! ... Yeah.

welcome to Sequim

I am now arrived and settled in Sequim, Washington (pronounced 'skwim').

Honestly everything about this experience has been wonderful so far. I came to this town after landing an internship at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, a lab associated with the US Department of Energy and run by a non-profit (or not-for-profit?) company called Battelle.

I am renting a room in a house with a family here in Sequim, and from the moment I arrived they have been wonderfully welcoming. Kim, my host mom, is an awesome cook (like, seriously, she runs a restaurant and is an amazing chef), and gives me cooking (and cleaning!) tips, which are very helpful. Rick, her husband, has always made a point to talk with me when I get home or around the house, really making me feel welcome. And their daughter Maggie is really chill, the very first day taking me on a bike ride to the river to tromp through the mud. She has done a great job of helping me find things to do around town. Another student (well, a recent grad) from the Lab is living here as well. Caleb has been really fun to hang out with--we're currently watching through the Devil May Cry anime.... so much fun! Lastly, the dogs Fergie and Gwen are the most adorable little dachshunds, and they are very friendly once they're done "greeting" you when you walk in the door (with piercing yapping).

Work has been going really well so far. My boss is really fun, and my project (observing birds and bats!) is really fun, because I get to work outside for half the time. My coworkers have also been very welcoming, helping me around the office and hanging out at lunch. One of my new friends even invited me to a house concert! That was a lot of fun.

The town itself is simply charming. There's about 6,000 people in the town, one "main" street that has almost every store on it. There is a bike path leading almost the entire way to work, making it easy to ride to work.

Finally, Audubon has a center not far from where I'm living, so I have opportunity to visit them and learn as much about birds as I like!


Some photos:

Audubon has these adorable stuffed birds that make their actual bird call! Guess what the Baby's getting as his souvenir....

The view from work.

Welcome to Sequim. We have sushi in a barn.

One of my coworkers (seen on the back right) plays in a marimba band in Sequim! Apparently marimbas are a thing here in the Pacific Northwest. How cool is that?

I've always been one to support small business.

Awww, Gwen wants out again. Or something. You can never be sure what exactly she's asking for...

House concert by Noelle Johnson and her band. You can't see the mason jars from here, but the plaid should tell you they're around.

The Olympic mountains.

The lighthouse on Dungeness Spit. Who's that standing there on the tip?

Sorry for the kind of hollow tone. Now that I've gotten the location update taken care of, I can get back to thoughts or ideas the next time one of them strikes.

beet burgers!

I promise this is the last recipe for a while. But I had to get in one more beet recipe. This one was a big hit with the host dad and host uncle. "This is great! It gets even better the longer you eat it!"




"beet this burger" brought to you by Vegweb




1 tablespoon finely grated raw beet

1/2 cup cooked oats (quick or regular rolled oats)

1 cup uncooked oats (quick or regular rolled oats)

1/2 cup walnuts, coarsely ground

1/4 cup almonds, coarsely ground

2 tablespoons sesame seeds

1 tablespoon italian seasoning

1/4 cup green pepper, minced

1/4 cup celery, minced

1/4 cup onion, minced

1 teaspoon dried basil

1/4 teaspoon dried thyme

1/4 teaspoon ground sage

1/4 teaspoon mustard powder

2 tablespoon soy sauce







1) Mix the ingredients




2) heat them.




As you can see, once the ingredients are all gathered the recipe is pretty simple. Only one of the four burgers I got from this stayed together (a common problem in veggie burgers) and I'm not sure why. I think next time I'll add more water? To help make the oats more gooey.




The ingredients:












The chef hard at work:
















Now to grate the beet:










Then mix the ingredients:













Tada! Veggie patty!
















Serve along side the beet quinoa salad leftovers, and a nice dark juice. Yum!






Today's recipe was delicious! You should try it!




Later this weekend I'm gonna give a real update to this thing. But I just thought I'd share tonight's meal.

beet-quinoa salad

This week, for whatever reason, I got really excited about beets. So, this week will feature two beet recipes. Here's the first: a Beet-Quinoa salad I made for dinner last night.




Adapted from "Quinoa, Beet, and Arugula Salad," at Allrecipes.com


Ingredients
2 medium-sized beets, peeled and sliced
1 cup quinoa
2 cups water
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoons white sugar
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
beet greens, chopped
goat cheese, crumbled, to taste


Directions

1. Place a steamer insert into a saucepan, and fill with water to just below the bottom of the steamer. Cover pan and bring the water to a boil. Add beets, cover pan, and steam until just tender, 7 to 10 minutes. Set aside. 
2. Bring quinoa and 2 cups water a saucepan over high heat. Reduce the heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until the quinoa is tender and the liquid has been absorbed, about 15 minutes. 
3. While the quinoa is cooking, whisk olive oil, red wine vinegar, sugar, garlic, salt, and black pepper together in a large bowl. 
4. Remove quinoa from heat, then immediately add half of the vinegar dressing while fluffing the quinoa with a fork; reserve remaining dressing. Cover and refrigerate quinoa until cool, at least 1 hour. 
5. Stir green onions, arugula, goat cheese, beets, and remaining dressing into cooled quinoa mixture. Toss lightly before serving. 

It's a beet!





The beets are all sliced up and placed in the steamer.





Ta-da! The final salad.





The recipe says it makes enough for 6 servings. I think mine will last at least that long. I just used the goat cheese at the end, rather than mixing it all in with the bowl. That way, I can still use it for something else later in the week!


This salad was really tasty! I think the goat cheese really finishes it off well! And the beet greens taste just like a spinach. Delicious!

bruschetta!

I decided to make pasta today, but since I didn't know if I had rights to the landfamily's pasta sauce, I decided to use some of my excess tomatoes to make a bruschetta!


Ingredients: 

2 cloves chopped garlic
enough olive oil
2 tomatoes
3 sprigs thyme (I didn't have any basil)
more olive oil
1/4 c. balsamic vinegar
shredded Parmesan cheese
fresh ground pepper
baguette or crostini

Some of our starting ingredients:

Instructions:

Sautee garlic in olive oil for about 2 miniutes on medium heat (probably less--mine ended up a little burned!). Place in serving bowl to cool. 

Dice tomatoes and add to bowl.

Add the thyme to the bowl. Add olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and ground pepper to taste.

And that's all! I microwaved mine for about 30 seconds after to take the chill off. Next time I would probably do even more, or put the tomatoes in the frying pan for a little bit with the garlic. 

the finished bruschetta:

Lunch is served!

Mine made enough for two! I served it (to myself) with a side salad, pasta, and some sourdough bread, and some cranberry juice.

Recipe adapted from "Joelan's Best Bruschetta" - http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,171,128181-248192,00.html

And some music for lunch:


"Postcards from Italy" - Beirut
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjzVbXeD_8E

recap of time at home

I feel as though I've been moving non-stop since whenever I last wrote here. I am now all the way to Washington state, but I want to take a moment to reflect on my time at home last week. Updates on Washington will probably come later in the weekend. Because I was home for such a short amount of time (five days), I had to schedule things pretty tightly.

Family


I started off visiting Ben in Portsmouth. It was really good getting to spend some time with him; I honestly can't tell you when the last time I spent with him alone was. But he showed off the town, and we got smoothies. And we had a chance to really talk to each other, and try to get a feel for where we are in our lives. It was really fun. I think we the siblings have gotten to an age where we need to consciously work to maintain our relationships. Things are always so busy, it's hard to do that. But it's important. I hope our family will always remain friends. And I'm glad that, so far at least, we have.

~~~

Right at the beginning of the week, my aunt Lesley passed away. While she's been sick for a while, we all thought we had a little more time with her. Dad and I went down on Thursday for her memorial service at her church and the funeral. Something I noticed about the ceremony was that despite the sorrow at losing her, there truly was present a spirit of celebration of her life. She had made a number of specific requests for the ceremony, and the entire ceremony felt truly like a gift to her, a thank you, rather than a condolence to her family (though it was that, as well). It was a beautiful ceremony.

I loved how down to earth my Aunt Lesley was. She was one of the members of my family who I felt really understood me intuitively. Other members try and maybe even succeed, but she didn't even seem to have to try. She just already understood, and was supportive, celebrating my successes with me when I saw her. And she lived such a full life, making a meaningful impact in people's lives at home, through her work as a teacher, through her service at her church, and even through her hobby, clogging, which she coached (directed? organized?).

When I arrived, I was informed that I was actually to be part of the ceremony. She had asked that her nephews be represented in her pallbearers, and as I was the only nephew there from Mom's side of the family, I was given the honor and responsibility to represent my family. As we were preparing to carry her to the hearse, I wrote down a note:

"This service I render is not my own. It is a gift from my family, and to it, and to she whom we honor."

As I am continuing to try to wrap my mind around substantive meanings of community (ideas we started discussing in Belize, through the works of people like Wendell Berry, and also through study of Old Testament through a communal lens, and that I have read and reflected about elsewhere since then), it is meaningful to me to remember that even though I had a personal relationship with my aunt, that's not why I was chosen. Instead, I was called to serve as the representative of my family. I was chosen for this role. In a way this affirmed me to serve in this way. I felt as though I truly belonged in this family, to be able serve it in this way.


Friends

I did have the chance to see several of my friends while I was home. It was bizarre how differently each interaction was. It had been two years since I'd been home, more or less, and with some people, it was easy to believe that time had passed. With others, it felt as though no time had passed at all. And still others were people I hadn't seen in much longer, and I couldn't believe I had allowed so much time to pass. And yet we changed--we've all of us changed. Some of these changes I think were in ways that fit together, perhaps even better than when we knew each other before. I also realized that different relationship fit together in different ways. While I may love someone dearly, I won't be able to relate to everyone on the same level. I think this week was one where I discovered new places where I could relate on a deeper level than I expected, and with others I realized I probably wouldn't be able to connect as deeply as I had hoped. Still, even those relationships are precious to me.

There are just so many ways I was edified by this trip home. But they all were wrapped around in feeling like this place--with my family, with my friends--is a place where I belong. Some parts of returning home were hard, knowing that I could not stay longer, that I can only make slight progress to help my family there, to build my relationships further there. But ultimately, this time was a time of cathartic healing.