Sylvia's Scenario

As I said before, 'tis the season...for blackberries. Our dessert at Tillicum Village was blackberry cobbler but I've come up with a better recipe and it's the BEST! It takes 4 cups of blackberries so Bruce went out picking yesterday again and came back eager for me to make cobbler. Then my brother and wife arrived from Boise, who plan to climb Mt. Rainier, (for the 4th time) so we had this cobbler for dessert. It's perfect with a little Hagen Daz vanilla ice cream...need I say more? I got this recipe from one of my tucked-away cookbooks from 1994 called  Wild and Free Blackberries - A Cookbook and Guide to Northwest . The whole cookbook is for blackberries and it's one of my favorites.  I think this is the best cobbler recipe in the chapter of Cobblers.  There is also a chapter for Beverages, Breads and Cakes, Crepes, Jams and Jellies, Pies and Pastries, Puddings, and Sauces, Soups and Syrups.  The recipes are a collection of blackberry recipes th...

Yesterday, my friend, Marge, and I decided to spend the day celebrating our birthdays by taking a trip out to Tillicum Village on Blake Island. We have been friends since second grade so that is 50+ years of friendship; yes, we go way back. We've had so many adventures together, I can't even begin to list them. When we were single gals, we were roommates three different times. We've both moved away from Seattle multiple times and we've both moved back. We are the same age and we've both been married to our husbands for 35 years. I guess you could say we have a lot in common. Marge's birthday is in May and  I just had my   birthday  so it's fun to find the time when we can celebrate together by doing something special.  We've had such beautiful weather lately that we decided a boat ride out to Blake Island would be perfect.  Blake Island is a state park that has a Native American Cultural center called Tillicum Village because it is the leg...

This year, our wedding anniversary, which was yesterday July 18th, is a nice round number of 35 so does that mean we are suppose to do something "out of the ordinary"?  According to Hallmark, a 35th wedding anniversary means gifts of coral or jade.  I use to follow that in the early years but that has faded as time's gone by.  Usually, we just do something special like go out to dinner. (But then, I always look for special reasons to go out for dinner...)  Actually, we decided our  Italy trip  will be our "out of the ordinary" celebration this year so we're still doing something special, just not on the proper date.  I'm sure we'll have many romantic, once-in-a-lifetime moments while we're in the quaint, hill towns of Tuscany or scenic Venice or Lake Como, or rustic, ancient Rome.  Similarly to my birthday , our anniversary was a lazy day with a relaxing dinner at a local favorite,  Ray's Boathouse  at Shilshole Bay. This restaur...

Today, our street had a little "Welcome to the Neighborhood" party since we've had a few new members join us over the past year.  Bruce was golfing all day so I walked over with my new neighbor, Carey, who just moved in next door at the beginning of the month.  She and her husband, Ryan, have a three year old daughter named Phoebe, who is super cute!  I'm so happy they are our new neighbors and I can already tell we are very compatible.   Karen hosted the party who lives 4 doors down from us and has a gorgeous deck, perfect for a party.  Today, her deck even had balloons to add to the decor. Karen loves to host parties and we often see her out on her deck entertaining.  Today, she out-did herself with a beautiful spread of appetizers for us this afternoon.  She even labeled all the appetizers so we'd know what each one was. I don't even need to explain them all - you can just see for yourself.  Here are few samplings: ...