35th Anniversary

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 restaurant has been here forever but I can't remember when I was there last. Anthony's Homeport use to be right next door to Ray's and we always went to Anthony's for whatever reason. Anthony's has since closed at this location but is still at many other popular spots in the area. Compared to our recent favorites of Palisade and Salty's, Anthony's is definitely less expensive. But to be perfectly honest, the food was still superb. Bruce and I both loved our dishes. Salty's definitely does a better job at helping you celebrate with complimentary balloons

and their signature dessert of Raspberry White Chocolate Mousse Cake - which I love!

Ray's provided a little anniversary card at our table which was cute but no complimentary food.

Even Palisades did a better job with the card and rose pedals.

I'm not complaining, just comparing...like I said, our food was outstanding and so was the view.

Ray's is located at the mouth of where the Lake Washington Ship Canal empties into Puget Sound so there is a lot of activity to watch on the water. The Ballard Locks are just around the corner so you can see the boats coming out of the locks and into the Sound.

Right away, our server suggested Prosecco sparkling wine to help us celebrate our anniversary which was perfect.

They had a large selection of appetizers but Bruce and I both ordered clam chowder, not real adventurous but that's what we felt like. It was a very hardy chowder but not too thick, just right. I loved the clams on top since we were contemplating getting steamed clams for an appetizer.

For my entree, I got Pan Seared Sea Scallops with squid ink spaghetti, Dungeness crab, sherry, lemon, herbs, charred onion and bread crumbs and it was bursting with flavor!

The scallops were just right, moist and delicate. I can't really taste the squid ink in pasta (this is popular in Japan, too, but the taste must be super mild because I never taste it). All together it was a perfect dish. Bruce and I swapped plates halfway through to taste each others. His dish was the house made linguini with asparagus, cherry tomatoes, prawns, shiitake, spinach, garlic, shallots, white wine, burrata (a creamy, Italian cheese) and Parmesan Reggiano.

His dish was more mild than my dish but the vegetables were a nice mix with a perfect amount of cheese and delicious, flavorful pasta. We were very pleased with Ray's at this point. Our server recommended the chocolate caramel creme brûlée for dessert but I was still thinking of my favorite Salty's Raspberry White Chocolate Mousse Cake. Instead, we ordered their Tres Leches Cake which I love.

Ray's version had strawberries, candied walnuts with a sprinkling of cocoa powder and it went down very fast. Tres Leche Cake is a Mexican sponge cake made with sweetened condensed milk, heavy cream and evaporated milk. (Need I say more?) The best one I ever had was at work in Idaho when I mentioned it to one of the Hispanic cooks in the kitchen and the next thing I knew he made one for me for my birthday! A whole cake! I thought I died and went to heaven. It's haunted me ever since...This was a lovely ending to our 35th wedding anniversary. Now, count down to Italy to continue the celebration.

Meatloaf by Mark Bittman

Once again, I turned on the television yesterday and saw that Mark Bittman was on the Today show and was making his version of meatloaf . This must be meatloaf season. It was surprisingly similar to the Pioneer Woman's version who was also recently on. I was a little surprised of his version because Mark Bittman is into healthy eating and has lost a lot of weight and improved his health by changing his diet which he writes about in his book, Food Matters . His meatloaf recipe also included bacon and cheese! I must be doing something wrong. The thing to remember, which he writes about in his book, is that you can eat healthy without going extreme or changing your whole life. If you don't know who Mark Bittman is, he is a food writer and a four star chef with multiple cookbooks who loves to eat but changed his food philosophy to improve his health. He tells his story in Food Matters and provides ...

Trader Joe's Gluten-Free Oatmeal, Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Cookies

I don't have very many gluten-free cookies on my blog because quite frankly, I usually don't like gluten-free. But occasionally, I do find a good recipe and this is one that is from the back of the Trader Joe's oatmeal and it's a good one. My friend brought some over to our house last weekend when Nick and family were here for our birthday celebrations and we all loved them. My friend lives a few blocks away and we walk the neighborhood together on weekends. We can easily go 5 miles in no time, talking non-stop. She loves exploring our neighborhood as much as I do and we discover so many favorite little spots. We even found a property with a horse (or more like a pony, I should say.) The views are always quite lovely, too. Bruce and I had our thirty-ninth wedding anniversary on July 18th and I made a point of walking past the house where we had our wedding reception. I told my friend, "Thirty-nine years ago today, t...

Waking Up in Vegas

and just like that...we were Waking Up in Vegas. Just like the Katy Perry song. We went to her 78th performance which was her second-to-last Las Vegas residency show entitled "Play". That was perfect for us because we went to Vegas simply to play. Her concert was a great finale for us because it was high energy and full of silliness, just the way Katy Perry is. And we were feeling it after three nights in Las Vegas. "Get up, and shake the gutter off your clothes now, That's what you get for waking up in Vegas". Here's what she said about her show: "I created this show after the birth of my daughter, Daisy Dove. When I met her, it was like all the love I was ever searching for finally showed up. This show is for everyone’s inner child and for the hope that maybe if we could all see life through the eyes of a child, we would be free. Because never forget, love is and will always be the key,” she said. We went to Vegas spur of the moment because Br...

Sylvia's Scenario

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