Sylvia's Scenario

We are still having soup weather around here as we just got a couple more inches of snow last night.  Winter is not over.  We feel fortunate our weather is not as bad as some parts of the country but we are still getting antsy for spring to arrive.  But not quite yet, I'm afraid.  I made this soup a couple of weeks ago and put some in the freezer to save for a day like today when we just feel like staying home all hunkered down waiting for the snow to melt.  It's no fun trying to drive around here with all our hills.  This soup warms you up real fast because it's a Mexican soup with just the right amount of spices and the best broth I think I've ever made.  After I made it, I gave some to a couple of friends and I got the seal of approval.  It's a recipe from a local chef named Charlie Midencey who works at Ovelake Golf and Country Club and this is his grandmother's recipe.  He was featured in the Sunday paper and I thought the recipe looked ...

We are back on the healthy eating wagon after our Valentine's celebration last weekend so we made this wonderful salmon dish this week. I would say this recipe is good enough for a special occasion or for having guests over for dinner  (When social distancing isn't a thing anymore.)  We had to postpone our Valentine's dinner on Sunday because we got 9" of snow over the weekend and all driving shuts down around here because of hills so we shoveled snow instead.   It was a nice dry snow and we even had drifts around our house as if we were in the midwest or something!   We lived in Iowa for three years so we know what snow drifts are.   Just like I mentioned previously, I made my  Wine Braised Shortribs  for Valentine's Day and everyone loved them.  The grandkids just slurped down those tasty, juicy noodles so fast and kept asking for more.  I set a lovely Valentine's dinner table for everyone's holiday enjoyment and the grandkids got to decor...

This year, Valentine's Day was extra special to us because we had Bruce's twin sister from Great Falls, Montana visiting for the first time since we moved back to Seattle. I made a special Valentine's Day dinner and Lauren also came over.  We had everyone's favorite Teriyaki Flank Steak , rice, red and golden beets and Show the Love Salad . For dessert, I made the gluten-free chocolate cake that I made for Lauren's birthday  here only I made them in little heart-shape cake tins.  These are always fun to make and decorate for Valentine's Day.   I used some of Nick and Lauren's childhood handmade Valentine's for table decorations. And, of course, I made our traditional Valentine cookies . Our dinner table looked quite festive with party favors at each place setting with colorful confetti inside. Lauren enjoyed popping her's open and dotting the table with more colorful glitter.   Our Valentine's dinner was the h...

 We've had more snow, sleet and hail around here and 10 degrees below the normal temperature for this time of year.   Really?  Who is  counting the days until Spring ?  Me.  We had another white-out view at our house which is the worse weather, in my opinion.  I don't even mind the rain because at least we still have our view but not when it's like this.  I must sound spoiled or something.  I realized after posting yesterday about how slow our life has been so far this year, it's in contrast to last year.  I looked back at 2016 and I don't think I even had time to think about the weather.  Each month we were either going on a trip, hosting visitors at our house or throwing a party.  That's called living life to it's fullest!   We moved here August 2015 and here's a rundown of our life the first 12 months: Sept 2015  -   Labor Day family barbecue/Bruce's birthday party       trip...