Sylvia's Scenario

As Bruce and I were doing errands today, we stopped in for a couple of Holiday Open houses going on in the neighborhood.  We checked them out  last year   and we were totally impressed.  Impressed enough to head back for more this year.  We started at the West Seattle Nursery that was also celebrating the grand opening of their new  greenhouse . No pun intended but it's very green.  Some of the exterior is made with recycled-content fibercement board and salvaged materials with high-efficiency LED lighting.  All rainwater is kept on site with a combination of permeable asphalt paving and rain gardens.  It was huge and it has really increased their space. (There was an old house next door that they demolished.) They still have the wonderful gift shop that put you in the mood to start doing Christmas shopping. They are ready for you to purchase a Christmas tree or any other outdoor festive item yo...

Earlier this month, I made a pineapple upside-down cake to help celebrate the birthday of my brother-in-law since it is one of his favorite cakes. I've made this cake many times before, particularly during  our  Master's Weekend   but I've never gotten around to posting the recipe.   One bite into this cake and childhood memories come flooding back.  I remember making this cake when we were teenagers.  It was super easy because we used cake mix back then and it was one of our favorite desserts to make.   The original recipe dates back to the 1920's and was originally made in an iron skillet - back in the day when ovens were not common or reliable.  Thus, it was known as one of the many popular "skillet cakes" that were the big rage.   There are so many versions of this recipe and I've tried many of them but I like this recipe because I use more brown sugar (it goes so perfect with pineapple) and put the pineap...

Sticking with the Mexican theme, by the time Halloween came along I was still craving Mexican food.  Why didn't we just go out for Mexican food, you ask?  That's too easy!  I must make it!  This recipe popped up on Facebook f rom  Get In My Belly   that has those speed videos showing a recipe being made really fast. It looked easy so why not? (They always look really easy when they speed through them in a video.)  I've never used those hard taco shells before - the ones that come in a box.  But they looked a lot easier to eat than authentic tacos and easy to make.  I thought it would be nice to have tacos that are instantaneously ready to eat and that aren't messy plus we can walk around and eat them while we're answering the door on Halloween.  We get a lot of trick-or-treaters at our house and we were ready. Hey, look!  It's Colonel Sanders. The reason we get a lot of trick-or-treaters is because the neighbors at th...

I made this recipe recently when my sister and her husband were visiting from Colorado to spend some time with their son, Skyler, who lives here in Seattle.   While they were here, I invited the rest of my family over for a Sunday brunch so everyone could visit  and I made this dish which is another version of my favorite   hoppelpoppel .  Since we had been traveling in Italy right before this, I was craving Mexican food.  (I still have not eaten any spaghetti since we've been back.)  It's funny how you gravitate towards certain foods depending on what your diet has or has not been...I guess that's why they say "everything in moderation".  When we first returned from our trip, it was so easy to think of what to cook for dinner because I was craving everything (except spaghetti).  That first week, after Barbara's split pea soup and   dill bread  were gone, which only lasted two days, I made  chicken and dumplings , ...