Sylvia's Scenario

Once again, we made a trip south to the Oregon Coast and stayed at our favorite little town of Seaside, Oregon.   The above photo is from the neighboring town of Cannon Beach where we like visit to see the famous Haystack Rock. We love staying at Seaside, however, because they have the Promenade or "the Prom" which is a wonderful walkway along the beach where we can get in our daily walk.                        I love looking at all the gorgeous beach homes along the Prom and check out how they've change over the years with remodeling and upgrading.  And it's also a great way to walk into the little downtown full of shopping, restaurants, and arcade. This year, we just made a quick trip down to Seaside for a visit with Bruce's brother's family who were there for a week. His brother was celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary with their kids and grandkids that included 12 people.  They all live in the Midwest s...

Well, so far I am surviving the busiest month of the year of multiple birthdays and all the various celebrations of July.   When the kids were little, I would basically collapse when August came and say “I survived July!!” because it truly was an accomplishment.  We have my birthday in July, Nick’s birthday, Lauren’s birthday, (and Hana and Keaton’s birthdays but they aren’t here right now), our anniversary and then the Fourth of July all in one month.  It’s basically nonstop around here. Also, my sister came to visit this month from Colorado to see her newborn grandson (another celebration!) who lives just a few miles from our house so it was perfect for her to stay with us, plus I love having her here for lots of sister-time.  Of course, we had a family barbecue during her visit so we could all welcome the new addition to our family.  It was also good timing that my sister was here for my birthday, too.  We all went to dinner at a local neighborhood favor...

This year was a busy Father's Day but that's okay because the past few months have been rather relaxing for us.  I'm not going to say "boring" because the older I get, the more I like those kind of days and "boring" connotes negativity which isn't how it’s been at all.  I guess if we're  not traveling or having out-of-town visitors coming to our house, then our typical days are just "relaxing" and there's nothing wrong with that.  But this past weekend, my brother and wife came to Seattle so I decided to plan a family barbecue while they were here which ended up being on Father’s Day. After dealing with covid the past four years, I feel like I am getting back into the hang of hosting large gatherings again. I admit that I did get out of practice there for awhile.  The end of March was our Mariner Ticket Party and we'd only been home a few days from a visit to Washington D.C. but we threw that one together pretty well and everyon...

This is a French recipe that I got from the Seattle Times developed by Chef Jim Drohman who worked at Cafe Presse, a very popular Seattle French restaurant.  Cafe Presse was one of Lauren's favorite neighborhood spots and one that we would all go to frequently.  So, needless to say everyone was devastated when it closed (after the pandemic).  Seattle has lots of French restaurants but Cafe Presse was the darling of them all.  Last year, the memory of Cafe Presse came up when Bruce and I went to the Bite of Seattle.   One of our favorite dishes was at a Spanish booth called Maripili where they were making paella to sample.  We had just returned from visiting Spain and we were still into all things Spanish so this turned out to be our favorite of the Bite.   We told them we loved their paella and wanted to come to their restaurant but guess where they were?  In the same spot where Cafe Presse was!  When the cook told me that, I didn't say a wor...

This is a simple dessert that packs a lot of punch for such little bite-size morsels.  We had these as one of the many dessert options in Washington D.C. where we visited last week. My sister, Jolene, lives there with her husband who are wonderful hosts when visiting D.C.  It turns out that Nick was in D.C.  for a work conference and then five other members of my family were there visiting for various reasons...so we had to go and join all the  fun. My sister and her husband were very tolerant when we invaded there otherwise quiet life.  In fact, they rolled out the red carpet for us.   We had such a great time.  The three cousins hadn't been together in years so it was a reunion of sorts.   Coming as far away as Sp ain, San Francisco, and Seattle, it's a rare and special occasion when they can get together.  And their moms had a good time, too.  There was only one evening that we could all get-together at the same time and that is...