I swear there is always something to do, something going on, something to keep me busy. And I like that. I do love taking advantage of every opportunity and every invitation (generally).
Monday: Received a free dozen bagels from Eltana for knowing their tweet word. Got dinner on a Groupon to Collections Cafe in the Chiluly Art Museum with the boy.
Tuesday: SEAW dinner meeting on Avoiding Risk at Hotel Monaco downtown Seattle. Super duper delicious entree of roasted chicken (two days in a row) with a whole medley of delicious roasted vegetables, lemon, and pink salt and a good presentation that made me scared s#@$less to own my own company as a structural engineer.
Wednesday: Tour with SEAW Sustainability Committee of the “Living Building” that is world-famous for its sustainable efforts now called the Bullitt Center in Capitol Hill. Happy hour after the tour with the Committee members at Elysian Brewing Company.
Thursday: Free Skillet sliders and fries for collaborative efforts with the Hangover 3 movie?!? Tasty. Dinner with the boy. Spontaneously made a very labor intensive but delicious fancy French dish, a la Julia Child. My chicken coq au vin was fantastic!!
Friday: Sushi dinner with Bryan at Moshi Moshi in Ballard to unwind from the week and send him on his merry way camping on Saturday. We loved being seated at the sushi bar where we could watch the talented and humourous sushi chefs do their thing. Seriously best seat in the house. We had a delicious meal and loved the restaurant, decor, service, food, clientele, etc. We had a Groupon and shared two really good rolls, had two miso soups, and grilled shisito peppers. After dinner we walked a street over to Full Tilt ice cream so that the boy could get some peanut butter and jelly ice cream (and me steal a few bits) but so really I could play and set the high score on their Ms. PacMan machine.
Saturday: Went as Marika’s wedding “date” to her best friends wedding. Wedding was in Capitol Hill in a gorgeous old Victorian style building. Groom was son of coworker. Marika’s entire family were there (and drove me), plus coworker Sean and his wife, and of course coworker/groom’s father and his wife. Ceremony was short and sweet. Brides dress was my favorite ever. Appetizers were SO good of grilled shrimp skewers and bomb mini crab cakes with aioli on top. Good selection of wine at bar. Dinner was fantastic, Marika and I shared the two options: beef filet and salmon filet, plus creamy polenta and asparagus and a really good salad with grapefruit and goat cheese. We then danced the night away and closed the place down when they closed down at midnight. Oh and the cake was only so-so; red velvet was a little dry and lemon blueberry with cream cheese frosting was pretty good but just not so much my thing.
Sunday: Church with Marika, a VERY relevant topic (for another post). Long chitchatting afterwards. Appointment and then was selected as a “taste tester” for Ballard Great Harvest Bread’s new hot sandwich menu. Myself plus 19 others crammed into Great Harvest Bread and sampled EIGHT different new hot sandwiches they might be featuring on their menu (they currently do not do hot sandwiches at this location). Lots of food. We were ask to critique them and rank our favorite three at the end. My favorites went: Grilled tofu sandwich (bahn mi style), Rachel (Reuben like but with turkey), and then their Gourmet Breakfast Sandwich (ham, egg, brie/goat cheese, basil, and apple with a pesto aioli. Others that we tried included: tuna melt, ultimate grilled cheese, bacon, egg and basil breakfast sandwich, BLTA (with avocado), and caprese. In return I got a free loaf of bread of my choosing and I picked their whole wheat cinnamon chip plus walked away with two of their free cinnamon sticks because I cannot resist those babies!!! Bluegrass music at the Seattle Center for Northwest Folklife Festival.
Monday: Volunteering at my latest endeavor, Farestart, an awesome organization that takes homeless and disadvantaged folk off the streets and into a 16-week chef training program to get them employed in restaurants, where there is always a need for help. For four hours I was put on the salad station and chopped iceberg, romaine, and red cabbage to feed 1100 people. It was fun talking to the other two at my station, listening to music, and getting instruction on appropriate chopping techniques. After we were all finished preparing the meal all of the volunteers got to sit down to our own fabulous lunch made by the chefs. They provided us with a buffet of cajun salmon with tomato pasta, roasted sweet potatoes, spinach salad, a very good coleslaw with brussel sprouts in the mix, watermelon, and no bake cookies. I got to know my fellow volunteers even better and really sealed the deal that I will be back to help again…this week actually but for a different event. .
Chelsea
Evolving in the Emerald City 