Shaping Up

Bryan and I both felt like a million bucks this past week!  After being sick for awhile its amazing how even feeling just 90% makes you feel so great.  While the weekend before was still a recovery weekend filled with rain, banana pancakes, church and brunch after at Queen Bee Cafe, a haircut for me, a UW basketball game for Bryan, and a dinner and movie party at our friends house on Saturday night themed Scandinavian (for whatever reason) the week after and this past weekend had a lot more going on.

This week started right in on events on Monday with our third week of swing dance classes.  We danced our little hearts out and then picked up Vostok Russian dumplings to share at home which were nothing short of spectacular.  Tuesday night we had documentary night at our friend’s house in Ballard.  They just got back from their “honeymoon” in Cambodia so they made curry and rice and I brought over some papaya salad, spilling fish sauce in my bag and well…everywhere!  The documentary we picked was called Propoganda and was about North Korea.  We enjoyed the movie and dinner and I rocked a fresh mani pedi.

Wednesday I was back assisting the chef at Hipcooks for their Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina class.  Though Bryan and I have made chimichurri steaks quite often I wanted to get a demonstration on it.  I also wanted to see its presentation for possible wedding dinner menu.  It was a fun and delicious class and the chumichurri came out wonderful.  In addition to the chimi, we made beef empanadas, zucchini parcels stuffed with mint and ricotta, and a dulce de leche mousse.

Thursday night we were back on our feet for hours at a Greek-inspired GCN at FareStart.  Vios Cafe came and made us three savory courses; dips and pita bread, grilled octopus on chickpeas, and I went with the vegetarian moussaka with mushroom compote, sweet potatoes, eggplant and zucchini topped with bechamel while Bryan got the meat pastitsio.  Loved my meal!

Friday night was the first evening show we could get of the new Star Wars movie at the remodeled Cinerama downtown.  After a busy day with a monthly staff meeting, Bryan and I met for a quick dinner at one of favorite Tom Douglas spots, the low-key Assembly Hall.  I tried his roasted turkey breast and kale salad (both were so good) and Bryan filled up on the Cuban sandwich.  From there we walked to the show where we each got a beer and some of their delish chocolate popcorn!  The movie was visually awesome and I love the Cinerama!

Although our Saturday getting ready for our party that night sounds like anything but fun, Bryan and I actually really enjoyed getting some much needed errands done, cleaning up the house, and prepping for a very classy night with friends.  After stopping at the Recycling Depot, the propane tank fill-up, donation drop-box for clothes, Crate and Barrel, and Safeway we were back home by noon.  The preparation began for our Whiskey Night for the Finer Things Club.  This entailed:

• Prepping and cooking the ribs
• Cleaning off the deck and patio table
• Taking out the scuffs on our floors and walls (thanks Magic Eraser!)
• Vaccuming upstairs and down
• Bryan hand-mopped the kitchen floors
• Three loads of laundry
• Cleaning the bathrooms
• Cleaning windows and windowsills
• Removing all remaining clutter from the downstairs
• Cleaning up the bedroom
• Finally getting the guest bed made again after our house guest in November!
• Prepping a cheese platter
• Prepping patatas bravas and bacon Brussel sprouts
• Making ice

We were busy pretty much the whole day until our guests arrived at 7pm.  But our house looked (and still looks) stunning and both of us are quite enjoying the classy cleanliness of the house at the moment.  The Dodds were the first to arrive with a variety of bruschettas and homemade rosemary shortbread cookies.  Jason, Jeff and Anita followed shortly thereafter, Jason bringing a few more unique scotch bottles to go with the night’s tasting of the Lagavulin 16 year.  Everyone enjoyed the food and the really smooth scotch with conversation in front of our fire.  It was a fun low key type of night that you just can sit back and enjoy with good people.  Most said goodbye a little after 10 and Jeff kept us company until nearly midnight.  We were both toast after the party.

And our last night of the weekend was another goodie, with us only being home for about an hour out of the entire day.  Let’s take a look:

1. Go to church, getting there late
2. Drive to Madison Park for brunch at Madison Kitchen (tortilla soup and broccoli salad for me and eggs benedict for Bryan)
3. Head home to relax on the couch for an hour
4. Walk to Town Hall for Billy and Val’s concert (35 min)
5. Billy and Val’s concert was filled and quite good
6. Walked to the Market, stopping at Sur La Table, the Cigar shop, and a random specialty food store.
7. Walked to the library, first time ever for Bryan
8. Library closes and walk across the street to our mystery shop dinner
9. Free dinner, wine and dessert at Tulio (shared sweet potato gnocchi and kale and pecorino salad to start, veal chop for me and lamb sirloin for Bryan, finished off with the chocolate budino cake with raspberry and meringue)
10. Walked home to watch a Sopranos episode and hit the hay

    

    

    

    

Looking at our upcoming schedule, the fun doesn’t stop for this classy crew!!!

Chelsea