Sunny days

Sunny Days in Seattle are a wonderful time to live here!  We thoroughly enjoyed the sun as we wandered around downtown and took in the rays, the views, the experience of downtown!  It's spring break so there were A LOT of people around, many holding bouquets from the Market.  There was the Trayvon Martin demonstration and blue trees, the "characters" for Sakura-Con - an anime and Asian cartoon/culture convention.  Not something I really understand! For more pictures, click the flowers.

This is a recipe I ran across one day and have loved forever since then!!  It was in the New York Times and it's fabulous!
Crispy Onions
Start with at least a medium onion per person; slice it. Put a splash of oil – doesn’t have to be olive – in a pan. Turn heat medium-high so the onions sizzle when they get in there; salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, until they begin to brown. Lower the heat a bit, but not much. Cook, stirring more frequently, until they are really quite shriveled and dry. Then cook a little more — until black spots begin to appear. Then stop. Total time, around 15 minutes, maybe 20.
Salt them a little more if you like and serve on top of anything

Super Duper Yumminess!!

Found here and HERE!
OREO TRUFFLES
1 package Oreos (NOT double stuf!)
1 8oz. package cream cheese
2 8oz. packages semi-sweet baking chocolate, melted

Keep out about 6 Oreos to crush and sprinkle on top of the finished truffles.  Beat the cream cheese until fluffy.  Add finely crushed Oreo cookies, mixing well.  Form into 1" balls and dip into melted chocolate.  Sprinkle with leftover crumbs.  Refrigerate for 1 hour before enjoying.  Store leftovers in the refrigerator.  
Some people in their reviews on the website said that their truffle balls crumbled when they dipped them.  I used two forks to lift the truffles out of the chocolate and I had no problems! I also used a double boiler so my chocolate could continue to stay very liquid-y.  Another reviewer suggested using other sandwich creme cookies, including Nutter Butter!  Now, honestly, how bad could THAT be?!?!  Well, other than what it would do to my scale!!
Oh, and I also sprinkled them with my Chocolate/Coffee/Sugar from Trader Joe's -- it comes in a grinder!! 

Low-Fat Chocolate Mousse

So, this just sounds too good to be true! I'll have to make this sometime soon! Who knows, with Valentine's Day tomorrow it might happen. We'll see! If nothing else, I didn't want to lose the recipe since it was in our Spry Living magazine in yesterday's newspaper!
8 oz. semisweet chocolate chips or chunks
8 large eggs, room temperature
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 c. plus 2 Tbs. confectioner's sugar
Preheat the oven to 350º. Coat an 8½" springform pan with cooking spray and line the bottom with parchment or wax paper. Set aside.
Melt the chocolate in the microwave, a double boiler or a bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water. Meanwhile, separate the egg yolks from the whites and transfer the yolks to a bowl. Beat the yolks until thick and pale. Gradually beat in the chocolate until blended. Fold in the vanilla.
In a separate bowl, beat the whites with ¼ c. of the sugar until soft peaks form. Fold ¼ of the whites into the chocolate mixture and then fold in the remaining whites.
Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and bake for 20-25 minutes, until almost set but still slightly jiggly in the center. Cool in the pan to room temperature before cooling completely (still in the pan) in the refrigerator. Removed from pan; dust with remaining sugar before serving.
Serves 12
Per serving: 156 cal., 9 g fat, 5 g protein, 16 g carbs, 1 g fiber, 145 mg cholesterol, 44 mg sodium

Beautiful...True...Inspiring

Walk with me?

Well, hello there!

I hope this New Year is finding you well!  As I sit here and watch the snow fall I thought I'd update you on our lives so far this year!  The 3rd found Tiana and I back in school.  Can we say "Hit the ground running?!"  I swear the amount of reading this quarter is double last quarter!  So that was the first Tuesday of the year.  That Friday evening we picked up this year's exchange students from Australia.  First stop on that "cold" night (to them anyway!) was Dick's Hamburgers and Starbucks.  Saturday we spent the day downtown and then celebrated Stacey's 15th birthday at Buca di Beppo.  We invited her best friend Stacey and Stacey's host-sister and Tiana's best friend Kaylin over for a surprise birthday cake. The next day was meeting and for lunch we had Thanksgiving dinner. After the Gospel meeting we were invited to Gent and Elaine's for dinner and games.  That was fun and Alice and Stacey got to meet some of the local kids.  The school week finds the girls on tour while Tiana's at school.  They experienced snow for the first time ever when they went skiing. At the end of the week we headed to Seaside, OR.  Before we left it started to snow.  We weren't sure what the roads or weekend would bring, but after we got out of downtown Seattle the weather cleared completely.  The next day we spent some of the time in Seaside shopping and being lazy and then we took a side trip to Cannon Beach.  It was windy and cold and I LOVED IT!!!  That night it got super exciting because it started to snow -- ON THE BEACH!!! WOOHOO!!!  The ride home from Seaside was a white knuckle drive over the hill and into Washington.  It was very snowy, very slick and snowing fairly heavy.  After we got beyond that, though, the roads were clear.  We did hit some snow at times, but it wasn't sticking.  We got home in just over 4½ hours and the drive usually takes about 3 hours 50 minutes!  Not too bad!  Once we got home the girls had a bit more play time in the snow and then this morning before dawn we had to say good-bye!  Feel free to look at all of the photo albums.  I will warn you that some of them have lots of "boring" scenery shots that look identical!  I was either playing with camera settings or trying to catch waves crashing on the rocks!  Sorry about those!  Or, I was attempting to miss the wiper as it was working to keep the windshield dry!  Wherever you are -- stay warm!