Lettuce, Pear, and Goat Cheese Salad with Citrus Dressing

Crisp Bosc pears, creamy goat cheese, and a bright citrus dressing - it's hard to find a better fall salad (recipe here).

The recipe serves 8, but if you're making dinner for two - like me - cut the recipe in half and indulge in 2 servings each.  At 200 calories and 7g of protein (total), you won't feel too guilty eating a double serving.

One reason why I love my husband

About a month ago I was walking home from yoga in the rain and slipped on a grate.

I hit the darn thing so hard I had a perfect imprint of the grate bruised across my butt for a week.

I, of course, went on a rant about how the city of Seattle needs to have non-slip grates in Belltown, how an elderly lady may slip on the grate one day, how its a lawsuit waiting to happen...

My husband just laughed at me and said my clumsiness, which is well documented, is a personal problem.

That meanie!!  Ugh!

Well - when I got home from work a couple days later there was a surprise waiting for me.  Ed bought me a pair of rain boots.

I suppose I still love him after all.  

Oh - and he's not that mean.

If you're looking for rain boots, 3 suggestions (at 3 price points):

High

Hunter, $115 (variety of colors)

Medium

Sperry, "Pelican", $68

Low

Merona, Zabrina, $24.99

Laura Hamje: travels.traverses

Last Thursday the hubby and I hit up Kuhlman in Belltown for the opening of Laura Hamje's show, travels.traverses (more details and photos on my PI blog here).

Below are a few pics from the event, including one of the painting I purchased :)

The scene at Kuhlman

The artist's homemade tamales and IPA

The artist mingling (in the gray skirt)

Painting I purchased (with the tree in the foreground)

Close up of the painting I purchased (Harbor Light)

Brie, Apple, and Arugula Quesadillas

Prepping for the recipe while watching South Park

 

 The ingredients (minus the wine)

 

 The finished product

How can these decadent, gooey Brie, Apple, and Arugula Quesadillas be healthy?  

 

I have no idea, but Cooking Light assures me they're only 182 calories a serving, with 7.4 grams of fat, per serving.

With those kind of numbers, why not have seconds?

 

 

Out with the old, in with the new (Kindle that is)

I LOVE my Kindle.

It's extremely portable, holds a charge forever, I can read it with one hand, and if I finish a book - I can buy another and have it delivered in a jiffy.

I've had my Kindle for a couple of years now, and treat it pretty rough.  I no longer use the leather carrying case, I carelessly toss it in my purse every day, and I've taken it to windy-sandy beaches more times than I can count - but it still works perfectly.

Recently I decided to upgrade from the 1st generation Kindle to the newest version (3rd generation), mainly because the newest version is thinner, lighter, can hold a charge for a month, and gets wireless globally.  Since we travel a lot and my Kindle always travels with me, I like that I can buy a new book almost anywhere.

With the incredible decrease in Kindle pricing (1st generation was $350+, now you can buy a wi-fi only version for $135) - I highly recommend buying a Kindle if you're a book lover.

Once you have one, there are a ton of free and inexpensive books (>$5) - so, unlike when the Kindle was first released, you don't have to spend $9.99 on every book you download.

Citizen

On Friday night I arrived at Citizen fully intent on taking a few photos, with my snazzy new camera, of Citizen's utterly delicious/simple food - but I failed. 

After snapping a few "artsy" shots of my husband, the interior, and the table and drinking a 1/4 of a bottle of wine - the food arrived and I immediately started digging in.

It wasn't until afterwards that I remembered why I brought the camera in the first place.

So, although I wish I had pics of my husband's tasty Citizen Cheese Steak or my yummy Turkey/Raspberry Crepe, I don't.

Oh well - I'm not a complete failure since I have a couple grainy iPhone pics of a previous visit (I had the September sandwich special, my husband had a crepe) I can use supplement the new "artsy" shots.

Artsy

Grainy

Fall Vegetable Curry

When I took the first bite of this delicious Fall Vegetable Curry I thought, "Wow!  This would taste even more amazing with a little coconut milk," but then I remembered its supposed to be a "light" recipe - and managed to resist the urge to add unnecessary fat and calories.

The sweet potatoes in the recipe add an interesting - in a good way - taste and texture to this curry.  Put a little hot sauce on the top and a couple dollops of Greek yogurt, and you have a perfectly tasty/easy week night dinner.

The best cheesecake recipe EVER

The first time Lis & I made this recipe for Raspberry-Swirl Cheesecake we were in college and cooking novices ("what's a water-bath?").  

Now, 7+ yrs later the recipe still endures, as evidenced by the beautiful cheesecake Lis made me for my birthday (pictured above).

It is, honestly, the best cheesecake recipe EVER!  Creamy, sweet, tart, and the perfect cheesecake consistency.

But - beware - this is not a low-cal/low-fat creation.  My sis & her husband once devoured one over the course of a weekend, and both gained 5lbs.  Yikes!

Spicy Shrimp Noodle Bowl

When you're from Guam, like me, you tend to put hot sauce on just about everything - but now that I'm a sage old woman I realize sometimes too much spice is not a good thing.

Well, I at least realized it after I doused my Spicy Shrimp Noodle Bowl (blurry iPhone pic above) with sriracha and then took a bite.  It definitely would have been spicy enough without the extra topping.

The broth of this soup is amazingly flavorful thanks to clam juice and an early addition of shrimp tails, which you later strain out. The rice noodles add a filling slurpiness, and you feel like you're getting your veggies from the snap peas.

Don't be intimidated by the seemingly long list of ingredients and steps for a supposedly 30 minute weeknight meal - even with an added step of peeling shrimp, the recipe only took me 45 minutes from start to finish.

Melrose Market

Yesterday, my friend Maureen and I checked out the Melrose Market (featuring independent food purveyors, restaurants, and bars) in Capitol Hill to do a little investigating (i.e. imbibing at happy hour) for a blog post I was crafting for Inside Belltown.

We'd both walked by the market a couple times, and had been too intimidated to venture inside - but we finally got up the courage to check it out.

I now have no idea why we were so intimidated by it's hipster-ish vibe.

The market is visually stunning (open floor plan, exposed brick, high lofted ceiling, reclaimed wood), the purveyors are friendly and helpful, and there's lots of little goodies to look at.

Oh - and Still had a great Happy Hour!


Pics below

Local cheese lovers at the Calf & Kid

A window looks into Sitka & Spruce's refrigerator

The pantry shelves at Sitka & Spruce

Bar Ferdinand

A vodka/cucumber/ginger-ale drink at Still

Mo posing for me at Still

Book Club

Looking for an excuse to meet up with friends once a month, on a week night (gasp), to gossip and drink wine? 

Start a book club!

My friend, Leigh, organized the book club I'm currently a member of, and so far it's been really fun (month #2, woohoo!).  We follow the basic  - laid back - book club model: (1) vote on a book, (2) read the book, (3) think of discussion points, and (4) then meet up, drink wine, snack, and talk about the book for 5 minutes.

The last book we read was So Cold the River by Michael Kortya (pictured above).  It was an easy, somewhat eerie read, with suspiciously attractive characters.  After agreeing that Michael Kortya probably wrote the book with a future film in mind, we spent the remainder of our 5 minute discussion time casting the movie. 

I can't wait until we meet up next month!

The yummy snacks the hostess, Mo, provided