Life is Good! Even Without the Food.

photos by Scott Haydon with a little help from Trina Nazaroff. (Thanks Trin!)

I have disappeared off the face of this blogosphere. Not on purpose and I definitely haven't forgotten about any of you. We've had so much going on in "real life" that my ability to make food that I want to share with others has all but disappeared. Temporarily! I promise. I will be back in the kitchen, a brand new to me kitchen, soon.

I don't have a recipe to share with you today. Instead, I want to let you in on all of the big and wonderful changes that have been happening in my life. 

Number 1: Scott and I are having a baby! A baby boy, who is due to arrive this coming April. We've decided that his name is Theodore Kassidy Haydon. Although his nickname is currently a source of much discussion I call him Theo. I already love him.

Number 2: We bought a house! It needs so much work and it will be a long time before our to do list isn't a little overwhelming, but it is ours. 

We are making a home and a family all at the same time. We've spent the last few months full of stress and joy and anticipation and doubt and we are finally seeing a lot of our goals and ambitions coming to fruition. This life is big and scary and wonderful. I wouldn't want it any other way or with any other person.

The pictures above are from our gender reveal party. I made felt rosettes and Scott made felt mustaches so our friends and family could place their bets on boy versus girl. I also made a felt garland and some toppers for the cake. We got our cake from Celebrity Cake Studio in Tacoma (a wonderful place!). I baked some marbled cupcakes to go with the cake and homemade pretzels and pretzel dogs. We made a from-scratch lemonade and my Mom helped us out with a tasty delicious salad. It was such a great experience to share with our loved ones. I love this life. I hope you do too.

Food Matters Project: Black Rice & Garden Vegetables

photo by scott haydon

This week's Food Matters Project recipe was selected by Sara and you can see her take here.

I am late to the party. Although we ate this yummy dish on Monday I'm only now getting around to posting about it. We had one of those great holiday weekends. The kind where you have the perfect mix of doing nothing and everything. I got the house cleaned up, enjoyed a bbq with friends and managed to relax quite a bit during the break from my normal work schedule. I hope you enjoyed your weekend too.

Cocoa-Zucchini Cake w Brown Sugar Glaze

I am late night baking. My house smells amazing, and only partly due to a brand new candle I picked out at Pier 1 today. I also picked up a new cake stand (see above). We have been go - go - go for weeks and tonight is the first non-work day where I've found myself at home with an open evening. I've been planning on baking this cake for a few days now. We were gifted a beautiful garden zucchini and I knew immediately what I wanted to do with it. I grew up with my mom baking chocolate zucchini bread and I have always LOVED it. Although this isn't the same recipe my mom bakes from it still reminds me of home.

Speaking of home, I have some exciting news. Scott and I made an offer on a house. Right now we are at the wait-and-see part of the process but I am hopeful and spending a lot of time thinking about creating a home with my favorite guy. This is a big step and one that we've been talking about for most of the summer. If all goes well we'll find ourselves in a new space before winter sets in. Buying a house locks us into a location for a few years but it grants us so much freedom with how we live our lives. I won't have to worry anymore about using a jewelry hammer past 10pm! And I'll be able to dance around with my loved ones without worrying about pounding on someone else's ceiling. And I'll have my very own garden in my very own yard! These are dreams, people. Dreams made real.

Food Matters Project: Roasted Potatoes with Green Romesco

Hello! This week's Food Matters Project recipe is hosted by Mireya and you can see her recipe here.

I spent the weekend outside as much as possible. I went with some of my favorite people to the Golden Gardens Park in Seattle to kick back and watch musicians play at the Artist Home Bonfire Series. It was an amazing (and FREE) experience and I highly recommend that if you find yourself in Seattle on August 26th you should check out the last Bonfire Series event of the summer. I know I'll be there.

This week's recipe came in handy. I had a dinner potluck to attend and wanted to bring along something quick and easy and tasty. I am mildly obsessed with tomatillos so I took this opportunity to make a green version of Bittman's Romesco sauce.  Otherwise I followed the original recipe pretty closely.

Adapted from the Food Matters Cookbook.

Romesco Sauce
1/2 cup almonds, roasted
1 large green bell pepper, roasted and roughly chopped
5 small green tomatillos, roasted and quartered
1 garlic clove
1 cup fresh parsley
2 tablespoons champagne vinegar

Combine the above ingredients in the food processor. Drizzle with olive oil until you've reached the consistency you want. I think I ended up with 3 tablespoons or so and my romesco was still a little chunky.

Place in refrigerator until use.

I roasted red potatoes with olive oil, salt and pepper in a 405 degree oven for about 30 minutes. I recommend cutting your potatoes into consistent sized chunks and stirring occasionally until roasted to your preference.

Serve the roasted potatoes with the green romesco, and enjoy!

Cilantro Lime Pork Chop and Roasted Cauliflower

 

This morning I met up with two of my favorite friends, Melanie and Nichole, and headed out to try Flying Trapeze (at Emerald City Trapeze Arts) for the first time in my entire life. It was terrifying (exhilarating?). I can't even say that I was excited until after my first attempt. Even then, I felt like my whole body had turned into one big conduit of nervous energy. Melanie and I, as newcomers, learned the Knee Hang Trick while Nichole worked on some kind of advanced flying squirrel routine - I think called the Whip, officially. Both Melanie and Nichole successfully "made the catch" with their new tricks (meaning, they performed their tricks and interacted with a professional trapeze artist to dismount from their bars). I didn't go for a catch. I don't think I did too shabby for my first time hanging upside down by my knees but I was a little hesitant and okay with just practicing the move and dismounting via backward roll.

I spent the rest of my day drinking smoothies, eating frozen yogurt and photographing a family with my boyfriend. When I finally made it home for the day I decided to cook myself a "fancy" meal instead of clean up the house. (This meal isn't really fancy and is more just kind of thrown together using anything I could find in the fridge. But I'm still not cleaning up the house.)