Sailing in Puget Sound for a Day

"And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, 

He asked them, "Do you have anything here to eat?" 

They gave Him a piece of broiled fish, 

and He took it and ate it in their presence." 

Luke 24:41-43

Our friend Chuck Goodwin was given a 26 foot sail boat by his mother. It is most certainly his pride and joy. When he asked if we'd like to go sailing with them some day, I was delighted. That was last summer. Now it's understandable that we didn't go out with them last year, as they needed to learn to sail the boat. But they have done all their homework, taken all the necessary classes and then some, and done a lot of practicing.


So Riley called them up and asked if the offer was still good. We were wanting to go to a baseball game, and it seemed like we could surely fit in the sailing at the same time, as both the game and the Goodwins are in Seattle, while we live in Portland. We got tickets for the game on Sunday, and scheduled to go sailing on Saturday. As the time grew near I did become a little anxious about the whole thing. What if we drowned!? But I was praying and trusting the Lord to keep us safe.


We drove up on Friday, taking Emily with us as Heidi was also going to Seattle this weekend to visit her sister-in-law. We left Christian with Annie, to be picked up after work by Heidi. We thought that it would be easier on Heidi to drive up with only an 11 year old. As Riley and I headed out of town I noted that it was noon and we would need to eat. He wanted to grab a sandwich at Starbucks, but I knew that Emily would not eat that and would be very hungry, and I suggested that we stop at our favorite Chinese restaurant in our neighborhood. We ordered one lunch special, dry fried beef Szechuan, and a bowl of hot and sour soup. I have to say that I've never seen Emily eat so much food at one sitting. She stuffed in everything, much to the surprise of the waitresses. After lunch we went through the Starbucks drive thru and headed north. In no time Emily was fast asleep, I think because she was so nice and full.


When we got to Southcenter in Tukwila we stopped at IKEA so I could change Emily and so she could run around a bit. We then were back on the freeway and it was not long before we were at the apartment of Iris and Travis. I took in the Annie DVD and the Max and Ruby DVD and Iris put on Max and Ruby straight away, and this made Emily feel quite at home and we kissed her good bye without a fuss. It then took us about 45 minutes to get to Bothell, but we did it without hardly a hitch. Chuck and Lynn had dinner all ready to go.

We were having barbecued salmon, green salad and rice. They were barbecuing the salmon in the back yard, behind the boat. It was a really lovely piece of copper river salmon. And the salad was really good also, as the dressing had sesame oil in it and there was apple diced small.



So the next day we were up and ready to go at 8:40. Our first stop was at a Starbucks with parking for a big car and a big boat. We just got our stuff to go, which I was a bit disappointed about, but then I had no idea how far it was to the place where we launched the boat. Seattle is so big. The distance was about 17 miles on two way roads.


We arrived at Shilshole Bay at about 9:45. I got off the boat with my camera to take pictures of the surrounding area while Chuck and Lynn got the boat ready to sail.

It was all about piers and water and boats and boaters. 

At 10:57 the boat is finally ready to sail and heading (backing?) towards the water. We stayed on the water for about 6 1/2 hours before we got off on dry land for a while. In the beginning we were under motor power. This was not good for me as the smell of gas fumes makes me sick, which is exactly what happened. I kept hoping that I would recover, but with the ups and downs tat we experienced on Puget Sound it only got worse. I took a few pictures and promptly put the camera away, because I wasn't sure about my steadiness,


After about 2 hours on the water, and still feeling bad, I decided that if I didn't go to sleep I couldn't be sure what would happen. At first I went below, but quickly realized that that was definitely worse than above. Back up on deck I laid down in the clearest spot available, and though it took a while to fall asleep because of the movement of the boar, I did go to sleep. It turned out that everyone slept at one time or another also. I was so glad to be asleep! Then at some point things got hot, but luckily Riley had put a hat on my head, so though I did get a bad sunburn, it would have been a lot worse. When I woke up I happily laid under the hat, waiting until I felt okay enough to sit up. I could hear everyone talking about the Seattle skyline, and I knew that sooner or later I would like to see it. It must have been about 4 o'clock when I sat up.


One of the first things I saw was a boat so loaded with people that it looked like a refuge boat, but surely it was just a party boat.


At this point it was 4:20. We bobbed about on the water for about 75 more minutes, with our boat being tossed about by the wakes of various big ships. It's amazing to experience the wakes of different large vessels. The worst was a tug boat. Even the huge cruise ship wasn't as rough as the tug boat.



At about 5:30 it was decided that we would try and dock at Bell Harbor Marina, which is situated just in front of Pike's Market. Chuck had telephoned into the office of the harbour to see if there was a docking spot. They said they weren't sure, so we should just go in a see. They had never docked there before, but Chuck and Lynn were excited to try. The boat is park just to the left of the big pole at the center of the picture below.


We were off the ship at about 5:35 and we headed to shore. Our first stop was at a store that Lynn had told me sold really great licorice. It was good, but not ultimativo. Riley paid for it and when we came out and I saw Riley clutching the bag boy-style I offered to put the licorice in my purse, but he declined. Turns out thathe bought chocolate and he didn't want it to melt.

Unfortunately by the time we reached Pike's Market it was closing, as it was just past six. But I was just simply enjoying walking on firma terra. If we had arrived earlier it would have been much more crowded. It was in fact a beautiful day, a 10 for sure.

After about 20 minutes of wandering around the market we headed for a taco stand near the harbor.

Chuck and Lynn are quite fond of the restaurant we ate at, but I wasn't really hungry. I had a cup of chowder and some bites of a fish taco, which was nice, but not zippy enough for my taste.

By 7:20 we headed back to the boat. Upon getting on the boat I quickly decided that it would be good if I was below deck right away so that I wouldn't smell the gas fumes. I decided to stand for most of the time, as that kept me the most stable. Luckily there were windows that I could look out. As it turned out Chuck decided that he would use the motor the whole way back, I think this was in part due to the fact that the sun was going down, and if we weren't quick we would be getting the boat out of the water in the dark, which was just about what happened. But he did not have the dodger up, and it was getting very wet up top, so Lynn and Riley soon joined me down below. Chuck valiantly stuck it out, getting very cold and wet, and he got us back to Shilshole Bay by 8:50. So that took almost 1 1/4 hours at full throttle, or what ever it is that boats do.



The sun was just setting as we got in. So we were sure just in the nick of time. The tide was the other problem, it was the highest they had seen, and this made it difficult to get the boat up onto the trailer.

By the time the boat was out the sun was just about gone.

It took about an hour to get the boat ready for the road. Chuck and Lynn are meticulous about all the details. I think that we were finally on the long road home at about 10 o'clock. We were home by 11, and I went straight to bed because I was really tired, as was Riley. It turned out that Chuck was up until 1 o'clock cleaning the salt water off the boat before he went to bed.

"I know God will not give me anything I can't handle. 

I just wish that He didn't trust me so much."

 Mother Teresa

My First Tuesday with Dorie

"Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, 

who put darkness for light and light for darkness, 

who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter." 

Isaiah 5:20

So even though I am on a diet, I will try and fit in Tuesdays with Dorie.   On Saturday most of my kids plus some had a 1960s party in the back yard, side yard actually, where Riley has newly put up a barrier to keep people off the crumbly steps leading from the side down to the pool area.  We've got a fire pit there, and they were roasting marshmallows.  It actually smelled like a marshmallow factory from the street even.  But anyway, I realized that there was a bunch of eaters for my Dorie recipe of the week.  I took a poll, and decided that I had a sufficient number of eaters.

Chocolate Pudding

Upon thoroughly reading the recipe I spotted at the very end that the dessert needed to chill for four hours.  Well growing up we had warm pudding for dessert often, so I wasn't going to let that deter me.  But also, the recipe called for using the food processor extensively, and late on a Saturday night I was in no mood for that, so I didn't exactly follow the directions.  I figured that the whole point of all that food processor use was to completely melt the chocolate and make the pudding smooth.  I know from experience that the microwave does an excellent job of melting chocolate, so I took that route.

My Adjustments to Dorie's Chocolate Pudding

I used 1% milk instead of whole milk
I used Hershey's Special Dutch Cocoa
I used a Trader Joe's brand that I really like called PoundPlus, imported from Belgium)


Instead of six ramekins or pudding cups I had 9 2/3 cup dishes

Instead of bring 2 cups of the milk and 3 tablespoons of the sugar to a boil in a heavy-bottomed saucepan I brought it to a simmer.

I had no patience for fussing with the food processor for such a small batch, so I put the egg and egg yolks in a glass bowl, and set them by the pot on the stove. Then I mixed the sugar and cornflour and cocoa, added the chocolate that I had cut into small shavings with a great big knife, the remaining sugar, and a 1/2 cup milk and put it into the microwave for about 1 1/2 minutes. Then I gave it a good stir. I put some of the hot milk into the egg mixture and stirred it up. And then I stirred the egg mixture into the hot milk. Them I vigorously stirred the chocolate mixture into the hot milk and while stirring, brought it to a boil. Then I removed it from the heat, stirred in the butter and vanilla, and ladled the pudding into the bowls, using a 1/4 cup ladle.

Instead of  refrigerating for at least 4 hours, it was mostly eaten right away, but I saved some aside for the next day and it was very good.  And one was still waiting in the refrigerator today, and it was very good.  It definitely keeps more than two days and still tastes just as good.

I got 9 servings, but then I'm known for skimpy servings


The pudding cooled down fairly quickly and the kids were keen to have some pudding, so they went to it. It seemed to be a big hit. My youngest daughter, Sarah, decided that she wanted to top hers with a toasted marshmallow. She is expecting a baby on July 28th, which will be grandchild number three - Caleb.

Einstein was eating chocolate when he came upon the theory of relativity.

Heidi's Birthday

"Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; 

but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised."

Proverbs 31:30

Heidi was not too excited about her birthday because she's 35. Her take on that was that in five years she would be 40. I told her I'd love to be forty. But 35 is even better. My 35th birthday was in Hong Kong and we had just received out furniture and an amah and I was still rather homesick though things were looking up.

In the morning Heidi called and we chatted and then it was decided that Annie would go over to her house and make her breakfast. Annie was in a down mood because she thought that Heidi was going to spend time dinking around with Corey and not her. Well anyway, that was not the case, and I thought thinks needed a more cheerier start, so I decided that she should come over to my house for breakfast, especially as the kitchen was bathed in sunshine.

Riley dashed out for bacon, boysenberry yogurt, and orange juice, Annie made the crepe batter, and I made strawberry sauce and rhubarb sauce, and I think Annie set the table. Corey was in bed. I had found frozen strawberries in the upstairs refrigerator, and fresh Oregon berries in the basement refrigerator, and frozen green rhubarb in the basement freezer.

strawberry sauce

1 pound frozen whole berries
1/2 pound fresh berries, quartered
2/3 cup water
1/3 cup sugar

Put all but the fresh berries into a pot and heat up. When the frozen berries have thawed out, take a potato masher and smoosh the berries. At the last minute add the fresh berries, and heat slightly. Pour into a serving bowl.

rhubarb sauce

1 pound frozen green rhubarb
1/4 cup water
1/3 cup sugar, or to taste

Put everything into a pot, cook until mushy, taste, and adjust sugar as desired. Pour into a serving bowl.

By 9:45 we all sat down for breakfast. Well, everyone but me, as I was standing at the stove making crepes. I was only making two at a time, because I just didn't feel alert enough to make three at a time. Some of Heidi's presents were opened. Corey gave her a fancy little purse and a funny calender of women in the fifties and sixties saying rude remarks. Riley and I gave her the AG art easel. Emily was all over that one, but Heidi didn't seem to sure about it.

After breakfast Riley left for work and the girls all headed out to have a fun day. They went shopping on Hawthorne and later met up with Sarah and Zac and they all went out to lunch at Todai, where there the birthday person eats for free. After lunch they did more shopping. Shopping seemed to be what Heidi wanted to do - shopping.


After they all left I set to cleaning the kitchen and cooking. I decided that I would cook my second Danish braid that was the Daring Baker project for June. The dough looked a little bit affected by its stay in the refrigerator for two weeks, but not bad really. This time I decided that i was NOT going to try and roll it out to the huge dimensions required by the original recipe. It rolled out very nicely. I decided that I would put on some strawberry jam that I had made and the the left-over rhubarb sauce from breakfast.

Then I got the bread started. I decided to use the white hard wheat flour that I had purchased at Bob's Red Mill. It turns out that it was thoroughly whole wheat flour, not white about it. I probably should have started a new batch, as the bread was for Heidi's birthday dinner, but I didn't. It turned out to be the most whole wheat bread I ever made.

Then I made the pie crust dough. I knew that what I needed was two bottom crusts and two lattice crusts. I decided that i would make the dough needed for three regular crusts, and then divide it four ways.

pastry dough for two rhubarb pies

14 ounces of flour
scant teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
2 sticks of cold butter, diced up
about 3 tablespoons of Crisco
1/2 cup iced water

In the food processor mix the flour, sugar, and salt.
Add the butter and Crisco and pulse until it looks like very course cornmeal.
Drizzle on the iced water, and pulse for a few seconds.
Dump the mixture into a fairly large bowl, and moosh it together into a solid lump.
Weigh the dough and divide in half. Then divide each one in half roughly, making one lump two ounces heavier than the other. Now in my case the dough weighed 28 ounces, so half was 14. Then for each half I ended up with one lump weighing 8 ounces and the other weighing 6. Wrap all the lumps in plastic wrap and squish into discs, making sure to keep the big and little lumps together for each pie.

Emily and I ate a few of the left-over crepes for lunch, and then headed out to find some rhubarb, corn on the cob, and lettuce and fruit for the salad. But on the way I decided that we would stop at Laurelhurst Park and go for a walk and see the ducks. Emily had a wonderful time, but it was very hot in spots. She particularly liked throwing pebbles into the lake while the ducks watched her. But eventually I needed to get going and I had to throw screaming Emily over my shoulder and hall her off. The over the shoulder bit amused her and she stopped screaming.

Trying to find decent priced produce has become very difficult, and this is complicated by the fact that gas is so expensive, so one doesn't want to go driving about. At Zupan's corn was either 4 for $5, or 5 for $4, neither price seeming satisfactory. And they had no rhubarb , and lettuce was $1.99 a head. So we bought olives (both Emily and I are passionate about olives) and left. Next I went to Uncle Paul's Market, where there was no corn or rhubarb, and I bought two heads of Romain lettuce, which later proved to be a bit tough. Back in the car Emily fell asleep, so I decided that I would go to a Starbuck's drive-thru for an iced double coffee and the gift card for Heidi. Then on to QFC, which was going to be my last stop no matter what! I got sleeping Emily out of the car, layed her against my shoulder, and she never woke up until I had to get my debit card out of my purse at the check-out stand. I managed to get rhubarb and corn for $1 an ear. Oh well. It was very good corn.

Back home I started right in on the bread and pies. I got the loaves in the pan to rise, and set up for making the pies. Before long everyone showed back up. It turned out that Christian would not be back from his grandparents in Klamath until around 11 o'clock, so there was six of us, and we could easily eat in the garden. The pies went together perfectly, I was really pleased. I also put the Danish in to bake, as it had been sitting on the table since noon, and it was now 5 o'clock. The pies finally went into the oven at about 6:10, and came out at around 7:10 or so. I so don't like to have an undercooked rhubarb custard pie. And the ribs for dinner, being cooked by Annie on the barbecue, were ready to go at about 7:30, as well as the corn. We ate some time shortly after that, and because of the rush I did not get anymore pictures. But it was a very nice dinner, and we all made a mess eating the beef ribs. The recipe for the ribs is very very simple, and I'll need to get it sometime.

At a rather unreasonable hour, sometime after 9, we had pie and opened the rest of the presents, which Emily calls prizes. The pie was perfect and everyone went mmmmmmmmmm. It was asked why should you have birthday cake, when you can have birthday pie. And they all agreed that the only really good pies they've ever tasted are made by our family. I have in fact taught all my daughters to make pie. Each girl has a specialty.

"The pursuit of truth and beauty is a sphere of activity 

in which we are permitted to remain children all our lives."

 Albert Einstein

I'm going to join Tuesday with Dorie

"..whatever is true, 

whatever is noble, 

whatever is right, 

whatever is pure, 

whatever is lovely, 

whatever is admirable

—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy

—think about such things."
Philippians 4:8

I've been a fan of Dorie Greenspan for quite a while now. I'm also rather jealous of her. For starters she lives in both New York and Paris. How does anyone get that lucky?! Next, she has been privileged to work with both Pierre Herme and Julia Child. And then there's the fact that she's been involved in several really good cookbooks. But despite how many reasons one can have to be jealous of her, she seems like a very nice person, and her recipes are very good.

I first bought her book "Paris Sweets" because it was so cute. But since I've made her l'Opera, and that was the best cake I've ever eaten, even if I did make it myself.


And then I bought "Desserts" by Dorie and Pierre Herme. The recipes are Pierre's, but the writing and maybe adjustments are Dorie's. The really big hit of a dessert that I made from that book is the Ligurian Raspberry Gateau. And I have recently procured Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Herme by Dorie Greenspan.

I also have Baking with Julia, a book she wrote in collaboration with Julia Child. This lady lives a charmed life.

But the book that Tuesday with Dorie is all about is "Baking: from my house to yours" by Dorie Greenspan. The group was started with the idea of baking all the way through the book, one week and one recipe at a time. I think that it was started by Laurie of Quirky Cupcakes. I do not know how many people are doing this, but I've seen the little badge of Tuesdays with Dorie on many blogs.

You know, not to sound like just a jealous person, I've got lots of things in my life that make me a lucky person.  I have a wonderful husband, and four lovely daughters who I see all the time.  I've got the cutest grand-daughter in the world who loves me very much.  My grand-son finds me annoying at times, but he and I get along very well on many points.  We talk math and play cards and drink Italian sodas.  I live in a really great house, with the entire third floor as my bedroom, enough room for all my dishes and baking pans, a fantastic kitchen with the best stove in the world.  My back yard is the best one in the entire neighborhood, and I live in a really great neighborhood, and I've lived here for all but 14 years of my life.  The back end of my yard is about 50ft x 20ft and it contains a kidney-shaped pool measuring about 18ft by 38ft.  I love this.  There is lots of things growing all around the pool in a rather wild fashion. It's amazing what can grow in cracks of concrete or actually on concrete.  I love my backyard.  Now I do have a deck on the side yard that is totally decaying and we need to fix, but we're having lots of opportunity to imagine what we could do and how we can do it.  And I live in a beautiful part of the world, even though Portlanders are very weird.  But since I've lived here most of my life, maybe I'm weird too.

"Nothing happens until something moves." 

Albert Einstein

4th of July Picnic

"Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, 

but a son belongs to it forever. 

So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed."

John 8:35-36

I've always loved the picnic part of the 4th of July, and even when I was young, like in grade school, I would be the one urging my family to go on a picnic, or have a picnic. in the past I haven't cared all that much about the home fire works, but of late I have been enjoying them. I've never set off a firework in my life. My grandson finds this incredulous.

The basic elements of a 4th of July picnic can include hot dogs, hamburgers, potato chips, potato salad, Boston baked beans, cole slaw, watermelon, brownies, chocolate cake, and ice cream. I think when I was a kid I remember things like bologna sandwiches and 8 ounce bottles of coca cola.

So I think that we will all be at my house tomorrow:

Molly and Riley
Annie and Corey
Sarah and Zac
Heidi and Christian and Emily

I could also invite Ken and Marilyn. All in all that would 11 of us.

I don't like to start the 4th of July picnic until late in the day. This is because the fireworks need to be when its a bit dark. I don't like arriving at 1:30, and then not having the fireworks until 9:30 at night. That's 8 hours!



Well we had a lovely 4th of July. All the people I mentioned came. The event didn't get started until well on to six. Sarah and Zac arrived first, coming maybe at 4:45, bringing strawberries and cherries. Then were a great help, Sarah helped with cooking, and Zac vacuumed for me. The next to come was Ken and Marilyn, bringing absolutely gorgeous little strawberries, freshly picked from their garden. By six fifteen I was getting worried about the rest of them, as it was only Annie that I had left the message with as to when the party would start. I got my phone and called Heidi. It turned out that she was just on the sidewalk in front of our house. They had waited for Emily to wake up, and then of course it takes a while to get everything together. Annie and Heidi brought potato salad, chips, salsa, and guacamole, which was really good.

Sarah had sliced up the cabbage for me, and then Emily hurried over to help me make the cole slaw. She is always eager to help me cook. I can hardly wait for the time when she can help and not suddenly throw the food. She watched as I put the ingredients for the dressing into a bowl, being of course eager to help stir. Then when I started adding the cabbage to the bowl she jumped right in to help, not understanding that I was not just throwing cabbage, but that I was actually putting it into the bowl. She was throwing it all over faster than I could collect it. But I eventually got most of the cabbage into the bowl, and then Emily helped stir it all up.

I also made my Texas Hold'm Brownies and strawberry shortcake, using Marilyn's strawberries. Emily, Marilyn, and I made the shortcake. It was a lesson for Marilyn in letting a toddler help in baking. We didn't have the strawberry shortcake until after the fireworks, about 10:30. Unfortunately Marilyn is not supposed to eat that late, so she didn't have any. I must have them over soon for early strawberry shortcake.


Marilyn also got a chance to play chess with Christian. However, I don't know if they were able to finish their game.

I don't have any pictures of our eating dinner, but we all had a very nice time. We only had four roasting sticks for the 11 of us, having misplaced the other four. However, there was no real problem. And after we all had hot dogs, many of us had s'mores. Unfortunately I was too busy doing something else, and I didn't get a s'more, so I'm hoping to have one soon.



At about 9:45 we all went out into the street to do the fireworks. It's so fun because so many families in the neighborhood are all doing the same thing. We had several neighbors join us at the street corner to watch the show. Christian did a very good job of lighting the fireworks. He was actually a very good boy today. He was more like the adult he is becoming. Not that he doesn't act like a boy a lot of the time.

You have to love a nation 

that celebrates its independence every July 4, 

not with a parade of guns, tanks, 

and soldiers who file by the White House 

in a show of strength and muscle, 

but with family picnics where kids throw Frisbees, 

the potato salad gets iffy, and the flies die from happiness.  

You may think you have overeaten, but it is patriotism.  

~Erma Bombeck