Thankful Thursday- Three Things

This week for Thankful Thursday, I'm pulling a page out of my friend Christy's book (or, blog, rather!) and just picking three things to write about. Three things I'm thankful for today.

1. We are harvesting.  This harvest has been incredibly stop and go. We've hit the 1-month mark of harvest today. I'm thankful that we are actively cutting wheat today because the more we get done, the sooner we will be DONE with harvest. It's just been dragging on forever. So, today, I'm thankful for progress on that front.

Harvey in the Spring Wheat field.

The wheat in that photo is all gone and cut now! The photo was taken a few days ago. We're getting closer to being done with harvest!

2. Garden produce. Our garden has been bountiful this year again. Right now we have zucchini, beets and green beans in high numbers and the tomatoes are just starting to really turn on. Our neighbors planted a huge garden this year, too, and were kind enough to share a few squash and zucchini with us. I really love summer meals with produce from the garden. Just can't beat the flavors!

The mango did not come from the garden, but everything else did! Aren't those watermelon zucchinis so cute?!

3. Much-needed haircut! I got my haircut this morning and I'm so happy with the new length. It had gotten pretty overgrown over the summer and it was high time for a chop. Just in time for back to school! Just excuse the no-makeup, crappy lighting selfie. It looks like I'm drunk or high, but I promise I'm not! Focus on the hair, not the face! Either way, so happy and thankful for the haircut!

Eeek...

So, there you have it! Short and simple Three Things Thankful Thursday post! What are you thankful for this week?!

Stay tuned for tomorrows post on Oiselle Flight Friday!! I'll be reviewing another piece of my Oiselle gear and going over the first Principle of Flight! :)

Beef and Asparagus Stir Fry

You know I love to cook with beef! Today, I'm sharing one of my favorite healthy beef recipes with all of you: Chinese Takeout Style Beef and Asparagus Stir Fry!

Hey! I'm getting a little better at photo editing! Ha.

One thing that I really miss about living in a larger city or town is access to a variety of restaurant food, especially ethnic cuisine. I'll admit that I have a guilty pleasure for Chinese food. I love it. When I lived in Jackson, there was a Chinese restaurant that actually had a drive-through! I didn't know a ton of people when I lived there, so the drive-through was the perfect option for me. Quick service, and I didn't have to awkwardly sit alone in the restaurant and eat by myself. When I lived in Bozeman, the mall that I worked in had the standard Chinese fast food restaurant in the food court that I frequented more often than I probably should have.

Havre does have an assortment of fast food taco joints, so I guess that counts as Mexican, and they have two Chinese buffet restaurants. I'll hit up the buffet once in a while when I'm in town for errands, but I'm not likely to drive an hour just for Chinese takeout, guilty pleasure or not. So, how to please those cravings for Chinese takeout at home? Learn to cook it!

As a follow up to yesterday's Thankful Thursday post where I told you all how thankful I am to be able to eat my own home-raised beef, I thought I'd share with you an easy at-home recipe for Chinese food. This stuff tastes just like the real deal, guys. And, it's a little healthier than the gut-bomb that Chinese takeout can sometimes be. Best of all, you can customize the recipe to use whatever ingredients you have on hand. I used beef (of course!) and some fresh, seasonal veggies. I wrote in detail about the recipe first, then the actual recipe itself is listed all together at the bottom of the post. Let's get started!

First, gather your ingredients. You'll need four cups of vegetables and one pound of beef. For the veggies, you can use whatever you like in a stir fry. I used asparagus as my star because it's in season and we have a big community asparagus patch down the road, so it's also free for the picking. :) I paired the asparagus with some slivered red bell pepper for color, and about 1/4 cup of slivered onion for extra flavor. I recommend checking your garden or local market for whatever veggies are fresh right now. You can also just look in your fridge at what you need to use up, or use a bag of frozen stir fry veggies for an extra convenience factor. 

Before starting any of the actual cooking, I like to prep the sauce. Pour the soy sauce into a glass one-cup measuring cup, then add the rest of your ingredients, brown sugar through garlic, to the soy sauce. No need to pour into another bowl- then you have one more thing to wash. Plus, it's easier to pour out of a measuring cup anyway when you go to pour your sauce on your stir fry later on. So, measure all of the sauce ingredients into the measuring cup, stir with a whisk, and set aside.

Clean your produce and cut your veggies down to bite-size pieces. For the asparagus, that meant each piece was between 1-2 inches long, depending on the thickness of the stalk. You want the pieces to be close to the same size so that they cook evenly. As you're chopping and prepping, preheat a skillet or wok to medium-high and swirl some oil in the pan. I used a mix of chili oil and olive oil. Then drop in your veggies and saute for a few minutes until they are crisp-tender. Remove from skillet into a bowl and set aside. You don't want to completely cook them at this point because they'll get more skillet time later and there's nothing worse than sad, soggy overcooked vegetables, especially asparagus.

You gotta love fresh veggies! There is nothing like home-grown asparagus for freshness and flavor.

Now, let's talk about the beef. I used a round steak which I cut in half length-wise, then cut into strips about 1/4 inch thick , cutting against the grain. You could use about any type of steak--sirloin or flank steak would work well, too, and both are lean cuts. You can also pick up pre-cut stir fry or stew beef at the meat counter of your local store. Again, you want your beef pieces to be close to the same size so they cook evenly, and you want them to be close to bite-size so you don't have to bring a knife into the picture later when you're eating. Let's say you don't want to use beef-- you could use any meat you like in this stir fry, but I personally feel the soy-sauce based sauce lends itself best to beef. (If you want my recipe for Orange-Basil Chicken, I'll gladly share that one sometime, too!)

Anyway, after you've sauteed and then removed your veggies from the skillet, you can add just a bit more oil to the pan and then drop your beef pieces in. Cook until they are browned through and fully cooked. You may have to drain some excess liquid. 

Once the beef is cooked through, add the veggies back to the pan and give everything another minute or two to stir fry all together. Now, remember your sauce you made? Give it another brisk stir with the whisk and then pour it over everything in the pan. Stir it all up so that everything gets coated with the sauce, then let it sit for a few minutes. You want it to come to a simmer because that really helps the sauce thicken and gel together. Once you get to that point, turn off the skillet and give everything another big stir so that the delicious sauce coats into every nook and cranny of food. 

All those tasty veggies and beef playing together so nicely in the skillet! Can't wait to eat it!

Now you're ready to eat! Spoon your stir fry over rice or noodles and top with cashews, peanuts, or toasted sesame seeds, and enjoy! 

 Chinese Takeout Style Beef and Vegetable Stir Fry
All You Need:
4 cups of cleaned, chopped vegetables of your choice
1 lb beef, trimmed and cut into bite size pieces
1/3 cup lite, reduced sodium soy sauce
2 Tablespoons brown sugar
1 Tablespoon corn starch
1 Tablespoon water
1 Tablespoon vegetable oil
1 teaspoon ginger powder
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes, optional.
Minced garlic, to taste. (I typically use about 2-3 cloves)

All You Do:

1. Prepare sauce using soy sauce through garlic, stirring with a whisk. Set aside.

2. Preheat a large skillet or wok to medium-high and swirl some oil in pan. Add veggies and stir fry to crisp-tender. Remove from skillet and set aside.

3. Swirl a bit more oil into pan and then saute beef pieces until browned and cooked through. Add veggies back to pan, stir frying for about one minute. Pour sauce into pan. Stir fry to coat and bring to simmer to allow sauce to thicken. Remove from heat and let sit for a few minutes before serving. Serve with rice or noodles and top with cashews, peanuts or sesame seeds.

Chinese Takeout Style Beef and Asparagus Stir Fry.
YUM!

This recipe is a little healthier than a typical Chinese takeout recipe. It uses fewer oils. The sauce is packed with flavor, which means you don't need as much of it, too. Really loading up on the veggies, such as high-in-iron and folic acid asparagus, and Vitamin-C packed red bell peppers, give it more of a nutritional punch, too. Add in the lean beef and rice, you've got close to all the food groups covered! Let me know what you think of this recipe if you give it a try! What are some of your favorite beef recipes?

Salad In a Jar

If you haven't noticed, mason jars are really trendy right now. Just do a Google or Pinterest search and see what you come up with. They are being used for everything from light fixtures to soap dispensers and everything in between, including good old canning and food storage. Here on the farm, we do a fair amount of canning to preserve our garden bounty and Carol also does canned beef every year. We have no shortage of jars around and we're not afraid to use them!

So when this week's Shape Up Montana Weekly Challenge was to make ahead some salads in mason jars, we were completely on board and ready to go! We don't have any garden produce yet, but since we do get a Bountiful Basket every other week, we were able to find some salad recipes that utilized ingredients we had on hand, including lots of fresh produce and grains and some healthy, lean proteins. Yesterday, Jeff, Tom, Carol and I got together and combined our resources and ingredients to put together a whole bunch of mason jar salads to eat throughout the week.

Beautiful jars of Chopped Black Bean and Corn Mason Jar Salad.

The inspiration and recipes for our salads came from an article I found on Buzzfeed. The article featured eighteen recipes, each a different combination of ingredients for mason jar salads. Jeff looked through all of them and found two that worked well with ingredients we already had. When we all got together, Jeff was the task master, too, and coordinated all of the salad creating efforts. The recipes we chose were similar, but contained different ingredients. We made Burrito Bowl Salads, and  Chopped Black Bean and Corn Mason Jar Salad.  Both had southwestern inspiration and flavors, and both had a "dressing" of greek yogurt and salsa.

Jeff places the first ingredients in the jars. I'm showing off his skills with Vanna hands. 

 What took the most time in preparing these salads was chopping veggies and preparing the ingredients. We were more or less starting from scratch, so all the veggies had to be cleaned and diced, chicken and sweet potatoes had to be seasoned and cooked, corn had to be thawed, black beans rinsed and drained, lettuce was torn, rinsed and spun dry. It was a good thing we had all hands on deck because it would have been a lot of work for one person.

While waiting on a few ingredients to be prepped, Jeff and Tom talked farming as Tom read the latest copy of Progressive Farmer.  

 The first salad we started on was the black bean and corn salad. It contained Greek yogurt, salsa, black beans, corn, bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, red onion, cubed pepper jack cheese, and lettuce. Even though this salad is meatless, the beans, corn, cheese and yogurt will pack a powerful protein punch.

Jeff measures out black beans for each jar.

 We tackled the Burrito Bowl jars next. Ingredients for this one include Greek yogurt, bell peppers, cubed sweet potatoes, cilantro-lime quinoa, diced cooked chicken, shredded cheddar cheese, and lettuce. Again, this salad will be a protein powerhouse as quinoa is high in protein and it also contains chicken, cheese, and Greek yogurt.

Tom and Carol spoon some Greek yogurt into the bottom of the Burrito Bowl jars.

 I think the salad in a jar idea is really great because it allows you to prep some meals ahead of time that can be used later in the week. Jeff and Tom will be able to take them in their lunches while they're working on seeding barley, Carol can eat one for a quick lunch in the house or wherever she is, and I plan to bring a jar to my track meet tomorrow evening. It's a great on-the-go meal for busy people.

Putting lettuce in each jar.

If a person didn't want to spend a bunch of time cutting and chopping, you could use leftover ingredients from meals earlier in the week, or buy pre-cut produce and pre-cooked chicken, etc. I think a person could be really resourceful in using up leftovers from the fridge and making up your own salads whenever odd bits of leftover ingredients are around. 

Screwing lids on jars.

One thing that is important to remember in creating a mason jar salad is to put the wetter ingredients and salad dressings in FIRST. Then progress to drier ingredients as you fill the jar, saving lettuce for last. This way things like lettuce and cheese don't get soggy from sitting in the dressing. Plus, the colorful layers really look great in a clear jar!

Finished! Aren't those layers beautiful?

 When you're ready to eat, just dump your jar out onto a big plate or bowl and chow down. Easy, right?

If you're looking for a fun meal to make as a family that's healthy and delicious, mason jar salads could be just the ticket! Even young kids can get involved in helping and layering ingredients, and you can teach them about nutrition along the way. We had a great time making these together over the weekend and I can't wait to dig in! The four of us will definitely get our ten bonus points for Shape Up Montana, and these will work well for the Protein Challenge I'm participating in, too.

Have you ever made mason jar salads? What are some great, healthy meal ideas you use in your busy house?

Cactus Tuna

That's right. I said Cactus... Tuna.

Say what?!

In our most recent Bountiful Basket, we received a bag of prickly pear cactus fruit. The prickly pear cactus is actually edible. You can eat the paddle/leaf/pad, and also the fruit/prickly pear/tuna. Our bag included six tuna.

I really did not know what to do with these things and had never eaten any part of a cactus before, so I did a little internet research. That's how I discovered that they're called tuna, for example. Not exactly the most enticing name for a fruit, but I can see why it is called tuna. The flesh of the pear itself very much resembles raw tuna steaks, although the taste is much different. In outward appearance, they look like red potatoes. In fact, that's what I thought they were at first. Their flesh is a little squishier than a potato, though.

Which of those is actually a potato? 

My internet research was very helpful in determining how to cut and eat the tuna. I found many recipes for making cactus jellies and jams. Pureeing the fruit and sorting out the seeds for use in various types of beverages was also popular.

Step one: cut off both ends of the tuna.

For our first time trying cactus fruit, however, we opted to simply taste and enjoy.

Step two: Make one long cut from end to end, then peel back the thick skin.

The flavor was like a cross between watermelon and hibiscus. It was actually really good. Very sweet. I could easily taste how it would be very good in a beverage-- mixed with lemonade, or in a delicious coctail of some sort.

Step three: Cut into small pieces, eat and enjoy.
Seeds are edible, but don't chew easily, so you can spit them out as you would watermelon seed.

I also learned that the cactus tuna, referred to in one website as an "enchanted edible," is used in Mexico to treat diabetes as it has properties that aid in insulin regulation. They can and have also been used as a source of natural dye for fabrics.

If you see prickly pear cactus fruit at the store sometime, don't be afraid-- give it a try! I think we all agreed that it was very tasty. I'd definitely eat it again! Have any of you out there in my blogosphere tried cactus tuna before? If so, what did you think?!

The Food Post

I know I have been writing a lot about food and baking lately on the blog, so I wanted to take a post here to show some photos and share a little bit about what I have been up to. Some projects have been solo endeavors and others with either Stephanie or Carol. There is something very satisfying about making a home-cooked meal from scratch, especially when using ingredients one has grown oneself. 

Again, as a disclaimer: I'm no food photographer! I'll try to get better if I keep posting food images, but... no promises! 

One of the first things Stennie and I did when she got here was mix up a batch of pie crusts. We made four crusts and formed them into discs. Three went into the freezer and one was made into a crust for this delicious pie:

Wishing I had taken a photo of a slice of pie so you could see the key lime part... 

This pie is a key-lime pie topped with fresh raspberries. The limes came from my Bountiful Basket and the berries were from Carol's raspberry thicket. Stennie and I did the crust together, but I whipped up the custardy lime filling on my own. I had never made anything custard-like before, and was really pleased with how it turned out.

It was a big hit at dinner that night, too. I carried it over to Tom and Carol's in this wonderful food carrier:

Made by Nancy |Olson

This was something I received at my bridal shower up here on the Hi-Line about three and a half years ago. It was made by a local woman who has since passed away. It's a perfect carrier for harvest-time meals, potlucks, or any time one is taking food to and fro.

Another plentiful garden vegetable right now is green beans. A few days after Carol returned from her vacation, we picked and canned these green beans as bean pickles, or dilly beans as some people call them. The contents are simple: green beans, dill heads, garlic, red pepper flakes, sugar, salt, cider vinegar. Canned using the hot water bath method, they are pretty simple and very delicious! I like bean pickles on grilled brats especially well in the summer, but they're also delightful eaten plain. 

The beans, garlic, pepper flakes, and dill have been packed into jars and are awaiting the hot cider vinegar solution, then to be processed. 

Carrots are also plentiful in the garden this year. I am really loving these rainbow carrots we planted. I think the colors are very beautiful. They look like a sunset in carrot form, some of them. We have been noticing that they vary in strength of carroty flavor depending on the color. The white ones are very mild, yellow is slightly stronger, orange tastes like a normal carrot, and the red ones are even more carroty. They are all delicous!

With the most recent Bountiful Basket, I also ordered a case of peaches. I have had a few questions from people as to the quality of the peaches, so I thought I'd answer those here. The peaches came from Washington. They were very sweet and lovely flavored. They weren't too big or too small in size. There was not a single unusable peach in the box. The whole thing was great in every aspect. 

Including, baked into peach pie! 

This was another tag-team effort between me and Stennie. We pulled two pie crust discs out of the freezer ahead of time and rolled one into the bottom crust and the other into a top-crust, destined to be a lattice crust. We had a lot of fun cutting the strips for the lattice top and weaving them together. It can be a bit tedious to accomplish, with several trips back and forth between countertop and freezer to keep the butter in the crust cool, but.... 

In the end, the pie turned out so beautiful and delicious, that it was well worth the effort! 

We shared the peach pie at a neighborhood dinner with some dear friends and family. It was a nice treat, especially with a little ice cream! 

My recipe made 9 pint jars of peaches in a light simple syrup.
I used those two books as references. 

With the remaining peaches from my case, I decided to tackle another canning project. I had never canned fruit straight-up before, so this was a fun process. I was delighted at how simple it was, too, especially contrasted with making marinara sauce, which is highly involved and usually takes me about two days to get through all the steps. The peaches only took about two hours, including blanching and peeling, packing into jars, making simple syrup and filling the jars, and processing. Stennie's help is also another big reason why the canning process went quickly and smoothly. I can't wait to open a jar on a cool fall or winter day for a little bit of canned sunshine and love from summer!

We've had many other delicious meals and baked goods, from homemade pizza to canned meat dinner. Stay tuned to the blog for updates on all our culinary adventures! 

The Madness Begins!

Man, oh Man has it been busy around here!

Since arriving home from our trip to Wisconsin on Sunday, Jeff and I have been going non-stop. You can read about the trip in my post from a few days ago: Four States, Seven Days!

Carol is out of town since Tuesday and will be gone for about ten days, so that adds some extra work for me maintaining the garden and making sure the guys eat. I quickly settled into a routine: Wake early (usually around 6:00 a.m.) and water the garden/pick produce at Tom and Carol's, return home and pick a section of yard to mow for about an hour, then it's lunchtime. Maybe a quick nap after lunch, then I try to do some work around the house or putting up of produce that was picked in the morning, one way or another. Late afternoon is usually time to workout, then it's time to start preparing dinner for everyone.

Of course, I call it a "routine" as if each day has been the same. Ha!

The mornings have been pretty much the same, but afternoons are more volatile in terms of scheduling one's day. Best thing to do is plan to be flexible.

We actually started HARVEST yesterday (woohoo!) so that changes everything. The madness begins!



The rest of this post is just a smattering of photos I've taken this week. I apologize that this post is fairly unorganized. I suppose it matches my brain and my overall mood right now... That's sort of how it goes during harvest. You can plan all you want, but in the end, the wheat, the weather, and the machinery will decide for you how your day will go. We're fools to think we're in control. I have learned that the best attitude to have during harvest (and really, all the time on the farm) is to just go with the flow and stay positive. Situations can change in an instant.

Enjoy the photos!

Mule deer doe and a small buck as viewed from my car, just down the road from our house. 

Green Pea Hummus

Some of you may remember when we made That Wierd Green Smoothie last spring for Shape Up Montana. The above photo is actually not a reprise of that concoction, but something much better. With the abundance of peas this year in the garden, I made Green Pea Hummus as somewhat of an experiment. We go through hummus pretty fast in our house. I figured, Why not try Peas? Since they are also pulse crops and very similar to garbanzos. Green Pea Hummus turned out to be pretty good! 

I think I mentioned a nap time somewhere in there... Harvey also excels at taking naps! 

Quincy was napping on the steps until I woke him up. He's a pretty cool cat. 

 Raspberries are starting to peak right now, so I spent some time yesterday morning picking berries. Raspberry picking for one of our neighbors who grows and sells berries as a business was actually my first job after moving up here. Here's a post I did about that: Five Senses of Raspberries. One of my earliest blog posts, actually. It's not as easy as one might think, but once you get into a rhythm of picking, it's not so bad.

Zucchini!

 So, when my parents came to visit back in June, my mom brought some zucchini seedlings with her, on the plane, through security, in the car, all the way from Iowa to our farm. Just so we could plant them in our garden! Well, two months later, I'd say they're doing pretty good! We have had a ton of zukes already and there are about a billion blossoms. Relish-making is in our future...

The next two photos are about as random as it gets, but hey-- that's life!

When I went to get the mail today, I noticed a jar of jam in the mailbox, too. It was made by our mail carrier's wife. I have no idea if Tom and Carol were expecting any jam, but regardless, there it was. It just made me laugh. How many people can say their mailman brought them some homemade jam with their mail? How many people can even say they know their mail carrier by name? That's rural America, folks!

You'll have to excuse the shadow of the photographer partially blocking the image, but isn't that thing cool? Apparently that windmill-esque thing is some sort of fan from inside the combine. If I were enterprising and creative and good at fashioning things out of metal, I'd make that into some sort of cool yard art or wall hanging or something. If anyone has any ideas or suggestions, let me know. It looks like a sunflower or something... pretty cool.
 Since harvest has begun, I leave you with this image. Jeff's driving the combine, unloading on-the-go into the tandem, which Tom is driving. All underneath a giant, puffy cloud. Even though our days are hectic, madness, and never go as planned, we still live a pretty sweet life around here. I've got the photos to prove it. :)

A Day in the Life AND Early Summer Roundup, Installment Four: Seattle Proper!

A day in the life...

So good to be home for the whole weekend. Jeff and I both have been looking forward to the time when we'd no longer be traveling so much and this is the first full weekend of being home.  Not that we aren't busy, however.  Jeff has been spending most of his time mowing CRP that we will be putting into production.  And when he isn't mowing, he and I have been on ranch duties. 

Right now, our cows are running with Tom's at pasture.  They are in four groups and spread out among the different pastures we own and rent.  Late July is a restless time for the cattle, however. The bulls in particular are starting to get antsy.  By now, they have been with the cows for some time and have, ahem, well... one might say they have achieved their mission.  At least we hope they have.  Judging by the tendency of the bulls to get out lately, one could safely say that at least the good majority of the cows are bred.

Therein lies the problem.  The bulls get restless and decide to push on fences here and there and escape.  They go into the neighbors herd (where there are fewer bred cows...) or into the neighbor's wheat field (wheat tastes better than grass! Duh!)... or just into some other pasture (Hence the phrase, the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence).  All this activity has lead to Jeff and I spending time mending fences and gates here and there.  As Jeff is on the mower as much as he can be, it has been my job over the past few days to drive around and check whether the cows are in or out at the various pastures. 

Mornings have also been spent watering the vegetable garden and flowers at Tom and Carol's house, and harvesting veggies.  Lettuce is on the down-side of its bell curve of ripeness, while cucumbers and green peas, and snow peas are on the upswing.  If anyone has any good cucumber or pea recipes, send them our way because we have a bumper crop for sure! Tonight I am making pasta with bacon and peas, and I think I am going to experiment with making pea spread either today or tomorrow. It will be like hummus, only green, and I think it'll freeze fine, too.  First step in making pea dip will be simply to figure out how to put together and use the food processor...

So that's what has been happening around here over the weekend.

Back to the Early Summer Roundup, here's the photos from our time in Seattle. 

Really, the only super-touristy thing we did was go to Pike's Place market.  Even though it was crowded with throngs of people, I still enjoyed it.  It was cool to see so much produce and seafood in one place. Although I did wonder how much of it was produced locally versus shipped in from warehouses or facilities from far away...

 

We met up with a very dear friend of mine from college, Ellen, whom I hadn't seen since I still lived in Iowa.  She and her husband and their young son were also in Seattle for a wedding (not the same wedding!) so we met at the market for breakfast.  They are organic farmers in Western Iowa.  They also have a CSA and Ellen is a huge advocate for local, sustainable food. I love her.  Here's one of their websites: Pin Oak Place.

I took this picture in the market because of the beef prices.  HOLY COW! No pun intended.  Glad I don't have to buy beef at the store... although I am sure there is a Pike's Place Market Markup.  Would anyone out there like to pay Bangs Beef that much for one of our steaks?!?! :) 

I bought some delicious Tequila Caramel from this stand. We were first attracted to this booth because of the name-- Woodring Orchards.  We have some close family friends from Townsend, MT with that last name... any relation!?

 

And now moving into the main reason we went to Seattle in the first place! For the wedding of my dear friend, Steven.  Steven and Jessica started dating back when I still lived in Ames... so maybe 2006? I had the great delight of meeting and getting to know Jessica before the two of them moved to Seattle.  Steven I have known since we were in seventh grade.  He's actually still to this date the friend I have had the longest who I still keep in touch with.  He's a pretty tremendous guy! Jessica is so wonderful as well.  Wish we all lived closer. :)

Steven is a very talented person in many different realms. One of his talents is glass blowing.  Steven and a friend made all these little glass penguin figurines and glass ornaments for the centerpieces at the wedding reception.  They were beautiful!

 Another person I was so fortunate to reconnect with at the wedding was another dear friend from high school, Leslie! I hadn't seen her since high school but was so delighted to find that we were still easy friends. Sometimes when you reconnect with someone you haven't seen in a while, either you or they have changed so much that you can't see why you were friends in the first place. Not so with Leslie.  I had a great time catching up with her!

 Jessica and Steven.  The happy couple! I wished we had more time to catch up with them, but that's the nature of weddings. You're surrounded by friends and family but it's so hard to have meaningful conversations with any of them.  Next time, friends!

The light is a little goofy in this photo, but here's me, Jessica, Steven, and Leslie.

 

The wedding reception was at Golden Gardens park, right on a public beach on the Sound. Looking across the water, you could see the Olympic Peninsula and the mountains. 

 The reception was held in what was formerly a bath house and is now an events venue. It was perfect. The weather was perfect. The people were perfect. Everything was perfect!

 
 We were really only in Seattle for about 48 hours, in total, so we didn't have a ton of time to see too many people, unfortunately. Sunday, we did take some time to relax at a baseball game. Happily, the Cubs, my long-time favorite team, were playing the Mariners in interleague play. We decided rather last minute to buy tickets at the gate and go to the game before heading out of town.

 

Approaching the stadium, with great Mount Rainier in the background.

Safeco Field is pretty new and a very nice stadium.

The view from our seats.

Alas, we look pretty confused as fans.  Jeff in his Braves shirt and I in a Mariners hat, and we both cheering for the Cubs.  We got a few funny looks from the people seated around us.  I bought the Mariners hat because I had neglected to bring a hat of my own to the game and it was pretty sunny.  I guess I'm a Mariners fan, now! Since they are AL and the Cubs are NL it's probably OK to be fans of both, right?

 

Stay tuned for the next episode of Early Summer Roundup, coming soon!