Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to our wonderful moms and all the other great mommies out there. 

We love you today and the other 364 days a year.  

Portfolio

I just wanted to say happy friday to everyone. My parents surprised me Monday night and have been in Spokane for the week.  The Woody's have returned to Washington, and they're cold.  So anyhoo, for anyone who had looked at my design portfolio website and saw all of my old school work, I have officially updated the site.  Its so fresh and so clean clean.  Have a look if your curious.

Have a fabulous weekend! Hope everyone had a fun Cinco de Drinko!

Photo Stories - Episode 3

The Great Hunter and the Mysterious Bird

Dex thinks he is a great defender of our, or shall I say, his yard.  In the mornings when I let him out for the day, sometimes I take a moment and watch him bolt off at lightning speed to run every single innocent little bird out of the yard, and if there happens to be a squirrel in a tree or on the fence, then he runs double time and acts twice as tough.  After they have all scattered, then he makes a full prancing lap with his head held high just to show those intruders that this is his yard, and not a buffet.  In reality, he isn't a fast runner and is a giant chicken, so this routine is especially comical.  I'm sure he actually thinks that someday he will catch one of these critters and live up to his name. Which leads me into the story behind this photo.

Two things your need to know first.  Number one, Dexter is a digger.  Digging a hole is to Dexter as watching baseball is to Kam.  And number two, Kam and I meet at home everyday at 1 for lunch.

So one random, nothing special day, we meet for lunch like always and just before we head back to work, we joined Dex in the back yard to just see what was going on.  Dex trots off, no big deal, goes over by the tree and just starts starring straight down at the ground.  Weird.  So Kam walk over to see what he's looking at, and there was his hole, about the size of a large bowl, and in that hole was a dead bird. Safe place too keep your dead bird, in a hole, right? He's a thinker. So, being me, I quickly ran into the house to get the camera because this was such a odd event, that I needed some documentation.  So I ran back outside and snapped a quick shot just in time for Dex to grab his bird and start swinging it around the yard.  About that time, he figured out that we didn't want him to have this bird, so now it has become a game of keep-a-way.  Kam goes one way, Dexter and the poor bird, which is obvious by this point that Dexter has been swinging him around the yard all morning, go another.  We finally get him to settle down and before Kam takes it from him, I get this one last photo.  Priceless.

Now we begin to question where this bird came from.  We know that there is no way that Dex caught the thing.  So did it land in the tree and die, did it run into the side of the house and die, did the neighbors on the other side of the back fence chuck it over?  How many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie pop?  The world may never know.

Fortune Friday

Happy Birthday Cathy!

It's Kam's mommy's birthday!  Hope you have a great day that's full of cake!

Bring'n out the bacon~

I don't cook with bacon very often, but I always have some high quality thick cut in the freezer for when I get the urge.  It turned into Saturday morning breakfast bowls and Sunday potato salad.  I was so happy that it was a sunny and beautiful May 1st that potato salad and bbq'd steaks were the best way to celebrate.

I got these bowls the other day with the handles on them, they kinda look like giant coffee cups.  When I made the pot pie I noticed on the bottom that they were oven safe, JACK POT!  So I couldn't wait to try my hand at baking something in them.  Saturday morning breakfast bowls it is!

What you'll need: (for 2 bowls)

1 medium russet potato diced
1 green pepper chopped
1/2 or 1 cup onion chopped
3 or 4 slices bacon (precooked)
4 mushrooms sliced
teaspoon salt
teaspoon pepper
eggs
shredded cheese (about a cup or so)
toast

Pre-heat oven to 350.

Cook bacon, set aside.  Drain fat but leave about a tablespoon in the bottom of pan.  Add potatoes, onions, salt and pepper to pan and cook over medium high until potatoes are brown and crispy, about 10 minutes.  Add green pepper and mushrooms.  Cook for another 5 minutes or until peppers are soft.

Add as much potato mixture into the bottom of your bowl and you'd like, just make sure you leave an inch on the top for eggs.  Add a layer of large bacon pieces over potatoes.  Crack desired number of eggs over bacon.  Place in oven for 15-20 minutes or until whites just about set.  Sprinkle cheese and put back in oven until cheese is melted, eggs should be set by then.  Serve with toast.

If you don't have oven safe bowls, add your bacon to the potatoes and create holes into the potatoes where you can crack the eggs.  Cook the same way as above, if your frying pans are oven safe.  If not, crack eggs like I mentioned before and reduce heat to low and cover.  Eggs should still set.

Kam got a double yoke, score!  It was actually the first time I've cracked a two yoke egg.

My breakfast was a little smaller.

Garnished with toast and bacon!  What could be better than that?

Simple breakfast.  I am going to love my new oven safe bowls, or should I say Kam is going to love my new bowls. Enjoy!

Our new staple Potato Salad

I have made this version of potato salad so many times that it has become our favorite.  I don't know if I will ever make the traditional kind again.  It was so refreshing yesterday to have the sun shining, the smell of fresh cut grass, and a big bowl of potato salad.  We even sprung for some really nice ribeye steaks.  We never spend that much on meat for a single meal, so it was a treat!  Our bacon weekend ended with steaks...we are carnivores...I admit it.

What you'll need: (this is a fairly big salad, I wanted left overs)
12 yukon potatoes (about baseball size, maybe a little smaller)
1 cup blue cheese crumbles
1 cup bacon crumbles
6 boiled eggs
1 cup sliced kalamata olives (Reserve the juice.  Make sure you get the pitted ones, because I didn't. If you are a fan of the kalamata olive, I suggest buying them at costco.  If you do not like them, then substitute for regular black.  If you don't know what they taste like, then if you don't like green olives, you might not like kalamata.  I suggest giving them a chance.)
1 bunch green onions sliced
1 cup plain greek yogurt
1/2 cup olive oil mayo (or regular)
1 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons olive juice

Boil potatoes until done and fork slides through easily.  Remove from pan and allow to cool. Boil eggs, allow to cool with potatoes.   Dice into bite sized pieces. Add olives, blue cheese, bacon, green onions.  In a separate bowl, combine greek yogurt, mayo, salt, pepper and olive juice.  Mix until well blended.  Pour over salad and fold until even distributed.  Slice eggs and add to salad.  I like to add those last so they won't get too broke up in the mixing process.  Gently fold them into salad.  I also usually leave out the yokes, just a personal preference.

Finger lick'n good!

Your done, shovel into mouth hole.  Good luck stopping at just one bowl.  Enjoy!