Of cakes and flowers

Baked cherry upside down cake for over-the-hill requestor and sourced some flowers for his birthday girl from the garden. Baked with the neighbor kids - making their favorite blueberry muffins and snickerdoodles. Refreshing to see such small things make them so happy.

Skamania Lodge

With the sun making for a real spring-break, cashed in on a long overdue voucher at Skamania Lodge in the Columbia Gorge. It was an impromptu break on a sunny blue-skies day with hubby picking up from work in the middle of the day...felt like kids sneaking out. Beautiful hiking through bare, silvery aspen/birch groves watching turtles sunning on the dead logs and trilliums lighting up the forest floor, smores and rocking chairs by a crackling fire and salmon three meals a day made for an enjoyable jaunt. The "bridge of the gods" definitely lived up to its name with an ethereal haze over the river.

A surprise

Cooked up pav-bhaaji for a surprise birthday party after a long time. Remember to never use the south-indian brands of the masala.
Stopped in for a quick dinner at Bethany's table - LilC got down and close to the dog - zoey and followed it right under the tables - the asparagus with balsamic vinagraitte was a hit even with the kids.

Spring concert

BigC's dance school put on a show at the Spring Festival at the Walter Performance Center. Celebrated Sis and B's bdays at Imperial with sis getting carded. Duck meatballs with prunes had all 3 scraping the plate. If only the quail could have been well-fed, it'd have made for a great grilled bird.
Shivaratri had everyone gorging on uncooked fare at S/A's - mix of finely chopped fruits with light custard/icecream is always a winner with adults and kids.

Fleeting february

A SuperBowl chaat party, oscar night rather evening in pajamas with a refreshing Mediterranean salad and more of the blueberry muffins with chai, a crafty valentine's, bowling nightmares, poker night with  beginner's luck, cheapest girl's night out and dinner at Andina to celebrate a newly wedded couple have made for an eventful yet fleeting February

Winter fun

Made these almost-perfect blueberry muffins for a couple of ardent blueberry fans. Perfected them with a streusel topping. For something that begs to be eaten out of the oven, its a plus that its a quick and simple recipe. Even made some as the chai boiled up.        There was also an all oil recipe that i just cannot seem to find again to save. S took BigC and LilM to watch the nutcracker by OBT.

The Dads picked another great day for skiing this holiday season - fresh powder and even BigC can tell what a difference it makes and enjoyed skiing in not so freezing conditions. Closer home, the Moms picked the last day to check out the zoolights and perfected the timing on the 2nd try. LilC's enthralled reaction to the lights and the lit-up steam engine ride was well worth it.  

 

Merry times

Cookies by BigC using the kit she snagged at H/M's naughty Santa party

Santa brings dresses and a puppy