Visit to Glenn and Carolyn's in Tacoma

As we did last winter, Carla, her sisters and I went up to Tacoma to visit their brother Glenn and his wife Carolyn. We had an extra bonus this year when Jim, Starr's husband, decided to join us. He has roots in Washington and wanted to explore Vashon Island. He is interested in finding his grandparents grave sites so he can add his parents' ashes to the family site.

We took the three hour drive from Portland to Tacoma on Saturday morning December 28.

Vashon Island; just north of Tacoma

When we arrived, Glenn and Carolyn had the fire going, with their mild tempered dog, Daisy, in her spot.

Daisy sitting in front of the fire.

Glenn, Carla, and Linda in the kitchen

 They had a nice evening planned for us; family friends Tomoka and Sumit, who live about an hour way in the Seattle area came to dinner as did Glenn and Carolyn's delightful neighbors Linda and Michael. Carolyn fixed a delicious Mexican food dinner; for dessert we had some of Carolyn's Christmas cookies and Jim's chocolate chip cookies. Carolyn is a master of design; she makes beautiful decorations of wreaths and holly leaves on the cookie icing. They are almost too pretty to eat; notice I said almost.

Linda, Tomoka, Sumit, Linda and Michael

After a fun evening filled with margaritas, wine, and conversation we headed down the hill to the Silver Cloud Inn to get some sleep.

When we woke up Sunday morning there was a misty fog covering Puget Sound; Carla and I headed out for a brief walk before breakfast.

Silver Cloud Inn of Tacoma; our room was on the 3rd floor at the far left end.

Posts from a long-abandoned pier.

A sea bird stretching its wings

 After a walk we enjoyed a nice breakfast. Carla and I are veterans of hotel breakfasts; this was pretty good compared with other morning fare we've had.

Carla catching up with the news over coffee.

One of the things I like about the  Silver Cloud Inn is the BNSF mainline between Seattle and Portland runs right across the street. On the way to  Glenn's we caught an idling consist of Union Pacific locomotives waiting for the way to clear.

UP locomotives waiting for traffic to clear.

It's a short 10-15 minute drive from Glenn and Carolyn's place to the ferry terminal to make our way to Vashon island. We parked on the lower deck and headed upstairs for a look at the view.

Jim watching the coast slip away in the fog as we depart Tacoma

Carla, Starr, and Linda huddling together for some warmth on the upper deck.

 Once we hit Vashon island we took the western road up the island and cut across where Jim and Starr had identified a cemetery. We didn't drop in since there were not caretakers there on a Sunday. This was just a reconnaissance mission; they will return later to visit this and other cemeteries to find the ancestral spots.

We then headed towards town and perused the shops.

Treasure Island where we saw some interesting things

A vintage Peugeot scooter outside of Treasure Island. 

Scary snake mask at Treasure Island; I wonder what the nose used to look like.

By now it was getting on towards noon and we looked for a place to eat. December is definitely off season here and most places were closed for the winter.

What a character looking out at us.

Close-up of Perry's Vashon Burgers mascot.

 We ended up having a cup of clam chowder at Zombies. They serve the chowder in paper coffee cups in case you need to depart quickly to avert zombies.

On the ferry ride back to Tacoma we saw birds resting on anything that rose above the water's surface.

Birds making themselves at home on some old pier posts.

A bird stretching its wings on a Puget Sound buoy

Tacoma comes into view

We made our way back to the freeway and headed home. It was a great weekend.

Rotisserie Chicken and Acorn Squash

A big arctic cold front hit the country last week and it was really cold in Portland; our lowest overnight temperature at the house was 10 degrees and highs in the 20s. I'm sure places like the Dakotas and Chicago deal with this cold for longer stretches but for us it was a significant event. Finally on Thursday the weather started to turn and we got our normal December mid-40s and light rain.

Friday the forecast called for an end to the showers and I thought it was the perfect opportunity to make a rotisserie chicken.

I did a dry brine on the chicken by sprinkling some kosher salt on it, in the cavity and under the skin on the breasts. Ideally, I'd let it sit in the refrigerator for at least 6 hours, but 4 hours would have to do today. You can find my recipe here.

A chicken on the rotisserie last summer.

Chicken hot off the Weber rotisserie.

 A couple of weeks ago I ran across a recipe for acorn squash in a pressure cooker from Dad Cooks Dinner.  So dinner was set! I halved two acorn squashes and scooped out the seeds. Then sprinkled some salt and baking soda, put in a basket and into the pressure cooker with a scant 1 cup water. I cooked under high pressure for 20 minutes; it might have been a bit much as they pretty much came apart in the pot.

Cook the squash under high pressure for 20 minutes

Then scoop the squash out of the skins and mix with butter, brown sugar and nutmeg.

Ready for mashing with butter, brown sugar and nutmeg

Mashed and ready to serve

Dinner is served

It was a nice dinner; better tasting and better for us than the pizza I was thinking about ordering.

Colorado Green Chili, Beans and Rice

I've been working my way through a number of pork chili recipes, both green and red. I ran across a recipe in Cook's Country that looked interesting. It has a can of diced tomatoes in it so I figured it wouldn't be totally green; more like Christmas: green with hints of red. If I'm making Mexican food, I figure I might as well make some beans and Spanish rice as well.

You can see the Cook's Country recipe from October/November 2013 here or my version here.

I bought a 3½ pound boneless pork butt hoping to get 3 pounds of meat; I ended up with only 2½ pounds.

The line up; 2 pounds of chiles, a 3+ pound pork butt and home made chicken stock are the stars

 The pork is cubed, the onion chopped, garlic pressed, and chiles stemmed, cut in half lengthwise and seeded. The recipe calls for 2 pounds of Anaheim chiles; I cleaned out New Seasons and didn't have enough so I added a couple of Poblanos to get the quantity I needed. Chiles go under the broiler for 15-20 minutes then sealed in a glass bowl for a few minutes before peeling.

Ingredients ready to be put together 

While the chiles broil, I cooked the pork in a little bit of water, then sautéd it after the water was gone. Meanwhile, chop ½ the chiles into small pieces and spin the other half and tomatoes in the food processor. Finally, take out the  pork and sauté the onions before adding everything back into the pot. Bring to a simmer and put in a 325° oven for an hour.

After a long simmer in the oven; notice how much the liquid has reduced. 

As you can see, this is a red and green chili; not a green chili.

While the chili is simmering it's time to turn our attention to Spanish rice. I recently bought a new Zojirushi rice cooker and have been looking for ways to use it.  I found a recipe on Simply Recipes that served as a starting point. But I totally went rogue; my take on it is here. I

Sauté some long grain rice and onion in some olive oil.

Sauté the rice

Add the garlic, then everything else and transfer to the rice cooker. Use a combination of chicken stock and water. n my research I discovered that Rotel tomatoes and diced chiles is the favorite brand for Spanish rice; I found some at Fred Meyer; it's interesting that the cans are 10 ounces rather than the typical 15.5 ounces. I used a can and a half; I probably could have used 2.

Ready to eat

I also made some pinto beans in the pressure cooker. You can read my latest blog entry on them here or look at my recipe here.


Dinner is served.

Dinner is served

We had the Watsons and Elaine over for dinner so we had to have dessert; Carla picked up a Marionberry pie at New Seasons.

Marionberry pie; whipped cream left over from Thanksgiving.

The chili and rice were total experiments; it looked good in Cook's Country magazine but it turned out rather bland. I rate it at 3 stars and will go back trying to finding a great red pork recipe that will take me back to the days of having pork and bean burritos at Bob Newlon's house growing up. The rice was good; I'll build off that recipe in the future.

Let me know what you think; I love comments.