MOVING! (...to wordpress)

Hello all! I'm moving my blog from Blogger to Wordpress in the hopes that I can have more fine tuned control over the features of my blog. Come check me out at:

http://amyalphin.com

See you there!
(there's even a new entry to great you!)

Lemon-Drenched Lemon Cake

Ok, so I confess that I LOVE to read food blogs. I have several that I read on a regular basis, one of which is Joy the Baker, http://www.joythebaker.com/. Today, I noticed that she had posted about her favorite quick breads, something which I really enjoy baking because you don't have all the waiting around for yeasts to do their thing like regular bread making requires. I'm not the world's most patient person, and I also have a husband who bounces, thus making somewhat temperamental "rising" recipes difficult in this house.

I've been feeling under the weather recently, and can't really taste anything due to a blocked nose, so I wanted to bake something that really had some uumph behind it. Enter the Lemon-Drenched Lemon Cake. Ahhh lemon, how I love thee. We seriously love lemon around here, and this cake lived up to the yumminess expectations.

Simple ingredients, (There's a sinful amount of butter in this cake. Deal.):



Combined (I love my stand mixer. If you bake, you must buy one. It's better than a TV in your kitchen.):

To make lemony heaven. Oh yum.


If you're not vegan, make this now. I promise you'll be glad you did.
http://www.joythebaker.com/blog/2009/01/lemon-drenched-lemon-cake/comment-page-2/#comment-51313

Woodland Park Zoo to Close Night Exhibit

So I found out today that Seattle's Woodland Park Zoo is closing the Night Exhibit, which showcases nocturnal animals in a very dark setting so that they are active for visitors to see. I have been to many zoos and have never seen an exhibit quite like this one. It is always the highlight of any trip I take to the zoo and one I have always found intensely interesting. And soon it will be gone.

According to their website, the WPZ needs to, "reduce annual expenses between $800,000 and $1 million", and the Night Exhibit, "is an older building with very high operating costs and its energy use is one of the highest in the zoo", therefore making it the one to go. Now, I understand the economy is hard, and cut have to be made somewhere, I just wish it wasn't my FAVORITE exhibit that was cut.

Here is the letter I wrote to the zoo:

Dear Woodland Park Zoo, I have visited the zoo many times, and think it is a very important part of Seattle. When I first visited the zoo, it was with a group of preschoolers, and I have since visited with other classes I have taught, as well as independently and with friends. It is a place I always take friends and family who visit the Seattle area. The exhibit I am always the most excited to visit and share with others is the Night Exhibit. It showcases animals we would otherwise almost never interact with. The students are fascinated with the scurrying armadillo, the spookily hanging bats and the cute, large eyed bush baby. I understand that these are hard economic times, and some cuts need to be made, it just seems a shame that such a popular and unique exhibit would be the one to make the cut. Do you have a final date for closure set? I would like to visit the zoo before the exhibit closes. I will miss the exhibit, and feel the zoo experience will be "missing something" after it's gone. Sincerely, Amy A

If you live in the Seattle area, and are upset about the closure of the Night Exhibit, I encourage you to email or call the zoo and let your opinion be heard. I don't know if it will do any good, as it sounds like the decision has already been made, but at least they will know that people were not happy about it.

Press release: http://www.zoo.org/nightexhibit/statement

Kindle!

So one of my favorite Christmas presents this year was Amazon's Kindle, given to me by my wonderful husband. Now, I've wanted an e-reader for some time, but was hesitant for the following reasons:

1. I love BOOKS, real, live books, that have PAGES made of PAPER. So much so that I own

many, many, many of them.

I was concerned that the Kindle wouldn't feel the same as a
regular book.

2. I like to read in bed, and I wasn't exactly sure how cuddly the Kindle would be.

3. They're expensive.

4. I like to share books with my friends. Easier to do with a real book than an e-reader (although the Nook has this functionality now).

Hmm...could this be the same with a Kindle?

I didn't want to invest in a Kindle, Nook or other e-reader until the benefits, as I saw them, outweighed my concerns. Here are some of the benefits I came up with:

1. It's cool. Sorry, but it's true.

2. When I travel, I am often guilty of bringing 4, 5, 6 or more books with me. Often times, at least one is hardback. The Kindle would lighten this load considerably.

3. It would lay flat so I could read while doing other things, mainly knitting, (yes, I do knit and read).
4. Less environmental impact, after a period of time.

5. Some books, such as bestsellers and new hardback books are significantly cheaper at 9.99 per book. Some are even free:


Ok, so Tom knew that I had been going back and fourth on the reader and did a little research of is own to see which of the e-reader options seemed to be the best option. He decided on the Kindle, which is what I got for Christmas. Whee! Since we exchanged presents before we flew back to the east coast for actual Christmas with my family, I was able to use the Kindle while traveling, (which was in the list of benefits, remember?), and I must say I was not disappointed, though I did forget the little bit of time when the flight attendant says something to the effect of "turn off your portable electronic devices". DOH! The Kindle is electronic, therefore you can't use it during take off and landing, which is slightly annoying.

So, Amy, what's it like? Well, it does many things well, like have an awesome display that doesn't hurt your eyes, it organizes your material alphabetically, and it has a little toggle "mouse", (as opposed to the Nook's touch screen), which I find very handy and intuitive. It's easy to order books, and to read PDFs. Note taking isn't super easy, neither is bookmarking, but the search and definition features are well developed and easy to use. Bottom line, I LOVE MY KINDLE!!! (and yes, I do read it in bed, just not in the tub....)

Ok, now this is probably the most technological thing I will ever blog about; I'll leave the rest up to my hubby. And just so we don't start taking things too seriously, here's a picture Shaylee's favorite Christmas present!

Snowshoeing With the Inlaws :)

I have many things I should be blogging about, Christmas, waxing poetic about the end of the decade, etc, but instead I'm going to blog about the fun snowshoeing trip we just went on with Tom's parents! (Much easier, and I already have the photos processed. Judge away.)

Tom was determined to get his folks down to Mt. Rainier National Park as part of their visit this Christmas, so even though the weather report was marginal at best, we loaded up the Suby with all of our winter gear, and headed south. We arrived at Paradise, strapped on our snowshoes and headed toward the mountain. Rainier was mostly visible, which we would take as a win.


We snowshoed for about an hour, took some photos, got scared by the NASTY looking gray/black clouds moving in and retreated back to the parking lot.


It was fun to get out and get some exercise, since I feel like all we've done since my winter break began was eat, drink, sit around and watch football, and eat again. Now, this is not a bad way to spend one's vacation, but it's not fabulous for the waistline. So exercise is good. Exercise with a view of Mt. Rainier and some wonderful family is even better. Paradise comes through again!!

Knitted Cable Baby Hat

To continue in the vein of knitted baby products, I just finished the 10 cable hat from Hey Julie http://heyjulie.wordpress.com/2006/08/18/cabled-baby-hats/ for family friends who just gave birth to their first baby boy! The cable pattern is easy to follow, and the hat is only 36 rows, so it's also super fast. It's a great pattern for stash busting, and I will be making several to have on hand for all the babies that are being born in our circle of friends this year. SUPER CUTE! Let me know what you think!

Be Very Very Quiet...We're Hunting Christmas Trees!

So about two weeks ago, we headed out to the mountains with Brendan, Ellie and Sierra to continue our tradition of cutting down our own Christmas tree. The Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest runs a program every year that allows people to purchase a permit from the ranger station, and go out onto National Forest land and cut down your tree, which can be up to 12 feet tall. Last year, Tom and I went alone, and it took FOREVER to find our tree. This year, there was much more snow, it was MUCH colder, but we found our tree faster, so it was a win.


Now, Tom gets more into this than I do, but it was still fun wandering around in the forest. Tom was all decked out in his "Alphin Logging" hat, his Demming Log Show suspenders and his Carhart pants, just to prove he was manly enough for this activity :) After about an hour of looking, Brendan had found his tree and cut it down, and we had located ours. Tom dug out some snow around the tree and went to work with the tiny saw that Brendan had brought. After the requisite "timber", (about 20 minutes later), we dragged our tree down and put it on the car. Now, a tree in the forest looks much smaller when it is compared to other trees in the forest. When we brought the tree home, we found it barely fits in our living room, being every inch of 12 feet tall. It's wonderful!

All photos by Brendan Fields : ap.brendanfields.com

Grad School!

So yesterday, amid all sorts of travel and airline drama, I received my acceptance letter to Seattle University! I am a real grad student now! Yippie! Classes start next month, so wish me luck!

We Met Tom Douglas!

Ok, so those of you out there who DON'T live in Seattle and don't know who Tom Douglas is may be a bit confused about this. I will enlighten you. Tom Douglas is a local chef who owns several of the tastiest restaurants in Seattle. http://tomdouglas.com/ We love them. Especially Serious Pie which makes gourmet pizzas. NOM! Anyways, we met him while he was doing a book sale/signing at Costco yesterday! He was super nice and we talked to him for about five minutes about his different restaurants and the crab cake cookbook that I was buying for myself :) We ended up buying several other cookbooks for presents. It is always cool to meet someone who is famous on a smaller scale, as they tend to be really interesting while still being approachable. Fun!

Chirstmas Adventures II - Triple Chocolate Mint Cookies

In honor of the Christmas season, I decided to try a new twist a gold standard cookie recipe in this house. The Williams Sonoma Essentials Of Baking has a great recipe for triple chocolate chip cookies which involve white, dark and milk chocolate chips. Well, while shopping the other day, I noticed MINT chips on the shelf! I love all things mint, and thought they would be a great addition to the cookie recipe. They smelled great in the oven, and were super yummy. I think they have slightly more oil than the standard chips, and therefore made the cookies thin out more on the pan, but they were still a WONDERFUL addition. The cookies turned out pretty well. As in they didn't last 48 hours. YUM!!

Paradise

Two weekends ago, Tom and I were going stir crazy with all the gray weather and lack of exercise that this time of year tends to bring. Bolstered by an optimistic weather report for the Paradise area of Mount Rainier National Park, we make the 2ish hour trek south for some snowshoeing.

When we arrived, it was unfortunately VERY cloudy, as in no visibility, as in, what mountain? ::sigh:: So instead of heading up onto the glacier for the beautiful blue skies we anticipated, we did the Nisqualie Vista Loop trail, which is about two miles and is marked with nice, easy to follow poles.
It was nice to get out and get moving, but unfortunately the waterproofing on my shell has worn off, and by the end of the two miles, I was soaked clear to the skin. Did I mention that we were hiking in a cloud? So we went back to the lodge to thaw out and have some lunch.

After lunch, it was still depressingly cloudy, so we decided to do another short trail about two miles down the road, just to get some more exercise before we headed home. This was the Narada Falls trail that actually goes all the way to Paradise, which we want to hike in full sometime. That day though, we only hiked for another couple of miles, took some pictures and headed back after we saw the "waterfall". Then we noticed something quite peculiar in the sky. There was BLUE! In the sky! In the direction of Rainier!!

We hopped back into the car and hurried back up to Paradise. We rounded the bend, and BAM there was Rainier in all her glory. It quite literally took my breath away. I will never cease to be amazed by the gradure and beauty of the mountain. There are simply just not enough superlitives. We're so blessed to live so close to such wonder. Paradise indeed. We will be back!


More photos at http://ap.brendanfields.com/viewer.aspx?site=12

Christmas Adventures Vol. 1 - Chistmas Ships!

This is the first installment of our Christmas adventures thus far. Tonight, Tom and I went and had dinner with a coworker of mine and then we all walked down to the water to see the Christmas Ships! This apparently is a Seattle tradition that has been going on for decades, where the Argosy ships (dinner boat ferries mostly), get all decked out in their holiday best and sail to different waterfront parks around the area. Other boats are welcome to follow them around as long as they're all lit up too. A choir usually sings carols which are broadcast over loudspeakers from the boat to the crowds gathered on shore. At our stop, we were treated to beautiful songs sung by the Seattle Boys Choir. We had never seen the infamous Christmas Ships before, and it was quite a treat! We'll definitely be making this part of our holiday traditions in the future!

You can find out when the Christmas Ships will be in a park near you at their website: http://www.argosycruises.com/themecruises/xmasSchedule.cfm

Apple Butter....erm Sauce

So, continuing our attempt to learn more about food, and to try cooking and preserving local food through the winter, Tom and I attempted to make apple butter. We had all these grand designs of canning cute little 1/2 pint jars of apple butter that we would design precious labels for that we would give away for Christmas presents. Our friends and family would love them and think we were so amazing for coming up with such a unique gift idea.


Yea. That didn't happen. It turns out that apple butter is an enormous pain to make. It takes forever, it makes a HUGE mess, because the longer it boils, the more viscous it becomes, so when the boiling bubbles burst, it sends apple goo approximately the temperature of fresh lava flying across the kitchen. In the end, we decided to just freeze what we had made, which was somewhere between apple sauce and apple butter and not give this one away. It still tastes delicious, so if you're interested in yummy apple...um...product, let us know!

Baby Girl!

So two weeks ago, our good friends Brendan and Ellie welcomed their new baby girl into the world. It was wonderful to be able to share that experience with them. Sheryl, Tom and I were anxiously waiting in the hospital waiting room, literally dancing with anticipation , (ok Tom didn't dance). We also brought Indian food for Brendan, and later Ellie, as they hadn't had much to eat since Ellie went into labor. Finally, we got the call that the baby had arrived, "it" was a girl, and we'd be able to cuddle her shortly.


After we were allowed in, the new baby (as she didn't have a name yet), needed to be checked out to count fingers and toes, and get a bath for the first time! Brendan did the honors.


The paparazzi was definitely out in force, especially after Sheryl's husband showed up with yet another camera. At least she will be a well documented baby! Thank you, Brendan and Ellie for sharing the birth of your beautiful daughter with us! We can't wait to take her hiking :)

Sorry for the delay...

But things have been a bit busy around here. Hopefully I'll have some great entries next week about apple butter, Halloween, Fake Thanksgiving and the birth of Sierra Darby Fields! Stay tuned!!

Car Fail

So...I had a bit of car fail the other day getting off the exit ramp. I braked and the car didn't stop, gotta love hydroplaning. Luckily everyone is generally OK, though my back has seen better days. I went to the Drs today, but he said that the muscles were just strained, so some muscle relaxants and anti-inflammatory meds coupled with hot tubbing and chill out time should serve me well. So expect to see some posts in the future about our car shopping experiences!

Flower Baby Hat

So I knitted this one up quickly for my French teacher, who gave birth to a beautiful baby girl about three months ago. It's bad luck in France to give a shower before the baby is born, so those of us who took her French class last year go together a few days ago to have a "mini shower" for her. I decided to knit this hat.

The pattern is from Knitted Baby Hats which I have loved in the past, (remember the pumpkins?), but this had left a little something to be desired. I think the final result is cute, but some of the different parts are a bit cumbersome to work with. For example, the pattern calls for you to make all the petals separately, then attach them separately. This was complicated, and made for LOTS of ends to weave in at the end, (my least favorite part of knitting). The next time, I would still knit each petal separately, but I would put them on double pointed needles and knit a round or two to join the piece, THEN attach and tack down the petals. Another possibility is to knit the petal circle directly onto the main portion of the hat before it's closed off, this making the transition seamless. As of now, I can still see some pink peaking through between the petals and the stem, which bothers me.

While the hat is cute, and Tom insists that only I will ever see the imperfections, I still don't like having an imperfect product (perfectionist, I know). Oh well, I think she'll still love it! What do you think?

Grad School

So on my vacation last week, I started working on my applications for Grad School. I'm applying for a Masters in Curriculum and Instruction and getting my Professional Certificate. I'm excited to be headed back to the classroom, and am looking forward to learning how to be a better teacher. I'm NOT looking forward to the time commitment (I know, grow up), or the time it will take away from my time with Tom. He's thinking about taking a mountaineering class though, and I'm sure we'll just figure out new ways to make time for each other. We both agree, however, that this is the best time for me to pursue my Masters, as we're thinking about kids in the next few years, and pregnancy+infants+grad school sounds like a quick trip to crazy town. I'm a little nervous, but still ready to take this next step to help further my career.

I'm applying to both Seattle Pacific University and Seattle University. The deadlines are both November 20th, but I only have a few more things to take care of, so the goal is to get them both submitted by the end of the week. Wish me luck!!

San Juan Island

A few weeks ago, (as in before it started raining), we headed up the San Juan Island with some good friends of ours for the weekend. E is super pregnant at this point, so we weren't exactly doing insane hikes, but we had a beautiful campground and checked out some of the interesting historical sites up there.

San Juan Island has two National Historic Sites, American Camp and English Camp (http://www.nps.gov/sajh/index.htm). They were both established in 1859 as a result of the death of a pig. Because of confusion over the wording of the Treaty of Oregon, there was some dispute as to whether the Americans or the British were the rightful owners of the San Juan Island. As such, there were both American farmers and British members of the Hudson's Bay Company living and working on the island. The problems came about when an American farmer shot and killed a HBC pig. The British threatened to have him arrested and have all the American farmers evicted from the island as trespassers. The Americans sought and gained the protection of American armed forces, which prompted the British to send their own military force to the island. Both sides ended up establishing camps on the island, though no battles were ever fought, and both garrisons left the island some 20 years later.

On our trip up to the island, we visited both the American camp and the English camp. The Americans were situated on high grassy hills overlooking the Straight of Juan de Fuca to the south of the island, and the British were in a well protected "harbor" tucked into the north of the island. It definitely seemed like the British had the better end of the deal, but both sites were beautiful to visit on a late summer weekend.

American Camp

English Camp

A Gift of a Song

So our wonderful friend Bert had originally wanted to sing a song for us at our wedding, but due to many circumstances, he was not able to. Last night, however, we were treated to a late wedding present of the song he wanted to sing. He sang "True Companion" by Marc Cohen, and it was incredibly beautiful and moving. Quite a rare treat. Thanks Bert.



Check him out on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLgsmqMtYHQ