What Do Roasted Chestnuts and Lutefisk Have in Common?

Above:  Meatballs, coleslaw, lefse, and mashed boiled potatoes (lutefisk not pictured).

I was invited by a group of friends Saturday to a Lutefisk and Meatball Dinner put on by the Bothell Sons of Norway.  Apparently, they do this once a year. I never heard of it. I never heard of lutefisk either.

"Do you know what lutefisk is?" the person driving the car questioned.

"No, I don't. What is it?" I responded.

"It is like a fish with the consistency of jello. They soak it in lye first."

"What exactly is lye?" (I've heard of lye, just never really knew what it was).

"It's what they use to make soap."

"Ew! Fish jello that was soaked in soap? Do you like it?"

"It's not my favorite, but I'll eat it," he said.

The place was packed with a line out the door. We had a party of eight. Luckily, someone in our party got tickets before we arrived. We still had to wait awhile.

Once we were seated, the food started coming. We started with lefse, a tortilla made from potatoes, which then we spread with butter and sugar and cinnamon to our liking. It is served cold, unlike an Elephant Ear you would find at a fair.

More food came out. Swedish Meatballs (which were excellent and my favorite), boiled potatoes (that you can mash and pour melted butter on), coleslaw, and of course, the lutefisk.

As it was set on the table, I felt the gross texture of it. It feels more like the congealed fat juices of a roast beef after it has been refrigerated. The only difference in the texture is that it is hot.

Being the brave soul that I sometimes can be, I decided to try some. I took a couple of small pieces, the size of two nickels, put a little of the sauce on, that was made for it. That was enough for me. The texture was just too weird. Being the fact that it is cod that is soaked in lye and then boiled to a gelatin consistency didn't help much either.

Whenever we ran out of any of the food items, they brought more and more. I could have eaten a dozen or more of the Swedish Meatballs, but I decided to be good, and not regret it later. The guys in our group scarfed down the lutefisk by the pounds... yeah... I really don't get that.  Apparently it was "really good this year."

We were served a cookie and some orange vanilla ice cream for dessert.

Afterwards, we walked down to the Country Village. They had roasted chestnuts there! I was so excited because I never had roasted chestnuts before. That one Christmas song makes them sound so great! The chestnuts were not great. They were bland, and the texture was horrible. Maybe if they were actually roasting on an open fire, instead of a barbecue grill? Maybe that would have helped the lutafisk too.

So, if you are looking for something different to do around the holidays next year, look up the Lutefisk and Meatball Dinner in Bothell, WA.  You can try the lutefisk and tell me if you like it.

My Week Off - Chicago

I think it was during the museum scene when I first saw "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" that I knew I wanted to visit Chicago some day.  Besides, Ferris and his two friends looked like they had such a good time, I wanted to do all those things!  Later, a few more of my favorite movies were filmed in Chicago, and I saw some more things in those movies that I thought I would like to see too.  I started looking up images of Chicago on the Internet, falling in love with some of the sites and architecture there.

I was planning to go last year.  I wound up having to buy a much needed car.  Chicago would have to wait. 

I prepared for my trip first by looking up all the things Chicago has to offer, and it has more than you can imagine.  Then, I decided to watch a few of my "filmed in Chicago" movies to see what I really wanted to visit.  I started off with Ferris Bueller's Day Off (found out some of that movie was filmed in L.A.), followed by My Best Friend's Wedding, The Lakehouse (which actually had more of Chicago in it than I realized), and finally While You Were Sleeping. 

I asked my dad to come with me, he was not really that excited to go.  He seemed to think Chicago did not have much to offer, and was full of gangsters.  Yet, he accepted to come with me anyway.

We left at 11:30 PM, the Red-Eye flight to O'Hare.  I hoped to sleep on the plane.  Unfortunately, the Monday before (the first official day of my vacation), I woke up with a sore throat.  I tried everything to get rid of the nasty cold that followed, but nothing worked.  It was not going to stop me from going to Chicago, however.  I coughed the entire time on the flight, did not sleep a wink.  If you were on that flight with me, I sincerely apologize.

We arrived at our hotel, and even though our original check-in time was supposed to be 3 PM, they accepted us right away, which we were grateful.  I was not tired though.  So I did not go to sleep until later that evening. 

The first day was surprisingly warm.  The 70 degree weather was so welcoming, I did not bother to wear a coat the first day.  I also felt very fortunate finding a hotel within about 20 minutes walking distance to almost everything I wanted to see.

The first day, Monday:  We walked out to the Sears (now called "Willis") Tower.  It was a little difficult to find, not really knowing Chicago yet.  Eventually, we did find it, and rode up the elevator 103 stories up to view the city, and to go out on the all glass balconies that make you almost feel like you are suspended in mid-air.  It was really neat.  I sometimes get nervous in high places, but those balconies were not one of them.  There were a few people who would not dare go out on the balconies, even some guys!  Others were nervous at first, then eased themselves on. 

The second day, Tuesday:  Decided to go the opposite direction and visit Bloomingdale's, within the 900 shops.  The blocks and blocks of shopping places were impressive, though I found Bloomingdale's itself to be a little disappointing.  Everything seemed average and overpriced.  Still, it was nice to visit it.  We saw many neat buildings on the walk along the way.  On the way back, we stopped into the Museum of Contemporary Art Gift Shop, and there were a few fun things to look at there.

The third day, Wednesday:  This was the day I was most looking forward to.  The Art Institute of Chicago.  We took a walk through Millennium Park on the way there.  It has an outdoor theater that looks sort of like the EMP in Seattle.  If you Google the park on Google Maps, you can see a long, silvery line that is actually a walkway leading to the rest of the sculpted theater.  It is really cool.  We stopped there for awhile, also looked over at the Cloud Gate Sculpture (the silver bean) that was in the same area.  As my dad tried to direct me on a picture he wanted of me, I bumped my head inside the bean!  Ow!  It was not obvious how close it was to my head! 

We then walked across another bridge that lead us to the Modern Wing of the Art Institute.  The museum was huge.  It was quite a bit different than how I imagined it would be, still, it was very impressive.  I had to stop by the Impressionists area first, and see my favorite painting, "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte" by Georges Seurat.  There were also many other paintings I loved in that area as well.  So many artists I remembered from my Art History classes.  It was amazing.  And that was just one area of the museum. 

I walked on to see more paintings, by Picasso (another favorite of mine), Degas, Gauguin, Monet, Manet, Delacroix, Hopper, Van Gogh and so many more.  I was disappointed however, that I was not able to see "American Windows" by Chagall.  If you are not familiar with that piece, it is the stained glass artwork that is in Ferris Bueller's Day Off that silhouettes Simone and Ferris while they are kissing.  I really wanted to see that one up close.  It was closed off to the public until the day I had to be back at work.  Open to members the Friday I was there, but I could not really afford a membership to a museum that I will never get to visit regularly.  Bummer.

After the museum, I had to find this place that a friend (native to Chicago) told me about.  I also saw the restaurant on Food Network's "Bobby Flay's Throwdown," which the restaurant won against Bobby.  The place is called Lou Malnati's .  There are a few in Chicago, we went to the one on State Street.  We braved terrible gusts of winds just to get there, my dad wanted to give up at one point, but then someone overheard where we were trying to go, and kindly told us it was the next street over.  It was worth it, because it was the best pizza I ever tasted!  So good!  Flaky, buttery crust, tons of cheese, chunky tomato sauce and sausage (usually I am not crazy about sausage, but this pizza was different), all cooked in a deep dish pan.    It has to be eaten with a knife and a fork.  I am never going like regular pizza as much again!  There was another group of people that came in after us, who had came in just because of Bobby Flay's show as well.  They were going to try another restaurant later that was on the Food Network later on, but we did not get the name.  The wind died down some before we walked back to the hotel.  The city lights were pretty on the walk back.

The fourth day, Thursday:  The trip hit us hard by now.  We got a late start.  Tired from walking, maybe tired from all the excitement, just plain tired.  We decided to head out to The Navy Pier, which was close by.  I understood from my research, that the Pier was nothing special, so I did not expect a lot.  We mainly went there to get a taste of a real Chicago Dog.  We stopped at America's Dog to try it.  It was very good.  It had mustard, onions, relish, sports peppers (which are spicy), two wedges of tomato, a quarter of a large dill pickle, and  celery salt all on a poppy-seed bun.  Delicious!  My dad thought it had too many ingredients on it, but I like my hot dogs that way.

While at the Navy Pier we rode the tall ferris wheel, found a cool little greenhouse area with palm trees!, and strolled through the museum of stained glass.  Not quite Chagall, but oh well.

We continued our journey back to The Loop, where we looked at the Picasso Sculpture (which was a gift from Picasso to the city of Chicago), and the Flamingo Sculpture, by Alexander Calder, that is further down that same road.

The fifth day, Friday:  We took a rather long walk down to Buckingham Fountain.  On the way, we took some more photos of Millennium Park, the outside of The Art Institute of Chicago, and whatever else we found that was neat along the way.  The fountain is very large.  Unfortunately, because I guess the weather is getting colder, it was not running, but it is still a nice looking fountain.  My dad and I started taking pictures, and as I wandered farther away from him, this guy came up and said, "Madam?"  I was a little startled because I was not very close to where my dad was and there were not many people around.  Then he told me he was "not going to mug me," which made me a little more nervous because why would you even say that?  I was thinking, "Oh my gosh!  Is he going to mug me?"  My dad was there shortly after that.  I had not said a word to the man.  He took off his cap and said, "I may be an ugly man," (I did not think that, I just sensed that I should not trust him after the "not going to mug you" comment), "but we are just trying to make a living out here."  He then tried to sell my dad a paper which he may have pulled out of a trash can.  He wanted $5 for it.  My dad said, "Well, I do not need the paper, but I can give you a couple of dollars."  I watched the guy as he looked in my dad's wallet while he was fishing out the money.  The man then left, saying he meant no harm in causing any stress.  Still feeling much stunned and a little awkward, I was relieved he was gone.  I also thought my dad handled the situation very well, and was very calm.  I was really glad I had invited him with me on my trip.

We went out for dinner that night and another guy was "not going to pickpocket" my dad or anything.  He then shined his shoes, after which my dad gave that guy some money too.  There are actually quite a few homeless people in Chicago.  They mostly just ask if you can spare them some change in the downtown area.  Sadly, I even saw one person sleeping on a box in a somewhat secluded area of the park.  I felt bad, because I know it can get pretty cold in Chicago.  Overall, we felt pretty safe walking through Chicago.  There are tons of people walking around at all times of the day, and at least in the early evening as well.  Even the more aggressive homeless people I guess seemed polite...

The sixth day, Saturday:  The first day we took public transportation.  There are many choices of transportation in Chicago, there is the El (elevated train), the subway, taxis, water taxis, and the bus.  To go to the Lincoln Park Zoo, we took the bus.  The zoo is about twice as far away as the rest of the places we had walked from, and we really needed a break.  Lincoln Park Zoo is free to the public every single day of the year.  There are a variety of animals there, big cats, flamingos, a polar bear, giraffes,  among a variety of other things.  Most of the big cats were sleeping.  Some animals came out for a little while, then hid again.  The polar bear stood on his hind legs!  I did not get a picture of that, but we all oohed and awed when he did that!  It was so amazing how tall he was!  Many of us wished he would dive into the water, but he was not in the mood that day.  Did you know that a polar bear's skin under his white fur is black?  I guess it absorbs the heat to keep them warm.  I found that interesting.  The zoo was a nice way to end the trip.  I had planned to go out to Wrigley Field sometime during the trip, but it was closed at the end of October, and there were no games being played out there, so we decided to skip it.

I started to pack my bags that night.  We had an early flight and had to be to O'Hare by 6 AM the next morning.  My dad said he liked Chicago.  He even told friends and family how impressed he was by it.  I was really happy we came to visit as well.  I knew I was going to miss it.

The seventh day, Sunday:  I woke up at 3ish AM.  Got ready for the shuttle that was supposed to arrive at 4:45.  It did not come.  It did not come by 5:25 either.  We were starting to get nervous.  Finally our shuttle came and we made it to the airport in plenty of time.  I was happy because I was actually able to sleep a little on the flight on the way home.  The cough is still with me, but I feel like I am almost over it (I hope).

Some things we noticed about Chicago is that everyone drives REALLY fast.  People cross the street before the signal.  There is much honking of car horns.  Most people are friendly and helpful, they kindly give you directions without even having to ask.  The skyscrapers are VERY tall (not a surprise really for me, more for my dad).  Most things are within walking distance if you chose the right spot.  Many people wear suits, or are nicely dressed.  There always seems to be a ton a people walking around in the Loop area during the day.  Most of them are friendly.  Well, except for that one lady who muttered disgustingly under her breath as I was taking photos at the museum... "Tourists!" 

Chicago was fun.

Here Kitty Kitty!

One of my coworkers took a cool photo of a bobcat that was wandering outside our workplace.  Kind of a neat thing to see, but a little scary at the same time.

A Small Update

Snap Dragon '09 RIP

My poor snap dragon (and surrounding arrangement) died awhile ago.  My basil, too, is about to die due to one day of missed watering, which happened to be a scorcher of a day.  The other small plant is still alive though.

I ate my strawberries before I could make freezer jam with them, but I still plan on trying it sometime.

After much research, I decided the Kindle e-reader was for me, and I love it.  I still love books too, and still think there is room for both e-readers and books in people's lives.  I love artwork on book covers and children's books too much to think differently. 

Besides, if you lose a book, that is one book.  If you lose an e-reader, you lose an expensive device, that you would have to replace to get your collection of books back.

The Bite of Seattle 2010, One of the Best Bites Yet!

Everything on this plate was absolutely fantastic!

I have gone to "The Bite of Seattle" for years now, mainly for one reason.  That reason is the little gourmet food section called "The Alley."  Sure, there are other vendors all around with great smelling foods, but "The Alley" gives you the best for your money.  Even if the food is not to your liking, at least it goes to a good cause, of feeding the homeless in Seattle.

I really feel it was smart of "The Alley" this year to change their menu around significantly each day.  Usually they change only one menu item of about 7 to 8 items and the rest are all the same.  This year, all but one item was different!  Every day had the beat soup.

One small complaint I have is that the menu online and in the fliers were not accurate.  So on some items, I am not really certain what I ate or from where.  I guess I should have paid attention more to the people at the booths, but I figured since I had a paper insert and the menu online, I could figure it out.  I have read other people's blogs to find out as well, but obviously some of them were not paying attention to what they were eating.  There was no chili served on the 3rd day of the bite.   A salad was substituted instead.  I am not even sure if it was from the same restaurant or not.

I would have to say that the Pastrami sandwich from Roxy's was the stand-out item on the first day.  Absolutely excellent.

The second day, the pork sausage stuffed with crab on a side of corn with mint  from Palace Kitchen stood out, as well as the lemon and sugar crepes from Anita's.  I was not crazy about the seafood mix from Salty's.  However, they have presented crab cakes at a previous Bite, and they were good, so it is not Salty's that I don't like, it was the entree.  My dad enjoyed it though.  Both my aunt and I gave him ours.

The third day, everything on the plate was absolutely excellent!  Sure it was the third time I had the soup, but it held it's own with the other flavors.  I really liked how everything tasted different from each other on the third day of "The Alley."  The Chocolate Mini Tower might have stood out a little more than the rest, but not by much.  It was absolutely delicious, and was presented in a very pretty way.

If gourmet is not your thing, there are a variety of other foods to choose from at other booths.  I saw booths that served prime rib, hamburgers, ice cream, various ethnic cuisines, and fried macaroni and cheese.  Tempting to try, but no, I did not.

The Foster Farms chickens were there as well!  Flying high were a couple of feathery balloons of the chickens, while on the ground there were some that you could have your photo taken with.  They were there to promote "Say No to Plumping!"

A feathery Foster Farm Chicken flying high by the Space Needle

If food isn't your thing, (but why wouldn't it be?) they have other activities as well.  Like an area set up to see how far dogs could jump into a pool of water.  It was more entertaining than I even expected.  While some dogs jumped right into the water, there were several that absolutely refused to get wet!  It was funny to read their body language as their trainers tried there hardest to get them to go in.

There was also some great entertainment at The Bite this year.  I really liked the Seattle group called "Magnolia Road."  They did several covers of dance rock music of the past as well as today's music.  My dad liked "Rat City Brass," who does Herb Albert type music...  I said "who?"  They were pretty good.

Overall, I think it was the most fun I have had at the Bite, as well as the most time spent out there.  Next year, I will probably go back down to just one day to go.  It was a fun time though!

The Bite of Seattle 2010

This is what you missed at The Bite of Seattle on Friday.  More details to follow.

Bob and Tom - Yeah Toast!!! (and lyrics)

This was too funny, I had to share.  It was saved as a favorite on my sister's site.

The video was funny.  Too bad it is now unavailable.

Cultivating New-ish Hobbies

I decided to drag out my bread maker, after a good couple of years of not using it at all. I just got rid of an additional one that never worked (the heating element was broken from the beginning), and thought, "Why am I not using this other one?" So I decided to make French Bread.

Since it had been so long since I used the machine, I accidentally used a recipe that was meant for the the one I had thrown out! It cooked okay I guess, but came out in a weird shape, and the crust was a little tough. The next loaf turned out great! It was so exciting to be able to eat hot, fresh bread that I made myself! I wondered why I had not been making bread more.

I also had not played my Guitar Hero for a long time. So lately I have been trying to level up on some of the songs. It is fun, but that last song "Satch Boogie" by Joe Satriani is so hard for me!

Aside from those things, I am trying to grow fresh basil and snap dragons. I have never been good at the green thumb thing, but I am giving it another try. I already made the tips of the poor little leaves on the basil turn brown, but my boss told me it was because I was over watering. So now I have cut back on it. Funny... I once killed a whole thing of cactus's once due to under watering, so over watering is actually progress! Ha ha.

I am about finished with the Manga series I have been reading called "Fruits Basket" by Natsuki Takaya which has taken some time (23 volumes is quite a few!), but a great series. I read many of them out of order, so some of the parts did not make sense until later. I decided to pick up another book called, "Japanese In Mangaland" by Marc Bernabe, thinking it may be easier to learn Japanese that way. I was able to write a few Kanji out, which was fun, but Japanese is a hard language to learn!

I think my next project is possibly learning how to make freezer jam. I have a recipe, and it looks relatively easy. Wish me luck!

Book Club Books and My Thoughts

So... it looks like I must be coming up a over year on the book club I go to, because my "books that I have read" collection is a little past 12. We also skipped some months due to other's travel plans.

I really like the book club I am in. We all contribute and bring food for a nice lunch, people can bring their kids if they want, and they go off and play. I really enjoy hearing others people's thoughts on the books as well as expressing my own. It is a good activity for me.

The first book club I went to, I just went to listen, since it was too late to read the book. They discussed "Little Women." I watched the movie ages ago, but did not remember enough of it to contribute to the conversation. I do want to eventually read this book when I get the chance.

The first book I read for book club was "Plain and Simple" by Sue Bender. It was a short book. It is about a woman who went to visit the Amish. I found it interesting to read about how Amish live. I thought the author was a little strange, though.

The second book chosen was a favorite of mine, "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee. It is a book about prejudice, and how it was viewed through a child's eyes. The movie is really good too, but I suggest you read the book first.

The third book that was chosen was "The Goose Girl" by Shannon Hale. I had never heard of it before, but I am glad it was chosen, because it became a favorite of mine. A unique fairytale, with twists and turns, and a little humor and violence as well. A good summer read.

The next book was "The Count of Monte Cristo" by Alexandre, d. Ält. Dumas. I felt a lot of pressure to get this one read in only a month. It is about a man who is unjustly arrested and escapes from prison, wanting to get revenge on all who had done him wrong. At times it felt like the plot was long and drawn out. I think I would I would have liked it better, had I had a little more time to enjoy it. Most people I know really love this book. I thought it was okay.

After reading "The Count of Monte Cristo," I was nervous to read "The Scarlet Pimpernel" by Emmuska Orczy, I had read it once before, right after seeing the movie (which I loved), and I was VERY disappointed in it the first time. It was so different from the movie I had seen, I decided it was the worst book I ever read. I now really like the book, now that I have given it a second chance.

"The Witch of Blackbird Pond" by Elizabeth George Speare turned out to be another favorite of mine after reading it for book club. I once described it as "To Kill a Mockingbird Meets Anne of Green Gables." It is another book about prejudice. It is set in the time when there were witch trials. It has some romance, and an orange cat (I love orange cats).

"The Picture of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde is a tragic tale of the changing of one man's soul. It was great discussion book, and my book club had mixed reviews on it. I never decided whether I liked the book or not, but I thought it had a good concept.

Around the month of December we read "The Christmas Box," by Richard Paul Evans. It was a short, easy read. For most of us, it was just okay. A young couple and their small child go to live to care for a rich elderly woman in her home, to learn the first gift of Christmas.

I know many of my friends really enjoy this book and read it to their kids once a year. Some of the members of my book club were disappointed when they found out that the book was fiction. It had a disclaimer right in front that said it was not a true story, but I guess they missed that part. I enjoyed the first part of the book, but it was very predictable and it a seemed little lacking in something in the end, I am not sure why. I briefly caught some of the movie later on T.V. and thought it was funny, because I felt the demeanor of the characters were totally changed. In the book the characters seem calm, in the movie they all seem angry.

"The Screwtape Letters" by C.S. Lewis was certainly different. C.S. is a favorite author of mine, but I would not say this is one of my favorite works of his. However, the way this is written in comparison to his other works, just proves how talented he truly is. It is a series of letters written by a devil to his devil apprentice. It is all very one-sided and selfish, and C.S. Lewis does a great job of making you loathe the main (and really the only) main character.

"The Princess Bride: S Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure" by William Goldman. It expands on what the movie already shows you. One person in my book club did not like it just because it was too much like the movie, but I like it because of that, as well as giving more depth to the characters. Some funny questions brought up in book club were, "Did Morgenstern (who supposedly was the original author) exist?" (I think not), and "How does 'The Princess Bride' compare to 'The Lord of the Rings?'"

"The Horse Boy: A Father's Quest to Heal His Son" was a very interesting book. I was not expecting to like it at all. It is a true story about a boy with autism, and how he relates to animals, mainly horses to connect with the human world. His father then takes him to Mongolia where a long adventure begins. I am really glad I read this book. I don't think I would be able to endure some of the things this family went through, but it was interesting nonetheless.

The book we are reading now is called "The Seven Miracles That Saved America, Why They Matter and Why We Should Have Hope," by Chris Stewart and Ted Stewart. It took forever to get it from the library, due to so many holds. So far, it is pretty interesting. I guess I will write my review of it later.

After that book is finished, we will read "Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder," by Joanne Fluke. This is the first book I have been able to pick out for book club. I really debated on what I should choose, and I definitely had some others in mind, but I decided to go with something a little more light, and fun. It is about a cookie maker who gets involved in solving a murder mystery in a small town. It has a little suspense, a little romance, and an orange cat, which I love.

Random Find

I started reading a Japanese Manga series lately. In one of the books I picked up from the library, there was a fortune (from a Chinese fortune cookie) stuck in between the pages! It read: "Someone is speaking highly of you." I am sure someone probably just left it there by accident as a bookmark, but it made me smile.

Sketching Tigers

Last Saturday, it was warm and sunny (unusual for weather in the middle of February), so I got up and decided I wanted to go sketch the newest tigers at The Cougar Mountain Zoo. Both of them are brothers, nine months old, and while I was there, they were really active and fun. The one named Bagheera, is a total ham. He seemed to be showing off, rolling around so his tummy was exposed, among other things. Bagheera then laid down, posed, and let me sketch him for awhile. After awhile, he decided to take off and do something else.

The other tiger, named Vitez, played with a tire swing. That was really cute. I thought I was getting some video footage of the tiger, while some little kids were making some funny observations. Then I realized that I did not press start on my camera! I did get a little bit of footage of the tiger and the tire swing later, but the talk was not quite as entertaining. Perhaps, I will be able to post some footage later, if I ever get my computer back to running again. We shall see.

After hearing a lecture on the newest of tigers, I went to the new habitat of the two older tigers, Taj and Almos. Both were taking big-kitty naps, so it was a little easier to sketch them. It has been awhile since I have done any live sketching, so I did find it a bit challenging. I took a few minutes to look at the rest of the wildlife at the zoo, all which were pretty lively. It was a good day.