Veterans Days -- Adventuring with the Gals

For your listening pleasure (keep reading, I explain) 

On Veterans day me and some friends decided to do a little bit of Washington adventuring. We started the day with breakfast at the Maltby Cafe. Best breakfast in Washington and it's right down the street from me. Score! 

  It's nice to go out with gals that just want to try everything on the menu, so they were okay with order several plates and eating family style. 

 They are so lovely 

 Big Cinnamon Roll! Best shared with friends unless you want to be sick.  

We forgot to take a picture of the before, but I think it does the food more justice to show plates cleared. Everything was good but I have to say the winner for me was the Country Style Eggs Benedict.  Try it if you get the pleasure. 

Everyone was quiet for a the next half hour while we were all digesting. I was driving so in efforts to keep things lively I introduced the gals to my new favorite album. Yes, that would be the Rick Astley's "Whenever You Need Somebody" album that I scored at value village. It's a toe tapper and I can't listen to it without laughing out loud (and not the cop out "lol" people use to be polite in text messages). 

This dude is the package ladies. Here is a little list of why. 

1. Deep Voice
2. Gangling and Red-headed (both of which he works with the help of heavily padded blazers and mousse, respectfully) 
3. Swoon inducing dance moves
4. He's Gonna fix all my problems. This is more than just a feeling. I know he will because every song he sings, reassures this fact to me. 
5. If he's singing from the heart than he's the doormat that every girl has dreamed of 

This song is a favorite song of mine and became a kind of the anthem of our trip. I'm glad the other gals could dig it with me. They shared my love for the way he sings "Maybe" at min 0:19. It's absolutely jarring. The first time I heard it, I had this montage run in my head of being serenaded by Rick at point blank range, all the while trying to keep a flattered composure as my ear drums bust and my hair blows in bursts at every time he sings "Maybe" 

Next stop was Deception Pass on Whidbey Island. 

 I'd like to dedicate this photo to my sister and our really good friend. It reminded me of all our outings to Point Reyes which usually involved crawling on the beach for cool rocks.   

We found a little bitty tide pool. 

We continued to make our way down the Island stopping in Oak Harbor for some thrifting and hot chocolate. Between the sugar and driving I was a bit tired so at my request when we got to Fort Casey we took a little rest before exploring. 

This is a view from the fort over looking the sound toward Port Townsend. After we were done at the fort we stopped in Langley for some pizza and then rushed off to the ferry bound for home. It was a really stellar day. Good sites, Great weather (for this time of year) and Wonderful company. Thanks ladies!

Father's Day

I was house-sitting in a heavily wooded area on Father's day so I got up early to pick some Salmon Berries for my dad. He was nice and shared them with us at our Father's day Waffle dinner.

Fried French Toast

I came up with this recipe sometime during my second year of grad school and it became a part of my weekly Saturday morning ritual. The ritual involved me watching a movie while I sat on my bedroom floor eating my fried French toast, washing it down of course with a tall glass of cold raw milk. Then I would eventually face the inevitable and go back to campus and work in the lab.

The invention of Fried French Toast was initially triggered by my never ending quest for increasing functionality while fostering laziness without sacrificing yumminess. It’s a very fine line to walk, but one I find worth walking. One morning I had been using homemade bread to make French toast and it was taking forever to soak up the egg mixture. To remedy this, I ripped up the bread to increase the surface area, thus speeding the egg soaking phase. Since I use a cast iron pan, I needed to increasing the amount of oil in the pan to prevent sticking. The combination of increasing the surface area of the bread and adding more oil inadvertently satisfied my love for crispy fried food. One time I was feeling frisky so I added a ripe banana to the mixture before I fried up and I was not sorry.

Ingredients:

• Bread
• Eggs
• Milk or Cream
• Vanilla
• Spices: cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, ginger
• Pinch of sea salt
• Butter and/or Coconut oil
• Banana (optional)
• Roasted almonds or pecans (optional)

Beat eggs and add in milk, vanilla, spices and salt (just a quick reference I probably use about 1-2 tablespoons of milk for every egg and slice of bread). Tear up or slice bread into pieces then add them to the egg mixture and let it soak for about 2-5 minutes. Heat cast iron pan slowly to med-high. Coat the pan generously with coconut oil or butter to prevent sticking and to get everything nice and crispy. Then add the soaked bread mixture to the pan and start frying. I like to top with real maple syrup and some roasted almonds or pecans.