More basement

Sorry, I know some of you could care less about our basement.  But the other half of you seem really excited to see the pictures. So I'm going to go for it, and feel free to skip this one. :)

Bedroom

(its got a heater, and framed for a small window on the side

Bedroom

(closet framed in behind the saw, awesome framing around the heat duct)

Stairs framed in on both sides-closet coming!

storage-room-to-be

bathrooms' got lights and insulation now

Shower + heater

The deep, dark dungeon (aka, our basement)

Our lovely unfinished basement has been awaiting finishing in various stages since...well probably since the house was built. Someone in the 70s thought it would be a good idea to put in a bedroom with bright orange wood paneling. Someone else thought it would be a good idea to put in a golden throne toilet. Someone else thought they knew how to do wiring and put in some sweet can lights. Mostly we thought it would be a good idea to take that all out and do something right. Our upstairs is a comfortable, if not extremely spacious, 810sq ft and this would give us another 810sq ft of daylight basement, effectively doubling the size of our house.

The orange bedroom. Before we even bought the house.

(aka, that is not my bedspread)

We started with replacing some ductwork. Matt took it apart, and then realized Home Depot didn't have the stuff we needed to put it back together. Then he left for Arizona for two weeks while I contracted hypothermia. Actually it was September, and I was only kinda chilly. But I found the stuff at McClendon’s while he was gone. I love McClendons.

Then we punched a hole in the chimney to move some more ducts around. It was New Years day and we had to leave the heat off for 24 hours while the cement dried. That one actually was cold. Quite cold. Thanks Mom and Dad for the heated blanket.

New Years Day punching a hole in the chimney

Then Matt did some framing. Then he had to re-do some of it. Then he had to re-do more of it. Mostly its gone now, but that was good practice, right honey?

Then we invited some tough manly men over to help us tear out the infamous throne, jackhammer a large hole into our foundation, and jackhammer up a portion of our patio.

The original Golden Throne

Almost gone

Tough manly men

I played the part of the good wife by making 5 trips to Home Depot that day and  going to the store to buy these men some pizza and beer.

Then Matt and I dug a 6.5 ft deep hole on the side of our house so the plumber could replace the water main. Good thing I can curl up in little balls and fit in tight spaces to scrape out dirt. (This is about the only thing in the whole remodel that I have been good for).

And then along came an angel from heaven. By the name of Ron, who is our contractor who likes to argue with us, who we love. He has completely gutted and remodeled two of my parents houses over the years and done a fantastic job at a fantastic price. While Matt and I wanted to do most of the basement ourselves (read: didn't want to spend $$) putting in a bathroom was not something that was ever going to make it onto our heretofore non-existent list of expertise. Ron to the rescue.

New bathroom!

He did all the hard stuff for the bathroom like move the laundry and hot water heater, change the plumbing for most of the house, pour cement, and install the shower. Then he decided that before he could do the sheetrock he needed to wire the rest of the basement correctly because it would be hard to do after the sheetrock was in the bathroom. And you have to have framing to do wiring.

New bedroom

So he framed. And he wired. And he's gonna finish the bathroom. All for one fantastic price. Which is why we love him even though he doesn't always like our harebrained ideas about the way we want things. So here's a little photo tour of how it’s coming. Doesn't it actually look like something is happening?! Finally?!

...aaannd I just found this picture on his website. This is Ron.

Holidays - Olalla, WA

We have had a very nice, low-key last couple weeks spending lots of time with family, friends, and eachother. Since we were down in Medford last Christmas with Matts family we were with my family this year in Gig Harbor. It was great to spend some quality time with my sister, parents, and grandparents.

Christmas dinner

We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas day down in Gig Harbor with the fam. Got to see my Aunt Lynn and Uncle David, cousin Leslie and her cutest-kids-in-the-whole-wide-world Sophie and Harrison. Delicious eggnog french toast made by my papa. Fun presents. Yummy Christmas dinner. The works.

Adrienne + Sophie

Leslie and her boy Harrison

The next day was my birthday.  I'm a whole year older. Yipee-do-dah. Matt and I slept in until an unheard of 9:30 and then spent a relaxing day around the house. It was beautiful blue sky and sunny so we got ourselves some Ladro and took a walk down at the beuatiful Lincoln Park. Ashley + Steven came over and we had a delicious dinner at a new restaurant called Sip. Its downtown, and I would highly recommend it. Stopped at the store for some drinks and pizuki making supplies, and then back to our house. We  hunkered down for a little Peru planning since this was then only time the four of us would be together, and then headed outside for a bonfire with our drinks and desserts. Day-after-Christmas birthdays are sad because everyone is always out of town with their family but it was a really special day to hang out with Matt, see my out of town friends Ashley and Steven, hear from some family and friends, and get a rockin awesome tribute from my friend Val here.

Ladro at the beach. Perfection.

Matts drinking the sun!

Grandmamas famous peanut butter pie-cake

Its my birthday!

We went snowboarding the next day which was pretty fun even though there was hardly any snow. boooooo

This week we have just been enjoying a light work load, spending some time with friends and getting ready for an awesome New Years Eve tonight!

Sautéed Chicken Breasts with Latin Citrus Sauce

Yum Yum Yum. This is what we made for dinner Thursday. We do a lot of chicken and I feel like sometimes it can all start running together and tasting kind of the same no matter how good it is. This was an awesome way to get away from the norm. The sweet/tangy rub and sauce was delicious and totally out of the ordinary.


I was lazy/busy and didn't end up making a side dish to go with it but I think a fresh salad would have been really good with the lemon/lime juice freshness of the chicken. Maybe avacados on the salad to go with the 'latin' theme? Or even asparagus with lemon juice on it.


I hate recipes that call themselves 'one pan' recipes and tell you to cook the meat and then take it out and cook the sauce. The sauce always takes way longer to reduce down to something slightly thick than the recipe says and by that point the chicken would be stone cold. So suck it up and use two pans. Start the sauce and the chicken at the same time. I got distracted looking at UW project management programs while I was making the sauce and when I ran back into the kitchen the sauce was totally bubbling up and I thought I had burned it but...it turned out to be deliciously thick and good. I hate runny sauces. Maybe its because I have a problem with things on my plate mixing, and runny sauces mean it get all over everything. But aside from that I feel like you never actually get enough on the meat when its runny because its going everywhere. So cook it 'til it gets thick! It will!


Ok. Here's the recipe (from myrecipes.com)!


The sauce, also known as mojo criollo, requires very little chopping and provides a tangy counterpart to the cumin-rubbed chicken. Serve over white rice.

Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 1 chicken breast half and about 1 tablespoon sauce)

Ingredients
Chicken:
2 teaspoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper
4 (6-ounce) skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
1 teaspoon vegetable oil

Sauce:



1 1/2 teaspoons bottled minced garlic
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
1/4 cup orange juice
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint



Preparation



To prepare chicken, combine brown sugar, cumin, salt, garlic powder, and red pepper; rub over chicken. Heat vegetable oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken, and cook for 5 minutes on each side or until done. Remove from pan; keep warm.

To prepare sauce, add garlic to pan; sauté 30 seconds. Add juices and honey; cook 3 minutes or until slightly thickened. Remove from heat; stir in cilantro and mint. Serve with chicken.




And on a completely unrelated side note.

This is me, Matt, Ashley, my sis Adrienne, and Steven. They live in Colorado and we visited them in Breckenridge earlier this year. Ashley is coming home today, and Adrienne is coming home tomorrow, and Steven on Wednesday and I am SO excited to see all these people I love who live so far from me. yayyyy

The Next Big Journey: Peru

Our next out-of-country travel plans involve a trip to Peru with our amazing friends Ashley + Steven. It's been in the works (as in, being talked about) for a few months now, but everyones airline miles are almost ready, and Ashley + Steven who live in Colorado are going to be here over Christmas, so we are planning on booking our flights then. On the list of things-we-want-to-do there are: hike the Inca Trail, Machu Picchu, and Lake Titicaca, among other things. We're planning the trip for late May. If you have any Peru wisdom, send it our way!!

Thanksgiving, rounds 2 and 3 - Olalla, WA & Portland, OR

After a practice round with our friends a few weeks ago we set out Wednesday for rounds 2, 2.5, and 3 of Thanksgiving: Rice/White, Sullivan, and Nimrod style.

We peaced out of work early on Wednesday and headed for Gig Harbor, WA where my parents house is. They just got back from Mexico (check out their sweet blog here) so we spent the evening relaxing and catching up with them (briefly banishing Matt to the bedroom for studying). Thursday was a whirlwind of food and cooking. While the men went of to the gym for their morning workout my mom and I started slaving away in the kitchen at 8am. Nah, we had a lovely time. My mum let me take over menu-planning this year, which I enjoyed immensely so I had picked out some fun dishes for the day, plus a few things I was bringing the next day to my 'other' Thanksgivings.

Matt was once again making the turkey (deep-fried of course!) and this time decided to use a homemade injectable marinade, which turned out to be delicious. The weather cooperated and he didn't get too wet standing watch over the turkey.

Dad & Matt, getting ready to drop it

The happy turkey fryer

Grandmama can't believe whats happening :)

My brother Ryan, Aunt Lynn and Uncle David, Grandmama & Grandaddy were there and some lovely unexpected guests Jim + Phebe!  My amazing sis Adrienne was sadly missing. We will drag her back next year! Matt's turkey was a roaring success, deemed 'the best turkey I've ever eaten' by at least a majority of the guests, so he has sealed his fate. He will forever spend Thanksgiving Day outside with the deep-fryer. Luckily, I convinced my mother that my dear husband might enjoy his task more were he to have some company (everyone else was frantically running around the kitchen this year) so it has been decided that next year they will bring out the propane heater, a keg (or at the least, a case of beer), and send all the gentlemen outside to supervise the turkey roasting.

The finished product

Mom's yummy salad

We had a lovely time seeing everyone on Thursday and enjoying good food. Friday morning we were up bright and early, and on the road heading for Portland, OR where all of Matt's family congregates for the festivities. First stop was Aunt Sal & Uncle Dave's house for brunch. The Sullivan family is huge (Matts dad has 7 brothers and sisters), fun, rambunctious, loving, and out-of-control. We had a delicious meal (after the French toast/crab incident), some wild foosball, and some serious pinballing. And some great catching up with the fam...there are so many of them that we rarely all get together.

Friday evening was spent with Matt's moms side of the family, as they always do their Thanksgiving dinner on Friday. Everyone was in attendance at Aunt Diane + Uncle Barry's house and we had yet another delicious feast. Yum yum yum. More great food, conversation, and catching up.

Saturday much of the family headed home, and the rest of us spread out for various activities in the Portland area. We all took a nice walk together at Tryon Creek Park, which is a huge wooded area. (Well, Matt and Andy took a run, but they are crazies.) :)  Then Diane and Barry took Matt and I down to the Willamette Valley wine country which is amazingly only about 35 minutes from their southern Portland home. First, we went to Freja Cellars which is a small operation run by a friend of Diane & Barrys, Willy Gianapulos. We had the amazing opportunity to have him give the four of us a tour of his facilities and do our very first barrel tasting! Good wine! Then we hit Baren, and Ponzi. Ponzi was delicious, though a bit too expensive for us. Thanks Diane & Barry!  Then some more food (T-day leftovers, of course), hang out time, and a quick drive back up to Seattle on Sunday morning.

There was tons of good food this weekend, but I'll share just one recipe with you. This is from my fellow BofA co-worker Maureen, and was a HUGE hit (as in, gone within 5 minutes) at the Sullivan brunch. Works as breakfast, app, dessert. Eat up!

**I'm not a big baker (more cooking) so this recipe was a little intimidating. It didn't turn out looking quite as pretty as I wanted, but it tasted wonderful, so maybe next time I can work on the aesthetics. My mom didn't have a jelly roll pan, but she is great at improvising so we took some aluminum foil and made our own jelly roll pan. It worked perfectly! I got powdered sugar all over her kitchen, but she was nice about that too.

PUMPKIN ROLL CAKE


CAKE:
¾ Cup All Purpose Flour
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp salt
½ tsp ground cloves
3 large eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup 100% pumpkin
1 Cup chopped walnuts (optional)


FILLING:
1 pkg (8oz) cream cheese softened
1 cup sifted powdered sugar
6 tbsp butter or margarine, softened
1 tsp vanilla extract


PREHEAT oven to 375 degrees. Grease 15 x 10 inch jelly-roll pan, and line it with wax paper. Grease and flour the wax paper. Sprinkle a kitchen towel (large enough to put the 15x10 cake on) with powdered sugar to prevent sticking later. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves and salt in small bowl. Beat eggs and sugar in large mixing bowl until thick. Beat in pumpkin. Stir in flour mixture and spread batter evenly into prepared pan. Sprinkle with nuts, if desired.

BAKE for 13 to 15 minutes or until top of cake springs back when touched. Immediately loosen and turn cake onto prepared towel. Carefully peel off wax paper. Roll up cake and towel together, starting with narrow end…like a jelly-roll. Cool completely on wire rack.


BEAT cream cheese, powdered sugar, butter and vanilla extract in small mixing bowl until smooth. Carefully unroll cake, remove towel. Spread cream cheese mixture over cake. Reroll cake. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least one hour. Sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving, if desired.

Makes 10 servings
*Disclaimer: Consumption of this cake may lead to family members asking you to make it every year…prepare to be in it for the long haul!

Matt's First Post (Bend, OR)

Have you ever wanted to earn what you eat? Well, that’s precisely what I set out to do with my brothers Andy and Greg in Bend, OR. Andy and I left for Bend (where my brother Greg lives) the Friday prior to Thanksgiving to try our luck at duck hunting. We made it to Bend after about 8 hours of driving and the next morning headed out to a reservoir to the north of Smith Rock with Greg’s boat and his lab Tug.

First, before I continue, you must understand the background of our hunting trip. That being, I went duck hunting with my brothers a year ago in the Corvallis area and we left empty handed after two days of hunting. So this year we were quite determined to not have a repeat strike-out.

We had great weather the first day with sunny skies (albeit very cold) and Andy got a duck within the first hour. After a total of about 4 hours on the reservoir we decided to head back to Greg’s house to warm up.

The next day, we woke up to a light dusting of snow outside of Greg’s house and headed back to the lake where we had gone the previous day. This second morning the ducks were much more active and I ended up walking away with a duck, a drake widgeon. Of course Greg shot a total of 3 ducks being the expert hunter he is. We walked away happy that we had not been thwarted this year. However, it did manage to snow about 3 inches while we were on the boat the second day.

The trip to Bend was successful and perhaps it may become a new tradition in years ahead.