Thanksgiving pie, my peacock haircut, parks, and (of course) plants

I was thankful for some great company on thanksgiving and our host challenged somebody to make a pecan pie. Of course I was the one who decided to attempt it - armed with a new pie crust recipe. I had never made pecan pie before and didn't really remember what it tasted like since I don't order these kinds of desserts when we eat out. I had an image of it as being sickeningly sweet (a concern which others echoed), but I seemed to find a recipe that didn't require that oily corn syrup and didn't use too much sugar.

Before: fresh, unbaked, from-scratch pie crust and pecan filling

After: Beautifully roasted pecans and flaky crust. The pie was wonderfully nutty and not oily or super sweet (my recipe doesn't use corn syrup and I adjusted the sugar to way less)

Thanks to S. and C. for hosting a wonderful evening with lots of non-traditional culinary treats to try (especially delicious Polish bigos!)

As it's now getting pretty chilly and I wear my new microfleece hat around, my longer hair has been making my head itchy under the hat. Ian gave me a haircut, but left a tiny little bunch at the top at original length for fun. At first I wanted to immediately "fix" it, but I told myself why not leave it just for fun ... so, I present to you my little peacock haircut:

It was originally supposed to be just for Thanksgiving night for fun, but I think I'll keep it a little longer ... I feel like one of the Gambel's Quails (for my non-southwestern friends, see here) that I saw all the time growing up in the southwest deserts with their cute little headpieces :)

Saw in the forecast that today was to be sunny (compared to the snowy, cold last week or so) and without rain, so we planned on exploring Volunteer Park right here in Capitol Hill. But first, upon waking up this morning, I was greeted to a wonderful surprise ...

Just yesterday, the paperwhite bulb was still growing along and seemed not quite ready for its big debut, but ...

A burst of paperwhite flowers this morning! And of course I had to take in their sweet, delicate scent. This is why I bought these bulbs for indoor growth in the winter ... their little white flowers make you smile even when its grey, wet, and cold outside. I have four more bulbs, so I'll have a continuous supply of these delicate flowers growing all winter long.

The sage is also beginning to grow on the windowsill ... already starting to look fuzzy on the stem like they are when they're fully grown.

And so we walked up our street and made the trek to Volunteer Park ...

Outside of the Seattle Asian Art Museum right in front of the Volunteer Park reservoir. The sculpture is called "Black Sun" and was made by a Japanese artist. Space Needle (and all of downtown) in the background

My silly buddy :-p

The water tower in Volunteer Park ... climbed the stairs to the very top observation deck. It's the highest point here in Capitol Hill and we could see all of Seattle and Elliott Bay ... at the top of the tower, we were almost as high up from sea level as the Space Needle

Lots of squirrels digging through the leaves and saving up nuts for the winter!

But the main reason why I wanted to come to the park ...

http://www.seattleruntours.com/VolunteerParkConservatory.jpg

The flower conservatory, modeled after the Crystal Palace in London

I always love greenhouses (especially since they're cozy and warm), but in particular I came for the chrysanthemum exhibit - they were displaying some gorgeous chrysanthemums from Japan and China (the Japanese emperor's official insignia is a 16-petaled chrysanthemum - everybody else in the royal household is allowed to display a 14 petaled chrysanthemum)

These are the kind that I'm more familiar with since us Chinese like to drink chrysanthemum tea (in Cantonese: "guk fah"), but ....

These were the gorgeous, gigantic chrysanthemum displays on exhibit from Shanghai and Japan

Painstakingly and meticulously upright growth training done by the horticulturists (chrysanthemums don't naturally grow tall like that)

Love the color contrast on this one

Whimsical little chrysanthemums! Actually, these exhibition chrysanthemums aren't so "little" ... more like incredible 8-inch blooms

And of course many other flowers in the conservatory besides the exhibition display

Beautiful variety of bromeliad

Jade plant - this guy was grown from just a tiny little clipping in 1916 ... now, 94 years later, it's as tall as me!

And the best surprise of all which made my day ... I FOUND THE SPECIAL SECRET TOUCH SENSITIVE PLANT!!!

I saw a tiny sheet of paper describing this plant called a Mimosa Pudica or touch-me-not plant, shy plant, sensitive plant, etc. We were walking through the conservatory and I was determined to find this plant ... all I had to reference was the little picture of the leaves. I finally found it .. just a TINY little plant stuffed behind some other plants - totally unlabeled, unannounced. I called Ian over because I knew he would be excited about my treasure find, and told him to touch the leaves. Sorry for the video quality, my camera was full so we took this video on a cell phone:

The leaves fold inward when they're touched and open up again after about 15 minutes or so. Left alone, this plant actually opens and closes its leaves in a circadian rhythm of sorts, but touching it can induce this closure. I was so excited to find this little unlabeled plant amongst all of the other flashy, colorful plants in the conservatory ... I think the fact that it was tucked behind and in between other plants and not advertised made the find that much  more special.

Of course I couldn't keep the excitement to myself and I was determined to let others know about it, but I didn't want to let just any adult passerby in on the greatest little secret in the conservatory ... I wanted to let some little kids with big imaginations know. I wanted the youngins to be amazed by the beauty and variety of our natural world (a world that they'll hopefully help to improve in their own lives - maybe I'm being optimistic, but let me dream). Adult after adult passed us by and didn't even give a second glance to the tiny little plant with seemingly boring green pinnate leaves ... finally some kids came along. We let them in on the surprise and told them to rub the leaves - "it's a secret", I told them :-) None of the other adults visiting the conservatory would know about this awesome plant ... and even I only knew about it because I wanted to grow one before.

We had a cozy lunch at the Volunteer Park Cafe - a nice hot chicken pot pie, and an arugula pesto panini sandwich. Ian enjoyed the free watermelon gumballs :)

In other random news, I decided to return my Timbuk2 messenger bag to REI and get a backpack instead (REI's return policy = A++). Don't get me wrong, the Timbuk2 was very well designed, but after trying it out for a while (I bought it when I first visited Seattle last March while still living in Hawaii) I've decided that I want something that distributes weight more evenly across both shoulders. I found this great Osprey backpack with thin but ergonomic shoulder straps, complete with both waist and sternum buckles for a secure fit.

It's waterproof enough to cut through the northwest drizzle, and super comfortable. I liked how this bag was really skinny and long rather than square shaped ... it's a more secure fit without looking bulky. I added on a bright, flashing LED bike light for better visibility at night. People might laugh, but I've seen other pedestrians with these on their bags before, and considering the careless way people drive in their cars, more visibility might very well save my life, so I say blink away! And unlike the messenger bag I had before, this bag doubles as a technical pack for day hikes (hence all the straps and weight stabilizers) so I'll be taking this along on my hikes and adventures!

I've always wanted to grow moss after seeing my おじいちゃん (grandpa) delicately cultivating it on the ground and rocks of his tiny backyard garden in northern Japan. On the way home from the park, we plucked this little bunch from the side of a wall .... it's so pretty just on its own like that :-)

After a day full of plants and a leisurely stroll with Ian through our neighborhood, I'd easily call it a wonderful day :)

À bientôt !

Stuff in the kitchen, mom & dad's surprise visit, and my first experience of snow!

It's been a while since my last update, so I'll just let the pictures that I've been taking over the past week do all the talking

To start it off, remember my attempt to preserve shiso leaves by salting them and putting them in the glass jar? well ...

Before

After: the salt has drawn out a lot of the water from the leaves so they've wilted and turned dark. They don't look as pretty, but the taste should still be just fine

This is what the petals of tulips look like when the flowers begin to die and the petals begin to fall off ... noticed it a couple weeks ago and thought it looked really cool

Remember the paperwhite flower that I started indoors?

One week ago

Today, the bulb's roots are almost at the bottom of the carafe, and the buds of flowers are beginning to appear at the top :) Can't wait for the burst of delicately scented flowers

As far as kitchen happenings go ...

Made some awesome fried rice in the wok! woo hoo

Pumpkin bread from a real pumpkin for Bryan 

So I have always been curious about the "spaghetti squash" I see at the markets. Since it's a winter squash and it was on sale recently, I decided to really see whether or not it lives up to its name. Apparently, after cooking spaghetti squash, the "meat" turns into spaghetti-like threads and you can substitute this for pasta.

Cut it open and scrape out the seeds just like you do with a pumpkin or butternut squash

After steaming for about 30 mins or so, the "spaghetti" threads appear ... how cool!

Just decided to serve it simply with some pasta sauce and a steamed yam - super nutritious and really tasty with some herbs

I had asked mom to send me my old tuxedo shirts, bow tie, and shoes for the upcoming Puget Sound Symphony Orchestra concert which we had last Saturday. On Friday afternoon, I received a call asking if I had received the package. Worried, I replied "no" and immediately asked if I should head out and buy those last pieces of attire that I needed here in town, to which mom replied "would you like a personal delivery?"

They had totally surprised me and flown into town to see my concert :-) Rather than hopping all over the city to sightsee, we simply took it easy and walked around

I finally had the chance to visit the famous "gum wall" at Pike's Place Market down in Post Alley ... a huge wall covered in everybody's well chewed gum ... yuck!

In post alley across from the gum wall

Since I didn't want to drag mom & dad around the entire city, I instead remembered something I've been wanting to try for some time now since I read it in the October issue of Seattle Magazine (which is all about the northwest coffee scene). I had always walked by Seattle Coffee Works, but never knew about their "slow bar" which encourages patrons to cozy up to a little bar and take the time to tinker with different brewing methods besides the grab-n-go espresso drinks so prevalent elsewhere in the city.

Our barista decided on brewing us some wonderful Ethiopian Sidamo coffee using a vacuum pot method. Dad was familiar with this method since it was how he brewed coffee growing up, but I had only seen videos of it. The benefit of this method? A clean, sediment free cup of coffee with all the good oils left (paper coffee filters absorb these oils). Everybody was smiling and we had a great time

Water is placed into the round bottom section and then heated. At the proper temperature, it actually gets forced up into the upper cylinder chamber where the coffee grinds are. After stirring and smelling, our barista removed the flame, and the hot empty bottom chamber creates a vacuum which sucks the coffee back down through the metal filter and into the lower chamber.

I had a lot of fun chatting with the barista, especially since the Ethiopian Sidamo coffee that she had chosen for us was so incredibly different from my image of "coffee" (I'm used to espresso drinks and dark roast vietnamese coffee). Ethiopian coffees (and other African coffees, for that matter) have a smaller bean and a much brighter, lighter flavor. This Sidamo coffee almost tasted like tea - I was amazed how different it was from any other coffee I've tasted. I've always thought "light" coffees would just create watery, disgusting cups of java, but my mind has been totally opened to a whole new world (literally) left to explore.

The climax of their visit, of course, was the Puget Sound Symphony Orchestra concert at Seattle Town Hall !

And now...........

Woke up this morning and SNOWWW!

Garden partially covered in the morning, but totally covered by now (evening)

Looking southward out of the bedroom window

More and more snow as the day/evening progressed

Looking at Broadway from the balcony

Ian and I went outside and made snowballs to throw at our bedroom window to look at later from the inside :-) My first time ever seeing a solid amount (reports are saying 6+ inches) of snow falling from the sky ... what a sight

Snow all over the region. Apparently tomorrow's high will be a new record of 30 degrees (usually this time it's around 38 degrees), and the low will be 16 degrees!

This video was taken from just up the street at 13th and John by the violin shop that I go to ... cars (and buses) sliding everywhere ... so scary :-/ 

Can't wait to go outside and play in it, laugh at all the drivers complaining about roads not being cleared, and see the streets lined with cars at a standstill. If this is November 22nd, I can't imagine how cold the rest of the winter will be :-) With my new thick mittens, microfleece hat with ear covers, scarves, and rain boots, I'm ready.

Better practice proper layering since Ian and I plan to be in Vancouver in January for fun .... soon-to-expire airline miles = free hotel room and my Amtrak credit card = free travel. Only paying $50 for a total of three days and two nights in the "glass city". Not a bad deal at all .... that is, if I can stand the cold!