Taylor Mountain: Holder Knob loop.
Sunday’s hike was filled with tromping around the switchbacks of Taylor Mountain to see a faint view of Mount Rainier still hiding behind clouds. The sun wasn’t hiding on mine and Garry’s first summit hike of 2012. It reached a scorching 70 degrees in the Issaquah highlands that made Garry and I dread the steep elevation gain as the sun beamed right on top of us. However, the random cool breeze that came around every so often made a nice break from the heat. With our motivation to be Iceland fit by late August, the elevation we gained yesterday was a good start. We reached the Knob with minimal complaining and only a few small stops to drink water or to take our hoodies off. Also, the minimal complaining was helped by a game we semi-invented called Scattergories: Hiking edition.
If you guys haven’t figured out yet, Taylor Mountain is known to be one of Ted Bundy’s famous dumping sites for his victims, and he also hiked on Taylor Mountain numerous times in the past. One victim was from my former college, The Evergreen State College. Another victim was abducted in Oregon. Another victim was a student from Central Washington University. Remains were found by hunters. And the last victim was from Burien. (www.wikipedia.com)
Last time Garry and I hiked Taylor Mountain, it was early 2010, and the beginning of our hiking lifestyle. We started at Holder Ridge and only made it to the picnic site from being exhausted by switchbacks and the snow falling down. Yesterday we started at the logging road, veered to the second logging road to the left at mile one, and continued until we saw another small trail leading to Holder Knob on the left. With open views of Tiger Mountain towards the top, we settled for a view of Mount Rainier where we didn’t see a single soul until we headed down. We ended up doing a loop and going down Holder Ridge instead of going back to the logging road which made it feel a lot longer because of the steep switch backs. On a bright sunny day, Taylor Mountain is the place to go.
Hiking details: 4 miles round trip with an elevation gain of 550 feet.
A Cooking Special: featuring Garry
I would like to put out that I am not the only one who cooks in this household (although I do cook 90% more). Every once in a while Garry will contribute the 10% with the few delicious things he likes to make. He’s a perfectionist, so when he does cook, it’s pretty good.
Homemade sweet and sour chicken
Ingredients:
1 pound boneless chicken breasts
tempura batter
oil
(for sweet and sour sauce):
1 cup vinegar
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon of paprila
2/3 cup water
1/3 cup cornstarch
heat oil in a pan on medium heat (make sure it’s all the way heated before cooking)
cut chicken into even chunks
rinse chicken and pat dry
make tempura batter as said on box (fyi: USE ICE COLD WATER)
dip chicken into heated oil until golden brown
For sauce:
Mix vinegar, sugar, and paprika in a medium pot
bring to boil-medium heat
mixed 2/3 cup water in measure cup with 1/3 cup cornstarch together
slowly mix with sauce to thicken (whisk the sauce for fluffy results!)
My boss’ wedding: Cupcake Edition
Here’s my first batch of aqua velvet cupcake with salted caramel filling, topped with vanilla butter frosting.
Holiday recap. Hello, 2012!
Hello blog readers! I’ve been missing in action, and I deeply apologize. Between last blog post and now, words cannot describe how much has been going on. So I’ll do what I do best, and tell you in short bullet points.
-I am officially hired for my first cupcake project. I am making and designing my boss’ wedding cupcakes. Her wedding is a circus theme. She wants an aqua blue velvet cupcake with butter cream frosting. The frosting is white with a red streak, and I will sprinkle the cupcakes with black and white pearls.
-I went on my first snowshoe hike. It didn’t exactly go as planned. Garry and I were on our way to the trail head for Gold Creek to Alaska Lake, but we were unprepared and didn’t have a snow permit. We ended up wanting to go to the Snow Lake trail, but saw that it was almost impossible to climb up a 7 feet wall of snow to the trail, so we ended up snow shoeing a steep Snoqualmie Mountain. It didn’t last very long.
-I took my sister, Reney, to our old college stomping grounds in Olympia to hike Rock Candy Mountain. We were on our way to the wrong summit. Thanks to my awesome map reading skills.
-I indulged in more coffee during the holidays than anticipated. But really, that’s not really new.
-A couple of weeks ago, Garry and I took a long drive to Shelton to hike a historical landmark, the Vance Creek Bridge that’s been abandoned. We were REALLY prepared for this. I looked up the trail head, which was unbelievably hard to find, and still was. We looked at google maps extremely carefully, found two possible trail head, and then we hit the road. Luckily, we found the trail head between two rivers. Unfortunately, we were completely winded after 1/2 a mile, and we saw a never ending steep hill that kept us from pushing forward. We went back to the car, and after much debating and me saying over and over again “that seriously looked like the picture of the trail-head I saw online,” we parked the car and found the second trail pleasant. However, we came to a dead end with scattered trees blocking the trail. We walked over the trees until it became so dense that we couldn’t walk over them anymore. We came home, found out that we were about 50 feet away from the bridge.
-I won a Pacific Crest trail California edition from Hiking With My Brother. It’s a big deal because I hardly win anything 
You are cordially invited to an Italian wedding
As the weather is at a steady 30-40 degrees, those cold weather soups hits the spot. Today’s lunch was homemade Italian Wedding soup. The first time I had this soup was at Barnes and Noble, and I fell in love with it ever since. I’m not a very big fan of soup from the grocery store. With my culinary adventuring, and wanting some delicious Italian Wedding, I decided to research. Alas, it’s simple, and less complicated than chicken noodle. I made enough batch to feed two guys, and myself. Extra meatballs were required.
Italian Wedding soup doesn’t date back to Italy when a couple marries, and the company feasts on Italian wedding soup. The reason it is called Italian Wedding is because the green veggies and the meat compliment each other to form a delicious wedding of flavors.
Ingredients for meatballs:
-1/4 pound of ground pork
-1/4 pound of ground beef
-1/3 cup of shredded parmesan cheese
-1/2 cup of panko bread crumbs
-2 tablespoons of parsley, finely chopped
-1 egg
-1 clove garlic, minced
Ingredients for soup:
-1/2 cup of acini de pepe pasta
-4 cups of chicken broth
-1 cup of cold water
-1/2 cup of frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed excess water off.
-salt and pepper to taste
-grated Parmesan cheese to garnish on top (optional)
Forming the meatballs:
Add all the ingredients together. Form meatballs 3/4 inch in diameter. Make as much as you want, and set aside.
Forming the wedding:
In a pot, add the chicken broth and water. Turn it up to medium heat, and wait until it boils.
Once it boils, add the meatballs one by one and turn the heat down to a simmer. Cook the meatballs for 10-15 minutes. Do not stir or whisk the meatballs during this time otherwise the meatballs will fall apart.
In a separate pot, boil the acini de pepe pasta in medium heat for 10 minutes.
After the meatballs have been cooked, add the acini de pepe pasta, spinach, and salt and pepper. Simmer for another two minutes.
Put into bowls, and add grated Parmesan cheese on top for something extra!
Buon Appetito!
Warm soup. The remedy for illness and cold mountaineers.
The plan was to go hiking, come home, rest, study, make food, eat and study, then study some more. However, after coming home from Twin Falls State Park, I was mildly exhausted and decided to take a 2 hour nap. Twin Falls is an easy hike, but I guess my body wasn’t adjusting properly to my poor eating habits the night before, thus made those inclines almost unbearable. Then the cold kept me in bed, and then decided to buy the last ingredients for chicken noodle soup pretty much at dinner time. So, I studied for about an hour before going to bed. Oops. Dinner was delicious though! I think I’ll baked some bagels, and stock up for the Winter.
Ingredients:
-4 cups of chicken broth
-2 cups of water
-1/2 medium onion, chopped
-2 medium carrots, chopped
-2 celery ribs, cut
-1 cup of egg noddles, broken into thirds
-chopped parsley, about 2 table spoons or more to your liking
-salt and pepper to taste
-uncooked chicken (I used 2 chicken thighs)
1. Put chicken broth and water into a pot and turn it on low heat.
2. After a few minutes, add chicken, carrots, celery, and onions and turn it to medium-high heat and bring it to a boil.
3. After 8-10 minutes, turn the stove back down to low heat, and skim the foam from the surface. Let the chicken simmer uncovered for about two hours when the chicken gets tender. (If the broth gets a little low, it’s okay to add about 1/2 after an hour or so)
4. Remove the chicken from the pot, set it aside, and let it cool. Let the chicken cool down, and add the noodles, and let it cook on medium heat for 10 minutes. During this time, cut the chicken into pieces.
5. After 10 minutes, add the chicken, salt and pepper and let it simmer for another 5 minutes.
Bon Appetit!
Tis the season for pumpkin pastries.
For Thanksgiving I made a plethora of cupcakes ranging from pumpkin spice to basic chocolate (all in vegan form). I’d have to say that vegan pumpkin cupcakes are my newest love. Although the cupcakes aren’t as moist as the ones from my vegan cupcake bible, they have a muffin consistency, which is still absolutely amazing after coating the top with vegan cream cheese frosting and lightly dusted with cinnamon. I urge you all to give this recipe a go: Courtesy of Diary Free Cooking on about.com. I am definitely making these for my holiday bake off at both of my jobs, plus family gatherings this holiday
