Indigo Kitchen and Ale House in Lynnwood

Indigo Kitchen and Ale House, recommended by friends, was the destination for our semi-annual breakfast/dinner get-together last Saturday evening.  We always mean to do this more often, but twice a year seems to be the norm for us.  NORM!

Yelp foodies mostly like this place and a look at their online menu left us with a dilemma about what to order.  It is varied and all looks yummy.

This is our review of the place, with photos.

Starters

 Calamari served w/ spicy ailioli

VERY spicy ailioli.  I couldn't eat the sauce. 

 The calimari was plenty spicy without it.

Indigo Steak Bites marinated in a spicy chipotle-soy sauce.

Very tender, very tasty.  We all liked it very much.

Gin martini for --pf

She said it was fabulous.  It was also $10.00.

Entrees

Lainie chose the Cobb Salad ~ quite tasty.

She said "It's a Cobb ~ they're pretty much the same everywhere."

--pf had the Fish Tacos, very delicious.

 Leslie chose the Buttermilk Fried Chicken, which she totally enjoyed.

Pe, surprisingly, had the Shrimp & Grits.  See that little white creamy corner?  That's grits.

It was go good it was hard to stop eating and she said that next time she wouldn't have the starters and would just concentrate on that fabulous dish.

 This is the Black and Blue Burger with sweet potato fries.

Leah and I both ordered it.  We like blue cheese.

I left off the pickle and the onion because it looked tall enough without them.

Cutting it in half was a must. 

I suspected it was over-cooked just by looking at it, and one bite confirmed.

The server, Stephanie, was kind enough to have it taken off my bill.

If I order a burger again, I'll ask for medium or medium rare.

I always like to order as the menu states the first time in any restaurant,

to give them a chance to do it their way.

Leah said I received most of the blue cheese on my burger ~ 

she had hardly any.  She didn't eat much of hers, either, but she liked the fries.

The sweet potato fries looked over cooked but were perfect!

Crispy on the outside, sweet and soft on the inside.  Yum.

Next time I'll ask for tartar sauce to go along.

The service is excellent, our server Stephanie was professional and accommodating. She brought lemon wedges twice, since we used them on our calamari and in our water.  It smells wonderful in that place and isn't too loud for conversations.  They have outside seating, which people took advantage of ~ it being a balmy 68-70 outside and some of us being intrepid Seattle-ites.  It needs to be slightly warmer for me, but they did crank up the outdoor heaters after awhile as dusk fell.

A good time was had by all and we decided to come at 5:pm next time and do the happy-hour menu in full.  Most of us arrived slightly before 6:00 and Stephanie encouraged us to order starters from the happy-hour menu before they cut us off.  A very welcoming atmosphere and good food.  We will be back.

A tale of wine and ivy (could be a good name for a Rowan knitting book)*

Ironstone Obsession Symphony

Quite a few years ago we were quite fond of this wine.  On a tip from the wine woman at Food Emporium in Lynnwood (closed now, sadly)  we took it to Thanksgiving dinner about 7 years ago .  We bought 2 or 3 bottles and it went fabulously with turkey dinner.  So well, in fact, that we went back for more the next day to drink with leftovers and then every time we happened to think about it we bought more.  The price fluctuated between $8 & $10, which is our bracket. 

What we try to do with wine is to buy it on sale, at least $5 off and less than $9/bottle.  Sometimes we find very good wine that way; some we find is mediocre.   Some is extremely overpriced at it's original price and not even worth it on sale.  C'est la vie.  La vie.

Back to my story, because there IS a story in here, somewhere.

Gradually, we began to realize that the Obsession was no longer easy to find, and this was probably 2 or 3 years ago.  After a few months of not seeing it anywhere, we had to face it: discontinued.  At least not available locally.  Sad.

Awkward (or non-existent) segue:

The ivy under the front porch and along the walkway was doing it's usual spring growth spurt.  Why do people plant this stuff?  Do they not realize that 20 years down the road it will be invading the siding of their homes and climbing 30' up the Douglas Firs?  What?  It's not rocket science. 

This photo was taken during the revamp of the yard, and
shows the ivy on the side-yard side of the drive.

 That side-yard is very cute now and it looks way better sans ivy.
Maybe we'll put rhubarb in the blank spot.

 This is the ivy under the front porch.

 This is an attempt to trim the ivy falling off the rockery.

Oh heck, let's just yank it!

And off the rockery, as well.

Big piles of ivy,

and Dave, dear Dave, hauling it away.

It looks better.

Ok, how does the wine come together with the ivy in this tale?   While he was pulling the ivy out, Dave found a bottle of it under the porch!  It must have rolled out of a grocery bag which must have been put down on the walkway for some reason.  That bottle might have been under the ivy for years, at least 2 years, most likely more.  It probably went through several harsh winters and one particularly hot summer.

We thought we'd try it.  Chilled, of course.  Worst case scenario: undrinkable vinegar.  Best case: a couple of glasses of our favorite wine, after a very long dry spell!

The label was the only thing ruined about this bottle of wine.
It was DE-licious!
We're on the quest for an interweb source.

*  (could be a good name for a Rowan knitting book)

Chickadees on the porch

Every spring the chickadees nest in a birdhouse on the front porch.  

They raise 2 or 3 clutches and then they're gone.

They scold us severely whenever we're on the porch,

but if we're still they will go about their parenting business.

 

 

 

Weekend in Redmond

The Friday Knitters spent the sunniest, hottest* weekend so far this year (May 4&5)

in a Pat Brunner class on Designing Knitwear to Fit Your Body (One Size Does Not Fit All.)

Lisa welcomed us to her Redmond home:

The view of the house and garage/shop/craft loft coming up from the pasture.

The Juliet balcony of the loft.

 

From the balcony overlooking the pasture.

 They have 16 chickens.

Two shy sheep,

and Wedding Cake,
a very friendly SallyBill** wether who loves cookies.

We spent quite a bit of time outside at the breaks and lunches.

Michale took advantage of Wedding Cakes' appetite 

for a close-up photo opportunity.

This is just a small part of the potluck as it was being set up ~ it was dee-licious!

 Trixie was riveted.

Henry was riveted.

Matilda: not just riveted.  She was fascinated by all the food.

Lisa has remodeled the upper floor of their garage 

for fiber related activities.

This is the classroom end,

and in this end there are 5 looms.

It was a wonderful weekend.  If we had to be inside for most of it, oh well! 
Spending time together, knitting and laughing: priceless.

*It was 87 on Sunday afternoon in Seattle.  It didn't get quite that hot in Redmond, maybe only 84.

**SallyBill: a flock of sheep from Island Fibers on Lopez, one of the San Juan Islands, started about 70 years ago by Sally Bill, blended to the originators' handspinning preferences.  Nobody knows quite what the mix is at this point, but the fleeces goes for about $16.00 a pound, unwashed, in a bag.  That must be a pretty good fleece.

The next camera

It's a Samsung Smart Camera WB 250F.  OMG I love this camera.  Look at what it can do, all by itself:

An original photo, on the auto setting;

nothing done to it except resizing,

(because resizing means faster uploading.)

The next photos are internal settings on the camera,

accessible via touching the view screen, yessssss!

Just choose special effect and snap your photo.

I am going to have so much fun with this camera!

I've had it for less than a week and already feel more comfortable with it than I did
with several of my former cameras, no matter how long I owned and used them.
This camera is very user friendly.  Experimenting with it will be my next obsession.

Of the at least 100 photos I took today, only 2 were blurry.  That is AWESOME!

Back to the sweater:

  This was the second sweater I ever knit, probably back in 1990 or 91.
It's oversized, as was popular in the '80's, and since I was always 'thrifty',
I probably bought the pattern on sale.  But not the yarn.
I remember falling in love with this yarn.

So, here's the sweater again, natural light, no flash.   

I'm considering frogging the sleeves to the elbows (maybe) and redesigning how they end.  

I think the body could be shorter, too.  I love the cowl, always have, so may have to keep it,
although I'm considering frogging the whole thing and re-purposing the yarn.

Because, really, who needs a 1980's sweater with puffy cuffs?

Starting the new year without a camera

Normally I would have a photo-heavy entry on any given day, but my camera slipped out of my hand, bounced on the deck and landed in the ivy, which was wet.  Don't know if the bounce or the damp did the damage, but it's definitely not it's old self.
 

Speaking of old, it's at least 8 years old, which in camera-years is about 80, with the way technology is leap-frogging into the future.  It's a little Casio Exilim, very reliable when not bouncing and it did lovely close-ups of dew-damp dahlias.  It wasn't very good for zooming into the distance, and I had some jiggle issues, plus the sound on the movies would include a little 'chunk chunk' when I'd zoom in or out.  

I thought of getting it fixed, but it's time for a new camera.

I'm going with something a little more sophisticated but not something that costs a kidney.  I think I won't use it if it's too big to fit into my (small) purse or if it's too complicated.  I don't need to change lens's and I don't need stop-action sports shots.

I need a nice little point and shoot that gives good knitting/spinning photos for less than $300.00, including tax and shipping.  I'm open to suggestions.

It's been 19 weeks since my last haircut

A haircut is not all that important, in the whole scheme of things, although a bad one can ruin your life for a week or so.  This one was all about how I was feeling about my hair, which I wanted to change, and my job, which I wanted to keep.   I've been doing this job as a temp for almost a year.  It was posted, finally, early last month.  I applied, was interviewed  awhile ago but still hadn't heard if I would be hired or not.  Plus, growing out my hair was problematic.  I was told to wait at least 14 weeks before getting it cut again but went well beyond that because of one thing and another.  I was feeling paranoid and frumpy.  Only one of those things could be remedied immediately, or so I thought.

We visited our favorite stylist last weekend and by today I had the job.  It was magical.

Here's the Magic Maker's business info:

Hillary's Beauty Parlor

DEDICATED TO KEEPING YOU GORGEOUS

Hillary Sittig

Stylist

hillarysittig@gmail.com

206-383-7809

Call or email to book cuts and color.

Snohomish area, where Snohomish and Mill Creek meet.

Oh, the job? 

 Reception at the Computer Science and Engineering department, University of Washington.  

HA!

Edina Sushi w/ photos

On Monday, Labor Day, the Peggy's and I treated ourselves to another round at Edina Sushi, mostly because we were hungry but also because they were open, unlike the nail place around the corner, where we were going to go to get our nails done prior to dinner but had to put it off until Tuesday.

We took the camera and managed 'before' photos rather than 'after' this time.

We ordered the Sushi Tower; it's been outstanding each and every time.

Here's a close-up:

 The roll on the left is the Tropical Roll.  Mango and Crab.  SO GOOD!

 On the right we have the Vegas Roll, also very good.

These two were new to us and we were not disappointed.

 The ever popular (with us) Rainbow Roll, better and more interesting than the California.

 The ginger is fresh and yummy.  They'll bring you a big dish of it if you want more.

The staff is efficient and friendly, the very good Genmaicha tea is free.  yea.