UW Bread Lab

My own UW Bread Lab in honor (or not!) of the WSU Bread Lab that Canlis recruited in their bread series. I'm experimenting with this new method of kneading the bread right away. I'm also experimenting with different amounts of water, or hydration as those in the biz say. Ha! I'm recording all my most recent breads especially since I started grinding the flour. I have to say, there is nothing like good old white flour sourdough, but I think if I try enough combinations I can make a good and satisfying whole wheat, or einkorn, or spelt, or rye, or combo loaf.

 

Bouldering, Little Art, Vaccine Rd. 2

 

Seattle Bouldering Project opened back up so we were eager to climb. Olin conquered this little run (first in the family!) but not before taking a few rest stops on the way up. We called this pose the "Dab".

A park in Queen Anne. I showed them Auntie Ev's old condo on Aloha.

There was an article in the Washington Post about this Little Free Art Gallery on Queen Anne on the corner of 1st and Garfield. It was cute! When we were all gazing in, the owner came out and asked if she could take a picture of us and said she was documenting all the people that came by. She said it has been really fun to see. She then gave us her card. Quite fun.

Round 2 (of 2)! I felt the fatigue and the headache the night of this one, definitely.

Life in the 509

 

We had huge snowflakes this morning that were so pretty, but didn't stick.

Cat-sitting Fox's cat Clementine. Both kids have unfortunately had quite some allergic reactions (hives, sore throats, painful intake of breath!) immediately after seeing Clementine so we drummed up this attire as a workaround. Worked great!

We've been reading a lot (lots of free time).  I found the kids like this yesterday morning.

Strangely got my thumb caught in the car door at CBRC. It hurt a lot and I felt like I was in semi-shock throughout my subsequent Pilates class. hahaha. Mainly the fact that my nail darkened immediately grossed me out.

As usual, resorting to punitive threats since I'm tired of them not folding their clothes.

PDX for the Win

We had a nice lunch on the slopes. Ev packed sandwiches, salami, trail mix, oranges

Braces again! Round 2 (of 3?). They're straightening the front 4 and then holding them with a retainer until the other teeth come in and he's ready for his final Phase.

Went to Portland over MLK weekend and here we all are at St. Simon coffee

Woke up and found these guys just standing in the kitchen in the semi-dark, doing nothing

Ticket to Ride

Using the Tea Bar gift certificates they had

Met up with my old work friend Heather for a nice walk around Lake Oswego

More lunch at Meadows. This was our first ski day of the year. It was glorious!

Olin knitting at school

How Dae found the kids last night playing

Mom gets Vaccinated! Also, turning wheat berries in to bread

I googled "when can I get vaccinated in Washington state" which led to a Dept of Health questionnaire that said I was eligible and listed the places I could go. Dae asked Kadlec if I could get the vaccine there and the lady said sure so I went today and got my first dose! Pfizer.

I've been waiting to return to start making bread with freshly ground flour. To start, you freeze the wheat berries.

Grind 1-2 cups at a time in the dry Vitamix container

After one minute they're done! Could not be simpler.

I'm looking forward to tasting freshly ground flour bread, but I think I might have added too much water to this batch because the dough is a little watery so far.

New Year's in Oahu

Uncle Sung offered up his vacation rental at the Disney Aulani resort in Ko Olina (Oahu) so we gladly accepted and booked flights and a rental car! We stayed for a very nice, very warm and balmy week.

We logged on to the Branch 1 reunion Zoom as soon as we landed and rather unsuccessfully tried to Zoom while getting a rental car, driving, and shopping at Oahu Costco. Dae wasn't with me because he flew in two days later after taking his call, so it was just me and kids. So I had the kids be the face of our family.

Very pretty and pleasantly surprisingly steep 1/2 mile hike to the top above Lanikai Beach - Ka'iwa Ridge hike. 

Morning football while they wait for us to get Island Vintage Coffee across the street. The Aulani is right behind them. The ginger chai was really good. Dae liked the Hawaiian Honey latte.

There were almost no activities (due to covid) compared to the one other time we came to Aulani in 2015, but there was some nice Hawaiian music one day, and we didn't really miss the activities. If it was your first time at Aulani, though, I think it would have been really disappointing if you had heard all about the activities and expected them. Seeing as how our lodging was free, we had absolutely zero complaints. :)

There weren't really any shells on the Disney (man-made lagoon) beach, but I was laying in the water while the kids were playing and this shell pretty much washed up in to my hand. It was really cool!

This lagoon was really calm and nice and I enjoyed going out there and floating on my back. Olin learned how to tread water for quite some time this trip! Finally! He practiced sooooo much. He got exponentially more water safe this trip, as far as just being able to play around in the water when his feet can't touch and not having to rely on a wall to hang on to. Thank goodness! Maybe watching Babz have a Dangerous Water Episode in Kauai scared him in to learning how to tread. To his credit, Dae also made a concerted effort to learn how to tread water this trip. 

We visited the shabu shabu restaurant Sung's family took us to and had a great meal. Then my Hawaiian friend Jodi texted me that we should try a place called Ichiriki and I was like "we just went last night!"

Ice cream spot right next door that serves ube (purple sweet potato) soft-serve in these black chocolate cones. 

I included this photo to remember how much the kids loved the infinity pool. Not sure why they loved it so much but it was by far their favorite. They said it was 'relaxing'. haha

Day of Unsuccessful Hikes. I got the troops geared up to hike Diamond Head. As we're driving toward Diamond Head I read on my phone that it's closed on Wednesdays. I then re-gear the troops up to hike Pali Puka Trail, which the book says has a sign reading 'closed' but isn't really closed and that supposedly even state officials in uniform show hikers where it is. Well, it definitely appeared closed with signs and bamboo full-on covering the entrance like a wall. Dae and I decided it still looked fun but kids were quite upset that it seemed closed and we were breaking the rules. Once we got in it was super steep and jungly and just all around didn't seem safe. So we hiked for 7 or so minutes with kids very mad at us and then turned around. Then we ventured to hike #3 which was Likeke Falls Hike - supposedly less than 1 mile round trip but when all was said and done we either went on the wrong trail or went way past the water fall because we walked 2 miles, went up various offshoots and never found the waterfall! We were so tired by the end of failed hike #3.

When we still thought we were going to find the waterfall

Our successful hike on Day 1 up Ka'iwa Ridge.

Lanikai Beach was indeed as gorgeous as it looks. It was packed with people by the time we left, though.

We discovered Korean Bingsu (shave ice) this trip and got it at two difference places. The Injeolmi (kind of peanut buttery) flavor is the OG, but they were out at this place called Teaspoon in Ewa Beach, so we got Green Tea and Oreo. Very delicious.

Disney Beach

Fresh-baked "Bread" for mom

Our room. Very cozy, very tight by the end of 7 days, but very well-designed as far as making use of room. Kids slept on a hideaway couch. I've realized I really love a laundry machine and kitchen on Hawaii trips.

Bracelet accumulation

Musubi Cafe Iyasume in Honolulu. Boy were these delicious! I think this was after the morning of failed hikes so we were really plowing in to these. This one has spam, egg, avocado and bacon.

Our big fancy meal was at Monkeypod across the street from our hotel. We really enjoyed it! Christian really in to this scavenger hunt, Olin in a daze.

Almost forgot! To top off our morning of failed hikes we got a parking ticket. haha. As we were hiking down a lady said they were ticketing everyone on the side of the street that wasn't parked past the white line, so we knew we were getting one. We all guessed how much it would be and Christian guessed the closest. It was $35 and he guessed $30.

We had a red-eye on our last day and time to kill so we went up to the North Shore.

Banzai Pipeline. According to swell report waves were around 8-10 feet. The surfers here were really good. This pic shows some smaller waves but they got bigger.

haha

Tide pools across the street from a great food cart pod. This is either Sunset Beach or Shark's Cove? Not sure.

Asleep on the redeye. We had extra seats due to covid seating so each kid got to pretty much lay down which was great. 

They were SO excited to each get their own airplane pillow from Walmart. ha! Price was $12 and then when we arrived at the airport I could not believe they were selling them for $36! We got 3 for 1!

 

I'll start calling Christian Meala'a

Matsumoto's Shave Ice in Haleiwa. Dae and my favorite shave ice is still Waikomo in Koloa, Kauai. Kids' favorite shave ice is (oddly) Mountain Magic shave ice in Waipahu, Oahu in the parking lot of Safeway.

More Matsumoto's. The line in this place was gargantuan! It was a well-run machine.

As we were killing time in Haleiwa we became engrossed in watching these locals (probably 10-15 of them, anywhere in age from 5-20) jump off of the low rail, and then climb up to the top of this bridge and jump off! Only the older kids jumped off the top, but it was SO dangerous. We walked right on to the bridge to see for ourselves. The low railing isn't flat, it's an upside down V shape so you can't stand balanced. And the climb up to the top is slippery (per them! we asked) and one guy even back-dived off and you have to be careful because the low railing sticks out around 2 feet so you have to clear that. It blew my mind that they were out there, and there were adults among that group too that seemed to be some sort of parent figures (not jumping) but cheering them on! What?!