Butter, Ferries and Blueberries

This was a very packed week-end of fun for Kent and I. On Friday I was determined to still hold on to my week of good eating so I quickly made us a lower carb meal of chicken strips coated in almond flour and asparagus. It was actually not bad and better yet, I made it so it didn't kill my diet or my wallet. We hurried to catch the film Julie and Julia, which Kent was awesome to agree to my lady business movie. We do try to switch off between male and female films, yet lately, there has been nothing but all male in regards to movies. The film was exactly as I had expected, as I actually read the book. I loved Meryl Streep, I mean seriously, she was so great. I was all teary-eyed and it was so not that type of film. I loved how the lost blogger found herself engrossed in a project that she was determined to finish, regardless of how much it took out of her. I think many people can relate to all of the big ideas we each have and then how far we actually go to execute them, let alone complete them. I could feel her panic, her joy, her defeat and her love as she worked her way through the Art of French Cooking.

As I was watching the movie I was literally dying for French food. I wanted to drown myself in this amazing restaurant Kent and I went to in the Napa Valley called Bouchon. It is a sister restaurant to French Laundry, which is supposedly the greatest restaurant in the United States. Kent and I did not eat at French Laundry as you honestly can barely get a reservation, the prix fixe menu is very set in place with absolutely no changes or alterations and it starts at $250.00 per person without wine or service. Bouchon was amazingly charming and seriously DELICIOUS!!!!!!! It was worth the additional inch to our waistline. There is only one other Bouchon in the US, and it is in Las Vegas, which I am hoping Kent and I can go have a delicious brunch at while we are there in October for U2!!

Here we are at the start of our fabulous meal.

The next morning we ran some quick errands as we were heading over to see my high friend Sara's home she purchased in Indianola. I have only recently reconnected with Sara through Facebook and last summer she purchased a home across the sound. I have lived in Seattle for over 15 years and I have never heard of this little town. It is close to Kingston and Poulsbo, but just a baby little place. Whenever I reach the other side of the sound I always comment how great it is; so beautiful and peaceful. Then something smacks be upside the head and reminds me of the worst thing imaginable; the commute on the ferry. I know that eventually you would get use to this waiting game and the annoyance of peak ferry times and the chance that you can honestly get stuck for a 1-3 hour wait. I know myself; I could not get use to this. Anyways; Sara's place was a full house, not a small cabin type place that I had imagined. It has this beautiful view with a wrap around deck. So great, so peaceful and calm. Kent had never met Sara before, but we spent several hours together just chatting and eating literally a plate full of meat. I told Sara to go low on the carbs, and she wasn't messing around. She literally grilled us a steak, pork tenderloin and some sausages. Love it! My arteries may not, but if I can get a little smaller, I will take it. Hopefully Sara will be able to come over to our home soon, the only problem is that she is highly allergic to cats. So, we shall see.

On Sunday we met my mom at Macy's and shopped for a little bit and had lunch. Then we headed to see Mary Pat and her family who live about 25 miles outside of Seattle in Snoqualmie Falls. I love going to Mary's house because her kids are honestly so funny. Kayton is 6, Brenton will be 3 in Sept and the little one, Jayce, will turn 1 in November. For some reason these little one's seriously like us. Kayton likes me, Brenton likes Kent. We are a good distraction for a little while, but I know we often get the kids totally worked up right as we are leaving. Maybe we are more of a nuisance? Hopefully not as it is always a good time. While we were visiting we decided to go Blueberry picking in North Bend, which is about 10 miles from Mary's house. Her husband Jon stayed home with the baby and the rest of us crammed into Mary's car. Brenton is obsessed with Super Man and wouldn't take his costume off, so Super Man he was. We arrived to pick berries and it was so much fun. Kent grabs this bucket and starts picking. I think my husband went into a trance because I kept looking at him and he was going nuts; combing through the bushes for only the best one's. Brenton and Kayton each had their own bucket and what I loved the most about Brenton was that he would yell out, "I found a blue one," and then he would eat it. I think they should have weighed him before and after picking because he literally ate a few bucks worth! It was awesome. Now I personnally do not love blueberries; I tolerate them. Apparently I am going to REALLY be tolerating them as Kent picked over 10 POUNDS of blueberries! Hello! I don't really want to buy anything in this quantity, let alone fresh fruit!

Clearly Kent was a ROCKSTAR at picking berries; they even put it on the box for him

Now I am sitting here with 10 pounds of fresh fruit. The Martha in me googled on food storage and I will be doing this about 70,000 times as this is the largest pan I can fit in my freezer. Apparently you can't just dump these babies into a bag and freeze them; you need to freeze them on a pan and then dump them in a bag to freeze.


I also found myself with some spare time today and I whipped out these low-carb blueberry muffins. Yeah..they taste about as great as they sound. Someday my taste buds will get use to it.



So here is to butter, ferries and blueberries; my week-end of fun.