Pumpkin & Pomegranate

I adore Seattle, but since I was born and raised in Texas I still feel like I am “Home” when I am There. That probably has way more to do with the fact that my father and most of my family live there. Luckily for me the majority of my family was in Houston for the festivities. I miss my family a lot, but I guess this year it didn’t really hit home as hard until I saw everyone together for Christmas.

My first full day in town I hit up a salad bar with my cousin, and then 3 grocery stores. There is no getting around that. THREE. I went to my favorite first, Central Market…mostly just to walk around and bask in the glory of it all. This is a gourmet’s heaven, and it has only gotten better since I left. I bought some beautiful artichoke hummus, chipotle hummus, 3 bars of dark chocolate with curry powder (delicious), some fabulous dried chile peppers, and a jar of roasted cashew butter.

I then went over to H.E.B., a local chain(which also owns Central Market), and bought 6 bags of dehydrated refried beans. I know how horrid that sounds, but they are REALLY good. Much better than canned. Then I found out that the dried chiles were half the price at H.E.B. and wish I had gone there first. After all that I got a call from my father who invited me to dinner at a Japanese place nearby within an hour. I had time to kill and so I high tailed it over to Whole Foods and picked up quinoa flakes for breakfast, organic red bell peppers, and found the German Chocolate Jocalot bars! I gushed about them to the cashier and told him that I couldn’t find them in Seattle and he gave me one as a free sample. I love tasters. There is nothing like believing in something enough to give a sample away (and not just a mere bite), knowing that people will buy more.

I got to dinner late, but it was so nice to see my dad sitting there with my stepmother and my nieces. I really miss my family.

My father’s good friend Gary Faye was also there. Gary is a photographer, and I didn’t know this before, but I just learned that he worked with Ansel Adams years ago. Gary has been a wonderful friend to my father and he kindly offered to teach me how to use my camera (which I believe actually used to be his) and also how to use Light Room. Unfortunately time got away from us this past week, but hopefully I will be going back to Houston this Spring and he can teach me then. He was able to give me some tips to put to good use until then though.

I met up with my cousin Kat for a salad at a local Salad bar. I have to say, I used to think this place was “healthy” but quite honestly…it’s just a buffet of crap with *some* vegetable options. I present to you my $9.00 salad

That was enough for me. I didn’t need to eat all that I could. I didn’t have any pasta, bread, soup, potatoes, or dessert. Actually the salad was decent, but for $9? Well, it is what we had to work with!

I did not eat like that every day. I did indulge on Christmas Eve and Christmas day. I don’t have any guilt about this either. It happens very rarely and as long as it isn’t happening everyday I don’t see that it is doing me any long term harm. I am sure others might disagree, but personally as long as I can get back on track I do like to have some of my favorites over the holidays.

Speaking of, here was our Christmas Eve spread at my Grandmother’s house.

Our family comes from German and Irish stock, and our big tradition is Christmas Eve. We do celebrate on Christmas Day as well, but it isn’t nearly as large scale as the Eve. My uncle really outdid himself with his smoked salmon this year. It was absolutely incredible! I know I live in the Pacific Northwest, but I have never had smoked salmon as good as my uncles up here. I wish I could have eaten the whole thing but I had to leave some for the other guests. My aunt also made shrimp étouffée and I simply must make a vegan version for Matt soon. I love Cajun food! My aunt’s sugar cookies are something I look forward to all year. The secret is a little bit of almond extract. Nothing like flavors from your childhood to bring back memories.

It was really wonderful to see my family. My brother has lost 50 lbs since I last saw him, and my father has lost 20 since September.

That T-shirt is a shirt I got my father as a gag gift for Christmas. It’s called “Communist Party” and I got it at my favorite T-shirt store Threadless.com

I also made dinner for friends of my father’s on the 23rd. The vast majority being carnivores. I prepared my beetballs, roasted Brussels sprouts with roasted garlic, and some fantastic roasted sweet potato fries.  I know that I like my beetballs, and others who have made them have also liked them, but I was pleasantly surprised when the entire group kept raving about them. Tickled pink really.

My friend’s mother wants the recipe, and that is such a huge compliment to me! I sometimes assume that since I eat differently than others they won’t actually like my food. Perhaps that is because I have lived through years of people asking me questions like “ok, but what do you eat???”

And then the I get people making faces or I watch as their eyes glaze over when I mention that I don’t eat grains.

Ultimately the food I eat is delicious, or else I wouldn’t eat it.

Anyway…

I had a wonderful time with my family. I just with my trip could have been a bit longer. Hopefully the Spring trip will allow me more time to just be, and less running around trying to get things done.

My flight back was at 6:00 A.M/ Houston time. I was not amused to be woken at 3:30 to make said flight, but no matter I soldiered through. I had a layover in Dallas (by the way don’t go to the Starbucks in terminal D) and when I got on the plane I was absolutely shocked to learn that I had been magically upgraded to first class! Merry Boxing Day to me!

My flight back into Seattle was obviously LOVELY, and the sun was out, nopt a cloud in the sky. I even managed to snap a few photos of Mt. Rainier from my window.

Gorgeous, Non?

First class was lovely, but I was chided by my father when I told him that I declined the first class (i.e. free and beautiful) breakfast. The options were a cheese omelette or oatmeal. Since the 26th was not a day of festivities I was not going to indulge, even if it was first class. I did however manage to stuff some melon and a strawberry down my gullet (and I mean stuff because I HATE melon and I had to basically swallow it whole. Why? Because the nice flight attendant asked if I wanted some fruit and I said yes, and then she brought me 7 pieces of melon and 1 strawberry. I didn’t want to be rude and wasteful). I did have 3 cups of tea, a champagne flute of orange juice, and a glass (not a plastic cup) of ice water. I unfortunately made the mistake of not going to the W.C. before we started to descend, so I had to warn the man sitting next to me that as soon as the fasten your seat belt light went off I was going to be knocking everyone over to get to the toilet. Let that be a lesson to you. Oh and I have decided that in the not too distant future I want to always have the option of traveling first class.

Now it is time for me to catch up on my blog reading! I hope those of you who celebrate holidays at this time of year had wonderful holidays, and those of you who don’t had a fabulous couple of weeks!