Keeping Up With the Allens

Rainy Ski Weekend in the Mountains

The last two weeks have flown by so fast that I have not kept up with what’s been happening around here. I’m working on catching up, so stay tuned for an update on what has been going on and keeping me away from the computer. Let’s rewind to Thursday March 6th and pick up where we left off.

My mom was scheduled to leave Minnesota for a trip to Hawaii on the 6th and ended up getting stuck overnight in Seattle. This meant we had a surprise visitor! It was nice to have a truly impromptu visit from my mom and an opportunity to catch up. We were all happy to have an excuse to go out to Bottlehouse and grab a glass {or two} of wine and some dinner.

The next day marked the start of our Crystal cabin weekend. We had been looking forward to our cabin weekend with the Millers, Buffingtons and Albenesious/Smiths for quite some time. The Buffingtons were the first ones to arrive and the only ones who got to see the cabin in daylight the first day, which ended up being the only time it wasn’t raining, too. Alex and I arrived right around dusk and then the Millers came a bit later in the evening. Unfortunately, Sally and Ian got in a fender bender on their way to the cabin so they weren’t able to make it until Saturday.

Our cabin was great! It was an old-school lodge that had been nicely updated in some areas, but also left in its original rustic state in other spots. The cabin was very spacious with a gigantic wrap-around deck and a view of the roaring White River. Thanks to Carrie for taking some great pictures when it was clear and light out!

Great photo of the cabin's lodge and expansive great room — Great photo of the cabin’s lodge and expansive great room

Despite the horrible weather we had a great weekend. It’s always a bummer to ski in the rain, but ski in the rain we did… for about an hour… until we were soaked to the bone and went to the bar!

Once we had enough of the Bullwheel we headed back to the cabin to meet Sally and Ian. We spent the rest of the evening eating, drinking, playing Cards Against Humanity and just hanging out. Oh, and taking care of the crazy dogs.

What a great weekend {sorry for the blurry photo!}

Apparently having two older nutso puppies means that they take center stage. Unfortunately for all of us the dogs were a bit more crazy than usual. Neither one of them slept a wink the first night so they kept their respective owners and Carrie awake for the majority of the night. Thankfully they were much better the second night so we were able to catch up on a little sleep. Hopefully the pups settle down and learn to relax very soon!

Overall it was a great trip! We really enjoyed spending time with everyone and having a weekend away.

It’s Henry’s Birthday!

Today my little Henry cat turns 3! It has been fun to look back at photos of Henry and his late brother when they were tiny kittens. I sure do miss my Oliver cat but am thankful for the time we had him. Alex and I were talking this morning about what to do for Henry for his birthday, but it’s hard to know since he is so indifferent to anything. I think we’ll give him extra treats and lots of playtime… if he’ll oblige, that is!

A New Approach to Meal Planning

After realizing that I spend too much time, money and energy in the meals we have been eating I decided that a change was in order. I love to cook and I love to sit on Pinterest trying to find the next best meal. Oh, and I don’t have kids. That combination is kind of dangerous. I have been preparing some great meals but I really don’t need to spend that amount of time cooking each night and scouring the internet looking for new recipes. I think I did an okay job of trying to extend my ingredients as far as possible but my grocery bills were still too high for just two people.

Enter change: I have decided to do a monthly “stock up” at the start of each new month, then supplement that with fresh produce and dairy. That way I’ll start each month with a full fridge, freezer and pantry and be challenged to use only what I have, except for some fresh veggies and dairy products. It’s going to be hard but I think I can do it!

Here’s how it is going to work in March… I ordered my groceries to be delivered on March 1. The biggest thing I did was stock up on meat products. Meat is by far the most expensive part of my groceries. I buy organic, free-range, grass-fed meat so it does cost more. I have no idea if I’ll be able to do this but I am going to try to use only the meat I already have, as well as the meat I ordered for the entire month of March.

Here’s what I got in the meat department:

4 chicken breasts = $22
3.5 lbs pork roast = $10
2 lbs of flank steak = $19
4 boneless pork chops = $10
Vegetables & herbs (broccoli, potatoes, brussels sprouts, mushrooms, peppers, avocados, garlic, cilantro, thyme, acorn squash, onions, tomatoes, spinach) = $45
Fruits (bananas, apples, oranges, pears) = $15
Other ingredients (bread, cheese, lunch meat, eggs, etc.) = $30
Total grocery bill = $150.28

My pantry is fairly well-stocked right now, and I have ground beef, Italian sausage, breakfast sausage and bacon in the freezer already, so I am pretty well set as we start off the new month.

Here are some things I like to keep on hand in my pantry:

Quinoa
Couscous
White beans
Chickpeas
Tomato sauce
Diced tomatoes
Chicken stock
Asian noodles
Oats
Barley, lentils
Olive oil
Vinegar (red wine, apple cider, balsamic, etc.)
Cooking wine (sherry, Marsala)
Spices and dried herbs

Some things I have/plan to have on hand in my fridge/freezer are:

Butter
Milk
Sour cream
Eggs
Fresh pasta (I like linguine, tortellini/ravioli and gnocchi)
Tortillas
Ginger
Asian seasonings (soy sauce, hoisin sauce, sesame oil, fish sauce, etc.)
Capers and olives
Lemons
Herbs (I try to grow these in the summer!)
Granola
Frozen fruits for smoothies/yogurt parfaits
Frozen veggies to add to fried rice or a stir fry (peas/carrots/corn medley)
Nuts

One thing I will still continue to do is plan our meals. I am too type-a and indecisive to fly by the seat of my pants in that regard. I will just plan each week based on the foods that we currently have and add additional fresh ingredients as needed. Here is what’s on the menu for next week:

The challenge is on – I have no idea how I am going to fare but I have high hopes that this will be an exciting change in the way we eat.

Weekly Recap

I’m not sure where the week went but somehow it’s Friday again! We haven’t had a particularly busy week, mostly just a lot of little things going on.

Jackson & Alex cuddling in Jackson's new bed — Jackson & Alex cuddling in Jackson’s new bed

I’ll start with a Jackson update. Last week Jackson got neutered. The procedure went very smoothly and he was basically back to normal the next day. Since Jackson has unusual amounts of energy the vet sent us home with some sedatives to keep him calm, so as to avoid popping a stitch. We were very thankful for the doctor’s foresight! Now, nearly two weeks later, he is totally back to normal. I haven’t seen a decrease in his energy at this point, but he has shown less interest in marking.

This is what we woke up to today. Thank you Jackson!

Today Jackson is 11 months old! Time sure has flown since we got him back in mid-May. Today I was able to take Jackson for a sunny mid-day run down on Lake Washington. He did really well for the most part but tuckered out towards the end.

The weather has been unbelievably nice here this week {sorry Midwest!} so we have been getting out as much as possible to enjoy it while it lasts. It’s supposed to snow tomorrow.

The first of many days that Jackson will enjoy out on the front porch just hanging out.

Last weekend we hosted a post-Valentine’s Day celebration with some friends. We wanted to do something fun and different so we made fondue!

I have been consumed in travel planning this week. Our Europe trip is quickly approaching, but I am also trying to plan a different weekend away this summer, in addition to making preparations for Alex’s parents to visit in a few weeks and my dad to come back and visit us again shortly. I sure do love planning, so I have been enjoying putting all of this together.

I got new slippers! Thanks to Jackson I had to throw away my old slippers and order new ones. These amazing Wicked Good Moccasins from LL Bean arrived at my house this week after being back ordered.

We got caught up in House of Cards, the TV series on Netflix. Holy cow. As of today we have 2 more episodes in the second season and I can’t imagine what is going to happen. As great as that show is, I am ready for a little break. One of my favorite shows {The Little Couple} is coming back on Monday, so I’m thankful for the return of our cable TV!

Otherwise, it’s pretty much business as usual here.

Fred & John’s Trip to Washington

My brother and father were out visiting for a long weekend to hang out in the mountains and to spend some time with us in Seattle. They sure picked a great weekend to come skiing! In the four days they were here, Crystal Mountain received over 5.5 feet of snow!! Needless to say, we had an unlimited supply of powder waiting for us on Saturday.

The gang arrived on Friday night, which was Valentine’s Day. Knowing that we had to get up early the next morning we decided not to brave the crowds and go out for dinner. Instead, we all made a big Asian feast together. I made a stir fry while John took charge of fried rice and Alex and Fred conquered the wontons. After dinner we hit the hay to rest up for our big ski day.

For me, the highlight of the trip was Saturday, our only ski day, which my cousin Chris joined us for. We knew the forecast was predicting snow, snow and more snow, so we decided to do the First Tracks breakfast that Crystal Mountain offers. This is a little early morning event that allows you to take the gondola up to the top of the mountain at 7:30 a.m., eat a nice breakfast and hang out at the summit, then ski for an hour before the rest of the mountain opens. Certainly this isn’t something we’d need to do every weekend, but it was such a nice, relaxing way to start our epic ski day.

Fred, Chris and Alex ready for the powder day

Once we were unleashed and allowed to go skiing, I bet we got a good 6 runs in before the crowds came in and the lines started to build. On a normal day, I don’t even think Alex and I get 6 runs in before lunch.

To say that the snow was amazing would be the understatement of the year. Alex and I both agreed that it was quite possibly our best ski day ever. The snow was light, soft, perfect powder. The best part was that it snowed all day long, providing “free refills” each run.

Once our legs were shot we rounded out the day with a drink {or a few} at the world-famous Snorting Elk Cellar before heading back to Seattle for a relaxing night at home. I made a quick batch of macaroni and cheese and we spent the rest of the evening watching the Olympics.

Everyone was too sore and tired to ski on Sunday so we decided to grab brunch at the Hi Spot Cafe in our neighborhood and head to Woodinville to do a beer tour at Redhook and taste wine at Mark Ryan Winery. John spent the time while we were at the winery in the car, and unfortunately for him, he missed an incredible wine tasting. We drove around Woodinville a bit to check out some different parts of the town before heading back to the Bottlehouse for an evening of wine drinking.

While Alex had to work on Monday, it was our plan to go to Snoqualmie Pass to ski for half a day. Unfortunately the pass was closed all morning so we couldn’t get up there. It snowed over 20 inches overnight so the DOT was having trouble dealing with the avalanche control work and clearing the roads. We had planned on meeting my aunt and uncle up at the pass, but since our plans changed, I ended up dropping my dad and John off at their house for a few hours instead. John and my uncle Michael went canoeing near their house while my dad and aunt Cathy took a walk together to catch up on family business.

That evening we met up as a family at Cactus, a Southwestern restaurant in the South Lake Union neighborhood, for happy hour. It was nice to have everyone together and have the chance to catch up!

I was able to get some work out of my brother! That doesn't happen too often... — I was able to get some work out of my brother! That doesn’t happen too often…

We ended the evening back at home by watching some more of the Olympics and having a light dinner. As always, it’s nice to get a chance to spend some extra time with family when they visit Seattle.

Allentine’s Day

Valentine’s Day came early for us this year. My dad and brother are coming to visit this coming weekend, so we celebrated “Allentine’s Day” last weekend with a wonderful evening out at Harvest Vine, a well-renowned Spanish restaurant near our neighborhood.

While I was writing my Valentine’s Day card to Alex I was thinking back to previous Valentine’s Days that we have shared together and realized that this is our tenth Valentine’s Day together! The first Valentine’s Day we spent together was in 2005, we were 18 years old. The weekend of Valentine’s Day that year we had gone back to Illinois to stay with Alex’s parents. We had been dating for about four months at that point and I had only briefly met his parents once or twice.

Valentine's Day 2005 — Valentine’s Day 2005

Aside from a time or two as a very small child I had never been to Chicago before, so I was excited at the thought of getting to know Alex’s parents better and exploring downtown Chicago. We went downtown to the Chicago Auto Show, walked the Madison Mile, saw the bean in Millennium Park and strolled through Navy Pier. That Saturday night, which I don’t even recall if it was actually Valentine’s Day or not, we went out for dinner at Za Za’s, an Italian restaurant in DeKalb, Alex’s hometown.

Our first Valentine's Day in Chirago — Our first Valentine’s Day in Chicago

It has been fun to think back on our first Valentine’s Day and all of the memories that come with that time in our lives.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Powder, Wine and New Slippers

It’s been a slightly quieter week here in the Allen household. We have been busy planning and preparing for my dad and brother to come visit us this weekend and somehow it is Wednesday evening now. The snow forecast is shaping up quite nicely for their ski trip so we’re really looking forward to their arrival on Friday.

We're hoping for a snowy week at Crystal — We’re hoping for a snowy week at Crystal

Friday night we had our Valentine’s Day celebration a week early. We had a lovely evening out at Harvest Vine near our house.

We loved this wine from the Priorat region in Spain

Because of the forecast and our plans on Friday and Saturday nights we opted to stay home on Saturday and go skiing on Sunday instead. We carried our Valentine’s Day celebration into Saturday morning by starting the day with coffee and watching the opening ceremony of the Olympics. We had memosas and a wonderful breakfast, then took Jackson out for a long walk.

We had a pretty relaxing remainder of the day at home on Saturday and then hosted Italian Wine Club at our house that night. We were pleasantly surprised when it started to snow on Saturday evening! It rarely snows in Seattle but it seems like everyone in the city turns into a kid again when the ground turns white.

We expected that Sunday would bring us some fresh snow to ski so we got up earlier than we had ever gotten up for a ski day and headed to Crystal. The reason we got up so early was so that we could get to Crystal and walk Jackson and be at he lift line when the chair lift opens. Lately we have been arriving around 30 minutes prior to the lifts opening, so we have been having more leisurely days.

Our expectations were fulfilled and we were greeted with about 8-10 inches of light and fluffy powder! A normal “powder day” for us is a day with a lot of fresh, heavy, wet snow. We in Washington call it Cascade Concrete because it’s like skiing concrete instead of nice fluffy powder.

While we had a great day with Jackson on Sunday, his behavior for the rest of the weekend wasn’t necessarily pleasant the whole time. He decided that my slippers would become his newest chew toy. Unfortunately for me he finally destroyed them to the point of being unwearable. We have been working on new strategies for keeping him off the couch and our bed and while we were using Alex’s strategy of ignoring him he destroyed one of the pillows on our sofa. We are taking applications for puppy trainers and looking for jobs for Jackson so he can earn his keep and buy me new slippers.

Our week has been pretty low-key, yet busy during the day for me. We have been enjoying watching the Olympics, which has been great, but I am really excited to not be sitting on the sofa all evening when they’re over. It has been fun and life is good 🙂

Here’s What’s Happening in our House this Week

It’s a busy week in the Allen household! We’ve got a lot going on during the days and evenings this week. I am in the process of coordinating our dog sitter for Europe and hiring an Italian tutor, as well as booking some lodging for our Europe trip and two summer trips in Eastern Washington. Other than the travel planning this week we’re hoping to go night skiing one day, both of us have some social obligations and I have a work function. Last week we started our Monday, Wednesday and Friday runs and so far they are going really well. I’m keeping up with Pilates and Alex has gotten back to the gym after kicking his flu bug into the past.

We had an awesome weekend! We started the weekend off with a ski day on Saturday. Jackson got to rage in the snow for about an hour before he went to take a nap in the car while Alex and I made a few runs.

Jackson sure loves to run around in the snow! It’s so fun to watch him just bolt back and forth with the biggest smile we’ve ever seen plastered across his face.

It was a gorgeous day on the mountain! We explored new territory, got to see Mount Rainier and enjoyed each other’s company.

On Sunday we had plans to go to the Millers to watch the Super Bowl so we got some errands out of the way in the morning. We had a great time cheering on our home team on Sunday with the Millers and the Buffingtons. It has been a lot of fun to see how spirited Seattle is with a winning team.

This gigantic furry ball of energy has a big, big change coming up. He has no idea. After discussing his frequent bursts of energy that are so wild they make him vomit, our veterinarian advised us that it’s time to get Jackson neutered. We had held off on neutering him because we keep hearing that new research is showing that by waiting until a large breed male is fully-grown it can reduce the risk of some cancers. Our breeder recommended neutering him at 18 months and we were going to compromise on a year, but it looks like it’ll be just a few days shy of 11 months for Jackson.

Since last week’s vet visit we have been really working with him on calming down and encouraging calm behavior. We’ve brought out his special mat which seems to really help him mellow out. We have also been confining him to the bathroom again for the last week or so. He just has too much destructive energy and testosterone raging through his body right now to really know what to do with himself! We know he’s a good dog, but we’re both excited for him to be able to take it easy once he gets neutered.

Back Country Adventures

For a few years now Alex has wanted to explore a part of Crystal Mountain called “Southback” that we had never ventured out to. Southback {aka “South Back Country”} is an out of bounds, but avalanche controlled, part of the ski resort we call our home mountain. The area is massive, large enough to be its own small ski resort. There isn’t a chair lift to get you to the top, so you have to hike! That right there is why we’ve never been there before.

This is a photo of "The King" that I took while we were traversing towards it. — This is a photo of “The King” that I took while we were traversing towards it.

I am a lover of skiing and a lover of chair lifts. I don’t want to work that hard for my turns. From time to time I can be a bit whiny and demanding, so I had previously put the kibosh on hiking to go check out Southback. I’m not sure why, but this past weekend I became more open minded and decided to go for it with Alex.

It's not often that I strap my skis to my back and hike up a mountain. — It’s not often that I strap my skis to my back and hike up a mountain.

Even though the sun was out, the ski day started off a little rocky for me. It just wasn’t my day. I got caught on a tree root, made some terrible turns, the lift lines were endless and I just was not feeling like I was very well put together. I needed to re-set so we decided to go in early for lunch before heading out on our adventure. I had packed some chili in our awesome Thermos, so we had a hot, “free” lunch to enjoy! After our bellies were full we set out to explore new territory.

Our excursion took us about an hour and a half from the time we left the lodge to the time we got down to the main lodge again. We rode up a chair lift then traversed across to the ski area boundary where we had to take off our skis and begin hiking. We probably only hiked for 10-15 minutes before we were able to put our skis back on and do some more extreme traversing. Once we finished our traverse we came out from the woods into an expansive wide open powder field. It was amazing!

A terrible photo, but here is a picture of Silver Basin, which is where we skied.

At the same time as we arrived, the fog rolled in. We didn’t get the full extent of what we skied because the fog limited our visibility, but as far as we could tell, it was amazing! Both of us had a great run and made some awesome powder turns before we met up at the bottom of Silver Basin. All in all it was a fun change of pace, but I’m not expecting to do that every weekend!

This Week’s Happenings

Not a whole lot is going on right now – well, not enough to warrant its own blog post, anyway. In any case, I’ve compiled what’s been happening lately over in our neck of the woods.

Today Jackson turned 10 months! He weighs about 70 pounds. He definitely has some growing to do still – I noticed today that his head needs to catch up with the rest of his body. As a 10 month old his favorite things include: digging in the backyard, going for walks… lots of walks, playing with other dogs, terrorizing Henry, chasing Henry around the house, and generally doing what we don’t want him to do. In all fairness, Jackson really is a good dog. He’s adorably sweet and he has certainly found his place in our house – usually on top of our feet wherever we’re standing.

Jackson has grown to love playing fetch.

We began Monday, Wednesday, Friday runs with Jackson this week. Lately we have been realizing that we just can’t tire our ~~little~~ big pup out enough. We are hoping that running will do the trick. Monday marked our first official “family run” and we ran about 3 miles. We had run with Jackson in the past but it was more of a run-walk, whereas this was a solid 3-mile run. Much to our surprise, Jackson did awesome! This makes me so excited for summer.

Alex's new running shoes :) — Alex’s new running shoes 🙂

Our big trip to Europe is quickly approaching and we are FAR from ready to go! We booked our hotels in Spain and Switzerland last week but still need to get England and Amsterdam locked down, as well as our flight back to the US. Another thing that is on our to do list is figure out what we’re doing with Jackson. I am in the process of “interviewing” dog sitters for Jackson. I am certain we’ll find a good family who will be able to watch him while we’re gone, but it isn’t easy to find a home for him to stay at for nearly 30 days. Henry has a fabulous cat sitter already, so he’s taken care of.

This is what Jackson looks like after a 3-mile run.

As a preparation for part of our Europe trip Alex and I decided we’d like to learn to speak a bit of Italian. We will be in parts of Italy where tourists aren’t common and we’ll be attending an Italian wedding so we thought it would be nice to have a few words in our back pocket. We have been using a website called Duo Lingo for a few months and have started to build a small vocabulary but we’re realizing that we really need to step it up in order to be able to have very basic conversations and communicate a little bit in Italian in just a few short months. We are planning on hiring an Italian tutor with the hopes that she will be able to bring us up to speed. I think we’ll start with one session a week and then when we get closer we might increase to two. We’ll see!

Our weekend was pretty low-key. Alex and I got the rare opportunity of having a lunch date on Friday! It was awesome – I met him at his office and we walked up the street to Homegrown, an AMAZING sandwich shop, to grab a bite to eat.

Lunch date at Homegrown in South Lake Union

Friday night Alex went out with some friends and I stayed in with a spasming abdomen. Saturday we met Ali, Tyler and baby Vivian {and Glory, their dog} at the dog park and had brunch with them afterwards. We did some errands and came home to get a few things done around the house before going out for dinner at Naam Thai and a glass of wine at Bottlehouse. We had originally planned on skiing on Sunday but Alex just wasn’t feeling well enough so we stayed home.

We just adore this girl! How is she 13 months already!? — We just adore this girl! How is she 13 months old already!?

The weather was really nice on Sunday so we took Jackson for a long walk through the Washington Park Arboretum. We spent the rest of the day relaxing and getting stuff done around the house.

We’ve got some good stuff on the menu this week. The lasagna we had for dinner on Sunday was so so good and I can’t wait for pork carnitas tonight. They have been cooking in my crock pot all day and I can’t even pick up the pork without it falling apart. The rest of the week has mushroom ravioli, gnocchi with sausage and peppers and mushroom risotto… lots of mushrooms and pasta this week!