Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner

TOP SPOT: As chronicled in our blog several days back, CJ and Annabelle recently entered a cooking contest hosted by The Seattle Times.

During the pandemic, there has been a 12-week long The Seattle Times Pantry Kitchen Challenge, where people were encouraged to cook something up and send in a photo and their recipe. The contest was clearly modeled after the Food Network show "Chopped," where in each round you have to use four ingredients to produce a creative, tasty dish. When that contest concluded, The Times announced a special one-week contest for young chefs in an article back on July 14. The must-use ingredients were buttermilk, blueberries, maple syrup and any kind of cereal. 

The deadline for the contest was Friday, July 24. CJ and Annabelle brainstormed ideas and quickly settled on the idea of chicken and waffles as a way to include those ingredients in a tasty meal. Annabelle worked on coming up with the chicken portion of the recipe, while CJ considered the waffle possibilities. 

Annabelle struck upon the idea of using crunchy Cap'n Crunch as breading for the homemade chicken nuggets portion of the dish. At that, it was decided that the waffle should be savory instead of sweet, so CJ pitched a waffle with a bountiful amount of bacon and some chopped up almonds for crunch.

On the evening of July 23, they made their dinner. First, they made the dipping sauce. Using rhubarb from our garden and organic blueberries, plus the must-use ingredient maple syrup as a sweetener, they made a sauce on the stove top. The process was much like making a jam. 

Annabelle coated and fried the nuggets, while CJ whipped up the waffled (using our Death Star waffle iron). Once his waffles were done, a 2-inch circle cookie cutter was used to make the waffles more bite sized. They took short skewers and put one chicken nugget and one mini waffle on each skewer, with a side of the dipping sauce. 

It looked great and actually tasted terrific.

Annabelle emailed a photo of the finished meal and a little write up to the Seattle Times. She wrote: 

My brother and I are submitting this recipe for The Seattle Times Pantry Kitchen Challenge! This recipe flips the script. The chicken is coated in a sweet cereal, while the waffles are savory, with an earthy Ethiopian spice. A summery blueberry and rhubarb dipping sauce is the perfect companion. We thought it was an interesting twist on a staple food combo, and we hope you enjoy it as much as our family did! We had a lot of fun figuring out this pandemic pantry puzzle.

Imagine how thrilled they were yesterday when they found out their creation took top honors via an article posted on The Seattle Times' site!

Another nice line for their resumes - which already include a number of culinary-related honors.

SPLASHDOWN SUCCESS!: Sunday morning through early afternoon, we had NASA TV on, as we wanted to monitor the action regarding the return to Earth of the SpaceX Dragon capsule and its two human inhabitants. 

Annabelle can tell you a bit more about it.

NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken recently returned to Earth in Dragon Endeavor. Their capsule splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico after having spent 2 months in space. The return flight from the International Space Station only took 19 hours overnight. Reportedly, the astronauts said that the reentry was remarkably similar to what they had been trained for in the SpaceX simulations. This was the first manned spacecraft splashdown in 45 years, and the first manned spaceflight from American soil in several years as well! This launch, flight, and splashdown were the finals test for SpaceX's astronaut capsule before it can be cleared for regular spaceflight. The capsule will be thoroughly inspected and refurbished before it can hopefully make the grade and be used again!

It was super exciting watching the capsule's descent Sunday morning. We tracked their descent. The re-entry burn was scary, but successful, thankfully. The drogue chutes deployed as planned, and then the four big chutes came out just as planned.

The capsule had a safe splashdown and bobbed beautifully in the Gulf of Mexico.

A specially-equipped barge came and plucked the capsule and its inhabitants from the water.

It looked a little worse for the wear, but it was intact and the astronauts were safe, so mission accomplished! 

 SODO SCENES:  Below are a couple bonus more shots from my hours spent in the Stadium District from Saturday through Tuesday morning while working at the Vote Center at CenturyLink Field Event Center.  

I sure wish this marquee's promise were true.

               

And here's the left field entrance sign, as seen through the jumbo copper glove sculpture on the corner of Royal Brougham and First Avenue.

The Polls are Closed

ELECTION DAY:  If you work for an elections department, Election Day is kind of like a wedding day. Weeks or months of planning and prepping lead up to one big event - the day the polls close.

Here in Washington state, we're all mail in. If you're registered in time, a ballot will be mailed to your place of residence. You can drop it in return mail (no postage required) or a drop box (there are hundreds throughout the state). 

However, some people lose their ballots, some people never receive their ballots (lost in the mail), and some people don't get registered in time to have a ballot mailed to them. For those and other reasons, voters have an option of visiting a voting center on a few days leading up to an election.

In King County, two vote centers were open Tuesday (election day) and the preceding Saturday and  Monday. 

For the first 2 days and the start of the final day, I had been working in the cool, cavernous confines of Century Link Field's Events Center. Much of the time I felt like the lonely Maytag repairman. Traffic was sloooooooow. On days 1 and 2, we were hoping that maybe it was just that everyone would show up on day 3, election day. But by noon that day, it was feeling like that wasn't going to be the case. It was still a ghost town.

Meanwhile, at the other vote center in Renton, things were hopping to the point where they called and asked for volunteers at Century Link to come down there. I thought it made sense for me to volunteer, since the Renton site is so close to home. And so off I went. 

Within 10 minutes of arriving, it seemed like I had made a pretty terrible decision, ha ha. 

The set up in Renton was geared almost entirely for drive up service. I was given a tablet and tasked with the job of runner. I would be working the (BIG) parking lot, 'running' over to cars that pulled in, visiting with the voter(s) inside. I had a tablet and had to look up if they were registered or not, I could make updates on the spot (names, addresses, contact info), and then 'run' over to the tent where four workers were on laptops, where they would print out  ballots and I would 'run' the ballots back over to the voter(s). Often, there was another run or two per car, to bring them a voter's pamphlet, answer a question, etc. I did not run. I didn't even jog, to be honest. But I promise you I did walk very briskly the entire time. 

It was 85 out. And it was full sun. And it was all asphalt. And I was dressed to be in chilly Century Link.

Oh, and I was wearing a face mask (three fabric layers covering my nose and mouth), and my glasses, because I had to be able to read the tablet. This also meant I couldn't wear sunglasses (I don't have prescription sunglasses). Also, I had to wear an awkward plastic face shield on a headband. All this while managing the tablet, often a clipboard, sticky notes, pens ... For 7 hours. 

Have I mentioned the air temp was 85? I'm guessing it was closer to 95 standing on the asphalt. I was literally a hot mess. 

When I got home, my skin head to toe was covered in salt crystals, and today I'm pretty creaky, I will admit. But overall, I'm oh-so-glad I went. 

I was able to help dozens and dozens of voters get their ballots, and they were all so appreciative for the process allowing to get their ballots on election day, safely, without even having to leave their cars.  I heard effusive praise and thanks. One sweet family even handed me a bottled water. I asked them if they would mind if I just poured it directly over my head. They laughed. At one point yesterday, I tried to drink water through my face mask. At another point, I tried to drink it through my face shield. Neither worked, BTW.

The polls closed at 8, and the rule was if you were in the parking lot by 8, you got to get your ballot in. So at about 10 to 8, organizers removed the traffic flow bottleneck(s) and allowed dozens of vehicles to stream into the parking lot. This photo is just a tiny slice of the overall picture. It was kind of a festival atmosphere at that point. Auto occupants were taking photos and video of the scene and despite the crush of vehicles and the gridlock, I didn't see any tempers flare. 

Overall, I was really happy to have had the chance to see both vote centers in operation. King County Elections had never done anything like this before (thanks pandemic), so it was cool to see their months of planning work out very well in the end (at least by my eye).

On Tuesday morning, while I was sitting at the rather lonely vote center in Century Link, I couldn't help but start wondering if Tuesdays were a difficult day for most people to go vote. Wouldn't a Saturday election day be better, for instance. 

Turns out there is an antiquated reason people vote on Tuesdays. I had CJ write a short report about it. 

Since the mid-19th century, elections in the USA have typically been held on Tuesdays. This largely has to do with the customs (and at least one custom that persists to the present day) of America at the time.

According to John M. Cunningham, a former writer for Encyclopædia Britannica, two days of the week were absolutely not options for voting days: Sunday and Wednesday. On Sunday, most Americans at the time went to church. so they couldn't vote that day. On Wednesday, several towns and cities held "market days," where agricultural workers would sell their crops to locals. Especially in pre-Model T America, travelling to a nearby town or church would often necessitate a "travel day," or a day where the primary focus is travelling from one place to another. As Cunningham put it, "If people couldn’t use Sunday or Wednesday as their travel day, then that meant election day couldn’t be on Monday or Thursday, either. And so Tuesday was perceived as the best option."

GETTING FIGGY WITH IT: While it's a terrible year for tomatoes and squash (at least based on our garden and posts I've seen on Seattle gardening groups), it seems like it's a bumper crop year for figs. 

Our neighbor has a big fig tree, and a lot of its branches hang out over into our yard.  In the three summers we've been here, we've basically just ignored the sticky fruit, not really knowing what to do with it. But since our own garden efforts were so un-bountiful, I figured this was the time to put the figs to some use. 

The first thing that came to mind was homemade Fig Newton cookies. I scoured the Internet for recipe ideas and finally found one that seemed workable to me (and with what we had on hand).  So, we picked 16 or so figs and got down to business.

The first step was boiling them for 45 minutes (peels and all) with 1 cup of water, a cinnamon stick, and 2 cups of sugar (yikes!).

Afterwards, that pot was drained and its contents cooled. 

While the figs were cooking, I made the dough. Just a basic butter, sugar, flour, baking powder situation. 

The recipe said to roll the dough out about 1/4 inch thick, and then cut that into strips that wound up being about 4 inches wide. Those were slathered with the fig jam, and then folded in half and pinched shut.

They came out a little crustier than I had hoped for, so I cut them into cookie-sized pieces while they were still warm.

They were pretty OK, if you like cookies and you like figs.

Weekend Scenes

CASTING ABOUT: Saturday I was up bright and early and piloted my car to the stadium district. How I wish I was headed to a game, but, no. It was for work.

Specifically, working for King County Elections at a vote center in the Exhibition Hall at Century Link Field.

Neat thing about Washington state: You can register to vote up until the day of the election. Also, we're an all mail in state, but people move, lose they ballots and stuff, but it's easy to get a replacement right up to election day.

For the past month I've been working the database, uploading voters' records. It has been so interesting learning about the checks and balances of the system. It's impressively secure, with multiple levels of authentication. 

My role on Saturday was as a greeter, welcoming voters and appropriately directing them.It was a very quiet day. But we did have one celebrity guest, Blitz, the Seahawks' mascot.

I appreciate the Seahawks helping get out the vote. They even brought us some cool stickers to share with voters!

We'll see what kind of traffic Monday brings. And Tuesday is election day, so that is almost certain to be super busy.

MEANWHILE, ACROSS THE STREET: On My lunch break, I decided to head across the street to check out one of my favorite places on the planet, the Seattle Mariners' stadium, T-Mobile park.

It was a bittersweet stroll.

Honestly, it was downright depressing seeing the stadium "boarded up." It was a ghost town on the sidewalks and concourses.

During my stroll, I couldn't help but notice how much more magenta the stadium is. 

Sigh. I saw that coming when T-Mobile bought the naming rights.

My main mission on the visit was to try to see some baseball. I knew the Mariners had a home game that day, and that they're should be some action at the ballpark.

So I walked along the outfield side of the stadium, trying to find an angle for a view of the field. I really didn't think there were any straight lines of vision, and all of the openings were almost entirely blocked, which was clearly purposeful. They don't want pathetic fans like me standing out in the sidewalk, trying to watch the game.

That said, where there's a will, there a way.

I found an opening when I could see the infield and home plate reflected in the glass of a concession stand! 

I could see the field crew at work, watering the grass and dragging the infield dirt.

After work, I went back across the street and watched some batting practice. I could hear the stadiums music - I was in heaven given that it was Lou Reed's "Take a Walk on the Wild Side." And I could hear the crack of the bat on the ball. So, so sweet. 

I long to sit in the stands and root, root, root for the home team.

Effing pandemic.