Dreamers

 

CAKING IT: Last week, we cooked up another Birthday Dreams donation. The 12-year old girl loves to play video games on her Nintendo Switch, so we decided to make a life-sized edible Switch atop her chocolate brownie cake with white chocolate filling and vanilla buttercream. 

The handheld console is a big cookie covered in fondant, modeling chocolate and sugar sheet. We used CJ and Annabelle's Switch as our model.

Below, Annabelle is cutting homemade marshmallow fondant to cover the controllers. We were very careful to try to match the exact color of the Switch's red and blue.

The cookie was carefully tilted against a corn dog stick stuck down into the two-layer, quarter sheet cake.

We hope she liked it! (The name in the photo above has been changed for anonymity.)

Our previous project for Birthday Dreams was for a child who wanted a tie-dyed themed party. We wanted to do something more than just ice the cake in a tie-dyed theme, so we finally thought to make little tie-dyed t-shirt cookies to help decorate the cake.

The child's favorite colors were red, purple, and blue, so we used those to decorate the cookies. 

It was a swirled, sugary mess during the process!

And, of course, we didn't just want to leave the cookies plain - they needed graphics on them. So, Annabelle fired up her Cricut and cut out peace signs, happy faces, and other groovy objects.

We put the child's age on the front-and-center cookie. And our cake topper was an over-sized tie-dyed t-shirt with their name on it. (The name has been changed to protect anonymity in the photo below.)

With these out the door, it's time to pick a cake for our December project.

Teen Feed Times Two

LOCALS ONLY: 

Washington state is home to so many delectable edibles, and that fact was on display at our Teen Feed dinner service in July. 

The main attraction was Seattle dogs. We served jumbo Costco dinner franks and Field Roast vegan stadium dogs on big' ol Franz Pioneer rolls (all three companies are founded in Seattle). 

It wouldn't be a Seattle dog without a copious amount of cream cheese, plus genuine Walla Walla sweet caramelized onions. Would you believe we went through about 10 pounds of them!? And would you believe we here at Mag Prep made all of those. (I have learned from previous Teen Feeds to do that outside, so our house doesn't smell like onions for a month.)

Other Seattle dog topping choices included jalapenos, shredded cheddar cheese, and seven (!) types of condiments - everything from the standard ketchup and mustard to sriracha and sweet Thai chili.

There were four varieties of Tim's Cascade Chips to choose from, and many people were back for seconds (or more) on these. (Jalapeno and Sea Salt & Vinegar were the favorites, if you're wondering.) 

We were fortunate to receive a generous donation from Seattle's DRY Botanical Bubbly for our beverage for the "locals only" meal. Rainier Cherry, Vanilla, Ginger, Cucumber and Lavender sparkling water were *such* a refreshing treat for the teens (and the Teen Feed staff loved it, too). 

Dessert was nothing short of spectacular. I'm serious! The morning of Teen Feed I picked up a flat of the most delicious raspberries I've ever tasted from the Carpinito Brothers' produce market down in Kent. The berries were harvested that same morning! (If you haven't been to Carpinito's  before, it's worth a field trip some time!) To go with, Annabelle harvested huge stalks for rhubarb from our garden. The very-local rhubarb and raspberries were expertly mixed with strawberries and the delightful combo was served with beautifully baked Krusteaz shortcake/scones. Add a little Darigold whipped cream, also local, and it was a stunningly wonderful treat. Definitely a dessert to remember!

Ice, napkins, to go containers and a festive tablecloth ... there are so many pieces to the Teen Feed puzzle. We try to remember all of the little things along with the big things each month.

Multiple teens voiced deep appreciation for the array of food and drink they had to choose from to build a special dinner customized to their personal preferences.

In addition to the 30 meals we box up for ROOTS, the in-person Teen Feed guest count is on the rise, and boy are they a hungry bunch! For example, our very first guest requested TWO huge franks on his bun (that's a half pound of hot dog!), and another young man had at least four bags of chips. I was glad I went ahead and bought an extra 14-pack of hot dogs and bonus buns ahead of our service, or we would have been down to our last dog at closing time. The meager leftovers we did have went to the nearby Community Fridge.

After the service, I made sure to send a customized thank you card to the DRY Soda folks for their generous donation

GONE VIRAL: Our Teen Feed menu in August was a fun one. Hoping that millions of viral video viewers couldn't be wrong, we turned to TikTok for recipe ideas for our Teen Feed service. Upon learning the inspiration for the evening's menu, the Teen Feed lead exclaimed, "Your team brings it every time! I can't wait to tell the kids the theme tonight!"

So that diners could learn more about what inspired what they were eating, I printed little signs with QR codes that would take them to the viral videos for each menu item.

Our main entree was the wildly-viral and super hearty feta pasta bake. When it went viral, it was so popular, an entire country (Finland) experienced a feta cheese shortage. There are many versions of this recipe online. I favor the New York Times' version, with just one alteration: Right before the final bake, I add one pound of browned Italian sausage to up the protein and flavor. This recipe became an instant family favorite when we test drove it!   

As a side, we served a super healthy, beautiful Green Goddess salad. It's kind of a like a pesto coleslaw, in my opinion. It's so good! We served it with tortilla chips in case people wanted to treat it like a dip. 

Just look at how fresh and healthy these ingredients look as we prepped the Green Goddess at home. 

Here's the finished product.

Ranch pickles were a fun and tasty treat. Plus, they're so easy to make (one packet of Hidden Valley Ranch dip poured into a jar of pickles; shake and refrigerate for a day or so). "Pickles and ranch are two of my favorite things. I can't wait to try them together!" one guest exclaimed.

The pickles were gobbled up with gusto!

Creamy Lemonade was our special beverage for the service. Served in little mason jars with colorful paper straws and a slice of lemon on the rim, it was a pretty as it was tasty - almost like liquid lemon meringue pie. "This lemonade is awesome!" raved one teen.  

Our leftover pasta bake went to the Tiny Home Village near Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, and the balance of the leftovers went to the Community Fridge a couple of blocks away from Teen Feed.

Of course, we're already planning the September menu. Since fall and football are in the air, we're going with a tailgating party theme. Steak nachos supreme and more!

Buzzing Around

HAPPY BUMBLE: Above is one of the dozens - or perhaps even hundreds - of bumblebees that visit our yard on the daily. This one loved our lavender. You can see it has been packing pollen onto its 'hips.' 

FRIDAY NIGHT STROLL: On July 15, CJ and I went for a Friday evening stroll through parts of  Seattle's expansive ( ) Volunteer Park. Our first stop was the Louisa Boren Lookout.

It's at the northeast corner of the park, and offers views of Lake Washington, Husky Stadium, and the Cascades. There were a number of people there enjoying their dinner al fresco. 

Oddly, the city of Seattle Parks' Website doesn't offer any information about who Louisa Boren is or was. I'm guessing she was part of the Boren family that is now a  major street running through the city, near now Interstate 5.

A quick Google search told me there is also a Seattle Public Schools building named after her (it's in West Seattle). Per the school's website, Boren (1827-1916) "was one of the Washington Territory pioneers and a founder of the city of Seattle."  

We also strolled the historic Lake View Cemetery. I could spend hours there. There are so many stories there. One of them involves an expansive terrace where members of the Denny family are buried. Interestingly enough, Louisa Boren's mother was widowed young, and she remarried into another Seattle-famous family, the Dennys. Interestingly, Louisa ended up becoming a Denny, as well, by marrying her step brother, David Denny (and her sister Mary Ann married a Denny step-brother, as well). 

Per the bio, in addition to being a teacher and a mother of eight, Louisa Boren was an early suffragette, and and advocate for the Chinese workers settling in Seattle.

In another part of the cemetery, one towering monument certainly captured our attention. Upon closer examination, we  learned it is to honor American soldiers of Japanese heritage from the Seattle area who died in World War II.

I love the FDR quote on it: “Americanism is a matter of the mind and heart. Americanism is not, and never was, a matter of race or ancestry.”

We definitely had to stop by to pay respects to Bruce and Brandon Lee, who rest side by side. It's hard to believe Bruce Lee died 49 years ago. Wow.  And Brandon was killed more than 29 years ago.

It's hard to read in the photo, but the inscription on Brandon's grave reads, "Because we don't know when we will die, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. Yet everything happens a certain number of times, and a very small number, really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon that's so deeply a part of your being that you can't even conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four or five times more. Perhaps not even that. How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps twenty. And yet it all seems limitless." 

Definitely food for thought. ...

Caticorn Cake

FUN ONE: We try to do at least one Birthday Dreams cake a month. For July, Annabelle selected a  request for a caticorn cake from the wish list. 

"What is a caticorn?" one might wonder. Well, we figured it was a hybrid of a cat and a unicorn. We did some Googling and saw many a cute caticorn example. 

Our resident sculptor, Annabelle, shaped the creature's body and head out of modeling chocolate.

Below is what our table looked like on Wednesday night about 11 p.m. You'll see a few horns strewn about the workspace. Annabelle made probably 5 before she was satisfied.

Here's the horn that made the cut. Notice the tiny gumpaste flowers on the crown and collar. A nice touch, don't you think?

There is also a little heart on the caticorn's hip, just for fun.

We decided to cover the sides of the cake with sprinkles, because in our minds, sprinkles and caticorns just seem to go together. We made our own colorful sprinkle mix, blending 8 or so different tubs and jars of sprinkles we had on hand. The child's favorite colors are teal and purple, so those figured prominently in the mix.

We always send a little write up along with our cakes, explaining a bit about how they were made and warning people to look out for things like, "The caticorn is edible, but watch out for toothpicks in the horn and neck area." We also include instructions  and photos, like the one below, about how to handle the cake topper and put it on once it's party time. 

We were really happy with this cake. It was colorful, cute, and custom. Annabelle used her Cricut to cut out the child's name (which has been altered in the photo at the top of this post, for anonymity). 

We hope the birthday girl loved the cake and that she has a special day.

Father's Day and Fireworks

DAD'S DAY: Turning back time here for a recap of Father's Day festivities last month.

If the Mariners are playing at home on Mother's Day or Father's Day there is a very good (like 90+ percent) chance we'll be at those games. This season we spent Mother's Day at the park, and were there on Father's Day, as well.

Father's Day happened to coincide with a celebration of Juneteenth. We'd never seen the Juneteenth flag before. It's the rightmost one in the photo below.

It was so cold in our seats in the shade (yes, in mid-June!), that before the game, we walked around to find a sunny spot in the stadium. We wound up standing by the ROOT Sports broadcast team for a bit. Below, former Ms catcher-turned broadcaster- waves at us and says, "Happy Father's Day!"

Unfortunately, there wasn't a lot to cheer about on the field. The Ms lost 0-4 to the Angels. But a bad day at the ballpark is better than most other days other places, so it was still fun.

Afterward, we drove down to West Seattle and got some Hawaiian take out food for dinner.

But back to the game ... During the game there was a little 'excitement.' The stadium-wide emergency alarm went off. 

I only took 13 seconds of video, but it went on for more than a couple of minutes. It was rather disconcerting, to say the least. 

We didn't feel an earthquake. We didn't see or smell fire. So ... what's the emergency? Because we live in modern day America, my mind immediately went to an active shooter, of course. Fortunately, we didn't hear any gunfire, either.

Play was stopped and the managers and umpires got together to talk things over while the alarm continued to blare. There were no instructions or explanation on the big screen or PA for guests. No 'Stay in your seats while we investigate' or any such message. I kept scanning the crowd, looking at people to see if anyone was streaming for the exit. We had seats right on the main concourse and were close to an exit, so we stayed put, but I'm hear to tell you, if we'd been up in our usual nosebleed seats or were somewhere where egress wasn't easy, we would have been out of there.

Meanwhile, CJ was working an escalator across the stadium from us. Come to find out he has never had training what to do when the alarm goes off (rather MAJOR OOPS! if you asked me). He recalled reading in an online training module that in an emergency, escalators should be turned off, so that's what he did. He also advised guests not to enter the stadium until the cause of the alarm was determined, which seems prudent. 

Eventually, the alarm was turned off, but no one was ever given an explanation of what happened. CJ sent an email to one of his supervisors, requesting that there be training for what to do in an emergency and suggesting guests should be informed, as well. 

As of this writing, a couple weeks later, CJ still hasn't had any training about what to do in the event of an alarm, but when the alarm went off  again earlier this week (early July) apparently there was a PA announcement with information that it was a false alarm, and CJ's supervisor told him his email helped  make that happen. So bravo, CJ!

FIREWORKS: Just two days before Father's Day, we were hanging out on the streets outside of T-Mobile Park. Our primary reason for being there was to pick CJ up after work. However, we enjoyed some pyrotechnic entertainment while we waited.

It was Star Wars night at the game, and after the game, there were fireworks set to Star Wars music.

I took a couple of crappy cell phone shots of the rockets' red glare.

And a short video of the finale. I assure you, Star Wars music was playing, but all you can hear is the booms!

Teen Feed Times Two

In my dearth of blog posts, I have failed (until now) to chronicle the last couple of Teen Feeds we hosted. Let me fix that. ...  

CAMP OUT: This past Saturday, we had a summer camp out theme as our inspiration. Saturday was (finally!) a hot one in Seattle, and we were hopping in the basement kitchen at University Lutheran Church LC to put together the meal multiple people helped make happen through their sponsorships and donations. 

I usually publish our wish list a couple of weeks before our fourth Saturday of the month service. And I usually have a good number of people sign up to help post haste. But not this month ... it was crickets. The wish list was lonely, asks unfulfilled. This prompted me to recall that historically June is a *really* hard month for Teen Feed. There's so much going on with end of school stuff, people traveling, etc. that something has to give for people and often that 'maybe next month' is Teen Feed. 

I'm not gonna lie, this month was a bit of a bear - other than our own family, only one volunteer signed up to actually make something this month. That's an all time low, for sure. The good news is, we had plenty of sponsors, it was a pretty easy menu and I had the time and tools to get the stuff made! Thank goodness for my Instant Pots! 

The main entree was BBQ chicken, and I came up with a good system for getting a bunch of it cooked quickly. We seasoned the chicken with a BBQ rub from Costco, and then seared the skin on the chicken in a cast iron pan with some oil. I got it good and crispy. Next, into the Instant Pot the thighs and legs went for nine minutes, followed by a 'quick release' of the pressure. Then, it was into foil pans, slathered with BBQ sauce and put under the broiler for a couple of minutes - just until it started to get a little char on it, so it looked barbecued. We just reheated it on site for the teens. It worked great! 

We've never served BBQ chicken at Teen Feed before, and I'm hear to tell you, it was a hit! Kennedy, another volunteer and I cooked up about 44-plus pounds of bird, plus we had savory BBQ seitan cutlets as a vegan option, as well. 

I used my Instant Pots to cook the corn on the cob to perfection.

It was drenched in butter and covered in cotija. Yum! 

You can't have a summer camp out meal without beans and weenies, so we made 55 hearty servings worth! 

Another camp out must is watermelon. I got lucky and bought three of the most beautiful watermelons I've ever seen. They were *so* red and juicy and sweet! Annabelle expertly cubed the fruit into bite sized pieces for guests, who gobbled it up out of 12-ounce serving cups. One diner came for seconds, thirds, and fourths before we finally just gave him a big ol' bowl of his own. :)

At the last minute we had an extra task added to our plate: Teen Feed requested we use up several enormous heads of lettuce that were donated from a local grower. We turned that gift into 30 big Caeser side salads that Kennedy's friend Megan boxed up for ROOTS (an overnight teen shelter) and we had two enormous bowls for our dine-in guests. I'm happy to report, they ate it all! Veggies for the win!

CJ, Annabelle, and I made 55 servings of indoor s'mores. 

And since it was so hot out, we made sure to bring bags of ice so the teens could have nice, cool drinks with dinner.

It's always gratifying hearing feedback from diners. 

"Your food is delicious!" raved one Teen Feed staffer. (Teen Feed staff often sit and dine with the guests so as to create more of a casual, comfortable connection with them as they share info about services that can help the teens into stable housing, health care, and more.)

One teen's comment was kind of heart-melting. He said, "This reminds me of home." 

The food was such a hit, there were hardly any leftovers, but we did send a few meals to the nearby Community Fridge at University Heights. 

Part of the work we do for Teen Feed involves thoroughly cleaning the kitchen after every shift. There's a list of things every meal team is supposed to do every time they're in the kitchen, including mopping the floor, old school style. CJ takes on that task and does a really good job. I can't prove it, but based on the color of the water in the bucket almost immediately, I'm predicting most teams must not see the 'mop floors' directive. ;)

OPA!: In May, we offered a Greek themed-menu for the first time at Teen Feed. It was an absolutely beautiful meal with lots of bright colors and big flavors.

I found a really great recipe online for chicken gyros. The meat was absolutely delicious! It was served in toasted pitas with lots of veggies (chopped tomatoes, cucumber, Romaine lettuce and diced red onions. 

We made a gallon-plus of homemade hummus from scratch. I soaked the chickpeas overnight, cooked them in my Instant Pot the next day, and then followed a solid recipe and used my food processor to whip up the hummus. Kennedy made a gallon of tzatzaki for the gyros. Of course we had lots of cucumbers, carrots, feta and kalamata olives to go with.  

We also served up tasty little triangles of spanikopita, and the dolma absolutely made one in-person diner's day. When he came back for seconds all he wanted was more dolma!

Sweet treats came in the form of Greek butter cookies, which my friend Emily and I made.

Peach and honey Greek yogurt smoothies were another dessert in liquid form.  

All in all, a really great meal that is now a family favorite.