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.

Doggone

HAPPY ENDING: Yesterday I posted about a runaway dog we scooped up off a busy street. We fostered him over night and Christian took him to the local county shelter yesterday afternoon. We saw his photo posted on their website this morning. 

Unfortunately, the shelter posted his found location incorrectly. And the runaway was not neutered. I asked Christian to call the shelter, as I thought them having wrong info on the post might prevent the owner from claiming him. So, Christian called and the shelter told him his owner was looking for him and had called them right after the photo was posted. So little Tuk (as we named him - he doesn't look like a Jerry to me) is back with his person. We hope it's a happy home. He's a sweet little doggo and deserves a happy home.

MARS-BOUND: While most of the West Coat slept, there was a big ol' to do on the East Coast of the United States yesterday. Specifically, at Cape Canaveral, where NASA's latest Mars mission rocketed off a launch pad. The latest Mars rover, Perseverance, is on board. The rover will focus on studying Mars' habitability, seeking signs of past microbial life, collecting and caching Samples, and prepping for future missions.  

This neat video from United Launch Alliance is a quick recap of the rocket action.


I love this photo of technicians Technicians working on the Mars 2020 rover at JPL install the rover motor controller assembly, the electrical heart of the rover's mobility and motion systems.

SPLASHDOWN SET!: We were definitely glued to the television when two astronauts hitched a ride in a brand new SpaceX capsule back on May 30, 2020. The duo on board, Doug Hurley and  Robert Behnken are heading back to Earth this weekend, if everything goes as planned. They'll be dropping back to the Big Blue Marble under parachutes, into the Atlantic Ocean.

A child of the Apollo era, I do love me a splashdown. The shuttle missions of the 80s-00s were important and exciting, of course, but, to me, landing the shuttle like a plane never felt as dramatic as a capsule bobbing in the ocean.

Following is a timeline of the return:
Saturday, August 1, 6:10 a.m. PDT: DM-2 Farewell Ceremony (On Orbit)  
Saturday, August 1, 2:15 p.m. PDT  Preparations and Undocking
Sunday, August 2 11:42 a.m. PDT : Splashdown!
                Watch Here: https://www.nasa.gov/nasalive  

All of the events can be viewed here: https://www.nasa.gov/nasalive

While on board the International Space Station, Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley performed tests on Crew Dragon in addition to conducting research and other tasks with the space station crew. Behnken conducted four spacewalks—and has now conducted ten spacewalks in his career--tying him for the most spacewalks by a U.S. astronaut.

Of Sloths and Dogs

SLOTH LIKE: We're glad that a favorite non profit, Birthday Dreams, is back to accepting donations. Annabelle signed us up for a sloth-themed cake. How fun and unique.

We drew up a few different schematics, and finally wound up with the idea of a sloth hanging from a tree, with a couple of sloth friends down below.

The rocks are chocolate, the path is brown sugar, and the sloths are all edible modeling chocolate and marshmallow fondant. 

It took a little engineering to make sure the tree could support the hanging sloth.

Christian delivered the cake with the kids. He took numerous photos of it, but there must have been something on his lens or something because most all of them are super blurry or otherwise not OK, unfortunately. So we don't have a photo of the finished cake. :( Use your imagination.

And yes, those are Tootsie Rolls as the border around the cake bottom.

DOG DAY: We were headed home last night around 7 after enjoying a tabletop card game and some sodas and a couple of pints at a local place (outdoors and super socially distanced) when our trajectory changed a bit. We came off the freeway and Christian exclaimed, "There's a dog!"

We're all about dog spotting and saw this tiny white turbo running toward us across 5 lanes of traffic. "Pull over!" I screamed at Christian, who was driving. We flipped a U-turn and backtracked to get ahead of the running dog. Annabelle and I jumped out of the car and basically the little guy ran into her arms.

He had no collar, bad teeth, long nails, not neutered. ... But he is the sweetest boy!

We brought him home, fed him, watered him, and took him on a walk with our two dogs. Tuk, BY FAR, was the best behaved of the three. (I named him Tuk because we found him in Tukwila.)

CJ spent the night in the basement with Tuk. The dog was so polite. Didn't jump up on furniture unless invited. Was stoic and quiet (until, after a bit, we'd leave him in the basement alone for awhile. Then he'd bark for companionship).

Around noon today, the kids and Christian too Tuk to a local shelter. 

On the way there he got to live his best life, head hanging out the car window.

The shelter folks were nice and encouraging, per Christian. They told him they were almost certain Tuk would be adopted if he's not reunited with his owner. Christian left our contact info just in case. It's not a no kill shelter, and Tuk doesn't deserve that end. 

Feeding Teens

MEGA MEALS: Many hours at MPA on Friday and Saturday were spent getting ready for our monthly gig prepping and serving 80+ meals at a youth homeless shelter in the University District on Saturday evening.

On Friday, we boiled up about 50 cups of salad pasta (cute little tubes) for a mountain of macaroni salad. We  also cooked up 20 pounds of chicken with barbecue flavor. No big deal, ha ha.

Also on the menu were watermelon, dill pickle spears, and nice big cookies.

We headed up to the U District and arrived there a few minutes after 5. When Teen Feed's director of community engagement Janine Kennedy saw us loading in on Saturday evening, she declared, "It looks like a summer barbecue!"

That was exactly what we were after with this menu, so mission accomplished! We had several friends help provide many items for the dinner. CJ and Christian collected those in the alley, while Annabelle, Kennedy and I prepped in the kitchen. Once the stuff was collected, it was all hands on deck in the kitchen.

Annabelle's duties included bagging the meals up. We had options for everyone, including vegan and gluten free diners. 

CJ can pretty much claim 'toastmaster' status at this point. He spend a hour toasting 90-plus buns to perfection. 

Let me tell you, the BBQ sandwiches were HEFTY. We loaded them up with a half pound or so of meat apiece. While we were prepping, the kitchen smelled so wonderful.

The cookies were nestled in french fry wrappers. That worked quite well.

And can we talk about the pickles? Such a simple thing, but it thrilled people to no end. We cut the big pickles into spears for easier eating and bagged them. Not only were the pickles loved, but imagine our surprise when we started fielding requests for 'pickle juice shots,' I kid you not.  Needless to say, the dills were a HUGE hit!

Ever since the pandemic hit, we have had to shift from buffet-style service, dine in, to to go. It has been hard. It has meant only one family in the kitchen instead of multiple, plus the added work of having to box or bag or whatever each and every item for the to go service. 

But somehow, every month we've made it all work. The need to feed is bigger now than ever. 

Seat Geeks

BOYS AND GIRLS OF SUMMER: Baseball is back. Well, sort of.

The season usually starts in March, but it's late July - post all-star break in the pre-COVID world - and the 'spring training' games are just getting underway. We watched an intra-squad game tonight. It was played at an empty T-Mobile Park, with fan noise piped in. 

And fake fans is the way it's going to go for the rest of the season, as long as it lasts before COVID shuts it all down.

But in the meantime, the only way we will be able to get into the park is via a printed picture on recyclable material. ...

Enter Major League Baseball's Seat Fleet program. For just $30 (I hear it's lots more in some parks, like Dodger Stadium), you can have your likeness fill a seat during home games this shortened 60-game season. And so, it seemed like we needed to get in on the Mariners Seat Fleet. (The Mariners are donating a portion of every purchase to non-profit organizations supporting COVID-related relief efforts in the community.) 

Fun fact: If your cutout "catches" a foul ball during a game, they say they'll mail the cutout fan  the baseball!

So, we just had to get in on the fun. But it wasn't easy. I wanted to use existing favorite Ms'-related photos.
Like this one of Rick and Ken, circa 1995, in their Halloween costumes. I 'made' their jerseys, in that I bought
blank grey ones, stitched the blue on, and made the Seattle on the front and their names on the back.

Their names being Buhner (Rick) and Charleton (Ken), two favorites from that team.   

The tricky part was separating the kids enough to fit the parameters of the cutouts.

I had to invent arms, fill in trees, erase people and more. Then look like a hot mess below, but they seemed to fit OK on the Seat Fleet website. 

Time will tell. ...