Go south to Seattle, pics comin' soon

[shootingstar]

..it's better...from Vancouver. More of a descent with some hills.

I posted part of trip http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showthread.php?t=26188

Yesterday did 64 kms. from Marysville onward in sun and cloud. Took forever combined with my turtle pace and my dearie stopping during lst half of trip, taking photos of certain routes, cycling facilities. (It's his long-term hobby as an advocate but now he's started up a cycling facility planning firm..pics have a more semi-serious intent..)

Met up with gracious mimitabby, her energetic sidekick (ragidon), Salsa and her DH, jocelynf for a fantastic homemade meal which included ragidon's plum and apple pie. It had TE carved on top.

Please, please..be patient for photos. Dearie bought a memory card not compatible with his laptop that he dragged around on his bike during our trip...I have to run home and try to download later this wk.

But it was a good one, many thx. And everyone got a free invite to our meals in VAncouver. YOu might want to bike over to make your stomachs ready.. :D

[mimitabby]

Shootingstar, that's RALEIGHDON, as in the bike.

We had a wonderful evening last night. The 7 of us crowded around our table and ate fantastic food, a few of us good and hungry from rides (some having ridden further than others)
Raleighdon & I rode our bikes downtown through the horrible traffic snarl of an important football game. (something about Cougars) It was wonderful and exhilarating to leave all those cars behind. Then Shooting Star who had had enough of biking all the way from canada and I got on our 36 bus and went home.
Mr Shooting Star and Raleighdon rode home, added an extra 6 miles to the ride (scenic route) and beat us home!


We didn't have a working camera, so you WILL have to wait for other people's pictures.

We got to know Mr Shootingstar, who is a bicycling activist, and Mr Salsa, who has lead an interesting life BB (BeforeBiking) and still does now, but on a bike.
We had amazing scones, wonderful tomatoes with Mozzarella, additions to the meal that Raleighdon (with a little help from me) prepared. He found halibut cheeks and put them on the barbeque while he sauted giant prawns in garlic and served them with Capellini in a pesto sauce made with all organic ingredients, served along side the salad again, composed of the veggies we get from our organic farm share.

[NbyNW]

That was some meal!

Mr. jocelynlf is jealous. Says he wants salsa's blue cheese scone recipe and that next time he will start taking allergy meds so he can come over and have some of that fantastic pie.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend, shootingstar & Mr.!

[salsabike]

It was a fabulous dinner and a great time. We will be glad to see Mr. Jocelynlf next time too. A Raleighdon pie is NOT to be missed. Boy, that guy makes a yummy pie crust. Sheesh.

I've used this scone recipe for years and years. I got bored with the caraway seeds so put in a bunch of crumbled blue cheese instead. Makes for an INTENSE-flavored scone.

Scone Recipe


Put in bowl 2 cups flour, ½ cup sugar or less, pinch of salt, and 4 tsps. of baking powder. Sift three times.

Add ½ stick of butter, cut into pea-size pieces.

Separately, blend one egg and enough milk for one cup total, or a little less.

Add caraway seed to dry mix.

Stir in liquids.

Knead 12 times. Form a round 1” thick. Cut into 8-12 wedges. This dough is very sticky so just kneading it and scooping big spoons-worth out of the bowl actually works well too.

Bake at 400 degrees on a buttered cookie sheet until light brown, about 14-15 minutes.