Spicy Tuna Avocado Wrap

 

Here’s a lunch idea that my kids actually liked: spicy tuna avocado wraps. For the vegetables in the wrap, I used grated carrots and lettuce because that’s pretty much the only ones the Fox would eat, but for myself, I would add strips of red bell pepper and cucumber too!

I am still looking for the perfect way to pack wraps and tacos in the lunchbox. This held together with toothpicks, though now I often use wax paper. I am open to suggestions!

2 (5-oz) cans albacore tuna, drained
1 avocado
2 Tbsp. sriracha
1 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
2 to 3 Tbsp. celery, finely chopped
2 Tbsp red onion, finely chopped
2 green onions, chopped
1 Tbsp. fresh cilantro, chopped
salt and pepper, to taste
2 heaping cups leafy green lettuce
1 cup raw veggies thinly sliced into matchsticks (cucumber, red bell pepper and carrots)
4 (8-inch) whole wheat tortillas

In a small bowl, mash together the tuna and avocado, until combined. Stir in the sriracha, Dijon mustard, celery, red onion, green onions, cilantro and salt and pepper, mixing well.

To assemble the wraps, top each tortilla with leafy greens, sliced veggies and divide the spicy tuna mixture evenly among the wraps. Tightly roll up the tortillas. Slice and enjoy!

Maple Mushroom Cupcakes

 

For Christmas 2024, the Engineer gave me a book called Vegetable Cakes, by Ysanne Spevack – at my request, don’t worry! My mother saw it and it was right up her alley too, so she picked a recipe that we made together: these maple mushroom cupcakes. I’ve simplified the instructions below, and the frosting recipe is mine (the original called for a tofu frosting, but since both my mother and I agree that those frostings are always failures IRL, we improvised). These cupcakes were surprisingly good!

For the cupcakes
2 cups (250 g) whole wheat flour
4 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. ground cardamom
½ tsp. pink or sea salt
400 g (14 oz.) button mushrooms
½ cup (1 stick) lactose-free butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup (115 g.) coconut sugar (we used brown sugar)
2 eggs
½ cup almond milk or lactose-free milk
2 Tbsp. maple syrup
½ cup (75 g) black sesame seeds
a cluster of small edible mushrooms, for decorating

For the frosting
1 cup (2 sticks) lactose-free butter, at room temperature
1 ¼ cup (250 g) powdered sugar, sifted
2 Tbsp. maple syrup
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 pinch of pink or sea salt

Preheat the oven to 350 °F. Line a muffin tin with paper liners (the original recipe says the yield is 9 cupcakes; we made 15).

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, cardamom, and salt in a medium bowl.

Wipe clean the mushrooms, then chop them roughly but quite finely (we did this in the food processor). Aim for the size of Puy lentils, though it doesn’t matter if this is accurate.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and coconut sugar. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing after each addition.

Turn the whisk up to medium and beat while you add half of the almond milk. Add half of the flour mixture, then the rest of the almond milk, the maple syrup, and finally the rest of the flour mixture and the sesame seeds, beating to combine after each addition. Fold in the chopped mushrooms.

Spoon the mixture evenly into the cupcake liners and bake for 23 to 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool completely before frosting.

To make the frosting, beat together the butter and powdered sugar, then add the rest of the ingredients. Frost the cupcakes as desired, using mushrooms or sesame seeds to decorate if you wish.

Tahini Confetti Cake

I’m going through old files, which have become a mess not only because they piled up for too long, but also because I suffered a computer crash last year and some things got irrevocably messed up along the way.

This tahini confetti cake (by Soom) is something that I asked the Engineer to make for my birthday the year before last, and it did not disappoint! I don’t even have a good photo, but it was so good that I wanted to share the recipe. Both the cake and the frosting have some tahini, and the taste comes through in a discrete, yet pleasant, way. Plus, I don’t think I’ve met a rainbow confetti cake I didn’t like!

In this recipe, you’ll want to use the oblong jimmies-type sprinkles, not the small round non-pareil ones, as the latter would bleed more.

For the tahini confetti cake
3 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
2 ½ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. fine sea salt
1 cup lactose-free butter, room temperature
¼ cup tahini
1 ¾ cups sugar
½ cup avocado or vegetable oil
1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
4 eggs, room temperature
½ cup lactose-free sour cream, at room temperature
1 cup lactose-free buttermilk substitute, at room temperature
¾ cup rainbow sprinkles (see note above)

For the tahini buttercream
1 cup lactose-free butter, at room temperature
¼ cup tahini
5 cups powdered sugar, sifted
2-3 Tbsp. lactose-free milk of choice
1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
½ cup rainbow sprinkles, to decorate


For the tahini confetti cake
Preheat oven to 350 °F. Grease the bottom of three 9-inch cake rounds and line each with round parchment paper. Set aside.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and set aside.

Using a hand or stand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar for 3-5 minutes, or until light and fluffy. Add oil and mix on low to incorporate.

Mix in eggs one at a time on medium speed. Add vanilla and sour cream.

Begin adding buttermilk and dry ingredients to the batter, alternating between buttermilk and dry ingredients.

Add sprinkles and fold into batter with a spatula.

Pour cake batter evenly between three lined cake tins. Bake 30-35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of cakes comes out clean.

Remove cake tins from oven and let cakes cool in tins for 30 minutes, before removing and placing on cooling rack to cool completely.

If frosting the cake that day, transfer cakes from cooling rack to the fridge to cool completely before assembling. If baking the day before, allow cakes to cool to room temperature before wrapping in plastic wrap and storing in the refrigerator overnight.

For the tahini buttercream
Cream together butter and tahini until smooth and creamy. Begin to add one cup of powdered sugar at a time, adding the milk and vanilla as it begins to thicken. If the buttercream becomes too thick, add in another tablespoon of milk.

To assemble the cake, place one layer of the cake on a cake stand or serving plate. Add a thin layer of buttercream and repeat with remaining cake layers. Spread buttercream over cake and decorate with sprinkles. Enjoy!

Hawaii

I fully intend to catch up on most recipes since I last wrote (I’ve been busy with my career and am getting close to achieving an important goal, so it’s all good!). In the meantime, I decided to write a blog post about my recent trip to Hawaii, as both a place to keep the information for future reference and in the hopes that it could help shape someone else’s vacation.

I took the Engineer and the boys on a trip to Hawaii earlier this summer, and we had a great time! We split our time between Big Island and Oahu, with roughly five days on each island, and here’s how it went. (If you want a quick guide on the main islands, try this or that, and for more information on Big Island in French, this is great!)

We arrived in Kona at midday, picked up our rental car and made our way to our first stop, the Vanillerie, which is very close to the airport. I really wanted to see vanilla beans in various growth stages! We were lucky to get a quick tour, and Candee gave us tons of information about the plant itself and everything that goes into preparing vanilla for consumption. Did you know that the flower of the vanilla plant only blooms for 4 hours, and must be pollinated by hand if it is to produce a bean? We also got to see the inside of the humidor where the beans are matured, and it smelled just heavenly. We made some purchases at the gift shop, then went to a boba cafe for sustenance, a grocery store for the same, and spent the night at the Sea Village.

The next day, we started with a quick swim at Magic Sands Beach Park, then drove to the other side of the island, taking the northern route. Kona is relatively dry, but things get much greener and more humid as you make your way to the other side of the island! We stopped for lunch at Ippy’s Hawaiian BBQ in Waimea, where we got to try lots of local foods and everything was delicious!

We went to Waipi’o Valley Lookout, which is absolutely worth the drive. The scenery was breathtaking! We also got to learn about King Kamehameha, which would come in handy later in the trip. We then made our way south to Hilo, where we stayed at Arnott’s Lodge. Our room was very spacious, which was great, and we had the loveliest chorus of birds and frogs to go to sleep every night. In Hilo, we did most of our shopping at KTA (we ate our fill of poke and drank a lot of POG!), though I can also recommend Hilo Burger Joint and Tetsumen. We also went to the Hilo Farmers Market to buy tropical fruits we couldn’t try elsewhere.

Day 3 had us doing an activity I was *really* looking forward to – visiting a chocolate farm! We went to Lavaloha, where I had prebooked a tour. We were lucky to have good weather – tours go on rain or shine, and since Hilo is the rainiest city in the U.S., make sure you bring some kind of poncho just in case (though they do lend out umbrellas). We got to see cacao trees on the farm, we tasted fresh cacao beans with the pulp, and we had a chocolate tasting with five of their bars. (Full disclosure: I booked the tour in April, then in May their kitchen burned down, and we visited in June, when they were using other kitchens part-time to make their chocolate.) This was one of my favorite parts of the trip! The location itself was absolutely gorgeous, too, and remote enough that we saw wild pigs and mongooses on the way. We then spent the afternoon at Carlsmith Beach Park; we had to step down into a small lagoon to have access to the ocean, but once there, the water was clear and so comfortable for swimming! The Engineer lost his wedding ring, and the Little Prince managed to find it, so he wins the day. We then took a quick look at Onekahakaha Beach Park as well.

        

The next day was our visit to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, and I will tell you right now, go there EARLY! We got there around 8am and first went to see the Nuhuku lava tube – we had the place almost to ourselves. We then made our way to the active site, stopping at scenic points along the way (don’t miss the steam vents!). We got to see an active lava eruption, which was fantastic, though of course conditions vary. Note also that it was a warm and sunny day, but we could have used a windbreaker up there. When we left, a bit after 10am, there was a line of cars waiting to get in! If you can go early or late, try to do that; otherwise, be patient with everyone, and understand that you may have to park and then hike to the point you want to see if there are no available spots close by.

We had lunch in Hilo, which has a really nice area with shops and restaurants. In the afternoon, we went to Richardson Ocean Park, which has a nice black sand beach. (There is actually some green sand in there too if you look closely!) Entering the water was easier than at Carlsmith, but there are still some rock formations to watch out for.

On our last day on the island, we drove back to Kona and stopped at Mauna Kea on the way. We did not attempt to make it past the visitors’ center (going higher is not recommended for children 12 and under, and we did not have the right type of vehicle), but it was a great experience nonetheless. We were higher than the clouds! And the scenery on the way up and down was beautiful. We had lunch in Kona, on the patio of Aloha Vibes, which was right on the ocean.

There’s so much more to see and do on Hawaii Island! We could have hiked to Akaka Falls, but I had seen them already and the rest of my crew wasn’t interested. I would have liked to go see the green sand at Mahana Beach on the southern tip of the island, but again, I was the only one interested, and it would have taken up hours, so we didn’t do it. It all depends on what your interests and limitations are.

After a short flight to Honolulu, we checked in to the Hilton Hawaiian Village. Now, I stayed there once in 1994 (my parents paid) and once in 2007 (the Engineer’s university paid), and even though this place is much more expensive than what I normally book, we just decided to treat ourselves and be right on Waikiki Beach. And… I’m not saying I regret it, but the place had changed tremendously in the 19 years since I had been there – it’s like a small city now, and so crowded! The elevators certainly couldn’t keep up, so it was a blessing in disguise that we were only on the 4th floor. It was a nice hotel, but just wasn’t the experience I thought I was booking. That being said, Waikiki Beach is definitely the prototype of the sandy beach we wanted!

We spent a few days vegging there, because I think that an important part of beach vacations is to have days when your biggest decision is whether to swim in the pool or in the ocean. There are stores and restaurants nearby if you don’t want to be captive on the on-site places. And on our last day, since our plane was leaving in the evening, we rented a car and were much more active.

We started by going to Koko Crater Botanical Garden, which was free. My original plan had been to go to Little Plumeria Farm, but it was closed that day, and this allowed me to visit a grove of plumeria – one of my favorite flowers! It did not disappoint, and it’s a very short walkable loop directly at the entrance of the gardens. It had more kinds of plumeria than I had ever seen, and I realized that they even have different scents. It was amazing!

Then, we obliged the Fox, whose one request on this trip had been to go see the tallest statue in Hawaii, which is the one of King Kamehameha in Honolulu. We then drove north-west to Haleiwa, a scenic town that was much busier than I had anticipated. We had a delicious lunch at No7 Poke n’ Roll. I had a great poke bowl, and then it turned out they had lactose-free matcha swirl soft serve ice cream, so that was my dessert covered! It did mean that I no longer had room for a Haleiwa bowl further down the road, but that’s the way it goes. Before we left, we stopped at Laniakea Beach, where the Fox and I saw a sea turtle!

Finally, we started making our way back and stopped at the Dole Plantation – the Engineer called it Pineapple Buc-ee’s, and he’s not wrong! The gardens were beautiful and worth the admission price; the kids had fun in the maze (apparently the world’s largest); the souvenir shop as wild; Dole Whip is life. I hope to go again someday!

Batch of links

- The first gluten-free hotel in the US has opened, in Monroe, Louisiana! 

- Here is the best way to peel a hard-boiled egg. 

- The Atlantic had an article about the best free bread in America. While I appreciate the reporting, and love that they made it out to Lambert’s, the fact that it did not win is a travesty! 

- A 62-year-old Texan started branching out and trying new foods. I love this content!

- A great article about knife-sharpening, by Matthew Amster-Burton.

 - I had my first colonoscopy in May. I don’t think anything I write could top what Molly Wizenberg, Catherine Newman, and Anne Helen Petersen said on the subject. 

- I listened to older seasons of a podcast called Family Ghosts, in which every episode examines specific people that loom large in someone’s family history. I particularly liked the season finale of season 2, which was in the form of a musical! It was really good, so if you are looking for something to listen to on your next drive, I highly recommend it. (Each episode is a stand-alone story, so you don’t need to listen to the entire season.) Part 1 is here and then part 2 is here.

- From there, I also listened to two limited series podcasts that are narrative non-fiction. First, Pack One Bag is the story of a Jewish Italian family split by WWII, when some of them managed to escape Italy and others did not. It was so interesting – and, bonus, Stanley Tucci does one of the voices. Then, there was The Grand Scheme: Snatching Sinatra, the story, as recalled by Barry Keenan, of how he kidnapped Frank Sinatra Junior in 1963. This one is wonderfully narrated by John Stamos.

Beef Wellington

 

At some point last year, I started thinking of beef Wellington – namely, how I really wanted to eat some! But to me it’s more of a winter dish, and not the kind of thing I would eat on a Texan summer, so I waited until closer to the holidays (I am catching up on my blogging). Meanwhile, the Little Prince has started being *very* interested in cooking, and he’s watching a lot of YouTube videos starring Nick DiGiovanni (who, I’m told, trained with Gordon Ramsay). It just so happens that one of his most-watched videos is him making beef Wellington. So when I told the Little Prince that I wanted to make it, he was all in!

Honestly, my first thought was to make the version in Maya Angelou’s Hallelujah! The Welcome Table, because the story that accompanies it is great and had really stayed with me (you can read it in two parts starting here). That being said, when I read the recipe and compared it with Nick DiGiovanni’s, I had to admit that his just sounded like it would be way better, so that’s the direction we went. I didn’t make my own mustard because I have a life, I used store-bought chicken bouillon because it’s faster, and I made a few other adjustments here and there, but I really like the result! My only criticism of our version is that the duxelles was a bit too dry. And, well, the sauce was too salty and we don’t think it’s necessary, so I’d skip it next time. (And obviously, since this is both labor-intensive and expensive, I won’t be making it often. But maybe for Christmas?) I served it with carrots (you could try roasting carrots and just starting them in the oven prior to the beef Wellington.)

You can see the recipe ingredients in the description here, the short version of the video here, and compare to Gordon’s Ramsay’s written instructions here. Below is my interpretation.

For the beef
1.5-lb. beef tenderloin
salt and pepper, to taste
2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
½ cup Dijon mustard (my estimation of the quantity)
2 sheets puff pastry
6 slices prosciutto
2 egg yolks + water (for egg wash)
flaky salt, to taste
finely chopped chives (for garnish)

For the duxelles
1 lb. assorted mushrooms
2 Tbsp. olive oil
2 shallots, finely chopped
3-4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
3 Tbsp. red wine
3 bay leaves
salt and pepper, to taste

For the crepes (or you can use your own trusted recipe) 1 cup all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp. granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 pinch of salt
3 cups lactose-free milk

For the sauce (see note above)
2 Tbsp. lactose-free butter
6 sprigs thyme
½ cup chopped shallots
1/3 cup red wine
1 ½ cups reduced chicken stock


For the beef tenderloin
Make sure your beef tenderloin is relatively cylindrical. (You can trim it, and use the trimmings in another recipe.) Liberally salt and pepper the beef tenderloin on all sides.

In a pan, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Sear the beef tenderloin for a few minutes on each side. So here’s one place where we deviated: you want your beef to be just about done to your taste at this point, and we both felt like rare was too raw. We put our seared tenderloin in the oven at 475 °F for 15-20 minutes. We were aiming for medium and perhaps undershot a bit, I blame this on not having a Thermapen, but all this to say, once your beef is seared, feel free to cook it longer, because past this point in the recipe it won’t cook any more, just get warmed up a bit.

Once done, take it off the heat. Brush the beef tenderloin with Dijon mustard on all sides. Set aside.

For the duxelles
Finely chop the mushrooms. (I did this in the food processor.)

In a pan (I would use the same one as for the beef, without even washing it), heat the oil over medium heat. Add the shallots and garlic and sweat until they are translucent, but not browned.

Add the mushrooms and cook down; add the wine, bay leaves, and a generous amount of salt. Cook until the moisture has evaporated and you are left with a paste. (See, mine was perhaps a bit too dry and not pasty enough.) Set aside.

For the crepes
Mix together all the ingredients.

In a clean pan, melt some butter over low to medium heat. Cook your crepes, one at a time. You will probably need two for this recipe; the rest make a great breakfast.

On a work surface like a big cutting board, lay two crepes so that they overlap. Cover at least one crepe (the one furthest away from you) with the prosciutto, then spread out the duxelles over that. Place the beef tenderloin crosswise on the edge furthest away from you, then gently roll it toward you, keeping the crepe around it. Wrap the log in plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 20 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 400 °F.

Meanwhile, spread out your two sheets of puff pastry in the same fashion. Beat together the egg yolks and water to create an egg wash, then brush it over the puff pastry. Unwrap the log of crepe-wrapped beef, then place it crosswise on the side of the puff pastry that is the furthest away from you. Gently roll it forward, wrapping the pastry around it as you go, making sure you pinch the dough over the short ends as well. Trim away the excess pastry and place the roll seam-side down on a baking sheet (I covered mine with parchment paper). Brush the puff pastry with the rest of the egg wash (you can get fancy with the decoration of the dough here). If you are using it, you’ll want to make the sauce now (see below) so that it is ready by the time the beef Wellington is done.

Cook the beef Wellington for 15 to 20 minutes or until the puff pastry has a golden-brown crust.

For the sauce
Heat the butter in a small saucepan, then add the thyme and shallots. Cook for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently, until the shallots turn golden brown. Add the wine and boil until almost completely reduced. Add the stock, bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer until you have the desired consistency. (I ended up making a slurry with 1 tablespoon of cornstarch and 1 tablespoon of water and mixing that in to help things along.)

When everything is ready, slice the beef Wellington, sprinkle with flaky salt and chives, and serve with the sauce. (I also made carrots.)

Seattle

In early June, we got to take a family trip to Seattle with the Engineer’s mother. We had a short trip (three days), but squeezed in the main things I wanted to see and do (and eat!), so here’s a quick summary.

Day 1
We got there midday, driving in from Seattle. Our first stop was Red Mill Burgers for lunch, which was quite good. I ordered the red onion jam burger, but was mistakenly given the verde burger, which was not at all what I had wanted, but I could tell that the base of the burger was great. One thing that I noticed there, and it was going to be a theme in the state of Washington, is that all of the items that registered in my brain as “disposable plastic” were in fact made from plant fibers and compostable! I wish they were standard everywhere – I know that in Texas, plastic is still the norm. And in Quebec, people complain about paper straws that don’t hold up. But these straws and cups seem like the perfect compromise!

We then went to our first attraction, the Chihuly Garden and Glass at the foot of the Space Needle. We bought tickets to visit both, and spent time in the former while waiting for our entry time at the latter. We had seen some of Chihuly’s work at the San Antonio Museum of Art, but this was so much more impressive! There are sculptures that are 20 feet tall, and in every color you can imagine! One of the docents told us that they are dusted every day before the museum opens (we were really wondering ). I really don’t know if I preferred the Sealife Tower, Mille Fiori, or the chandeliers. Most of the glass sculptures are indoors, but there are many outdoors as well, looking like alien flowers in the greenery. This was really worth the visit! The gift shop is also superb, and it took a lot of self-restraint on my part not to buy anything.

Then we moved on to the Space Needle. I liked that there are exhibits explaining its history as well as building factoids as the line of people winds its way to the glass elevators. The top has a revolving restaurant (honestly, it looked more like a bar with only small 2-seater tables); the viewing deck was nice, as we got beautiful views of both Seattle as well as Mount Rainier. This was worth the visit!

Then, we went to Pike Place Market. Honestly, this would be much better in the morning, as shops were closing up already when we got there, but our schedule was tight and this was the best we could do. I almost bought peonies, but I didn’t know if our lodging had a vase, so I ended up just taking pictures. We spent some time looking around, bought pastries at Le Panier, saw the flagship Starbucks with the original logo, and made our way down to the Gum Wall.

We had booked an Airbnb on Dayton Avenue, a nice townhouse near the Woodland Zoo. We stopped at Trader Joe’s on the way and bought our dinner there before settling in for the night.

Day 2
We started off our day with a visit to the Fremont Troll, which was just as I imagined it to be, except the surrounding area was nicer than I imagined it. You can actually climb on the troll as long as you are being respectful of the surroundings, and I think everyone in our group had fun.

We then swung by the Lake View Cemetery to pay our respects to Bruce and Brandon Lee. The site itself if wonderful, too! And it was on to our next stop.

As this was a Saturday morning, the first one of the month, we’d had to foresight to book free tickets to the Spheres. They are a greenhouse with tropical plants in downtown Seattle, and it’s a project by Amazon (the company, not the forest). As the Engineer says, it’s a bit like trying to book concert tickets, on that there’s a lot of demand and you need to keep refreshing the page until you can get through! And you can only book 4 tickets at a time. I really enjoyed the visit. Plus, we were delighted to see that there was a General Porpoise right on the premises, so of course we took a break for doughnuts – and yes, they were every bit as good as advertised! (The kids and I had a cinnamon sugar crueller, a Boston cream doughnut, and a marshmallow chocolate doughnut.)

We then went to lunch at The Whale Wins, which again was just as I had imagined it. It was much quieter than I had expected for a Saturday lunch, which was actually really nice! We ate quite well.

After a pit stop at our townhouse, the Engineer and I took the kids out for a few hours. Our first stop was to visit Frankie Feetsplinters. I’ve become obsessed with Thomas Dambo’s troll sculptures, and since there are six in the Pacific Northwest, I wanted to see some! (The map on his website is unfortunately impossible to navigate, but you can use this one for the USA.)

Our second stop was Discovery Park, where we took the trail recommended by Molly Wizenberg: “Park in the south lot, walk up and over the hill, down through the meadow that slopes toward Puget Sound, and then wind your way down through the woods to the beach. It’s beautiful, year-round.” Well, we didn’t have time to go down to the beach, but we saw the sound, and it was beautiful.

For dinner, since we wanted a broader gluten-free selection for my mother-in-law, we went to a/stir – it had a great menu, and the entire place is gluten-free! We didn’t try the dessert, because I had my heart set on a nearby shop…

We had dessert at Frankie and Jo’s. I had been waiting literally for years to go there! It’s a vegan ice cream shop with awesome flavors; even non-vegans from Bon Appétit love it! I tasted the Blueberry Lavender Pie ice cream (seasonal), and it was really great; I wish I had been hungry enough to eat that one too! I should have asked for a taste of California Cabin, too. But I went with the ones I’d had my eye on all this time, the Salty Caramel Ash ice cream and the Beet Strawberry Rose sorbet. They were out of this world! I’d really like to figure out the recipe for that sorbet in particular. And I just found out that Frankie & Jo’s ships their ice cream domestically, so that’s where my next paycheck is going…

Day 3
We drove out to Mount Rainier, which we’d been seeing from afar since we got there. You definitely have to get there early (before 9:00am) to get a parking spot, but keep in mind that the visitors’ pavilion doesn’t open until 10:00am. We had read that in early June, “it’s possible there will still be snow on the ground.” We’re Canadian, we figured that was totally fine. As it turned out, though, there was so much snow that one of the two trails we were considering (Nisqually Vista Trail) was closed, and the other (Skyline Trail to Myrtle Falls) was open, but… under a lot of snow. People starting their trek had spikes on their shoes (or snow shoes or skis), and walking sticks of ski sticks, and proper snow suits in most cases. I walked up the slope for a bit (maybe a total of 50 feet up, according to Strava), then decided that my shoes were not adequate and I went back down. (The Fox and his grandmother were waiting in the visitors’ center by then, and the Engineer and the Little Prince went up a bit further than I did.)

We did get to enjoy the scenery on the way up and down, though (at least, those of us who weren’t driving), and made a little stop at Narada Falls on the way down.

We then had lunch at Mount Rainier Railroad Dining Company, partly because it was a good location that offered some gluten-free options, and maybe partly also because in Vancouver, we hadn’t been to the “right” location of the Old Spaghetti Factory and I felt like I had been cheated out of the railroad car. This place was all railroad cars, though, and the food was really good! I ended up splitting a hamburger with the Fox because he finished his corndog and was still hungry; the Little Prince and my mother-in-law both had the salmon with blackberries, and the Engineer had the Montecristo sandwich.

On the way back, we stopped by Lincoln Park to see a second Dambo troll, Bruun Idun. I think I liked her more than Frankie! The surroundings are gorgeous, too, as she’s on the edge of the forest near the water. This was a great outing! And the kids spent a little time at the playground too.

We dropped off my mother-in-law at the townhouse so she could rest and made our way to Delancey. If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you might know that I’ve been wanting to go to Delancey since… before it opened over 15 years ago? I can’t help it, I’m such a big fan of Molly Wizenberg, so I was following the whole thing on her blog (Orangette) and then read her memoir about that phase in her life. And on the way there, as we were driving downhill in Ballard, I think we passed her on her bike, then met up again with her at the intersection of 75th Street and 8th Avenue. Molly Wizenberg, if you were wearing a lime green bike helmet and biking with your toddler in her trailer, just know that I was super happy to catch a glimpse of you!

Anyway, we made it to Delancey. Somehow, this was also just as I imagined it, though I couldn’t sum up all the background info I got from Molly Wizenberg (and honestly, it’s not necessary to enjoy a good pizza!). The white pizza looked great, but I decided to go the classic route and got the margherita (and I took Lactojoy, which was totally worth it). We got some of their famous salted chocolate chip cookies to go, too.

So, I hadn’t realized that there was a Frankie & Jo’s literally next door, but what we had on our schedule that evening was Salt & Straw – I’d been wanting to go there ever since I saw this on Instagram! I tasted the Strawberry and Coconut Water Sherbet, and it was good, but I got the Peanut Butter Brittle Caramel Fudge, and that was fantastic! And Salt & Straw does sell online too, including a pack of dairy-free flavors.

Of course, with such a short stay, we didn’t get to do *everything*. If I ever go back, I’d like to go to Bateau, meet up with two friends who live there, maybe explore some neighborhoods more in depth or see more of Molly Wizenberg’s recommendations. And, like, eat at Frankie & Jo’s everyday!