celebrations – Page 7 – The Adventures of a Calamari Queen

John Howie Steakhouse

Hi all! I hope you had a great weekend! Yesterday (Sunday) was my birthday so it was a busy and fun weekend for us. The hubs and I have 10 days between our birthday so this year we decided to just celebrate together because with Thanksgiving next week it’s just going to be busy. We had our birthday dinner at John Howie steakhouse with my In Laws. John Howie is our favorite steakhouse here in Seattle. We’ve been here many times and we are ALWAYS impressed with the food and the service. It was so nice of them to give us a birthday cake/dessert of our choice, but we decided to just take them home because my In laws ordered our birthday cake for us (delicious white chocolate cake!). We watched the movie Jiro Dreams of Sushi while enjoying our cake. Thank You to our family and friends who sent their birthday wishes to us! Thank You Jesus for blessing us with another year!

Charcuterie Plate (selection of house cured meats,Saskatoon berry reduction,pickled shallots,Guinness mustard,cornichons)

our server making *Tableside Wagyu Beef tenderloin tartare

Roasted Beet Salad (organic greens,shaved purple onions,salt brined pistachio nuts,champagne chèvre vinaigrette,Humboldt Fog)

MIL kathy had Roasted Jidori Chicken(super moist and flavorful)

Maine Lobster Mashed Potatoes (we also shared brussels sprouts and mac n cheese)

Thanks to my MIL and DIL for giving us our birthday cake! It was so good and pricey!hehe — Thanks to my MIL and DIL for giving us our birthday cake! It was so good!

enjoying our cake and coffee while watching the movie

Our Labor Day Weekend!

We had a nice and quite labor day weekend at home. Hubby had to fix our powder room because of a leaking toilet! It’s all good now. I started reading the book “The Fault in our Stars” (I really enjoyed the movie), I’m almost done with the book and I’m really liking it too (sad ending though). Hubs and I started the t.v series “The Bridge”, so we have been enjoying that so far. Labor Day we had BBQ with my In Laws, we had short ribs, grilled veggies, and I made a filipino dish “sisig”. It’s a famous “pulutan”(appetizer) in the Philippines. I used pork belly and pigs ears. My hubs has been requesting it for a long time. He says it’s one of his favorite filipino foods!I was pleasantly surprised that my In Laws liked it too. You can’t really see the “pigs ears” when the whole dish is presented.

appetizers;our cherry tomatoes were a hit!

devil eggs by Sis In Law! — deviled eggs by Sis In Law!

I garnished the sisig with my own cayenne pepper from the garden!

Last Sunday after church Hubs and I tried Lil Jons of Bellevue and had brunch there, it was my first time to eat there and I liked their french toast (hubs recommendation) and we will definitely be back there, especially since it’s so close to our church!

Gianfranco Ristorante Italiano!

Hello everyone! It was my sister in law Julia’s birthday last week, and yesterday (Sunday) we had a late birthday dinner with the rest of the family. We ate at this Italian restaurant called Gianfranco Ristorante Italiano. Although it’s a small resto (kinda cramped), the ambiance was nice and most importantly the food was great! It’s one of the best italian restaurants we’ve been to in a long time. The portions were HUGE too! I had Braised short ribs and I had the left overs for dinner tonight and I still didn’t finish the leftovers! Anyways, the Hubs and I will be coming back again soon to this lovely italian place! After dinner we went back to my In law’s to have ice cream and just hangout celebrating Julia’s birthday! Happy Birthday Julia, we love you:)

calamari affogati(sauteed in tomato,garlic,hot peppers,white wine)

My In Laws,they're the best! — My In Laws,they’re the best!

braised short ribs with creamy polenta and veggies

crab ravioli in pesto sauce (Hubs order)

Linguini alle Vongole (Fresh clams sautéed with garlic, olive oil, and white wine) — Linguini alle Vongole
(Fresh clams sautéed with garlic, olive oil, and white wine) My DIL’s order,he REALLY loved this dish!

In laws and their food!they had lots of left overs!

Rigatoni Inferno (the best sauce ever!) Julia's order! — Rigatoni Inferno (the best sauce ever!) Julia’s order!

the sweetest javanese baby Lexy! — the sweetest Havanese baby Lexy!

bday cards and gifts time! — bday cards and gift time!

Happy Birthday Riley!

Riley our mini schnauzer turns 4 today! We had a simple celebration yesterday with my In Laws. We ate pizza and cupcakes. Riley loved all the attention and gifts he got from everybody. While writing this post,the birthday boy is just sun bathing in the yard. He really think he’s a little human being! The funniest and most adorable dog in the world!

Sister’s Visit in Seattle!

My sister joined the Seattle Rock n Roll last weekend (she’s from New York). Two of her friends joined her because they’ve never been to Seattle. It was so much fun doing the touristy things with them and spending time with family and friends. We miss them already ,but hopefully we’ll see them again later this year!

enjoying the view of Seattle in Alki Beach

dinner at Duke's! we enjoyed the sunset while having dinner here. — dinner at Duke’s! we enjoyed the sunset while having dinner here. This is my crab cake dinner:)

day of the race! early morning to avoid traffic in Seattle!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter Family and friends! He is Risen! Jesus is Alive!

We had a simple Easter celebration at home. We went to the first service at 8:00am (usually we attend the 10:30am service) because we invited my In laws for Easter brunch. For the previous years, we usually go out,have a brunch buffet in one of the hotels near our church but this year we decided to just have it at home. We prepared french toast, crab benedict, bacon and eggs and banana pudding cake (prepared by my SIL).Brunch was tasty and I’m still full right now and will probably skip dinner! I hope you had a great and blessed Easter weekend! Jesus is Alive!

Hub’s 2nd Crab Benedict with Hollandaise sauce

Good Friday!

Have a blessed Easter week everyone! I’m so grateful for what Jesus did on the cross. We are not worthy Lord but still you loved us. Thank You Heavenly Father for sending us your perfect and begotten Son for our sake. You are Worthy!

Anniversary Weekend!

Yesterday (april 5th) Hubs and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary! Time flies really fast. I thank God for my marriage and for giving me such a loving and patient husband. So blessed to be married to my best friend. Hubs is super busy with work this month, so it’s really hard to take time off so we decided we’ll just have a “late” celebration next month and travel somewhere.We did go out this weekend and had dinner at John Howie’s Steakhouse Restaurant. We watched the new Captain America movie and had dinner after. What a fun weekend!

Roasted Bone Marrow!so rich and good but not the healthiest!

my order:filet mignon "oscar style" — my order:filet mignon “oscar style”

mac and cheese, french onion soup,hubs steak

Last Friday night we had a Pre-anniversary dinner at our local favorite restaurant here in Issaquah (Flat Iron Grill). It was another delicious dinner with my Hubs:

Muscovy Duck! so so good.. — Muscovy Duck with truffle rissoto! so so good..

I had flat iron steak with goat cheese polenta! — I had a flat iron steak with goat cheese polenta!

For Sunday dinner,we invited my In Laws to have a late celebration with us. We’ve been eating steaks since Friday night so I wanted to have seafood. We had clams and mussels in a white wine broth.

I love sunday dinner with family! — I love Sunday dinner with family!

Happy Valentines Day 2014!

I hope everybody had a good Valentines today, spending time with your favorite people! We had a simple Valentines day at home. This will be our 5th Valentines as a married couple, and the last 2 Valentines we spent it at home. We will have dinner tomorrow in Seattle though, so it will be a late celebration. I didn’t ask for any gifts or flowers from my hubs today because I don’t want any of that (reading too many frugal books is rubbing off on me!). We got some Starbucks (BOGO!) and my favorite french fries this afternoon so that was my Valentine “treat” from him! I’d rather have coffee than flowers! For dinner we had chicken cordon blue(we got from our local meat shop) and I roasted brussels sprouts for our side dish. It was good!

blueberry,orange,mango smoothie I made this morning for my hubs!

SUPERBOWL!

Congratulations to the Seattle Seahawks for winning Superbowl 48! We are from the PNW so we support the Seahawks all the way. We’re not big football fans (I prefer the NBA, while hubby is not a big sports fan) but we still watch and enjoy football every now and then. This season though we watched all of the Seahawks games, I’m still not over their game 2 weeks ago against the niners(that game was intense!). So tonight as they won their first Superbowl, we can’t help but get so excited and happy for Seattle/WA state. One of my favorites is Russell Wilson our QB. He is a strong Christian and never fails to give Glory to God. He surely deserves the championship. We watched the game at our friends house. They had a huge TV(65 inches),my goodness it was so much fun. Yummy food, great company, Superbowl Championship! What a crazy weekend!

hubby and 12thman cupcake! — hubby and 12 cupcake!

someone's enjoying chicken wings! — someone’s enjoying chicken wings!